Malifact

I had my first French class yesterday. There are five other people in the class apart from me; all female. Everyone seems pretty nice apart from one girl who is from Bulgaria. I had to do pair work with her and she was rather sullen and even a bit stand-offish. Looks like I have an early candidate for that one person I have to dislike! Our teacher seems pretty good and she said she will try and only speak in French as much as possible. This week we will mostly be doing review. However, I still feel the content is a bit easy. I spoke to my teacher after class and she suggested I try going to the next level’s class and see how I get on. Unfortunately, they do not have such a class for the three times a week programme I have signed up for and the other class after that would be much too difficult for me. So my plan is to make the most of the class I’m in and try and dominate proceedings. May as well get my money’s worth!

One of the things I wanted to do when I came back to England was try and learn a new language. Initially I wanted to learn German, but I decided instead to try and learn French again. Firstly, I studied French at school and though I hadn’t used it for nearly 13 years at least I wouldn’t be starting from zero. Also, I have some French friends now so I would have someone to communicate with in the language. Finally, despite my joking I do like French culture. So after consulting a friend I decided to do an evening class at the French Institute in London. The courses there are very expensive, but they are endorsed by the French government and they have an express course that takes place three evenings a week.

However, before I could be accepted for a place I had to take a written and speaking test in French. I went to take the test today losing my umbrella on the train in the process. Beforehand I was confident I would do okay in the speaking test, but probably do pretty awful in the written test. It turned out to be the opposite. I managed to complete most of the written test and the guy who registered me commented that I had done pretty good in one of the most difficult sections. However, the speaking test was pretty horrendous. As soon as the lady started speaking to me I freaked out. I couldn’t answer most of her questions and she didn’t give me any hints. I even said something in Japanese at one point by accident! In the end I managed to get it together and made an attempt at conversation.

After the tests I spoke to the same lady in English to discuss the course I would take. In the end she said not only would I be accepted for a place, but I wouldn’t have to start in the lower class as I had feared. I was very relieved and when I spoke to the guy who registered me again he reassured me that if I stuck with it I could make real progress. Well, I’ve paid the money now so I’m definitely going to take it seriously. Anyway, after that rather traumatic episode I had a nice dinner with three friends who I first met when I was studying for the Japanese Proficiency Test last year. I had a bit of a bad day yesterday, but I felt a lot better after hanging out with them.

I haven’t updated my blog in a while, so I thought I’d write about something funny that happened recently. This term at the language institute I’ve become friends with a French guy in my class. He recently had a party at his flat for people in our class and some friends from his class last term. The party was a lot of fun; we chatted, played video games and everyone brought food from their country. I made an Indian style curry and everyone seemed to like it. In fact, everyone made delicious stuff, though the least said about the host’s contribution (melon with sandwich ham on cocktail sticks) the better.

The funny incident was when we all went outside to do some sparklers. We were standing at the front of the building and this woman pulled up in her car and got out with her husband and small child. It turned out she was one of French Guy’s neighbours and she started chatting to us. At first the conversation was pretty normal, though it was obvious we weren’t speaking to the most educated or classy of people. For example, at one point she said she would be worried about her 20 year old daughter dating a foreign man, because they are so “big” and her daughter’s body might break! May I add she was saying all this in front of two Japanese people (one of whom was one of our teachers) who were also at the party. You can always spot these people, as they even speak to other Japanese who are strangers in plain language not just foreigners.

Then she started asking where we were from. Well, I say ask but really she would say where she thought we were from and then we would confirm her guess or correct her. Then she came to me and she stared at me long and hard and said it was very difficult to tell. Finally, she asked me if I was from… Iraq! Now I really enjoy fucking with people in this type of situation. Only the other week I had enjoyed winding up a drunken Japanese woman who thought I was from India and asked me if all Indian people were really good at Maths. However, because our teacher was there I didn’t want to be evil and so I just bit my tongue and corrected her. Oh well, at least she didn’t say my colour was different!

I’ve been sick since Wednesday. It started on Tuesday evening when I suddenly developed a sore throat. I thought it was just hay fever, but when I woke up on Wednesday morning my glands were hurting and I felt like shit. So I didn’t go to classes at all that day (fortunately it was just review). It was really bad timing, as we had half-term exams on Thursday. Even though I was still sick I struggled in and took the exam and then went straight home. Of course I didn’t do my best, but I was hoping I did good enough. On Friday we got the results and it wasn’t as bad as I thought, though I totally messed up this one section which I hadn’t studied for at all (our tutor had told everyone to study it on WEDNESDAY!). Apart from that I realise I need to concentrate now on improving my skills in summarising what I hear and read in Japanese. My writing skills still need a lot of work. On a lighter note I was surprised to get a birthday card from all of my teachers, including those who taught me last term. Some of them wrote some funny stuff in the card; especially one teacher who I like referred to me as 腹黒い (crafty). I don’t know what she means!

When I was a JET I hardly ever used to watch Japanese TV. The reason was I didn't usually have time in the evenings, as I either had karate practice, Japanese class, or my English conversation class. However, since I've been back in Japan I've been trying to watch more TV. One of my friends at the language institute often recommends dramas for me to watch. One I'm watching right now is really good. It's called "Last Friends".

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Last_Friends

The storyline is rather dark (each of the characters is fucked up in their own way) and there are some scenes that are very disturbing. However, the drama is ultimately about how important friendship is and the acting is really good. I do find it funny though that the female character who is questioning her sexuality is such a stereotype; motorbike racer, short hair, talks manly etc. Also the theme song "Prisoner of Love" by Utada Hikaru is so cheesy. All that aside I do recommend watching it if you have time.

Since I’ve come back to Japan a lot of Japanese people have asked me if I’m Indian when they first meet me. I’ve been surprised why all of a sudden I am taken for being Indian. Of course my Dad is from India and I generally take it as a complement, as I’ve heard that Japanese people have positive stereotypes about Indians. To be honest I’ve used this to my advantage in the past when someone has been trying to use me as a free English lesson or is generally annoying me. They tend to lose interest if I say I’m Indian etc. However, today I discovered my plan is not without its faults.

My doorbell rang and I opened the door and there were two Japanese men standing there; one young and the other middle-aged. I guessed straight away from their dress and the leaflets they were holding that they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. I don’t have anything against Jehovah’s Witnesses by the way, but I’m not interested in converting or anything. The older man started speaking to me in English and so I told him that I don’t understand English very well. He also tried showing me a page in the leaflet in English and again I said I didn’t understand. After that the conversation went kind of like this:

Older Man: (Turning to a map in the leaflet and points to Japan) We are in Japan. Where are you from?
Me: I am from India.
Older Man: India? So you speak… Hindi? (shows me another page written in Hindi).
Me: Actually the language in the area I’m from is not Hindi.
Older Man: Oh, really? What is it?
Me: Bengali… (realising now where this is going).

To my horror and to the two men’s delight there was a page in Bengali as well! So I pretended to read it and then said that I was Hindu and that finally put an end to their endeavours. I have to say I’m impressed. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are prepared for all eventualities!

My bicycle has been stolen. I parked it just outside my flat last night, but this morning it was gone. I had to walk to school and so I was late by about five to ten minutes. I explained the situation to my teacher and told my classmates about it later. Many of them were convinced that someone who lives in my building had taken my bike by accident; mistaking it for their own. I don’t share their optimism and at this point my bike has not been returned. I searched both bicycle parking areas at school, but couldn't find it. I’ve had my bike stolen in Japan before (when I left it in the train station where I used to live). However, I can’t believe someone would have the audacity to steal it from just outside my front door. It even has a registration seal on it. At times like this I have to remind myself I’ll be going back to the land of chavs and happy slappers at the end of June.

I started back at school today after the spring holiday. I’ve been moved up to C class for this term. Two of my previous classmates are in the same class as me and the others also moved up but are in class D. It’s only the first day, but I think I will enjoy studying in this new environment. My new classmates generally seem much quieter and more serious, but also pretty friendly. Our form tutor is actually one of the teachers who interviewed me when I first started at the school. She’s very friendly and energetic and I was pleased to see her again. I also met one of our other teachers and she also seems pretty good. However, my friend warned me that she’s also very strict. The only disappointing thing is we received a list of the elective classes for this term and none of them really appeal to me. Overall though I’m looking forward to this term and think I can make significant progress in my Japanese.

Last weekend I went back to Osaka yet again. This time I was visiting for a couple of reasons. Firstly, on Saturday I went to say goodbye to my friend Kendo Guy who was going back to Australia that day. He was staying with his host family who were pleased to see me again, especially his host father who had yet again drunk too much alcohol the night before. I also met grandmother for the first time very briefly who doesn’t like foreigners and was hit by a car not too long ago. On Sunday I met up with my friend Miss Lemon who was visiting Japan for just over a week. I had lunch with her and homodachi and she was on good form as always. The main event of the weekend though was I attended the retirement party for one of the teachers from my old school. This teacher was really kind to me during the three years I worked there and I’m really fond of him. The party was held at the Itami City Hotel; a regular venue for school events and pretty nice.

The party was rather enjoyable, as there was a really good turnout of past and present teachers and I got to chat to some people I hadn’t seen for a while. I was especially pleased to see a young home economics teacher I was friendly with and a Japanese language teacher who had helped me out a few times. I also got to meet the retiree teacher’s wife for the first time albeit briefly. Another attendee of the party was the school caretaker the first year I was there. He was very friendly to me when I first arrived and he can speak some English. However, he’s also a dirty old man who loves his holidays in Thailand to do “volunteer work”. Even good old Tissue Sensei called him a pervert at one point. He was in a good mood even before having a couple of drinks and I spent most of the time pretending not to understand what he was saying or being mildly sarcastic. The food was quite nice, but I didn’t get to eat as much as I wanted as I was too busy chatting to people.

The one person I was not pleased to see is the young P.E. teacher who I wrote about in the March 2007 journal entry “Final Sports Day Part 2”. He stayed away from me most of the evening, but ended up getting really drunk by the end of the party. While I was talking to another teacher he came up to us and tried to speak to me in a really loud annoying voice in English. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but tried to be civil though he eventually gave up. He continued to be obnoxious until we had to leave the venue. In particular, he was acting like a right yobbo while the hotel staff were taking everyone’s photo at the end. I’m really surprised that everyone tolerated his behaviour and no one had words with him. He’s one of the youngest teachers at school and in fact is not even a proper teacher yet, as he hasn’t passed the prefectural teacher’s exam. One thing that was amusing though is I heard that some of the students have been teasing him by saying he looks like me!

On Tuesday I went on a class trip to the Toyota car factory in Toyota city. Before our scheduled tour of the factory we went to the Toyota museum, which had various exhibitions about Toyota’s past, current practices and future plans. The exhibits at the museum were pretty ordinary and I’ve never really been interested in cars. The highlights were two scheduled performances we got to see. The first was of this amazing robot designed by Toyota that can play the trumpet. It performed three songs and the MC for the performance explained the robot’s mouth actually moves like a human’s. We also saw this girl drive around in front of us in this futuristic car that resembled a moon buggy. Rather than using a steering wheel everything is controlled by a touch pad.

We then got on a coach and drove to one of the Toyota factories with a guide. We got a few looks from the Japanese people with us who were obviously surprised that a load of foreigners were taking the tour in Japanese. The tour was overall more interesting than the museum. I was especially impressed how one operation we were shown was done purely by robotic arms working together. We also got to see some “interesting” English on a sign near the exit. In Japanese the sign said politely “Please Don’t Touch” and according to my Taiwanese friend the Chinese was the same. However, the English on the sign was “Keep Your Hands Off”. My English classmate and I found it funny and also enjoyed explaining to the non-English speakers what it meant. Apparently one of the Toyota people heard us making a commotion so maybe they’ll change it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take a photo as taking pictures was banned in the factory.

For lunch we went to a restaurant in the Toyota complex. I had the “Specially Made Lunch” after I couldn’t order my original choice. It turned out to be some fried chicken, spaghetti, a fried egg and some fruit. Definitely one of the blandest meals I’ve had in a long time. We then made our way back home on the train. I think everyone had a good time on the trip and it was good to get out of the classroom for once.

Last weekend we had a leaving party for my friend Kendo Guy who is going back to Australia very soon. We wanted to do stuff that he enjoys doing and so we went to a gaming centre, then to an izakaya for dinner and finally to karaoke. Almost everyone in our group of friends was able to come along and we had a really nice day. The most interesting experience was getting a shuttle bus to and from the gaming centre. On the way there we shared the bus with a homeless guy who kept on chatting to us and touching my friend Mr. Ultimate. In the end a Japanese woman turned around and said in English “Can you speak English?” to him. After that he was pretty silent. On the way back we shared the bus with a group of middle-aged Japanese men who had been drinking and so were very talkative. At one point one of them asked my friend Miss Blanca where we were all from. After she told him one of the men pointed at me and said “But he is a different colour to the rest of you”. Of course I was taken back, but decided to wind the men up and told them in fact I was Indian. One of them then said I was probably very wealthy and I said yes and that my father was an Indian actor. They didn’t realise why our group were the ones now with the amused looks on our faces.

On Wednesday I went back to Kansai for my former 3rd Year students graduation ceremony. It was my first time to visit the school since I left Japan last August. The journey to Osaka was pretty awful as my bus was over half an hour late due to really bad traffic. I had arranged to have dinner with my former Japanese teacher, another woman and my friend Leisie and I was very late meeting them. However, they were really pleased to see me and we had a nice time catching up. I then stayed the night at Leisie’s place.

The next day I got up and after getting ready I went to school by bus. My suit had been dry cleaned the day before, though the one tie I had didn’t go so well with it. When I arrived at school the teachers were really pleased to see me. Most of them had known I was back in Japan, but they thought I was working as opposed to studying. I actually had to run to the school hall, as the ceremony was about to start. Rather than sitting with the other teachers I was a “guest” and was at a special table with people like the headteachers from the local junior high schools and PTA. I was pleasantly surprised to be sitting next a P.E. teacher who used to be one of the 3rd Years form tutors until she was transferred to another school. The ceremony itself went without a hitch. Only one boy misbehaved, though myself and some other teachers had suspected he would. He kept on putting in these fake teeth during the ceremony and when his name was called he shouted out his reply and said something strange. I also had to stand up at one point with the other guests and congratulate the students, though I was very nervous doing so as everyone turned to look at me.

After the ceremony I went to the school’s reception room with the other guests for tea. I was sitting next to a lady from the town’s international association who I had known while working as an English teacher. Actually, she got on my nerves as she kept on speaking to me in English even though I tried speaking to her in Japanese. I thought it was quite inappropriate for us to speak in English in front of people who obviously couldn’t understand. I spent the rest of the day chatting to students, having my photo taken with them and chatting to teachers. As it was the exam period some teachers went home straight after the ceremony and so I didn’t have a chance to speak to them. The funniest thing was some students thought I had come all the way from England for the ceremony. One girl I spoke to had come back to Japan a few months ago after studying in New Zealand for nearly a year. To be honest I was never a big fan of this student. She was very immature, often said stupid things to me and I thought went to New Zealand with a bad attitude. However, I was pleasantly surprised that she had become more mature and her English had really improved. She’s still pretty irritating though!

There was one sad thing that I found out after the ceremony. A student who I was very fond of could not graduate in the end. His grades were okay in the end, but his attendance had been below the level required to graduate. This boy has a very troubled home life and a lot of problems, but would always smile when he saw me and try and speak to me in English. He will have to go to a private school now, though he may be able to graduate there from September. I really hope he will be okay. Despite this I had a really nice day and I’m glad I went to the ceremony and managed to see some of my students one last time.

On Sunday I decided to go on one of the tours that the language school offers on the weekends. This trip was to see some of the famous sights in nearby Mie Prefecture. I was picked up about 7.50am with three other people who live in my building by the guy who works in the school’s international office. This is the same guy who did our orientation and spoke to me about my tuition fees. We then collected two other students in the school’s van (one of whom I’m friendly with) before heading to Mie. The other students seemed nice enough, but were very quiet and kept to themselves generally. Unfortunately, the trip didn’t get off to a good start. Due to the heavy snow the previous day access to the motorways was restricted. So what would have been a two hour drive took over four and a half hours. I’m just grateful I had my friend to chat to.

Our first stop was the city of Ise and Ise Shrine (伊勢神宮) which is considered the most sacred Shinto shrine in Japan. Before that we had a quick look around the shops and my friend and I watched a taiko drums performance. We then had lunch at a very nice gyudon restaurant. I have to say it was probably the best gyudon I’d ever had. We then walked to the shrine itself and the scenery on the way was pretty beautiful. I have to say the shrine itself was a bit of a letdown. When we got there we had to wait about twenty minutes to get to the top of the steps where the shrine actually was. The shrine itself looked like any other Shinto shrine I’ve seen in Japan. We also were not allowed to enter the inner sanctum of the shrine, which looked a lot more interesting.

After that we headed to the nearby city of Toba to visit Mikimoto Pearl Island. The “island” is actually a museum dedicated to Kokichi Mikimoto who invented the cultivation of pearls. I have to say the museum was more interesting than I had first thought. I didn’t realise that pearl cultivation was such a scientific process. We were still very much behind schedule and so we had to rush around the museum. At 4.40pm we headed for a stand by the ocean. There we watched a performance by famous female divers (海女), as they searched for oysters. I don’t know how the women were able to dive into the freezing water with bare feet and what looked like flimsy raincoats. They still smiled and waved to us as their boat took them to shore.

Our final stop was back to Ise to visit Futami Okitama Shrine (二見興玉神社). Past the shrine and in the ocean are the Wedded Rocks (夫婦岩). These two rocks are considered sacred and represent husband and wife. They are connected by a sacred Shinto rope. Unfortunately, we got there too late to see the sun set behind the rocks, but it was high tide and so the rocks were still separated by water. After that we headed home and thankfully the motorways were now open. It was an interesting trip though pretty tiring and would have been more enjoyable if we could have taken our time looking around. I’m glad I got to see some famous sights in this part of Japan though.

Today we had the speech contest for our class to decide who would appear in the school’s speech competition. My speech was about my experiences teaching in a Japanese high school. I had practised the night before, but wasn’t feeling confident as I had rewritten and added some parts and my tutor only checked it this morning. We drew lots to decided the order we would go in (I was second) and then given ten minutes for a final practice. Apart from our tutor another one of our teachers who normally has the day off came to listen, as she really wanted to hear our speeches.

My speech went okay, though I was pretty nervous. I felt I didn’t show enough emotion and stood there rigidly. I wanted the speech to be light-hearted, but I think it came across as very serious. However, I didn’t make any big mistakes and my tutor gave me positive feedback saying my speech was well written and delivered and my intonation had really improved. The one big criticism she gave was that when I used some Japanese foreign loan words (for example, member and friendly) I pronounced them like English words. I thought everyone in the class gave good speeches, though I was surprised the Korean guy’s one wasn’t better. His content was very good (about the differences between Korea and Japan), but he obviously hadn’t practiced much.

Though my speech went fairly well fortunately I wasn’t in the top three. We then had to vote again between the Brazilian guy, the guy from Taiwan and the Singaporean girl. After our tutor counted the votes written on paper there was a tie between the Taiwanese guy and Singaporean girl and so we had another vote (this time by raising our hands while not looking). The Singaporean girl was chosen, but she really didn’t want to appear at the speech competition despite our tutor trying to persuade her. After protesting strongly for a while our tutor asked if anyone would like to enter. In the end the Brazilian guy agreed to represent our class. Our tutor’s going to help him prepare and I think his speech on anime and his experiences after coming to Japan will go down well. I’m just glad it won’t be me!

I went back to Kansai again last weekend and this time I took the coach both ways. I stayed with my friends Blanca (formerly Miss Ultimate) and Mr. Ultimate this time. I had a good time though it was quite a bit colder where they live and takes about an hour and a half by train from Osaka. On Saturday morning we had to get up at 6.10, as we had planned to go to Osaka Aquarium. I hadn’t been to an aquarium in God knows how long, but this one was pretty good. I especially liked the way that as you walked around you descended lower into the levels of the sea. They even had penguins outside in a pen with a funny sign warning us not to touch them. After that we had lunch at a vegetarian buffet just across the road from the aquarium. I’m not a big fan of vegetarian food, but it was okay and healthy.

After lunch we went to our friend Homodachi’s flat to play games. Spatula Girl’s husband was already there and Kendo Guy and Leise joined us later. We played Arabian Nights first, but had the most fun playing Trivial Pursuit in three teams. It was funny as it turned out to be the UK edition and I was the only one present who was British. After that we went to an izakaya for dinner and then to karaoke for an hour. I attempted to sing Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus” (in very bad German) and I was pleased as Homodachi sang two songs from the musical Chicago. Finally, on Sunday I had lunch with Butterfly Blue and her husband. After lunch we wanted to have coffee, but it seemed every single coffee place in Osaka was full up due to the bad weather. I still had fun though and as usual it was good to see everyone.

On Tuesday I went to dinner with my classmates and two of our teachers. We were celebrating the birthday of the woman from Singapore and went to an Italian restaurant, which was quite amusing as one of my classmates is from Italy. The food was pretty good for Japanese style Italian, though the pizza looked and tasted similar to Pizza Hut. I sat with the Italian guy, the Korean guy and the Brazilian guy. I realised I find it a bit awkward talking to the Korean guy, as it's very hard to know what he's thinking. However, he's definitely interesting to talk to. Towards the end of the evening everyone was a lot more chatty and we had fun teasing the Korean guy about one of the waitresses he liked the look of (who it turns out wants to be a teacher of Japanese for foreigners). I entertained my table with my "adventures" as an English teacher and the Korean guy told us about the compulsory military service in South Korea. I generally get on with everyone in my class, though I have to admit one of the Taiwanese students is starting to annoy me slightly. He has a habit of correcting people when they make mistakes in Japanese, which isn't bad in itself. It's his tone of voice and attitude when he does it that annoys me. I'm waiting for him to correct me that way, though to be fair he always responds to me fairly politely.

Yesterday I started doing a Japanese pronunciation class for native or advanced speakers of English. My first impression is that the class is going to be very useful. The teacher is very enthusiastic and feels strongly that not enough students at our school learn to speak Japanese "properly". For the first class she got us to do our self-introduction in Japanese and then she gave us feedback on our pronunciation. My feedback was pretty damning. She said my grammar and vocabulary were very good and I speak very politely. However, she said I made many pronunciation and intonation mistakes. I'm glad she was brutally honest, as I really want to improve on this area. She said at one point that she wanted everyone to use polite form in class. She said that first impressions are very important in Japan like a lot of countries and if you use plain form in the wrong situation then the person speaking to you will feel uncomfortable (even if they don't show it). At this one guy (who had pulled a face) said he cannot use polite form. I found that a strange thing to say, as polite form is the first form that a person learns when studying Japanese. Maybe it's the case that he's one of these people who "won't" use it rather than "can't".

I had another elective today after my normal lessons. It’s a conversation class and today was actually the second week. I took this particular class, because I wanted to improve my ability at speaking casual Japanese. Unfortunately the class is rather easy, especially compare to the speaking tasks I do in my normal classes. Also, the structure of the last two lessons has been the same; read a model conversation from the worksheet, do a role-play with your partner and then repeat using another model. The teacher is a very nice lady who dishes out lots of compliments about our Japanese. In other words she’s a bit patronising (though I’m sure it’s not intentional). However, I have decided to speak to my tutor and try and change to another elective. Some other students, including a girl I’m friendly with have already jumped ship. My journey to becoming the most troublesome student this term continues!

Today I had one of my elective classes after my normal lessons and this time it was reading. The teacher for this class is an older lady (most of the teachers at the school are young) who until today had never taught me, but always says hello if I see her in the corridor etc. Maybe my reputation as a troublemaker precedes me! In class we read an extract from the autobiography of Kitano Takeshi (a famous Japanese actor). The story was pretty dismal; detailing how his father used to frequently come home drunk. The main episode was when his sister tried to have a Christmas party at home and his father ruined the Christmas cake by deliberately knocking the table over! The interesting thing about the story was because it was a family setting the language was very casual. In particular, the father’s dialogue mostly consisted of him swearing at his children and making drunken noises. Fortunately, I haven’t really been exposed to that type of Japanese so much (apart from the odd student in my old job of course!).

Last Friday I went back to the Kansai area to see my friends and get my stuff that Kendo Guy has been keeping for me. In order to save money I took JR trains instead of the bullet train and so the journey lasted about 3 and a half hours. I was pretty tired by the time I arrived in Osaka. I had arranged to have dinner with a good friend who couldn't come to my welcome back party the following day. We met my other friend Miss Pink and we went to a tonkatsu restaurant I like. Unfortunately, an uninvited guest joined us for dinner, but we still had a good time chatting and catching up on things. After dinner I made my way on the train to Kawanishi, where Kendo Guy picked me up and then drove to our old apartment building where he still lives. I spent the rest of the evening just chatting with him and my other friend Miss Leise. It felt a bit strange to be back in my old town, but I felt like nothing had changed with my friends.

On Saturday I hung out with Kendo Guy during the day. At one point we went to the local Jusco (a shopping centre) to buy lunch etc. I was a bit apprehensive about running into my former students, but I didn't really see any. I did see two of my students doing part-time jobs, but they are both nice kids so I went and said hello. Needless to say they were surprised to see me and the female student in particular was pleased I remembered her name (I did teach her for over two years!). I also went and said hello to one of Kendo Guy's friends who I used to be in my English conversation class for adults. It was nice to see her and she also advised me to travel to Osaka by coach in future, as it's much cheaper than the train. I did run into another former student on the bus later. This kid was actually a little shit who swore at me a couple of times in Japanese and was generally unpleasant. However, he was pretty nice this time and even said goodbye when he got off the bus.

Saturday evening Kendo Guy had organised a welcome back party for me in Kawanishi. It was really good to see all my friends again after five months. Again it felt like nothing had changed and I just hadn't seen them for a while. I also got to meet my good friend Miss Ultimate's husband for the first time and the guy who took over my job and his wife. I heard some of my 3rd Years have been playing up, but generally he’s enjoying himself. For dinner we went to an izakaya we used to frequent and then to karaoke. I sang my usual mix of English songs, Japanese songs and songs for comedic effect. It was especially fun to sing myself and Miss Ultimate's karaoke standard "Barbie Girl". Some people then headed home because of last trains etc and the rest of us ended the night by going to another old haunt for a drink and then bowling. It was a really fun night and a nice welcome back to Japan.

On Sunday I headed into Osaka with Mr. and Mrs. Ultimate to get the coach back to Nagoya. I went to collect my coach ticket first and it ended up being a drama. Firstly, I tried using the self -service machine, but when I entered my reservation number I got a message saying I had to speak to someone at the reservations desk. When I went there the staff couldn't find my booking and tried searching on the database using various parameters. In the end I figured out the reservation had been done in a way that my first name and surname were reversed. In the end I got my ticket and had time for a quick lunch before boarding the bus. I had the pleasure of having sat next to and in front of me these young Japanese guys who were dressed like rejects from a gangsta rap video. Unfortunately the one next to me was a bit on the big side, so my journey to Nagoya was not as comfortable as I would have liked. But the nice weekend I had made it more than worth it.