Last year Nick and I won the best costume contest and bought our entire costume at the 100 Yen store ($1 store) and this is what we came up with. Proud members of the Japan National Ping Pong Team! This year we're gonna try and stick with the 100 Yen store and put together another great one, but are trying to find some inspiration. We'll let you know what we decide as the 27th is Angel and Clive's Annual Halloween Party!

This article caught my eye as I work at a Jr. High and we're talking about 13-15 year old girls here...yes even in Japan, some really sick stuff goes on (read on)

Fore! Teacher hits OB over sexy messages to schoolgirls written on balls

6:18pm Tuesday, October 16

SHINGU, Fukuoka -- A P.E. teacher resigned in disgrace after he was found to have written sexually harassing questions on golf balls he threw in a pool and made junior high school girls collect and answer, Shingu Board of Education officials said Tuesday.

The 32-year-old male teacher from the Shingu Municipal Junior High School resigned on Oct. 10 and he and the school's principal Katsushi Sato have apologized to parents.

"I wanted to get the kids interested in water, so decided to make my classes as much fun as possible, but I went too far," the teacher said.

Sato also apologized.

"It's extremely regrettable that something like this has happened," the principal said. "Every single member of staff here wants to work hard to restore faith in us."

Shingu Board of Education officials said the teacher took a class of second-year junior high school girls for three hours of classes on Sept. 21. He wrote questions on about 40 golf balls he threw into the bottom of the pool, then encouraged the schoolgirls to dive in and collect the balls, read out the question on the balls they found and provide an answer for it.

Among the questions the teacher posed were: "How many centimeters is your bust?" "Do you want to have sex?" and "What's the name of your lover?"

One of the schoolgirls mentioned the incident to her parents, who complained to the school.

As you all know I work as an English teacher at a Jr. High School and come next month I will have been there for an entire year. That's an accomplishment all on its own. To think that I have been there a year, makes me think wow time has flown by, but sometimes I find the days go by way too slowly and not sure how much longer I'll make it! And to be honest, not much has changed since I started last year except that I can understand more and more when the teachers talk about me 'eigo no sensei....' (English teacher.....)as I have been diligently studying. I also use way too many Japanese words with the students, as most of the time it is too painful to get the point or explain something over and over again in English, which I guess defeats the purpose of being.....an English teacher.

But things continue as they have always to get lost in translation when trying to talk to the other teachers and that uncomfortable feeling of being the only foreigner at the school still remains. Some days are busy with 4 classes to teach, but then others are the exact opposite. I might have only 1 or even worse none! Things aren't so bad, when I am super busy....but when I have nothing to do all day....this is what I do for enjoyment (no I don't really think alcohol would make things better...or would it?), to keep sane...I know what you're all thinking, "Jen, wow you used to be so busy..work so hard" well I'll get back to that eventually for the time being, this is what life can be like teaching English (at Jr. High Schools) in Japan.

Just click on the picture to see a larger view.

Ocha=Green Tea

Just found this photo, taken sometime this past spring/summer. I'm sure he'll love me for sharing it with you...

So I've signed up with FLICKR and have been busy uploading photos! There a some cool slideshows below that can keep you busy, but if you want to see more..... you can visit our flickr site at www.flickr.com/jenandnick
We'll be posting our photos here from now on! Just click on a collection and you can view it picture by picture or as slideshow.

Got this T-shirt this past weekend at a store here in Japan, how good is this one!!! So I am confused, is Michigan...really the shape of Texas? I really have been trying to teach everyone that it looks like a 'mitten', no wonder Japanese people get so confused ! The got the colors all wrong too :)

If the writing is too small to read it says 'I will be free' and 'chosen sauce' whatever that may mean.

At the beginning of September, we took a unplanned and spontaneous trip down to Sydney just for a week. Nick's good friend got engaged and since we won't be able to head back down for the wedding, we thought we would fly down for the engagement party and see some family and friends. Most of our days were centered around meals and eating while visiting various people. It has been over a year and a half since either of us had been there, so it was great to get back.

We stuffed ourselves silly with lots o' meet including steaks, sausages, a lamb roast, Nick's favorite hamburger shop, the list goes on and on along with a awesome Seafood platter for lunch one day with Nick's Mum and Dad. We definitely did some damage, but well worth it as we really don't eat too much of the beef here in Japan.

We saw an exciting Sydney FC soccer game, although they tied and wandered around where we used to live in Kirribilli along the harbour. Unfortunately, our favorite Thai restaurant closed down! It was great to see friends and family and be back in a English speaking country able to read all the signs and understand everything! A few pictures are below.....the trip was lucky addition to our summer holidays, but a little too short!

Xi'An was about a 12 hour overnight train from Beijing. It took us about 3 days to get train tickets as at the station they always said 'sold out" or if your familiar with this one "no tickets for you...come back 10 days" We got them through a travel agent and had to pay a commission, of course. Xian was a neat city as an entire wall surrounds it with a bell tower in the center. It's home to many Chinese Muslims and walking around the "Muslim Quarter" was a very different style to see in China. Our highlight in Xi'An was definitely the Terracotta warriors. After booking a tour and having them take us to 3 de-tours including a silk factory we finally got to see them. It really was incredible to see what they have uncovered and left in tact since 1975 when a farmer working in a well discovered them. These had been there buried for centuries. And there still working on the site as there are expected to be thousands more of these soldiers.

Shanghai was nice, but to be honest we spent a little too much time there. It's a very modern city with a shopping mall on every corner. There are still old parts of the city and a huge contrast to the tall skyscrapers and hotels. They have the Bund area which is along the riverfront and has colonial style buildings which were really nice as they have spent many years refurbishing the area. The highlights of Shanghai included spending the night at the Crowne Plaza for my birthday, a much needed getaway from our nightly hostel accommodations and we were on Shanghai TV.

When we were walking along the Bund a Chinese Camera crew and reporter stopped us and asked if we would be willing to be on the Sports Channel later that night around 6:45. We agreed and they just filmed us answering some questions about the Olympics next year and where we're from, etc. That day was the 1 year countdown to the 2008 games. Of course we wanted to see ourselves and if we actually made in to Chinese TV and sure enough we did. We went to Hooters for wing night and happy hour (yes there is Hooters in China...hard to imagine) and waited it out over pina coladas and wings. Unfortunately no free drinks for being on TV!

We spent time in Beijing at the beginning of our trip and at the end. It took a few days to adjust to the culture as it is very different from the Japanese culture. Along with the initial frustrations of getting train tickets, our second time back to Beijing was much more pleasant. It probably helped that we actually saw the sun and some blue sky in Beijing, which rarely happens, especially in the heat of the summer. In Beijing we enjoyed roaming around The Forbidden City and Palace, it really is a city, it's huge! There were some renovations going on so the main courtyard area wasn't as picturesque as we would've liked.

By far the best part was our visit to the Great Wall at Simitai. It was a beutiful day, we took the 2 1/2 hour drive from Beijing and couldn't have asked for a better day to do it. Never mind the fact that we had tried to go the 2 days prior but something always got in the way of us actually getting there. Anyways, you could see the wall stretching for miles along the hills and countryside. It was nearly deserted which was surprising. You usually see photos of massive amounts of people crowding the wall from one end to the other (of the tourist area). They were 14 watch towers we could visit. This was strictly for tourists and parts had been rebuilt. Once we got to the 14th tower there was a big sign that said if we trespassed it would be an equivalent to a $10 fine, not nearly enough to stop some people, we thought.

Also in Beijing, we got to see a Kung Fu performance which was good, Nick would've like to have seen some more fighting though, as it was very artistic. We visited the different temples and on the last two days shopped till we dropped. Our bargaining skills have never been better, we actually had to buy a new backpack to bring our things back. Thankfully we went over there with nearly nothing in our bags.

Overall the food was a bit disappointing, of course edible, at least most of it. But it would've been ideal to have a Chinese person with us reading menus for us and recommending places and things to eat. On the other hand we never went all out on an expensive dinner, so maybe that's our fault. One of our best meals happened to be a Japanese all you can off the menu restaurant, kind of pathetic!

We're looking forward to seeing the Olympics next summer and what things will have changed and what things will have remained the same since our travels there.

Qingdao is a city on the bay about 9 hours by 'slow train' east of Beijing. We stopped there on the way back from Shanghai and were thinking a little beach town in China would be nice. Of course we didn't expect Australian Beaches, but thought it would be nice to see some water. We arrived and it was downpouring and flooding. Not a good start. We had to stay at a different hotel, all the hostels were booked and I don't think we've ever stayed in such a shity hotel before. Thing were old, but clean thankfully and it was just for one night until we moved to our hostel the following day. Again we had a hard time getting tickets back to Beijing and spent a lot of time tracking some tickets down and people kept telling us nothing was available for 10 days. We were quite nervous as our flight from Beijing back to Tokyo was in 7. The 2nd day cleared up and was beautiful, we spent time walking along the beach and promenade which was nice. This city has German/European influences as some settled there years ago and the architecture displays this. There is great distinction between the old town and the new town, where the new town has been flooded with tall buildings, shopping malls and apartment complexes. Many new as they will be the host for the sailing events for the Olympics. We really didn't spend much time there as that night we got tickets for the next day back to Beijing. It was a very interesting ride for 9 hours. They were the only seats available, hard seats and imagine a lightly covered plank of plywood, that's how hard they were. The seats had 3 facing 3 other seats, so things got pretty cozy with our Chinese seatmates. They also had let many people on who didn't have tickets to lay and sit in the aisles and between the carriages. It was a crazy crowded train which made trying to get to the bathroom almost impossible. Speaking of the toilets, the Toilets everywhere in China were disgusting, the ones on the trains were among the worst after 9 hours of traveling!