Things are looking positive with the company, though of course taking its time.

Today was the Lions Club Speech Contest that I had been preparing five students for. Having no other pressing plans for the morning, I decided to go along and watch.

Happily, the student I thought was our best hope ended up winning the contest, along with it the scholarship for a months homestay in the country of her choice anywhere in the world! And the student I thought was the best after her, he came second. The other schools competing really didnt have a chance - we blitzed the field.

Though I bumped into the parents of one of the students in the street this evening (not sure precisely which student they belonged to), and in a momentary lapse, spoke to them in Japanese.
So theyre going to tell the student... the student is going to tell the other students.. looks like my secret is out!
Friday, I slipped up, too, and said konnnichiwa to a student in the corridor. I figure that offence can be covered up easily, konnnichiwa being a simple word, but I think I rather put my foot in it with these parents...

Oh well.... they might forget....

This week has absolutely flown by!
Having Monday off work certainly makes things fly, and it was a great Monday too. Ive spent a lot of this week remembering the weekend, which makes me happy, and stops me getting too frustrated at a certain person who was supposed to help me settle in.

I wont go into too much detail, because I'm negotiating with the company at the moment, but it seems that most people they brought over at the same time as me were placed in apartments at least partially furnished, and for the most part fully furnished, with no need to run around buying absolutely every single item of furniture in the place.
Oh, and most everyone else was given an internet connection at home too...

The people at head office are taking their time replying, but at least they're keeping me updated, and it appears things are running through the beauracracy at the moment, and hopefully there will be a positive outcome in the near future. I want them to pay for my furniture.

One more day of work until the weekend!!!

Photos from Kandatsu

Long Weekend: Respect for The Aged Day

Setting off on a train journey of proportions to rival the Trans-Siberian (or, so my teachers at school would have me believe - its only three hours) on Saturday morning, I was soon leaving the sprawling metropolis of Tokyo and entering the sprawling rice fields of Ibaraki.

Having missed out on finding out what on earth an Umbrella Dance was, when sports festival was postponed due to the rain, I was out to Ibaraki to catch up with some friends I met at orientation, and to visit the Ishioka Matsuri - apparently one of Japan's biggest festivals, lasting three days.
Its a little hard to describle the sights at this festival with a large degree of accuracy, especially given the strange assortment of food such as pink squid (yeh, that makes sense), so please look at the photo album above.

I do, however, know where Pachinko street is now.

Apparently the point of this festival is to drag all these gods across town (after waking them up from their slumber in shrines across the area), bring them all into the one place, parade them around in front of the people, and ask for blessings to have a good downpour of rain, which i guess is good for the farmers.
Anyway, it seemed to work. From about sunset Sunday night, right in the middle of the three day festival, it started to rain.
Yay for the gods in boxes.

Monday morning it was still going.... thunderstorms, torrential downpours... very good planning to have gone to the festival Sunday afternoon rather than Monday morning.

At least it dried up in time to get on the train back to Odawara.