So they're leaving me in charge of children

Hello my friends,
So you have found your way here, I am glad, nice to see you all again. Quick recap for those of you I haven't seen in a wee-while. I am now in Japan being an ambassador for the Queen and teaching english to Japanese kids, and generally being an all round splendid fellow.

I've been here about 3 weeks now in a delightful city called Hamamatsu, which is pretty much exactly halfway between Tokyo and Osaka (about 2 hours on the bullet-train to either). It's a cool town, very open and spacious. About 800,000 people find themselves here also. I have yet to meet many of them. Hamamatsu is for some reason the most international place in Japan and there are pretty big Brazilian and Peruvian populations. I am one of a few Brits, outnumbered by Americans.
But still, I am a tall white viking in a sea of smaller folk with generally darker extremities. Very small children giggle and peek, while their parents pretend that they are not.

The first night in Tokyo was fairly restrained due to fatigue, staying awake only long enough to get food and observe that every sign in Tokyo is shouting "You're Illiterate! You're Illiterate!" in bright neon. Arriving in Tokyo was like walking into a sauna, the air is just wet. There's no other way to put it. Within 3 seconds of leaving any air-conditioned place you are sweating from EVERYWHERE and my glasses would steam up... luckily Hamamatsu isn't quite as bad and has a nice sea-breeze which makes it much better, and you only sweat from 95% of your body. After the first week of wet-heat and sunshine, the locals started to show their surprise at it not having rained in a week. Well that changed. The rain doesn't start at a walking pace and amble up into a run here. It is either on or off, and on means torrential downpour, if you can't find cover in 3 seconds there's no point. And even then you're still sweating. Yesterday I was in search of a second-hand guitar shop a few stops away on the train and I was caught out. So I was sheltering under someone's perspex roof garage. I was only there for 2 minutes before a very nice young lady brought out an umbrella to help me on my way. I intend to return it but may have to retrace my steps to find it again... very nice.



On arriving I was greeted by my kitchen sinks residing cockroaches, but after some radioactive traps and super-death-silly-string I am alone once more. I have yet to meet any big ones, but I am assured I will come across some as big as your hand that can fly... can't wait. Some of my new friends that are a little further out are having to share their flats with spiders as big as small dogs, and preying mantis. But no-one has come across the Mikado yet - a centipede that's bite is 100 times less pleasant than a bee-sting, and they're pretty nippy. On a good point, my supervisor says that whenever she sees a spider in her home she cheers it and welcomes it in, apparently as a sign of good luck. I guess at least they're eating the smaller things that might want to eat you.

The other JETs here all seem very pleasant people, and Hama having a thriving network of bars and cafes has led to much money being lost in the pursuit of gastronomic delight and one or two drinks. The local delicacy Unagi is fantastic. It's freshwater eel that is covered in some kind of sauuce and eaten with the skin... delicious. Another new foodstuff to me is Okono-miyaki (not sure about the spelling on that one) which is a kind of pancake made of meat and veg that you cook on your table; which is a hot-plate. I recommmend but have no clue where you'd find one.



The British Embassy put on a bit of a do, the second night we were in Tokyo and gave us some small grub and drink and invited us to have a go at Taiko drumming, much fun, but they wear short-shorts for a reason. You get warm.

After a series of orientations in Tokyo, and post-arrival in a town a few stops away Kanegawa, last week I was released on my two schools. My main school Maruzuka-chugaku is a really new building (the old one was burnt down), and has air-conditioning everywhere and I get a room to myself to teach in. Normally here, it is the teachers who move from room to room rather than the students. The other school, Kami-chu is much older but has supposedly much nicer students. On arrival at my first school the Kocho-sensei (principal) starting laughing at me because I look like... John Lennon. All the staff at both schools seem pretty nice and friendly but it's summer holidays at the moment so many are away. Only a handful at each school speak english so I'm having lots of very short conversations. Or rather, very long conversations trying to communicate very short things.

The first weekend after arriving in Hama, they held an enormous hanabi (fireworks) display which went on for about 3 hours. I can safely say it was the most spectacular fireworks I have seen. They got slowly more and more impressive. There were some that exploded into smiley faces, and then some that seemed to look like the laughing cow... but I'm not sure. Unfortuneately I didn't get an adapter until after that so all my electronic gizmos, camera included were very dead by then.



This last weekend a big group of JETs went to the local J-league team, Jubilo's home game at one of the stadiums built for the world-cup. Strange game, quite different from English football, they seemed to be playing in some kind of 7-3 formation. There are two groups of pretty hardcore fans at either ends cheering a LOT. We tried to introduce some English-styled chants but they just didn't catch on. Hooliganism just felt out of place, so we restrained ourselves. After that we went to some Beach party that was almost entirely gai-jin (foreigners) until morning. The taxi drivers didn't have a clue where it was so they drove us out for 20 minutes and then got out their cars and started asking us where it was... not so good.

Did the karaoke thing in Tokyo with a big group and have done it again since in Hama. You basically choose how long you want and then it's all you can drink... which helps. They have an interesting mix of western music. I performed a rousing rendition of It's so easy and Paradise City complete with enough windmilling to give me a sore neck 2 days later... Seemed like a good idea at the time.

At the Kakegawa orientation they had the large public baths which were a treat after a full day sweating. I'm being a little wary, as the only difference in the entrance to the ladies and the chaps is the colour of towel and once I enter, my sight is reduced to the end of my nose... wouldn't want to upset anyone. Hopefully in thh next couple of weeks I'll make it to an actual onsen - natural hot spring. There are supposed to be a few in the wider-Hama area.