I'm BACK!!!

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Apologies for the long stretch of time without an entry. I have been living in the wilderness that is life without internet access for most of October. My connection is now back (Hurrah!) and with a new ISP, hopefully this time it will be for good.

In the weeks I've not been able to post, much has happened. My recent adventures have ranged from a morning of Zen meditation at a temple in Ina, joining a small art club with a Japanese friend, thinking it was a good idea to attempt a 4k mountain race - then realising 5 minutes in it wasn't such a hot idea (thought I'd pass out half way up! I did manage to finish although I was so slow going up I was passed by even the old veteran runners and I pretty much came last in my section. That said, since only 8 women took part, and two dropped out, I actually got a prize for 6th place of a very expensive bottle of sake!). I've seen some crazy firework festivals this month that involve people dancing underneath searing sparks flying from large poles (has to be seen to be believed - and luckily I managed to capture the madness on video), my karate outfit arriving at last so that I feel the part even if I don't exactly act it, and my new involvement in a wonderful kids weekend club run by a lovely Japanese couple - which led to a volunteer trip to Oshima Island last weekend (in the northern part of Japan affected by the tsunami) to help host a Halloween party for kids. The party was great (although I managed to tattoo a few kids faces not realising how hard to remove the tattoo stickers actually are). I'll post more on this in another entry.

As I write this I can hardly believe it is nearly three months since I got to Japan. I feel pretty settled into the routine of daily school life now. Some things still confuse the hell out of me, but I'm starting to get less phased by everything. There are the odd days where I'll admit that everything seems so overwhelming.

I've had some borderline "culture shock" days where I almost can't bear the day of not understanding most of what is happening around me. Frustrations at school with the language barriers and the limitations to my assistant teaching role and the start of some very chilly mornings make me sometimes want to hibernate under my duvet until spring. But this is all offset against some wonderful experiences. My Japanese is gradually improving - not as fast as I'd like and I still don't understand much of what is said to me! But I go to a really nice class at the weekend and hopefully it will all start to take affect soon.

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Comments

[Nigel]

Thanks for the blogs!
Hey Vic, Good to see your back in blogging mode:-) I'm hoping to do the JET program next year (fingers crossed) so I love reading about all your experiences! またね Nige