Happy Valentines Day

I hope you felt suitably loved and appreciated this Valentines Day.

In Japan, there are no "roses are red, violets are blue" adorned cards to give you butterflies in your stomach. Instead chocolate is quite literally the heart of the matter. In an "only in Japan" kind of way, the girls give the boys in their life a quite astounding array of confectionery, whether store bought or lovingly homemade, and then have to wait a month until the specially created "White Day" on March 14th, when it's the boys turn to reciprocate.
And God forbid we might actually have to reveal our true feelings, so there is also a vast trade in "giri choco"- chocolate goods handed over in staggering amounts to basically any man you've ever met, and thereby have an obligation to. Convenient really. You can take the chance and pass some chox to the guy you really fancy, but if he looks too panicked, you can just say it was "giri" and go and slit your wrists in private.

You'd think that since I teach at a girls school, Valentines Day would be a big non-event. Well, they're nothing if not resourceful. If there are no boys on hand, you are then of course to pass out the love to your girlfriends. They are not usually allowed sweets at school, but they were literally carrying carrier bags full of baked goods around all day. The excitement was at fever pitch. God help them when they actually get near real boys!

Now Mairi goes to international school, so I wasn't quite sure which way to go. But being baker in chief, decided to have a heart cookie bake off together. It was so nice to see the bus driver's face when she handed him his cookies in the morning. Sometmes it's worth a bit of effort when people are pleasantly surprised. At home time we discovered that this school is International indeed . Mairi came back with a carrier bag stuffed with chocolate, other candy and homemade cards from the kids in her class.
How will it all be eaten before the Easter onslaught???!!!

Tortoise and the Hare

Hah! I sneer in the general direction of your German boy toy!
Let the record show that a lowly Toyota Hybrid, driven by a girly girl, beat a Porsche 911 Carrera over a couple of hundred km on the expressway!
Getting the Ferrari John?
Bring it on!

Some Shots from the Yufuin Weekend

A great time was had by all!




Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

On the Road to Yufuin

I had thought it would be a few years yet before this was the sight I'd get of my daughter.

Although thankfully(or not?) this is what she was listening to, albeit with full oblivious vocal accompaniment- knowledge of the actual lyrics not a requirement(the Circle of Life from the Lion King was particularly entertaining), and unnecessary loud bawling to anyone outside the earphones.

Faith in the fact that it will indeed be a few more years before I'm seeing the same view, but of a sullen teenager trying to block me out of her world, was restored slightly when Pooh also had to have a turn of listening to the music.

Chemical Reaction

Weechan woke up in the middle of the night the other night, screaming of a sore stomach, followed by a half hour toilet session, the product of which was a disturbingly dark greenish hue. At first I thought it was the ever boomeranging norovirus that has felled one and all this year, but on reflection, this was probably the more likely cuprit!

Weechanがこの間真夜中に目が覚めて、「お腹が痛い！」と叫びながら、３０分間トイレで過ごした。出たものの色が変わった濃い緑色だった。最近流行っているノロウィルスか何かがとうとう回ってきたかな、とは最初思ったけど、よく考えてみたら、このアイスが原因じゃないかなと。。。。

YUCH!

La Chambre Sweets

We went out for brunch after ballet the other Sunday at a new place near my school. The decor is a bit of a puzzlement. The prices and the menu suggest they are aiming for genteel, but the overall effect of the purple plush faux antique chairs with the heavily textured wall coverings is a tad Louis 14th meets wild west whorehouse. I can even being to try to put into word the effect of the rest room there. Rushing back with the camera to capture all of its wondrousness would have been just a bit embarrassing.

My first impression when I saw the cake selection was: here we go again, typical Japanese exquisite culinary artistry, which belies an atrocious lack of substance and flavour.
However this photo might help you understand how mistaken I was.
Definitely got the thumbs up from the wee lady who lunches.

La Chambre Sweets is in Kami Hatchobori, one block over from Urban View Grand Tower. I'd probably go back for a treat!

Well, it's Setsubun today in Japan, but I've just realised that my chief "Oni" demon and his helper have gone up to bed and the beans and masks are still on the table. I wonder if there is some bad luck incurred by doing it a day late....
In the meantime, I'll leave you with a video explaining the customs of setsubun, made my friend Paul's students.
Fantastic! Enjoy!

Sniffing Season

Found this shot in google images, respectfully borrowed!

A few years out of the workforce and you forget the true joys of a Japanese winter.

Remember your mother yelling "Don't sniff! Get a tissue and blow your nose!"?

An infamous difference in our (UK and Japanese) cultures is that the Japanese mother will advise the exact opposite. It is lamentably considered more polite to schneck it back up than take the scary chance of having someone actually inadvertently witness you blowing your nose in public.

There are few things I missed less during my 4 year sabbatical from teaching than the sometimes crescendoing symphony of snot that regales you during any 50 minute class with 40-odd virulent teenagers during the winter months. Honestly, morning sickness was more fun.

Although I am back at work, I don't know if it's down to the small class size, or the generally genteel nature of la creme de la creme that I teach (!), but I can't say I've noticed it so much this year. My days in the 45 strong all male 17 year old mechanics course in Miyazaki involved much more mucous.

But yesterday morning in Starbucks, reality came flooding (quite literally) back to me. The guy who came and sat next to me in the comfy chairs seemed quite normal at first, with his Americano and a muffin, but then it started. If you can imagine the most sonorous inverse snorting noise possible with one nose, that was it. And at a staccato rate of about 1 per second, it was too much to bear. Really, I don't know how his nostrils had time to fill up enough again to provide enough goo to make the ensuing noise.

I was trying to make a snazzy superteacheresque handout for my "gerls", but the CSI type images of bilious green mucous with a caffeine chaser hurtling through his bodily passages that invaded my brain every second, gave me "the boak" as we would say in Scotland (say it our loud and with expression and you'll know what it means!), and I had to flee to the safety of my car to stop myself from grabbing him by the neck tie and yelling:

" GET A F&#$`*@G TISSUE!"

(Sorry Mum, I know , it's not big and it doesn't become me).

I wonder if they have the same visceral reaction when we pour soy sauce on our rice....

Ahoy Me Hearties

The bunk beds have already become a pirate frigate, the "One Piece" (named after a Japanese cartoon), with the cuddly toys being made to climb the rigging, and walk the plank.


I love it!

Bunk Beds

How did I end up with bunk beds for an only child???
一人っ子なのに、なんで２段ベッドを買ったの？？？

A combination of her determination and a freak two for the price of the one I was going to buy deal. That's the justification you're getting anyway. In any case, they arrived on Tuesday, and happiness is a 4 year old with bunk beds!
茉利のしつこさと、買いに行ったシングルベッドと同じ値段だったことが言い訳かな。
火曜日に届いた。２段ベッドの持ち主の４歳は幸せそのもの！！

Great for a girl who can't stop climbing.
登るのが大好きな私にぴったり。

And I can reach all my friends in their hammock by myself too.
これでハンモックで寝ている友達にも自分で手が届ける。

But Mummy has made me promise to sleep in the bottom bed for at least a week without falling out, before I can sleep up top.
でも１週間１回もベッドから落ちないで、下のベッドで寝ることをMummyに約束した。それが出来るなら、上の段で寝てみてもいいんだって！

Then I'll be sleeping like this! I can't wait!
そしてこう寝るでしょう！待ちきれない！楽しみだね。

おやすみなさい！
Goodnight!