毎日Everyday...

There are a lot of fun, exciting things that happen in my life at the moment, but whatever exciting place you live in, there's a lot of time spent living normal life. This is mine.

Breakfast every morning. Toasted (in a pan because we have no toaster or grill) with butter. It tastes like hot cross buns (for you Brits who know what hot cross buns are). Yum. (Oh, and if this photo is a little blurry it's because I'm sitting in bed and wanted a photo and it's across the room so I just used the zoom! You can't judge that until you've lived in a Japanese apartment without insulation when it's -3 outside!)

Then, we relax during the morning, usually in bed because it's too cold to be anywhere else!

Then maybe we cook lunch, or on lazy/busy days, I head to my favourite little standing restaurant in Sendai station, and get what I always do, Curry rice with karage (fried chicken). YUM.

Then I eat a packet of these. (This photo won't rotate. Stupid blogger.)

And then I sit on a bus or a train, for varying amounts of time on my way to school, on the internet on my phone...

...or studying Japanese.

And then I get to school and set up my classroom...

...get the kids name badges out, and classes start.

We play some games (do you like the snakes and ladders game I made?!)...

...and do some drawings.

They had to combine a few animals and write what it could do. So cute.

My teacher profile, giving information about me to my students.

And then on the way home I eat more of these. Somehow I've lost more weight since I got here, I don't know how when I eat so much junk food!

When I get home, sometime between 9pm and 11pm, I cook something quick for dinner if I'm home first, or I arrive back to a lovely cooked meal if John's home first. Then after relaxing for a bit (maybe watching some pokemon), it's bedtime.

I hope you enjoyed this trip through my day!

A week of ups and downs

This week was always going to be a hard one in lots of ways.

My first full week of teaching. Commuting almost 3 hours each way to my school in Yamoto. Doing a lot of that commute along the coast that was affected by the tsunami. Teaching children who lost homes and family in the tsunami. Teaching those children for the first time while being observed by their parents. Still battling the cold and the snow and the ice. Falling off my bike on said ice. My first Japanese lesson.

It was difficult and I'm exhausted now, but I managed to have a lot of good times too. I (briefly) visited Matsushima Bay, continued to make friends, visited some new places to eat, and celebrated a Japanese festival. Photos below :)

Matsushima park

Matsushima Bay. Despite being by the coast, Matsushima mostly escaped the tsunami due to all the islands and the general lay of the land. The beauty of it feels weird next to the devastation further up the coast, but there's something lovely about it surviving too.  

Dad, maybe you could just steal one when you come to visit???

Our friend Tomoki took us to a yummy and cheap izakaya. Okonomiyaki, pig trotter (John told him to order something random), cabbage and edamame were all on the menu, as well as lots of yakitori. Yum.

Tomoki and his friend Ryusuke fighting to split konnakyu. It's a weird thing made out of a type of potato, but somehow made rubbery. I have no idea how, you'll have to google it.

Like a lot of Japanese places, there was an open kitchen. Fun! 

I couldn't bring myself to take photos in the tsunami area. It feels too prying. But I took this of the lovely sunset in an affected area. Apart from some bits, it's hard to tell what has always been farmland and what used to be housing. I think most of this is just farmland though.

Maiko, a lady I met last week, took us to the Dontosai festival. The basic idea is that you go to a shrine and everything burnt on the fire goes up to your ancestor ghosts/gods. So it's a combination of wishes for good luck, presents to say thank you, and (conveniently) New Year's decorations. 

I hope this wasn't a personal slight! I think it was just a bad choice of bag!

There's lots of food stalls too. (By the way, wondered above what okonomiyaki is? It's this! Cabbage, batter and miscellaeous other items mixed together and fried. It's yummy :D)

Things to be burnt. We wanted to rescue the poor teddies but I think that would be breaking far too many cultural taboos!

Afterwards, Maiko took us to a kind of tapas restaurant in Sendai. We had lots of tasty food but this was the only one that earnt a picture. Why? Well it may look safe, but it's actually, in the words of Maiko who couldn't think of the English word, "the bits of a fish that make semen"!! It was actually really good and just kind of tasted like a strange type of cheese!

I hope everyone else had a lot of good times this week too!

A New Year means New Year Resolutions

It's been a long time since I've made any New Year's Resolutions. But I had a rubbish start to today (nothing major and it's all OK now) and so I went on a trip to a nearby temple to re-zen myself! While I was there I got a little philosophical, and when lovely Stacey told me she has just made some New Year's Resolutions, I thought it sounded like a good idea!

1. To re-find myself.
       Don't worry, I'm not turning that Buddhist just yet, it's just that the two years haven't been great. There's been lots of amazing times, but apart from when I was travelling last year, I haven't really felt like I've had many interests or exciting things that I do or I like. I want to re-find all the things that I used to enjoy, and hopefully find some things ones too. I want to make the most of doing the things I enjoy!

2. To continue studying Japanese.
       It's going slowly but I want to improve my Japanese as much as possible this year. I don't want to be like lots of people and get here and just give up because I can manage. I want to be able to understand what's going on and to really try to improve as much as I can.

3. To make the most of all the opportunities that come up, and make opportunities for myself too.
       I'm very good at sitting on facebook, looking at other people's photos and being jealous of what they're doing. What I'm not very good at doing is realising that if I'm sitting on facebook, I'm not going to be doing exciting things! I'm in a new, amazing country and I'm determined to make the most of it this year. They'll still be lots of chilled out internet time I'm sure, but hopefully only when I want there to be, not because I'm turning down opportunities.

4. To make new friends, but keep the old.
         As well as being a cheesy Guiding song, I want this to be true for me this year. I'm really looking forward to meeting people and making friends in Japan, but nobody can ever replace all my fantastic friends from England, and I want to be sure I don't forget that!

4 simple resolutions. I'm sure even I can manage that :D