Oz to Oya

Well… I’ve become busy organising the Taj Ultimate Frisbee tournament again.  But I’ll keep updating monthly.

At the start of the month was Golden week.  Luke came to visit for a few days, and then Adrian came to visit with Tylar.  My house was filled with guests!   I spent the time showing them around.   We drove to Tottori on a whim and discovered there was a sand sculpture festival going on!  It was really impressive.

Just after Golden Week, I heard back from National Taiwan University about my MBA application.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t accepted.  That may have been a blessing in disguise.  Colin recommended that I talk to his friend, Peter about universities so I did.  Peter told me to apply to two other universities, NTUST and Soochow.  I did and Soochow in particular seemed very keen to receive my application.

I received notice from the Taiwan scholarship, and I’ve been accepted for that.  So whichever university I chose, I’ll have a scholarship. Lucky!

Also this month, I’ve had two salsa performances, one at AITY, and one at the Tajima Dome.  Both performances went well.

Another event this month was Yuka and Colin’s Wedding party.   Bob, Daizy, Lenny and Blake were visiting in Japan at the time, so I rented a van to drive everyone around in.   It was a lot of fun and everyone had a good time.  I met many of Yuka’s friends (who all speak English and are all very cool).

Last Saturday (30^th) Colin, Mark, Chance, Tim, Satomi and I all went to see the new Star Trek movie.  It was awesome.  I really enjoy going to the movies.

now for the weigh in.

·         1^st   85.9

·         7^th   87.3

·         8^th   86.1

·         12^th  86.4

·         18^th  86.1

·         21^st  85.5

·         25^th  85.3

·         26^th  85.3

·         27^th  85.5

·         28^th  85.8

·         29^th  85.7

so…. I’m still losing weight ooooh so gradually. J

April was an eventful month too.   My life in Japan is coming to an end but the adventures continue.  The first weekend of April, I went to a cherry blossom viewing party (hanami) in the Himeji castle grounds.  The weather was miserable and drizzling, but it was still fun!   The cherry blossoms were beautiful and the sake was plentiful.  (100 yen refills!  haha).   My friends were there, including Adrian who had driven down from Gifu!

The hanami finished pretty early because of the bad weather.   But we continued to party.  We went to a nearby karaoke place and sang with everyone for a few hours.   Adrian and I then left to take the train to Ako.  A fellow Perthite, Daniel Carter had moved house and we were going to his housewarming party.   We turned up in fine form and had a blast.  I believe twister and dance lessons were involved at some point. hahaha…. J

Friday the 10^th was Eva’s birthday so I called to wish her a happy birthday only to find that she was in the hospital!! poor kid! The following weekend was a small party at Stix!   and the next weekend, I helped Colin to move house.  It was a lot of fun hanging out with him and seeing the beginning of his new life together with Yuka.  I’m a little jealous.   I don’t really remember what I did the weekend after that!  …. hmm.. I don’t  think anything important happened?   Oh!!  a lot of salsa practice because we have a performance next month!!  That’s what I did!

Luke came to visit on Sunday night and then on Tuesday it was Colin’s birthday!  We had a joint birthday party for Colin, PK and Chie at Tanigaki followed by karaoke.  Wednesday was a public holiday so we slept in and then went to Takeno beach for a small picnic  after that, we swung by Kinosaki so Luke could say good bye to the Ota family and then we made our way to Stix again for dinner. J

And other big news from this last week.   I’ve been selected for the Taiwanese scholarship!!!  I’m just waiting to hear back from the universities that I applied to now! Fingers crossed! Once I hear from them, I need to send my university acceptance details to the Taiwan consul in Australia along with bank details in Taiwan, etc and they will commence scholarship payments!  Hurrah!

And now for the April weigh in (kgs):

·         1st   86.7

·         7^th   86.7

·         9^th  86.7

·         10^th 87.0

·         13^th  86.9

·         15^th 86.5

·         17^th  86.5

·         20^th  86.7

·         21^st  86.2

·         22^nd  85.6

·         23^rd  85.6

·         24^th  86.1

·         27^th  85.9

·         28^th  85.8

·         30^th  86.3

Well… March was a pretty intense month.   On the first weekend, I had a Lodge party in Yoka that was brilliant.  We rented a lodge in Yoka for the night and invited as many people as we could think of… the result was an epic party!   Then the next day, (night!)  I took the night bus with Jim and his girlfriend to Tokyo.    I met up with Maya and hung out with her for the day and that evening, I met up with Jim again, and we went to the Outback steak house!!  Luke, Yoshie, Erika and her husband and Hiro came as well.  We ate and drank a lot and caught up.  It was a wonderful evening.  The next day, Jim and I went to our conference in Yokohama.  We had some time before we started the conference, so we went on the rollercoaster that was next to the conference centre!!  It was fun but short. 

Unfortunately, because of the conference, I missed my student’s graduation ceremony.   I’m really sad about that.  I returned on the Thursday and as soon as I got back, I went to elementary school to teach!!  I was exhausted.

Two weeks later was a long weekend.  I stayed in Tajima, and had a great time hanging out with my friends!   And last but not least… the final weekend of March.  I went to Mie-ken to visit a Ninja museum.

A few months earlier, PK suggested a ninja trip.  Everyone wanted to go and so PK and I organised the trip.  We hired a van from Wataki and on Saturday morning, we all drove down to the ninja village.   We rented ninja costumes for the day and had a ball.  JJ had been a ninja since the morning.  He’d converted his t-shirt into a black ninja mask and was jumping and diving around all morning.   At one rest stop, he was continuing his antics and a police car appeared and drove passed us VERY slowly ……   something about a guy acting suspicious and having his face covered perhaps?!   hahaha….

The museum was an interesting place and we all learned a lot about ninjas.  But I think the most fun was throwing shiriken (ninja stars).  I spent a bit of money on that myself… hahaha….   We also had a lot of fun pretending to be ninjas and stalking the other people in the museum…. and of course having epic battles with each other and the small children dressed as ninjas… We certainly made their day.  Lots of photos of us scaling the castle walls, etc.

And now for the weigh in.   This month was a bit hectic so I only weighed myself on a few days each week.

·         3^rd     86.9

·         4^th     86.4

·         5^th     86.5

·         17^th   86.8

·         23^rd   87.8 (After the long weekend of eating and drinking!! haha)

·         26^th   86.9

·         31^st    87.0

February was pretty busy.  I finished my application for National Taiwan University (NTU) and I have started my application for NCCU.  I should send that application in a few days.

Over the Valentine’s day weekend, I went on a snowboarding trip with Jim, JJ and some other friends.   I had a great time, but I had a few bad falls that really hurt my leg.  My whole right leg was basically a giant bruise…. not cool.

Things are starting to get underway for the Taj Ultimate 2009 as well.  We had a quick meeting and started talking about the theme for this year, etc.  Today we will choose the theme.

Yesterday, I practiced frisbee up at the Tajima airport field.  It was good to get out and throw a disc around again.  It’s so strange to think that I’d never even heard about Ultimate frisbee before I came to Japan and now I’m helping to organise one of the biggest Ultimate events in Japan… haha..

After frisbee, I hung out at Stix for a while, and then I went to Kinosaki.  I meet up with my friend, Juri for a quick dinner, then we went to play volleyball against the staff of the Kinosaki Marine World.  It was a great evening.   I feel a little stiff and sore today though…hahah…  Need more exercise.

Anyway, I’ve been doing pretty well at keeping my weight training and eating healthily going.  I set my target weight at 85 for February… but that didn’t quite happen… so I’m keeping that as my goal for March.    I WILL get to 85kgs.. and then my eventual goal is 80kgs.

so.. the weigh in for February.

·         2nd   88.2

·         3rd   87.3

·         4th   86.9

·         5th   87.8

·         6th   87.4

·         10th  87.6

·         12th  87.0

·         13th  87.2

·         17th  88.4

·         18th  87.4

·         19th  87.2

·         20th  86.9

·         23rd  87.2

·         24th  87.5

·         25th  86.8

·         26th  87.6

And that’s it…. I’ve noticed that on the “heavier” days, I’m usually wearing a bigger jumper… and also that I am usually a little heavier on the mornings after I do a big workout (Cause I eat a little more afterwards)…. but I’m definitely getting in better shape.  Go me!

I came across this while checking something for the student’s tests.   I liked it so I thought I’d share it here.