Marks leaving party!

One of the teachers in the local area decided time was up and decided to ship himself off home (Cumbria). Heres some of the photos from the night. I am now sans beard.

This is me and Mark. He went back to Uni in the UK to do some course. He was a bit crazy.
















On the left is Canadian Kevin Li. This was the first time we'd all met him. After a few drinks he freaked the girls out by giving them back massages. He hasn't lived it down since. In the middle is Michiko. She used to live in Cardiff with her British boyfriend, Tim, and has an amazing Welsh/British/Japanese accent. On the right is my Japanese teacher Kumiko. She is probably one of the most amusing Japanese people Ive come across. She hates the Chinese, which is made all the more funny because Kevin is in fact Chinese.


















Mark and Kumiko never got on with each other. She was his caretaker and in most of my classes she would always complain about him. Here me and Stu were trying to take photos to catch the essence of their relationship. I think I came close here.
















This is Tomoko and Sonomi. There both really cool Japanese girls. I don't see much of them though. Tomoko has a bizarre Cuban accent to the way she speaks English. Its pretty funny.

















This is Stu trying to smile and failing.

The Monkey Onsen.

Nagano is famous for several things, its raw horse, its mountains and its hot water springs called "Onsen". They are probably one of the best things about living in the area.

The most famous Onsen is in an area called Shiga Kogen which the local Japanese call amusingly "The Valley of Hell." This is because apparently in winter "the steep cliffa and hot water, bursting from the Earth's surface resemble hell. This place is a paradise for monkeys, 200 of monkeys inhabit the area at present." (Taken from the guide leaflet.) The monkeys were on the cover of the US magazine life in the 70's or 80's and thats why so many Americans want to go there, apparently. Anyway me and Stu went with this other JET called Mary, whose a bit mental. I really mean it. You are told not to get into the Onsen, apart from the glaringly obvious. Theres only one thing that the monkeys are going to do when they get in there. Hint: They throw it with their hands...

Togakushi.

Wow the skiing season is now officially over. Turns out this has been one of the worst seasons for skiing in recent years. Its now the beginning of May and you should still be able to go skiing in some places. It's very sad... Now just have to wait 5 months for the next season to start.

These are some of the photos from one of the last times I went up with Stu. He's now headed off to SE Asia travelling and I might meet up with him in Thailand in the summer.

Ueda Higashi Senior High School Graduation

Graduation in Japan is a really important event in Japan. This is graduation from school. Families will spend up to around ¥100,000 (₤500) for the best kimonos for their daughters and nice suits for their sons. I knew that this was going to be a special occasion so I had my suit dry cleaned. What I didn’t count on was the burning sunburn from skiing the day before. Although it wasn’t that bad, I had a classic “goggle tan” and looked a little stupid.

My class of 18 year olds were really genki and hyper.

There were a few more other students but they didn't show up to the end of year meeting. Virtually all of them went to Uni.

Togakushi

Went Skiing up at Togakushi in February. I almost had a mid air collision with a metal post that supported a chair lift. Very lucky I didnt hit it. Heres some of the photos.















We tend to ski off piste at Togakushi, some of the runs encircle a bowl that is really good to get into.

This is looking down into the bowl.















This is looking back up towards the main slope.

English Club

These are the happy members of English Club. I managed to convince them to dump the peace sign in favour of a rock sign!!!



The girl to my right is called Kaori. She's the head of English club. When I first got here I didnt know what to do, so I asked them to do a wordsearch (It was English work!!!) as boring as it sounds. The next day I asked her what she wanted to do. She turned to me and said " I want to... (Check Dictionary - show me answer) Take Over." Cheeky Lady!

Besho Onsen

In February I headed up to Besho Onsen, a nearby town which has many Onsens (Hot water baths). The town is known in Nagano for its temples as well. Apparently they're pretty old. Its a good place for a day trip, though what takes 10 minutes in a car, costs 7 quid on the train???

Hakuba

I spent the next 6 days after Tokyo in Hakuba the main ski area in Nagano. Heres a few photos from going skiing. Ive definately got a lot better since Ive been out here.


















































































For the first 3 days there was no snow, and one of the ski areas was a bit of a nightmare. We went the main ski area that was the center of the Nagano 98 Olympics. It was really icy and it was beginner central. At one point you ski from the top of the mountain and as you get lower it becomes more steeper, and then for some reason the designers had decided to create a choke point about 10 meters across. Straight after that there is a mogul area - small bumps created by skiers turns. There was a dozen crashes down there and it wasn't good to be around.

So after that we decided that it was worth to go to Nagano city and check out Zenkoji temple. The main Buddhist shrine in the prefecture. Its a pretty impressive shrine. There were a dozen people celebrating the New Year. I saw people taking smoke burning from the incense and try to move the smoke onto their head. It was some kind of blessing. I saw people touching the head of a statue of the big Buddha and rub it on there head. Another kind of blessing.

Nagano is a wicked city, they have a club called the Jigger Club. Need I say more???
























































That night there was a snow storm strong enough that we had to dig the car out. We only had a few hours before the ski hills were shut down and we had to head back. We had to dig the car out again.

New Years Eve

We spent the most of the day in Harajuku, a funky small area of Tokyo. When you ask the Japanese people about it they say its a "young area." Its pretty cool. Whilst I was there I saw a crowd of people taking photos of a man with a horses mask/head on. Its a bit weird. Its a home to several subcultures.

There are the Lolitas

And the costume-play (COSPLAY) Japanese. They look a little like Tranvestites.










And then theres my favourite. The Ganguro girls. I see this most of the time at school. It can a bit of a weird look. And the girls can be a bit up themselves. The Japanese see them as social outcasts.










Harajuku itself isn't like the rest of Tokyo. Its a nice area to hang out.

















That night we went to a wicked club called Ageha. It took a while to get there, and was expensive to get in, but was a great place to go. The club had four main rooms. the best was the reggae area that was outside. You weren't allowed to take photos, but I cheekily took a few inside.

Day Two

After getting the refund from the previous hostel we headed to a new one I'd found on the web. It cost a fraction of what we already paid for the previous one, for 3 nights it cost 4000 yen, roughly 16 quid, compared to the 16000 yen for the previous hostel. But as you can see from the photos, there was a slight problem with the amount of space. The "hostel" was more like the sleeping cabing on the Krakow to Prague night train. Tatami mats with no real bed, and the people staying there had missing teeth. I had already decided to leave by the time we'd looked around, but I wanted to see the city first.
















We decided to head for the imperial castle, which was unfortunatly closed, this being the busiest time of year for tourists, the Japanese had been wise enough to close most tourist attractions. So we headed for the only attraction left, the war memorial, Yasakuni Shrine.










































The most amazing thing about the shrine, is probably that it is just like every other shrine here in Japan with one exception. In 1978 the Japanese priests enshrined some top war criminals in the temple. What this means is when you are "enshrined" to the Japanese, you've become a god. And thats whats pissed off just about everyone in East Asia. But apart from all that, there really aint that much there.

















This is the Torii (Main Gate) into Yaskuni. It was pretty big.
































According to Eastern Tradition, the more carp you have with different colours, the wealthier you are. Below is Yasakuni Shrine.




































After that we headed down to Shinjuku, probably one of my favourite areas. We ended up in a bookshop that one of my mates was pretty insistent about going to see. He wanted to buy a book called Eragon, don't ask me why. Me and my other mate Stu got fed up so went off trying to find a hostel for the three of us. We told him we'd meet him at Shinjuku station at 4. He never showed up. This was a massive disaster. We waited for 30 mins then tried again to book a hotel. We ended up getting back to hostel at about 7, and he still hadnt turned up. But as you can see from the photos., the place didnt look that decent in the evening.


This is the brand new Krispy Kreme thats just opened in Shinjuku. There was a queue to get into a queue and it took 2 hours to get a donut. I found it hilarious that these people would actually wait for a donut. In Japan anything that is a chain is considered to be superior to a normal shop.
















This is the hostel at night. It was a massive dump. The hotel we ended up was a lot better.