Where do I start?? It's been over two weeks!
I believe that on the night (Saturday, the 9th) of my last post, Hiromi and I skyped my buddies in Australia (Ashley, Dylan, Kain and Mitchell). It was quite an amusing catch-up once Skype decided to behave! The last thing I recall was drinking the last three shots of my Absinthe and promptly passing out. Hiromi described me as a Zombie, as all I could do was groan!
Before all of this happened, we had a second birthday celebration for Hiromi with a bunch of her friends in Dan (another place in Noborito).
The next day brought us a great deal of pizza of the likes I had never seen! This pizza had these little sausage things instead of a crust! We ate it as we talked to Kame and Kim over skype. I can recall that at some point during this week; Hiromi's mum arrived to stay with her, so Hiromi was obliged to go back home that day.
Monday, I went to the real-estate agent to try iron things out money-wise. We found an apartment in Noborito (in which I am currently sitting), which is just massive (especially for a Japanese apartment) and I believe to be only 2 years old. Hiromi and I went to Moco that night for drinks.
Tuesday was the beginning of my training with the new company. I met my training buddy Tov and my main trainer Andy. I'm always nervous during training for anything and was particuarly nervous on this day. Hiromi and I met up at Dan with her friends that night.
Wednesday, I met the other trainer, William. I felt alot more relaxed on this day. I believe Tov and I went for lunch at an Izakaya of sorts. That night, I met up with Joy in Moco and we chatted for a while. After which, Hiromi joined us and we all drank.
Thursday was the last day of training. Tov and I had to go for a medical check-up. This was my first time to have ever pissed in a cup. But, it was my first time in a Japanese hospital and therefore somewhat interesting. Tov and I went to an excellent Indian restaurant for lunch.
I honestly can't recall what I did on this night, musn't have been very significant.
PS All of my training was at Kannai station in Yokohama.
I spent the majority of Friday packing all of my stuff to be picked up by Kame in his truck (which I was very appreciative of!). I don't mind moving, but I hate packing, so I became quite inebriated in order to motivate myself whilst packing said contents of my old apartment. That night, Kame and I joined Matt, Joy, Bjorn and a couple of other occupants of Hell(o) House for some fire-cracker fun and drinking by the Tama River.
Saturday, I spent the morning cleaning the old apartment and packing the rest of the stuff that I needed. After which, I proceeded to the real-estate agent to pick up the keys and find out the details of all the facilities. Once in said apartment, I grabbed gyudon at a place down the street and met up with Joy where we drank beer at my apartment. Not long after this, I was surprised by Kim and Kame; who brought all of my stuff in the truck. Kim and Kame have given me sooo much stuff! This includes: three tables, a couch, a water-boiler (not a kettle), an old computer (which provided me a monitor for my dual-screen setup!), two lights, a guitar, a vaccuum cleaner and some other misc. stuff.
Hiromi joined us not long after. After this, I was decidedly exhausted and didn't want to move an inch. So, we all decided to have a mini-housewarming party which consisted of Me, Hiromi, Matt, Joy, Kim, Kame, Matsuura-san and Narita-san.
It turned out to be quite a good night with many a drinks, food and pizza.
- However, I discovered that my ex-girlfriend Fumie had died a week prior. I was quite upset! :-( I felt lucky that all of my friends were there to support me. I will have to go to the funeral next month.
I think the next day was quite uneventful. I believe I just enjoyed my new apartment and the wireless internet that I'm stealing temporarily until my new internet connection is installed along with digital cable set-top box.
So, now to introduce my new job. I am an assistant language teacher at a Junior High School in the Yokohama area (quite close to the Kawasaki area). This job is great! I'm treated like some kind of rock star and get plently of free time to read and study!
Monday was the first day. I did sweet FA as they were still having exams. I met the principals and the teachers and that was about it. They gave me an activity to design which didn't take long to do. After which, I just read my book.
That night, I met up with Kim and Hiromi at Moco.
Tuesday, also did sweet FA. However, that night was the first night in Hiromi's apartment! I couldn't believe it, finally!!! Nothing special to eat for dinner, just bentos.
Wednesday started off with my introduction to the entire school in the form of a video feed that was broadcast to TVs in every home room. I had my first lesson that day which went great. It was just an introductory lesson in which I provided activities about myself as well playing/singing songs with my guitar. I believe I played a game of kickball with some students at lunch time that day.
Adrian and I went out for karaoke at King of System in the evening and ordered nomihodai (all you can drink).
Continued my string of introduction lessons on Thursday, this time mixed in with some english teaching. Also began participating in music lessons, which was quite fun. Except when I sang "Hey Jude" with a class and became quite embaressed when I realised they were singing in a different key!
Another night drinking at Dan and then a new Izakaya-type place with Hiromi, Matsuura-san and Jun-chan. Enough said.
Friday was another day at my excellent new workplace. I started making more friends (discovering more people speak english than I realised!) with teachers and students. I've been called so many different names by students by this point; John, Johnny, Jeromy, Jake, Jamu (??), Jason...the list goes on!
I explored all the different clubs that day. And found myself becoming interested in the swimming, judo and kendo clubs.
This night was the start of a string of nights staying at Hiromi's apartment. Hiromi cooked another excellent meal, consisting of pasta, meat and vegetables.
Saturday was fantastic! My school held a festival celebrating it's 60th anniversary! Like all school shindigs, it started off a boring assembly (but for me, the boredom was increased since I couldn't understand most of what was being said). Afterwards, it was art time: all the students were required to make pictures of sea creatures. I just ran around all the classrooms asking the students what they were making and having small conversations in English. There were all kinds of japanese foods to buy at lunch and I thoroughly enjoyed them all! Then were the festivities. I spent most of my time in the assembly hall watching all the presentations. For music, there was the brass band, the choir and the PTA choir (All of whom were extremely impressive!) They also had sports presentations, science, drama, flower arrangement and tea ceremonies.
All of the 1st grade teachers held a welcoming party for me at an Izakaya in Kawasaki and it was really fun seeing all of these people getting drunk and loosening their tongues. The only drawback was, it only went for three hours!
I joined Hiromi back at her apartment and fell asleep quite quickly as (I may mentioned in previous entries) the past couple of months have been exhausting and my body clock was still adjusting to the new schedule.
Sunday brought us all Kim's Birthday BBQ down by the Tama River. Kame and I met early in the morning to get everything setup (I owed him for helping me move apartment). Soooo many people turned up for BBQ party and I found myself having conversations regarding teaching in high schools, operating systems, astrophysics, british culture, japanese festivities and a great variety of other discussions.
I laugh now as I look back on my drunken panicking to hurry in packing up everything so everyone could leave. A great portion of us went to karaoke in the evening.
I didn't have to work on Monday because I had gone to the festival on Saturday. So, I just sat in Hiromi's apartment eating, sleeping, watching TV and playing my DS. That night Hiromi cooked yet again another delicious meal, which I believe was Chinese. I think I went to sleep early again.
Yesterday was work as usual. Had a string of lessons. One of the teachers let me use his 12-string acoustic guitar, which sounded brilliant! I'm feeling more and more like a rock-star! LOL
Last night, Hiromi and I ventured back to my apartment. I slept early again, but I think I've finally caught up on all the sleep I've needed.
Today so far, I've updated the Platters website according to the change in product line-up, did some stuff on facebook and must have spent and hour and a half re-tracing my steps from the past 2 and a half weeks whilst writing up this blog!
This Saturday brings us the house-warming party, hope to see you all there!
On the entertainment side of things, I started playing Trauma Center: Under the Knife again and realised once more how freakin' hard it is. But, I've really gotten into Megaman ZX as of late, I think I'm about half-way through the game. I like it how it mingles a Megaman theme in with a Metroid/Castlevania RPG style layout.
Other than that, I plan to give Sim City DS a shot, maybe today.
I finished reading 'Dead Famous' by Ben Elton (which was a very funny, but gripping mystery) and will probably read some more of his books once I get through this pile of books sitting in my cabinet. I'm about half-way through reading 'Airframe' by Michael Crichton - riveting as usual.
Haven't been watching alot of TV as of late, but did get a copy of the first season of Let the Blood Run Free recently.
Loving the recent advent of CPS3 decryption and emulation.