About me….

Me.

I’m Hannah. I’m 28, and not at all bothered that 30 is now less than 2 years away.

Me - hello

I’m living in Japan, in a beautiful town called Shirataka, and work as an ALT, teaching English to the most amazing people on the planet.

This is a page all about me. Read on if you wish.

Hami. When I started secondary school, we did 6 weeks each of German and Russian before choosing which to continue with. I chose Russian. Much easier. Whilst doing my initial 6 weeks, we had the customary lesson on pets. Tara, one of the girls in class started calling me hamiak, the Russian word for hamster. Don’t really know why as I don’t think I look like one (feedback on that is welcome) but the name has stuck for the last 15 years, although its been shortened to Hami, which I kind of like.

Favourite things:

Music:

My first and greatest love. I’m not someone who can cope without it. When I got my first car, the only thing I really cared about was whether the stereo worked. My favourite band are the Stereophonics. I love, adore and worship them. Their music has helped me through some difficult times and over the last 2 years, seeing them live has been the main thing keeping me sane. I was so happy that the tour for the new album Keep Calm and Carry On was before I left for Japan as it meant I got to see them one last time.

Other musical loves: Linkin Park, Trivium, The Airborne Toxic Event, Whitesnake, Nothing’s Carved In Stone, Boom Boom Satellites, The Beatmotors, Fuji Fabric,  Kings of Leon, Paramore, Travis, Eels, Paolo Nutini, Newton Faulkner, All American Rejects, Biffy Clyro, Lostprophets, Funeral for a Friend, Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, Taking Back Sunday, Snow Patrol, Basically anything with guitars that I can jump around in a club to for a few hours

Best album in the world - Stereophonics - Word Gets Around

Books:

My other great love. I often say that my dream job would be in a book store, although I wouldn’t do much work. One of my first book memories was when my mom gave me the first Famous Five book. She said if I enjoyed it she would buy me the next one in the series. I loved them. In fact Enid Blyton was my author of choice when I was younger. The books of Malory Towers and St Claires had me begging to go to boarding school and I was desperate to play lacrosse. My tastes have changed a bit since then. One of the hardest choices I had when moving to Japan was deciding what books to bring with me initially.

The Famous Five

Favourite authors: Haruki Murakami, Ryu Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, David Mitchell (not the Peep Show bloke), Nick Hornby, Terry Pratchett, Tracy Chevalier, Jane Austen, Joanne Harris, Stephen Fry

Favourite books: Little Women, The Swiss Family Robinson, Pride and Prejudice, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After Dark (not everyones favourite but I love the simplicity of it), The Secrets of the Jin Shei (beautiful), The Millenium Trilogy, The Discworld books, The Otori Trilogy (not set in Japan but in a made up world based on Japan), Chocolate, Tipping The Velvet, Battle Royale, Ghostwritten (Most people prefer Cloud Atlas but I love this book), Any Star Wars books, but especially the X-Wing series, Lord Of The Rings, The Inheritance Cycle (how can it be over?? ), Harry Potter

Beautiful dragons

Films:

I’m a complete Star Wars obsessive. My favourite is The Empire Strikes Back. I love Battle Royale, any of the Studio Ghibli animations as well as other Asian films including Red Cliff, Crouching Tiger etc. Lost In Translation, Apollo 13, Little Women, Ghostbusters, anything else with Bill Murray in (easier to type that than list them all), The Little Mermaid, Beauty And The Beast, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Sleeping Beauty

Best film ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TV:

I’m a sucker for anything involving period dramas, so Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth, lake scene) tops the list. Doctor Who, Skins, Charmed, Buffy, Angel. Bit of a mix. And the wonderful annual event that is Eurovision!! My vote usually gos to Latvia after a love affair with their first ever entry, but I did love fairytale last year.

Free Time:

Gigs. Gigs. Gigs. Gigs. Gigs. Gigs. Gigs. I love love love going to gigs. I can happily bounce around for hours at a gig. The best ones ever at completely different ends of the scale – Stereophonics and Elton John. But I’ve been to so many that I can’t remember every one that I’ve seen. I’ve probably wrecked my hearing for life. I like learning languages. Japanese (for obvious reasons), Chinese and Latin (outdated but my favourite subject at school). Swimming – something my father made me do in case I ever fell in a canal. I went off it for a while, but recently began to love it again. Reading. I could spend hours (that should probably read “I spend”) in a book. Taiko. I like hitting drums with sticks.

Playing taiko for Shirataka's firemen