Phoebe (David's wife) invited Con-chan and I over for a pancake breakfast with her friend who happens to be visiting. It was fun making our own pancakes.


After that, we went to Harajuku for 100-yen sushi conveyor belt lunch and shopping.

Check this out: Funky Japanese ah ma with green hair

BBQ at Rinkai Park

First trilateral gathering with Con-chan and Germ (so far have only managed to have separate bilats with them)! Thanks for coming down, Con-chan! Had tea at a cafe in Ebisu (very nice area).

In the evening, we went to Rinkai Park (near Disneyland) for a BBQ. Thanks to Germ's "very intelligent" car navigation system, we took a 2-hour route and arrived at the park at dusk. No lah Germ, it was a really great car ride, we've all gotta go to that Red Lobster place sometime ok? ;P

A wonderful place to have a BBQ...the park is by the sea and has a view of the ferris wheel

Super hungry after the long car ride. Burger patties, green peppers with meat stuffing (really good!), eggplant (too much!), marshmellows and yaki soba (which we had to bring back to Germ's house to cook cos the fire died out...haha!). Yummy!

And we had a free fireworks show too! There was a family setting off fireworks in the park.

They strung a series of small pyrotechnics on a rope and swung it around like a skipping rope. Very pretty!

Great night! We wanted to bury a time capsule and have a reunion at the same spot in 10 years time ala Japanese youth drama style.

"Ivan, we miss you! If only you were here too..."

Later that night, David and Phoebe came over to Germ's place for karaoke.

Check out Con-chan's funny blog entry about the BBQ here http://constanceinnihonmura.blogspot.com/2006/08/my-seishun-movie-life.html

Sumida River Fireworks

Went to the Sumida River Fireworks with Germ and his friend Maryann. The Sumida River fireworks show is one of the biggest in Tokyo, attracting around 1 million people every year.

Finally got to wear my yukata (a summer kimono made of cotton). Had to start dressing an hour before departure time because tying the obi (belt) is complicated. Thankfully, Germ and I managed to wear our yukatas without any major problems.

Went to Sumida River 3 hours before the fireworks were scheduled to begin to chope seats...only to find that most available ground was already reserved by the ubiquitous blue groundsheets you find at all Japanese outdoor events. Nevertheless, we found what we thought was a good site and sat down to enjoy ourselves.

Kanpai!

The secret to having a good time while waiting for 3 hours in the summer heat: yummy bento boxes, cold beer and ipod with speakers (we were the envy of everyone walking by).

Happiness is being being able to wear that pretty yukata that's been hanging in your closet for the last 9 months (finally!).

The entire stretch along the river got so unbelievably packed as it got later

When the fireworks started...oh no! We realised that we were blocked by the trees and hurriedly moved to the standing crowd where we could partially see the fireworks through the trees. The fireworks were not the best I've seen, but it was fun getting dressed up for the festival and doing the whole bento and drinking thing while waiting.

When the thing ended, the streets and train station were so jammed up that police was mobilised to control the crowd.

We sat by the road side (all the cafes were full!) and waited for almost an hour before the queue to enter the train station cleared.

Kashiwazaki Gion Matsuri

Went to the Kashiwazaki Gion matsuri after school. Kashiwazaki is about 1.5 hrs away from my town. It's by the Japan sea coast. It's one of the richer towns of Niigata because it as several nuclear power plants, which produce half of Tokyo's energy needs.

A shrine in a pretty garden that caught my eye on the way to the event venue.

Before the hanabi started, there was taiko drumming from some boats at sea.

The fireworks display was great! There were over 15,000 fireworks set off and it lasted for almost 2 hours. There were loads of people. The entire stretch of the beach was dotted with picnickers at least 1 hour before the event started. More and more people came pouring in as the hanabi started and the weather cleared up. I couldn't believe how many people there were...and it was a weeknight too!

Smiley faces hanabi

A short video of one of the last few hanabi: These fireworks were set off to form a row measuring 2,500m long just above the sea. Very nice!

Watermelon Day

The inter-class ball games tournament has been going on for the last 2 afternoons. To celebrate the final day of the ball games, the school is holding a Watermelon Day. This is because the town's local speciality is supposed to be Yairo (brand name) watermelons, in addition to the Koshihikari brand of rice.

One period before lunch, teachers had to cut some 30 watermelons for the students to eat after their lunch.

Assembly line: Some teachers had to cut the watermelons into halves and other teachers would cut the halves into slices. I did some cutting but because my slices turned out to be so irregular, some were very thick and others very thin, I was relegated to being a runner (deliver the halves to the slicing people).



To give the classic Japanese reaction when tasting food...after taking the first bite, open your eyes wide to give a surprised look and exclaim with great fervour "mmmm!! umai (good)!!" Too over the top I think, even though the watermelons were very sweet. They probably thought that my "oishii!" was too subdued.


Students enjoying the watermelons after lunch


Japanese ah lians

This is the best cheering class for the ball games. They really deserved to win - they were consistently visible and audible. (just click the "play" button to view the video)

Ball games

This is the start of a 3-day inter-class ball games tournament before the students go on their summer vacation. Every class sends a boys and girls team for each game - badminton, basketball, dodgeball, soccer, and volleyball. The class with the highest points at the end of the tournament will win the championship. There are also awards for the best cheering class and Most Valuable Player for boys and girls for each game.

I like the ball games. The students take the matches very seriously and the level of excitement is very high.

秋山郷　Akiyamago

Takahashi-sensei took Patrick and I on a road trip to Akiyamago. It is a very, very, very ulu village deep in the mountain valleys between Niigata and Nagano prefectures. There was so much snow last winter that the road leading to the town (yes, only 1 road!) was closed for a few days and the Japanese self-defence force had to use helicopters to airlift food supplies to the villagers. No supermarket in the village...only some small shops. Most of the people living in the village are very old.

Surprise picnic on the way there! Takahashi-sensei pulled up along the road with a nice view of the valley from an altitude of 760m and set up a table (complete with table cloth!), chairs, cakes and drinks.

Each of us had a cheese bun, fruit tart and a cup of iced coffee.

We arrived at Akiyamago and stopped at one of the big woodcraft shops. Woodcraft is the local speciality of the village. Large and heavy log tables, chairs, bowls, decorative stuff for the house...very expensive!

Then, we went to this really old house for soba lunch. It's a really old house that an old couple live in that functions as a small restaurant, museum (old Japanese things e.g. straw slippers, wooden skis, etc.) and art gallery on the second floor (cos the couple's son is an artist).

We had our meal around the irori, which is very useful in winter cos you can build a fire in it to warm yourself by it and boil water over it. This is basically the old couple's living room. It felt a little dirty and was too dark for my liking. The soba with mountain vegetables was delicious though.

Great view of the valley town from their house/restaurant/museum/art gallery.

After lunch, we went to Akaionsen (赤い温泉), which is very near Akiyamago. Very old, traditional wooden onsen building.

The water at the onsen is from a geyser. Smelt of sulphur and rust...check out the rusty colour of the onsen! Really dirty-looking...can't even see the bottom of the bath even though it's very shallow. Did not really enjoy the onsen cos I felt as if I was getting dirtier instead of cleaner, although it seems to have gotten rid of my backache.

There is a nice view of the mountains from the onsen even though it's an indoor bath.

The day trip was a really scenic and a very good experience, but I'm happy to be back in civilisation! :) (The toilets there were really quite backward! No flush so it smells really bad and there's stuff sticking to the toilet bowl...puke puke!)

Love these wild flowers that are just sprouting up everywhere in such vibrant shades.

花火　宴会　Hanabi enkai

Last day of my town's summer festival. Each town usually has its own summer festival which typically lasts for 3 days. The festival usually ends with a fireworks display on the last day. Fireworks is hanabi in Japanese. The teachers had an enkai in the park to view the fireworks display.

The ever-adorable Matsumura-sensei

3 large trays of sushi, 2 trays of mixed platter and lots of Asahi super dry beer

Eating and drinking before the fireworks show

Enjoying the fireworks

Their fireworks display is different from ours back in Singapore. Here, companies or individuals sponsor one firework or a series of fireworks, depending on how much money they are willing to spend. There is an announcement of the sponsor and a short message from the sponsor before each firework / each series of fireworks is set off. The show lasted about 1.5 hours, with about 120 series of fireworks set off in total.

Here's a short video of the fireworks that my school sponsored (no. 93) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gTzHLkybsM

Another short video of some other random fireworks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uowW6-KyzQ

Last Judo class of the term

Today, we had to do the scary shoulder roll exercise over a partner who's lying down

Check out a short video of the boys sparring here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si3m3EkMEqw

Squatting (L-R): Okada-sensei (black belt!), Kaori, Tomoyasu

Standing (L-R): Me, Moena, Nana, Noriko, Saya, Kensuke

Students' personal ads

While doing a lesson on love, one of the activities was for students to write their own personal ads. Here are some funny ones:

Young Japanese girl, loves music and dogs and children, doesn't like cat, seeks height between 167 to 172 cm tall, 19-25, good job, can do housework.

Young Japanese boy, 173cm, stubborn, quick-tempered. ...

Young Japanese girl, funny. I'm looking for a man who has drivers licence and car, high income and good job and good sense of humor. ...

I'm a young Japanese woman. I'm normal. ...

And undoubtedly the funniest of all:

I'm Japanese. I like... . I'm looking for tall, big shoes, skinhead, little beard, beautiful sweat, narrow between eyes and a forehead, heavy, cool back and stomach muscle, thick and long arms. (Yah, I don't understand some bits of what she's saying as well.)

Summer festivals at Urasa and Muikamachi

This is the first day of my town's summer festival. There was a mikoshi (portable shrine) parade by kids in the morning.

Mikoshi passing by my apartment block (blue in colour)

Then we went to the local gelato shop, Yummy. Greedy Germ had a double scoop - matcha tiramisu and squash (?!) flavours

Germ wrote a personal ad in Yummy's guestbook...30 yrs old, 175cm, 65 kg (he's lying)...so embarrassing! Anyway, I will go back in a couple of weeks to check if anyone replies to his ad

Went for a walk in the park (Discovered a cafe in the town's museum!). Aren't these flowers (azaleas) beautiful? There're in full bloom all around town.

Had a delicious pasta lunch at the local winery, which is a European style building set amongst rice fields with a view of the mountains.

In the evening, we went to the summer festival at Muikamachi. The highlight for that evening was taiko drumming performances. There were about 4 different taiko groups performing. As usual, there were mikoshis being paraded around and food and games stalls along the streets.

Folk dance

We ordered a matcha baileys at a pub (cos it's the first time either of us has seen this drink elsewhere) but this was brought to our table instead...

matcha berry crepe!! Somehow we misread berry as baileys...it's excusable that I misread it, but Germ's lived in Japan for 5 years before!!