Day 117 in Japan - Seminars, Beef and Pub Shenanigans

Slept in and left home way later than normal. It was awesome. We should start at 10 am every day. I don't think many people would disagree with that!

Got lost at Moyomachi on teh way to the JET Mid Year Seminar - there were no gaijin to follow. I WAS PROMISED GAIJIN TO FOLLOW! Ended up getting there in the nick of time with assistance of one other Awajian.

Then the Mid Year Seminar started - it is fairly widely known that the seminar is one of the most pointless and boring experiences in the teaching year, so I wasn't really expecting much. But the plenaries were surprisingly good, and it was nice to see a bunch of people again for the first time in ages. I am sure that these events are really more networking events to force us to see other people and make sure we realise we aren't alone more than anything else.

I realised in the morning session that my friendly Japanese teacher partner who accompanied me to the seminar didn't actually give me all the instructions for conference. He had told me that we needed to prepare a lesson together for the conference, and then took my copy without telling me I would need to bring along my own. No copies. Eek. So I did a quick dash to the conbini where I printed out 6 copies of my lesson plan and worksheets as required (Conbinis all have photocopier/printers over here - it's great!). Apparently I wasn't the only one in this boat, because I met Fiona and Andrew doing the same thing there and we all headed to have a Moroccan lunch together.

Afternoon sessions were all group work. They were boring but I was lucky to have a good group. So happy to get to talk to Deyi, the other ALT from Akashi Shimizu. It's nice to have someone to vent to about a difficult situation who understands what you are talking about.

When the seminar finished for the day, I went to a cafe in Motomachi with Deyi, Arj, Jodes, Rob, Hino-chan, Fiona and Andrew. It had really nice coffee, and I hope I can find my way back there in the future.

Then it was time. Time to let Mum and Dad loose on the decadent please that is Kobe Beef. I met them in Tits Park (and introduced them to some of the other JETs that were meeting there at the same time), and then headed to Steakland. Dad later commented very crude things about how much he enjoyed the steak. I will clean it up and post it here:
"A... lot" (there wasn't much left when it was cleaned up)

We hit up the Hobgoblin for some last drinks. Some others (the crowd I had afternoon tea with in the dafe) came in and it turned into a lot more drinks. They were all happy to meet Mum and Dad, and I think that Mum and Dad enjoyed it too. We had icecream on way home. It was good.

Food Highlight of the Day: Purely due to the novelty - the moroccan stew for lunch.