Today will forever remind me of V for Vendetta before Guy Fawkes. I think I blame it on Hugo Weaving’s acting. Or maybe it was the script or production of this film? In any case, it is by far one of my favourite films, even after we dissected it for English essays in high school.
It was another crazy week here in Japan. Wednesday night saw me host a Halloween Party for my English club students. They did an awesome job decorating the room, I hated having to take them down today! We then had a good laugh at each other eating donuts off strings, carrying chocolate almonds with chopsticks and wrapping each other in toilet paper. It was a great way to unwind before their tests next week. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.
That night I also had a small dress-up party for my body-pump class. Boy did it feel strange to dress-up and lift weights; it felt like a total contradiction! Especially as I was dressed as Alice! But it was a lot of fun to see other Japanese people bring out their Halloween costumes and dress-up just for the occasion. Japan really is a unique place ;)
Of course Friday was the big day! At my country school, I decided to take my Halloween lessons one step further by dressing up all day. I received quite a few shocked expressions, by not only students, but other teachers! I know they were only jealous that they weren’t in my classes that day :P
Friday night was the official ALT Halloween Party. While my costume was not very original (a pirate is not exactly a first for Halloween), I still had a lot of fun dancing around, having a few drinks with fellow ALTs and making new friends along the way! Here in Japan, they have what is called a nomihoudai (in English, ‘All-You-Can-Drink’). For our party, we had 4 hours of nomihoudai for just $35!! Well you can imagine I was a little slow moving the next morning, that’s for sure!
Last weekend I also made a journey to Saza, a small-ish town located in Nagasaki prefecture. Even after three months of living here, I still managed to catch one wrong train and ended up 45 minutes in the opposite direction! I must stop relying on Hyperdia.com for my train information!! I stayed with a friend I’d made during my Tokyo orientation, where we enjoyed a rather lazy, yet enjoyable weekend.
I had my first onsen experience, which was slightly uncomfortable at first, but the stares soon became unnoticeable ;) I came out feeling so refreshed and relaxed – I can’t wait to go to another!
Nagasaki prefecture is known for it’s ramen. And I must say, I had some of the best ramen I’ve ever tasted! I never knew that ramen eggs were meant to be hard-boiled but with a slightly runny yolk. They could cook their eggs to that kind of perfection!! It tasted unbelievably good!
And now after making a long trip back home yesterday (note to self, do not take the kodoma shinkansen as it stops at ALL stops, resulting in a 3 hour train ride!), I am back here at work. *le sigh* I sometimes wish this program was one big holiday. In many aspects it is. But the lesson preparation definitely sucks the life out of me. While I am aware this is the teacher life, I can’t help but wonder if my workload would be different if I had fewer schools to visit each week. While I love teaching the students, having to present lesson plans a week in advance always seems to keep me on my toes! In Japan, sleeping at work is said to be a sign that you have been working hard. In that case, I think I might need to take up sleeping at the office!!!
