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.

Bandai-Atami

This week Suzie and Ian came to visit. They were delayed on their flight, but it never occurred to me to check, and we had arranged to meet them at a station here in the city after their train ride. Unfortunately they missed that train, so we walked around the platform for a while and eventually concluded they weren't there. We called Mary to check the times for us and figured out what must have happened, so made use of the hour til the next train by going for a nice lunch set above the station (I'm not being sarcastic, it was in the station and it was still very nice!) When they got in, we made our way back before going for ramen and a drink at the stand-up bar in Hiroo. The next day we were at work, but Suzie has travelled a lot and they just went off and explored - they have seen quite a few things we haven't got round to yet!

It was a 3 day week for us as we had the long weekend for mid-term. This meant we were free to have a bigger than usual Wednesday night out at Doma Doma - all 15 of us - and still not worry about being tired. This said, we got up at 5.30 the next day to visit Tsukiji fish market. It's the biggest fish market in the world and it was incredible, just huge! We caught the end of the tuna auctions (very loud, lots of over-exaggerated movements, just like a normal auction only even harder to follow in Japanese) and had a good look around, before going for a sushi breakfast at a restaurant recommended by fish boy (his name is Alastair but no-one ever calls him that, he has a PhD in tuna and works at the market) which was fantastic. We all had reservations about eating raw fish at 8am but we soon got past that and really enjoyed it. It could have had something to do with the fact that we had already been up for ages by then and it felt like lunch time!

Later that day Suzie and Ian left for Takayama and Kyoto, and we started to ring around for places that we could go away for a few days (nothing like leaving it to the last minute). We wanted to go somewhere new, and find a Ryokan (traditional style Japanese inn) but with an Onsen in the room because Will is shy. We found one we liked the look of that still had space in a small hot spring resort called Bandai Atami. It is in the hills near the shores of one of the most beautiful lakes in Japan, in Fukushima prefecture north of Tokyo, so we hired a car and set off on Friday morning. The rain was horrible all day, and by the time we got there (after getting lost a few times on the way) it was 2.30pm. We had been planning to go up to the lake, but we decided to save that for Saturday and just went to the room.

It was amazing. We had our own little garden with an onsen on a deck just under cover, so I had a hot bath outside while it rained and was all quiet. It was so relaxing and peaceful. I must have had 6 baths in 2 days! We had our evening meal served to us in the room, and the women kept getting on their knees to bow to us fully with heads touching the ground. We felt quite embarrassed really, standing there in our scratty jeans after a 5 hour drive! They got us to choose yukata from a table, and just went out of their way to make us feel special for the whole time we were there. It was the first time we had stayed at a real ryokan, and I would highly recommend it!

The next day we set off to drive around the lake, but the rain was still torrential. The views were still good but we didn't see much through the mist. We drove down through some pretty areas just to see more of Japan outside of Tokyo, and we came across a small sign with the name of a village I happened to have been reading about before, a very old preserved traditional Japanese village called Ouchijuku. It is a really popular place to go, but you would never guess it from the single tiny signpost, we were lucky to spot it. We queued for almost an hour just to park, and I have never seen so many people in one place. Or so many umbrellas for that matter! The rain just poured and poured, and we were soaked through long before we reached the first shop selling umbrellas. The village was lovely, all thatched roofs and old tatami mat rooms which had been kept just as they would have been, and trench streams in the streets with washing places and water wheels. On a sunny day it would have been perfect. For lunch we went to an open tatami room with a pit in the floor where they cooked fish over an open fire. We had a tempura set, with soup and rice and it was nice, but tempura is usually really light and not greasy. This was the opposite, and really sickly. We were still wet when we left, so we headed back to the car.

The drive home was very long, because some roads were closed due to the weather. The rain kept getting heavier and the wind got up, so on the expressway we could barely see the lane lines. We found out later when we got back that it was a typhoon which had changed course unexpectedly and hit the east coast of Japan. We thought it was bad enough to drive home in it, but we found out that our friends Kate and Adam had decided to go away on their scooter, with her perched on the back. They had a five hour drive home on a scooter in a typhoon. They said other people were laughing at them because they looked so ridiculous and were obviously mad foreigners, but they couldn't join in because their faces were numb.

The day after a typhoon here is always so calm and sunny, perfect days after the worst you get. Sunday was like that, and everyone just relaxed and unwound ready for school again on Monday.

Tozanso

Recently we got a new TV. In Japan, you have to pay to get rid of some electrical appliances, so parents often donate things if they are moving away (which happens a lot as their businesses move them around). One family is going to Hong Kong, which has a PAL system as they were under UK control. Japan uses NTSC so they were giving away their huge, lovely TV. We managed to get that, and we went to collect it and lots of other bits and pieces of furniture and appliances that other people were taking. I never fail to be amazed when I see the places some of the international business families live. They are just beautiful, and huge. So much for everything in Japan being small!

Another family wanted to get rid of a large, top of the range telescope that they had. They offered it directly to the school to see if it could be of any use. The we knew about it was an email that went out to the science department and the head of values, offering the telescope. Nobody could understand why the values department had been included, not least Adam, the HOD. It came out later that when the message came in there was a teacher called Larry in the room, who is very dry and very witty. The Japanese office staff often have no idea when he is being serious. They asked him who he thought they should offer the telescope to. He said the Science department. They said great, anyone else? He said maybe the values department, who teach RE, because they might want to look to the heavens and try to find God.

This week has been excursion week for the Middle and High schools. Each grade goes to a different location in Japan for 3 days, from Fuji to Hiroshima and all over the place. This year I went to Tozanso, in the foothills of Mt Fuji. It is only about an hour and a half from Tokyo, which is good as most of my grade group are only 10 years old. We went to Showa-Kinen park, a really gorgeous, huge park with loads of physical stuff for the kids to tire themselves out on. This grade last year were a bit of a nightmare, but this lot were fantastic, so well-behaved and interested in everything, really nice kids. The next place we went was a cave, where they were asking me lots of geology questions and getting spooked out in the dark. There was a tiny little Shinto shrine in the depths of the cave, because Shinto worships nature.

We stayed at a YMCA, and had a campfire with lots of singing and smores (marshmallows toasted on the fire then squished between two chocolate digestives - the sickliest thing I have ever eaten), and then went for offuro - traditional Japanese bath. I love offuro and Onsen (the natural hot spring version). You wash and shower to get clean, and then soak in this huge hot bath, relax and chat. It is a really soothing experience, and great for getting warm on cold days or after skiing etc. When we told the kids lights out, they did it. We didn't have to knock on doors or police them at all, very different from last year - so relaxing!

The next morning the sun was out and the weather was clear first thing, and we had the most fantastic view of Fuji from the site. It clouded over a little before I got my camera, but I think it is still a great sight. Last year I was even closer in Yamanakoko, and didn't see a thing. We went for a hike with the girls to a Buddhist temple about 2 miles away. There were different parts to the temple complex.

The first was a small garden halfway up the hill, which had an entrance way with huge statues of the gos of wind and thunder, complete with massive models of traditional Japanese sandals for them to wear when they make storms. That part was a temple dedicated to healthy feet, and people go there to pray for friends and relatives with feet or leg problems, or take their children's shoes to be blessed. Next we walked up the rest of the way to the main temple at the top, which is very important to Buddhists, as it contains relics of Buddha. It has been dedicated for World Peace. We weren't feeling very peaceful though, because all the way up the hill were Chinese and Korean tourists, who were photographing and videoing our group. They seemed really excited to see western children, and they weren't even trying to be sneaky about it, just walking up and pointing cameras at us all as we walked, or as we stood in a group; all the time. The kids were starting to get a bit freaked out, particularly by one man with a video camera. Eventually one of the other teachers had to go up and tell him to stop, because he just wasn't taking the hint. I felt sorry for his wife - she looked very embarrassed, but she didn't seem to be trying to stop him.

We took a different path down the mountain, down some very steep concrete steps through a garden walk. When I say we, I actually mean the rest of the group. I stepped on a half step edge (taking a photo so not looking where I was going, but still hadn't noticed the big concrete lumps before when I was looking!), lost my footing and went down most of the first flight in mid-air. I could feel myself slipping, and could see there was nothing to hang on to, so I just relaxed and let myself go. I know from experience it hurts a lot less if you are not tense. Still, I did not expect to actually flip over and fall so far. As I fell my legs came over the top of me and slammed into a step below. I landed flat on my back, fortunately with my bag under my head, or it could have been a lot nastier. I took a lot of skin off both wrists, elbows, one knee and had a big dent just above an ankle which immediately went purple. My main concern as I fell was that I would take some of the kids out who were below me, but I stopped just at the legs of the first one (good job I had stopped to take a photo and fallen a bit behind). I can't say for sure whether I was more concerned that they would be hurt, or that it would hurt me even more if they landed on top of me. Probably both. The others said later I was funny when I landed, because the first thing I did was pull down my top to cover my stomach up, then I asked the girl next to me if she was alright, then I flopped again and said "I'll just stay here for a few minutes". I realised when I tried to get up that I could put very little weight on my ankle, and not bend it up towards me at all. I was fine on steps and flat, but slopes were a problem, which was unfortunate as we were on a mountain, and a good 40 minutes walk from the cabins. I hobbled back, and some of the kids were still going slower than me! This is the photo I took the instant before I fell.

We had lunch, but I had gone pale and felt sick, and my foot was swelling, so I was sent back to my cabin with ice and pillows and told to elevate it and rest. I was supposed to be leading an afternoon activity, but there was no way I could run around with the kids. They did a scavenger hunt in my time slot instead. The best part was just as we got back for lunch from the hike, I had a text from Will saying that Sister Egawa had asked if we were ok, and he had said we were all great, no emergencies, no dramas. He tempted fate, so I blame Will.

In the end I went to the hospital with Priya, nothing was broken but it was nasty - I was on crutches for a day or two and I am still seeing the physio and have painful lumps in odd places. I am supposed to rest it but there is so much to do!

The rest of the trip passed pretty much without incident. I couldn't walk around very well and the activity for the last day was a visit to a park of preserved Japanese houses of all different kinds - a bit like the Black Country Museum but Japanese. I sat on a bench by the entrance for three hours. I got a lot of knitting done, many sudoku puzzles and made a good start on a new book, so it wasn't a total loss! This was the only house I could see from where I sat. After that we drove home, and I had to hobble past all the kids from the other grades all asking me what I had done. They were all very sweet, helping with my bags and things. I couldn't help wondering how many of the kids at my last school would have done that and how many would have just pointed and laughed!

Typhoon

It has just taken me almost an hour to sign in to this blog. Not only did I still find it all in Japanese, but I couldn't figure out my password. I tried every combination of user name and password I ever use, but no good. Eventually I had to reset it to what I thought it should be, which still takes a long time when the instructions are in kana. I can only think it must have been inactive for too long and it did something strange. Never mind I am in now.

I have got some time to update today because there is a typhoon and we are off school. We had an emergency dismissal yesterday and then a phone call at 5.20am to say it was too dangerous to travel for most people, so stay indoors. It was forecast, so we knew it was on the way, but apparently the storm changed direction slightly and came straight for us instead of to the west as they said it would. The wind was howling all night, but at 5am the cicadas were still chirping, which I found very spooky. I think it says a lot about the Japanese culture that here in Tokyo all the hotels got booked out so that people would be able to work today. Anywhere else in the world they would just try to get home and then if they couldn't get to work, so be it. Salarymen in Japan are a breed unknown!

I feel almost as though we have never been away, school is back to normal (except my knitting class is now 9-11 year-olds, so harder to keep track of - I have 2 girls who manage to either pull the whole thing off the needles every lesson or get in such a tangle we have to cut it off and start again), the new teachers are good fun, and everything is as we left it. We have invested in some slightly more efficient cockroach defences (ie little boxes pushed into every corner and under every shelf) since one crawled up Will's leg at 3am a couple of weeks ago. So far they seem to be working (touch wood) although we are still getting mosquito bitten quite a lot. My legs look so attractive with angry red splotches all the way up.

We have booked our flights to Australia for Christmas. We are flying to Cairns on the 15th of December and spending a few days in the tropics, then down to Melbourne for 4 days. The rest of the time we are going to stay in A friend's beach house in Geelong, about an hour outside of Melbourne. She is getting married in the middle of it all so there will be lots of people around that we know and I imagine we will be shown around all the sights until we are sick of them by all the Melbourne folks (the UK/Aussie rivalry at school hit a new high with the athletics in Osaka, and can only keep going with the Rugby about to start, so we will probably be dragged around to see how good at sport they are). We are also going to a test match on boxing day, but at least its not against England!

We have finally got new phones (Will's screen cracked and we wanted to change networks too) and these ones are able to send and receive text messages from the UK, Yay! Apparently it doesn't work with O2 phones for some reason, but everyone else can do it. I am still figuring out how some things work, like why I seem to have 2 answerphones so I can never tell if I have a new message cos I happen to check the wrong one (!) and other minor annoyances, but they are much smaller than the bricks we had last year and they give us loads of free calls because most of our friends changed to the same network, so it will be a lot cheaper overall too.

We decided our apartment looked a bit bare, like anyone could be living here, and that we didn't have enough storage space for all the bits and pieces we brought back with us, so we made a trip to Ikea when we got back. We had never driven there before, and we managed to take the wrong exit from the expressway. We could see it in the distance but we couldn't figure out how to get there! Eventually we found it, and bought lots of shelves and lamps and drawers and now it looks a lot more like a home here, we are really pleased. We even managed to spend less than we thought, which has to be a first on a visit to Ikea! I have bought some really nice fabric too, (since another teacher who moved to Hong Kong left me a sewing machine) and I am going to try to make some curtains for the living room. I will put photos of all this on, but I have put my camera away (somewhere safe no doubt) in all the new space and can't find it. Typical.

I managed to get my viola back to japan this year (after much confusion with BA) so I have been helping out with the orchestra at school. I am actually not playing the viola just yet, because the conductor got excited to have a piccolo player and chose pieces that need one, but it is nice to have the choice and be able to just play when I feel like it. I am also doing the sectionals for the wind section, which should be fun. They are awful, bless them, but it will be a challenge at least.

Although it is still very windy, the sun has come out now and the rain has stopped, so typhoon Fitow has passed us. But it is still only lunch time, and we have the rest of the day off, so I am going to go and do the ironing and other things I don't usually get around to. I might even start on my curtains!

The End of Term

In the UK, the end of term was a dragged out process which was pleasant but felt like a big waste of time. All the exams are over, but you still have to teach lessons to kids who just want to go out and play. It goes on for weeks and everyone, teachers included, lose the will to live. Or at least to do very much of anything.

Here at ISSH, the end of the year has crept up on me. I have suddenly realised I have only got four teaching days left, subjects still to deal with, exams and reports to write, assignments to mark, and then as soon as the exams are over it's the summer! I can't believe how fast it has all come around. I am sooo busy, but there is only 2 weeks left and then we have 10 weeks off! I love it!

With school getting to the mayhem stage, the weekends are well needed. The weather has turned beautiful in the last few weeks, warm and sunny, and things are just as busy then as any other time. International schools have very transient populations, and that goes for the staff as much as the kids. With people leaving there are parties all the time to say goodbye (Will is out at a darts night tonight to send off my head of department -no girls allowed: they are just scared we'll beat them). Every weekend has something, right up until the last do at school, the end of year BBQ. We have TGIF parties about once a month on different themes, but this one is put on by the management as a thank you for the year. The band will be playing again, we sound hopeless at the moment but I am keeping my fingers crossed a miracle might happen.

At the weekend we went to a BBQ at the Australian embassy. It was held in the garden under marquees, and there was so much amazing food and drink. Then we watched the FA cup final in the pub and got knocked around by over-excited Chelsea fans. It ended at 2am here - we were knackered.

Tomorrow is the Faculty Appreciation Lunch. I can't get enough of this idea that people appreciate the work teachers do, I feel quite embarrassed. I am sure I don't do any more than I have always done! The parents bring in drinks and food dishes from their native countries and the staff eat them all. All to say 'thank you for teaching our children'. I am glad I am not a primary teacher for this one, because apparently all the parents of your class really want you to try their dish, and you end up with a huge plate of a really weird mix of food because everyone is too polite to refuse. The middle/high school staff get to relax a bit more.

The sports teams have finished their seasons, which means the field is free again and it is light enough and (more than) warm enough to play outside again. I need to get my tan started so I'm not a lobster in Greece! I think I am the palest person in Tokyo.

Hanami and Kimono

A lot of the photos are sideways on here again, sorry. I will show everyone when I am back properly.

Vikki went home :( but we had a really good week together. We did lots of things, and although the weather was horrible at first it turned really nice later in the week. On Thursday we shopped in Hibiya (I got my new camera yay!) and went to omotesando to try and shop there. Unfortunately the Oriental Bazaar shop we wanted is closed on Thursdays. That is the second time I have done that, you'd think I would remember! So we had a Starbucks (we did try a Japanese cafe but I could only read a few menu items and we got stared at) and went home. We were meeting the others that evening to go to see the Arctic Monkeys play in Odaiba. We had been given a route to get there by Priya but our friends had looked up another route and wanted to try it out - so we raced. They won by miles. It turned out Priya had gone that way too, she just told us the other one because it was easier (which it wasn't). We saw the venue from across the way so we thought it would be quicker to walk. We forgot there was a main road in the middle that we couldn't cross so that added even more time to our journey! Still when we got there the concert was great, and then everyone came back to ours and we all had pizza.

On Friday we decided to go for a Hanami (flower viewing) picnic. We went to the supermarket and got smoked salmon, strawberries, crusty bread and cheese and scootered up to Shinjuku Gyoen. It was just beautiful, cherry trees all around in blossom, lovely grass to sit on (a bit damp but the sun was out and it was lovely and warm) and then a stroll around the lake when we were done. We took some photos which I will put on soon (I am naughtily updating during a cover lesson - photos would make it a bit obvious).

The next week at school was 4 days as it was Easter. It felt really odd not having the Monday off too! It is like Christmas, not a holiday at all here but the school at least had good Friday.

There was only a week in between Vikki leaving and Cathy arriving, but she was here to do other things too so we didn't see her for a while. When she did come we took her to Doma Doma (as usual!) and then the next day was Japan day at school. I can't think of a better day for anyone to come in than that. It was my first one and a real experience! All the students and staff wear Japanese clothes or flag colours (we put Cathy in Will's yukata as he was off sick that day) and there are no lessons. Instead, there are mini-courses run by teachers and parents and even some students. There was Japanese taiko drumming, comedy, cooking, pottery, washi egg making, tea ceremony...the list goes on. It is a brilliant day. We went to the calligraphy class first of all, which was so much fun. We were shown how to hold the 'fude' brush properly and taught a few kanji to start off with, then we could practice different ones all we liked. We mounted our best ones. Mine was the kanji for 'Japan' (red). I also learned Hana (green), which means flower and is the name of a friends daughter.

Our second course was kimono wearing. It was good to learn but I have become more aware that traditional costumes flatter the body type of the race that wears them. Japanese women don't have curves. Still it was fun to try and get into the things, really detailed and a long process. I couldn't imagine wearing one all day every day! Our last course was sudoku, a chance to switch off and chat for a while. In the afternoon a professional Taiko drumming group came in to play for the kids. I have never seen so much energy in one place (or so much hair!). it was an incredible day.

Just to round off making Cathy utterly jealous of our school (they don't have an equivalent day in Paris apparently) we had the last TGIF party of the year. Loads of Japanese food, chu-hai drinks and sake, and Cathy got to meet loads of people.

The second week of her visit, we had bought tickets to see Snow Patrol play in Ebisu. They cancelled! We are still disappointed about it, I was sooo looking forward to seeing them. So Cathy went away and came back for the last 2 days of her trip. And the Team Symbas pub crawl.

The PE department at school decided they wanted to raise money and challenge themselves. SO they are doing a 100km trek through bamboo forests over 7 mountains in 48 hours. We all think they are crazy, but we are all fundraising as hard as possible! One of the events was the pub crawl. Apart from the general money from people joining the group, one of Team Symbas (symbas is the name of the sports teams at school) made a model of a man with a huge polystyrene head for people to donate into (they christened him Phil). We took turns carrying Phil around, and when they cracked his head open the next day (the junior school kids were devastated) there was Y108,000 in there. So far they are up to about Y650,000 with a target of Y1,000,000 and 2 weeks to go.

Yesterday was the orientation for the grade 4's coming into middle school next year. It was really strange, because in the UK we were trying to get the kids to come to the school so they had a full lesson and did lots. Here it is fairly certain they will carry on so they have 19 minutes of just a taster lesson of the four main subjects. not long but it took forever to set up! I was taken for cover in my first free, and the lessons were in my other frees so I lost all my time, plus I had to get my solutions and set up for 4 mini-lessons in a row. I appreciated the technicians at home loads anyway, but never as much as yesterday . The head of science is changing next year, and the new one says his prime objective is to get a full-time technician. It will be hard to convince the school but I think the lessons suffer for not having one.

In the staff room there is a calendar whiteboard with all the stuff going on in the next few weeks. It gets updated every 3 weeks or so, and this time we actually fit the end of term on the board. I can't believe we have almost finished the year already! The seniors left today, and there is only 3 weeks left until the rest of the exam classes go. Our flights are booked to come home, the weather has suddenly got really warm and everything feels like it's settling down for a holiday. Well, it will next week. This week actually is a national holiday so the whole place has gone crazy. We had 2 days off, when Will and 6 of the blokes from school went on a boys only scooter trip down to Enoshima island. It turned out to be quite eventful. One of the scooters was sabotaged before they even started. When a replacement was found, it developed a flat tyre within 10 minutes. Because it was golden week there were very few fixing options. eventually they got it sorted, but my quiet 2 days alone were interrupted by 4 phone calls in the first 2 hours as they tried to work out what to do.

The 'scooter widows' had a girly night in. Lovely.

Tonight was the spring show. There was the usual stuff... choir, orchestra, more choir. Then there was the fashion show. One of the options classes along with knitting is needlework, and in that class the kids make clothes. Then they have a fashion show at the end. Definitely has to be seen to be believed. They strutted around to Eric Prids (on a loop) and did little routines. I only wish I had taken my camera. Still, it is a really nice idea for them to show what they have worked on. They were all really proud. Every time I think I must have seen it all, this school has something even more cheesy to surprise me. At least it's never dull!

Bingo!

In the school year at ISSH there are two days outside of the usual teaching events that the faculty must attend. One of these is family festival which I wrote about in November. The other just happened a couple of weeks ago and it is Bingo. I have never seen bingo quite like it before.

All staff must sign up for a work session, and for the rest of the night (it runs from 5-9pm) we have to be around just in case we are needed (apparently they had a big earthquake once right in the middle and over a thousand people had to climb under the tables). My session was checking the tickets of the winners from 8-9pm, the last shift of the night so people were really desperate to win because that was when all the big prizes went, like a holiday, digital camera and other good stuff donated by parents and their companies. The games before had all used a single line to win, but for the big one they had to get a square shape. We had sooo many calls from people not paying attention, who then got stroppy because they thought they had won. For most of them there hadn't even been enough numbers called for a win to be possible! One woman came up with a line, then came up with a square but had missed one number so we sent her away. She came back a couple of minutes later because she couldn't see the number she had missed, so we explained again but she refused to move and stood in front of us checking loudly while the game carried on. Eventually she went away, only for that one missing number to be called next. When she came back, she had tied with someone else and had to draw cards to see if she won. She didn't win. I know it is mean but I was quite pleased because she had been rude and obnoxious and she was a parent so didn't really need to win, whereas the actual winner was a teachers husband so we were pleased. Bingo just seems to bring out the worst in people here. All night there were shouts of "No Bingo, No Bingo" whenever someone called and cheers if it was rejected. Anyway, it took so long that my hour long shift ended at 9.30pm after being shouted at by parents. I went straight to the pub.

Since then I have still been getting sorted for the junior school musical, Jack and the Beanstalk. It was based on the revolting rhyme version and was so funny, the kids were great. I was supposed to play piano, but because I broke a finger playing basketball I ws going to play the clarinet part one handed on a keyboard. We realised when we went to rehearse though, that it would still need to be transposed to fit the piano and violin parts, so I transposed the whole thing and went in on a weekend to enter it into a program so I could print it. It took a while but it was worth it, we had a mini orchestra and the music teacher was chuffed. Everyone said it sounded great too, so I was pleased. I was given some beautiful flowers for playing, and another set from the parents. Its nice to be appreciated!

In school at the moment we have decided to do a cross-curricular project for the 10 year olds. They are studying Egypt in social studies so we are mummifying a chicken in science. Apart from that I have realised that we have a lot of days off for various things coming up, so much so that I think I only have about 5 full teaching weeks left, and for 2 of those I only have 2 classes as the rest of the school go off timetable for exams. I have to get a move on! Still it feels like we are winding down already which is strange - it's only march!

Japan day is coming up at school. It is a day when everyone learns about the culture and history of Japan, and we all do mini courses in things like Taiko drumming, Kimono wearing, board games, Japanese pottery etc etc. I am looking forward to it, although I have no idea what I am doing yet. The teachers get spread out to supervise so I could be anywhere, although I did get my preference form in early so I hope that helps.

It is my friend Tony's 40th birthday today. We went out to celebrate on a boat in Tokyo harbour with lots of food (nabe and tempura and sashimi) and karaoke it was a freezing night but the boat went all the way out into the bay and under the rainbow bridge. it was so pretty and really worth doing for a special occasion.

Vikki is visiting at the moment - Happy Birthday Vikki!
It was raining and foggy when we picked her up from the airport, not a very nice welcome. We took some flowers for her, but to collect the van I had taken them in my backpack on my scooter in the rain so they were a little bedraggled! Still they looked fine when we got them in a vase. She arrived on my birthday so we just relaxed in the day, wandered around Hiroo and had lunch in the stand up bar, had a nap in the afternoon and then went out to the Icebar Tokyo at night. It was great! The entire place is made of ice, the bar, tables, sofas, sculptures, even the glasses. We all dressed up in silver capes and thick gloves and lasted about 40 minutes and 2 drinks before we got too cold. It was really fun though, I would go again. Although Megan panicked when I started eating my glass - she has a phobia about breaking teeth.

On Monday we went to try sushi (not a hit so we gave the fish market a miss) and walked around Yoyogi park and the Meiji shrine. We went to starbucks above shibuya crossing and then to Roppongi for steak and ribs at Outback. On Tuesday we lay in for a while and then rode scooters out to Shimbashi and got the monorail over to Odaiba. Odaiba is a strange place - an island of reclaimed land with a fake beach facing the city and a shopping centre made to look like an English promenade. There is a mini statue of liberty at one point. It was very grey so we didn't stay too long, but the rainbow bridge was still visible. Today we got the train out to Kawagoe, an old fashioned little town known as Koedo (little Tokyo) full of temples and museums and the remains of Edo castle. It was a beautiful day, really sunny and warm, and we went out with a group of friends and walked and walked and walked. Unfortunately, the Emperor and the Swedish Royal family were there too today. We saw them go past in their cars, and everything we wanted to see was blocked off for them. Even the monthly antiques market was just closing so that the way would be clear. We did manage to see Candy Cane Lane, a tiny street of traditional Japanese sweet shops, and had a nice ice-cream. Kawagoe is famous for its sweet potatoes but we drew the line there and had vanilla (they really did have sweet potato flavour ice-cream). We had Yakisoba in the car park of a shrine and came home. Tonight we are going out for Izakaya food and Karaoke for Vik's birthday.

My camera screen got broken while we were out a couple of weeks ago. I took it to be repaired but I was told it would be around £75. It is not that much more for a new one here, so since it is 2 years old I am going to treat myself with my birthday money. Thank you to everyone who gave me some!

Holidays

I am so jealous that all my old friends had half term. I don't think I felt it as much this term, in fact the first half seemed to fly since Christmas, but I was still jealous. We did have a 4 day weekend which was nice though, and a big group of us went skiing to Hokkaido (the northern island).

We looked in the English magazine metropolis at the classifieds and saw an ad for 2 pairs of skis for Y2000 a pair (about £10), so we trekked over and looked at them, and ended up carrying home 3 pairs, one of which our friend Megan took. Will's are 195cm long - The Ferrari of skis, as Adam put it. He really did fly down those slopes! Mine are 170, but there was a problem with the bindings and the resort didn't want the liability of fixing it (I suppose in case I got injured and sued them) although that was handy for them because then I had to pay and hire some. Still, I had poles and boots and all the rest so it wasn't too expensive.

There were supposed to be 18 of us going, but one dropped out with too much work and one had a chest infection, so that left 16. We got up at 4.30am (and called one of our friends who couldn't be on time if her life depended on it) and staggered into a taxi to Shinagawa station, then onto a train for Haneda airport (much closer than Narita, used for domestic flights). Our flight was fine and we landed in Sapporo on a snowy runway with a ground temp of -2C. Then there was a 2 hour bus journey, but by then it was mid-morning and we were tired but excited, so we all enjoyed getting there. We were staying at Rusutsu - a resort where everything is owned by the hotel. That meant that 3 days of lift passes were included in the price which was great - I had been thinking it would be really expensive! Will and I shared a room with another couple, Mark and Megan, who we skied with at Christmas.

On the first afternoon some of the others went straight up to ski but I we decided to save our lift passes for full days and explore instead. Unfortunately, I fell asleep so Will explored with Megan instead and went Ski-dooing (snow-mobile - like a jet ski for winter). He had a brilliant time. In the evening the 16 of us went for an Izakaya meal, made a lot of toasts and had a lot of fun.

In the morning we went for breakfast (Japanese take on western food - not very appetizing. I gave up and had Japanese for the rest of the time). Then we went straight out. It was raining. Not snowing, really bucketing down. Will and Megan tried out their new skis on the green runs while Mark and I went to the top to meet up with them, and when we got off the lift we were in cloud and couldn't see more than a few feet. I also had my boots done up too tight and my feet went completely numb, so the first run was awful. I went inside for a while to recover and then we headed over to the second of the three mountains on the gondola. We did a few more runs then realised that while our jackets are snow-proof, they are not drench-proof and we were wet. We gave up for the day, went for lunch and then just had a swim and Onsen in the afternoon. There were 2 families from school there and I ended up next to a father in the hot tub - not an comfortable experience but not as bad as for Adam who ended up naked next to him in the Onsen!

That night it snowed lots, so we had a nice Italian meal, relaxed and had an early night. In the morning the slopes were lovely, although it was sunny so a little icy on the popular parts. We took this as a cue to go over to the third mountain, mount Isola. It was mostly red runs there so Will was nervous, but the snow was much better. We skied across and met up with a group at the bottom, and then went all the way to the very top in the gondola. The bad thing about mount isola is that it is far away from the rooms and you have to go to the top and ski across to get back to the other side. Megan was feeling really ill so they went straight off to go back to the hotel. We decided to head that way too, but somewhere along the way missed the turn and ended up back at the bottom, which took ages as Will was not confident on steep parts in his super-long skis. We had to get the gondola all the way back up and then try again. The second time we made it, which was just in time for the afternoon activities...

I had agreed to try dog-sledding with Mary. I am still not sure what possessed me to do this, although I have to say it is fun to have done it once. You have to stand on two thin rails behind this rickety sled and hang on and lean around while 2 dogs pull you over the ice as fast as they can (to get to the soup at the end). We had a ride around the track on a ski-doo to see the turns, a couple of minutes instruction, and then we were off. I went first, and I did all the parts where they told us 'foreigners usually fall off here' (Mary is Canadian - I don't know where they think dog-sledding comes from). Then I got to the end and saw the signal to brake. To brake, you have to take a foot off the rail and press down on a wooden pedal that you can't see from standing position. I took my foot off but I missed the pedal and stepped down on the snow. I realised straight away and picked it up for another go, but felt my balance going and made a split second decision that I would be better jumping than falling. On this, I did a kind of swallow dive effect and landed flat on my chest on the ice at high speed (the instructors only words about falling had been 'fall safely' - great). I hit my head on the floor but luckily my padded goggles took the brunt, but I was completely winded. I could see people asking if I was ok but I couldn't get the breath to answer properly so I just lay there for a while until I got some feeling back. That is why it was fun to have done once. My dog-sledding days are over! Saying that, and considering Mary is Canadian, she fell off before they had even got started. The dogs had to run around the track for her to get back on and try again. Then she pressed hard on the brake and fell off at the same point as me, so overall I probably didn't do too badly.

Back at the hotel, Megan was getting steadily worse, coughing and feverish. We decided to try to get an extra room so she could rest better, but when we explained the situation the receptionist just gave us medicine for her. Our Japanese friend Kumi came back with us and managed to get us a room for a fraction of the price which we split with Mark. We went out to a Korean barbecue restaurant - all you can eat lamb, beef, chicken and piles of veggies, plus drinks. It was great. I got horribly drunk and felt really ill, so I was very glad of having our own room too!

The next day we were leaving but not until late afternoon, so we checked out and then went back up the mountain. Will and I skied alone that day. We found one perfect run that suited both of us fine, and just kept going round and round. It was great, we both improved loads and were swishing around all over the place by the end. We decided to quit while we were ahead, so we stopped at 2pm and went ski-dooing with Mary and Mark. We took the forest trail, a half hour session with an instructor through the trees and fields, it was fantastic. Mary managed to fall off the ski-doo too - that girl has no balance! It was great though, I would definitely do that again.

The journey home was more of a chore. We were all tired and just wanted to get there. The plane was stupidly hot, Megan was still fluey and everyone else was coming down with it, we had turbulence and cross-winds landing so it just took forever. Then at the other end there were 2 flights coming out onto 1 baggage carousel and ours was last so we just had to stand around. When we eventually got on the train we all just sat there in silence! We eventually got home at 11.20pm.

The next day was a training day at school - good as no children but for me, actually more work than the standard Monday. I sat through the most boring, patronizing morning of my life, then went home coughing and slept all afternoon. This helped - I didn't get the fever with the cough and have been back at school all week. Will wasn't so lucky, he had a fever and was off for 2 days. I am not surprised, we shared a room with Megan for 2 days as she was getting ill, and lots of the others had it too.

This weekend i have a training day saturday so I only have one day to rest. I can't wait for the spring break. Vikki is coming and I am going to lie in and relax as well as taking her out to see things. I am not complaining, I have had a great week, but I am very tired - you can see why I am jealous of the half-termers!

Photos yay!

Will and I have got a nasty cold and throat thingy. We are feeling sorry for ourselves. I went into school yesterday morning but came straight home again. There is a lot going around so I am not surprised, just annoyed because I was doing so well with no days off so far. People have been saying since we got here "the first cold you get will really knock you about because you are in a new country", and I was starting to feel quite smug that it hadn't. Never mind, as long as we are better for the skiing trip in 8 days time I will be happy.

This weekend was very busy for us. It was one of our friends birthdays, and he had a joint party with his 3 year old daughter. It sounds naff but it was really good fun, with all the adults playing with the kids in between eating too much fantastic food and going outside on the balcony to relax. We were there from about 1.30 and it went on very late, but another friend had arranged a treat for us so we left at 7.

I had been disappointed with the Indian food I have tried in Tokyo, it was slimy and all tasted the same and I said so to one of my friends who is Indian. It turned out that her parents used to own a restaurant in Tokyo, and her mom cooked a sort of mini banquet for us of different Indian foods. It was great! We had 4 different main dishes, with rice and potatoes and salad on the side, and she kept badgering us to go for more. Adam went up 5 times, and still had room for desert! Priya had made desert herself, and it was mango and coconut cheesecake. I was so full after I thought I would have to roll home. We laughed constantly too so I thought I would pop at any moment. It was a brilliant evening, and Mrs Mehta even told me a couple of good restaurants to try so I have new hopes for finding good Indian food now.

We did very little on Sunday, which was a welcome rest, and the swelling on my finger has gone down enough for me to play the piano now with only twinges, so I have to start practising for the junior school production. They are doing Jack and the Beanstalk.

Since I am doing this update at home (therefore all the fiddling around with the language happened again - grrr) I have added some photos from a couple of the things we have been doing.

The 2 above are of us just about to get on the shinkansen to go skiing at Christmas, and Will blending in nicely when we got there. Below is me and Mary at Karaoke (bearable in Tokyo, very different to anywhere else) and Ben and Priya on One world day ( since we don't have a national costume as such, most of the Brits just wore football shirts. Ben had the entire outfit!) I don't know why it is sideways, I can't figure out how to change it so you'll just have to tilt your heads. One day this site will work flawlessly for me and I really won't know what to do with all that time I have leftover...