Again, sorry, this entry is a little late :P It was written on Saturday 3 May.

This week has been a little more interesting thanks to the two holidays in the middle of it. As the first of these, Showa Day, fell on the Tuesday, I organised to head out for some dinner and drinking with Yusaku in Himeji on Monday night. We searched for a new place to go for dinner, seeing as I'd been to Doma Doma the night before, but ended up back there anyway, haha. Around 9ish we headed across to Tiger Pub where we hung out for a couple of hours. I didn't know the lady who was working and it was quite quiet, so Yusaku and I just chatted away in Japan and English. I got some good Japanese practise in and learnt a few new things, which I was pretty happy about. The place gradually got busier and a couple of my friends walked in, so we got chatting to them until we had to call it a night so I could catch my last train.

On Tuesday I'd been invited to go to Sanda with Minato-san and his family. Sanda is near Kobe, and has a massive shopping centre and 'Premium Outlet' (read: wanky, overpriced shops) area. I was pretty excited about it as I like hanging out with Minato-san and it also involved a bit of a road trip. So I met Minato-san at 9:30am in Aioi, along with Nate and Miho, and off we all went. The drive was beautiful, down the wonderful (but expensive) Sanyo expressway. At Sanda we explored the Premium Outlet a little bit, but spent a lot more time sitting in the paved outside area enjoying the beautiful weather and playing cards, haha. After a quick tour around the rest of the Premium Outlet and bagging some gaijin foods in the semi decent Plaza store, we had lunch in the food hall (mmm omuraisu) and headed to the massive Aeon nearby.

We had a bit of an explore here but it was pretty much stuff you could get anywhere so we called it a day mid afternoon. On the drive home, Minato-san made an impromptu decision to check out Mount Rokko near Kobe. I'd long wanted to explore it so was happy to zoom up there. Again, it was a beautiful drive and the little lookout we stopped at had a great view over Kobe. Well, it would have been great had there not been ridiculous amounts of smog, haha. From there we headed back to Tatsuno where we grabbed dinner at a great little Chinese place (mmmm, 200 yen Gyoza). We were also going to head to Akane-yu, Minato-san's favourite sento, but Nate and Miho wanted to head home and I was really tired after a day in the sun. So he dropped me off at Aioi station and I headed home. Overall, a sweet day!

Wednesday was back to school for a day before school's birthday holiday on Thursday. At night I headed down to badminton and got in some good games with Ewan and the other regulars. Ewan had bought a new racquet and had gotten some more of his play back since two weeks before, so the games were quite strong. I played quite well, and identified a few areas I really need to improve in, so was quite positive for a change :) After badminton I headed down to Sai-on where I caught up with Kazu, who I hadn't seen for a while, until about 1am.

Thursday was another pretty big day. I'd organised to have lunch with Kazu, which we can't normally do, so we had trouble finding a place to go, haha. In the end I suggested Bunraku, a fantastic little place in the far east of Ako. It does just about anything you can think of - izkaya style food, donburi, tempura, udon and soba, sashimi and sushi and goodness knows what else. Something for everyone, literally. We hung out there for a couple of hours eating and discussing English grammar, believe it or not, haha.

After that, we headed out for coffee, and on the way, Kazu pointed out the Kansai Welfare University. Although I knew there was a uni in Ako and roughly where it was, I'd never actually tried looking for it. I couldn't believe how close it was - right near the recycle shop I'd visited so many times when I first came to Ako :) I wondered why I'd never visited the uni, then, and realised it was probably just silly reasons like assuming it would have been closed by the time I could get there after work (around 5pm) and that my Japanese wouldn't have been good enough to make friends. In hindsight, I really should have just gone down, hehe. It was so wonderful to see all the people around my age running around, after basically only seeing school kids and senior citizens in my daily travels in Ako.

Perhaps most amusing about the whole thing was that Kazu got a real taste of what being a gaijin can be like in Japan. Being the only gaijin on campus, I was the centre of attention everywhere I walked, and it totally boggled Kazu's mind, hehe. He couldn't believe how much everyone stared, how surprised and interested they looked and how some of them would wave and say 'Herro!' as they walked past. I suppose I've become used to it all, and it took someone who isn't to really remind me of the rather strange life I lead here, hehe.

While we were there, Kazu got in contact with two of our friends who go there, Naonori and Aya. I hadn't seen them for a while and wanted to catch up, but unfortunately they were in classes. So Kazu and I headed to the nearby Gusto Skylark cafe to hit up the drink bar. 350 yen for all you can drink juice, coffee and other nefarious beverages, w00t! Around 5ish we headed out to Misaki, the cape in east Ako, to check out the beach, and then to Sakoshi to do the same. Sakoshi has a pebble beach, so I resurrected my childhood stone skipping skills and threw some good ones out across the water. Good fun!

I had plans to head to Himeji at night, but couldn't be bothered in the end. I was tired and not really in the mood, so just headed down to Minato-ya with Kazu. Aya also joined us and we hung out there for a while eating delicious okonomiyaki. I have found a new favourite, which also happens to be Minato's least favourite thing to cook, so that makes it doubly good to order :) Washed down with a Lowenbrau, it was good times. Around 9pm we headed towards Sai-on, but I called it a night as I was very tired and had school the next day.

Friday wasn't too bad as I got a good amount of sleep on Thursday night. I had prepared for my classes on Wednesday, but somehow forgot one of the worksheets for my first period class. Very embarrassing, but Hashimoto-sensei seemed to understand and I was able to instantly change the lesson plan to do the work without the worksheet. So not too much lost ;) I will be more careful in future. As I said, I had prepared previously, so it wasn't like I screwed up because I was in a frantic rush in the morning right before class.

I also taught one lesson with Toda-sensei and one with Takagi sensei, both based on section 2 of the first chapter of the textbook. These lessons are fairly boring because they're usually the same and cover dictation (fill in the blanks) and pronounciation practise, but at least I'm teaching ;) I really hope that my presence makes the lesson somewhat more interesting. After that I had my first ESS club meeting! Only two of the three club members could attend, but it was good fun. While Baba-sensei was in control we did self introductions, but as soon as she left I broke out my iPod and playing cards and taught them some Western music and card games. I think it's going to be a very fun club!

At night I headed out for dinner with Daichi and some of the other funky people (Hayashi-san, Yamano-san, Hide and Minato-san) from the Ako Badminton Club, down to Tsubohachi. I wasn't sure where it was to begin with, and was really happy when it turned out to be the izakaya right near school that I'd been to the first night I arrived in Ako. The service isn't wonderful but the food is quite cheap and very delicious. So we all ate, drank, talked and laughed a lot. I couldn't understand a whole lot of what was being said, but I definitely understood more than I used to, so I was happy enough. It was really nice to be out with my local friends, and as strange as it might sound, especially nice since they can't speak good English. It was a wonderful opportunity to practise my Japanese skills. And to solidify a few friendships, too. Minato-san is always fun to hang around because he's the good kind of crazy and I like and respect Daichi. I was glad of the opportunity to catch up with them in a more social setting (even though badminton is pretty laid back!)

After we finished dinner, Daichi and I rode up to Sai-on for a couple of drinks. I Daichi had a little bike, the type which I'd long wanted to ride, so I traded my mountain bike for it. We raced most of the way to Sai-on which was quite a challenge given the bike's tiny wheels, one of which was flat, haha. We had a few drinks at Sai-on then I headed home at around 1am, ready for the super long weekend!