Crazy Lady!!!

Hey y'all its been a crazy two weeks. I guess I sent you a few emails about it, but I just want to write it all down and somehow make sense of what is a cray and bizarre situation.

Two weeks ago, everything was going cool. I managed to take these shots on a mountain on the way up to a the nearest Ski resort in my new car.

















So this is the new baby, dunno the name yet. Suggestions are welcome. Shes a step up from Sambo, electric windows, aircon, 4 wheel drive blah blah blah, but only half the power. Its a 660 cc engine, half that of Sambo. But she still goes and after two weeks of driving the mileage is amazing, I spent 15 quid and its not even half empty yet.

















So yeah after driving up a mountain for 45 minutes I decided to take a photo of well... some trees from the look of it, there is a waterfall in there somewhere. Its like a Wheres Wally picture, wheres the waterfall??? Speaking of Wheres Wally I went to the Dentist on Friday. The guy came recommended by another JET. Went along, went into the surgery and was generally chatting with the dentist who'd lived in Canada for a while. He asked me if Id been to this certain place, and I said no, turns out it was his favorite strip club in the ENTIRE world. He was really annoyed that I hadnt been there. At the end he gave me a plastic drinks carton, the kind you get at Mcdonalds, but only the size of my thumb. It went in the trash on the way out of the surgery. (why would someone want that). I was going to tell you about the problems Id been having with a mad teacher who during a lesson started massaging my back touching my bum and laughing when I shouted at a student. You might think "hang on, but what if she was attractive?" She bears a strong resemblance to this my friend.




Only thing is you have to imagine shes Japanese, on anti depression and generally looking like shit. Anyway to cut a long story short I told my boss, my boss is her best friend, thus my boss is pissed off with me for "bringing this up" and is now giving me a hard time. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The mental teachers lessons are now being supervised which is a fasttrack to being sacked. Turns out my boss is going through a hard patch "My mother is diseased" is what she said to me today. So hopefully this will have blown over soon. And who cares, the Ski season officially starts tomorrow!!!

Da Chilled Weekend.

After the last two weeks of hell, I thought I'd settle down to a weekend of nothing. And I have done nothing. Went out on Friday night, and got completly wasted, again! But it was cool, got to hang out in a new bar in Ueda and drink Jack Daniels. Went out for a meal at Kappa Sushi. This was one of those Japanese places where food, rotates around on a conveyor belt, tempting you with excess the whole time. At a quid a plate it was a deal. Im really getting on with the whole Sushi deal now, but sometimes things come along which you think, "Why would anyone eat that?" As in the case of
sea urchin, grasshopper, or slightly fried pigs intestine.

So today I thought, hey I have to get some photos for the blog, and it was a really nice day, so heres my brief tour.















This is Ueda castle. The only thing remaining is the castle gate and two towers. I was impressed by the tour which was in the gatehouse, and you looked at Samurai armour.




















I was riding past the moat and thougt it'd be a good picture. The weather reminds me of Canada alot.















This is the Kyudo Jo where I have Japanese archery. Managed to hit the target on Tuesday on my third go. The teachers were highly impressed. I looked at the target and just shouted "Oh Yeah!" but was grabbed by two teachers who forced me to stand in the post shoot stance. Kyudo is all ritual and posture. Actually firing the bow doesnt really matter.















This is the view of the castle from the Carpark. Not much left eh? Apparently its one of a few castles that was able to repel a massive army. Dont think it could repel much these days. I ride through the castle after Kyudo about 10ish. Its a really creepy place.
















This is a view of south Ueda looking towards the mountains. Its getting colder!

Seki Samurai Festival 7th October.

As soon as I found out there was a sword festival going on, and in the home city of Samurai swords, I was immediatly interested. Who aint interested in Samurai swords??? When me and a mate arrived, the party was already in full swing.





Most of the OAP's and the wide-eyed Gaijin seemed placated with them slicing Bamboo. Not me, I wanted to see some blood. I was speaking to one elderly gentleman next to me in broken Japanese and English. I was able to get across that in order to make sure the crowd was fully sated, we needed a cow.

"Cow," he said puzzled. "Yeah, you know Beef, Sirloin Steak. We need a cow to be sliced and diced in front of our eyes. We need to see these samurai slice and dice like they were supposed too."

He was merely contented to watch them slice bamboo. But then I thought it might get a bit more interesting when it looked like they were going to start dueling....










But alas, they were play fighting. If I wanted to see some real blood, I was gonna have to do it myself. Luckily for everyone there, I couldnt get near one. The blades were real nice though. So after that we headed on to...

Mino Lantern Festival.

So after the Sword festival we headed over to Mino for the lantern festival. The city had blatantly benefitted alot from the money coming in from the festival. The village was really nice, would have been a great place for a few drinks but alas we had to move on. Heres some of the best lanterns from the festival.

Another Night at the Loft

So at the end of the Rice Harvest we decided to party on down at the loft. It was my mate Daisukes last night Djing so for some bizarre reason his friends had all mucked in and bought him a hat with a swan on the top!


Just realised I look really pissed but I was in fact knackered from the Rice Harvest (Check out the clever guy at the back whose in the standard "V sign" pose). I was mimicking Daiskues "don't give a shit look." The random guy on the right is... Ive forgotten his name. Id heard that there was this whole celebrity thing that went on with foreigners in Japan. I hadnt experienced this untill this night. I went to the bar after I arrived and a few people came up to me and introduced themselves, wanted to know what my name was, my favorite colour etc. All bizarre stuff. Needless to say they crop up in a few photos as the night progressed.




The cute girl on the left was going out with the random guy, I was so pissed off. She was so nice.




The hat was just one of those things you had to try out. Look at the guys bizarre English shirt. You notice things like this all over the place. Its really strange. Everybody had a go at the hat and it was a good night had by all. I can tell because my head hurt alot the next day.

The Rice Harvest 30th September

Yo so we had the rice harvest yesterday. I managed to get there at about 10.30 with a bad hangover, the sun was out and I was ready to party. I had the idea that perhaps harvesting rice would involve dragging myself through a dank paddy field fighting off mosquitos, leeches and whatever else was living in the water. Na it was more like this...



So yeah all it involved was picking up the stems from the field after they'd been cut with a machine, and leaving them to hang on a wooden beam. Finished by 3. Wicked! The family I helped out are really cool.







The rice field had so much wildlife you had to be careful not to stand on frogs or preying mantis.








Thats two Preying Mantis having sex, apparently the female will eat the male after.












Bizarre white frog!!!












Grasshoppers which are supposed to taste nice.













This is me and Daiskue, the rice stems make your body itch and flare up your allergies. It was really hot and I got burnt thats the reason for the scarf.