Skiing in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture

I had a very exciting weekend this weekend. I went to Hakuba in Nagano to go skiing. I have been skiing once before, in France about 4 years ago but I didn’t take lessons so I wasn’t very good. I was nervous about going again but I decided that I should take lessons this time.

On the first day myself and seven other ALT’s from Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures took a lesson together. It went really well and I realise that I remembered a lot from the last time.

There were some tumbles and we stayed to the lower slopes but visibility wasn’t good at the top so we enjoyed our day.

On the second day I only had time to ski in the morning and a friend who is good at skiing said he would take me to the top. I was a little scared because when I went to the top of the mountain in France I lost my confidence and couldn’t ski. However, this was a much better experience, I was able to ski and didn’t crash! It was a great experience and I was so proud I survived at the top, I can’t wait to go again.

Gili Air and Kuta Beach

We then traveled to Gili Air which is a really small island next to Lombok. There are three island next to each other but we just visited Gili Air. The island is so small that you can walk around it in an hour and a half and there is no cars or buses on the island, everyone travel by foot, bike or horse and cart.

My friend and I met another ALT when we arrived.

On the first day we went scuba diving which amazing! I have wanted to go diving for many years but this was the first time I did it. I was a little nervous when we practiced in the pool but when we went to the sea I loved it. The water was a little cloudy but it was great and we got to see lots of fish. My favourite was the blue starfish, I didn’t even know they existed!

The next day we decided to have a relaxing day on the beach because it was so sunny. It was nice to just unwind and read my book, then we went for dinner in the evening.

On the third day I went snorkeling which was brilliant. The corals and the sea life are beautiful on Gili Air and there is so much of it. Later, we walked around the island and visited the village there the watch the sunset for the last time.

The next morning we went to Kuta in Bali for New Year’s Eve. We wanted to go to Kuta beach for the New Year celebrations. After dinner we went to the beach which was packed with people and everyone had fireworks. I have never seen so many fireworks and there was any organisation, people just let them off wherever they felt like it. It was crazy! We got to the beach about 10pm and there was a continuious stream of fireworks until 1am. The video below shows the fireworks at 12am. It was definitely the best New Year.

Ubud, Bali

One of my main aims while living in Japan is to travel, both around Japan and other parts of Asia as much as I can. Therefore, this winter break I decided to go to Indonesia and I would like to tell you about my trip.

The first place we went was Ubud in Bali which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We stayed in Ubud for two days and found it to be an interesting mix of art, religion and Balinese culture. Bali is known as the ‘island of the gods’ and everywhere in Bali there are offering like this one.

On the first day we went to the Monkey Forest which was a little scary as when we arrived we seen a monkey climb on a visitor and she couldn’t get it off! We decided not to buy banana’s to feed them but others did. It was funny seeing the monkeys steal item from people and try to open them.

In the center of the forest was a temple and this meant that there were a lot of interesting statues like the ones below.

Then we went to the The Threads of Life, a textile gallery dedicated to the promoting Indonesian textiles and providing support to weavers in small communities. Please have a look at their website http://www.threadsoflife.com/ the textiles they had were beautiful and they had videos showing how the communities make the fabrics.

Later that day it started to rain so we went for a massage which was very relaxing. That night went for dinner and my friend recommended Gado Gado an Indonesian dish of vegetables, fried tofu and peanut sauce. I had not tried peanut sauce before but it was delicious, now a favourite of mine!

On the second day we decided to take a walk through the rice fields which was beautiful. We stopped and had lunch at an amazing organic food restaurant in the middle of the fields and the view was perfect. I was so excited that they served middle-eastern food which I loved as I used to work in a middle-eastern cafe, so I had hummus and salad.

We then went to the a small temple in the center of Ubud and the market next to the temple. It was difficult to shop at the market as everyone was shouting at you to look at their stall and it was hard to leave it without buying anything if you did stop.

That evening we went to a traditional Balinese fire dance, which was amazing. I was particularly in awe of the costumes that they wore. Unfortunately I couldn’t get these photos from my camera and I think they are lost, but my friend let me use some of her’s.

The next morning we traveled to Gili Air near Lombok and I will tell you about that in my next post.

Christmas and New Year

I wanted to write about Christmas because it is my favourite time of year and I think it is a very big cultural difference between Japan and Ireland.

One of my favourite things about Christmas is the tree, putting up the Christmas tree is a marking point to begin Christmas celebration and usually happens the first week of December.

In Manchester (and in most big cities) they have a Christmas market or the German Market. At this market they usually sell Christmas presents, winter clothes and accessories as well as hot drinks like mulled wine. They usually sell different types of German sausages that are cooked on a huge fire and everything is decorated with lights.

Every family has their own Christmas morning tradition and I think its very interesting to hear what people like to do on Christmas morning. In my house I always wake up very early and make my brothers get up with me to open presents. They always complain but we have fun and it makes Christmas morning exciting. The house usually smells lovely as my mother usually has the turkey cooking in the oven already. We open our presents together and then brave the snowy roads to go to mass (catholic church).

I get to see my extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents) at the chapel and afterwards we go to my grandparents house for a breakfast of tea and toast.

Christmas dinner is the best meal of the year! My mother usually invites a lot of my relatives to have dinner with us so we all squeeze around the table and have a lot of fun pulling crackers and eating dinner. We eat turkey, ham, stuffing, vegetables, potatoes and pigs in blankets (small sausages wrapped in bacon) with lots of gravy. Makes me very hungry just talking about it! Everyone is always too full after dinner so we watch a Christmas movie and relax.

My tree in Japan...

This is year is my first year not being at home for Christmas, it is very strange! I have a tree in my house though and my family have sent me a lot of presents so it feels a little better. I am also going away for Christmas break so I won’t feel too sad on Christmas morning not being with my family.

In class, some of my first years made Christmas cards and we sent them to the students in Hawaii that they will visit next year.

Christmas isn’t really celebrated as much here in Japan but New Year is a very big celebration and it sounds similar to Christmas as it is spent with family. I would love to hear what you are did for New Year? What did you like to eat? Who did you spending it with?