Sensei Suse

2 February 2007

Now that I'm back from Japan and settling back into Brisbane, I've decided to quit posting on Sensei Suse and move back to my previous home at Laziest Girl.

So, if you are looking for me - try this link - Laziest Girl.

Thanks everyone.

Monday, 15 January 2007

I haven't done a single thing since we got back from Japan - we've been staying with my mum with frequent trips down to the beach to stay with Mark's parents. Mark on the other hand has been busy working hard while I loll around on the couch reading. It is a credit to my time management skills that I still find time for a two hour nap in the afternoon what with all the reading and tea drinking going on. Indoor soccer has also started up for Mark on Sundays so after his game we've spent the last two Sunday afternoons lying on a rug under the trees in New Farm Park by the Brisbane River.

I've also been to the doctor and they've redone all my blood tests and on Tuesday we are off for our 19 week ultrasound. I'm glad we came home from Japan when we did because we are having a difficult time finding an obstetrician- normally you book in with your specialist as soon as you are pregnant and finding one to accept a new patient this far down the line is problematic.

But the best thing about being back in Brisbane is being able to spend time with our family and friends again. The possibly the second best thing is being able to buy underwear that fits and maternity clothes that aren't Princess-Diana-style floral smocks. In Japan, the maternity clothes are all designed to be huge sack like outfits that positively scream "I'M DOWDY" or skinny legged jeans with an enormous stretchy bit at the top that goes over the stomach. At least here I've managed to track down a couple of pairs of shorts that are low cut to fit under the belly - much more appealling and far more practical.

Saturday, 30 December 2006

We made it back to Brisbane in one piece early Christmas morning. It was a bit of a long trip because the only flight out of Japan we could get was through both Bangkok and Singapore. We left Takasaki at 3pm on Saturday and arrived at Narita by 6pm. Daisuke had arranged for us to stay at the hotel in Narita where he used to work which was great because we had to be at Narita by 7.30 the next morning.

After paying $330 excess baggage (don't ask!) we took about 35 minutes to walk to our departure gate! I was knackered before we'd even begun. So 7 hours to Bangkok, a 1 hour stopover, then 2 hours to Singapore, a 2 hour stopover in Singapore then 8 or so hours on to Brisbane.

We stayed with my mum for a few days and now we are down at the beach staying with Mark's parents. Mark's four nieces and one nephew are also staying so it's a bit of a full house. They spend most of the day swimming or messing around with a little boat down in the creek so you only see them when they are hungry.

Here are two of the triplets messing around with the boat - Laura is steering and won't let Jessica climb in the boat.

Here's where the creek meets the ocean - thankfully none of the kids have drifted out to sea yet.

17 December 2006

You'll be pleased to know that all is well in Takasaki. I haven't posted for ages because my hugely exciting news was a secret until last week. We've had slight change of plans and have decided to head home early.

We're leaving Takasaki at the end of this week because Mark and I are expecting a baby in June. Needless to say we are both equal parts incredibly excited and absolutely terrified.

So I thought I'd post a picture of my soon-to-be guest blogger looking remarkably alienesque.

This is the latest ultrasound - this was 1 December 2006 at 12 weeks and 3 days..

Sunday, 29 October 2006

Last Sunday was our school apple picking day in Numata. All the families met at the apple orchard to pick apples, have a bbq lunch and then we all played games and had a few different competitions.

The apple picking itself went well, no one fell off a ladder or got sconed by falling branches and the kids enjoyed themselves immensely. After everyone had picked their apples, we all ate lunch in a rice field (sorry, a field formerly known as a rice field because all the rice has been harvested now) and then played games.

Here I am with some of my kids. Back left to right is Yuna and Yuzuki and at the front left to right is Rizu, Kanata and Asato.

Here I am with Yuki and Hiroki (in the blue shirt).

One of the games was a centipede race which is two long planks with rubber attached – you slip one foot through the rubber on one plank and then your other foot through the corresponding rubber piece on the other plank and there are about about eight kids per team. This was the cause of much hilarity among the parents as most of the kids couldn’t all lift their feet in synchrony and so the whole team would keep falling over in a big heap.

Here's Sarah leading the (tiny) troops in the centipede race ably assisted by Kazuha and Ryoko.

We also had the deadly serious “Longest Apple Peel Competition” which is pretty self explanatory. I think the longest was around 2.4 metres which is one long apple peel.

After all the kids and their families had gone home, we got to go the orchard shop and try a bunch of different types of apples some of which were nearly as nice as my favourite “Pink Lady” apple. Apparently one of the biggest problems for an apple farmer at the moment is the bears. Yes, those hungry bears can almost clean out an orchard over night and will attack you if they come across you. Last year saw really good bear breeding conditions in the mountains and this year the conditions aren’t good enough to support the increased number of bears. So the bears are coming down from the mountains in search of food.

When Mark and I were in Tsumago, we were told to take a bell with us if we walked any of the post road because then the bear can hear you coming and get away before you run into each other. The bears usually only attack if they get surprised, frightened or think that their cubs is under threat. The apple farmer said that he also wears a little transistor radio on his belt if he is doing any work where he stands still for more than a few minutes so he doesn’t surprise a bear. The day that we were in Numata happily picking apples, four bears came to a sticky end in the vicinity. One of the girls asked what is the best thing to do if you come across a bear and apparently you have to stare at its face and hope that it is so cowed by your inner power, that it runs away without trying to get a taste of you.

Here's Ryoko practicing her bear stare on me.

After all the excitement, I felt like I could sleep for a week.

Sunday, 15 October 2006

So we had a great time on our trip to Kyoto - even though I feel like we walked a squillion miles. Here's a brief overview,and remember, if you want to see the rest of our photos, just have a look at our Flickr site.

We spent our first day in Kyoto wandering around and not doing anything in particular. Mark and I are pretty hopeless tourists - we don't tend to plan things very much - so we walked to the Higashi-Honganji Temple which isn't far from the train station.

Higashi-Honganji Temple.

Then we walked to the Imperial Palace Gardens to have a look around and I met a lovely litte Cavalier King Charles Spaniel called Meron.

Meron - a real sweetie who at no time tried to bite me.

On Tuesday we caught the train to Himeji and visted the Himeji-jo Castle which is said to be one of the best castles in Japan. And it was pretty fantastic. The thing I liked the best was the smell. I know that sounds weird but the beams and all the wood in the castle has this wonderful smell. It's a kind of cool, cedary smell which makes me wish I could have been there when the castle was built in 1580. It's amazing that something so old can still be around in such good condition.

Himeji-jo Castle.

Next to the castle are the Koko-en Gardens which are a reconstruction of the former samurai quarters of the castle. There is a central part of the gardens with a big pond sporting the obligatory koi. Even though nearly every pond/moat/stream in Japan has more koi than you can poke a stick at, I still end up watching them for ages. And the koi at Koko-en Gardens were beautiful.

I took this photo from the bridge as they were all swimming towards me, hoping that I would feed them.

By the time we got back to Kyoto, I had a blister on one of my toes the size of a pygmy. So the plan was to rent bikes for the following day and ride around Kyoto. Unfortunately, I forgot to advise the weather of our plans and it was bucketing down rain for most of the day on Wednesday. But we went ahead with my grand plan and we were soaking wet within 5 minutes. But the good news is that once you are throughly wet, you can't get any wetter, so it wasn't so bad.

Here I am in the driving rain at Nijojo Castle.

Unfortunately because it was so wet, most of my photos came our hazy and more than a little murky. After Nijo-jo Castle we rode up the hill to Chion-in Temple. We took off our shoes to walk around the verandah of the temple building and for some reason my wet socks left an Adidas imprint on the floors as well as footprints. The funny footprints caused much mirth in an old Japanese Nana walking behind us. Also gave one of the Monks a fit of the giggles.

Amusing footprints.

Here's Mark wishing that he didn't have to visit another Temple ever again.

And then, as the rain let up, onto Kiyomizu-Dera Temple. This temple is quite big and a popular tourist spot with visiting Japanese and school groups.

Kiyomizu-Dera Temple.

We didn't do anything very exciting on Thursday morning, just ambled around the shops and stuff. We took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo and then the train out to Maihama and spent the night at one of the big hotels near Disney Sea. On Friday we went to Disney Sea and had a great time. I've never been to Disneyland or Disney Sea before so I was very excited (Disney Sea is like Disneyland (in fact, just next door)).