Day Two

Hiya All!

The end of another day. Chis and I are already tired of shopping. But I ad better start from the start...

The day started off with all the new AETs, Andria, Chris, Jess, Lucy and I all following Mr Oshida to to city hall on bikes. Its a wonderful system they have here, no real rules as far as i can make out except to generally stick to the left. Cars, scooters and bike all use the narrow roads together, and though there are people going everywhere I have not yet seen or experienced a collision. It all just works. The surprising lack of cars on the roads allows us to feel really safe, even though its been a while since any of us rode a bike any distance lol.

The morning was mostly taken up with signing forms for our alien card applications etc, and I am now officially head of our household, YES! (Though i don't want to push that title too far...). Anyway then another scrumptious lunch was forthcoming.
I am amazes at how great all the food it here! With one or two exceptions, including fried chicken skin tonight, the food has been simply scrummy (Okonomiyaki is the best! Its basically a cabbage pancake Pizza, watashi wa suki desu! (i like!)).　

After lunch we met the mayor, an introduction that was very stiff and formal, and we got a pretty digital clock, Yay for us!

After the introductions everyone went shopping and bought stuff. House stuff mostly, a new futon etc. Lucy is like a mother hen fussing about her nest, gee its fun to see :)
They we all went exploring into the city on bikes again, searching for some dinner. After being attempting to talk to the waiters in one restaurant we discovered tha the seats we were about to sit in were reserved, and that the restaurant was full :(. A quick walk down the street and We found a nice looking place, and ordered by pointing at the menu (it had pictures :) and saying 'Kore kudasai' (this please). Our resulting meal included aforementioned Okonomiyaki and fried chicken skin, as well as other unidentifiable meats. An interesting mix and a fun filled dinner! Oh and Hunty drank alcohol again :P

Tomorrow we get started on our training, so we shall see how that pans out.

Day Two

Just a side note, the Sakura, or cherry blossoms are just starting to come out. We have a couple of trees outside our apartment and all the girls are looking forward to the next week or two as they come fully into bloom. Expect more photos of sakura in future blogs.

All the best!
Hunty

Our new pad

Hiya folks!

Its been a busy busy day. Went for a walk at 8:30 in the morning (what i thought would be peak hour) and the streets were just empty. A few cars and bikes going through but very few cars. After a scrumptious breakky at the hotel (meatballs, sausage, eggs, veges and rice!) we were picked up by the Takasuki international association. After the 1 hour car to our new unit (would take 20 mins by train) we got stuck into the re-organisation. Here are some pics of the place before and after :)

Our Unit

We moved all the furniture in the place and vacuumed the entire unit in about 3 hours, a pleasant change from coolibah court hehe! we are still living out of suitcases and sleeping on the floor atm but we should have most things sorted by Sunday.

After the cleanout we visited the Oshida family for dinner. Our host parents and guardians during our stay the Osidas insit we call them Otosan and Ocasan, father and mother. After a scruptions dinner (and a beer!) we spent a lovely eavning chatting and laying out what the plans for the next few days are. Aftter dinner we rode our bikes down to the 24 hour supermarket about 500m away from our apartment. A fun experiance indeed with hello kitty milk and spirits that is marketed like soft drink.

Tomorrow will be all official business, obtaining alien cards and meeting the mayor of Takatsuki, will write about it when its happened :) Hope alls well in OZ and loving the comments!

Safe in Japan

Hiya Folks

Just got to our Hotel room in Osaka. From the airport the crazy Taxi driver seemed to stay at 40km/hr OVER the speed limit the entire way... and then due to the silly address system that numbers each building in the order it was built he could not find the hotel. He ended up dropping us a hotel with the same name over a block away but they kindly gave us a map and after walking through the train station we finally found our way here.. PHEW!

In our room the bed comes half way up our shins and the toilet looks like it has a computer built in... oh and there are 31 unsecured wireless networks I can see! (currently getting 5mbps download yay!) Anyway here are a couple of pics before we both crash. Should have some photos of our apartment by the weekend. All the best everyone!

Flight to Japan

Travel Update

Quick update,
Lucy and I are currently in Korea awaiting transfer flight into Japan. Was going to post some photos but the wireless internet is soooo sloooow. The flight so far has been fine, the Airbus A330 is much bigger inisde than i expected. Food has been okay (though Lucy did not think much of the Korean Soup) and with networked personal entertainment systems in every seat even Molly hasnt been complaining! (Oh and I beat Lucy at Battleships (hehe)). I will update again as time and internet access allow.

Update on Travel Plans

Hi All,

Just thought I would give a final update before we head off on Tuesday.

Our plans for the moment are to drive down to Brisbane on Monday 28th and stay overnight near the airport. Our flight leaves Brisbane around 8:00 on Tuesday morning and we will be flying to Inchon in Korea, with a 2 hour stop over and then we are back on the plane for the short hop over to Kansai airport near Osaka. The next day we will be meeting our host family, the Ishida's and they will be sorting out alien cards, bank accounts etc that will allow us to work in Takasuki. On Thursday 31st we will also be meeting with the Mayor of Takasuki, and our life a local celebreties will begin :)

The threat of radiation contamination in food and water supplies is defiantly a concern for us at the moment. However we have been in contact with others currently living and working in Osaka and Takatsuki and it has been life as normal for them. Obviously we will be looking closely at any developments that may impact our health but for the moment Takasuki seems a relatively safe place to be.



Image of our flight path into Japan

Some more photos

Hello again! I have been asked to upload some further photos of our trip to the family farm last week, so without further ado here we are....

On the Farm 2

We also have had further reports from other AET's currently living in Japan or that have returned home for holidays. Dispite some small tremors in Takatsuki they are basically unaffected, all services are running as normal and at this stage there is no concern about the radiation reaching them.
With number 3 reactor apparently now stabilised things are looking as though they are settling down. Obviously there will be longer-term consequences that we will have to be aware of and take precautions against, but things are looking good for us to travel over on the 29th as planed.

Nuclear Worries

Hi all you faithful followers out there :P. Just through I would give an update on our plans regarding the current nuclear problems in Japan.
At this stage it looks as though ourselves and all the other Assistant english teachers (AET's) will be continuing to go to Takatsuki as planned. However we are looking at the situation very closely and we are all taking it day by day. As Takasuki is over 550km away from Fukushima we should have no problems. However if radiation levels are found to increase significantly to the south of Fukushima we will be considering pulling out altogether. The Tukatsuki city council has already notified us that if we choose not to travel to Japan in light of this incident then they will be understanding. Its all just a matter of wait and see at this time :)

In the image below you can see the line between Fukushima and Takasuki. (550km)

Lucy On the Farm

Some photos of us on the farm before going to Japan.

On the Farm