Hi everyone,
Japan is an ongoing adventure. Every day is new. The sports festival was rather interesting. Quite an event with lots of interesting games we never had in New Zealand. I took a bunch of photos. Maybe soon I'll upload them to the net for viewing. It's a tricky process to upload the photos at school as technically the internet is for work use but I think its ok (i.e not enforced). Interesting things I've noticed in Japan : the toilets are squat style with a flusher so you don't sit you squat. The thing is the toilets are either old style squat or super flash new sitting toilets with all sorts of strange functions and buttons including a built in seat warmer. Rubbish is separated to the upmost degree here in different bins and bags. (burnable, non-burnable, cans, bottles, paper etc..) It's a mission figuring out what to put out on what day etc... but I'm getting the hang of it now. There is an interesting contrast between the old and the new in Japan. Also school lunches, they're prepared somewhere centrally and distributed daily to schools in the area. Everyone eats together and everyone brushes their teeth immediately after lunch. Little old ladies love to ride their bicycles everywhere and they often carry open umbrellas.
I went to a work party after the sports festival that was fun. After a few drinks we played games like 'throw the mini doughnut across the room into your partners mouth' and 'carry the ping pong ball on a spoon in your mouth, pass to the next person and into the bowl' and build the tallest tower of cans etc.. The japanese love playing games and they are quite creative. The food was classic japanese style with lots of little bowls of strange food I've never seen before. The raw octopus was left aside.. All in all a good night. Still doing lots of socialising on the weekends with other ALTs in the area. I've kind of formed a close network of a about 5-10 people I see on a regular basis. I'm kept quite busy here too. There is always something to do or somewhere to go. Though at school i spend a lot of time waiting for classes with nothing to do... Did I mention I've brought a pet hamster called Harry? he's white with a grey stripe down his back and looks like a mini guinea pig or a fat mouse with a short furry tail. He's my friendly resident hamster and I'm growing quite fond of him. The turtles are doing Ok too. One of them has got quite big already! Autumn equinox is a public holiday here next week, I think thats cool that the solstices and equinoxes are hoildays. Anyway, better go. send me an email!