Monday 3rd August

Thought I'd start off with a few random pics of my time in Japan so far:

Beer cans, the one on the RIGHT is a stubby (same as a coke can), in the middle is a mini Asahi and on the left is a tiny Asahi (it's the same size as the mini cans of Indian Tonic you get.) Made me laugh when i saw it and I had to buy a couple. What are they for?!? Lunchboxes!?!?! p.s. this was taken as I waited for the train at Hanayama Station.

A JET called Jason from Vancouver, on our way to the Beach on 2nd August showing us his 'Pocket Diary' he's using after losing his keitai! lol

Toilet in a Shushi Place - the bit on the left isn't an arm rest but the controls. This one has a heated seat for winter and a bum washer! They are so weird but you actually start to use them and feel squeaky clean afterwards. They play forrest sounds when they feel weight on the seat and when you select wash a wee jet pops down and gets you with warm water - it's crazy how accurate they are, everyone agrees!

Japanese policeman telling us not to cross the road with his lightsaber. This country is very controlling.

I took this pic of a Praying Mantis on some rubbish waiting to be collected - it was amazing to see!

Up early today to go and visit a typical Junior High School, it’s hard to describe the schools – from what I’ve seen they are all similar, multiple buildings with a big patch of flat sandy/soily area where the kids practice all kinds of sports. This school had a big open air swimming pool even though it was a small school and was in a poor area. I think in Japan sports and clubs are just as important as the cirricular education. Everyone after school is involved in a sport type activity for at least an hour sometimes two, both teachers and pupils and they take it very seriously. So far I’ve seen Kendo, Volleyball, Short Tennis, Athletics, Swimming, Football and by far the most popular Baseball. If the kids misbehave the teachers don’t let them play sports, so the Baseball guys are amongst the most polite and well behaved pupils in the school which is the opposite in the U.K. in my experience! The schools are kinda “old Skool” (no pun intended) they all have blackboards and seem to be well used and not modern and shiny like Meldrum Academy. However they’re very clean and efficient.

After our school visit we went to sort out some paperwork at the Ward Office (my ward is Kita-ku which means Kita - North; Ku - Ward) so we can get our Gaijin (Foreigner) Cards and ultimately mobile phones (Keitai). After that we went to the Kobe Education Centre to cheerily fill in our Death Beneficiary and Medical Forms, after which we had a Japanese test to asses our levels – it’s safe to say most of us will be in the beginners class lol!

The last thing we did was to sign up for mobiles, I was dead set on an iPhone..... so I got one, and signed up for wireless simultaneously to get a discount – after that I got separated from the group and got horrendously lost but managed to negotiate the station and two trains using a lot of hand gestures and single words. Happy days!