Lake Stroll

At the request of my supervisor, I organised a walk for my fellow English teachers. We strolled around Lake Tama, enjoying the autumn leaves as we went, before ending up at a karaoke box to kill time before the bars open for business.

Rock & Thai

After a spot of rock-climbing at a never-before-tried gym near Yokota Airbase, we hit a Thai restaurant called Khao Man Gai. And the food was such, that I'm now a returning customer.

Bon Bon Huevon

Language exchange over dinner with a new partner at Bon Bon Huevon in Iruma City, Saitama.

An Italian Welcome

I've never been happier at my new job. Some lovely colleagues found the time to treat me to a welcome dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Napoli no Kamado.

Heading Home

So with my time on JET over, I took advantage of my courtesy ticket home to the land of pubs, country walks and roast dinners for a short respite before I start my new job in September. I love daylight saving hours, Japan should do the same thing. The sky was still light at 9pm at night?! Imagine how much more mountain I could cover with that extra time!

[On a 30-km country walk just outside of London in the Essex & Herts area.]

[Waltham Abbey Church, Essex, is apparently where King Harold II is buried.]

[A mallard in Waltham Abbey.]

[After more than five years, my dream was finally fulfilled at Toby Carvery!]

[Fields of Gold.]

[A field of flax.]

[Bangers and mash with a half-pint of cider, for my lunch on a 30km walk in the country.]

[Nice Turkish food at a local restaurant.]

[With on the house baklava!]

Kimono & Homecooking

I met Miyakawa-san once before, during my first year on JET, when I went to check out a taiko-drumming group. And over four years later, I see her again when she transferred to one of my schools, actually she recognised me first since I could not for the life of me remember who she was.

I was invited over to try some stage kimono that her late mother had left behind. Afterwards, I was treated to some Japanese homecooking, and she completely outdid herself with this feast she'd prepared. It was so good... and it tasted all the better knowing that someone had taken the time and effort to prepare it for me. I came away with a pair of kimono and a doggy bag of yumminess.

Buddha & Bags

Hidden away in Ushiku in Ibaraki Prefecture, there stands a statue of a buddha, which up until 2003, used to be the tallest statue in the world at 120m tall. We stopped here for some sightseeing before going for some stone-baked pizza and a bag-making class, the latter of which I'm pretty proud of, since I've never made such a bag before!

Beer & Buffet

Got together with some hiking mates to chat over craft beer and a yummy buffet at my fave pub 'Asagaya Beer Kobo'.

Sushi for My Dinner

Had a fabulous joint birthday dinner @Tobuki Sushichu 戸吹鮨忠 near Akigawa. It's a bit out of the way, but the staff are absolutely lovely; flavours are refreshingly different to other Japanese cuisine I've tried; and the aesthetics of it all made for easy shooting.

Frankfurter Seller

I missed out last year, but in my final year of JET, I managed to not leave any regrets in this department. I made and sold frankfurters for charity ;)
My fellow M-City JETs and I volunteered for a day at the Nozomi Festival, an event organised by a centre for people with general learning disabilities. We cooked sausages, shoved them into buns, and sold them at our Hot Dog Stall. At the end of the day, we sold out of sausages, yeah! But, we had quite a few customers preferring to go bun-less, so we had some buns leftover which the centre staff made into sandwiches for all the volunteers!

I had quite a few of these grilled rice dumplings, because they were so soft and yummy!

Zen Raku Bou

After attending Oxford University Press's teaching workshop near Yokohama, I met up with a friend in Iidabashi for some walkies and Taiwanese yumminess.

[Our orders at Zen Raku Bou.]

Pineapple Pie... A Fateful Re-encounter

After doing some volunteering at a Junior High School in Koenji, where I helped out in the English Club, I was checking out the area, when I saw McDonald's pineapple pie.

Don't get me wrong, I don't usually eat McDonalds - although I do occasionally go in for a coffee - the impulse to buy it stemmed from a memory I have of when I was little. My father was taking my brother and I around for day out in Central London, and one of the things we did was to buy and share a pineapple pie from McDonalds. Back then in London, the packaging was blue and had a different design. And I remember savouring every bite of it, and thinking how yummy it was, and how I wished there was more.

And there I was in Koenji, probably twenty years later, encountering that pie again... and finding that it goes down quite well with black coffee.

The Last & Preparation for a New Beginning

Feeling a little sentimental.

Just had the ALT Mid-Year Seminar this past week at Suidobashi, my fifth and last, would you believe?! I took the kouhai (the ALTs who started after me) for the traditional drink at the New York Bar, with a detour past the Tokyo Government Building where the seminars used to be until this year, and reminisced.

Five years went by so quickly, it almost felt like yesterday that I first touched down into Tokyo. I'm feeling more than a little unsettled about where all that time has gone.

There were a lot of changes this year. Up until now, at the most there had just been ten Tokyo JETs (mainlanders and islanders), but this year, there are now a hundred and five, hence the change of seminar location. To be honest, I enjoyed the intimacy of the smaller groups of previous years; with most of the newbies this year being fresh-faced college graduates, the seminar had this cliquey, frat atmosphere to it... Anyway, it's strange to think that I am the longest serving Tokyo JET right now, the only 5th year Tokyo JET... I should have moved on years ago.

With another two hundred ALT friends to play with (the other hundred coming later this year), I doubt the original five mainland Tokyo JETs after me will place sentimental value in, let alone continue, the traditions that had been passed on since M-City first become the only city in Tokyo to utilise the JET Programme eighteen years ago. I know times move on, but I can't help but feel kind of sad about it, the traditions that are very much a part of my JET experience and those before me, will no longer be when I leave JET this summer.

Anyway, now that I've got the sentimentalities out of my system, let's think about the future... moving apartment, job searching, CPD, there will be a lot to think about during these next few months.