4th day in IBRK

It is National Day today! I actually do feel a little excited for the country actually, especially when I am far away from home. I had wanted to share my 'joy' with UD yesterday but never really got the chance to since we were always either shopping for my house accessories or discovering more subtle differences between our cultures.

Anyway, I finally cooked my first dinner today! I had a ham and cheese omelette and XX rice XX porridge. Don't laugh! Halfway through the rice-cooking process I opened up to check on progress and felt it was getting a little dry so I added half a cup of water only to realise I got porridge in the end. So it is 3-4 handfuls of rice with 1.5 cups of water to make 2 servings of 'porridge'. I made a couple of mistakes though, of which one is fatal! For one, I was so silly to get a plastic ladle and I only realised it was melted at the sides after dinner! I have a strong feeling some pieces of plastic are in me...

Bon voyage, humankind.

I remembered to heat the frying pan since it is the first time of use so as to get rid of the protective layer of oil - yay! However subsequently I didn't know how hot is hot and initially when I poured in the egg mixture, it popped, sizzled and I had to run for cover! HELP!!!

Looking forward to trying more combinations next time!

I just had a jelly-looking dessert that this french-looking bakery is selling this summer. It has this runny transparent jelly on the top with pieces of pomelo and berries. The bottom is a vanilla-flavoured jelly. Yummylicious! It costs Y300 though, which is around $3.80. Aiyo so ex, now to think about it! I also could not resist myself and bought a piece of "babaroa of mango" (mango cake-looking). Y360 - #4.30~! Oh gosh I will be penniless in no time!

Today was quite a fulfilling one, though a continuation of administrative work predominantly. After waking up in the morning at a bright 6am (nuts!), I was bored so I decided to start cleaning! I hope I didn't irritate the neighbours! I vacuumed the floor and especially the sofa which I inherited since it was really dusty and gross (will most probably have to pay a little). Now it looks much better, yay! After that, I took a shower and decided to find my way to KTT on Monday as my supervisor will be away on shyuchyo (business trip). Along the way, I found the one and only place which makes hankos and that was where mine came from as well. The cheapest, which was the one I got (UD!!!) costs only Y830 ($10) and the next one will start from Y2000 ($24). Anyone wants one? Anyway the 100-yen shops has pre-made ones, so if you don't mind being a Tanaka you can get a cheap hanko! I think it makes a great present from Japan.

After passing by the shop, I went past this fruits and vegetables stall which I decided to stop and get some fruits since the conversations would also be fun as well. It went rather well and I bought some bananas and grapes. We chatted quite a bit as well, though with some miscommunication at times as I did not really understand her words. I also passed by a shoe shop where I grabbed 2 sets of indoor slip-ons for school. That conversation was the most enjoyable - it covered a breadth of topics from the different ways English is spoken across the world and also Ibaraki dialect and how I am going to have to re-study what I have learnt for Japanese!

I am looking at my hands now and indeed the grocery lady was right - I am much tanner now thanks to the sun in Japan! Seriously, it doesn't feel like it is overexposed and burning, but the tan is obvious. I guess I need to take better care. Maybe I should get some sunblock tomorrow.

That was all for today I guess.

Yesterday was rather meaningful as well. UD fetched me to school on his car at 8.30am and left me at my desk while he went on to attend a workshop on this AED electrical system that the students will have to learn. After cleaning my table, a few teachers were very nice and approached me for conversation, and we had a good time because they have prior experience with Singapore as that was where the third years went last year for their school trip. This year will be Taiwan, which sounds exciting as well and I told UD that food is wonderful there (as well as adventurous). I really had nothing better to do after an hour or so, so I poked around in the pantry (nothing fun) and some guidebooks (which shows the school syllabus). They were from past years though, so I guess I should ask UD for the latest ones and hope he will pass them to me.

I really feel very fortunate that I came to Japan with some Japanese language background, as I could understand roughly what all the notices on the walls say and I could guess the rest with a smattering of Chinese. Anyway I finally gave up, left a note on my desk for UD saying I am walking around school and off I went.

The school consists of 2 main blocks: a classroom block where the teachers' office and library is and a technical block where the students will go for their specialisations in a particular technical field. As it was the summer vacation, the students who came were busy jamming in those rooms and how I wished I could join them, especially if I had better musical skills! Finally I headed to the library which UD is in charge of and he showed me on my first day on Thursday. There were a group of students doing some work when I went in and I could only murmur a little simple greeting that I am the new teacher. They were great - they could recall my predecessor and I left them at that. However one of the students was struggling with an English comprehension assignment which he needs to complete in order to apply to take a teaching course in English language at university. It is rather tough for Japanese in my opinion, so the group was rather clueless about the questions. After a while the librarian roped me in to help out and the other students left, except for the student who needs to finish his work. And so it was a mini-tutoring session of sorts, and it really made my day as it was the first time I have taught in Japan and the student was really receptive. It really is great when one is lucky to come across motivated students, yeah?

However UD came back from his workshop in an hour, so we told the student to work hard by himself and I offered him to look me up at the staff room on Monday. I then went out for lunch with UD, where he brought me to Coco's which is a family restaurant chain. The lunch was rather nice and similar in idea with Jack's Place though the ambience is closer to that of MacDonalds. We then went to grab a keitai (handphone), only to have an anal salesperson insisting I need to get my alien registration card before I can sign up. Sigh! I am looking at the P906i by Docomo, though sadly it cannot play MP3 and does not have a kanji dictionary! It is the cheapest model of the 5 megapixels series.

We then went to grab a bicycle, and I am now a proud owner of a red bicycle that set me back by Y16800 ($200!). That is so bloody expensive! But oh well...

At night was another adventure. Just as I was about to go out to explore the left side of town, a cricket flew in and I was scared out of my wits! I tried ways and means to get it to fly out but it just flies so fast and it was so alert that it jumps away when I get near to it. In the end, I was totally freaked out, jumping around the room and slashing the fly swatter wildly whenever it flies. I must been a sight, especially when I am on ground level without curtains over the windows. Anyway in the end I resorted to swat it, so its carcass is still lying in the trash bag while I wait for next week's rubbish clearance.

In the prefecture, there are only 2 segregations for trash 0 burnable and unburnable. The problem is, I am still unsure of what exactly is burnable so I hope no neighbour will be so extreme as to send me my wrongly-classified rubbish!

Alright I guess I better sleep since I wake up so late, goodnight!