Oh the irony!

After moving half way around the world to one of the most volcanically active countries, to a town that is in sight of one of the most famous volcanoes in the world, it end up being my parents, and not me that is caught up in volcano chaos. This year was the first year that my father left Europe, to go on holiday to Egypt. He’s not a fan of flying at the best of times but I think it unlikely that he’ll leave Europe again after the adventure they had.

Unfortunately my Mum fell ill the day before they were due to fly back, which didn’t really help matters. They arrived at Cairo airport to find all UK flights cancelled. After some umming and arring they bought flights to Rome for the next day. It’s not exactly close to Sheffield but at least it's the same landmass and there are trains all the way, albeit already booked up ones. Once they arrived in Rome they befriended some Geordies who they shared a cab all the way to Caen (the north of France) with. My Dad offered them language help, which avoided them ending up in Canne, in return the Geordies provided iphone facilities; ferry bookings, tracking down someone’s number in Portsmouth etc.. They then stayed the night at Ian’s (Another Geordie) in Portsmouth and got the train through London to Sheffield the next day. So it would seem Geordies saved the day. While all this chaos was unfolding my sister was attending a chocolate course in Oxfordshire meaning information on the parents whereabouts and health was sporadic and slow. So I was a little worried about all that this week.

In the world of teaching, one of the classes this week involved the kids writing a profile on me, which I was asked to help them with and correct. This involved me correcting a girl’s work from ‘ He is cool than me’ to ‘ He is cooler than me’. Which may seem egotistical and self obsessed but it was what she was trying to write and she needs to learn.

Matsumura-sensei asked me to mark the papers after and I decided to write down some of my favourite corrections.

‘He is the best food’

‘He is like music’

‘He is like tempura’

‘He isn’t girlfriend’

‘Peter is the best tempura Japanese food’

‘My first impressions of him is that he has a long nose and he is tall’
(I was tempted to inform this girl that commenting on the size of a persons nose may not be seen as a compliment in the West. Nemoto-sensei assured me that this was a compliment.)

‘I will good soccer play. I want to go to Akihabara and England’

(I think he might just make it to Akihabara some day. There are trains that leave the station for Tokyo several times an hour after all.)


I spoke to a Filipino student, this week, who I hold the deepest sympathy for. She’s been in Japan for about a year and came here with no siblings, no previous experience of the Japanese language. She doesn’t seem to be unhappy or anything but it must be really really hard for her. It turns out her Mum remarried a Japanese man and her father lives on Manhattan. Her English is way ahead of the others (even if she did copy a load from Wikipedia about Sheffield) but her Japanese is, understandably behind. I hope I can help her out a bit with the English and get her to continually improve. She’s also proving to be a useful tool as a translator when talking to the kids.

Other than that I’ve just been having a really good time with the other gaijins out here. I had a trip to Mito for a friend Sam’s Bday, which was awesome. We went to some of the most gorgeous gardens in Japan and I tried plum wine, for the first time at the karaoke (which seemed to be unusually populated by Texans). I waded in the Pacific the next day as Sam surfed and lost his pants. He seemed to be suffering from hyperthermia after, so I’m glad I just waded and kept my pants on.

I had a bit of a drunken Saturday at the Pig yesterday. They had DJs, some guy on a guitar performing and an MC. Somehow I ended up centre stage for a couple of songs, which was fun. I’m so lucky to have something like the pig on my doorstep. Rowena, another Brit from Oxford/Manchester and my closest friend in KSRZ, got some great Polaroids of the night.

Monday evenings at Rowena’s is becoming to be something of tradition. Great food, great company and its nice to be able to speak English at the end of the day. It also gives me an excuse to visit the local patisserie, which is always welcome. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s instalment.