Shaking all over

Rainy season has started, it`s already noticeably cooler in three weeks. When I arrived, Saitama`s weather rivalled the best of British summers and I found myself yearning to get into a bikini when I should have been concentrating on my training (although I still think this was a token gesture to get us out of our jetlag and into a routine - my memory of that week is similar to that of my leaving do, virtually non-existant). It rains perpetually, which explains why umbrellas are available at a throwaway ￥5oo. There`s still a more bearable humidity, but the sky has shifted from uplifting bright blues to an overcast nothingness. I await December, when I am told I will be able to see Mount Fuji clearly from the platform of Shin-Sharaoka, home of one of my worst schools and possibly just a lie to get me through the first couple of months.

I await the typhoons which will soon be upon us, but can already tick earthquakes off my Japanese experiences list. Friday night I was lying in bed and felt rattled by a speeding freight train, only after 2o or so seconds of rocking did I realise it was not a train (I`m five minutes from the tracks, so it would have had to have been a very big, very fast one!), but a tremor. It was an odd sensation, I could feel gravity pulling me to either side. Fortunately, it was a very small one. Sunday, I went to Koshigaya to watch a Shane five-a-side game (laughably ruined by a local kid I encouraged onto one of the teams who scored an own golden goal within 30 seconds of extra time) and experienced a slightly bigger tremor. This time the quake was clearly visible, puddles rippled and splashed and trees and posts swayed. It was quite an enjoyable way to experience it though - being outside and in the company of others felt far safer than being tucked up in my futon, under a heavy air conditioning unit. I have since moved my mattress, although that is more to do with the draft than sense and safety.

School is going well, although it really isn`t like the CELTA. After having it drummed into me that I should always set the tape counter to make it easier to rewind during lessons, Shane have just not bothered buying tape players with counters, so a considerable part of my efforts are spent trying to disguise locating the next transcript. It is generally easier, although today I have my first observation and it`s with a group of young kids, so I should theoretically be leaping about. I am not sure I am quite capable of doing that with an adult audience just yet...

I have been given a dairy from one of my afternoon ladies, Yukiko, which she wants me to check in English. It feels like prying, but is quite amusing (aside from several months referring to a bicycle accident and wound that would not heal). It refers to her previous teacher mentioning when he met me and also the class not wanting him to leave them - he is just transferring schools, so the students (jokingly, I hope!) considered switching days to stay with him - he`s been here for seven years, so I guess it`s reasonable for them to be so attached. The class were apparently very nervous about meeting me, which isn`t surprising given some of the humourless losers they could have landed, but were pleasantly taken with the `tall and smart` lady who `seemed as if she was a fairy` to them! I felt quite bad correcting that sentence...

I picked up my gaijin card and now have a fantastic new phone - it`s enormous, but has a 1.92 pixel camera and does all sorts of magic that I have no idea about yet. I am still playing and discovering. On Friday I have to tackle the bank to set up an account. I may suggest Karen and I do this together so we can mime it out together somehow. Getting the phone wasn`t easy and I had to have someone who looked like a security guard translate, which took some doing - I asked if anyone spoke English and was just told no, so had to mime `does anyone else` for a few minutes before he arrived. I still wonder if it was the success of my gestures or their urge to get rid of the weird gaijin that led to them getting him for me. Either way, it was better than Karen, who had to converse through a superior model phone with a Japanese-English translater on it.

Saturday I had a Make Up lesson with a bear cub, so I had two three years old to play with. Maica was beautiful and I hope her mother thinks I`m such a good teacher that I get her again and again. She was so adorable. Hijiri, who I normally have at that time, is also very cute, but just not quite as cute! She charges around and leaps on things and has really taken to the Slap game! Maica did cry when she slipped on the play mate, but then picked herself up and threw herself at the walls just as hard as before, yelping with glee. I had never imagined a politics degree would lead to me singing `Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes` for a living.

I am coming to terms with Japanese `recycling`. Everything has a particular bin and all bins need to be emptied on a particular day. This is facistically enforced, which was initially quite warming, but the categories rubbish needs to be sorted into are burnable and unburnable... I occasionally slip something burnable into the unburnable and hope that I don`t contaminate the landfill site.

It`s election time and on Sunday I was awoken at 7.55 by a candidate electioneering. They drive around with megaphones begging for votes. I don`t care who he is, he is not having mine. He did get me up and give me plenty of time to see Steve and the Koshigaya teachers playing five-a-side, although I was apparently also supposed to play. I couldn`t, alas, as my PE kit is sailing over the ocean. I will definitely play next time, and not wear perishable shoes... On the way back, rather heading back to my empty box, I popped into the George for a lime and soda. The richest man in Omiya was celebrating a family birthday there and his wife came to the bar to get drinks and pointed me out to George, telling him I was `very beautiful`. He politely agreed, so she suggested marriage. Match-making is a national pasttime. My afternoon ladies all want me to date their unpaired sons and every student I have is obsessed with my marital status. Drilling `single` is becoming quite pitiful.

Last night Karen and I entered the George quiz and, although it was a fairly disappointing turnout (four teams), we won! A crate of beer for ￥500, bargainous!　It was a logistical struggle getting it from the George, through Omiya station and home, but we managed somehow, often egged on by drunken Salarymen.