Cooking lesson

Fiona's friend Tomoko came over to show her how to cook *real* Japanese food in the confines of a tiny Japanese kitchen. This resulted in the best gyoza known to humankind, and lots of mess. Menu: vegetarian gyoza, steamed eggplant with sesame and soy, miso & pumpkin soup, chinese egg & tomato stirfry, edamame, somen noodles (done the proper way, served over ice) and home-brewed 10-year-old umeshu and a homegrown watermelon. Oishikatta desu ne!

Muggy July

We've been hanging around Yokkaichi/Nagoya over the last few weeks, saving money for our trip to China. Fiona's rehearsing a new play in Nagoya which performs in August - Japanese rehearsal schedules are insanely intense, like most things they do. Lots of friends are leaving soon, too, and new people arriving, as the JET year ends this month. Here's Fiona with Helen (centre) and Aileen (right) - Aileen's heading home to Ireland but Helen's hanging on with us.

July is also sports day time at school - of course, what better time than in the blistering heat and swimming humidity. At Sam's school, "dodgeball" was the game of choice for the girls. Everyone was very surprised that we don't play it in Australia. Explaining the phrase "everyone would get sued" was tricky. Here are some pictures of this glorious sport. The horror, the horror.