Its much warmer now! It does indeed feel like summer!

I have spent quite a bit of time just sleeping, playing with the dog, reading outside in the sunshine, and not doing a whole lot. Had an interesting chat with a couple of people out at the airport yesterday, and tomorrow I'm heading up to the Latrobe Valley aerodrome to poke around up there - and if I time it well, there'll be the regular Saturday barbeque with plenty of snags and dead horse.

Merry Christmas!

Im back in Australia, where its supposed to be stinking hot and dry. For some reason, its barely double-digit temperatures, and wet and windy! It even snowed on a mountain just out of Melbourne yesterday!

Still, its great to be back, great to see family again. There are still those whom I miss from Japan, but it will not be long at all until I am back in that world again. For now, though, its time to make the most of my holiday.

The thing that is the strangest, so far, is that I am having trouble adjusting to the hours of day in which it is daylight. It feels like about three in the afternoon ALL afternoon, for it doesnt start getting dark here until around quarter to nine at night. While in Japan, it gets dark around quarter to five, and by 5pm its as dark as midnight, I was absolutely astounded to glance at my watch yesterday afternoon at around 7pm, fully expecting it to be around 3 or half past, simply because of the amount of light outside.
Tonight, too, I didnt believe my watch saying it was 8pm - there was still enough light outside to make me believe it was 3pm.

Still, these extra hours of daylight are a good thing.

I'm heading off to bed soon - though I wont be sleeping fourteen hours, like I did last night.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!

The countdown to Australia is getting lower and lower - its 24 hours until my plane leaves Narita. I still need to write christmas cards; as long as I can get the ones that need to go to Japan done by tomorrow, I can send them from Narita.

My packing is still not quite complete - rest assured pressies and the like are safely in my bag, but I still haven't packed clothes. At least this promises to be an easy task - I'll just throw my summer clothes in. Its not as though I'm wearing them these days...

I should be packing all evening too, but I'm off to Tokyo for dinner. Its the Emperor's birthday, too, and hamsters all across Japan are celebrating.
Wonder if I'll see him this evening - he might be out on the town....

The Christmas Party with the company did not involve monkeys, as expected.
Not to worry, though, for there were many interesting people, some trainers, some recruiters, and some people I hadnt seen since August.

Its now less than a week until I shall be back in Australia for Christmas. Work for the rest of this week promises to be rather quiet- classes as normal tomorrow morning, but from lunchtime onward its going to be time to do other things. Friday, perversely, will be busy from whoa to go - Hiratsuka are (shock, horror) planning on using me for classes ALL DAY, though it will be at a school camp location. They have commandeered a university building just up the road and running three days of intensive classes (right before the holidays...), so I shall be up there, busy for a change, until the last minute. This school has used me for all of four classes this year so far, plus the frustratingly pointless engrish crub, but on this, the last day of the term, they want me all day! Amusing, in some degree.

Australia in seven days.

Off to Tokyo once again - this time for the company christmas party.
I dont know whos going to be there - there was rather a poor effort made at communicating the party's existence to us, the great unwashed masses, but apparently tickets sold out rather rapidly.

I shall be taking my camera, so should anything exciting happen (like at the halloween party where the head trainer from my branch had a monkey on his head) I shall post photos.

Victoria Burns

This photo from Sale, where the bushfire in the hills is burning around 6000 hectares at the moment and pouring smoke into the air clearly visible from space.
The ash cloud reflecting the red glow of the burning mountains stretched to Bairnsdale, shown in the second picture, taken mid afternoon.


Trying to explain to staff at work the sheer size of the area on fire was met with disbelief. Putting it in terms relative to the size of Okinawa Island, they could not comprehend a fire this large. Nor did it seem to bode well with them that bushfires on this scale are a regular occurrence in Australia. I read somewhere today that south eastern Australia is the part of the world that burns the most, most often.


The third picture is from a NASA satellite showing the smoke cloud stretching up over central New South Wales.


I am hoping things calm down over the next week - because I shall be home for Christmas, and I'd really not like my country to be still largely on fire when I'm there.

It was a lovely sunny day today, and I was at Seaside School.

Being the second-to-last week of school, theyve already had their end of year tests, so school finished at midday.

In the staffroom sits a pot of something, perched on top of the kerosene heater, bubbling and festering away.

I made the mistake of lifting the lid, and what do I see inside? Not something yummy, like vegetable soup, but a thick, clumpy purple mass that reminded me of diseased porridge.


Asking the other staff what, precisely, this abomination was, and did it intend to develop a rudimentary intelligence by the end of the day, I was informed that, no, this was lunch, and would I like to try some?

"Er, sure," I ventured, gamely. "What is it?"

They informed me that it was a delicious, sweet soup made from the same beans they make anko from - anko being that icky red paste that goes into many unexpected locations, like obanyaki, bread rolls, and icecream. Oh, great. I cant fathom eating these things at the best of times, least of all when I believe I can see the occasional tentacle reaching out for help from within its depths.

Thankfully, there was a big staff meeting from 1:00 til 3:00 and my supervisor, the little rodent of a man, suggested I could go home early...
Going home early is good in of itself, but this also meant I got to avoid had to miss out on that particular soupy concoction.


So I head home early, which is nice, because its a lovely sunny day (ok, at about 9 degrees, but things have been worse). I decide to take advantage of this supremely good weather, and run a load of washing through and hang it outside to dry in the sun.
So in go my sheets, towels, all the bulky things that just dont fit inside my apartment to dry.
Once the machine goes on, however, the clouds start to roll in.
It begins to drizzle.

By the time the machine has finished its 60 minute wash cycle, the rain outside is bucketing down, and I abandon all hope of being able to hang my washing outside.

Right now, its dangling from rails across my hallway.

Wandering the town yesterday afternoon, I happened to see a little altercation between Kanagawa's Finest, and a rude old lady.

The scene began with a police car pulling up in front of an illegally parked car. They sat there for a minute or so, then as one, the two constables stepped out of their car, walked up to the little green Daihatsu, where one slapped an infringement notice to the windscreen and the other took a photograph. (I presume this was for official records, not as a holiday snap).

Duty performed, they sit back in their car and wait for the traffic lights to change before they drive away.

Cue a lady in a housewife's uniform (why do ALL housewives in Japan wear aprons all day?) toddling out of the shop, climb into her car, begin to pull away from the kerb and then notice the infringement notice. She reaches out the window to try and brush it away - to no avail. They are adhesive, and this one's firmly stuck to the glass.

She gets out to look, and finally realizes what it is, and why it is somehow relevant that there is a police car with flashing lights right in front of her. Taking the notice in hand, she marches up to the police car, taps on the window, and demands they take the notice back, because she was in fact in the Glasses Supermarket at the time. (This is evidently, in her book, enough of a reason.)

The mistake the police made was getting out of the vehicle to talk to her. Had they stayed put, they could have simply driven off without taking over twenty minutes to explain that she had broken the law.

Firstly, she claimed that it was not right that she had been issued a ticket, because she had only intended to be in the shop for a minute, that it wasn't her fault that paying for something actually took longer, and she was in the shop for four minutes.
The police point out that this is irrelevant.

Second, she claimed that she had to park on the street near the no parking sign, because there was nowhere else to park the car.
The police point out the huge carpark directly across the road.

She refutes this, saying that carparks cost money. (They do, here.)
The police point out the traffic fine.

She now changes her story, apparently she was only in the shop for one minute.
The police point out that not only were they in attendance for much longer than that before she showed up, that she had initially claimed to have been in the shop for four minutes.

She now decides to inform them that she simply will not pay the fine, and what will they do about that now, hmm?

The police remind her that if she does not pay before the due date she will be summoned before a court.

This goes in circles for about twenty minutes, while I eat my custard cream doughnut and drink my coffee.

Finally she demands to talk to their superiors. The constables are only too happy to provide directions to the main police station, where she is free to dispute the charge with superior officers, but that she will be told the same thing. She jumps in her car, in a huff, and informs them that she will indeed be speaking to their superiors, and drives off into the night, without her headlights on.

The police make a note of that, too, and leave.

I love this school.
One of the vice-principals is sitting at his desk, muttering away to himself in a high-pitched, nasal voice for his own amusement. He could do voice overs for cartoons. I'm sitting at a computer a couple of desks away, and though I suspect, I am unable to pinpoint the noise as coming from him, or not.

He stops, and takes a drink from his cup of tea.

I must have been staring at him with a puzzled expression on my face, because as soon as he looked in my direction he burst out laughing, apologised, and asked me to please not think all Japanese people are strange just because of him.


Recent Events

OK, its been a long time since I posted.

About ten days ago, I set off on a very busy day. First on the agenda was a trip to the Immigration Office to sort out getting a re-entry permit, which will enable me to get back into Japan after the Christmas holidays. Figuring that the precise procedure would be useful to write down and send to the company so that others may benefit, I took along my camera and some paper for making notes.
Then I got lost on the subways.
Yokohama has a subway system, and for some reason I assumed that the Subway Mintomirai Line was in some way part of, or at least connected to, the Yokohama Subway System.

Rookie mistake.
Japan doesnt follow the sort of logic I'm used to.

After changing trains on the way into Yokohama to take the subway, it ended up that the only way for me to get from the Yokohama Subway to the other subway line, was to go all the way to the big Yokohama railway station anyway, getting me there over half an hour later than had I simply stayed on the same train from the start.
Eventually made it to the right train, and was at Immigration in seven minutes.

Thankful that I had already filled out all the paperwork I needed, I was able to hand it straight across the counter, which sped up the process greatly. I was also glad I had brought my processing fee in stamps, because waiting in the queue to buy them there would have taken oodles more time.

This is one thing I find interesting. Immigration (along with certain other government branches, I believe) does not accept fees paid in cash - you must pay in postage stamps.
There have been people who did not believe me when I mention this fact.
Thankfully, for expensive transactions like this (my re-entry permit cost 6000 yen, or about $70) (wow, it seems so much more when I put it into dollars!), instead of having to stick one hundred and twenty of those little 50 yen stamps onto the page (and yes, that would certainly dry out your tongue in a hurry, leaving you tasting stamp glue for the rest of the day), they do indeed sell large denomination stamps for this very purpose.
Id planned ahead and bought my stamp at the post office the day before, so I wouldnt have to wait in line and waste time at Immigration.

My re-entry permit granted, photos taken for the brochure, I set off for part two of my expedition of the day.

My trip to Australia.

Legally, at least, I was in Australia for about half an hour. There was no passport controls, but the guards did want to know if I was carrying anything dangerous. (They didnt ask about live animals, this time..)
I was at the Embassy in Tokyo. This was the second Australian Embassy I'd ever seen in the world, and the first one I'd ever been into, despite countless trips to the Japanese Embassy in Canberra. The purpose of my visit was, of course, to cast my vote in the Victorian election due to take place three days later. Having left it far too late to register for a postal vote, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the Embassy was offering an over-the-counter service for the state election. They do this for the Commonwealth elections, but not usually for a state one. Nevertheless, they were doing it, so in I went.
Voting took no longer than it would have back home; indeed less so, because there was no huge queue of people at the polling station, just one person in front of me. What did take more time was chatting to the consular official serving as the electoral officer.
She was ex ANU, and had been involved in Kabuki until a few years ago. I wouldnt have recognised her except for her name, and she didnt recognise me at first either, until I told her my name.
After a suitable amount of reminiscing, it was time to pass back through the rather scary looking gates, back into Japan.

The Embassy is right around the corner from Japan's most famous landmark: The Tokyo Tower.

Thats right, the Tokyo Tower. I promise you, it exists, and in Japan is regarded as the most famous landmark in the country. I had never heard of the thing until I started living over here, and I dont think I'm alone in that.
See, I would have thought that Mount Fuji would have been a more famous landmark - but perhaps that is not counted because it was not constructed by a Japanese company.
The Shinkansen strikes me as a good candidate for a landmark - but possibly only because of that picture of the train streaking over a bridge with Mt Fuji in the background (ok, im seeing a pattern here) and cherry blossoms in the foreground. Of course, the Shinkansen moves around, so perhaps that renders it ineligible for landmarkedness.
Perhaps a castle, like Osaka castle, or Odawara castle, (from the top of which, I believe, on a clear day one can see Mt Fuji. (here we go again)). Once again, not elements of the country showcasing industrial prowess.

Anyway, I digress. There is a building called the Tokyo Tower. It is a 1:1 scale model of the Eiffel Tower, except that they put a bigger spike on top, so it is taller. Oh, and that it is painted red and white.

I went to have a look at this tower anyway, in the hope I would be blown away by its awe-inspiring famousness.

Its a tower.

I went and had lunch after that.


The next stop on my agenda for the day was the company offices in Tokyo. A bit of an unexpected visit, at least on their part, but I wasnt sure enough of my own schedule to be able to make appointments. As it turned out, I got a large amount of 'I dont know' from them, so went around the corner to the shrine to take some pictures.
Yasukuni Shrine just so happens to be that big place vaguely equivalent to the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. Its supposed to house spirits of war dead, and ol' Jun Koizumi, the former Prime Minister, used to visit every year. This action would without fail would have a similar effect on China and Korea as would dangling it by the tail and brushing its fur backwards have on a cat.

Still, got a couple of photos, which yes, I know I need to post.

Getting nothing useful out of the company drained me a bit, so then I ate some curry and went home.

I left my backpack on the train, and my apartment keys were in it, so between getting the station staff to rescue it off the train before it went all the way back to Tokyo, and my going to the station where it was saved to rescue it, it took me an extra hour to get back to my nice warm little bed, where I had a milo and went to sleep.

Looks like the ANU will be holding a 'major symposium' and alumni event at the Embassy in Tokyo next May. I wonder what will happen....

Heard on the radio this afternoon the Canberra Christmas tree will be lit in a couple of weeks. That was a fun evening last year- its amazing how time flies.
But thats the problem with listening to radio from back home... music can trigger homesickness quicker than anything. Part of that is that this particular radio station hasnt appeared to have changed their playlists that greatly in the last couple of years, which means the same songs they play while I'm here in my apartment in Japan are the same songs they played while I was driving to uni, driving to work, driving home. Even after a long trip over the Monaro highway, coming past Tuggeranong, right as you come over the hill and get your first glimpse of the city sprawling away, glittering under the night sky, and first start to pick up FM radio, the same songs that came on signalling driving back into Canberra.
Well, that and 2CA, which on a good calm night with the aerial out full I would be able to pick up the entire journey to Sale, except for the bit of the forest down near Cann River. Yes, it was nice being able to pull into the driveway in Sale with Canberra radio playing, clear as a bell, but come sunlight the next day it was nothing but static.

I havent done anything of value this weekend. Next weekend, the weather should clear up, and we will be able to go on a trip to Kamakura - the seat of the first Shogunate of Japan. In between now and then, I need to make a trip to the Immigration office, to ensure I can get back into Japan after Christmas, and a trip to the Australian Embassy, to vote, some time before next Saturday's election.

Yesterday afternoon, while up in another neck of the woods, I decided to try the supermarket I had discovered there, rather than returning home, and thence going out again to the supermarket I normally frequent, which is on the opposite side of my burrow.

It appeared to be an independent shop, unlike my regular supermarket, part of the Seiyu chain. The sign out the front was a bit rusted, but then again, so is half of Japan. Inside, however, the differences really became apparent.

Tables piled high with stuff, packets of fish flakes, fruit, slippers, more fish-like substances, each aisle crowded together like an IGA back home, shelves bursting at the seams. Perhaps they dont have a stockroom...

And the people! Little old ladies out in force, housewives by the dozens, clambouring over one and other, shouting, pulling, pushing, biting, (ok, not biting,) all so they could beat each other to the fish that was a few cents cheaper than the otherwise identical item right in front of them.

I could understand, if they were significantly cheaper, but they were not. Indeed the entire supermarket was priced, on average, higher than my local big chain. A couple of things on special were cheaper, true, but nothing not on special was cheaper. Milk was the same price as normal, but everything else was higher. I dont think I shall be returning - higher prices combined with a half-hour walk really dont make it that attractive an option for me.

Oh - and every aisle had its own CD player playing competing jingles and announcements..... bedlam indeed, and to go there regularly would surely induce headaches.

Its cold!
Over the last week or so, I noticed that I wasnt using my airconditioner at all any more. (I hadnt used it much for the last few weeks, but now I dont use it at all.) Mind you, Ive been sick for most of last week, so I wasnt noticing a whole lot anyway.

Last night, while going for a late night walk to Blenz for a hot chocolate (not quite the same as Gus's or Essen, but nice) it really started to get nippy in the air... it appears the three weeks between melting-into-a-puddle hot, and bring-on-the-penguins cold have finished, and its now going to be cold until, oh, Easter.

Time to break out the winter wardrobe, and contemplate purchasing some carpet.

I must apologise for the long delay since posting last.

The company Halloween Party (of which I have some photos- I shall post them soon) was rather a lot of fun, though it did end up being a very very late night. Interesting to talk to the branch manager in person, and see that she at least gave the impression of being able to understand my point of view. She also appeared to be taking steps to ensure that my situation never arises again in the future, though the concept of rectifying my situation seems to be a little foreign to her. Still, its a slow process dealing with the bureacracy here at any stage.

Trying to teach Halloween lessons at school was strange. Teachers asked me to teach an entire lesson based on how Halloween is celebrated "in my country".
OK.. thats simple, we dont celebrate it at all.
Couldnt quite explain that clearly to a few of the teachers, who insisted that we Trick or Treat, dress up in costumes, and eat lots of pumpkins.

Strangely, they all blatantly refuse to admit that it is, indeed, celebrated in Japan. "Oh no - in Japan we do not celebrate Halloween". "So, why are there pumpkins in every shop and house, black and orange banners on every second building, flags wishing people Happy Halloween, and a huge hype and buildup to it all through the month of October?"

"Um..."

Yep, both the halloweens that ive ever lived through have been here in Japan.

Last weekend was another Long Weekend. I like the second half of the year here - theres at least one public holiday every month, and November has two! Bonus!
This time around it was Culture Day. Apparently, this used to be Emperor Meiji's birthday, but when he kicked the bucket, the new Emperor (of course) had a different birthday. Not wanting to deprive the public of a public holiday, they renamed the day to Culture Day. Incidentally, the replacement Emperor Showa (known as Hirohito in English speaking circles) also carked it sixty-odd years later, and his birthday was also left as a public holiday (Green Day), and the new bloke, Akihito, celebrates his birthday on December 23rd. Sure enough, every time they get themselves a new Emperor, they get themselves a new public holiday in the process. Given enough time, and enough new Emperors, the whole year will be peppered with these new
public holidays with equally bizarre names.

My own Culture Day was spent in Shinjuku, exploring Shinjuku Gyoen, a rather large park. I have plenty of photos, once again, and I shall post these as soon as I transfer them off my camera. The amazing thing about this park is its size - crammed right into the middle of
Shinjuku, mere metres from the busiest railway station in the world, is a huge park and garden filled with crysanthemums, goldfish, and gingko trees. (Just to clarify, the goldfish are in ponds, not garden beds.) Also, being right in the middle of the city, it amazed me how few skyscrapers were visible above the trees. Evening, and dinner with Yusuke. Didnt get home til around midnight, but all in all a great day.

Ive been a little off-colour this week, sore throat and some fluey symptoms. I spent most of my spare time at school yesterday dozing on the couch, finding the energy to bounce up and be genki in class when required, but coming down flat at the other end. They gave me some
medicine that looked suspiciously like lifesavers, but seemed to work.

I went to bed at 4pm when I got home, and did nothing productive all day. This morning waking up feeling great, I think all is well, though I must remember to sleep a little more than Ive been allowing myself time for lately. Must sleep. Must take care of myself.

I ate peaches for breakfast today. They were yummy.

As a trial, Ive put a Skype button up so you can see if I'm hovering around at home with nothing to do, or not. If I am, the blue status button over there on the right, under the weather readout, will read "I'm online!". Click it, and you will be able to skype me. Its completely free.

This weekend is going to be busy - the company halloween party tomorrow night (which will no doubt be an interesting experience ... given that its halloween I'm guessing we are all going to sit around and eat pumpkins and stuff.. ) up in Yokohama, Sunday afternoon will be lunch/dinner with a co-worker and his family, and Monday will be my first Enkai with the staff down here. Some people get enkais rather regularly; this will be my first, so I am looking forward to it.

I know it has been over two months since I last flew an aircraft, but I still surprised myself today. Ive just downloaded the demo version of the newest Flight Simulator, and having arrived home from work a little earlier today, fired it up and had a bit of a gander at it.
Having no proper controls, I was forced to fly with the mouse- challenging at the best of times, but was suitably impressed by the program. It looks great.

Flew a circuit with a little powered hang glider - just coz I could - and then swapped to something slightly larger - a CRJ. All was going well until the landing... (well, I knew I was coming in rather fast, because I had had trouble getting the No 2 engine to stop putting out full power, until I was on base, but that was sorted, and I touched down just past the 1000-foot markers with both engines at idle, speed brakes on, wheel brakes on. Finally shuddering to a stop PAST the numbers at the far end of the runway (which, at over 2000 metres, was plenty long enough), I was a little concerned at what took me so long to stop. I dont think I could have gone much slower over the fence, unless I had..

lowered the flaps?
I forgot the flaps. Never even touched them. Completely forgot they even existed.
Thats not good. Not at all.

Having internet at home has been an incredible lifestyle change. No longer am I planning my evenings around going to the internet cafe, knowing that I must make use of my time in there, but also knowing that whenever I am in there I cant use the phone, or cook dinner, or have a shower.
The biggest change is that I am not out in the city late at night anymore... well, not regularly anyway.

It just makes life so much easier, so much more relaxing, having internet at home... I can have the radio playing, live from Canberra, when I'm cooking - and in theory I should be able to watch TV too.

The NHK woman came to the door last night, wanting my TV subscription fee. I dont have a TV. She ran away.

Not quite as amusing as the newspaper salesman a few days ago. As soon as I opened the door, he panicked, informed me that I was a foreigner and therefore couldn't read a newspaper, apologised, and fled. I could hear his footsteps pattering down the stairs...

Its Friday!!

More Yokohama Pictures

With apologies for the delay, these are some photos from Yokohama at night... mainly of the Ferris Wheel and other lit up attractions.

Yokohama Chinatown

This is a nice place, however it has the drawback of being the place where the little old lady with the sharp stick lives. She seems friendly enough, invites you to sit down, pokes you in the back with these little plastic thongs on her fingers - feels quite nice actually - but then, if you dont suspect whats coming next, she will poke you in the fleshy bit of you hand with a sharp wooden stick....
Apparently, if you had something funny for lunch the previous day, then it would hurt, otherwise it wouldnt.
Well, Im glad I didnt experience the seemingly excruciating pain this dear old woman inflicts...

The Rest of My Photos

Theres a few updates in the Engrish, and Scenery albums, too.

I have internet at home now!!

For some reason, there seems to be a large run of public holidays at this end of the year. Quite a good idea, I think. Its always nice to have an extra day off work, an extra day sleeping in, and best of all, an extra day to do whatever one wants.
Of course, having such amazing weather was fantastic, especially for an excursion to Yokohama. I must admit, though, on Friday evening, the weather wasn’t looking quite that promising. A little typhoon had blown up on Thursday, and by Friday it was in full swing. My vice-principal had warned me before lunch that the wind was strong; he was most amused to see me return from lunch with merely an umbrella frame… the wind having taken possession of the umbrella skin.
Battling my way home through the wind and the weather now without an umbrella, I eventually found my way onto the train, but the wet wool of my suit smells distastefully like wet dog – no one sat near me on the train. Train lines all over Kanto were being delayed because of this little whip of weather. The Joban line from Ibaraki was stopped in places, and I don’t believe it would have been much fun sitting on a train with the doors open and rain blowing in, for three quarters of an hour. Even the Tokaido line, my line, was delayed, but not by a great deal. At least by later that night, the wind was beginning to let up, and though it was still raining heavily the worst had passed.
And pass it did – Saturday began with one of the clearest, brightest blue skies I have ever seen in Japan. In all the time I have spent in this country, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a day with not a single cloud in the sky at all – there was always at least a couple. Until this weekend. A constant 26 degrees all weekend, and not a single cloud on Saturday.

Yokohama
Though I live less than an hour from Yokohama, I hadn’t actually ever been exploring the city. Well, I had been briefly dragged through Chinatown by my dear oompa loompa- the old retiree my company provided (the lazy one who never bothered to put his brain in and think). This was the day he met me at the Yokohama Branch Office and puttered along with me to Odawara…
But I digress.
We decided to go exploring in Yokohama. Such a lovely city… I could happily live there. (And indeed I am seriously considering it). The walk from the station to the port area, Minato Mirai, was rather short (once we figured out how to get there) and the first thing that impressed me was the sheer amount of greenery – trees, open spaces, and grass. Sitting having a coffee under the shade of tall evergreen trees and the NHK TV tower, out of the sunlight and somewhat protected from the wind… but only somewhat. My serviette, my glasses, and even the puppy at the table next door were all scooped up by the wind and flung across the footpath – but promptly retrieved. Time to go for a walk…
The port area itself blew me away. Certainly the bright, sunny, warm day helped, but the Minato Mirai area is spectacular. (Shame the branch office is so close by…)
From a deep amphitheatre cut into the ground in a way reminding me of limestone quarries, (which, incidentally, was hosting Yokohama Oktoberfest, complete with German bier, wiener, Trinken und Tanzen, mit much Spitzensparken) to the waterways across the road. A tall ship – the Nihon Maru – lay at mooring in a quay; a three-masted tall ship with (ever Japanese) a radar head unit on the foreward mainmast.
A block or two down the canal towards the ocean, sits the famous Yokohama Ferris wheel.

How could we resist?

The view of the city was incredible. Being able to see all across the city is amazing at any time, but Yokohama is nicer than most cities in Japan. Yes, theres the urban sprawl, but theres also the coast. From the vast tracts of green grass (vast for Japan), to the trails of ships coming and going in the port, to the line of aircraft following an ILS down to Haneda Airport in the distance… the scenery was fantastic. And the day was so clear, that off in the distance, rising high into the sky, was the lofty peak of Mt Fuji, clearly visible despite its distance.

Photos are up.

Ueno
Sunday afternoon I had arranged to meet Jun at Ueno.
Turning up at the prearranged time, I was trying to text her to arrange a meeting point…. To no reply. So I phoned her.
And again.

Waiting at what I thought was a reasonable point, rather taking a chance, I had been standing for fifteen minutes, glancing at my phone, and listening to public address announcements talking about delayed trains, when suddenly the PA changed…
In Japanese: “Would Mr (my full name) from Australia please make his way to the Central Exit Gates, where Miss (Jun's full name) is waiting..” repeated over and over, about seven or eight times…
And I just happened to be wearing a tshirt saying Australia….everyone else in the station, probably close to a hundred thousand people (Ueno is a big station) saw me start walking towards the gate, and realized exactly who I was, where I was from, and who I was going to meet, and where…

Still, it was good to see Jun…

The Beach

Went exploring today, and found the beach! So, I took some photos.

Somehow, its not quite Cable Beach, or even Bondi. But its near home. And theres not too much concrete, as long as you look straight out to sea...

If students want to talk with a native speaker in English, thats fine. Thats part of what I'm paid to do.

But if all they want to do is sit and listen dumbly while a native speaker talks to them in English, their needs are better served by watching a movie. Theres plenty of American movies available at any video shop here - take it home, get comfy, turn off the subtitles, and then listen to people talk in English. Put the English subtitles on, and wow - they can read it too.

But dont make the native speaker turn up for 'English Club', and sit like a sack of potatoes without a word.

Thats a waste of their time and mine.

On the positive side, its now the weekend! Had the postie come to my door while I was cooking dinner - bonus. Tomorrow I'll be doing some interior decorating... (my table arrives).

The company is not quite being as quick as I would like, but then, this is Japan, so I have only my own expectations to blame.

My furniture collection is slowly building, (as is my bill to the company). By Saturday I will even have a table! This is exciting. I would like a table.

Hopefully within a week I shall have internet at home too.

This will be very useful.

Things are looking positive with the company, though of course taking its time.

Today was the Lions Club Speech Contest that I had been preparing five students for. Having no other pressing plans for the morning, I decided to go along and watch.

Happily, the student I thought was our best hope ended up winning the contest, along with it the scholarship for a months homestay in the country of her choice anywhere in the world! And the student I thought was the best after her, he came second. The other schools competing really didnt have a chance - we blitzed the field.

Though I bumped into the parents of one of the students in the street this evening (not sure precisely which student they belonged to), and in a momentary lapse, spoke to them in Japanese.
So theyre going to tell the student... the student is going to tell the other students.. looks like my secret is out!
Friday, I slipped up, too, and said konnnichiwa to a student in the corridor. I figure that offence can be covered up easily, konnnichiwa being a simple word, but I think I rather put my foot in it with these parents...

Oh well.... they might forget....

This week has absolutely flown by!
Having Monday off work certainly makes things fly, and it was a great Monday too. Ive spent a lot of this week remembering the weekend, which makes me happy, and stops me getting too frustrated at a certain person who was supposed to help me settle in.

I wont go into too much detail, because I'm negotiating with the company at the moment, but it seems that most people they brought over at the same time as me were placed in apartments at least partially furnished, and for the most part fully furnished, with no need to run around buying absolutely every single item of furniture in the place.
Oh, and most everyone else was given an internet connection at home too...

The people at head office are taking their time replying, but at least they're keeping me updated, and it appears things are running through the beauracracy at the moment, and hopefully there will be a positive outcome in the near future. I want them to pay for my furniture.

One more day of work until the weekend!!!

Photos from Kandatsu

Long Weekend: Respect for The Aged Day

Setting off on a train journey of proportions to rival the Trans-Siberian (or, so my teachers at school would have me believe - its only three hours) on Saturday morning, I was soon leaving the sprawling metropolis of Tokyo and entering the sprawling rice fields of Ibaraki.

Having missed out on finding out what on earth an Umbrella Dance was, when sports festival was postponed due to the rain, I was out to Ibaraki to catch up with some friends I met at orientation, and to visit the Ishioka Matsuri - apparently one of Japan's biggest festivals, lasting three days.
Its a little hard to describle the sights at this festival with a large degree of accuracy, especially given the strange assortment of food such as pink squid (yeh, that makes sense), so please look at the photo album above.

I do, however, know where Pachinko street is now.

Apparently the point of this festival is to drag all these gods across town (after waking them up from their slumber in shrines across the area), bring them all into the one place, parade them around in front of the people, and ask for blessings to have a good downpour of rain, which i guess is good for the farmers.
Anyway, it seemed to work. From about sunset Sunday night, right in the middle of the three day festival, it started to rain.
Yay for the gods in boxes.

Monday morning it was still going.... thunderstorms, torrential downpours... very good planning to have gone to the festival Sunday afternoon rather than Monday morning.

At least it dried up in time to get on the train back to Odawara.

Another busy day today.

While being left alone for a few hours, I got a little bored, and started wandering the corridors at school. Outside the staffrooom, I met the principal (a different school from last weeks railway station principal),

He was a little bored, and had started wandering the corridors at school.

So he invited me into his office for a chat and some green tea. He's a nice old fellow, full of information on the Kamakura shogunate (Japanese history from about 900 years ago.)

The rest of the week promises to be a little busier though. Its Sports Day this Thursday. Unless it rains, then it will be on Friday. Unless it rains then, in which case they cancel the whole event. This will be distressing for the students who have spent their entire summer holidays practising their Umbrella Dance.

No, I dont know what an umbrella dance is.

So, too much rain will mean they cant use their umbrellas.... I suggested to the staff that perhaps they could hold the sports day even if it rained... sure, theyd get a little wet, but isnt that half the fun?
You could almost hear the bones shattering as every teacher's jawbone crashed to the floor.

Its the weekend again!

Finally found a shopfront to go into, talk to a human about internet plans, and set one up. So I will shortly have internet access at home, and shall be able to stop visiting this internet cafe... and shall save myself some money in the process.

The only drawback, is that it will take a month for the oompa loompas from Yahoo to visit my apartment and connect the cable... grr...

On the station platform on the way home, who do I run into but my friendly little fellow from the railway station who turned out to be my principal at my Wednesday school. Except this time, we were over an hour away from that school... maybe he just likes trains?

Wednesday morning, and its my first day at School Number Three.

Having practised the weekend before, I knew which train to take, which station to use, and where to walk from the station. So it wasnt that hard to find, and the scenery from the train line is a lovely picturesque view of the Pacific Ocean.

Leaving the station, I set off in the general direction of the school, when a voice from behind me calls out 'Ohayou Gozaimasu'. I turn, and this little man dressed rather casually runs up to me, smiles a lot, and introduces himself. He works at the school I'm going to... how convenient! And his English is excellent too. We chat as we walk to school together, over a range of topics, and his vocabulary and pronunciation are both excellent. He never actually said he was an English teacher, but I figure, with English this good, he's hardly going to be assigned a different subject area.

We get to the school, and he takes me inside, showing me where the box to leave my shoes is, and takes me to the principal's office to wait; for I must of course be introduced to the principal before the day begins. My kind little helper disappears, leaving me all alone in the principal's office.

But not to worry, within a few minutes, my friendly little helper returns .. this time wearing a jacket and tie, and presents me with his business card.

The Principal.

Day One at my base school...

Once again, no classes today, but they promise me that I will have a class tomorrow...

What DID happen on the other hand, apart from the usual speeches to the staff, the whole school assembly, and greeting giggling students in the corridor, was a day wandering around a new school, trying to not get lost.

At one stage, while left to my own devices in the English staffroom (we have couches!), I decided to go exploring.
Ran into a teacher in the corridor, who stopped, and introduced himself to me in English. Apparently he has a desk near mine, but was busy this morning so couldnt come to say hello. All is well and good, until he just happens to mention in conversation that we are going to have an earthquake evacuation drill this afternoon.
I said, OK... naturally assuming it would be some amount of time away.
Not four seconds passed then until the sirens started, and the PA was announcing "Earthquake, earthquake, evacuate, evacuate!"

Oh, you mean right now....

So we all evacuated to the tennis court... whereupon I noticed all the students are wearing their INDOOR slippers!
Ooh... naughty!! But logical. You dont really want to stop to change shoes while the building is collapsing around you.....

Never fear though... this was what the students had to walk through to get back into the building..

Photos!

Engrish
Scenery

They'll be updated as time goes on...

I have a fridge!

After my little excursion this morning which just so happened to take me past the hill with the butterfly-visible-from-space carved into it, I returned to Odawara to resume my search for furniture to put in my burrow. And no, photos of the burrow are going to wait until it is decently furnished.

At first I thought finding a secondhand shop would be easy. In Sendai there were a few Hard Off's around the place filled with everything from computers to rice cookers, to guitars to telephones. However the nearest one to me here is Yokohama... 40 minutes on the train, and I'm sorry, im not taking a fridge home on the trains! I draw enough stares as it is around here, let alone the effort required to lug a fridge up the stairs to the station.
" Look at the foreigner, taking his fridge for a walk! He should get a puppy instead"

But I digress.
Most of the secondhand shops I discovered (and discovered only after walking many kilometres around the city) turned out to be a little less than my expectations. From the first one, populated by small desks and chairs and staffed by three elderly women from the community (who were drinking tea and playing with beads), to the many places that turned out to be secondhand books or games only, I was beginning to think that that brand new fridge in the department store was looking good.
Not to fear however... the last shop I visited (of course it was the last.. why keep looking after I found what I want?) did indeed have appliances... and to get a fridge, AND a microwave/convection oven, and get it delivered, and the total came to under $100, I think I did some good shopping. Wonder if I'll need to get my shoes resurfaced though...

Tomorrow I'll be looking for a desk...

Made it to school today all by myself, and on time, no less!

I apparently am the replacement for a JET who spent all his time sitting at his desk reading comic books. They were more than a little excited to hear I have had teaching experience, and in a high school no less. I think they were excited to have someone who is going to be a little more productive than a Human Tape Recorder (HTR), and I'm more than happy to be utilised!

The school has a very useful setup in the staffroom, whereby the office staff can broadcast messages (along the lines of: phone call for Yamamoto sensei on line two!) over a loudspeaker... but theres a microphone attached, and any teacher who speaks up (along the lines of: he's not here!) is clearly heard by the other end!.

Ok, well I was impressed....

Its the weekend now!

My burrow is progressively turning from a completely empty, stark space into a livable, comfortable place to come home to.
And the best part is... I have now figured out *how* to find it on my own!

Yesterday morning I was most traumatised to discover that my burrow's connection to the gas mains wasnt working, but a quick phone call to a very efficient and prompt oompaloompa solved that and within the hour I was able to enjoy such luxuries as hot running water (and therefore, showers).

This afternoon, after a quick stop by the internet, I'm going to find a place called "Second Street", if such things exist.

I start work tomorrow, so this afternoon is going to be a practise run to make sure I can find where to go early in the morning.....

Wish me luck!

I have arrived, and as yet have avoided dehydration or being run over by a little old lady on a motor scooter.
Its amazing how busy I have been, let along how busy things were before leaving Australia.
Thanks to a few delays in Hong Kong, I found myself rushing for the last train from Narita airport into the city, and arrived at the hotel in Tokyo just after midnight on my first day, with Training due to start at 9am.

And what training it was.... compared to a certain government-run programme, the company did a superb job of the training. The trainers themselves, along with the recruiters, were superlative; each and every one taking the time to add a personal touch and convincing us all individually that they actually do care about us and what happens to us.
That in of itself is well and good, but added to that was actual training. Yes, there was a bit of simplistic guidelines designed for those who hadn't ever left their own countries before, but for the most part that was kept within reasonable limits. Perhaps the early days could have moved a bit faster, with less time sitting around while other people filled out paperwork, but on the whole we were busy 9-5 for six days straight.
And the other trainees too.. (and I know some of you are reading this) .. what an amazing bunch of people!

I have a new burrow, once again, and having moved into it yesterday the first thing I purchased was of course a bed. (It was a very, very unfurnished burrow.)
Tomorrow promises to be more of the same, and I may or may not have to go into the branch office. If I can manage it, I'm sure it would be worth trying to find precisely how to get to where I need to be Friday morning to start work....

This one's just a quickie... I'm in Hong Kong in transit.

Its been a busy few days, so here's to another few hours resting on an aeroplane before getting busy once again!

I'm off... this will be the last chance I have to get to a computer in Australia.

Tomorrow morning I'll be flying all day, then straight on to Melbourne.

Tuesday morning to check in at the airport before sunrise, and to paraphrase John Denver, I'll be leaving on a jet plane...

I'll write as soon as I can!

FedEx didn't show today either.
I was able to determine that the package containing this all-important certificate, is sitting at the freight dock at Melbourne Airport.
On the positive side, its at least getting less far away.

Unfortunately, so is my departure date, and without this certificate, I cant get my visa processed, so things are going to be cutting very fine.

Well, it appears to have started already!
My certificate of eligibility has been sent out from Tokyo -- I need this to take to the Embassy and swap it for a working visa. Sounds pretty straightforward, but they are worried about time constraints, so they sent it FedEx.
To the wrong address.

FedEx tried to deliver my certificate today, in the wrong town, in the wrong state. Its only about 500km from here - and I simply don't have the time to even fly over there to collect it.

They promise it will be delivered by a courier on Wednesday.... here's hoping!

Its only getting a little pushed for time... my flight leaves Australia next Tuesday...
It will be interesting to see how this week pans out. I haven't got a lot of spare time - what time I do have is taken up with packing, preparing for departure, flying, and catching up with people I haven't seen for far too long.

As I prepare for departure, it's time to bring this old diary back into a more prominent position. I shall endeavour to keep posts in English as much as possible, though I can give no guarantees. Recently my readers have primarily read Japanese, with the exception of three people in America. I shall now be maintaining a Japanese language blog on Mixi, and keeping this for everyone back home to follow the observations and comments on life in Japan as viewed
Through The Eyes of a Wombat.

歌舞伎が終わってすぐに、家を片付けて実家へ帰った。
もうキャンベラの住民ではない。
ちょっと悲しい。

だけど実家に帰ってからまた空へ戻ることができた。今年、仕事や歌舞伎で忙しくてあまり飛べなかったがこれからは！海外へ行く前、ゴールまで登りたい。

飛んで行ったりしている。

ナンソイナ、毎日が想像したより倍ぐらひ忙しうござんす。歌舞伎の稽古のうゑ、仕事もかなり時間を喰うで、今週の例の日は、朝早起きしに日の入りよりも早く職場へ通うて、終わったら稽古へ、其れが終わったら図書館で歌舞伎の支度・沢山のやらぬを得ずことを致居候。図書館が１１時迄しか開ひてゐずので帰り候。此れが忝いこと。図書館で２４時間は入れたら、叉は家でメールが使へたら睡眠さゑが取れる訳にはなりにけぬであらう。
ここ三日間、太陽が空にある間には家には居ることがござらぬ。

家のインターネットがいきなり使えなくなったようである。たぶん、電話回線を解約するとともにインターネットも解約されたと思うんだ。
では今は大学図書館からしかインターネットが使えない。

ここ一週間が意外と辛かった。まずは、親しい友人がオーストラリアを出て、帰ってくる訳がない。
歌舞伎で忙しい上、毎朝早起きで仕事へ通っているので睡眠不足このウォンバット。金曜の朝、シビックのノースボーン通りがちょっと渋滞してて、前の車が急ブレーキして、そんな早く止められなくて、事故った。低速事故だから被害が少しだけ。でも早速その車を売りたいから辛気。おまけに二人ともケガなし。

土曜は猿源氏と何時間も練習して、夕方は友達の家でロースト。

もう遅くなってきて、図書館がそろそろ閉めるので、家へ向かって眠り候

不思議なことに、バナーの絵（さっきのかわいいウォンバットの鼻孔）がいきなり、無くなってしまった。

なぜかきょうは意外と寒い。一泊、セールに行ってきて、帰ったら友達とお茶していて、家に着くのが割りと遅かった。今週、めいもいないから家が暗くて静かだ。
でも暖房が動かないのはなぜだろう。普通は、一時間で部屋を暖めるのが当然だが、きょうは寒い。
はやく就寝して明日からも仕事。東京からアノ仕事の連絡はまだ来ていないからちょっと緊張してきた。

歯ブラシの事件。

五月二十八日

自分の歯ブラシだと分かるのが普通に思われるかもしれないが、決して皆にはそうではありません。

家にはよく、じゅりあちゃん、あやちゃん、しおりちゃんがよく泊まりにくるので皆が自分の歯ブラシが洗面所に置いてあります。ごく普通の百円歯ブラシが沢山並んでいて、色で自分のがわかるようです。

然るに四月になおやくんがハウスメートとして戻ってきて、自分の歯ブラシがごく普通の百円歯ブラシを出そうとした時に、既に同じ色の同じ歯ブラシが洗面台に立っていたらしくて、まいっか、気分の歯ブラシ、もう出してあるじゃないに思ったそうで、そのまま黄色い歯ブラシを使い続けました。リュックサックにごく普通の百円歯ブラシを入れて学校でたまに黄色い歯ブラシを使ったらしいです。

さてさて、愛読者様、なにか気づきましたか？同時に同じ物がリュックサックにも洗面台にあることなんでおかしくないじゃない？に思うかもしれないけど、気づかずになおやくんがじゅりあの歯ブラシを２ヶ月弱使ってしまいました。自分の歯ブラシだったら愛読者のなかに窓から投げ飛ばしたくなる者がいるかもしれないがじゅりあはそこまでしませんでした。

優しいでしょう。

でもこの事件で、歯ブラシに関する行為を皆さん、しっかりしましょうね。この家の使い切った歯ブラシ、知らない人の歯ブラシがきょう捨てられて、なおやくんのごく普通の百円歯ブラシ新しいブランド名の歯ブラシに油性ペンで黒いＮの字が書かれてあります。

念のために。

Back in at uni this evening for a Rakugo performance, I was surprised when one of the lecturers insisted I drive her car across campus to help transport some stuff back to the faculty afterwards.
Oh, well, she insisted, so I obliged.
She forgot to mention that the car had a manual transmission, so I had a decidedly rough start, until after a few seconds when my brain kicked in and I pushed the clutch in.....
From then on, plain sailing, and it was actually quite a nice car to drive. It had only been about four months since I last drove a manual - better than my usual average of a year or so between times.
The weird sensation came when, after returning her car and getting back into mine (equipped with that oh-so-useful automatic transmission). For some reason, probably having something to do with the sudden and unexpected transition to the manual car, my brain didn't want to go back to accepting a car with only two pedals, and my foot searched for the clutch that wasn't there. Twice.
By the time we got back to Elli's house I was comfortable again... its all a matter of what you're used to.

The Rakugo itself was well and truly worth watching - Hadn't seen Thomas since before my little New Zealand trip - and hadn't seen a few other people for a very long time at all. Now, if I can just get my hands on a copy of the videotape The Duck took, I will be very happy!

Dunedin was fun! Cold, but fun! I dont recall seeing quite as much rain at the one time ever before though - it rained every night, but only at night. We get rain a couple of times a year in Canberra.....

Id never been there before, so it was exciting to see the town, hear all about the legend of the burning couches (not so much legend as regular feature of the streets on Saturday nights), and explore all the places I'd heard about.

I need to write more on this....
I've just completed my Senior First Aid certificate, and realised on the way home that somehow in the process, I managed to wear a hole in the knees of my trousers...

Still, the certificate was worth it, as was the company ;-), and the airlines look favourably on it too!

This has to be a new record...
I managed to keep a telemarketer on the phone, on 'hold' for forty-five minutes!

Someone from some bank or somewhere phones at around 6:45pm, wanting to tell me about some offer or something. I didn't get any further in to the spiel than that, when I interrupted and said I was going to put them on hold for just a moment while I fetched the householder.
Now, "On Hold" on my phone does exactly that, holds, and doesn't play any inane music, and unfortunately the speaker is disabled as well. So, it makes far more logical sense to me to put the receiver in front of my speakers, and leave iTunes on random.
Then I carried on doing what I was doing anyway, sometimes choosing an upcoming song (I particularly liked "How Long Must This Go On?" from Beauty and the Beast), and every now and then picking up the phone and listening, in the few seconds break between songs. Every time I did check, it was silent, until at 7.30, after 45 minutes of this, the earpiece was beeping to indicate a disconnected call.....
They hung up somewhere between 41 and 45 minutes of music, plus another half a minute or so talking before I began to subject them to this... Perhaps they have a call timer, and aren't allowed to talk longer than 45 mins per call, perhaps the marketer's shift ended at 7.30 and they gave up and wanted to go home, or perhaps they actually held on for three quarters of an hour to hopefully talk to me, and their patience finally ran out!
どっちょだろうさかい～結構楽しかった、意外と。
もう腹が減ってて、食べ物探しに行きやす。

Well, that's what you get for ordering things when you don't know what they are.
Also what one gets for following what Elli tells me to do...

Peoplewatching in Manuka this afternoon, we sit down for a coffee. I'm just about to order my usual style of coffee when I'm berated for having no sense of adventure... Fine, thinketh I, and scan the coffee list and my eyes fall upon something I've not seen before, have no idea what it is (other than coffee, of course), so decide to go for that. After all, it can't be too bad, can it? It is coffee, after all...


Half an espresso shot. HALF a shot!?!? The cup was so not full that I actually missed the coffee when I took that photograph of it..!
Elli is of course by this stage rolling around laughing, as her amply-sized iced coffee (there had to be nearly 400ml in that glass) made my tiny little cup look pathetic in comparison... Sense of adventure, eh?
I was forced to fill the rest of the mug up with cold water just to have enough to drink... my own little iced coffee... though some milk would have been nice...

Sigh...

Its raining today, so I'm spending the day in the library at uni finishing off the Kabuki DVD from last year. It has been quite a long time in the making - too long, really, but I'm pretty much down to just letting the computer render the video and it will be finished.
Daylight Saving was supposed to finish last weekend - my computer changed, indeed everyone's computer changed. The clocks at work changed (except for the analogue one, of course), but the most surprising was the big clock above the post office. Its analogue too, and somehow it changed itself.
The reason daylight saving didnt finish, of course, was the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, which happened to finish last Sunday. Apparently it would have been 'too confusing' for overseas visitors if the last day of the games ran an hour later than people expected....
So we still get our sleep-in, but its this coming weekend instead.

As for the Games themselves, I somehow managed to not watch any of them at all. At least the Olympics last month I saw a litttttttle bit of.... Partly it was because a bit of me objected to the huge amount of advertising and promotion that led up the the Melbourne games, that the Victorian government assumed everyone in the state would be there (they even moved the school holidays by a month), and the way that the media made barely a squeak about the Olympics being on, so people wouldnt be 'gamesed out' by the time the Commonwealth ones started.
I mean, the Olympics are the pinnacle of world sport. It's absolutely first-level, highest class. The Commonwealth Games are, at best, third class. Olympics, then World Championships, and then if you happen to live in a country that competes, these games are there too.
At least living in Canberra I was able to avoid the deluge of Bracks-sponsored tripe and advertising that Victoria was saturated in. And they're over now, too :-)

Yes, I'm still alive.
Having been working full time the last few weeks, time just seems to disappear. I got the car fixed after that little 'incident' with the wildlife (its true- australia is the only place in the world where the animals are more dangerous than the people!) a few weeks ago, but it did take them ten days to do the repairs. Ten days of travelling by bus, having to leave home an hour before work starts just to ensure I'm actually there when I'm supposed to be, of transport from anywhere in Canberra to anywhere else in Canberra taking almost an hour. That in particular made things hard when trying to get from work to home to uni - a trip which I'm used to taking no longer than half an hour took close to two hours... sometimes not practical.
Two trips to Sydney in the last few weeks I hope will pay off for the long term - Had some Testing and Assessment for Airservices, and then again last week for a panel interview... this should be good if it works out right.
It rained today for the first time in a month - and did it rain! Just crossing the road to Tilleys, a trip of no more than 20 seconds, was enough to leave me completely soaked, but at least they had good coffee inside! Glad I wasnt driving anywhere - the roads were flooded and visibility was down around three or four metres...

Its rather odd not being around uni so much these days - but given that i'm still involved with Kabuki i'm still in the loop... most of the time...

Collision with Kangaroo.

Time: 11.48pm Friday Night.
Location: 4km North of Cann River, Victoria, on the Cann Valley Highway.
Speed at Impact: approximately 50 km/hr.

Damage to car: RHS Headlight glass shattered, corner of bonnet bent, side panel dented and buckled, headlight assembly compressed and destroyed, kangaroo fur embedded in indicator lens.
Damage to kangaroo: Fatal.

Wednesday became another one of those long, eventful days, where things seem to keep happening.
The fun stuff started the previous afternoon, dropping by the library at 4.30 to print off a couple of posters on the colour printer before the library closed, and discovering that there was a glitch in the printing system.... one that allowed me to print off full colour A3 posters, without any credit being taken off my print card! Oh, if only I had been there half an hour earlier.... still, we got about half a dozen A3 posters for Kabuki printed up, which was a bonus!

Then Wednesday being C&S Market Day, the whole day from 8am til 4pm was spent running the stall, amid frequent dashes away, to sign up for other clubs, print off more flyers (this time, sadly, costing credit..), and get food and refreshments. The last time I had a Market Day it was out in the sun, i got rather pink, and at the end of the day had to go and work. That was about the time my car got stolen for the first time, too, so I'm glad this week was much better.
Tom and I did take some of the new club members out for a drink at Uni House but as storm clouds started to build on the horizon we decided to call it a day and go home.
Somehow, going home turned into going out to the cinema with the girls, some of whom had had interviews that morning for the JET programme, so someone came up with the idea of getting takeaway, and perching up in the back rows of the theatre eating Paad Thai while watching The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

I loved reading the books when I was little, but I dont think Ive actually read them for about fifteen years. There were a couple of moments where I actually forgot what was going to happen next, which was nice. I was mainly surprised how long the film was - though that makes sense given how much they had to fit in it. Once it was over and we'd come back outside, the city was very wet, and the storm had been and gone already.
So off home, and had the unexpected surprise once entering the house of discovering that the storm had knocked out our electricity. Just ours, across the road still had power.
At least there was still enough hot water in the heater to have a shower, but that was about it for technology for the night. We all forgot, though, I went to check my email, Mei to charge her phone, and Nia wondered why the hair dryer didnt work!
Still, it ended up being a rather pleasant evening with the lounge room lit by tea candles, the three of us sitting around talking and drinking pineapple and bombora (well, with no electricity we couldn't even make tea!) until far too late at night. No such thing as a bad situation, really!

I'm tired rather early tonight. Must be something to do with the busy weekend!
Well, since I last wrote I've moved back to Canberra, and moved out of my old little nest. It was only supposed to be for the year anyway, and was getting a little on the small and cramped side, and the distance away from the rest of civilisation everyone else plus increasing rent was all making it more and more inconvenient down there.
This past week has been spent packing up my little nest, getting ready to move, as well as getting things all set for Kabuki this year. Dad came up to Canberra at the end of last week and together we managed to move all my stuff from the old nest to my new place in a single day!
So now I'm up in Lyneham, living with Mei and Nia, enjoying such amazing facilities as an oven, couch, and similar items I've had to survive without, in my nest.
Does this mean an end to the nesting wombat? No, for my room is still upstairs, which I much prefer to being underground, though I hear most wombats prefer underground.

This weekend just gone we've all ten of us been down at the coast in a beach house, eating plenty of food, swimming in the surf, lazing on the beach, setting off fireworks, throwing frisbees, eating more, having plenty of naps, and all in all having a great time. The surf was amazingly warm to swim in, too, once you got in. I do think I drank a few litres of saltwater, and was certainly thrown off balance and even upside down by the waves a little more than I had hoped, but no complaints!!
I seem to have developed a stiff neck from sleeping on the sand this afternoon, but a good sleep tonight will surely do me the world of good. Its so early but I'm on my way to bed already...

Yes, it has been a while since I've posted.... what can I say other than that i've been sheltering under trees and in swimming pools trying to escape temperatures around 45 degrees...

I'm still in Sale at the moment, but back to Canberra soon. I had a flying visit to Canberra the weekend before last, literally, hiring the Airtourer from down here and discovering the energy and eficiency benefits of travelling point-to-point by air. The drive to Canberra takes somewhere between five and six hours, and usually leaves me feeling quite tired by the end of it all. However I was able to have a leisurely lunch here in Sale, drive to the airport, fly to Canberra in a little under two hours, go out for a coffee, and still not feel any more tired than after driving from Uni back to my little nest!

Caught up with a few people whilst in town, but oh did I discover the complacency I had developed from being used to driving a car around Canberra. I had the entire weekend without a car, so found myself learning more about the bus system than I'd ever known before, including the fact that if you are still in Civic after the last bus has left, it will take about 85 minutes to walk back to where I live. Not bad, but not so good when you're in a hurry, either! Oh well, its all good exercise in the end!

What was going to be a quiet afternoon with Elli before she left to spend a few weeks at home turned into an adventurous afternoon, with another friend finding herself locked out of her house a team of four of us discovered new and exciting ways to get inside, mainly using two folding ladders, a courtyard, and a sympathetic neighbour. Some plans for a fun event in the somewhat near future were discussed, but no more detail - you never know who will be reading these pages! Its supposed to be a secret!
Anyway, I was up bright and early Monday morning to call in at uni and see a couple of people rather urgently before back to the airport with every intention of flying back to Sale.
The weather wasnt good, and was set to deteriorate all day, so I had to be off the ground soon to get ahead of the weather.
Sadly, by the time I was lined up at the end of the runway for takeoff, my window of opportunity had passed - conditions off the end of the runway were so bad I couldnt see Queanbeyan. (yes... thats not necessarily a bad thing, i know!)
Three hours and countless cups of coffee drunk while watching the weather radar screen later, I decided it was a lost cause, packed up and went back to my apartment, not defeated, but alive and willing to try again in the morning.
Canberra had more rain that particular afternoon than it had had in the entire year 2005.

I was able to leave the following morning, and returned the aeroplane with minimum fuss... only to try the whole experience again last weekend!

This time, however, the destination was Naracoorte, a little farming community in South Australia. My old flying instructor's family was having a gathering for someones birthday, and I was asked to fly him and his wife across... this was a good idea because I would get a heap more hours at below cost, but a bad idea because I would have to spend two nights in a strange place with people I didnt know too well, and their extended family....
After looking at the thunderstorms marching across the country on Friday, I put my foot down and said firmly that I wasnt going to fly today, he eventually decided (after much convincing me otherwise) that he wasnt prepared to risk it either. We left the following morning, which meant I had only 24 hours of boredom instead of 40.

The trip was good, though half of Victoria being on fire meant there was smoke everywhere, and we found ourselves in a position to watch a small bushfire spark itself into existence, and radioed the fire brigade from the aeroplane.
Cruising at 10,000 feet across the state was lovely - temperatures down to about 20 degrees made for a very pleasant flight, but descending to land and getting out of the cockpit in 43 degrees on Saturday and 44 on Sunday was certainly a shock to the system. It got to 45 three days running.... Its times like these I wish I was back in Japan, where they still have snow falling!

After much traipsing around the countryside, I'm back in Australia.
Getting up at 7 in the morning is never my idea of fun, but thats just part of the deal taking the bus in New Zealand. Still, the scenery was very scenic (?), river gorges and tunnels making the land look very much like Japan up in the mountains.
Lunch in Palmerston North, then out to the airport - for an International Airport, it was smaller than Canberra, Customs and Immigration was a lone old bloke at a table, and the 737 we were flying had to hold at the hold point for two Piper Cherokees.
Ahh.. a lovely place to fly!

Melbourne Immigration have gone a little downhill since I was last there. Last time, it took a mere 30 minutes from landing, wheels on the runway, to standing outside the building - and that was a full 747. This time, with a mere 120 passengers it took over half an hour simply to get to the front of the Immigration queue ( which I considered jumping, but Amanda and her crowd frown upon that, over here...). This time around, just about everyone had Australian or New Zealand passports (funny, that), whereas last time there would have been a lot more foreigners on the aircraft, so the Australian queue was shorter... At least from then on it was smooth going, baggage was circling already (but thats probably because it took me so long to actually get there), Quarantine was easy carrying very little food, and I'm shortly sitting on the bus to the long term carpark... trying to remember which bus stop to get off at.
Dad parked the car before leaving, but I wasnt actually with him at the time, so I only had my memory to go on as to where to depart the bus, and from there actually finding the car was another adventure in itself. Mum had said that it would be easy to spot, because its 'right near the bus stop, and its got a bike carrier bracket on the back'.
Yes, the bike carrier isnt visible unless you are standing behind the car, and ... right near the bus stop in which direction??

Wandering around, holding the keys in the air, periodically pressing the 'unlock' button and trying to find any car that flashed orange and beeped turned out to be my salvation, and I was soon on my way to Sale.

Early to bed, the time difference made the day longer, I felt like it was two hours later than it is (and indeed I still feel like that).

Back to Australia today... hope it will be warmer and less windy!

I knew it was going to happen at some point, but I really wasnt expecting it this soon.
The ANU computer system realised that I've graduated, and deactivated my email account. Fine, except for two problems... first and foremost - I was using that!!
Secondly is the slight problem of... that is where all my emails from the last two and a half years were archived...

The second problem is easily fixed once I'm back in Canberra, they archive all accounts before they fiddle, so I shall be able to retrieve them, but because I didnt realise what had happened straight away, any emails sent in the last 24 or so hours probably bounced back to you, or because of the rather interesting setup my email works from, may have simply become lost in the post.

Had to spend a short while this evening bringing my dormant Gmail account out of the cupboard, dusting it off, and changing settings both there and on other mail servers in various places around the world. But its done, and completely seamless (if you dont count that 24 black hole). Ive got to learn a new interface, but to the great wide world out there, my email address has not changed at all!
Gmail looks quite a bit more functional than it did almost two years ago when I signed up.. I only did that because it looked like fun to have an 'exclusive' account, but thanks to its capabilities its my primary interface as of today - albeit not entirely by choice.

Now I have to figure out a way to get all those email addresses that were stored, yup, in my ANU account, over to Gmail. At least I have most people whom I email frequently's addresses in that squishy grey thing I carry around all the time...

I wish the wind would die down... it looks like its going to as soon as I get back to Australia :P

Its just been so windy here this whole week that it just wouldnt be safe going flying... so I havent been off the ground since doing my BFR.

Huey or whoever controls the wind... can I have at least one nice flying day before I go back to Australia?

Wellington on New Years Eve...

Nick and I were working in a bar in the city - a nice, fancy club a little like an upmarket version of In Blue downstairs. They had told us there was a good chance of working very very late... on the order of until 7am... which would have been quite good money!
SO.. Saturday we took things very easy, slept in, didnt leave the house until late afternoon, watched a couple of movies, had an afternoon nap from about 7pm til 9.30, and turned up to the bar at the appointed time of 11pm.

The place was as quiet and dead as you could possibly imagine - with the rest of the city coping with crowds lining up at the doors. Our place had a few old people poke their heads in, and a few people who were just there to say Hi to friends who were also working, but very very few people actually there to party.
There are only so many times you can wipe the bar down, polish the same glassware, or scout empty tables for stray plates and glasses, so we were really scrounging for things to do.
Every single clock in the place was set on a slightly different time, and of course none of the staff's watches matched exactly either, so as we were all staring at different clocks, the cheer floated in from the street outside "happy new year..."

By 1am the manager decided we could clock off, and I doubt the place would have stayed open much longer anyway. So, two hours work instead of 8, and we'd both had one of those energy drinks before starting, so neither of us were in any mood to sleep. So we set off to explore Wellington at New Years. Looked much like Melbourne but with more taxis - and quite a hot night for NZ, too. I dont think it dropped below 20 until about 3am, by which stage we were starting to get a little sleepy and headed back up the hill to be home before sunrise.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Spent all day today at the Wairarapa Cup races, anyway.