March turned out to be a really busy, fun month! I think that was mostly because of the fact the weather was a little bit warmer, which made me feel a whole heap better. I'd been in a bit of funk towards the end of winter, and it was nice to feel happy and genki again and to get out there and start catching up with people I hadn't been able to during the winter.

First up was dinner with Nishitani-sensei, one of the English teachers I teach with here at school. This was pretty groundbreaking for me, as in the past I'd never really managed to hang out with teachers outside of school very much. This was mainly because the teachers are always so busy, but also partly because I wasn't really sure if it was appropriate. It's always been a bit of a sore point for me, actually, as teachers (especially English teachers) represent the best potential source of friends for me here, even now.

However, I finally got over all my (silly) concerns and thanks to the teachers having a bit more spare time due to the school year ending, arranged to have a quick dinner after school on Wednesday. And as I expected, it turned out to be good fun. So I'm really hoping that it's something I can do again, both with Nishitani-sensei and some other teachers I like.

On the Friday that same week I went out for dinner in Sannomiya with my friend Deyi, whom I hadn't seen for ages! She's one of the new JETs I met last year at the Tokyo/Yashiro orientations, so it was really interesting to talk to her about her experiences through the year. The next day I shot off to Akashi and finally managed to hand over to the next Hyogo PR, Goran, at the final HAJET meeting for the year. It was a big load off my mind, as the position had gotten a bit heavy thanks to the difficult times I had towards the end of last year.

After that meeting I met up with my friends Emerald and Ann for a small dinner at Emerald's house (yakiniku - yum!) and the next day we went to the Tagata-jinja Hounen Matsuri. This festival is one of the most infamous in Japan as it is a so called 'fertility festival' and pretty much involves putting a giant wooden penis on an omikoshi (portable shrine) and parading it through the streets of a small town called Komaki, in Aichi prefecture. It's pretty crazy and was a lot of fun, although there were a few too many gaijin being silly for my liking.

In late March I took some nenkyu and went up to Tokyo to meet my friend Jane. We hung out up there for a few days exploring, sightseeing and generally buying far too many cool clothes and random junk. She also came down to stay with me in Ako for a while, which was slightly unfortunate timing as I was moving house over the weekend she was here. Still, it turned out that it wasn't such a big problem after all. We went to my friend's photo exhibit on the Friday night (which was great!) and she met a few people who were going to party in Osaka on Saturday night. So she went off there and did an all nighter, hehe.

That freed me up to pack up the rest of my house on Saturday and then move everything on Sunday. The move wasn't too onerous overall, although I was pushing it to get everything done in time to go to my friend Kazu's wedding reception on the Sunday afternoon. I'm really glad I did manage to go, though, as it was an absolutely wonderful party. Kazu looked really, really happy and was in good form (his usual crazy, genki self, hehe) so I was overjoyed for him, and we all had a fantastic, relaxed time. The whole Ako crew was there and I met a heap of his pretty interesting friends too (great Japanese practise) so all in all it was a sweet deal.

And that was my March :)