Hallow-been!

I think I'll let the pics speak for themselves...thanks so much for everyones support and participation in a fab Halloween!

Me (bad angel) Sarah (velma) and Lee (dragon ball)

Lou (dead cheerleader) and Christine (Miss Halloween 2005-Anpangirl!)



Keith (hawkin) and Ross (not sure what his excuse is!)


Hannah, Christine and Justin as 7 ereveners




Marina (my fav costume of the night!) Steph (Alex from Clockowrk Orange) Megan (LeeLou from Fifth Element) and Jess (goth angel)

Top Five Things That f&ck Me Off About Japan

1. THE RULES. Got an idea that may make things a billion times easier but involves changing things? Suggest it and expect a Japanese persoon to look at you like you've just come into their house and pissed on their kids.
2.THE GOMI. You can only throw that pen away on the 18th Tuesday in Septober if its raining you fool!
3.THE CONSTANT APOLOGISING. How "hello its Kat" can be stranslated into "excuse me...please...sorry...pardon me for entering your space...i am healthy thanks to you...please allow me the pleasure of licking your feet in a pond of grime forever, thank you. So about tomorrows lesson...."
4.FISHY THINGS. Think you're safe from fish flakes/flavouring/intestines ordering a pizza/bread roll/POSTCARD? Think again.
5.SUDDEN MOOD SWINGS. "oyahooo goazaimasu!!" (cheerful...death stare) "sign this." Suddenly the uber serious granite faced sensei is pogoing at an enkai lapping sake from a bowl like a cat (true story!) Why can't people show their true colours here?

Note-most of the time I love this country and realise how much its culture makes sense compared to England, just felt like a rant)

Keith's Birthday Part 2

And so to the glamerous stacks of Tokuyama...I somehow managed to go to "The mall" (thats a shopping centres name, not me turning all Yankee on you) for five hours and actually go in about 2 shops due to much eating, loafing and chin wagging with Hannah and Christine who are both mint-i've decided my test to see is someone is my kind of person is if they can be random and funny in the midst of a nasty hang over and want to talk crap at 4am opening another bottle of wine-these girls more than surpass both criterias! After freezing our arses off waiting for the train and a very random bike ride on possibly the worse bike ever (thanks christine!) we proceeded to yakitori, els, karaoke and suzie qs which was all chilled out and much fun. Came to realise the follwoing things:
-tokuyama has loads of other foreigners we don't know-odd
-some of those foreigners want so badly to befreind you theyll buy you drinks
-els has hoegarden and newky brown-result!
-steph has top taste in music
-tom is actually pretty good at karaoke
-not living by the shackles of time and eating the most random and scary thing on the menu makes carl a very interesting boy!


Me and the long and winding one keep up the good image of the well ard north

It may be your birthday but theres no excuse for that face (note Deidre Rashid vein in neck)



Keith gets some action on his birthday


And I manage a bit too, they're anyones them two...

Carl the brave with the octopus ink pasta-and he ate it all!

Keith's Birthday Part One

My weekends of late have fallen into a enjoyable yet liver eroding pattern-Friday night's on the piss in yania usually involving Karaoke then Saturdays feeling peaky but drinking through the pain. This weekend was no different although I had a certain excuse-Keithen's birthday! I'm so lucky to live in Yanai where there seems to be a great bunch of young and funky j-folk with enough eigo/patience to befreind us henna gaijin. Has anyone else noticed that Japanese peeps seem to regard going out with foreigners as super fun?! All we have to is is be our loud overbearing alcofrolic selves and theyre over the moon! "and so i drank wine and became fine..and then i fell on the floor and drank more.."

Glee at the bar mat game...



Me and kyoko do anti-kawaii


Ross and Keith get into it

The verdict

Too Far?

Just like Louise and Cindi before me, I am indeed descending into the depths of J-fashion! I love this jacket but under no circumstances would I ever have bought it in England I'm sure! So thoughts please! Ridiculously garish and J or so bad its good?
(seems to suit Mark better too..)

Recommended Reading

Which office character are you?

Finchy: Chris Finch





“So there I am, back of the cab, both of them got their laughing gear round my old single barrel pump action yoghurt rifle.”

Top job!

There’s no way you accidentally stumbled onto Chris Finch.

Whether you like him or not in the show, you definitely relate to him on some level.

My advice to you? Nah, you wouldn’t take it anyway. You will die lonely though. Bear that in mind.

Outlook:

Wahey! Does it really matter to you? Really?

Which office character are you?http://homepage.mac.com/elliottday/theoffice/whoareyou.html

Hmm maybe its something to do with my northerness although at least I'm not gareth...

Things To Do In Japan

An updated version of a list I wrote last year:

-Go to Tokyo Disneyland, Harajuku and Hello Kitty Land
-Go To Universal Studios (done!)
-Drink only sake one night (done-nasty hangover!)
-Play pachinko
-Wear Yukata (done!)
-Watch Sumo (ticket booked, 19th Nov!)
-Dress as a geisha (done! Kyoto last year)
-Go to the cinema and watch a j-film (done! Howl's Moving Castle)
-Watch Japanese bands live (done many times at summer sonic!)
-Go to Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido (done the first two!)
-Text/email in Japanese (done...badly!)
-Sing a Japanese song at karaoke (done...again badly!)
-Go to a tea ceremony
-Stay in a capsule Hotel
-Find a kind of sushi I like (don't see that one ever happening)
-Have a normal conversation in Japanese (kind of done)
-Understand all the menu in a restaurant
-Watch lots of manga (done...it f%cks you up!)
-Stay in a love hotel!!
-Do some shodo (done!)
-Go to Okinawa

Any more you can suggest, please let me know!

Ooooooshima

Had one of those "oh yeah this is why I love Japan" weekends. The Oshima get together was fab, Megan did a great job of organising and initiating (and thanks to her I can now tick skinny dipping off my list of things to do in Japan!) Paul cooked like a master, David proved himself to be a very excitable daredevil,Carl did his usual cerrrazy dancing to entertain, Hannah, Christine and Louise and the lads had me in constant stitches-some choice cuts:
Hannah:(after hearing me sing along to Jeff Buckley) "Wow Kat, you're pitch brothers!"
Louise: (after a night on the chu-his till 4am) "I can't sleep...my hearts to loud! Everytime I turn over its like DONDONDON!"
Keith: (to some J-folk) "Wanna know some useful English- number 1,YOU SUCK C~CK! Number 2 SHUT IT DICKFACE! Number 3 YOU'RE F&CKING SOUND. Lesson over"
Great BBQ food was had, some fabulous drinking games involving a new invention to add to my routine of drinking fun-everyone making up a dance move then synchronizing it (not as complicated as it sounds!)and the vegetable game (never has "potato" been so hilarious-thanks paul and selene!)


The scandel-Tom and Neal at it again...( I'm not sure whats more scandelous, Neal touching Toms bits of Tom reading OK!)



Sunday brought a sobering onsen (I will miss these so much!) Onsens take the pain away, wash away your sins. Came out feeling cleaner than an episode of sesame street and then had gorgeous Jamaican food complete with red stripe beer!



The beach ensued. After a very chilled couple of hours me Chris and Louise had a nap and went to Taiwan, one of my favourite restaurants in Yanai (you don't even have to order, they just bring you stuff!) it was delicious and we were entertained by a pissed guy passing out then eating a bit of ramen, stuffed ourselves and had beers-1000yen each! I love that place. We topped off our active days with Hiroshima where I bought far too much crap and had Andersons, Subway and English chocolate. Yosh indeed. I realised how good we have it here. The first years have stopped being "first years" and became friends, and fun intriguing ones at that.
Otsukara sama!(Job well done!)

This Week, I Have Mostly Been...

-Listening to...The Arctic Monkeys
The sound of something utterly fresh- air punching, nose bleeding, rib crushingly good. Like the libertines having an eplectic fit during an argument with the streets about youth culture. Not afraid to sing with their dodgy sheffield accents, songs like "From Ritz to Rubble" charting the eternal struggle to get past power mad bouncers and "I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor" the ever mysterious eye contact exchanges that go on in sweaty nightclubs.
Soundbite: "He's got no time for you looking or breathing/and he dont want you to/so step out the queue"



-Watching....Six Feet Under Series 4
The television equivalent of crossword puzzle, this show continues to impress me, each episode more resounding than most films I've seen recently. Dark, layoured and challenging, everything a series should be.
Soundbite: "Yes, I know stealing a foot is weird. But...living in a house where a foot is available to be stolen is weird." Claire

To Do List

Buzzing about my upcoming trip home. Hoping to complete the following:
-Go to a comedy club
-Go to a gig (be it for a decent band or any old crap)
-Watch soaps and drink tea
-Wear shoes inside (haha!)
-NOT bore people about japan too much
-NOT argue with my mother (hmm lets see how that goes)
-Go shopping. many times.
-Talk about something filthy knowing someone os over hearing in a public place(sam and lu, up for a repeat preformance of pizza express last year..or was it the year before?was so gross my brother left and game his food to a tramp haha)
-Sink back into my native tongues and use phrases like "do you want owt or nowt?" as much as possible
-Piss in a bin
-Go to a beer garden in the afternoon and last the whole day
-Eat beans, bacon, cadburys chocolate, cornflakes (with propher milk!) and walkers crisps until they ooze out of my ears and eye sockets
-Take lots of pictures of things Japanese people will find funny/shocking (just about everything then)
-See lots of films
-Dance until I pass out at an indie club/in my house/in ashton market, wherever really
-Spend lots of times with my lovely pals
-Make an effort to see my family, even the mean ones noone likes/talks to
-Not get angry when my gran says things like "oooh dont they eat raw dog in china?"ect
-Oblige in the traditional after pub kebab/pizza/puke
-Go and watch a footie game
-Cook something japanesey for my family even though they won't eat it
-Not slip any Japanese into the conversation (unless by demand/totally by accident/intoxication)
-Have a bath in a propher bath
THE END! any you feel I've overlooked, do tell!

Not Gonna Happen...But Nice Suggestion!

You Should Be a Flying Monkey for Halloween!

What should you be for Halloween?

You are "Face with Glasses"

What Japanese Smiley Are You?

Only In Japan

Today I...
-Ate a kiwi with chopsticks.wrongwrongwrong. I had no choice as being the caring ALT I am I gave me highly in demand spoon to a student.
-Got asked to "please help" with a class of three students who are "shy." It seems that these three 3rd year girls are more socially awkward and self concious than "normal." Unusual for 14 year olds, that! The japanese "solution" is to put them in their own little room everyday where they do worksheets on their own. Off the top of my head I introduced myself, talked about poricura and karaoke and played pictionary and the thumb game with them. They were lovely girls, a damn sight more friendly and reactive than a lot of the "normal" students. This place boggles my mind sometimes.