(01/06/04 - 30/06/04)
| 01/06/04 | Japanese Driving Licence That's right folks, not only have they let me loose with a car over here, but now I am the proud owner of a Japanese driving licence. Cool. |
| 02/06/04 | Nenkyu (day off) I still have a few unused holiday-days...so I decided to take a day off. Bounced out of bed early, wrote a few articles, sorted stuff out, then went to photograph the sunset... |
| 03/06/04 | Shodo (Japanese Calligraphy) I finally remembered to take some pictures... See the photos After shodo, I went back to Bran's for dinner with her and Kara - great food, cheap plonk, and good company. Who could ask for more?! Thanx Bran for a great dinner! |
| 05/06/04 | Organ and Recorder Concert at Harmony Hall Last week my vice-principal gave me a free ticket to this concert, so I thought I'd pop along and see what it was all about. It actually wasn't bad. The organist was pretty terrible (from a musical point of view), but the recorder-dude was pretty good. It was a very "Japanese" performance, though. He got the technicalities right, but there wasn't much emotion in it. He did get a good sound, anyway. The concert made me realise just how much I miss my oboe, recorder and okarinas... The Garden See some photos to see how the garden's getting along! |
| 06/06/04 | Certificate in Teaching Japanese Students - Conference in Osaka Went along to this with Tom. Rather surprisingly it was really good! All we have to do now is write our four essays... For more information, check out: Teaching English to Japanese Students |
| 09/06/04 | 'Tuneful' Fukui I finally succumbed to the need to create music again, and bought myself a new okarina. Can you believe I even left both my old okarinas at home? How stupid was that?! To be honest, I did try to fit my recorder in to my luggage when I left, but even my treble wouldn't fit. And since insurance is a bit of a bitch, and there's nowhere to practice, the oboe has to stay at home. Anyway, I'm happily tooting away now, much to the annoyance of my neighbours, I'm sure!!! |
| 11/06/04 | Posh Meal for Female Teachers We went to an expensive French restaurant ("Restaurant Jardin") up Awarakaido Dori. Ten courses. Need I say more? The food was beautiful, and I managed to have a conversation (in Japanese) with the little girl of one of my colleagues. Anyway, I had a good time. It was definitely an enkai with a difference - so much more refined without the male teachers there! |
| 13/06/04 - 16/06/04 | Tokyo Conference for Recontracting JETs Tom and I got the overnight bus to Tokyo a day early so we could do some exploring and shopping... The conference itself was actually really good - there was some excellent advice etc...I'm very glad I attended all the workshops :P Had a good time living it up, too, though! |
| 17/06/04 | Welcome Enkai for new teachers (again) Three new members of staff (including my new supervisor) were welcomed to Haruko at a Japanese-style restaurant. Only about nine of us were there, and it was very laid back. Tom had the honour of being invited, and we enjoyed some really wonderful food - although the portions were meager to say the least. And it was e x p e n s i v e! |
| 18/06/04 | Mary's Birthday Celebrations in Fukui A few of us met up for a beer and feed at Tengu! Happy Birthday Mary! See the photos |
| 19/06/04 | Yukata - YATTA! Arranged by Brandon, a group of us got together at the garden by the FIA and frolicked in our yukata (Summer kimono). The weather held out for us - it was beautiful! (if a bit hot...). See the photos Tie-dye-a-rama Arranged by Teresa, we congregated in a park, ate salad and tie-dyed to our hearts content! See the photos |
| 25/06/04 -26/06/04 |
Roughing It: Camping, Japanese Style A rather last-minute decision to go camping lead us up into the wilds of the mountains of Izumi...and beyond... Despite the weather, it was beautiful. So peaceful and relaxing. And in case you were worried...we weren't really roughing it! Although we didn't have mobile phone signal, there was a pay phone just by the en-suit log cabins. See the photos |
| 26/06/04 | Pizza and Wine Party Proving yet again that you can fit quite a few people in our apartment! 15 fellow English teachers joined us for a civilised gathering involving a few drinks and some nibbles. Yeah, right. The gang came round for a good nosh up, and got sloshed. Good times. See the photos of
happy fun pizza time! |
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