This is just a very brief update... Me and Fran are both working now! Fran has been working very hard at his place, and at the moment I have 4 things that you could call jobs! I am having a great time though. I have just started teaching in a pre-school in Saitama. Which is pretty much perfect timing because me and Fran and moving next Wednesday to a place called Urawa in Saitama! At the moment from Kameari it is taking about 1 and 1/4 hours to go there, so when we move to Urawa me and Fran are going to be pretty much centeral between both my work and his!
I started at the new school last week and last night we went out for a meal, it was one of the Japanese assistants leaving meal, and me and one of the other newish teachers like welcome meal - we had to make a speech! hehe. If was really great... but I ate things I wouldn't usually! Erm, I had steak... and thick bacon, they bought me a plate of vegetables and I was really impressed with the mango - I put it on the bbq like thing that was in the middle of our table to cook things... hm... I was like "this mango is well nice" and they were laughing at me because it was actually pumpkin!!! ahah silly me!!! But there was no chicken :-( So yes, I ate what I could... and scallops which came out of shells and pickles with a very very very spicy sauce on them! Well, it was so lovely and I was annoyed I hadn't bought my camera... I thought I was just going to work then coming home again! Ow, and I had wine in like a big beer mug - they said "Japanese style". It was great fun, and a great way to get to know your work colleges :-D
I took these photos from a place in Saitama caller Kita-Ageo where I had one of my interviews! It was beautiful and green!
So now we both have got jobs we are going to be enjoying our days off alot more than we have done. And by the end of September (when we both get paid) we can actually really start "living" in Japan. So here is what's coming up very soon in Vicki and Fran's Diary :-) hehe.
- This Saturday day- 30th Asakusa Samba Carnival (Anniversary) in which Brazilian dancers flood the streets of Asakusa - Tokyo’s most traditional neighborhood.
- Saturday night - taking photos of a friend of a friend's Pilates Studio for advertisement (she is going to give me a free lesson at some point- wish me luck)
- Sunday night - getting together with a few friend from Leafcup - wearing Japanese Yukata (a casual summer kimono) and using Hanabi (fireworks) - very exciting!
- Monday - me and Fran are going to go have a look around Shinjuku
- Wednesday both me and Fran are off and it is MOVING DAY
And here is what's coming up in long term Vicki and Fran's Diary (^_^)
- Nikko - when we move to Urawa, Nikko will only be about an hour away, it is situated in the mountains and it has some amazinly lavish temples and lots of wild monkeys. Also, have you ever wondered where the saying "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" came from... well... Nikko of course ;-)
- September 20th - Me and Fran will have been together 3 years! So as a treat at the end of Septemer when we are both off we are going to Tokyo DisneyLand and/or Tokyo DisneySea.
- We are planning to go to a place called Okinawa. Okinawa is an island in the South of Japan with beautiful white sand, clear blue water and palm trees. All the Japanese people tell us this is one of the places we have to go whilst we are here. We would have to fly and we don't know whether we can afford to go before xmas or after (we don't want to go when it's cold!!!)
- Kyoto - we are going to go to Kyoto for 3 days, travel down on the Shinkansen (the bullet train) and maybe stay in some youth hostels. One of the ladies I work with used to live in Kyoto for a long time and she is going to tell us the best places to go :-)
So I guess this was a pretty long update actually!!!! Well love to everyone from us both! I will have LOADS of new photos by next week, and I will keep on top of the blog from now on!!!
