yamaonna

 Hey there everyone!

Its been a month and a day since arriving here in Japan, so its probably about time I wrote you all an update, yes??  🙂

Well, starting from the start, I touched down in Tokyo late November 1st, with my flight over being hassle-free and business class all the way (horay!).  I stayed with Christina for the first few nights before going to training, and it was really great to see her since I wanst able to go to her wedding in Hawaii on Thanksgiving.

I had to make my way to the training center in Omiya for AEON on that friday, however our training didnt start until Saturday morning.  So, that friday afternoon I spent wandering around Omiya.  Omiya is actually where my friend Rikas parents live, so Im somewhat familiar with the area.  Theres a pretty big shrine there, and being that it
was Shichi Go San (7, 5, 3) day, there were heaps of families at the shrine getting blessed in traditional clothes.  On that day you are supposed to take children of those ages to the shrine, so it can be pretty cute.

The next week and a little was spent at training.  It was pretty full on in some respects, but actually a lot easier than the training I had with NOVA previously.  Or maybe it was because I was more experienced…  The hardest thing about the whole week would have had to been the fact we were 10 people living in the training facility. We had 5 americans, 2 canadians, and 3 aussies.  Although we wernt supposed to bring grog into the facility, the majority of the others did, and ended up staying up until really really late in the evening. Or should I say morning.  Needless to say, this really really didnt agree with me, but what can you do.

We did have the first sunday off, and then the second weekend.  On the first Saturday, Brooke (another aussie) and me went to Asakusa, which has one of the most famous temples in Japan there.  Its one of my
favourite places to go in Tokyo because you can buy really fresh traditional japanese foods there.  On the second weekend I really didnt do much because we went to karaoke on friday night to celebrate finishing training, and that sort of knocked be about.  Never again will I go to karaoke with a bunch of smokers..  Not very pleasant at
all….  trying to sing in a room full of smokers.

But dont let me give you the wrong impression of my training group, they are a bunch of great people, i just personally dont like to party every night.  And I have made some great friends from training!  Most of us live in Tokyo, so its pretty easy to catch up, not that Ive had the chance yet to, unfortunately.

On Monday the 13th I was off to my branch school to start work.  For the first week there they had to put me in a hotel, since there was an overlap with the girl I was replacing.  But the manager was very organised and that monday we went and did all the paperwork for my id card and bank, and even got my mobile phone.  Other people from training are still waiting!

I started at the school on the tuesday, and for the first few days I was just observing classes, which was nice, but pretty boring.  By Saturday I was teaching full adult lessons, and part kids lessons.

My school (AEON Hikarigaoka) is pretty big.  Theres 3 other foreign teachers (from the US), and 7 japanese teachers, on top of the office staff.  And for students we have about 250 adult students, and over 400 kids students.

Im really enjoying teaching with AEON so far.  The lessons are well structured and the text books are interesting.  Im still finding my feet with kids classes, but once I learn a few more games and get to know my students Im sure ill feel more comfortable.  I work tuedays to fridays from either midday or 1 until 9 in the evening, and on saturdays I work from 10 to 7pm.  But we get plenty of breaks, and we have some other duties which are pretty varied, so it hasnt been boring so far.

Now, back to where we were…  On Monday the 20th I finally moved into my apartment (and believe me, that was an effort….)  And since then I have been putting most of my efforts into just settling in.  The
girl who lived there before left it in a pretty big mess, so Ive spent a lot of time cleaning.  Hopefully by tomorrow evening Ill finally have everything clean to my standards.  Oh, and unfortunately I also caught a cold, which zapped my energy for about a week and a half. Today is actually the first day in a while that ive felt up to speed. (But it wasnt a bad cold)

So between cleaning and sleeping I cant say Ive been up to much.  Ive been into Shinjuku and Ikebukuro a couple of times to do a little shopping and to meet up with people…  Funny thing is that one of my friends (Peter) happens to only be living 2 stations away from me, so we`ve managed to catch up a few times.  Also went out for dinner tonight with some of the girls from work.  The great thing about the station I work at is there are heaps of restaurants around it.  We had Korean tonight and it was pretty good.

Hopefully now with being almost fully settled Ill be able to get out more and do things.  And I`ll have the internet at home from tuesday, so you might be able to see me online more often!