Kakuyo 2007 Graduation

This is definitely a sad time for me. Even though I never taught these students or maybe because I didn't they were the ones I spoke to alot with outside of class and school. All really cool, great students that I would miss alot! This is always the worst part of this job. Congratualtions to all these third year students now young adults entiring into their futures (most of whom know exactly what they want to do and reaching for it). I hope we can meet some time in the future. God bless you all.


Above two of the craziest guys in the school (to the point you would think they had mental problems) but real fun positive people. Mai was was the first girls name I remember remembering. Bye bye!


The rugby team had the coolest guys in the school really and alot of them were graduates wich was the sad thing. For example the guy with no shirt on there had perfected the american accent in the way some people in Trinidad mock and imitate the chinese speech. At times I thought he was fluent but it was just that he dotted his gibrish with movie phrases. All the best guys! The guys in uniform are mostly from the football team and they were always smiling and friendly (its amazing how each sport has a personality sterotype of sorts) Good luck!


The 2 guys on either side of me are 3 of the first students I actually met and formed a relationship with when I came to Japan by training with and coaching them on the Track team. Yuki (L) and Takuya (the 3rd Hikaru ran home hearly after graduation). They I will truely miss. Hope you too keep trying you best and never give up on your goals.





All the pics above here are from class 3F the food class. I think they were the favourites of all the the teachers such a positive lively and fun bunch of students... all of them. I would always visit their classes and they would teach me Japanese and how to cook (things like making soy sauce and pasteries). I shed a tear for these guys many of whom I know by name. Like to top most pic of Sakamoto and I, really smart witty kid that I can see will go very far. After the graduation ceremony the students and their parents will go to the calssrooms where they receive their certificates and parting messages from the teachers. Then takeing pictures signing albums and tshirts and saying last goodbyes. These 2 last girls would always say hello and the one on the right would always secretively slip me a candy when she passed through the staff room. Really I wish each and everyone of you all the best that life has to offer. Reach for the stars

The Busiest Weekend Yet

And so begins maybe the busiest weekend of my time here in Japan.

From tonite (Monday 9th February 2007) I have to begin packing for my snowboard trip in Hiroshima on Sunday because... tomorrow morning from 8.30 I have track and field practice. I return home and then carry the bags I will hopefully will pack tonite (not forgetting I have to plan menus for 6 students training tomorrow tonite)... carry them to my friend Naho's house with whom I'll be going snowboarding. All this must be done in the 3hrs between track finishing and catching the bus to Fukuoka (2.5hrs ride) at 1.30 with my friend Youichiro for some needed shopping; which of course must be finished by 7.30 when we will be swinging over to La Tiempo for some latin dancing (meeting Tomoko and her friend, Amber and Tineke whom I haven't met yet but because Amber doesn't have a cell I have to call to organise a meeting place in Fukuoka, a huge city... 5th biggest in Japan... which I am not that familiar with) Anyways, despite loving Latin dancing to death, I must depart on the last bus back to Nagasaki (2.5hrs) which is around 10.50pm. Why, you may ask, not jus spend the night in Fukuoka?

Because as I said, I'm going Snow boarding on Sunday (Megahira Skii resort) and the departure time (in order to take advantage of lower toll fees) will be no later than 3am Sunday morning! (I have to do both. Can't give up Latin dance... and most of the people on the skii trip are cool and of course I love the slopes... did I sound too blonde there?) So we spend all day Sunday slipping the slopes of Hiroshima, only for the fun to end later that evening where we return on the 7+hr trip back to Nagasaki. And I really have no option but to return on the same day because I have a package being delivered at 12noon Monday to my house, one, and two, on Monday evening I have a ticket to the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra concert at 6pm in Brick Hall which I will be attenind with my good friend Arita-san. Nothing like a busy weekend ending in soothing classical music and most likely some hot coffee (will need it!).

Anyways lets just take it one step at a time... tonite...
1. Make dinner
2. Do some bible reading
3. Digest (food and the reading)
4. Feed my addiction to the Prison Break TV series (watching Season 1 Episode 7 + 8 tonite)
5. Talk to my friend Nneka online
6. Plan tomorrows track and field training menus
7. Pack bags for snow board trip
8. Call Youichiro to confirm meeting time for the bus
9. Call Naho to organise drop off time for my bags
10. Tidy this sty of an apartment
11. Take a nice long bath (お風呂だよ！）Need to soothe my tired legs.
12. Sleep

頑張ります！

Merry Christmas - Happy New Year 2007

I need 6 good clout. It's take that many months to finally get back in the groove and writing here again. Such is life I guess...

Anyways, life is back in swing and things are moving forward from here on (kind of fell in a ditch before and seemed to be enjoying it till God was like "Aye fella, ah go leave yuh yuh know!") . There are many things I got to write about but I'll take everything in stride.

Why not just start with today. Kinda got a small cold (throat has been feeling like someone has me in a head-lock all day) so took the bus this morning instead of my usual 12min sprint mountain-bike ride to school (school morning meeting starts at 8.25 and I usually leave home somewhere around 8.10 just for the rush... only once missed the mark by 2mins and of course was warned that 2mins and an hour are the same by ever loving Nakamura-sensei).
Today was fairly normal, had 3 lessons (taught basic English on how to get information for word you don't know e.g. 'What does ** mean? or How do you spell **?) and came straight home.

The weekend plan... Pro Mountain bike new 2007 model Test ride, shopping for electronics (I'm thinking of moving into the new year with an electronic dictionary), and wash clothes (the cold of winter makes it muchless appealing to hang out clothes so the pile grows), and some reflecting (got to get some new more productice habits in full gear)

Anyways laterz.
PS Happy Birthday Alicia... Love you (Jan 19th) ; Happy Birthday Stacy... I didn't forget you just lost my address book the other day so didn't have your cell # (Jan 21); Happy Birthday Pauline! Hope this year is filled with hope and prosperity (Jan 30th)

Special Feature: Envoyage - Nagoya

First Japanese Trip - Nagoya - Allan's Jottings

Saturday 03.12.05

06:32 Kamome white train, Japanese efficiency pulled off at exactly 6.30am without even so much as a beep… as if to say “Be here or be screwed”

06:50 I remember watching TV when I was younger, of people always dreading when the train would go through tunnels. I just found out why!

06:59 I just got Punked! Pulled into a station alongside another train after a 31 second pause the train began to pull off again, of course with no warning as usual. As I watched the people in the cars of the other train go by… Only to realize after the last car that the uncanny quietness of our departure was not from brilliant Japanese engineering, but rather my blondness in realizing we did not pull off but rather it was the other train that did… in the opposite direction !

07:10 Taking my first nap on a train. Sun just came up too.

08:20 Awoken from my slumber in a slight panic by the halt of the train. But luckily that wasn’t my stop. 15mins again… I’ll use the “Toy-ray” (toilet, as they say in Japanese) at the station.

09:20 With the kind help of the station man I boarded the Shinkansen (Japan bullet train) in Hakata, Fukuoka, bound for Nagoya after having a small sandwich in the station. Got a seat with a Japanese crew bound for a bit of sightseeing in Kobe, my return stop off.

Train stop en route to Nagoya from Nagasaki: Hakata, Fukuoka -> Kokura -> Hiroshima -> Okayama -> Shin Kobe -> Shin Osaka -> Kyoto -> Nagoya... my stop. The train continues on to Shin Yokahama -> Shin Egawa -> Tokyo.

I’m hating myself for forgetting a map or my Lonely Planet Japan travel guide. I don’t know where I am in Japan, just place names… that sucks! Most disappointed!

09:45 The lady (train hostess I believe would be here title) is passing around with Bentos (Japanese lunch boxes) and assortment of drinks and snacks, but I don’t know how to ask what’s in them. Hope she comes back later, I’ll just buy it and hope for the best… a hungry man doesn’t ask what’s in the box, he just says thank you.

*Ticket procedure at station: The first 2 tickets at point of embarkment (Nagasaki). The All 3 tickets when entering transfer station (Hakata) where only 2 will be returned by the gating machine. Finally the last 2 at destination station where none will be returned.*

10:54 I offered a guy who fell asleep and missed his stop at Hiroshima some potatoes chips… feeling for him as he stoops in between cars until we get to the next stop 50mins away or so.

12.10 Final destination approaching and I’m getting the “never been there before expecting to get seriously lost and freeze doing it, but still happy like a dog that didn’t get spayed” jitters. Just about 30mins again. I really should have checked the map properly; although it doesn’t seem long, it feels awfully far. As said, my seat mates when they left at Shin Kobe – “Nagoya wa toi desu ne~!” Trini translation… “Nagoya real far dred, I sorry for you. Doh dig no horrors.”

12:39 Trying to gauge the weather outside before I depart the train… you know its 85% mental 7% physical and the rest just mouse. From the droplets on the window from a little rain a while back, I could tell it’s livable temperature, because despite the train’s high speed the drops haven’t frozen… “Mamonaku Nagoya desu…”… here we go!!!

18:02 The University Open Day was very good impressive but they don’t have the programme I can do anymore but hope to bring it back later. I didn’t explore Nagoya more that the street from the University to the train station. But from what I see it is a very peaceful modern city. I get a real cool fee from it. Will have to revisit in tourist mode sometime. Now leaving Nagoya 30mins… awww, the lady I’m sitting next to on the train just gave me Okinawan Black Candy. SUGOI NE!!! Anyway 30mins late because I was standing at the wrong train track. Spent the 30mins eating beef udon soba (600yen) to warm me up. It’s very cold but I’m well dressed. Not too sure but hopefully this train is taking me from here (Nagoya) to Maibara, then transfer to Biwako line heading to Kyodo, Osaka then Sannomiya, Kobe.

21:03 After worrying more than necessary we are finally approaching my Kobe stop. Whew!! Taihen ne! (hard time isn't it)I enjoyed my day of train rides actually. Quite enjoyable. I definitely learnt a lot. Time to see what Saturday night in Kobe is like!

Sunday 04.12.05

16:45 Sitting on floor behind the last seat in car 1 of the Shinkansen from Shin Kobe to Hakata. I opted for the unreserved seat so that I can cover as many experiences as possible in one trip. (I came on a reserved seat ticket which is only about 1000yen more). I hope I get a seat on the next stop because I was blessed with meager portions in the derrière division so not sure I’ll comfy for long. Had a great time in Kobe… BIG city, real cool people, lively atmosphere. Always good to meet up with Bryan. The weather wasn’t the best… rainy and very cold but still bearable. It’s mainly my hands and face that take the brunt of the cold. Otherwise I’m properly dressed. Totally love traveling. I’ll be sure to explore some cities (this time was just business visit really) on my own in the future.

17:40 Train slowed a bit (not by much) and they finally… (Eewe!! Someone let one rip!) anyway, they finally put the speed up on the screen. We are traveling at 300km/h. Sugoi!!

18:21 Train stopped at a rainy Okayama. I think I’ll take a sleep from here to Fukuoka. A guy came on the train with jacket and gloves so I guess the rains signal the drop of 1 more degree in temperature. Whoopee ding.

18:30 Check meh nah! Big time traveler sleeping on the train. Yuh tink it easy!

18:55 Not much of a rest. We are already at Hakata and I have to be alert. The transfer to Nagasaki is only in 5mins! No time to get lost.

20:30 Met James on the train to Nagasaki. I’m happy the train I was supposed to take was cancelled, because I ran to the wrong platform… would have surely missed it. So now I’m standing in a packed train (just like you see on TV, big jam up and squeeze up in here. Man cya even scratch he head, fuh fraid he lick way man eye with he elbow)

21:57 Yatta!!! Owarimashita!! Now on the bus (just in time for the last few buses to my apartment) on the way home. WOW Nagasaki feels colder than Kobe. I suppose that I just came from the warm train into a rainy, windy, chilly night. But it’s all good. I really enjoyed the occasional panicked rush and discomfort of a journey. More memories God bless Japan. But wait! Is that snow falling outside there!?!?

22:22 I can’t believe that. What the perfect end to a great trip and I not back in my equally cold apartment after jumping up and screaming at the top of my lungs at my first sight of snow. Was this close to licking it off the street at frustration that none would fall on my outstretched tongue. Very brief… all of 1min of snow (found out from temperate friends that it wasn’t snow but rather sleet… who gives?! All ice to me) but it was great!

すみません。。。 HAPPY 2006!!!

It's been a while...
I sit here feeling shame more than anything; not one blasted excuse for taking 2 months to update this blog. Pure slackness. Anyway that's all in the past isn't it?! This is a time for new beginnings, forgiveness for past faults and embracement of new and improved future (so put away the pitchfork, sickle and flambeaux and I'll promise to write more often... ignore that my fingers are crossed behind as well)

Anywho... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 2006 is here and there is still so much about 2005 that I am still overwhelmed by and trying to figure out. And of course there is still so much that I have to show you all about beautiful Japan. For the while me just start at where I am right now and later on I'll do like the best movies do and give flash-backs of good times gone.

My first Japanese Christmas was quite quiet. As we all know, here is not like the Christian founded western world. So even here in Nagasaki, one of the cities with the most Christians in Japan, didn't have much spirit at all. The most I saw was a week of Christmas activity in the seasonally adorned Nagasaki Train Station (music bands, dance groups, giveaways that kinda thing) and a flood in the malls on Christmas eve, of Japanese people who, even the day before, didn't even seem to know when Christmas was. (actually when I asked the question in the last week of class it was met most with silence and well and of course with the chatter of those students who are not even remotely interested in English let alone 'Kurisumasu'). And being the Japanese man I am (no comments necessary) I almost forgot that a holiday was coming up.

Welcome to the working world Allan, as well. For the first time in my life as well, there was no beautiful holiday leading up to Christmas day until sometime after New Year's Day. Only wonderful Japanese efficiency working right up to the 28th of December (I don't think it's healthy to shock a person like that... oh gorm! at lest give a black man a 3 days nah...steups). Anyways those days (23rd-28th Dec) at school were great actually. Did a lot of sport activity with student clubs (like volleyball, kendo and of course track & field). Even went for my first bit of ice skating (mad fun... and of course, I'm a natural). Christmas day I spent the day with Sandy (other Trini here... we apparently are the only ones that haven't left the country for the holidays. The other Trinis: Brigid is in Australia, Lesleann is in England, and Abby is Cambodia... boy do I sound boring to be in Japan). We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant and watched some movies.

Which is more or less the same we did today on New Year's Day. We were supposed to go hiking to watch the year's first sunrise with a small hiking group, but missed the alarm and got up late. (Don't worry at 12am Japan time after a call from my mommy:-D, I took a walk and said some prayers for all you back home. I was expecting more calls since I distinctly remember mailing my number to everyone... Jus' watch allyuh go see. Doh ask what yuh know! doh worry yuh go see!). Anyways we cooked up a storm since that is what the Japanese do for the new year; I called one of my teachers last night and she said she was in the kitchen for the past 3 days and had about 2 hrs before the "Oshougatsu" feast was finished. And travelling from the city back home yesterday almost everyone on the tram was carrying bags of food. So why be the foreigner, eh? Buy food man!
We cooked Kyushu White Chicken (my specialty), macaroni pie (Sandy's baby), boiled provisions (collaboration), fresh salad (joint effort), sushi (we bought), fried chicken (we reheated), and fried shrimp (we recooked). It was beautiful and we couldn't eat all but it always feels good to be stuffed.

Anyway as usual I'm rambling about nothing. Hope you all had a great season and I wish you all the best for 2006．Laterz
明けましておめでとうございます。今年もよろしくお願いします。またね.

P.S. from now I think I will write shorter blogs... easier for you to read, easier for me to write regularly. Well call that resolution I guess. Not sure how well it will stand but I'll try.　がんばります。

The End is Near

Despite all the good news I have been reporting over the last few weeks all is not rose beds and dandelions. Situations have changed to the point where I think that I may very well have to return to Trinidad. I can’t live like this…

More specifically, after I have somewhat gotten accustomed to life here and finally settled, things have changed and I can’t cope with the new orientation that is necessary. I am talking about the closure of the big department store, Daie, next door to my apartment. Come December 1^st, they will no longer open their doors to hopeless foreigners like myself or anyone for that matter. Glancing over my shoulder at the television while eating raw octopus and fish (sashimi) with the Ferry driver’s family, I saw those familiar doors in my neighbour, “Aye look my Daie!... what’s that about?” Obviously the news is always all in Japanese so I just watch pictures and make up my own little fairytales. Anyways, Hiro-san (ferry driver’s son who speaks English) told me they were talking about it closing. Well I might as well just pack and go back where I come from! Who can do without 3 floors of food, clothes, electronics, books, laundry, photo service, ATMs, postal service, bakery, free samples and courteous service open till 12midnight everyday right next door!? Not me!

Seeing the shock on my face and the near tears, the ferry driver (Susume-san) offered his son to take me to another department store anytime when Daie is closed. Anyways I will try to survive.

Anyway back to life. We have along weekend this week for the big Nagasaki Okunchi Festival. Lots of dancing and dragons and stuff. As always I enquired to find out what it was about and as always most people didn’t know. The ones who do are the older folk who don’t speak English. I did find out though from a teacher in school, that Okunchi was an old festival against Christians! Riiiiiight… Hopefully the old sentiments don’t remain.

P.S. Look out for ‘a Tribute to Daie, The Good Times’ in my picture blog soon.

Oh, the random pictures are on the left (top to bottom): Allan sensei, Ferry driver Masume and his son Masuru at our dinner, My Junious high school class practicing greeting. Right side (top to bottom): Beautiful Daie...you will be missed, and the view from my seat on the bus.