Today I rode Sam’s bike to work at Akashikita. It was nice to have gears again, even though I can never remember if I should be shifting up or down for hills. Sorted that out after a few hundred metres and coasted upwards to school. His bike is a folding bike (which we don’t know how to fold), so the tyres are a bit smaller, so I was even wobblier than usual – it was almost Bri-runs-into-gutter day. But not yet. I will take photos when it happens, I promise.
I showed my first lesson plans to some of the first year teachers today, because a few of them are back from holidays. They were very happy with them, which helps to alleviate my nerves about 0.0001%. I won’t know what I’m in for until I start teaching, I think. But I have my first weeks lessons all done (self-introduction with lots of pictures of home and Australia), and my first week or two after that plotted as well. Now I just have to start the actual teaching to see if they are appropriate at all. I also learned about the fun of bureaucracy in another language – I am off to the Hyogo Board of Education Preferectural Orientation (better know as “prison”) tomorrow, and today I learned that I need to fill out forms whenever I have to leave the school. Oh boy, I thought pointless forms were fun when I could understand the information they wanted! I filled out the form about 10 times with a new mistake each time. They wanted all kinds of bits of info that I thought were totally pointless, but forms are forms and rules are rules and I was nicely informed that I just plain old had to do it. Again. Now stamp over where you crossed that out. No, write that in Kanji, please. No, you only circle that if you are going to come to school and then go on to… you get the idea. Needed a coffee trip to the vending machine mid-form.
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| Beauty, burgerified. |
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| Look at the love in my eyes. And mouth. |
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| Note: Sam double fisting drinks after riding up hill. |
After work, Sam and I headed on a very, very exciting trip – I found out today that there is a MOS Burger right near our house! MOS Burger is a Japanese burger chain, and I have heard a lot about how good the burgers are. Today I was putting together a worksheet on describing food, and after looking at my 50th clip art picture of a cheeseburger, I developed quite a craving. So we hopped on our bikes and slogged our way up hills for about 20 minutes to earn the burgers and fries. This was made slightly harder for me because I got my key chain caught against my tyre without realising it, and have horribly mutilated my poor Mario Propeller Mushroom. And they were so worth it! I’m not 100% sure if Sam agrees, but my Mos cheeseburger was fantastic! A deliciously different sauce with real meat and onion and the best chips I’ve had in Japan (including the breakfast chips we got at the Tokyo Orientation). Sam accidentally ordered a rice burger, which was a little smaller than he had hoped for, but turned out to be completely delicious. Will definitely be going back to MOS Burger next time we have a fast food craving.
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| Poor Propeller Mushroom. He never had a chance to fly. |
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| How much is that puppy in the window? |
Also checked out the shops in the vicinity, as it was the first time Sam had been up this far north (it’s where I went to the sushi train with Ito-sensei a week or so ago). Wandered through a big hyaku-en store where I happily found some new brake pads to fix my bike, a big electronics store, and looked at the puppies in a big department store. That’s right a department store that sells puppies. They are a bit sad looking all cooped up alone in the little glass cages. Eventually we wandered into a Soft Bank (mobile phone company) store to get a quote on an iPhone 4. Met a totally lovely girl working there (Mai), who we ended up swapping email addresses with. Long story short: iPhone is a totally sweet deal, and I will not be able to resist it’s beautiful display. Will be a 3 week wait, and about $600, but I will happily pay that to know where I am! MAPS HERE I COME! In three weeks. Or four.
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| It was a beautiful sunset over the carpark. |
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| Hyaku-en stores have the best (and most brutally honest) Engrish. |
The trip home was interesting. Uphill all the way there means downhill all the way home. I would normally welcome gravity into my life under these circumstances, but remember how I said above that my brakes aren’t that great? I squealed my way down the hill for about 15 minutes. It was a horrible sound, and I attracted a lot of looks. It really sounded a little bit like a girl screaming for a while there. The worrying thing is that these are my back brakes, which I think are OK, and I don’t have any idea how to fix. If I never update again, the brakes failed on me at a bad time.
Food highlight of the day: MOS BURGER, BABY! Cheeseburger set FTW!
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