HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

 

Thank you for all the Christmas and New Years cards and emails!! How was everyone's NYE?

If you thought I partied the house down here in Japan for New Year's Eve? Think again. Apart from being down with the flu, my NYE was done Japanese style. Low key, with family and going to the Shrine at midnight to pray for the New Year. We had originally planned to go to Nagoya to have dinner and go to a club or something but with all of us being "Bimbo" (no we're not all blonde and dumb, in Japanese it means "poor"), the exchange student 'family' had dinner in Gifu City, then came back to the dorms to play scrabble (sad...sad...sad), watched a K1 (Ultimate Fighting) match between Bob Sapp (who?) and Akibono someone or rather (former sumo champion) where the match was won by Sapp in the time that it would have taken you to do a nudie run at the SCG and then countdown was spent squashed with 6 other people in a car on our way to Inaba Shrine in Gifu.  The crowds were massive at the Shrine, there were so many people, crowd management skills had to be put into play. Food stalls and game booths lined the street leading up to the main Shrine, everyone was rugged up in big puffy coats, wearing beanies, gloves and scarves drinking hot sake and eating things like takoyaki (fried octopus balls - no not actual octopus balls...they're SHAPED like balls!), okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) and dagwood dogs. The atmosphere was excellent! After a fair amount of waiting, I threw in my 10 yen coin, clapped my hands two times and prayed for the coming year.

 

Jolene's 3 New Years Resolutions

 

1. Run the City to Surf - after giving up on my jogging stint here in Gifu cause it got too cold, I'll have to work on this goal when I get back to Sydney
2. Do 10 proper push ups - an attempt was made on the 1^st but failed. I managed to do 8. There hasn't been a second attempt as yet...
3. Stop posing in photos with fingers held in a "V" shape - this one is a toughie, will need to make a conscious effort to work on this one.

 

I also went on a Ski Trip! The International Student Centre organised a 4 day ski trip for all the foreign students to Kijimadairo in Nagano Prefecture. The first and last day was spent sitting on a bus but we had two good days of skiing. It was my first time skiing so, dressed in a red coat, blue pants and pink ski boots (this explains why there aren't any ski photos attached to this email) I spent the first day of ski school picking myself off the ground. I categorize my falls into 5 groups: There's

1. Falling over from a stationary position
2. Falling over to avoid crashing into trees
3. Falling over to avoid crashing into other people
4. Falling over in order to stop
5. Falling over cause you sat too quickly and missed the chair lift

I don't think I've ached so much....

 

BUT! on the second day, I COULD SKI! I didn't fall over at all...nothing! And the best thing about the second day apart from not falling over was that it snowed. It was the best feeling, skiing while it was snowing, I sure won't experience this type of feeling back in the 'brook (Cherrybrook - the suburb where I live). After having so much fun skiing, snowboarding is next on Jolene's To Do list.

 

 Oh by the way, I'm GOING TO HAWAII NEXT THURSDAY! WOOOHOOO!

 

Love Jo