So, it`s been about two months since I last updated. Unlike those days in August and Sepetmber when there were no students in the school, I have actually had work to do everyday over the past few months. I spend most of time in school preparing lessons and correcting exams and I give about 3 50min classes on average per day. I also started doing a Japanese language course during my free time at work, so I haven`t had anytime for facebooking or blog writing

This week, however, it is exam week in one of my schools which means I have no classes and I have jsut completed this month`s exam for my Japanese language correspondence course. So, I have ample free time for aimless internet surfing and all that. Actually, I forgot how mind-numbing these days with no classes can be, and will be glad to get back to my Christma- themed lessons on Monday

It`s been so long since I last posted I have absolutely no idea what I`ve been up to. I honestly thought I had done nothing worth posting about until I was flicking through the pictures on my camera lately and realised I had done lots of interesting things around Okayama, although I haven`t been travelling to the big cities.

For Halloween we went to a JET party which was a costume party and all-you-can-drink for four hours! Needless to say, it was a good night. I ended up winning the prize for best costume for my Hawaiian Barbie effort (made from an assortment of pound shop accessories and some bowls and brown paper for my coconut boobs). Halloween isn`t really celebrated in Japan, so this is about all we did for it.

The following week Enda and his girlfriend Masae came to visit us and once we`d finally dragged the boys away from Pro Evolution Soccer, we did a bit of sightseeing around OKayama. We ended up doing a bike trail around the outskirts of OKayama City. It was really great, there were lots of beautiful temples and tombs and all that malarky. We were also lucky enough to stumble upon a Japanese archery competition, which was really cool, although I think Brendan got a little too enthusiastic about shouting encouragement at the contestants!

The bike trail was only supposed to take 3 hours but thanks to the absolutely awful map we were using, we got lost and it ended up taking about 5. It was all worthwhile when we came upon the 5 storey wooden Pagoda, completely secluded, and surrounded by rice fields. Although I had seen a ot of temples and shrines at this stage, their effect ahd been somewhat lessened by the huge crowds, vending machines and souvenir shops inside the temple grounds. When we arrived at the Pagoda the sun was ust setting and we were the only people at there. It was a beautiful sight!

When we returned, we were starving and decided to go for all you can eat yakiniku (literally means fried meat). It`s basically like a barbeque, but inside. Every table had a little barbeque grill built into it and the waiters brought out plates of raw meat and vegetables which we then cooked ourselves on the grill. The guys were so enthusiastic they went a bit overboard with the amount of meat they ordered, and then realised they had to pay for left overs. I didn`t think it was possible for two men to eat so much- it was disgusting!

Afterwards, we went for a nice soak in the Japanese bathhouse. We have a really nice one near our apartment buiding with baths and jacuzzis up on the roof. It`s really cold outside and the bath is so warm, it`s great!

The following weekend, since we could see that the weather was about to take a turn for the worse, Bren and I decided to make the most of the mild weather before it turned cold and we headed down to Okayama Castle and the Japanese gardens for a picnic. We then rented a rowing boat by the river surrounding Okayama Castle. It would have been very romantic if either of us could actually row, Instead we went around in circles for about an hour, and eventually managed to claw our way back to the shore. It was fun though and the views were great.
There is a teacher in Bren`s school who is really obsessed with all things Irish. She has visited Ireland on two occasions, which is very rare for a Japanese person, and speaks a little English although she is a Home Economics teacher. She invited myself and Brendan over to her house for lunch one weekend, and to be honest we were a little scared, as she had said her husband was going fishing and we were going to eat what he caught! I had visions of a meal of raw fish heads and sake. However, when we arrived, we were very pleasantly suprised!

We had about 5 different courses, one of which as crab. I had never eaten crab before, and couldn`t believe it when she brought out a huge plate of fresh crab, one for everyone. It was absolutely gorgeous! There were four other guests eating with us, one was an English teacher who shared Brendan`s colleague`s love for Ireland and the other three were friends of her husband who worked in a sake factory. hey also spoke no English which meant I got to practise plenty of Japanese. Since these guys worked for a Sake company, they brought along a huge supply of alcohol and showed Bren how to drink sake from the crab`s head once you`ve finished with it- it was very cool!

Our next course was oysters deep fried in breadcrumbs, I think this may have even topped the crab. It was soooo good, I had to restrain myself from being rude and eating them all in one gulp! After another few delicious courses we moved onto dessert. I told the hostess that I had a bit of a sweet tooth and she proceeded to give me 5 desserts- I was delirah!!

This was the first meal I had eaten in a Japanese person`s home, so it was a really great way to see a bit of traditional Japanese life.

It was Brendan`s birthday on the 1st Novemeber so I bought him a trip to an onsen (natural hot spring) up in the mountains of Okayama. Since it was booked out for ages, we didn`t actually go until the first weekend in December. We got the bus from Okayama station and the views on the way up were absolutely amazing. Okayama is covered in mountains and mountains here are completely covered in trees. In December in Japan, all the leaves tur bright orange, red and yellow so the mountains were gorgeous.

About 50 mins into the journey, we were all relaxed looking out at the views and all that when we heard the announcer say`Yunogo Onsen`, the name of the town we were going too. We were pretty sure that it wasn`t our stop but we said we better check with the driver just in case. Brendan went up to the driver and asked him in Japanese if the next stop was ours. The driver said `Yes` so Brendan beckoned for me to hurry up. We were paying (you pay when you get off a Japanese bus, not on) and I asked the driver where I should put my money but he didn`t answer. I could see that he was absolutely terrified of us, what with us being big scary foreigners, so we just threw the money into what we thought was the right place, said `Thanks` and got off.

When we were off the bus, the directions that we had for the onsen didn`t seem to make much sense. Nevertheless, we wandered around for a bit but coulnd`t see any building that looked remotely like a luxury hot spring resort. We rang the hotel and asked the receptionist to explain how to get there but she said she had no idea where we were. Eventually, we gave up and went into the nearest convenience store. The lady who was working there informed us that we were 50mins away from Yunogo Onsen by car and we weren`t even at a bus stop.

We couldn`t believe it, the bus driver had been so petrified when Brendan spoke to him, he had just nodded, stopped and let us out in the middle of nowhere, not even at a bus stop! We asked the lady in the shop what we should do and she looked up the next bus for us and showed us how to get to the bus stop. I have to say, I was far from happy with the bus driver but the people in  the village were so helpful when they realised we were lost. The bus stop was about a 10 minute walk away from where the bus driver had dropped us off and everyone was really enthusiastic about helping us, so it wasn`t long before all was forgiven and I was in love with Japanese people again!

When we finally arrived at the real bus stop, the receptionist had sent someone down to wait there for us and make sure we found our way to the hotel. I have no idea how long he was waiting for us, it was so nice!

The hotel itself was really luxurious.There were natural hot spring baths downstairs and the rooms had their own wooden outdoor baths too. There were also hot stone beds, and massage chairs. It was great! We got a bit fancy Japanese meal served to us in our room at a Japanese style table by a woman in a kimono. We had, lobster, prawn, sushi, miso soup, rice, beef, tofu and lots of other stuff. It was gorgeous!

We were given our own Japanese happycoat things so we lounged around in them for the whole weekend, I`ve never been so relaxed in my life!

This weekend I had my Christmas party, it was very bizarre but very fun. We went to a hotel in Okayama City and had all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink. Japanese people cannot handle all-you-can-drink, at all and they were all pissed in a matter of minutes. It`s very strange to see the shy, serious middle aged male teachers transform completely in a matter of minutes. At the start of the night, we played a game where the teachers who organised the party had turned photos of certain members of staff into different animals. So, for example, the first one was a pig and everyone had to guess who it was. It was all very strange! We then played Bingo, (wild) and I won a cup with Santa on it!

Afterwards, a group of a few teachers did the school dance. The teachers who went to Housen High School when they were children always have to do this dance at every party. It`s gas because most of them are middle aged men and, of course as it is Japan, the dance is really cute and they`re all prancing around singing about the school, it is very cute!

Then, it was everybody`s turn, we all have to stand in a circle, hold hands and sing the school song (every school has a song and a dance). Of ocurse, I have no idea what the words are so I mumbled along unconvincingly while everyone else gives it their all.

We were kicked out of the hotel pretty early but most people decided to go home. A few of the young teachers and the PE teachers decided to head to a few more bars. We headed off to a traditional bar and I had some yummy rice wine and a few suspect dishes of finger food that I wasn`t going to be let away with not eating!

A few plates of squid and shots of sake later, I realised that I had suddenly become a member of the Kendo club (Japanese sword fighting), argh. One of the PE teachers is in charge of the club so it should be interesting to see how I get on with that in the New Year!

The next day there was a school fashion festival on in Brendan`s school. It sounded interesting so I decided to get up and cycle into it despite my very sore head, and I`m very glad I did. The third year students put on a full fashion show with clothes they had designed and made. It was very professionally done and the clothes were quirky and Japanese, it was really interesting.

There were also lots of stalls with food that the students had made and accessories, clothes and other things that hadn`t been shown in the fashion show. It was very impressive!

Well, I`m gonna stop there because my fingers can`t type anymore. It`s been a great few months but I`m really looking forward to getting home to my big Christmas dinner, and a nice big Flake yoghurt…..mmmmmm