Moving Out. Now.
Now Playing: 2R - Arctic Monkeys

That's it. I've had enough of this Tripod blog. it's slow, I have run out of free space and have been unable to post pictures for some time. 

Please vist me at my new address: http://jomynard.blogspot.com/

Update your bookmarks.

Goodbye Tripod.

 

Good week
It’s Friday afternoon and I am just waiting for David to finish work so that we can go home.  It’s raining – I guess it’s the start of the rainy season. It has started to get hot lately. We have even turned the temperature of our heated toilet seat down.

Despite today’s rain, lot of nice things have happened this week:   I made a successful, tasty fat-free banana bread. I discovered that I am the cover girl for the new college brochure. I got an AA grade on my report for last year’s research. This means that my budget for this year for conference, books and so on has doubled!  I was so excited that I have just spent the past hour ordering new books for the library.  I can even look for another conference to attend this year. I received a parcel from Greece. I had some good classes this week including my seminar class today. My students are doing project work and have just written to real people in the UK (i.e. my kind friends and family – thank you) for further information.  They were VERY excited! I finished a really good book called “I am Legend” a classic vampire tale written in the 1950s by Richard Matheson. I started a non-fiction book "Stumbling on Happiness" by the psychologist Daniel Gilbert.  I finished marking all my midterm exams.

And now it’s the weekend.

Tokyo
Now Playing: Minino Garay - Los Chicos de mi bario
Topic: Tokyo

Just got back from a fun weekend in Tokyo.  We actually went there for the annual JALT CALL conference, but also used the opportunity to see our lovely friends.  We saw Tony at the conference (he was presenting), Chantal and Daiki for dinner and karaoke on Saturday night, Sayuri (and Nancy) for lunch and shopping and Michael for coffee on the terrace in Shinjuku.

Highlights and events:

- Good conference. Bumped into lots of people we knew.

- Felt a mini-earthquake on Saturday afternoon

- Stocked up on books in mega-Kinokuniya and CDs in giant HMV in Shinjuku

- Heard Chantal play the Ukelele and also sing Wuthering heights in our hired Karaoke room.  Also joined in to Daiki's YMCA in Japanese

- Sat on the grass outside Waseda University having lunch until we noticed the "do not sit on the grass" and "No eating" signs. Woops.

- Laughed at the people still queuing an hour and a half for Kripsy Kreme Doughnuts in Shinjuku.

- Sat outside Starbucks watching three foreign guys trying to pick up Japanese girls. 

- Had tea in a lovely travel bookshop/cafe in Waseda.

- Found a tranquil city park.  

- Bento boxes on the train

- Laughing at the "services" book at the Washington Hotel: 15 pages of accommodation contract documents plus one page of useful phone numbers.

- Yummy Japanese breakfast at the hotel (in a windowless restaurant which smelled like an aquarium)

- Not getting lost or confused on Tokyo transportation. AT ALL!  I think we've sussed it at last.

- Sunset city views from the bullet train going home and a beautiful picture postcard view of Mt. Fuji with a purple sky as a backdrop with its reflection in the rice paddies.  

 Photos here:  http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mynardjo/album?.dir=/2ba1scd

Kaori and Yasu's wedding

Our friends Kaori and Yasu met on one of our hiking club hikes a few years ago and got married today.  We were so delighted when they invited us to come along to their traditional shinto wedding in a shrine in Okazaki.  The actual ceremony is for families only, but as there was a bit of space at the back, the authorities let a few of the friends in too.  When we got to the shrine, Kaori and Yasu were outside greeting guests and posing for photographs.  Apart from swapping hiking gear for traditional dress, Yasu looked the same. I hardly recognised Kaori however. She looked amazing in her white silk kimono, wig and head piece - the works. I feel really privilaged to have seen such an event first hand.

Here are some pictures

Beach camp

The view from my window at home is a knot of power cables, so I am able to appreciate beautiful countryside more than I ever have. Here are some pictures from our camping trip down in Ise (Mie prefecture) this week. We had a secluded beach to ourselves and a campsite with trees, plenty of dry wood for the fire and even spring water. I guess the 1.5 hour hike to get there puts people off going.

Photos here

 

Out and about in rural Japan

Just in case you haven't seen enough pictures of people with backpacks and snow-capped peaks, here are a few more from Sunday's hike up Jinbagatake in Nagano prefecture. 

The last two pictures were taken to show you our preparations for our next adventure.  We have a new tent and new arctic "burrow bags" as we are going camping tomorrow night.  David is trying to decide on his reading material to bring.... 

Yes, I'm still around

I went to a conference in Scotland in April which seems to have taken up all my blogging time.  Actually, I have become a bit of a professional blogger. In addition to blogging about hikes for the CHIC website, I am blogging about conference presentations for the IATEFL LASIG website.  If you are remotely interested in Hiking or Learner Autonomy, do check them out:

Hiking 

Learner Autonomy 

Not much to report other than this. 

Hiking
Now Playing: Milburn - December

Have you been wondering why I haven't been posting any hiking reports? No, we haven't stopped going... we have created a hiking blog for our hiking club.  Here is the link if you are interested: http://chic-nagoya.blogspot.com/

We try to go every weekend, but I'll be missing the next three as I will be away.

Dinner from a frying pan...
Now Playing: Red Hot Chilis - Danny California
Sometimes when we go to restaurants I can't tell whether the waiting staff are winding us up, or it's just how they do things - usually in "foreign" places.  For example, in "Bumfeys" we ordered shepherd's pie which comes with 2 saucers and 2 tea spoons (for sharing).  In an Italian restaurant in the upmarket mall "La Chic", we ordered pizza which came topped with hundreds of mini fish and grated seaweed. In Ma Maison in Sakae, David ordered beef stew which was served in a frying pan instead of a place (photo). It didn't look much like a stew either - bits of beef on spaghetti.  Japanese food served in the West must look pretty weird to Japanese people too. 

Spring blossom

Yesterday was such a lovely day that I spent much of it wandering around campus with my camera instead of in my office toiling over lesson plans.  As I  looked at my pictures later, it occurred to me that they look exactly the same as the ones I took this time two years ago (last year was too wet). The blossoms last for such a short time that you feel this need to own them and film them before they all fall off even if you do end up taking the same shots year after year. 

Click here to have a look.