Craig-san Japan!

Well, a mildly normal two weeks since I last posted, I have another long blog post written, but its quite weird, so I’ll post that another time.

Last Saturday we had our house warming party, roughly 15 people came in the end, and was great fun. I did intend to take lots of photos but failed, but after having 8 months of people convinced I couldn’t cook I busted out some lasagne, Tuna & Pasta salad and the Japanese TamagoYaki (like a Swiss roll of omelette). Revenge tastes sweet with a delicious white sauce.

In April we have been doing some work over in Toyako Onsen nearby, as assistants for 4 Japanese people teaching English. So 4 lessons, four weeks, four teachers. I’ve done week one and tonight was week 3. We aren’t the teachers for these lessons, more like support should they need help with pronunciation or something, but both lessons were very entertaining and a nice wee change.

Speaking of, you probably noticed the new header, I took the photo of me by the whiteboard at the first onsen lesson and have only just done what I wanted to do with it today. Obviously the writing is edited on though. The power of photoshop!

In other artistic (hah) topics, here are two drawings I done on..Monday I think. Nothing major, I did find drawing the robot was A lot of fun and I’d like to try and draw a series of these kinda machines.

Can’t really think of much else to write about just now, This weekend I’m going to Sapporo to see my girlfriend, With any hope I can buy myself a Fedora too. Just because It’ll look awesome!

Tomorrow is a short amount of work too, although have drumming at night, Sometimes it seems I have no free time at all at night! I plan to make some sorta salad that’ll last me a few days, and also maybe Tamagoyaki again, although I’ll need to have something with it as one portion isn’t big enough for a meal.

Brraaaaaaaaaaaaaap.

If you’ve ever wondered what my last term of school was like, it went as follows;

• Indian curries at lunch
• Playing football, mainly in place of education

Regarding the schools position towards me;

• Go to Class.
• You’ve spent 6 years with us, enjoy the rest without us.

My last day of school was spent tying people up with masking tape and being a general ass. I left at 2:34 thinking.."gah, I shouldn’t have eaten that curry"

Whereas today, I witnessed the Japanese Junior High Graduation Ceremony (JJHGC if you find these kind of abbreviations hilarious.) Being a Special Guest of Honour ( I got bowed at repeatedly - As should be done). The whole ceremony was 1hr and 30 mins exactly, and was largely boring and made me sleepy. It was a very touching ceremony and every student took it seriously (although there were only 8 students graduating this year..) They also done some nice singing, They can ALL sing, which creeped me out, very nice though. Although there were  too many speeches from individual students, Many either apologizing to their parents for the past or reassuring parents they will go for it in high school. Well as far as I’m aware. Kids speak too fast, and in the wrong language. Ironically I spend most of my time convincing said pupils to speak better i.e. English.

They never learn.

Tonight also happened to be my first proper lesson with my new Beginner/intermediate class, introduced "Boggle" and spent most of the lesson doing stupid things. Overall it went well, always good to have an easy & nice class. Unfortunately the night ended with a student of Tom’s class falling ill. But all should be ok! If anything, it was funny to see Cori run in urgency.

The rest of the week? Well, Tomorrow is the usual Nursery and Junior lesson, Drumming tomorrow night, which I love. Always a laugh and just plain good fun. Friday is the Hospital work, hopefully I won’t contract a virus from there again, Will probably wear a mask for that one. Last time I went I broke into illness halfway through the shift, that night being sick.

Also by Friday I have to enter drafts for Ctrl-alt-del’s Collective collaboration competition. Basically I’ve been coupled with a writer, where he writes a story and I draw scenes from the story. I have a few character drafts to hand in on Friday. Then another two weeks to finalise it. I actually go on holiday before the Final, but I’ll manage.  Here is an older draft of the Hero "Kenzo". Actually named after the coolest work colleague I know..

I have maybe 2 more characters to do before I post them up.

Ultimately I don’t really expect to win, but its nice to have pressure to draw something properly. I am striving to get better, hopefully soon I’ll be able to post up lots of sketches I’ve done. I’m making myself carry around a pencil case and pad wherever I go, soon I’ll start drawing random stuff when I’m not moving.
I have no idea how I manage to write this much. But it’s nice to actually have this "Diary-esque" blog to write in.

In nicer news, Going to Sapporo at the weekend, need a new pair of Jeans!

Won’t post in this till Friday at the earliest, *bounce bounce bounce* If you’re curious about the title, I don’t know, I put "It’s almost too.." then looked at a bottle of FruityCalpis next to my laptop.  I can’t afford the brain power to provide a sensible title.

I would have got away with it, if it wasn’t for those pesky God and Jesus fellas… - Eddie Izzard

It must have been..2 weeks ago, content in my winter wonderland I came across an old man walking down town, after the  usual ‘Hello, nice day huh?’ you give in such encounters we parted ways, with him making the last remark of "Ah..Spring soon huh?" - I kept walking, only after a few seconds did it click what he said.."SPRING?!" Are you mad?! look around! - Of course I turned round to tell him this but he was gone out of sight. Or at least until I looked down to see him having slipped on ice. Bwahaha, Well maybe the last part wasn’t true, but its almost as if he was a notification ghost.  (btw that kids expression was mine after hearing the news hehe)

Since then, Its become blatantly obvious that the snow is melting, and fast!

I suppose this really ties in with a more recent post of "Wait I’ve been here 7 months?" But I really did think that the winter was here for a long time yet, hell I’ve even started wearing normal shoes to the shops!  Knowing the ‘long’ winter of Japan takes up a substantial part of our year, to hear it go is quite strange.. This picture is of the snow melting outside of the hoose. :((

Anyway, Today was a Taiko drumming performance, hopefully I’ll get a picture or two up later. Was a Brilliant day with a fun performance to boot. Although now my palms are red raw, RAW AND RED I TELL YOU!

Before the Performance at 3, Tom and I went for lunch at this nice little cafe place in Toya-Onsen. Really really nice food and we ended up staying there for a 2 hours. I managed to get a few sketches in too! Nothing special, but practice is practice! Two of them are below, Tom challenged me to draw a sexy lady, (she’s not bad :P) and I also drew this dancer guy because…well the idea was in my head 0_o..

Nothing much else to say today, this week we have a pretty easy week, Our last full week before we start moving house, but I’ll write about that once the deed is done! Then we go on Holiday, speaking of, Mike if you read this get on msn >.<

Hope you all had a smashin’ weekend,

Craig.

All I can say is…What in the jesus?

Well perhaps that’s what you said when you saw this ninja photo of me.

But in all seriousness, instead of re-writing everything Tom’s blog does so well to tell, let me break down Tom and I’s future in Japan.

At the time of writing (11:08pm), We have exactly 5 months, one week and one day left in Japan. A long time no doubt, but lets consider several factors;

*A week lasts about 9.5 minutes in real time, seriously, I wake up Friday thinking someone robbed Mon-Thursday from behind me.

* Nearly every Weekend something fun happens, again this only helps a week fly-by as we get excited for the weekend.

*This is the big one - Holidays. In two weeks, Tom and I head to Tokyo. Again. Don’t mistake this for hate of Tokyo, but the fact that it feels we only left Tokyo last week, its quite scary.  By the time we get back it’ll be April 7th. APRIL SEVENTH!

Repeating a date again, changing numbers into alphanumerals, ALWAYS adds emphasis on how quick time on holiday is going. - Moses

From April, we have..April, May and June. Then the beginning of July, then finish. Finish? But I just arrived! I assure you I will write again in 2 months going…

Well, I do remember March. Was it yesterday? day before?…Two months ago? Oh lord… - Craig in Regret.

Speaking of, ITS MARCH! What in the name of all that is mildly creamy!

I really shouldn’t complain about these things, after all, laying out how fast this will go logically will only make it worse.

I’ve said it a few times before, but i’ll say it again. I’m not going to spend all my time re-writing what Tom already does. (Even if he is a few months behind) *snigger*.

Instead this blog will remain my feelings on whatever is going on as I right, I’m far too lazy to start back-tracking 5 months of events etc. But luckily, This new program I have found does exactly what was lacking from my basic blog writer, and its so easy you might even get regular posts from me.

What I will post right now is some random pictures I like, Feel free to mock accordingly…

You may agree, my posts look nicer now

To a new Era, even if it is full of Fried Chicken…

And yes, I put BBQ in the title..

How did all of the current JPK decide to express our thoughts through blogs? Thats right, through the predecessors!

Well half of them, Hokkaido Nate and Tokyo Mike both tended excellent blogs last year, an inspiration no doubt, unfortunately the other two Rolf and Matt thought best not to blog for one reason or another..

Mike and Nate both claim themselves as the Britney and Christina A. of the JPK blog world.. I’m not sure why..

I’m stevie wonder.

Needless to say other blogs gave us new perspectives of our current year, how they felt about certain things etc. and also they put up a few pictures..

I bet they regret it now. Never put bad photos on your blog…

It won’t end well for you..

……………………………………………………………………………………Meet Mike/Claus-san.