When I woke up this morning, it was lightly raining, so I decided to walk to school instead of riding the bike (because I was worried about trying to manage a raincoat while riding after my poor effort last night). The walk (out the front door, left at the tabacco (タバコ)sign, right at the jinja (じんじゃ), left at the pharmacy, past the hospital, right at the CO-OP supermarket (スパア), left up the hill and then right into the street with Akashikita High school on it) took me about 45 minutes carrying my laptop, lunch and all the JET books. I got to school right on 8:15-8:20, 
which is on time for 8:30 in Japan. Kyoko-sensei (vice principal) showed me how to sign in of a morning (I got to use my namestamp – hanko – for the first time!), and how to fill in the leave sheet when I take time off. After a little while, Johnna came into the school – it was so nice to see her, and I think we talked each others ears off for a few hours. She left at midday, and I spent most of the afternoon looking at all kinds of lesson plans and materials that she had left in the desk. I talked to lots of other teachers today – they have been so friendly in coming to talk to me. I am particularly lucky with some of the first year teachers who are sitting around me! They speak very good English (particularly Ito-sensei no. 3 and Iwasaki-sensei), and I feel very lucky to be in such a good school. Johnna tells me my other school is not so good, and I will have some troubles with the students there. We went for a walk around the school and I took some photos of my new workplace. It’s so cool – it’s like I’m walking through a high school anime. At 4:45, Kyoko-sensei came up to me and said “Your job is over, go home”. He meant that my finishing time is 4:15! WOOHOO! I packed up and left pretty quickly after that. I went to the CO-OP store on the way home – it’s pretty cool. On the bottom floor is a big grocery store, and on the top floor there are lots of homewares. I checked out the prices of futons, because Sam and I will need one each. They are nice and cheap – less than 5000 yen. I decided it would be better to wait for me to have my point card on me to buy a big purchase, and also that it would be nice to have Sam to help me carry it home. We can go on Saturday morning. The most exciting part about my trip to the CO-OP was that I made a new friend! A lady saw me looking like a lost gaijin and said hello in English. Turns out that she has visited Australia and speaks decent English. After we chatted for a while, she pointed me towards the bedding, and we parted ways. Later on, she came back up to me with her husband and all of her details written on a piece of 
paper to invite me to go around to their place for lunch one day. I HAVE A TOMODOACHI-SAN! They were both lovely, and I will go to their house some day next weekend, I think. I bought a pillow and a folding couch thing, and then came home. I got back at about 6:30, and then was lucky enough to get phone calls from Lovey, Mum, Fletch, Sam and even Mrs. Pearman! I talked to everyone for about 2 hours all up and I felt absolutely fantastic afterwards. Even though I did manage to break a glass door in my house already. I negotiated the washing machine to get my first load done (phew), and sorted all my rubbish into burnable, non-burnable and paper/cardboard for recycling. The burnable trash will go out tomorrow morning – I hope I have done it right. Feeling somewhere between happy and a bit stunned and numb tonight. I will go and have a shower and get to bed now – early-ish night because I feel so totally wiped out! I think it’s the heat – it’s still very hot and humid, and now the light breeze that was making it bearable has abandoned me.
which is on time for 8:30 in Japan. Kyoko-sensei (vice principal) showed me how to sign in of a morning (I got to use my namestamp – hanko – for the first time!), and how to fill in the leave sheet when I take time off. After a little while, Johnna came into the school – it was so nice to see her, and I think we talked each others ears off for a few hours. She left at midday, and I spent most of the afternoon looking at all kinds of lesson plans and materials that she had left in the desk. I talked to lots of other teachers today – they have been so friendly in coming to talk to me. I am particularly lucky with some of the first year teachers who are sitting around me! They speak very good English (particularly Ito-sensei no. 3 and Iwasaki-sensei), and I feel very lucky to be in such a good school. Johnna tells me my other school is not so good, and I will have some troubles with the students there. We went for a walk around the school and I took some photos of my new workplace. It’s so cool – it’s like I’m walking through a high school anime. At 4:45, Kyoko-sensei came up to me and said “Your job is over, go home”. He meant that my finishing time is 4:15! WOOHOO! I packed up and left pretty quickly after that. I went to the CO-OP store on the way home – it’s pretty cool. On the bottom floor is a big grocery store, and on the top floor there are lots of homewares. I checked out the prices of futons, because Sam and I will need one each. They are nice and cheap – less than 5000 yen. I decided it would be better to wait for me to have my point card on me to buy a big purchase, and also that it would be nice to have Sam to help me carry it home. We can go on Saturday morning. The most exciting part about my trip to the CO-OP was that I made a new friend! A lady saw me looking like a lost gaijin and said hello in English. Turns out that she has visited Australia and speaks decent English. After we chatted for a while, she pointed me towards the bedding, and we parted ways. Later on, she came back up to me with her husband and all of her details written on a piece of 
paper to invite me to go around to their place for lunch one day. I HAVE A TOMODOACHI-SAN! They were both lovely, and I will go to their house some day next weekend, I think. I bought a pillow and a folding couch thing, and then came home. I got back at about 6:30, and then was lucky enough to get phone calls from Lovey, Mum, Fletch, Sam and even Mrs. Pearman! I talked to everyone for about 2 hours all up and I felt absolutely fantastic afterwards. Even though I did manage to break a glass door in my house already. I negotiated the washing machine to get my first load done (phew), and sorted all my rubbish into burnable, non-burnable and paper/cardboard for recycling. The burnable trash will go out tomorrow morning – I hope I have done it right. Feeling somewhere between happy and a bit stunned and numb tonight. I will go and have a shower and get to bed now – early-ish night because I feel so totally wiped out! I think it’s the heat – it’s still very hot and humid, and now the light breeze that was making it bearable has abandoned me.Food highlight of the day: Huge Japanese bread sandwiches. The only bread I could find in the supermarket was about an inch thick, which makes for a pretty epic peanut butter sandwich for lunch.
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