No response... No readers?

We have had a wonderful few days. It was Sarahs birthday on Monday which also happens to be Fumi's dad's birthday! They had a joint celebration on Saturday and we went for a meal on Monday. It was another nomihodai event (all-u-can-drink) so Tuesday was a recovery day, catching up on a few episodes of lost and some cheesey old films from www.archive.org.
Back to work today :( we are working until 10pm tonight so they are giving plenty of hours to keep us busy. We have been offered some alternative work (business classes and local Junior high schools which would mean great paid holidays)...
I hope everyone is happy and well... things seem to be getting a little quiet over there... any news???

Wanted: Information from the UK

I have heard that the licensing laws have been relaxed. Has George Street changed?
Has anything changed?

Whatever you do... DON'T SMOKE GIANT CIGARETTES!!!

Toto (the toilet)

We didn't make it to the cinema...

The visit to the homemade pizza oven lasted longer than we expected and we missed the showing of Corpse Bride. We weren't really in the right mood for sitting in a dark comfortable room though. A full day of food and drink meant that we were both ready for a quiet night in by the time the train had brought us back to Hamamatsu city.
A long time ago I mentioned that I would write a bit about Japanese toilets... Well I have decided to point you to an informative article on wikipedia which pretty much covers it.
Our toilet is fairly simple. Front and back jet spray, warmed seat and 'odour control'. They are scary looking things and I was a bit nervous the first time I tried to flush one. However they are not as scary as the 'traditional' japanese toilets. We used similar toilets across asia but it seems crazy that on one floor of a department store you can use a toilet sophisticated enough to play a good game of chess and talk about recent economic problems experienced by guatamalan coffee farmers and on another floor you a faced with a filthy stinky hole in the floor. Anyway I think I have exaggerated the importance of toilets enough... So... have a nice breakfast!
D

Pizza and a movie

Today we are heading out to the countryside again. A couple we met at the BBQ the other week has invited us over to try out their outdoor pizza oven. Sounds interesting! After that we are going to watch Corpse Bride at the local cinema. It is a special offer day... Women can watch a film today for about £5 but I will have to pay the standard £10... It had better be good!

We have the internet!!!!!

We have been connected (68Meg connection during the first test). The phone line is VOIP which means that calls to the UK are only 8yen per minute (about 4p/min) yipee!
...but we both now have to go to work until 10pm :(
If we are still capable of communicating we might start writing some of those overdue emails later....
D

Let's eat!

Sunday was a great day, one of the best in Japan so far.
Fumi had invited us to a barbeque. A schoolfriend of her dad has a barbeque each year at his farm and she though we might enjoy it. She was right! It is a fruit farm, growing mandarin oranges, full-size oranges and persimmon. It is a strange location up in the mountains about 45 minutes outside of Hamamatsu. The area was entirely rural until about 20 years ago when the first large company decided to build there. Probably the biggest presence in the area is Roland (manufacturers of keyboards) and a couple of people at the barbecue worked there.
We rolled up at the barbecue and Fumi brought out gifts for the hosts. She showed us around the farm (pictures should appear on this page..). It was really beautiful and a stark contrast to the ugly company buildings only 5 minutes away. After we had been wandering for a while we headed back to the bbq and found ourselves a comfortable crate to perch on. Then the food started coming... and coming... and coming... Forget sausages and burgers. We had four different types of fish (freshly caught from Hamana Lake), steamed rice with red beans, marinated pork and chicken, tonjiru (a pork/vegetable stew), yaki soba (a type of noodle), ice cream and cake all washed down with nice cold beer. Yum!
We then went on a 10 minute walk to a nearby stream. There were plenty of kids at the bbq and this was a bit of a ritual for the group. We arrived at the stream and then people started pulling plastic bags out of their pockets. Everyone then began overturning the larger stones. Freshwater crabs tried running for cover but were quickly popped into the bags. After almost losing my finger a couple of times I figured out the knack of picking them up and helped to deplete the local crustacean population. We carried them back to the barbecue and after saying thankyous and goodbyes, we headed home (with a carrier bag full of oranges). I am not completely sure of the fate of the crabs but I did hear some of the children saying, "Oishiso!" or "Looks delicious!" so I don't think that the crabs will be seeing the stream again...
D

The wood burning rice steamer.

BBQ Japan-style

No ugly buildings here...

To the crab hunt!

BBQ day...

Blog by phone

Only 11d left before we get an internet connection.Woohoo! Using my phone to　post　to　the　blog（no predictive text for me）isnt fun...
d

The kindness of strangers...

Last week it was Fumi's birthday. We had a great night out. We started at Ginza Lion (the Japanese/German-ish beer hall) for flaming oysters, finely sliced beef, a selection of drinks, snails, rice, mixed vegetables and a million other small dishes then moved on to a bar called Fahrenheit. At three o'clock in the morning we staggered out of the bar to head home... Without paying anything... One of the people in the group (we didn't know him) had decided to be generous and paid for the whole night (seven people). It seems to be very common and I am starting to enjoy it :) I am just dreading the night when the group we are out with turns to us and says, "Isn't it your turn to pay?"
D

Cancelled too late...

...my favourite words! If a student cancels their lesson on the day then we still get paid. Today a student cancelled a lesson 3hrs long! Great!