bon voyage!

heading to KOREA baby!

We will be in Pusan / Busan and Seoul for the next week. Woot woot! Peace out.

hee hee

christmas party!

had a christmas party in my apartment last night. christmas cooking is STRESSFUL! wow. and many many people showed up (which makes sense because i invited many many people... funny that)

this is a picture of all their shoes in my genkan (the place just inside the door of every home and school in japan where you remove your shoes because nobody wears shoes inside. When Mikey my brother was here last year, he came inside my house with shoes on and i freaked out. A small part of me died. So Japanese I am! )

why oh why is this picture so blurry?? it wasn`t blurry on my camera. but i guess it shows you how much special holiday punch i drank because this is how every thing looked to me last night... really fuzzy :) woot woot.

interesting night, am i right celeste and teej??

Japanese Christmas. An ode.

Christmas in Japan is unlike Christmas anywhere else.

unique unique unique!

For starters, Christmas is considered to be the most romantic time of the year. Traditionally, Valentines Day is when girls give boys they like, but more commonly, their guy friends some chocolates or cake and a month later, on White Day, the boys reciprocate. (but only if they like the girls back... which is not cool. not cool at all)

And so, it`s Christmas Eve when all the couples dress up all sexy like and go for a walkabout holding hands and looking at twinkly lights and, most importantly, eating KFC. I don`t know why, but KFC is the thing for Christmas (people here actually answer the question `How do you usually spend Christmas?` with `I have a Kentucky Christmas.`)

Christmas Eve is also Love Confession time.

Love Confessions are as big as sushi in Japan.

My kids at school are always asking me `Sarah Sensei, how many boys have you confessed to?`

`Um ... none`

`NONE??! but but but how do people become couples in South Africa?!`

Since I am most likely not going to have an opportunity to blog again between here and Christmas and jetting off to Korea, I will say my MERRY CHRISTMASes and
HAPPY NEW YEARes now.

I hope you all have a whalloping time.

Catch you on the flipside of 2009

Osaka Day One!

This weekend I went to Osaka with a few of the female teachers from school. One of them - a Japanese language teacher, had found a deal to go to Universal Studios of Japan... rollercoasters! sugar highs! grown men yelling hello to Sesame Street characters! (Japanese men are cute. Even thought they may be in their late 20s to mid 30s, they will still have Hello Kitty dangling from their cell phones and get excited when they see Mickey at Disney Land. In Japan, cute is king) Of course I was excited to be going ... nothing better!

Last week, I worked at an Elementary School which can be summed up in 3 words - TIRING AS HELL. Also, unbelievably cute and adorable and i loved every minute I was there, but the moment you sit down you really feel like you most probably won`t be able to get up again without the help of a mechanical device. like a crane or a fork lift. So i was already on my energy reserves when we left for Osaka.

I tried my best to have as much energy as possible, but I found myself slipping away - like in the queue for Jurassic Park where I didn`t even realise that I had put my bag on some dude`s foot and was slowly kicking him. My bad :p

The park itself was amazing. It seemed to be roughly about the size of France and there were enough Christmas lights and Popcorn machines whirring away to provide another small European country with energy for a year.

And, as with many many places in Japan, it seemed to be a very popular date spot. Japan is all about the dating. And Christmas is considered to be the most romantic time of the year, so no wonder the park was filled to the brim with couples. Apparently the park is a popular spot for a proposal or two as well. Which I guess beats the ring in a dessert gaffe.

Whenever you go to a Japanese theme park, the first thing you do, is buy a hat to wear for the day. At Disney Land, naturally, it`s the Mickey Mouse Ear thing ... (I cant remember if we bought any when we went to Disney Sea... did we? Tom? Shaks?) and at USJ we went for Sesame Street.

The Japanese love Elmo. I love the Cookie Monster. (Although, never been that into Sesame Street. I don`t think I ever watched it as a kid. Once or Twice I would see Takalani Sesame - The Zulu version where the main character has AIDS, but I don`t recall ever seeing the `normal` one. I think I just like the name `Cookie Monster` hee)

We rode - Jurassic Park (i got SO WET OMG) , Jaws, BackDraft, Spiderman and this ride called `Hollywood Dream The Ride` this GIGANTIC rollercoaster.

And I was happy. Like a 13 year old. Which is the best happy to be.

Osaka Day Two!

On the Great Overnight Adventure to Osaka Day 2, we decided to catch the ferry from Universal Studios and go to the famous Osaka Aquarium (see picture above!). It`s a really interesting building ; I like architecture that`s out of the norm. I think I was heavily influenced by Tommy with his deep seated hatred of ugly buildings especially of the fake tuscan variety. And so whenever I see a good building, I think of him! (Hello Tom!)

As with everything in Japan, the aquarium was really well run and pretty much amazing.


I really liked the Santa Diver - he pranced about in his Santa wetsuit and then plopped into random tanks to frolic with the fishes.

I would never be so brave. I find things that come out of the ocean to be extremely beautiful but also unbelievably SCARY ASS and I do so appreciate the thick glass placed between us thankyouverymuch.

my favourite display was of the jellyfish. I did not know that they came in so many beautiful shapes and sizes and colours and with accessories! my favourite were these teeny little fellows who were almost invisible they were so white, but they had little flashes of pink and green lights running down their bodies like fairy lights.

I heart them

and so the weekend ended on a high. we caught the 8 o`clock plane home and i was in bed at around midnight.

And since I am such an old woman, I had to take monday off so i could recuperate. Luckily, I could with no fuss. Good life, good life!

just because i can

this is my favourite Pokemon! his name is Pochama and I use him a lot in class.

On my last worksheet, he had a conversation with Barack Obama. It was remarkably deep.

i went for little walk today

i have today off because yesterday was open day at my school - a sunday, so all the busy parents could come and watch some classes.

its warmer today... so really slushy as the early seasonal snow loses its grip on the ground and slides away. still, wanted to go and buy a Christmas wreath from the local flower shop, so braved the outside!

good thing i did, because i walked around a bit and found some lovely buildings with some lovely names!

the very very beauty clothing

indeed!

woo!! let`s all go to the MILKY DENTAL CLINIC!

Hair and Make Tender!

Free Store, PAL!

something i NEVER thought possible

so here`s a little something that`s really hard for me to admit to you.

i have begun reading MANGA!!! eeeeee how embarrassing!!

during my university part time work at the book store, i would see manga on our shelves and think - who buys this stuff?! i would remember, with fondness, reading those archie digest things and thought that was as far as it would go... but here i am... eating my words. and enjoying it.

here`s the deal - manga is EVERYWHERE. you seriously can`t go anywhere without seeing some or hearing about some. at kinokunya - the book store conglomerate in Japan, there is an entire floor dedicated to manga. volumes and volumes of brightly coloured, enticing books covering just about every topic from basketball teams to hitmen to samurai warriors to love struck teenage ninjas. At convenience stores, there are rows of comic books, in doctor`s waiting rooms, at restaurants. Presidents widely discuss their favourites.

In Japan, most TV shows originate from manga too... in fact, this is how i started. I was watching my first and favourite Japanese TV show called

花ざかりの君たちへ, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e

which basically translates into `For You In Full Bloom` and is known as `Ikemen Paradise` - Hottie Paradise. it is the most amazing and ridiculous show in the whole world (for those of you interested, Nes has my DVDs with subtitles of this show... have you watched it yet Nes?) and so I started reading the manga!

right now, i am reading a manga called Love*Com - which is an abbreviation for Lovely Complex



it`s about the tallest girl in school (she`s 5ft9... which is still a little shorter than me!) and her best friend is the shortest guy in school (he is 5ft 2) and she falls in love with him... which is just about the worst thing ever :p a tall girl. a short boy. (ie my life)

this is a poster from the movie based on the manga

the very day my manga came in the mail (i have to order the english translations... one day i hope to be able to read the fully Japanese ones!), we went out to this bar called TK6 in the `red light district` of Sapporo called Susukino. i was wearing heels, which puts me at a good 6ft or so and the smallest Japanese boy I have ever seen hit on me. Teej said it was the manga coming to life and that I should just go with it etc etc. Ha hahahahaaaa. i couldn`t even remember his name. I only think of him as Shrimp Boy. which was a right shame because he was a very handsome boy and a sushi chef... mmmm... free sushi for all my life...but whilst there is some height difference i can get over, dislocating my neck every time i want to whisper in his ear is not fun.

Shrimp Boy : (in Japanese) - woah! how TALL are you?

Sarah The Giant: (is asked this question pretty much every day of her life) 5ft11

SB : Can I measure myself against you?

STG : I guess so

SB comes up to STG`s shoulder

SB`s foreign friend : My friend here would like your number

STG : (thinks they are joking) aaaaaaaaahahahahaha

STG goes to buy a beer, walks back to see SB looking forlorn. She feels bad in her catholic guilt kinda way. So she writes her number on a piece of paper and gives it to him.

SB`s face lights up as he tilts his neck at a 90 degree angle to look the Giant in her face.

4 days later. SB sends STG a message

STG can never go back to that bar again.

The end

Some more manga i have read! -

Hayate the Combat Butler * Hayate`s parents gambled all their money away and sold their son`s organs to the Yakuza (Japanese mafia). Hayate thus is on the run and is forced to work for this rich girl as her butler whilst fighting the mafia.

Ouran High School Host Club : some bored boys at a rich school started a host club in the school music room (oooh! i should write a post about host clubs! that will follow at a latter stage... but for the point of this post, you should know that host clubs in Japan comprise of some very pretty men with very very big hair who get dressed up in different outfits and flirt with girls. It`s not at all like prostitution... just flirting). This poor girl on a scholarship, breaks a vase owned by the host club and is forced to work there, dressed as a boy, to repay her debt.

THIS MANGA IS INSANE! often i understand NOTHING on an entire page!

the germans are in town!

the famous tv tower at the bottom of odori park, where the market is held

as previously mentioned, Odori Park in the centre of Sapporo, holds tons of different festivally type things. One of my favourites is the annual German Christmas Market. Munich and Sapporo are sister cities and so this is one of their yearly bonding events.

when Shaks and Tommy were here last year, this was the very first place I took them to when they arrived. And we drank hot mulled wine and ate roasted almonds and pranced around a bit. And so this year, when I went for the first time last week Friday, I missed them ridiculously

an illuminated tree :)

the market is also the official opening of the Sapporo White Illumination Festival, all down Odori Park. more pictures to follow later ... ie when i take them!