JSNI Events
Another month with no posting >_< I visit here everyday, read everyone's entries, but never get around to posting. If I'm like this here, I don't know how I'm going to keep up with a blog when I get my new professional site up and running! I'll need to schedule time for it!
Main fun things this past month have been to do with the Japan Society of Northern Ireland. Not only finally got the site I've designed/built for them live, but we had two events this month.
The first was the normal end of year get-together. Because of the fundraising we've been doing recently for the earthquake/Tsunami appeal (we raised £11k in total!), some friends of members of the community sent over famous foods from the region for the meal. So good! Unfortunately, as we always do at the end of year event, we're losing a few people from the society, all but one of the students who have come over for university. The one who is staying, Hana, is my age, and is over here until January studying English to help out with her job (they've given her a year break), so it's great to know she's over here for another couple of months. When I was first speaking with here, I was mentioning all the things I wanted to do when I finally got over to Japan. I began going on about how I want to eat takoyaki, probably my favourite Japanese food, from a proper street vendor in Osaka, and ended up going on about how much I love takoyaki only for her to laugh and tell me she's actually from Osaka! #^^#
The second event was for the Belfast Lord Mayor's Parade. It's basically an international parade to welcome the new Mayor of the city to office. So we had a contingent for that. Funniest part of the day: we (a group that was maybe 70% Japanese, the rest locals) were all getting kitted out in yukata outside St. Anne's Cathedral (a massive cathedral near the city centre, and one of the city's main landmarks), a Japanese flag behind us, and suddenly a tourist bus stops right in front of us, obviously there for the cathedral ... and a large group of Japanese tourists get out. We all had a moment of starting at each other, confused, before they came over, started chatting, and taking loads of photos. It's was just hilarious. I can't imagine what they thought. Over here, in a country that has a very small Japanese population, on holiday and you get off a bus to be confronted by a bunch of people wearing Japanese clothing, with the Japanese flag waving? They were all so nice.
So, then we had the walk, with a little choreographed dance, in the blazing sun (which turned to wet and cold within an hour of the parade's end). Afterwards, a group of us headed back to pick up some stuff kept in Sumi's car, and afterwards, I had a walk about town and a good chat with Hana, before heading home for a bit, and then meeting up with her again to catch a bus to Julie and Matthew's (two members of the JSNI) house to meet up with them, Sumi and a woman named Satoe for some Japanese food and to learn how to make pavlova from Julie. So it was a great night of yummy food and lots of chatting, Sumi telling us about her teens spent in games arcade and being in a band.
That day I also found two people who had read the novel the movie Memories of Matsuko (one of my all time favourite movies. In fact, I just bought it on Blu-ray despite having the DVD...) was based upon. What I would do to be able to read that book!
Photos of the events can be found over on my Facebook (feel free to friend me).
Okay, need to get to work here. This week there isn't much in terms of client work thankfully, so I need to work on designs for three of our own sites (my portfolio, Barry's portfolio and a company site for us). We're getting lots of work in, but in order to up our game and get better work, we need these sites as great showcases. And with the amount of work ahead, and the number of potential projects in the ether, I need to make some progress.
Main fun things this past month have been to do with the Japan Society of Northern Ireland. Not only finally got the site I've designed/built for them live, but we had two events this month.
The first was the normal end of year get-together. Because of the fundraising we've been doing recently for the earthquake/Tsunami appeal (we raised £11k in total!), some friends of members of the community sent over famous foods from the region for the meal. So good! Unfortunately, as we always do at the end of year event, we're losing a few people from the society, all but one of the students who have come over for university. The one who is staying, Hana, is my age, and is over here until January studying English to help out with her job (they've given her a year break), so it's great to know she's over here for another couple of months. When I was first speaking with here, I was mentioning all the things I wanted to do when I finally got over to Japan. I began going on about how I want to eat takoyaki, probably my favourite Japanese food, from a proper street vendor in Osaka, and ended up going on about how much I love takoyaki only for her to laugh and tell me she's actually from Osaka! #^^#
The second event was for the Belfast Lord Mayor's Parade. It's basically an international parade to welcome the new Mayor of the city to office. So we had a contingent for that. Funniest part of the day: we (a group that was maybe 70% Japanese, the rest locals) were all getting kitted out in yukata outside St. Anne's Cathedral (a massive cathedral near the city centre, and one of the city's main landmarks), a Japanese flag behind us, and suddenly a tourist bus stops right in front of us, obviously there for the cathedral ... and a large group of Japanese tourists get out. We all had a moment of starting at each other, confused, before they came over, started chatting, and taking loads of photos. It's was just hilarious. I can't imagine what they thought. Over here, in a country that has a very small Japanese population, on holiday and you get off a bus to be confronted by a bunch of people wearing Japanese clothing, with the Japanese flag waving? They were all so nice.
So, then we had the walk, with a little choreographed dance, in the blazing sun (which turned to wet and cold within an hour of the parade's end). Afterwards, a group of us headed back to pick up some stuff kept in Sumi's car, and afterwards, I had a walk about town and a good chat with Hana, before heading home for a bit, and then meeting up with her again to catch a bus to Julie and Matthew's (two members of the JSNI) house to meet up with them, Sumi and a woman named Satoe for some Japanese food and to learn how to make pavlova from Julie. So it was a great night of yummy food and lots of chatting, Sumi telling us about her teens spent in games arcade and being in a band.
That day I also found two people who had read the novel the movie Memories of Matsuko (one of my all time favourite movies. In fact, I just bought it on Blu-ray despite having the DVD...) was based upon. What I would do to be able to read that book!
Photos of the events can be found over on my Facebook (feel free to friend me).
Okay, need to get to work here. This week there isn't much in terms of client work thankfully, so I need to work on designs for three of our own sites (my portfolio, Barry's portfolio and a company site for us). We're getting lots of work in, but in order to up our game and get better work, we need these sites as great showcases. And with the amount of work ahead, and the number of potential projects in the ether, I need to make some progress.