Tarui Matsuri

Some of my students was granted the chance to perform at their local town's festival! So proud of my kids - they had practiced hard and performed for the entire day in rotation. Although I had some difficulty recognizing them under all that makeup.








Its quite traditional so only males are allowed to act or even touch the giant carts! It was tough since the road was so narrow. Also it was acted in old-school Japanese - not even my JT Mika can understand what they were going on about!

Golden Week

Before heading to Australia, Japan had one of the longest holidays in the calender year - Golden Week. Its actually a series of national holidays joined into 4 consecutive days, but nicer companies usually shut their doors for the week. Lucky for everyone else shops trade as usual!
Maya and I hit Tokyo again for some more shopping, fun and catching up with family and friends.

That was the week we discovered my sunburn and the best way to tone it down, trying to catch the last trains home, coin lockers at the train station, super long fake eyelashes that scares Koh and the increasing temperature.






Also delved into the Japanese craze of purikura (sticker photos). We spotted a girl taking one on her own and felt sorry for her!

Tadaima~

Returned to Japan safely! I had heaps of fun in Australia but was left exhausted after trying to squeeze too much in my 10 days...
The wedding was magical and the weather was cooler than expected.
I am grateful for the time there and realised how much I loved everyone back home. I felt sad to not be able to meet up with everyone but it gives me more the reason to visit again. Miss everyone heaps and hopefully see everyone again soon!

Will post more on my trip later!

Just a note - I managed to get my steak in on the first night back! WIN!

Going Home!!!

Quick post! I'm heading back home for my friends wedding and is super excited to be able to catch up with everyone!!!
Missing everyone heaps but I know I will miss Maya in Japan as I'm so use to mailing and calling her all the time!

Just a sneak peak at my gifts!


Just to say buying a basket full of junks does generate tons of weird looks from other shoppers!

Hope to see everyone soon! Now I'm just worried about the weight of my suitcase!

XOXOX

My New Camera!

After my camera died on my last month, I purchased my new camera *drum roll*

My new Olympus e-pl1s~


I got the red color and so far Im loving it!
Its bulkier than my old Canon IXY but the photo quality is way better!
Time to get my skills up~