Osaka @ MindSay 
So I have had a very busy past couple of weeks!
Last Friday, Jac and Anne came to stay. I was soooo excited about Jac coming- one of my first good female friends to visit me. I had so many things planned for her stay. Although, not everything went according to plan.
On the night she arrived, I had planned for us to have a drink at a couple of the local "foreigner" bars in town, after a nice Kobe Beef meal, and then head back to my local town for some celebratory Karaoke.
However, we got a bit carried away at the Hub drinking jumbo sized Long Island Ice Teas. Somehow it went from one drink, to two drinks, and then on the third drink I realised it was about time for the last train home. We had to rush to the train station, cutting it really, really fine. Then when we got to the train station, Jac and Annes lockers had expired, so we had to find more coins to put in the locker to get their stuff out. Disaster!!! We ended up missing the last train to Kakogawa, but JUST making the final local train to Nishi Akashi. We didn't even have time to buy tickets.... I don't know how we managed to get on and off the train with no tickets, but apparently I had had a lengthy conversation with the men at the train station..... which I don't remember at ALL. After 3 drinks. Those Long Island Ice Teas are brutal. We had to catch a taxi from Nishi Akashi to Kakogawa..... about an $80 taxi ride. I don't even know how I managed to give coherent directions to the taxi driver. We made it back though, joy of joys! I am pretty ashamed of myself.... but honestly the alcohol content of the cocktails was misleading, because they don't even taste that strongly of alcohol, and you can drink them so quickly.
I had planned for us to get up early on Saturday and drive to Kyoto. That did not happen due to shocking hang-overs. All we managed to do was Macdonalds for lunch. And then to one of my fave restaurants for dinner. So we had just one day in Kyoto!
We had planned to get up very early on Sunday to make up for our lack of Kyoto action on the Saturday, but that didn't pan out as I slept through my alarm. To make time even tighter, we woke up to a snow covered Kakogawa! It has snowed a few times in Kakogawa this year, but the snow on Sunday was something else. It had settled on the roads, even. We saw 2 snow-induced traffic accidents just 10 minutes from my house.
I had decided on the back route to get to Kyoto, as the roads are toll-free, and I thought it might be nice for Jac and Anne to get a look at back-country Hyogo. We got to within 50km of Kyoto, but had to change course because the roads were just covered in snow, and my car doesn't have snow tyres. Bah humbug! We didn't make it to Kyoto until lunch time!!!
Kyoto was pretty much packed, as it is popular to see a lot of the gardens and temples when they are covered in snow. We had to wait about 20 minutes to get through the gates of the Golden Pavilion. I have been there 4 times before, and never once had to queue for more than 2 minutes. It was full-on trying to get decent photos, too, as everyone was jostling for the best places to take photos from. Anyway, Jac and Anne managed to see the main sights of Kyoto, well, a couple of them anyway, but they will have to come back some other time to catch the rest of it!!
On Monday, they came to my school for a class. They were treated like rock stars by my students. I think they enjoyed themselves; but probably the students got more out of their visit than they did :)
Monday afternoon I had planned to take Jac and Anne to Himeji to visit the castle, and then to an onsen. Then I found out that the Bjork concert was on MONDAY night, not Tuesday night as I had thought since I had bought the tickets!!!! So we had to rush around Himeji castle (I really wish we could have spent longer, I feel terrible) and then rush to Osaka for the concert.
Bjork was fabulous! It was a bit of a showcase of what I think was new mixer technology.... all very digital and special. The stage was a bit small for the size of the arena. Bjork's voice was big enough to make up for shortcomings in the stage, though. For a little lady, she must have some huge lungs. Wouldn't want to get into a shouting match with her!! She sung a few of her old songs with new music in the back, which I was happy about as I don't really know any of the songs from her new album.
On Tuesday I had to work in the morning, so I left Jac and Anne to sleep in. They were still sleeping when I got home........ so Tuesday was a bit wasted as well. The weather was pretty much shit- freezing, rainy and windy. On the agenda for Tuesday was a visit to the Osaka Aquarium.
The Aquarium is awesome. They have just found the craziest sea animals and put them into a massive massive aquarium. Truly amazing. I recommend it to anyone visiting Osaka! I got a hot tip from another ALT- he told me about a discount pass you can buy at Osaka station (at the information desk just outside the Midosuji Subway gate.... at the midosuji exit of Osaka station...). It cost 2400yen, but it gives you free rides on any subway in Osaka for the whole day. Entry to the Aquarium is usually 2000yen..... but if you want to see bits of Osaka, then youll be getting on and off the subway all day.... I reckon we saved about 600yen each in subway fares, and we only got to Osaka later in the afternoon. If you were there all day, the savings would go into the 1000s of yen. Something to think about ;)
After the aquarium, we headed to Ame Mura in Shinsaibashi..... and had dinner and some Karaoke... which is all I had time for as I had to catch the train back to Kakogawa. Jac and Anne stayed the night in Osaka, as they were catching a flight up to Tokyo the next morning from Kansai airport.
It was so great to have Jac stay.... I wish she could have stayed longer though, so we could have fitted everything in!!! Oh well though..... Its a shame to have to go back to normal life over here. Its amazing how much having people stays messes with your routines :)
I was worried about being a bit depressed after Jac left, but I have other things to think about now! I have snowboarding trips planned for this weekend and next weekend, plus a trip up to Tokyo next week for a Leaver's conference. The leavers conference is about writing a resume and making the best out of having "JET" on your resume!! I thought it would be helpful, and hopefully will give me some ideas into what I should do when I get home.....
I have a speccy new suit to wear as well! Jac and Anne helped me get an outfit... and they even paid for the shoes and a cardigan to wear with it. Actually I am wearing the outfit right now as I had to attend the graduation ceremony today. Its a skirt, and I was bloody freezing in the gym watching the students graduate. I got a bit choked up actually today.... a couple of my absolutely favourite students were graduating, and they were all teary. A few students were bawling their eyes out. 
A few students asked me to sign their year books. A couple of them I would have been offended if they hadn't asked me; but then there were a few other kids I didn't really ever have anything to do with, ever, that asked me to sign their books (bless them really.... they didn't have many other signatures...). It was very awkward when it came to writing "Dear...." and I didn't know what their name was!!! I ended up just starting the signing with "GOODLUCK!"
I had a quick look through the year book, actually, and I made it into a few photos.... was a bit happy about that. Must say that my tits looked really huge in a couple of the photos. I don't know where they came from (*cough* well if not genetics, diet may have played a part....).
Will let you know how snowboarding in Hachi Kita, the conference in Tokyo and snowboarding in Nagano goes!
Christmas in Japan is kind of disappointing. They don't really celebrate it all that well and it's looked upon as a "couples" holiday rather than a children's one. As a result there are lots of sexy girl Santa outfits (not of the pornographic variety, just form fitting) and ads for Christmas getaways. I do plan on doing a lot during my Winter Vacation, including a bit of a couples getaway, but that's for well after Christmas.
What am I planning on? Well, this weekend I am off to Kyoto to visit some Historical sites and
see my beloved. After that it's back to Osaka for a nice Christmas day, just me and my girl. So okay, I am treating it a little like a couples holiday, but all my family is in America and I have no kids! I don't have a choice but to treat it that way! I'm sure you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
Where was I... Ah yes, on the 27th I am going to Seoul to visit a good friend and celebrate New Years. I've never been a big fan of New Years in America so it will be nice to see how a different culture treats the occasion. The play Nanta is still going strong so I would like to see that, and Korean clothes tend to fit me better than Japanese ones, so a-shopping i shall go. I also plan on filling up on beef while on the mainland as I'm jonesin' for some good ol' fashion cow muscle. I have had some here on the island, and it's been good, but the Japanese have a bit of a strange hang up about beef...
You see, the Japanese think that it's not worth eating a piece of beef unless it is properly marbled. That sounds all well and good until you realize that "properly marbled" usually means almost 60% or more fat. I think it's too chewy and tastes crummy personally. It's also breathtakingly expensive, costing as much as 2,500 yen for a NY strip. I have found what the Japanese consider "lower cuts" at around 500 yen for a fair sized piece, maybe about 300 grams. This beef is very lean and it's the kind of steak I love to cook with. For Thanksgiving I made a nice butter steak with a sesame soy glaze. It turned out great if I do say so myself.
Anyways, I get back to Japan on January 2nd, but don't start work again until the 7th. In the meantime I will be spending the night at a yet undecided Japanese inn. I have been looking at several with outdoor baths, crab feasts and sake service. They are all nice so I guess it will come down to a combination of price and atmosphere, both of which are pretty reasonable in the Kansai area where I live.
On the 7th it's back to work as usual until Spring vacation in March. My brother says he will be paying me a visit then and my nephew might even come by to see my sometime in February when flight prices are at their lowest. I have a tentative plan to visit the USA during Spring break, even if it's just Hawaii. I want to drive dammit, and Hawaii will let me rent a car. I'm hoping Korea will as well, but I'm not holding my breath.
The last, yet most important thing I plan on doing this winter break is finally seeing a doctor and getting my insulin prescriptions. I have just enough medicine left to get me through 2007, so it's not like I'm dying or anything. I've just been at work so much I haven't had time to visit a real hospital to get this taken care of yet. If Winter Break wasn't just around the corner, I would have to call in sick one of these upcoming days so I could get this taken care of. I'm also proud of the fact that I haven't called in sick once yet, despite actually being sick last month.
So hopefully things will continue on this upward turn for awhile. I'll throw in a quick blurb here about my Japanese continuing to improve. I've started playing with Kanji, transcribing names of family and friends and such, and my spoken is getting better slowly day by day. I was pleasantly surprised recently when i was able to read an entire volume of Doraemon without need of a dictionary. I may even start scanning and translating stories with liner notes just for the hell of it, but I will need to get a scanner first.
I'll probably update with pictures by Christmas, and Korea has more internet than it knows what to do with, so I will update when I am out there too!
See ya's!
-Maru!
Last Sunday, Nigeria's female sprinters Franca Idoko and Christy Ekpukpon led all comers home at the DLV Gala classics in Wattenscheid, Germany. Weeks before that Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele smashes the UK's All Comers Record with 7.26.69 in the men's 3000m at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix in Sheffield.
With the World and Olympic 5000m champion, Tirunesh Dibaba already selected to double up in 5000m and 10000m in Osaka, Africa is set to challenge the rest of the world and to once again dominate the long distance races, though Aussie Craig Mottram might have something to say to that.
So what are their realistic chances of podium finishes in Osaka 2007? How many Gold medals do you think African athletes will win at the World championships?