'If I hadn't been so busy, I would have written sooner.'

Well, one week on and I must apologise for I have written nothing - and so much has happened! This is my first official post from Japan, and I am uncertain of what I am doing because most of the sight appears in Japanese. Anyway I am going to have a go.... I am sitting in what has has now become my local internet cafe after a hard day's work at Musashi-koganei school. This place is really rather cool. I expect anyone who has been to Japan will know exactly what I am talking about, but for those of you who haven't I will describe it. It's basically a manga comic book store that has loads of booths which you rent for as long as you desire. You can watch tv and DVDs, play video games, use the internet and god knows what else. To help make your life more comfortable you are provided with a comfortable black leather armchair and foot rest, a 'very taste' menu that offers everything from 'carry' (650 kcal) to fried chicken and toast. You also get free drinks, use of the shower facilities, a blanket in case you get cold and for those that need a nicotine hit, an ashtray. (No the Japanese are not quite as aware of the health issues associated with passive smoking.) That is actually the one draw back to this internet cafe, you leave smelling like fags. Nice. Apart from that though I love it, it is my second home. In fact if I could rent a space for all my clothes, I would move in right away.

So, what was I saying before I went off on a tangent? It is just after eleven pm. Given that I got to school at midday, it makes for a rather long shift. Although I am only teaching 22 hours per week, I have to be in school for 29.5 hours (?!) to do paperwork and other 'non teaching' tasks. I asked why it is 29.5 hours per week and apparently it is is because if we are paid to work more, then we are full time employees and this means we fall under some other kind of tax bracket (I think. I will check.) But as far as I am concerned I am a full time employee, working a 55 hour week. This is because all the hours I spend planning my lessons are done in 'my own time'. However, the good news is that I can now achieve this in under five hours per lesson, which is a big improvement. Today I had to plan a lesson on 'subject-verb inversions in conditional sentences'. Sound dry? Well it did to me. (To be honest, an hour before the lesson I didn't have a clue what that meant!) Anyway, I read up on it and planned my somewhat boring lesson - I mean how can you make that fun? I tried to make it look appealing by drawing a couple of stars around the heading on the board, and waited for my students. I was all psyched up and ready to elicit informal conditional sentences and compare them with the formal ones and use my special deflectory technique to avoid answering questions I did not know the answer to, when the clock chimed. Or rather played this annoying fairy music. This meant that it was eight and they were late. (In Japan, if you are on time, you are late.) So there I was. White board marker in hand, the auxilliary verb 'had', about to be inverted at any moment..... and they didn't show up. I guess you could say it was a bit of an anti-climax. I never knew I could feel so passionate about grammar....

Departure Time

Heathrow Airport - Monday morning. My plane leaves in an hour for Amsterdam where I connect with my flight to Tokyo. Time for a few last minute texts.