Monday, July 31, 2006

A-Bomb

Yesterday before heading home I also went to the Peace park museum. Its been 7 years since I last went there. I have some photos of the Dome. The Dome is the only remaining building from the A-Bomb blast of 1945. This is because of a combination of things. The bomb was dropped, and detonated 600 metres above this building, less strength? Plus some irons the building happened to have in its structure.

After exploding the bomb created basically a small sun over Hiroshima, taking the area upto 4000degrees centigrade. This was followed by a shockwave which just destroyed everything.

They had some stone where a man was sitting, and the flash from the blast was so strong it lightened the stone and you can see the shape of where the man sat, burt into the stone making it darker. One image that stood out to me was of kids having a school lesson, outdoors as there were no buildings. These kids sitting there in the middle of nothing.

It is just hard to imagine such a strength, why do we make things like this. This bomb is something from a nightmare, just wicked. I couldn't even get my head around it. Just to look up and imagine if one of these things went off in the sky above you.

Mr Sparkle?



A group of us country folk went down to the big city of Hiroshima on saturday night!Some ALT friends had a gig at this bar so I tagged along as their number one fan.

So how was it? It was a great overnight stay! Firstly we found an overnight carpark for the car.. one where theres a little hole in the wall and the car goes into the hole and then gets carried away to god knows where by machines... Its something from a science fiction movie.


The band were great! Didn't have a name but then it suddenly became Mr Sparkle... ? Anyway lots of atmosphere, great venue, nice people, good songs! Had a great night.

Hiroshima nightlife is.. lively. There were so many places to go in Hiroshima.. just streets and alleys of buildings with different snack bars and clubs on each level.. Their unique names printed on old signs that would just ascend up into the sky. Walking down the old alleys at 3am still packed with people. Two, one million dollar Bentleys roll past, ok fair enough. Guys walking around in suits and sunglasses. Half the males look like they from the Japanese mafia. Females dressed up, some so over the top. Honestly this is a place for a documentary. You see so many interesting stuff go down and people that you just go wow, I really wonder who they are, what lives they lead.

Had a little 4am meal at a tiny snack bar run by a really nice filipino couple. Went outside and 5 fire trucks appear from the surrounding alleyways, firemen run into one of the many buildings, as something has gone down in one of them. There are just so many interesting people to meet, so many experiences to be had and stories to be told in places like this. Havent even scratched the surface. I am so coming back here when i`m at uni. Everything is new and intriguing. The atmosphere is like something from a movie.

The whole sci-fi theme is strong too. From arriving there, there are plenty of mechanics we dont have in Austalia. To start with, seeing plenty of those mechanic carparks and giant moving disks on the ground. Then to finish off the taxis have automatic doors. After getting out of the taxi at 5am and the door isnt shutting properly.. It just kept bouncing back open. The taxi looked like it was trying to fly as the two back doors continually try to slam shut on their own.. can everyone get that picture? Its was just amusing and weird. That just added to the whole foreign atmosphere of the night. Just standing there with that taxi and its automatic doors..

Stayed the night at some guys apartment. 7 people in a Japanese apartment. Let me lay it out for you. I was half under the dining table, the kitchen was behind my head, I could reach over and turn the shower on with my left hand, the toilet was on the left too but behind a door which they managed to add. Ontop of that extreme summer humidity.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Come back Koren!

Koren, an ALT who has become a good friend of mine, began her return to Canada on Tuesday. I went to the bus station to see her off, was really sad! Koren if you are reading this how are you! Miss you! Hope stuff with Calgury is going well! Thanks for giving a bunch of girls my mobile email at Oosaka airport, now I keep getting messages like "Evening, What are you doing o(^-^o)"........(-_-メ)

Last sunday my Japanese class had a big day of cooking all foreign foods, I didnt really know how to make a meat pie so I just helped out with the Malaysian ladies curry. What is Australian food anyway? Anyway it was a really nice feist! We had this great russian soup, with all these crazy things I saw being added into it, one of which being a purple powder? It was REALLY good though! We also had lots of chinese dishes and then some great Malaysian curry. In Japan they love their curry but its very sweet! Besides wasabi, I'm finding Japanese dont really have much of a tolerance for spicy food, chilli etc.

I have added a pic of me and Ma-chan, a friend of mine. Japanese people seem to be really loving but casual with their kids. Like I'll meet a lady with a small baby and like 2 minutes later she has to do something so she just hands me the baby.. Is that normal?

Friday, July 21, 2006

Summer Holidays? Poor students.

Today we had our closing ceremony as it is now moving into Summer holidays. The ceremony, as the Japanese way is, was very solemn and strict, you could hear a pin drop. The principal spoke first and then we had individual teachers talking. One lady, who kind of scares me, shes old, nothing against old people but there are lots of scary old people in Japan. Now I feel mean, I'm generalizing but hey.

Anyway her speech was just saying how we need to study more, and she just kept going on telling these kids that study was the most important thing in their life. This is textbook study. If you do bad in a test, you must study more and more and more! If you want to rest you must say no and study more and more! She did say to read books, which I kind of agree is a good thing.

Following the closing ceremony my 2nd grade year stayed back and had another lecture because the 2nd years(grade 11) are doing the poorest. The speech was about how they are doing terrible, the 3rd years are doing so wonderfully, teh 1st years too. The teacher read numerous test scores and stats and was saying they will let the school down at the end of the year when all the schools in the prefecture are compared. Our school will look bad etc etc. Im sitting there going whoa, they're serious about this hey. Then he talks about how during their summer classes they must work REALLY hard to improve their standards.

Summer classes, so summer holidays, the students have classes now from 830am until 1230pm instead of 330pm. Ontop of this they recieved summer holiday homework books for each subjet. And towards the end of the summer holidays they have examinations.. ? Holidays my ass. How ridiculous!

The reason for all this stress is because everyone got their grades back today. On their reports, everyone is ranked within their class from who was the best to who was the worst. Everyone is constantly being ranked, future schools, which class you are put in, its all decided by your test scores, from as early as Primary school. Teachers already decide which universities you can enter, which are above you etc. These kids lives are planned out, It's harsh!

This is the Japanese way of life though, It's only one of many differences over here. I mean I should do more "textbook" study but it's not the only thing in this world! Japanese students need more freedom, they need more opportunities to show initiative, in areas other than studying.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Rainy days

For the past few days it has been raining literally non stop. I have had my second day off school today because it's too dangerous to travel all the way to Gotsu from Hamada. The trains find it hard to run when it's wet, plus there have been some land slides.

Here is a photo of a train in Matsue. The train looks exactly the same as the train I catch every morning!


Speaking of crashes, just the other day I was riding my train home from school thinking, "Man it'd be so crap if this thing tipped over. Mmm there aren't that many pointy things around, I could just roll onto the roof, yeah Id be fine if it did." I dont want to find out.

Here I have also added a photo I took from my bedroom window this morning, can you see the harbour in the distance?

Rebeccas Birthday

ah what fun!




Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Music

Hiroshima


On monday we had a public holiday, the day for swimming? Japan has lots of public holidays, there is one for respecting the elderly and some others I forget. Everyone in Japan works so hard and they didnt have many public holidays to begin with like other countries, so they decided to make some.

So we went to Hiroshima! I have been a few times now and I really enjoy it. So many clothing stores its crazy, all filled with cheap shirts, so many shirts, all colour coded and everything! I also found, at the combini(convenience store) a new drink called "office diet" they like their sports drinks over here and alot have "diet" in the title. Maybe this new drink is targeted towards people who work in offices that are on diets?

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Hagi!



Today I went to Hagi with Miura sensei, the nurse at my school hehehe and her friend Shiho, whos an english teacher at Korens special needs school and a Friend of Miura, everyone knows everyone in the country you know how it is.

It was SO blooody hot today oh man im gonna die.. if I live through this summer ill be super happy. Lucky we had Miuras sweet Audi car, she loves her european art, travel and toys. It was a long drive, so we stopped for a break. I went to the toilet and there was like an old man in one of the toilets making the weeirest sounds, he was becoming really angry and I swear he said "shiit!" but ... thats english? I dunno, I was scared though, enough to bolt out of there quick fast! Moving along,

When we got to Hagi, we went to an art gallery first, the art was great, it was very quiet though, a nice orderly fashion to move around and look at the artworks, had arrows and everything.. After we had lunch at this amazing restaurant! They turned a tradition japanese home into a restaurant, had the most wonderful atmosphere, twinkly music in the background and everything, I felt like I was in a movie. (photos at restuarant above)

From there we went around and had a look at traditional Japanese houses from about 200years ago, between the meishi and edo periods, and the style of architecture they used back then. I REALLY enjoyed this, It was the same style house my former host families grandfather had. Where it's all tatami mats, big sliding doors so you can open the whole place up and see all the way from one end of the house to the other, I love it. Also except for the doorways (which I naturally had to duck under) parts of the house like the kitchen had these amazingly beautiful high ceilings, with a web of pillars and big slabs of wood. So beautiful! I was jumping around taking pictures left right and centre. I am so building a house like this in the future in Australia. Or using some of the designs.


Friday English Fun.


It was the end of the week so I was super tired. In my third year english class we learnt about different kinds of Hormone dependent cancers. Everyone agrees with me right? That that is the weirdest craziest thing to be studying. Its a reading class, and one of the stories in their "english as a second language" textbook was about hormone dependent cancers. What the?

Also I learnt (this is still during english class) that Okinawan people are the healthiest in Japan or something. Also the suicide rate for mature aged women, in all of asia, is lowest in Okinawa, yet still fairly high. I asked my teacher why there were so many mature aged women who committed suicide in asia and he said because of loneliness, and that they feel they have lost their youth and there is nothing to live for. I dont know if this is all true, or what the stats are in comparison to other stats etc, but I thought that was pretty sad. I have added a pic of my classroom.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

AQUAS




A trip to the AQUAS aquarium between Hamada and Gotsu with Koren, Katie and Craig. Had a nice day, these photos are from outside too, where there was a huge childrens playground. Also went to the beach after. Excuse my finger in the beach shot, once again.

Why not get in a bit of work experience at school!




Hi my friends! Its becoming so HOT! Well it's wednesday and this week is flying like everyother, I think it's because the school days just blur into one, or should I say melt. I have taken some pictures from my mobile! Firstly of my ghetto train station where the top of the doors stop at my mouth, so I have to duck quite a bit. It makes me feel like even more of a giant. Just a note these are the only doors as of yet I have found THIS low.. ridiculous.









Ok now for something new, just a note for people who dont know school in Japan is much more involved compared to australia. It is a second home and everything is done here. If a student gets pulled up by the police for example, the school is called, the school decides the punishment, not the family. Most medical tests are done at school.

Students here also place more importance on their looks, with kids pulling out mirrors every two seconds to fix their hair, they use anything with a reflection really, windows etc. Even the guys! I found out a bit into my stay that bonding with the males is doing eachothers hair in the Library in the morning. There is as much skin care products and perfumes and crap for males as there is for females over here. Its different. Everyone gets the idea, back to what I was saying the girls usually do their makeup and hair in the classroom before school. Today however was a first, at the back of my classroom a girl was getting her hair cut! I found this interesting so I asked if I could take a photo, I was able to. I get enough photos taken of me, I'm giving back.
You can also see Haruka diving into the photo there and a bit of my finger, not very professional of me.

Monday, July 10, 2006

A Typical School Day!


Let me give you a run through of my day today. Wake up at 530, stumble down extremely narrow staircase towards shower, have shower get ready etc run out door... Ok so now is where I'm sitting in the back seat of the car, no seatbelt speeding along to make the train. Dodging trucks and buses and all kinds of big things.. There I am in the back, half asleep, rolling around with no seatbelt on.. I cant even FIND the clicky thing to connect my seatbelt.... I'm not gonna turn this blog into a bitch about seatbelts... but just so you know I dont think it's safe. From there I catch the train to Gotsu! Sitting in the train extremely grumpy and tired, most days with ichi nensei girls sitting near staring at me. I look up, catch their eye and try to send a message of "stop staring at me".

By the time I get to school it's 710 and I have an hour to sit in the Library with my third year mates and help them with homework! Today we also had some exams so I went into the teachers room and Koren and I started this blog! Usually at school I just go around to all kinds of classes and hang out, love it! Today I was especially tired though because of chess, and the closing of the ALT art exhibit yesterday. Friday, sat and sun were three full on days!

After school I went to Art club to do suibokuga - calligraphy ink and brushes but painting pictures. It was my first lesson and we had a REALLY nice teacher this old man, he was so cool! Here I have attached a photo of some ta-ke I painted - bamboo, one of them is bent so it looks like bones, it's art I can have weird shaped bamboo if I want!

After school and clubs I return to my ghetto train station in Gotsu. I bump into my local punk friend at the station with their bleached spikey hair, big baggy pants and boots, cigarette in hand, and their scooters. I want a scooter! I did buy bike goggles in Hiroshima! Im half way there!...

A few keitai photos!



Me at home with host brothers, and cousin!
With my first host sister, Yoshiko, awesome girl! Is in canada for 6 months studying english woo hurrah for international ventures!



Heres me and Koren me andYoshimi!

















Evan and I at sunday Japanese lessons!

CHESS!!




Today I started a blog!

To start i'm having a super time in Japan land! What a great place, new friends, new things, change is good!! Lets get out of our comfort zones and learn new things!

Last weekend was chess camp! That was GREAT fun! CHESS camp was a prefectural english camp, with about 50 students and 50 ALTS, gathered for a weekend of english learning and games. I loved the whole teamwork thing, it was so uplifting all the support and cheering there was!

Hello


Hi everyone, I have started a blog.

These are photos from ESS Camp, just a few to kick things off!