In the Flowers

(left and right; sakura!, middle; sake!)

Pretty sure I've eaten an entire wheel of Camembert in two days. This was a culmination of a lengthy search through a supermarket for Ritz crackers. I met two Americans in-store and although they doubted my chances I was victorious. This supermarket trip was of course on the tail end of my search for a wifi connection due to mine mysteriously disappearing (which I believe turned out to be a problem with my laptop and not the wifi as it's baaaack). The Americans and I struck up conversation as we were all obviously foreigners (Imagine if two oranges found themselves next to each others in a giant barrel of ants). They were very nice and although they work for a different company they're ALTs AND they also they also happen to live in my area! We exchanged names for Facebook etc. as I still don't have a phone and I hope to catch up with them once I move in which will save me a half an hour drive to go see people which is still a hassle as I have not yet moved into my apartment... BUT there is news about when I'll be moving in...

...

...This weekend I've been told! Apparently it took so long because they were cleaning the place up but I think that should be translated as 'woops we forgot about it - I'll dash in there sometime during the week and pick up all those small bits of rubbish that people never bother to pick up like the part of the chopstick wrapper that you tear off and then it'll be good as new!'. But still, it'll be my place and that's just awesome.

School is still going quite well! As of today I have gotten through my awkward forced 10 minute introduction of myself to every. single. class in the school except 3 of the 1st year classes as they just can't understand me and neither can the English teacher so it's easier not to bother. The classes are getting better and better as the students are starting to speak up more and have some more fun even though most can't understand a hefty portion of what I'm saying. There is one student that has been doing several peculiar things which I hope is because I'm the new thing and nothing more but the rest all still giggle and say hello as I walk through the halls. Some Americans have come to the school as part of a sister city type program. Bato uses the kanji of horse and head and the students come from a place called Horseheads in New York. GET IT?! Well I wonder if the American students did as they never actually learnt Japanese in highschool but I think they're managing. I taught English to one of them yesterday... cheater.



(I'm not 100% if this is my school but it looks very, very similar to this. Schools don't like you to take photos of the children or the school so I had to scour the internet for this and it says this is a school in Bato and Bato isn't very big so...)

I've started to have lunch with the students now which is part of my job as an ALT but it's kind of difficult when there's such a language barrier. At the moment I'm in 2-1 and the kids are all really nice and I must admit they have music playing in the background so no one really talks anyway but I feel like I should. The school lunch today was interesting as not only was it a hotdog (+ extras) but it was to be eaten with a FORK! I should explain the school lunches briefly; there is a bowl of something hot whether it be stew, noodles, soup or whatever but it's the only hot componenet of the lunch. The carb component is either a container of rice or a big bread roll, I'm sure it could be more but I've only have 3 so far. There is a small carton of milk which is overly sweet and reminds of 'malk' (now with vitamin R), a salad of some sort, something sweet and then something that should be hot but isn't - for example, cold gyouza, a cold croquette and today... a cold hot dog. It sounds gross but there's usually something wierd saucewise to put over the top to change the flavour completely so it's usually pretty good. The whole lunch is actually quite tasty despite my dismal descriptions and it's a nifty way to try new foods so for $50 a month it's not bad at all!

After period 6 we often have cleaning which I know I've mentioned before but I found a clip that describes how I view it and the person sweeping is pretty much my contribution.

But onto Hanami! I was stressing before last weekend as I hadn't done (Seen? Been to? Experienced?) Hanami yet and as I might miss it year I could miss it FOREVER so I was happy when someone bothered to organise something and even though it was about 3 train transfers away it was worth it as it was with the Gunma people that I met in my otherwise disappointing trip to Gunma earlier in the month. Worth it now huh? It was at a really nice park that had food stalls, a ferris wheel, a roller coaster and pretty much anything you could need to have a good time. I drank sake and eventually some chamisul but I didn't drink more than a certain member of our group who passed out or another that ended up crying for 20 minutes over the passed out member.

So the day was pretty much spent sitting around enjoying the sights and the food/drink, followed by a few rides, followed by karaoke and then the next day we hung out at a mall and got lunch etc. I really like the Gunma peeps so I'll be sure to visit them again. Possibly this weekend as they're holding Hanami again but I'll be moving in so it's probably best not to. I'll have to force them to come to Otawara and stay at my place. It's big enough!

I'm going to the second school I'll be teaching at on Thursday so I'll let everyone know how that goes but even if it's crap I'm still loving Bato JHS and I'm there most of the time so it'll be alright! My next blog might cover my new apartment and the new school. How does that sound?