The waiting game...
Woke up 10min later than usual this morning as i chatted with my sis on msn till late at night. Rolled out of bed and began the usual series of morning motions like a zombie. The phone rang and jolted me out of my semi-consciousness. Picked up the phone and heard Hanasaki sensei's voice and my heart skipped a bit.
Finally the phonecall i've been anticipating for the past 3 weeks or so. I have almost given up hope that they are ever coming to give my old apartment a repaint. It's been nearly a month since they last let me chose a color for the living room wall.Then i had happily pointed at my favorite light green and thought that i can get my place decorated nicely soon so i can invite people over for meals. But that was when the waiting game began and so i waited and waited...till today!
I was told not to lock my door as i left for work in the morning. Threw in some excess cash i keep at home and my passport and i went to work happily this morning :)
Am anticipating how the room will look like after a fresh coat of paint.
Going home in an hour and half time, am so excited!
Pictures of my decorated apartment coming up over the weekend, woohoo!
Happy 28th Anniversary!
It's going to be 3am here and i just put down the phone not too long ago with my parents. Yesterday was their 28th wedding anniversary and i chatted with mommy for over an hour as she filled me in on her day's activities.
Daddy had got back from KL earlier this morning and they went to The Line at Shangri-La for international buffet dinner, treat from Rosie and KY : ) Mom was recounting her night delightfully on how the staff at the hotel found it hard to believe that she and dad have been married for 28 years as they don't look their age and dad couldnt stop making fun of her :p
I had a lot of fun chatting with them and laughed a lot too. KY and Yanshiun were there earlier too and i can just imagine how noisy and lively the house must be. When we put down the phone, everyone's gonna eat mooncake and drink chinese tea and it's 2am in Singapore! That's usual for a Saturday night at home esp. when Dad is home. It's at times like this i really think i will just go home after a year. The people here are nice but there is only one place you can call home right.
Good news though, dad and mom are confirmed coming to visit in early Nov. Just nice that SIA is having promotional fares for minimum of 2 to travel to Fukuoka, yay!=)
I am in the midst of planning our itinerary now. Been asking the teachers at school for recommendation on hotels and sights to see. Am planning a stay at a nice and classy onsen ryokan (traditional Japanese hot spring inn), you know those pretty Japanese inns you always see on Japan Hour where the women always wear yukata and eat real yummy looking food in the hotel room :p Having a hard time choosing just one onsen though as they all look so inviting. Should i just stick to Nagasaki and go to Unzen? Or should i make it to onsen prefecture Oita and stay at the famed Yufuin? Or should i make a trip to Mt. Aso in Kumamoto and try the famous (and of course pricey) Kurokawa hot spring? I am so spoilt for choice!
I wanna bring dad to eat the famed Dazaifu mochi and bring mommy to shop at Tenjin in Fukuoka. And show them around the island and bring them to meet all the people who had been so kind to me! I am so looking forward to their visit already! =)
My little visitors
I heard a knock on my door followed by some hushed giggling. When i opened the door, i saw these little visitors at my doorstep. They are students from one of the elementary school i am teaching at and they live nearby. I was pleasantly surprised that they dropped by my place to say hello. From left, Maho is in grade 3 and her sister Chiho is in grade 5. Saki is in grade 4 and all three of them are daughters of teachers in this town. I chatted with them for a while and said that i will invite them to my place for a cooking session after my house is repainted.
This was the scene outside my doorstep a few days later, around the same time in the evening after i got back from school.
I was really shocked to find 7 kids outside! They are all so adorable aren't they? I was subsequently invited to play dodge ball and relay with them. Haha, i know it's funny but i ran with 3 years old kid and all the time i was so scared that they would trip and topple over!
They are simply the cutest bunch!
The kids had to return home at 6pm cos children under the age of 12 are not supposed to be out on the street after this time. We said byes and on my way home (which is just a one min walk away)i bumbed into 3 more children. They were just jumping happily and i just could not resist stopping over and playing with them. When i whipped out my camera and asked them to do a nice pose, they literally stopped and posed for a picture.
After 2 shots, i asked if they wanted to do another pose and this was what i got.
I just love this picture so much! =)
Thank you bijins!
I am sorry girls. I know it took me a long time to finally get down to showing you all the farewell gift. Well, you got to at least know where your money goes to right? Haha.
Hee, this was the bag i chose for myself. It's a healthy shade of bubble pink.
Makes me happy carrying it cos it looks so cheery! =)
And i got to say it's been a very useful gift so far, i bring this bag to most of my schools. I can put in my laptop, some notes and other teaching materials and still have much space for an extra set of clothes or a pair of shoes.
A happy purchase, thank you sweeties!
Narao JHS Sports Festival (体育大祭)
Narao JHS annual Sports Festival- March in and opening ceremony
The theme for this year's Sports Festival"全力疾走 一人ひとりが奈中の ＨＥＲＯ"
Unlike the Sports Day that we know in Singapore, the one that is held in every school in Japan is as the word implies, more like a festival than anything else.Students and teachers put in an immense amount of effort and time in preparing for this annual event. Parents and grandparents will be present at the day itself to cheer on the children and to take part in games together. There are the usual 100m, 200m and relay events but unlike the schools back home, they are not particularly strict about rules like passing the baton within the box etc. There are no high jump or long jump which are common in Singapore schools. Instead most of the events usually include some recreational elements and there is no such thing as disqualification. The main purpose of the event is really just to have fun together.
A traditional gymnastic item put up by the boys from all three levels in the school.
The girls performed a dance and cheerleading item.
Parent-child race or Oyako relay where both parent and child will jump into this big pair of shorts and complete part of a relay.
A view of the school ground taken from the main building during lunch break. It was wonderful weather to have sports day. You see the clear sky and the blue sea in the background? This is a lucky school to be situated in such a nice compound isn't it.
I was sitting at the teacher's tent and couldn't help but notice how amazing these clouds looked against the blue sky background. They were like big chunks of cotton candy floating right in front of my eyes. Have you seen clouds like these before?
Typhoon No. 13
Typhoon 13 was expected to reach Nagasaki on Sunday and Goto island to be hit the hardest at around 5pm in the afternoon.
I left my tv on since the moment i woke up just to be sure that i was following the latest updates on the whereabts of the typhoon. Staying in Singapore where there are hardly any major weather changes, it took me quite a while to cultivate the habit of tuning in to the daily weather news.
By noon time, i've received several phone calls from teachers and some other kind people in my neighbourhood to spend the afternoon at their place should i be afraid to be on my own when the typhoon approaches. I ended up following a teacher to take shelter at the nearby town office where the building seems more able to withstand strong wind and rain than my rickety old teacher's housing.
Hanasaki sensei came over to pick me up and brought along some gum tape and we taped the windows in my house together. This was how my place looked like just before i left home for the town office. It's kind of sad and scary looking but that's cos i was in a rush to leave the house and didn't had the time to switch on the kitchen light. The rest of the windows in the house were all taped up like this.
It was not until after the typhoon passed by us that i was told that it was one of the strongest typhoon Kyushuu had in 10 years, in term of the extent of damage left behind by the raging storm. I was glad that i went to the town office afterall as there were quite a number of people there. It would have been quite a terrifying experience if i were home alone and kept having to wonder when is my rooftop gonna be blown off. So my first typhoon experience was spent at Narao yakuba surfing the net and cooking udon for dinner as the wind and rain raged on outside till about 10pm at night.
A prince is born
Today the whole nation celebrates the birth of its first male heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne in more than 40 years. The boy born today to Princess Kiko and Prince Akishino is now third in line for the throne, after Crown Prince Naruhito and Akishino.
The Japanese tv today could broadcast nothing but the new addition to the royal family as the whole country went delirious with joy. Afterall, Japan is essentially still a very conservative and patriachal society. The arrival of the prince was like this wisp of fresh air to the whole country as they bated their breath for the last 4 decades wondering if that will marked the theoretical end to one of the oldest monarchy in the world. His birth averted a succession crisis in the Imperial family as plans for constitutional reform to allow woman to ascend the throne are shelved for the time being, that is until this little prince fails to produce any worthy (i.e.male) offspring to continue the royal family line.
When they were not showing news flash of the latest happening outside the hospital in Tokyo where the prince was born, they would be showing clips of the couple's courtship and wedding days and scenes on the streets of Tokyo where big departmental stores like Takashimaya and Mitsukoshi were busy hanging out banners in celebration of the joyous occasion. So i found myself eating dinner in front of tv and watching in bewilderment as the stories of the Prince and Princess' romance unfold while some other channels will be showing Japanese aunties shouting 'banzai' or 万歳.
