Shinkansen...

This weekend, after a brilliant Halloween party on Saturday I went to Tokyo from Aizuwakamatsu. I had Monday off work from last weekend's school festival so I went to a nearby city Koriyama to catch the "Shinkansen" or "Bullet Train".

These trains travel up and down the whole length of Japan at tremendous speed. It's not usually worthwhile for me to get this train as there is a cheaper local train from Tajima, but it's worth taking the Shink just for the experience. It travels at amazing speed and inside it feels smooth and is almost silent. I am pretty sure that one of these trains, if brought to the UK could travel from Edinburgh to London in about 2 hours.

This is THE weekend to be at Kanon Numa where the Autumn scene is famous. Unfortunately this meant that it was a bit like Lake Windermere on August bank holiday whereas every other time I've been the only person there.

It is quite nice though that people are travelling so far to see it and I only live down the road!

Just in case you thought I didn't miss British culture...














I would do anything right now to have this for my school lunch.

If anyone can think of a way to post some Tesco's Finest Pork and Apple sausages I would be much obliged!

Egawa Syogakko (Elementary School)...

Yesterday was the most fun I've had at work yet. I went for my first visit to Egawa School and met some wonderful students. They were fantastic! I taught every class over the course of the morning starting with the 1st and 2nd grade. I played my sax, taught them names of fruit and then played a game. They are so bright and willing to try. A 6 year old girl had already planned an introduction for me before I got there and was so excited to try it out and help the other students say "Nice to meet you!"

I taught 3rd and 4th grade and they all drew pictures of me, made it into a book and gave me it as a present! I was thrilled and really impressed at how observant the kids were! I only realised how much I needed a shave once I saw that a lot of the students had drawn me with a beard!

5th and 6th grade was a challenge as I was completely on my own. It's always a gamble to know whether I will be helping or running a lesson. This one was for me to do alone and once I'd begun teaching them numbers and how to ask "How old are you?" a huge group of adults walked in to watch. In fact it was every Headmaster and School governor from Shimogo alongside the school's PTA! They wanted to watch me teach the lesson (which someone else had planned for me). Luckily it went ok and sheer enthusiasm was enough to make it a success. It's not easy though when suddenly you realise that the words "twelve" and "years" are incredibly difficult to pronounce.

Back in Tokyo this weekend I got to see some great new places. After enjoying the view from the top of the government building in Shinjuku on Friday night I went to Yokohama for the day on Saturday. This is a great harbour town that has some great buildings and a brilliant China Town where I got to eat Dim Sum for the first time in ages!



On Sunday I went to a great area called 'Ebisu' where the Metropolitan Museum of Photography is. There's so many great little areas in Tokyo that have a completely different feel to everywhere else, it makes exploring a lot of fun.

This weekend in the mountains...

Shoichi-san, Akitaka-san, Kane and I were originally planning on heading up on Saturday morning, but northern Japan was suffering from the tail-end of a typhoon so the trip was put off for a day. I was very glad to have Saturday to relax because Friday night's work enkai turned out to be a bit wild! We went to a Yakiniku restaurant (Korean-style bbq) and then on to my new favourite bar in Shimogo the owner of which will stay open as long as you're buying drinks (very dangerous!).

Office enkai

So Sunday morning we drove out towards Oze, a famous lake and national park that is particularly beautiful, we went further into the mountains for an hour or so towards out mountain lodge until we had crossed the border into Niigata Prefecture. This was a really isolated spot and unfortunately Sunday was still very wet. The cosy lodge was not a bad place to wait out the rain and we had lots of beer and Sake to keep us going! We decided to wait until Monday (a national holiday) before setting off up the mountain.

We left the lodge at 4am in a small van which took us closer to the mountain, we had an adventure driving through a torrent where the road had become a river but got there in once piece. We began walking just as it was getting light. Unfortunately it's quite difficult to know what Shoichi has planned for us as there is a bit of a communication barrier, he knew what he was doing though and seems to know the area quite well. I really had no idea how big the walk was going to be though, it soon became clear though that it would probably be quite tough, and it was. In fact we were walking for nearly 12 hours.


The mountain was 2142 metres, maybe the highest I've climbed. The fact that there was fresh snow at the top was quite a surprise and it was very nice to watch the mist and bad weather from the previous few days clear into one of the clearest most beautiful days I've seen here. We had every season in one day. The Autumn colours were really strong up here where the change is a few weeks ahead of Shimogo, it really made the long trip back from the summit extremely beautiful.


I hadn't quite understood from Shoichi that we would be walking back to the lodge, which had been a 2 hour drive from the mountain that morning, but once we were on the ridge it was definitely worth it. Unfortunately Kane really hurt his knee at this point and was in a lot of pain from then on. He had a real test of will power to get back to the lodge. I hope the views and the relief to reach the end made it worth it, but I really wasn't envious at all as it was a very tough decent.


I got home at about 8:30pm exhausted, sunburnt (in October!) and aching but it really was an amazing place and I really enjoyed myself. I was gearing myself up for Bandai-san which I heard was the big mountain around here, but apparently it's easy in comparison so next is Fuji! I'm seriously thinking about a holiday in Nepal sometime after a bit of training...

Shimogo JHS band...and me!

We've just got back from the Aizu band contest and we won a prize. They're not through to the finals but they were so happy with the prize that they all cried! I'm not surprised considering they practiced every day of the summer holidays and every evening till 6:30! Well done!

Well it's such a novelty to have everything back up and running that I thought I would write something. I usually only post when I have photos but I realise that I have a lot more to say!

This week is going quite slowly and I'm starting to find that I have a little bit more free time at work than I am comfortable with. I have a slightly uncomfortable feeling that I am not truly earning my money. It may be that I still don't understand my own purpose in school, I spend a lot of my chatting with the students informally and am putting a lot of effort into supporting them at music/sports events. Maybe this is what they pay me for? It just doesn't feel like work! I also spend lunchtimes playing Jenga with the students and listening to English music. But as far as being busy with responsibilities I would rather a few more! The hours I work can be pretty long if I do after school activities though, but there is always a feeling that I should have worked harder/longer as teachers here stay till 8pm sometimes!

One good thing to inform you of is that I now have proper Japanese classes. Every Monday Mike and I will be visiting Sakai Sensei in Ina (about 45 minutes drive away) for an hour lesson each. She is a very good teacher as she took my intensive class in Aizuwakamatsu in August, so I am looking forward to it. I think she will be quite strict and only teach in Hiragana rather than use Japanese in Roman script. This means I am desperately trying to get to grips with it for next week. I have just about mastered Katakana which is the script used for foreign words, so now I have to get used to Hiragana before I can start learning Kanji, the Chinese characters. The three scripts tend to be used interchangeably and most sentences will use all three.
Here is my name "Matto" in each script so you can see the difference...

マ　ッ　ト　－　Katakana
ま　っ　と　－Hiragana
真　人　- Kanji

Kanji characters have different meanings when you use them in a different order. For example when used like this, the kanji for Matto means "honest/honourable man".

This afternoon I am taking the train to Aizuwakamatsu to watch the school band contest. I love the students in the band (they're probably the geeks!) and the students seem to really appreciate it when I come to support them. For example, I went to a sports contest last week and watched the volleyball team beat Tadami school 2-0. There was lots of whooping and cheering! Me and Bryn (from Tadami school) had a 1,000yen bet on it and got really competitive! Sssh though, betting is illegal here I think!

I have become a lot more settled recently in this area and have started to enjoy reading again and the quiet of my own house. I have been less inclined to go out and party and instead enjoy the regular visits from local friends and dinner with Mike, Matt and Meredith. Unfortunately, Bryn is a bit too far away in Tadami to meet with regularly but we see him often on weekends. Needless to say that the restaurants in this area love us as I eat out nearly every day! Food here is very cheap and extremely healthy. I feel great for my new diet and am quite happy to carry on supporting the local restaurant trade!

Speak soon x

So after deleting my blog by accident and emailing the people at the website over and over again I now have it back!!!

I am extremely grateful to the Blogger people for helping me recover it and not laughing at my stupidity!

I went back to Tokyo this weekend and got to see a lot more of the city. I love it more and more every time I go and really enjoy spending some of my time in the countryside and some of my time in the city.

Tokyo is a city of organised chaos, where more than a thousand people may be crossing the same road at the same time, but like a well-oiled machine it seems to function perfectly. It is the home of the young, trendy Japan which is very far removed from the inaka (country) people. Young people dress outrageously and really stand out amongst the formal business life which is all around you.

After exploring the temples at Asakusa (the area where my train arrives in) I got to try some great Unagi (eel) and check out a bar in Shinjuku that overlooks all of the famous neon signs.

Here is an 'Omiyage' shop in Asakusa. Omiyage are souvenirs that you buy from a certain place and give to your friends or work colleagues. This gesture is very important. Everywhere has shops that sell their own sweets or biscuits with the place name on them. They are all wrapped individually and look very pretty.















On Saturday I went to an international festival. The park had lots of stands from charities and NGO's, I really enjoyed the atmosphere, it wouldn't have been unusual to see this kind of festival in Edinburgh so I was quite surprised to find it in Tokyo.

The Fuji-Television Building.

Later on Saturday I took the monorail to Odaiba, an area down by the river that has an amazing view. It also has an exact replica of the Brooklyn Bridge! It's great to see all the skyscrapers from a distance.

This is Ginza, I love the atmosphere here. I found the 'Yamaha' music shop here, it has 8 floors and a whole floor of saxophones! I spent about an hour playing on the Sopranos!