Speed King

Last week (Friday 22nd Sept) I had to attend a 2 hour road safety lecture before I could renew my Japanese driving license which I have held for the last 3 years. Although I did not understand much of the lecture, the messages seemed similar to those in Britain. Wear a seatbelt, don't drink and drive, don't drive whilst talking on the phone, watch your speed............no problem to an excellent driver like myself.

Tuesday started as an ordinary day. Got up. Had breakfast. Showered. Drove to school. Just after crossing a bridge in the next town called Tajima, I was signalled to pull over by two policemen wearing high vis clothing and holding luminous yellow batons. Oh dear......looks like I've just been caught speeding. Damm! I wasn't very happy to be caught but I guess it was only matter of time.

The speed limit for that section of road was 50km/h - they clocked me doing 75km/h and I consider that speed to be rather fortunate. Japanese speed limits are ridiculously low and everyone breaks them by at least 10km/h. It's an unwritten rule that everyone can drive 10km/h over the speed limit without chance of being stopped by the police. I was unlucky. I was driving a new route so I did not have the local knowledge that would have saved me. I was also at a disadvantage in not knowing that the police were cracking down on speeders this week.

I parked up my car, gave them my license, and was then told to sit in a police van (with 5 other speed kings) to answer some questions and complete the paperwork. The policeman was very apologetic when he handed me the ¥18,000 fine (90 quid). Ouch!!

I don't feel any malice towards the policemen who stopped me. They were really friendly and polite and I realise they were only doing their jobs. Hopefully I won't have to speak to them again.

A Beautiful Day

Today was an exceptionally beautiful day in Shimogo. The weather was perfect and it reminded me of my summer holidays when I was growing up on the Isle of Skye. I took advantage of the weather and cycled up my favourite mountain along with my new camera (despite its size and weight).

The mountains were lovely and peaceful and the sky was blue with some scattered clouds. Towards the top of the mountain, it started to get cold - a sure sign that we are now in autumn.

I usually enjoy the scenery and peacefulness of the mountains the most but today was certainly the exception. When I returned to Shimogo, I decided to take a cycle through the nearby rice fields as it was obvious by the high level of activity that the locals had started to harvest the rice. The fields looked lovely in the sun and it was really interesting to see the farmers going about their business. I'd like spend a day helping someone harvesting their rice so that I can have a greater understanding of what is involved in harvesting rice in Japan.Hopefully there will be many more autumn days like today. I really do not feel like going to work tomorrow - I want to get outside again and enjoy the beautiful weather as much as possible.

Arakai JHS and Hisawa JHS

My new job involves me rotating between two junior high schools every 2 weeks. The schools are called Arakai JHS and Hisawa JHS. There is really not much to tell to be honest. The job I am doing is very similar to the job I had at Shimogo JHS, although I seem to be slightly busier.

The schools are both very small with approximately 70 students in each. The students seem to be generally much quieter than I was used to in Shimogo JHS although they all seem really nice. I hope I can get them to come out of their shells a bit more.

Although the students in the schools are very similar, the teachers in each school are very different. In one school the teachers seem really happy and relaxed whilst the other school staff room feels like a library. Teachers rarely talk to each other, and if they do so, it is in whispers. That school feels like a library.

I guess I will be fairly happy to work at these schools for the next 7 months - it's not long and there will be different events that will break the monotony. I also have quite a lot of elementary school visits which I have come to really enjoy.

British Hills

I cycled to a place called British Hills today - only about 60km of cycling but quite difficult as the place is at quite a high altitude. British Hills is a recreation of a British country village with a castle, pub, and other British style houses. The weather even felt British, due to the altitude. I am very impressed with British Hills as all the buildings look authentic and they organise a large number of British themed events throughout the year. All the staff speak English and many come from Britain.

I've been to British Hills many times - the place always seems busy and the guests and visitors always seem to have a good time. I visited British Hills 3 times with my old school (Shimogo JHS) and the students all seemed to benefit from the experience. The school trips typically lasted 3 days and the students were able to take part in different classes and activities that gave them a good idea on the British way of life.

Of course, every time I have visited British Hills, I've gone straight to the pub to take part in the very popular British tradition of getting drunk.

Despite the cold and windy conditions at British Hills, the rest of the cycling journey took place in clear weather with a temperature of about 30C. I was pretty exhausted when I reached Shimogo and stopped off at a new(ish) cafe called Doronko for a beer. Doronko is great because it serves my favourite Japanese beer called Yebisu. After the 60km cycle in hot conditions, the beer was fantastic!! Work at my new schools has been okay so far - I'll try and post a blog later in the week with my thoughts and photos.

Back in Shimogo

After my travels to the Philippines and around Japan, I was really looking forward to returning to my life in Shimogo. I missed my regular cycling trips and am starting to get excited about the skiing season (in another 4 months time). I still have a few days holiday before my next job begins and so I decided to take my camera with me on some short cycle trips and try and capture some images which are typical of Shimogo at this time of year. I'm also really looking forward to September and October - the weather will be much cooler and should let me complete some long cycle trips which I have been thinking about. Watch this space!

The top picture shows a rice field which appears ready for harvesting - that means Shimogo will become a hive of activity in the near future. I'll have plenty is look at and photograph during my after work and weekend cycling trips. Shimogo rice is very nice to eat and we have been lucky enough to have been given several large sacks during the course of our 3 year stay. It's amazing how long a sack of rice lasts. Whilst taking some pictures of the rice fields, I noticed that a little friend had slithered near to my feet. I'm not sure if the snake is poisonous, but I kept my distance, just in case.
It has been quite a long time (1 month) since I have done any serious exercise, so I found cycling really tiring this week. It has also been very hot during the day and I found myself running out of water before I had even reached the half way point on my cycling routes. As a result, I decided to shorten the distance cycled and do a bit of sightseeing. I cycled away from the main road and found some delightful and interesting little settlements. Whenever I cycle down small country roads for the first time, I am always pleasantly surprised at what I find and I will make a mental note to myself to explore as many nooks and crannies in Shimogo as possible. I viewed many lovely rice fields, trees, vegetable fields, and fields of Cosmos flowers. The Cosmos flower can be seen in many parts of Japan - Cosmos is a Greek word which means harmony or ordered universe.

I start my new job on Friday the 1st of September. I'll work in two Junior High Schools for 8 months. I'm not really looking forward to it to be honest - I get the feeling the job will be little different from what I've done over the last few years. However, it will only be for 8 months so I'll bite the bullet and get on with it. I'll try and give you an update on my thoughts next week.

Road Trip

Unfortunately, we had to cancel our planned trip to Nagasaki at the last minute because of a typhoon. It was a shame but I will visit Nagasaki one day - I really wanted visit the old house of Thomas Glover, a famous Scot who once lived in Japan and who was instrumental in making his adopted country one of the world's leading industrial powers.

Instead of Nagasaki, we drove to many places to the North West of Tokyo (around the area marked with the blue arrow). We saw so many places, but only for a very short time - it feels like I never actually went to these places at all. I have to say that my patience was wearing slightly thin at being in the car for between 8 and 10 hours each day. Clara was well behaved though and never complained, although she did ask if we could make more stops to the many beaches we passed during our epic journey. Still, I am lucky to have seen more of Japan, however brief our stops were.

We stayed in a very nice hotel at a place called Hida Takayama. Hida Takayama has some old style Japanese streets which have wooden houses and shops. The area was quite charming and Clara really enjoyed her 15 minute rickshaw ride. The area seems to be famous for selling wooden goods - I was quite tempted to pick up a few nice pairs of chopsticks but some were quite expensive. After our tour of the 'old town', we retreated back to the hotel and Clara decided she wanted to paddle in a small stream outside our hotel (while Yuki was doing more shopping).

The next day, we drove to an extremely famous town in Japan called Shirakawa Go. This town is also a World Heritage Site and makes frequent appearances in calendars on sale in Japan. It was lovely to see, but the weather was scorching and there were so many tourists around. I would love to visit the town again in winter - I'm sure the houses would look fantastic when they are covered in a layer of snow. After Shirakawa Go, we travelled up the Noto Peninsula and stopped off at more picturesque places. Senmaida was lovely and it was interesting to see all the tiny rice fields (terraced) there. Terracing is said to exist so that the local people (for many generations) could make most efficient use of their land. It is said that the smallest rice field can fit under one farmer's hat. The other main highlight of the trip was visiting the seaside and looking at an island called Mitsukejima. This island has the nickname Gunkanjima - Warship Island in English (for obvious reasons). Our final destination was Nagano (the place which held the 1998 Winter Olympics). Nagano seemed nice enough and I hope to go skiing there one day in the future. Nagano is famous in Japan for the wine produced there. I also noticed another local product which is not as appetising - honey with a massive bee (which looks like a wasp) floating in the jar!!

After our short visit to Nagano, it was time to make the relatively short journey back to Tokyo. In Tokyo, I went to Ochanomizu Station to look at the many ski shops there and I also met a couple of Japanese friends who I knew in Scotland. It was time to return to Shimogo.

The Philippines

I went to the Philippines between the 3rd and the 10th of August and spent the first couple of nights in Manila (though I never actually left the hotel). After my brother arrived, we took a car up to a city in the north (about 2 hours drive). I spent a lot of my time drinking San Miguel beer which is a famous product of the Philippines. I have to say that it was an extremely nice beer that never quite got me drunk even though it has a 5% strength. I can understand why so much beer is drunk by foreigners in the Philippines - the place can be very hot and each bottle only costs about 50 pesos i.e about 50p or ¥100.

I visited the airstrip a few times to watch the planes taking off and landing and I even went up once in a Cessna and practiced some takes offs and landings myself. It was a good experience flying the Cessna although I don't think I'd ever consider flying as a serious hobby - it seems far too expensive. I'll stick to mountain biking and skiing, at least until I make my first million. Do you recognise the pilot in the plane taking off? Nevertheless, it was pretty good to fly the plane but also quite scary at times. I think the scariest moment was looking out the thin aircraft door and seeing people walking about on the roads below. All good fun, even when the instructor showed me a power off landing!The airfield can look pretty small when your gliding towards it with no power. Maybe I'll try flying again one day.....

Another thing I did was go to the firing range to use a pistol (Beretta 9mm) which belonged to the Chief of Police. I was trained by their very own SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) trainer. I was pretty nervous to be holding a loaded pistol to be honest but I was with experienced professionals so there was minimal risk. After a firing demonstration by the SWAT trainer, he loaded the pistol with one bullet and let me fire the weapon at a distant target on the firing range. On the target, he stuck a bottle top in the very centre (which he did not manage to hit with his first 3 bullets). I took a shot and hit the bottle top first time - talk about beginners luck!! Needless to say, I did not hit the bottle top again for the rest of the evening. Again, firing the pistol was an interesting experience but not something that I will ever do again. However, the Chief told me that next time he'll arrange for me to fire an M16 Armalite - hmmm.

The Philippines was an extremely interesting place to visit and I have many good memories. Perhaps the most enduring memory was that of the Philippinos themselves - it is rare to meet such friendly and welcoming people. A big thank you to Shirley for the sauerkraut.

Birthday Party

I had a joint birthday party on Saturday the 29th of July. My birthday was on July 23rd while Nari (beside me in the back row) celebrated his birthday on the day of the party itself. The party was held at the usual local restaurant called Wakatsuki which is always good quality. The food was very nice (including venison) and there was plenty of beer and wine to drink.

My only problem is that I get drunk too easily these days. I think I need to drink at a slower pace and make an effort to fill my stomach with sufficient quantities of food. I was lucky enough to receive some equipment for my camera and a nice hand fan (useful in the Japanese summers) as birthday presents. Thanks to the Sato family for organising the party.

I've been fairly busy today (Monday). I went to the Board of Education to receive a certificate of thanks from the Shimogo Mayor and I also received envelopes of money from my colleagues. Giving envelopes containing money when someone leaves a job seems to be the tradition in Japan. When a person receives money from colleagues, it becomes their responsibility to return a gift as thanks (at about half the cost of the money received). I'll be busy looking for suitable gifts to buy. I have to say that during my 3 years at Shimogo BoE, I've always been treated very well.

I will travel to Tokyo on Wednesday morning and probably spend a few hours doing some shopping in Shinjuku. I would like to buy some books and a few others things before I fly to the Philippines on Thursday night (August 3rd).

I think my next blog update will be on August 11th or 12th and will give you all my stories about my trip to the Philippines. Bye for now.

Tajima Gionsai

We went to Tajima today to see a festival called Gionsai. The weather was lovely and I thought it would be a good chance to test out my new camera for the first time. I have now managed to load all the software into the PC and now it is time to start using the new camera with a vengeance.

I'm fairly pleased with the results so far. The colours seem to have been reproduced extremely vividly and I think the quality compared to my last camera is much improved. What do you think? The picture at the top shows a takoyaki stall. Takoyaki (octopus balls in batter) is an extremely popular Japanese snack. I saw at least 10 takoyaki stalls at the festival today. The other photos are of Clara messing about on one of the floats used in the festival parade.

Goodbye Shimogo JHS

That's me semi officially finished work at Shimogo JHS. I feel sad to leave the students but relieved that my 3 years on JET has come to an end. Don't get me wrong - I had many great experiences but it certainly is the right time to move on. I'll visit Shimogo JHS for a few hours next week to help coach some of the students for the upcoming speech contest in August and then that'll be me finished.

I was again deeply touched by the students kindness towards me. Many wrote letters of thanks to me and many actually gave me gifts e.g. beer, face towels, pens, key rings, cards etc. I guess they wouldn't do these things if they didn't like me so it was nice to get this positive feedback from the students in my final week of classes. They're really a great bunch!!

A week at work would not be the same without some form of irritation. On Tuesday I was informed that my school farewell party would be held on Thursday night. Thanks for telling me in advance! I had other plans on Thursday and so couldn't attend my own farewell party. Thanks for the notice. I was pretty peed off about it to be honest, but after 3 years I'm used to this kind of thing.

I've posted a few photos from my final classes. The top picture is a 1st grade class, the middle picture a 2nd grade class, and the bottom picture shows a 3rd grade class. Good memories.

The Hike, the Japanese Inn, the Lost Key.....

On Saturday the 15th of July, I set off with two colleagues (Akitaka and Shoichi) for a hike and overnight stay in a mountainous area called Nasu. On Saturday, we left Shimogo at about 8am and drove to a remote car park from where we would begin our trek. It has been the rainy season in Japan for about the last 6 weeks and on Saturday it was pouring down.

We set off in the rain but were unconcerned as our plan was to hike only about 4 hours on the first day of the trip. We reached the Japanese inn at about 1pm and I immediately noticed the smell of sulphur (due to the high volcanic activity in the area). After 15 minutes, the smell of sulphur faded and I did not notice it again for the duration of our stay.
The inn is situated in a small clearing surrounded by dense forest and is only accessible by foot. I believe that supplies are flown to the inn by helicopter. We were extremely happy to change into some dry clothes and to escape from the heavy rain. After we were shown to our small tatami mat room at the corner of one the buildings we paid ¥8,000 each (about GBP 40), got organised, cooked some lunch in our room, and drank some beer. We also found time to take a bath in the rotenburo - an outdoor bath heated by geothermal energy. It was lovely to sit in the boiling hot water and look across the forested valleys to the mountains in the distance. A special memory.
The dinner drum sounded at 5pm, signalling us to move to the dining hall.

After dinner, we returned to our room for some more beer and banter. The generator was switched off at 9pm, so we had to continue our party using torchlight. I slept extremely well that night - probably because of the fresh mountain air and the 12 cans of Japanese beer which I managed to drink.

The next morning, after another visit to the rotenburo, we set off after breakfast. We decided to take a circular route back to the car park as this would allow us to reach the summits of several nearby mountains. The weather was okay at the start of the hike but deteriorated as the day wore on. When we reached the car after 8 hours of walking, we were again soaked but in good spirits and looking forward to returning to the comforts of our homes. Unfortunatelyy Shoichi had lost the car key which meant another considerable walk towards Shimogo!! It was raining and the day and my mood were both beginning to darken. We eventually managed to call Yuki once we received a signal on Akitaka's mobile phone and were picked from a dark forest road at about 6.30pm.

Despite the lost key and heavy rain, the weekend was a great success and I would love to visit the area again sometime in the future.

Things are starting to wind down with my job at Shimogo JHS. I'm really looking forward to my trip to Nagasaki and my week in the Philippiness. I'm also hoping that the rainy season will end soon - it's really starting to get me down and it feels to have lasted much longer than in previous years.

Olympus E-500

I'm hoping that the quality of pictures on this blog will dramatically improve as I'm now the proud owner of a new Olympus E-500 digital SLR camera. This camera was a gift from the Minami Aizu education office for my 3 years service in the JET Programme. Unfortunately, the manual is in Japanese so it might take me some time to work out how to take a decent photograph.

We had our official goodbye party on Friday night in a place called Baichikan in Tajima Town. Along with my camera, I received a certificate and a bunch of flowers (which I promptly gave away to another English teacher).

The party was nice enough but a bit of an anticlimax. After the party, all the other ALTs and myself headed off to karaoke for a short time and then it was time to go home.

This will be my final week at Shimogo JHS before my contract comes to an end. I'll be sad saying goodbye to the students but I'm sure I'll bump into some of them during my final 8 months in Shimogo.

This week has started in a relaxed fashion as today is a Japanese national holiday called Marine Day. Japan has a total of 14 national holidays - Marine Day is the newest and started in 1996 as a day to celebrate the sea.

Elementary School Sayonaras

Things are starting to draw to a close with my current job in Shimogo. I have now visited all the elementary schools for the last time. I was pretty sad to say goodbye to all the students as they've all been great fun to teach for the last 3 years. The pictures I have posted are from the 3 different elementary schools which I have visited over the last 3 years.

At the schools, I received many lovely messages from the students and some great pictures. Two of the schools held large leaving ceremonies and I felt sad to no longer be their teacher.

However, I leave the elementary schools with many happy memories and a feeling of satisfaction at a job well done. The elementary school teaching has generally been a success and provided great job satisfaction.

I have a farewell party to attend tomorrow night and then I'm going hiking on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday we'll have a new car delivered (which we are leasing for 8 months). Next week will be my final week at Shimogo JHS.

Crazy Kim

Last night I saw 2 JASDF (Japanese Air Self defense Force) F-4 Phantoms flying at medium height and at high speed over Shimogo at about 7pm. It is very unusual to see these planes over Shimogo (especially at that height and time) but it certainly perked up my evening.

Recently, there has been a lot of regional tension regarding the development of long range missiles in North Korea which are capable of hitting targets in Japan and the USA. For several weeks, Japan and the USA have been aware of missile test preparations going on in North Korea. The new missile has been called the Taepodong 2.

Sure enough, the test fire took place at 3.30am i.e. 8.5 hours after I saw the F-4 planes fly over Shimogo. I have come to the conclusion that the Japanese Government and military were aware the test was going to take place and therefore raised their level of readiness.

Another interesting fact worth speculating on is that the Taepodong 2 missile failed after 40 seconds in flight. It is highly possible that this missile failed due to a technical problem. I think it is also possible that this missile failed due to some sort of covert interference from the USA. The USA has been spending vast amounts of dollars over the last few years to develop ways to defeat North Korean missiles. Money has been spent on anti-missile missiles, microwave weapons to destroy sensitive electronics, and airborne laser technology. Did we see the first application of such technology when the North Korean missile exploded in flight last night?

North Korea always features in the Japanese news programmes. Over the last few decades, many Japanese people (and South Koreans) have been abducted to North Korea, there have been disputes regarding the exploitation of mineral rights in the Sea of Japan, North Korea has a highly active currency forgery programme, and Kim Il Song's son was arrested trying to get into Tokyo Disneyland. Of greatest concern is the current North Korea nuclear weapons programme.North Korea looks set to feature in news programmes for many years to come.

No Stabilisers

Clara and I went to the park in Shimogo on Saturday. Saturday was the day when Clara would try and ride her bike with no stabilisers for the first time. I was expecting a stressful afternoon with a lot of tears. In the end, there were only a few tears and I have to say that she did surprisingly well.

After giving Clara my expert advice, she decided that she no longer needed my help. She told me she wanted me to sit on a far away bench while she honed her skills. She fell off only once and then after a short period of fatherly support, she hopped on her bike with renewed and steely determination.

Well done Clara!! Another important milestone in life has been reached and breached.

I have a fairly routine week ahead. I will be at Egawa Primary School and Narahara Primary School on Monday. There are no classes at Shimogo JHS on Tuesday or Wednesday as the students have end of term tests. On Tuesday I'll do some tidying at Shimogo JHS and on Wednesday I'll have another couple of classes at Egawa Primary School. Thursday will be a normal work day at Shimogo JHS and then on Friday I'll be at Shimogo JHS in the morning and Egawa Primary School in the afternoon.