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26-10-2011pm

  NODA DANJIRI - 2011
This month was, of course, the Kumatori Danjiri parade. For those of you that don't know, a danjiri is the ornate wooden trailer in the picture above, that lots of people pull around their local city. The area within Kumatori that we live in is called Noda, so we're a part of the Noda Danjiri. One guy dances precariously on the top of the danjiri, to music played by a couple of drummers, a flute player and a percussionist inside the dandjiri. Numerous other town dignatories hitch a ride on the danjiri too. Each town has it's own danjiri and a slightly different uniform.

Colin and Leon are absolutely danjiri crazy, and have been bashing stuff around the house to the danjiri beat and mimiking the danjiri tune, whilst of course, doing the danjiri dance! It's been almost a month now since the festival but they're still at it!

Leon and Yuki did have a bit of an accident though during one of the 'kids time' periods, when the children are allowed to help pull the danjiri. There's one place where they run briefly with the kids towards the end of the day, and unfortunately one child fell over. What turned it into a pile up though, was one guy rushing to help the kid, who then himself fell over, causing all the kids behind him to pile into him. Leon managed to get a lot of skin torn off his fingers by the rope, and Yuki had someone stand on her stomach. There're both fine now, however, but needless to stay I'll be sticking close to them for the fast bit next year!

Before the festival I was busy making another CD to go along with a set of readers for one of my kids classes. I have a very good microphone, but it's set up in my class, which is a bit echo-ey, and my PC's fan is noisy too! Hence it's takes a lot of time to get the audio just right, and then process the noise out!



Now that's finished though, I've got more spare time to get out on my longboard again, which is great fun. I'm carving nicely on the roads at speed now, but still can't slide yet. So last week I ordered a more slippery set of wheels that are more beginner friendly for sliding. Of course, until I can slide I can't stop quickly, which limits where I can longboard. But sliding isn't just about stopping, it looks like mega fun once you can do it well, so I'm now on a mission to slide....

13-09-2011am

My new telescope arrived last week, I've wanted one for a number of years but only had room for one once we moved to Kumatori, and then I was too busy. I am still busy, just not crazily busy any more, so I could resist no longer! It took an hour to put together, and I've been spending some time on the internet investigating what's good to look at. Unfortunately is was cloudy over the weekend, although it is forecast to be clear this evening. I can't stay up too late on a weekday as I get up at 6:30am everyday, but I'll try to get out quickly tonight to see the supernova!

Once I know what I'm doing I might start up a 3Lions Star Gazing night every so often....

We took the kids to Chambara a couple of weeks ago which of course they loved. It's like sword fighting with a stick covered in foam. I had a go too, but it felt a bit silly afterwards, so I'm planning to get the 3 of us into a Karate club from next April instead (me, Yuki and Leon that is).

My achilles tendon injury is still stopping me from doing too much, so I'm still limited to swimming and a bit of cycling and climbing. I've been stretching much more thoroughly for the last couple of months, and I've been wearing thicker socks to keep my lower legs warm, which does seem to be making a difference, fingers crossed!

26-08-2011am

The summer holiday's finished and I've just completed my first week of classes. It actually feels good to get back into it again, all of my classes are going well, the kids performance is good, and they're (mostly!) well behaved and having fun.

We went to PichiPichi beach a couple of times with our kids over the holiday, and we went to Isonoura beach in Wakayama once too. Unfortunately there was a lot of plastic waste in the sea at Isonoura, which spoilt it for me as I love to get a nice long swim in, but it was too gross! The kids of course couldn't care less though, and had a great time.

The second time we went to PichiPichi beach we invited our 2 Bilingual Class students along, and I took them out in our new inflatable boat! To be honest it's a bit boring just rowing about in the sea. What I really want to do is find a good river to take the boat on. Thanks to Yasuno for taking a bunch of photos!

Over the holiday we also arranged for a bit of our garden wall to be demolished, improving access to our garden to allow a car to park on it. So we now have an extra parking space, and still have a nice large garden!

13-06-2011pm

My swimming is starting to feel good again, at last! About a year ago I was starting to notice that my swimming wasn't getting any faster, and in fact it was getting more difficult. I finally realised there was something wrong with my technique, so the last 6 months I've worked on both correcting it, and improving it further. I now have a much smoother, more streamlined stroke, I'm breathing equally to my left and right and I'm swimming a record low for me of 15 strokes per length. But more crucially I've just started timing myself again, and my times aren't too far away from my best, and I'm not getting tired to quickly, which is just great!

I can finally see me breaking my personal best times in the next 6 months or so, fingers crossed!

My cycling is also getting better again, after I realised I wasn't pulling up on my pedals enough, utilising more leg muscle. Just like my swimming my cycling is both faster and easier now! What's also been nice is that I've finally sorted out my race bike for training on in the summer. Over the winter I use my old touring bike, which weighs a ton, so now I'm using my race bike it feels as light as a feather and I'm flying up the hills!

I also found a good spot to practise longboarding up near our local library, but unfortunately, I over did it a bit and have irritated my achilles tendons (which have been troubling me for many years). Each day they're getting better though so I hope to be out on the board again by the end of this week or the start of the next.

I'm actually hoping that longboarding will be good for strengthening my tendons and will help me get back into running again, then I can start racing again.

We'll see....

30-05-2011am

I'm starting to get out on my longboard at last, if the weather clears up I'll head out again tomorrow on it.
Whilst I was looking at longboarding on You Tube I noticed some people have taken to pushing themselves along on their longboard with a big stick. Looks kinda cool, but mostly I like the fact that it gives you an upper body workout, tempting...

Here's a vid of some guys using a Big Kahuna Stick on the South Coast of England, near where I used to live...

19-04-2011am

Just noticed an amusing news article on the Guardian of something that makes me proud to be British:
EXTREME IRONING   
I quote "Extreme ironing enthusiast takes advantage of motorway closure after scrapyard fire to iron his shirt in the middle lane"

Link to the full article here:
www.guardian.co.uk

18-11-2010pm

Hopefully I'm going to start to have more time to keep this so called blog up to date soon. After being manically busy getting the school finished, I'm now really busy planning lessons every week for my 55 students! The planning is getting easier now though, as I've finished planning one of the adult courses, and I recently started planning the kids classes on my PC which is much faster. As I like to keep changing my lessons to make them as good as possible, having the plans on my PC makes this easier too!

I was much happier with the Halloween this year, having the balloons fall down from the ceiling was a great way to finish!

Yuki, Leon and Colin are all fine, Colin's allergies are reducing and he can now eat bread which is great! I've had a nastey cold for a few weeks though which has stopped me doing any serious exercise, boo! Hopefully I'll be able to start swimming, cycling and long boarding soon....

Here is my favorite longboarding video which finally convinced me to buy one. Still haven't made it to the local mountains yet, as soon as I'm over this bug....

18-11-2010am

Ooops! It's been quite a while since I last updated my blog, but seeing the video below about wearing a seatbelt (which we ALWAYS do in our family) has got me kick-started.


Please wear a seat belt and make your children wear one too. I see far too many kids in Japan not wearing a seatbelt. Take a look at this new campaign video from the UK, it's a great film and a good motivator. www.youtube.com/watch?v=p916yeFa2Xk

On the topic of road safety I'm a bit worried a kid is going to get run over at the traffic lights just down the road from us. About twice a week during the mornings I see cars go through red lights so late that the pedestrian light has turned green before the car crosses the end of the junction. Twice now I've seen school kids almost cross the road in front of the vehicle. I dragged Naoko to the local Koban today to report a car driver, but there's not much they can do....

07-12-2009

I've been tied to the computer for the last few weeks trying to get the website updated with new course information and give it a new look and feel. I think I've now got a layout I'm really happy with! I've then got the new leaflet to finish off - which is what prompted the website update. I don't want a leaflet that has more information on it and looks better than the website! Due to this I'm unlikely to be able to get the Halloween party pictures up until the Christmas break, at which point I'll add the Christmas party photos as well.

On a more personal note my running is starting to slowly improve, so I'm starting to feel like a triathlete again. Naoko and the kids are all fine although Colin seems to become allergic to more things by the day! Naoko is working too hard in my opinion doing free-lance translation work, another reason to sort out the website and circulate leaflets, so that we can get more students and I can make the missus turn down work. In spite of having practically no advertising though, student numbers are continually picking up, and we now have over 20 students, hurray!

Something worthy of note on the teaching side of things, I have now moved my computer monitor, keyboard and mouse to the teaching table, to make it much easier to do on-line/CD-ROM activities.

02-10-2009

Things are still busy, busy, busy at the school. We have now started a 25-30 hour TOEIC course to both improve students English with TOEIC specific vocabulary, and to get the most out of their knowledge during the exam. The course has regular short tests with exam hints and tips and we have 4 full length tests to check your improvement.

We are also investigating Study Abroad options in the UK and will be setting ourselves up as agents for a few of the best UK English Schools.

I have recently finished the first of our reading book CDs and booklets to accompany the Snapdragons reading books we are using for 3-12 year olds. Our kids love it so I'm quietly confident they will be a hit!

The one other thing worth noting is that we now own a (foldable) pool table, hurrah! As the kids keep us fairly tied to the house, I'm starting a pool night so our students and ourselves can enjoy an English pub-like environment for the occasional evening! For more info click here!

I have some ideas for a new look 3Lions homepage. I would like to get it designed and completed in the next few weeks, but we'll have to wait and see if I have enough time.

11-08-2009

Blimey, it's been 2 months since my last update, and what a busy 2 months it's been! But it has been worth it, with the school and at last our living quarters looking good now everything is packed away. The kids are starting to enjoy the climbing wall with myself belaying them, but Naoko and I have only had chance to climb it properly once so far. Our opening party on the 12th of July went well. It was a bit of a frantic rush getting everything ready, especially as I wanted our sign board finished for the party. I didn't quite finish it unfortunately, but it was okay enough to show everyone at least. Photos of the party can now be seen in the Photos section of the website by the way.

The number of students we have is steadily increasing, and I'd like to welcome Keisuke, Ayako and Rin who've all started recently, Rio and Ayane who are starting this month, and Keito and Ena due to start next month.

I have to finish my update there as I promised to cook again tonight so I need to head off and buy some food. I made a broccoli and tomato quiche with roast potatoes yesterday and am planning to make broccoli and cauliflower cheese tonight, with roast spuds again, yum!

12-06-2009

Last week we went to see a Lilly Allen concert in Osaka. She was excellent! It was a small venue so you got up close and personal and she was very pleasant and a very good singer. She had a good band too and will be playing in the Fuji Rock Festival - well worth a look for those that are going.
 
We've got a moving in date for our new house/school! We should be collecting the keys on June 19th and have arranged to move in on the 22nd! I'm going to be busy now putting up desks, shelving etc. to get as much ready as possible before we move in. We're all looking forward to it!!
 
I had a good swim today so am finally getting back on track after I hurt my back. Once we've moved I'll be able to both cycle to the pool and cycle Colin to nursery everyday. I hope to get in at least 2 swims a week plus a long cycle into the mountains. Still waiting for my calf muscels to loosen up before I start running properly though...
 
Colin was ill with a nastey virus the other week and lost a bit of weight, but he's now doing fine again. I think he gave the germs to me too, but I'm pretty close to 100% now also.

21-05-2009

Once again it's been a wee while since my last update, I will try to update this a tad more often from now on. Up until recently I've not had an awful lot to report as I managed to hurt my back about a week after my last update! I had been spending most of my time lying down, however, it's now on the mend and I'm now swimming and cycling again. I'm hoping to start running again next week...
 
The house/school is looking good, the outside scaffolding and cover came off this week. I've been spending a fair bit of time over the last couple of weeks making the climbing wall. It's next to our spiral staircase on the 2nd and 3rd floors. I drilled all the holes and fitted t-nuts in the plywood sections for the climbing holds to screw into, then the builders fixed the plywood to the frame of the house for me. I then painted it last week and yesterday ordered a rope and climbing gear for Naoko and the kids!
 
I've started teaching a few students either at Naoko's parents place or at their home, which is going well. I have 2 High School girls - Miki and Mizuki, 2 adults - Nozomi and Kimiyo and their kids Shure (2nd grade) and Yurika (kindy) respectively. Due to the big age differences they're all doing different Oxford courses which is giving me a fair amount to prepare for each week! It's good to have the variety though, and it'll be great to teach in my own classroom once we've moved. We should be able to move sometime in July. Next week I'm likely to be making some tables at the new house to save a bit of money! With any luck I can get everything finished before we're due to move in.
 
FAMILY UPDATE - Colin is now sitting up unaided! The little tyke is also starting to crawl a bit and chew on anything in his path! Yuki's running is now starting to look good. Leon's running and well everything is still as funny as usual. And, yes, he still likes pink.
 

08-03-2009

I've spent a good portion of time on the website today and I am at last pretty happy with it. There's still a fair bit to add once the school/house has been built and we're up and running, but I've got about as far as I can get for the moment. Saying that however, I have recently discovered a good looking OUP course for both 4 and 5 year olds, so I may need to update the pre-school course information soon. Only 3 more weeks to go at Kusunoki though (hurray!),after which I'll have much more time to spend on the website, etc.
 
PS - Many thanks to Naoko for translating everything into Japanese for me!

30-12-2008

Hi, I've finally got a decent amount of time to spend on the website now I've got 2 weeks holiday from Kusunoki Kindergarten.
 
Apart from not having any time during weekdays to do anything when working things are going OK (I work 9hrs a day and have a 2.5hr total commute). I'm managing to get 2 swims in a week most weeks and am cycling to work about once a week. It's a real extreeme cycle too, 25km with hardly any flat, I'm always going up or down really steep hills! The running is still a bit hit and miss at the moment, and I'm having a fair bit of physio treatment. Fingers crossed I'll finally be fully fit in a few months or so. I'm really looking forward to getting 3Lions English up and running, being my own boss and having more time for the family and tri training, once everything's set up. Of course I'm mega busy at the mo though, getting everything set up...