Three weeks gone in Tokyo and we’re ‘lovin it’. So far the experience has been indescribable….Well hopefully not to indescribable otherwise it you should probably stop reading now…

It started before we got here though. It started on the 22nd of July. Melissa and I escaped our schools grasp and jetted of to tropical France. We landed in the beautiful and aptly named Nice. It was our second heat wave we had experienced in two summers, firstly in London, and this time in France, Spain and Italy. Holly crap 35 degrees is warm….

We had a great time travelling with Melissa’s parents. Highlights were definitely driving through Southern France plus our trip to Barcelona. Our designated jobs during our 10 day experience closely related to our strengths. Melissa’s job involved map reading and talking lots about what she had read. Jim’s job involved safely manoeuvring us around crazy French drivers while blocking his ears to the frequent gasps and even squeals of horror emanating from our female companions.
Viv’s job was chief tourist; Viv researched and looked out for potential sites that we might be interested in. My job of course involved looking after our stomachs. I was cleverly put in charge of looking out for sources of food to fill our ravaging bellies. The Pollard family soon realised that perhaps this hadn’t been the best idea as I seemed to have grown four stomachs in France and required half hourly refuelling.. We live and learn…=)

Now to Tokyo. As I mentioned earlier, we thought Europe was hot. Nothing prepared us for the sweat soaked experience of Asia. I have never ever ever experienced humidity and heat on this scale. Walking from our air conditioned bedroom to the hallway was mighty treacherous. Bear feet on stairs could result in sudden sweaty slips leading to a quick trip to the bottom.

Since then it has cooled a little, we now rejoice in 25 degree temperatures each day without fail.

Tokyo has been awesome. We have been so lucky to have moved hear while a massive recruitment took place. 22 new teachers leading immediately to 22 new friends. Many great nights getting to know each other, while also learning new customs, chewing new foods and unchewing the dodgy bits. Raw fish has become a staple diet choice for us all now, plus of course a half cooked poached egg on top of it all. No dish seems to be complete without an egg somewhere hidden amongst it.

The city itself is immense, truly huge and completely too big to be able to see all in such a short time. I think it has many hidden bits. We have stayed fairly close to home at this stage. Learning the subway system is providing us with enough excitement for the moment. We have plans to see bits and pieces around the city soon though. We have managed to check out a couple of football stadiums (amazing atmospheres!) go on a tourist bus around the city, checked out the river/harbour area, been up a 52 story building for a peak and of course visited hundreds of restaurants in the process.

Home and school are great. Melissa is enjoying her new found freedom with a class that actually understands what she is saying. Not only this, they are mostly all super smart and well behaved! Good for her as she deserves it after a rough ride last year.
I am enjoying the new game of teaching P.E. It’s my 3rd change in subject in as many years for me. At this stage its feeling good, I’m getting used to the change in environment and mentality between high school and primary.

Home is great; it’s amazing the place school has managed to provide us. It’s a huge place for Tokyo standards (102m squared) and Melissa and I are struggling to fill it with our stuff. Thanks to us, I think Ikea stocks will have gone up a few percent by the time we leave Tokyo. The best part about our Tokyo home is the Gadgets though. T.Vs in the bathroom, heated toilets seats, that can also squirt you bum or bowl if you so desire. Best of all though is the Bath that can be filled using voice activation from the Kitchen (or in some cases of our friends, by phone while out and about!). It is truly cool how the Japanese try to fit a microchip into anythiny that they can.

In the half term we hope to travel a little around Japan. We might pay Markus Ranby a visit in Osaka if he’s in town.

Love to all

Rick and Melissa

Feeling Hot Hot Hot...

Time for the blog. With the new discovery of facebook, I have spent most of my time working on that rather than the blog – so it already has photos etc on that, but I should not forget this, as it is an excellent chronological report and diary of my time overseas.

Since the last blog, a lot has happened, and not much depending on how you look at it. I am still living in Firenze, and there have been many visitors to these parts. That has been absolutely super, and as I have the time now, it’s been great spending some time with friends and family. Naming a few of our visitors: Rick & Sophie, Fidelma and Donal, Sam, Charlie, Tanguy, Gabby & Anna, and Jamie & Natalie. Leana arrives in Firenze this coming Monday, and unfortunately I miss Anna Gibson’s visit as I will be in Germany. When I get back, Rick and Melissa arrive, so still some fun times ahead.

So other than meeting people, what have I been up to? Well, I spent a month working for the American Institute of Language in two different types of summer camps. One week on ‘day-camp’ where I had my first exposure to the Italian children and a hint of what I would be in for over the next few weeks. The 2nd - 4th week I was away on week-long camps with more Italian kids, and acting as a ‘counsellor’ plus an English teacher. The age-group was 7-14yr olds, mostly aged 11-12. It was magical being in amongst the Tuscan hills, out in the sun, swimming entertaining the kids every day. The language barrier you hardly noticed except for on occasion. With a couple of English lessons daily it also gave me a little experience with some teaching, and it is something that is so useful to travel with around Europe. As you can see we involved ourselves with many games, music, and I even taught them the Haka for a performance for their parents the last day.

Sleep was hard to come by, but all in all it was a fantastic experience, one which I would recommend for anyone else should they ever want to journey over here in the summer. Even a little yellow bird that came from nowhere to land on my shoulder became known as "Kiwi Jnr.", we kept it and bought a bird cage for him, and his song will be heard from his new home at the camp from now on. Free board and food, plus cash in the hand. Kristin was recruited for the last week, so I was lucky enough to have her experience it with me. I am still haunted now with dreams about children screaming “Kiwi! Kiwi!” (My adopted nickname for the camp). Other nicknames were Coco, Candy, Dodger, Nina, Kris and Nick for the counsellors. On a very nice note, one of the lovely children (Benedetta) had her father working in the Pizzeria near us which we frequent. He gave us a lovely meal (the best pasta of my life) with all the extras and a lovely lemon liquor. He did not accept full price for the meal either – we left a large tip though! Since then we have had a few of the camp children visit us which has been a really nice touch.

Now we head to Germany for two weeks to meet her friends and family. I am very much looking forward to that, and the wonderful German delicacies Kristin has been telling me about. Once we return I will be then looking for more work, and I have a good lead already, so hopefully I can keep my head above the water!

The Budapest half marathon is also sneaking up on me (2nd Sept). I always thought it was so far away, and now I realise its only roughly 7 weeks away. So it’s time to start training. I want to meet up with some of my Irish friends there too, so hopefully it all comes together well. Kristin is even looking at giving it a go! So again life is in full swing and we are already planning our next steps around the globe – more will follow on this later… Right now we are too busy enjoying the good weather and the endless opportunities life has presented.

Italia… the good, the bad, and the beautiful.

The plane set down in Pisa airport, and Kristin and I looked out upon a gorgeous morning in the west of Italy. With our lives on our backs like turtles, I had a sudden reminder of how hot things got when you are carrying a lot of gear. While only the morning, it was already hot (by Ireland standards), and I was outfitted in my ‘check-in luggage reducing attire’ – heavy jeans and shoes with a jacket. The words on the signs were foreign yet somehow familiar. It took me nearly an hour to remember how things were in Italy. I had never stepped foot in the province of Toscana (Tuscany) before, but I was already impressed. We found our way to the B&B, missing our stop and walking back, then waited half an hour till the owner arrived to let us in. If there have been two consistent things in Italia since our arrival, it has been 1) getting out at incorrect bus stops; and 2) day after day of beautiful, hot, rain-free weather.
Pisa. A small name. Almost cute. Famous because of a certain building that wanted to look a bit different. A ghost-town during the midday hours, then bustling with life once siesta time is over. The town itself is not outstanding, but quaint..ish. The centre of the town is dominated by a few structures of massive importance: there is the large Chiesa di Santa Caterina (Cathedral), with a nice Baptistry, and of course the Leaning Tower. The tower makes its presence noticeable from far away. Originally designed for the purpose of a bell tower… it had just four tiers when the ground under one side of it (combined with other elemental and design factors) started to give-way. The tower simply started to sink. They supported it, and built on new tiers at two different times. Each time, trying to correct for the permanent lean it would have by making one side slightly longer, and one side slightly shorter. Have a good look at the photos and you will see it curve almost upwards on the top tiers. Also here’s a photo of things you can do with tower - some trick photography. We also managed to borrow the tandem cycle of the B&B owner and cycle through the streets of Pisa like lunatics (Erin and Paul would be proud!). Great fun, but I recommend that you make sure that both people are pedalling equally… We took a trip out to the Marine di Pisa… we were expecting sand, and got slabs of rock. Further around the coast looked to be tons of sand, we were just to lazy to find it. It didn’t stop us from catching a few rays though… and a few ice-creams too.













Next stop Firenze (Florence). Only a short 45 minute train journey away, we arrived and journeyed to Piazza de’ Pitti, not realising that our B&B was immediately outside the Pitti Palace. It houses an immense garden, and has four museums which contain many valuable pieces of art from famous artists (apparently). We did not have time (or the money) to please our eyes with the glorious interiors of any the magnificent buildings, churches or museums of Firenze – as we had to get straight into the goal of finding accommodation. This city (like Roma) is (and I quote from the Lonely planet) “unfairly over-blessed with art, culture and history”. Yes it is. Everywhere you walk, you find yourself face-to-face with another intricately detailed, ornate and flamboyant, structure of abundant history. On our random wanderings, we have encountered an unfathomable number of these buildings… and we suffered upon Firenze a great insult by rarely entering them. There will be time to savour and enjoy these treasures when we have visitors, and hopefully more cash! After seeing San Pietro’s Basilica in Rome I thought my eyes could never again feast on such immense beauty. While the interior of that mighty cathedral still takes the cake… the exterior to Firenze’s Duomo takes your breath away. The tiered pink, white and green marble cathedral has an intriguing history, with names such as Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Vasari, Brunelleschi, Andrea Pisano and more, all contributing to this banquet of splendour. When Michelangelo himself went to work on St Peter’s Basilica, he said “I go to build a greater dome, but not a fairer one”. At last, our first priority is now complete - we have found accommodation in a great part of Firenze. Our local area has many of the things we need – at Italian prices, not at tourist prices. A short trip by bus to the centre of town and there we can find the things mentioned earlier plus Cinema’s (even have screenings in English), but of course anything in the centre costs a pretty penny more than where we live. Down the road from us are two outstanding Pizzerias, one of which, create it right in front of you… from dough to piping-hot from the large pizza furnace. One difficulty I still have is the menu. I still manage to order things on my Pizza that I didn’t even know existed. Living with us in our apartment is Dimetri (a Greek), and Jackomo (an Italian)... they both seem really nice. Here are some photos of our bedroom, kitchen and small terrace. I suffered a horrible tragedy the other day. My pair of jandals (flip-flops for you foreigners) that had come with me from NZ after winning them at a volleyball tournament – broke. They had travelled to nearly every country I have been to, and we have been through a lot together… . Well such is the tale with travelling, you have to say goodbye to many people and things that you love. Some differences: Small buses – designed to specifically weave through the narrow streets. Three prices at café’s – Takeaway, standing at the counter, taking a table. The noise of the ambulances – ‘weird’ what more can I say? Scooters – mentioned in earlier blogs, there is a large number here too. Fashion – big sunglasses are a must over here if you are to have a chance to blend in with the crowd (still unlikely however). Most people from teenagers to elderly are dressed very well, and wearing way too many clothes in hot weather! To this day, it has not rained since Kristin and I have arrived. So here is the tale so far. Much will follow… the wine flows freely, the sun shines and there is a hint of expectation in the air. -Marty