Euro Trip 2008/09 Pt III – Budapest (Hungary)

Posted on January 14, 2009 by tokyofox

Having touched down in Budapest on the 30th I took the cheaper option of taking a local bus and then the metro to my hostel in Pest where I met up with Hugo a few hours later for the first time in nearly four years.

The following morning was bitterly cold as we walked over chain bridge to the Buda side and on upto Castle Hill where Buda Castle is located offering fairly impressive views of the city. I say ‘fairly’ as it was a bit grey and the weather was freezing cold. It was almost unbearable to take out my map or camera at times but I was faring way better than Hugo who, despite his muscular build, was being a right girls blouse moaning about the cold. What did he expect coming to Eastern Europe in the Winter?!!

   

We battled the weather via a few hot drink stops and after seeing the wonderful Roman-esque architcture of Fisherman’s Bastion we headed back over to Pest taking in St. Stephens Basilica and the state Opera House on route to the House of Terror which was closed as it was New Years Eve. We were the further disappointed that we couldn’t get into two thermal baths as they were closing early. Hugo had had enough of the cold so went back to the hostel while I took a short hike up to the Citadell for a panoramic view of the city at sunset which was far more impressive than the earlier overcast views.

 

With low expectations for the arrival of the new year at midnight we just got some alcohol from the supermarket and sat in the hostel playing chess. Very rock and roll but believe it or not it attracted some attention and after talking to some American twins and a Canadian guy the five of us headed out to a nearby bar which emptied out completely at 11.30pm leaving just our group. We followed suit at 11.55pm ending up in the neighbouring bar for the start of 2009 before we were then asked to leave as we had inadvertently gate-crashed a private party!

Didn’t do too much on New Years Day other than book our bus to Bratislava for the following day, sample Goulash soup and relax at Gellert thermal baths which were better in appearance than in temperature in my opinion. Having experienced onsen in Japan a few times I guess I was expecting it to be hotter than the 40 degrees which it was. Still, it was way better than being outside in the ridiculous minus temperatures!

 
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Euro Trip 2008/09 Pt II – Leicestershire (UK)

Posted on January 7, 2009 by tokyofox

The Eurostar took me from Paris to London St Pancras and from there I took another train back to my hometown arriving in the early hours of the morning at my parents house. No such reverse-culture shocks this year as it was the third time to be back in 12 months! It was good to be back and as I get older I appreciate it more and more though, overall, it wasn’t on a par with last December’s festivities.

Maybe the credit crunch played a part in this but I think it was because my friends and I are getting older and with that other old school friends coming out of the woodwork on Christmas eve is becoming even rarer. On top of that I was back last year for the first time in years and so being reaquainted with what was once so familiar didn’t have as much of an impact this year.

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I went out for a few beers on Christmas eve afternoon and many more at night which didn’t live up to last years outing. Christmas day was always gonna be more quiet as it was just my parents and me with sister Lorna and husband Stuart coming back for just one night on the 27th in anticipation of my dad’s birthday on the 29th. Boxing day was still quite good with a heavy afternoons drinking and party at my mates house following the Fernie Hunt meet in the local village which was attended by about 2000 people.

  

I did get to see my team Leicester City in action on the 27th against Hereford United in what was my first ever third tier league match. Nothing too special but at least we won and stay top of the league and on course for an automatic return to the Championship.

     
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Euro Trip 2008/09 Pt I – Paris (France)

Posted on December 27, 2008 by tokyofox

Back when I was nine I did a school project on Paris which whetted my appetite for going to the French capital. 22 years later and I finally went there as a short pit-stop on my way back to the UK from Japan. Surprising to many that I’d never been but when such a city was always in close proximity I never felt in a rush to go there.

After a 12.5 hour flight I arrived in Gay Paree and once I’d located my £13 a night hostel I dumped my bags in and headed out on the Metro. Lined with trees lit-up in silver the Champs Elysees really was a beautiful site with the Arc de Triomphe in the background. I didn’t hang around there for too long though as I knew I’d be returning the following day as I wanted to see that and the Eiffel Tower by night and by day. The latter was next and like the Arc before, it was like I’d seen it before but I guess that’s what can happen when you’ve constantly seen such icons on TV and in print.

Photo stops at Sacre-Coeur and Moulin Rouge rounded off a very very long day and I was in bed by 11pm before being rudely woken up by my Japanese room-mate who didn’t seem to understand the notion of courtesy towards his fellow travellers as he went about his business with such noise that suggested he was in his own home.

      

Breakfast was followed by The Louvre which was like a crystal maze at times and difficult to navigate for me. You could spend hours there and barely scratch the surface. I spent two hours in total so you can imagine how quick I was! The smaller-than-expected Mona Lisa and the Egyptian stuff was enough for me. I was more impressed by the outside courtyards.

 

Notre Dame was next up and then I walked up and down the Eiffel Tower (at under 25 price too!) which really did offer impressive views which is quite refreshing given the number of towers I’ve been up over the years.

Returning to the Arc de Triomphe my Paris adventure finished with a stroll in the drizzle down the Champs Elysees to Place de la Concorde. Many people said Paris couldn’t be done in 24 hours but I was more than happy with what I got done in that time.

 
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Christmas Lessons 2008 – Kids

Posted on December 20, 2008 by tokyofox

That’s work over for another year and its gotta be said that I am already tired of Christmas. I know its fairly common for people to say such a thing due to the commercialisation of the whole thing and the fact that its hard to escape the songs and decorations in the shops and department stores.

My problem is to do with having it on the brain a lot in the last month in terms of preparing and planning lessons for both kids and adults of whom a fair few really couldn’t give two hoots about such festivities. You may wonder therefore why we bother to do it at all but its kind of part of the curriculum and besides it is initially a nice break from the usual books.

 

Sensibly I kept last years self-made Christmas flashcards and my Santa costume and added a few more gimmicks such as the pooping reindeer (a chocolate ball drops out of its ar*e when you push down on its back – childish yes, but good fun!) and balloons to be blown up and put between the legs for a jumping ‘hunt the flashcard’ race.

No sweets could be given out due to some problem with allergies a while back so this time they got a cr*p package including a pencil, eraser and tissues which was rather embarassing to give them but I guess Christmas is all about disappointments!!

That was further apparent when it hit home to some students that these lessons weren’t that special after all and were indeed just a review of the usual b*llocks but with a very vague unsubtle Christmas twist on it. By that I mean changing games like ‘What time is it Mr Wolf (teaching the time, obviously) and the ‘Is there an (object) in the bag?’ guessing game to ‘What time is it Santa?’ and ‘Is there an (object) in the stocking?’ respectively. Ouch!

   
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Christmas Lessons 2008 – Adults

Posted on December 19, 2008 by tokyofox

Having recently had an article published in our company rag about using songs in adult classes as well as kids ones I thought I’d better practice what I preach. Consequently I chose three Christmas classics for my seasonal lessons as I’m a bit fed up of talking about Christmas festivities in England to a load of people who don’t really celebrate Christmas in any way.

I chose John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’for the obvious reason that it’s known by almost everyone (not all though as one lady had never heard of it!) and is simple and repetitive. For this the students just had to finsh off the last word in each line based on them rhyming with others.

‘Do they know its Christmas time?’ by Band Aid is hardly known and I used this with the Upper-Intermediate levels by way of cutting the lyrics up into strips which the students had to listen out for and put together on the table to form the whole song. A new thing for me and something different to the usual gap-fill exercise and it got a bit of movement in the classroom.

The third song I used was ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ by Slade which isn’t known by anyone in Japan! Noddy Holder’s brummie accent is very difficult for Japanese ears so I used the much slower acoustic version which Noel Gallagher of Oasis recorded a while back for ‘The Royle Family’ Christmas special.

The students who were given this song to listen to had to keep their ears peeled for a range of target language which we have been working on over the last eight months or so and is far too dull to go into on these pages. Overall, these songs seemed to capture the imagination of the students (on the surface anyway!) and with some of the afternoon classes bringing in cakes (both bought and homemade) it was a nice end to a year that has flown by.

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Christmas Party 2008

Posted on December 15, 2008 by tokyofox

My company’s annual Christmas party took place in Shinjuku on Saturday but this year it was a bit different as the whole of our district in Nishi-Tokyo had one big party comprising about 180 students and 30 teachers. All in stark contrast to previous years’ much smaller intimate affairs.

The location was very nice and games were kept to a minimum with just a game of Bingo on the menu which seemed like it went on for ages. At least it got the students attention unlike the teacher introductions on stage that were heard by very few due to a cr*p sound system and a distinct lack of interest which was maybe because everyone else was busy mingling.

Thankfully I declined to take part in that ‘tumble-weed’ moment as I wanted to concentrate my energy on getting through as much alcohol as possible!! The same could not be said of the food which came and went in no time. I hardly got a look in there as no sooner had the food arrived it had gone as the food-obsessed Japanese lapped it up like flies around sh*t! All in all it was a fairly enjoyable evening and it flew by very quickly but the party continued elsewhere till first train in the morning.

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Menace Tooth Society!

Posted on December 9, 2008 by tokyofox

Over the last fortnight I have found myself a couple of times lying on my back with my jaws open feeling a little prick in my mouth!! The reason for this is of course that I visited a dental surgeon in Tokyo for the first time having suffered a week of intense pain in my teeth a few weeks ago. This was a little scary but not for the usual obvious reasons.

I actually don’t mind going to the dentists but maybe thats because I have had very little work done over the years. My main worry was the language barrier and as I expected I didn’t understand a word he said……….and that was with him speaking in fluent English!!

No real problems was thankfully his verdict for the moment but it seems that I will have to have one of my top wisdom teeth pulled out sometime in the future as its easier to pull this one out rather the bottom one which are growing at discomforting angles and grinding against each other in a way which can cause me pain when I’m eating. That description sounds a lot worse than it really is so don’t worry! The pain has more-or-less gone now and I have changed to a soft toothbrush as ten years of brushing with a cheap hard one caused horrible tooth decay!!

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Mr Motivator

Posted on December 5, 2008 by tokyofox

Move over David Brent as it seems there’s a new guy in town who can motivate people and unbelievably that person is me! Not my words but those of one of my bosses who, after observing one of my Upper-Intermediate adult classes last week, said that my involvement, motivation and monitoring of students included “good pep talks to motivate…” the students. Surprising praise to be honest and the highlight of his feedback on what I thought was a fairly poor lesson.

The objective of my lesson was about ‘being assertive’ in the name of preferences for deciding on a holiday and the plan was pretty good even if I do say so myself. However, things don’t always go to plan and with certain stages of the lesson going on longer than expected I was thoroughly disappointed to have not got through everything, particularly the grand finale. This was to involve five students doing some free practice of the target language using realia in the form of Europe and Australia English language travel brochures (brought to work in preparation for that unit of the book) to decide in groups what kind of tour they would go on.

Luckily I could do all of that the following week without Big Brother’s evil watching eye but personally I wanted to show what I can do in the pressure cooker environment of an observation lesson.

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Moving In 2008

Posted on November 23, 2008 by tokyofox

So after knowing I had to basically move out of my shared apartment in Ikebukuro I decided to get things under way by looking at a private apartment in Itabashi which belonged to the same agency as my colleague was with. Luckily the place was spacious enough (29m squared), included a double bed, TV, washing machine, microwave and fridge and didn’t need any key money or agency fees which are so common in Tokyo.

For all its faults though, the old place did have a good bathroom and toilet whereas the new one has a unit bath (all-in-one) which is a bit cramped but I’ll get used to that I’m sure. Reading while on the toilet may be a thing of the past now!

Obviously there was no space to have any guests other than my girlfriend at my old place but now I can have the luxury of inviting friends around to hang out which is not a typical Japanese activity due to the size of their rabbit-hutch homes! So far Richard & Mizuki, Ethan, Gideon and of course my girlfriend have all been round to take a peak at my new lodgings.

Over the course of a couple of weeks I moved all my stuff in and I’m talking here of nearly 10 trips of varying loads. To think that I came to Japan with just one backpack a few years ago! Of course I could get rid of most of it fairly easy but in this ‘credit crunch’ era I thought I’d just take every single thing to be safe.

I’ve always been one to settle in straight away and this was no exception. Actually, its been quite refreshing to be in new surroundings which I am getting to be more familiar with each time I go running and get lost in the neighbourhood including some green spaces which just don’t exist in Ikebukuro. Although I’m a bit further away from my school in Shibuya I am nearer to my other three schools and also to my girlfriend.

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Moving Out 2008

Posted on November 11, 2008 by tokyofox
After three and a half years of ‘solitary confinement’ in my wooden fire-hazard shoe-box room in Ikebukuro I finally moved out a couple of weeks back. The place was indeed tiny (245cm x 175cm with a built in closet area) but it was very convenient and cheap by Tokyo standards. When I originally moved in it was intended as a temporary fix and just a place to essentially lay my head and take a shower but I obviously got used to stepping onto my futon as soon as I entered the room (the room was basically just the size of a futon with very good use of shelving and only a 40cm gap at the side of the futon) and having the TV, computer, fridge etc all within arms reach of my sleeping area.
Myself and Scholl (from Hong Kong) both lived in the shared apartment since May 2005 amid a cast of hundreds of other temporary housemates who came and went. During this tme there were always at least three people staying in the five rooms meaning lots of profit for the landlord (lets call him Alan as thats his actual name!) who rented the place from the agency but the moment he couldn’t get an extra person in he fundamentally pulled the plug on it but never actually had the decency to tell us. Instead he mailed Scholl with some b*llocks about having had an accident and being in China where he couldn’t pay the rent. We decided to pay this for October as it was still cheaper and easier than moving out but we knew the writing was on the wall and started to look into moving out as a repeat performance was likely to occur again from the scheming devious Alan. Other guests had often complained about him and to be honest we never really had too many problems but he was increasingly trying to get more money out of us for bills towards the end of our stay which he would never actually show to us. Anyway, our time in Ikebukuro ended a little sour but if I’m seeing my glass as being half full then I guess it was a blessing in disguise and gave us the kick up the a*se we both needed for moving out and moving on with our lives.
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