Day 40 in Japan - First class!

Today I am really tired, so I will have my first dot point laziness.

Waiting for the bus at Shimizu.

The rice paddies are starting to change from green to brown.

- Was at Shimizu HS, my visit school
- Bus craziness on the way there - really packed small bus, kept packing more people on. There was one poor high school student who was in a wheelchair, and a lot of the other commuters rolled their eyes and were openly hostile towards her difference and the fact that she needed more room and help to get up the stairs. It mad me really sad.
- I HAD MY FIRST CLASS! They were a bunch of 23 third year students (17-18 year olds). They were reasonably interested, but talked and were a little hard to control. Only got half way through the plans. Eeeek! That's OK for this group, because I will see them twice a week, and they are my only third years, so we can just do the rest of the lesson on Monday, but doesn't bode well for the first year classes, which I definitely only have 1 week with.
- Rest of day was planning lessons for the third year "English and Culture" class with the lovely teacher - she is the most interested in lesson planning I have met so far, and actually wants to work on classes together! Makes me feel like these classes will be a bit fun, unlike the first year classes at Shimizu, which I am dreading.
- On the way home from the train station, I saw a bunch of students from Akashi Kita (my main school) riding back to the train station. Their eyes almost popped out of the head when they saw me outside of school. There was a lot of riding past me on their bikes, and then calling out HELLO when they remembered the word, or thought that it meant I wouldn't talk back to them.
- We had dinner in Akashi with Johnna's (my predecessor - the girl who did the job here before I did) friend from Awaji Island. Her name is Lana, and she laughs like the Nanny. She is lovely and relaxed and speaks brilliant Japanese (seriously, she was studying for JLPT level 1 - and doing a translation course!). She is a second year, and a nice counterpoint to most of us first years - we all run around like we have timers over our heads trying to fit in all of the sightseeing, drinking, talking and visiting we can, while Lana is happy to spend a week just watching TV if that's what she wants to do. She was really calm and lovely, so I hope I get to meet her again.

The rice is almost ready to harvest - summer
is over (although the heat is still here).

Food Highlight of the day: HAS to be grate-your-own-wasabi from the zaru soba (cold buckwheat noodle) place we went to for dinner. It was cool - they gave you the wasabi root and a little special grater, and you could go to town! Afterwards you got to keep your leftover wasabi in a little bag to take home.