Day 69 in Japan - Don't make a 69 joke, Brianna.

FRIDAY!! Need I say more? Well, yeah, I guess that's kid of the point of a blog, so here I go.

Great classes! And after school, there was an assembly. The principal gave a fairly nice speech about togetherness, and being an ex-chemistry teacher, he demonstrate "togetherness" with a small explosion ("this chemical alone does nothing, and this chemical alone does nothing, but when we mix them and use this candle... BOOM"). Then a bunch of kids got awards for doing stuff well with their clubs. And then came the amusing part - the Head of Student Discipline gave a "short" speech about what the kids should and shouldn't be doing. 50 minutes later, all of the kids and half of the teachers were asleep, and even the principal had found a chair to doze in (Japanese assemblies are run with the kids sitting on the floor, so if you want to sit, it normally has to be on the floor). The funniest part was that the Head of Student Discipline is a P.E. teacher, and apparently P.E. teachers talk the same all over the world. He had the short clipped words, the barking voice, and the fleck of spit in the corner of his mouth that I remember so well from my high school years. No one even had to tell me that he was a P.E. teacher (although I did confirm it just to be sure), and I could barely stop giggling, at least for the first 20 minutes or so of ranting. One of the funny things about lining up all of the kids so neatly in their class lines is that they have nice convenient places to rest their heads as long as they are on reasonable terms with the person sitting in front of them - all of the boys up the back formed their own sleepy conga lines (or human centipedes?) with their heads resting on the backs of the boys in front of them. It was quite cute.

Good ESS club - Show and Tell, club planning and speech practise kept me there a bit late, but it was good anyway. And then I was out the door TO INFINITY AND BEYOND THE PUB!

The view from the front gate of Akashikita High School at 5:48 pm.

That's right - Sam and I decided to get ourselves some Friday evening pub action. Pubs in Japan are called izakayas, and they are pretty much alcohol and snack places - you always eat snacks with your drinks. I reckon they would work brilliantly in Australia, because you get your own table with your friends, you can hear each other talk, no terrible loud music, no popped collars, and all of the fried food that your large and cheap beers leave room for. It was a good night, in case you aren't getting that from the tone of my writing here.

Mochi (sticky rice paste) in bacon

Cheese in bacon (yes, this is dinner, what's your  point?)

How many deep-fried camembert triangles did you eat, Sam?

Oh yes. I approve. Very definitely.

How's the beer, Sam? (click on this one)

After the izakaya, Sam and I went to karaoke, with a short stop at the supermarket en route for some cookies (izakaya's don't really do dessert). After 2 hours of angelic singing, the two longnecks of Asahi we had each at the izakaya had worn off enough for us to want to go home, which was only a 10 minutes walk away - a great Friday night in our great suburb!

Who can pick the song? 

Food Highlight of the Day: CHEESE wrapped in bacon and then fried. How do they keep the cheese solid? Truly, a Japanese trade secret to rival the ancient art of high quality steelmaking.