Day 26 in Japan - Jailhouse Rock

We were woken up by some very peaceful music played over the PA at about 7 am, followed by the less peaceful “I Like to Move It”. Very funny, but the humour was probably dulled a little by the hour. The bed and shower are actually a little better at Yashiro than mine are at home, so I had a decent sleep and wash.

There were lots more talks today, which were mostly more focussed on the teaching part of the job. I’m pretty nervous about that, so I was trying to pay attention and absorb as much as I could. Science conferences have been really good training for this – not quite enough sleep, slightly hung over and long sessions trying to stay awake and take in information which is a little dry and hard to understand.

The food at Yashiro has actually been pretty decent. Bacon and egg rolls for breakfast and Japanese-style lunch and dinner. After all the talks, we pretty much followed suit from yesterday – headed to the conbini for icecreams and beer, and then to dinner.

The only thing outside of the BoE headquarters in
Yashiro that I actually explored - the conbini.

Lots of nice people met, and I am happy to be in a group of mostly (almost all) fantastic people. Not at all what I thought others might be like after watching JET video. Good senses of humour on lots of people here, and obviously everyone is pretty educated and adventurous and nice.

Arjan and Andrew - my friendly neighbourhood Perth guys.

Rob, the fantastic Londoner.

Jodie, the new love of my life.

Not too much action for the rest of the day, other than drinking 1 L cans of Asahi (modelled in the photo below by Dan – although his giant man hands almost make the can look small) and talking a lot of crap. By the evening, it started to get a little bit Rage Against the Machine – a little bit “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me”, but we all mostly did what we were told and went to bed at the lights out time. A few of the girls went for sexy shower time – went to the shared bath to have a more traditional soak in Japanese-style Asahi baths, but I was too chicken. By the end of the year, I will do it, I promise, but public nudity is still a little too scary for me.

Dan and the can.

Food highlight of the day: 1 L cans of are pretty hard to top, but fries for breakfast still make me laugh, so they deserve an honourable mention as well.