yamaonna

Happy Anzac Day for yesterday!!!  Hope you all went to a parade or something!  And yay to my papa!  He was the wreath bearer (?) for his local RSL – check out the photo here – http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/guardian_forever/album?.dir=bc95&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/guardian_forever/my_photos

Well, as for happenings here…

Everyone is being really friendly!  One of my teachers arranged for me to have lunch with a group of her seminar students.  So we all went to a viking lunch   love the name!  basically it means all you can eat.  So Ive made heaps of friends from there, and the food was really really good too!  I have a thing for japanese sweets, so that went down well. I think my favourite sweet was sakura mochi, which I cant quite remember how it was made, but it was rather a surprise to have something that tasted like a flower.  not that Ive gone around eating flowers….  neway…..

Speaking of sakura, on the weekend the flowers were in full bloom.  I was invited to a society Hanami – cherry blossom viewing party.  It was held in this great park thats less than 10 minutes walk from where I live.  There was about 40 girls for the party, and we ate japanese ohashi (sweets and rice cakes, etc), and one of the teachers made this really yummy african rice dish.  (the society was the international culture society)  After eating we played a few games – ring toss and volleyball, followed by a stroll in the park.  Later that evening evening everyone went into town for food and a few drinks.  It was heaps of fun!  But a bit cold cause the wind was blowing.

Sunday I spent doing some sightseeing around Sendai.  I caught the Loople bus, which is a tourist bus that runs a loop around Sendai going to all the major sights.  It was really crowded, probably becuase it was the weekend…  Firstly I stoped at the internation center, cause they have a really good information center there, and to my delight there was this lovely stream with cherry blossoms by the side, so i spent sometime wandering around there.  After that it was up to the site of sendai castle.  Theres not much left there, but it has a really good view of the city, and being a beautiful day, you could see all the way to the mountains.  And then I went to nishi-park, the most favored spot for cherry blossom viewing in Sendai.  It was nice, but I prefered the stream more.  Now with the winds all the cherry blossoms are blowing away, which is probably my favourite time, cause its even more pretty!  Sakura are like snow, but a lot less cold!

Hopefully I will be able to put some pictures up soon..  Ive decided that I can afford, and do want the internet at home, so hopefully within the next two weeks I will be connected.  fingers crossed!

Apart from that life has just been studying or hanging out with people.  I have a small part time job teaching 2 girls english twice a week.  The extra money is nice, and means I`ll be able to do more things.

as for now, Im off to explore the campus, apparently there is a lake here somewhere…