Spirit Day and BBQ

There is a very American style of doing things at ISSH. AP exams instead of A levels, excursions, boosters club, and spirit days. The idea is to raise school spirit, get everyone involved and dressed up, and for the one at the start of the year especially, to introduce the sports teams.

The theme for this one was the Olympics, and the students get dressed up in costumes. We had kids in swimming caps, tracksuits and running outfits, snowboarders (even though it was 26 degrees that day!), curlers complete with brush, one of the biology teachers came in his normal clothes but carried around an ancient box of match play tiddly-winks all day (it is not contested at the games but is still an Olympic sport apparently). The girls who were running the day were in togas and olive wreaths. I always seem to be unable to plan non-practical lessons for the days the students dress up - I don't know how I do it! Costumes and Bunsen burners don't mix.

In the afternoon there is a special Spirit assembly, and all the sports teams come out and do a very cheesy dance to introduce themselves. Usually in the time that is left there are competitions. Last year there was a screaming competition, which one of the smallest girls in the school won. This year, it was a limbo contest.

As we left the house to go into school in our football costumes, and Will with blue hair (very spirited - school colours) we passed our new cleaner in the street. She had never met Will before, so I dread to think what she thought of the blue hair, or how we dress for school. She is so sweet, and she looked completely embarrassed to see us, possibly because of our perceived dress sense!

Another nice occasion at the start of the school year is the welcome barbecue. The management team buy lots of food and drinks and the kitchen staff come out from downstairs and we all have a big party. Well, that is the general idea anyway. This year there was a typhoon heading for Tokyo, so it all got moved inside. It wasn't really a barbecue after that, and it meant that people had to eat downstairs and then come upstairs to listen to the band and have drinks. It is still lots of fun, but because it was a whole family event, there were lots of over-excited children, and nowhere for them to run off to (outside there is a playground a little way from the main activities). When the band was playing they were weaving through our legs, picking up the tambourines etc and making as much noise as possible, and generally causing havoc. They had a fantastic time! We on the other hand, with their noise and the poor sound system indoors, couldn't hear ourselves or each other. The audience said we were good, but we have no idea! Fingers crossed for the weather next time, or at least a typhoon day. If it is going to screw things up, the weather could at least give us a day off school!

Random photo time. First Will, Ben and James enjoying the post-typhoon weather. It is always gorgeous the next day, so they went to the baseball.

The other photo is Will playing with Hana at the party.

The last picture was taken at a friends house. The baby is called Violet, and she just loves shoes. She gets quite stroppy at her Japanese nursery when she has to take them off. When She found Kate's pink stilettos she was very excited. I just love it!

Back to School

When we come back to school in August, I always like the idea of having 3 whole days with no students to start us off. We have one day full of meetings, and then we have time just to discuss our classes, plan all our work and get the mounds of photocopying done. Of course I sneeze all the way through the welcome Liturgy (my friend Trish thinks I am allergic to Catholicism since I do that at all school services), fidget my way through the meetings and then start doing the dull bits and pieces like arranging my planner and writing all the dates in my diary.

It is nice, because I never used to have this time to get myself organised before there were 30 kids in the room. On the other hand though, being organised (and I am generally getting better at this) can have a downside.

The students aren't in for another day, and I am BORED! I finished all my work at approximately 10.30 this morning, and have spent the rest of the day procrastinating, wandering around, sneakily playing computer games and finding other interesting ways to waste time. I spent a lot of time at the end of last term starting a new filing system (see, I really am getting organised. I even love spreadsheets) and it has saved me more time than I expected. It's not as though I rushed my work either! So now I am blogging, and from time to time lending my geological knowledge to a Japanese teacher who needs to know lots of English words for things to do with volcanoes. That at least is interesting!

I think we are just about over our jet lag now. I don't know why it takes so much longer when we travel east than when we travel west, but it always seems to take me at least a week to be able to sleep through the night and not hit a wall in the middle of the afternoon. At least we were back early - some of the others only got back at the weekend, and they are really feeling it now! It was good to be back before then, because then we could fully enjoy the Azabu Juban festival.

My camera is still broken and I have done posts about this for the past two years anyway, so I don't have any photos. It looked exactly the same, just imagine rain on there too! It is quite a claustrophobic experience really, as so many people cram into the little streets and around the stalls selling drinks and toys and so many different foods. An Australian friend says she avoids the Juban festival as she has just come back from a small town full of wide open spaces and she can't take the closeness of everyone. It is a great weekend, but when it is raining, it lends a whole new problem.

People in Japan are used to the rain, and used to walking around a lot, so during the summer months almost everyone has an umbrella on them. In a small space filled with so many people, it is quite alarming when a few spots of rain fall and they all suddenly pop out the umbrellas at the same time! Will tends to get hit in the neck, but I am just the height that the back of peoples umbrellas either jab me in the face or pour water off onto my chest. Twice an umbrella got caught in my hair clip, but it is impossible to stop in the sweep of people so it just sort of ripped out. And of course you still get wet! We did take an umbrella but it just seemed to make it harder to move around or carry anything from the stalls, so we gave up. The rain itself wasn't so heavy, it was the gathered drips falling from trees and other people that really got you wet.

We almost didn't go because of the rain, but Will had told one of the new teachers all about it and said we would be there. She doesn't have a phone yet, so there was no way to let her know if we didn't go, and we couldn't just leave her standing in the square waining for us on the off chance, so we went. When we got there, there were loads of school people who all strolled down to see if anyone had turned up. Almost everyone said they had come to get some food and have a look and then leave if there was no-one there, but with a big group, we all ended up staying until the end (not very late, this is Japan - 9pm!). After that some of the group went on to Roppongi to the pub, but I was tired so I went home. Will got in at 3.25am. I have never seen him quite so hungover. In fact I didn't really see much off him the next day at all!

So you are either wet because it is raining, or wet because the heat and humidity is a killer and you are sweating so much, but either way, the Azabu Juban festival of Obon is a fantastic night. And the new teacher had a great time too!

Bangkok

We were a little worried we wouldn't make it to the airport on time, as we had left later than we intended (there's a shock!) and the rain on the way down the motorway was torrential. We couldn't see enough even to change lanes and the traffic all slowed right down for a long time. We also got lost trying to get on to the M40, but that is another story!

The check-in girl was sooo nice, and she put us into an aisle and window seat so that we would have three seats for the two of us. It makes such a big difference, especially with Will's long legs and on an overnight flight. We actually managed to get some sleep, and we were hoping that a stopover in Bangkok would make all the difference to the jet lag when we got back to Japan.

We arrived in Bangkok and were surprised but pleased that it was not as hot as we had expected. We got a taxi to the hotel, and had a bit of a rest before we met up with some friends and let them take over the schedule. They know Bangkok quite well and had been there a few days by the time we arrived, so they had some cool ideas for where to go to eat. We decided on a restaurant called Spring/Summer, which is actually two old converted houses. One is a restaurant which serves modern Thai food, and the other is a dessert and drinks cafe style place. We called ahead to book at 7.30, but they said they didn't take bookings and we should hurry because they get very busy after 8pm. We went straight outside to try to get a taxi.

Taxis can be difficult and quite annoying in Thailand. You can tell them where you want to go, and try to negotiate a price (which is usually cheap), but they will always start to try to convince you that the place you want is no good and they know somewhere better! It doesn't matter if it is a tourist attraction, shop or hotel, but the main problem areas are restaurants and tailors. I have never asked to be taken to a tailor, but the taxi drivers are notorious for trying to take you there. We just had to stick to our mantras of where we were trying to go!

The first taxi driver we spoke to told us it was a 1-2 hour drive and (here's one we didn't see coming!)he knew somewhere better. We told him we would get the train instead. We went to where we thought we should be and started walking, but Mark had misinterpreted the address (they make about as much sense as Japanese addresses so it wasn't hard to do) and we were miles away. We stopped to ask directions from a tuk-tuk driver who told us (surprise surprise!) that it was a rubbish restaurant and he could take us somewhere better! We were quite coordinated when all four of us chorused "Nooooo!" and then we started to make fun of him by saying "tailor?" too. He laughed. One of the better things about Bangkok is that everyone is very friendly. Eventually we agreed that it was too far to walk and set a price for the tuk-tuk.

A tuk-tuk is a sort of motorbike with a cart, not like a trailer but part of the bike, covered over and with a small seat inside. They are tiny. Somehow we managed to squeeze all four of us inside, although it meant Mark sitting on a sort of metal ledge at the side next to all of our feet. We hung on to the bars in the roof and set off.

The poor guy driving us was not the one who had agreed the price, and clearly (after about half an hours driving) had no idea where he was going. He weaved around streets and in and out of lanes of traffic, and eventually conceded defeat and called back his boss on Mark's mobile. He followed those directions for a while, then stopped to ask outside a different restaurant. It seemed we needed to turn around, but that is difficult for a tuk-tuk, so instead we drove through the courtyard of the restaurant. There was a big aerial antenna with a streamer attached to the back of the tuk-tuk, and it was bent right over and bouncing off all of the struts in the roof.

As it was my first time in a tuk-tuk, I was quite enjoying the ride, looking at all the sights and smelling all the smells! Mark was less comfortable by this time though. I am not so sure he would have offered to sit on the ledge if he had realised it was going to be for an hour! When we eventually arrived it was 9pm. There was no space in the restaurant, but they found us a table in the other area and said we could order from the full restaurant menu. They food was great, and of course we had to have dessert since we were in a specialist chocolate place! We all had different things so we could try lots (including mine, the biggest brownie I ever saw). They were all spectacular too. The taxi ride home was much shorter than getting there!

The next day we met up again and went shopping. Bangkok is knock-off heaven, but they still seem to have the same size issues as Japan - ie they don't fit us. Will managed to get a few t-shirts and we got some DVDs, but that was about it.

For lunch, Mark had set his heart on going to an art deco hotel which had been used in lots of films and is supposed to be really interesting. We found it far more easily than Spring/Summer! It is called the Atlanta, and it was as nice as described. Inside we found a sign which said something along the lines of "this restaurant is for room guests only. We may on occasion serve non-residents, but if we don't like the look of you we will refuse to serve you and no explanation will be given". There was also a long list of the types of people they didn't like. After some confusion (one woman would serve us, but the other didn't seem too happy) we were allowed inside, and you could tell we were all on our best behaviour, extra polite and quieter than usual! In the menu there was another full page explanation of their policy. It seems that they are determined to protect their guests from all of the things they consider to be the negative side of tourism in Bangkok, and anyone who doesn't like it can get lost. It was a very funny place. They even told us we couldn't take photos, but the food was nice and it was very interesting to see it. If you didn't know about it, you would never find it. Definitely worth the trip. Even in our hotel, people were constantly trying to get you to take a taxi if you walked through the lobby, so I can see the appeal of the Atlanta!

Japan Day

Last year we had a visitor for Japan day. Cathy was in Japan and splitting her time between Nin Jitsu training in Chiba and staying with us in Minami Azabu. As we only had one yukata (Will's) and Cathy had limited clothes with her, She wore the outfit and I just wore red and white, the colours of the Japanese flag (Will was sick that day so he didn't need an outfit).

This year I made far more of an effort. Months ago I had been taken to an area called Nippori in the north of the city, which is traditionally the area where fabric traders would gather. The old areas have pretty much continued in Tokyo which is nice, and now it is full of shops selling fabrics of all kinds, luxury ones and bargain basement ones, and others that sell buttons and beads and leather and anything else you can think of. There are sewing machines buzzing away on the street (the first time I went there was one going on an automatic setting outside a shop - it was embroidering mickey mouse onto a sheet!) and bicycles everywhere. It feels a bit surreal to be walking around there, and they still follow odd merchant holidays, so it can be difficult to know when to go. I was taken there the first time by the part-time needlework teacher from school, who spends the rest of her time running her own business making Kimono and Obi (the belt part). As well as finding fabrics, she looks for second hand things that she can use. We went into a tiny little shop that sold second hand kimono. Most of them were really expensive, but they were so pretty, and we were wandering along all the aisles having a look and admiring all the colours and patterns. I pulled one out which was the most beautiful pale blue, with embroidered delicate pink and green flowers on it. When I looked at the price I couldn't believe it, it was only about £15! I tried it on and it fitted too (unusual in a country where most women seem to be built like small boys). The others said I should snap it up - so I did. I didn't manage to find an Obi quite so easily though.

So This Japan day I decided to wear my Kimono. It takes a lot of effort to get into them, and I didn't have an Obi, so I arranged to meet Priya at school early so she could help me and lend me a fake one. Unfortunately it was bright red with black and yellow criss-crossing lines - didn't go at all with my pretty delicate colours! But the Japanese staff were saying that it really doesn't matter, in fact most Japanese people don't think about getting colours to blend like westerners do (and I just thought there were a lot of people with bad taste!). I made a special effort and put my hair up into a bun and wrapped a pretty beaded strip around it, and I wore the sandals Sarah got for my birthday which everyone said were fantastic. But I still had to put on the Kimono.

We did our best to get me in, and it worked for a while, but everything has to be painfully tight, and I was slipping. I found it so funny that every western teacher who passed me said "oh, you look so good!" and every Japanese teacher gave me a thoughtful expressions and tried to adjust me in some way. In the end I had most of the Japanese department around me trying to tie me up, until they realised I didn't have one of the things I needed to stay tied and sent me off the the AV room. This is where groups of mothers come in on Japan day especially to help the kids into their kimono, and they are experts. They took one look at me and started all over again! Eventually I was trussed up, and the parents were saying if I slipped again I should go and find their daughters who would do it again!

I couldn't lean back for the rest of the day, and could only take tiny tiny steps. One of the English women who is married to a Japanese man, told me over the years she has developed quite a feminist view about Kimono being a tool for the oppression of women, and she was disappointed when her daughter wanted one for coming of age. I was definitely a little uncomfortable, but I think it is nice that Japanese women still want to wear them for special occasions. It is part of their history, and so much of the culture is being blended and westernized that it is good to have a way to be really Japanese again occasionally. Anyway, they look amazing on people who have the right shape!

In the morning there are three sessions where everyone can do mini-courses about many things Japanese. This year I did Kanji cross stitch (I picked a kanji I thought looked pretty and then sewed spring cherry blossoms around the edge - someone told me later I had sewn the character for Autumn. Oops) and a sort of monochrome painting which I can't remember the name of. I was not great at that, although I did do a good pine tree. But not much else!

I enjoy Japan day the most at lunchtime. The Kindergarten and Junior school work for weeks before hand practising Bon Dances (usually danced in August at the Obon festival) and then they perform them for the whole school outside in the courtyard in the sunshine. After they have danced, anyone can join in as they go round again. It is so much fun to try, and even better to watch them all trying to copy the leaders and do all the moves when they are looking so pretty and all dressed up. In the afternoon, there was a more professional display of traditional dancing. It wasn't a patch on Last years troupe of Taiko drummers, but it was still very good.

The kids get to go home early, and then all the teachers have a party. I did have to get out of the Kimono by that time. But by next year I am going to get an Obi of my own and do it properly!

Just for Fun

When we got back from our extended trip, most of the people at school were great. they realised that there was not much that anyone could have done. There is always one, though. One of the senior management team (who doesn't do very much anyway!) moaned to a few people that we were all very irresponsible, we knew the storm was coming and should have got an earlier flight. She obviously hasn't put much brain power into this idea, as
1. the storm was predicted for saturday night, we were flying on sunday night.
2. ours was the only flight in the evening cancelled - it was the earlier morning flights that were most affected.

We tend to not pay too much attention to this person's opinion most of the time anyway, but there was an even better gem from her later on. She decided that the only responsible person among us was Ben, as he had come home early.

Ben did not go on the trip. His girlfriend hates the cold and he couldn't afford it anyway.

Nobody has corrected her yet, we think it is quite funny and are letting Ben bask in the glory of being so "responsible"!

This one made me laugh too though. At school the other day, one of the caretakers was welding. He had no facial protection on, and people around warned him to be careful. He told them he would be fine, as he is Japanese and therefore has small eyes!

Sapporo

Well, although we had been joking about not being able to get home all day on Sunday, we never really believed that we would be stranded. That is exactly what happened though. We got on the bus and it moved so slowly through the snowed under streets, and arrived at the airport a couple of hours later. We struggled over the sheer ice outside the entrance and eventually got all our stuff up the escalators.

When we got inside we could see lots of delays on the boards and braced ourselves for a good long wait. As we got closer we could see suspicious yellow kanji flashing next to our flight number, and we couldn't believe it when it switched to English and said "cancelled". Not delayed, cancelled! There had already been lots of flights cancelled that morning, so there were thousands of people around the airport, and we joined a queue which never moved for information. After a couple of hours (while Kumi, who had organised the whole trip and felt personally responsible for the weather, was on the phone to the travel agent) we had been talking to other people around us. One woman said she had been issued with standby ticket number 1470 and they were just calling 99. She had been told the earliest she could probably get on a flight was Tuesday. A little while after that an announcement came over the tannoy that they had stopped issuing standby tickets for the day. The worst part is that in Hokkaido, all standby tickets are scrapped and reissued at midnight, in case people have found other ways to travel (or something equally baffling), so even if we could get them (25 of them!) we would still have to hang around for the reissue later on that night.

At some point, the decision was made to forget the idea of stand-by tickets and just book our place on a Tuesday morning flight, since that was the earliest we were looking at anyway. The travel agent negotiated for us to stay at a Sheraton hotel for a reduced rate for 2 nights, so at least we didn't have to hang around the airport. Now we just had to get out of the airport!

We lugged all our bags down a stationary escalator, wondering why it had stopped until we got on and realised just how many people were trying to leave. It would have been a pile up! We queued along a huge corridor with thousands of people, and when the train came there was a mad rush to get on. There were 3 small children with us whose parents decided that the train would be too traumatic late at night with so many people, and they went back to get a taxi to the hotel. We were wedged into various corners all along the train, and it crept along at a walking pace because of the weather, but eventually we got to the hotel at 10.30pm, much better than we had expected. When we got there we rang to see how the families were getting on - they were still about 20th in line and didn't make it to the hotel until after midnight. Every way of leaving the airport was jammed, and we saw on the news afterwards that over 2500 people slept in Sapporo airport on Sunday night.

A wedding Kimono in the hotel
The view from the breakfast room

As we had been so lucky in getting out and getting a hotel, we felt able to relax a little the next day. Some of the group decided to have another day skiing, and went to a ski resort about an hour away on the bus early the next morning. We didn't do that as we were running out of money (2 extra nights in a Sheraton hotel that we didn't expect), and we also had to think about school the next day even if we weren't going to be there. Among the group there were three laptops, and we connected in the rooms as everyone had to email work in for their classes. 7 people came to us, and since we only started at 11pm, it was a late night. Most people were reasonably quick, just sending enough to occupy. Our increasingly self-centred friend Mary however, decided she would send through everything, including the worksheets to be printed and photocopied, just as if she were there to teach the class! She just happened to have them all with her on her clip drive, which she promptly lost just as she was getting onto the computer (last, fortunately for everyone else). After a lengthy search which turned our room upside down, she sat down to send her work at 12.45am. By 2.45 she was just about finishing up, and we were falling asleep and hinting at her to bog off. She said she was done so I stood up to turn off the computer - only to find she had plugged in her camera to download some photos onto it, because she was having trouble saving them at home and the memory card was full! If I had had the slightest bit of energy left I may have killed her, but I was half asleep and just stood there with my mouth open.

Will, Pippa, Tomoko, Thomas, Benedetta, Aja, me and Graham
Will and Pippa at lunch

The next day we sleepily decided that as we had some time in a new city we should really go and see it, so we went the the beer museum.

The Sapporo Beer Museum

We wondered around in the snow and had a fantastic lunch - Gengis Khan lamb barbecue. We were also hoping to see some snow sculptures, as Sapporo hosts a huge ice festival every February. It was no good though, they had all been taken away.

Benedetta, Thomas, Pippa, Aja, Will, Graham, Tomoko

Cool round moss. Very old

In the evening we felt we had to try some seafood (Hokkaido is famous for shellfish) so we found a map and navigated our way to the most amazing little fresh fish restaurant. It was izakaya style, sitting in the floor without shoes, and we ate king crab, scallops, prawns, loads of sashimi, grilled salmon and even tried whale! I quite liked the taste, but knowing what it was I found myself wanting to swallow really fast and not think about it. It was Baird's beaked whale, which is supposed to be not endangered by the level of hunting, but I still felt really uncomfortable.

Aja with cheese and beer. She's so happy
My weird orange drink and the even weirder beer crackers it came with

We had to leave early the next day to get the train back to the airport, and we checked in and went through security only to find we were delayed again! It is a short flight and we were only delayed by an hour, so fortunately we were on our way soon. We went straight to school from the airport, as we all felt so guilty for having to have our lessons covered by other people for 2 days. I was there just in time for a double period. The kids were quite excited to have so many of their teachers off stranded somewhere! One girl asked me if I had had any sleep, as I had "huge bags" under my eyes. Thanks a lot! We went straight home, and started unpacking and washing, and more importantly, getting into some very welcome clean clothes. An early night for me I think!

The things people do when they have had a drink. Anpanman is a Japanese cartoon character

Thomas in a 'beer can'

Snow

It is that time of year again - we are in Hokkaido with a big group of friends (ever expanding too, there are 25 of us this year!) for the big ski trip. I can't believe it has been a whole year since we went to Rusutsu, but time flies when you're having fun. This year we have come to a place called Niseko Hirafu, and it is great. As there are so many of us, we are in girls and boys rooms rather than couples, so Will gets a well deserved rest from my snoring! Unfortunately thought that means the group of girls I am with have to put up with it.

We flew up on Thursday very early, and got a coach to our hotel which is lovely. The lifts are about a 100m walk across a car park, and we went night skiing last night. I have never tried that before, it was so pretty and really peaceful. On the first afternoon I went out with Will just to find a couple of green runs and get our confidence up. The colour coding of the runs works a little differently here from in Europe. There is no blue, just green, red and black. At first we thought that meant they were just broader descriptions, but here in Niseko the greens are quite steep, which was a bit of a shock to the system. I was ok after a few minutes but Will seemed really timid and wouldn't get any speed up. I waited for him, and we had a look at his skis - and found that the bindings were too loose. His feet moved around easily, and when he lifted one leg, the ski came off! We picked our way down slowly and called it a day. Fortunately it was easy to fix for Friday, as that was the day we had a full day included in the package and we wanted to make the most of it.
A promising start
We got up and headed high on the mountain. We found some good runs and had a great time exploring, although the visibility was poor. We kept hoping it would clear but it lingered all morning. When we got back to our side of the mountain it was like E.T was going to emerge from the mist at any time, with odd lights shining from poles and echoing announcements in Japanese coming from all directions. We decided to go back in for a break and some lunch. It extended into a whole afternoons relax, which I think we needed. We went out again at about 5.50 for some night skiing. I had never done that before, it was very peaceful and a bit eerie on the lifts, but actually a bit easier than it had been in the day, as we stayed at the base of the mountain and the lights shone at such low angles that you could see all the bumps. It was lovely. I really wanted to go a bit higher up, but the fog hadn't lifted from the afternoon so we didn't risk it.
Pippa and Aja about to set off
Most of our group are snowboarders, and we had never tried it, so on Saturday we hired a snowboard and boots for the morning and went off to try to learn. We couldn't get in for a lesson which was a shame, but Kate was with us and even thought she is only really a beginner herself, she could tell us enough to get us going and give us pointers as we went along. We stuck to the "family course" right at the bottom near the hotel, which the night before had taken about 2 minutes on the skis. Half an hour and many bruises later, we got to the lift at the bottom and decided to go for a hot chocolate to recover. We got the hang of stopping and doing a kind of falling leaf type movement, and Kate was impressed at how we picked it up, but there was still horrible visibility and snow blowing in from all sides so we couldn't see well. When we got to the cafe and took off our gear, everything was caked in compacted snow and soaking wet. We went out for another go, but because we were so wet our goggles steamed up straight away and we could see even less! We had one more run (and a lot more falls) and went back to the hotel.

Most of our falls were just tumbles and because there was so much fresh powder it was a soft landing. We did have one painful fall each thought, and snowboarding uses all different muscles to skiing so we really ached when we were done. Somehow during all this I also managed to get friction burns on the inside of both my knees - I still can't really figure out how that happened, but it must have been when I was crawling around trying to get up each time. I only noticed when I got into the onsen and felt it stinging.

An onsen after a day of skiing is bliss. The one here was just mineralised enough to have a nice smell, and lovely and hot, but outside under a wooden roof, which meant you could sit there in the dusk with snow falling, in a hot steaming bath and unwind. I am going to miss it if I ski anywhere outside of Japan! As the storms got up the snow would blow in and melt on top of the water.

The weather on Saturday kept getting worse and worse, with howling winds and closed lifts. Some of our group had gone to another area and couldn't get back as the lifts closed and the buses stopped. A lucky 4 got the last taxi, and the rest just had to sit it out until the lifts opened enough the get over the top. That was the sheltered side, last night we were talking to a group who had got stuck and had to get a room at our hotel for the night. We were beginning to get worried about the flight back on Sunday.

An ice bar. Literally! This was just Mary in the doorway.
Sunday had a forecast to be better than Saturday, but Saturday's storm overran a little. At breakfast we couldn't see a thing out of the windows. Partly this was because they were half covered with snow that had blown onto them horizontally and frozen, but even past that it was just white fog. We had got up early specially to try and go out as a big group, but the door from the ski store area was snowed shut. Some of the boys went out at 8am to try to find out what was available, but were back by 8.15 as every lift was closed. Buses weren't running, it was still snowing and too windy to be safe. And the Japanese weather forecast is usually so accurate! We were so disappointed. By about 10am the single slow lift on the family course was running, so we decided to try it out. we were back on skis, so it only took 2 minutes to get down, but then as it was the only lift running on the whole mountain, the queue for the lift was 20 minutes and halfway up the slope. We did 2 runs and gave up. With the wind still biting and a massive queue it just didn't seem worth it. After one last onsen we packed everything up and sat in to wait for the bus (4.20pm).
Queue for the lift
We did manage one last venture, down the hill into the town for a pie from an Australian shop for lunch. It was very nice (we don't get pies very often here so lots of people were very excited at the prospect), but not nice enough to walk through that wind! It is now 3pm and we are all sitting around in the lobby waiting to hear if we will be able to get back. So far only one flight has left Sapporo today, so even if the bus can get us to the airport we could have a bit of a wait to get home. And this with 18 ISSH staff here!! I don't want to be the one who makes the call to the headmistress! I am just going to have a hot chocolate and hope for the best.

After Christmas

We got back from Australia to cold Tokyo, a difference of 37 degrees! It was good to be back though, and sleep in our own bed again. even it we were under 2 duvets and a blanket with hot water bottles and thick socks!

School started back, and because of the way the year is arranged, first semester reports were due 2 weeks into the new term. Another thing that happens at the beginning of the year is One World Day. This is a day where all the staff and students wear their national costume (you can wear one from another country if you don't like your own!) and there are acts from different areas by the students and a Parade of Nations. This means representatives from all the countries that students come from walk up onto the stage and greet the audience in their own language. The correct reply is projected onto a display behind them, and the students all chorus it in response. Some are cheesy (Australia - G'day mate), but it is a nice tradition.

Since we don't have a costume for the UK, and no-one really wanted to try and dress as Morris Dancers, we decided to get a group of us together and make costumes. Unfortunately, this coincided with the week the reports were due, so it was a bit of a rush job. Still, a group of 6 of us were Robin Hood, Sheriff of Nottingham, Will Scarlett (more maroon but we tried) and a few Merry Men. We all had tights on and a couple of bows and arrows finished off the look nicely. We got a round of applause in the staff room! Strange though, whenever we asked the kids what they thought we had come as, loads of them said Robin Hood and his 3 Musketeers! Not entirely sure where that came from.

Last Sunday we went to our first Sumo wrestling tournament. There were 12 of us going so we got really good seats and made a day of it. The seats are just little enclosures with 4 cushions inside for you to sit on the ground, and have little bars around the edge so nobady expands over their limited space (the bars all have bottle openers attached to, so you can just sit and drink all day!).

The auditorium has seats on all four sides, with a raised platform in the middle for the bouts. It started off with a display of Taiko drumming, and then the wrestlers were presented to the crowd. When they first come out they have a kind of thick apron on, very ornately embroidered with the details of their sponsors. On of the western men had the EU as his sponsor! (we found out later he was Bulgarian).

The day was divided into 2 competitions, to represent the different leagues of wrestlers. It was a one off charity day tournament, so we got to se the whole thing. When the first group of wrestlers came out and paraded around, we couldn't believe the size of them! Then we realised that this was the lower league - the others were even bigger! We all picked competitors at random and followed where they came, but none of our picks won anything - good job we didn't put any money in! The whole day was won by the No. 1 Wrestler, Asashoryu. He is a Mongolian wrestler who although huge, is solid, and sooo powerful. He won most of his bouts by picking the other guy up and walking to drop him outside the ring. He is often in the news here, so it was really cool to see him fight and win.

I auditioned for the British embassy choir recently, and got in. We are singing an all British programme to celebrate the 150th year of official relations between Britain and Japan. There is one japanese song which we are going to do as an encore, a traditional festival song about cherry blossoms. It is all written in Hiragana. I can read Katakana quite well now, but I still haven't really got the hang of hiragana, so at the moment I am kind of mumbling along to the tune until I can learn it. Still, it could be written in Kanji, then I would be really stuck! Why do they have to have so many alphabets!?

On friday night we had the February show. That is the middle of the year performance by the high school choir, orchestra and lots of smaller groups. A new drama teacher came last year, too late to really be involved, but this year he did loads of lighting and stage management stuff, and the girls had costumes - it was a real extravaganza! I am always so amazed at just how many of the students at this school are really talented. The orchestra only did one piece (and they had only had it since Christmas so they did really well), the Grieg piano concerto. A Grade 10 student played the piano, she is only 15, and she was incredible. I could see some of the younger students from my seat in the orchestra and they were stunned, just sitting open mouthed as they watched her play. And the really amazing thing is that she really doesn't think it's so special to do that. One of the music teachers asked her a few weeks ago if she was planning to study piano at university, and she said "no" as if she had asked the stupidest question in the world! She hasn't even decided if she will keep playing when she leaves school yet. I really hope she does.

A really good thing about the school is the connections people have to bring in outside speakers. In the past few months we have had 3 graduates come back and talk about their careers (a research genetic counsellor, a paediatrician in war zones and a diplomat), and today they Palestinian ambassador came in to give a talk to grade 9. It was the first ambassador's visit I had been free for, so I went along. He is a very interesting man to hear speak, and he answered some very difficult questions from the students. He is pragmatic about things that have happened in the past and hopeful for the future, but at the same time accepting that there is no easy answer and it could take generations to find true peace. It was so different to anything you see in the news, and he has had real experience of negotiations with both sides. One of the students asked him about Hamas in the Gaza strip (where he is from) and he explained the background to their existence, and said he really doesn't see them lasting much longer. He gave so much detail, and made it accessible to the kids too. There are more ambassadors coming through the year, so I hope I will be able to see them too.

End of Year

The end of this year was a very strange time. It seemed to take forever to come and then all of a sudden the term was over! We played with the faculty band for the Christmas party, and I had a horrible cold so any bits I did came out really nasal and awful sounding, which made me laugh, which made them sound even worse. Everyone knew I had a cold but still! We also had an end of year whole school mass and concert one night. I was playing the piccolo and afterward, a mom who I hate playing in front of (she used to be the principal flute in the New York Symphony) told me I played very well and she would like to hear me again! It made my night. One of the seniors said she thought the piccolo was a recording.

We flew to Australia on the first day of the holiday and arrived in Cairns the next morning at 6am. The hotel were great and let us go straight to our room, which was a lovely modern apartment in a complex. It felt a bit like a new housing development in the UK only hotter, and with swimming pools and BBQ spots dotted around, and the apartment was complete, with a washing machine and kitchen and was immaculate. So we went straight to sleep (well it was an overnight flight!). The rest of that first day we went into Cairns city centre to get lunch and shop a little bit (I had forgotten my swimming costume). Cairns is small but we liked it. It was consistently low to mid 30's the whole time we were there, and not nearly as humid as we expected. It was so nice to be able to shop where everything fitted again, and wander around in the sunshine.

The next day we went out to the Great Barrier Reef on a huge catamaran. We had hoped to post our Christmas cards from there so they would have a special postmark, but they didn't sell stamps, just specially made postcards. So the Christmas cards we sent all went to the Great Barrier Reef on a little trip and then came back again before they got posted. We were driven up to Port Douglas on a coach with a cool driver (cool because he knew so much, he was moody as anything if you actually dared to speak to him) who told us loads about the local area and how things have changed since tourists came. We went to a part of the reef called Agincourt ribbon reefs, right on the outer edge. The company we went with has a team of marine biologists to monitor the reefs and animals around them and teach tourists about it all and how to conserve the area. They did a talk on the way out there and you could go snorkeling with them explaining what everything was if you wanted to. We decided to do that, and since it was such a calm day, they took us around to the outer edge (they usually stay in the lagoon behind as the sea is too rough).

We were right where the continental shelf ends and the deep ocean starts, and you could look down and see a beautiful reef and fish on one side and just darkness on the other. If you swam out a little bit you started to feel really strong currents pulling you around. It was a bizarre sensation. We saw so many gorgeous and weird and wonderful fish, and giant clams and even a reef shark, and the colours of the reef were amazing. The biologist was pointing all sorts out to us and explaining what everything was and how it lived. Unfortunately, every time she pointed something out, we had to put our heads under to see it (I am aware that is generally the idea with snorkeling). This was not good for me, because I couldn't see the waves coming, I could just feel them bobbing me about, and before long I felt really ill. I had no idea you could get seasick snorkeling, but I managed it. Eventually I had to get back on the boat, and that was still moving too so I was sick over the side. When everyone else came back on, the boat driver had put me on a little box in front of his window. Will did the whole thing and loved it, and I am glad I did a little bit, because what we saw was amazing.

The company had a big pontoon in the lagoon so we were there for the rest of the day, but I still felt like I was moving around and unsettled. We did a little bit more snorkeling right by the pontoon where it is calm and so the corals are even more spectacular, because they are the delicate ones that don't have to withstand the waves, but I still avoided staying under for too long and just swam about a bit. One other unfortunate thing was that we didn't really tan much in the water because this time of year is box jellyfish season and we had to wear these full body blue lycra suits, so instead of lazily drifting over the reef going brown as I had imagined, we sort of floated about like giant blue tellytubbies. I think I am just going to have to come to terms with the fact that the ocean and me aren't compatible. I was very relieved to get back to dry land.

The next day we were supposed to be doing a whole day whitewater rafting on the Russell river, but they called and said the water levels were too low. We chose to go to the Barron River instead which is a lower difficulty level and only a half day, so we mixed it in with a trip up into the rainforest to a village called Kuranda. The ride up was on a massive old steam train, winding up through the rainforest and in and out of tunnels. The building of the railway was pretty much what made Cairns, so it was interesting to see. We went past huge waterfalls and so many lovely views out to the ocean. It is odd to be in a rainforest looking at the sea! I was taking loads of photos, and the train had a commentary which pointed out where good shots were, but my camera died half way up. It had been clinging on ever since it fell down the steps with me on excursion, but it finally gave up and refused to switch on. So I have very few of those good shots that were recommended. I was so annoyed, I sat there just pressing the button for ages, but eventually I bent down to put the camera back in my bag. As I leaned forward, the underwire of my bra snapped in half. Again, I have never known that to happen, and I was gobsmacked. Up in Kuranda we bought a few things in the village. 2 of them broke almost straight away. Will was questioning whether to bother with the rafting in the afternoon given our run of luck, but there was no way we were giving that up, it was the bit we had looked forward to most about going to Cairns.

Kuranda is very pretty. We finally posted the Christmas cards, and the trip down was on a big cable car over 7km of the forest. It was stupidly busy so we were crammed in with four german tourists, but the view of the trees was gorgeous. If you have ever seen Medicine Man, it was like that part where she comes out of the canopy and just sees the view for miles around over the tropical rainforest. It is weird to think how many things live down there, it seems so dense and impenetrable.

At the bottom we were picked up by the rafting people and driven to the river. We were in a raft with a really good fun group of people, but the rapids were quite small so we didn't get quite what we were hoping for. It was such a shame the harder river was closed. Again, on both sides we had the rainforest, and in between rapids we just paddled down and chatted, so it was really peaceful and nice. The sandflies took a liking to me before the end when we paddled into lake placid, so I was bitten all over my legs, but I didn't notice that until the next day. I do love rafting!

By this stage we were exhausted so we decided to spend the last day in Cairns just lazing by the pool, reading and relaxing. It was lovely. The next day we flew down to Melbourne. we had to circle the airport for a while as all ground operations were suspended due to a huge storm. For a city in drought, the floods were quite a shock I think!

We got the bus into the centre and went to our hotel, which was ok but not nearly as nice as the one we had just come from. In Melbourne we did a lot of walking and explored the city. We went up the Eureka Tower and down into Southgate a few times, took the city circle tram around to get a feel of things and found little streets and alleys full of bars and cafes and cool little shops. We had a lot more time to relax and lie in, which was lovely after the rush of "doing things" in Cairns. On Christmas eve we hired a car and drove out to the Yarra Valley, to the east of Melbourne. This is a beautiful wine growing area, and we visited 3 wineries and had lunch from this cool little restaurant with spit roasted beef. They had even tried to do Yorkshire puddings but I am not convinced they had ever actually seen one! We were glad it was a bit cooler so we could enjoy a nice roast dinner, as we had been warned that is not what happens at Christmas in Australia typically.

After we had finished with the Yarra Valley, we drove down to Geelong (or the City of Dreams as Kate keeps calling it). We hadn't told anyone what time we were coming, as we thought we would call to ask directions when we got closer, but we actually managed to find the house all by ourselves. And obviously there was no-one in. Kate and Adam had gone to Church and her parents were at the holiday house. We waited a while and then they came back and we were given the grand tour. Kate is the youngest of 8 sisters so the house was built for a family of 10 by a very wealthy man. It was amazing. we were given a room with our own bathroom and then we all went out for a nice Italian meal.

The next day was Christmas day. We had a nice slow morning and then drove to Adam's house for a Croatian Christmas lunch. We had Cabbage rolls and cold meats and roast potatoes, and much, much more. They all kept trying to make us eat! There was just so much food. We had been warned about the first grace, where most people knelt down and all joined in in Croatian, and which went on for a good 5 minutes. We hadn't been warned about the second grace after the meal, which started mid conversation and with no warning at all, and which we talked through at least a minute of before we noticed. Everyone found it quite funny but we were so embarrassed! Adam's family were lovely, but it didn't feel very Christmassy to us, in short sleeves and with bright sunshine outside.

When we had finished at Adam's, we drove down to Airey's Inlet to Kate's holiday house for Christmas dinner with her family. As I said, she is the youngest of 8, so there were her parents, 7 sisters and their 7 partners, and 17 nieces and nephews. There were too many to remember names, even. We felt more in the way there than anywhere because there was no way we could join in and know everyone. They started their Christmas with a performance show, where each family performs something like a song or dance or poem. With so many people it must be terrifying even in front of your family, but we were going to do a rewritten version of their football team song, and chickened out big time! Fortunately Adam and Kate were very good and said nothing about it, because Kate's dad said if he had known what it was we had planned he would have made us do it. I am sure they would have loved it because they are all massive fans and their team won the AFL premiership this year, but even so, we were wimps and very scared in front of 34 strangers!

The next day we drove back into Melbourne as we had tickets for the boxing day test match Australia Vs India. It took us 1 hour to get into the city centre, and then more than double that to park, so we missed the first ball, but we were there in time for the first wicket. The atmosphere in the MCG was amazing, over 68,000 people in a good mood. I sat under a sarong for most of the day so that I didn't burn, but even so I managed to get a weird stripe on my arm. Megan got a matching one, and so did a friend of hers on the other side of the stadium, so I have no idea what we were all doing!

The next day we decided to drive the Great Ocean Road. We set out early and had breakfast in a small town called Lorne, lunch in Apollo Bay, an ice-cream in Port Campbell and dinner in Warnambool. We hadn't realised before just how much of the Great Ocean Road is inland, away from the sea. For a long time it runs inside a Temperate Rainforest, which was a lovely change and we really enjoyed driving there. Along the way we stopped in little places that had been recommended to us, like a track in a tiny place called Kennet River to see Koalas,

or a stop called Gibson Steps, where the beach and the view were amazing. We also stopped at the Twelve Apostles and London Bridge (although it collapsed a few years ago), but everywhere we went, we were overrun with flies. They were just everywhere! We called it speed tourism, because everything was waving madly, stop and take a photo in 1 second flat and then swipe again. Will said everyone must very friendly around here, they all kept waving at each other. The flies are apparently not usually so bad, but it was a very short winter and this year they are a nightmare.

We drove back inland, on a much shorter road, and it was a long day but we loved it.

For our Christmas present Kate and Adam had given us tickets to go to a place called Sovereign Hill, a kind of Gold mining version of the Black Country Museum. We went there on the 28th. It was a cool little place, with a mine tour, all the old shops and streets and people dressed up doing scenes as they would have been. We saw a 3kg gold ingot being poured, and tried panning for gold in the creek, stopped for lunch at the old bakery and wandered around the museum. It was almost 40 degrees and dusty, and the woman at the desk said she had never seen it so busy, but it was an interesting day. That night we stayed at a hotel in the city so we would be out of Kate's way the next morning, and we met up with friends from Tokyo who had travelled to Geelong.

The next day was the day we had come for - Adam and Kate's wedding. They had a full mass, and the reception was held in the old wool stores which is now the university. (They don't usually do weddings but Kate's dad is very influential). It was so lovely, fantastic food and drinks and a huge hall with a Croatian band and lots of dancing. Everyone had a fantastic time. The order of things was new to me, with a kind of compere doing lots of the talking, and then the speeches and first dance slotted in between different courses of the meal. By the time we finished eating it was 10.45pm! But the time had flown, it was a great day. Croatian weddings have a tradition of having a second day. Apparently it started because lots of people would cook for the family at the wedding, so the next day the family would cook for the rest of the people to say thanks. It is all catered now, but the tradition has continued, so the next day we all went to the Croatian hall for another feast - it was like a second Christmas day. The main parts of the meal were catered, but all the desserts had been cooked by friends and family so we tried lots of little homemade Croatian treats, and left feeling like we never wanted to eat again (a bit of a theme every time we met Adam's family!).

New Years Eve was our last full day. We didn't feel like we'd stopped much at all, so we just hung around Kate's house, swam in the pool and played snooker, read and slept all day! It was lovely. In the evening their friends came round and we sat outside (it was still 42 degrees at 6pm) and ate even more (i lost 2kg while I was away - how? how?!) and swam and chatted. We put the radio for the new year but they played 3 Red Hot Chilli Peppers songs in a row right through midnight, so we just guessed when it was by the sound of the fireworks in the bay. There were 6 people still in the pool at midnight, it was so warm. They don't sing Auld Lang Syne in Australia, so Will and me did a little one by ourselves. We had to get up at 5am the next day, so we went to bed pretty soon after midnight but it was so hot we didn't get much sleep.

We drove to the airport the next day and I managed to sleep a bit more in the waiting area. Our flight was direct to Tokyo (a lot of our friends had to change so we were lucky) and it is a 10 hour flight. Because there is very little time difference this meant it was an all day flight, so we got through a lot of films trying to stay awake! It was like jet lag but without a time change, and before you arrive. We got the train back into Tokyo from Narita, and our apartment felt really small again after all the high ceilings and huge rooms in Australia, but I don't think I have ever felt so happy just to get into my own bed.