Happy Belated Valentine`s Day!

Ryan and I (complete with scary eyes)
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Hello, Well as promised, I kept falling over during my snowboarding trip in Gifu Prefecture (north of Japan's main island Honshu)! However, by the end of the end, I'd managed to stay on my board for a whole minute! The whole day was fun but the 16 hr round trip on the bus and the lack of sleep was not its best feature! Yet, we got to the top of the slopes at 6am to see the sun rise and spent the whole day navigating our way through the crowds that had gathered. There’s nothing more humbling than when a 3 yr old kids zoom past you on skis!

Ski bunnies!
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Japan has been going Valentine's Day crazy in the past few weeks. Like us, they celebrate Valentine's Day on February 14th, but the tradition in Japan is for women to (in their own words) "prepare the chocolates" i.e. make chocolate truffles from scratch. has also become an obligation for many women to give chocolates to all male co-workers. In Japan this is known as giri-choko (義理チョコ), (="obligation chocolate"). This contrasts with honmei-choko; chocolate given to a loved one. Friends, especially girls, may exchange chocolate referred to as tomo-choko (友チョコ)- (“friend chcolate). I was pleased to recevice loads of tomo-choko on Valentine’s Day as they come so beautifully wrapped yet didn’t eat any…….

We were at the top of the slope even before the sun rose!
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I did a Valentine's Day quiz at one of my schools the other day using English money to bet with and the kids were all amazed that we didn't have "White Day" on March 14th. This is the day when it’s the man’s turn to give women presents (usually more expensive, a worldwide trend it seems!). Yet, it doesn't end there. In other countries such as Korea, April 14th is "Black Day' for people who didn't get any Valentine's Day presents. On this day they wear black and eat black food....strange!

Beautiful views from the top
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I know I constantly write about the weather in my updates (must be my English background) but the weather in Japan is crazy! Just a few weeks ago, it was so cold and recently, it has soo windy and really warm. Apparently it's the "3 winds" that occur before Spring. Just last night I was woken by my first thunderstorm in Japan. I actually thought that bombs were exploding in Susami as it was so loud!

The past few weekends, I’ve been further exploring my local area and went to a zoo/attraction park called “Adventure World” which was Japan’s version of “Sea World”. Loads of people were there to see the new baby pandas and people were even riding rhinos and giraffes! Health and safety laws aren’t exactly strict over here! We saw a seal show and they even got all the animals to bow to the audience. It’s always weird to think there are animals that understand Japanese! This past weekend I spent the day at Urashima which is a famous (by Wakayama standards at least) hotel resort with 6 onsen (hot springs). We went to the cave and jungle onsen and visited the onsen overlooking the ocean which was so pretty. The strange thing about these places is that, when you tell people that you went, they are all so impressed, even though it takes 30mins/an hr on the train. No one ever seems to go anywhere in Susami! A lot of my (12yr old) students though that The Great Wall of China was in my neighbouring city!

All dressed up and ready to go!
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After a day of pampering ourselves in the onsen, we went to play a popular pastime amongst the Japanese, PACHINKO! It’s like a combined pinball and slot machine into which you put tiny silver balls and try to get them into holes to score points. Pachinko parlours are really popular in Japan. They are large smoky rooms that are so loud that you barely hear yourself speaking. Some people stay in there ALL night smoking (one of the few places where people can legally smoke all they want), having paid extortionate sums for huge crates of silver balls to play with. If you win enough points, you can exchange them for cash at the end but not in the parlous themselves as gambling is technically illegal in Japan. Therefore, you have to go to some shady back street shop to do so. To be honest, it’s a stupidly complicated process to play a really boring game! It was definitely something different but I don’t think I’ll be in too much of a rush to do it again any time soon!

So beautiful up there!
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My students are still working hard and are preparing for their graduation. In fact the other day prospective students came to my Junior High School to have a mock lesson. Students graduating from Junior High have just found out whether or not they passed the High School examination tests and many are stressing about it. My teachers were talking about Juku (cram schools) the other day and how these schools apply way too much pressure on the kids. Juku are special private schools (primarily in Japan) that offer lessons after regular school hours and on the weekends. Some of my students (9th grade) fall asleep in class as they are exhausted from the constant studying (or maybe it’s my teaching methods, lol) so I’m trying to make their lessons more enjoyable before they leave for High School. I’m working the 8th graders (13 year olds) hard though and doing group translation work with them. Yet, a big hurdle to overcome is the teachers’ favourite expression “It’s too difficult for them” which is a thinly veiled way to say “it’s to difficult for me” but they are becoming more supportive, especially when they see how much the kids are improving!

Group shot
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My next journal update will be about SUMO wrestling! Just booked tickets to see the Osaka Championships. There are 4 main Championships every year which rotate between Fukuoka, Tokyo and Osaka. It’ll also be St. Patrick’s Day so I am sure that we will find some gaijin to help us celebrate!

Sending you all lots of love….speak soon! Sara xxx