wroking... or slaving..

It's 10:30 n Japan right now, most of you back in melbourne are probably already in bed, yet here i am still sitting on the train on the way home.

The train at this time is still packed with people, many of whom are businessmen and students who have just finished their day. All of the ones sitting either reading, playing with the mobile or with their heads dropping down sleeping. There are also a few standing chatting away, their faces bright red. Guess where they have just been?

Work has been alright. The students are great, the Japanese English Teacher is very sweet... But the company is not the best. I guess its only when you have worked for a crappy company, you start to appreciate and realise what ppl mean when they talk about a company who value their people. After i give u a quick run down, you can tell me what you think...

My working hours are from 1 until 9 tue till fri, and on saturday i work from 11 till 8. I only get paid for 25 hours a week, and i need to be at the office a min of 4.5 non paid office hours. The classes range from 40min to 60min and are always scheduled hourly. That means i dont get paid for the left over time from each class.

............... This is now the second night ............... I am again on the train, so i will continue from yesterday............

Everyday, i must be at work on time at 1, regardless if i have a class then. Anytime i don't have class beween my classes, i dont get paid. If my student doesn't turn up for class at the end of the day and he is my last class, i can't go home. I don't know why ... But i think its a very silly rule to say the least...

With such unfair working conditions, the only thing keeping me sane are my students.

i have students of all ages and types. The young ones are so young that they still have bladder control in class. There are also university students who study at the nearby Nagoya university. Then there are housewives who want to study for fun... Lastly come the business men who come because of work .. I even met a CEO today.

The kids classes are the easiest to prepared, they dont require that much thinking. Its mainly playing games and maybe a few new words per lesson.

The adult lessons are the ones that require more thinking. Planning to have time for games, theory, listening and lastly practise.

The private one on one lessons are the ones where i try to do the least talking. I plan a little, but i want to talk the least so they can practise. Some topic a actually quite interesting.

So this is a summary of how work has been so far... Its late dinners and late nights... But i'm keeping myself busy... So busy that i don't haemorrhage time to breath! Looking forward to terminator this sunday and transformers next sunday!

miss u all lots...

Trekky Not..

After being deprived of the cinemas for 6 months, we went there with a few friends last saturday. This was the first time going to the movies in japan for both of us.

The bigger cinemas are in the city, so we made our to way nagoya city. There are a few huge shopping malls near nagoya station, each with their own high end brands. The movies were located on the top floor of one of these places, i couldn't remember the name of it.

We bought the ticket to watch the 1pm session of 'Star Trek'. Like all places japanese, you cannot be late for the movies. You need to be seated about 10min before the movies starts. That gave us jst 40min to grab something to have for lunch.

There are always many restaurants in the main train stations. In Nagoya station there's a ramen street where there's 8 stores each selling their speciality with ramen and soup of different thickness. We chose one that had no queue and one that had cold noodles. It cooled us down from the humid weather on that day.The lunch must have only taken us 15min max.

Movies are more interesting with popcorn n ice cream. Here they have caramel coated ones! They are not like the ones you have back in melbourn where they get stuck to your teeth, this one is crunchy n sweet.. I loved it.

Surprisingly enoguh, the movie itself was pretty good. I actually enjoyed the whole 2 and half hours of it. This does nother mean i've become a 'Trekky'.

The movie ended at nearly 4... We headed for some at a local chain like starbucks but slightly cheaper with the price. We found our conversation were never ending, and decided to continue onto dinner.

Dinner location was recommended by ken's aussie work mate the night before. He said it was the best japanese food he's ever had. I'm not really sure about that...

We reached the so called 'drunken racoon' simply because we didnt know the name of it, but it did have a huge red sign with a racoon holding sake. Entering the place we expected to be greeted n seated, but no one appeared. Instead we had a choice of 6 different types of mini eat outs each with a chef and about 10 seats surrounding the counter, there was sushi, yakiniku, things on sticks, teppanyaki and others i don't remember.

We managed to find our man, he had an Aussie flag hanging on the wall. He did teppanyaki. We had all the recommended dishes.. Cheese crepe, butter scallops, aussie beef, butter pipis... Plume chicken.. And i couldn't really remember the rest. The food was good but defiantly not not the best i've had. The company was much better! Here are my new met melbourn friends.

It was a great day out with my new friends... But i definately have not forgotten about you.

Mt Fuji..

Our last trip before ken's parents left was to visit the oh so famous Mt. Fuji. Initially it was only going to be a one day trip, but after realising that the drive there was going to be a whole 4 hours, an over night stay was a better plan.

The best time to see Mt. Fuji is in winter where less condensation occurs, so less clouds surround the mountain to block the view. Our guide didn't really think we would be to see anything as the season is approaching raining season, so lots of clouds. But as we drove closer n closer to our destination, this amazing view appeared. Worried that i wont be able see it after the next bend, i must have taken 30 odd pictures of it.


As you can see, the mountain top is still covered in snow. As the weather gets warmer, all the snow will eventually all disappear. When that time comes, we are actually going to climb it! Being as unfit as i am, i will soon start working out or i might just get stuck at the half way point.

The weather forecast had said it was going to rain the next day, which in that case we can't see anything at all. So the mountain viewing was all to be done today.

We arrived at the Fuji viewing platform. But after arriving at the top of the platform via cable car, the clouds were starting to attack the mountain. The beautiful view i took earlier were not as pretty anymore.


We waited for a lil while hoping the clouds would slowly float away. But after 20min or so it just didn't look like it, so we took what we could. The pictures were not as nice as the ones i took in the car.

Leaving the viewing platform slightly dissapointed, we headed to the next tourist attraction.. The music box theme park. For all those of you who don't know yet, i love music boxes. There's something childish yet memorable about a music box. Next time you cant think of a present to get for me.. I would love a music box :).


The park was like a imaginary fairytale world, with a man made lake, church, concert hall etc.. It felt like i had just walked into a fairytail, except my prince charming did not meet me on a unicorn dressed in white.


The gift shop was filled with music boxes of all shapes and sizes. I wanted to buy everything from there, but i didn't end up buying anything. There were also a museum that had ancient music boxes or it was called 'polyphones' then.y. The most interesting ones were ones that had a violin n a piano and were able to play a few songs. This was how record players originated.

By the time we left the music box theme park, it was getting late. We planned to savour some local udon. But trust me to not read the guide properly, and only realising that the restaurant does not open for dinner after we found the place closed. But the Mt Fuji view cleared, and here's an amazing shot.


Driving away hungry, we decided to go to the next appealing restaurant. And to our amazement the random restaurant we decided to go was really nice. I had an interesting rice dish with raw tuna, yam and okra. Here's what I had...


We booked our hotel at a completely different place. Its another town thats famous for Mt. Fuji viewing, but there were mountains n mountains in between, so it took us nearly 2 hours to reach. The hotel site was right next to a huge lake, it was even at the end of our gps map.

It took us a little while to find the reception as the whole site had many cabins too. Funny enough when we did finally manage to find the reception, the lady who came out to greet us was sure that we were at thw wrong location! She kept saying that the check in reception was on the other sde of the site! After our guide persuaded her that this was our hotel, she finally allowed us to check in. It was a rather strange incident. She wasnt at all rude, just kept assuming we were at the wrong place!

Oh, i forgot to mention where our hotel is actually located. Its at a place called 'Hakone'. Because of it close proximity to Tokyo, its known as the relaxation get away mecca of Japan. With that said, the essential relaxation necessaty for Japanese is their 'Onsen' or hot spring.

I was excited to know that our hotel had its own outdoor onsen! If any of you have been to the mineral springs at Morning peninsula before, onsen is similar but better! And the one other big difference is everyone is naked! There's no choice given, you have to be! My desire to have an onsen experience overrode the would be awkwardness, and because we were so late there were hardly anyone there.

After putting your shoes away at the entrance locker, you proceed to your assigned locker where you can keep your clothes. When you have bared all, you are allowed to enter the first part of the onsen. This indoor area has a central spa with little cubicals surrounding it. Each cubical is equipped with: shower essentials, wooden seat and a wooden bucket. You are suppose to sit on the tiny wooden seat and wash yourself from head to toe before you enter the central spa. (i only discovered this after watching everyone else)

The main part of the onsen is actually outside, so once you have adjusted yourself to the water in the one inside, you are now allowed to take your naked body outside. The feeling outside is really undescribable. Its relaxing, and soothing, and the evening breeze cools you down from the heat. Just writting about this makes me want to sit in one right now.

Took from the website.. (not so clear)

What i missed out at night, which i managed to find out when i went back the next morning was the incredible view of the lake from the onsen. There were really only a bunch of bushes keeping the fishermens out. i sat there wits the view of the mountain n the lake, i didn't want to leave.

If any of you are coming to japan, onsen is something you shouldn't miss. But note the men n women are completely separate. I heard there are mixed baths, but they are relatively far from the city.

Lucky we had done all the Fuji viewing the day before, but the second day was cloudy n drizzling. The view outside of our hotel was amazing...

There are lots of activities to do around the lake, but unfortunately the weather limited them to only a few.

After our morning onsen session, we checked out n started our journey. There were red tori gates around the lake. Not sure what they meant, but we had our toyota moment there.


The rain started to get heavier, and our adventures were coming to an end. This was the last adventure before i officially start work. Because my day offs are on sunday n mondays, it will be harder to get away. But i will keep you posted of my one day adventures.

First Training Day

Somehow i can never wake up when i need to do something during the day, and today was no different. I felt extra extra exhausted when the alarm went off in the morning. If i go back to sleep, it probably means i would be 100% late. Being late in Japan is definitely a no no, so i need to change a lil n be on time, so i dragged myself out of bed.

I'm teaching in a language tutoring school called 'GEOS'. They are one of the big four language schools in Japan. My working hours are tue till sat 1 till 9pm. The school itself is about 40min train ride away.

One of the training managers met me at the station, and walked with me to the school. Its about 15min away, thats further thats n i'd have preferred. I think i will start to bring a change of clothing, atleast comfy walking shoes so i can run for the train at night.

The training started with the manager going through the different levels and book. Then we made a few lesson plans we had for later.

The first class we had was with these young kids who were around 10. You should see the faces of the parents when they were introduced to me. They were all shocked to see the Native English Teacher (NET) looking more like a native japanese chic w dyed hair n size of a peanut.

The rest of the day was not too bad. There were 3 classes altogether, one for little ones as i mentioned earlier, another one with intermediate level (one high school girl n a 30 year old lady who was obviously not impressed with the fact that I was Japanese looking) and the last class was with advance students who knew what they were doing. Another class was cancelled due to whatever reason which is good news for me.

The latest class finished at 9, by the time the manager tried to teach me to do more paper work, it was 20 past. I ended up catching the 50 past train home.

Here i am blogging on the train back home, still haven't had dinner yet. Its been one long day, cant wait for food the bed!

my classroom

Kyoto Day 2

Our second day in Kyoto didnt start all that early. That gave us enough time to recover, and made sure the driver rested well to drive home safely.

The first stop was at 'Nijo Castle', it was built in 1603 to serve as an official residence for visiting shoguns. Unlike many other temples/shrines we visited, this castle actualy preserved and retained in its original state. The castle was well designed, and each room had its own design for its intended purpose. All the paintings on the wall meant something.. for example, the visitors room/reception room had paintings of leopards, this indicated to the visitors the statues of the owner, indicating who was in control.. unfortunately no cameras were allowed in the residence.

The main entrance

The elaboratly decorated gate before the residence in the background

The Shogun residence had an interestingly designed floor system. They called it the 'nightingale floor'. There were nails under each floorboard that pushed against a metal slot, so everytime you stepped on it the floor board will squeak. This was to warn people of ninjas ..... haha... maybe not ninjas but just to prevent any un-welcomed entry. So all you people who are complaining of a squeaky floor board at your homes, its only protecting you!

There were beautifully manicured garden surrounding the residence, all to match the grandure of the palance. The second castle internally was not open for visits, that one was a replica of the original. I think its probably all empty inside thats why.

Manucured Garden

The next stop was at 'Kinkaku-Ji' or the Golden Temple. It was originally constructed in 1397 as a retirement villa for a Shogun, which later converted to a temple by his son. In 1950, a youn monk burnt it to the ground. Again, reconstruction took place in 1955 and followed the original design completely with the extension of the golden-foil covering to include the lower floors.

Glittering Golden Temple

The actual place wasnt all that big, only a small path lead you from the entrance along the lake to the exit. There were ALOT of tourist there, but I managed to capture a nice picture as if it was somewhere in the past...

Is it really 2009??

There were many stores exiting the temple, and one of them sold warm plum tea with golden leaves. I expected nice fragrant sweet tea, but it was savory!! errk, wasnt very pleasant. But I did see a vending machine that I wish I could carry it back home with me.

Deceiving looking tea

Hmmm yummm..

Because Ken's parents had to leave by train to Kobe, our Kyoto visit ended there... We had a quick stop over at 'Nishiki-Koji Market' before we left for the train station, but I really didnt see enough there to blog about it.

We have probably covered only 1/3 of whats in Kyoto, it really has been a great cultral experience here. I must say, this beats Tokyo any day! I think we will come back since its pretty close by, and i'm yet to visit Osaka and Kobe. So there's definately more of Kyoto to come.. and I can't wait!

Kyoto Day 1

This is a long delayed blog about my trip to Kyoto. We were there probably 2 weeks ago now, when Ken's parents came to visit. We drove there this time, the toll cost was much cheaper than taking the shinkansen.

We left home early morning. The drive was never difficult when you have the navigator telling you to 'turn left in xxx meters ahead'. The whole journey there took about 4 hours and a bit. We saw a very coool van...

'Dream Family' van..

Arriving in Kyoto just before lunch gave us plenty of time for the afternoon to start our sightseeing. For those of you who have never been to Japan, and have not really heard about Kyoto before, let me give you a quick run down. Basically, Kyoto is a Temple and Shrine MECCA of Japan. It has around 2000 temples and shrines, but due to fire and many other reasons, alot of them were not hte original. But even the rebuilts are 100s and 1000s of years old. Just wikied Kyoto, and found out that because Kyoto was spared from the WWII bombings, thats why the alot of historical buildings are still standing there today. Many of the temples and shrines are listed a World Heritage Sites.

Our first stop was at a temple called 'sanjusangen-do', where 1001 golden statues of the 1000 armed Buddist goddess of mercy is carved out and painted gold. The temple was old and acient, and even then, the buildings were made to earth quake proof. I couldn't remember the fine details, but they had put logs at the base of the building, so the whole building would move when the whole earth was moving. No pictures were allowed inside, so here are just a few shots of the outside. The original temple was built 1164, burnt in 1249, but rebuit in 1266.

'Sanjusangen-do'

'Sanjusangen-do'

Our next stop was at another very famous temple called 'Kiyomizu-dera'. Majority of the temples and shrines were accessible by bus with a Kyoto Sight Seeing bus ticket. So we hopped on a bus to our next destination. This temple was not so close, we had to walk up a fair way to get it. But there were interesting little stores which sold ceramic products along the streets leading to the temple.

The Hike up the street to the temple. Can you see it?

There were alot of people when we reached the top. And the building was very very ancient, but funny enough its another reconstructed temple of the original. It was first built in 788, but reconstructed in 1633. I bought my little pretty charm from there.

Good Luck Key Charm

The main hall has a HUGE veranda that stands over a hill, and is supported by hundreds of pillars. But just look at the crowd!!!! There were tourists and worshippers.. amazing how the structure can with stand alllll these people..

' Kiyomizu-Dera'

The is a waterfall underneath the hall, its suppose to be sacred and has therapeutic properties if you drink it. But it costed extra just to enter and i wasnt about to drink that water, so we skipped it.

Coming out from the temple and on to the so called 'Teapot-Lane'. It is dotted with little stores selling Kyoto crafts and souveniers. I bought two ceramic tea cups and a kimono belt. I dont have pictures of these, but will show you when i get back to melbourne. =) I loved walking along the streets, it was like walking back to the olden days....

Nostalgic Lanes..

I saw ladies in Kimonos..


The next stop was at 'Kodai-Ji'. Its a temple/zen garden that was built in 1605. The garden is amazing, and the zen garden.. I still cant figure out how they made the pattern in the rocks. If any of you guys know, please tell me!

Zen Garden

Apparently, you are suppose to sit relax and stare at this garden.. and come up with a thought? or a picture? But, I didnt see anything but patterns and people working on the garden.. Maybe i lack zen.. i need to be more zen..

On the way out of the temple, we saw these ladies dressed in Kimono. I have been a papparazzi and taking snaps quickly and secretly. But then I htought it might just be easier if i asked nicely. And they were not shy at all!! So, here's me with kimono ladies..

Pretty Kimono Girls

I was soo happy. I had been wanting take pictures of them, and here they are all three of them taking pictures with me!! I felt so excited.. but whats more exciting was our walk back home..

We walked down more streets and the even setting sun made it all the more ... prettier? Man, now i know why my english sucked. I cant describe things using words any more than.. pretty.. *sigh*..

Japanese culture where the old meets the new..

It had been a LONG day, and we were dragging our feet through the little lanes looking to walk to the main street for the bus stop. When all of a sudden, I turned my head and saw 4 Geishas walking my way down a side alley!! My eyes light up, my heart started racing.. the next thing i was going to do was jump up and down. Geishas often appear in evenings to go to their appointments, but its not always that you get to bump into one in Kyoto. So we were lucky. I took up the courage to go up to them and asked for a photo. They were soo sweet.. they said yes..!!

Kawaiiiiiiii...

It felt like my Kyoto mission has just completed with a picture of Geishas. To wine and dine with these ladies could easily have costed up to 30000 dollars. But this photo.. PRICELESS...

A dinner hunt started late, around 8:30, after everyone rejuvenated at the hotel for a well deserved rest. We went to Gion, where there were suppose to be alot of restaurants. Except, we had problem finding them. We found lots of.. 'entertaining venues' instead, with men in suits standing outside to greet the guests. It was kinda awkward being there.. after nearly 30min of grumbling stomach, we walked into this pancake shop.. They made crepes, then topped it up with lots of lettuce, egg, and meat.. and drizzled it with sauce and mayo.... hmmm....

Shy chefs cooking

By the time we had a proper dinner at a sushi restaurant, whats a blog without pictures of the delicious food!!!!

Sushi Set

Unagi Rolls

Tempura

Kyoto Day 2 will be coming soon.. maybe tomorrow.. =)

Officially 25... Officially getting old.. but not yet wrinkly....

To all of you dear friends back down under, thank you for thinking of me on my birthday. I missed spending time with mum n dad n nick, but i was kept busy with my new met friends so i didn't feel so alone in this far away land during the day.

I met up with two other Toyota partners from Melbourne, and spent most of the day in Nagoya. We had coffee at a cafe where the barrister had worked in Melbourne before. I missed Melbourne coffee, i didn't think you could actually get good coffee like you could back home, but to my surprise its pretty good. Lunch was at a restaurant that sold everything Toff. Tofu steak, Tofu croquet, Tofu salad.. Alot of ladies like this shop i guess i dont need to explain why.

Time flies when you are enjoying yourself, before long i was rushing home at 5:30 to catch one hour train to get back to Toyota city for my birthday dinner. I didn't get time to change and headed the restaurant straight.

We booked a Japanese 'soul food', it was recommended by one of our friend. Apart from a company party that was happening behind us, the atmosphere was really romantic. And the food, beats the Melbourne ones by miles!

Birthday Girl wit h MENU

A salad, nothinginteresting

Creamy Crab Salad

Raw Fish rolled in Pickle

Now thinking back, i really should have taken the names of the dishes down. My english decription doesnt do them any justice. Man.. 'raw rish rolled in pickle' just doesnt soun

d all that appealing.

The next dish might be a little controversial. But, thinking that its dead already anyway.. if i dont eat it, someone else will eat it for me..then it means i miss out.. can you guess what it is?

Grilled.... Whale Meat..

Whale meat is like eating very tender beef .. a little chewying.. with fishy taste... its a interesting taste.. but i wouldnt say i love it... I really want to try Horse meat sashimi.. no

t daring enough to try the blow fish sashimi.. bt vken said its his favourite jap food so far...

Sashimi Platter (luv Prawn Sashimi)

Sweet Egg and Pork Pork

(nice the first few mouths, then it got a lil too sweet)

I really enjoyed dinner. The food was yummy.. and the company was even better..

Now i shall wait patiently for my present to arrive.. =P