Wind Surfing / VISSEL KOBE

Went down south in Hyogo this weekend with my supervisor to go windsurfing with his brother and his dad. The roads round here are wicked, it was like Ridge Racer or something, can't wait til I get my car and go driving. I test drove a couple of cars on fri, but they were both kei cars - a special class of car here which are smaller, cheaper (for insurance, parking, road toll), but only have an engine of 0.6 litres so feel like you're driving a lawnmower. I'm going to hold out for a proper car, a bit more pricey, but worth it for the fun I'll have driving round here I reckon. Windsurfing was well fun, in a little bay just next to the city, so you feel like you're at the seaside but cars are rushing past and you can see tall office buildings in the distance, pretty cool.



After that, my supervisor's brother, who is a kimono designer from Kyoto (how cool is that) invited us to a footie game in the evening in Kobe. Turns out he's a bit of an obsessive fan of Vissel Kobe. He was disappointed to learn I wasn't a massive football fan in the UK, and kept asking me what football chants I knew. Turns out they have the same ones here but with different words. The match was really cool, at first seemed a bit odd as the crowd was just chanting in perfect unison with no other noise in between, but as the beer started flowing people started loosening up. I got really into it and am going to the next game as well, should be good. The match itself was amazing, at half time Kobe was a man down and a goal down, and then equalized in the second half, and scored the winning goal in stoppage time! Storybook finish.

Bon Odori Festival

Just got back from this festival thing. Was pretty cool. So the Tamba Internation Association invited a bunch of people in the area to this Bon Odori dance thing. Basically, we wore yukata, learnt a little dance, and marched the streets with it.

So we started off getting changed, and being taught the dance by a government worker from ciity hall who just loved the dance. Then wandered down to the place, where all rival groups seemed to be gathering (as the 'wacky foreigner' group we all had different yukata, but all the others had a serious uniform thing going on, with white with blue stars and sea, red with black writing etc. So we wandered the streets for a while to this repetive old song (kind of catchy though) doing our little dance, all in lines, it was very organised and polite. Cool though. Then maybe an hour later wandered into this big central arena. There they had a guy playing taiko drums while an old guy sang, and it sounded pretty dope, a bit like indian classical singing, a bit like free jazz. It had amazing call and response bits when he would wail off on one and the kids and crowd would do some chanting back with the taiko drums holding down the beat. People started doing this (pretty funky to be honest) dance, around this big field, and we joined in a little. Doing the whole 'WOAH IM A FOREIGNER IN JAPAN JOINING IN WITH TRADITIONAL THINGS' thing, but tbh was really fun.

Okay so after a while dance competition starts and these really cool little kids have made their own variation on the dance we're all doing, and they start showing it off. There's also a dance group for the over 60s who are probably one of the best there (and wearing really dope costumes of sort of dance skirts and masks.) The kids obviously win, and afterwards this little brazilian kids gets up and starts breakdancing to the uptempo lounge. Okay it wasnt so much lounge anymore, but still lounge influenced.

That was all for tonight, tomorrow is fireworks and drinking and stuff. Wooo, should be good.

The picture tell the story anyway (not in this order): Manly bandanas; Tamba represent; Rival dance crew; Crazy costumed dancers; over 60s dance group; cool kids collecting their prize for the coolest dance ever.



Oh and on the way back, I noticed that mixed in with the shops, there where various artworks made specially for the festival. Some where amazingly creative, like there was a beautiful scene with a crane flying over a river, and when you looked closely, you noticed it was all made from various different colour, size, and shape plates. Awesome! But the following one is absoolutely mindblowing. Bear in mind that it probably took ages to do as it's made of paper mache, and is properly life size. It was given a great spot at the festival and you can see why... It's just brilliant. Check:



Wow. Just wow.

--------------------------------------------

THURSDAY:
Went back for a second day, tonight was more the festival proper, eating, drinking, still some dancing but more of a funfair kind of atmosphere. They had beautiful fireworks that went on for a whole hour, sitting watching them with a can of kirin and some okonomiyaki on a stick... magic. Ate octopus balls for the first time, (balls of batter with octopus inside, not... y`know) they`re so good. Looked at the Zidane artwork again, turns out it`s not paper mache, but the bodies are made with carefully glued together envelopes. Even better.

Kobe

So just got back from Kobe. What a great weekend!

I got woken up on Saturday morning about 6.30 in the morning by the sound of rustling from inside my cupboard. I was/am convinced it was mukade (large poisonous centipede) but when I opened the door and shined a torch the rustling stopped... freaky. This happened about 3 times over 2 hours and I will probably have a hard time getting to sleep tonight!

So anyway, my journey to Kobe. Not having a car yet, it was looooong. I walked to the bus station, where a friendly looking man helped me with the buses and trains. It turned out he was a government employee in Tokyo, and Aogaki was his hometown where he returns once every season. We talked, me in shitty broken Japanese, him in broken English, about Japan and the UK and stuff, and it was fun. When I left him to change trains at Amagasaki he said 'I had fun with you today.' What a cool guy. (He incidentally was wearing, along with his casual work clothes, a cap made by that company whose logo is the two bare footprints, i forget the name but it's pretty cool and why a government worker is rocking it I don't know but very Japan.)

So anyhoo went to Kobe and finally got myself a mobile phone! (Or Keitai as they call them here.) It's quite big, but ridiculously advanced with a screen with a ridiculously high resolution and crazy menus involving penguins and stuff. It took me ages to get the contract though, as my Japanese is so bad, but the woman in the store knew a couple of words of English and we persevered and after about an hour or so I had my phone! As I left the store she said 'I had fun with you today' too. Not trying to be cheesy or anything, but communicating over a language barrier IS fun. Simple fun. Ate some cool speciality gyoza in this tiny dingy little restaurant right under the train line which shook every 5 mins as a train went overhead. Bought an overpriced but cool patchwork flat cap from a little hat store in an area where everyone seemed to have a cool hat and I was feeling left out. Left it at my friends' place on Sunday morning but it probably looks better on her anyway, my hats always suit others more than me. I am cursed this way.

Went out with the JET lot to a British pub (hehe) which was cool, (they had a roundup of British music 06 and they included Daedalus, I love how music is taken seriously here) then on to a bit of a tacky and slightly sleazy place called Sally's which is a pool hall/little club. As if to prove how sleazy it was, while waiting outside afterwards for my friend I was offered a 'massage' by (surprisingly good looking) ladies of the night on no less than 3 occasions - and I don't even think it was the red light district. Anyway the place was good fun with the crowd we were with. Ducked out a bit early with a friend and had a glass of wine at this nice little place across the road with dark little booths playing old old jazz :o)

We wandered the streets of Kobe, stopping to check out all the Love Hotels (so weird and cool), before at around 2 going for some Okonomiyaki at this little restaurant on the 3rd floor of a building. That's the kind of thing I love about cities.

Came back Sunday morning from Akashi via the same looooong route (stopped at a mcdonalds on the way - it's better: the straw goes slightly off center in the soft drinks and THEY PLAY LOUNGE), and nearly missed my stop due to falling asleep on the train. Sannomiya (central Kobe) is a cool place, I'm sure I'll be returning.

The pics are (not in this order): nice to see Doraemon and Sergeant Frog getting behind the Japanese football team; the little gyoza hut under the railway station where I ate, Kobe by day, Taco (Octopus) bus, Kobe by night, 2AM Okonomiyaki.

Back from Yashiro

So the last four days I've been away at the local orientation for all of us in the area (quite a big area, about 75 people.) It was pretty fun. It was in this teacher training institute in this place called Yashiro, which everyone claims is the middle of nowhere, but seems to have more in it than my town :oS . Anyway so was wicked to meet people from around the prefecture and hang out with them for a while. We had some lecturey type things, and then just hung out drinking and talking.

We ate all the meals at the place, and they were okay, sort of like Uni hall type food (but Japanese food obviously), and the workers in the kitchen seemed pretty friendly. This will be important later. So first night we just hung out drinking and chatting, for my friends from music school, it was a lot like a tour sort of thing, we had the run of the place and all sharing rooms and corridors and stuff. The place itself was very strict in a sort of way, had loads of rules, and little speakers in each room which played floaty wake up music every morning at 7 with a Japanese soothing female voice saying 'everyone! good morning!' in Japanese. (Of course the current JET helpers got on the thing and did a couple of 'good morning vietnam' things.)

So anyway, second day we had more lectures, some Japanese lessons, workshops and stuff. In the evening, we had an official welcome party, speeches and buffet sushi etc, and we had to do a little 10 min skit about our country. I think the Brits did a pretty good job, we did a fake BBC style news report. For my tiny bit, I had to dress in a little vest and too tight shorts with suit shoes and socks rolled up to my knees with a knotted hanky on my head as I reported from Brighton beach... hmmm. Anyway after all that and a few drinks, general mingling, we had to clear the hall for half an hour or so so that the band could set up. (I love that - stop the party so that they could set up for the party. hmmm) The band? Okay, check this: it was the workers from the kitchen who are also the in house band! Crazy! They're pretty tight as well, really getting into their solos and stuff. They played loads of old old rocky stuff, Beatles and Chuck Berry, not my thing at all but they're the kitchen staff, how can you not love it. So anyway halfway through that, they announce a special guest... of course it's Elvis. JAPANESE elvis, a small guy in a bad wig. Okay so he (JAPANESE ELVIS) sings some old Elvis songs with the band (KITCHEN STAFF) whilst the washer uppers still wearing their aprons just chip in with some percussion. Okay that's surreal enough, no? NO. Out comes..... Japanese Elvis. Number two! So now we have two completely different looking Japanese Elvii on stage, and to finally complete the weirdness/amazingness of the whole thing, I'm talking to a friend I've met and she says that elvis number two is the PRINCIPAL AT HER SCHOOL. And not nearby, a couple of towns over! So he drove for ages just to come and be japanese elvis number two. Man, we were all just amazed.

The rest of the time was cool, but nothing really interesting for a blog. Sessions, drinking and socialising, you all know what that is, nothing exciting there. Met some people from a couple towns over which was good.

So anyway, time to leave, and although I really been enjoying it, going back home to my house in the middle of nowhere did seem a bit of a downer. But my supervisor is so cool, he shuffles up to the institute with his sharp clothes and stands out in a sea of middle aged white shirt black trouser office workers. We jump in his car, and he's blatantly put together this MD for me, he's rocking 'St Thomas' by Sonny Rollins, 'Sidewinder' by Lee Morgan, bit of 'Syeeda's Song Flute' by Trane. He say's 'so..... you must be tired, lets stop for a drink', pick up some coffee and snacks, then he invites me windsurfing next weekend with him and his brother! He's such a dude.

So back now, going to go down to Kobe (it's a long way without a car to get to the station though) tomorrow for a bit of a JET party (called a 'beer garden', sounds intriguing, with the people from this week thing, should be pretty good! So far nothing stays the same for more than a day or two, no time to settle down and get my head around stuff. It's crazy! Anyway that'll come later I guess.

So anyway, maybe more rural stories later, when I do something interesting. Okay, so enjoy some pics of the funky artwork that was up around the institution, a pic from the drive home (tell me that isn't beautiful), and a shot from a japanese tv kids show where they're singing 'puff the magic dragon' in japanese with a special guest of some old guy who had a wailing (but awesome) voice.



Oh yeah, and I tried many drinks this week (including a fully endorsed 'Thorpedo') but cream soda fanta is still King. Pics of my house still coming, its a bit of a tip, I'm cleaning this week, then pics. Promise.

It's a Mini Adventure

Didn't do a whole lot today, but everything I do seems to become a mini adventure. My mate Ali said that before I left, that when travelling even daily stuff becomes fun cos it's unknown and he was RIGHT. So today I left to wander over to the nearest town with a train station, Kaibara. I heard it's a pretty long way, but I thought a walk would be fun and I'd get to know the area a bit. It was a really sunny day but there were a few grey clouds on the horizon so I though I'd take an umbrella anyway. Started to rain after about 10 mins so I put it up. 'What an adventure!' I didn't say to myself.

I stupidly left the map at home, and kept having to drop into shops to ask people the way, and of course I didn't understand their answer. Lots of nodding and smiling. I stopped at a chemist cos I needed some shower gel type stuff, and only after I left did I realise I'd just paid ABOUT FIFTEEN QUID for a BOTTLE OF SHOWER GEL :o(. I must have bought the Japanese equivalent of Clarins or something. It better be the best shower gel ever. In fact, typing this I just looked at it and it says something about collagen on it. W T F ? ? ? And it smells like perfume. Rubbish.

So anyway, about an hour into the walk (when I'm starting to wonder where the hell this place is) it reeeeaaaaalllly starts to bucket down. Like, massive drops of rain like we never get in the UK. And there are mountains on both sides of me (pretty far away but theres not a whole lot between me and them but fields) and thunder and lightning start breaking out on alternate sides. My little clear umbrella is only just coping but I'm seriously soaked everywhere from the waist down, but oddly it's still hot so it doesn't feel so uncomfortable. About half an hour later (when I'm REALLY starting to think I've taken a wrong turning), the shops and houses start thinning out, and it starts getting way more rural than even near my place. and just as it breaks into serious thunderstorm I pass the last house and come into a massive opening of fields, kind of like in 'north by northwest', so the wind really picks up and I'm in the middle of what seems like a typhoon and I wonder if I'm gonna be on the news as the stupid foreigner who braved what everyone else know to be a killer storm and got blown away (i saw not one single other person walking that day, maybe it was all over the news or something the night before.)

So anyway in the distance I see a little row of shops so I practically run there, and they're all boarded up (must be for the storm, its midday Saturday) except the end one, so I slide open the door and shout 'excuse me!' inside. This really old man comes out from the back in shorts and tee shirt, and I ask him if this is Kaibara (thats where I want to go if you've forgotten.) He doesn't speak English, and I speak about 5 words of Japanese, so it was very interesting. After a while of trying to draw me a map whilst I wait outside, he gets me to come in, and whilst I'm shedding water all over the floor of his shop (which seems to be an odd mix of tobacconist and cake shop) he's drawing diagrams and talking. I'm not really sure what he's saying, but variously he was talking about terrible rain, something about I've come the wrong way for Kaibara, and then something about a doctor. This kind of confused me then he went out back and reappeared with wellies and an umbrella and led me through the rainstorm to a doctor's surgery opposite. (This was very surreal.) I was really confused at this point, but followed him in, and out came the nurse, and after talking with the old man in Japanese, she called the doctor out. So the three of them are having a conference, and I don't really know what I'm doing there.

So the doctor (who speaks English) seems to think I've asked the old man to bring me there to ask his advice, so I ask him which is nearer, Aogaki or Kaibara. I'm thinking I just want to be somewhere cos I'm tired of walking. He helpfully says we're equidistant from both. I'm aware that I'm sort of bothering all these people, the doctor offers to drive me home but I am really aware of making a massive fuss over just wanting some directions so I refuse. (Everyone seems surprised I tried to walk there, maybe it really is a long way.) So I leave to walk back the way I came and as I step out a bus goes past towards Aogaki, and the doctor tells me that was the second and final bus for Aogaki that day. Rubbish.

The rain stopped a few minutes after though, which was good. Feeling that I wasted the day, I stop at a vending machine and have some 'British Style Royal Milk Tea' in a can. It tastes like rice pudding, which is nice. On the way home I stop at Family Mart to pick up some food (apples are £2 for 3 here... ouch), and it turns out they have Muji stuff in there. MAN, muji is ripping us off in the UK. Here it's like the cheapy brand, seriously, the same notebook I buy for about £2.50 in the UK is 40p here. Somehow it managed to position itself as a luxury brand back home. Man I love convenience stores here. Oh so I still didn't take pictures of where I live, but these are some of between my place and the place I ended up which I didn't want to go to.



Oh yeah and Grape Fanta is played OUT... It's all about the creamsoda melon fanta.

First Week Recap - Tokyo and that

Im in Aogaki! Hooray.

Anyway let me recap. It's Friday today, so I'll go through from Sat. Quickly, hopefully.

SATURDAY -----------------------------------------------------

Left England. Plane was cool, sat next to a friend so was good fun and went quickly. Made a right tit of myself though, there was no cheese with my crackers for lunch and so I asked for some, the attendant (who was Japanese), was so polite and apologetic, seemed so upset about it that I felt really bad, after she'd left I made a (tasteless, obviously) joke to my friend about her having to commit ritual suicide... She didn't laugh, and I wondered why until I noticed the attendant right behind me. She sort of said 'cheese' and thrust it into my plate then ran off. I laughed until I cried. Mainly out of embarrassment than anything else. This is a theme I will return to.




SUNDAY -----------------------------------------------------
Touchdown. Narita is a cool airport and everything went smoothly. The humidity was crazy, never felt anything like it before. It's like walking into a sauna, you feel you're drinking the air rather than breathing it. Went to the hotel, which is by far the nicest I've stayed in, 5 star jobby with massive chandelier lit rooms, beautiful spaces, the whole lot. Shared a room with two cool guys from my prefecture which was good, would have been shit to share with people you didn't get on with. Had the day off, wandered round Shinjuku with some people at first looking for a place to eat, found this tiny place next to the station which completely made you forget you were in a busy city, it had a little water pool with water dripping in, dark wooden beams all over the place, dim lights, beautiful.




Later took the subway along to Harajuku, saw the girls with their crazy gothic lolita style, checked out some shops, then walked to Shibuya, checked out an arcade (being a nerd) and had a bite to eat (eating places are so cheap and good here). We started looking for a particular record shop for me, but first popped into a manga store my friend wanted to check out. It had stairs leading downstairs... and then more stairs, getting darker.... and then more stairs, darker and with a cctv camera.... it was about 5 flights down. Turned out to be a MASSIVE collection of porn manga, porn manga toys and dvds. It was crazy, about as big as a warehouse or something. I think its must have had some normal manga too, but everything we picked up was 'naughty maid story 7' or something. Couldn't take any pictures, there were signs up everywhere with scary looking 'dont take pics' signs, and underground like this you dont want to risk your chances of getting out. After this I then made The Pilgramage to...




JAZZY SPORT
Tiny little store on the 5th floor of a building which took ages to find as people kept giving us the wrong directions. Only have a small selection but its the business. Got the new Grooveman Spot album and a whole bunch of Jazzy Sport stickers and badges like the fanatic that I am.




Wandered back to Harajuku station, just stopping to ogle at some trainers and do what I imagine must be the usual tourist thing of going crazy over the soft drinks and the vending machines. Seriously though, bottles made of can material. Containing Grape Fanta. OMGWTFLOL. Oh yeah and there was a whole Sergeant Frog shop, but it was closed.

MONDAY -----------------------------------------------------

Had some seminar type stuff but managed to nip out beforehand for a couple games of guitar freaks and drum mania (or something, i forget the name.) Found them in a little arcade where no one else was and no other games were being played so you could acutally hear the music for once. Party. Nerdily checked the videogame store before heading back, bought completely the opposite thing from what I wanted as I couldn't understand the box.




After lunch, went down to Harajuku again cos I realised I'd missed the cool shopping area. Checked some nice little small boutique style places, picked up the best high dunks ever (the white and grey soft almost camo style ones), and took loads of pictures of trainers. Check out the wicked skull and crossbones hat and chinos. Mark picked up a drink called Nob King, which of course appealed to our subtle and sophisticated sense of humour. Found an amazing T-shirt shop, called Beams, where the tees are hung on a conveyor. There were loads of wicked ones, especially themed around Michael Jackson for some reason, but some guy ran over shouting 'Da-me, Da-me' and making a cross with his arms, so I had to stop taking pics.

Found the coolest customised Vans ever - if you took the played out check pattern, put it on the soles of the shoes, wrote L.A. Gear on the back and half on the front and drew some palm trees, would you have the coolest trainers ever? YES YOU WOULD. If they weren't £200 they would have been mine. Check the pic of the funky shop with the cows heads on the wall. Had dinner at a teppenyaki chain, sort of fried vegetables and seafood on rice, really nice, then was heading home when we noticed a live performance going on in some design store place. The guy wouldn't let me take photos so I had to take them of the screen outside. We went in, it's basically your average pop group singing, with a pretty female vocalist, dj who does nothing but clap his hands - but this group had a american looking MC, like someone out of 5ive or backstreet boys or something, with lyrics like 'Back up, back up, but not too faaast; cos I just might step on my caaash'.....................










WHY???

Went to a rock bar in the evening with other people from the prefecture. Was cool, met some nice people. Walked back with this girl Robyn and some friends, lost the friends near some arcade, then lost ourselves coming home. Found Shinjuku station, spent about 20 mins walking around it looking for the west exit, then somehow found ourselves exactly back where we started. Anyway, somehow found it back to the Keio and fell into bed listening to lounge.




A word about lounge. There was an oldschool bedside table in the hotel room, with a clock and speakers builit in, with various buttons like 'FM', 'Talk', and 'Music'. If you pushed music it piped amazingly catchy lounge music into your room, at any time for 24 hours. It was pretty smooth, and any time we were in the room, we were grooving to the smooth sounds of strings and rimshots, maybe with a little vibes here and there, or a pluck bass groove... nice.

TUESDAY -----------------------------------------------------

Had some more seminar type things. In between, rang my friend Mahoko from Nottingham, and she was like 'come to Yokohama!' Which sounded like fun so i did. Ran down the stairs at Shinjuku, yelped 'Yokohama?' at this guy on the train, then when he nodded forced my way on board through the closing doors. He seemed to enjoy this, and every 5 mins or so would give me the thumbs up sign. When he got off at Shibuya, he waved me goodbye, and prodded his girlfriend to do the same. Slightly bizarre but nice. So Yokohama is so near Tokyo, its really easy to get to. Took ages to find Mahoko, it's so crowded there, and I really need a mobile phone! Anyway went to have a coffee with her and her friend, was really nice to see someone from home. I went back to have dinner with her family and was really kind of 'grounding', I can't think of a better way to say it, but really relaxing and calming in the craziness of the visit to Tokyo. Stupidly (and as always) I took no pics of people, only things, so the view from her amazing apartment complex is all I have. Got back pretty late, took a final walk and had a quick drink round Shinjuku, then retired to listen to some lounge.




WEDNESDAY -----------------------------------------------------

Time to set off for Aogaki. Early start, and as i was getting ready listening to the lounge (naturally), check this: a lounge version of the Godfather theme came on. Beautiful stuff. Bit of rain as we got the bus down to Tokyo station. Got the Shinkansen (bullet train) down to Shin-Osaka, stopping for 2 mins at Kyoto, so techincally I've been to both of those cities now, then jumped on a bus to the teacher training centre where we'd meet our supervisors.




It was surreal, they were seated in a staffroom like room, and we lined up round the edge, and one by one he called out our names and they stood up and led us out, like, i dunno, being adopted or something. My supervisor and vice principal both came to pick me up and they both seem like great guys so that's good. Talked about football, music, you know, standard stuff. Went to the school, met the principal (who seems like another nice guy, I got a good place to work it seems) - oh, hilariously he told me via my supervisor translating that 'because you are a good looking guy, many girls will want to have a relationship with you. This is FORBIDDEN' and when I nodded without trying to laugh, he stressed it to me again that this was his 'number one worry' - and then met some of the other staff.

Driving back with my vice-principal, I see people in sort of colourful little parachute things against the backdrop of the mountains - which are stunning. Apparently this place is the number one spot for paragliding - check http://www.tak.ne.jp/, no idea what it says but they are here.

So anyway, to my house. It's big. And everything is here, a Sony flatscreen TV, a DVD burner, a fax, a couple of phones, all kitchen stuff, one of those toilets that has funky functions, its cool. For sleeping it's really old school, got to take a futon out of the cupboard and lay it on the tatami mats, but seems fine. Oh man, oh man, tatami chairs are the best thing ever. Difficult to explain (for me anyway), but so comfy. I fell asleep and slept the whole night though on one. Maybe I will take pictures if I have a lack of things to do.

Vice principal and supervisor took me out for dinnner at a traditional little restaurant near my house. Had okonomiyake, sort of an omelette-y pizza thing with dark tamarind-esque sauce on top, but that really doesnt do it justice, its awesome. The place was full of raucous workers going crazy at the screen cos here right now it's the high school baseball championships which are a big deal apparently. Well at least to us here in the sticks.

THURSDAY -----------------------------------------------------

First proper day at school. My supervisor comes to pick me up, and after claiming yesterday he only knows the 'masterpieces' of jazz (making me think just Kind of Blue, Giant Steps etc,) he's rocking some Bud Powell in the car, singing along with the solos and stuff! Jazz seems to be more popular even with not 'jazz fans' then back home. He says as we're driving 'really this is pop music. Bud Powell is so melodius' and I was practically crying tears of joy. It IS pop music dammit. Embarressed myself a bit with the principal, when he asked how the dinner was with vice principal and supervisor yesterday, I said oishiKUNAI rather than osihiKATTA - basically I told him it wasn't good, instead of saying it was delicious. Embarrassing. Everything else went okay I think that day. Bought a few bits and pieces for my house at the hardware store, and then an old guy who used to be a teacher at my school but now runs an IT company came to pick me up from school. (He's got a unusual business card with a wacky colour pic of him grinning really oddly) He drove an old and battered minivan type thing, and blasted mid nineties techno as we drove home, a bit surreal in the beautiful landscapes here! He hooked me up to the net and did a dance of joy when I gave him the old computer that was here before. Interesting guy.

The place I'm at is pretty rural - but in a different way from the UK. For example, we have shockingly green mountains surrounding us on all sides, but also 2 chain 24 hour convenience stores which you wouldn't get in a comparable place in the UK. The roads as well have ridiculous amounts of marks and lights and signs and stuff, more than central London back home. I haven't taken any pics yet, but I'll try to take some tomorrow.

In the evening, the vice principal, my supervisor and the head of the office all came round with me to meet important people in the town - well they just talked whilst I bowed and said 'please to meet you' in japanese. As my supervisor says often 'this is Japanese custom'.

FRIDAY -----------------------------------------------------

So I was left a bike, supposed to ride to school which I heard takes about 15 mins. Now in UK I'm pretty much late for everything, I can't really help it, but here I heard it's pretty bad. So leaving just enough time to cyle, I left the house, and tried to take the bike off it's stand. I kicked it and prodded it and kind of mauled it with my hands but i couldn't figure out how to get it off (as if to rub it in a little old lady rode past on an identical bike with the stand perfectly stowed away.) So I thought I'll ring my supervisor. I went inside, but my Sharp phone has like a hundred buttons and they are all covered with Kanji (chinese characters) which I can't read. So I sort of had to jog/run to school, which in 35 degree heat is NOT FUN. I arrived in a pool of sweat 2 mins before 8.15 (the time I had to be there) and all the office staff had a good laugh. (Later I would be shown there's a simple latch to the stand... how embarrassing.) Another day at school, not many people were there as they seem to take annual leave around this time. Got me a Japanese bank account at the 'central hyogo bank' which has the grand total of 1 yen in it at the moment, and a hanko - a stamp like thing with your name on it which you use in place of signature for some stuff. My name is 朗 in Japanese Kanji (got to have it on your comp to be able to see that I think) which means 'bright'. There's another one for Lau that means 'wolf' but maybe this one is better.

All that's taken absolutely ages to write and I'm tired. More to come.