Awaji Island

Today, myself and a group of 3 other teachers went to Awaji to check out the location that we will be planting rice later on the month. From Kobe, it took us about an hour to get there. The location is actually on the way to Takamatsu, so I have seen it from the bus many times before, but today I actually got to see more of it!

We left in the morning, so we had some time to spare before we had to meet up with a staff member from the location. The first place we stopped at was あわじ花さじき, which is a famous place for flowers. Although, right now is kind of an off or transitionary season, do there weren't so many flowers, but there were some snap dragons and verbena, which were pretty! We stopped there for a while to enjoy the flowers and take pictures.

View at あわじ花さじき

Together with Anna and Miki

Not lavender! -- Verbena!

 

Butterfly!

Catepillars in the pansies

 

Can you see the 2016 (with monkey) and the dinosaur?

 

After that, we stopped and got local ice cream. I had いちごモナカ, which was strawberry ice cream between two shell shaped pieces of cone. Dessert first! 

Ice cream, ice cream, let's eat ice cream!

Then we went to get lunch...we went to a place with local food (even the rice we had was Awaji rice! The meal I had was the only cooked option--焼穴子 or fresh water eel. And everyone's meal came with miso soup. It was so yummy!! Although we had to wait about 45 minutes after ordering to get our food because they were so busy. One of the other teachers also bought us some of the giant tempura onions to share. Awaji is also famous for its onions. Which are GIANT by the way.

*Photo by Aiko

Busy, busy restaurant

Lunchtime -- Awaji specialty foods

I'm telling you - they're HUGE!

Aiko, the GIANT onion and me

 

Lunchtime view

After lunch, we made our way to the venue and checked it out, asked questions and thought about how the trip will go with our students. Should be fun for them, but will be SO muddy! I'm sure there will be more on that later!

 

土曜日は楽しかった!! (Saturday was fun!!)

This past Saturday, as the title suggests, was really fun for me!

I met up with my Australian friend, and the two of us started by going out for lunch. We ended up at this nice little café, and shared a pizza and got cheesecake for dessert. If you were wondering the pizza was 4 cheese, but in Japan they serve cheese pizza with honey. Now this might not be something you would think of as normal, but it's actually really good! You just spread out the honey goodness on your pizza, and wow! I did try a piece plain for comparison, but it was really better with honey!  The cheesecake was incredible!!! It had kind of Oreo crumbs on top, was served with ice cream and garnished with a tropical fruit sauce. Soooooo yummy!!! Look and drool:

At the café we talked about all kinds of interesting things, and one of the interesting things I found out is that Queensland on Australia has a big problem with these giant toads. Apparently they were first introduced to help with insect problems on the sugarcane they grow there, but in my friend's words: they were too lazy to do the job they were brought there to do. And since Australia's climate is so warm they reproduced like crazy. She told me that people tried to keep them as pets for a while, but that didn't work so well, (possibly due to giving people warts and that they're poisonous) and now they're considered to be pests. Now the really interesting part: according to her people go on hunting sprees for these toads--her method of choice was to run them over with her vehicle, and apparently her neighbors spear them. BUT....she told me even if they're speared straight through the middle, they can pull themselves off the spear, so it requires a little more to kill it. Creepy! They're like zombies!

After we left the café, we went and quickly found a geocache in a nearby park. On the way there we ran into a random guy who shouted, "Remember Pearl Harbor!" at us. Neither of us being American, we were kind of non-plussed, but there are all sorts of people everywhere after all. And, of course, neither of us appreciated being taken for Americans. (No offense, my American friends)

Then we headed off to the live--when we went hiking she'd asked to join me at one -- and this happened to be the day for that! It was at a new location for me, and had a new musician for me as well, but it was good! Plus, it was nice to have a friend to talk with. When we first walked in, the other musician turned on his English switch and said, "nice to meet you" to us, at which point ヨシダさん basically told him not to worry about it and that Japanese was okay. And of course, we are happy to practice our Japanese, but it's also nice sometimes when people try to make us comfortable by using our language (although personally, in this kind of situation, I usually prefer to practice my Japanese, but that's me). During the live, ヨシダさん played a song that he usually tries to get people to sing a little bit with him, and usually he'll ask everyone, then girls, then boys, then everyone to do it. Being the shy person I am, I generally don't do it, but this time he singled us out! He called on the "people with different colored hair" to do it. Ahh...seriously?! He should know better by now. And did he have to say it like that? My friend turned bright red--turns out she's a little shy too. It was kind of funny though.  After the live, my friend had to hurry off to go meet other friends that were waiting for her in Osaka, and ヨシダさん seemed super surprised that she left me there, but I knew beforehand, so it was ok!

Afterwards, I went back home to my fruit shopping area, and then went home and took in some sunshine.

That evening ヨシダさん had another live  in Kobe, in the place where he goes pretty much once a month, and since the afternoon live was kind of short and it wasn't like I had plans, I decided to go for a little while (not right at the beginning, but later). When I got there, there were a few people, and I got to hear a couple songs before he took a break. Then a couple more songs, and then all the other customers at the time left, leaving just me, the bartender, and ヨシダさん. I thought that he would sing a little bit more, because there was still an hour and a half-ish before his time was finished, but he didn't! What am I? I'm a customer too...tsk...am I being taken for granted? But the three of talked together, and that was nice too. I learned more about them and we talked about some random things, and of course, music for a while.  Yay!! Practice time for me! Oh... I said it was nice, and it was...UNTIL...they pulled out the karaoke machine. We had been talking about various musicians, and then suddenly they were like, "we want to hear Amanda's voice." Of course, my response was, "WHAT???!!!! No!" No way I'm going to sing karaoke, especially not by myself, and even more especially not in front of the musician whose music I love. Not to mention, I had lost my voice on Thursday and Friday (which I think was what let me off the hook). Lucky?  Anyway, eventually after that one more lady came in -- I'd seen her before and she remembered me as well, and we talked for a bit. After she came in, ヨシダさん sang a couple more songs before finally finishing for the night.

That's it, that's all! Good day, don't you agree? 

Golden Week 2016

This year for Golden Week, I didn't really do any travelling and just stayed close to home.  Partly because moving in Japan is extremely expensive, but also partly because I just needed a break.  This week, I was able to really enjoy myself, and although I already knew this, I re-realized every day, that I really love my new location, and I am so happy here.

Now, if I didn't do any travelling, what did I do with myself for a whole week, you may want to know. Well, let me tell you....

For me, Golden Week started off on Friday, and to be perfectly honest, I did a whole lot of nothing that day.  In the morning, I heard loud noises from the street outside my apartment and I saw a big group of people going down the road...

 

Other than that, I did go out a little bit and did a bit of exploring, and found a really nice park area along the water relatively close to me.

 

Random giant frog on a roof

Saturday was a little bit busier.  I went into Osaka to meet a friend who was arriving from Takamatsu that afternoon.  I believe it was her first time to come to the Kansai region.  Once I found her, we headed out to find the hostel that she was staying at.  After a little bit of confusion due to the lack of large signage, we were able to find it and got her set up.  However, at that time, I was able to confirm for myself that hostels will definitely NEVER be my style.  While she was checking in, the guy who seemed to run the place (a Colombian), was kind of strange.  He said to ME, not to her, who was staying at the place, but to ME, that he had a present for me.  Immediate creep factor.  Then he adds that, of course he has it for my friend as well.  Hmmm....well...not really interested.  Then he wanted to confirm if we were going to be in Osaka for the evening.  I cheerfully was NOT.  His response to that was, no present for me.  Wonderful!  Things were looking up!  It turned out that they have a bar associated with the hostel, and he was going to give us a ticket thing that would get us in for no charge in addition to a free drink, as they were apparently having some kind of party that night with Latin techno music.  Oooh, so exciting....not.  Anyway, my friend got one anyway, and I believe she went.  But enough about that.  Once she dropped off her stuff, we headed for central Namba, as she wanted to see the famous place in Dotonbori.  Easy enough.  Well, after crawling through the hordes of people that were out due to the holidays, anyway.  Then after that, she didn't really know what she wanted to do, so we took a walk down to Shinsaibashi and ended up in Umeda, where we went to the Sky Building, and then went for dinner afterwards.  After that, I got her back on the train to Namba, and headed home. 

It was a really nice night, and I wanted to go out for a walk, so I did, and during that time, I found out that ヨシダヒロキ was having a live that evening in a place that's fairly close to me!  So, of course, I went!  It was, as usual, a really fun night, and I actually got to talk with more people that night as well, because the bartender kind of made other people talk to me.  The only problem I had with that was that he told them to talk to me in English.  I want to practice my Japanese though!!!  One woman I talked with was apparently his classmate from junior high, and she told me that he always tries to make people talk together when they come into his bar, and that he has a kind of magic touch in that regard...but it was the first time he had done it to here.  Hehehe....sorry!  Another person I talked to actually knew Calgary is in Alberta, which was surprising for me, because most people don't seem to know things like that.  At the end of the live, as I was getting up to leave, a couple girls who had been sitting kind of behind me, were like, "A FOREIGNER!" (in Japanese), which got awkward laughs from me, the bartender and ヨシダさん.  That was followed up by an explosion of English, which was mixed with some Japanese (and whenever one used Japanese the other would jump on her and be like, "THAT'S NOT ENGLISH, IT'S JAPANESE! YOU SHOULD SAY THIS....")  Did I mention they had been drinking?  It was fun though.

*Borrowed photo*

The next day, I went hiking with an Australian girl that I work with.  We hiked in Rokko mountain, from Ashiyagawa station, all the way to Arima Onsen.  Which is kind of far.  It must've taken us 4 or 5 hours to do.  But it was tons of fun, we got to talk about many things, and we bonded a lot, so I definitely made a new friend!  Also it turns out that she's also interested in music, and she wanted to go see a live as well, so I suggested she come with me to a live later this month (and checked to make sure there were still seats available), and so we will do that!  I'm excited!  But anyway, back to the hike.  I felt like I was kind of unprepared for it as I had missed my alarm that morning (probably due to staying out late at the live), and was in a rush to get there at the time we said we'd meet.  But, there were many people there when we arrived and so we were able to follow some of them in the general direction of the hiking trail.  Along the way, my new friend apparently decided to try to give me as many minor heart attacks as she possibly could by doing things like jumping at a falling stick (could've been a snake!) and nearly screaming at a lizard crossing the path.  When we got about part way up (about 450m elevation), we stopped to have a bit of a snack in an area where many people were doing the same thing.  

At that point there were quite a few cats roaming around, and my friend was making up stories about how they would be really valuable to catch and sell.  One did look like a baby bobcat to me.  

Anyway, as we were eating, suddenly a boar came out of the trees super close to where we were, and my friend just tossed her cherries at me and climbed up onto a rock.  Good friend, right?  Passing me the bait.  Anyway, this boar was fairly calm, just roaming around, and didn't even seem too bothered when some not so smart people started following it around, trying to get close to it to take a picture or whatever other reason.  I did take a picture of it this time (from a distance), as proof that I did indeed see one, as I failed to do so at my previous encounter.  Eventually it went on its way with no casualties. Wonderful!  We also continued on our way.  

 

As we continued to walk, we began to wonder when we would get 'there' and all kinds of ice-cream cravings came out.  Once we got to the rest house at the top, we actually ended up with shaved ice though.  It was good, but not ice-cream. 

After that we started making our way down, following the path with a 'good feeling'.  And eventually we got to Arima, where we finally got our ice-cream, and watched a monkey performing as we ate it.  Following that, we took the train back into the city, and my friend headed home as she was kind of tired.  As for me, I went grocery shopping, and then out for a walk (because I clearly hadn't walked enough yet that day :P)

Not the exact path we took, but a general idea

The following day, was quite simply a day to relax at the beach and enjoy the beautiful weather.

On Tuesday, I had been planning to go a street live by another artist, but it was cancelled due to the fact that it started to rain quite heavily.  I was already on the train though!  But instead of wasting the trip, I just decided to get off in a different location and hunt down where exactly the live later in the month would be (as it was a new place for me).  After some misdirection from Google Maps (leading me into the back alley of a residential area), I was able to find it easily enough, so I won't be getting lost on the actual day!

The next day, I spent the morning at the beach, and then I had to do some things, not really worth mentioning, but I ended up going into Osaka again, and had dinner with my friend from Takamatsu (although it took a long time to mutually agree on a place).  Oh, but that day at the beach, I did see something interesting...one person had hooked up a parasail thing to himself and then went out on a kind of surfboard and was surfing around with the wind and did some really high and long jumps. It was kind of cool!

On Thursday, that friend had said she would be coming out to Kobe to visit, but didn't actually give me a when, which was a little frustrating for me, as I had things to do as well.  But when she eventually did come out, we went up the Shin-Kobe ropeway to the Nunobiki Gardens, which are always pretty.  We wandered around up there for a little bit and then came down afterwards to go find some dinner.  We ended up going to Chinatown, and ate there.

Friday it POURED all day long, so nothing worth mentioning happened.

On Saturday, I went to the Shinkaichi Music Festival for a little bit in the afternoon.  It had many stages, some in a park, and some down the shopping streets.  Of course, some were better than others, but it was interesting and kind of fun too. 

Sunday morning I heard another interesting event going on.  Not exactly sure what was happening, but I could hear really loud singing/chanting from outside, so I went to go take a look.  There was a group of 4 or 5 men in robes and the kind of hats that pilgrims wear, and they were going down the street doing their chanting, but they would stop and bow in front of almost every house.  Some kind of blessing ritual maybe?  There is a shrine just down the road from me....I really want to know what it was though!!

In the afternoon I went to a park as a friend I work with invited me to come to a picnic. There were some people from work and some other people who were new to me as well.  But before I got to them I got cornered by these people who were having some kind of rally--they were literally everywhere! Anyway, turns out they're lobbying for things like an increase in minimum wage, more free wifi spots, free child insurance and Monday mornings as a holiday. I think the last one is maybe a little far fetched, but good for them for trying.  Basically they just wanted people to choose the points that they agree with and mark it down. But for me to do it? It seemed kind of odd as I'm not a Japanese person, but I suppose I do live here after all. Now about the park...In the park there was lots going on: soccer, football, skateboarding, dancing, drumming, basketball....all kinds of stuff--seems like a popular place. And did I mention there was grass?! Real, thick, grass, not just measly tufts in the sand. That is so rare for a park here!  

And that is pretty much the main points of my Golden Week this year. Tomorrow: back to work.

First Month in Kobe

April has been an incredibly busy month for me.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I started work at my new job on the 1st.  There are so many people who work at my campus -- over 60!  The first day was just our school's staff, but after that it was all of the new staff for all of the campuses (including the Tokyo campuses).  The first evening, most of the staff from our school went out for dinner and drinks and things together, and so we started to get to know each other.  Myself and some others left a little bit early (as we had had a quite long day as it was) but others continued on and from what I understand, went out for karaoke as well.

That first week was a lot of training for us.  Most of it took place at the campus that I teach at, however, I did have to go into Tennoji for one day of training.  And I hope to never or rarely have to do that again, for one simple reason -- the train ride there was brutal!! Between Kobe and Osaka was busy enough, but then when I got on the subway to go between Umeda and Tennoji -- it was beyond ridiculous!  I couldn't get on the first train that came because there was already too many people, and while I did make it on the next one -- it was equally packed!  Everyone was so tight together that I couldn't move a muscle and my arms got pushed so close to me that it was actually mildly painful.  A lot of our training was on teaching methods and planning and such things, but there was also some other unique things as well.  For example, our intruder training.  Apparently our schools have these stick things with a u-shaped prong on the end and we can use them to immobilize intruders (so long as we don't get them taken away from us by force).  Originally, us new teachers had thought that we wouldn't have training or only a little bit on the Thursday before the students started (they came on a Friday), but we ended up having training for all but about 30 minutes.  That made it kind of stressful because we also had to prepare our classrooms (in my case I had all blank, white walls, no toys, and things like that) and also figure out what we would be doing with our students that first day.  So -- as a result everyone put in some overtime that evening --- I must have stayed til around 9pm, at which point I decided to go home or I wouldn't be useful at all the following day (not to mention - I was SO hungry!!)  In addition to the overtime --- that first Saturday was also the entrance ceremony for the new K1 (3 year olds) students at all of our campuses -- so add another half day of work.  Apparently this ceremony is usually held in Osaka, but this year they couldn't book their venue so they ended up having it in Kobe, actually in a place quite close to my apartment, which was very convenient.  Since then, the overtime in the evenings has continued as I have been trying to complete my classroom displays and such, but hopefully with time that will calm down somewhat. 

On the first Saturday of the month, I got my hair cut (just a trim) and I ended up going to another live that evening (as he had told me about it on Thursday evening and recommended I come if I had time).  That evening was really fun -- he did the live with another singer and in the second half when it was his turn to sing -- he only used his guitar for a couple songs, and then had a guy who played accordion accompany him. It definitely made for some different feelings for some of his songs (and I prefer his guitar), but it was interesting anyway.  Although when they had finished, the accordion guy kept staring at me....kind of uncomfortable.  But I got to talk together with ヨシダさん and he made me try on the new glasses that he was selling as part of his products, and he kept high-fiving me and gave the impression that he wanted to talk more.

Outside of work, in that first week -- the sakura were blooming, so I took many walks in the evenings to go see them...

 

Of course I also saw them during the day as well...

 

 

 

On the Saturday afternoon that we had the entrance ceremony I went in to Osaka because there was a place I knew of which had many sakura trees along the river, and I wanted to see them....

But...there was a festival going on that weekend and there were so many people that you couldn't really enjoy it because the stalls were in the way and you had to spend your time focusing on making your way through the hordes of people.

After getting through all those people, I was really tired so I headed back to the Umeda area and listened to a street live for a little while before heading back home.

 

In the middle of the month the weather was great so I found a beach which is really long and went to take in some sun and read for a little while.

The day following the beach, I went into Osaka again, for various reasons, but I was still looking for things that I needed for my apartment, and on the way home, I saw ヨシダさん again at Grand Front! I was surprised, and it turned out that he was just getting ready to start his street live. Lucky! So I stayed and listened to him again.  As it was a Sunday evening not so many people were around, so when he finished, I got to talk with him a lot and he asked me to watch his guitar and stuff while he put away the music busker sign and got to talk some more. Good night!!

The following week, on Friday evening, I had been out for a walk and I got a big surprise --- while I was on my way back to my apartment, I saw something big on the sidewalk, and thought someone just left something there.  And then it started to move.  It was a boar! A giant boar!  It was dark, so I couldn't see it well, but based on what I could see it was probably tall enough to come up to my hips, and was quite wide as well.  My reaction was to freeze, quietly back up to the intersection of the street (while keeping an eye on it), and cross to the other side of the road.  I had wanted to go hiking that weekend, but after seeing that, I was understandably less enthusastic about that, and decided to do ither things instead.  Later, when I told some of the staff at my school about this encounter, they told me stories about people's bags being stolen by boars, and other such things.  Not particularly reassuring.

The last Monday of the month was a curriculum meeting for my student's parents and it was a kind of intense event that we had to spend a lot of time preparing for (more overtime).  The last week of April was a 4 day work week because on the 29th, Golden Week started!  And that will be the topic of my next blog post, so look forward to it!

Also, I have updated my previous blog post, as I realized I didn't add in a video I had taken, and there were a few more pictures I wanted to add as well.  You can either check it out by clicking on the links on the side of the page, or click here.