We have finally found a reliable way to get cash without going into the bank and arranging a cash advance on our credit cards. The post office! It seems to be the only place in Hamamatsu that has an ATM that doesn't spit our cards on the floor while scowling in disgust and calling us dirty foreigners. Soon we will sort out Japanese bank accounts but until then we will be visiting the friendly post office fairly regularly.
D
Friday, September 23, 2005
Happoshu once again...
Click on the heading of this post to get a bit more information about this beer-style drink. ....er if you are interested :)
Seriously... I'm not obsessed...
D
Seriously... I'm not obsessed...
D
Work goes well.....
We have had a few days of work now and the good news is that it has been really fun!
We are generally teaching lessons to between 1 and 3 students at a time. Sarah had one lesson where she had a huge class of 4 children!! It is really hard teaching so many students ;)
The materials vary in quality but they are fairly easy to work with. They like PPP a lot and it is the core format of every lesson.
We ventured out alone last night and visited an izikaya. To imagine what it is like you should picture something between a bar and a Japanese restaurant. We were incredibly lucky to discover that our chosen izikaya also had an english menu. Food was so cheap! I had some teriyaki chicken livers, grilled quails eggs, and some rice for less than 3pounds. Sarah had a huge radish salad, rice and some grilled veggies for about the same. Unfortunately for our bank balance we stayed out drinking and that definitely wasn't cheap.
Random meetings have become common place and last night we met a very enthusiastic business man that had spent seven years living in Swansea. At the end of the evening he told us that he was a senior manager at an engineering company with 50 employees that require english lessons and that we should get in touch and arrange some private lessons (the bilingual business card magically appeared). We just seem to be overwhelmed with good luck!!!!
We also met a lovely couple the other night. The husband is an artist and had lived in Cardiff while he was exhibiting some work. It's a small world!
I am going to end here and join Sarah doing a bit of Japanese homework.
Ja mata ne,
D
We are generally teaching lessons to between 1 and 3 students at a time. Sarah had one lesson where she had a huge class of 4 children!! It is really hard teaching so many students ;)
The materials vary in quality but they are fairly easy to work with. They like PPP a lot and it is the core format of every lesson.
We ventured out alone last night and visited an izikaya. To imagine what it is like you should picture something between a bar and a Japanese restaurant. We were incredibly lucky to discover that our chosen izikaya also had an english menu. Food was so cheap! I had some teriyaki chicken livers, grilled quails eggs, and some rice for less than 3pounds. Sarah had a huge radish salad, rice and some grilled veggies for about the same. Unfortunately for our bank balance we stayed out drinking and that definitely wasn't cheap.
Random meetings have become common place and last night we met a very enthusiastic business man that had spent seven years living in Swansea. At the end of the evening he told us that he was a senior manager at an engineering company with 50 employees that require english lessons and that we should get in touch and arrange some private lessons (the bilingual business card magically appeared). We just seem to be overwhelmed with good luck!!!!
We also met a lovely couple the other night. The husband is an artist and had lived in Cardiff while he was exhibiting some work. It's a small world!
I am going to end here and join Sarah doing a bit of Japanese homework.
Ja mata ne,
D
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
We start teaching today
It's our first day of real teaching today!!! Fingers crossed that it all goes well....
Monday, September 19, 2005
Slow posts....
We are very busy at the moment and I haven't had much luck using Fumi's Japanese language PC so I can't post the photo's. In a few weeks, however, we should get our nice 100MB connection and you won't be able to stop us from bombarding you with hundreds of pictures of Japanese toilets.
Just in case anyone wondered what "fake beer" is... It's a drink called happoshu. It was invented to avoid a tax on malt and so it is full of flavourings and chemicals to make it taste 'real'. It is half the price of real beer so it is quite popular. A lot of them taste pretty foul but after a few real beers it can be quite difficult to tell the difference.
We both have mobile phones now (we are trying to fit in!) and they are gizmo-tastic. Mine has TV which might be really useful if I understood anything that they say...
We have been treated so well by Fumi's friends and family. We have been taken to shinto temples and shrines, taken for meals and concerts and yesterday we were taken on a big shopping trip for our new place. Women quite commonly walk around in kimonos which was quite a surprise. It seems a little out of place in such a modern country but it seems to fit with Japanese culture - a blend of old and new.
The myth that Japan is an expensive place to live hasn't seemed to be at all true. It is an expensive place to drink with a normal beer (probably three quarters of a pint) costing between two and four pounds. We are planning on getting most of our stuff from the hyaku-en shop. I have already bought a few shirts (each costing about 2pounds50). It is like a pound stretcher shop but almost everything costs about 50p. The cheap prices in the hyaku-en shop help to balance our spending against Sarah's unstoppable Hello Kitty addiction. ;)
Fruit is really expensive here but it seems worth it. The grapes are almost the size of plums and the nashi pears are amazing. I can't get over the price of melons though... I have already seen a melon that costs over 30 pounds! WHY!? I really don't know!
We have had real problems getting cash here! ATM's close!! It is amazing that in a country where you can find baths that fill themselves and tell you that they are finished, that you can't get money out after 10pm (and you have to pay a late charge after 6pm!).
We are both in the middle of training at Berlitz(squishing an 8 day course into 3days) and will start teaching on Wednesday. The style is quite different from the course but it should be fun....
Keep those comments coming! (cheers D and O)
D
Just in case anyone wondered what "fake beer" is... It's a drink called happoshu. It was invented to avoid a tax on malt and so it is full of flavourings and chemicals to make it taste 'real'. It is half the price of real beer so it is quite popular. A lot of them taste pretty foul but after a few real beers it can be quite difficult to tell the difference.
We both have mobile phones now (we are trying to fit in!) and they are gizmo-tastic. Mine has TV which might be really useful if I understood anything that they say...
We have been treated so well by Fumi's friends and family. We have been taken to shinto temples and shrines, taken for meals and concerts and yesterday we were taken on a big shopping trip for our new place. Women quite commonly walk around in kimonos which was quite a surprise. It seems a little out of place in such a modern country but it seems to fit with Japanese culture - a blend of old and new.
The myth that Japan is an expensive place to live hasn't seemed to be at all true. It is an expensive place to drink with a normal beer (probably three quarters of a pint) costing between two and four pounds. We are planning on getting most of our stuff from the hyaku-en shop. I have already bought a few shirts (each costing about 2pounds50). It is like a pound stretcher shop but almost everything costs about 50p. The cheap prices in the hyaku-en shop help to balance our spending against Sarah's unstoppable Hello Kitty addiction. ;)
Fruit is really expensive here but it seems worth it. The grapes are almost the size of plums and the nashi pears are amazing. I can't get over the price of melons though... I have already seen a melon that costs over 30 pounds! WHY!? I really don't know!
We have had real problems getting cash here! ATM's close!! It is amazing that in a country where you can find baths that fill themselves and tell you that they are finished, that you can't get money out after 10pm (and you have to pay a late charge after 6pm!).
We are both in the middle of training at Berlitz(squishing an 8 day course into 3days) and will start teaching on Wednesday. The style is quite different from the course but it should be fun....
Keep those comments coming! (cheers D and O)
D
Monday, September 12, 2005
We are in Japan!!!!!!!
Sorry for the delay producing the first post. I can't put pictures up at the moment but I have taken lots and they will flood onto this site over the coming days.
The flight was painless although neither of us had any sleep and we felt like zombies (excited zombies) as we stepped off the plane. We met up with Fumi, sent a suitcase to Hamamatsu (a brilliant service) and then went to the hotel... WOW! The place was not what we were expecting. We have become fairly accustomed to staying in hostels and backpackers hotels.
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ic/1/en/ha/tyohb - That's no hostel.... Fumi had sorted this out and it was a huge shock! A very pleasant one. When I can post a few photos I will write a little more.... especially about the toilets. If you have never experienced a japanese toilet before then you are missing out! I think someone should start importing them to Europe. We headed to Akihabara and I bought a very cheap digital camera. The pictures are on my laptop and when I can find a wireless access point the pictures will be here.
We were tired so we spent an evening in the hotel drinking japanese beer and fake beer (happoshu) and eating snacks.
The next day we explored Tokyo visiting Asakusa and we went on a Hello Kitty tour bus to see the government buildings. We spent most of the afternoon drinking with some drunken middle-aged business men who were celebrating the opening of a new direct train route from their home town to Asakusa. Japanese people have been so kind and welcoming and very keen to help us with our poor language skills! Sarah is making much more progress than I am. We left Tokyo in the evening and took the Shinkansen to Hamamatsu.
We headed to Fumi's coffee shop and met her family. They were so welcoming and kind!!! We are very lucky to have such good friends here.
Yesterday we explored Hamamatsu and today we head into the countryside.
I have to go and have a bath (in the amazing automatic, self-filling bath tub)... So I will finish now and add some more tomorrow (after job hunting...)
Ja mata ashita,
D
The flight was painless although neither of us had any sleep and we felt like zombies (excited zombies) as we stepped off the plane. We met up with Fumi, sent a suitcase to Hamamatsu (a brilliant service) and then went to the hotel... WOW! The place was not what we were expecting. We have become fairly accustomed to staying in hostels and backpackers hotels.
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ic/1/en/ha/tyohb - That's no hostel.... Fumi had sorted this out and it was a huge shock! A very pleasant one. When I can post a few photos I will write a little more.... especially about the toilets. If you have never experienced a japanese toilet before then you are missing out! I think someone should start importing them to Europe. We headed to Akihabara and I bought a very cheap digital camera. The pictures are on my laptop and when I can find a wireless access point the pictures will be here.
We were tired so we spent an evening in the hotel drinking japanese beer and fake beer (happoshu) and eating snacks.
The next day we explored Tokyo visiting Asakusa and we went on a Hello Kitty tour bus to see the government buildings. We spent most of the afternoon drinking with some drunken middle-aged business men who were celebrating the opening of a new direct train route from their home town to Asakusa. Japanese people have been so kind and welcoming and very keen to help us with our poor language skills! Sarah is making much more progress than I am. We left Tokyo in the evening and took the Shinkansen to Hamamatsu.
We headed to Fumi's coffee shop and met her family. They were so welcoming and kind!!! We are very lucky to have such good friends here.
Yesterday we explored Hamamatsu and today we head into the countryside.
I have to go and have a bath (in the amazing automatic, self-filling bath tub)... So I will finish now and add some more tomorrow (after job hunting...)
Ja mata ashita,
D
Saturday, September 03, 2005
No contact....
Just writing this post to let people know that we may be unable to check emails for the next week.
Best Wishes,
Dave and Sarah.
Best Wishes,
Dave and Sarah.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Great book for Japanese script
A couple of days ago I purchased a book about reading and writing Japanese (Amazon link in the title). Although I would say that it is fairly poor for written exercises the reading aspect is handled very well. In a few hours of effort I have learnt over sixty kanji and by the end of the book I should have learnt double that. I am impressed with how easy the author makes it! If this book is anything to go by then I will be trying out others in this range.
D.
D.
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