It's perfectly acceptable to go out drinking with your boss in Japan, if not common practice.

Whatever is said when inebreated in a sushi restaurant stays in the sushi restaurant :)
Here I am with two students, the assistant manager, and my manager (behind me).

We enjoyed tuna sashimi, nabe (hot pot), raw duck meat and negi (leek).

Along with a lot of sake of course!

After 3 or so dry weeks, it finally rained on Tuesday! But now we're back to clear, blue skies and cold days.
Not up to much, just working and preparing for lessons and trying to keep warm!

The End of Winter Vacation

Kamakura, 50km south-west of Tokyo is extremely popular with Tokyoite day-trippers, and was particularly crowded at the beginning of the New Year with people wanting to make their first prayers of the year. Yukimitsu, Shunsuke, Jen and I survived the rush and made our New Year prayers at Kenkoji Temple, and drew our omikuji or "fortune strip". I received 中吉 for this year, my translation being 'so-so fortune'! We kept warm by drinking Amazake: hot, sweet rice wine.

We took the monorail to visit one of the most famous landmarks in Japan, the Daibutsu. For a more than reasonable 20 yen we were able to go inside the Giant Buddha. It must be said that despite being very dark and not so aesthetic from the inside, it was a privilege!

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Nagano is a prefecture 200km north of Tokyo, and is famous for being cold and wintery. Jen and I, as a last minute plan, took the bullet train to Nagano City where we discovered it lives up to its chilly reputation! At -5'C it was uncomfortably cold... but our overnight stay satiated my thirst for snow after missing the White Christmas back in the UK.

Zenkoji Temple in Nagano City.

It is said that wafting the smoke over your head gives you wisdom. Fingers crossed!

Yudanaka, a 40 minute train ride from Nagano city took us to the Japanese Alps, which have a dark colour, due to volcanic activity. They were stunning!!

A 1.6km walk through the forest on windy paths will take you to Jigokudani Monkey Park, where Japanese Macaques exhibit the unusual behaviour of taking dips in the hot springs!!

The area was rich with boiling water spewing from the mountains sides, and a geyser demonstrated its true power!

明けましておめでとうございます！

Happy New Year and 2010 from Tokyo!!!

December 31st 2009

To celebrate, we first visited Sensoji Temple in Asakusa (the one with the giant, red lantern) to make our last prayer of 2009. We threw in a 5Yen coin, as that amount is considered lucky.

After the final karaoke of the year, we headed to Daimon, south-East Tokyo and back to Zozoji Temple for the New Year festivities.

23.30: The monks of the temple sang an indistinguishable chant and rang a small bell to close the past year.

23.59: Over the loudspeakers, a woman's voice announced the countdown.

00.00: Tokyo Tower lit up with the numbers 2010 and thousands of balloons were released. Each balloon carried a single wish up into the clear sky. Naturally, the balloons are made of a biodegradeable rice paper.

00.00 - 01.48: Selected members of the public assisted the monks in swinging a hewn log at the large bell beside the main temple once each minute. Each of the 108 bell reverburations are said eliminate our past wrong doings and ill-fortune and cleanse our minds for the next year.

The temperature was dropping and despite my many layers, of clothing I soon couldn't feel my limbs!So we took advantage of the all-night trains (the only time each year) and headed to Shinjuku to a smoky Izakaya (Japanese pub).

It is a Japanese tradition to eat Soba noodles (pictured) and mochi, a rice paste cake.

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January 1st 2010

Hikarigaoka hosted a traditional Chinese New Year dance:

"Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!"

Tokyo Tower is taller than the Eiffel Tower..

.. so not everything is smaller in Japan! To be precise, Tokyo Tower stands a proud 13m taller. It is one of the most famous landmarks in Japan and has an observatory at the top.

Nearby, we came across Zojo-ji Temple, which was undergoing preparations for the New Year Celebrations 2 days ahead.. Zojo-ji Temple was re-constructed in 1598, making it one of the oldest temples in Tokyo as it survived the WWII bombings.

The mini statues with the hats are of the Buddhist Deity Jizou, the guardian of stillborn and aborted babies. The statues  wear red hats and have red toys to represent the expelling of illness/death.

Afterwards, I finally made a pilgrimage to the Pokemon Centre near Tokyo Bay:

Happy times!