Red Hot Chili Peppers......

19th March, 2007

Everyone was excited to be going to the Chili’s. We left work early with our already packed bags and met at the station to make a mad dash to get to Osaka so that we could make it to the concert on time. We quickly dropped our bags at our hotel room, got changed into our concert clothes, raced around to find somewhere to grab a quick bite to eat and headed to the Osaka Dome. We were there in good time! The 8 of us walked up to Osaka Dome but as we were doing so we got a funny feeling. People weren’t bustling around as they do when there is a concert and in fact we couldn’t even here any music playing – it was all very quiet for a place that should have been buzzing! When we finally got to the front we noticed a sign saying that the concert had been postponed. The lead singer was sick and couldn’t fly. None of us had any idea that this had happened. We obviously don’t watch TV or listen to the radio and even if we did we wouldn’t have understood anything.
We all left feeling very disappointed, so to cheer ourselves up we all went out for coffee and cake. The good thing was that even though it was a Monday night Osaka is a happening place so there is always something to do there.
So sorry everyone but you will have to wait until a later date for me to report on the Chili’s……..at least we have a good story to tell!

Huh? Episode 3

After some more searching this is what I have found to add to the 'Huh?' collection.........





What would you like? Coffee, whisky or morning?



What's going on here.....Tina and beer?



Since when do monkey's ride bikes?

I hope you enjoyed these crazy sightings. Stay tuned for the next episode of 'Huh?'...........

A Day at Sumo

18th March, 2007

I can now say that I have experienced a Sumo match – well several actually. It was a whole day filled with fun, excitement and lots of ‘oooohhhh’s, aaaaaahhhhhh’s and oooowwwwwww’s’. I had a terrific day. We arrived in Osaka at around 8:30am and were in the stadium until 6:00pm.

The beginning matches were amateur league. The professionals didn’t start until later in the day but we figured that we may as well watch as many matches as we could considering this may be the only time we ever get to go to Sumo. Everything from the judges, to the players’ outfits, to the actual ring, to the size of the Sumos was amazing to see. And YES they are as big as what they seem on tv. The professionals especially were amazing to watch. Some of them seemed to be really psyched up. The crowd were rowdy at times but in general were fairly quiet.

I saw many bouts (wrestles) throughout the day and I think I now have the ritual / ceremony of sumo all figured out! Once the Sumos enter the Dohyo (the ring) they have to go through a series of symbolic movements. The first one is to rinse their mouth out with water. This is to cleanse their mind. They then raise their arms and stamp their feet. Next comes the scattering of the salt to purify the ring. It is also supposed to prevent them from injury. The two Sumos then squat and face each other in the middle of the ring with their fists on the ground while staring each other out. This process is repeated several times. Once both players feel ready the bout (wrestle) begins. Each bout usually only lasts a few minutes if that but those few minutes are usually action-packed with lots of thrills and excitement. The player who touches any part of his body out of the ring or the player that gets pushed to the ground inside the ring loses. We saw a lot of fairly even bouts during the day and it was exciting to see who was going to win. Sometimes the smaller of the two Sumos won – which just goes to show that size does not matter!

There are only 6 Grand Tournaments a year, three are held in Tokyo, one in Osaka, Nagoya and Kyushu. Each tournament lasts for fifteen days and every Sumo has to fight at least once a day with a different opponent. The Sumo with the most wins over losses is the winner of the tournament and is awarded the Emperor’s Cup on the final day.

Sumo is a very interesting and unique game and I am glad to have been able to experience it.



Of course we had to find a Sumo to take a picture with!!

Classic Tina

Here is a laugh for all of you.........this is just a typical Tina shot which Steve just happened to catch on camera. How classic is this picture??

Sake Tour

10th March, 2007

Ok I have now 100% decided that I definitely do not like the taste of Sake. For those of you who don’t know, Sake is a type of Japanese alcohol. It is very strong and you drink it in a shot glass. We were taken to a Sake factory on the weekend to have a tour. This was a very interesting experience. First of all we were given a talk about how Sake was made– it was all in Japanese so I had no idea what was going on. I was trying to pick up some words but I got nothing! After the talk we were shown a video of how they made Sake and then we went on a tour of the factory.

On our tour we had to wear white gumboots and a little white shower cap. We all looked very stylish! Before the tour began we had to step into water with our boots to make sure that they were clean. (Japan is very big on being clean if you hadn’t already noticed). The tour consisted of showing us the different rooms and processes of how Sake is produced. Sake is made out of rice and there is a lot of labour involved in making it.


After the tour we went back in to the main section where we were able to taste test the various types of sake. They brought us quite a few bottles to taste and it was like an ‘all you can drink’ for about an hour. Everyone bought snacks such as cheese, ritz, chocolate, chips and popcorn to share so we got stuck into the Sake and food! It was funny because the Japanese people’s idea of snacks was totally different to ours. They went all out and were eating actual proper food like sushi, fried meats and rice. Of course I wanted to try all the different types of Sake, so you can imagine the kind of state I would have been in when I left the place.
Trying to ride our bikes home after we got back to the train station was definitely an adventure. A pot plant in the middle of the path had a slight collision with me (it was all the pot plants fault of course). Luckily there was no damage caused! We made it home in one piece ready to then head to the pub for the remainder of the night.

The pub was ok. I didn’t really need any more to drink which was a good thing – all I needed to do was to dance it all off (which I managed to do!) The people at the pub were crazy. There must have been something in the air but at one stage these people were putting cream on plates and shoving in into people’s faces. I’m glad I didn’t get creamed! I would have been peaking if I did!! Then I was just standing there talking to my friends (as you do) and the next minute these people came running through the crowd and I was taken out! There was me sprawled all over the floor about 1 metre from where I was standing! It must have looked so funny. I reckon I would have won Funniest Home Videos if that was caught on camera. I eventually managed to pick myself up off the floor with some assistance of course. At that stage I was ready to head home. Taxis were hard to come by so we ended up just walking home in the rain in my high-heeled white boots. It took us about 20 minutes to walk home and I think I pretty much complained the whole way home. My white boots weren’t so white at the end of the night. They needed some major cleaning on Sunday morning. Just as well they only cost me $10.

My First Hair Cut

4th March, 2007

Well I decided that it was time to do something with my hair. I have been here for two months and have not touched it so it was looking very sad and sorry. So I was very brave and booked myself into the hairdressers. Now this is the first time in my whole life that I have ever been to the hairdressers to get my hair done as usually mum does it all for me. I was very concerned about how my hair was going to turn out considering I speak no Japanese. Even making an appointment was in hand signals! I wanted to colour my hair red so I learnt the word for red and said that to them in Japanese. They then came back with some samples that I had to choose from. I had no idea which one to pick as usually mum just knows the one I want. Plus the samples are never the way they actually look on your hair. I chose the one that I thought was the one I normally wear and hoped for the best! They gave me a magazine to look through to choose a style of cut. There were so many to choose from – I chose one that had a fringe. While they were putting the colour on I was thinking that it was looking a lot lighter than my usual colour so I was getting a little worried. I didn't want it to look too red or pink. When it washed off and was wet it was really noticeable which made me even more worried because when mum does it you can hardly tell when it is wet – it’s not until it is dry that you can notice the red. Once they had cut it they started drying it and it started looking better. The hairdresser took ages to style it for me and when it was finally finished I was actually happy with the result. The colour might have been a little lighter than what I was expecting but it was ok. There was no major disaster which was good. I was in the hairdressers for almost 3 hours and it cost me $102 which for me is very expensive considering I get cuts and colours for free normally but I suppose that is fairly reasonable. I can now say that I have been to the hairdressers!

Trying to find a cheap place to get your nails done on the other hand is a different story. They all seem to be around the $100 mark which is crazy. I am still looking though because I really want them done. Waxing just doesn’t seem to exist over here in Japan. I have not seen one waxing shop which is really frustrating. Who knows how they get rid of hair here but they obviously don't wax!

An Afternoon Tea Party

28th February, 2007

I was invited to one of my adult students houses for afternoon tea. It was a very different experience to what I am used to. I was picked up at 1pm and taken to her house. It was a beautiful house by the way. I walked inside to a beautifully presented table setting waiting for us. Of course I had to take pictures!

One of the other students in my class had been practising ‘Tea Ceremonies’ so she came dressed in a kimono with all her tea gear so that she could perform a tea ceremony for us. It was so cool because the ladies house actually had a room built in where you can perform these ‘Tea Ceremonies’. I ate one of the Japanese sweets and then drank my tea. I actually quite enjoyed this sweet. I am usually not a big fan of the Japanese bean sweets but this one went down quite nicely.

I wanted to take them something that they had never tried before. Vegemite was the only thing that I could think of that was new and Australian – so I made them some vegemite sandwiches to try. I also took some camembert cheese, ritz biscuits, strawberries and chocolate almonds. They had never tried the cheese before either so that was an experience for them too. They actually really enjoyed the vegemite which I was surprised at. One of them even asked me if she could buy vegemite paste in Japan! We had coffee and green tea, and cake with cream and rice crackers…….there was so much food to choose from. One of the ladies bought some origami paper so we all made a paper crane, then she gave me a little box with the rest of the origami paper and put all the paper cranes that we made inside. I will be making a mobile out of the paper cranes. I ended up staying for 4 hours. I was able to meet Shinako’s children as they came home from school while I was still there. They were very nice and were keen to ask me questions after they got over being shy. It was a very relaxing and beautiful afternoon. These people just go to so much effort for you it’s amazing!