Cultured San

Today we trekked, and I do mean trekked around Okayama's culture zone (google it).
We saw the Okayama Symphony Hall, the Okayama Orient Museum, the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Korakuen Garden and Okayamajo castle- well the bits you didn't have to pay to see anyway!

I like this shot of one of the covered shopping streets- the shops go on forever.

Okayamajo Castle

Okayama's Cultural Zone

Today I feel... I don't know, maybe it's because I'm tired- or I'm just bored of waiting for training to begin in Hiroshima on Monday. I know I should be enjoying this lull before it all starts up and I have no time to myself, but I'm impatient for more...

Due to the spare time on my hands at the moment I am watching a lot of tv at the hotel; like sumo tournaments, (obviously not understanding a word of the commentary) but I prefer the more girly figure skating and synchronised swimming competitions that are also taking place at the moment. Last night I found this really funny, over the top drama with samurais and geishas swinging swords- again, didn't have a clue what was going on, but there isn't much else for me to do. Proves what I knew from back home- I really will watch anything!


Today's randomly selected phrase from my phrasebook:E-go no menyu- o o-negai shimas.
=I'd like a menu in English please. (Pronounce the 'E' as an 'A', so 'A-go...')
To be honest, they'll probably hand you one automatically- otherwise most menus have pictures so you can just point, smile and say Kudasai= give me (but more polite). Not that a picture menu will help you much as a lot of the food is unrecognisable anyway- just take a deep breath and pick anything.

Feed San

"Needing feeding" or "Feed San" are phrases that those who know me will often hear me say.
I love food- my rather over generously sized hips and arse are testament to this fact. So how am I doing in a land with a very different cuisine? Not too badly- it helps that I will pretty much try anything at least once.

Give praise for the ever present vending machine- I am working my way through the various options offered with a kind of random attitude- this morning I had Apple tea. I'd been whining that the machines on the streets didn't do snacks, but today I found one with jars of mini Kit Kats in them- a first as 99.9% of the street vending machines only do beverages or cigarettes, as eating in the street is kind of a no- no.

I'll admit I was tempted by the banana cream sandwich, but coffee flavoured sandwiches? Ick.

Random prepackaged sandwiches- we have peanut butter, egg, some fish paste looking thing(!) and they also have margarine sandwiches- mmm- tasty! ;)

Our cheap supermarket lunch. Is it bad that I can't tell you what we ate? I have no idea! Told you I'll try pretty much anything. But it all tasted fab. You can also get chicken skin on its own in a box, amongst other tasty treats (haven't tried it).

Today's Japanese phrase of the day chosen at random from my phrasebook:
Sumimasen, ichiban chikaku no ko-shu-denwa wa doko des ka?*
Excuse me, where's the nearest public phone?

(*Read as written, holding the letters with the hyphen after them a little longer than normal- as I am writing on a UK laptop I can't write the Japanese symbols.)

Stick a pic- Japan Styley...

Teeny tiny bathroom- with a toilet that can wash your bum for you-(and your front if you're so inclined). You need to stand in the bathroom to get how truly small it is. But compact isn't always a bad thing.

This is Maria from Washington State, U.S, a fellow assistant language teacher.

That bloody Katie Mellua song about there being 9 million bicycles in Beijing keeps playing in my head. There are bikes everywhere.

Me and Maria (or is that Maria and I?) decided to jump in one of the photobooths that Japanese kids seem obsessed with- they too are everywhere, and you can often see groups of school kids huddled together cutting out these mini photos.


This is my co-ordinator, Nakatsuka-San. She is lovely and an absolute gem. We have plans to go to kareoke soon. :)

P.s Annoyingly, since I'm in Japan and my laptop recognises this, on some pages English characters are not shown and instead are question marks. This is the case on this site so I'm finding it hard to edit this blog as I can't read any of the tabs! Grrr!

P.P.S- Food portions here are tiny- I'd better lose some weight after all this otherwise I'm going hungry for no reason!

P.P.P.S- Japan is porn paradise. Not saying it as a slight on my newly adopted home for a year- but the adult channel guide is three times the size of the regular tv guide in my hotel room. And before you ask, no, I haven't watched any- it's pay per view ;)