Day 111 in Japan - The Arrival of the Anna

In school today, I had 4 periods of teaching straight, followed by a lunchtime ESS club planning session, followed by another class. That is just under 6 hours of straight talking. I don't think I have managed that since I was a high school girl talking on the phone to Cros. The current classes are really fun - the kids are writing about what they would like to do when they leave high school. So far I've had a handful of fishermen, a fairy princess, a bunch of patisserie chefs and a prime minister of the world.

In ESS club today we wrote letters to our friends. One wrote a letter to Santa, which was quite funny. Everyone else wrote really nice things to give to parents, grandparent or old friends. We decorated the cards all up, and we are all going to find out the addresses next week and then go to the post office together to send them. Fun! Excursion!

Tonight, we got to show Mum and Dad our favourite sushi train (Kura Sushi - about a 30 min bike ride uphill, or 15 min bus from our house). I decided to bike up straight from school, so I was puffing and buggered by the time I got there. I didn't feel much better as the night went on (despite the delicious あぶり sushi, and I started to realise that I had a pretty annoying sinus infection coming on. BAD NOSE! DON'T YOU KNOW I'M GOING TO KYOTO TOMORROW!?

I also discovered the joys of paying bills at convenience stores! Here, you can take bills to any 7-11, Lawson or Family Mart and hand over cash to the teller, like making any other purchase. It's so... convenient!

By the time I got home, the sinus thing reached critical mass, so Sam headed into Sannomiya to pick up Anna by himself. By the time they got home, I really only had enough energy to say hello and head for bed.

Food Highlight of the Day: Chocolate almond cupcake with peanuts on top.