Oh what a feeling!

Last week, I was fortunate enough to be accepted to join 19 other JET participants on a tour and seminar program at Toyota's factory plants and head office. It was an amazing experience and it was great to get out of the office for a couple of days! The highlight was having a tour of the factory and watching the assembly of cars. It was good to consolidate some of the stuff I learned at uni. If you didn't know, Toyota's processing system is famous. I won't go into it though, because it would probably bore the pants off you. I was just excited to see something in action that I had read in textbooks, and see that it actually worked!
There were seven countries represented, and people from 16 prefectures in Japan. The main focus of the program was to understand the environmental developments made by Toyota to help the world. It was more or less about their hybrid cars. We had a couple of Q & A sessions, in which the management representatives had some tough questions to deal with. They were sweating in their seats!
The photo above is of the new hybrid car, "Prius". The TV screen in front of it moves across from left to right and showed the inside of the car, kind of like an X-ray. It was awesome.
This car looks sooo comfortable. I don't know what the name of it is, but I want one. The steering wheel looks nothing like a regular steering wheel. It looks like it belongs in a spaceship or something.
This is one of those robot machines that you see on TV programs or something. It rolls around without you making any major movements. Unfortunately, this one didn't move...
This is one of those robots that does fantastic things. It actually plays the trumpet! It's not a recording! It did get annoying though, because it only plays two songs...
These two pictures are of a person demonstrating that robot thing that I was sitting in before. It's really big, but nice and smooth.
You can even recline in it!
This is another robot. I didn't see it in action though, but it looked cool.
At the end of the two days, all participants were given the opportunity to test drive the Prius. I was soooo excited as I hadn't driven a car for 8 months and was busting to drive! This car is amazing. It makes absolutely no sound or vibration when you turn the ignition on as it is running on electricity. When you drive it fast the fuel charges the battery, but when you slow down, it only runs on the electricity. It has a great fuel economy of 36km/L! I wonder how much they cost..... If you want one in Australia, there's a 4 month waiting list.

Well that's it for now. This is a little late as I have done some other exciting things since. I went to Okinawa! I will try to put the gazillion photos up soon. Cya!

You callin' me old!?!

Hi folks!

Well the last few days have been so bad on me food-wise... why do you ask?! I've been eating too much birthday cake!!! Yep, that's right... MY birthday cake! So after a 3 year break, my age is a prime number again... 23! (Yeah, I've gone nuts... Megan bought me a book called "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which is written from the point-of-view of a boy obsessed with prime numbers). So speaking of gifts and all that, a big THANK YOU to those who sent/gave something to me! I also want to take the chance to thank Aunty Lyn and Uncle Ron for the beautiful jewelry (as modelled by the gorgeous gal below)... I sent an email but your email address doesn't work! Oh yeah, sorry for the spelling of jewelry... I know it's the American spelling.. I forget the British English version... oops!

No, there was no boy that sent me a bunch of flowers Mum... don't get excited! This is my second attempt at ikebana. It has a kiwi feel to it I think... And the arrangement is teamed with some beautiful cards!

One of the best things about the Japanese is their immaculate attention to detail. This is shown in each of the different cakes I had to choose from. I ended up having a rasberry and biscuit cake. Yummo, I looooove cream!

And to finish off my birthday email, I want to leave you with my favourite present... a beautiful portrait of me drawn by my wonderfully artistic brother

Speaking of my lovely brother... I thought I would give a little promotion about the Dream Team (or the Super Coach competition) that he has put together. There are no prizes at stake (except perhaps pride)... Anyway, if you go to http://heraldsun5.virtualsports.com.au/ and follow the instructions to register, you can join the competition! There are currently 12 of us in the league, so 4 more spaces left! The league code is 498080...

Go Rumbling Reasovers!

(And don't worry if you don't know anything about the players, you're not the only one!)

Hooooraaaaaaay

Yep, my Internet is up and running again! It doesn't seem as fast as it was before it was disconnected, but I'm not going to complain! So because I have missed out on posting for a month or so, I will fill you in step-by-step every couple of days... I don't want to give you a mass to read all at once!

This entry's topic: I have a friend!

One of my co-workers introduced me to his ex co-worker a few weeks ago. Her name is Chikako and I see her a couple of times every week. She stayed in Australia for a month last year (she even has a photo of herself and some students at Heidelberg Primary!), and is trying to learn as much English as possible. We have done many things together. I have visited her house (which has heated floorboards) and she has cooked dinner for me. We also went for a day trip to Ishikawa to try out an onsen and have a massive lunch. Here is a picture of what I dared to try:
Yep! I ate raw shrimp (which still had its bright blue eggs inside, ew), crab brain (I didn't know they had brains), raw shellfish and fugu! Fugu is the blowfish (you know, the one that Homer ate and was going to die because of it...) As many of you know I am a seafood "disliker", so I had to get some "real" food into me. This is "shabu shabu". It's basically thinly sliced beef that you boil at your table and dip into a delicious sauce.
I have been lucky enough to experience Japanese culture with Chikako. Every week, we go to an ikebana (flower arrangement) and tea ceremony class. I never thought that the act of making tea was so difficult! Here is a picture of my first ikebana:
I enjoy ikebana, it really makes you appreciate each flower. Normally I would just plonk some flowers into a vase, but ikebana makes you consider the angles of each flower and how they should be arranged to be aesthetically pleasing.
So it's good to be back in the "real world". It's funny that I consider the Internet to be the real world... Please leave a comment!

Lotsaluv,

Suzi

It's a bit shaky but...

I have a sporatic Internet connection at the moment. My computer is picking up an insecure Internet signal, so I can post a quick message now. Let me explain what has been happening...

Mid February:
- My phone line was disconnected for non-payment ($70-80). I had thought that the payments were coming directly out of my bank account (as all of my other bills do), but no! Each bill that I got was a new one, with only a month's worth of charges. They don't accumulate like in Australia, so I didn't have any indication that I wasn't paying... UNTIL THE PHONE LINE GOT DISCONNECTED OF COURSE! (My Internet connection is ADSL)
- I called up the phone people, and they told me they would send a total bill. They also mentioned that I would be reconnected the day following payment.
- Day after payment, nada.
- I wait a couple more days to see if anything happens. NOPE!

Later February:
- Call the phone people again and they tell me that I was permanently disconnected and that I would have to reapply.
- After about 10 failed attempts at faxing my details over three days, I finally get confirmation that my phone line would be connected in a week's time.

Early March:
- New phone line connected.
- Internet doesn't work!
- I recieve a letter from the Internet company, requesting that I return the modem to them.
- I call the Internet company, and they say that because my phone line was no longer connected, they were in the process of disconnecting my Internet service. They didn't even bother to consider that I was still paying the bill for the Internet and that there was a chance that I was changing phone line...
- The Internet company tell me that I have to reapply for the Internet. I ask how long it would take, and they tell me 3 to 4 weeks.
- I then get in contact with the guy that hooked me up with the Internet beforehand, and he tells me that he can get me connected in a week.
- I sent him the application a little less than a week ago, so if everything goes OK I will have Internet on Wednesday!

All that means is that I will have some interesting stories to tell when I am wired up again!

Love you all, missing you stacks, and don't worry! I'm fine!!!

Suzi