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 :)
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3 comments:
Katsudon and currykatsudon are to fucking die for. they're like tonkatsu improved.
o course, a tonkatsu is just a pork schnitzel, which, when i realised this, made me pine for parmas.
oh damn, now im in the mood for parmas.
go team soph and clint!! you can beat japan! they end guy's easy!
Oh my goodness, it sounds great!
So jealous!
Hope the training goes well!
Hooray, you made it! Your blog is too plain vanilla though, it totally needs some photos, or an animated gif of Shredder sobbing as he repeatedly hits a wire fence, realising the futility of his supervillain career where he'll be constantly defeated by four relatively inept teenage turtles who can talk and are also ninjas.
Oh, sorry, I got sidetracked.
Japan! Fun! Take lots of pretty pictures - of the temples, and the cherry blossoms, and the tonkatsu. Hope that Clinton has successfully managed to order coffee and a donut.
Don't forget to ask people if they've seen a guy in a deep green coat.
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