On quiet days and unrelated photos

Some strange photos are appearing in my photostream and this won't be the last time - I need to take photos of mundane things for my other blog (http://hyogoexchange.blogspot.com/ - wear your safety goggles, it's educational) so bear with me. Unless you like pictures of vending machines and sports fields, in which case enjoy.

I also don't have much to talk about, I'm just posting because I imagine legions of people visiting every day and frowning that I haven't updated the page. So, for all my loyal fans: an exclusive portrait of me, done on commission by one of my students.

Play that funky music, wasshoi

There's a poetic simplicity to the Naked Man Festival - it doesn't try to be anything other than thousands of men dressed in loincloths beating each other to a pulp to try and get a stick the size of a Coke can. It must be very liberating to stamp on someone's face for that silly a reason. Given the choice between “participant” and “spectator” however, I soundly ticked the latter. The world really doesn’t need to see me in a loincloth.

Ashes to ashes, brain to mush

Just finished about 2 hours straight of translating a very complicated brochure on the Japanese education system. Developing an irrational fear of relative clauses and sentences with no subjects.

Thankfully, I have another enkai coming up shortly - nothing fortifies the brain and cures a headache like alcohol (then returns it later with interest)!

Sorry I haven't been posting very much - I figured there would be only so much I could pad out "sat at home and watched 24 because it was too cold". Should be plenty to talk about after NAKED MAN WEEKEND though. I've volunteered to do a write up about it for the JET newspaper too - I hope they like references to shrinkage and skidmarks.

Snowboarding or something quite like it

I came to Japan promising myself that I would do things I couldn't do at home. So, in one weekend I smashed my shoulder into dust on a mountain, secured my safe passage to the Buddhist afterlife and stood in the snow stark naked and pouring with steam. Achievement unlocked.

Lisa's blog

It's way prettier than mine.

If nothing else, check out the picture of the monolithic hamburg dinner I had the other night. It includes the better part of 3 different animals and will either make you hungry or vegetarian.

I'll see y'all after snowboarding - possibly Sunday if I have any energy/bones left.

Enkai (work party)

Dear Mike,
Next time you're rip roaring drunk on a Monday night and your boss says "shall we have a second party?", politely decline. You will save yourself a lot of Panadol and liver.
Regards,
Sensible.


Dear Sensible,
No.
Regards,
Mike.

Sports Day

This is a bit overdue (4th of Feb?), but I finally got around to uploading the photos from Kobe High School's sports day. It was basically a big hike up the nearest mountain and then a marathon.

We'd probably call this strange creature "cross country" back home, except that this one was about 689m taller and had blue lips.

Setsubun

Photos above - they're the milk to the cereal that is my words.

A very brief introduction for those who aren't familiar with it: "Setsubun" or the Bean Throwing Festival is a yearly event in Japan that takes place early in February to mark the beginning of spring. It's called that because it involves people throwing beans to ward off evil "oni" (ogres/demons, noone can seem to agree on a translation) and chanting "oni ha soto, fuku ha uchi" (demons out, good fortune in). I've heard some parents even dress up like oni so their kids can pelt them with beans but I'm not sure how common that is.

We missed it last time we were here so we were determined to get to it this time around. And get to it we did, with a little bit of help from Mr Annual Leave.

Comments fixed

You should be able to post comments anonymously and/or without registering now, not sure why the settings were like that. Go crazy (in a good way)!

I'm suddenly sitting in the staff room with half the lights turned off and I'm not sure why because of a staff meeting. Time to sneak out... having taken leave and told them I'm going. Stay tuned for photos of the bean throwing festival!

Photos

They're like a pie made of wow. There should be previews at the top of the page and you can click the link to my Flickr page to see them proper big.

Internet should be installed at our place this Friday, then I can start updating properly without having to dig holes under my desk and smuggle bandwidth in the legs of my pants.

In short: everything is great at the moment but I'll be very glad when I've finished my millions of self introductions to each class. Gather round children, I'll tell you all about Cottesloe Beach and glare at my watch every few minutes.