internet cafes

26 03 2008

why is it that my most important posts seem to be made from internet cafes? 

right, well, firstly, long time no post.  my apologies. there are good reasons however.  mainly the fact that I have just moved house.  So, please dont send any mail to my old address in japan!

“moved?!?” I hear you say.  yes.  moved.  why, well, this is something I wasn’t able to post about until about 2 months ago, and then I wasnt able to find the time.  My contract with AEON finished last saturday, by my choice, so if I wanted to stay in Japan, I had to find a new job.  I started searching about mid-Jan, and I was very blessed with being offered a wonderful position within 2 and a half weeks of job searching.  My new job will be a private Junior High School English Communication teacher.   What that means – regular hours (830 to 430), better pay (just), longer vacations (12 weeks!  did you read that…  12 WEEKS!), and moving house.

So, after I got the job offer I started to go house hunting.  I decided to live at the same station as the school (just ask my mother.  i have trouble getting out of bed), which is approx 1 hour and 20 minutes away from where I was.  So the distance made some difficulties.  But, my first trip to a real estate agent, and I found a great place (thanks Century 21!), and 2 weeks after that I signed to contract, to move in a week and a half later, which puts us up to last sunday. 

So, as you can kinda see, things have been hectic.  Ive had a few other adventures in between, and Im really looking forward to my new life (on vacation for a week now), which i will post about later.  But for now, Im going to go back home, because someone is snoring here in the internet cafe, and I just cant stand that! grrrr


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sweet things

21 02 2007

well, not much has been happening really over the last week, but theres been a couple of things that really stick out.  I got an unprompted kiss on the cheek from one of my kids, that was really sweet.  And then another kid slightly older decided to hold my hand and swing it about saying ‘love love’ (which is actually not a good thing, because it implies a physical relationship…..  but i think he was a little too young to realize that….).  That boy lives with his grandfather, so he doesn’t have much contact with females we think..

hmmm, what else…  On Saturday night a group of about 10 students had a party for a couple of the teachers from my school…  It was a very interesting evening.  Really great food, and then we played bingo for prizes (i won some sponges, but since i was the first to get bingo I also got a wrapping cloth), and finally, the ‘reddest’ person one a prize too.  It was very very sweet of them to throw the party, and it was a great time.

Sunday was church and then dinner and drinks with a very mixed bunch of people.  There was about 14 of us in total, and we went back to that themed Izakaiya in Ikebukuro.  This time we went to the bamboo grove.  It was really lovely, but the food in the Opera House is much better!

Monday I slept in…  and I really really needed to by then!  6000 Yen later and I also have a re-entry visa so I can get back into the country after we go to Thailand.  And then I met up with Christina and we saw In the Pursuit of Happiness.  Okay movie, I enjoyed it, however it was a little slow and long.  Gotta love Will Smith though!  and his son is really cute!


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V-day

14 02 2007

Valentine’s day in Japan is kinda mixed up…  women have to buy men chocolate….  what the?  And then in March they have White day, when the men have to return the favor…..  leave it to consumer Japan to come up with something like that…

However, I did get chocolates from 2 students, so I was pretty happy…. I like AEON


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Its been one week since you looked at me, cocked your head to the side and said….

11 11 2006

Wow.  Things have been such a whirlwind since I got into the Omiya training house.  Training for Aeon has been full on, but pretty rewarding.  And now it’s over! (for the time being….)

 

Um, its hard to really know what to say.  We’ve done so much in this past week, but I really don’t want to bore you with the little details….

 

Well, from the beginning.  I touched down at Narita around 8pm on Nov 1st, and the lovely Xina and Jason were kind enough to have me stay with them for the first 2 evenings.  On the Friday I had to make my own way out to Omiya to be met by some of my trainers and be taken to the training house.

 

I met all my fellow trainees that day, and then the following day we actually started training.  Sunday Brooke (another aussie) and I went into Asakusa and Shinjuku to do a little sightseeing.  And then Monday through to Friday has been all training, training, training.

 

The group I’ve been training with are all pretty nice people.  I won’t lie and say that I get along with all personalities here, but there’s only ten of us and we are a fairly close knit group.  Mind you, a majority of the group really really like to party, and I’m just not up to that.  Every night.  Until late….. (shakes head)

 

On Friday night after we finished our training we all went out to an Izakaiya for drinks and some pub grub, and then headed on over to karaoke.  It was a pretty good evening, even if Cindy (American, and strangely enough a physics major too) and I ended up leave a few hours before everyone else.  What can I say….  I act older than my age???

 

Today hasn’t been much, just some wandering around Omiya.  Unfortunately it was a pretty poor day weather wise so that restricted me a bit.  I was looking forward to spending some time in the park just relaxing and reading my book.

 

Tomorrow I’ve arranged to meet up with Peter in Ikebukuro and just hang out.  Hopefully the weather will be somewhat better.  I don’t want to have a huge day because next week’s also going to be killer.

 

On Monday I’ll be taken to my new school, and they’ll set up my bank account and help me find a mobile phone.  Which, believe me, I’m really really feeling.   I guess having a mobile is a bit of a security blanket….  And then on Tues and Wed I’ll be observing classes.  On Thurs it seems I’ll actually be teaching….  Which is a little scary… but I can do this!!! (pep talk..)

 

The internet situation here is rather intermittent, so although I want to email everyone, it looks like I wont have the chance.  I really sorry!!!  I’ll also try to upload some photos to my flickr, but I really can’t promise anything….  We’ll see how it all goes.


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