Hi, if anyone reads this blog and has been wondering what has been happening with Koalas and Turtles lately, SORRY. Life is busy...yes ...good excuse,but it works, sort of.
Well I think that I have almost recovered from our spectacular wedding which we celebrated in Tokyo, April 8
Th, 2007. Maybe I have recovered enough to add some posts about the event on this blog....then again,
maybe not quite yet. The reason being that we have yet another wedding celebration in Oz coming up in a few weeks. Gee, will we be glad when the wedding stuff is all over. If it sounds like I am complaining, no I am not... actually I am looking forward to it, but also we both are looking forward to not having to plan anything, other than starting a family, getting spouse visas, moving to Oz...oh my god.... sounds like a lot of paperwork...oh well.
Anyway...
here's whats been happening in my life
SCHOOLWell for the last 3 or 4 weeks I have been studying at
Kai Language school in
Shin Okubo, Tokyo. It is pretty full on but heaps of fun and I am learning
a lot. My class is from 13:20 to 17:10 Monday to Friday. There are 13 students... mostly from Korea and Taiwan, 1 German, 1 Swede, 1 Polish, 1 Brit, 1 American and 1 Aussie, plus myself. A good mix. We have 2 teachers, Mr
Okubo on Mon,Wed and Fri....and Ms
Miyagi on Tues and Thurs.
Okubo Sensei is a very fast paced and experienced teacher. If any student even so much as lets their thought wander from the lesson at hand, he knows in an instant and will fire a question their way so fast, that you swear he
must have been the fastest pitcher in his
high school baseball club days. This man makes me study with so much concentration that I
don't even have time to form an opinion about him, good or bad.
Miyagi Sensei on the other hand is a newbie, full of smiles, enthusiasm and so much patience... its a welcomed break from the 3 days of intense study with
Okubo Sensei. she also loves drawing pictures to explain a point...very fun. but I do find my self slacking off in her class and their tends to be
a lot of private little conversations springing up when ever she pauses or turns her back. So what kind of teacher do you like...the stern iron fist or the friendly gentle prod????
I think I actually learn more with the iron fist approach, but the gentle prod
approach is
a lot more enjoyable.
Our week consists of 5 days of grammar classes for the first 2 periods. during the 3rd period on Mondays we do essay writing, Tuesdays is reading, Wed is listening, Thurs is culture. for the 4
Th period Mon to Thurs is
KANJI. I hate
kanji, in fact the only reason I could like
kanji is because we
don't have it on Fridays. Fridays 3rd and 4
th period is revision of all the grammar we learned during the week. I am sure there will be loads more
kanji slagging/
bitchin in my blog later.
I have to say that my favourite classes are listening...cos I find it easy and Culture. Today in Culture class we had a
Japanese tea ceremony, other days we have learnt about
Sumo,
Tanabata, and
Obon.
Our school also organises events outside of school hours. I went to an
Izakaya- Japanese bar/pub night and met students and teachers from other levels which was loads of fun. There was a
Yukata-summer kimono and a
Kabuki event as well as a trip to
Mt Fuji coming up. I
didn't manage to sign up for these though. I really wanted to go to the mt
Fuji climb but I will be in Oz then. Tomorrow we are
having our summer holiday breakup party. The
German girl, Susan and I have volunteered to help. Should be fun. I also managed to rope Turtle and my mate
Tomo to come along.
WORKI managed to get my self a part time job in a bar. No I don't make drinks... I get paid to drink with customers, make conversation and sing karaoke. I am sure most of you who know anything about Japan are thinking...oh my god she is a hostess. Well I suppose that's what you would call it, except for the fact that I don't actually have any physical contact with the customers. Its great. I met the Mama (woman who runs the bar) while I was out drinking one night. I was telling my mate how I was bored and needed some part time work. She piped in and asked me if I wanted to work at her bar. I promptly told her that I was no idiot, was married and knew what those bars were like. She said no probs but that I didn't have to do what other hostesses did and that I could turn up in jeans and a tshirt if I wanted. So my hubby and I went and checked it out. the pay is very ordinary considering I don't entice the customers with my clothes(or lack of) and I don't have any physical contact with them, but its a pretty sweet deal. I can work whenever I want to, wear what I want to, and I can drink or not drink if I want to and its great for my Japanese. The only complaint I have is that is smokey and that sux especially since I gave up since New years and now detest smoking. Oh well...I also have a private English student who lives a 3 min walk from me. Our lessons are once a week for an hour.
Maho is 14 years old and basically
Bilingual. She is a returnee student from England. She loves horse riding and is a pleasure to spend time with. So, I am
definitely going to have to find some books for a 14yr old with a horse riding theme for her when I am in Oz.
OTHER STUFFAnother reason I
haven't been blogging is
FACEBOOK. I was addicted but am getting over it now, thank god. Its so crazy how many peeps from your past you can find on this site. Good thing is it got me back in touch with some old uni friends and some friends who used to live with me in Hello house.
Turtle and I have been getting into a few
DVD series. Every week on wed, he can get half price hire of
DVDs from
Tsutaya. At the moment we at various stages of watching
Prison Break,
Lost,
The OC,
Desperate Housewives, and
the Sopranos.
We have been to a few festivals, birthday celebrations, and housewarmings. For my birthday in June, Kame organised a BBQ for me by the river. A total of 45 of our friends came. It was an awesome birthday.
See Birthday photos hereLast weekend we went to our first movie together as a couple.
Borat...well I was worried that
Kame might not get it but he laughed so much that I had trouble hearing
a lot of the dialogue. The best movie ever he reckons, so it looks like I will have to chase up a copy of Ali G with Japanese subtitles for him.
Finally some great news is that
Kames oldest sister,
Yuka, told us 3 weeks ago that she had decide to come to Brisbane for our Oz wedding Party and ceremony in August. Then even better news was that
Kames 73year old Mum,
Sumiyo, who has never left Japan or her handicapped daughter
Makichan, decided to come too. Its a dream come true for all of us, as its always been
Sumiyos dream to go to another country, and now its really happening.
Misa, the middle daughter, is going to look after
Makichan and the Dad,
Katsumi. As you can imagine everyone in my family and
Kames family are really excited. Especially
Sumiyo... and now that she has a passport...
watch out world!!!
PHOTOS
KAI Izakaya Party at Cheers Bar in Shinjuku
Followed by Karaoke in Kabuki cho
Lots of beer was consumed this night.
Then there was BORAT the movie
