Our Farewell With Our Friends

14th December, 2007

We organised to have dinner at the Blue Plate a restaurant which we go to regularly and then head to our favourite karaoke place - Time Machine for the last time in Japan. It is very sad at the moment having all these farewell parties - I’m not sure how we are going to cope on the last day.

Everyone at dinner.

Everyone else at dinner.

Karaoke at Time Machine is always a blast. We booked an awesome room - the best one I have been in. We all enjoyed singing our lungs out before heading to the Tiger Bar.

Marie and I singing our lungs out.

Thomas and Marie - a great duet!

Lauren and I - jazz hands!

Richard and I - what a classic shot!

Thomas, Richard, Marie and I going for it!

The girls

Us with our favourite Japanese boys in Japan.

And that's how it's done!!

It was a really fun night and everyone had a good time!!

Omihachiman and Kobe Lights

13th December, 2007

Today Yoko took Lauren and I to Omihachiman. It was about 2 hours away from Himeji but it was a really nice day trip. Omihachiman has a country town type feel. There is a river running through the town which is actually called Hachiman Moat. This moat is often used to film television shows or movies.


Me, Lauren and Yoko down by the river.

There were some shrines and temples which we visited while we were in the town. The first one was Himure Hachiman-Gu.


We also visited Chomei-ji Temple which was awesome. To get to it you need to climb 808 steps first. It was well worth doing the climb because the view was amazing - you could even see Lake Biwa!! At the top there is the main temple, a 3 story pagoda, a bell tower and a holy fire building.

Lauren and I ready to walk up the steps.

Some remaining autumn leaves covering the steps.

The buildings at the top.

The view of Lake Biwa.

After we did all of this it was time for us to head to Kobe as we were meeting Steve, Marie and Richard to see the Luminarie lights. These lights filled one entire street plus a little bit more. They were amazing. The lights are to represent the anniversary of the Kobe earthquake.

The amazing lights.


Steve and I at the lights.

All of us at the lights.

After the lights we grabbed some dinner beofre heading home. Another great day spent in Japan.

Farewell with Shogai University Students #2

12th December, 2007

Today was my last class with the uni students. Before the last class one of my classes took me out for lunch. We went to a restaurant around the corner from the university which was really nice.

Masayoshi started off the party with an opening speech. I am amazed at how much his English has improved throughout the year. The party began with a song that the students had rehearsed using bells. It was really wonderful that they had gone to that much effort. We then sang some Christmas carols in English which was also really nice. I really liked the way the students went to an effort to make the party nice and special.


We had lots of food to eat. We started with an entree which was really delicious.

We then had some soup.

Next came the main - I chose steak. It was very tasty!!

We then had a choice of two desserts. I chose choc banana and cheese cake. They were both equally delicious.

Everyone then stood up and said a farewell message to me. It was really touching what everyone said. The level of English spoken was amazing and I managed to have a tear or two in my eyes. It’s really sad to be saying our goodbyes to everyone. I really enjoyed teaching at the university and I will miss my students greatly. They were a fantastic bunch of people to meet and I am very privileged to have met them.

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

All of us.

A Day At The Factory Outlets

11th December, 2007

Miyoko, Shinako and Setsuko (my uni students) took me to some factory outlets. Something that was potentially VERY dangerous for me especially since we are on our way home - but I managed to control myself!! They were located near Akashi, just before Kobe. They were fantastic. There were so many shops to look through - it was awesome. I was in heaven. I just wish I had known about these shops sooner.

Huh? Episode 10

Hi Everyone,

This is going to be my last Huh? edition. I hope that you have enjoyed this section of my blog. There are some pretty funny things out there hey??

This is classic

Ok then.

How funny?

Anyone for some Jass???

I'm not quite sure of the meaning of "White Lover"....

This is hilarious. Lauren actually bought this t-shirt for Kyosuke!!


Well that's it folks. This concludes the "Huh?" of Japan.

A Day In Kobe

8th December, 2007

Steve has never really had the chance to explore Kobe yet so we decided to make a day trip there. On the way to the train station we rode through the moat area and took some last picures of the autumn leaves. They are all falling off now but they still look amazing.




When we arrived in Kobe we headed to the port area. I actually had never really walked around this area before myself so it was nice to have a wonder through.

We then headed to Harbour Land to have a look around the shops. Across the road was a big department store so we went and wondered through. The Japanese also get into Christmas decorations as they are everywhere and look amazing. This is a huge Christmas tree in the shopping mall. It looked awesome.

Steve and I then had dinner at an all you can eat seafood place in Harbour Land. I was in heaven: crabs, prawns, sashimi, octopus, seafood pizza, pasta, salads, muscles, desserts and all you can drink - YUM YUM YUM!!! It was THE BEST all you can eat I have EVER been to.

We then did purikura to end the day before heading home.

My Last Enkai

7th December, 2007

An enkai is a teachers party and this was my last one! Enkais are usually quite expensive and this was no exception. It was ¥10000 (around $100), but this time the school paid for me as it was my last one.

The food just kept coming and coming and coming!! It was very delicious and I stuffed myself to the max.

Oysters

Salad

Sashimi


Beef

Egg pudding

Noodles

Tenpura

Fruit

Dessert

Many teachers came up to talk to me - even teachers who could not speak English. It was really nice because they all seemed genuinely happy to talk to me.

This teacher always helped me with my computer problems. He was such a nice man.

Shiota Sensei - One of the English teachers that I worked with.

Shimuzu Sensei - The other English teacher that I worked with.

Ken is the person who has looked after me all year. He has been fantastic to work with.

During the night the social club had set up a BINGO game. Everyone would chant “Let’s BINGO!” and then they would push a button until a number came up. They had hired a board to play the game - it was very professional. I joined in but found it a little challenging as they were calling the numbers out in Japanese. It was good practice for me anyway. The first person won and got a prize. I didn’t even know we were playing for prizes. To me it looked like he had won a block of chocolate. Well funnily enough I somehow managed to win the next round. I went to collect my prize, more chocolate - well so I though......I thanked them for the prize and went to walk away. Everyone seemed really excited that I had won - I thought what’s the big deal it’s only chocolate! Then someone asked what I was going to do with my prize. Well that’s a stupid question I though - naturally I would eat it! I then asked the English teacher what it was and he said it was ichi man - which is $100. WOW, SHOCK SURPRISE!!! I couldn’t believe that it was $100. Fantastic I thought. I was very excited and happy with my prize. Now I need to find some time to go and spend it before I leave because it is actually vouchers. The first prize winner got $200 (not chocolate).

After BINGO a group of us headed to the second party which was karaoke and darts.

Singing at Karaoke

Playing darts

I had a lot of fun singing and playing darts with the teachers. It was very enjoyable.