Jaimie’s Blog Level 3/4
Journeys

Sydney to Alice Springs 2001 Australia.

As quite a few of you already know I stayed in Australia for a year and traveled around Asia for a few months before coming to Japan.

I decided to travel out to see Ayres Rock and meet my friends by train. It took 3 and a half days and I was in economy class but the trip was unforgettable and I met some real characters on the way including a professional kangaroo trapper, and full blown painted aborigine complete with digeridoo.

The train, as you can see is huge and has a dining car, bar, and shared shower rooms. It rarely stops throughout the journey except to refuel and the smoking area( I still smoked then) was a non stop party any time of night and day.

I saw the most amazing sunsets and clearest night skies on that trip plus about a million kangaroos, emus, camels and the world’s most dangerous snake.

Australia is big! And Flat!
A cool journey but once was enough. I never thought it was going to end and the scenery doesn’t change much over 3 days.

Manali city  over the Rhotang Pass. 1990 something. Kulu valley India.

Did this trip with my mum, she loves India and has been there many times.

This journey is hard to describe. Both heaven and hell all at the same time.

Here is a little hint the word Rhotang means ground of corpses ( dead bodies) due to the number of people who have died trying to cross it. The pass is covered with smashed up cars trucks and worst of all buses. It is closed half the year and is just under 4 kilometres high in the Indian Himalayas. I swear I have never been so scared in my life it was a long journey straight up, in an old bus with wooden seats and people hanging off the sides and roof, the road is so narrow you can’t see the edge and it requires about a hundred 3 point turns to get round the tight corners. I sweated buckets on that journey and my mum got sick because we were up so high.

On the other hand the views are unimaginably beautiful and getting off the bus was a source of sheer delight plus it was well worth it when we got off and started hiking through the valley.I will also never forget it for the rest of my days!! I woke up the next morning looked out of my tent and the snow on the mountains was orange in the sun. Amazing. India was such a crazy trip and I was so young that I don’t think I appreciated it properly but I think one day I might go back and try it again.

Level 3/4 Beer!

Hello everyone.  Summer is over but the hot weather is still here!
I find that a good way to stay cool in the heat is by drinking beer!!
Japan has a lot of good beers and I think they are getting better every year, one of my new hobbies is looking for the perfect convenience store beer, and I like to think I have found it.

Here is a list of my top five.

No. 5   Master’s Dream ( Suntory) 6% lager
This is a bit of a classic now, it’s been around for a while, a nice smooth lager, very easy to drink can be found in any convenience store and a lot of supermarkets too.

No. 4  Kin no beer ( Suntory) 6% lager
I found this one a few months ago and it was a real surprise, very smooth creamy, and easy to drink, this is limited to Seven Eleven stores only.

No. 3   Wee Heavy ( Belhaven)  7.4% stout
This is a bit of a cheat because it’s not really a convenience store beer but comes from Sunny supermarket. Sunny is tied to a British supermarket chain called Asda and they occasionally save my life by stocking things like this. This will not be for everyone, a very strong rich flavour and high alcohol content, only beer lovers will like this one. Can be drunk cold or warm. Only found in Sunny.

No. 2  Aooni 7.5% I.P.A
This is a beauty, my wife is a big fan. A very bitter , high alcohol content I.P.A ( Indian pale ale) not so easy to drink if you haven’t tried much I.P.A before but if you are a fan try this one. It never gets boring. The Aooni is a mysterious beer and can only be found in a few places. See me for details.

No. 1 Craft Select (Suntory) I.P.A  6.5%
Suntory, thank you.  You have come up with a great I.P.A, strong alcohol content like all I.P.A s but with almost no bitter flavour, goes well with food or just on its own, by far my favourite convenience store beer, and one of my favourite beers in general.

Unfortunately this beautiful invention can only be found in random convenience stores and seems to be a seasonal limited edition. Let’s just hope it comes back next year!!
That’s my list, if anyone knows of any other great beers I have missed please let me know when you next see me, my quest to find the perfect beer is an endless one.

Jaimie

Level 3/4  Catch !

Hello everyone, I’m sure you are all thrilled to hear that after a brief hiatus we are starting our weekly blogs again!!

Hope you all had a wonderful summer( the weather has been fantastic this year hasn’t it?) and I’m glad to see you all back looking tanned and refreshed.

Today we are going to concentrate on the word catch.

“Why?” You may find yourself wondering, well it’s because I spent most of my summer holiday catching various creatures with my very energetic and enthusiastic children.

First was tadpoles, not really summer more like spring ,we caught about 40 of these little beasts in the pond in front of Fukuoka City Museum in Momochi let half go and took the rest home and were soon blessed with the birth of about 20 baby frogs which we kept on my balcony. Quite a horror show. Next was diving beetles, captured at the same place and surprisingly long lived they lasted about 3 months! Summer came and the inevitable cry of “ I want to catch cicadas.” came from my son’s mouth. This is a rather harrowing time for me since there are no insects quite so big in the rather cool part of the world I come from and when my son says “I” he means you, namely me since he is rather scared of them himself and my wife can’t touch them. We then moved on to crabs from the beach, a disastrous process of trial and error when we realised that they don’t survive long when left in direct sunlight for long periods of time.
They died.
Last but not least was catching the mythical creatures known as pokemon, easy to find, never die(unlike my i-phone battery), and cost nothing to keep. I have found they are the perfect pets.

As you can see it was an eventful summer for me and due to all this outdoor activity I managed to catch the sun pretty well this year and got the suntan of a lifetime, didn’t catch a single minute of the Rio Olympics, was able to catch up with my kids a bit since I only usually see them sleeping, managed to catch a few z’s myself (a precious luxury) and at the end of all that I caught a nice dose of food poisoning from some dodgy mayonnaise that I ate.

Catch you at the next lesson.

Jaimie.