Andrew and Kathleen

I have some new photos up. We went to Yokohama bay bridge last Sunday. The observatory there allows for an amazing panoramic view of Yokohama with Mt Fuji in the background. If you are ever in Japan, you HAVE TO SEE IT! We also went to Sankien Garden, which is renowned for the cherry blossoms. Unfortunately, it was a bit early in the year to see them, but the gardens were beautiful nonetheless.

Yesterday, I went to Shin-Sugita, to see the Earth Simulator Centre. The main attraction is the Earth Simulator, the world's most powerful supercomputer. Believe it or not, you can send an email to the centre and they will allow you to come and view it. I spent one hour with Kurita-san, who was gracious enough to show me around. The video clips they have of the research they are performing is awe-inspiring, but unfortunately, there's nothing to download of the web site.

Kathleen received the yearbooks from her three schools during the week. Each bears the same cover: "Memories Of School Life". WHY DO THEY DO THAT? What is the point in putting an English title on a Japanese high school's yearbook?!

The photos are unbelievable. "What is that kid doing?!" "What's with that kid's face?!" These photos have to be seen to be believed.

Tsurukawa JHS had their singing contest yesterday, the last day of the academic year. All the parents came, and the students have been practising for most of the week. Each class (there are four classes in each year) had to sing two songs - one compulsory, and the other was chosen by the class.

Some of the boys looked like they'd rather be anywhere than on the stage singing.

It wasn't until the second chorus of the second class that I realised that the chorus was in English. The pronunciation of "search for tomorrow" was a little off, but that wasn't much of an excuse. I'd sat through the practice for that year the other day, so assuming two choruses per song, each chorus having the line repeated four times, the first class for some reason sang the song twice, so I had heard the song 7 times, before I twigged that it was being sung in English!

Still, it was better than an ALT from previous years who was convinced that the students were singing in Chinese.

The 2nd graders are on an outing today, visiting Asakusa, or Ueno. I asked on of the teachers what the students would get up to.

"It's a practice," she said "for their school trip next year." In May, they'll be going to Kyoto and Nara, the 'traditional' part of Japan.

So what do they practice?

"They have a schedule, and they need to practice working in groups and finding directions."

Doesn't the teacher do that for them?

"No, they don't have a teacher there."

Hang on, you mean 90 kids all wandering about Tokyo on their own?! I laughed. When I was at school, if the teachers had said get together in a group, go into town and follow a schedule, we would have just ticked off the list and hung around the movies or something.

The biggest concern my teacher had was that the students might get the local, and not the express, train home. I'm still trying to get over the whole 'lack of teacher supervision' aspect.

But I guess it's not surprising, really. Every day after school, students have sports practice, where they essentially supervise themselves. They rarely, if ever, actually have games against other schools, so most of their sporting lives will be spent in practice for a day which may never come. In Australia, the game was the big thing, practice was just a chore.

I was standing on the platform of Machida station when I noticed, of all things, a Japanese guy wearing a Fremantle Dockers scarf. I thought I'd say hello, plus I was curious about why anyone would willingly wear Fremantle merchandise.

"Hi," I said. "Nice scarf."

He looked at me, with that deer-in-the-headlights look some Japanese people get when you talk to them unexpectedly. A few seconds passed, and I realised that he didn't speak English.

"Australia ni ikimashita ka?" (Have you been to Australia?)

He shook his head. I thought I'd stop harassing him; I still have no idea where he bought it.

What an incredible day! Yesterday was awful weather, cold and raining like anything. Today, however, dawned blue and cloudless and warm. Spring is definitely on the way.

Ohina Sama is the doll festival, a girl's festival where small displays of the Emperor's court are displayed in people's homes. These sets are now very expensive, so it's not often you get to see them. On Friday, Kathleen was lucky to be invited to one of her teachers' houses to see a display.

Today, at the Meiji shrine in Harajuku, Tokyo, 400 children and their families were invited to set cardboard models into the lake. We thought we'd pop along and have a look. We saw everything - dolls, weddings, shrines, you name it!

We finally went to see The Two Towers here in Japan; it only opened last weekend. Can you believe that there's a two month delay for Western new releases here? It's not for lack of interest - the cinema was packed. We thought maybe the subtitling and overdubbing might be the reason, but that's silly - there's no reason why the movie should sit in a can for two months waiting for translation, when they could be doing it at the same time as the editing. It was extremely frustrating, for some so much that they got the DivX version and watched on their laptops hooked up to the TV.

It was excellent, too. I didn't think I'd like it much, after reading an article explaining how much the movie deviates from the book, but in the end, that was a non-issue. The CG was absolutely incredible.

One of the most interesting bits was the end credits; when they roll to the carpenters, or computer artists, or makeup/wardrobe and the names fill virtually the entire screen!

Updates have been a little slow here. I've been playing around with a new site layout, inspired by Matt whose site now looks slick as.

In the meantime, there are heaps of new photos on the photos page. My last day at Narusedai, and Kathleen's trip to see the ume blossoms.