Its the weekend again!

Finally found a shopfront to go into, talk to a human about internet plans, and set one up. So I will shortly have internet access at home, and shall be able to stop visiting this internet cafe... and shall save myself some money in the process.

The only drawback, is that it will take a month for the oompa loompas from Yahoo to visit my apartment and connect the cable... grr...

On the station platform on the way home, who do I run into but my friendly little fellow from the railway station who turned out to be my principal at my Wednesday school. Except this time, we were over an hour away from that school... maybe he just likes trains?

Wednesday morning, and its my first day at School Number Three.

Having practised the weekend before, I knew which train to take, which station to use, and where to walk from the station. So it wasnt that hard to find, and the scenery from the train line is a lovely picturesque view of the Pacific Ocean.

Leaving the station, I set off in the general direction of the school, when a voice from behind me calls out 'Ohayou Gozaimasu'. I turn, and this little man dressed rather casually runs up to me, smiles a lot, and introduces himself. He works at the school I'm going to... how convenient! And his English is excellent too. We chat as we walk to school together, over a range of topics, and his vocabulary and pronunciation are both excellent. He never actually said he was an English teacher, but I figure, with English this good, he's hardly going to be assigned a different subject area.

We get to the school, and he takes me inside, showing me where the box to leave my shoes is, and takes me to the principal's office to wait; for I must of course be introduced to the principal before the day begins. My kind little helper disappears, leaving me all alone in the principal's office.

But not to worry, within a few minutes, my friendly little helper returns .. this time wearing a jacket and tie, and presents me with his business card.

The Principal.

Day One at my base school...

Once again, no classes today, but they promise me that I will have a class tomorrow...

What DID happen on the other hand, apart from the usual speeches to the staff, the whole school assembly, and greeting giggling students in the corridor, was a day wandering around a new school, trying to not get lost.

At one stage, while left to my own devices in the English staffroom (we have couches!), I decided to go exploring.
Ran into a teacher in the corridor, who stopped, and introduced himself to me in English. Apparently he has a desk near mine, but was busy this morning so couldnt come to say hello. All is well and good, until he just happens to mention in conversation that we are going to have an earthquake evacuation drill this afternoon.
I said, OK... naturally assuming it would be some amount of time away.
Not four seconds passed then until the sirens started, and the PA was announcing "Earthquake, earthquake, evacuate, evacuate!"

Oh, you mean right now....

So we all evacuated to the tennis court... whereupon I noticed all the students are wearing their INDOOR slippers!
Ooh... naughty!! But logical. You dont really want to stop to change shoes while the building is collapsing around you.....

Never fear though... this was what the students had to walk through to get back into the building..

Photos!

Engrish
Scenery

They'll be updated as time goes on...

I have a fridge!

After my little excursion this morning which just so happened to take me past the hill with the butterfly-visible-from-space carved into it, I returned to Odawara to resume my search for furniture to put in my burrow. And no, photos of the burrow are going to wait until it is decently furnished.

At first I thought finding a secondhand shop would be easy. In Sendai there were a few Hard Off's around the place filled with everything from computers to rice cookers, to guitars to telephones. However the nearest one to me here is Yokohama... 40 minutes on the train, and I'm sorry, im not taking a fridge home on the trains! I draw enough stares as it is around here, let alone the effort required to lug a fridge up the stairs to the station.
" Look at the foreigner, taking his fridge for a walk! He should get a puppy instead"

But I digress.
Most of the secondhand shops I discovered (and discovered only after walking many kilometres around the city) turned out to be a little less than my expectations. From the first one, populated by small desks and chairs and staffed by three elderly women from the community (who were drinking tea and playing with beads), to the many places that turned out to be secondhand books or games only, I was beginning to think that that brand new fridge in the department store was looking good.
Not to fear however... the last shop I visited (of course it was the last.. why keep looking after I found what I want?) did indeed have appliances... and to get a fridge, AND a microwave/convection oven, and get it delivered, and the total came to under $100, I think I did some good shopping. Wonder if I'll need to get my shoes resurfaced though...

Tomorrow I'll be looking for a desk...