Sports Day and My Five Cents Worth

So its that time of the year again, time for the schools sports day! My Junior High will be having their sports day with my primary school here in Odochi as there are only a grand total of 120 kids between the two schools. They have been preparing for this endlessly for over a month now and i swear to u the kids must be sick of it. hehe. Nah seriously, all this preparation really takes the fun out it so much that by the day of the event, the kids honestly dont care who wins and who loses. And that is such a shame to see. The other day i asked a kid if they were looking forward to it and they asked the teacher why they really had to go to it.... hehe.

I dont know why, but i was way more excited last year about it than this year coz i know what to expect. Dont get me wrong, it is worth going to check out, but only if u havent been involved in the organisation of the day ie. parents. Some of the events here are fun to do, but have no real purpose. Do you really want kids to be good at throwing a hoola-hoop over some kids head or pulling some kid around on a tyre? Its really just about getting the kids to run in a straight line to the next event and how to clap properly and continuously overuse the word GANBARE!!!!

I saw something on the news awhile ago saying that the level of the kids at school in sport is slowly declining. Kids are becoming really shit at PE!! How the hell can that happen? PE is without a doubt the best subject to do at school. Now, I know that not all kids are good at sports but come on. But think about it, how much time do kids in japan have to run around? Yes, they do have club activities after school, but after that they go home, do their homework, PLAY VIDEO GAMES, eat dinner, WATCH TV/PLAY VIDEO GAMES and then go to sleep. This is just a generalisation but i assume thats what most kids do in japan (if its like OZ).

Their weekend consists of going to school for over half a day on Saturday and then they have the rest of the weekend to do whatever they want. But by this stage, theyre too tired to do anything so they do fuck all (which is really the only thing there is to do in the inaka).

They had a whole day rehearsal of their sports day last Tuesday (a day of my life i will never get back) and watching the kids i was surpised by what i saw. Now, i know theyre just kids but come on, FUCKING RUN!! they had co-ed races and a lot of the boys got their arses kicked by the girls in the running races. call me sexist but, that aint right! it could be lack of motivation by the whole long gruelling process of preparing for the day or they are just honestly...well.... shit.

Whatever it is, something needs to done and fast. I know Japan is addressing this problem but how they go about it, i dont know.

Lano & Woodley's "The Island" Theme song

heres a bloody hilarious vid i found from the Aussie comedy duo Lano & Woodley. They are really popular in Australia and are like a slapstick comedy team. They had a show called The Island which they toured Australia with and its about them getting stranded on a deserted island. This song is the theme song for the show! its really catchy and worth watching over and over again.

A good reason why there are ALT'S

I received a lovely fax from the person in charge of the English classes at Yamada Primary the other day letting me know my class schedule for this term. Her English is shitty but at least she tries and u can sort of understand what shes trying to say. She is also the special needs students teacher and she also wanted to also ask me about things we can do during their classes e.g. hand-make ice cream etc. This is what she wrote to me:

Dear Stephen,
How are you?
The day of rain continues.
However, it wishes the day when it makes ice cream and the day of the athletic meet to want you to clear up.
Are you interested in the paper folding? Because an interesting book was found, it this time introduces it.

We are looking forward to seeing you.

School lunch will be served you.

......hehe. absolute comedy! No wonder they need ALTs to work in primary schools.

a bit of good news

I think Mika has got the job and the convenience store is just waiting for her to give an answer, YAY or NAY. Fortunately, and after a lot of discussion between the two of us, she has decided to give it a go....at least until she finds something better. the main reason shes going to do it is because it is probably the closest casual job she can find. and that she hasnt really gotten off her arse properly to find a good one. But jobs around here are really hard to come by and the hourly working rate is fairly cheap in Kochi Prefecture you see. So congrats Mika and i hope you can hang in there........

Ganbare Mika!

Recently, on one of my occasional trips to the local conbini, which is a 15min drive away, i noticed that they were looking for people to work there and immediately told Mika about it. I know its not her ideal job (but its fairly easy) but she called them up about it today and she has an interview tomorrow for a job there. The hourly isnt that crash hot but good luck Mika and i hope u get it. My wallet says good luck too......hehe.

Are some Japanese people really this stupid?

today, while waiting in between classes, the math teacher at Yamada Primary came up to me and asked me with a dead serious face if we had LIGHTNING in Australia. What a fucking retard! No, apparently Australia is another planet with a completely different weather than Japan. I didnt say that to him, just looked at him with a "are you serious?" face and said, "Yes, of course!" and then pissed off to class!

Memories of a K-Truck

The day after Flintys birthday bash the weekend before last, i took mika back to kobe so she could help look after her nephew who came from Nara to visit for a few days and to pick up her scooter bike and bring it back to Kochi. Items needed were:
- plenty of Aquarius (due to the large hangover)
- the essentials in clothing
- Mika
- rope
- a tarp mat
- road map
- money
- a rental K-truck (mini truck)

God, for those who know me know how much i love shitbox K-cars and it hurt me to book one and drive all the way to kobe and back in it. The result was a little Mazda K-truck.

it has to be the most uncomfortable car in the world, and is definitely not made for tall gaijin! U cant put the seat back as u have a wall right behind u so u r left sitting upright and with ur legs spread out. to make matters worse, it only had an AM radio so i couldnt hook any music up to the car.......banging!!

We drove to Kobe and arrived late on Saturday night and then i had to get up and leave back for Kobe at 9am to get the P.O.S (Piece of Shit) back to the rentacar lot, late that arvo while mika remained in Kobe. lucky! We got the bike up on the truck, tied it up and then i left

i had a ball riding the POS back as it can really go fast and is it quiet drive. i swear i thought it had a lawnmower for an engine!

REEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

shit all over K-cars!!!

so i got the bike back in one piece after it decided to fall over a couple of times on the inaka roads where there wasnt anyone to help u tie it back up

but it was worth it as mika's scooter is awesome fun to ride! U just have to watch out for those bloody Lawsons!

flintys birthday bash small vids 6

whenever ur at matts on the lash, u know we're all starting to get a bit tipsy (hehe) when the guitar comes out! happy birthday matt!

flintys birthday bash small vids 5

Dee and Karen are telling us how shit the bananas are and flinty is giving us some lovely poses, thinking i was actually taking a foto of him.... comedy!

flintys birthday bash small vids 4

this is Karl, showing us how he can dance! hahaha! GO SON!! ... (more)

flintys birthday bash small vids3

we played a drinking game where if u lost u had to act like a seal, sounds and all. this is paul my attempt.....comedy. probably the only one who could do it properly...hehe

flintys birthday bash small vids2

we played a drinking game where if u lost u had to act like a seal, sounds and all. this is mika's attempt.....comedy

flintys birthday bash small vids

we played a drinking game where if u lost u had to act like a seal, sounds and all. this is paul the wall's attempt.....comedy

Flinty's Birthday Lash

Somehow the theme was u had to bring some beginning with 'M' so Mika and I brough a Mickey Mouse and Mr Incredible mask, Milo and a magnetic dart board

Mr Incredible (matt) and Mickey(???)

The winner of the best 'M' present went to Dave and Fumi, although they werent very original in bringing in a mat.

Paul got 2nd prize and got a monkey face mask set (notice he is wearing the nose on his knob!)

we saw it! we saw it!

who are these guys?

ud be surprised and a bit scared to know that that is actually Milia and Karen under those masks

hehe

me and karl...legends!

happy bday mate

still bragging about the monkey costume

the guitar came out and Karl felt that there needed to be drums as well.

did you hear that noise? oh yeah, its us waking up most of karen and matts neighbours

.....true love.... hehe

karen and I proving that i actually can still smile for fotos while drunk (there ya go mum)

Mika and Fumi became quite good friends. big shock tho is fumi is actually a couple of years older than mika



Mark, Milia and Sim(?)

We were still going into the wee hours of the morning and decided to leave flintys for a bit. Karl decided it would be a great idea to tie the monkey tail around his waist to make it look like he had a .............

we werent drunk at all

And a big thanks to the night staff at the lawson for letting us use their car park at the end of the night whilst flinty had passed out back at his pad.