Hi, I'm Tess and I'm from Adelaide in Australia. Adelaide is situated on the south coast of Australia and has a lot of beautiful surfing beaches so I spent a lot of my time in Australia on the beach and surfing.. I have an honors degree in Biochemistry and spent one year doing scientific research in a lab in Adelaide. I also worked as a restaurant manager in Adelaide and I'm interested in food, wine and design. My passion is cooking food with flavors from all over the world. My other love is any kind of sport from canyoning to caving or playing tennis.

The reason I decided to come to Japan is a long story, but in the year of 2001, I had decided that I wanted to trael and live abroad. One morning I was reading the newspaper when I saw an article about living and working in Japan. It looked exciting and I had always been interested in Japanese history, culture and modern day Japan so I applied for a position teaching here. I was successful and for my first teaching position I went to live in Shizuoka which was a great experience, especially to see Mt.Fuji every morning from my apartment balcony.
I have now been living in Japan for a year and a half, and in Tokyo for one year. I love life in Tokyo, and I spend my free time walking and discovering new areas to see and places to eat. My favorite areas are Daikanyama, Ebisu, Harajuku, Aoyama and Gaienmae. And if the hustle and bustle of Tokyo becomes too much my favorite place to escape to is Kyoto.

Since coming to Japan I tried snowboarding for the first time, and I have fallen in love with the sport. Last winter I went to several ski resorts in Nagano, Gunma and Nigata and above all I enjoyed visiting Hakuba the most. I'm also interested in traditional
Japanese festivals and events. The Gion Matsuri in Kyoto and more recently the Sumo at Ryogoku in Tokyo are definite highlights of my time spent in Japan.
And finally, I have come to enjoy Japanese cuisine and would like to learn to cook some of the dishes famous to Kaiseki - recipes anyone？

Smile, be happy and try using English in your every day lives - I love it when I'm walking down the street and a friendly face says 'hello' in English.