She's baaaaaack

Hi everyone,
well, I got back from Guam yesterday, which was ... interesting. Firstly, as you may or may not be aware, Guam is US territory with a significant portion of the island devoted to military bases. Very exciting. Even less exciting is that the majority of the tourist areas around where we, and as it seems all outsiders, stay in Tumon Bay was made up of American franchises and designer shops.

Having said that, it was somehow comforting to be surrounded by english speakers, english street signs and, bless, something other than Japanese cuisine or a very pale imitation of "western" foods such as pasta... I don't want to talk about it. In Japan, very curiously, even though garlic is readily available, they don't use it in Italian cooking!

Anyway, the food was very nice, but I am in no doubt now as to the reason the US has such a massive (no pun intended) obesity problem. We, being used to Japanese portions (bordering on miserly), ordered mains and side dishes everytime (not, we didn't learn after the first experience), only to be faced with a veritable mountain of food everytime. One lunch we had Mexican and after stuffing ourselves with corona, fajitas, salad and tacos, Stu made the rather unfortunate decision to also order dessert, Normally when you order cheesecake, you get a slice right? Not so at Marty's, 5, yes, 5 small cheesecakes were presented to Stu. We thought there must have been some mistake, but apparently this was the norm. Stu did his best to down them, but could only make it through 3 and a half. He looked quite green afterwards. I'm not surprised, he's not exactly a large man.

Apart from gross quantities of food, for which my regimen will be paying a high price over the next few weeks, we shopped, swam, and even hired a car to go around the island. More on this later. Love Mez

NB2

Actually, I meant posting before this one, which now is before before!

NB

Please read the posting before this one for sequential order.

Bombay's Aftermath

Yes well, after a great, relaxing Thursday doing nothing but light housework and a bit of shopping, there was nothing for it but to get rip-snortingly drunk. So Meghan the lovely, belching Canadian and I started at my place drinking Vodkas and eating gyoza, then at about 10, headed into Bombay where we met up with virtually every Nova teacher within a 40-km radius. Proceeded to down too many gin and tonics (the only thing to drink in this stiflingly muggy weather). Stumbled home at about 1am, knowing full well I was due at work at 10, and also knowing it would probably be about my 10th hungover Friday at Nova (a milestone in itself).

And what a hangover, the mother of all (speaking of which, mum, if you're reading this, you may want to stop now) ... fairly warned be thee. The morning started out roughly. On the train I slept and almost missed my stop. Luckily Stuart suspected this might happen and called me 2 minutes before the train was due at Kakogawa. First lesson went pretty badly, concentrating on trying not to vomit on students. Second lesson was even worse, and I actually had to excuse myself for a few minutes to spew in the toilets. I came back with the plausible excuse of food poisoning and we talked for a few minuts about the importance of freshness in Japanese cuisine. I think I got away with that one...

But wait, there's more! What happened next was just the icing on the cake. I was wearing the heels mum sent from Adelaide that had arrived on Thursday (thanks mum, I appreciate it). I'm not sure whether it was the new shoes, the dizziness caused by alcohol poisoning, or just general uncoordination (I do fall over a lot). Basically my heels got caught on the stairs - our lessons at Kakogawa are a flight above the staff room and the stairs are quite narrow and steep. Lo and behold I did tumble down those stairs one graceless limb after another. Poor Japanese woman just ahead of me got the shock of her life as she saw me crumpled and motionless at the bottom. She started running and screaming for help at which point all the teachers and students in the vicinity came to stare (no pun intended) at stupid girl lying bruised, scraped and not a little disshevelled on the dirty floor. All I can be thankful for is that my skirt did not end up around my neck. My face was also untarnished, which is no small mercy. My knee has doubled in size, I have cuts and scrapes down the front of both shins, and my arm is pretty banged up. Apart from that, no real damage done except to my withering pride. It was monumentally embarrassing, to state the obvious.

Anyway, that was my day. I have sworn off alcohol for atleast the next 24 hours.

I Have Now Seen Nara

Wow, I can't quite belive it's been another 10 days since my last posting. I really do apologise for that, I had every intention of stepping up production, as per usual, my intentions have been goodly but unaddressed.

Speaking of dressed (crap segui hey?), I am sitting here typing this in my new (well, probably second-hand for the price I paid, but very clean and new-looking) yukata - summer-style kimono. It feels lovely and silky, it's bright red and has an interesting square neckline. I picked it, and a beautiful black one up in Nara on Tuesday. Nara was lovely, very tranquil, peaceful. I'm told it's not at all like Kyoto in this respect, Nara still had a few tourists and many a Japanese junior high student (apparently the Japanese even have a specific season for school excursions), but nowhere near as many as Kyoto. The temples and shrines were amazing, the way they've been so well-preserved speaks volumes of the Japanese tendancy towrds efficient and meticulous conservation. The colours were glorious, lots of bold reds, clear blues, bright yellows, and the occassional gold awning. On the whole, there were several stand-out temples as far as I was concerned. The Todaiji temple is a must. Inside is the most enormous stone Buddah you are ever likely to encounter. It probably stood (actually sat of course!) at around 20-25 metres high. Just incredible to gaze up into the massive flared nostril of a deity. It's a pity the photos I took on my phone's crappy camera will never be able to do it justice.

So Nara was fantastic, but seriously, after just one day (in total - Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning), having seen about 15 temples, countless shrines and several pagodas, I was a little cultured - specifically templed - out. Stayed on Tuesday night at funny little Japanese-style inn, called a Ryokan where they run you an enormous bath (small swimming pool sized) the minute you cross the threshold - my kind of place! They also provided us with Yukatas (in lieu of western bathrobes) for the evening. The Ryokan had a curfew of 10:30pm, which suited us fine after a day of trekking around the hilly side streets in search of the perfect temple. After an hour or so of relaxation, headed into the centre of town to do some shopping (the sales are on), which is where I picked up my two yukata and a cute hat, then had some dinner.

That was Nara, then back to Nishi Akashi on Wednesday, and had a loverly day off on Thursday due to a belated shift-swap. Last night (Thursday) headed to the usual Thursday spot - Bombay. But that's another story ... (read on MacDuff)