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Diary post Jan-Jul

This post is to review January - July.
We have had a great 6 months but it has been greatly overshadowed by our intentions to leave. Our visa problems hammered home that we couldn't settle here. It is a country that we love, filled with people that we love but we couldn't imagine setting up a home and having a family here. We imagined having to suddenly pack up our possessions and head to Korea with kids in tow... Or maybe the government deciding to limit the renewal of visas (it has happened before) making the annual process a lottery. That kind of uncertainty, expense and stress was tough enough with savings, few possessions and few responsibilities. With a family it would be terrifying. We want to settle somewhere and we think that it will have to be an EU country to avoid these kind of problems.
We have started to see work as a bit of a chore despite having great students. This has left us feeling a bit blue from time to time. Luckily Sarah has done a great job of maximising our time off and reaffirming the purpose of our life in Japan (to have a great time). This has lead to trips to Sapporo, Hakone and a fantastic golden week. We still have a trip to Nikko/Tokyo to look forward to, plus the usual eccentricities of life in Japan which never fail to add a few smiles to even the toughest days.
- Cucumber Pepsi
A green coloured beverage with a cucumber aroma
- Hotel Villa Kuretake
A previously grey and innocuous hotel, magically transformed into a tropical vision, resplendent with shipped-in palm trees, surrounded by jungle flora and backed by a new brown/yellow/red/green paint job...
- A toddler with a helmet
A wonderfully excitable kid who screams "eeeeoooo" which translates from todlish to "see you". This is followed by him running headlong into closed doors. His helmet turns a potentially upset child into an invincible door denter. Hilarious is an understatement and it is a regular occurrence.

Death of the blog?

Golden Week '07 - Nakatajima
Hamamatsu Kite Festival

Hakone

On the left you can see the ropeway which takes excited tourists over the volcanic sulphurous springs. All over the area are signs warning that the gases are fairly toxic and people should not stand around for too long. Despite that it is an incredibly popular area for people to cook kuro tamago (black eggs). The eggs are boiled in pools (as you can see on the right) and after they have turned black they are eaten. Supposedly, each egg adds a few years to your lifespan. This might balance the reduced lifespan caused by spending 20 mins breathing in toxic fumes.

Bad Blogs

The worst blogs to read are those that have infrequent updates and constant apologies.... Ooops...
Erm, recently we have had a few adventures.
As I am typing this on a work PC I have no pics but we went to Hakone.
It's an area famed for onsen (hot springs) and fine views of Fuji. We were not disappointed and I look forward to posting the pics tomorrow.
Last weekend we were invited to a small spring festival in the nearby town of Hosoe. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom so it was a lovely day out.
My first lesson warning bell has just rung so I have to stop typing.
Until tomorrow.....
D

In Europe this building wouldn't be particularly strange but the Sapporo Beer buildings are an amazing sight in Japan. It was modeled on a German factory. It was quite beautiful compared to the mishmash of industrial Japanese buildings in the surrounding area. Errrmm..... and the beer.... errmmm wasn't bad either :)

Some of the sculptures were huge. It seemed like the festival was some misguided attempt to offset global warming.

I'm not entirely sure what the theme was for this sculpture (whales, seals, penguins, dogs and boats.... maybe words with 's' at the end?) but it was impressive.

Finding out that he was in Sapporo, Thomas realised that the Fat Controller was crap at his job.

Ohisashiburi

Back from the cold, snowy city of Sapporo.... To give you some overdue pictures.

< - This was the queue for the hot Baileys bar.

Sorry for the huge wait for a new post

I decided to switch operating systems on my laptop. We have ditched XP in favour of Ubuntu. It is great but I have made a few mistakes that have caused a number of major headaches.... And my digital camera and printer don't appreciate it....
Anyway, we are both doing fine. The weather has become much colder recently. It is good preparation for our next planned trip さっぽろ雪まつり.
Sapporo Yuki Matsuri is a famous snow festival. Large ice/snow sculptures are made in the town and over two million people visit during the week. We are heading North to the island of Hokkaido in early February and we will enjoy all of the wonders of a city known around the world for beer :) I doubt I will be able to find a pint of Old Hooky but I will try my best to cope.

Kyoto and the four seasons

We took a day out to visit Kyoto and view the famed Autumn leaves. We opted for the cheapest option possible: a bus tour. This involved early starts, four hour journeys and only 5 hours in Kyoto, but it was wonderful. Many students tell us that their favourite thing about Japan is that it has four seasons... Ummm... I generally don't take the time to point out that Japan is not unique in this but Japanese people do take the seasons very seriously. The supermarket selection is extremely seasonal, including beer. The winter beers are definitely superior to the summer choices. It seems that in summer the only requirement for the beer and happoshu is that they must be cold and wet.... Hold on a sec.. I was writing about Kyoto wasn't I?? The temples and gardens are extremely impressive and really do show off the beauty of Japanese architecture. The weather wasn't great for photo's but we managed to avoid the rain. We will probably head back in the spring to enjoy the cherry blossoms.
A photo or two will follow on Sunday....

Hello Miles

We have just received great news that our friends Matt and Hils have had a healthy baby boy named Miles.
Congratulations!!! おめでとうございます

Goodbye Gary!

Last Saturday one of the teachers left to return to Vancouver. He has been with the school for over two years and he will be sorely missed by all of us.
He is heading to Vancouver with his wife Yoshie. It will be quite an adventure because Yoshie is pregnant and Gary has yet to secure employment. However, they are two wonderful people and we know that they will have no problems!!!!
Best of luck to the Loucks!

Ohgiya - an Izakaya

I have decided to try a different post style. Occasionally I am going to write a post that helps to understand some regular part of our lives here in Hamamatsu. They may seem a little boring but it is as much a diary entry for us as info for the readers.
I'll start with an average trip to Ohgiya.

Ohgiya is an izakaya. An informal drinking and eating establishment. It is conveniently placed between our flat (I am making a conscious effort to stop using the word apartment) and our place of work. This makes it a very tempting way point on our journey home after a long day. It has an area without permanent walls on two sides. In the summer this area is open to the street and in the winter it is protected by a heavy-duty shower curtain. The tables are small solid wood lumps surrounded by simple stools. As you enter staff shout 'Irashaimase!' (something like 'welcome') and one staff member will approach you to find out how many people are in your group. If seating space is available you are shown to it. The clientele at this particular venue is unusually varied. It is not unusual to see a mixture of Japanese (young and old) and gaikokujin (teachers, factory workers and professional drinkers). The atmosphere is relaxed and certainly not a place that salarymen would take important clients. It is cheap, one of the biggest draws. The beer is about one pound fifty for a glass that contains approximately 350ml of draught beer (varies massively though, the head can be anything from 2% to 50% of the glass). Other drinks that are popular with us are nihon shu (sake), sho chu (paint thinner), appuru saua (apple sour- an interesting collection of colourings and flavourings that produces mild intoxication), and ume shu soda (previously mentioned- the plum drink).
Although we usually order the same food every time, we often ask for eigo no menyu at ohgiya. Not many places have such a useful bit of paper. It's the menu in english and it is interesting to read the translations and be tempted by the dishes such as burnt gristle and bottom meat.
Our standard dishes are edamame (salted green soy beans - a great beer snack), daikon sarada (giant radish salad), yakitori (barbecued/grilled chicken on a stick), yaki onigiri, (barbecued rice ball). Something like a single stick of grilled chicken costs less than 50p. The service is polite and quite speedy. You pay at the till and it is worth checking the bill if you have been part of a large group because they have been known to make mistakes (not insignificant ones). We have had very few bad nights at Ohgiya which, considering the number of times we have been there, is surprising. I think they are a national chain and when looking for something cheap and cheerful we are both happy to call in at other Ohgiya venues. If anyone is in Hamamatsu and wants a no-frills evening then you could do a lot worse than this place!

Tubby-tustard

Silla burial mounds and no sign of Lala. 

Cotton wool

The beauty of Gyongju -land of the telly tubbies 

An intimidating figure

Some Korean men are extremely tall. 

My wifey now Dave

On the left you can see a picture from a traditional Korean Nobleman's house. The unusual item in the centre is a bamboo wife. Yep 'wife'... Men would sleep holding them fondly. They keep the sleeper cool allowing air to circulate. They really were thought of as part of the family and could not be shared with other people. When the owner died the inanimate wife would be buried with them. 

Woohoooo!

We are settled back in Japan!!!!!!
It has been stupidly long but the whole visa saga is now over. We have official permission from Japanese Immigration to work in Japan for up to three years.
Now, here as promised are some photo's.