bean cushions

I only managed to get internet today, so that's why this blog entry is about yesterday! It was a pretty hectic day really! I got up at around 6am again, to get ready and check out of the hotel, and make my way to the last elementary school. They say do something everyday that scares you? I think I've done enough of that to last me some time! Getting the bus was alright..the bus driver babbled at me a whole lot in Japanese, but by his hand gestures I assumed he would tell me when I had to get off. Walking to school turned out to be easier than I thought as there were school signs all the way. Classes went alright, the older kids as I have said before aren't as much fun. I even had an incident of a child throwing a tantrum on the floor and another boy kicking him subsequently. I was so angry, I really just wanted to grab the boy and go "WHAT ARE YOU DOING???", Instead I just stood there. I have no disciplinary power as an ALT and am not really allowed to touch the kids..so I had to leave it to the teacher. She apologised like a million times to me...I felt a bit sorry for her. That boy is gonna become a bully later. There was another teacher who was so strict, that I felt uncomfortable! he was just shouting at the kids the whole time, even though they were fine really, and he made them sit in these perfect rows really tightly together, so that it made it difficult to try and organise a game. Overall I got another nice see off, where all the teacher's wanted me to make a speech, and then they applauded me...how embarrassing... I noticed that I was crashing quite badly after the lessons. My voice was croaky and my throat and head were hurting. I was like "great...the little buggers have given me their germs"
On my way home I admired some of the beautiful houses, with their gardens. they're quite different to western garden...kind of preened and fake..but not fake in a phony way. the trees were all quite immaculate.

When I got back to Tokyo I immediately met up with the girls and some Staff and we went for some food and drink. it was a great night, chatting away. I ate horse!!!! sashimi (raw) horse!!! I ate squid in wasabi sauce! You could see the little suckers on it. To be honest that wasn't so strange because we have that in Vietnam too.
Then we made our way to the new flats, well...the girls already had moved in, but it was my first time. The flat is alright. It's small but OK for one person. Everything was brand new, because we were literally the first people to ever live there. My bed is high up towards the ceiling, and my futon is quite small. The pillows we get are a joke. Teensy things filled with beans. Seriously people! My cold has developed a full blown personality...so I feel sick and tired and bleugh. tsk tsk....I hope this isn't gonna happen every time I teach.

Bye bye

It was my last day at one of the elementary schools today, and it turned out to be a wonderful day. I woke up actually feeling physically sick, because I was completely worried about taking this special needs class AND I was told the Board of Education was coming in today to check the school. I was just like "how the heck can all of this happen to me in ONE week?" So yeah with a massive nervous lump in my stomach I came to school, and checked out what games I could do with the special needs kids. It turned out I would need to really over think my plan...ok...I still contest that the 5th and 6th graders weren't as much fun as the younger kids...and I only had those today. So it was hard work, but the occasional naughty boy would keep me cheerful strangely enough. I was chuffed because my younger ones would shout my name and stop me in the corridor to chat to me, which I thought was lovely.

I then get told about 15min before my special class that I don't need to teach Halloween and so should just come up with something else. In my head I was destroying little cities like Godzilla. On the outside I was my perfectly trained Japanese teacher and went "OH!" ok.....right......and then set off to quickly make some flashcards on colours, create bingo sheets and make up some games. This is gonna be a great example of "thinking on you're feet, under pressure" for any job interview. The class ended up being my favourite of the day. the kids were just wonderful. Totally curious and chatty (in Japanese of course), a bit wild, but absolutely nuts - which I loved.
My favourite child was this tiiiiiny boy who seemed to only be a little slow, but he attached himself to my hand and chit chatted away as if there was no tomorrow, always with a bright smile on his face. h would take my hand and smell it all the time too. Whatever they described as special needs also did not always fit. One girl in the class would never concentrate on the task and instead home in on my bracelets and stroke them and touch them. The teachers would order her away, but I realised at the end of the lesson that she could describe all the colours on my bracelet perfectly, and not only the ones I taught but also "clear", "sky blue", "silver" etc...I was blown away.

One boy made me this massive origami cube in different colours, which I was highly impressed and touched by. I went to after school computer club, because I became friends with the maths teacher there, and it was her club. The kids were all like "eeeehhhhhh??? Eigo sensei??? Mai sensei?". The teacher explained a few things about me, and we had a question time of sorts, where I got asked stuff like what's my fave disney character (Donald!!!). Then somehow I got roped in to arm wrestling matches with every child! Pleased to say I beat all the boys (though they were only like 8 or 10 years old). It certainly upped my street credit! The boys then all became enthusiastic about playing 'Janken' with me (paper scissors rock). The kids then set off to make me a calendar and pictures on the computer for me, which I was really honoured to receive! So yeah it was a really beautiful day in the end, the teachers all applauded me at the end..which was a little awkward, there was a lot of bowing.

To end the evening, Lena, Imogen and I went to a 100 yen sushi place. It was actually named after "astroboy". The sushi was daaaamn goooood! Topped with green tea ice cream what more would you want?

I'd better pack now..gotta find my way to Chiba tomorrow, after trying to find my way to the other elementary school first! ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Mai-sensei! SAIN SAIN SAIN!!! (Autograph)

I had to get to the school by myself today for the first time. Getting the train with my Ipod blasting rocking tunes was good, trying to psyche myself up for genkiness. That all kinda fell with my first class. Damn 5th graders. they were alright the class didn't bomb..but they certainly were a galaxy away from enthusiasm in comparison to my 1st and 2nd graders. They were also less knowledgeable than my kids at the other school at the same age. Serious differences between education standard here. I ask them "How are you?" and they echo back "how are you"....guys that's simple stuff that the 2nd graders in the other school knew!!!
Well it went better from then on really though. The other classes were curious about me, and especially the girls hoarded around me touching my necklace, yanking at my bracelets, asking me all sorts of questions in Japanese and sometimes English. Some were so sweet! This boy gave me an origami crane which I cherished, and one girl ran up to me after class and gave me one of her cute teddy bear erasers. I was sooo chuffed!
The funniest and oddest thing was with my last class. The other ALT who normally teaches has set up this tradition that the students get stamps after class, which is on they're english name tag. I was giving the stamps to people and one girl was shouting that she wanted me to Sain/sign her piece of card. After I got what she wanted I was like ok...she literally stuck the pencil right in my face. So I signed the card with "Mai" in cursive writing. At this all the other kids crowded around and go "ooooooohhhhhh!, "eeeeehhhhhhh", there is like a split second of silence and suddenly I have 15 or so name cards stuck in to my face and a chorus of "sensei, sain! sain! sain!"
So I end up signing my name on all these kids name tags, feeling like some hounded pop star! It was quite funny really, they all wanted my name 2/3 times with different pens on their cards...it was weird. One kid wanted "biggu" (bigger), and after that obviously everyone else also had to have my name on their tags bigger...and so on.

I guess it's the equivalent of western people wanting Chinese characters written for them because we think they're really exotic and pretty.

The way back was a little stupid on my part...me being a terrible left and right remembering person, promptly walks in the wrong direction. When I finally go back, I happen upon a bunch of my kids who are like "Herro Mai senseiiiiii!". So we had a long discussion (in kind of a non language) of where the station is...whether the other ALT has a boyfriend, trying on glasses etc... It was cool though. The girls really are ace.

I finally got back and went off for some Chinese food with Steven, filling stuff! I find that any spoken Chinese I hear is actually comforting..almost like a piece of home...which just confuses me, as I really am not Chinese...yet I love mandarin. We went to Tully's for coffee and I had a macha latte - a green tea latte. It was...interesting. Very green...and definatley something you need to get used to.

Damn I hate all the spiders here...they are MASSIVE and in the trees...with they're red and green bodies...it actually revolts me walking underneath them or past them....this is one definate reason for never living here!!!!!

I'm WON-DEEEEEH-FUL!!!!!!!!! :)

Wow, second day of teaching today, at a completely new elementary school. The beginning was once again a little rocky. I come in (on time this time), and find there are no bloody flashcards of Halloween vocab! So I'm like "well..how the heck am I supposed to teach?". We go to the craft room and in less than 15 minute botch together some self drawn cartoons of vampires and the sorts. (My vampire got often mistaken for a monkey...it just is enough said about my drawing skills). It went alright though. The kids were amazing! They were grade 1 and 2 so a bit younger..and didn't really get the question "How are you?" and answered in proud chorus "How are you?"...so we spent a little time on replies. I showed them photos of my parents, friends and grandparents which they all loved. The picture they loved the most was of James and his "red nose day" nose. The whole class would erupt in to ecstatic laughter when they saw it. It was a great ice breaker..so thanks James! You're a star over here with the 8 year olds! It was great having kids stop when they see me and try and talk to me with what little English they had!!! I completely fell for one of the teachers too, this young guy (the first male teacher I see!), with a high pitched voice and very girlish ways. He must be from the other side of the river!!! But he was such a cutie!!! he even took a pictures during the lesson and wanted one of me with the students. Lol...oddness

I also got on really well with the social worker there, her english was very good so we had long conversations about the differences between english and japanese schools. She had studied psychology and so we could discuss her topic of interest - autism. It was great to talk science with a japanese person! I am teaching the learning disability class on wednesday...so I am a bit scared of what I am gonna be able to do...It was cool, because after school she brought a girl to me who isn't at school because she hates it, and has problems there. I got chatting to her..or at least tried but I invited her to my class tomorrow, so hopefully she will come and see that learning can be fun. I hope I have influenced her..she seemed really chuffed anyway. She said she wanted to see me because I was described to look like Angela Aki, who happens to be half japanese! I googled her - she's a popstar and sang the song for final fantasy 12!!!! I am well honoured!

In the eve I went out with Steven, a ALT I met during the weekend. We went to an Izakaya and had lots of niiiice food, and discussions about science, religion,taxes,relationships etc...it was soo good to have in depth chats about stuff like that! Did you know that a lot of chinese characters are actually biblical? The waitress we had was darn cute!!!! She spoke like a flipping rushing waterfall though! She said I was cute...awwwwwwww I wanna take her home with me!

gotta get up at 6 tomoz and do the whole journey to school by myself!!! scary!

lazy saturdays...(errr no!)

It's 8 am in the bloody morning - what's with the shouting out of megaphones??? Elections for mayor are going on in this area so we've had little vans with people on megaphones going through the city all day and night shouting some random stuff in japanese. But really? 8 am on a SATURDAY? This being the country where there is ABSOLUTELY no talking on your cell phone on the train (Apart from when it is late and then only standing towards the wall with you're hand over you're mouth). Yet they can run around with their megaphones...tsk.

Anyway I fall asleep again until about 11ish...at which point I decide it's best to do something with the day. I call up Imogen, a girl I've been told to contact, and we meet up and go for Ramen and coffee at Tully's (a better version of starbucks). We chat about all sorts of stuff..it's really good, when you meet a girl that is quite similar to you. We went around the shops and I learnt that it isn't uncommon to not be able to try on the clothes in the shop! I wanted to try on this top and she was like no you can't. I learn that they're a bit paranoid about hair or make-up getting on to the clothes. Some shops will provide hairnets or even bags for you're head, so you can try stuff on.....We got lost in the book shop for about an hour...I sooooo need literature, it's not even pretty anymore...I just can't bare to pay so much for books when I know I have them at home or could get them cheaper...aarrrrghhhhh! There is an IMMENSE amount of homosexual manga out there! There was like a whole section dedicated to romantic love stories between guys. Apparently it's really popular amongst the girls here. We thought of two theories of why it might be...the first is that the stories are quite similar to normal romantic stories..there seems to be the vulnerable girly guy, and the "man". So girls probably like the whole vunerable side of guys. the second theory is that it's basically the role reversal of the stereotype guy who likes the idea of 2 girls together.....strange taste...but fair enough..whatever floats you're boat (2 men certainly don't do it for me).

In the evening I went to speak EZ again to meet Daniel and the others. It was a little more packed this time..full of westerner's from all over the place. It was ace, there was a Japanese band playing southern American music! I forget the proper term for it, but they sang in English with that typical voice too!!! Twas awesome to the max! After that we had the DJ playing reggae from the 50's which is the type that I actually enjoy as it wasn't too slow. I met a whole bunch of new people, which was really cool. Right it's 3 am again...I should really head to bed...

hopefully those damn megaphone people will respect Sunday peace.

First day teaching...and random amazing meetings

So...the alarm goes off at half past 6 in the morning. But that is irrelevant, as my heartbeat was waking me up at 6 am already. I get ready and all just downing a coffee in the hope it will make me genki, and arrive downstairs at 3 minutes past half past 7 (yes, I know it's not correct English...so what? I am not English!). The girl, Lena who is supposed to meet me has not turned up...I wait...it gets to quarter to...and I start panicking. What If I was late by Japanese standards??? I run up and call her, and find out she is the one who is late...she will explain to the school. On the way there we have a right laugh talking about our favourite programs, and what actors we like, apparently I have the same taste as her mother...ooooh dear!

I arrive at the school, and get greeted by the principal and some staff. There are a whole lot of exchanges in Japanese, and I get to look at some rough time frame of what the kids have already learnt. I have less than 5 minutes to clear my head and take it all in, when I get taken to the english room where the kids are already waiting. Lena gives me the go ahead...and I just kinda go.....(OMG..in my head) "GOOD MORNING!!!!"...as I am trying to remember everything I learnt in the training...time flies by and I finish the first lesson! I get a whole lot of feedback from Lena, and then the whole thing starts again. By the end of the 4 th lesson It's all sorted and dusted....I loved that last bunch. They were 4th graders, and one boy seemed to have some obsession with hugging my legs..it was rather cute!

I eat with the teachers, and we have a little small talk on what I studied and famous authors. I found I could actually follow the Japanese translation of what I had said..which makes me haaaapppyy!

On the way back I meet with one of the trainers for this area to chat about how the lessons went, and then I get a call from lena telling me to call one of her friends as she is going out for a meal with some other ALTs! Thus the looong night starts. We go for some food and I meet francisca, and some really ace Australian girls! I then get told that one of francisca's friends is Dj-ing tonight..and whether I was interested. So I meet up with him and go to this really ace bar called speak EZ (seriously go there if you're ever in the area...it's really nice), I meet a whole load of other people who are all lovely..and get lots of meishi and orders to stay in contact!
I got to see some japanese live rap, which was cool actually! It sounds so good!!!! I totally recommend it! What I loved the most was that these guys looked all "street" and tough rapping away, being all gangsta..but when they finished they would bow and thank the audience in that Japanese way. It was sooooo weird but also sooo cute to see! The Japanese rock!
Daniel the guy who was Dj-ing was really good..some funky drum and base going on there, it was odd being surrounded by brightly glowing japanese "gangsters", looking all cool.

After that we went to another club where there was a jamaican reggae night. It was awesome, we met some japanese girls who wanted to learn how to dance with the whole hip moving thing. So Jodie and me were trying to teach them how to dance along the lines of Shakira. They were really sweet girls! I met some amazing people tonight...but I think It's time to finally hit the sheets. It's been a loooooong day!

oyasumi nasai!

Namazu

Today was farewell to Asakusa hotel (Goodbye friendly clerk searching for my Herbert!!!) and hello Aria hotel in Namazu! Yes, I am spending a week here teaching 2 elementary schools from tomorrow morning onwards...ahhhhhhhh To be honest right now I feel too tired to feel scared..but I know tomorrow...I'll be praying like madddd.
I got most of the information I needed from David before I set off on my journey! I went on the Shinkansen (the bullet train) for the first time ever! Ticket all paid, and seat reserved, oh yeaaah! Be impressed that I managed to find my way through Japan to the correct destination. I did arrive at the hotel totally sweaty, wet (it's raining) and tired. I must have looked like a bit of a train wreck. My bag was also a B^*&%^ to carry so I actually have drag marks on both my shoulders. The hotel is niiiiice! I get a massive bed and a pretty bathroom! This hotel seems very environmentally friendly, there's a switch you turn on for the bathroom lighting which goes off after 20min. There are also signs everywhere suggesting ways of saving the environment, it's kinda cool!

I went off for a walk towards the river after having the most amazing shower (Don't you think showering is the best thing ever when you actually feel filthy?). It's quite a beautiful area really, and apparently there is a lot to do. Mt fuji is also visible from here apparently...so I shall investigate that later!!! Quite exciting really!

I'd better go to bed now....ahhhhh

I guess "be careful what you wish for"

O....M.......Goodness...... Today was a bit of a slow day. I ended up sleeping till almost 11...I am still shattered mind you. I have no idea why I am so tired all of sudden...It actually feels like I could sleep a few days straight. We then received a notice from David that our voice recording talents were not needed for tomorrow..which made everyone go "oh another free day to do something!" I get a call about an hour later from David saying "oh by the way we have an assignment just for you". Basically I am being sent out to Numazu which is in Shizuoka Prefecture, and about 50minutes train ride from Tokyo. It's south of Tokyo and by the beach! I am replacing another ALT who had to fly back home due to some family emergency...So I get to teach in 2 elementary schools for a week, until she is back, starting Friday......going over there tomorrow....arrrrghhh! It's really cool! But I am also quite scared...all these paranoid thoughts are running through my head..along the lines of "what if I mess up big time?". So yeeeeeaaaaah...that's the biggest news really. Apart from all the stress of having to sort out luggage sending and stuff,the rest of the day was OK. We went to the office for the Japanese lesson. It was a little simple again because all the newbies joined us..so we obviously needed to go over the beginners stuff again. But it was cool, I got to learn some phrases which I did not know before. We then decided to all go together to some Izakaya in Shinjuku to kind of just hang out and celebrate. Once we got there though, it was a little bit of a mission finding a place and making decisions. By that point I was so hungry that I was ready to give up. When Anthony said he was going to go back, I grabbed that opportunity and so a few of us went back. It took a while to find the stupid station again. There was actually a tiny first glimpse in to what it might be like once I get out of Tokyo in to an area with no English signs...it was damn scary. 2 Onigiris, a yoghurt and some juice later everything was OK again. Did you know that increase in oestrogen levels actually lower the sugar levels, and that's why there is such a chocolate/sugar craving just before the period for girls? I did not know this!!! I am telling you, all the important things about the female I have learnt from guys...odd huh? Well that was the interesting fact of the day. I am going to pack and get ready to go to a new place altogether....aaaaaah!

Right off to receive a whole lot of chocolate now.

"What did you have for breakfast?" "The food was clean"

Back in the office today for some random office work, which no one else had the time to do....It's sucking a bit that we still haven't been placed, but the day turned out to be quite nice. Brian our trainer for the day, took us to read out exam scripts. You will know what I am on about if you did a language at school. Remember those listening exams? Where some person would speak on a tape giving you instructions or some exercise, which you would have to follow on the paper? Yeah....we were basically being that voice. So I had to practice "projecting" my voice, and speaking clearly and slowly. It was good prep for the classroom I guess.

There was a big discussion about foreign men coming to Japan and ending up staying forever because they marry a japanese woman. It kinda seems true from the sample we have studied. The majority of staff that are american/australian/english and whatever else all ended up marrying a japanese woman.....So what is their secret? We found out what type of man might go for us, apparently I would be a good farmers choice....tssssk.....

We met a lot of new people, because the newbie group started training today..which means more additions to the group! They're a great lot!
I had a really good discussion with Brian actually, and found out he was a Christian, so I have been invited to their bible study group on Thursday! Another chance to meet more people..and learn all sorts of Christian jargon in Japanese. God is chichi (dad) (but "kami" actually means God)...which I thought was pretty cool.

We also found out today that we are gonna be moving to Chiba, this coming Monday, which is an area outside of Tokyo. We are all going to live in an apartment block which is furnished already and we will still belong to the Tokyo branch. This is still temporary though, until they find an actual place to place us....aaargh. But at least we will be together..and it will be a new area to explore!

In the evening some of the newbies and me went off to find some food, and I ended up having an almost conversation with the waitress to explain that two guys were vegetarian and wanted certain foods....I was so happy that it all worked out well! check it out, 2 weeks in Japan and I am actually learning! yaaaaaay!

Right! I am going to go off and have some rice tea now!

sushi for breakfast

4.30am. The alarm goes off. A tired but excited little half-cast falls out of bed and rolls herself in to the shower. "Why at this ungoodnessly hour????" I hear you ask? Well She was told by the others that they wanted to go to the fish market/auction in Tsukiji. That ends at 6.30am...so there is the explanation. We set off a little late due to some habituation induced ignoring of alarm clocks with some people :p. We then proceeded to get it a little wrong with getting off at the correct stop. Amelia and Tamera saw this as a grand opportunity to pull out their negotiation skills. It was rather admirable actually. The person at our (wrong) station phoned to the correct station to warn them of a bunch of (probably using the word "very silly") Gaiijin, who should be let through. It worked, we got on to the tube again with no ticket and at our exit we already had the guy waiting for us going "ah the wrong station people?". So that was pretty class.

Upon exiting we could already smell the distinct fishy odour, which lead us to a very busy warehouse that was buzzing with strange little carriages that had the biggest stearing wheel I have ever seen. The rule was...they rule - so get out of the way. We then got in to the actual fish part and it was pretty cool. There were all sorts of fish, crabs,shell fish, anything you could pull out of the ocean (that was legal), was on display half alive or dead. The most mesmerizing thing were the massive tuna fish, which were being sawn in to pieces with literally one of those electric saws you have in design tech class at school! There was quite a bit of blood in places, and you really could watch the fresh killing of things. I don't recommend this place to vegetarians or people with hearts. We then went off to the side streets, where we had been informed we could find cheap and fresh sushi. We discovered this place with good deals, and had sushi for breakfast. It was pretty good! It was all freshly prepared in front of our eyes. I have to say I am not a big fan of fish eggs...or squid on rice. We were all soooo stuffed after that though.

We then went off to find the Ginza park for some chilling. The park was quite pretty and we got chatting to a mother and her 5 year old (cuuuute) son. They had the day off today because yesterday apparently was mother and son day, so today was a holiday. He was lovely and I had a fun round of "who can pull the funniest face?" with him. His mother was trying to encourage him to speak what little English he had learnt at school, so it was a great opportunity for us to try out some eliciting skills. We found a cool kimono shop with beautiful yukatas (summer kimonos) I tried one on and fell in love. But patience...till the first pay cheque.
The girls then decided they wanted to go home and rest so Anthony and me went off to Akihabara on our own to look for SLR prices and various things. We had the most amazing coffee at this place...it was iced coffee with Mr. Whippy style ice cream on top. NIIICE! We then visited this Russian orthodox church, and learnt a little about icons, traditions and things. It was quite interesting really and the church was beautiful.

Now I am seriously crashing on just my 4 hours of sleep I had......argh....

kamakura - for all you're temple needs

I am sure you can guess from the title where we went today.... So we started off at 8 am in the morning (or something around that time...in the very un-japanese fashion) and got the train to Kamakura. On the way an older man from a hiking group started chatting to Anthony and me. He was ace! His english was almost non-existent yet we still had a conversation of sorts! It was pretty cool, his leader gave us sweets too, as the new tomodachi's of the guy.

We started off by going to the Hokokuji temple, which had a beautiful bamboo forrest behind it. It felt like something out of house of flying daggers..it's amazing how high and stable bamboo is! You know that the Chinese developed some very exquisite torturing devices using bamboo? They would for example feed the victim fresh bamboo shoots and force water down him. the bamboo would then continue to grow inside him and eventually pierce through him/her. We are a cruel species.

Anyway! Then we went off to Jomyoji which I think is where we saw a whole load of little girls in kimonos. Apparently its a sort of right of passage for a little girl of a certain age to dress up in her kimono (as well as have her hair and make up done) and go to the shrine. They looked stunning. I just wanted to take them home with me. Japanese children are so beautiful!!!!

There was a lot of walking involved today, up hill, down hill, through the Japanese suburbs...along roads. It was interesting to see how people lived. the countryside was awesome too, its fantastic how many different shades of green exist in nature!

The Zeniaraibenzaiten temple was really cool. It was sort of half in a cave, hidden away. But once you were inside it was like a little self sufficient village...just for prayer though (and buying various souvenirs). One could wash their money there (literally with water) and then according to the belief you would get it back 2 fold? or 5 fold? You could dry it in the incense pot afterwards. In all the little rivers we saw, there always were lots of koi carp! it was mesmerising to watch them especially the golden/orange coloured ones, which normally you would see in expensive aquariums or pictures.

At one of the temples we managed to observe ANOTHER wedding! (That's 3 in less than two weeks!). This time we actually got to watch the more of the procedure though! Like the drinking of the sake, the playing of the strange sounding instruments and the monks (?) blessing the ceremony. I have been told that, because the wedding kimono is so thick, it is the reason why so many couples marry in autumn time. The ones that want a western wedding (showing off a bit more flesh and cleavage) marry in the summer.

Lastly we got to Daibutsu, where the famous big Buddha resides! That was pretty exciting, considering I had seen pictures of him when I was very very young in one of my mums Japan story books. So it was surreal to actually be standing in front of him. It was a little weird that you could go inside him though, and if you walked around the back he actually had windows in his head. That took the magic away a bit.

"ANA testing good morning!"

Today was my first day at work! Well...it wasn't really the work I'll be doing forever...lets look at it as another skill I can add on my CV. I got to train Airport staff!!! Actually that's a lie...I was just being an examiner to scared stewardesses who have to take an English exam every month or so for the airline ANA (All Nippon airline). So yeah that was fun! I had to get over my fear of speaking on the phone...and I met some friendly Australians! I am even invited for drinks at their house tomorrow! Ace huh? That was pretty much the extent of the day...or so I thought!
Coming home we met the new addition to the group!!! Anthony!!! An engineer who has weird Manga (a little hamster being slapped across the wall by her 25 year old master, who has a green vibrator???) on his computer. We had a great evening going for a wander to the curry place. Japanese rice is the best. It's official. It's even better, dare I say it, than Vietnamese/Chinese rice. Its the most creamy sticky rice ever!!! We then walked around Asakusa taking pictures posing in cardboard cut outs of famous entertainers (at least we think that's what they were...). We also discovered that there were quite a few porn cinemas, strip clubs, and seedy places around our area....hmmmm...Japanese ey?

That is about the extent of the day..I have feeling once I start teaching, there will be less and less to say and more and more tiredness.