Cricket. In Japan.

Yes, you read correctly. Last weekend (well, the one 8 days ago now) I went up to Morioka to play cricket! The Morioka cricket club is run by two people, Dean and Jamie I think, who are surprisingly from ... America!
I was glad to get a bit of exercise, and there were plenty of people around keen to give it a go. Some were Japanese, and there were guys from America, Tanazania and Denmark who had never played before in their life either. So it was a bit of a clinic.
There were also a collection of Brits, Australians, one guy from Bangladesh and one from Nepal who had all played cricket before - some could bowl really fast. Luckily we used a plastic ball not a leather one, as there were no pads!
The location was Kitakami Park in Morioka, and the weather turned out to be really nice despite the forecast. The only real downside was the next day at school I was walking like a cripple. I decided this just proves that exercise IS bad for you. Thanks to all involved for a wonderful day. It just goes to show that people have all sorts of interests wherever you are in the world! Now if I can only find the Japanese Doctor Who fan club!

that's mean throwing the ball to the keeper. I think that's what I was doing at least.

The bowler here was a naturally gifted sportswoman. She batted well too stayed in for a long time. First time she'd played the sport.

Haishiwa Jinja

Dear peoples who read my blog,
I don't have much to update you with sadly :(
School has been busy since 'Golden Week', and the weather has been windy and wild, with a couple of decent days thrown in for good measure. Today it just rained most of the day in Ichinoseki. Goodness me! I am blogging about the bloody weather!
Anyways, I did manage a visit to Haishiwa Temples, some very old temples in Ichinoseki. The temples are around 1900 years old, although as they are all wood I presume they have been rebuilt a few times since then!
Although perhaps unremarkable in appearance, they are located, as are all temples it seems in Japan, up a bloody great hill! I went up a whole lot of stairs to get there. The forest was really beautiful too, and I saw a few possibilities for nice day-hikes! Or one-two hour walks!
So I thought I would share some photos with you!

Life in Japan - an update

Howdy folks. I know recent blogs have been about Australia, so a good chance to blog about life in Japan I thought today. Today we are enjoying an extra long weekend. It's called 'Golden Week', a week that us celebrated around the start of May each year. It's a very very busy time in Japan, and exists because of a string of public holidays around this time.
In fact, it's kind of two weekends, rather than an actual week. Last weekend we had Monday off, this weekend it's Fridays and Monday. Yes, four-day weekend is nice.
Here in Ichinoseki it almost coincides with the Cherry Blossoms blooming, but not quite. Last year it was timed perfectly, but this year most of the cherry blossoms have been and gone. The weather has been cold, wet and windy too which doesn't help.

Thursday last week was a special day at my high school. It was a volunteer day. In 2012 I stayed at school all day and used the day to walk around the school chatting with students, as I'd only been at the school two weeks. Half the students, at a guess, spend the day pulling up weeds from the school grounds. Not a great way to spend the day in my opinion! Others head out around the town to pick up rubbish and help out in similar ways. This year I jumped on the coat tails of the brass band, who were playing at a nursing home ten minutes drive from the school.
I was surprised to find brass bands so big in Japan. Most high schools have one I think. Much of the music does seem to have an American influence, but that's brass bands for you. The brass band at my high school is pretty darned good, the girl who did the saxophone solo was brilliant. At the nursing home the cherry blossoms were blooming, and the elderly people there really appreciated the music. The brass band put on a show with some singing as well. It was a great day. And I got to help load and unload the instruments.

After this weekend, we will be in for some solid teaching. No public holidays for two months! Still, we are paid to work! I've uploaded a couple of pictures. Sorry there aren't more but we can't put students pictures on the web, and that's fair enough.

Also, please take the time to visit my Amazon Author page.
Andrew Boland's Amazon Author page.

Over the next four days, I am running a free promotion - on the Romanian chapter of my book, the eighth chapter over all and the second chapter in Europe (second) book.
Dhaka to Dakar. Book Two: Europe. Chapter Eight: Romania