My first thought when I read this word wasn’t about a physical journey (or even a mental one!) but instead about the 80s band Journey ( of Don’t Stop Believin’ fame). One of my favourite things to do in Japan with my friends is to go to Karaoke. It is very different from the karaoke I was used to in the UK which was sung in a pub or bar in front of a room of people. In Japan karaoke is sung in small rooms for just your group so it is a much more comfortable and fun experience (for me!). I actually find myself missing it if we go for too many weeks without spending 3 or 4 hours at a time singing. Listening to my friends sining too has helped to introduce me to a lot of Japanese artists I would otherwise be unaware of and I’m going to see one group, introduced to me at karaoke, in concert in May (Funky Monkey Babys). So for your viewing pleasure I present my idea of Journey:

Karaoke!

Actually singing (although not looking at the screen! I obviously knew the song well!)

Karaoke is best with friends!

Me. Loving the karaoke.

So once again I’ve done a weekend where I’ve thought ‘I wish I didn’t make that blog post about school two days ago. That would have been great for weekword!’. Feel free to check out my Valentine’s English Board all the same. Instead of this I decided to post a ‘Top 10 Things I Love Today’.

1. Snow – I woke up this morning to a lovely winter wonderland. I still have yet to lose my child-like love of all this white, cold and fluffy.

Snowy Day at work today

2. Fridays – Today is Friday. The whole weekend is ahead of me. I love it!

3. Successful lessons – It is quite difficult sometimes to think of ways to make lessons interesting and exciting for students. However, you know you’ve had a successful lesson when it keeps being referenced by the students weeks later!

Gromit appears in random English homework. I'm calling my Wallace and Gromit themed class a success!!

4. Good news – always great to hear. (Even if you are woken up in the middle of a night with a text telling you said good news. Got to love time zones.)

5. Blankets – oh blankets! How I love you and how warm you keep me during Japanese winter.

I may or may not have taken this picture 30 second ago. Note the TWO different blankets (one blue, one yellow).

6. Students who want to talk – when a (1st year!) student that catches the same bus as me waited for me to cross the road so we could walk there together I think it was a very big sign she wanted to talk English and I was happy to oblige.

7. Fun hats – I love hats. Enough said. (I’m sensing a keeping warm theme!)

HAT!

8. Funny student work – oh how my students never fail to amuse me. Here is an example that I found yesterday:

The sentence above my pen made me laugh.

9. Letters – hint hint. Nothing beats having post that is not a bill!

10. Valentines themed food – I was lucky this year. Lots of lovely chocolate from co-workers, students and even some freebies from reps that visit the school.

Valentine's Day sweets! (I might have already eaten some before I took the picture...ooops!)

Even my local bakery got in on the Valentine's action

So that was my Top 10. There are lots of other lovely people taking part this week in Weekword. Be sure to check them out and thanks for playing everyone!

Emma  at The Gift Shed   - also tagged for next week’s post!

John at The Healing Seed

Carmen at Tail of a Biomouse

Jen at Timballoo

Anna at Up ‘anley Duck

Helen at Autistic Inner Space

Since this week has Valentine’s Day it’s only fitting to choose something along this theme so this week’s word is ‘Love’.

Love English Notice Board

Close-up

My original plan was to buy lots of heart shaped post-it notes from the 100yen store and have lots of students write ‘I love …’ or ‘I like…’ sentences. However, I forgot about this plan until today (the day before Valentine’s!) so this board is a result of getting into work this morning and thinking ‘Oh no! I should make a board before tomorrow!’.

Also you can see I have made reference to White Day was well (stretching the board out to last until mid March! Laziness!).

Yellow does not really have any special meaning in Japan. The internet suggests that it represents courage but all the Japanese people I asked said that it had no significance to them. So instead I’m going to show what it means to me.

Yellow is the colour of my favourite local sports team: Sendai 89ers Basketball Team. Yellow for me means going to games with my friends and supporting our city. When people visit my place they mention that I love yellow because it’s full of yellow things but really I just like the basketball team and have their goods on my walls.

Go go 9ers!

Sendai 89ers goods on my walls

My first 89ers game with friends last year

Showing support!

Showing off the team captain (who is smaller than me!!)

It’s the year of the dragon (as you can see from my post on New Years cards) which is considered the luckiest year in the Japanese zodiac.  I’m at a bit of a loss for what to write about this week since reposting my kids dragon cards is too much of a copout I think. Unfortunately all my things (calendars etc) referencing the zodiac are all from last year, the year of the rabbit, which to be honest is much cuter than a dragon.  The Japanese zodiac is pretty similar to the Chinese zodiac but runs on the standard year Jan-Dec rather than the Chinese year. The Japanese also replace the pig for the much more impressive boar.  People born in the year of the dragon are considered to be  healthy, energetic, excitable, short-tempered and stubborn. However, they are honest, sensitive, brave and can inspire trust in most anyone (see here for more info about the Japanese zodiac if you are interested) . Some pretty cool people have been born in the year of the dragon, for example: me, and…umm….my twin! If you were born in any of these years  you could be a dragon too:  1904, 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000.

To end on a final cute note: I have only just figured out why a lot of calendars here for 2012 have had pictures of seahorses on them. The Japanese word for Dragon is ‘tatsu’ and the word for seahorse is ‘tatsu no otoshigo’ which means ‘dragon’s lost child’. So while westerners have named them after horses, the Japanese see the resemblance to dragons instead. I guess with the Japanese love of all things cute it is easier to put a little seahorse on a calendar rather than try to make a dragon cute.

And one of my students dragon cards..just for good measure!

Anyway back to the point! Back to Scotland. As with last year we had a 3-day English event at the end of term so I couldn’t take off any earlier than the 23rd. However I was determined that I would get back well before Christmas. So I planned an EPICLY long trip home which went something like this

22nd Dec – Show work supervisor my train tickets and be informed I’ve only bought half a ticket. You need a line ticket and a seat ticket. I bought my tickets online and apparently there was a little tick box for getting a line ticket (that I missed due to it all being in Japanese). So I only have a seat ticket. Great. Panic.

- During last day of the English event get called out of class as my elementary school has called wanting to know why I’m not there. Panic. Insist I told them I wouldn’t be coming months ago. Insist they understood as I watched the supervisor there tell the staff I was supposed to teach with that I wouldn’t be able to come. School teachers try to make me feel guilty. Put on air of self-righteousness and continue teaching.

- Bus home after work  (35 mins) and grab bag. Panic about half ticket.

- Subway to Sendai Station (15 mins).

- Super long queue at the ticket desk. Panic. Luckily it moves very fast. Buy other half of ticket. Buy bento (packed dinner) from the station to eat on the train. Try to calm down. Buy big bottle of water.

- Shinkansen Sendai Station – Tokyo Station (2 hours). Eat yummy bento. Spend most of the journey holding big bottle of water since I dropped the cap down the side of the seat. Only retrieve cap 2 mins before the end of the journey when the man sitting next to me leaves and I can crawl under our seats to get it.

- Start looking for bus stop at Tokyo Station. Warned that finding a bus at Tokyo Station is practically impossible. Find bus stop within 15 mins leaving 45mins left to stand in the 0C weather waiting for the bus. Ticket man insists I sit on his little crate next to his portable heater to stay warm until the bus comes. Fall in love with Ticket man a little bit.

-  Bus Tokyo Station to Haneda Aiport  (1 hour)

- Arrive around 10pm. Can’t check-in until 4am. Wander around. Try to use free wifi. Fail. Pay for internet. Eat. Sleep on benches (many people doing the same). Watch planes from the outdoor observation deck.

Watching planes

Plane spotting

Christmas tree at Haneda (also my broken camera!! - black spot next to the tree)

- 4am check-in. Ask to have bag checked all the way through to Aberdeen as both flights are BA. Give them my paper with all my flight details. Am told they will check the bag all the way to Shetland even though my last flight is not with BA (remember this for later!). Also upgraded to economy plus. Yeay! Buy new perfume in duty free. It’s put in a plastic bag to go through security in the UK.

- Tokyo Haneda – London Heathrow ( around 12 hours). Economy plus is very comfy. Japanese lady next to me sleeps the entire flight and doesn’t even get up once. Sleep a lot due to very little sleep in Haneda. Don’t watch any movies, only TV shows as I only stay awake long enough to eat a meal and go back to sleep.

- 2 hours in London. Buy magazines. Use wifi. Memory a little hazy of this point.

-Heathrow to Aberdeen (1 hour). Sleep.

- 3 hours in Aberdeen. Flights to Scasta are cancelled. Panic a little. Read.

- Aberdeen to Shetland (1 hour). Cause alert because my bag isn’t on the system. Ground crew insist bag causing alert belongs to another man up from Heathrow. See ground crew holding my bag. Inform them it’s my bag. Get told to sit back down and other man asked to identify bag. It’s not his.  Am told it is my bag. Think that should be obvious when I just told them that.

-Arrive in Shetland to lovely sign and hugs. Yeay. Realise along the way I left new perfume at security somewhere. Boo.

Airport sign

- Car ride Sumburgh to home ( 1 hour).

- Home to another sign and bed.

Happy to be home!

2012 is the year of the dragon so you might spot a bit of a theme there with some of my favourites.

Happy New Year Dragon! This girl made amazing cards for all 3 of her English teachers.

This one is from my favourite 2nd year student. She is always super happy to talk to me. (Notice that she didn't write Ms. before my name either..tut tut!)

Cute!

I wish I could draw!