久しぶり yet again!
I blame the lack of photos to accompany posts for the lack of communications! Which is not to say that I have no photos but simply that I suck with t-t-technology and thus accidently used up my photo uploads by mistake. It has actually been a very busy period that involved a whole tonne of study, sightseeing, and shopping and eating (otherwise described as 'conversation classes'). I finally have some more winterish clothes so that I don't turn into such an iceberg! Also discovered some amazing 'hot socks' - little slippers made of polar fleece material which I liked so much that I bought a few pairs and they keep my toes toasty!!
I don't know that I can even remember half of what I have done this past week . . .
Last Friday . . oh yes! We had a trip to Kure with Drunk Sensei - went to the Kure Museum mainly the Yamato battleship and the naval history of Kure. Seemed a little odd to be visiting a place so obviously steeped in militaristic pride, etc especially as I was in a group half comprised of Koreans. Nor could we realy bothered trying to decipher the loads of Kanji and mainly contented ourselves with reading the amusing random English translations of area titles. Then we ate masses of suikiyaki - which is ace! - had lots to drink and got navy hats, before drunkenly making our way home to . . I think we watched a movie . . as we couldn't manage much else . . oh yeah! I think it was the samurai movie called 'When the Last Sword is Drawn' and I was evidently the only one paying attention as no-one else was moved to tears . . . many there were other reasons for that though . . I think O-san hung out with us then too - oh yeah! SHe came down at about 12pm in her PJs thinking no-one would be around - they were pretty funny PJs too - but pertty standard from what I have seen of the winter offerings coming out!
I do believe that Saturday must have been a lateish wake up after that night . . oh yes! no . . I still can't remember what I did that day . . Oh! that's right I there was a festival in town and so I thought to go in run some errands and check it out but then I got sidetracked and spent a whole lot of money on new items! A new hat, three warm tops at bargain prices and other miscellaneous goods for my countrypeeps for Christmas.
Then we had a group cooking session with some people at the kaikan (Alex, Ban-san (Vietnamese), Mika, Kuruma (both Japanese) and Helen? (Korean). That was yummy and fun, and followed by a late night walk with the girls.
Sunday I went to Itsukaiichi to meet up with Kyoko - we planned to go bowling but it was busy to we went to a secondhand bookstore an I bought some books that I indoubtably not have to read but I thought they'd be good practise when I get back to Adelaide. Then we had Chanpon for lunch, it is apparently a 名物 (meibutsu) of 長崎 Nagasaki (where I will hopefully get before heading back home, as my friend Ryoko is from there). It was a waayyy yummy - rice noodles, lots of vegetables and some seafood in a rich coconuty soup. Following which I shamed Australia with a woeful round at bowling. We then checked out the other side of the station where we found a Promart (the wholesale style grocers which stocks reasonably priced items that you might find hard to get in a normal supermarket. Though the best find was a sweets shop that sold traditional sweets and I got to eat more 黒ゴマ (kurogoma - black sesame) products. This time it was ゴマ団子 (sesame filled mochi (pounded rice) balls) on a stick - super yummy!
Then I bought more Hot Socks and headed off to meet Maki at the Miyajimaguchi (宮島口)ferry entrance so that we could head over to Miyajima (again) to check out the autumn leaves in their final glories!
It is the most busy I have experienced Miyajima being and I must say that I thought that the colours I saw in Miwako were ust as good if not better, but I think these were past their prime. Maki and I wandered around for a while, up, down and around the 紅葉谷 (momijidani - Maple Leaf Valley). We tried to sabotage one of the noisome 鹿 (shika - deer) by Maki yielding up her biscuits to the creature, plastic and all, then went to indulge in 揚げ紅葉饅頭 (agemomijimanjuu - deep-fried maple leaf-shaped cakey sweets). We also ducked into the 千円 (1000yen) shop where I found a good Xmas gift for the Midge.
We decided it was dusky enough to prove it had been a day well spent and we caught the ferry back to go and have dinner at Maki's - Okonomiyaki - I really think that I will have to start a shop when I get back to Adelaide! No-one knows what they are missing! I spent a goodly deal of time trying to assist Maki with making her decisions about art school, etc. Don't know how I manage to give decent advice to anyone about how to choose for the future, given my own inability to help myself right now, but she seems to think I'm brilliant at it. Maybe I just know how to bullshit well when it comes to applications and work in the visual arts.
Her parents are so lovely and we hd a great time making the okonomiyaki ourselves - Hiroshima style no less! Which ain't so easy for those of your thinking it's just a case of that pour-it-all-in-and-flip Kansai thing!
Also of note is that they invited me to stay with them for お正月 (Oshougatsu - New Years) which is way exciting as I thought I might be spending the holiday of Christmas-like proportions with nothing to do! Apparently we 'have' to all pitch in and make the special New Years food ahead of time - You can see the disappointment writ clear across my face can't you?!!!!
They tried to get me to stay the night but knowing Maki's love for talking an staying up late, the fact that I had first class the next day and that I didn't have my textbooks with me, I politely declined. This proved fortutious as on the serene ride home I received a not so serene distress email to my phone with led to a conversation online that lasted til I was falling off my chair at 3am . .
. . and that's just the start of a week that features sleep deprivation - serendipitously, we studied a listening passage about sleep depravation in a class.
Other highlights included dinner with the English girls, a daytrip to 鞆の浦 (Tomonoura) near Fukuyama (福山), a sleepless Thursday night which led to insanely hyper-active behaviour all Friday and a drinking and movie session with Evan, Alex, Lane and O-san (The Island and Team America). Which brings us quickly to this past weekend when I hung out with Ryoko, had all-you-can-eat lunch with was yum but coincided with my fatigue catching up with me and thus sent me to sleep til it was time go out for dinner and first day of showing Harry Potter. Cos I've fallen for Harryyyy Potterrr! Other incidents of semi-interest but I must away! Then yesterday I dragged myself out of bed with difficulty and spent that day in the company of Kyoko window-shopping, chatting and checking each other's homework . . .
Then a story of memory fly above the table . . .
No wonder the Japanese like their cafeterias!
NB. This was not something that Kyoko wrote but a part of a presentation that she was collating, and that her other group members had written. Very interesting . . . I wonder if my Japanese sounds like that . . But Kyoko and a shop assistant spent a goodly deal of time discussion of my amazing Japanese prowess whilst I was trying on some clothes . . It was funny as the were talking about me and how I know lots about Japan, like lots of things that foreigners usually can't deal with and my use of Hiroshima-ben (dialect). However, they seemed to find it surprising that I would laugh at what I overheard, as if they hadn't thought I would understand . . well, it's always nice to have people tell you how good you are, no matter how humble you may be! But does this mean I should spend about 5000yen on a tiny little jacket, even if it is super cute ?
Ahhh!
That's nothing like bit of procrastination for producing a long post!
I will wait to update y'all on the rest of the exciting - stay tuned for the next thrilling installment!
Hopeing I should be able to get some photos up again soon to brighten this dull patch of ether.
OH! A shout out to Denni! I'm super glad you're not dead or anything! What would have happened to the earth if animal magmatism had fallen out of balance ?! Hope you recover well with that personal, sharply dresed nurse at your beck and call. I'm working on my wings but they're still not up to the long distances required for the trip home and back - I fear I'd end up crashing into a Bali jail or something to join all of my fellow countrypeeps.
I really must go home and do some homework now!! Oh dear! I feel like a white rabbit . . .
I don't know that I can even remember half of what I have done this past week . . .
Last Friday . . oh yes! We had a trip to Kure with Drunk Sensei - went to the Kure Museum mainly the Yamato battleship and the naval history of Kure. Seemed a little odd to be visiting a place so obviously steeped in militaristic pride, etc especially as I was in a group half comprised of Koreans. Nor could we realy bothered trying to decipher the loads of Kanji and mainly contented ourselves with reading the amusing random English translations of area titles. Then we ate masses of suikiyaki - which is ace! - had lots to drink and got navy hats, before drunkenly making our way home to . . I think we watched a movie . . as we couldn't manage much else . . oh yeah! I think it was the samurai movie called 'When the Last Sword is Drawn' and I was evidently the only one paying attention as no-one else was moved to tears . . . many there were other reasons for that though . . I think O-san hung out with us then too - oh yeah! SHe came down at about 12pm in her PJs thinking no-one would be around - they were pretty funny PJs too - but pertty standard from what I have seen of the winter offerings coming out!
I do believe that Saturday must have been a lateish wake up after that night . . oh yes! no . . I still can't remember what I did that day . . Oh! that's right I there was a festival in town and so I thought to go in run some errands and check it out but then I got sidetracked and spent a whole lot of money on new items! A new hat, three warm tops at bargain prices and other miscellaneous goods for my countrypeeps for Christmas.
Then we had a group cooking session with some people at the kaikan (Alex, Ban-san (Vietnamese), Mika, Kuruma (both Japanese) and Helen? (Korean). That was yummy and fun, and followed by a late night walk with the girls.
Sunday I went to Itsukaiichi to meet up with Kyoko - we planned to go bowling but it was busy to we went to a secondhand bookstore an I bought some books that I indoubtably not have to read but I thought they'd be good practise when I get back to Adelaide. Then we had Chanpon for lunch, it is apparently a 名物 (meibutsu) of 長崎 Nagasaki (where I will hopefully get before heading back home, as my friend Ryoko is from there). It was a waayyy yummy - rice noodles, lots of vegetables and some seafood in a rich coconuty soup. Following which I shamed Australia with a woeful round at bowling. We then checked out the other side of the station where we found a Promart (the wholesale style grocers which stocks reasonably priced items that you might find hard to get in a normal supermarket. Though the best find was a sweets shop that sold traditional sweets and I got to eat more 黒ゴマ (kurogoma - black sesame) products. This time it was ゴマ団子 (sesame filled mochi (pounded rice) balls) on a stick - super yummy!
Then I bought more Hot Socks and headed off to meet Maki at the Miyajimaguchi (宮島口)ferry entrance so that we could head over to Miyajima (again) to check out the autumn leaves in their final glories!
It is the most busy I have experienced Miyajima being and I must say that I thought that the colours I saw in Miwako were ust as good if not better, but I think these were past their prime. Maki and I wandered around for a while, up, down and around the 紅葉谷 (momijidani - Maple Leaf Valley). We tried to sabotage one of the noisome 鹿 (shika - deer) by Maki yielding up her biscuits to the creature, plastic and all, then went to indulge in 揚げ紅葉饅頭 (agemomijimanjuu - deep-fried maple leaf-shaped cakey sweets). We also ducked into the 千円 (1000yen) shop where I found a good Xmas gift for the Midge.
We decided it was dusky enough to prove it had been a day well spent and we caught the ferry back to go and have dinner at Maki's - Okonomiyaki - I really think that I will have to start a shop when I get back to Adelaide! No-one knows what they are missing! I spent a goodly deal of time trying to assist Maki with making her decisions about art school, etc. Don't know how I manage to give decent advice to anyone about how to choose for the future, given my own inability to help myself right now, but she seems to think I'm brilliant at it. Maybe I just know how to bullshit well when it comes to applications and work in the visual arts.
Her parents are so lovely and we hd a great time making the okonomiyaki ourselves - Hiroshima style no less! Which ain't so easy for those of your thinking it's just a case of that pour-it-all-in-and-flip Kansai thing!
Also of note is that they invited me to stay with them for お正月 (Oshougatsu - New Years) which is way exciting as I thought I might be spending the holiday of Christmas-like proportions with nothing to do! Apparently we 'have' to all pitch in and make the special New Years food ahead of time - You can see the disappointment writ clear across my face can't you?!!!!
They tried to get me to stay the night but knowing Maki's love for talking an staying up late, the fact that I had first class the next day and that I didn't have my textbooks with me, I politely declined. This proved fortutious as on the serene ride home I received a not so serene distress email to my phone with led to a conversation online that lasted til I was falling off my chair at 3am . .
. . and that's just the start of a week that features sleep deprivation - serendipitously, we studied a listening passage about sleep depravation in a class.
Other highlights included dinner with the English girls, a daytrip to 鞆の浦 (Tomonoura) near Fukuyama (福山), a sleepless Thursday night which led to insanely hyper-active behaviour all Friday and a drinking and movie session with Evan, Alex, Lane and O-san (The Island and Team America). Which brings us quickly to this past weekend when I hung out with Ryoko, had all-you-can-eat lunch with was yum but coincided with my fatigue catching up with me and thus sent me to sleep til it was time go out for dinner and first day of showing Harry Potter. Cos I've fallen for Harryyyy Potterrr! Other incidents of semi-interest but I must away! Then yesterday I dragged myself out of bed with difficulty and spent that day in the company of Kyoko window-shopping, chatting and checking each other's homework . . .
Then a story of memory fly above the table . . .
No wonder the Japanese like their cafeterias!
NB. This was not something that Kyoko wrote but a part of a presentation that she was collating, and that her other group members had written. Very interesting . . . I wonder if my Japanese sounds like that . . But Kyoko and a shop assistant spent a goodly deal of time discussion of my amazing Japanese prowess whilst I was trying on some clothes . . It was funny as the were talking about me and how I know lots about Japan, like lots of things that foreigners usually can't deal with and my use of Hiroshima-ben (dialect). However, they seemed to find it surprising that I would laugh at what I overheard, as if they hadn't thought I would understand . . well, it's always nice to have people tell you how good you are, no matter how humble you may be! But does this mean I should spend about 5000yen on a tiny little jacket, even if it is super cute ?
Ahhh!
That's nothing like bit of procrastination for producing a long post!
I will wait to update y'all on the rest of the exciting - stay tuned for the next thrilling installment!
Hopeing I should be able to get some photos up again soon to brighten this dull patch of ether.
OH! A shout out to Denni! I'm super glad you're not dead or anything! What would have happened to the earth if animal magmatism had fallen out of balance ?! Hope you recover well with that personal, sharply dresed nurse at your beck and call. I'm working on my wings but they're still not up to the long distances required for the trip home and back - I fear I'd end up crashing into a Bali jail or something to join all of my fellow countrypeeps.
I really must go home and do some homework now!! Oh dear! I feel like a white rabbit . . .
posted by Eleanora Martinez at 11:55 AM
2 Comments:
hee hee, your post is so cute, you keep going 'what did i do.. oh that's right, i did this!'. it's just like talking to you in person and watching yr mind work! :)
cheers for the denni shout out - it's his first day of independence with no nursing today so i also add my shout out wishes. he seems to be recovering nicely...
xo lsd
I would have to say that the post is probably indicative of my current state of mind - it can get kind of frustrating though to be so generally tired and vague . . especially when attempting to communicate in another language - it's kind of okay in English if I vague out but it leads to all sorts of confusion in Japanese!
It would hardly be my style to not beat about the bush would it ? The details and sidetracks are the important bits . . others trhe story might only be about the POrt Canal that never was and what kind of a tale is that ?
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