HAPPY NEW YEAR あけまして おめでとう ございます

Happy New Year to you all... wishing you all the best of health, prosperity, luck and fortune in 2007 (the year of the wild boar)

Myself and Matt had a fantastic time in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. We arrived in KL on Christmas eve. Having left cold cold Japan we werent quite expecting the 30+ degree heat that hit us when we stepped off the plane.

Christmas Day we had curry for breakfast and went and sat by the pool. I was burnt within an hour! The hotel was excellent and the view of the Petronas Towers (2nd tallest building in the world) from our room was amazing. The Petronas Towers are awesome - every street corner gives you a different view and having spent 5 days in KL I never tired of looking at this incredible building day or night. As we missed out on getting up to the skybridge (there are just 800 tickets a day and you have to get there really early) we had to settle with the KL Tower instead which was equally as impressive and a lot higher than you can go up PT anyway.

The overnight train to Singapore

After 4 days we headed south on the 10 hour overnight train to Singapore. For less than 7pounds we had a reasonably comfortable bed. Despite the over-flowing toilet swishing in the compartment like a scene from Titanic on the way there, the journey wasnt as bad as expected! You had to be careful when moving between carriages though as most of the doors were left wide open!

Festive fun at Seoul Airport on Christmas Eve

The view from the KL Tower...

The amazing Petronas Towers at night

KL city centre

Sentosa Island Beach in Singapore

Indulging in expensive fruit... in Japan this coconut would be worth a small fortune!

Evening entertainment in Kuala Lumpur

And I thought in Japan they ate anything and everything... (No I did'nt try frog porridge)

New Years MTV beach party in Singapore... before I got soaked with foam on the dancefloor...

Foreign tramp at Seoul Airport!

Nihongo ga dekimasu ka?

Myself and Tim collecting our certificates for Japanese course.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

My Christmas Tree!

クリスマス　おめでとございます

As I will not be around from Christmas Eve (I am heading to Malaysia and Singapore) I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thanks for all your help and support this year.

Enjoy the Christmas break

マーク

Some pictures of my schools bonenkai party...

I cant believe they got me doing this!!

But it was a lot of fun... I seemed to be the centre piece

With a great meal of sushi, nabe, crab etc etc

Dopey foreigner in Japan..

At the weekend I went to Hiroshima. I decided to get Shinkansen (bullet train) there and back because despite the cost, it's so much quicker and a lot more comfortable. From my house it would normally take around 4 hours on the slow train with 2 or 3 changes. Compare this to 1 hour on Shinkansen and it's easy to justify the extra expense. The experience of taking shinkansen is also worth paying extra for now and again.

Having had a great weekend I was on my way home when I got a message on my phone to say that I'd left the keys to my apartment in Hiroshima. I was half way home on the train. I jumped off at the next station (Tokuyama) at 11pm. Having spent 10 mins pleading with the station guard to give me a refund for the half of my ticket I hadn't used (to no avail) I consequently missed the last train back to Hiroshima and was stranded in Tokuyama for the night until the first train out in the morning. My initial intention was to sit at the station and wait, but firstly the station closed and I was ushered out and secondly it was so cold my hands were turning blue. I weighed up my options... I asked a taxi driver how much to Hiroshima. I was expecting it to b a lot, but not quite ￡150! That wasnt an option. The nearest hotel was a 10 minute walk. So to cut the story short, I stayed in the hotel, got shinkansen back to Hiroshima, picked up the keys and got shinkansen back home. The whole experience cost me around around ￡100.

Today, not a happy bunny as I arrive back to school 30mins late having apologised profusely to my sympathetic boss, who then says I have no lessons all day because it's exam week.

Visit to Nagasaki 長崎

It's been a while since I last got round to posting on here.... SORRY Oka san!!

Some pictures of a recent visit to Nagasaki with my friends Teresa san and Fukuii san.

At the peace park...

We then went to the city museum and watched a traditional Japanese play... even with the English translation via Niaomi it was pretty emotional... those are real tears!!

I'm sure I saw the guy to my right on TV last week...

Apologies - not very interesting pictures. It was a cold and wet day!