Class act

Last night I got myself in George the Publican`s bed. Being a gentleman, he was on a mattress in the living room. It`s another nice apartment. I may be tempted to look into getting myself a place of my own once I learn to control my spending. I am currently embracing the rabid consumerism of Japan with an ardent fervour I never believed myself capable of.

Teaching is going OK, although I was late for the second Saturday running and so my ADoS called to warn me I was in for a telling off from the DoS. I don`t think flukily beating him at darts in the George last night has helped my cause, nor did yelping with glee when Tottenham scored against his team last night. Oh well. I`ll just have to take it on the chin and use my insomnia to get me to school on time (I seriously could have been there yesterday, I woke up at 5am and was dancing around my apartment thinking I needed to get there for 10.30, when that was actually the time the lesson started and I had to do my prep while I had my girls drilling their names and ages with a beachball!

Here is a picture of one of my classes. I would tell you their names, but I don`t really remember there. There`s a Minaka, I think (the girl next to the boys, she`s already getting into the swing of things) and the girl on the end is Saki. She`s incredibly shy, but adorable. There might be a Ryosuke in there and a Mako or two. I teach lots of Makos.

Today Karen and I are going to Kawagoe to see Steven`s apartment and maybe see some temples. I don`t feel I`ve done much culturally yet, which blunts the feeling of being away from home. I don`t really feel like I live in Japan, particularly as I spend way too much time in the gaijin pub, which is shameful, but I have my small crush on George and his music is amazing. I also managed to get slaughtered last night, even though the money had run out.

The beautiful thing about the Japanese is that they take a kamikaze approach to drinking (much like myself), but can`t handle it. So last night they were stacking up shots, then unable to finish them, so passing them to the dustbin to deal with. I ended up quite a mess, but would have been more embarrassing than it was (being led to George`s by the hand as I couldn`t be trusted to find my own way home, then passing out and probably keeping him awake all night snoring - the walls are far too thin here and it makes me shudder to just think about it!) had I not met a sweet, drunk girl called Erico who was challenging George to drink tequila, then threw up and passed out in the toilet. She`s my first real Japanese friend. I can see us having lots of fun together. I must call her today to check she`s still alive.

Wednesday I have a date with an American called Uriah. I don`t fancy him at all, so we`ll have to deal with that on the day, but I like the idea of being taken out for ice cream and he`s going to show me around some decent clubs.