Day 16 in Japan – Mo’ School Mo’ Problems

Today I had a surprise first day at Akashishimizu Senior High School. I had thought that I would not be going to my new school until Thursday, so when I got a phone call first thing this morning to tell me that my new school handler was on his way to pick me up I was really paranoid because I had holes in my socks (and I would have to change them in front of new people – bad first impression). Mizuno-sensei came to pick me up from school at 10 am and drove me to Akashishimizu (Akashi “pure water”). It’s near a suburb called Uozumi, which is one train stop away from our close train station Okubo. It will take me about an hour by public transport, or probably about 45 min by bike toget there, and I’ll be going on Mondays and Thursday to teach at this other school. I have 4-5 classes there each day and there will be one other ALT there called Deyi who I won’t really get to meet – she works on Wednesdays. I met a lot of new teachers there today, including the vice-principal who seems really nice and very friendly. Mizuno-sensei is a funny guy with good English, and he took me to a super sweet place for lunch. It was in Akashi, overlooked a beach and had a huge view back over the bridge. It also had an AQUARIUM FOR A TOILET. If you are a girl, that is.

Mizuno-sensei is one of the heads of the kendo club at Akashishimizu and he took me to see the kendo guys training – I saw them in the middle of jigeiko, and one of them was using jodan! Pretty cool stuff. He tells me that I am allowed to train with them, although I am a bit scared. Everything was a bit scary today, to tell you the truth. The world got a little bit bigger and the new territory came with a bunch of new names, new challenges and a lot more work.

Thankfully, Mizuno-sensei decided that I would be bored at work, so he took me home after work. My first early mark! I spent the afternoon getting more work done that I probably would at school anyway – started collating photos for my self-introduction.

Food highlight of the day: Today’s delicious dinner was yakisoba cooked by… ME! We bought some soba noodles and veggies and yakisoba sauce yesterday, and we made it up as we went along. Turned out brilliantly (with a bit of mayonnaise). Sam’s highlight was some delicious little caramel puddings – like crème brulee flavoured little gelatinous blobs of deliciousness.