The Year in Review

For me, 2006 started in Turkey, with Kate, in Taksim square in the middle of Istanbul, surrounded by dozens of turkish flags and portraits of Ataturk, the national hero, ranging in size from a normal poster to the size of a large building, and thousands of Turks wearing Christmas hats (they're a little confused about the difference between chirstmas and new year there). Two months of teaching, studying for my external master's subject and wading through freaky blizzards, Kate and I left Istanbul on the first really warm and sunny day we'd had in months, to spend a few days in Belgrade on our way to our flights back to Aus.
I arrived in Aus the day before uni started, and plunged straight into the heaviest study schedule I had had since about 1998. I spent most of this semester tied to my (new!) laptop, or popping down to Sydney to see Kate, or collecting Kate from their airport when she popped up to see me. Despite our intentions not to spend all our money on airfares, we saw each other at least once a month. On one of her trips up to see me, we delivered my Uncle's car up Gladstone - via Biloela to see Jess, the only primary school friend I was still in contact with, and a morning around Benaraby, where I spent the first 9 years of my life. I hadn:t been back there in about 7 years, so it was interesting to see what was different - and what wasn't! I also managed to catch up with my best friend from my childhood, Kelly, after losing contact about 15 years ago! We were actually in Gladstone to deliver the car to my Uncle and family, who were getting off my parent's boat after a sailing holiday from Brisbane, and took their place for a week of sailing up to Keppel Island and on to Yeppoon, where Kate and I caught a bus to Rockhampton to fly to our respective homes again.
Back in Brisbane, I survived the first on-campus, full-time semester of my Masters in Education (TESOL) at QUT - just - and left just a few hours after handing in my last assignment, flying back north to Hamilton Island to meet my parents again on the boat, this time spending two weeks recovering from the semester and sailing around the Whitsundays, and then up to Townsville. I was back in Brisbane for 4 days or something, before flying to the Denmark, via a free night in a 5 star hotel in Korea, followed by another free night, this time on the floor of Stansted Airport outside London.
In Denmark I met Kate, whose flight arrived about 20 minutes before mine. We met at the luggage carousel, which was nice. We had 4 days in Denmark, attending a fantastic queer festival, before we had to leave to get to the UK in time to start work for Lines language school in Cold Ash - the same summer school I had worked for the previous year. I made such a hit this year with my student blog that I was asked to write an electronic communications program for them next year, and be the teacher in charge of the technological side of english teaching.
Kate and I had planned to spend 6 weeks in the middle east after 4 weeks work in the UK - visiting mainly Tel Aviv, north Israel, Lebanon, then Jordan, Syria and Egypt. Unfortunately, this war broke out between Israel and Lebanon, and it looked like syria would join them, and as that made our incredibly expensive airfares (which we hadn't actually bought yet) not quite worth the much reduced travlling we would be able to do. So we did 6 weeks work instead, and then headed for the much more stable Iberian pensinsular, via a couple of nights in Edinburgh, and spent 4 weeks or so hitchhiking around, in and out of Spain and every country that borders it (France, Andorra, Portugal, Morocco and Gibraltar). I caught up with friends and ex-colleagues all over the place - Stephanie in Edinburgh, Diana in Barcelona, Birgit in Portugal, and the Hebrards in France (the family I stayed with on exchange when I was 16).
After a few days recovering back in London, Kate flew back to Sydney, marking the end of our 18 months together (and, often enough, not together). After another couple of days relaxing on Ralph's couch, I left London for another single night in Korea before going on to Tokyo to start work again. Working for Westgate wasn't exactly hard, but it lacked variety a bit - I saw the same students every day, and taught the same type of lessons, which began to get a little dull by the end.
After Japan, I flew home via Seoul, spending 4 days there, staying in a lovely hostel that felt more like staying in a friend's house, hanging out with a guy from the Domincan Republic, and occasionally seeing one of Seoul's few sights. I also did a trip to the Demilitarized Zone on the border of North Korea, which was fascinating. And I will write something on my travelblog about it soon. Really I will.
I arrived back in Australia after only 6 months away, with the plan of working and Studying here in Brisbane for 6 months. So far it's going well - I've got a job at QUT International College that starts next week. I was interviewed only 3 hours after stepping off my early morning flight from Korea, but due to a great recommendation from one of my lecturers, I was iffered the job on the spot. This has meant that I've been able to have a serious holiday this week, as I don't have to worry about where my next paycheck will come from! In the 8 days since I arrived back I've been such a social butterfly that eaten dinner at home only once, and that day we ordered pizza. I've had rather a lot of lunches out as well, actually!
Christmas was fun - spent at family and friends' houses, and tonight I'm going to a pre-midnight party in New Farm, then the mad partyers can go out in the Valley, while those of us who aren't insane enough to attempt to enter a club on New Year's Eve will move on to Rowan and Klaus's place in the Valley, which I think will become my home away from home! It's their fault for having a home cinema and cable tv...
Here's to next year being as exciting as this one!

Look at this!

So I'm sitting in my hostel in Seoul, in front of the free internet, having a discussion about hitchihiking, so I google it, and found this - HitchWiki! It's a fantastic-looking sit (I haven't actually read much of it yet) devoted to hitchihikers, and, as it's a wiki site, it's also written by hitchhikers! I might even write something!
So I managed to a get to Korea. I'll write about my adventures here on my travel blog. When I get around to it!

leaving japan!

1 min of airport internet left - better go catch my plane!
argh!
Kat

Things I've sent people

Realised I hadn't posted any photos in nearly a week! Shock! Horror! So here are a bunch of amusing things I've sent various people since I arrived here.
Except this first one. This is the mug I was provided when I arrived. It's my daily pep talk from the company...

I have no idea what the connection is between enjoying life and outdated household items.
Don't you hate when you end up alone. And when you're in the grassland, that's the worst.
I rather like cheques too...

I blog, therefore I am.

"Si vous ne bloguez pas, vous n'existez pas. Je crois qu'aujourd'hui l'identité en ligne est plus importante que la vie réelle."
(stolen from Loic Le Meur via Maitresse)

If you're nobody til you're a blogger, does that make me three somebodies?

EDIT: Just realised I should translate that: "If you don't blog, you don't exist. I think that today, online identity is more important than real life."

The Fourth Reich

It seems incredibly obvious to me, but it seems some people just don't get it. I just read this article, reprinted in the Japan Times, about how many americans want to institute some sort of identification for muslims - either by making them wear an armband, tatoo or whatever, or by printing a cresent symbol on their driver's licence or other ID. To me this just screams 'Warning Warning, we are about to slaughter millions of people for no good reason'. So how can people not realise that? Or is that what they want?
I knew things were bad in the States, but I didn't know they were quite at this level. Hopefully last month's elections will stop the slide.

Credo

"so i believe if you call the wrong number
you should talk for a while
you might like em more than
who you meant to dial. "

This isn't the best thing I've taken from Alix Olson's "I believe", but it sounds like fun. She says a lot of very sensible things. The full lyrics are here, and it's a poem, not a song, so you can just read it, but it's much better when she says it! Recordings (unfortunately not of "I believe" but the rest of her stuff's great too!) can be heard here.

A Day in the Life

The alarm on my mobile goes off at 8.40am on school days. And I fumble for it and peer at it to make sure it is the snooze button I'm hitting, and not the off button, and roll over and refuse to get up until it goes off again 10 minutes later, at which point I crawl backwards off my futon, via the foam tile I've put between my futon the the top of the ladder (to stop me getting bruises on my knees everyday) and crawl down from my loft.
I fall into some clothes, warm up some buttery bread stick things I keep in the freezer, pour a glass of milk coffee and leave the house. I'm always the last in the building to leave, so my bike is the last one left in the parking space, which at least makes it easy to get out. I ride to school - with my umbrella up if it's raining enough - sometimes stopping for a bottle of hot coffee from one of the several dozen vending machines I pass in my 15 minute ride to school. If I didn't have breakfast, I'll buy a kurowasan from the bakery (that's a croissant, in case you were wondering). Either way, as I pass the bakery I will check the time to see if I should speed up to avoid having to stop at the railway crossing for the 9.24 train (it's never late, of course), or slow down cos it's too late anyway.
I ride into school, saying ohio gozaimasu to the guy in the yellow jacket who looks after the bike parking, park in a spot that I have calculated is as close as possible to the classroom I am in last on most days, while still not being too far from the office where I have to login on the computer first thing every morning.
When I arrive in that office, I will say hello to either of the two teachers who work with me, if they are there. If the one I don't talk to is there, we studiously ignore each other, as usual. Once logged in, I'll do any copying for the day, if needed, or just head to the teachers room to drop off my stuff, and maybe do some last minute planning before going to the classroom 10 minutes before my class, in order to write things on the board and whatnot.
If no one turns up (I don't have many students, so it happens) I read a second-hand copy of the Japan Times, usually a few days old, or do the crossword from it. Or plan the lesson for the next day, or do my japanese homework. Or generally amuse myself somehow.
Lunch is at 12 every day, except Fridays when it's at 11.30. I sometimes sit with students or one of the other teachers (the ones I talk to) or on my own, in which case I either continue to read a bit of newspaper, or, more often, listen to a podcast or music on my phone's mp3 player. Lunch always involves miso soup and rice (or noodles, but I prefer the rice). And usually a salad that I have discovered is mostly Burdock root. It's delicious!
At 1 I have my busiest class of the day. Sometimes I have up to 8 students! It always has more energy and momentum than the classes with 2 or 3 students!
During one of my afternoon breaks I'll make myself a cup of tea - usually chai - in the teachers room, or buy another hot can of milk tea or coffee or something from a vending machine.
At 6.40, when my last class finishes, I head straight for my bike and am usually home by 7ish. If the railway crossing is closed when I approach I stop at the takeaway sushi shop next to the crossing to buy a maki roll and two inari (the sweet tofu pockets stuffed with sushi rice). Otherwise I'll make some fried rice or microwave a frozen spaghetti meal or cook an omelet or something when I get home. On Fridays, of course, and often on other days as well, Gloria and I go to the hundred yen sushi restaurant up the road. And on Wednesdays, I race to my Japanese lesson after work, so I do't get home til after 8pm.
My computer goes on the moment I get home, and I put on something to listen to while I'm cooking or doing whatever needs to be done (Triple J streamed online is good). Apart from that I'm pretty much glued to the computer for the rest of the evening, either reading stuff, writing nonsense like this, or watching dvds. At 11 or so, I might do some yoga and have a shower, then balance my computer, headphones and telephone in one hand and climb the ladder to the loft. I watch one last episode of whatever (two if my battery holds out) and then I sleep. If I can, on my futon that is about as thick as your average australian-summer doona...

Things that have caught my interest lately.

• These documentaries about tolerance. One of them may have given me an idea for A Project when I get back to Brisbane.
• These great pictures of the earth. Thanks to my aunt for sending the link!
• Free Yoga! In the privacy of your own home! I'm yet to try it, of course, but it sounds good. I'm so bored with my one yoga dvd.
• Flickr, the photo website. Should I create an account and upload all the photos that aren't interesting enough to make this blog or the travel blog? But then, if they aren't interesting enough, maybe no one needs to see them!
• MP3 downloads on Triple J. Now I can take the mp3 of Hack or Dr Karl to school on my phone mp3 player, to listen to during boring moments, instead of having to stream them direct here at home.
• Waterproof MP3 players. Maybe this one. I love that my camera is water and shock proof, and I'm thinking it's a good idea for everything. Would also make swimming a lot less boring. Oh, and the ebay listing that I've linked to is well worth a look. Have a look at the caption under the big picture (the one with the goggles).

Last lot

Here are the end of the amusing photos of last weekend. The pretty photos are on my travel blog, and I'm still thinking of uploading the rest to flickr, which would mean starting a flickr account, but, given my current photographic bent, that might be a good idea. I took 200 photos in my two days in Hakone! Ridiculous really. But some of them came out really nicely, and the rest, well, here they are...

My cruising boots are my favourites...

I don't know if I want "potatochips" or "Pumpkin" burended into my icecream. Or "tiny rice crackers and peanuts". No, not "Soybean flour" either. Thanks anyway.

The panda appears to be a form of transport. I didn't ask why.

And this next photo is ghastly quality because I was many metres away on a moving ship (ok, not moving much, but still...). It's still legible though. Either they want to rent out the back deck, or you don't really want to go out there...

I'm Googleable!

I've just been browsing my statcounter (yes! I know Who is reading my blog When and from Where!) and have discovered that TWO people lately have found my blog through google! Try searching for "driving map sagamihara city hakone". I'm near the top on the first page! (no idea why, but the "driving" is important. Have I *ever* talked about driving here?) AND, if you search for "sagamihara hakone map" my travel blog is the first hit! At least, it's the sub-hit of the first hit! (click the link to see what I mean).
The other search terms that put me on the first page is "arabian rock shinjuku".
Why, I feel almost famous.

EDIT: and now, of course, I am *the* top of the list for these search terms. If anyone is actually looking for these things for real, I bet it pisses them off! (Sorry if that's how you arrived here!)

Black Eggs (Weekend pics, part 3)

Owakudani is famous for black eggs that are cooked in the boiling hot sulfuric spring water here. But apparently they don't always have them available. At least, that's what I think they're saying here.
The sulfuric gases that fuel the tourist industry here are apparently not all that healthy for you. I decided I didn't have a dedicate bronchus and went on regardless!

The gases and spring water here might not be so good for you, but the eggs they cook in them are apparently very healthy for you.

And this one, I just can't work out. Ok, point 1 refers to the fact that you can only buy 6 eggs at a time, I understand that. And point 4 is obvious. And 2 might just mean that you have to eat the eggs within 2 days. But point 3 really gets me. Can anyone read the japanese and provide a better translation? Or anyone, any suggestions as to what it might mean? Prizes for the most creative responses...

more from last weekend

More from my weekend in the Hakone region!
This isn't some google earth image, but a shot from the cable car over the valley at Owakudani. I don't know what they were doing, but it was something they were doing with the sulfuric gases and steam that shoots out of the ground all over this volcanic region. If anyone has any idea what exactly they are doing, do let me know!
And at Gora station, you can eat hot sands!

And at Chokoku mori station, you put your rubbish in a "dust port". It sounds so high-tech. Like something you would find in a spaceship.
The cable car that took us to Owakudani was keen for us not to open the door of the capsule and tumble to our deaths hundreds of metres below: "A door is automatic and opens and closes it. Please do not hit a handle here"

What a weekend

I had 4 days off this weekend, which means going back to school tomorrow is going to be quite a shock to the system! I spent my first day off doing testing for Cambridge (I'm an official Oral Examiner for the lower level Cambridge exams now!), and then two amazing days in the Hakone region, and then today I spent doing pretty much nothing, except, of course, going out for sushi with Gloria.

I collected a heap of photos of funny stuff this weekend, so I'll blog them in batches over this week. Here's the first lot:
First, another vending machine. This one serves cups of drink, either hot or cold. The reason for the photo though, is the tv screen on it. So many things here have tv screens. Even the price tags on the shelves in shops are sometimes tv screens bombarding you with little tinny advertising jingles. This TV screen has the words "Vendor Vision" under it. I found it amusing!

My first example of Itarian. This was not far from the vietnamese restaurant where I had dinner with a friend on Thursday night after the testing.

This was a sign outside a bar in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. My theory is that they are trying to be a "coconut disco". God knows why though.

Magnetic Island - Townsville, Australia
visited Nov 22, 2006
I forgot magnetic island! Which is a pity, because it was a nice place. We got into horseshoe bay after dark, and woke to find it was a nice bay with a good beach and plenty of other yachts, and well set up for yachties. We went ashore and explored the one street of civilisation (fresh milk! yay!) and had a real coffee (pity it was awful...), then caught a bus to the beginning of the track up to the old army forts and look outs and whatnot that are still there from WWII. It was nice to have a good walk after a few days of relative inactivity. In Horseshoe Bay we also discovered a great shop called Maroon'd, which said it sold "survival products for people". While at first glance this could be mistaken for a gift shop (it did sell candles, soaps, scented things and other trinkets) it also seemed to manage to stock at least one of nearly everything you can think of. There was a second book section, a pet section, a crocodile meat (with recipes!) section, they had pharmaceuticals, every type of spark plug ever made, bike gear, fishing gear, swimmming gear, boat parts, shoes, small gold anchors (for your small gold boat perhaps?) and even a boatswains whistle. And there was an internet computer. And it was all in a room about the size of my living room at home. Pretty amazing, really, and quite unexpected on the wrong side of a small island! (the main civilisation on magnetic is on the other side of the island). We ended up leaving later than planned (probably due to the hour spent in the shop!) and headed into Townsville proper to find the marina berth that had been booked.

Another hat gone...

Waa. I've lost my hat. I stopped at a bakery on my way to school this morning to buy something for breakfast, and shoved my hat in my jacket pocket as I went inside. As it was pretty warm, I didn't feel the need to put it back on when I came out, so didn't even think of it until I got to school 5 minutes later, and went to put it in my drawer in the teachers room. It wasn't in my pocket. And I don't know where it is! I've even retraced my steps, and asked at the bakery (in japanese!) but no luck. Grr. It wasn't a perfect hat. It was brown flat cap of the style I have been wearing for years now, but it had a tendency to slip upwards and sit too high, but I only bought it 3 months ago (in Edinburgh) and it was my current best hat. I do have one other, but it's sort of... fluffy. I don't do fluffy very well.
And thinking about it, I seem to have some sort of curse that means my hats are never allowed to last more than 3 months or so. I think my record might be 6 months or so for the one I bought in Brescia last april and left in a bulgarian supermarket in about november.
So let's have a moment of mourning for Yet Another Lost Hat. And for the fact that I will now have to wear a fluffy hat.

Today's crop

This is from my outing to Ueno in Tokyo today. My travel blog has more info. These green signs seem to be approaching the issues of smoking and littering from intersesting angles. In case you can't read them, the first one says "Cigarette smoke is wider than a human body" and the other one says "Some people throw trash in the street. Other people have to clean it up" The first person in the trash picture is labelled "Bad Smoker" and the other three are labelled "Street Cleaner", just in case you didn't get the message!


And this is a snack I bought at the 99yen shop that was slightly disappointing. They didn't provide nearly as much joy as promised!


And another one I couldn't get a picture of was a girl's shirt that said in large letters "ABSOLUTELY" and underneath it said "Be Pleased to Do". "Do what?" I ask!

Another shirt last week: "Orange Peel". No idea why. It was an orange shirt though.

And the Turkish restaurant I went to tonight had a tri-lingual menu, and the english was full of cuteness. For a main course we had a choice of, among others, "Lattatouille" or "Raviori". Other than that, they'd done a pretty good job, really, and the food was lovely - very authentic, I think.

Photos from my life lately

So here are a selection of photos from the last month or so that seem blog-worthy but never made it into a post at the appropriate time. They are in random order.
Halloween: I didn't see the makeup until I got home (thanks Gloria!). If you can't guess, I was a spider web. And I think Nami maky have been a pumpkin. I never really worked it out!

This was my lunch at school the other day. Pretty typical. I'm hooked on the Miso soup!


Gloria and I saw this band (I think they're called One Star) play in Shinjuku a few weeks ago. The lead guitarist is an old student of hers. They were really good, and the tiny little basement bar was a fantastic venue!
This is Okonomiyaki. Eggy pancakey omlettey thing. With sauce and mayonaise on top. Oh, and the girls who came over and made it, of course!

Later that night they gave me a birthday cake! With candles! (7 of them!)

And this is from a different night when we had Nabe, which is a sort of stew thing. It was utterly delicious. For some reason it made sense to have the lid of the Nabe pot on my head at this moment. I don't know why. We weren't even drunk!


This is the view from the corridor outside our teachers room at school I love gazing at the lines of mountains in the distance, and often the sunsets are beautiful!

And a different sunset from a different window in the same corridor.

And this, believe it or not, is a golf driving range. It's also visible on the other side of the same corridor.

I am utterly addicted to sushi. This is the 100yen sushi train that I have been to at least once a week since we discovered it. Before that we were going to one that was much further away. I will have to take a photo of some of the actual sushi at some point. It's such a pretty food!


And the train. I don't have to catch a train to work, which I am very grateful for. This picture was an evening train, with hardly any people on it, but you still never get a seat. In the worst of the rush hour you are lucky if you can even breathe.

There are more, so stay tuned, and I'll post them in the next few days sometime. I also put a heap of Harajuku photos on my travel blog, so check them out too!

More engrish pics.

Look a second post in a day! I've been sorting photos, and thought I'd better blog them while I knew which ones were which!

My favourite nut mix for my relax time:

And this (from Meiji Shrine in Harajuku) made me feel there was something lost in the translation. It's like the opposite of Chinese. I remember when I went to the Imperial City, there would be three chinese characters, and the english translation would be about a page long!

This isn't Engrish. The sausage-y thing just looked disgusting, somehow!

And this is the most elaborate pocky I've ever seen. I'm wondering if "decorer" has something to do with the french. Not with shampoo. Either way, they were yummy!

I like Japaneeeese

I've been going to Free Japanese Lessons at something called the Sagamihara International Lounge since about the first week I arrived here. It's a great system. They have 4 or 5 sessions each week of these free lessons, taught by volunteer teachers, and the only thing they ask is 200yen (about AU$2.30) per month as a photocopying fee. Well worth it. There mut be about 10 or 15 little groups all working at different levels each session, all in one room. I've been lucky enough to nearly always have a teacher to myself, as I was sort of adopted by one teacher on my first saturday session. Unfortunately I started finding saturdays too hard (there's too much else to do on the weekends!) and started coming on wednesdays, even though I'm permanently an hour late for the two hour session! I joined a group that was only slightly behind where I was, but, due to doing some extra work in my free time at school and going to this Saturday's session as well (not to mention my natural ability to pick up languages), I'm going to be way too far ahead for that group next time, so I'll have to ask to change, and that's going to be a pain! But it does show the fliexibility of the many-small-groups system. If one person progresses faster than the others they can be promoted to a group already working on the next chapter of the book (we all use the same book, which makes it easier to know exactly where you're up to). I wonder if this could be made to work in an english school at any point. hmm.

Oh, and the lessons are held in a building called the "Fuchinobe Promity Building" whatever that means!

And, because I can't do anything so boring as a post without a picture, here are a couple I took in Harajuku a couple of weeks ago. I had forgotten about them!

A Classy Jewelers:

And a 100yen belt:

Happy Birthday to me!

So, I have just (9 minutes ago) entered my late twenties. It's a little scary, really! But I'll get over it!
So I have (already) celebrated in style - I had some... er... japanese associates (we would *never* associate with students outside of the university!) over to cook me okonomiyaki. Which is basically a kind of eggy pancakey omelet with cabbage and pork or any of a variety of other ingredients in it. I've been hearing about it for a while now, so it was good to see what it actually was. The party was at my place, but we went shopping together first, so I didn't have to prepare anything (except the mad flat-tidying I did yesterday), and they cooked it all, and cleaned up after, so it was wonderful! The easiest sort of party to have. Of course, having 7 people over for dinner when you only have 2 chairs, 2 plates, one bowl, one glass etc. was interesting, but they all put up with it very well. My yoga mat makes a good place to sit, and Marcus and Gloria (who live in the same building) brought their own bowls and whatnot, so we managed!
I hadn't expected an actual birthday party, as we had been talking about an Okonomiyaki party for weeks, and it was just coincidence it was today. But the others got me a surprise birthday cake! It was lovely, although incredibly creamy and rich! I still have a piece left for tomorrow, when I've recovered from this party!

Trains, bars and arabian rock.

First of all, this from Enoshima last week (actually at Fujisawa station):

And a very popular platform it was too.


Then I noticed this at one of the stations on the odakyu line as I was coming home this evening.

Do you think they mean "REquest"? or seek? Is it an ad for a modelling agency? Or a salon that does scary things to you to try to expose your beauty within?

Then there was this. But I'm not so sure about it. It's either a hilarious instance of the oh so common l/r mixup, or someone actually thought they were being funny, in which case, er, it isn't.
This place isn't actually Engrish, but I think it fits here anyway. It really needs the audio, but I decided to save everyone and not record it. It's easy enough to imagine though. It was playing "Arabian" music. By which I mean Arabian Nights from the Disney Aladdin movie. Then it moved on to A Whole New World from the same film. I didn't hang around to see if it had the whole soundtrack going!

And this just sounds messy:

Engrish fix

So it has been pointed out to me that I haven't posted any engrish up here for a while. I have excuses. For a start, I was all fired up to put all this up on Saturday, but blogger was having problems and wouldn't do it for me. The next excuse is that these pics have all been sitting on my camera. One of the drawbacks to a 1gb card, is that there isn't quite the same level of motivation to get the pics off the camera as there was when I only had a 256mb card! And finally, I haven't posted any written engrishes because I've discovered I have an absolutely terrible memory for the exact wordings, and it often really matters.
Enough excuses: here they are:
I like the way my grapefruit juice orders me around. But nicely.

Huh?

Team and band names here get quite, er, creative.
Ok, so this one isn't engrish at all. I just wanted a record of the first box of Pocky I ate here. It was good!