Sayonara Sensei

Today Ono sensei and Kagawa sensei left! Their days at Shonan are over. As are Hamamoto sensei's, a comedic character who smokes 40 a day and looks constantly on the verge of collapse (if ever there was an advert for anti-smoking its Hamamoto sensei).

Me and Kagawa sensei mourned the end of an era with our third lunch out in a row- today we had curry & rice. At Co-Co's Curry if you eat 2kg of rice in 20 minutes you get it for free! I stuck to 300g in the end though.

I'm also....moving desk! Yoden sensei was very annoyed when he found out we wouldn't be sitting next to each other, so I suggested he bribe the teacher in charge of the seating plan. He laughed but then dashed off to speak to her, so who knows... I'll be sitting at Manabe sensei's desk, next to the new Head of English, Michishita sensei. The other new English teacher is Kawasaki sensei. I'll meet them both on monday.

But for today, goodbye Ono sensei and Kagawa sensei!

Tai-really-wan To Go Back Again Sometime (Taiwan Part 3)

And so we come to the final installment of my Taiwan trip. Tai may have pei'd too much for breakfast on the second day, but tai more than pei'd the price for drinking all those beers on the third. I finally managed to leave the hostel around midday, and had to find new accomodation as the room I'd been in was booked up for the next two nights. I wandered along to the Happy Family hostel, a grotty tower block in central Taipei with iron bars over every door. Pretty grim, but very cheap. The owner was Mr. Lee, a slightly less crazy Mr.Lee than the one I'd met in Seoul. There was no happy family in sight. After dumping stuff I headed up to Danshui, the seaside town at the end of the Taipei MRT metro line. It was a really nice day, and I enjoyed strolling along the waterfront, even in my pained state. I visited Fort San Domingo too, which was very interesting. I had more street food and then went back into Tapei to visit a couple of temples; they were both nice to wander around in the sun, and it was a great way to spend a day (I was really lucky with weather in Taiwan, as most weeks it pisses it down constantly (for non-British readers, that means it rains a lot)). In the evening I went to the Beitou Public Baths, an onsen-esque experience without having to get completely naked. I accidentally went to the hottest bath first, and jeeeesus it was hot! I don't know how the old Taiwanese men sitting in it could stand it. I settled for a less hot version, and soaked for a while. In the evening me, Meghan and Tibor met up for some drinks. We had quite a few, and ended up in a pub selling pints of carlsberg- pints!! I hadn't realised how much I'd missed the pint, Britain's greatest export. Anyway I got home around 3 or 4, I'm not entirely sure which, and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning the Taiwan trio ("JETs on tour") met up to see Taiwan's most famous "sight", the National Palace Museum. It was very impressive- I must admit the fact that it was mostly pieces of pottery worked against it, but even so there were some amazingly intricate, and unbelievable old pieces on display. The museums contents were all dumped onto a plane and flown to Taiwan in the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-Shek escaped Communist China. Thank god he did, as otherwise most of this stuff would have subsequently been destroyed in Mao's "Cultural Revolution". A particular favourite was an Olive stone carving, with a small boat with about 7 figures in, about 1.5 inches by 1 inch, with an entire poem carved onto the bottom in minute Chinese characters. The oldest stuff was around 4000 years old! There was also a long scroll painting, "Down By The River", which was fantastic- it was about 5 metres long. The photo is of Meghan getting interviewed by high school students. The rest of the day, and indeed evening, passed quite quickly; I strolled around a bit and, reverting to hobo-like tendencies, dozed on a park bench. In the evening we went to the Shilin Night Market, where we had the Taiwanese equivalent of nabe, and where it finally truly let loose and pissed it down. I had a couple of beers back at the hostel with a French guy before turning in for the night.

The next day began at the ungodly hour of 4.50am. The flights and train ride home all went without a hitch, and although we had a great time we were all tired and ready to be back home. Taiwan was very interesting; there wasn't quite as much to see as I'd expected, but the dumplings and general street food were excellent, and it was really really nice to be back in a Chinese-speaking country. It renewed thoughts of possibly going to live somewhere in China in the future. Nothing could match the amazing autumn colours nor the DMZ that I'd seen in Seoul. But I like Chinese architecture more than anything else I've seen in Asia, and I managed to remember and speak some of the Chinese I'd learnt two summers back which was very satisfying.

Tai-peid Too Much For Breakfast (Taiwan Part 2)

The next day I ventured out of Taipei, to check out the coastline of northern Taiwan. Tai truly did pei too much for my breakfast sushi, and it was crap compared to Japanese sushi, but then what did I expect. I got a train to Ruifang, and then got a bus (with lots of Taiwanese people staring at me) to Jiufen, a nice mountain town with a really long covered market street, and good views out over the sea. It was full of Japanese tourists too. After staring at the nice view for a while, and eating lots of street food, I headed on to the Pingxi Rail Line, apparently a very scenic route into the moutains. It was ok, but there's only so much excitement I can muster when faced with coal museums. After that it was getting late, so I went to the famous Keelung Market, known for its wide range of fish and traditional cooking. I had a kebab in the end. It was pretty good though. In the evening I drank in the hostel, and chatted with two loony Japanese travellers from Tokyo; it was their first time staying in a hostel, and the girl was so excited! After some beers I was gonna go out with some of the other people staying there, but we ended up drinking and watching movies all night; first The Departed (again), then Blood Diamond (DiCaprio's South African accent is actually really good), and finally Pulp Fiction, a perfect film for 4am. I had some more of my betel nuts to keep me awake!

Bring It Taiw-on!

This is the first in a series of poorly titled posts about my recent trip to Taiwan. It was full of fun, beer, sightseeing and dumplings.

The trip started on tuesday evening, when I dashed out of school 2 hours early thanks to Ono-sensei's generosity. I got all the connections and managed to have a couple of beers, so all went well. Soon enough I was on the flight to Taipei, where I managed to bag another couple of beers, this time free. I caught the last bus into Taipei from the airport, and at about 1am found the unmarked door to Eight Elephants hostel. The hostel was one of the most interesting I've stayed in; incredibly fun, relaxed and full of friendly people. But the longer term guests there were absolute insomniacs! The first night I probably managed to get about 3 hours sleep, so after that I quickly switched to a private room upstairs.

Despite the lack of sleep I hit the streets of Taipei with vigour and vim the next day. First up was the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, a huge monument to the controversial leader of Taiwan. It was at the south end of a huge square, with fantastic temples and monuments on all sides. The Memorial Hall and the arch facing it were both of a similar style to the Sun Yatsen Memorial I'd seen in Nanking, while the other two were wonderful Chinese buildings in Forbidden Palace style. I wanted to see Chiang's grave (I'd then have seen Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Sun Yatsen and Chiang), but I couldn't locate it. After the Memorial Hall I went to Taipei's most important temple, Longshan. Again it was colourful and full of life, and people. While temples in Japan are sombre and quiet, in Taipei they were all full of people praying, and mists of incense. Longshan felt like a real, working temple, and was on the corner of a block right next to busy market streets. From Longshan I went to the Ximen area, and chilled out for a while enjoying the sunny weather. I also went to the 2-28 Peace Park, which was really nice. Around 2 I headed back to the hostel, picking up some cheese dumplings from a street stall that someone had recommended to me; they were delicious, and dirt cheap. And I taught the lady there the Japanese pronunciations of the Chinese characters for her shop (I'm not sure how much she wanted to know them to be honest). I dozed on the sofa in the hostel for an hour or so, then went out again to visit the world's tallest building, Taipei 101. I've been up a few reeeally tall buildings now so the experience wasn't novel, but I guess its pretty cool to go to the world's tallest building, even if it will only hold the title for a few months before something else takes over. After that I ate in the basement food court, which had styles from all across Asia so I, of course, plumped for Japanese seafood ramen. I met my friends Tibor and Meghan in a coffee shop in Ximen in the evening, but they were pretty wiped out from a day trip, and my 2/3 hours sleep was finally catching up with me. So I left to check out Snake Alley before heading back to the hostel. On the way to snake alley I found one of Taiwan's infamous betel nut girls; girls who sell the addictive nuts by the side of the road, often skimpily dressed. This one was a fully clothed women in her 40s, just my luck!

I bought some of the nuts; they give you a caffeine like buzz that lasts for about 10 minutes, and turn your mouth blood red. Plus they are absolutely disgusting. Anyway I went on to Snake Alley, which was a bit dissapointing; only one snake, and de-shelled baby turtles for people to eat!! :( :( That made me feel glum, so I returned home. At the hostel I had some cake, and chatted with the really nice hostel owner; a girl who's just finished uni called Heather, who knew a lot and was incredibly laid back. By 12 I was ready to die, so I crawled into bed and got the 8 hours sleep I desperately needed.

The Transfer Window

Its all change this month as thousands of teachers across the country pack their bags and move to pastures new. For Kagawa sensei this involves not only packing his bag but clearing his desk of two years worth of accumulated bits of paper (he looked pretty glum today). So, who was the star transfer, and who got an Emile Heskey when they were looking for a Ronaldinho? Lets review...

Chisato-san (Hirota-sensei): The casualty of the window is that Chisato is moving, bringing a close to 7 months of mornings eating udon and afternoons gossiping about other teachers. She's going to a more academic school where my friend Meghan works. Although I'm sad to see her leave, her English fluency and teaching are wasted at Seishi, and so its a good thing for the students of Okayama. She'll have to wake up at 6am instead of 10am though; if I was forced into a change like that, I'd probably jump in from of a bullet train.

Ono-sensei: Not only am I losing Chisato but I'm also losing Ono-sensei. He's also off to an academic school, leaving a gap at the head of the English department at Shonan. Although he turned down my offer to fill that gap, he's a good guy, chilled out, and has a great taste in music, as well as favouring English English over what they speak in less wonderful parts of the world.

Kagawa-sensei: Perhaps the saddest change, however, has to be the loss of the legend that is, Kagawa-sensei. No more will the halls of Shonan be graced with his presence, nor his cheeky smile get to light up the teachers room. If Chisato is a Thierry Henry, and Ono-sensei a Michael Owen, then Kagawa-sensei is clearly the Stan Lazaridis of the English teacher world- the people's favourite, who will be greatly missed.

As well as these three casualties, a number of other teachers are leaving- maybe 10-15 from Shonan. Next week we have a massive formal enkai for both departing and new teachers. At Seishi, there'll be a new teacher to replace Chisato and line-up alongside me and Sugihara sensei in the English teacher strikefore (Ok I think I'm taking the analogy a bit too far now). At Shonan we have a back five of me, Takamoto sensei, Manabe sensei and two new teachers.

Below are a couple of pics from Seishi graduation- Sugihara sensei and me next to his very nice car for some reason, and him holding the big flag we put out for graduation.










Posts all about Taiwan coming soon...

Hattoji

After a wednesday and thursday spent eating out/drinking, I ended up getting truly drunk with Yoden sensei on friday night. This involved the regular Japanese 2-hour "nomihodai" (all you can drink), followed by a trip to Legend Bar, quite possible the classiest bar in Okayama. After cocktails, rum and wine we stumbled to Okayama station to get the last train back to Kojima.

My Saturday morning followed the classy theme, but involved less alcohol. I visited the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition at Takamatsu's Museum of Art. It was well worth the visit, and involved crossing the wonderful Seto-Ohashi Bridge to Shikoku. After a couple of hours there I had to dash into Okayama to meet Miwa, as we were going to Hattoji, and one of Okayama's International Villas for Yumiko's farewell. Friends Christoper and Sarah has spent Christmas there with their family, and it was easy to see why, it was really beautiful, secluded and peaceful. It did take us about twice the time it should have to get there though due to- depending on who you ask- Miwa driving too fast, Chisato driving too slow and going the wrong way, or my terrible directions.

We were sharing the villa with three other people from Illinois, USA. It was a really nice evening and next day, although as I write this the alcohol of the past 5 days has definately caught up with me. I'll give myself tomorrow off the drink before I head to Taiwan on tuesday!! Sugoi!!

Lightning Trip To Kansai

A while ago I bought the magical, oft-mentioned (certainly on this blog) Ju Hachi Kippu. It lets you travel unlimited for 5 days, and costs 8,000 yen. Last weekend I used up two of the days buzzing around Kansai, visiting my friend Nina in Nara Prefecture, as well as travelling to Osaka and Kyoto.

On Friday night I began my long trip across Japan to Nara Prefecture. It took about 4 hours for me to get to my friend's house, and involved a couple of changes in huge Osaka stations when I had to race to get trains with mere seconds to spare. Luckily I made it each time, and managed to leap acrobatically onto the last train just before the doors closed.

On Saturday me and Nina explored Yoshino, a mountain town famous for two weeks a year, when thousands of cherry trees bloom. Sadly I visited a few weeks before this will happen, but it was still really beautiful, with some nice temples that gave me a good chance to pose in my Blues shirt for an upcoming feature in the Blues magazine!

After Yoshino I headed into Osaka, and went to all the crazy and cool shops in Shinsaibashi. I also visited Osaka Castle, which despite its ancient appearance has an elevator to get you to the top!

On Sunday I headed across the Kansai plain to Kyoto. I revisited Heian Jingu, and then wandered across to Maruyama koen, where I saw some sort of Japanese bridal fashion show in progress. Then I went to Nijo-jo. The castle is fitted with "nightingale floors", which sqeak constantly, making it hard for any intruder to escape detection. Not so useful today when its filled with tourists. I got back to shiny Kyoto station, and just had time to buy an expensive department store bento and a couple of beers before getting the slow train back to Okayama.
























Today I found a new and exciting way to pass time at Shonan- play badminton! I managed a total of seven games against Yoshida sensei (old but very very good), Yamamoto sensei, and Kagawa sensei, a man so cool he deserves his own theme tune (for some reason I imagine that it would be simlar to the Postman Pat song). It was so much fun! Me, Kagawa sensei and Yamamoto sensei are all about the same level, and we're going to try to play every week.

Back to Takamatsu

This Saturday was my second enkai with the teachers from Seishi koko, and it was even more amusing than the first. After eating at a crab restaurant, and consuming the usual vast quantities of Asahi and Kirin, we headed for a sleazy karaoke bar where some of the really drunk teachers started singing the funniest songs. It turns out the kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) is a massive Hanshin Tigers fan, so he belted out the official Hanshin song, bellowing "Hanshin TIGERS!!!" at the top of his voice. Then the slightly bizarre but increadibly friendly history teacher got carried away singing fantasy songs from anime films; everyone was in hysterics! Sadly the night was tinged with sadness, as Friday was the last time I'll ever teach with Chisato-san. She's being transferred in the April teachers' "merry go round", and gossiping with her all day is the main reason why I like Seishi. It remains to be seen how my days there will be once I go back in April for the new school year. Thursday was graduation, so I'll try and post some photos from that soon.


On Sunday me and Miwa took the ferry from Uno (near where I live) to Takamatsu, one of my favourite cities in Japan. We went back to the reeeally nice Ritsurin Koen, had some Kagawa-ken udon, and chilled out. It was a perfect Sunday.