home for the holidays

On Tuesday I head back home, which is a weird feeling! I’ve gotten so used to being looked at as a weirdo and walking around without really understanding what’s going on, I think that’ll probably be the biggest adjustment – though with my level of French I’ll only partly know what’s going on – and making the adjustment back will be a little bit difficult.

At least I know that I have a good foundation at the school to get me comfortable again quite quickly. This past week I’ve done over 20 classes with a strong Christmas theme, and many of the kids were happy to be able to wish someone a merry Christmas when it was my last day on Friday! I also sweettalked the teachers a little I think because I gave each person a little goodie bag for Christmas which they, pretty obviously, weren’t expecting.

I’m not too happy with some of the teachers at my school, as one “forgot” to tell me about the new year’s party (called boonenkai), which are a pretty huge deal, and consequently I can’t go because that’s the day I travel back home….
But apart from that I feel that I can take this vacation feeling reasonably comfortable – my level of participation has increased these past few weeks in classes and I have good relationships with some of the students.
Apart from that, I’ve decided to see japan at a slightly slower pace, for financial reasons as well as that I’ve definitely decided to stay for a 2nd year, and I would like to stay in Nagoya too – there are so many nice places around here I’d love to visit again and spend some more time in!

However, I’m still in the Japanese spirit – I’ve recently bought a rice cooker, and will be cooking a lot more Japanese food, including omochi, which is something they eat here around new years (called oshoogatsu) – there’s 4 different ways to eat them! It’s basically pounded rice, but actually quite good. I’m starting to get the Japanese taste. I’ve also worn a real kimono for the first time, and let me just say that they’re actually really comfortable! The sash (obi) is really tight but it’s actually kindda nice because your back’s really straight and you can’t slouch. And you can walk in them much more easily than I thought – it’s the shoes that are the killer I reckon, didn’t wear them though. The ladies that dressed my friend and I were so cute – I was practicing my Japanese – and they want to teach me how to cook all kinds of Japanese food! It’s not the easiest to make Japanese friends, but you really have to try, no matter where you are.
So I’ve finished adding some last photos to my Nagoya section on picasa – check them out! Other than that – I will see some of you soon!

Mid-November

This month's post is a little more cheerful - i have managed to resolve some issues at school, mainly by changing my attitude and forcing the teachers to think ahead, rather than asking for them to come to me - that's so not going to happen! So i'm feeling comfortable at school, but this week they have exams, so i will be sitting at my desk in the staff room for 8 hours, for 4 days. ouch.

I had dinner with 2 teachers that i get along with well last week, and I got a little more insight into Japanese schools - new teachers rotate schools every 6 years, and experienced teachers every 8 years. Unless something is very wrong (apparently last year there was a teacher at my school who was a little bit messed up in the head and had some illegal thoughts about some kids, or so i have come to understand). The kids are put into classes so that there's a leader in each class, someone who plays the piano and general ability. The principal and vice-principal rotate every 2 years. And apparently the friendly atmosphere, despite everyone being insanely busy, is not common to most schools. So i've come to appreciate my school more.

Besides that, living in Japan is getting a bit tougher as the winter is finally arriving. It's really cold in the mornings and it can warm up a lot on a sunny day but i've pulled my scarf and gloves out already. Despite that the maple trees are pretty - the weekend before my birthday i went to Nara (known for its 15m buddha statue) and Koyasan (a scared buddhist village) for a weekend, and the foliage was really pretty - it gave me a real winter feeling. Plus it was just generally pretty - see photos i've put up.

My birthday celebration was pretty tame, just dinner and some drinks. It's hard to do a big thing here anyway because when most Japanese people go out drinking they go to Izakayas which are japanese-style 'bars' that usually serve alcohol and food, and tend to be hidden a little. So unless you know where to go and can read a japanese menu without pictures its a little difficult. I must find out where to go for those though.

I'm starting to feel a lot more at home here in Nagoya. I still can't read most signs, but i know where to go for the doctor or the optician, I know where you can go see a bird migration site, i know where to go for big garden centres and where you can find a good arts and crafts shop. That's pretty good, i thnk! So who knows, maybe i will even consider staying here for another year after all...

the daily grind

This one may seem slightly negative as i wrote it when i was bored, but hey, these are the feelings you experience in a situation like mine!

It’s been quite some time since I last wrote! Mainly because nothing of too much note has been happening here.
The main thing that’s been on my mind has been my school – it’s not your typical junior high school, but despite the teachers being so busy, I still felt, and by some teachers still feel, that I’m not always treated right. It’s very hard for me because sometimes I feel like I’m being a push-over, but I’m merely trying to be nice and the cultural differences mean that I’m afraid of saying something that might come out wrong to them!

But we had a sports day at the beginning of October, which was a lot of fun, though I am not allowed to put any photos up, and after that there was a teachers party, with the unmentioned obligatory karaoke after party.
Other than that they have exams now which means I’m stuck in the teacher’s room all day trying to find things to do – like practice Japanese, sometimes I have the courage to whip out a book, and at the moment the internet isn’t working so I try and do other stuff on word or something, that make me seem busy.

That’s as good a description of my daily life in Japan as it gets – I get up at 6, if it’s sunny bike to school at 7.30 passing a lot of Japanese school kids on the way, or if it rains I leave at 7 and I join the bleak crowd of people commuting into the city by train, not extremely fun I must say.
At school if I’m really bored, i.e. a lot of the time, I go outside and say “good morning” to all the kids coming to school – I have made my own little spot to where they come in and change their shoes to indoor shoes. Then I wait for classes to start, and most of the time in these classes I just say a few words that they repeat and walk around. I spend lunch with the kids, and when I sit with some they’re excited but don’t really talk to me, some do make an attempt though, and then I go back to the teacher’s room to wait for my afternoon class. After that, I either keep myself busy doing Japanese or whatever, or I stand outside, saying “Bye” to the kids – my motto is that I want to be available if any of them want to try out their English… most want to but are too shy. Then I keep busy again till I can leave or I sit outside for a while and watch the kids play afterschool sports.

And then I go home. At the moment I have quite a few private lesson gigs, so usually I hurry home, have some food, and head out again to make a reasonable extra income, though what I get per lesson isn’t extremely much.

As far as the weekends are concerned I will head into the center to shop around of just to hang out, run a few errands, and sometimes I head in for a more specific reason – like seeing a festival that’s on or something. People watching is definitely entertaining, as I find them as strange as they find me! I sometimes clean or do some bulk cooking, do some grocery shopping. And occasionally when I find the money I like to go away, as Nagoya isn’t the most exciting place to be (more of an industrial shithole, my impression of it on my bad days).

Then the weeks starts over. I still haven’t made my mind up whether I like living such a daily grind kind of life or not…

Away from Japan!

Since last time I wrote I made a little escape away from Japan.
To be honest, it was wonderful for more than just the obvious reasons.
I had a great time this summer, traveling around Japan, talking to randomers and hanging out with my brother and then my dad but school started again on the 2nd, and the kids were doing the usual, or more than usual, giggling at things that i do, saying 'kawaii' (cute) with every little thing i do etc. And it was really getting to me. I felt like i was on display in a museum, or just constantly being watched... It's hard because not many people will have such an intense experience as there aren't too many countries that are as homogenous as Japan.
Though i do understand how many e.g. asians feel who come to live in the west, wanting little bits of home every so often... doing things that are familiar to you (that's why so many westerners frequent the few british pubs here around nagoya!).

So school was on its way again, and I was able to go away for a weekend to dad and Anne's wedding! They held it in Prague and it was beautiful! we had excellent weather for it and it was great seeing my fmaily together again and my friend.
The day itself is one for modelling others on! It was very well organized, and thought-out.
We were picked up on an old tram with champagne and accordion accompaniment. Thne there was the ceremony in a chapel, but it was not a religious ceremony. We were ablet o go up to the top of the astronomical tower, with stunning views of prague, and where i took my favorite photo of that weekend. After, there was a little trip on teh river with bites to eat and a cool little jazz quartet consisting of a banjo, cello, trumpet and saxophone, and then the reception was held at this palace with beautiful food and wine and the cake was amazing, the Dj was a bit shit but we still enjoyed ourselves!

The next day, hangover galore. Though i still saw a little bit of prague with my brothers and their girlfriends, and that was the end of my wizz trip! was very sad to leave, but i really hope to be able to have another good weekend or longer with all of them in the near future...
Now back to the schools and the stares here in Japan!

Kyushu

So, before I get started on my recent little ‘adventure’ I want to just mention one thing: travelling cheaply in Japan is possible. I tried on a budget of 2000 yen, so around 14 euros, but that was on the bottom end of the scale and my destination wasn’t exactly cheap.

Anyway, here’s how:
- Accommodation – this one, if you want to do it totally cheap, and safe, you can couchsurf. I did it in Fukuoka, and the people are very friendly. However, this requires your schedule to be a lot more prepared and rigid in advance. Another way is bumming it on the streets, which a few people do do at night when they’ve missed the last train home. There’s also camping, which, to be in an accessible place, isn’t easy around a city, but when you go to islands like Shikoku or Yakushima, then it’s a very good option. Mind the humid weather though!
Now, if none of those options sound feasible to you, then the final option is sleeping in an internet café. Yes, people do it a lot here! Especially after a night out or something. I guess it’s a way to get away from the enclosed family homes. So they have special night rates, and it’s not all that expensive (you may need to do some shopping around) – I stayed in a really decent one in fukuoka for 1700 yen for 9 hours. And in another one in Kagoshima 1000 yen for 6 hours. You may be thinking : “do you sleep in a chair??” but that’s the beautiful thing – you pay the same price for a flat booth! So it’s like a mattress in an isolated area! Look at my photos to get an idea… and there’s free drinks and even a shower! Why not eh?

- Food – the best way to eat cheaply in Japan is to eat local food. You can get some decent portions for 6-700 yen. Also, there’s chains like fujiichiban, hotto motto or yoshinoya where you get a big meal for 500 yen. And there’s also the convenience stores, that are open 24/7 and what I’ve been loving is onigiri, rice ‘balls’ or triangles, with a filling in it, and it’s cold so it’s great for summer. They’re 120 yen a piece and after 3 you’re full. It’s a great healthy snack too. If you want to cook your own, then the accodomation options above aren’t very accommodating to hot homecooked food…

- Transport – this is the one that will get you down. Walk a lot, you have feet don’t you?? Buses are usually pretty cheap, but here’s Japan’s best kept secret – seichun juuhachikippu. (seichun 18). It’s a pass that’s only available in the school holiday periods – march-april, july-august and December. You buy a ticket for 11,500 yen, and you get 5 bits. 1 bit = 1 day’s travel. Anywhere in Japan. The only downfall is: you can only take local JR trains. Which means that this pass is only good when you’ve got a lot of time on your hands. But if you do – you can go ANYWHERE for SUPER cheap. I came back from way fuck down south to Nagoya, it took me 30 hours (an overnight stop) but it only cost me 4800 yen… But then again, if you’re on a tourist visa, it’s probably nicer to just get a rail pass… sadly that’s not an option for me.

Got it? Now get a-coming to Japan!

So, I just spent the last 10 days in Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Yakushima.
I started in Fukuoka, and did some couchsurfing. Honestly, I wasn’t enjoying it, it’s another big city and I was travelling by myself bla bla. But still good to see. The next day I met another couchsurfer who told me about Seichun 18 and she helped me cancel my return bus ticket, and offered me a ride to Beppu, on the other side of the island (all of these places are in Kyushu, which is the 3rd largest island of Japan, just to the south of the main island – under Hiroshima etc). I decided against it and was on my way to Nagasaki. It’s a really nice place!! It’s a very pretty city and the people are so friendly. They also some old ass tram system down there, and the conductors drive you crazy. They’re constantly talking like this in Japanese: turning left, turning left, turning left. Right, going right, going right. Stopping at a traffic light. It’s a traffic light. ETC ETC! Drive. You. Insane. Anyway, the a-bomb museum is interesting, I’ve heard it’s not as shocking as the one in Hiroshima. I then met up with this Dutch guy from couchsurfing who was weird, and we were shown to a bar by a principal of a high school! It was all pretty random. I stayed in an internet café booth there… I got a lot of sleep actually! It’s a new experience. The next day I went walking around some of the older parts of town – the Dutch and Chinese were some of the only people allowed to do some trade down there for a long time, so there’s some very western-influenced architecture etc.

I hopped on a long train journey to the south – to Kagoshima. The nice thing about these is that you meet a lot of people! I spoke to this Japanese guy and then this girl from Hong Kong. I couldn’t get into a hostel the time I arrived so it was another short night at an Internet café before heading to Yakushima – by slow/cheap ferry it’s 4 hours south of the southern coast… so pretty far! But it’s BEAUTIFUL! You can do some great hikes amongst 3000+ year old cedar trees. The iconic one is called yomon sugi (sugi = cedar) but that’s a 10 hour return trip, and the bus connections are fairly shit. So I didn’t do that one, but I did a short 2.5 hour one and a 6 hour one the next day. It’s amazing, all very mossy and ancient. It’s currently a UNESCO world heritage site. After the 1st hike I ws taken to a small minshuku (guesthouse) by the lady who was in the tourist info office, and that night I went to a natural hot spring at nice – it was amazing with the ocean there and the stars… Then I went for the long hike and met this cool Japanese ojiisan (grandpa) who wanted a photo with me, and I went camping after that. It wa right next to this amazingly stunning beach where I stayed for a whole day doing nothing! It’s also really interesting because most people that camp are the ones that are biking around the island, which is really tough, but it makes for great conversation. I was about to leave then when I decided to stay another night and go snorkelling which was pretty cool – it’s not amazingly pretty but you get porcupine fish, and some big parrothead fish and stuff, pretty cool.
Then I embarked on my long journey home, and that night I did the real bummy thing – I slept in my sleeping bag by the station! But it was safe, don’t worry.

And so now I’m back. And don’t want to see trains for a LONG time! But if you ge the chance, yakushima is awesome.

Family visits

So today I was just about to bike back home from the center of town when it suddenly turned from blue skies to blackness and tropical thunderstorm… and my laundry was still hanging out at home! They keep on saying that the rainy season is over (which it’s supposed to be), but I don’t really know…

The past few weeks have definitely been eventful! I’ve really gotten to know the heart of the Japanese Alps quite well. The main events, clearly, were my brother Cas (travelling with his friend Marek) coming over, shortly followed by my dad.
The weekend before they came, however, I ended going to some more festivals – every weekend there is at least one in the region – the first of which involved boats floating around the lake each with 365 lights on, which we watched from a local’s apartment (only after having made an attempt to fail successfully at trying to promote a drinks company for a commercial). The next night I went to see 15000 fireworks being let off, which luckily enough weren’t cancelled due to the pouring rain – beautiful! The nicest show I’ve ever seen.
Then Cas and Marek arrived and we took it easy in Nagoya, I took them out to an Izakaya (a local Japanese restaurant) with all you can drink, and the next night we had an experimental dinner followed by karaoke – very Japanese!
We then went on to Matsumoto, which is a little town about 3 hours northnorthwest of here. It’s really charming actually, despite the fact that when we arrived we were biking in the rain with our umbrellas Japanese style. The hostel we stayed at was proper nice, and it has a beautiful castle. When in Matsumoto definitely try the soba, as it’s a local-made type of noodle (buckwheat I think, whereas udon is very thick wheat noodles, or maybe the other way around). The next day we did a little stop in Nagano, which may ring a bell – the winter olympics were held here in 1998 – and we went further north to a tiny town (12000 inhabitants) of Obuse (pronounced obusay) – it’s so small that the school kids coming onto the train found us something to look at. But it’s beautiful up there – it’s known for its chestnuts and Hokusai museum. When we got back that evening to Matsumoto we went to the BEST local restaurant, where we each had a massive bowl of udon, tempura, free sake and a sake glass, all for the price of 3000 yen (i.e. 30 dollars). It was A-mazing. We finished it off by going to an onsen, which was relaxing as.
The next day Cas and Marek left for Tokyo, and I stayed the rest of the day to visit Kamikochi, which is more into the mountains, (many people climb mountains there) and it’s only open between april and November as during the other months there’s too much snow. Needless to say it was beautiful, despite the weather!

When my dad arrived we did the other part of the coast, we went to Kanazawa first, which is pretty big but very charming. It has a BEAUTIFUL garden, and we stayed at a homestay in the old district with this little lady who was so cool, and I practiced my Japanese slightly successfully on her! We stayed for 2 days, on the 2nd day seeing a dance festival which was cool, but it’s making me realize how much the Japanese really do like to belong in a group, and that they really hold on to traditions very strongly, so much more than any country I’ve seen! then took a drive around Noto Hanto, countryside, which wasn’t too thrilling. We stayed in Toyama because the next day, risking it with the rain, we did the Tateyama-Kurobe route into the mountains to see one of the largest dams in Japan. It turned out to be ok, especially on the way back as we managed to do a long 2hour painful hike, but stunning scenery. That night we were surprised by the earthquake – which I wasn’t too scared by clearly as I woke up, asked my dad if it was an earthquake, to which he replied I think so, and all I could say to the shaking of the beds was ok and fall back to sleep!

Maybe one of the nicest days came next, when we drove down to see the villages with gassho-zukuri houses, which have these straw roofs shaped like praying hands. We had beautiful weather to see this UNESCO world heritage site (called gokayama and shirakawago), and the first little village we went to – Ainokura – was SO beautiful and peaceful! The last – Ogimachi – was a LOT more touristy, but interesting. We stayed overnight in Takayama, which I hadn’t realized was such a touristy spot! It reminded me a lot of Kyoto, but I don’t blame them, it has a lot of atmosphere and we had, what I would class as one of the best steaks EVER there – made from Hida beef cows. It was so flavoursome! I would go there again just to have another one of those steaks.
So now it’s back to slight normality before I try and head down to Kyushu depending on my finances… will keep you posted!

Japanese music

So I said I would give you a little update on Japanese music.
Well, I’m afraid it ain’t gonna be pretty.
Most Japanese music is J-Pop, short for Japanese pop (if you hadn’t already guessed). They love their boybands like crazy, and go through them like wildfire. All the girls at school have paraphernalia with their images on them (think, backstreet boys and spice girls still), but surprisingly enough, there aren’t any girlbands like we used to have the Spice Girls or now still – Girls aloud. They’re all pretty boys that spend hours on getting their hair right and their correct outfits that make them look ‘cool’ and ‘tough’. That pretty much describes most Japanese men (think boys) though.
I told one of my kids once that in the west we don’t really listen to Japanese music, and she was so surprised! Probably couldn’t imagine what else we’d listen to.

SO! One of the most famous bands is SMAP, so big that they’re even very well-known throughout most of Asia. They’ve been going since 1991 apparently (i.e. a lot of changes in members because they all look reasonably young!) and have about 5 members. All I know about these guys is that one of them was recently caught doing drugs and it caused a huge fuss! But my kids at school never really mention them.
Besides them I’ve heard a lot about a band called GReeeeN, one E for each member of the band. Original right? I’ve only really heard one of their songs, and it’s sickly sweet, and the videos have the clenched fist singing and white outfit dancing. Oh yes.
Arashi is also very big at the moment, the name stands for storm. I think there’s about 7 members to this band, with their recent new single being called ‘everything’. Again, at school ARASHI (they like to write in capital letters) paraphernalia galore. Other names to throw around is NEWS (one letter for each direction on a map and there’s 4 members to this one), KAT-TUN, though kat-tun are more bad-boy and make less accessible music to those corny-loving music fans. EXILE are pretty big, and I have to admit, I’ve listened to them a little bit over time. One of my teachers wears an EXILE tour t-shirt at school all the time. Check any of them out on youtube, but it’s all pretty much the same to the untrained ear (which includes me!). I think I will try to learn about them for my kids’ amusement sake, but try not to listen to them.

In general, Japanese people can’t sing. Which is probably why they stick to pop, as it lends most to people with shitty voices. That’s why most other types of music out there isn’t often made (successfully that is!) in Japanese. As far as the rap scene is concerned, the only one introduced to me was by an American friend here, and one of my Japanese friends didn’t know him. Ozrosaurus is the name, and he likes to go ‘lolling’ around a random Japanese neighbourhood, which, to be perfectly honest, looks more like something found in America than a typical Japanese ‘hood.

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t any female singers in Japan! Oh no, they stick more to the solo stuff, and the slow very high-pitched song which is associated with ‘cuteness’. They are also idolised, and some names that come to mind are Chara and Kumi Koda. For some reason though I never hear as much about these as I do about J-pop bands. Apparently a lot of Korean singers come and sing in Japanese here. One of the most successful ones is MINMI, who does some more reggae-influenced music than die-hard J-pop.

Also, one of my teachers who likes English punk music gave me some Japanese bands. The only one, which is pretty emo, is jeepta, that I think is decent. Hi-standard conforms to the idea that Japanese people can’t sing and Ken Yokohama I haven’t really listened to much.

And that’s about as much as I can divulge about the Japanese music scene. Check some of them out on youtube for your listening pleasure!

Japanese festivals

So, as summer has now started, which can I add is pretty evident from the weather – I can’t believe it can get any more humid! I sweat about 5 full buckets every time I move!
My summer holiday started last Friday, which I celebrated by going back down to Kyoto for the Gion Matsuri (Gion festival). It’s one of the 3 biggest festivals along with the Tenjin festival in Osaka this coming weekend (24th/25th July) and the Sanno (even-numbered years) or Kanda (odd-numbered years) in Tokyo.
I won’t be making it to the ones in Tokyo or Osaka so I figured why not Kyoto? I arrived on the street at 11am, and got to see the main float (or mikoshi, as they’re called in Japanese – the hand-pulled floats) just as the main geisha was getting off to perform a sword-moving ceremony representing the warding off of evil spirits of disease, dating back to the 9th century. However, I didn’t see this, as it was so busy that I could only glimpse the geisha coming down and couldn’t move in any direction at all! Not unexpectedly I guess.
So I decided, no way! And I moved to a small side street where the mikoshi didn’t stop or turn, but at least I got a good view and some good photos. In the Gion Matsuri you have 2 kind of floats – boko, which are massive and really tall, and are pulled by like 20 people, and they have 2 people dancing at the front to the people making music at the top. You als have 4 people on top of the float to make sure it doesn’t get tangled in electricity wires, along with people making sure the wooden wheels stay on straight. These are the biggest and most impressive, and seeing these turn is supposed to be amazing because it's a huge manoeuvre and really complicated. The other type of mikoshi is called yama floats and they’re smaller and have a bit of tree on top, and generally less impressive. The nicest thing about the mikoshi in this parade was that they’re all decorated with tapestries from all over the world purchased over 500 years ago! The photos should be up under the Kyoto folder.
I missed the pre-events the nights before but I enjoyed the parade! Despite all the people. I would recommend people to try and go to at least 1 big Japanese festival, they really know how to celebrate big style!

The Monday after I went to the matsuri here in Nagoya at the port. It was a lot smaller, but very different and more local. There were tons of stalls selling traditional Nagoya fod like yakisoba (noodles in yakitori sauce), fried chicken, takoyaki (octopus balls), Frankfurt on a stick etc. And I mean a LOT of food stalls. There were 2 little parades; 1 band parade, which my school’s brass band played in, and a mikoshi parade, which some of my students participated in. It was funny seeing some of my students outside of school. They didn’t believe it was me! It was also very nice to see because many people put on their summer kimonos (both men and women) and their shoes, so it reflected traditional japan a lot more! Even some foreigners made a lot of effort to dress up for the occasion. In the evening there were also fireworks which weren’t too many – 3500 or so, but they were very impressive – the fact that they didn’t always let off 10 at a time, and the color combos were well co-ordinated! There were even shapes of hearts, smiley faces and diamond rings! I really enjoyed it too!!

The day after I got into the Japanese spirit some more by going to see the sumo tournament held every year here in Nagoya. I thought I would fall asleep, but it was very exciting! Much nicer to see in real life than on TV. And actually the 1st real live sports event I’ve been to. I stayed for thewhole thing. Some were proper fat mofo’s though, and there was one muscular gaijin (foreigner) who was too muscular and not fat enough I’d say! Couldn’t follow who was the winner though, embarrassed as I am to say, they do look alike to me. Again, photos should be up under the Nagoya folder.

So along with those very authentic Japanese experiences, as from today onwards I also have making Japanese clay pottery (setomono) to my list! It was really fun, I was taken there with a friend by one of my teachers. Very interesting indeed.

Intended next post: japanese music and other culture.

Japanese junior high school dynamics

Let me tell you a bit about school dynamics in junior high schools in Japan.
The most important people in the schools are the kocho sensei (the principal) and the Kyoto sensei (the vice principal). Make sure these are on your side! They’re pretty much untouchable, and often give off the impression of just sitting around and not doing anything (if they do I don’t know). You then get a head teacher (or in my case two I think), and these 4 people sit at the front of the staff room.

Being a teacher is a totally different concept in Japan than in western schools. Teachers here make up a huge part of their students lives, and are almost 3rd parents. They will occasionally make home visits and they are allowed to tell the parents off from time to time (though I think they rarely do). They are role models for the students are work hands-on with these kids (almost mothering them) – the younger ones, especially the males, run around with the tough guys, and they will spend a lot of time keeping them occupied. In my school, the kids are never allowed to be in a room by themselves without a teacher, so they’re always there with the students, they can hit the students, and those that have club activities (mostly sports) will spend a lot of time after school and on the weekends doing this with the kids. In my school especially, the teachers are so busy, that they often stay until 8-10 in the evening, not because they want to make a good impression but because they are so busy. One teacher said to me that he doesn’t really have any time to prepare for class, and many of them almost live at the schools. I asked one of the teachers why people want to be teachers in japan; apparenty stability is a big factor.
So as much as a teacher here may seem like an ideal husband (i.e. good with kids) they wouldn’t have much time to spend with their own!

The kids are pretty interesting. I’m talking about those really annoying moody teenagers.
The 1st year kids are fun, because they’re still innocent, at least in the first term, having come freshly out of elementary school, and some of them are so small and cute, I just want to steal them!
The 2nd years are the most dynamic, and you get such different characters. The easiest to class are the boys. You get your rowdy talk a lot kids that all seem to look the same! They’re all tall, skinny, with short hair. And the way they act in class is always the same too! It’s quite scary. Then you get your loud ones who know it all anyway, and there’s the quiet ones who know a lot, and then the quiet ones who just don’t care and fall asleep. These kids are not like kids in Korea, maybe because I’m in an undisciplined school, but these kids are just like any other local, nothing special school. These boys are actually my favorite, because they’re not afraid to talk to me, because, they’re still very playful in their feelings towards girls, and they actually do show some respect, well, most of them. The girls are a bit different. These will talk to me more, obviously, because I’m a girl, but many of them don’t really speak up in class, and there’s a few annoying ones who will actually fall into a deep sleep. I think I prefer the 1st and 3rd year girls.
The 3rd years are a lot more studious, maybe because they’re all thinking about high school entrance exams. They’re overall a lot more quiet, and if they don’t want to participate they do so quietly. The boys are a lot more shy, because they’re more aware of love etc. but the girls are much more fun. The amount of times they say ‘kawai’ (cute) a week is crazy!

Anyway, this is becoming an essay. These kids go to school, go to their classes (in japan each class has its own room, and the teachers move around from room to room. It’s actually quite a nice system), and at the end of the day have to clean their classroom and sometimes outside. Some that are in clubs come to school early to do this, and will stay late until 6.30 to do more club. Then on the weekend, club activities are on as well, and even in the summer holiday, they come into school for club… They spend a lot of time at school! But they all live very close too…


I'll leave it at that. What do you think about it?

photos

FYI - a few more photos from Nagoya and my quick trip to Kyoto uploaded.

Update

Hello! Been out of touch a little while, so here's my attempt to give you an update.
If anyone's still reading this, please give me a shout!

The teaching is ok. It's not really what i expected, i do nothing mostly, which is bothering me and is doubting me staying in Japan for another year. I'm a much more active person. That and i miss biology. So it's been really tough getting through the days, i'm trying though.
Last week was very hard too, because the girls that are in my apartment were starting to get a bit much too, so i hung out by myself a lot last week. And then i am glad to be here with some other foreigners, because always having to be by yourself would be hard! I mean, i want to make some Japanese friends, but you're always dealing with the cultural boundaries not to mention the language barrier! Which is why Nagoya is a nice place to start out in, it has a nice mix of japanese-ness but also bits of home you can run to when the japanese side of things gets a bit much. Like people rambling on to you in Japanese when it's pretty clear you have no idea what they're talking about.

The upside of my school compared to the others, their upside being that they do more teaching, is that my teachers, well some of them at least, are sociable. I've heard many times that they want to talk to me, practice their English, but they're afraid i think, and they always seem so busy so i don't want to interrupt, and the hardest thing - one minute they're like your best friend and the next all they give you is a nod and maybe a smile.
The ones that do speak English love getting me to do things that are Japanese! I went to dinner with 5 of them, and they were choosing things that were typically japanese that i hadn't had yet, and they're very impressed when i tell them that i did an ikebana class last night (very interesting btw!) and that i'm going to see a noh play (japanses performing art, slightly less well-known than kabuki). The thing is, that these things are considered essential japanese to foreigners but many japanese themselves haven't done ikebana or seen a kabuki play. So as much as it may be essential to their cultural background, it doesn't make a japanese person who he/she is. And that's what a lot of foreigners get wrong.

As i've been so low on the money front i've been doing a lot of exploring around Nagoya this past month. There's not a whole lot to explore, btu it has some nice areas, not always of historical interest though. there's a port, a temple and a shrine, and uhm, that may be it. a lot of shopping, which is a lot of japanese people's favorite hobby i think.

But that said, most of my life revolves around school. It's actually really ghetto, but the kids are gradually trying to speak to me more, teaching me words like unko (meaning poo). one of the things i'm still finding hard to get used to is that people when pointing to themselves point at their noses. Seeing a lot of people do that just makes it look really freaky!

But those are my ramblings for now. Like i said if anyone's still reading this. I promise to give a better update more frequently.
My brother's coming over in about 3 weeks, just after school finishes, and i'm going to stay in Japan this summer, so hopefully i have a lot of recommendations to give out then!

In the teaching mode

Hello!

I am now officially a teacher! I've started teaching at my junior high school (ages 13-15) and I really enjoy it!

The students are... well, they're teenagers! A lot of it is a front though, because they make great effort at times to say hi and get a response back with a wave. So the amount of times i say hello or good morning or whatever when i walk down the hall is crazy. And when i sit with some students at lunchtime, they start to get really scared, it's quite funny. It doesn't particularly make it easy to play games in class and make it fun, because they all want to be treated 'age appropriate' I may have to step up my game for the older ones...
The teachers are really friendly, which has helped me feel at home a lot quicker. Not to say taht i'm not totally uncomfortable pretending to learn japanese when i don't have any lessons to teach or preparation to do. Here, even if you have nothing to do for school you still have to pretend to be busy with stuff relevant to school. Though i also think that some of the stuff they taught us in training isn't always applicable to the school because they seem to be pretty chilled out. Also, this week and last is a bit out of the ordinary because the kids had a sports day one day and this week the 3rd years are off to Tokyo...

Trying not to make mistakes is always hard to, culturally. I often find myself making the worst ones when i'm feeling a bit too relaxed, so it keeps you on your toes, again not helping me feel totally comfortable yet. It's still constantly walking on eggshells.

Last weekend i went to a cultural day for foreign residents of nagoya, which there are quite a few of because of the english curriculum taught at the university. It was really interesting, we had a short tea ceremony (thank god, otherwise my legs would've given in), learned how to make onigiri (famous in nagoya, rice balls filled with fish or tempura) and there was a koto performance, i even tried playing it! It was really interesting, and best of all... free!
Then i went and visited Nagoya castle, the only thing for tourists really ehre, and it gave a good view of nagoya from the top, but other than that nothing special.
I'm hoping to head down to kyoto next weekend weather permitting, so i should have a nice post next time!

Hey there,

Thought i'd give you a little bit of an update on my life in Japan!
So far i'm finally getting settled in in Nagoya. The apartment is in a very nice location, very residential to the point where locals grow vegetables around us, but this also means that there's not much to find around here in terms of restaurants or even a good supermarket! I've only been here less than a week but i really hope to find one soon. I did find a good plant shop though, and my apartment looks really home-y now with a few plants here and there. The location is good in that within 10 minutes i'm at the station and 10 minutes later i'm in central Nagoya. So i can be in the city if i want or out.

My apartment is also really nice! There's even a washing machine, and a bath tub (though designed for midgets) and i have my bed up in a little loft, which mean that the space downstairs is 'big' and very much like a living room! One or two things more and then this is a nice place to stay for the next 8 months. It's at a reasonable price, though one thing i didn't like was dishing out almost one months rent for various bits and pieces including 'key money' which is basically a present to the landlord. But all in all, can't complain about leopalace yet!

I meet my school today, i hope they're nice! I've been getting some smiles around here (especially when i was carrying the plants back to my place) but a friend of mine located elsewhere hasn't been treated nicely by the japanese at all! And when we went to open bank accounts, we has to write our address out in Kanji and they weren't allowed to do it for us! That was interesting.

I've made a new best friend and it's name is the 100 yen shop! (100 yen = $1 US, 130 = €1) They have this huge one and it has everything you could dream of. i mean EVERYTHING! i kitted out most of my apartment there. bought so much and only spent like 7000 yen. The food shopping is a bit of a different matter, and i think i won't be cooking too much when i could easily get a bowl of ramen for 500 yen or so.

Everything is all falling into place, finally, though there are some issues in the contract with my company that haven't been agreed on yet. I'll keep you posted!

Japan!

Hello! I don't know if anyone is still reading this as it's been so long since i've written. But i thought i'd give a little update on life in japan so far.

As it always goes, my time at home went by way too fast. Another week or so wouldn't have gone amiss! But i had a great time hanging out with my family over easter and my friends in london thereafter, even if it was a bit of a cramming session to try and fit as many people in as possible!

Anyway, on the 20th of April i left home to go to japan, though the 20kg luggage limit proved to be rather tricky as ihad more than twice the amount... thank god my dad was there! In Tokyo i was met by someone at the airport and brought to the hotel, and that afternoon i stayed in the area of my hotel because i was quite tired and it was raining. I'm currently still at the hotel, which is located in Asakusa, also known as old tokyo. It's a nice area, though sometimes a bit long-ish to go to some of the more popular central places like the emperor's palace and shibuya. I really like tokyo though, i've tried to do as much sighseeing as i can when i'm not in training and when it's sunny, which it usually is, it's beautiful! I have no issues with the trains, and there's SO much to do here.... you can tell it one of the world's biggest cities! But in a good way, it's quite clean and it has some really interesting buildings, architecturally.

I had training from wed the 21st till the 28th. It involved talking about teaching, strategies, some policy stuff and then a demo lesson at the end. It was really useful, especially as the guy who was training us was good. i mean real good. I trained with 10 others at the beginning but 2 days in 2 guys left and it was 9 of us (all staying in the same corridor in the same hotel). We all get along really well, which has been a nice change from travelling by myself, and we've been out in the city several times! I've actually been placed with 5 of them down in nagoya, which is supposed to be one of the most liveable cities in japan, the 4th biggest, and it's really close to kyoto and osaka and about 2 hours from tokyo so i can't really complain! i'm most likely teaching junior high (13-15yrs) and slim chance of high school, but i'd ideally wanted elementary. Beggers can't be choosers eh? The good news was that we're only going down on the 8th of may, so we had a load of time to do sighseeing, but they were originally only going to start paying us from the 15th of may (so almost a month in japan without being paid for it... they only pay at the end of the next month as well!!!) but they've agreed to start paying us from the end of training.

For anyone interested in coming to tokyo, this is what i've seen so far:
- shibuya (only at night) is pretty hectic, and the crossing is as busy as they say! will see it in daylight tomorrow, so that should give some great pictures! good for clubbing
- ginza, this is the shopping high end area, with all the designer shops and the sony center (8 floors of displays) and the mac store etc. it's really nice to walk there on a sunday cos they close the highstreet (chuo dori) off
- shinjuku - part of it is lots of shops and part is some wacky but interesting architecture. nice for a walk on a sunny day.
- daikin'yama - the best shopping as far as i'm concerned - all retro shops in small alleys, quite authentic
- roppongi - a busy gaijin (japanese word for foreigners) area with a few clubs, not many are good, and a rip-off of the eiffel tower called the tokyo tower.

That's about it for now! Hopefully won't be too long before i get back to you

First journey over, off to the next!

Before i recount the last two weeks of my trip India, i'd just like to say that it is my intention to keep up this blog throughout my placement in Japan, so if you would like a bi-monthly update, please continue to look at the blog!

Man, this all seems so long ago!
After the periyar reserve i went to Alleppy to go boating around the backwaters. The most expensive way to do this is by riceboat, which is supposed to be so luxurious but the problem, as with all other rooms, is that the prices are for at least 2 people, and therefore it was out of the question for me! However, i feel that the way i did it, by canoe-d boat, was maybe even better because i was able to go through narrow canals and see what people really live like, though i'm sure they feel like they're on show considering how popular it is to do tours like this even as a holiday destination for other Indians! It was really nice and calm, though i felt bad for the guy rowing because the paddles weren't very effective and he was working so hard!

Then i went up to Kochi to wait for the morning train to calicut. At this point i wasn't sure whether i was going to stay the night or overnight in the wayanad region, up in the hills because i wanted to visit another wildlife reserve there. I decided spur of the moment to head straight into the hills, though when i got there the tourist information office told me they were all closed because of forest fire risk! So i hopped back onto a bus an hour later and took it all the way to Mysore.

In mysore i mainly wandered around, it's not a very thrilling city, quite dirty, as with most indian cities, but much nicer than mumbai. They have a sultan's palace there which is nice to see though i didn't go in, and some nice markets. I took a trip outside to go to this small but tranquil bird sanctuary, and i really enjoyed it, i did a little boat trip and everything - very pleased i was! On sunday nights you can also see the sultan's palace lit up by 5000 lightbulbs, so i did that, and it gave me a bit of a colonial timewarp as during the hour that it was lit up there was a brass band playing music - not very indian like!

Then i went into the hills, yet again, to a place called madikeri which is in the middle of the coorg region, known for their coffee produce, and at this time of year the coffee plants are in bloom giving off a wonderful and strong fragrance.
It was sad to see on the way that you get beautiful fenced in plantations but right outside there's litter thrown everywhere, and that upset me a tiny bit.
I found a great place to stay, good value and lots of tv channels (always a bonus traveling alone) and i went for a 8km hike to waterfalls. But again, as with all my expeditions, i was ill-fated and caught in the rain, AGAIN! though i was able to find shelter here and able to comfortably wait until i could stop a rickshaw. The waterfalls were ok, i prefered the hiking in munnar to be perfectly honest. Madikeri was also a bigger than expected having been to munnar, and much busier.
I spent the next afternoon sitting from the raja's viewpoint just reading my book and catchig up in my journal, i enjoyed that!

Then that afternoon i was off to mangalore, and i wanted to see if i could get a train ticket yet to mumbai from goa. I forgot to mention that when i went to book it in alleppy, the night i wanted (granted it was a sunday), which was 11 days away, had 98 people on the waiting list. 98!!! so i booked the saturday (37 people) because you can get a full refund 24hrs prior to departure. The train system is so busy, also pretty cheap, that you can book 3 months in advance, and the goa-mumbai route is quite popular. Lucky for tourists they have what's called a tatkal system, where they reserve 15% of all seats and only release them 5 days prior to travel, so at least some tourists have a chance of getting a ticket. And i managed to get one! yay! for the 29th. So i now have 5 days planned at the beach. YES!

From mangalore i went up the coast (this is the western coast btw) to a place called gokarna, which is a little farmers village not well known, but it has some great beaches and isn't as touristy as goa. It was nice going there, and it was indeed pretty quiet (a cow stole my pineapple! bastard) but i felt that it had been much harder in india to meet people and i was actually wanting to go somewhere more touristy as i needed that contact with other foreigners.
So i spent 2 days in Gokarna and took teh train up to goa.

I never realized that Goa was so big! I'd just assumed Goa to be one place, like mumbai, but actually it's a reasonably long stretch of the coast with like 30 different beaches most referred to as north or south of panjim, the capital. So then where should you go in Goa? It depends what you're looking for, because most of the party beaches are further up north, whereas some quieter ones are south. I ended up going to Palolem, which is in the south, and to some the most idyllic of all Goan beaches. I know it's hard to say i've really seen Goa by only going to 1 beach, but i enjoyed it there. It was busy but a nice kind of busy, and i finally met some more people (these german girls) who i had dinner with. The second night i was getting a bit sick, a cold which is still lingering on now. Not much to say about my time in Goa apart from that it was so great to just lie in the sun and swim in a warm ocean and do absolutely nothing else!

I took the sleeper train up to Mumbai (it wasn't so bad, it was laying on a flat slightly-cushion bench but it worked) and then went straight onto try and make my way to Matheran, or as i like to say, maybe one of southern india's best kept secrets (at least from foreigners). To get there takes a bit more time because you have to get to a place called Neral by suburban train and it is one of the most densely packed trains in india, so find the ladies compartment if you can (that's been amazing about travel in india - the fact that mostly there will be a ladies compartment, meaning you're not being groped all the way. THey do their fair share of staring, but at least it's from a distance!) and then you take a 'toy train' up into the hills. Matheran used to be a colonial hillstation, and there's no cars allowed (there not even pavement for most of it) and it's popular to ride on horseback there, and there's not much to do but relax and go for walks to some stunning viewpoints (i just realized i said and there like 10 times). The views reminded me a bit of the blue mountains in sydney, the way you can see the land formations. It was beautiful, i was so happy i went there!!

And after i just made my way back into mumbai to the airport where i stayed overnight and made my way back to normalcy in Belgium. Well, at least for a little while. on the 20th i fly to japan, don't know where i'll be posted yet but yay for another adventure! I'm also going back to London shortly, so i've come to realize i can't sit still anymore...

India so far

GOOD NEWS! I got the a-ok from japan. I was so relieved.

I'm currently in Kerala, a region in the far south-west of India, much more tropical than the drier inland regions, and therefore doesn't conform to the typical ideas when one thinks about India! It's been really good, though i wasn't too impressed at first.

I flew into mumbai, and i have no good feelings about it whatsoever! Its a dirty busy city, where the slums are so long that they even back onto the airport runway, the people are rude and rip you off BIG time, more so than south-east asia (one thing i don't like about india) and, though this is a common occurence throughout india, it's a lot harder to tell which people you can trust. There are some extremel nice people and some devious ones but they all seem to have the same front.
Oh and another strange thing about india - they do this weird head shake thing, from side to side (faced forward) which means like 'ok' but they do it A LOT!

The second day in mumbai wasn't too bad becausse it was holi (a hindu festival of colors) and the streets were pretty empty, and therefore it was relatively pleasant to walk around and see some sights. Still don't like it.
The next day i flew down to Kochi in Kerala, and spent 2 days there. It's a really laid-back place, all of Kerala is actually, so it's a gentle introduction as far as india goes i think. I did a cooking class there in the evening where i learned to make this really nice fish curry and a nice pumpkin dish along with chipati.
Around fort kochi they have some old potuguese and dutch buildings, as well as this nice place to shop called 'jew town'. They also have this performance called kathakali, which is strange because it puts a lot of emphasis on eye movements and facial expressions. i mean A LOT! those actors must have very strong facial muscles.

Then i went up into the hills to a place called munnar, which is known for its man tea and cardamom plantations. The climate was a lot more pleasant, though it rained the day i arrived, and the 2nd day i got a bit lost trying to find some waterfalls!
Then i went to kumily (where i am now) - still in teh hills and it again has man spice and tea plantations, but most people come here for the periyar tiger reserve. I did a trip in there just now and we saw some langurs, and kingfishers and an elephant. It was really relaxing as it was on a bamboo raft, though the sun was quite hot. The place i'm staying at is great, called jungle view, and it's a homestay that backs right on to part of the surroundings of the reserve, so i've seen a few cool birds like drongos along with langurs and macaques there, and last night a porcupine! Brought me back to doing my placement at the zoo...
And i've also had the surreal experience of an aryurvedic massage. They basically rub you in oil all over, and i mean ALL OVER! nice enough, but i think i've had enough with just 1. I'll go for a thai one next time.

So now i'm off to Apalluzha tomorrow, where you can do boat trips on the backwaters there and then going north, not entirely sure where i'll end up yet, but isn't that the beauty of it?

Indonesia and the Rainforest

I ended up staying in Bogor for about 2 days - it was nice being able to be with some locals and just taking it easy. I stayed with Itje - the mom of a girl i'd met on my hike to Inle lake in Myanmar. She was really nice, and reminded me of the girl a lot! She had to teach so her son took me to the botanical gardens (huge!) and the 2nd day i met some more local women as we went to a birthday party of one of Itje's friends. That evening i took an overnight minibus to get down to Yogyakarta - and i met this really interesting woman who was a university lecturer in taxonomy, and had travelled all over!
In Yogya i set to finally getting my diving organized, as i was going to go for 5 days if i could fly without my passport (at this time still at the Indian embassy in Jakarta). i found out i didn't need it so gave myself as many days diving as i could (5). The next morning i went out to see Borobudur, the biggest buddhist temple and quite impressive - nicer than some other ones as it wasn't all gold-plated and everything, and then also Prambanang - a large hindu temple that was recently part made to rubble in an earthquake in 2006. They're both very pretty, and impressive to see, but i definitely felt that i'd had my fair share of temples for the time being and could do without for a while!
That evening i went to a ballet whcih is typical of Java, and interesting as it was i felt it got a bit whiny towards the end (mainly the music) and it ended quite abruptly. I then took an overnight train back to Jakarta - so comfortable! It was way better than bus transport as you get a lot more space, it rocks less and it takes less time. My longest train journey so far.

I then flew to Manado, which is in North Sulawesi to go diving! Luckily i didn't spend much time in the town itself - it's not very nice.
I first went diving off of Bunaken, which mostlky has coral walls, very pretty diving, but it doesn't having anythign that makes it SPECIAL, i would say. The dive operator - two fish divers - was really good, and the other divers were really friendly, so i had a good time. I love diving! As i totally lack funds to pay 2500 euros for underwater camera housing i have few pictures of what it was like.
Then i went to Lembeh for 2 days which is off the other side of the norhtern arm of Sulawesi but has more special, though less spectacular diving - it is muck diving, which basically means a lot of sand, silt and rubbish, but because of this it has some really unusual creatures both in camouflage and shape, and although more work is required to find them, it totally pays off. It was so nice, and i prefered this branch of the dive operator as well, so i would go back there before going back to Bunaken. A great little escape to paradise!

However, it all ended quite abruptly upon arrival in Jakarta. The plan was to go pick up my passport (between 4 and 4.30) and then overnight at the airport, as the diving had noticeably made my wallet lighter. I was on the internet and decided to take a taxi (3.50pm) to teh embassy. However, when i went to drop ti off, the people always knew where the singapore embassy was (next door) but never the indian embassy. So i made the mistake of telling the driver to go to the singapore embassy. a while later we stopped to ask someone where to go and when i said 'indian embassy' the driver said "oh, i know where that is, the other direction!"!!!! and it was 4.15. I was so nervous i almost started crying because if i didn't egt it today that would've meant missing my flight to borneo! And to top it all off there was a traffic jam. At one point i flung the driver money and got out of the car and legged it - arriving at 4.30pm on the dot, just in time to get my passport back! what a relief.
Then later when i went to take the last airport shuttle bus at 7pm, because it was late and they don't get paid overtime, it didn't go. So i sat at the station talking to these taxi drivers for a while figuring this out, and they offered to take me to the airport for $7, not bad. So i got into the taxi with this guy whose english was pretty poor, and he asked me to choose some music. I didn't mind so he put on this house music, with extra bass subwoofers at the back and he was dancing away whilst driving. I just wanted a quiet evening after the stress previously! I stayed overnight at the airport, but it definitely wasn't an extremely comfortable nights sleep.

I met up with Hannah in KL though she wasn't feeling too well at the time, and we went on to fly to Sandakan. The first morning we went to Sepilok Orang-utan rehabilitation center, where one female came for feeding with her baby.
Then we got briefed by uncle tan and off into the rainforest we went. On the first boat ride we saw like 5 orang-utans, a shit load of macaques and lots of hornbills and a croc too! So much wildlife - i knew i was going to like it. And to make things better, the camp atmosphere was one of fun because all of the people there are young (the manager is 28, next in charge is 21) but they know their stuff and have really good eyes, and are inclusive to anyone who wants to join in with football or merry-making or whatever! I had such a good time i'm thinking of heading back in the summer to camp out and maybe spot some pygmy elephants. It's also made me realize how much i love being out in the rainforest (also the diving), so much so that i might consider them to be some of my favorite highlights from the whole of my SE Asia trip! Having realized that was quite important to me as it will be a determining factor in the future in terms of masters courses and future travelling plans.

So now we're (i mean hannah, her sister and I) are relaxing in sandakan. I was trying to dive sipadan for a day but it was fully booked, and in the end was too much hassle anyway (and VERY expensive) so i decided to come back and dive it for a week over the summer, and then follow that by going into the rainforest for another week, maybe more. I do really want to dive sipadan, and if the japan thing gets sorted then i'm not exactly far away...

photos

mynamar and lao photos now online.
still have some vietnam to upload

3 weeks past

I can't believe i've been awoll for almost 3 weeks! I'm sorry, i was going to update in Myanmar but i think the government really doesn't like blogs so i was banned, even though i managed to get on facebook!

Basically! My last few days in Vietnam were spent visiting Halong Bay, which is a UNESCO world heritage site and absolutely beautiful, so peaceful and quiet! I did a 3d/2n trip which was good, though didn't include as much as i'd hoped! We stayed on cat ba island one night, the only island there that's inhabited, and we did a short hike in the national park, and then we stayed on a bnoat for a night, and the coolest part was probably the kayaking in the morning. It's really really beautiful, but overall my impression of Vietnam hasn't been too great, or at least not comparatively and i don't think i feel the need to go back. This seems to be the common consent amongst travellers, so that might be some food for thought...

Then i flew into Luang Prabang because i didn't have enough time to wait for a bus service as i'd lsoe 2 days. The flight cost me a lot though.
Luang Prabang is BEAUTIFUL! yet another UNESCO site and very touristy (not booking accomodation beforehand is a mistake you pay for dearly), but it still has a very slow and relaxed pace to it, which is great, and it's so quiet compared to Hanoi!! It's one of my favorite cities in Asia so far. There's a lot to see there as well in terms of religious architecture, and the 2nd day i met this Irish girl, who i ended up going up north with! I went to visit this really cool waterfall outside of Luang Prabang with her and her 2 co-travellers where we could also swim! It was a great day out, though contrary to what the lonely planet says i wouldn't recommend it by bike as it's far too hilly!

Then the Irish girl and I (she left her friends behind as they went south) went up to a place called Luang Nam Tha, from where we organised a 2d/1n trek into the protected area, with a night's stay in a village.
It was nice, but not as i'd hoped. It was pretty hard trekking and there weren't any nice views to enjoy. The food was rpetty good though, however i;'m glad sticky rice isn't my staple food! The village again was a bit more open to the road than we'd hoped and we stayed seperate fomr the villagers, but i still feel i got some really good portrait shots of the locals.

My original plan was to enter Myanmar from Tachilek, border town in the north with Thailand, but i spoke to this Israeli guy who said that wasn't possible. So i had to rush to bangkok to make it across to Yangon by the 6th otherwise my visa expired. All went smoother than hoped, though lots of stress was involved, and when i got to Myanmar i knew it was too good to be true - they'd left my bag in bangkok! Though i'm glad they hadn't shipped it to some far corner of china.
I was then stuck in Yangon for a day. It's really not a very nice city, really dirty, but you can tell they don't get too many tourists because a lot of people look and smile at you! I saw Shwedagon pagoda, which is one of the most famous in Myanmar.
The next day i took a long 16 hour bus to a mountain village called Kalaw, as this was the place i was wanting to do a trek (3d/2n) from Kalaw to Inle lake. There really isn't any other reason to go to the village but therefore the peoplea re so friendly because they don't get many locals there at all! I got talking to some monks and they were giving me all these myanmar foods (and asked em to take photos and send it to them) and before whilst walking around i got invited to an alms ceremony the next day as it was some full moon festival! The alms giving was really cool, and very local. All the kids kept posing for pictures and they looked at me like i was some king of freak! It was really cool though, something i don't think many people get to experience.

I couldn't stay long as the hike left the same day. There were (to my dismay) quite a few of us - 12 alltogether, but we went in 'two' groups, but basically one group. The walking wasn't particularly strenuous but it was the heat that really got to you! And very limited shade. The views were better than the hike in Lao but the village stay wasn't as nice. The 2nd night was really interesting as we stayed in a monastry and it was funny to hear the young novices chanting at 7pm and 5am and then seeing them watch rambo in the evening before bed time!

Inle lake is very touristy, and i knew as much. However, the Israeli gu mentioned before said to go to this village on stilts, and when some of the other people fromthe hike and I realised that our boat was taking us to uber-touristy places, we asked him to go there - and it was really nice, a lot more genuine than the other places, and the kid were all happy and waving and everything!
I didn't stay long in Inle though, and caught an overnight bus to Mandalay.

Mandalay is yet another big city, and i didn't want to stay very long, also because to see many of the nicer tourist sites you have to pay $10 to the government, and i only wanted to give them money when i absolutely had to, i.e. Inle and Bagan.
It was a question that was on my mind a lot whilst travelling there whether or not people should go to myanmar, and i've come to the conclusion that, despite what aung san suu kyi says, yes, people should because many people do really rely on tourism as some main source of meagre income. It's all about the way you spend it. As far as i'm concerned, despite how nice the views may be, boat, train and air are all off limits, as they are all government run. So all transport should be by bus. And obviously staying at local guesthouses, but keep in mind that 10% of that still goes to the government. And, personally, i would say avoid the entry fees - however, it's not always possible! There are a few nice sites to see in Mandalay that are free, and some aren't always checked. As far as inle and bagan are concerned - i think you can't come to myanmar and not see these places. But if you can, talk to travellers and if they've just come from there ask for their ticket - it works. And next time i come here, i will have seen them and won't go again. And most importantly spread the wealth, and don't argue about $0.50, it means nothing to you but the world to them.

I was really wanting to go to this place just north of Mandalay called Pyin U Lwin but i got sick and was stuck in the hotel lobby waiting for my stomach to calm down! That night i got a bus to Bagan, but it is by far the worst bus journey i've ever been on! That route is all local, air-con-less buses, but the night one is a stock bus, so there were sacks of rice or flower all along the aisle (making the 'floor' equal height to the seats) and under the seats, so i sat with my knees folded for 8 hours. Not ideal. Thank god i'm stumpy!

Bagan is beautiful, it's pretty much a desert with 4400 temples on a short area of land, so you get great scenery shots. However, it's quite sad because you can tell tourism has hit the place too fast so kids ask you for food or money, and even the monks come begging because people don't give the rice as alms anymore and prefer to keep it to sell to tourists. But very very hot. You can see it nicely by horse and cart, but sadly that wasn't in my budget plan.
I was really stressed out because i took an overnight bus before my morning flight and was afraid i was going to miss it - i had a few extra dollars and was contemplating flying but decided not to for political, environmental and financial reasons. Job - i thought of you and travelling close-call style!
However, the bus journey went fine, and we got to Yangon slightly early and i boarded my flight back to Bangkok.
Also - before you go to myanmar, make SURE you have UNFOLDED, UNTORN, UNTOUCHED dollar bills ebcause otherwise they won't accept them, no joke!

In Bangkok i stressed out because i wasn't sure whether i would be able to get my Indonesia visa because they might ask for a bank statement. But it all turned out to be a joke when i arrived, as they didn't even ask to see my return ticket. Still, better to be prepared. Today i went and handed in my passport to get my India visa, and am soon off to Bogor to stay at this girl's place whom i met on the trek to Inle lake from Kalaw, though she's not there her mother sounds nice! Plus Jakarta is way too congested, bogor is supposed to have a really nice botanical garden.
Also, one thing i've noticed about travelling around Asia is that you can go from country to country and have rainy and dry seasons at completely different times! I've hit indonesia in its rainy season, which meant that this morning it was so insanely oppresively hot, and it's just as i'm writing this, started to pour it down!

Anyway, enough of my rambling, that's it for now. Smell ya later!

Chuc munh nam moi - xuan ky suu 2009!

This is the message you see hanging around everywhere, especially tonight! it means happy new year, spring of the buffalo 2009. Tonight is Tet in vietnam, or chinese new year!

I have to admit though, i haven't done all that much sight-seeing in vietnam, but it doesn't really bother me, as i feel i've still gotten to know a lot about the country!

I didn't stay in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City (they all call it Saigon here...) for very long, but from what i saw it's a very western city! Basically, vietnam has been divided in two for a very long time (even though they divided it into 3 when it was part of indochina but the 2 were tonkin top and cochin china bottom) and the south is very westernized because that's where france concentrated most of their investments. But even so, i thought and think that vietnam is a lot more modern in that there are a lot of SHOPS instead of stalls lining some streets... though some have disagreed with me!

Then i went up to coast to Nha Trang on a normal bus... BIG mistake! they were blairing out vietnamese movies (i.e. SHIT) at a ridiculously load volume till like 3am! Basically i got no sleep and was pretty aggitated (only 1 of my headphones worked at this time!) In nha trang i didn't do much apart from relax on the beach and go diving! The visibility wasn't that great underwater because it's only recently stopped raining and so the silt run-off from the rivers is gradually getting less, but what i saw was cool - some lionfish, STONEFISH! and this COOL fish called a seamoth - it had wings! i love diving.
Though we had to rescue some fish from a net in the first dive which was pretty upsetting, luckily they all lived. And it was pretty cold underwater too - too cold for jsut a wetsuit in my opinion.

Then i got a sleeper bus to Hoi An, another 12 hours up the coast. Sleeper buses are pretty cool, they should have them in Australia as well, and i loved the lack of Vietnamese karaoke.
Hoi An is pretty. It has quite narrow streets and it's rpetty old (the central bit is a unesco world heritage site) and that's probably the most sight-seeing i've done! I also got some stuff tailor-made, and as a result my bag is far too big now! but it's so cheap! i even got 2 pairs of shoes (1 pair of trainers and 1 pair of boots) tailor made!! 50 dollars both cost me! But it was also quite annoying always getting harrased to 'look in my shop', and i wasn't entirely sure at first i liked the clothes when they were still being made, so i was in a bad mood and stayed in watching movies all of the 2nd day, but luckily the clothes are to my liking and so is my mood!

Another sleeper bus got me to Hanoi, where i am at the moment. it's really nice, not as congested as some others, though i still feel that crossing the street is risking my life every time. I'll just never get used to all the honking and the mopeds. On the bus to hanoi, though, i'd decided to stop getting stressed out and made the resolution (i guess it could be a new years one, as today is new years here, and i hadn't made one yet) to do something new every day of my travels! It's pretty bold, and the new thing doesn't have to be big as long as it's genuinely new.
My first day in hanoi i went to see a waterpuppet show - it wsa so cool! I'll put some videos up that i took soon. It's hard to describe, but it was nice that there wasn't much dialogue, and some bits were really funny. And then i got a cyclo back, a form of transport i hadn't tried before because i'm stingy, which made me feel a bit like a princess :)
I was going to go see uncle Ho in his mausoleum today but i'd heard that it was closed for tet (turns out it's not!) so i have actually NOT been to ANY museums. Though i feel i've gotten more in touch with vietnamese culture than most today - i had a 2 hour lesson on the dan bau, a typically vietnamese instrument! I learned to play jingle bells and happy birthday :) i'll put a video up of that soon too.

Tomorrow i'm off to see halong bay for 3 days, another unesco site and is supposed to be stunning, and then the day i get back i'm off to Laos, where i fly to Luang Prabang. Till then...

Cambodia

I'm just about finished in Cambodia and off to Vietnam tomorrow.

In Bangkok (seems so long ago!)i pretty much was waiting it out for the visa. I did go to a floating market just outside in a village called Damnoen Saduak, and i got there the night before - there were no other westerners there, which was a nice change! But it was very tourist-ified at times, but i still enjoyed it! The next day (my last) i visited some more temples that i'd missed out before.

In Cambodia i'd decided to go straight to Siem Reap with 5 others i'd met on the bus, with whom (excluding one who wasn't feeling well) i rented a bike the next day to go see some temples in Angkor! There are so many there, but despite the whole hype, angkor wat is pretty much all they say it is - it is breathtaking! We also visited Bayon, built slightly later, and wat phrom, where tomb raider was filmed. It was pretty busy but apparently it wasn't as busy as last year! A good day, lots of exercise!
The next day i wanted to go see some more temples further away so i went by myself on the back of a moto (mopeds, they pretty much run this country - crossing the street is risking your life every single time!) to see Bantaey Srei, probably the best conserved but i prefered Bantaey Samrei as it was so much quieter! I also visited Preah Khan but it was pretty much a lot of ruins. It's really sad because i can only imagine how majestic it must have looked when they were in full glory but looting and the unstable political situation have left very few intact!

I left the others and took a boat to Battambang the next day, a journey which was supposed to take 3-8 hours. It took 10. And we had to get off 2/3rds of the way through because the boat was taking up too much water, as there were too many passengers and we were almost tipping over! Dry season meant the water level was very low so lots of bends in the river... It was really interesting to see all these floating villages though where kids rows boats at the same age i was just learning to walk! And many of them are so poor, i wonder where they get their basic resources from...

In Battambang i took a cooking class and learned to make Amok, a national dish like a thai curry but richer in spices, Lok lak, a beef dish, and a soup (lots of Khmer - cambodian - food is based around soups). It was really cool!! In the afternoon i went to see these killing caved and went for a ride on the bamboo train. Since being here i've learnt the horror of the cambodian genocide from 1975-1979 by pol pot, which is worse even than hitler's in the burtality and murder against its own people, and so few people know about it!! people will have heard the name pol pot before, but seriously, read the book i mentioned before by luong ung - first they killed my father - and only then will anyone begin to realize what stuff has gone on under the khmer rouge regime only too recently! i can't believe they didn't teach this stuff in school...

I got to Phnom Penh (which is pretty cool, much less congested than bangkok!) by bus and went to see the killing fields (where over 80000 people were killed by the khmer rouge) and to the s-21 prison, where tons were tortured. It was a pretty depressing day, but in the process i met up with 2 guys i'd seen siem reap with.

Tomorrow i'm off to ho chi minh city (Saigon) by bus but am planning to go straight through to a place called nha trang and maybe get some diving in! Can't wait to get back in the water.

Cambodia's been really nice to see. It shows such a contradiction in rich history and the recent unstabilities it's really interesting to see how if unfurls in the future, especially with the tourist boom it's experiencing. There's only really a few specific areas that most people go to - siem reap, battambang, phnom penh and sihanoukville, but if i'd have more time i'd go up to the northeast - scenery is supposed to be stunning and all a lot less touristy! Oh well, next time :)

Photos!

Most photos are FINALLY up, also see australia - i've updated the album (look at the end).
Off to Siem Reap tomorrow

Bangkok

Before jetting back off to Sydney i did a quick day trip of the great ocean road - it's very pretty! and some of the smaller towns on there are nice too. However, you see similar scenery when driving along the coast of New Zealand, so as nice as it was, i wasn't dazzled by it. The 12 apostles, or the 9 that are left, are, well, rocks sticking out, but it's still pretty impressive to see nature working away.

I arrived after another long bus journey back to sydney to meet up with some more familiar faces - Marek, cas' friend, and his mom was there too! It is nice seeing people i have longer ties with than a few hours, plus it is different seeing what Australia is like if you lived there. I do really like it, despite some previous complaints, and as beautiful as new zealand is, it's much more isolated than Australia, strangely enough, as geography doesn't entirely back that claim up.

New Years is WAY better warm, so if you could only get a snowy christmas and a hot new years that would be ideal. who knows... climate change may get very extreme?
It was odd being at the beach the same day as celebrating New Years. But nice as we didn't do the extremely crowded Coogee or Bondi beach, but slightly furhter south at Maroubra beach. After having some thai food and then rocking up at marek's friend's friend's house party (as you do!) we went into the center with Marek's friend and 2 other people (1 german and 1 chinese) we met at the party. In Sydney it was obviously pretty busy and alcohol restrictions on what you could take in so we spent the 40mins before new years drinking what we'd brought.
I didn't see the main fireworks though, we were at darling harbour which was considerably less crowded! And still pretty impressive fireworks. Was crazy that you saw that ther were fireworks at 3 differnt places at the same time around the harbour! Eventually we returned to the house party.

The next day was a relatively hangover-free one! And pretty lazy. On the 2nd i ventured back into Sydney center and went to get my Vietnam visa (ther's an option to egt it in 30 minutes!), went to widlife photographer of the year exhibition (always a good one!!) and to the sydney aquarium (dugongs and crazy shark and crazy fish yay!).
The following day i eventually headed over to the blue mountains - where on my way i met this german girl who i ended up doing 2 hikes with that day and the next.
We did a short walk to the three sisters (some more rocks) - but the view is pretty stunning! And it's all so big!! The hostel i stayed at (flyingfox) was really cool, i'd recommend it to anyone going there!
The next day we did a long and tiring walk (4.5 hours) to wentworth falls and into the rainforest... it was pretty beautiful and however painful it was sometimes (so many stairs!) it felt good, as if i was letting out energy that had been locked up for a long time! A Very enjoyable and rewarding last full day in Australia! Will put photos up tomorrow, to continue to make you very jealous (sorry!).

Before going off to Bangkok i met up with Jamie, the canadian girl i'd met in Cairns , went diving, and travelled down to Airlie beach with. The journey back to the northern hemisphere was relatively pain-free apart from that my tv screen wasn't working, the plane was full, and there were lots of good movies on!!! Was very annoyed, but luckily i a lot of reading material and i took some slight advantage of the free alcohol!
Midnight in bangkok i'm glad i got the hotel i'd wanted, it's close to khao san road without being on it, has clean rooms for 6 euros a night and a rooftop swimming pool! I was pretty scared to venture out the next day (surprising!) as i didn't want to be hassled etc. but i was expecting something close to what i'd experienced in e.g. malawi from what people'd told me! And it really wasn't so bad! the nicest thing is that you get really nice cheap stuff and you can look around the stalls without being hassled! The time differnce is also better - 6 hours with belgium instead of 10.

I got a very badly needed massage for 5 euros and did the obvious shopping. A trip by boat to the temple of the emerald buddha (the most-visited buddha statue!) got me into an asian cutlural mood and finihsed the day off with some 50 eurocent phat thai dinner! It's such a crazy culture here, last night i was out on the street of my hotel (rambuttri) having a shisha pipe with trance-like music booming in the background... it's hard to describe, but i like that it's so vibrant at night. I guess i like cities.
Today was spent getting my Myanmar visa (and on the way i was stupid enough to walk into a moped, i'm fine though, jsut a scratch), and visited Siam square, a horrible hub of shopping malls and western food chains, i really hated it and was desperate to get out! Not what i came to asia for.

So once i get my visa for myanmar (2 days) i'll be off on a bus to cambodia and will probably be staying in the north, going to Siem Reap, Battambang and east to Preah Vinhear. A really good book i finihsed today on the cambodian attack by the Khmer Rouges is called 'first they killed my father' by Loung Ung.