11/4/08-Squid for din-dins. Went to school and sat around bored. I`m exempt from alot. They sit there handing out books...but I get nothing. My job is to sit there and slowly intergrate into a japanese class. I`m slowly disintergrating. The day drags on. But, what`re you goinga do? After school I went to ESS and was creeped out by a VERY enthusiastic teacher. Did nothing there, they were finishing off what they were doing last time. Went home, had dinner, then went out with the family and their friends and played tennis. I wasn`t so great. Back in old country I was more of a squash guy.

Old country...

10/4/08-First real day. Went to school for 6 hours and sat around confused. Around the fith hour of the debaucher, everyone kinda disappeared. My friends came back and took me artound the school...Apparently people were joining clubs. Damn...but I know I`ve joined ESS...so that should be fun...

Short post today, so I`ll add in a random story:

There I was, sitting on the train. I had seen a sign warning about chikan. What`s a Chikan you mighjt ask? Well, pervert, I`m not going to tell you, you perving pervert. Stop perving in my business perving perverted pervert. Anyways. I`d just clicked that chikan sounds like chicken. So, through in a cliche`d joke about russia, and add in Japan, nad what do you get? “In New Zealand, you eat Chicken, in Japan, Chikan eats you!” So, there I was quaking in laughter on the train...and then I got off and walked home.

I thought I`d end that story with my going home. I cut out a small bit between my quaking laughter and my getting off...I didn`t get kicked off by the by, but if you want to know what happened, you`re going to have to ask Raymond Kinger in a K-mail...don`t know what K-mail is? Get over yourself. I did.

9/4/08-Today I got my class and did the last of my speeches. I can`t walk past anyone in this school now without being waved to. `Coz it`s not bad enough being 4 feet taller than everyone else. I`m like Limey Boy!  I have the fan-girls and the accent and the Alter-Ego, I just need the stupid hair and the Gay-Dar. This school confuses me, but I s`pose I`ll live. I`ve made several frined, I think, But don`t ask me their names....

Also made a video on Youtube. Look up how to close your window in japan!

8/4/08-Day of that thing I did, putting the nails in my coffin. Today I did a speech infront of the first years. It`s a good thing they taped it, otherwise I could live it down. On the way to school, it was so windy that my umbrella was destroyed. Lest we forget. It turns out that Aussie catches the same trains as me....So I walked home with her...I hate this train system, and by following her I managed to get home in around an hour.

7/4/08-Today came school, and so did my bank card. Catching the several, perfectly timed trains went fine, but walk stuffed me up. It`s mostly a straight line, with one left turn. I missed the left turn and spent about 10 minutes walking up and down the street. I now thank my school in NZ immensely for the direction training. I stopped and asked directions, found a left turn and followed it. After a long walk, I saw the Finish girl also attending my school, so I walked with `er. I got to school, did a speech in Japanese to 600 kids, met the principal, did my speech again, then went home. It was raining, so I borrowed an umbrella from school...I had a bad feeling. Caught the wrong train and spent one and a half hours trying to get back on the right track.

6/4/08-Calm before the storm. Did nothing today. Mostly went for a drive. Tomorrow comes school.

5/4/08-DAY of the P.C.- Nothing much went on today...spent hours trying to get the wireless internet going....then ate lunch...and sat around. Went to my host brother`s tennis lesson, then came home and went to bed.

4/4/08-DAY OF THE WII- Today my host mother and I went out to look at laptops. We were pointed in the direction of a wireless router and the very same laptop I am using right now. This bundle would have cost way over 160000 yen! But I managed to haggle the price down to 109000 yen. And, by haggle, I mean, stand there trying to think of the correct combination of words to use to say that I cannot buy such an expensive computer, while my host mother had a chat to the salesman. When I`d finally nutted out *Kono CONPYUTA- ga takai desu.* I looked around to tell the salesperson....but he`d done a runner.....so I stood there for a while...until he came back...my host mother  had done some talking and got me a discount, so now i would only have to pay 109000 yen

So then, we milled around, and I broke. I found a Wii...I had come to Japan with a large sum of money, called the Wii fund. But, while I was living in general, with most places not liking the use of 10000 yen bills....I was forced to use the lesser bills in the Wii fund...and now it was sorely depleted...fearing that I would be out of pocket next opportunity...I went ahead and bought it. And all rejoiced.

THEN we went off to see my school. I got my uniform, and met the Finish girl and the Austrailian girl also attending my school...We had a look around, then went home. It`s a looong way home....but I`ll manage...

Things I should probably mention---Once I got off the plane, all the Japanese in my head seemed to evaporate....but it comes back...but nothing in school could have prepared me for this....I need alot more vocab... 

3/4/08-HOST FATHER`S BIRTHDAY- B-I-G day today....I was out for 13 hours with Dennis and his mother, and his mother`s daughter, and two of  his mother`s daughter`s brother`s students. We caught a boat to Odaeba AFTER spending an hour or two in an awesome Tokyo Street. It was a big walkway into a temple, and stalls lined the way.

When we finally got into the temple, the batteries in my camera died, so I only got one picture of the interior.....damn...but I got new batteries later...THEN we got on the boat. Odaeba is a man made island with a statue of liberty, and an indoor theme park like Disney Land, I went in but didn`t have enough time to have a go on anything!

We then caught the Monorail to Tokyo and went through a massive cherry-blossom walkway. WE then made it to a MASSIVE temple with a Cherry Blossom festival. We ate dinner there. I managed to find a burger stall, and statisfied my craving for bread...and then I straight back in un-charted waters....with my trying squid and a boiled root that could have passed as rubber...Every time the wind blew, Cherry Blossom would fall like snow...while the thousands of people milling around, or eating cheered every 20 seconds as this happened, I was cursing, trying to keep flower crap out of our  food, and trying no to inhale petals.

2/4/08-Diar Deary- Today I went to downtown Tokyo with one of my host mother`s class-mates. I also went to Oeno and looked at shrines and temples. I must have spent half the day in a trains. I am not yet homesick, but I am not 100%...I don`t feel as sharp as I used to, and I am never hungry. EVERYTHING in Japan has the same basic fishy taste....except for maybe the carpet....I might have to wait until I am alone to test that theory...

I wish people would stop speaking English to me, and I wish I had some bread. I have seen no pure, decent bread in Japan and I would trade my camera for a french loaf...Sadly my camera isn`t worth bread in this hi-tech country. Maybe soon, they`ll make a camera that can make phone calls and store peoples numbers...they can call it a portable camera, or maybe a phone camera....

Things I forgot to mention---Smokers in Japan carry pouches around to store their ash in. However, it is perfectly acceptable to smoke indoors....