Your weekly weather update

Hellohowareyou?Finethankshowareyou.  Oops, sorry, got carried away there - standard Japanese child's phrase... Hello.  Stop there...

Hmm... Jeff took a look at my blog and commented that I always seem to be telling you about the weather.  Well, I could tell you it's because I'm trying to fit in here - the weather is the first thing any Japanese talks about.  But I guess it's mainly because it really shows the passing of time here.  I mean, in Hamilton you had a fluctuation of maybe 25 degrees over the year.  Here we have had more fluctuation than that in the space of a month!  Yes, on Wednesday I went for a run and there was FROST.  I know winter will be really cold, but I was enjoying autumn and don't want it to race away and get cold too fast!  (I say this sitting under a blanket, wearing a longsleeved merino and big sweatshirt while contemplating getting gloves...)  Last night on the drive home is was 2 degrees at about 11pm, so I'm sure it would have his zero again last night.  At least the sun is out now and it's a beautiful day, so I should go sit outside and soak up some vitamin D (that's the right one, isn't it?).

Umm... in other news...  Oh yes, Kate is coming to visit me!  My boss is going to take a holiday so Kate is going to come and cover for him!  I'm so excited to show her round my little patch of Japan!  I only wish Jeff and I could afford to travel with her, but we are going to Okinawa for Christmas and have my parents visiting in March, so we can't afford to do EVERYTHING.  Not when we are effectively running on one salary.  I feel a little... not worried for her, but maybe anxious for her, trying to travel without us or even a rudimentary knowledge of Japanese or how Japan works.  But I keep reminding myself that her experience will be very different from ours.  We live in an area where a Japanese woman came up to us at the supermarket, asking if we were 'Diane's friends' - she assumed that as we were white we must be friends with her neighbour Diane.  And of course, although not 'friends', we knew of this Diane.  So when English-speaking people are so few in our area, it's no wonder there is not much English spoken.  Whereas we will be sending Kate off to big tourist mecca's, where there will be English signage and English-speakers in information centres.  She will probably leave Japan wondering what we've been complaining about! 

Other than that, things are looking good for getting my JET application together.  My referees have been awesomely fast and have my references in the mail as I write.  The only big thing is I need a JP signed copy of my passport - and of course they don't have 'JP's as such in Japan.  So I asked about who I could get to sign it instead - thinking a principal or someone at Jeff's Board of Education might be able to do it.  And apparently the NZ Embassy in Tokyo can do it.  Holy damn, that's not convenient!!!  I just hope I can post it, because Tokyo is not exactly local - taking a plane trip just to get some paperwork signed is fairly extreme!!  The other option is finding an NZ lawyer in Japan, but as discussed in the previous paragraph, English-speakers are pretty thin on the ground in our parts, so I don't like my chances of finding an NZ lawyer in the local vege store or rice paddy! 

So all please keep your fingers crossed for me that I can get this paperwork done WITHOUT flying to Tokyo!!  Hope you are all doing well and getting some sun.

Charly