I will NEVER go thirsty!!!

Yep! It`s official... I will NEVER go thirsty!!

In all my time in Japan i have met people from soo many different countries... Including America, Ireland, Canada, Brazil, France, England, Bulgaria, Canada, New Zealand, Finland... and the list goes on... anyways, you would think that from meeting these people from all different corners of the globe i have "Increased my global understanding" and "sharpened my cognitive and life skills" Well guess what I HAVE!!!... :D :D

I can now ask for a beer in 8 different languages!!

NOTE: these are not spelt correctly.. but the way they sound when spoken...

Japanese- Biiru o kudasai

Finnish - Saanko uhen kalian?

Irish- Piyonta ledohall

Spanish- Cellebesa

Portuguese- Cevesia

Swedish- Cunya hard erl

German- Beeara bitta

And of course English- Give me a beer!!

So heres a cheers to life long learning!! Bahaha!! :D :D

YAY YAY YAY!

6 more sleepies!!!!!!
Thats all i have to say... :D

I`M COMING HOME!!!!!

Yah.... Most of you prolly already know but I`m comin home in only 8 more sleeps!!! YAY YAY! 9 if you count the sleep on the plane but hey, details, details! I prolly won`t be able to sleep on the plane anyways...YAAAAYYY!!!For those of you who can`t count sleeps... I will be back on the 15th of December.... a 22 hour trip... eek :(

Anyways i`ve decided to comprise a nice little list of things i want to do when i get back!! Please take note... eheh
1. We are ALL going out... at least once!! NO EXCUSES!!! If you back out I will personally come and drag you out by the ear! :p
2. There are sooo many things I wanna eat when I get back... here are some....
* A meat pie with mushroomies, mushy green peas and tom sauce... mmmm
* MANGOES!!! Yeah, we have them here but I dont really wanna pay 20-50 bucks for one :(
* Beetroot- There is NONE here!!! AAHHH
* Pumpkin pie and broccoli quiche... There is only 1 person who makes the perfect pumkin pie and broccoli quiche..... PWEASE JULES.... *Pulls the puppy dog eyes*
* Home made spaghetti...... I love you mumsy.... :p
* Hogs---- must, must, must have a proper steak.. mmm hogs...
* BBQ - Bring on the barbi`s!!!!Ok... ok... thats enough food for now.... hehe
3. Whitsundays! Whos comin on a day cruise with me! "We all wanna live on a yellow submarine..." ok.. maybe not live.. but i wanna go for a ride in one and play with all the fishies! WOOHOO!
4. CAMPING! Kylie..... me, you, Mic, Jules... lets do it! :D
5. Townsville! Must go visit everyone in Townsville.... Onegai Soni and lukey!! Must play under the bucket and with the animals at the billabong! YAY YAY YAY!!
6. Gary.. my angel of a nephew... no really i mean it.. :p You better come out with me when i get back! Bugger the g/f!!7. Dad... me, you... fishing!!!!!!
8. The Australia zoo!!! Yeh.. this may be pushin it... but if anyones up for it... LET`S GO!!!

well.. thats all i can think of for now.... but i will be updating lots b4 i get there so keep checking... LOL 8 MORE SLEEPS TO GO!!! WOOOOOOOTTTTT!!!! *doin the happy dance*

Holly Crap

Hmm... check this out....

No one told me there were tornados in Japan... mmm... 困るな～！

I WANT ONE!!

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20061020a2.html

check this out!!

I want one!
What you recon stewy?

Awa Odori

Yep, I know its been ages since i left for good old Awa Odori but once again we had the bestest time! This year we made it even better though by making the journey a road trip... to remember!!

For those of you who don`t know what Awa Odori (or dance of the fools) is, its a festival held in Tokushima, Shikoku- where i used to live. For 4 days tiny Tokushima has the population of Tokyo. The city streets are closed and grandstands are put up and people dance and drink on the streets! It really is the best festival in Japan!

After leaving Komatsu i headed to good old Nagoya to pic up Josh and Bec... then the looonngg Journey began... No traffic jams my a## ... Josh. Yep, it was one traffic jam after another and I swear that if we walked there we would have made it in half the time! There were even people pretending to die outside their car windows it was that long..... no kidding!

We found a really cool service area though... with a cool ferris wheel and an awsome veiw of the bridge that connects the mainland to the island... (expensive bridge at that)

heres a pic. >>

Two Mr donuts and a couple of litres of coffee later (that i have now been forbidden to drink) we were on the road again and made it to Tokushima by 8:30. 11 hour drive is not bad!

It was sooo great to see mum and Miho again! They havnt changed a bit since last time i seen them. (a whole 4 years ago) Once again we were treated like royalty and mum cooked us the bestest most yummiest meals! We even had our own drink fridge :)

The next week was filled with the excitment of getting dressed in Yukata and going to see fireworks and of course.... Awa odori!
Don`t we look pweety.... :)

For lesley and Shannon, yep we did go and see Ingrid! She has a new bar now and there are more aliens there then ever before! The bar is bigger and there are no such thing as free drinks anymore.... but it was heaps fun! Heres a pic>

The next week went really quickly with festival-ing and playing with Miho and mum and dad! And trying to find Josh :S
Cheers to these champions who i met along my awa odoring way :)

By the end of the week it was time to go home :( Unfortunately I couldnt take Miho with me! :(

Thanks heaps mum, dad and Miho! We had a blast! :)

Birthday blues!

My birthday is just 5 more sleeps away and i thought that this year i would be able to have a birthday just for me!!! HOORAY!! (no offence Kylie) But as always, I was soooo wrong!

As some of you know, the CQU students are here for 3 months. (Like i did the very first time i came to Japan in 2001.) I have been helping organise activities and stuff for them and found out that one of Sandy`s friends Bec`s birthday is ..... SHOCK HORROR... the 9th of October!... DAMN IT, DAMN IT, DAMN IT!!! oh but wait... it gets better.... SHE IS THE SAME AGE AS ME!!!!!!! and only born 3 hours before me! IMAGINE THAT!!!! I have another twin I didn`t know about!! WHY DIDN`T ANYONE TELL ME!!!!!!!!

The weirdest thing is that this is not the first time this has happened! When i lived in Tokushima for a year I found out that my friend Miho`s birthday was ALSO on the same day as mine!!!! So again.. i had to share my birthday!

For just once i want a birthday just for me! *sob*

hmmm It`s a curse... i swear!!!

Oh.. and shut up....... I am NOT selfish! GRRRR

*grumbly Kirsty person*

The funniest 2 days!

I just have to tell you all about the funniest 2 days I`ve had at school this week! keke
Ok, here goes... Yesterday I was arguing with my teaching partner (who is Japanese) about how not sweet Japanese lollies and cakes are (coz oooohhhhhh I just LOVE DA CAKE)! Ok,ok, it don`t sound funny yet but wait! He was telling me that they do have really sweet lollies over here and was asking me if I have ever tasted this specific Japanese sweet... I had no idea what he was on about (I had never seen it before) and after some time of trying to describe it to me.. he just yelled out from the other side of the staffroom, "Kirsty, it looks like DOG SHIT!" HAHAHA! Of course, me being the child that I am, I cracked up! The funniest part was that no-one (including him) had any idea what I was laughing about! Now, I complain about my job... but where in Australia would you hear a teacher yell from the other side of the staffroom that something looked like "dog shit" especially when there are students around! HAHA! made my day! :)

But it don`t stop there.. uh uh no no there's more!
Today, I had just finished a class and was casually walking down the hall when a year 10 boy came up to me and said, " Get out fucker!" I was like.. uhhh WHAT? Then he repeated himself and asked me what it meant! HAHA! I asked him where he heard it and apparently the other English teacher at this school got angry at him and told him to well... "get out fucker" HAHA
After explaining to him what it meant, I casually asked him not to use the word fucker again.

I swear, with this knowledge that kid will pass the English part on his high school enterance exam with flying colours!!!! :P

My hand won`t work....

Ok, Ok... Someone help me here...

I woke 3 days ago and my hand didn`t work.... Its sleeping and wont wake up..... HELP! I can`t write, can`t hold my keys and cant even lift a 2L bottle of water!..... Any ideas?

Josh comes to play!!

After a last minute decision, Josh came to play with us in good ol Komatsu and oh my god... what a weekend it was!
A weekend of non stop drinking and dancing and singing... just to sum it up (Oh and eating occasionally). Here are the details!

Josh arrived a bit after 12am Saturday morning and we went back to mine for drinkies. Shammy arrived to play too!

After waking up, we all headed to Saizeria to get a feed and have a morning after beer..... well, of course it didn`t turn out to be "Just a morning after beer"... after eating we went to see Alesha drive a New concept car at a little show and then headed back to mine for more drinks....
I`m not too sure what happened after that but i woke up with a pirate hat on and one shoe... hmm DON`T ASK!

After waking up and realizing there were more people in my apartment then i remembered it all started over again.. :) HOORAY FOR US!

p.s sorry India for leaving you unattended when we were supposed to be watching you.... I swear we will never pass out on you agian.... hmm

eheheeeeehhhh....

How boring was that entry.... hmm pics to come

I wana be a lion!

I went to the zoo on Tuesday with the "Americans" (should have left them there) hm hm but anyway... I heard a lion roar! IT WAS AWSOME!
Ok ok, so maybe not to most but this lion was like 2cm away from my face... behind glass of course.... but it was soooo loud! Loud enough for the teachers I was with to come running from the other side of the zoo to see him... (hehe he stopped as they arrived... he don`t like Americans either!) I know now why they call him the king of the jungle... and what mighty big teeth you have! They are sooo scary and yet you just wanna go up and give them a big hug! :)

So i`ve decided i wanna be a lion when i grow up! :)

ps. Sea lions are the biggest show offs!

The BIG question!

Ok, ok.... I have a question... Has anyone else realised that for my whole life everyone has called me "Kirst" or "The Kirst" and that it can translate to "Cursed" hmm... i was just wondering if for 23 years this has been an ongoing joke i havn`t picked up on.... (>_<) GRRR!
p.s it wasn`t me who picked up on it either... Blacky did....
well? well?

I`m a Sumo Wrestler!!

Yep! It`s true! I`m a sumo wrestler and i got pics to prove it!
hehe, the kids are learning sumo for sport at school and i didn`t want to miss out on all the excitement!
The principal even dressed me! hehe! Heaps of fun for everyone! :)
Asashoryu eat your heart out!

Hanami-ing in Nagoya

Hooray! its Hanami time!
For those of you who dont know, it means "Flower watching" hmm weird translation... but its when the cherry blossoms are out and everyone sits under the trees and has feast, plays music and sings! It`s one of my favourite memories when i was in Tokushima and it will be one of my favourite memories from here too!

To get the most out of the hanami season i went to Josh`s in Nagoya (the flowers don`t come out for weeks here in Komatsu) and we went to a little park spread out a tarp and set up the barbi... YEP! A BBQ... HOORAY! and of course we set up the esky with the drinkies in it keke... did I ever tell you that one of the best things about Japan is that you can drink in public... hehe!
Anyways we met this lil ol lady who kept coming over to the "gaijins" or "Aliens" and offering us drinks... hehe she was such a champ that i taught her how to cook marshmellows BBQ style!Here is a pic of my new grandma and me! :)

After bbqing some we were eyeing off the lil kids and their soccerball for awhile till it got too much and we decided to take over! hehe.. well, we soon found out it was a bad idea because these 2 little kids (they were about 9 or 10) kicked our butts in soccer! NO KIDDING! we ended up scoring one point and decided that we should stop becuase the kid was chuckin a hissy fit! But it was fun teasing him... hehe! Nice going guys!!

After a few more drinks me and Josh decided to go and play on the swings... only to find that our butts wouldnt fit in the swings... (I swear they were small.. hmm) anyway, we trodded up to the see saw!! HAHA ive never had soo much fun! Josh and i discovered that we can sit on the saw with both legs up and keep balanced! It was soo exciting that we ended up sittin like that for hours just see sawing and drinking.... until, everyone backed up and we thought we better go or we might get left behind!
Anyway Josh and i have decided that neither of us can gain or lose weight... so we can be see saw pals forever!!! YAY! You better stick to it Joshy!
UP THE MIGHTY SEE SAW!!

Cheers to a mighty fine day in the park! :)

Weirdest start to my morning EVER!

Ok, I have a story to tell about my weirdest start to the morning EVER!
It all stared on this Thursday morning when i woke up to the usual sound of my (Aint no hollerback girl) alarm tune. I reached for my fone to smak it once so i could get 5 more minuets sleep.... but to my surprise I opened my eyes to see someone STANDING half in and half out of my WINDOW!

At first i thought it was Blacky... so i was like, "What the hell are you doing in here?" Then the person answered me in Japanese... i was like... hmm.. why in the world is Blacky (who`s American) speaking to me in Japanese?. (And i cant speak or understand Japanese in the mornings) So i thought... crap! I need to find something to hit this person over the head with!! (I could only see there legs) Then i realised... wait... i can`t do that.. im nakey!! AAAHHHH (Lucky no bits were exposed) ekk

Anyway, after waking up a bit (and could finally understand some Japanese) I realised it was my LANDLORD!!!.... NO KIDDING! She was like, "Its raining outside, so i came in to take your futon (doona) off the line!" I was like... ahhh thank you... then she left!!! UNREAL!

There are sooo many things wrong with this story.....
1- Who the hell do my landlords think they are letting themselves into my apartment (with a spare key, i might add).
2- I can`t believe i didn`t hear anyone come into my apartment... literally step over me and open my window.... gives a new meaning to "sleeping through earthquakes" Maybe a bear can really come into my room and steal food out of my fridge without waking me up.... AAAHHH either that or the landlord would let them in...
3- Josh, you should FORGET about not wanting to sleep nakey in case there is an earthquake and someone has to drag you out with no clothes on.... you should be more worried about your LANDLORD!!!

So, now I have to decide what im going to do/say to my landlords? Any ideas anyone? ... hmm

百万石まつり Hyakumangoku Festival!

Today was the Hyakumangoku or hundreds and thousands or stones festival! Weird i know!
One thing i love about Japan is the festivals! At this festival people were lined up in the middle of the street for as far as you could see, all dressed in yukata or kimono (Japanese style dress). There were trucks lined up in the middle of the road with massive speakers and everyone danced the same dance! hehe Blacky and I learned the dance and got invited to dance with soo many companies! It was sooo much fun! After all, how often can you get away with drinking beer and dancing in the middle of the street in Aus?? hehe
Here are some pics!


Yes, i know... the Yukata isn`t pink....




















Blacky did my hair! Good job girlfriend! keke











Me and Blacky! (Vanessa by the way)









Dancin in the street!

p.s more pics to come... :)

Basketball Enkai

For everything in Japan, there is an "enkai". Translated in Kirsty language it roughly means- An excuse to get drunk and make a fool of yourself in front of the people you normally have a professional relationship with! hehe.... Nothing gets better than that.. :)

This month was our Basketball enkai.. or break-up I suppose you could call it! We all got dressed up in our little "professional" suits only to eat a little and drink a whole lot!

We started off at a flash motel, and after many self-introductions and thank- yous and lets all go to Australia`s (Onya Coach) we finished pouring everyone elses drinks (it`s rude in Japan to pour your own drink) then we headed for Karioke! After discovering that the bar people couldnt keep up with everyones drinks..... (on a friday night mind you) we freezed our little tooshies off in the snow wearing our lil "professional" suits to a bar i have never seen before... and its right round the corner from me.... tsk tsk! Anyways, one think i love about basketball is that there are heaps of guys with good jobs... and being a girl we obiously get very, VERY well looked after... hehe free food and drinks all around... It was all in all a smashing night!
P.S.. No more calling the guys tight asses hey Nao! hehe
Here are some Piccis!


Naka, Miyuki and Eri me and Naka



Me and coach Yuji Yumi me and Nao

Eskimo`s Birthday Party!!

March 3rd was Margarets birthday (I call her eskimo because she comes from Canada) We had, as always the bestest night!
We decided to chuck her a surprise party at Kamado (an Izakaya) which luckily turned out as planned and she actually WAS suprised to see us all!
After a few hours of foodsies and drinksies... mmm mmm we headed to Karioke for a night of really bad singing and Irish dancing.. hehe (dont ask) and thanks for taping it all Alesha... GRRR
Anyways, somehow we ended up at Casa Cuevo dancing the night away... .. im sorry cant give you any more details due to lack of remembering them.... Here are some pics to tell the story for yas!





Its the birthday girl party dance!



















Kweeva (Shammy) is Irish.... Enough said?















The Karioke party room! Take it away Lesha!
















"Im a little teapot....."

Graduation!!

Well finally its graduation time! Unlike OZ they finish the school year in April over here! Strange i say! But i got to pick 2 schools i wanted to go to for the kids graduation ceremony! (I didn`t really wanna attend 20 something of them) Well, all i can say is that its really, really formal for a primary school grade 6 graduation... Suits, continuous standing and sitting (like in church) and heaps and heaps of bowing! here are some pics!




Teacher at Kokufu me and Bluey (other English teacher from Aus)

Kokufu primary school

1. Principle of Kokufu primary.

Me mum (my old supervisor) and Bluey

Anyone for singed hair??

This was an Okonomiyaki party i will never forget!! Me and some of my b`ball palls headed to a restaurant called "The Boomerang" Its famous because of the HUGE okonomiyaki you can make there.... (Its literally the size of a table top) Anyways, after several attempts at squeezing into the super narrow parking spots, everyone all sat down around in high spirits and we all commented on Aya`s new awsome hair cut she got done the day before!
After we ordered it was time to heat up the BBQ table... well... after several attempts we just couldnt get it to work... so while Aya had her head under the table playing with the swich she asked Eri to play with the gas swich at the wall.... OH OH OH BAD IDEA!
There was a huge BANG and lots of fire and Aya shot out from under the table with her hands covering her face.. while the rest of us.. jumped up and bolted half way out the door! After the fire died down Aya took her hands away from her face... Her eyelashes and eyebrows were singed and one side of her face was red but the worst bit was her new funky hair was singed..... Lucky escape i say.. but unfortunately the exploding BBQ table resulted in everyone being quiet for the rest of the night... bugger... On the bright side we got free food! HAHA Thanks AYA! p.s.. The Okonomiyaki was sooo yummy! When yous get here i will take you.. Perhaps we wont sit at the same table though.... hmmm
















Here is a pic of all of us around the table...from left to right.. The guy who i dont know... he was too shy to talk to me, maki, Aya and her singed hair, me, the shop owner in the so cool hat and Miyuki!
The other pic is of the Okonomiyaki compared to the size of a mobile phone! yum yum !!

One of the best people you could meet!

I went to a party with some people who are apart of the Lions Club again and i got introduced to this Chap.. we got talking and i asked him what he did for a living (because everyone in the lions club is either a doctor, dentist, surgeon or the owner of some big company) and nothing prepared me for what he was about to tell me!!!!! He told me that he was the OWNER of a SAKE company!! !!!!! HEHEHE!! well, he quickly became my friend and soon enough he was bringin out his sake and handing it around for all to drink!! mmm He also invited me and Heather and Bluey to his sake factory! WOOHOO!! Bet your Jealous Jules! hehe

Rockin Night Out!

Had another awsome party at my apartment this weekend! I dont think we could have fitted anymore people in! hehe.. Kweeva and i started at 2pm and after everyone had a few (or more) drinks we headed out for dinner! mmm Okonomiyaki :D then went to good ol Casa Cuevo to dance the night away! then we we all troddled home at around 6am.. not a bad effort i say! hehe... Yep, good times, good times!!
Here are some pics for yas!





Yeah, its me... really it is!


















The 3 drunkards.. hehe nice face Eri!!












mmm Okonomiyaki :D

Ohinamatsuri- Doll`s festival

Today is Ohinamatsuri (Doll`s festival) here in Japan so i thought id send ya a picci of an example display that almost every household who has young girls in Japan put out on this day!

Ohinamatsuri is a day that the Japanese pray for young girl`s growth and happiness. Ohinamatsuri is also known as "girls day" and May 5th is "kodomo no hi" or boys day. Boys day is a National holiday in Japan, but surprise, surprise... Girls day is NOT! GRRR

The Doll display is called "hina-ningyo" they are usually arranged on a five or seven-tiered stand covered with a red carpet. At the top are the Emperor and Empress. The next step contains three court ladies (sannin-kanjo), followed by five musicians (gonin-bayashi), two ministers (udaijin and sadaijin), and three servants ending the bottom row in a five-tiered display. There are also small pieces of furniture, small meal dishes, and other odd things.

This is a pic of the display at the KIA (Komatsu International Association) On the left is my Japanese teacher Komatsu sensai (how ironic... same name as the town she lives in) and the other lady is the receptionist at the KIA... Who always greets me with a "G`day Mate" and says goodbye with a "See ya mate" hehe! Total Champ!!

Meet my friends!

Howdies!
Since a few of you are coming to me... HOORAY! Im so excited! I thought that i would post some pics of some of my basketball friends so that you had a chance to remember them before you get here!! I have shown them pictures of you all so its only fair! teehee Hope you like them!!



Captain Hitomi













Nao











Miyuki










Eri















Shiho