Excursions

I have been reprimanded for not updating for a while. Sorry. We have been busy as usual here although it has been an unusual few weeks. It was excursion time at school from the 4th October. This is a compulsory trip that all students go on for three days each year. Each year group goes to a different place and it is really nice for everyone to get to know each other and be out of the city for a few days. Every full-time teacher has to go on an excursion with one of their classes.

I went on the Grade 6 excursion (the same as Year 7 in the UK, age 10-12) to Yamanaka-ko, a lake at the foot of Mt. Fuji. There were 38 kids and 5 staff. It was a lovely green place, surrounded by mountains, and we stayed in the YMCA on the shores of the lake. Unfortunately, about 2 hours after we arrived it started to rain and it didn't stop for the entire time we were there. I am assured Mt. Fuji was right outside my window but I didn't see it at all over the 3 days. Even so, the rain didn't stop us doing all the activities we had planned, including a half day hike up the next highest mountain in the range (about 4000 ft). About 1/3 of the way up we went into the cloud and from that point on saw nothing, not even the other end of our group. Again, I am promised that the view was worth the climb but I didn't actually see it. I am beginning to think Fuji is just a big con that they draw on postcards but doesn't exist. The 3 days were tiring but good fun really, I only hope we have better weather if I go anywhere else.

We have finally had our new bed and sofa, which took some doing with the Japanese delivery men, especially with some things missing. I had to ring a Japanese friend (actually Korean but she speaks Japanese) to translate the message that they were going to go back for the things. I was quite impressed that we managed to agree the items and sort out the delivery times without help though. The new stuff has made the apartment look so much better, I feel more at home here now. It was very bare before and I felt like I was living in a hotel room. There are still a few things we want but we have no money left after the Ikea day. They will have to wait.

One of the teachers at school is running a short course of Japanese lessons for the new teachers. We have been to 2 so far, and covered quite a few basic things. We learned a lot of it before we came but she is able to explain why things are done certain ways, and she has been teaching us how to bow and personal things like our names and addresses which is great. I am trying to practice my writing - I am far far behind Will. He keeps reading odd things like manhole covers and getting all excited, but it really is useful for him to be able to work some things out. I am looking forward to being able to read menus the most, it is scary not knowing what is coming to eat!

At the weekend we went to a fair at another international school just up the road - Nishimachi. Each international school has a fair in the autumn where parents and other interested people run stalls of food and drink from their home countries. I managed to get a proper bacon sandwich!! I was soooo pleased. It was from the Irish stall (there was no British stall there) so I asked the man where he managed to get the bacon from, but he said they had it flown in specially from Dublin a few days before. I couldn't believe it. The bacon here is useless. That is probably the thing I miss the most at the moment, although robinsons orange squash and bisto gravy are close runners up. Our school is holding the fair (or Family Festival) on November 11th, so maybe I'll be able to get another one then. The photo is Will and Ben at the Canadian Stall.


We had a bank holiday last monday so we decided to go to Odaiba for the afternoon. This is a part of the city that someone decided should be like old fashioned blackpool. so it has a fake beach (which faces the city skyline just to complete the illusion), wooden promenade and little stalls selling ice-cream etc. Except that it is Tokyo, so you also have designer shops, no cash points and people screaming at the top of their lungs in the hope that you will come to buy something from them (this is a feature of most shops and department stores here - never mind that by coming any closer to them you may well be deafened). Still, it was a lovely day and the monorail ride around the bay to get there was worth the trip. This is some of the views and me at the station in Shinbashi (on the way home).

The workers on the plot next door have finally finished, yay! They have been demolishing a building for over a month (due to end on 30th september but didn't) and it has been such a pain. There was a massive digger and it kept making our whole house shake as though we were having an earthquake, only on and off all day. And they started at 7.30 on saturdays. When I say finished, I mean the plot is now flat and there is no digger anymore, but this is Tokyo so I expect someone will come along and start building on it soon. We are just hoping we have a few saturdays worth of lie-ins first. Building projects here are notoriously long and all a bit dodgy. We saw a man perched on the arm of the digger being waved around to weld some bits outside our kitchen window. No helmet, no goggles, gloves etc. They are crazy people.

We had our biggest earthquake so far on saturday morning in the early hours. It actually woke me up, which was a bit disorienting. I opened my eyes and had to concentrate to figure out why the bed was going side to side. It was a 5.3 which officially is "moderate" but it was long and big for us. Will slept through the whole thing.

Thats all til we get paid. We can't do a lot til then!