Last night I headed on down to the AIFA Japanese language class at the community centre near Minato-ya with my ALT friend from Aioi, Devin. I hadn't been to class since the first time I went (around 6 weeks ago), as I was too tired one night and then Golden Week took out the class in between. It was really refreshing to get back into it, though - surprisingly so, in fact. The class is more a conversation opportunity than a lesson, which originally I didn't like but have now gotten used to. Devin and I were the only two students there last night but there were four volunteers (yikes!) so we had a totally fantastic time. We just did self introductions, spoke about what we did in Golden Week and launched off into conversation from there as we felt like it.

Although the volunteers spoke a little slower than most Japanese and were obviously dumbing down their vocabulary, I was quite surprised to find that I understood most of what was being said. I guess my listening skills are getting better, at last! It was kinda extra fun I think because Devin was there, and his Japanese isn't so strong so I was actually translating for him. It was so nice to be on that side of the fence for once. I always have so much respect for my friends when they translate something for me that was incomprehensible to me. Although I still expect I'll hardly be able to understand anything the next time I go to the shops :) Keigo, aargh!! :P

After dinner, Tomoko, one of the young volunteers, invited us for dinner at the new Indian restaurant in Ako. She studies English at a university in Kobe, and is pretty good at it! She works part time at the Indian restaurant, hence why she said we should go there, hehe. Cheeky! Anyway, I'd heard about the place and that it was pretty good, but hadn't been. So we all trundled off there and had a pretty decent Indian dinner. It was so nice to have good Indian food after 9 months without it. And seriously, a restaurant that does decent international food in Japan, let alone in Ako? Good times indeed!

Over dinner we all chatted away in Japanese and English about where we worked and what we did, which was really fantastic. Meeting new people and making new friends is so much fun, and it's the kind of situation that I really like but rarely find myself in thanks to the language barrier. And it was especially nice to meet another one of those rare people who are around my age and actually live in Ako. New friend, woo! I grabbed Tomoko's keitai details as we left so hopefully I can catch up with her every now and then! Cool.

Tonight is badminton and Ewan is bringing some extra friends, so we should get some good games going. I'm also playing tennis this afternoon, which is a bit of a tradition for the teachers during the mid term tests. Tomorrow night is Minato-ya, and then I have school on Saturday so it'll be a quiet Friday night - I'll probably just go to badminton. As my weekend has been shifted by one day (I get a make up holiday on Monday), I don't really have much on, so will probably just take it easy. None of my friends will have Monday off so it'll be a good day for chores and rest, I think. I'll see if I can't hook something up for Saturday night, though.