April, the month for new beginnings in Japan

Greetings from me! A married lady! Sacre bleu!

How time flies... April was a very busy, very stressful month. Our new contracts commenced at ECC, and with it, a new bunch of children, with a new bunch of, shall we say... idiosyncrasies... some are cheeky little monkies (hello Masaaki, hello Daiki, hello Marin, hello Shuki), some are timid little flowers (hello Kuruma, hello Miwa, hello Mami), some are total geniuses (hello Tomoaki, hello Chi), some are mutes in conversation classes (hello Haruka... I wonder, why do your parents send you here?).

Either way, I'm not too phased. The naughty ones, well, they're not so naughty. The well behaved ones, well, they're just like the naughty ones only less spirited. I mean, they're kids. I let them be kids, to an extent, and just hope that they speak a little bit of English in the interim.

However, this years group class is nothing compared to last years. They've already complained to the staff that I speak to quickly. Why they think this is a better idea than approaching me about speaking quickly, I do not know, but it has gotten me a bit offside.

The change in locations and classes was stressful, but all in all, I think we'll be ok with it. Either way, as much as teaching sometimes feels like it fills up your life, it isn't everything. We're a busy little pair, and we've been up to a lot since my last weblog entry.

Cherry blossom season was just beautiful. I took lots of photos. I would gladly do cherry blossom season in Japan again if I have the chance. It was spectacular. Seas of white and pink blossoms everywhere, and people serenely wandering amongst the trees. There were many street markets around the cherry blossom sites, and I had some great takoyaki, yakitori, and beers with Tom, Glenn, Hanae, Eishi and Krista in more than a couple of locations. I really think I'm beginning to understand the Japanese obsession with seasons. It's because the character of Japan is so different in each season, you can really enjoy a great variety of sensations, even within one place because the surroundings change so much depending on what time of year it is.

Here are some photos of spring in Japan:

Blossoms
Osaka-jo hanami

We went with Krista to Shikoku - it was a strange time, cooped up in the car, with Japanese speed limits saying 80kmp/h, and Japanese drivers doing 100kmp/h. The driving wasn't too bad, the music was good. We drove through Kobe to the toll road for the Awaji-Kaikyo Bridge, across Awaji Island (which looked very pleasant in itself), to the Onaruto Bridge. When we came off the toll road, my hair turned white at the cost... ¥5500! That's like $75AU, just to go on the expressway for less than an hour!

Tom jumped in the water at Naruto, and we had a beautiful little lunch of fresh bread, tomato and pesto sandwiches by the big whirlpool (that's quite famous) before beginning a little drive around the sea front toward Takamatsu. I tried to stick to the non-toll roads as much as possible, but the non-toll roads have incredibly stifling speed limits, stacks of traffic lights, and are incredibly frustrating for long distance travel. At first, the road was a winding, but very picturesque expedition through the hills, but as we got closer to Takamatsu, it became an endless sea of low-density light-industrial zones and grey shopping strips that just seem to go from one end of Japan to the other. I started to get quite frustrated with it all. This was not the Shikoku I was hoping for.

We made it to Takamatsu, and I was quite pleased with the city. It was quite pretty for a Japanese city, with wide, tree-lined roads and green surrounding hills. We went to Ritsurin Koen, a stunning park, full of traditional style gardens and lawns (which are rare in parks in Japan, if you are wondering why I am bothering to mention something as seemingly unremarkable as a lawn in a park). After a stroll around the park in the afternoon light, we realised we would not make it back to Tokushima in time to bed down at the Youth Hostel I had arranged for us, so we cancelled that one, and stayed at another budget accommodation place in Takamatsu. The accommodation was surprisingly good, and after filling our bellies with sanuki udon (the Shikoku specialty) we slept comfortably.

Shikoku, day 1

The next day we headed off bright and early to Kotahira to go to a famous, mountain-side shrine called Kompira-san. The walk was not too exhausting and the views were quite spectacular. I felt quite serene when I was there, and Krista was interviewed for Japanese TV when she bought a sweet potato flavoured soft-serve icecream at the bottom of the mountain!

We then headed back to the mainland via the Seto Ohashi bridge. Again, the expressway fees were frightening, but it was the only way to get back to the mainland via car. We arrived in Okayama soon after, and I hoped we would be able to go to the famous Korakoen garden for lunch, but we unfortunately missed the turn off. So, instead we parked a couple of hours later near Himeji Castle to enjoy our lunch. After lunch, I hit the expressways once more in our mad dash to get the car back on time. The non-bridge expressways were not so poorly priced, and we made it back with time to spare, very tired, but looking back at the experience, it was merely my expectations not being met that put a downer on the trip, rather than the trip itself.

Shikoku, day 2

I have decided since this trip to not bother getting a Japanese drivers licence, as driving in Japan is just too expensive and trains are just more convenient in the end.

After our Shikoku trip, we had the next weekend off in preparation for our wedding. I bought a dress, but on the night before the wedding, I decided not to wear it. I went to the ward office in my favourite Motörhead t-shirt. Tom wore a Satyricon t-shirt. We went out for yum cha whilst the paperwork was being processed. We came home, said some words, put rings on the fingers, drank some wine and went to karaoke for a bit of a yodel. A perfectly unconventional wedding for a perfectly unconventional couple.

The Wedding

I have been feeling much more at ease with the world since getting the wedding out of the way. And now, as husband and wife, we can start planning the next phase of our existance... whatever that might be... me and my plans... I think I lov planning almost as much as I love doing things, you know...

We both went and saw SUNNO))) - be it on different nights - they are a drone/noise band from the States that we quite like. Here's some pictures for those of you who are interested:

Tom's SUNNO))) pictures
My SUNNO))) pictures

After our wedding, we went on our honeymoon to Phuket. We booked our accommodation online and I must say, for the price, I was stunned at what a wonderful place we managed to get for about ¥6000 ($80AU) a night. This was no shonky dive! We were in a resort! We stayed at Hat Kata and the resort was about 20 minutes walk (or 5 minutes on the free shuttle bus) from the white sands and shady deck chairs of Kata beach. There were more Europeans in the area than Aussies, which was a great relief. The Aussies, wherever I laid eyes on them, were behaving like embarrassing fools. From the group having an AFL kick-about in Bangkok airport, to the countless sleaze-bags with Thai girls on their arms in Phuket, Australians were doing their best to remind me why I left the country!

I was surprised at the level of poverty among the people of Phuket. I had imagined a sleek, white beached, jungle getaway, but a lot of Phuket looked surprisingly like a third-world country compared to the affluence of Japan. The homeless dudes in my neighbourhood in Nihonbashi looked like your average Thai in regards to health and personal hygiene. Due to their poverty, the Thais seemed to view us more as walking money-bags rather than people, and they pestered us at every turn to buy sarongs, taxi-rides, massages, wood-carvings, bed-spreads, sun-beds, shells, knock-off designer wares, but worst of all were the Indian tailors, who pursued Tom down the road with such aggression that on numerous occasions we had to physically pry them from our arms, as they grabbed and clawed at us trying to make a sale. I despised it. I had read that I should be prepared to haggle for good prices, and indeed, I haggled for most things that didn't have a list price (haggling makes me very uncomforable), but nothing could have prepared me for the assault of street hawkers at every turn. We ended up speaking Japanese to each other a lot in public to try and confuse the street sellers, and keep our nationality secret. It appeared that they viewed the European and Asian travelers far less dimly than they viewed Australians, and again, I felt saddened by a stereotype of our national character that appeared to be based on the behaviour of awful, bogan, tourists.

Aside from the negative aspects, the accommodation was quite lovely, and I was quite happy with the Alpina Resort. Their breakfasts were delicious, and I really enjoyed their spread of fruit salad and yoghurt, fried rice and green salad for breakfast every day. The pool was very refreshing and clean, the general environment (aside from the insipid music pumped through the poolside PA) was more than conducive to relaxation. The weather was fair for the majority of our stay - hot, and a little humid as the monsoon season approached - but we managed to get away without any severe sunburn (due to almost constant vigilance with the sunscreen bottle). The beach at Kata truly looked like it was lifted from a postcard. The powdery sand was as white as snow, and the water was as warm as a bath. If anything, I thought the water was too warm, as I am used to swimming in the ocean in Tasmania, where the experience is invigorating, and bracing, not tepid and relaxing. I found it a bit too close to body temprature, and perhaps this made me think of warm patches of pee in the pool. Either way, it looked very clean on the most part, but as we ventured toward the end of the beach, we saw huge piles of trash - mostly plastic, swirling around in the currents at the end of the beach. There was a man whose job was to sweep up the trash heaps, but he didn't seem to be able to keep up with the volume of rubbish that endlessly surfaced from the Andaman Sea. We bought some snorkels and snorkeled around the rocks, and saw a huge, dazzling variety of fish. The fish were quite unphased by our presence, and we saw angelfish, puffer fish, butterfly fish, bat fish, crabs, a tropical trevalley species, and Pacific saury all about us, in quite staggering numbers.

From this experience, we decided to go on a snorkeling tour of either Phi Phi Island, or the Similans. We eventually settled on the Similans, as they are partly National Park, and I thought the likelihood of having to swim through oceans of plastic trash was lower if we went further away from "civilisation." I practiced diving under the water with a snorkel on first in the resorts' pool, and became more comfortable with snorkeling. I had only ever been snorkeling once before with Emma and Adrian in Moreton Bay, and although that experience was more than wonderful, I found it a little scary and difficult to regulate my breathing - ending up with a breath full of water on more than one occasion. This time, I was more well prepared for an open ocean dive.

We started the day at 6am, and were on our way by 6:15. The courtesy bus to the dive company boat was most hair-raising! He drove like Mad Max with a wasp up his bottom. An awful, unsettling journey, indeed. From there, we were settled onboard a speedboat, and slept soundly for most of the way to Similan Island number 9. Our first snorkeling dive site was absolutely magical. As I first put my face into the water, I realised I was surrounded by a huge school of darting, electric blue fusiliers. They swirled about me so beautifully, I was already entranced by the beauty of the area. Raised mountains of coral scattered the sea floor, and amongst the corals, huge numbers of diverse fish, ducked in and out from cavities, and grazed on the algae like the herds of the savanna. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, yellow fish, green fish, rainbow fish, and we saw a sea turtle, very close, I could almost touch his shell. Absolutely stunning. I dove under the water with my new found skills on several occasions, to inspect my beautiful foreign surroundings a little closer up. At the surface, a group of domestic tourists bobbed about with life jackets on, screaming almost continuously with fun and fright. I'm surprised they didn't scare all of the fish away. They were, however, quite unpleasant to be around. After 45 minutes, we headed for Similan 8. There we went ashore, and we climbed up to Sail Rock, where we were afforded an enviable arial view of our tropical paradise. We ate the most awful food in all of Thailand for lunch and then went back to the boat on our way to the next dive site. Similan 5 was again, stunning. The coral here seemed more brightly coloured than at Similan 9, and the underwater visibility seemed a little better. I would have loved to be there longer, maybe with less noisy and intrusive dive companions, but despite it all, it was staggeringly beautiful. Soon after we went ashore, where we saw a couple of lovely little beaches, but I found myself longing for more snorkeling, and less beaches. That's the drawback of doing a tour, I suppose. You don't get to do what you want to do for the entire time. You have to compromise. At the end of the day, we returned to the port for another rollercoaster like ride in the courtesy bus back to Kata where we had a quick shower and then headed to Patong to see a Muay Thai fight.

The Muay Thai stadium was quite an eyesore, but it looked totally at home in Patong. Patong is possibly the worst, most garish, awful, tourist hole I have ever had the misfortune of seeing - but more on that later. The Muay Thai fight was somewhere between a beautiful demonstration of an ancient ritual, and an evening in a nightclub. We were seated ringside, near the band, the sound of which was somewhere between an Indian snake charmer and a beatnik bongo beat poem. We watched the first few fights with more than a little concern. The fighters appeared to be about 11 years old for the first two bouts. They fought long and hard, and with steely determination in their eyes. Tom told me about how a lot of these kids come from very poor families, and are sold to Muay Thai camps - where they live out their days, fighting, until they are old enough to look after themselves. Many of these young, young, boys, looked old in their eyes. They were no older than a lot of my kids in my ECC classes, and I felt myself being a bit distressed as to their plight. As the evening went on, the fighters got older. The bouts got a lot faster as the levels of strength, and ensuing violence, quickly went up. There was one bout between an Australian woman and a Thai woman that was over within about three punches, the Aussie clearly scaring the living daylights out of the Thai. It was really exciting and fun to watch on many levels, but I couldn't help but be a little disturbed by it all.

The next day we went into Patong to see if Tom could find a tailor to make him a suit. As we walked down the street, following our map to where we had decided to go, and were truly bombarded by street hustlers, tuk-tuk drivers, tailors, and sarong weilding maniacs at every turn. Tom found the tailor, was measured, chose his fabrics, and we went back into the Patong wilderness for 7 hours until his first fitting. The streets were lined with open air bars filled with single white males, some chatting to Thai girls, some just flexing their muscles at each other with testosterone filled bravado. We scurried away from the beach to the mall next to the Muay Thai stadium that we had spotted on the way to the fight the night before. We ended up hiding in the air-conditioned comfort of the mall, called Jung Canton, much like we did in Brisbane, just to hide from the craziness of the streets of Patong. Whilst we were there we took in the Wolverine movie, which was a fine movie when judged against other Hollywood action blockbuster type things. We did the same thing the next day when we returned to pick up the suit. My general advice for anyone considering going to Phuket would be - do so, but avoid Patong if you can, it is just a heinous pit of vipers.

We got back to the airport, and checked in early. We wandered around the airport looking for anything to do and finding very little. When we arrived in Bangkok, the miles of duty free was wasted on us, as we had changed our Baht back into Yen, figuring that we would be better served on our return if we didn't bother with the duty free stuff. The new Bangkok airport is amazing. Huge. Really big. Worth seeing just in and of itself... looks a lot like Kyoto station at some angles. The flight back to Japan departed at 10pm, and was packed. We tried to sleep, but it was impossible. I arrived, stiff, sore, and nauseous at Kansai airport to discover that our locked baggage was broken into by baggage handlers at either Phuket or Bangkok airport. Luckily neither of us packed anything worth stealing, but I still felt violated. Tom's toiletries bag was outside of his suitcase, and my luggage was severely dented. This left me with a very sour taste in my mouth about it all, and after getting home, I wrote a very cross email to Thai Airways voicing my contempt for them before falling, exhausted, into a very deep sleep... until now, when I woke up and wrote this.

Some photos were taken, of course.

The Honeymoon

So, there you have it, April, in a nutshell. Most of it was fantastic, and I would do most of it again - maybe a little differently, given the wisdom of hindsight, but that said, wisdom is only gained by experience, and until you have done something once, it is very hard to know how to do it right. April was a month of firsts: we had our first classes of the new contract with ECC, we had our first road trip with a friend with Krista, we had our first (and hopefully last!) wedding, we had our first tropical, resort holiday in Thailand, and our first hanami (cherry blossom viewing) together.

Now, all that remains for us to do is sort out what else we want to achieve before we leave Japan. And no doubt, I will be writing another blog entry in the not too distant future, telling you all about the next wave of plans we are hatching, and how we are going to realise them.

Until then, stay happy and healthy, don't be shy about getting in contact with us, we'd love to hear from you... all of you... you're all terrible correspondents, you know... sometimes I wonder if I'm the only person who writes letters at all.

Keeping spirits up...

Since receiving the new schedule, I don`t feel quite right. I`ve been a skittish bag of nerves rather than my usual self. I am really starting to feel jealous of people who have a normal life and don`t have these constant upheavals to deal with all the time. Tom and I have been doing our best not to let it get to us too badly. This has involved avoiding the topic of schedules (or ECC generally) in conversation, and indulging in healthy diversions whenever possible.

Tomorrow we are planning to go to the sumo:
Sumo Tournament Homepage (English)

Last Thursday we went for a walk over a mountain in Nara:
Kasuga Yama

On Friday, our neighbourhood got a bit kookier than usual, which is saying something, because kooky is our neighourhood`s bag:
Den-Den Town Street Festival

In other news, we have booked our honeymoon. Phuket in Golden Week! I`m so excited. I will have to purchase swimwear... I have nothing suitable to wear for a beach/lounging affair like this! I may also need to do a few sit ups to tone up prior to attempting such stomach revealing activities.

The marriage paperwork will be done on the 21st or 22nd of April (depending on the availability of our translator, the lovely, gracious, June Iwatsuki Tanaka) and Krista will be helping out as our Best Man/witness. I`m really looking forward to having everything sorted, formalised... all marriage-ified.

The road trip with Krista before she goes back to The States... we still haven`t decided where we are going... we might be off to Hiroshima, or Wakayama/Mie, or perhaps even Kamakura... we`re going to decide when we`re at the sumo.

Lots of diversions, lots of keeping busy, lots of working on the music projects, and hopefully we will have lots of wonderful news and lots to show for our troubles.

More spanners, less works...

Another unhappy update.

Suffice to say that I didn't get the trainers or the assistant trainers job. The official reason was "you haven't been with the company for long enough" - to which I wonder why they even bothered interviewing me. I mean, that reason was there before the interview.

Reading between the lines, I have come to my own conclusions about that one.

Whatever.

Soon after receiving the bad news about the job, I then received the first draft of my schedule for next year.

The good news:
I got Tuesday and Wednesday off, which means that I will be able to have the occasional long weekend, given the smattering of Monday public holidays in Japan.
The shifts I had been given weren't too late.

The bad news:
My draft schedule had precisely zero of the schools that I had requested on it.
AND
I had two substitute teaching days on my schedule in my second contract - unfixed hours, unfixed locations, unknown classes.

We were back to where we started with the company. Subbing indefinitely. I don't sleep well the night before a sub-shift. I don't enjoy any element of it what-so-ever. I find it demeaning, particularly considering that I work very hard to be a good teacher, and then the company chooses to use me as spac filler, junk mail distributor, paper folder, envelope stamper, monkey extraordinaire. It takes a toll on the spirit when you work as hard as you can, get "Outstanding" teacher evaluations, get requested by schools to return, request the schools yourself, and then have someone in HQ just whisk it all out from under your feet. And just when I was beginning to feel settled in the new house and my job.

The schedule they had proposed to me only had one kids class when I had asked for little kiddies but "not too many" (I figured they'd give me about 4-6 classes if I asked for "not too many," not one!)- I had only one group class when I had asked for "as many as possible" - I had no private kids when I had asked for "as many as possible." I was absolutely dumb founded. I got none of the locations I asked for. I was devastated. I cried flat out for every moment I wasn't teaching for two days. I was losing my Komyoike shift, which if I haven't mentioned before, is where I teach the Mini Kids (18 month to 3 year olds) and BW's (7 year olds). I have rapport with the kids, the school, the students, I do all my shopping out there. I knew I would be losing Tennoji Station Plaza, I knew that I probably wouldn't get Kuzuha on Sundays, but to lose Komyoike - I was gutted.

Tom's schedule was painfully similar, and he was similarly disappointed. We've contacted HQ, and they've said that they'll "do their best" to fill our schedules - which at this point in time could mean anything. I've been told that they'd "do their best" before, and I have peers who are subbing 10 months after starting teaching (nay, Tom is one of these peers who is still subbing), when everyone has been "doing their best." So, maybe I am becoming tad cynical.

Now, we are just trying to wait and see. I have been tearful, Tom has been rattled and angry... it feels like a death or a break up, constantly questioning, why, why, why... why me? Why now? So many questions, so many compromises... we suffered Brisbane, and suffered temping for 2 years to get here... are we destined to suffer Osaka, and suffer sub-teaching now that we are here?

Please tell me no.



In other news, I have survived the salmonella. I had to go to hospital on day 4 of the diarrhea and vomiting, and be re-hydrated (intravenous drip, no less). I had no sick leave left, and so I had to work when I was sick - the students were very kind in letting me run off occasionally for a quick toilet break when necessary. I am back to eating normal food now after almost two weeks of bananas, rice, apples (stewed) and toast (the BRAT diet, no less). I have been cooking at home again far more, and being very picky about what I will eat when I eat out now. I never want to feel that sick again.

We've done most of the paperwork for our marriage - and we'll be formalising the arrangement fairly soon. We haven't set a date. It's not going to be one of those kind of affairs. Probably in the next three months, with a honeymoon fairly soon afterward.

I found driving in Japan to be quite easy, and so I will be having another drive soon for a road trip with Krista before she leaves to return to Indiana. We were thinking of heading down to Hiroshima/Miwa Jima... I am really excited by the prospect of getting into Chugoku area. If it turns out that Miwa Jima is too far, maybe we could go to Tottori - I'll have to ask Krista a bit more about what she'd like to do before we come up with our final plan.



Now, it comes time once more to study our options... suffice to say, it would be nice to have a few less spanners in the works every time we start trying to formulate a plan.

Either way, we haven't been idle. We're continuing to get out and about from time to time:

Sanjusangen-do

Chishaku In

Iga Ueno Ninja Town

Hopefully the photos will keep you entertained until I have some good news to post.