Last Day at Joyo Elementary

I am still amazed every time I go to this school. They have a brass band which would easily rival the military bands that walk down the streets in city parades. Simple amazing. Remember, these kids are no older than 12 years old. Their band not only plays amazing music, but also does a marching routine while they play! The routine also includes dancers with flags and free dancing! Here they are practising before school.

I had my usual number of 3 classes for the day, nothing out of the ordinary. However, Mr Kosaka planned a Goodbye party for me with his 2nd grade class. This picture is him and written on the board is "Jodi sensei's farewell party". I really enjoyed working with him (he accompanied me to the other classes too), as he speaks really good English and has a great sense of humour. The class party was really cute.

First they all played a song for me on their (creepy) mouth organs. It was great! Then they sang a song for me. Next they had some time to make me a gift (mostly origami which I collected in a big bag!). Some students drew a picture of me. It was super cute. Last of all we had a group photo. It was such a lovely way to end my time at Joyo Elementary...easily my favourite school. Sayonara minasan.

The Last Japanese Cooking Lesson

This was by far the easiest and quickest cooking lesson EVER!

Yumiko brought pre-prepared salads and mixed rice (made by herself of course) and the already cut and beautifully presented vegetable platter ready for the nabe pot, Shabu Shabu style. So all we had to do was turn on the stove, boil some water and then chuck everything in and wait for it to boil.

We had Chinese cabbage, carrot, leek, tofu, 3 kinds of mushrooms and pork. It was really delicious. An although we were only eating small amounts at a time, we were pretty full way before the shabu shabu was finished!

For a special dessert Yumiko baked a coffee cake for Jono's and my farewell. She took cake making classes for 2 years, so the cake tasted pretty good (even if it wasn't chocolate!). So thus ends our Japanese fortnightly, 800 yen cooking classes and dinner. It was a great opportunity and we are thankful for all Yumiko's hard work. We'll certainly think of her every time we use one of her recipes.

Himeji City Book of Records

Category:
" Most bikes stolen from one household within a 7 day period"
Winners: #302 Shirasagi Residence

Jodi Whitfield & Jono Gardner...

RECORD: 3 bikes

So lightning not only struck once, but 3 times! Lucky us! All stolen from the identical spot.

Photos from the archives...
You may well be wondering where the third bike came from? Well, it was one we were borrowing from Katie and Joe!

I don't think i'm ready for that jelly

For cultural reference see Destiny's child... Who would have thought the three song stresses (is that really a word?) who like to shake their butts through pure water (actually... wrong cultural reference, think that was British group All Saints, but I digress) would have written lyrics so profound. Though I would have liked them to be more definite... SO if I looked like Beyonce (and believe me there are plenty of of people that wish I did!) and was rewriting "bootylicious" I would have said "I am definitely not ready for that jelly!"

This blog started in February... When I say February that's when it started in my head... and has taken 11 months to make it this far. Upon visiting a convenience store I was looking for a drink. I didn't really want anything carbonated so went for the "Weider multi-vitamin". I thought it sounded delicious and quite nutritious. So imagine my face when after sucking on the straw I got lumps... I though maybe it was off (for Cultural reference see Wadey drinking milk from Jono's fridge at 3 in the morning)... but no, it was just jelly! At least a little liquefied but only due to the fact that apparently it was a phenomenal multi vitamin did I continue and eventually finish. As a side note I have prepared myself for that Jelly and have decided that I am ready, and in fact willing if it has the possibility of some health benefits.

Fast forward to September. Having spent some time in Kobe with Jodi, Ma, Pa and Verity we headed for the vending machine. For those of you who have been here you will know there is a vending machine on every corner. There is also a grape flavored drink in every vending machine. Jodi loves the sweetness of the grape so immediately headed. When she looked into the can (don't ask me why she was doing this) she realised she could see her reflection... mirror mirror in the can... who's the biggest jelly fan... Not Jodi! It was incredibly sweet.. not nice at all... would it have been nice if she was ready for the jelly... categorically no! In some cases it doesn't matter if you're ready for the jelly!

Fast forward to November... Having finished culture day or something like it a can of coffee appeared on my desk... ripper... until I looked closer and realised it was coffee jelly... So I downed it... kind of screwing my face at times... it certainly was different... Begged me to ask the question does it matter if you're ready for the jelly if it just shouldn't be made in the first place...

So, there is my appraisal on jelly in Japan. You can be ready for the jelly if it tastes alright... You won't ever be ready for that jelly if it tastes awful or is just wrong in principal! For those venturing east... Beware the can... read the labels at all costs... and beware that underneath the lid or ring pull could be a nasty surprise.

In Loving Memory

This is to mourn the death of my bike... Yellow, fast and reliable... taken from the front of Bon Marche by the station... Survived by Jodi's silver bike... May you find happiness with your new owner... continue to be fast and yellow... though i hope you give the sod who took it all the grief in the world... punctures, gear failures and may your bell never ring true again!

Reading Record

29-"In the Company of the Courtesan"

By Sarah Dunant

This is a story about a beautiful courtesan and her sharp-witted dwarf partner who escape Rome in 1527 and go to Venice to start a new life. It was an interesting read.

Only one more book and I'll have reached my GOAL of 30 books....

White Trash College Bash

As a send off party for the Aussies (hmmm?) Katie and Joe threw a "White Trash College Bash". As we don't have quite the same 'college' experience back in Oz, it was a our first glimpse into the college party life!

Everyone made a great effort to dress up and I must admit that I had a lot of fun doing it...though the pictures will no doubt raise a few eyebrows! Katie and I went shopping for our "trashy" outfits and came away with some goodies from the 100yen shop! Where else would you go to get:

• blue eye shadow


• foundation


• stick on nails (complete with diamonds)


• hair rollers


• glitter eye liner


• fake glitter eyelashes?

I spotted a long sleeve denim shirt with some beautiful embroidery on the front (so early 80s. Honestly, do people see these items and think "yes, I love it!"?). I cut the sleeves off and tied the front in a knot under which I wore a flashy red bra! I paired this with my own jeans and a pair of apple slippers. Wallah! Jono had a flannelet shirt with the sleeves cut out, paired with a red long sleeve t-shirt, jeans, a truckie cap and a handle-bar moustache! We won the "trashy couple" award. We are so proud!!! hahaha

There was much entertainment including the notorious beer bong, flippee cup and beer pong. They were a lot of fun...Katie and I were the champion beer pong players!!! Woohoo.

It was a pretty classy night all up (*cough*) and we had an absolute ball!

Our First (and probably only) Thanksgiving

As we are amongst many friends of American nationality, it seemed only natural that we joined them for one of their favourite holidays...Thanksgiving.

We all booked into a local restaurant called The Blue Plate for our Thanksgiving meal. It made life a lot easier not having to cook or clean up afterwards! Though, I'm sure it's all wonderful bonding time! Jono and I joined Katie, Joe and Luci on a small table.

The spread of food at the buffet was magnificent including macaroni and cheese, caramelised potato, green salad, chili con carne, stuffing, chicken stew, mashed potato, pumpkin and no feast is complete without a turkey and cranberry sauce. It was scrumptious. During our meal we went around the table and discussed the things we were all thankful for...such as family, friends and the awesome experiences we've had over the year in Japan. It is a really nice holiday and I wish we had a holiday of our own like this in Australia, a non-commercial holiday and a chance just to hang with family and friends over great food.

Japanese Cooking Lesson #5

Yumiko is certainly keeping the standards high with what she teaches us during our cooking lessons. With fried chicken as the only request, she came with all the goodies to create a magical meal. The menu included caramelised sweet potato chips, pickled vegies, fried chicken, radish and miso salad, soup and of course rice.

Here are the boys of the group getting in on the action. Jono slicing and dicing the various vegies to be pickled and Mitch is using the cooking chopsticks to tend to the fried chicken.

As a special treat Yumiko made some caramelised chips, which were oh so sweet and too good to resist. Yummy, yummy, yummy. And so we dined on fine food and good company until we were ready to pop! Next lesson is going to be our last one...which is unfortunate. But, we have all the recipes so look out everyone...guess what you'll be eating when you come to our place for tea?!!!

Japanese BBQ

Eiko organised a Japanese BBQ and so Katie, Joe, Steve and I went along. Too bad for Jono, he had to work!

We were picked up at 10am by Eiko, Toshi, Mayumi and Naomi and drove 40 mins out of the city to the base of a beautiful mountain which was a popular BBQ spot. On the way we stopped into the supermarket and picked up the food; beef, pork, vegies and snacks.

As always, our Japanese friends came prepared with everything but the kitchen sink... a picnic table, chairs, picnic rugs, coal, utensils and more! The boys started on making the fire for the BBQ, but very soon it was smothered when Toshi loaded more and more coal on top!! So, they moved in under a shelter with some more sturdy BBQs. As Katie and I relaxed on the picnic rugs, everyone searched for twigs and anything that could act as kindling to get the fire going. Then Toshi was banned from adding the coal! They surely got the fire going...it almost touched the shelter roof. Check out the smoke!

Soon the food was cooked and it was a feast including meat, corn on the cob, capsicum, mushrooms, onion and assorted other goodies that Eiko prepared. Just when we were ready to burst they started cooking yakisoba! The food just kept coming. It was great.

Then as some after dinner entertainment I pulled out my frizbee and we played with it. None of the Japanese people had ever thrown one before so they were fascinated and wanted to perfect the art (that doesn't sound Japanese at all!). Here is Eiko giving it a red hot go! It was lots of fun. Joe and Katie also taught us some chant games from back home...also a lot of fun.

We were certainly spoilt with the beautiful scenery...tall thin trees, a moss covered bridge over a creek and some gorgeous Autumn leaves. This tree had red, pink, orange, yellow and green leaves. Just too pretty!

Autumn Wonderland

Autumn season is definitely here, and slowly deteriorating, that means the trees put on another spectacular show...this time with the gorgeous colours of the leaves.

We were invited to go back to Mt Shosha (w went there in Feb, all rugged up in beanie, scarf and gloves) by Chiaki and joined some of her Japanese friends and Mitch and Merry + the kids. We did it the hard way this time, we actually climbed to the top while the others took the rope way and met up with us! The road was really, really steep and we got a great lower body workout! Though I must admit that the treck back down was more painful. It took about half an hour to climb.
What we saw when we got to the top was pure beauty...leaves of red, pink, orange, yellow and green colouring the mountains. Just gorgeous. Though we had been to parts of it before, it felt somewhat different. This time around we set off early in the day and so had more time to explore and walk around. We got to see the building where "The Last Samurai" was filmed. So we have now walked where Tom Cruise has walked.

For lunch we packed our own lunch boxes which included salad, rice and tempura. V. yummy! We sat with Mitch and Merry and witnessed the challenge of getting a 4 years old and 20 month old to sit still and eat lunch! RJ was very generous and passed out some American candy to all the Japanese people, friends and randoms, and he actually came back with more candy than when he left!!! People had given him random sweets to take back! Sarah felt a bit left out so she grabbed the bag of carrot sticks and handed one to an old Japanese guy! So sweet!

After wandering around and seeing a few shrines it was time to go, and like I said, the treck down the mountain was a tiring one...but well worth it!

Winter Hawaiian Party

Tina decided to have a Hawaiian party for her birthday...a very cool idea...but remember folks, it's pretty much Winter here!

So, the heater was cranked up and Tina, Lauren and Marie looked the part in their bikini tops, clam shell bras and grass skirts. Katie and I on the other hand went the bikini top over clothes!!! We called it "Hawaiian Party Winter Clothes Style"!!!

There were lots of people who dressed up for the occasion. There were a few sexy Hawaiian shirts, leis and a couple of guys wore their board shorts or wet suit! At least the wetsuit would have kept him warm!

Cocktails were flowing, as Lauren and others prepared blender after blender full of cocktail mixers for them abundant spread on the table. We all had to bring a bottle each, which was a great idea. I drank Illusions all night and they were yummy.

After Katie and I took some random photos of us hiding behind people (see me through the arm of the wetsuit guy?), we decided randomly to play 'dares'. This is where the hyperactive fun started (and other people thought we were mad!!!). The dares were pretty tame but hilarious to us both who were just about rolling around on the floor laughing.
Dares included...

• Taking a sip out of one of a few abandoned drinks on the table.
• Mixing a drink of Baileys, Midori, Grape juice and Coke and getting 3 people to taste test it.
• Blowing a raspberry on some one's tummy.
• Crawling though Tina's legs and look through her grass skirt (great photo op)...
• and so on...

It was a lot of fun, and I liked getting to dress up. Happy Birthday Tina.

Vissel Kobe win again!

Jono, Katie, Joe and I headed to Kobe for the soccer. Having booked it in Joe's calendar a while ago, we were excited when the date finally came.

First up we went to Harborland for lunch and a spot of shopping. I ended up buying a present for Beanie...a Santa suit! It is soooooo cute, and I figure he loves his Winter jacket so he'll probably prance around in this costume come Christmas day! Katie bought a reindeer costume for Joe's dog back home! Classic.

Next we went to Jono's and my favourite okonomiyaki restaurant. We had to line up and wait for a table and while we waited we watched the cook work his magic at the grill. One dish intrigued Joe so much he asked the cook what he was cooking..."omnisoba". So after having already decided on which okonomiyaki to eat, we added one of those to the list too! It was yaki soba wrapped up in a fried egg (or 3 mixed together). The cook simply threw 3 eggs straight on the grill, which cracked them open. He then removed the shells, popped each yolk on the head and then swirled them altogether! So simple but so effective...and delicious (of course!).

Then we rode the subway and made our way to Home's Stadium for the soccer. On our way through the crowds, past the souvenir shops and into the stadium we were stopped by a westerner. His name was Alan and he asked if we had tickets yet, to which we answered "no". It turned out that he has been living in Kobe for 19 years and is a member of an exclusive sports club. The club gets 30 tickets to give out to people at random for free (any money donated goes to charity). We happily accepted the 4 tickets and were impressed with the position of our seats... And of course, the free tickets left more money for beer!

The game was pretty exciting and we got to see our favourite player, 13 Yoshito, in action. He scored the last goal of the match. There was plenty of action, head butts, yellow cards and faked injuries. It was funny to watch the medics sprint out to the pitch with the stretcher only to be told they didn't need it and they sprinted back to the sideline. They almost looked disappointed! At half time the small ditches made by the players on the field were filled with sand by several employees. I could not imagine having to do that as a job!

After the game we headed to Sannomiya for dinner and more beer. We found a place called the Polo Dog. It was a cute bar with some friendly bar staff. Joe and Jono had fun mixing with the locals, speaking broken Japanese and Engrish! At one point they were all dancing! Very funny. After playing a few drinking games we decided that we had better head home and call it a night. On the way to the train station we stumbled across a Purikura booth and had some piccies taken! I think Katie and Joe enjoyed their first taste of Kobe.

Reading Record

27-"The Tipping Point"

By Malcolm Gladwell


This too was a really good and interesting read. This book looks at how epidemics start by referring to something called the 'tipping point'. I powered through this one! But what do I read next?


28-"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan"
By Lisa See

A beautiful book set in nineteenth-Century China about two young girls who were made laotong, "Old Same", an emotional match that lasts a lifetime. It's about their lives, social standings and joys and tragedies of marriage and motherhood. A real eye opener.

5 Weeks to go...

Enough said!

What the??!! November