The Bold and The Bardill's: Japanese Lessons with Will Smith

It’s been a week of first's for me…

1st Japanese lesson with Kept Ninja;
1st ‘Fridge to Fridge’ experience; and
1st time I’ve seen a 3month old baby on a dad’s back, whilst cycling… without a helmet!

Firstly, our Japanese lesson – we’re studying for two hours on a Monday night each week with Tanabe-sensei from ARC Academy. She’s lovely - an NBA fan with a daughter studying in Tasmania. We hit the ground running – we learnt about 12 different country names – learn to say 'my name is'… 'I come from'… 'I work as a' … and a few greetings, which were refreshers (or the only things we already knew!) The method is very effective and besides scurrying through my notes in a panic a few times, we both managed to listen, learn, repeat. There was also role-play involved, to reiterate the dialogue… I was a South Korean girl named Kim and looked like a Mengha character (picture a face mask on a paddle stick) and Kept Ninja was… Will Smith! She offered to let us swap but oh well. Turns out Kept Ninja is a “shufu” (housemaker)… sounds much better than a “Komputer Konsarutanto”, and I’m a “Gas enjinia”! We have homework to do for next week and some flash cards to make so we can test each other!

The 1^st ‘Fridge to Fridge’… this all came about after the earthquake we realised we should learn where each other live, so in an emergency we can go to a safe house near where we are at the time… also a nice excuse to have a few drinks! Pitstop 1 was Fort Bardill – Ninja made some meat balls, vege and meat quiches, dumplings, garlic olives and fresh French bread with balsamic and olive oil… I supervised and cleaned!! Pitstop 2 was Clearwater Castle followed by Blackburn Abode – unfortunately for Blackburn Abode, by stop 3 everyone was well and truly sizzled which led to some sing and dancing with an alfoil hairbrush… needless to say, we had a quiet Sunday.

Team Japan - what a good looking bunch :)

Thirdly, I really should have run after this disgraceful father to firstly, take a better photo, but secondly tell him to either put a helmet on his baby, or get off the bike!!! The poor thing was so little! I’ve also seen 2-3 year olds sitting in the front seats of cars without car-seats!

Baby on a backpack... on a bike

I’ll leave you with these quirky pics, taken on the train ride home… I’m not sure who Kirin are targeting with their current beer ads? … ladies from the 60’s… that wear Beatles haircuts or Beehives? And I have NO IDEA what “Big” is… strangely I don’t think it’s a girl rock band… first one to find out on Google, wins!