Week 4

First steps in school... the morning after climbing Fuji i had to be up and at school by 8am- bugger. It was the day that i was to introduce myself to the teachers and then to the students at Sakai Junior High School. I was a lot more nervous than anticipated. It was a strange morning as not only was i tired but i was disorientated beacuse apart from the 4 english teachers at the school, none of the other teachers spoke english, so i couldnt communicate with them. I was shown to my desk in the staff room and pretended to look busy whilst all the japanese teachers dashed around doing 'stuff'. My introductions - in english and then translated by Mura-sensei into japanese- went well and i was approached by a poor student who had been made to memorise a speech in English for me!

This week also saw contract signing and the after parties.... contract signing was quite comical. It was 3hrs of being dressed in suits, standing in rows shouting 'hai' when your name was called, bowing in the correct way when required and listening to speeches- the practicing of the bows was particularly funny- and not actually signing any contract. The first 'party' after the ceremony involved free food and drink which is always welcome. I got to speak to a pretty funny guy from the Fukui Board of Education too.
Then things became a bit hazy... we went to one bar for all you can drink for 2000yen, where the barmen decided 6 shots of gin in a gin and tonic was about right.... 3 drinks, 2hrs, lots of comedy moments, lots of comedy photos and some attempts at dancing later we moved on to a club called creme (it wasnt until the following day i found out where we had gone- are you proud mum?).... and that is where the commentary ends and will remain 'unblogged'!- i do proudly want to state however that i was up at 7.30 to walk in the blistering heat from Jillian's house in the middle of sodding nowhere to the JR station and get to a 3hr tennis session at 9.30.



































At the weeknd a group of us went to Ono to go camping in a beautiful area in the hills with a river to swim in. It was great to go swimming and feel cool. The evening was really nice sitting and looking up at the many bright stars in the sky with the only noise from the wildlife and the river, and the only light from the fab fire as created by boy scout John.