Update 1

Left Singapore having done way too much shopping (it's Singapore
everything is so cheap and available it was amazing) and having made
friends with two Swedish guys that had just toured NZ and now are onto
exploring Indonesia via the back roads with almost no money to their
names it is amazing how hardcore travellers learn to survive!
Managed to get onto the last train to the airport after doing the
night safari at the zoo, an amazing experience trying to spot animals
in the dark not highly recommended for people with out night vision!
Then spent the flight trying to suss out who on the plane was going to
be my fellow work mates at Nova, of course arriving and finding out
all the non Asian people on the flight were working for Nova about 25
people in total!
Once of the flight we were in Osaka airport which Wan reckons is one
of the wonders of the world as the airport was sinking so now the
whole island it is on is pumped up using machinery to keep it above
sea level. All the Novas were then dispatched to all their different
corners of Osaka, everyone thoroughly excited except for two aussie
guys that in the interest of being as cheap as poss had come in on a
cheaper flight the day before had found out how expensive Japan is so
spent the night at the airport being kicked of bench seats by security
guards and then on exploring Osaka realised what an ugly concrete
jungle it was.
Next stop was my flat, I used some wise advice to always think of the
worst possible scenario and then things can only look up from there,
so was pleasantly surprised by the size of my flat. That is until my 6
foot 3 Canadian room mate came out of her bedroom to greet me and
started mouthing off how small it was that I started to look at it
more realistically. But then it is Japan so I don't think you could
expect anything more!!
Too excited to sleep I went exploring, considering how jetlagged I was
prob not the smartest idea as got totally lost but at least had fun
trying to figure out my way back when the streets here don't have
names and my map was in Japanese! Good times!!
Osaka is insane it seriously isn't pretty but then it has this
exciting atmosphere that is hard to compare to any other major city I
have been to in the world. You can definitely apply the term urban
sprawl to this place though it really is sprawled all over the place,
there is no centre as such or for that matter much town planning at
all with regard to structured zones it is all higglety pigglety with
industrial building, apartment, industrial building, supermarket,
shopping mall all over the place. I am very fortunate my place is
considered central Osaka but then you wouldn't know that if you saw my
surrounding areas except that the transport all kinda converges near
by I guess that is the best way of identifying the centre of the city?
The people here in the city are such an interesting mix if you get
bored you could easily just sit on a park bench and be entertained for
hours. There is a big drift here of all the young people shifting from
the country into the city (I guess as it happens anywhere in the
world) so the amount of young people in the city is amazing it
sometimes feels like a city of just 20 somethings. There is the random
small child or elderly person but not much in between those ages and
the 20 somethings. And the fashion here is so insane it's all big dyed
hair (and in some cases seriously 80's big!! with all the curls
urgh!!) and short short mini skirts and pointy black boots. The guys
all look straight out of those crazy pop Japanese movies you see in
the film festivals with peroxide blonde hair in creative spikey
shapes. From the back of the crowds you would think you were looking
at a euro culture, a totally different concept to the very misguided
view that all Asians look the same to Europeans.
The shops here are nuts they are all about the electronics and
pachinko (slot machines) can be found on nearly every corner!! Some of
the electronic shops are 8 floors high selling solely electronic
goods! And then there is Den Den town a suburb devoted solely to
streets of electronic shops, so much so though that they can have the
same electronic store selling the same goods repeated 5 times down the
same street! (Have definitely spent many hours sussing out good deals
for the stuff I want only to be quite disappointed as the electronics
in the US are soo much cheaper! Urghh always the way!)
So I guess I had better tell you something of my job before I babble
on too much! Working at Nova is crazy, what other place in the world
after 3 days of training and teaching four lessons supervised by your
trainer are you then considered worthy of being a full time
unsupervised teacher!! So my first day of work when the trainer did
his sign off I was told I would have four lessons that day to ease me
into the job, sweet as, turn up to work the next day and I have 8
solid hours of teaching with a 40min lunch break woohoo!! It was a
very interesting day especially when it came to the lesson on Japan
Today and my student spent the whole lesson moaning about how the
Western influence is destroying Japanese culture and making them fat
so they die young, excellent!! My job at the multimedia centre is a
different world in itself though you walk into this building where
Nova occupies about half of it with 700 hundred employees, it is like
a little isolated city of English, every here is in English, most
people speak English (there are some instructors from France, Germany,
Spain and China) all day all you are allowed to talk to your students
is English. Taught through your computer terminal using a web cam so
you appear in your student’s home on their TV. and they show up on
yours. It is so withdrawn from the culture that surrounds you from
outside it is crazy! You could be anywhere even in NZ doing my job
easily, quite a bizarre feeling, especially when you walk outside and
you're actually in Japan!! It is so much like an English factory it
isn’t funny McDonaldised English teaching, you have your lesson plan
all sitting there and waiting for you, you get no planning time as you
are not supposed to plan, you just teach the lesson as it is then move
onto the next student and do it all over again. But in saying that you
always get thrown odd balls from what is well know amongst the
teachers here as the crazy Japanese way of thinking and they are all
so different that you undoubtedly end up thinking creatively during
your lesson to find out a way to answer their random and ad hoc
questions. Not a bad job but then most people there don't see
themselves lasting there more than 6months and if you do then you will
definitely be gone before the year is up unless you had it really bad
in your home country or you are a guy and a social reject at home, yet
in Japan you have a troop of Japanese girls hanging off you just for
speaking English (a clean appearance is not even necessary as you can
see from the amount of greasy haired euro guys around gross!!) This
scenario was further highlighted after being explained to me by my
roommate by the fact that there were no female trainers or senior
teachers only men!!
Well had better go as I'm sure I lost half of you during what has
turned into an insanely long email!! I will try and keep it brief I
think next time!! And include some photos oh and tell you about
clubbing here it is insane!!

Update 2

I finished the last one saying I would tell you about the bars and

clubbing here, they are such different places to be compared to back
home!! Bars are so tiny, you literally walk in and have to remind
yourself not to walk past the entrance way as that will take you to
the toilet, the entrance way is the whole bar! (and dance floor and
sitting area!) The funniest thing happened at one club "The Freezer"
that when we walked in the entrance way was lined with couches giving
about 2 metres of standing area from the bar, then as the club warmed
up in the wee hours the bartenders kicked the people off the couches
and took them outside to create a dance area… of uno a whole extra
half a metre!! You definitely learn some new dance moves though when
you are packed into a bar like sardines!! (the head moves are about
all you can manage!!) So I thought maybe that is the reason for the
bar's name because it is packed so tight you can't move but the more
bars I go to the more you realise that space is very sparse especially
in the bars! St Paddy's day was a treat where you got a free drink of
what can only be described as poison (it is called Poteen!) a 70 proof
drink that literally burns your insides and the disadvantage of a
small bar being realised when people got a bit ill from this drink it
was better to just leave the bar and go elsewhere as there was nowhere
to stand after one person of low tolerance had done the deed! Urghh!!
There are dance clubs though that are fairly decent if you can afford
them at $25 US for the entrance fee you have to hope they are
happening before you go in otherwise you find out you have bought the
entrance fee to a private club for you and your friends for the
evening!! (not always so cool when you want a raging atmos!) But you
can always bet on a Sunday to be amazing (you know you're in Japan
when the busiest night at a club is a Sunday!!)
Then there is the Gay bar scene, one of my American friends organised
an Amateur Drag Open night at one of the Gay bars (or someones bedroom
it was about the equilivant size!) at $15US entrance fee it was a
bargain, but of course with the Gay scene evolving here it was only
him and his friend that did the Drag and all the people in the bar
were his friends (thus only 4 were gay and it was so small a space I
got to talk to everyone in the bar that night (all 30odd people) most
of them foreigners!) Always makes for an interesting night though when
you soon find out most of the people there all work or worked for
Nova!! The strangest one being the Morman looking American behind the
bar that came up to me half way through the night and said I guess
you've guess my secret by now… I say "No… what" he acts all proud and
says "I[m not really gay and I'm not really a Morman I only have the
beard because I'm a marriage celebrant and Japanese people respect a
celebrant that looks like a Morman. Do you want my number"… As I'm
trying to think of a quick answer to that question that is a polite No
my lovely roomie sweeps in a says "I'll have it" a good save …only to
remind me later of course that after 6 months in Japan I won't be so
picky and will be wanting his number! Urghh ;(

Apart from the bar scene I have been having an amazing time travelling
in Japan this place is so amazing and multifaceted with different
exciting things to do all the time!
I went to a Religious Water Drawing Ceremony at ancient temple in the
old Capital of Japan although the ceremony was hugely hyped up in
brochures and posters at was more the atmos of the ceremony that was
amazing. By Western standards with all our flare and pizzazz for
events the ceremony itself was very low key with a two hour wait in
the snow to get a good viewing spot (yes the only day it snowed on me
in Japan was the day I had to wait outside for two hours!! But then it
was also the first time I felt truly humbled in my life when an
elderly lady that looked about 80 came up to my friend and I and held
her umbrella over us even though she was about half our height and so
had to stretch to get it over our heads …aw shucks!)
Then the ceremony started with priests running up the side of the
temple with a large stick on a wagon, the end had a ball of brambles
stuck on it lit on fire. Once they got to the balcony of the temple
the priest picked the stick up (it was about 3m long!) and hoisted it
showering the crowd with sparks then put it on his shoulder and ran
across the balcony and shook the pole until the ball of lit brambles
fell onto the ground on the other side again showering the crowd in
sparks (later I found out that if you manage to 'catch' a spark it is
very goodluck for you and your family) This process went on for ages
but it was the 1000 people strong crowd that made the night with their
overwhelming "Ahhs", "ohhs" and applause at every movement of the
priests that made it an awe inspiring experience!!
The next festival I went to was the Plum Festival which highlighted
the fact that Japan has thousands of festivals and you really have to
be quite selective of the ones you go too as this time I ended up
travelling an hour and a half and paying an entrance fee to wander
around a garden the size of half a rugby field spotted with flowering
plum trees and crowded with the elderly an interesting experience but
without the hype and glamour!
Hmm just realised I have again managed to babble a lot more than
expected!! Urgh will do a summary of the rest! (or try! Lol!!)
Next trip was to Kyoto and exploring of a temple park (Kyoto is very
famous in Japan for it's temples and nature and it does live up to
it's rep it is very beautiful!) We wondered around here and climbed
millions of stairs only to find out that the temples have hooked into
Tourism and so it costs to get into every one (unlike some of the less
) Will post up the photos asJtouristy places where it is still free
some of the temples are too exquisite for words, I was really lucky
this time as I was with my Chinese Canadian friend who told me what
was going on with regard to the religious practices at the temples and
showed me how to pray by throwing money at the temple bowing and then
ringing the huge bells making my "wish" as she called it. Very
interesting and enlightening!! After that it was onto making the most
of the commercialism at the temples and buying toffee mandarins and
toffee strawberries (toffee apples must be too large for the Japanese
palate I think!) and buying shindingles (my roomies new name for the
things the Japanese love to hang off their phones!!) and of course
trying the Green tea ice cream while watching the wonderously adorned
Geisha girls wandering by (they are a big attraction in Kyoto painted
faces jewelled hair wooden sandals and all) Then my friends decided
that they were templed out so went home I was still memorised so
stayed and managed to absentmindedly end up at a light festival,
always the amazing thing about not knowing a language as that you
don't know what is going on around you until you stumble across it!!
They had a river full of the hulled out trunks of bamboo trees about a
foot to half a foot long standing on their ends with candles inside
making interesting noises as the river swished past them, and a whole
lot of lit up blossom trees and sculptures with lights inside of them.
In the temple next door there was a whole lot of ahhing and ohhing so
finally parted with the entrance and walked into a lit up zen garden
they feel so other worldly and serene!
The next day I missioned out to a nunnery in the whop bops of Nara to
see a doll festival (festival mistake number 2!!) a small room adorned
with about 20 dolls awaited me after two entrance fees but it was an
interesting journey especially when it started to rain and an elderly
man gave me his umbrella and refused to take it back (very humbling
experience number 2!!) and I realised that tombs in Japan are not like
the amazing Egyptian ones but inaccessible man made islands (found out
after spending ages trying to find the "tombs" and then realising all
the tourists were taking photos of the island which were the tombs!)
After that I visited our sister city Menoh to see the waterfalls and
monkeys (yes it does exist!!) and the most green I've seen since I got
here (it was a park about the size of Percy's reserve!) and the Sumo
tourni interesting experience when the elderly man in the stall behind
me decided I would be his company for the day so kept buying me drinks
and food and then gave me a gift of special sumo drinking cups and a
marked off score card at the end of day. The whole day went past
without a word of a mutual language being said between us … Japan fill
of mysteries!!
Then it was a trip to Hiroshima which was the best experience so far
of course because I got to catch up with Rina and Wan!! I had an
awesome time exploring Wan showing me all these amazing places and
views on islands that you would have to be a local just to know
about!! Then they had a dinner party with Wan's teachers from his
school, it was great as so far I had not gotten to actually meet any
Japanese people in a social setting (except drunk people in bars but
it is not the same!) so it was awesome and enlightening to hear their
thoughts and views and to experience the culture through their eyes.
Since then I have been delving more into my students worlds in the
lessons too and it so amazing to hear and experience ideas and beliefs
beyond what you would ever read in a tourist book about Japan, it is
really amazing how our cultures can be so different yet when we come
together we can have such fun and the differences don't stand out!
Rina then took me to Meyojima the next day to see the island famous to
Hiroshima and it's huge rice paddle (Meyojima is home to the creator
of the first rice paddle!) and try mandarin ice cream, maple shaped
pancakes filled with green tea and be followed around by the hundreds
of stray deer that occupy most of the island!!
Then it was onto the Hiroshima Castle, and an eerie experience at the
Peace Park and A Bomb dome with Wan. After that they took me to
experience Okonomiyaki a dish special to Hiroshima made of a pancake
base cabbage, noodles meat and spices with a fried egg on top all
cooked before your eyes by a very diligent chef!
Hmm have just realised I have made it to page three so will leave it
there with the best part of my trip so far!

More on the final Sumo tourni, and the cherry blossoms next time.