Small town mentalism...

OK, so it's been a week and a half since I arrived in Katsuyama. It has been a strange time, marked largely by huge periods of tiredness, thunderstorms, Japanese language study and hopeless attempts at spending money...

I arrived on Thursday 5th August, in the care of my supervisor, Higuchi san. Higuchi san is six months younger than me, so we're vaguely on a similar wavelength. Except that he is fairly sporty, and I'm about as sporty as a 3 week old melon. The drive to Katsuyama was a bit to much to take in what with being overwhelmed by everything for the previous four days and to cap it all off, once I arrived, I was introduced to every civil servant in the town, taken to one of my 4 schools, introduced to the financial director of the town and the mayor. All before I even saw my flat! Higuchi san had ordered my hanko (a stamp of my surname which is used in Japan in place of a signature on official forms), which we collected prior to attending Nakasu Mansion, my new home. It turned out that Nakasu mansion had been built of Lego and not splendour and gold as the name suggests. Each room appears to have been assembled, rather than built, out of plastic sheeting. But it's comfortable, spacious and clean, and a bit nice, with a loverly balcony. Anyway we were met there by someone from the gas board, and here began the signing (or stamping) away of my life. This continued on Friday when I went to get an Alien registration card (once I get that, I can get a mobile phone etc), to open a bank account and so on. As I'm not going to meet the Junior high's English teacher till the 26th, I'm studying Japanese on a daily basis in the Board of Education office while trying not to pass out due to inactivity and heat.

Higuchi san and his lady came round on Friday night for a Japanese - English lesson, which was good, and on Saturday I met the ALT (Assistant Language Teacher, the job I'm doing) from the next town, Johanna. This involved getting one of the 10 trains a day out of Katsuyama. Only ten trains a day! Except for every 4th Saturday when there are precisely zero trains a day. If anyone ever complains to me about the Central Line I swear I shall respond with violence...

Johanna lives in Kuse, a slightly bigger town, 6 mins by train from me. She's really fun, a loud American girl, genuine and bubbly, and good to have around. We spent the afternoon at the 100yen store (think £1 shop, but cleaner, better quality, not smelly, and half the price). Dad, you'd love it... We had our tea at hers and she introduced me to some very interesting and tasty japanese condiments, the best of which was furikake, a seaweed/ sesame combo that you sprinkle on rice. Nice.

Sunday was a day of much rest- I finally dragged myself out of the house at 8:30pm to explore the nightlife. There was none. The supermarkets were the only things open late. And once I'd walked to the other side of town the heavens opened. Good job the other side of town is only a 10 minute walk away...

On Monday morning my box of goodies arrived from the UK (blankets, heavy clothes, books, some CDs and DVDs), which prompted me to spend many of the week's evenings watching Charlie's Angels and Buffy. The heat renders all other activity impossible...

This past week days have been taken up with getting thing set up (signing rent agreements, sorting out the internet in my flat, organising direct debits from my bank) and on Thursday night Johanna and me met up with Christine, the other ALT from my town. I don't think Christine and I will ever be particularly excited about seeing each other. She's nice an' that, but we just didn't click from the start.

My Board of Education (BoE) have also given me a bike, which I now think they're regretting. I was alerted to its presence last week, and despite my informing all concerned that I have never, and I mean NEVER been able to ride a bike, it was insisted that I was good enough to ride to work (!!). Why I should want to I do not know, as the BoE is only a 10 minute walk away. Well, I rode the bike in on Wednesday. And they almost gave me a standing ovation. They obviously didn't see the wobbling. And I rode it home again. And on Thursday I rode it in again. When I went to ride it home, they all insisted that I didn't have to if I didn't want and that I could leave it there if I wanted to. "No!" I insisted and rode it home. And in again on Friday whereby I was informed that the traffic was busy, so it would be best to walk the bike home, or simply leave it at the BoE. Not bloody likely. You want me to ride that bike? I'll ride it like it's bloody National Velvet. Which doesn't mean much as I can't ride horses either.

This weekend's been fun too. Took the bus to Okayama City (2 hours!) on Saturday morning. It was a lovely ride as we went through the mountains and looked down into the valleys. I met Fiona and Sarah, two other ALTs in Okayama, and we went on a shopping orgy. MUJI is officially the cheapest shop on the face of the earth for quality clothing, stationery and homewares- and they also do cook-in sauces and teas! We also became aware Japan's lack of racial awareness, when in a bookshop's English section we came across numerous copies of the banned-in-the-UK children's book 'Little Black Sambo'. This was also available in a full Japanese translation. Unfortunate is not the word. Clueless is more like it.

Met up with Chad and his colleagues, as well as Tiger and Sally and John, (the last two being two new Hiroshima ALTs) by the fountain outside Okayama station, and we went to an Irish bar(!). I had my first Guiness for years. We then went onto a bizarre little place called 'Fudge Bar' which was in a basement and was decorated with 'retro memorabilia'- ie random bits of crap. Much fun though, and the drink servings were on the (very) large side. From there it was back to Kurashiki and onto Karaoke, where we stayed until, oh, 4am... The evidence of Japan's cluelessness continued with the Banana Boat Song being available on the Karaoke menu. Nice. A stream of crap pop poured forth from my lips, including the delights that are Hazell Dean, Mariah Carey, Shampoo and Aqua. Karaoke is the cheapest thing to do in Japan. We paid the equivalent of a tenner each for 3 and a half hours and that price included as many drinks as you wanted from an extensive list of free booze. I must now go to bed to complete my recovery before work tomorrow...