Hey there,
My internet is working quite well atm so I thought I would take the opportunity to update y'all. As my internet is some random broadband that happens to be floating around my 'spare room', I can't really complain about the speed or inconsistency - instead just making the most of it when it's going well.
This is my second week at my new job in Tamashima, Kurashiki. I'm loving it - it's such a breath of fresh air after my last job. My boss is a chatty American woman who liked to horseride as a kid, so we get along like a house on fire (rather too well, chatting when we are supposed to be prepping lessons!). Her teaching philosophy and staff training methods are much more relaxed than my old boss; she believes that if I chat to the students in more complicated language than they understand it will prepare them for the next step up and she puts me in the soundproof room while I'm finding my feet, so I'm not selfconcious about her or parents following my teaching. Because I came on board quickly and am working within her timeframe, both my boss and her husband are bending over backwards to do anything they can to help me out, including not charging me rent and being relaxed about me taking off to the 7/11 for coffee or running home to put my laundry away when rain threatens! My new flat is great - a two bedroom place with a decent kitchen and lounge with couch and coffee table (there is a TV, but without fluent Japanese, it's no help to me!).
In the weekend Jeff came down to stay, so we could explore the local area. We found a mall about 20 mins away that is probably the biggest we have seen here and has all the useful shops we sometimes frequent (by 'useful' read Body Shop and Starbucks!!). We went on a hat hunt, because all Jeff's current caps give him a headache because they are too tight. To get the head size in proportion, in NZ Jeff bought a size L mens helmet and it fitted me nicely. So yes, he struggles to find hats (and yes, I shop in mens stores for mine!). We tried on every hat in the mall (well, it felt like it!) and we found not one, but TWO hats that fitted him. We also picked up the new Foo Fighters CD and I got a mens singlet from Uniqlo (the one store that has clothes with a hope in hell of fitting us). Although I can sometimes fit the womens stuff at Uniqlo, their cotton singlets are very tight and most have built in padded bras. As I have recently started to dress in a manner that best conceals my chest after a few embarrassing incidents with children, there is no way I'm squeezing into those tiny plentifully padded singlets (though I'm still blown away by the ten year old who reached out to admire my necklace, then casually pushed his hand into my chest while staring earnestly at the pendant. On one hand I want to slap him and on the other, I want to give him a hi five for his balls!).
Other than retail therapy, we went for a wander up to a garden/shrine/graveyard with a nice view over Tamashima and the harbour, ate some nice meals and spent rather more time than intended driving around losing and finding ourselves in Kurashiki.
I've surprised myself with having a better than usual sense of direction in this area, which I think is a sign that I'm MEANT to work down here (if JET offer me something too far away I may take this job permenantly rather than relinquishing it to the American woman intending to come in July). In Fukuyama, our closest city to home, I have a dreadful sense of direction - we only ever visit the same places and they involve a maximum of about two turns, but I still feel overwhelmed and confused when I have to drive there. I think the difference is the height of the buildings, all covered in huge signs with stylised Japanese writing.
Driving round in Japan makes me feel like I'm five again. I remember when I was first learning to read how tiring it was being driven round, because I automatically tried to read signs we passed, my brain trying to process the information as we shot past. Now it's the same - it does my head in trying to read all the Japanese writing fleetingly passing as we drive. What makes it worse is often it's kanji which a) I don't know and b) sometimes looks like one of the other two alphabets that I do know, so that I'm mentally putting in sounds then realising that actually it only LOOKS like that letter, it's actually something totally different. Sorry, if this sounds confusing, that's because it is.
Anyway, in Kurashiki the buildings aren't so tall and they are set further off the road, so I don't have these signs thrust in my face while I drive around, so I find it a much more peaceful place. Of course, it also helps heaps that there is a real SWIMMING BEACH just down the road. Swimming beaches are a rare commodity in Japan, as most places where the land meets the water are defined by a waist high concrete wall. My current theory is that it's to stop all the people falling out. However, a few kms from my apartment there is a swimming beach and, although it looks totally manmade, a beach is a beach and it calms me just knowing it's there. My plan is to go for a walk/run down there tomorrow before I go to the supermarket, but that depends on what time I get to bed (it's 11:41pm and I still have to do the dishes...).
Anyway, the plan while I live down here is for Jeff to visit me every second weekend, so we can make the most of exploring a new area, while I still get every second weekend at home to sleep in my own bed, talk to our hamster and check on my bean plants.
Hmm, it has just come to my attention that the internet has stopped working, so I'm going to try to get it going and post this before I lose it!
Bye,
Charly (& Jeff)
