Be a sport

Just a bit of blatant self advertising, but this idea might be useful for other CIRs out there.

Here in Ibaraki at the international affairs division we are in the midst of planning an "International Sports Day" which we have nicknamed "Be a Sport"

The plan is to use sport to break down communication barriers between the Japanese people and foriegners living in Ibaraki through the use of an "universal language" of sport. This year is the UN's International year of Sport and Physical Education we were able to get a bit of a budget
to run such an event.

We have chosen sports that most Japanese people will have never had access to before and we are going to use other JETs from our prefecture as instructors.

Some of the sports we will use include
- Cricket
- American Football
- Ultimate Frisbee
- Petanque
- Double dutch
- Dodge ball
- Kickball
- Baggo

If any of you are in the Ibaraki area please come along and play along with us! The more the merrier.

Here are the details:
Date: Saturday 29th October
Place: Sakura Hiroba, Lake Senba Park, Mito, Ibaraki
Time: 10am - 3.30pm

finally ! a paid up member of the white headphone brigade

i have done a lot of sitting on busses and trains since i got to japan 2 months ago. and i realised my 128 meg mp3 player was not really sufficient when i had to listen to the same songs 3 or 4 times in the one journey.

yesterday my brand new ipod arrived in the mail. i had ordered it over the net from a shop in oosaka only on monday arvo and it arrived on tuesday! thats service. in fact it arrived sometime in the morning but i was not home so they had to come back again at night.

its very sexy. 20 gig, colour screen, white and shiny. i cant wait to use it on my next big trip. on saturady i am off with tom to gifu prefecture (a 2.5 hour bus and then a 2.5 hour shinkansen away) to play golf with a japanese person i met in australia through work.

let the music play!

more photos - nikko hiking and golf

Check out http://public.fotki.com/carlybode/ for all my latest photos

On the weekend i went to watch the golf at a course only 30kms from my house so i rode there. It was a 65km round trip in the end and when you add the 10km walk around teh course as well it turns out to be a pretty long way....

Then on saturday morning i was supposed to be on a bus at 5.25am to go hiking in Nikko with a couple of the other JETs and a whole lot of japanese people. I get a phone call at exactly 5.25am, "where are you?" I was still in bed! My alarm hadnt gone off and i was not ready to go at all. For the next 5 mins i was trying to pleade with them to bring the bus to my house to pick me up directly so i wouldnt be even more late. In teh mean time Tom was packing my bag to take hiking and throwing me clothes to wear. In the end it worked and i was only 10 mins late. and JAde and Mehn were late too at their bus stop by 5mins so it evened out in the end. I dont feel so bad anymore.

The bus trip was 4 hours each way and we only hiked for about 2 hours. Then 1 hour in teh onsen. It was lots of fun, but i couldn imagine doing the same thing in Australia. We would never go on a day trip that took 8 hours of travelling time...

That night i had a birthday party of a JET friend to go to as well. Finally got home at 1am and fell asleep straight away. Sunday morning was a sleep in (well desereved) and then a trip to the Driving range for a golf lesson from Tom. I was so tired i really sucked. I have 1 week to brush up before we go down to Gihu to play with Ueda-san. I will need to go a few times to the range this week by myself while tom isa back in AUstralia...

ANwyays, now back to work. no more 3 day weekends for me for another month..

koko ga hen

If you are interested in participating in an online cultural seminar about Japan, visit the link below.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/culturalseminar/

The purpose is to exchange opinions on various topics as part of an ongoing cultural seminar in Ibaraki prefecture, Japan.

I will be presenting as part of the seminar later in the year, so you can join this online news group to give your opinion on my topic and also any of the others.

My topic is all about "what does it mean to be an independent woman today"

If any of you have any ideas on what i can speak about i would love you help....

So far i have divided the topic into the following areas

What does being an independent woman mean?
Why do women want to be independent?
How do men feel about independent women?
Changing role of men in society today
Benefits/disadvantages of being independent
Comparisons of women's rights to be independent in different countries
Reasons for marrying or not marrying
Defacto relationships in Australia/Japan
Where to from now?


If you have any thing i can add, give me your opinions.

how to teach english - not!

NOTE: In normal conversation Americans say "meechuh" for "meet you" so that the t plus y becomes ch. Students should be encouraged to pronounce it this way.

Really? since when was it encouraged to teach people to pronouce things wrong? This was written in a text that i was using to make some worksheets for the agricultural college students i will be teaching next week... I dont think i will be following it too closely now..

Its a holiday "Mt Tsukuba Hill Climb"

Photos of my hill climb cycling trip to Mt Tsukuba are here , here
, here, here, here, and here

more photos

i have way too many photos. so i have found a new home for the new ones
please go to http://public.fotki.com/carlybode/ to see more!

what a great boyfriend

i got home from work today and there no tom cause he had left to go to hokkaido while i was away, but there was a huge bunch of flowers waiting for me! How sweet he is!

and he had done all my washing!

true or false australia facts

I need at least 3 funny true or false questions about Australia for when i go to visit the primary school in a few weeks to teach them about other cultures. They want us to play a "yes/no" game.

The people who think the statement is true go to one corner and the others go to the other corner. The ones who are wrong get eliminated and the remaining ones get a prize.

Any one have any good questions/statements about Australia?

For example "Australians ride kangaroos to school" would be a bit too obvious so something a little more tricky would be good. The students are in grade 5.

my life recently

i know i have been slack with the updates. i have no excuse seeing i have internet at my apartment now..

anyways, here is an update of what i have been up to since i last blogged

27th - 28th August
Went to Tokyo to go shopping with Jade at SHimokitazawa. Stayed at Suma's place in Daikanyama and went out to karaoke till late on sat night with people from Siemens. Sunday was shopping in Harajuku and Shibuya. Caught up with Megu for breakfast and then watched the Yosakoi festival down omotesando road. Got back to Mito real late and accidently got off at the wrong bus stop so i had to walk 30 mins to get home.

31st Aug - 1st Sep
Had PA training in Tokyo for 2 days. Learnt how to be a counsellor to the other JETs in times of difficulties. Had dinner with my boss and other CIR/PA. Ran into Miki (ex-rotary exchange student to Croydon) by cooincidence in the same restuarant in Shinjuku where we were eating! Small world of 11 million people in Tokyo isnt it.
Stayed at Ben's place in Shinjuku

1st Sep - 4th Sep
After PA training was over and we had learnt what to do in case of earthquakes or car accidents, took the bus from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko to watch one of Tom's golf tournament. On the Friday i had taken the day off work so i could watch the golf. It was actually interesting and the guy he was working for, Tajima was playing really well. On Sat Katies came down from Shizuoka and we sightsee'd around Kawaguchiko. Dinner with some of the golfers and then beer at our hotel. Sunday we did a bit more sightseeing, took the cable car to the top of a mountain and then a boat across the lake. After that it was back to the golf to watch the last day. Tajima didnt play as well so he ended up coming 18th. Which is still pretty good, but at one point he was coming 3rd...
After the golf it was 2 busses back to Mito. The one to Shinjuku first was running late so we missed our connecting one. That sent us on a wild rush across Tokyo to meet up with it at the next station. We made it with 3 mins to spare..

After all these holidays i am more tired now. I need to go back to work to get some rest!

Plans for the comming days, thinking of going to Sakado on saturday to catch up with the Kitos etc and then maybe Chiba on Sunday to watch the golf again.

Next weekend i am going on a bike ride up Mt Tsukuba.

Weekend after is a hiking trip and some more golf cause they are playing in Ibaraki, only 20kms from my house.

Work is getting busy now too. Translations, website, elementry school visits, sports day, teaching english to firemen and agricultural uni students.

I will try to keep up the updates on this site. Keep checking the photos page cause i will be putting up lots over the next few days.