Hanshin Tigers Baseball Lash Weekend 2007

well... i sit here on a tuesday arvo in my BOE, still tired from last weekend's lashing. the beer monkey definitely came out victorious. It all started Friday evening when i drove down to Flinty's for some pre-match beers with some of the usual crowd. i wish they couldve told me when i got there they werent drinking that much because after a lovely bottle of Kobe wine and a few beers, i was in quite a festive mood. Woke up the next morning hungover and with a killer headache. hehe. but that was until most of the boys and i decided to crack open a beer (like any normal person would at 10am) and slowly get into the festive spirit so we could have some great baseball banter. The thing is every year there are two teams, the Hanshin Tigers and the Orix Buffaloes, who have pre-season baseball camps in Kochi and while they are here, they have a couple of exhibition matches both in Aki City (where we went) and in Kochi City. Hanshin (balck and yellow) is usually the stronger of the two teams.

So anyways... once we arrived, we got our tickets from joel and then proceeded with the gun show! Can u feel the burn!
i reckon we had the best view in the stadium, just not the best seats. look behind flinty and i and see how steep the slope was that we were sitting on. we also had to climb up that once the beer was flowing quite regularly. surprisingly enough noone stacked it too badly. hehe.
theres matt, coutney, kaz ad paul (in the black shirt with his ninja armband... ooh scary.. hehe)
here are some of the other JETs who came to watch. they also helped us cheer on Lin and the tigers... well everyone except for arniel. I swear the entire crowd there were going for Hanshin except for arniel (and he copped a bit of shit but he was a good sport about it).
an action shot of the Hanshin Tigers batting ( i think this was Lin). If u look toward the left of the sign u can see a guy dressed in white leading the unsuspecting crowd in the hanshin dance. he was such a spanner but provided all us JETs with some comedy entertainment once the baseball was boring.
there were flag wavers and everything. that old guy almost had a heart attack. get this tho, he is a member of the Private Cheerleading Team for Hanshin. how comedy is that.. damn silly ojiichan.

during the sixth innings before hanshin were to bat, it is tradition at all hanshin games to blow up these big penis shaped balloons

like this

and then they all let go of them. when there are more people around, it looks amazing!

Unfortunately though, Hanshin ending up losing (and the day after in Kochi as well i heard) but for us foreigners we stayed there until the end of the match seeing as tho most Japanese Hanshin fans were all pissing off home with 2 innings to go.

me and jess

anyways, once some of us decided to head back to flinty's for more lashing, we took some fotos, had a cheeky coffee and then got on the train home.

more info on what happens next later. stay tuned!

in the classroom!

I realised i dont ever really take any fotos of some of my classes so when i taught colours to the primary school kids, i decided to make them play Twister. it sounds like an easy lesson, but i had to make at least 3 other twister mats for em to play on. and then getting them all to shut up so i could tell the next person their move was an extra-challenging thing to do. but all in all, the kids had a good time with it, especially if they were sore in the arms and legs. hehe. here are some fotos of the 3rd graders. they have to be my favourite 3 nensei's i teach.
heres one of the mats i made. still useable. i made it out of the paper tablecoths they use at enkais (japanese parties). quite sturdy.
there were some hilarious poses
... especially this girl. but she loved it!! hehe

Were we really that stupid when we were that age?

Today, i had the absolute joy of teaching my favourite 5nensei at Yamada Elementary... NOT! i swear to God they shit me to tears. It makes u wonder what we were like when we were that age.
Today i taught the kids the phrase "How old are you?". Simple enough right. We went through numbers, did a quick game and then went to the main activity which was BINGO. Now, kids here do bingo quite a lot but this was a little different. I made a sheet with nine faces on it, leaving one in the middle blank for the students to draw in their own face. under all the faces was written "I'm _____". I told the kids, after desperately trying to get their attention, to just write their favorite number from 1-12 under their own face. Then i told them to draw their own face. I repeated the just write a number only under ur own face about 5 times and there were still some retarded kids who wrote a number down under all 9 faces!!! DAMN MONGOLOIDS!! how hard is it to follow instructions? i did the same class almost with the 3nensei and they grapsed the whole "write under only ur own face" concept that i had told them time and time again.
Hey, i know this is only a small thing but knowing i have to teach those damn 5th years on monday mornings puts me in a shitty mood for the rest of the day! hehe

Stephen Sensei's Most Listened To # 7

Bondi - COG

well heres a solid live video by COG when they performed on Channel V awhile ago. This is apparently an old song of theirs i recently heard and i havent stopped watching it. its an awesome song. the guys voice is amazing and i still cant believe they can get that sound from just 3 people.

Mountain Boy's Update!

So this weekend mika is going back to Kobe to live there for a bit and save up some money. We're driving there on Saturday and hopefully go out for a couple of drinks or whatnot together before i have to drive back home on Sunday by myself. Its gonna be weird not living with her. i suppose im now too used of someone cleaning the house and cooking most of meals for me...hehe. Mika wishes everyone well and she'll be back for visits every month or so, depending on if she can take holidays. have a good weekend peeps!

Warning: The following engrish may be offensive to ur sense of humour

Not that i have been keeping an eye out for funny english (it just keeps falling in my lap), but i have found a couple of classic shirts which make absolutely no sense. here are said shirts:
For those unfortunate enough not to be able to read this it says: "ALL STEADIES. The taste of a new sense. Anyone is cheerful and safe only with The food 1972 which gives all a dream MASTER COCK. A free feeling thinks that you may take it to all VERY GENTLE PEOPLE. American cherry pie Type 2"
NO MORE CONCENTRATE. If you sould like to come, I will waiting here. We cannot help comming if you are busy. When you get tired, walk slowly. It's OK. But you must over this slope sooner later. After later ～

WHAT THE HELL ARE JAPANESE PEOPLE ON WHEN THEY WRITE UP THIS SHIT?!?!?!?!

Hisashiburi Update

Well, heres what has been happening up my end of the woods lately (and i do mean woods). Lately some difficult decisions have had to be made, some not yet decided.

On the positive side, i have signed the recontracting papers meaning i will be staying yet another year on the JET programme in the inaka until august next year. From there, i dont know yet.

Mika and i are doing well but we both decided that for now it would be better for her to go back to Kobe temporarily so she can save some money up. She hasnt managed to find a job here in the 6months shes been here (or hasnt tried.....i dont know) so for now, shes going back. she got her old job at the video shop which is good. I'm not a big fan of the whole idea at the moment but think that some time away from each other at the moment would be good for the both of us.
Also, just yesterday i bought a return ticket to Australia to see my family and friends. got it pretty cheap too (or so i thought until i got raped by the departure and airport tax), the ticket cost me 67000yen ($700) and it all up ended costing me 114000yen ($1140). but hey thats pretty good seeing as tho i'll be able to be home with the family for the easter long weekend! i'll be gone from the 4th April till about the 14th April. YAY!!

So not much else has been happening of late other than work and occasionally hitting the japanese beer with the boys. but have been mostly trying to save up some coin because women are bloody expensive creatures. hehe

hope everyone is doing well! keep in touch peeps!