School on Monday hit a new low. There was absolutely nothing to do and for the first time since arriving here, I became truly annoyed at having to be at school during the holidays. Previously I'd accepted it simply out of blind respect to the "Japanese way", but I've become more realistic as I've gotten more familiar and comfortable with Japanese culture. And I have to say, "Japanese way" or not, it really is a silly idea. I'd much rather just take half pay for the month and have the two weeks off. Anyway, I'm not going to talk about it any more as it makes me too stressed out, haha. But you get the picture.

Thankfully, Tuesday was a lot better, primarily because I came dressed for sports. I joined the judo club in the morning, watched some volleyball, caught a little bit of table tennis and shot some baskets with the basketball club. They were all happy to see me, and I was happy to be there. Much better than brooding at my desk in the staff room while everyone runs around like mad things, tidying up and moving desks. I got back from my sports adventures at about 1pm, after bumping into Okamoto-sensei and helping him search for a book up in the English room. I found to my dismay that my bento had been eaten (I know I ordered one!), so I ducked out to the konbini to pick up some food.

When I got back, there was much excitement as there were new teachers wandering around and the new principal was about to arrive. I quickly went out to join the crowd waiting for him, a little worried about being in my sports clothes. I was reassured by seeing many other teachers in casuals too, though, haha. We all clapped as the new principal came in, and I was surprised to see that he was quite young - probably around 50? He immediately disappeared into his office with Kyoto-sensei, though, so I just wandered back to the staff room and ate my lunch. I found that the area around my desk had completely changed since the morning, hehe. I'm now sitting mostly with the teachers who used to san-nensei, although there are some new faces too and some teachers from the other year groups. It feels a bit strange, as I'd gotten quite comfortable with my ichi-nensei neighbours and I didn't really have much contact with the san-nensei teachers. I'm sure I'll get used to it though!

After I finished my lunch, Kurioka-sensei came wandering across and asked me to prepare a self introduction for the classes I would be taking with her in the new school year. While I was doing this, Hashimoto-sensei, the new principal, decided to drop by my desk to have a chat. He speaks good English, which is pretty cool. He's pretty cheeky, actually. I found out after I spoke to him that he's an English teacher, haha. We spoke in Japanese initially, and he told me he couldn't speak much English. Haha. Mind you, you come to expect that from the ever humble Japanese :) So we spoke for a little while about where we were from and what sports we liked and the usual stuff like that, which was nice. I'd never been able to do that with Doi-sensei, the previous principal. Also, I realised that Hashimoto-sensei had come especially to talk to me, which got him some extra cool points.

Around 3:30 we had a staff meeting and I picked up my timetable for this year. It's looking relatively average compared to most JETs, but certainly much better than last year. The biggest downer for me is that there will be no san-nensei OC class, due to lack of students who want to do it. Thankfully, though, there was a bigger plus to cover that downer with room to spare - the introduction of ichi-nensei oral communication classes. So phew! Anyway, these OC classes mean that I will be teaching at least 7 hours a week, as opposed to the 2 in Term 2 and 0 in Term 3 of last year. I also have a few ni-nensei classes down as well, although they don't do OC. So I imagine it'll be like last year, where I just go when I'm needed (read: once a month if lucky).

So 7 classes a week. It's not so bad, I guess. It leaves me enough time to prepare (especially that free Monday) as well as sneak in some Japanese study. Not to mention the fact I can take nenkyuu that day and bag myself a long weekend whenever I want, wheee. That said, my happiness bubble was a little punctured when I discovered that my evil plans to get involved in kendo and maybe PE classes during term look like they might not pan out. I had coffee in the gym staff room after catching the end of basketball training and ended up talking to the kendo sensei. I asked him if I could join and he came back with a 'chotto matte' and 'muzukashii'. Which in Japanese, is basically an indirect equivalent of 'no' that you're just supposed to be able to magically understand :) We'll see, anyway. Tomiyama-sensei seemed to think it'd be ok, so maybe if approach him about it and have an English teacher around too, I might be able to work something out.

After the staff meeting I finished my self introduction sheets (a guessing game, a fill in the blanks and an ice breaker, hooray!) and then headed out to play some Ultimate Frisbee in the field. There were no students around so the field was empty, so I could throw as I wanted. I ended up throwing into the wind and then running as fast as I could to catch it before it hit the ground - very good exercise and training. I managed to lose my keys out of my jacket pocket while doing this, though, and had to search for them before going home, hehe.

On the way home I stopped in at the Ako International Friendship Association to talk to Sekiyama-san. He gave me a book about the 47 Ronin of Ako, illustrated with black cats. It's in English and Japanese, and he wants to take a recording of me reading the English version. Sounds like fun! So I set that up with him and then had a gander at his photos from his recent trip to Rockingham. I realised how much I missed the Australian scenery - it's so spacious. I don't really miss some things about Australia though - seeing crowds of 'bogans' made me so grateful to be in Japan.

After that it was up to Kappa sushi for dinner, where it seems I got food poisoning. Nice, haha. Nothing too terrible though. Today, school is much quieter than it was yesterday. There are quite a few cars in the carpark but there are less than 10 teachers in the actual staff room. There's nothing on the notice board until much later today, so I guess everyone thought it'd be a good day to sneak in some nenkyuu. I've got two days from tomorrow, so a nice 4 day weekend. Plenty of time to catch up on sleep :)