David's blog

Bye bye Japan!

gingagajin — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 11:05:15 +0000

Well i am now in Tokyo on the night before I fly back to Manchester and can’t wait to get back but at the same time, I am really starting to miss all the awesome people that I have met out here. I never thought in a million years that I would miss a bunch of people that couldn’t speak English but as I have got to know their culture and lifestyles I have grown to have nothing but respect for these amazing people.

Monday

gingagajin — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 05:40:44 +0000

I know it’s a couple of days late but here is a review of an extremely eventful Monday!

It started out earlier than I maybe would have liked my day off to start but this was due to my colleague and now very good friend Matthew left, which has left me as the last English speaker (as in from England) at Itayangi, but don’t fear, I am still going to the toilet rather than the *bathroom.

In the afternoon we went to see M I:3, which I thought was actually ok, I can’t be bothered giving a proper review but I would definitely give it a good 7 out of 9.3!

Then in the evening I was invited to go to a families house for supper along with the Ghent children. At the meal we had sukiyaki , which basically consisted of boiling beef and veggies then dipping it into raw egg then eating, it took a bit of getting used to as I am not really used to eating raw egg.

The pictures are of the raw egg, the beef and the awesome but crazy family that we ate with (Hoshi, Miyo and Shuhei Yasuta).

*I do actually go to the bathroom aswell as I do wash, this was the only example that I could think of to explain me not yet using Americanisms!

tokeru!!!! (i’m melting!!!!)

gingagajin — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 05:17:49 +0000

Today it is 32 degrees, and because its rainy season (although it’s not raining at the moment) it is also extremely humid, on average I am going through three t shirts a day and feel permanently rank!

In othr news a team from the Tokyo Christian University are here at the moment and I am slowly starting to convince them that they should support Manchester City, I have already converted a few of the Japanese students in the church to the wonders of the blues and will soon try to teach them Blue Moon.

sumo wrestling

gingagajin — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 12:16:16 +0000

sumo wrestling

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I just thought I would give you Brits a taste of traditional Japanese culture
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Bethan Louise Holmes

gingagajin — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 07:48:18 +0000

Everyone, I would like you to meet the newest member of my family!

Her name is Bethan Louise Holmes, was born on July 4th at 6:30am and is my sisters first child (it took them long enough!!!)

In other news I painted a roof yesterday and still can’t get some of the paint off.

WALK AT YOUR OWN EXPENSE

gingagajin — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 07:48:21 +0000

A ground breaking ruling at Sheffield Crown Court earlier today could mean financial ruin across Great Britain and perhaps beyond. At precisely 12.34pm this afternoon Judge Simon Greyfind ruled in favour of Mr Ronald G. Spinal in a case which lasted just over 3 hours. At first many thought Mr Spinal’s case would be laughed out of the courthouse, as he claimed to be the great grandson of the inventor of walking, and therefore had the right to impose a “walking tax” Mr Spinal, 36, from Leswich in Dorset, who left court in a wheel chair, was said to be pleasantly pleased at the ruling.

A spokes person for Sheffield Crown Court had this statement to make, “as the trial went on and the evidence presented it’s self it was clear this was going to be difficult, Mr Spinal was suing 94% of the UK population. However, not one defendant turned up in court and Judge Greyfind had no option but to rule in favour of Spinal”.

The final ruling was that all people in the UK who have walked in the past would be made to pay £66.50 per quarter gone of two legged mobility, and from now on in will be forced to pay a further £244.00 per annum for the privilege of walking. However, for infrequent walkers, a pay as you go scheme may be more beneficial, where as you would be “fitted” with a pedometer, and charged 0.04p per 100 steps.

The ruling has already had a huge effect on the general public, as many are now opting to crawl to their destinations, sales of bicycles, roller blades and pogo sticks are up 4000%. We asked civil servant Jim Bennet what he thought of the new walking tax? “We were all aware of the law suit, I just thought somebody else would go to court and challenge it, I guess we all thought the same, and we only have ourselves to blame. I got a pay as you go and only walk now when absolutely crucial, other wise, I run everywhere I go, I’m getting things done in record time.”

We could not get a comment from Mr Spinal as he left court in his wheel chair, but have since learned he is to earn in excess of £650,000,000,000.55 a year. And the reason he left in a wheel chair? To avoid his own tax.

Mr Spinal will be back in court next week as he claims his mum invented sleeping.

Found at http://www.longmans-sandwiches.co.uk/longnews/

The last 24hrs

gingagajin — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 12:35:43 +0000

Almost exactly 24 hrs ago I was just sitting down next to a computer getting ready to give the finishing touches to my sermon that I was due to give the day after. I reached into my pocket, got out my USB thumb drive that I had saved all of my sermon and sermon prep on, I plugged in and some random Japanese came on the screen that basically said that it couldn’t read it, I tried it in three other PC’s and even a Mac but still no joy.

So last night I ran to the local supermarket to grab a bottle of coke and a big bar of chocolate and started to try and recap as much of the sermon as possible. It then got to about midnight and realised that the England game was on so I eventually found an online radio station that gave live commentary (that wasn’t limited to UK users……stupid bbc!) and started to listen while I was writing as I felt that there was more chance of me staying awake. I did forget though that England seem to be on a goal fast at the moment which meant that it was quite likely that it would end goalless and head to extra time which it did, and so at 3am I was not only getting stressed out that my sermon wasn’t finished but I was mourning England’s loss.

To cut a long story short I eventually finished the sermon and gave it, I wasn’t very happy with it and don’t think that I did as well as I could have done but at least its over now. I did get some positive comments from a few people, but they were probaley just being nice cos they are Christians and so have to be!

England Vs Ecuador

gingagajin — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 01:10:05 +0000

Today I am extremely happy, as yesterday for the first time……

I GOT TO SEE ENGLAND IN THE WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!!!

It really wasnt the best game and did involve me to stay up until 2:30am but it was definitely well worth it.

Bring on Portugal!

OMF conference

gingagajin — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 03:08:07 +0000

This past week I have had the pleasure of attending the OMF (the organisation that I am working for in Japan) conference in Tokyo……well Chiba but for anyone who doesn't know Japan very well it's pretty much Tokyo.

This was a great week partly because it gave us a bit of rest from shovelling, but also because it gave us the oportunity to see and hear what other missionaries accross Japan were doing, which was extremely interesting and encouraging.

Another bonus of the trip is that due to the long drive, we got the opportunity to see 3 films that I hadnt already seen so in typical blog tradition, here are my reviews!

The life aquatic- ok ***

The Island- much better *****

King Kong- not as good as I`d hoped *

I hope life is good for all of you in the rest of the world!

Urgent response needed!

gingagajin — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 07:53:29 +0000

Whilst in Japan I,along with another short termer John have been teaching English. Since we have been teaching theses classes we have become good friends with two students in particular who are also members of the church and members of the churches university group (and so we bump into them a lot), and disaster has struck! We have run out of English phrases, especially manc phrases and words to teach them, so if anybody has any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated!

Their English isn't great (what do you expect, we're teaching them!!) so nothing too complicated… although it is funny watching them try eg Rhinoceros, hippopotamus!

In other news………

As many of you know I am a bit obsessed about football, this is why I am extremely gutted that I am in Japan, staying at a house with no TV for the world cup. My hopes were raised though when a student who comes to the church offered to record the game for me. So tonight whilst out with the other short termers kevin received a text saying (this was about 15mins after kick off) sorry but I dont have the right cable channel and so wont be able to record the game!

So we got back and I realised that there still should be a few minutes left so I got to the nearest computor and tried to catch the commentry, but the stupid BBC have gone and made it an exclusivly UK broadcast!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!