If we were South Park Characters...
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Takahiro Kudo, James, Me, Shinji Nakamura. Kudo-kun and Shinji are two of our favourite students! They have a great attitude and were members of the baseball team. Unfortunately this meant that too much time was spent playing baseball, and not enough time was spent studying. They will now have to study at a private school for a year before retaking their tests next year. No worries though, I am sure they will go far.
Graduation
Tuesday 1st March 2005
It was Graduation at my Senior High School today (Agatagaoka SHS - 県ヶ丘高校) and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I would miss some of my 3rd year students when they left. (Out of a class of 40, i will miss about 5 of them!!!) The ceremony was boring, and it was much more stuffier than last year's, but that was to be expected given the controversy and attention paid to our new Principal (he's not a teacher, but is a reformer who used to work at JAL). The press were there, so the school spent 500quid renting this lintel for the 2 hour ceremony.
THe kids were dressed up to their nines. Most of the girls wore kimonos and spent at least 3 hours getting their hair done. THe boys were in suits. It was interesting seeing what kind of look they went for. The "loser" boys went for gangster. The "nerds" went for business. The "cool" kids were smart. IT was interesting.
Here are a few photos from the day...
It was Graduation at my Senior High School today (Agatagaoka SHS - 県ヶ丘高校) and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I would miss some of my 3rd year students when they left. (Out of a class of 40, i will miss about 5 of them!!!) The ceremony was boring, and it was much more stuffier than last year's, but that was to be expected given the controversy and attention paid to our new Principal (he's not a teacher, but is a reformer who used to work at JAL). The press were there, so the school spent 500quid renting this lintel for the 2 hour ceremony.
THe kids were dressed up to their nines. Most of the girls wore kimonos and spent at least 3 hours getting their hair done. THe boys were in suits. It was interesting seeing what kind of look they went for. The "loser" boys went for gangster. The "nerds" went for business. The "cool" kids were smart. IT was interesting.
Here are a few photos from the day...
So I haven't updated in AGES!!! Please excuse me - I just haven't had anything exciting or crazy or good happen to me in a while.
So last friday, I did something spontaneous. WOW! Yes. Roy did it. I went to Tokyo with 2 friends Karina and her BF, Mas, took the train to Tokyo for the evening. We had no plans, and ended up eating Indian and walking around dingy parts of town. We hit Shibuya and Shinjuku. The dodgier areas of Shinjuku, namely Kabukicho. Basically this is the Kowloon TOng of Tokyo, only not as classy. It's more like Wanchai, but for locals...
We had no reservations at any hotels, the capsule hotels and the internet cafes were all full (it was friday nigth!),, so we spent the night at Wendy's and Macdonald's!! No kidding. From 0230 to 0400, we sat in a dingy, dirty Wendy's in Shinjuku and at 0400 we crossed the roads to Macdonalds for B'fast. At 0500 we went to Tsukiji Fish market (築地) to have a gander - it7s like Billingsgate, only Billingsgate is really posh compared to this place. Then we took the 1st train at 0700 back to Nagano. It was weird - I've been feeling old recently, so this made me feel SLIGHTLY younger. I didnt feel young because I went to Tokyo for the evening, and yet only hung out in fast food shops, and not bars or discos. Bugger.
So last friday, I did something spontaneous. WOW! Yes. Roy did it. I went to Tokyo with 2 friends Karina and her BF, Mas, took the train to Tokyo for the evening. We had no plans, and ended up eating Indian and walking around dingy parts of town. We hit Shibuya and Shinjuku. The dodgier areas of Shinjuku, namely Kabukicho. Basically this is the Kowloon TOng of Tokyo, only not as classy. It's more like Wanchai, but for locals...
We had no reservations at any hotels, the capsule hotels and the internet cafes were all full (it was friday nigth!),, so we spent the night at Wendy's and Macdonald's!! No kidding. From 0230 to 0400, we sat in a dingy, dirty Wendy's in Shinjuku and at 0400 we crossed the roads to Macdonalds for B'fast. At 0500 we went to Tsukiji Fish market (築地) to have a gander - it7s like Billingsgate, only Billingsgate is really posh compared to this place. Then we took the 1st train at 0700 back to Nagano. It was weird - I've been feeling old recently, so this made me feel SLIGHTLY younger. I didnt feel young because I went to Tokyo for the evening, and yet only hung out in fast food shops, and not bars or discos. Bugger.
