Snowboarding in Nagano

Hey, We'll just got back from three awesome days of snowboarding up in Nagano. There were about ten of us who went up on a package deal, Overnight bus, hotel, meals, hire and ski pass all for a really good price!!
It was my first time snowboarding, but i seemed to pick it up fairly quickly, and it wasn't long before I was flying down the hill. It snowed two out of the three days there so we had perfect snow, and the weather was beautiful.
The rest of this month is going to be pretty full on, we are going to the sumo tomorrow, first time for that so we are excited. Then next week on the 20th, we are flying to South Korea for 5 nights of sightseeing and relaxing. We will hopefully do a few day tours and just have a good look around. We get back on the Sunday and then on the Tuesday we are going to catch the shinkansen to Tokyo. We are guna have 3 days in Tokyo, we are planning to have a day at Disney land, and 1 day at Disney sea, Disney sea is more for adults, so should have some cool rides. Anyway thats about it for now, i'll post some photo's soon.

Pretty busy

Probably about time for an update I reckon, its only been about 3 months since my last one. Had a pretty full on last couple of months, been working and trying to save money to come back over to Japan and catching up with all the boys and girls. Danielle came home just before xmas so it was great to see her, she had three weeks back home so she ate plenty of lamb and fish and chips and got to catch up with all her mates. We went up to Mapua (Nelson) for 5 nights of camping which was really good, we got great weather and had a few good nights playing drinking games etc. We had new years up there also and it was an alright night, sat around drinking in our tents and then a bit later we headed down to the local pub where they had an Elvis performer singing songs and dancing around, we all had a bit of a laugh coz the guy kept singing the same songs over and over, don't think he new to many!!
We arrived back in chch on the 2nd Jan and for the next few days we were flat out trying to organise our wedding day for the 5th Jan. Everything seemed to fall into place for us in the end and the weather even showed up with a stunning 26 degree day and really calm, we had the wedding in Danielle's mums back yard amongst her beautiful gardens. About 40 to 50 of our closest friends and family attended the service and reception afterwards so it turned into a really enjoyable day. I think there were close to 1000 photos taken of the day so Danielle and I have a great task of sorting through them all to pick out the best ones! There were some great speeches and everyone was up dancing etc, around 10pm Danielle and I were picked up in an old vintage car and were taken off to the penthouse suite in the Heritage (our wedding present from all our friends) it was a fantastic room with all the extras. We were both really happy with how the day turned out, it couldnt have gone any better.
Danielle is back in Japan and i'm looking forward to joining her in a few weeks, just booked my flight the other day for the 5th Feb with 4 nights in Sydney to see our friends Kylie and Tristan, and then on to Osaka on the 9th. Anyway thats about it for now, i'll post some wedding and new year photos on here soon.

COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, well i'm back in little old NZ now after getting deported from Japan!! Nah not really, just didnt get my visa so came home to save some money until xmas and then go back over to live!! Its been good catching up with everyone and all the family. I'm finding it very cold at the moment though after coming from the tropical heat of Osaka (35 degrees). Walked straight back into my old job here and was offered good money so am very happy at that, I can start saving straight away. Its kinda strange being back in chch and it almost feels like a dream (thats probably because of my quick exit from Nihon) found out I wasnt getting a visa and then was given a week to leave the country. Anyway nothing else really to report at the mo, i'm sure the months will fly by until I go back overseas and see Danielle again. Peaceout.

B.E.P'S

Went to the Black Eyed Peas concert on Tuesday night with Danielle and Christey, we all had a wicked time. The opening act was a J-Pop group called Bennie K who were alright, they got the crowd going which is what they are supposed to do. The BEP'S played for about an hour and a half I think, they played a lot of there old stuff which was really good. After the concert I just got the last train home, but the girls were keen to see the band so headed off to the after party in town. They got to see them at the club, but sadly they didn't invite them up to the VIP room, which is what they wanted. So anyway Danielle rolled in about 5.45am and slept for 1 hour because she had to teach 1st and 2nd period on the Wednesday, she was pretty tired. Still not a lot of progress on the visa front, my company are busy writing letters at the moment so hopefully immigration will change their minds and let me stay another year!!!!!

Update

Hello, well haven't really got a lot to write about really but I'll try anyway!!! Last Saturday night a group of us went to see the Japan v Fiji rugby game at Nagai stadium. It was a really good match only just won by Fiji right at the end, I would have liked Japan to get the win but oh well. After the game we met Marika Vunibaka and Rupeni Caucauinbuka and took a photo and stuff, and then headed to John and Roisin's house to watch the England v Portugal game at midnight, what a waste of time that was, the game just put everyone in a bad mood, There were a lot of shitty decisions. This week we are trying to get our house in order because we have Danielle's mum coming on Monday to stay with us. She is staying for a week and then her and Danielle are traveling for a month to Thailand and Vietnam, so I'll be by my lonesome for a month. Next Tuesday night Danielle,Christey and I are going to see the Black Eyed Peas, can't wait for that, we've already seen them in Welly before so we know its going to be a cool concert!! Also next week I have my soccer social which is an iron man competition, basically who can stay up drinking the longest (should be interesting) and then we have our awards night a couple of days later and say goodbye to the boys that are leaving Japan. Still waiting to hear about my visa, could be coming home next month, we'll have to wait and see
Go the ALL BLACKS - beat those bloody aussies!!!!

Awaji Tournament

Osaka Jet football team

Big beers and dinner on the Saturday night

A couple of weekends ago we had our big soccer tournament on Awaji island. The Saturday morning started off just after 5 in the morning because we were all getting the 6.30am ferry. Our first game of the day was at 10am I think, so we basically arrived pissed around for a bit setting up etc, and then were straight into it. Our first game of the day we won 4-0, then we had a break of around an hour which we used to play cricket and soak up the sun. The second game was a hard fought 2 all draw, and then on to penalties - we ended up winning 7-6 on penalties, it was pretty tense. The last game of the day was a 1-0 loss to Hiroshima, we were unlucky it probably should of ended 0-0 but the referee confused our goalie by telling him to hurry up with his kick, and our goalie thought he wanted the ball, so he rolled it out towards him and then the opposing striker ran through and scored (so a bit unlucky). The girls were playing on the field right next to us so during our breaks we would go over and support them and vice versa. I didn't get to see Danielle's goal though as we were playing, but I hear it was really good (left foot even). After the day of soccer we headed for our hotel and had dinner and onsen to relax the aching muscles. Then we all set off for the pub where the social was being held. It was a good night of banter and beers. Bright and early the next day we were up having breakfast, not really my ideal start to the day having a Japanese breakfast of rice, pickles, miso soup and other stuff that you didn't even want to touch at that time of the day, what ever happened to good old cereal and toast aye!!! But anyway we set off for the soccer ground because we were kicking off at 9.30, we were playing the team from the day before that we beat 4-0. They played a lot better than the previous day and we ended up winning 1-0. So now we were through to the quarter final against Hyogo. Hyogo are a fairly strong team with a bit of speed up front, and they scored a couple of good goals and won the game 2-0, so that was that knocked out in the quarter final again same as the winter tournament. We were pretty happy with the way we had played though, so now we could go and cheer n the girls!! They played really well throughout both days and were unlucky to lose the semi final on penalties. It was a great weekend of soccer, beers and sun, can't wait for the next one in winter.

That's a cool haircut!!

Paul, me, Gio, Danielle's B-day

Me and Paul, Kobe conference

Birthday's and Beer!!!

Well the last couple of weekends have been pretty busy. Danielle had her birthday on the 20th, and to celebrate we went out with some of our friends for dinner at a great Thai restaurant. After the meal a few of us decided to go to Sam & Daves (a club in town) to drink some more and party. Ended up being a really good night, I don't remember a lot towards the end, only dropping my Takoyaki all through the plastic bag on my way to the train station and then proceeding to eat it with my hands and trying not to burn myself.
On to this weekend just gone, Danielle decided to celebrate her birthday again by combining her's with Kevin's. They booked the Disco room at Aria Blu (the best Karaoke place in town) and invited heaps of people to come along. It's definitely the best value in town, all you can drink from 11.30pm till 5am, and complete with our own stage, disco ball and lights. There were probably around 20 people there, everyone had a great time dancing, singing and drinking far to much!! I think it was close to 7 when we got into bed, slept until around 2.30pm and then had to get up and get ready for soccer. Had a big hangover, but so did a lot of the other boys, we ended up winning the game 3-2. This weekend is the big soccer tournament on Awaji island so all the boys are pretty excited, there's a few boys who are leaving in August to go home so hopefully we can give them a good send off at the tournament. Danielle is coming as well, she is playing for the Osaka girls team, they are the defending champs so she might get to see some silverware. Also I've just applied for a new visa, so fingers crossed that things go alright, just give me one more year!!!!!