Those of you who are familiar with Japanese language or food will probably know that 'unagi' is the Japanese word for eel. But did you know that is also means 'double ended dildo'? Well, now you do.
Soo... we've been in teacher training for a week and a half, and it's been very educational, as you can see :D It's been kinda intense, actually. There's lots to take in and by the end of the day I'm usually going 'Ohh, my head...'. In the back of my mind, there's always the thought that I'm going to have to 'perform' this teacher role quite soon, too, and that's kinda scary. But meh... I'm sure it'll go fine. Or rather, I'm sure it'll go horribly the first few times, but it won't be the end of the world.
Our fellow trainees are a pretty good mob. We're a mixed bag, but everyone is willing to get along. On Friday night, we went out to karaoke (no photos I'm afraid - forgot my camera, and my phone camera has no flash :( ). Massive, massive fun times. Oh, the cheese... The highlight was my marvellous rendition of 'I Would Do Anything For Love', accompanied by Sahar, our group's token American. Man, you know that thing where Americans apparently can't read subtitles in movies so they have to dub everything? They can't read karaoke subs either, apparently :P
We were out so late, we had to take a taxi home (I was herding not only Clinton, but also Chris from upstairs). After two or three taxis snobbed us, the boys decided to put the sober person in the front of the group, and we finally found a lovely taxi driver who was happy to take three gaijin home. The Osaka taxi experience is quite a change from getting a cab in Melbourne. The taxi drivers here are all nicely dressed and wear bowties, and the taxis are black and shiny, and have automatic doors. It feels more like rent-a-chauffer.
I'd like to end this post with a very important piece of advice one of the teacher trainers gave the group this week. I think it's something we can all learn from, whatever job we're doing and whatever country we're in:
"Don't put family members into peoples' mouths."
PS I'm sorry, there are still no photos because I thought I'd copied them to my memory stick, but apparently I didn't. Fingers crossed for next time...
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
OMG, We Are Actually in Japan.
Just touching base... The first week has been a bit of a blur. We started the teacher training on Wednesday, and that is intense. We`ve got a cool training group, though, and we`re having a good time. Here are some highlights of Japan so far:
- The first night we were here, we found a tv channel showing a double episode of Monkey Magic. Just like we remembered, minus the bad dubbing (not that it made a lot of difference to following the plot). I sang along, of course.
- The first day we went wandering around downtown Osaka, we wandered into the middle of a sort of cultural festival. We stood around looking bewildered for a few minutes, then a nice girl who spoke English came and explained what was going on. She showed us to a tent where we could try playing a shamisen (a traditional Japanese instrument, kinda like a square, three-stringed banjo but classier). The girl in charge of the shamisen didn`t speak English, so that was interesting... She was very patient though, and I managed to get a few bars of `Sakura` out. Actually, it was kinda like playing Guitar Hero on easy, if easy was really hard (I totally nailed the hammer-off in bar four).
When we left the shamisen tent, I wanted to take a photo of a couple of people hanging out in some awesome traditional get-up. We went over to ask if it was ok to take a pic and they grabbed us and whacked some samurai armour on us, and we ended up in the photo too! Awesome.
- Tonkatsu is delicious. Mmmm, tonkatsu. The first night we moved into our long-term flat (that was Tuesday - we were in a share house for the first three days) we went out and found a tiny local tonkatsu/bar place. The lady and the man running it were really nice, and the tonkatsu was soo good. About halfway through the meal, the guy (who was doing the cooking behind the bar) leaned over and put a plate of mystery fried things between our trays. They were fishy (as in seafood, not suspicious) and crispy and tasty, and on the house. Foreigner freebie! W00t!
- Capsule machines! ZOMG! They are going to eat all my money.
Photos to come later, when I am not in an internet cafe.
Cheers everyone :)
- The first night we were here, we found a tv channel showing a double episode of Monkey Magic. Just like we remembered, minus the bad dubbing (not that it made a lot of difference to following the plot). I sang along, of course.
- The first day we went wandering around downtown Osaka, we wandered into the middle of a sort of cultural festival. We stood around looking bewildered for a few minutes, then a nice girl who spoke English came and explained what was going on. She showed us to a tent where we could try playing a shamisen (a traditional Japanese instrument, kinda like a square, three-stringed banjo but classier). The girl in charge of the shamisen didn`t speak English, so that was interesting... She was very patient though, and I managed to get a few bars of `Sakura` out. Actually, it was kinda like playing Guitar Hero on easy, if easy was really hard (I totally nailed the hammer-off in bar four).
When we left the shamisen tent, I wanted to take a photo of a couple of people hanging out in some awesome traditional get-up. We went over to ask if it was ok to take a pic and they grabbed us and whacked some samurai armour on us, and we ended up in the photo too! Awesome.
- Tonkatsu is delicious. Mmmm, tonkatsu. The first night we moved into our long-term flat (that was Tuesday - we were in a share house for the first three days) we went out and found a tiny local tonkatsu/bar place. The lady and the man running it were really nice, and the tonkatsu was soo good. About halfway through the meal, the guy (who was doing the cooking behind the bar) leaned over and put a plate of mystery fried things between our trays. They were fishy (as in seafood, not suspicious) and crispy and tasty, and on the house. Foreigner freebie! W00t!
- Capsule machines! ZOMG! They are going to eat all my money.
Photos to come later, when I am not in an internet cafe.
Cheers everyone :)
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