Itterrasshai D.J. Sanshiro!

I have been told in the past that my school is pretty famous when it comes to sports, in particular ski jump and alpine ski. When I was filtering through my mail box at school yesterday (i.e throwing out anything without pictures or English on it) I noticed a newsletter dedicated to the ski team and how they won the Nagano inter-schools competition this season! Well done them! So anyway, as a reward, the school invited a famous D.J called Sanshiro to come and perform for them in the gym. He is apparently quite famous (although google or wikipedia had never heard of him) and I was pretty impressed when he started singing and playing the guitar rather well!

Nagano - Saku (the scenic route!)



Kyla and I headed off on our first road trip that didn't involve snowboarding this weekend. We decided to drive down to Kat's paddy field in Asashina, Saku. We "decided" not to take the expressway and took the scenic route instead! The above picture is of Mnt. Asama - an active volcano near Kat's house. When we got nearer to it, we could see grey smoke puffing out the top!



The navigator (aka my eyes) - feeling a bit poorly and dealing with it Japanese-style (hence the bird flue mask!)

We had dinner on Saturday night with some Japanese friends of Kyla's in Komoro city, which consisted of a yummy Japanese dinner set of unidentified meats, vegetables and fish. For desert we had cherry blossom sweets, wrapped in leaves!



On Sunday, we jumped back in the car to drive to Karuizawa to have a look around its huge shopping outlet and of course squeeze in a Starbucks.

Before we left for Saku on Saturday morning, I saw these promoters outside starbucks in the miserable sleety weather with carboard muscial instruments on their heads... I have no idea what they were promoting.

Time to Nabe!




Three teachers from my special school came over last night for my very first Nabe party! Miyashita-sensei, Maeda-sensei and Shiori-sensei brought all the ingredients required and I provided the tatami space, bowls and chopsticks! There was pretty much a bit of everything, including clams, prawns, crab, chicken, tofu, vegetables, udon, salmon and shrimp balls with the added Miyashita family speciality of soy sauce and vinegar mix. Miyashita-sensei even whipped up some traditional Japanese sweets (from scratch!) and glazed them in soy sauce and honey! Delicious, but again even though I was full at the end, I still craved something chocolate-related!

And of course, no blog (of mine!) is complete without some pictures of food...

What's in a name?

Having taught the same bunch of students for the last 6 months or so, I am starting to get used to them. I can remember the faces of most of them, the personality of some of them and the names of a few. I have however, come to realise that a handful of my students are actually the Japanese equivilant of some familiar faces from back home. It is completely random and usually occurs to me when I am pacing the aisles looking at their work. I can assure you I have not picked some students to intentionally remind me of people back home. These students actually look like people I know!

19th February



Went snowboarding again this weekend with Kyla, this time to Hakuba and with the added novelty factor of driving ourselves! Since James had fled Japan to go home to England, there was a perfectly functioning snowboard transporting machine in the form of a tidy white car, looking for a driver. Kyla has to wait until next month before she can get her licence and so I hopped in the driver's seat for our trip. It was my first time (and Kyla's) driving an automatic but between the two of us we managed to work it out, whilst navigating our way through Nagano city centre and then on the road to Hakuba. We even managed to stop for pertrol!



The snow was great too - starting to feel a little spoilt having it all on my doorstep!

Whoops almost forgot - this weekend was also Iiyama snow festival! I joined Jo and her colleagues from the city office on Friday night to sculpt our contribution...

11th February - Nozawaonsen again!

Went snowboarding at nozawa again this weekend - the snow was chucking it down which made it all the more comfortable to fall! Don't have many pictures this time because I couldn't bring myself to take my gloves off! The added bonus of the snow meant visability was pretty low and I had no idea how steep the slopes were until I started gaining speed!


The snow!





Kiren, Ricky and Ky

Petit Cake

After a weekend of fresh air and exercise I thought I'd treat myself to a mini chocolate "Petit Cake" from my local supermarket. Once I got home I noticed an English message on the packaging:

"Beautiful things are timeless. Women throughout history have never ceased to yearn for beauty"

Not sure if it was meant to encourage me to eat the cake or dissuade me...

Nozawaonsen mountain map!

4th February



Had another great weekend snowboarding, this time at Nozawaonsen – a resort about 20 minutes drive from my house. James will soon be leaving Japan to go back home to England and a weekend on the mountain was the perfect way to say goodbye. It’s not the easiest place to get to by train so luckily Kat and James took me in their trusty car! We were meeting Kyla and some of the people from our Hakuba trip a few weeks ago so I decided to join them at the lodge and stay overnight.

We arrived quite early on Saturday and because I had my brand new board tucked under my arm and boots stuck to my feet...



...I didn’t have to worry about getting comfy with any rentals and managed to get straight on to the lift after we bought our passes. Nozawaonsen is a huge mountain and so far the most expensive for a 2 day pass – cost about \8000 for the weekend, that’s still less than 40 pounds.












A full day of snowboarding and amazing views was followed by a trip to a recommended onsen in the town (Nozawaonsen has over 20 free onsen) which unfortunately wasn’t quite the relaxing experience I had hoped for. This particular onsen had no showers or changing rooms, was a tad overcrowded with an overwhelming smell of sulphur and the main door opened right into the bath!　Still, the water was hot enough to soothe our aching muscles and prepare us for a night of karaoke...

























Sunday morning arrived all too quickly but brought with it a fresh covering of that lovely powder snow. After some breakfast we were ready to hit the slopes again and I spent most of the day trying to link my turns! The boys (and Kyla!) were a tad more adventurous and hit the jumps and “deadly” half pipe. Poor James had a tumble before lunch resulting in a very swollen shoulder and a job as the designated photographer.



I have a long weekend to look forward to next, with Iiyama snow festival on Saturday and then Kyla and I are going back to Hakuba for Sunday and Monday on the slopes. “Gambatte” legs!!!

Ski trip!

Today I joined my special school for a trip to the ski park. The conditions were perfect because we had a massive dumping of snow yesterday and so the park was nice and fluffy for the sledges! Who says powder snow is only good for skiers and borders?


Iku


Souma