Valentines Day

February 14th

For Valentines day in Japan it is all about boys and chocolate - unfortunately giving boys chocolate, girls have to wait till White Day on March 14th! So I made Kyosuke dinner, chocolate cakes and we drank chocolate soda and chocolate beer!


Pile of chocolate love heart cakes I made Kyosuke


Chocolate beer and soda - the beer was horrible but the soda is amazing!

Ikebana lessons!

February 16th

Tonight at Ikebana (flower arranging class) we did an arrangement with gladiolas, daisies and another flower that smells amazing called stock. Also daisies are called Margaret in Japanese!

Special Christmas Party

February 9th

I had promised the special class at my junior high school that we would have a Christmas party after I got back from Australia. Because of timetable changes and things it was postponed until today! They had a great time - I showed them photos from Christmas, we pulled bonbons, they got Australian Christmas presents and ate Christmas cake with custard!

opening presents


pulling the bonbons


wearing the bonbon hats and ready to eat Christmas cake

Sapporo Day 3

February 8th

On our last day in Sapporo we spent it wandering around and making sure we had seen all the snow and ice sculptures. It was the warmest day, 3 degrees! The last thing we did was to have Hokkaido ramen - I had mine with corn and butter which are produced in Hokkaido. It was a great trip and I may just have to go again one day :-)

Frozen river


Pro snowboarding competition


Zoo snow sculpture


Amazing grilled scallop!


In front of the German church sculpture


Korean palace


Mariko chan character


My future dog - so cute!


Ramen - yum!

Sapporo Day 2

February 7th

On the second day we went to Niseko - the main ski field in Sapporo. The snow here is meant to be some of the best in the world as it is so powdery and soft. Emily and I spent the day going down our own baby slope! I didn't fall over all day which was a first and then we went to an outdoor onsen (bath) and it was snowing! When we got back to Sapporo city we went and ate crab for dinner. It is very famous here - we got a huge course and ate crab everyway possible! Raw crab, cooked crab, crab hotpot, crab gratin, tempura crab . . . and many other delicious ways!

Emily ready to hit our baby slope!


I'm ready to go!


Panoramic of the ski field


Yes that is correct - it is minus 8 degrees!


Em and I - snowboard buddies!


Me on the slopes!


Making ice sculptures


Ramen soup ice sculpture - there are real noodles in it!


At dinner


Amazing crab

Sapporo Day 1

February 6th

For a long time I have been wanting to go to the snow festival in Sapporo and this year I finally did! A group of us headed to Sapporo for 3 days of snow and ice fun! The first day we arrived we headed to the hotel and then on to the main street which has many ice and snow sculptures. It was all so beautiful as the whole city is white with powdery snow. We went to the Sapporo beer factory for an amazing all you can eat BBQ dinner and all you can drink Sapporo beer!

The morning we left it actually snowed enough at home to cover the patio


The view from our hotel


Beautiful ice sculptures






There were real fish and crabs in this ice sculpture


Sapporo beer factory


Crazy snowball fight!


Icecream in the snow - amazing!


First look at the snow sculptures

Principals Party

February 5th

We had our annual formal party with all principals from our schools and people from the Board of Education. It was a great night with good food and a lot of alcohol!

My principal and I


Taube, Rachel and I


Rachel and Chelsey taught everyone the electric slide dance


Taube and I


The boys


The Aussies


Taube and Julian


At Hosannas later, we met up with Dani too

Ikebana lessons!

February 2nd

Tonight at Ikebana (flower arranging class) we did an arrangement with peach blossoms and a plant that is also edible before it flowers, I think it is Japanese.

Weekend of Birthdays!

January 29th and 30th

This weekend we celebrated three friends birthdays! On Friday we had a nice dinner for Steffa at an Italian restaurant and after we joined Jody's birthday party which was an American college party! We all wore American college clothes and played drinking games. On Saturday we celebrated Hiromi's birthday with dinner at Taube and Julian's. It was a fun weekend!

Megumi and Steffa


Birthday girl!


Cake


Everyone at dinner


The cake I made Jody - beer pong is a game where you have to get a ping pong ball in the other teams beer


Happy Birthday!


Rach, Jody and I


Ready for flip-cup


Happy Birthday Hiromi!


Hiromi and Fumiyo