Trip to the UK Pictures!

Hanoi, Vietnam

 Eating Pho noodles (pronounced 'fur') on teeney tiny plastic chairs. A common sight at Vietnamese restaurants!

ちっちゃいプラスチックいすを座りながらフォをたべた

 Hoan Kiem Lake

 An overloaded motorbike-shop and twittering birds outside shops. Japan has a similar custom of hanging wind chimes out shops in Summer.

 お店の外よく鳥さんが掛けられていました。

 A cyclo round Hoan Kiem lake, and a sauna where I could finally have a shower!

自転車タクシーを乗ったり、スパーでやっとシャワー浴びました！

Preston, North England

 The Cousins Club

いとこと一緒！

 Yummy Lancashire Hot Pot for dinner!

大好きな来たイギリスの「ランカシャホットポット」ってコーンドビーフが入っているシチュ

A horse and carriage ride along the promenade in sunny Blackpool

ブラックプールでは辻馬車を乗りました

Grandad and Val on the observation deck of Blackpool Tower

ブラックプールタワーの頂上まで！

Blackpool Tower looks a lot like Tokyo Tower!

ブラックプールタワーは何か似ているかしら？

An artistic shot

Toshi learns to dunk from the Master himself, Grandad!!
トシははじめてダンクという紅茶にクッキーを濡らして食べる方

Parents and Grandparents together for pub grub!

両親とおじいさんとおばあさんと一緒

Wales

 Fish and chips with old school friends!

学校の友達とフィッシュアンドチップス

 The countryside back at home

 出身の田舎

 Milking a goat!

Petting a deer and a donkey for everyone!

かわいい動物をなでました！

We made new animal friends!

新しい友達をできました！

Yummy food in Tenby!

A Japanese tea cup for my Japanese-studying Grandfather

おじいちゃんが日本語を勉強しているのでこのマッグを買ってあげました

My favourite dish "Rakott krumpli" (right)!

一番好きな料理はハンガリーからの「ロコッとクルムプリー」です（右）

Tenby's castle walls, and a history lesson from dad

テンビーの城の壁と教会でお父さんから歴史の話を聞いた。

Pretty Tenby!

きれいなテンビー！

London

 Sightseeing in London

ロンドンの観光

 St Paul's Cathedral at sunset

 So many friends came to meet Toshi!

トシの最後の夜にいっぱい友達が会いに来ました。

 The Physics crew picnic

大学生の友達

 Boating in Regent's Park

学校の友達

 Tower of London

 On a ferry on the Thames under Millennium Bridge with Kate

 Boris Bikes- just £2 for an hour =D

ロンドンの人気がある自転車を貸すシステム

Ho Chi Minh (formerly Saigon), Vietnam

 Heavy traffic at rush hour and fake Japanese-brand earphones

込んでいた道と日本のグッズのにせもの

 It was so hot and humid, so I bought a frogurt!

暑すぎてアイスを食べた！

(By the way I look good in this photo considering I hadn't slept on the 12 hour flight there!)

 Reunifition Palace- the site of the end of the Vietnam War when American tanks sieged here in 1975

１９７５年アメリカと戦争が終わった所です

 Notre Dame Cathedral, Ho Chi Minh, with weird neon stuff

 Haggled-for coconut milk!　ココナツミルク！

 This pork pho was SO delicious!! Better than ramen, soba or udon in Japan!

ラーメンよりフォがおいしい！！

My internet connection is so slow I haven't been able to upload enough pictures, hoping for more luck next week.

So.. let me just recount my trip to Ho Chi Minh.
I couldn't sleep on the 12 hour flight there (despite the generous legroom and complimentary eye mask sleep thing courtesy of business class!) so I was just exhausted when I arrived at 7.30am.

I found a cheap bus from the airport to the city by chance- at only 4000 dong (~7p!!!!) (Poor Toshi forked out a whopping 150,000 dong for his taxi when he was there).

I dragged myself around all the tourist sites, and took refuge under a tree in a huge park, and enjoy really, really delicious pork noodles, but by 3.30pm I was dead on my feet and was soaked in sweat (think Japan in August), so I bussed it back to the airport and I slept there until about 8pm, and then waited around until my flight at midnight.

Back in Japan, I was back into my routine immediately- back to work that night and the Saturday, then slept all Sunday. No lasting jet lag, hurray! :)

Checked In

Just letting you know we’re at the airport, checked in and ready to go！

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!!!

Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus!!

Happy St Davids Day! ウェールズの日おめでとう！　 ウェールズと言えばすいせんですね。

Diolch Seiko-san, un o fy myfyrwyr, am brynu blodau gan gynnwys cennin pedr!!

Thank you Seiko-san, one of my students, for buying me this lovely bunch of flowers including a daffodil for me!

See you all soon back in the UK (if only briefly)!!! It hasn't sunk in yet; it feels like a lifetime since I was home, but I'm looking forward!

The last month or so..

Quilting Show
I got a free ticket from my student who works for a quilt shop, so I attended the Quilt Show at Tokyo Dome (the big convention centre). Here are my favourites:

 The moon made of rabbits (from a Japanese story) and the Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland

Snow!

As you probably know, I like the snow. However, I don't like driving in it! I couldn't see the markings separating the triple-lane highway :S Anyway I made it safely in one piece!

I shivered just seeing these Junior High School students walking in -1C conditions with no tights/long skirts!!!
So when my own 13 year old Jr. High School student comes into class with red-raw knees I asked her why she (and other popsicle-legged kids I see) doesn't wear tights/trousers. The answer: it's against school rules. And because the men who establish these rules want to be able to see up these teenagers' skirts.

In Japan, it's appearance (or more specifically 'cuteness') first, health and everything else second. 

Because girls huddling together complaining loudly they're freezing is really kawaii..

Outdoorsing

Despite the freezing cold, Toshi and I drove to the countryside to cook nabe, a Japanese stew on a campfire.

A video for those of you who'd like to see me driving through a stretch that reminded me of the Welsh hills :D

Carrots, chinese cabbage, noodles, tofu and ash = yum!!

Snowboarding

I went snowboarding recently all by myself because I wanted to practice. My first snow of the year！ I have finally mastered carving (turning back and forth) (^o^)/
However, I fell pretty badly and suffered a bruised rib (--;) This made sleeping uncomfortable for a few nights, but I’m almost better now... ready to go boarding again！ (^-^;
In other news, my best friend, Jen has left Japan. Obviously I'm sad,  hope I can see her again someday, somewhere!!!


p.s. This was my first blog entry via my smart phone; apparently it doesn't allow for high quality photo uploading. Unfortunately my camera is broken.

Happy New Year!

It's the Year of the Dragon! Sorry for the late post, I've been busy!

遅くなってしまってごめんなさい！

This was my third New Year in Japan, and this time I spent it traditional Japanese-style with the Yoshidas.

これは３回目日本ではお正月で、今年吉田家と一緒に日本的なお正月を過ごしました。

We flew to Osaka on the 30th December, and what an amazing view of Mt Fuji!

飛行機で大阪に行って、なんてすごいいい景色でした！

What better way to spend the final day of the year than under a kotatsu (table heater) playing cards and board games?
コタツで温めながらボードゲームと花札を楽しました!

Happy birthday Toshi! トシ君お誕生日おめでとう！

It is traditional to eat special long Soba (buckwheat noodles) on New Years Eve as they symbolise longevity.

長寿のためそばを食べました。

But after 2.5 years in Japan I still can't get the slurping thing right!　まだそばをスウことできません！

At midnight on New Years morning the family gathered in front of the kamidana, a small shrine in the house itself and prayed.to the god and ancestors for a good year in 2012.１２時になったらお祈りしました。

Then we went to the local shrine to pray and have some free amazake, sweet rice wine.

On New Years Day we enjoyed osechi, traditional New Years food, which Toshi's mother had stayed up all night preparing! All the different kinds of food have a meaning, for example the sweet black beans symbolise good health. You can learn more about Japanese New Years food and the meanings HERE
We also drank sake, rice wine, from gold dished with the Japanese Emperor's seal.
はじめてお節料理を食べました。お母さんが一所懸命作ってびっくりしました！料理がいろんな意味もあって面白かった。

 I was presented with chopsticks with my name in Chinese characters: 暮亜, meaning Asian sunset.

Toshi's mother taught me to make sushi (if memory serves, it was mackerel, one of my favourites).

お母さんから寿司の作り方を学びました。

 More relatives came to visit, including a very hilarious and loud 89 year old!
親戚が増えてきました！

On the last day in Osaka, we got up early to drive to Kyoto to visit Fushimi Inari, where the family's shrine is located. I went there with Cara and Laura two summers ago.

最後の日伏見稲荷大神に行きました。

 So many torii gates, and a fantastic view of Kyoto

Praying at the family shrine

Finally, while at the World's Largest Hot Springs Bath, which was amazing and I visited many baths from Asia including a Darjeeling Tea bath in Bali (see the English website) I was blessed by a New Years' Chinese Dragon, which touches you on the head (ouch!) to give you good luck!