At senjojiki on the way home from work today... am gonna work on getting those horizons straight, honest! :S 

View from Kasose last Wednesday.... 

Arse... major-non-bloggage...

OK so it's now like Tuesday and I last blogged on....? Wednesday? Ugh. Far too much happened since then, none of which I can do justice to now, but my trial week will soon be over (if it's not already) so I guess I should get something down to prove my will to carry on...
In reverse order, for those who read bottom-up:

Tuesday was supposed to be school, which was cancelled for a typhoon that then (largely) failed to appear. So I was down at the BOE trying to stay awake, reading, mailing, and so on. Actually nothing of note happened today really, so why I'm taking time and URL space to write about it I don't know... Ugh. Bring on tomorrow.

Monday was daichu, for some reason we had 60 minute lessons when they're usually 45 minutes, but luckily only two of them. More speech contest practice, then an unofficial eikaiwa barbeque down at Okazaki, which was really cool cos my entire class from the year before last turned up and we chatted, and with the aji guys as well as Bridget and I there was a high gaijin contingent. Everyone seemed really up for it so I think it will be definitely worth doing, even if it never gets around to being official.

Sunday bit of a hangover, got lost getting back to Sorcha's from the onsen, even though it was less than five minutes from her house, went to international intercultural interpottery day... we made pots. Which will be ready in November, by which time I will have forgotton all about it most likely. Had trouble keeping my clay wet so it'll probably crack all over the place. But it was fun, and we had some great yakisoba afterwards. Drove home, chilled out and then went to aji for a DVD with the guys, took ages to decide but was nice and chilled, so chilled that somebody fell asleep... bless. was good.
Fave person of the day...? Mary, it's you and your hair... had to be huh!

Saturday Normal Saturday really. Went to Shakochan onsen for a bit of hangover treatment, had funny incident when I was getting dressed afterwards, and this random obaachan very kindly, but without warning, decided she was going to help me untwist my bra strap. Took me by surprise, you could say. Am coping fairly well now with the group bathing thing but group dressing still runs against my prudish British grain - what remains of it anyway. But hey at least she didn't decide to try and help me undress, that would have been really freaky.

Had a group rampage in Gosh in the evening, crammed 16 of us round a table on Yoro, which was fantastically cheap, and then went on a bit of a bar crawl, if it can really be called that. Finally got to go in the "party room" in player, which has indescribable red fake leather sofas - well hey I was excited. A load of the gorgeous new girls came as did some people I haven't seen for ages, and Jason tried to teach us something something phonics, can't even pronounce what it was called let alone the words he was trying to tell us.
FPOTD is a tie between the Yoro woman for being so friendly and giving us a free bottle of wine, and Sorcha for a much-needed hug in the middle of the street, and for putting us all up at her place. Luvya :)

Friday had first elective English classes, really good atmosphere in 3rd grade so I hope it's gonna be a fun last two terms. Must speak less Japanese!! Not using so much now but I still panic at the wall of blank looks. More speech contest practice, then a teacher's night in Gosh - one of the better enkai meals I've had in Japan, with not too much unidentified-pulp-of-fish-remnants, lots of nice edible stuff like yakitori and that yummy picked cucumber.
Fave person of the day - one of my teachers (who should probably remain nameless) for possibly the classiest karaoke dancing I've seen since us lot managed to perfect the SMAP moves... style it!

Thursday was Fukachu, first actual lesson spent teaching, and speech contest practice. Gelt good to be back. Had girly dinner in Gosh with several rounds of "'ood'ya raver?" (am currently accepting submissions on the spelling of that), got stumped on "ood'ya raver, (ex-)aji Jeff or Oku?" - toughie.
Fave person of the day was probably me speech contest student, for being able to distinguise between a voiced and non-voiced "th" and thus saving me considerable tongue-itchiness. She's really great, was rattling the thing off like a pro an hour after first seeing it... watch out Aji!! Rah!

I'm an adult. It should be easier than this to find two socks the same colour.

Got woken up yesterday at 6am by shouts of "Ohayo!" and "Walking yo!" from Mrs K, who clearly (but mistakenly) thought we had arranged to go walking and thus saw fit to bash my door down until I woke up. Wasn't having any of it, because I had shogakko and therefore didn't have to be up till eight, and had been up till 1.30, so I shamefully hid under the pillow and hoped she would go away - really I know I benefit hugely from our morning walks but on days we don't go, I would really appreciate not being harassed in my own home!! I mean you'd think the phone being off the hook and the door being locked would have been enough of a hint that I had no intention of making it out of bed before absolutely necessary. Grrrumph.

Anyway the day improved significantly with shogakko, came home for lunch before heading to the office - was very sleepy by the time I got there, so figured I would go up to Fuka-chu to do speech-contest-prep, as then I could leave at 4 instead of 5... no such luck, as kid's speech was some obscure thing about the meaning of happiness and took ages to put into the slightly-over-done tear-wrenching English required of speech contest. Left school about quarter to six, which blew any chance of swimming, popped home before going to gatecrash the Aji eikaiwa party. What a nice bunch of people they are :) . Nice dose of chilled mid-week karaoke to finish up - it just doesn't get better than disney songs on a Wednesday night.


Favourite person of the day: well basically everyong who didn't wake me up at 6am... and possibly AjiPaul for having the endurance of a saint...

First post...

Well it's happened... I finally bit the blogging bullet. Not sure how this is gonna turn out but will give it a week and see. Maybe it's something about Aomori that gives so many of us the urge to document our every move? Anyway if it gets really boring let me know and I promise to stop (maybe)! To fill in the story so far.... I've been living in the bottom-left-hand corner of Aomori (like Ivor the Engine and Wales, or was that top left?) for two years, in a little town called Fukaura, just started my last year here, got back from holiday in Russia last week, and school started today.

Last night went for drinks with a few of my teachers from Dai-chu and Bridget, and taught my English teacher (Takeshi) and the P.E. teacher the wonderful English phrase "liar liar pants on fire", which they really loved... Was at school to day and had random outbursts of "fire!" or "pants!" at various points during the day; luckily we only had opening ceremony and bukatsu, no lessons, which was just as well for those nursing hangovers. Was good to see the kids again, they were all very tanned and genki after summer vacation. And Fujimori-sensei (music) is back from maternity leave, which I'm stoked about cos she's a totally rocking sensei :). Both kocho- and kyoto-senseis made speeches about how long this term is going to be... 20 weeks till winter vacation baby! Of course I'm excited about bunkasai and speech contest and just lessons and everything, but was there a tiny element of "phew, last time round" in assembly this morning? Am trying to stay positive and make the mental commitment to making this year the best, things pass by so quickly here after all. Ho hum. Bedtime.