Hyogo here I come!

That's right! I have been given my placement. A tentative placement. But a placement! I really hope it does not change! I will be moving Kawanishi City in Hyogo, which looks pretty close to Osaka! 

Now I'm not just excited because it's Osaka and Osaka is a big place and looks AMAZING, but also because my friend will be working there soon! It means I'll have a familiar face close by to bug! Woo!

Anyway, I am incredibly excited and am now going to research the hell outta the place!

Hayley awaaaaaaaay

Kawaii! Japan's Culture of Cute

 

I entered a competition on www.supercutekawaii.com to win a book and I won!!! Woo!

I looooove books and this looked amazingly adorable! I have a few books on Japanese culture, mostly fashion books like Fruits, and thought this would make an excellent addition to my collection!

The selfie of myself with the book was requested by the publishing company, there is also an image of the book alone below! I believe the book is £16.99 to purchase and is available at all good book retailers! (currently £10.87 at Amazon! Bargain!)

 

I haven't had the chance to read it all thoroughly but I have had a good flick through and it looks amazing! The images used are perfect examples of kawaii Japan. They even have an image of the Hello Kitty suite from the Lotte Hotel in Jeju South Korea! I want to stay there so badly!! D;

It covers all aspects of kawaii from fashion to art to air planes! And the book itself is so cute. It is all colour coded with great pastel and bright shades. Really captures kawaii!

I'd highly recommend this to any lovers of kawaii!

I may post a more detailed review once I actually get to read it properly! But so far LOVE IT!

Prickly Heat

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooh Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!

No. That wasn't an orgasm.

That was me, in pain, from prickly heat/ heat rash/ whatever this evil state is called!

I have super pale and super sensitive skin so I'm pretty used to getting heat rash. This week in the UK it has suddenly gotten really really humid and warm and now my arms ARE ON FIIIIIIIRE! The sudden change in weather (what is up with the weather?!) has caused my arms to break out bad times! (innit)

I usually suffer this particular afflication on my legs, but this time just my arms. Which is actually easier to deal with as I can wear Tshirts and keep my arms clothing-free, which looks horrendous but releaves the burning and itching! Yum!

Now I've chosen to share this because it is just under 2 months until I fly out to Japan. In August. The middle of summer. IT WILL BE SO FRICKIN' HOT AND HUMID!?! I have no idea how I will survive if I'm getting heat rash in the UK. THE UK!? Damn I'm pale. 

I now envisage myself stepping off the plane and immediately breaking out in a rash that will consume my entire body. Then the mosquitos will descend to finish me off! Yes. I'm terribly susceptible to insect bites as well as the heat... and the sun. I'm a vampire, okay!?!

Basically I think I'll be filling my suitcase with anti-bug spray, factor 50, sensitive skin sun cream and anti-allergy tablets!

ಥ_ಥ

Hair Dye Stress!

So I've been dying my hair on and off (mostly on) since I was about 12 years old. Mostly shades of red in semi and then permanent dyes. For the last 3 ish years I've dyed it the same mahogany/ deep red colour. Now comes the panic. I use a professional dye which my mother's ex-hair dresser friend applies for me. Thus it will not be purchasable in Japan and if it was I'd make a right muck up of mixing and applying it alone!

D:

So now comes the obsessive researching into Japanese brand hair dye. *cry*

The results are that Japanese hair dye seems to be terrible for caucasian hair as they pretty much all contain bleach. Japanese people tend to have thick black hair, so their hair dye products are designed for such hair. My hair is medium, thin, easily damaged caucasian hair! ARGH! It seems they aren't great for your hair and they can fade too. Especially the reds. Stupid red.

So yesterday I tried using Lush henna on my hair! Lush is present in Japan so it would be easy to buy, it's natural and therefore okay on your hair and while insanely mess does not contain potentially damaging chemicals which I can accidentally mix wrong and turn my hair green! :D

The results are mixed... I tried CaCa Maron because I didn't want to go crazy first time with rouge. I got my mother's hair dresser type friend to apply it (CRAZY messy) and slept in it (around 14 hours). Overall it doesn't seem to have done much.... My dyed hair (most of my hair) seems slightly more brown, kind of a conker colour. My roots are a lighter, slightly reddier, colour than my natural medium ash. The roots do now blend in more naturally to the rest of my hair but it's still kind of obvious (maybe I'm just crazy?!). I suppose I'll see it is lightens more...
(I would provide photos but you can't really see....)

The absolute final straw will be to go get my hair stripped *cry* I really don't want to because my hair damages easily and it WILL KILL MY HAIR. And it's just gotten to my ideal length! And even then I'd want to re-dye/ henna it as my natural colour SUCKS and my greys keep multiplying despite only being 22 *cry* So hopefully it won't come to this.

Letting it grow out is not an option.

First world problems, eh?

For those interested in all things culture!

Please check out my friend's blog!

It's all about Asia and London and is ever so cultured!

shanghaied charlotte

Flights

A warning to all! 

So I've been looking at flights for weeks and weeks but had not booked yet because I needed money, wasn't sure if I should book without my VISA confirmed, etc. I found a flight with Etihad which would be perfect! It got me to Japan in the right place and at the right time, didn't have too many stop overs and the company looked good. The flight was £625. 

Unforunately, after speakign to my future employers who recommended I book soon, the flight went up by £100. *cry* 

To add salt to the wound I have just spent an hour trying to book through Etihads website with no success! I get right to the end but it seems to have a problem with EVERY card number I input. -___- Luckily I could book through lastminute.com, which I have done. Alas I can not book my seats via lastminute.com (I had my eyes on a loner seat on the Etihad website).

And breathe.

So now it's done, after a few stressful hours of trying to book and crying over the extra fees. 

Stupid flights.

The Interview

The interview went exceedingly well and the person who interviewed me was so lovely!

Before interviewing I really wanted some more information on what to expect, but I didn’t really find much. Maybe this post will be useful for people thinking of applying or who have applied to Peppy.
The interview is broken down into four parts.

1. The Grammar Test

To begin with you are given a short grammar test. This lasts around 15 minutes. You are asked to write a short piece on a topic from a list, around 300 words long. I wrote about my long and shor term goals.

You then answer a few questions on grammar. You pick out what is wrong or how to improve some written sentences. Easy peasy!

2. The Presentation

Next is a prentation about the company. Information on schedules, working day, training, living arrangements, wages, expectations, etc. I won’t go into detail here as most of this information is available on the internet already. Check out their website for such info!

There is also a short video of a typical lesson at Peppy. This was aodrable! The lesson was to young children and they were so hyper and excited! One kid started off crying and not wanting to join in but by the end of the lesson he was loudest shouting ‘Cucumber!’ haha. (They were studying vegetables). It made me so happy to see the kids and got me excited about starting!

3. The Interview Questions

The usual affair. Questions like ‘Why Peppy?’, ‘Why Japan?, etc. along with some questions related to what you would do in certain situations. Typical teaching/ TEFL interview questions. Just by yourself and be honest and you will be fine! ^^

4. The Demo

When I was invited to interview I was told that I needed to prepare a five minute demo to imaginary 5 year olds. This got me nervous! I kept changing my mind and wasn’t sure what to cover in such a short time. Eventually I decided to go with a simple song: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!

This was kind of embarrasing as I was doing it to two grown women rather than real children, but once I got started it was really fun and they really seemed to enjoy it and take part! My singing isn’t great but i tried to be enthusiastic and speak clearly when I said the words.

And that’s that!

I was super nervous for my interview. After hearing how terrifying the JET interview is I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was really laid back and the interviewer was really friendly. You also learnt alot about the company, which left me with no doubts that I was making the right choice.

Hope this is useful for people out there thinking of going to Japan and trying to pick who to go with!