Happy New Year!

It's been awhile... I know.

Okay, so it's 2007. This year is supposedly my last year in Kanoya as a CIR. However, the recontracting policy has changed and now all JETs are allowed to recontract up to 5 years if their COs want them to stay... I was all ready to leave... but now I've decided to stay. Yep, another year in Kanoya.

I thought I was ready to leave. guess not :p

My new year resolution of 2007:


-eat healthy and exercise more.


I realize that if I make too many goals I'm not gonna achieve them all. So, just this one. I figure if I don't have my health, all the other ones would be moot points anyways.

Oh, and I'll definitely update this blog more from now on. hee hee

World Cup or Stanley Cup?

Oh as if was even a question... of course I would choose Stanley Cup over World Cup ANY TIME!

The oil boys are doing their best to stay alive in the stanley cup final. now we're down to the game 6 with 2-3 in series... this does not look good, but if we still hang on we'll be able to enjoy the thrilling game 7. heh heh...

The world cup fever is sweeping the whole Japan, but honestly, I expected the boys of Zico Japan to play a bit better... it's a disappointment, that last match they played against Australia.

Tomorrow we're gonna head to a local sports bar to watch the game, yes on a sunday night.

maybe I'll take monday morning off :p

I know that I haven't been updating this blog and all... well, lots of things happened. first there's another big personnel change in my section, and a few new people. initially I was worried, but then now it's all worked out. we're getting along quite well.

For the golden week, I went to Kanazawa for a little trip. It was really nice. I went on the trip without any actual plan beforehand but then it went alright. I kinda relied on my keitai's EZ Navi thing too much. hence my keitei battery kept dying on me...

Then we welcomed the Korean folk dance group to our Rose Festival (our rose garden just had our grand opening after the renewal). It was really interesting experience, but I felt useless since I could count all the korean phrases I know on one hand. But to do the volunteer there at the rose garden was quite nice. Although I wish I can use my yearly passport more... damn, why am I such a pushover... should've said no when they were trying to get me to buy it...

and last night we had a little birtday bash for Wada san and Minoda san. They claimed that they never had people throwing them birthday parties... I guess Japanese people are not big on the birthday celebration... I don't know, but for my family, we always try to make an event of it. unless when we're all too busy.

Well... now enjoying a little tea break and wait for people to come and we'll do choreography for summer festival parade. we'll see how that turns out... :p

GO OILERS GO!!!!!!!

Seriously, I would soooooooooo wanna be in Edmonton right now!!!!!

I'll bet Pam is going crazy...

Oilers the western conference champ! the Stanley Cup final!!

OH, WHY AM I IN JAPAN?????

25 of them... 25 of them...

Since I got the beans from Junko sensei as gift anyways... might as well eat them...

so here it is.. the Fuku beans

I don't really like, mostly because they don't have much taste actually, but they're kinda like what you would call, a healthy snack. So oh well.

I count, and count... oops lost count... drop some beans...

Okay, now I've got them...

Man, I got 25 of them to eat... well, maybe I can put on that little fuku mask and eat the beans... kinda have a little carnival feeling going on here. :p yeah right...

Oh by the way, I'm feeling alot better right now. Other than some stuffy nose and sneezing, I'm quite well. Except that I still don't have much strength most of the time.

And... today during lunch break, I came home and found THIS in my mailbox!

It's Yuki's wedding invitation, and I'm invited to sit in her ceremony too!! heh heh!! kinda funny that I don't know her finace though... Last time with Shinmiya-san's wedding, I didn't quite know him either, so it's kinda just like attending a party. But this is different, this is Yuki's wedding, one of my good friends. Hmm... well we'll talk about it when she comes to Kagoshima with Noriko.

Oni wa Soto~~

Tomorrow is the Setsubun day for Japan, and the tradition is that people will buy beans and then do the "mame-maki" to get rid of evil spirits. The point is to throw the beans at a Oni (usually if a family is doing it, then probably the father would don a oni mask and the kids would throw the beans on him, all the while yelling:"Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! --Evil be gone! Good Fortune stays in!)" kinda thing. And also there's that part where you would have to eat the same number of beans as your age. Yesterday I got asked by a kid how many I will be eating... :p well, those beans are not my kind of food, so eating whole 25 of them isn't much fun.

Anyways, because of the Setsubun, the daycare centre I went to today did this little ball-throwing game at Oni. I just watched while they did it...(honestly, the teacher didn't even offer me if I wanted to make a ball and throw myself... I don't know... just out of politeness, maybe?) It was kinda cute though, the kids were trying so hard to get the ball into the Oni's mouth. They could do this for like hours and hours and not get tired of it. After watching for about 10 min, I was ready to walk away, away from the sun...

Well, I'm a little better now, but still kinda tired most of the time. Took the afternoon off and did some work at home before I slept the rest of afternoon away. Got up around 6pm, and made myself some nice rice porridge. Finally, I could TASTE!!

Now off to bed again.

Went to Hospital

Gee, I will definitely remember that most of the hospitals in town close or have wednesday afternoon off... Took the afternoon off and left around 2:30pm I went to the big Osumi Kanoya Hospital and got told that they will start seeing patients from 5pm. I decided to take taxi (one of the taxi company was just around the corner) to this other clinic that Minocchi suggested... the taxi driver informed me that it's close on Wed...

Just when I thought maybe I could go home and sleep this off, the taxi driver asked me if I want to go see if this other small clinic is open.. and it was! yay! The clinic is kinda small but really like a family doctor kinda clinic so no long waiting time. The receptionist was sooo nice! She came out to the waiting room sofa and sat with me. She asked me about my symptoms and wrote them down on the sheet... Thank goodness... I was so tired, and really hate writing down symptoms when in big hospitals...

The doctor was really nice and kinda funny... he kept trying to speak English to me, when I was speaking Japanese to him.. I think he probably wanted to practice his English.. heh, but then I commented that he can speak a little English and maybe I can recommend other ALTs to his place, he then said that he is not that good but the Takao Sensei who's there on Tuesday and Friday afternoon is very good. Takao Sensei can even speak French, apparently! wow....

Well, I got about 4 different kinds of meds and went home to count my meds... so many kinds and all have to be taken differently, time before food (I was told 30 min before food... duh, as if I'll be able to eat exactly 30 min after taking the med...); after food; only after breakfast and supper... geez..

Hmmm... we'll see how it goes...

And thus it begins

Okay, now I'm not so happy... very sick right now... I can't eat anything too salty, greasy, spicy, sweet... well basically, anything but the okayu rice porridge. In the beginning I thought it was not so much a big deal, just a cold... boy was I wrong... :(

Well, after this entry, I plan on just sleeping the night away...

But before that, on a lighter note.

Saw "Pride & Prejudice" the other day, and I'm glad to say that I wasn't disappointed. At first I had some problems with Keira Knightley being Lizzy, but then after 10 minutes in, I started warming up to her. Oh and the new Mr. Darcy is quite nice too :)

The new film version's cinematography is quite breathtaking, and I gotta say it's a very beautiful film (albeit a bit too hollywood at times).

okay, now that I've done praising the film.. gotta go sleep off this stupid cold...

Update in the links!

I just added the banner and link of arrested development in the "link" section.

gotta save that show!! SAVE OUR BLUTHS!

Everybody go watch Arrested Development! (oh wait.. there's no more episode?)

I can't believe it.. can you believe it?!

Thanks to all who sympathized with me about the makeup situation, that had been resolved. I had been gradually wearing less and less makeup, that now I barely put on any and nobody ever noticed anymore (or just gave up on mentioning...)

Other than that, my new office people ROCK! the Kacho is cool, and he's like a dad. Really funny though cuz I can only understand half of what he's saying (he can only speak Kagoshima ben), but he's hilarious. heh~~ And my kakari cho is really nice too! heh~~ The other day I went to a small nomikai with them and my new sup Minocchi (who is not so unfamiliar..), and I got to know them a bit better too. My kakaricho actually (after my kacho left) said that our kacho is probably one of the best boss that he has ever worked with. I gotta tell you, in my previous ka, there was no praising bosses... only making fun of them... This is a nice change.

Work had be just hectic... with the shinenkais and all. I think I had about 6 of them, all with different people. And, I'm afraid that there will be more to come... but probably not called shinenkai anymore. And because of that, and the over-scheduling of school visits and daycare visits. I think I got too exhausted, and got some germs from the kids... I got horribly sick yesterday. I was so sick that I couldn't even stand up. As soon as I try to sit straight, I felt the walls were spinning. I had to call in sick and re-schedule another whole day of school visit and evening eikaiwa.

Today I finally felt better and got to work, and it was only alright. I still felt really queasy in stomach... I had stomach flu... yeah, the flu that kids or babies get all the time, but not so much in adults... :p

Let's hope that I'll be better by tomorrow.. whew~

First day at work in 2006

And I got a not-so-subtle hint that I should probably wear makeup to work... I never thought it's necessary but then because of the merge and the change of new office.. the new ladies in the office suddenly kept looking at my face... as if trying to find out whether I put on makeup this morning or not... maybe tomorrow I'll put on some lipstick and eye makeup... sigh... I really don't know what the big deal it is...

Anyways... other than that it was fine... if you don't count the times that I tried to get my old work computer to connect to the LAN... couldn't use internet, thus couldn't do anything. I couldn't even access my old files because I put them into the network folder and deleted everything from my 2GB harddrive (which the actual space that I could use was like 700 MB...)

But today, we had our shinenkai, and the funniest thing.. our kacho has been expecting his first grandson since the expected due date Dec 24th... and today, during the enkai, a phone call to his wife's phone (yes, his wife came too hee hee) that the baby is born. It was kinda weird... this new 課 (division) ... it's like everybody knows everybody else's business... but in a nice way.

OOOh... thought I would end this entry in a kinda funny note... the other day I went to Daiwa and guess who came!! Anpan Man!!! heh heh~ There were soooo many people that it was just insane... but in a cute way :) lots and lots of kids

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you're all enjoying a great holiday!!

Since it's the new year and now that I'm in Japan... Might as well do what they do. I went to the Terukuni Shrine to do Hatsumoude to pray for the new year... (and man oh man, soooo many people! I lined up in front of the shrine for like half an hour just to get to the front and pray for like 30 seconds). I got myself a omikuji and I only got shokichi 小吉 which is like small fortune... basically I'll have some difficulties this year but then If I try hard enough (がんばる） then I'll be able to pull it through. Geez, this is like the 3rd time I've had the similar kuji... maybe they're in fact all the same.. then why do I keep paying money to get them..??

Anyways... after the hatsumoude, I went to Amu for some shopping (half because tenmonkan was not open for new year's day... :p), and look what I found!!! A pair of boots that I actually liked! and the last pair too! I'm sooo happy and after I bought them, I was already mentally planning the outfit to go with them... unfortunately I won't be able to wear them for work, but I guess perhaps I'll just wear them whenever... like when I go shopping at the Daiwa supermarket... :p

This is too important to not post on blog...

To those people who had left Kanoya, but then had not quite left my blog... (that means you guys, Mike and Heather!!) It snowed in Kanoya... yes, it friggin' snowed whole night and I have the photos to prove it! On the morning of December 22nd, Kanoya people woke up to a world that they had never ever seen (well, except for those really old people, because the last time it was so white on the ground, was like 88 years ago)

The photo above was taken from my apartment window... everything was covered with snow... white powdery snow...


And in this keitai pic you can see the Takakuma, completely snowed up...

And on the right, is a pic of the Kanoya city hall... amazing sight.. but then before it reaches noon, the sun came out and melted it all away.. no fun... :p However, I think lots of kids made snowman (and they were terrible at it, none of them could pack the ice well like us Canucks do.) heh. Oh and Minocchi and I had to return the equipment for Film Night event, we couldn't get the car to climb uphill... since it was too slippery and the car's tires were just too shitty. While we were in the car, Nanette voiced her opinion that we should shut the city down since nobody knows how to drive anymore... not in this weather condition anyway.. well... good thing it melted so quickly, eh?

A fun day in Kagoshima Aquarium

Went to the Kagoshima city Aquarium for the day with Yuka and O-tomi (from here, Tomi). It was quite fun, considering how I never quite appreciate Aquariums, well, until today anyways. Because Tomi volunteers at the Aquarium and he knows alot, and I do mean ALOT, about fish and stuff... He gave us a tour and we could basically ask any stupid questions we want.

Here's a pic of the Inuzame (Dog Shark, in Japanese)'s baby. They actually look kinda cute like this when they're babies, but then when they grow up they just turn grey. Since next year will be the Inu toshi (Dog year), the Kag Aquarium people decided to showcase these babies. But then they were all like this, not moving at all. Apparently they were just saving energy... since they only get fed so few times, if possible they would not move unless there's food involved. heh




And we also found Nemo.. hee hee, well clownfish anyways. They're so cute.. I showed the movie "Finding Nemo" at my eikaiwa class just last week and used the film to test their listening. Instead of Japanese subtitles, I put up the English caption, so they could understand it better.









And here's the dolphin show... oh sorry, "Dolphin's Time" The Kag Aquarium people never call it dolphin show, since the reason for the dolphins performing is to teach kids about the dolphins, not exclusively for entertainment. Basically to make people more aware of the aquatic life of dolphins and whales. I guess because the place is kinda small, I felt like it's alot closer than other times when I saw dolphins... well, I saw dolphins numerous times when I worked at West Ed, but only passing by and not once had I ever paid to get in and sit in the audience. In the photo, one of the dolphins did a jump to show how high she can jump to reach the ball by using her tail. Very cute.


Then we went to Yoshino Park to see the supposedly best view of Sakurajima since the day was just gorgeous! The sun was shining and very clear... as you can see there was absolutely no cloud, just beautiful blue sky. That's Otomi sensei, and he has dubbed himself as "Tomi" since it would be easier for everybody to call him.

Over all the day was just awesome and Yuka and Tomi were fun to hang out with. It was a great day. and we all got souvenirs, courtesy of Tomi, the Aquarium's desktop calendar.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

(<= My Christmas present my family sent all the way from Canada ;p)

Exactly a year ago, there was the true Christmas miracle for my whole family... On our way to Whistler, our van slipped on the highway and went circling around the roads in two full circles and then landed on the other side of the road... thankfully we were only just shocked, no injuries or anything... That was the best present I had ever got for Christmas, my family and I were all safe and sound.

Well.. anyways, this Christmas I'm just relaxing in the good ol' Kanoya, can't really go anywhere because of the stupid city merge (gotta work tomorrow.. arrrrgh...) I went to help moving office stuff on last Friday too (and it was the Emperor's birthday!!! I started whining why I had to go when it's the Emperor's birthday, we should all celebrate in his honour! :p) oooh... gotta stop complaining... on a lighter note, I'm enjoying the silly variety shows they have on TV, some Christmas specials. And I played a full afternoon of PS2 game "Kingdom Hearts" hee hee~ People think it's sad that I spent Christmas at home and alone.. but nah, this is EXACTLY what I would do at home in Canada... watching TV and pigging out at home. hee hee

Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays to all who just enjoy the holiday spirit!

'Tis the season to send Nengajo

Just like what I said in my presenation at the midyear conference in Chiba last month, I send out nengajos every year when I'm in Japan. And this year, man oh man, I have twice as many people to send out... After 1 year and a half in Kanoya, I've gotten to know quite alot of people, and then... yes, gotta send them nengajos too.

And I went a bit overboard.. so here is what they look like :p
I love those glittering gels... and the cute stickers... man, maybe next year I'll just get the conbini people to print out nengajos for me... making these takes a looooong time. I just hope that I get as many as I sent out on new years day :p

High Security of Kanoya city

Today the Minister of National Security came to Kanoya city for the affairs about the relocation of American military to Kanoya Self-defense Airbase... and our whole city hall was in full alert since morning. Everyone was to put on their name tags otherwise they will not be allowed to get in third floor area.

And sure enough there were a bunch of protest people who are waiting for the Minister to arrive... and we saw (yeah, yeah, we were waiting by the windows...) the Minister's cars (about 5 nice shiny black cars with 2 huge busses behind them) arrived. It was kinda funny cuz the main parking lot was saved for those cars, but then some of the regular people (i think more on purpose) would drive in and had the security people chased after them.. hee hee

They got off in like 5 seconds and just got in, and that's when the protest chants began... It was not so annoying, but rather interesting, and we were mostly amused by the content. Boueichoukan Kaere-- (Minister, go back!), Kanoya shicho no hanashi kike (Listen to the Kanoya Mayor!) And the whole thing went on and on until the minister came out around noon.

He came quickly as well, and as I was saying that ooh I only saw his hair, as his car passed by, he friggin' rolled down the blackened window and waved like a president at us on 2nd floor... I was more than shocked...

And then today I had to get home to get my iron so I could make the zekken for futsal on Wednesday..(sigh.. another long story..), I got stopped by the NHK people in front of the city hall, and they asked me what my opinion about the relocation of American base... I pretty much just rambled on saying that I think it's important for the government to listen to Kanoya people, but I suppose it's difficult to change what the big people had decided... and then I half-laughingly said:"actually, I'm not Japanese... just a Canadian, working at the city hall." And I could see that the interviewer smiled, (quite nicely actually) and slowly pulled his microphone away. hee hee.

Lots of people said I should've just let it all out, but oh well... I wasn't looking my best anyways.. :p

Can you imagine?

Nanette, Joe and I went to Joyfull for some ice cream and drink bar earlier tonight, and as soon as we sat down, we did the regular "is there any SHS students in there from their schools" thing.. and interestingly, there's none.. but 4 kids from Kanoya High school were sitting in the corner and apparently discussing whether they should talk to Joe or not...

But then somehow Joe started this conversation with them asking them if they know David who's the ALT at Kanoya SHS. They all said yes and that they like him alot. So we started chatting, like right across from the walkway... while most the other people were watching us amusingly.

Their English was AMAZING!!! I never thought they would be that good, but hey, you never know... They're so much better than most of my adult English conversation class students! They all know which university they wanna go, and what they want to do in the universities.

Finally one boy (Miyawaki-kun) pulled out a camera and hesitantly asked if he can take a picture with us. So we did... but this is the day I chose not to have my camera with me... so this keitai pic would have to do.

Good boys. Heather would've been proud!

The Fantastic Japanese TV News

So right before I went to the Tuesday weekly Eikaiwa, I was watching TV news... A couple of big news: US President George W. Bush arrived in Kyoto for the official visit, the wedding of Princess Nori, and... this daikon (radish) that grew on the sidewalk that apparently captured so many people's heart that the city hall felt the need to take care of it!

This is just one of those things I didn't understand about Japanese news... So, the daikon is apparently as important as the arrival of Bush and the wedding of Princess Nori of Japanese royal family. Interesting...

And Japanese local government would issue Juminhyo (certificate of residence) to Tamachan (a seal)... and become obsessed with this red panda Futa-kun when he stood up (which is normal for this kind of animal anyways...)

Is it because this society is so safe that there's just not much other news to report or just that they would rather look at news such as these to tell everyone that there's nothing going on?

Frankly, I'm confused...

Went to the Nuclear Power Plant in Satsuma Sendai with the Kinroseishonen Home English conversation class... and it was... interesting, and I supposed I learned more about the nuclear power plant... better than what I learned from the Simpsons.

Here's a pic of a model of the power plant energy machine thing... quite impressive, especially with the blue colour, hee hee and the guy had this tiny little black cap thingie (smaller than the tip of my pinkie finger) that can power a regular household for up to half a year! Interesting~

Then after lunch, we went to the shochu factory Kaido in Kushikino, and we had some really nice tasting of interesting shochu. Kaori said that she wanted to try this one that got many awards for quite many years... and I thought, well what the hey. But then... it was so very strong... that I almost choked.. :p

It was quite nice to hang out with Shoko, Kaori and Aki outside of class~ a change of environment kinda changes everything... and today I wasn't a teacher, just enjoying the bus tour with everyone~ hee hee

P.S: I hope Natasha won't get mad at me for posting this...

OMG, they're even cuter!

I did the same Halloween Lesson with Keishin Daycare kids, and they're just sooo cute!! check out the photos!

As you can see from the photos, I had hawaiian lei, bunny ears, shrek ears (from USJ), princess tiara (from USJ), baby bib, panda mask (very popular one among kids), and the cute winnie the pooh ears I got when went to Disneyland with Noriko before my B-day.



And here's Yuka-chan, wearing the fairy wings and the fairy wreath that I made... She looks so adorable!!