Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Man, the woman next to me has so far walked into the office after every class today chanting the same old crap about the temperature (apparently it's cold). In Japanese it goes a bit like, "samui, samui, samui, samui, samui, samui". I feel like eating a giant chicken tandoori and then offering her some of my gastric warmth, saying "there you go love, that'll sort you out". Honestly, it really does get so repetitive sometimes, the way the Japanese mutter to themselves through nervous compulsion.

I've done little of interest to anybody this week so I'll not keep you reading for too long. I've got a backlog of chores to get out of the way: passport renewal, student loans deferral, flight to London to purchase, bills to pay, camping trip to prepare for, English club to go to, Aki's friends to meet later at some Izakaya (small restaurant) near Sakurano. I'm really looking forward to meeting some Japanese people tonight though. This week there is no Japanese club so meeting Aki's friends tonight will be good practice for me. I sometimes practise with the teachers in my office, but all they do is complain about the temperature.

The only flight I have found so far back to England is one that goes via Kuala Lumpur, which will take 20 hours. Now I don't want to do that so I'm going on a hunt for some more after work today. The 20 hour flight was a good price and all the rest, but I don't want an extra 8 hours on the plane. And yes, I'm back at English club as the only member who feels compelled to go these days. I'm only doing it because I feel guilty that nobody else bothers. I'm going to wait until the new ALTs come this summer, rope them into it and then discreetly free myself from the joys of eating onigiris on a Wednesday night.

So, myself, Aki, Gavin, Mark and Junayd, and little old Monte are going to Yagen Valley Shimokita this weekend (Sunday) for a couple of nights sleeping in tents. Yagen Valley is renowned for it's onsens, one of which I've already been to. The weather is looking good for Sunday, 50/50 for Monday and rainy for Tuesday, which is when we are planning on coming back. I only hope it will hold out for the full duration so I can climb Osorezan (the local mountain). I want to do it while I'm up there, and I think Junayd was expressing interest at the weekend as well.


That's it. I've got books to read!