A Big Catch-Up!

I apologise for the delay! I had been busy helping with my co-worker's wedding, then I've been having some technical difficulties.

News: As for the 'Adventure' that Toshi and I will be embarking on, it looks probable that Toshi will be starting late next month, and that I shall follow early October. I'm trying not to stress out (and failing..)

Camping May 30th 2012
I appreciate you've probably had enough of seeing my camping photos, so I'll just put up two. We left straight after our work finished (we both happened to finish at 6) and hurried to a place called Kawai (no, not kawaii , meaning cute!). This campsite was amazing- no ants or insects to speak of at all! And a lovely, clear stream flowed nearby. Definitely want to go again!

Charlie's Wedding June 2nd 2012

Charlie and his wife Rimi chose to hold a Western-style (as do approx. 90% of couples in Japan) in their favourite Italian restaurant. As couples in Japan legally marry at the local City Office (the same as in France and some other countries), the couples are free to hold any kind of ceremony or party afterwards and officials do not participate. The vows and exchanging of the rings were led by Charlie's old friend, Walter. I was given the honourable task of being receptionist and greeting the guests, as well as organising the party games for the after-party.

 Reception-ing and posing with the bouqet!

 The lovely couple, and hosting the 'Shoe Game' at the after-party

• Feel free to watch the video below of the popular Wedding party game called  'The Shoe Game' hosted by myself in Japanese.

Hadn't realised my Japanese had such a Welsh accent!



Venus Transit June 5th
Clouds, clouds, and more clouds ;( Oh well, only another 105 years to wait..
Disney Sea June 10th

Since Jen's departure from Japan, it had been a long time since I'd been to Disneyland or Sea, but I finally managed to coerce convince Toshi into going with me! For someone who loves Disney movies and songs, he had been a bit grumpy, but I think in retrospect he isn't such a fan of rollercoasters..
Anyway, we had a good time =D

No, not Mexico, the Indiana Jones ride!

A Planetarium (yay!) and a bunch of Japanese girls wearing their school uniform who all looked exactly alike (..;)

Typhoon #4 June 19th

Not a happy, drenched bunny with a destroyed umbrella (>.<;) But at least the rain was warm!

I is for...

I is for...Insane Izakaya!!
Note: An Izakaya is a Japanese-style bar-come-restaurant, particularly popular with working men and old geezers and are usually smoky and have rubbish, but reasonable, food. Hmm.. nothing different to a British pub 5 years ago!
I didn't get to celebrate my birthday last year due to the earthquake and the craziness that ensued last March (my thoughts are with the victims), so I wanted to do something memorable for my 25th this year!
Following some yummy, spicy Mexican food, I chose 'Kagaya Bar', which I'd heard about on gaijin (foreigner in Japan) forums.
It was just HILARIOUS!

First we were served our oshibori (hand towels) by a robotic Anpanman, and had to introduce ourselves to him and were made to shake his hand.

Then we were expected to stand up and sing our food order in front of everyone!

Not knowing what would happen, we cautiously ordered our drinks 'Chinese-style', and the Master came out dressed as Jackie Chan kung fu-ing and screaming and kicking and even made smoke come from his fingertips!

Further drinks were served 'English-style' and this cute bear did some warm-up stretches, followed by a huge struggle to carry the heavy tray (more screaming!!)!

As a lovely surprise, the Master brought out a birthday cake (I didn't have one last year) for me and everyone including other customers sang Happy Birthday! So happy!!

Then we were introduced to Jack the Frog. A picture doesn't do this character justice, so please enjoy this  brilliant video (warning: the last part contains sexual references)

Note 2: All the above pictures taken by my friend Yukimitsu on his professional-quality camera. Unfortunately I had forgotten my brand new camera that day.

I is for... I'm visiting!!!!!

If you didn't already know, I'll be visiting the UK March 16-28th, with two cheeky visits to Vietnam on the way there and back! I'm so excited!! It's times like these that I'm really glad I created this blog, because otherwise I wouldn't know where to start!!! I feel like I've been living in Japan for about 4/5 years!! Any comments of 'it's flown by' won't be met with agreement from my end!!
Well, to jog your memory and to get conversations flowing, here's my Top 5 Most Memorable Moments in Japan including links to those posts:

5. Being homeless overnight in Nagano city with Jen, in -5C temperatures, because we didn't have money to stay in a hotel and because we'd arrived too late to see the bathing monkeys in January 2010.

I notice how i didn't mention we were wandering around the snowy city all night without shelter in the original post *ahem* At the time it was one of the worst 7 hours of my life, but Jen and I often look back and laugh at how miserably cold we were, and we found an appreciation for simple comforts and respect for REAL homeless people.

4.　Snowboarding for the first time with Aeon coworkers in February 2010. I've since been snowboarding 5 times, and despite my recent bruised rib, as I said in the original post, "I'll never get board of doing that'!! (*^^*) I love the speed and freedom of whizzing down a mountain (until I inevitably fall down that is!). And the mountains always come with spectacular views!!!

3. A Most Japanese Weekend in March 2010. The most Japanese-ness jam-packed into 24 hours!!

2. Visiting Osaka to meet Toshi's family in August 2011. I really, really can't express what a great time I had, and I think this marks the time when I felt truly accepted in Japan, and didn't feel like a foreigner anymore. 吉田家族のおかげで！On the last day I was very emotional!! This was also my first time to Kobe and Nara, and I got some great sightseeing done too!

1. Climbing Mt Fuji in August 2010. As you know, I love astronomy, and the stars visible from Mt Fuji at 3000m+ were just... more than countless!! The Milky Way was just so dense, even more than the view from my little Welsh village. You really have to climb it for yourself to experience this! Another thing is that the side of the mountain is red and it was just like being on Mars,  and I was pretending that the moon we could see was Earth (although that wouldn't be to an accurate scale). Finally of course the sunrise was staggering (this was the first sunrise I'd ever sat and watched )and the man near me shouting 'Banzai!' really made that moment for me!! Unforgettable!!!

Hanami.. and me!

It's Cherry Blossom season! The Sakura 桜 flower is Japan's national flower, and it is, for lack of a better phrase, a really big deal in Japan.
My students started talking about the coming of Spring and the blooming of the sakura all the way back in January.

I have compiled a few reasons as to the importance of this flower.

• The blossoms last only a week or so. The transient nature of the flowers symbolize the delicacy of our lives and death, and remind us not to take our lives for granted.
• The flowers face not upwards towards the Sun, but downwards towards us.
• The cherry blossoms bloom at the start of the Japanese academic year, and thus remind the Japanese of their youth and school-aged days.
• The pale pink cherry blossoms symbolise youth and love.

The sakura blossom is a popular design, and can be found on the 100yen coin, clothing, man hole covers, toilet paper- you name it!!

Cherry Blossom Viewing Parties, or hanami 花見 are a picnic held under a cherry blossom tree. The most famous parks, including Ueno Park, can get extremely crowded and crammed with drunk young Japanese men climbing on the trees and singing obnoxiously loud karaoke. Fortunately, I managed to avoid such rowdy places!!

Night-time Hanami with some students Saturday night in Hikarigaoka Park

It was very cold, but very enjoyable!!!

The mountains of beer at the supermarket, and posing with the Sakura.

 Inokashira Park, Kichijouji, West Tokyo on Sunday afternoon

A is for.. Art and Animation

A is for....

Welcome to my new feature, Clare Sensei's A to Z of Japan. I hope to give you an insight into various elements of Japanland via this feature that I wouldn't otherwise include in my blog.

You can always view any Letters that have been covered on the left hand side dashboard.

If you have any requests for topics to be covered, please leave a comment below!
  

Announcement- I've extended my contract
with AEON until March 26th, 2011 :)

Roppongi Art Night
A special "Sunset until Sunrise" event of arty action in Roppongi.

My friends Ryuta, Jen and Xor spelling ART!

Famous landmark Roppongi Hills and a T Rex made of toys

Posing on a giant fork in front of a giant strawberry sponge!!

Tokyo International Anime Fair

Held at Tokyo Big Sight, the equivalent of the Birmingham NEC Centre, the Fair is the world's largest anime event. Anime is short for "animation". The exhibition centre was PACKED!! Jen and I were given endless flyers, posed with some characters, watched a show, saw some Japanese Celebrities and got some nice freebies, including my Mameshiba balloon!! We had an amazing time being massive geeks!!

 

Two immensely popular anime characters- Anpanman and Gundam

 Being a badass- posing with Yu Gi Oh and as Afro Samuri (voiced by Samuel L Jackson)

 

Keroro (Sgt. Frog) and a mini Gundam

  Posing with Goku from Dragonball Z

..And thus concludes my first installment of Clare Sensei's A to Z of Japan ^^

A Most Japanese Weekend

hours in Japan: Food, Drink and Culture.

"Right now, I'm living abroad in Japan. My energy and money are spent... and people that I work with were involved in both. I'm Clare Dery, and today was the most Japanese day of my life."

Disclaimer: The following blog entry contains many images and videos filled with amazing contrasting traditional and modern Japanese elements. 

Click to proceed with caution.

Hina Matsuri 雛祭り

Girls' Day falls on March 3rd each year and is a day to celebrate girls' health. An equivalent event for boys is held each May. 

Parents put up a platform hina dan with dolls in their homes for their daughers. The dolls are believed to harbour bad spirits, and they represent the Emperor and Empress along with their attendees on the lower levels. The Emperor, holding a ritual baton is always seated on the top left, and the Empress holding a fan sits on the top right.

A giant hina dan at my local fire station with real ume blossons either side of the platform.

 

The dolls on the third level traditionally hold musical instruments, but in this case cute emergency service civil servants adorned the platform!!

                                            It wouldn't be a true festival without businesses cashing in!!

It is important to take down the dolls before the end of the night. If the dolls remain overnight and thereafter, the celebrated daughter's future marriage will be delayed! 
This is similar to the Christmas tradition of taking down the decorations after the 12 Days of Christmas to not get bad luck. 

Unashamedly, I first heard about this festival via an early episode of Pokemon (over 10 years ago!), where Misty wins a set of 'Pokedolls' on 'Girl's Festival Day'. One of many Japanese traditions I learned via the show!!

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!"