i KNOW its summer holidays but nevertheless 5 precious days were taken out for a school camp! Nah it was okay... we had to wake up at about 6am everymorning to clean and prepare meals, but the days brougth some good experiences. Went hiking up a place that looked exactly like the Julatten Range one day except the forest was home to bears! It was in ( Read more... )

so the past two days' evenings we spent celebrating this little guy that looks like a turtle, holds a cucumber and something else in his two hands, apparently lives at the bottom of a lake grabbing peoples toes...that goes by the name of 'kappa' (for you aussies, its pronounced the same as the word you use to request you desire tea!) ill have to ( Read more... )

just got back from a great night away in Hakone, a little south/west (dont quote me) from Tokyo, so it took about 3 hours to get there... naturally it also took 3 hours to get back ( Read more... )

Every school in Japan has one - I dont know exactly where the Culture bit was in ours because there were no traditional Japanese traces to be found, but it was a fun day, despite the embarassment of having to wear a maid costume (which i ensured was for the minimum amount of time possible!). we (my classmates and i) sold cake and drinks in our ( Read more... )

(see title) its a little joke my 4year old host sister started, meaning like 'how do you do, Im a Big Buddha...' well big is an understatement ( Read more... )

For the first time in two months i made it back to Tokyo for one great Sunday to catch up with 4 friends from Language school, and one of their host brothers. Nick, Luke, Sarah and Nadja - it was awesome catching up and talking bout our experiences in Japan so far ( Read more... )

So now I can cross it off the list - Disney Land; been there, done that ( Read more... )

from wednesday to saturday i went on what was to me, japan's answer to 'magical mystery tour...' had no idea where we were going or what we were doing but it normally involved a temple, a really big set of stairs to climb and souvenier shops ( Read more... )

wow - time couldnt be flying faster if i carried a clock on a shinkansen (bullet train)... Golden Week, and my stay with the temporary host family i shared it with - has been and gone ( Read more... )

on sunday i was writing about going on a 'field trip'. well i did just that and had a great time! rode my bike and had no idea where i was going or where i ended up, but came to a beautiful little road with like a tin shed, a path into a forest of bamboo and a thicket of these yellow flowers, it was like a fairytale ( Read more... )