After Golden Week…

Ok – since it took me over a month to post my Golden week stories….I will try to update on what I’ve been up to the past little while!

School is still busy with lots of classes…sometimes it means just standing in the back of the class doodling…or sometimes I get to lead the class. Either way – much less time at my desk, and much less time to write these blogs! My apologies.

I had a re-contracting conference in Kobe at the end of last month – which was a lot of fun! Hayden and myself went up by shinkansen on the Saturday to do some touring and mainly shopping before my conference started on the Monday and went until Wednesday. We went to a big outlet mall and I had my first taste of Kobe beef – it was a little fatty – but good fatty, not chewy fatty, and was quite delicious. We didn’t shell out the hundreds of dollars…so accordingly, we did not get the best cuts! But still good!

It was great to see some familiar faces at the conference that I had not seen in a while. A lot of the gang from Ottawa seem to be re-contracting, so it was nice to catch up and talk about the Sens with people who understood. The conference itself was pretty dull, but it had a few good points! Plus, going out at night was a lot of fun!

The beginning of June brought a Battle of the Bands concert in Omura, which was good fun. As well as my first Japanese dance performance! It took place at Tamaya, a large department store, which has a stage and hall area. It was from 10am until about 5pm…with non-stop dances!! Crazy! I performed in 3 dances. My first solo was called Kotobukisanba…which is a male dance. My second was Tenryuukudareba – a female dance…and finally a group dance called Shigeshabushi. I am hoping to post the videos on my Facebook…

Sasebo had a city-wide sports tournament with all the junior high schools competing in all the school sports. It was over a weekend, so we had two random days off to make up for “working” on the weekends. My only responsibilities was to wander around, watching our teams compete. I was on the main grounds, so I was able to watch some track and field, baseball, volleyball and soft tennis. It was quite hot and sunny both days…so I came back a little burnt!

My good friend Sandy had an art show in Nagasaki the same weekend. She does Shuuji – Japanese calligraphy. So I made it down to look at her work in the art gallery – very cool!

Time is quickly running out before many of my friends are returning back to their respective countries at the end of July….boooo. So we have been trying to have our “lasts” of everything before they leave and trying to spend a lot of time together. We’ve been going to our regular Sunday Indian curries and hanging out in the park (when it isn’t raining!)

One Sunday, Hayden and I drove down to Nomozaki (at the tip of Nagasaki to the south) and went to see the eel in the well. Sadly it apparently only comes out in the mornings, but they had large eels in tanks nearby to look at instead…not that they are particularly exciting or pretty to look at – but hey…a new place to check off my list.
We had a “girls weekend” a few weeks ago and went up to Hirado (island just off the coast at the north of Nagasaki) where Courtney lives. She made us an Italian feast that we ate on the beach (we were the only ones there – it was a cloudy day, plus it is not “official” swimming season). The water was great and it was a fun day out in the clouds. At night, we camped out in her place, ate some more, drank a bit, played games, talked, etc etc. Lots of fun!
Canada Day weekend was slightly depressing for me…it is my FAVOURITE day to be in Ottawa…so it was hard to be so far away! But we had a few nights out on the town in Nagasaki. I (stupidly) forgot my Canada stickers and tattoos that I brought over at home…but we made due. Definitely not the same as being on Parliament Hill and downtown!

We celebrated Shawna’s 30th birthday party in style in Omura, with lots of food and cake and fireworks! Slightly dangerous…but all good fun…until the police come…

Other than that – things have been fairly low key! Still dancing, taiko drumming (my first performance will be at a festival at the end of the month! Woo hoo!), going to Japanese class (still not studying enough) and just hanging out! What I am now looking forward to the most is my summer vacation! Flights are booked, hotels will (soon) be reserved, and we are on our way to Thailand, Australia and Cambodia!! We leave August 7th to spend just over a week in Southern Thailand on the beach, then we are flying to Brisbane to go to Hayden’s cousin’s wedding. We will be in Brisbane for a few days before going to Surfer’s Paradise for 3 days to visit some theme parks, then back to Thailand (Chiang Mai – northern Thailand) for a few days. Then we go straight to Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat! In total, I will be gone for 26 days! Very excited and cannot wait for August to come!

Hope all is well!!