Time flies...

Wow.　Tomorrow is the last working day of my third working week. I feel like landed yesterday. I also feel like I have been here for months, owing to the amount of things I have done. It's as if my concept of time has flown out of the window. Weird.

This week has been great so far. A tough week at work, with me no longer being a newbie. I am having to come to terms with working full time in the real world. There's always something to be done, it seems, and not even a fiftieth of the time required to do it. Oh well...Such is life.

I went to karaoke yesterday. It was a sort of greeting party for me and a leaving party for my predecessor Alastair. I am not actually his replacement, but he is finishing in a week. It gave me an opportunity to chat to a few students and drink a few beers in a more relaxed environment. My speech was shit, in all honesty, but at least it was a "hello" to everyone.

The evening started in an all you can eat restaurant where you cook the food at your table on a mini coal fire kind of thing. It has a name (f course), but I don't remember it. It was tasty, which I guess is all that matters. We ate, drank and drove to a karaoke place, which consisted of about 50 karaoke 'cubicles,' which you hire by the hour. We had 3 hours I think, and I sang about 5 songs ranging from Oasis to the Ronnettes. I enjoyed it, and so did the 10 students who had made it through to this late stage of the evening (as well as myself, Alastair and our manager.) It was 4 am when we left., but I was surprisingly bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning, which was a good job because I had 11 children to teach before the afternoon!

I also got a hanko today. It's instead of a signature. In Japan, everyone has a Kanji that makes up each syllable of their name, with each kanji character representing the sound of each syllable. This gives every name a meaning. My surname (such as it can be Japanified) means wave, so that's now my signature. Pa, meaning wave. Strange but true...

Wow!

As far as weekends go (note; my 'weekend' runs from Monday to Tuesday, as these ae my days off) this one was absolutely fan~bloody~tastic. In fact, i would go as far as to say theat it ranks as one of the best ever. By anyone. Anywhere. I loved it.

I finished work on Sunday at about 8.30pm, nd left as soon as possible, which is odd, because I usually spend a few hours after I finish my official hours getting ready for the next day. I am finding the work tough going, but I am steadily improving. Slowly...but steadily. I am currently enjoying looking back on my lessons, but not the build up or the execution. This will change soon enough.

Anyways...back to the 'weekend.' On Sunday evening I met a fellow teacher from Kawasaki (near Tokyo) who was to spend the next 2 days in sunny Gifu prefecture. Rachel and I did a lot. In fact...we definitely made the most of the (far too) short time we had together. Sunday we had a few beers in my local bar, which was empty except for us, and we had a good old fashioned chinwag. I really am a big fan of this bar- although the company I was in would have ensured a good time was had in any old place.

Monday was busy.

I registered at City Hall for my 'gaijin card' (gaijin meaning foreigner), which sounds like an easy task, but it also involved obtaining passport photographs. Could we find a passport machine anywhere in Masa 21 (a HUGE shopping centre where my school is based)?　Of　course not. We asked a friendly lady, she knew nothing of passports photo machines.We then asked an employee of the amusement arcade. She was great. Speaking no English (and us very very very very very very little Japanese) she attempted to show us the way- which included drawing a highly detailed map (complete with Japanese kanji labelling) of the whole shopping centre (which is the size of a small town). It worked. We found a photos shop that did the job for us. Amazingly, it worked.

So- off to city hall, where the clerk attempted to convince me that my address was not in fact my address. Not to worry. I received my certificate declaring I was awaiting my card. This will, in turn,allow me to buy a phone and obtain a Japanese bank account- both of which are vital. I feel a little severed from the rest of civilisation at the moment!

We then climbed a mountain. Actually...we wandered around Gifu (en route to the mountain) looking for a suitably appealing cafe in which to get some food. We gave up, and bought some food to be consumed in the park near the mountain. We bought the food, walked around a corner, and were immediately surrounded by quaint little cafes. Bloody typical. Such is life. I wouldn't have minded, but the bread-based product that I had purchased turned out to be a roll with some kind of chemically-produced banana paste in it. It was possibly the most vile thing I have ever tasted. I don't thing any ingredient of the paste had ever so much as seen a banana, but banana was definitely the intended effect. Awful. Truly awful. Almost as bad as the deep fried chicken gristle I inadvertantly purchased a couple of nights ago.

Anyhoo...up the mountain we headed, suitably nurished with bananas (natural, grown ones) and our 'sandwiches,' if they can be referred to as such. We followed a man who looked like he knew where he was going. However, we saw what looked to be a better route up mount Kinka (　 http://www.gifucvb.or.jp/en/kankou/meisyo/kinkazan.shtml　)　- a little steeper maybe- but definitely better. We nearly died of exhaustion. The way was steep, uneven and seemingly neverending. The climate was best described as muggy with spells of burning heat. We hiked upwards. Ever upwards. And up some more. We saw a scary spider. We hiked some more. At one point I honestly thought we had taken a route that was going nowhere, and that we would have to turn back. We climbed a few more rock faces and, after 4 or 5 rest breaks (when we consumed a drink called sweat, of all things) we finally spotted some steps. We looked awful. I think I lost about 3 stone during the asscent. But...we had done it- and what's more, we had done it the hard way. Probably the quickest way, because of the steepness, but definitely hard. When we emerged at the top, there was a sign attached to the ext we had just taken saying: Danger. Do not enter. It should be said that the sign was not 'active,' although it soon would be when the rain came, but I felt really proud- we had made it. And the view was amazing.

This was the first time I got a good look at Gifu. We were very high and Gifu is very big. We went up to the castle's top floor (which sits atop the mountain) and had a good look around. I was finally able to see my new home town.

Apparently whenever Rachel goes up a mountain, it starts to rain. I doubted this would happen, because of the sun bursting through the trees during our climb but, sure enough, cometh the girl, cometh the rain. A rather sweet lady gave us an umbrella so we could walk to the cable car (we weren't walking down- we' had enough exercise for one day), and then a lady who I think can best be described as PURE EVIL (maybe a bit harsh) sold us an ice cream. She seemed annoyed at everyone and everything. Perhaps that's why her company had posted her at the top of a mountain. I don't know.

The castle at the top of the mountain is beautiful, but not a patch on Squirrel Village, which is undoubtedly the main incentive for climbing Kinka. What an attraction. What a show.

Enough about that though- we got down the mountain and set about our next task, which was buying a shiny guitar to keep me sane ( I find playing the guitar just about the most relaxing activity in the world). We didn't know Gifu well, although I had been told by an employee of my firm that there was a guitar store in a certain shopping mall. There wasn't. So....we chose a random road. I had a feeling there could be a guitar shop down there. I had never been down this road before but, sure enough, we found the place I had an inkling about. I tried 6 guitars. I bought one. It's great. I love it.

After that...beer, food, home, guitar playing, bed. All of these were immensely enjoyable.

Today (Tue) we slept in. It was deserved. After doing some auick jobs at school, we headed into Nagoya (via the bank and a restaurant where you paid a vending machin- my first experienc of such a place). Nagoya is big. Too big to just hope to wander around. We visited the serene and peaceful Atsuto Shrine ( http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3301.html ) which was calming, drank some mass produced coffee (which was very tasty, I might add) and headed back to Nagoya centre for food and goodbyes. This was an hour or so ago.

Back to work tomorrow.

Anyone who knows me will know I love kids.

That is...I have never said anything specifically bad about them.

Or...more accurately, anything bad I have said has been in context. Or misunderstood.

OK...so I always hated kids...but now i have 50. Fifty children a week are in the sole charge of me for an hour each (in groups of 1-6) and I am learning fast. I have got the hang of 2-6 year olds- they like a clown. As long as I say some english phrases and play some educational games, the parents seem happy too. I enjoy these classes. Young children are great. Except when they start crying....but that's only happened once. And it was an accidental head-butt. By one of the other kids, I must add. They were chasing a plastic dragonfly. It's a long story.

My puppeteering is improving greatly. I can now make a pink elephant wave and nod. Go me!

In other news, I have acquired 2 haunts. One is a 'dog Cafe' (they server food and drinks and are dog-friendly, selling an array of kanine accessories. They don't SERVE dog. That'd be less appealing).

The other is a typically Japanese bar near my house. The beer is cold and tasty. Happy days.

Ready....Go!

Wow. One week in Japan down and not so much as a hint of a post.

There are many reasons for this. The first is my own stupidity. This computer translates everything into Japanese, and I wrote a post before somehow pressing the 'delete everything' button unwittingly. D'oh! Oh well....2nd time lucky.

A lot of stuff has happened.

I left Bolton bright and early on Monday morning, and was driven to the airport. Everything felt a little strange. I found myself saying goodbye to English style cars, fields and even inanimate roadsigns. It was a quiet journey, made slightly frustrating by the volume of traffic. I arrived in good time.

Having said goodbye to my folks (my mum was back at the house, my dad had driven to the airport), it was time to look forwards. I had to check in a hgugely overweight suitcase, as well as a painfully heavy piece of hand luggage. The friendly lady on the KLM desk allowed my bag on board (after I explained that it contained my whole life, and that I would hate to leave part of that in Manchester Airport).

I had a couple of hours to kill, one of which was speeded along by the presence of my good friend Ben. He arrived at the departure loubnge and we had a tasty coffee, before exchanging very general views on the concept of me leaving to live in Japan without so much as a sentence of Japanese at my disposal. It was fun. I was scared. Talking helps!

Onwards and upwards then (about 30,000 feet upwards), and I found myself flying to Amsterdam. The flight was late, and I had a bit of time to make up in order top get to my connection to Tokyo, which was made all the more difficult by my back-breaking hand luggage. Maybe I should have listened to the KLM lady. I was comfortably on time in the end.

The 11 hours from Schipol to Narita didn't exactly fly by. I was in the middle of a row, with little leg room, sat nextto a friendly Italian lady and a (constantly) sleeping Japanese business man. I had to keep disturbing his slumber to walk around and fend of DVT. The film was crap. The beer was ok, but I couldn_' have much. The food featured a Pot Noodle, soi it was hardly gourmet, but such is life. We took off in Europe and landed in Japan. Job well done.

In Tokyo, I had an 8 hour wait until my flight to Nagoya. I spent 6 of these in the company of a lovely wee lass from Mansfield. 8 hours in an airport should be the low point of any long journey. Strangely, Narita airport was the highlight of this one.

Onwards to Nagoya, and this is where it all gets a bit hazey. I was met at the airport )after I put out a tannoy to find my pick-up person) and taken to Gifu to meet my new co-workers. I started work the next day (after getting to my shiny new apartment at about 10pm). I got up. I showered. I taught kids. Lots of kids. I had some beers. I taught adults. I did a puppet show. I did another puppet show. I had some noodles. I ate sushi. I drank coffee. I got a postcard. I drank more coffee. I planned lessons. I planned more lessons. I tried to plan even more lessons, but fell asleep. 5 days later I got a day off. I went to a Japanese restaurant. I fell asleep for many many hours.

All of the above happened- I am unsure of the order.

Yesterday I visited Nagoya. They had a fireworks festival and it was HUGE. There must have been hundreds of thousands of people watching- Nagoya Port looked like Wembley on cup final day. It was insane. They must have send hundreds of tons of explosives up into the air in order for us humble spectators to watch a few seconds of pretty colours. It was fantastic- and my home town has an even bigger festival in a couple of weeks. Bring it on! You can't beet a cool beer and a shed-load of explosions. Happy days.

Today I caught up with rather more sleep than I had planned to, and got far less done than I should have. Never mind. There's always next weekend...although I think I may be rather preoccupied next week. We'll have to wait and see.

They say you learn something new every day.

You don't.

You learn very little for a period of 7 months or so while you serve coffee to the good people of Bolton, Durham and Manchester, and then you go on a 4 day training course in London and you subsequently learn around fifteen thousand new things to see, do and say.

Having said that, my 4 day training session did turn into a 3 day training session following the cancellation of day four. This was due, of course, to the terrorist attacks on London which occurred on day 3. It was a little odd to be in London on Thursday. It was even odder catching the tube into London this morning. One of the most noisy and busy cities in the world took on an eerie calm- which is, of course, to be expected.

My experience of July 7th was unremarkable. I got the train to work and arrived at 9. Just before lunch at 11.30, we were informed of the news. I left the tube network at the very minute the first bomb detonated- around 8.50am- but neither heard nor saw anything peculiar. This, I guess, is in itself, really quite peculiar. I guess I got very lucky- it was depressing enough watching the pictures unfold- even of uninvolved evacuees- never mind having to be a part of it.

The most distressing thing suffered was family based. Upset parents, concerned friends and me with a mobile phone that didn't work- either because of its general shitness, or because of the reduced network coverage in London in the aftermath of the explosions. It all added up to a seemingly unreal day. I receiving emails from Tokyo checking on my safety, while I was sat 5 minutes from the carnage, and had no idea it had even occurred. Bizarre.

Back to topic.

Training went well. I am still tremendously nervous. Bring on Monday.

Welcome

My name's Chris.

In 8 days I am moving to Japan for a year. I am a wee bit scared, but I'm pretty sure that excitement will replace that pretty soon. I hope it does.

I don't want to forget the next 12 months, so with any luck I'll succeed in keeping this diary relatively up to date. Right now I have to try and complete a mountain of tasks set for me by my brand spanking new employers. Tomorrow I leave for big ol' London town to be 'trained.' I'm hoping this training is pretty thorough because, in me, they have found a blank canvass on which to paint their teaching wisdom.

8 days 'till lift off.