I'm at my desk at Kurohone-Chugakko, (Kurohone junior high school). The vice principal has been working hard to get my Mac working on the school network, and it's finally operational.
Everyone here is very friendly and have been really nice. Yesterday the Kocho-sensei (Principal) decided I must be bored so he took the afternoon off and drove me to Nikko to do some sightseeing. Check the gallery for pictures. Although I had no idea he was planning this and I hadn't charged my phone, so it went dead after a few shots. Plus I had the worst footwear, slip on sandal thingy's, coz we are always taking shoes on and off over here. Man that last sentence sounded like a girl wrote it, no offence...
So far it's been kind of busy, sortng out alien registration, getting a mobile phone, bank account, futon and bedding etc. There was a big festival the first weekend I got here, it ran for 3 days and was a lot of fun. I got to Kiryu with Andrew from Mulgrave and met Samantha from Clarinda. So that's 3 of us from the same area of Melbourne all posted to this kind of remote little city in Japan.
My village is tiny, but my school is actually not in the village, it's a good 40 minute walk uphill to get to the school. yesterday I sorted out leasing a car, I pick it up next week when the AC is fixed.
There are 2 kinds of cars here, yellow plate (also called kei cars) and white plate. Yellow plate cars are tiny and have very small engines, they receive a big tax break from the government, low registration costs etc. White plates are essentialy the same as cars we have in Australia. I'm getting a really girly little yellow plate that I wouldn't be caught dead in back home. It will cost around $200 per month with insurance. I didn't want a car at all but it is essential in my location, maybe next year, after winter, I'll get a motorcycle.
The car I'm getting is completely gutless but the speed limits here are so low it doesn't matter. Most places around where I live are 40kph. So even a yellow plate can speed.
Check out the galleries for a few pics of festival etc, see you all later.
I forgot to say that I'm taking Friday off and going to Hiroshima. The Biennial animation festival is on, it coincides with a huge peace and harmony festival (all due to the 'Hiroshima Weapon' as they call the A-bomb) so it has been a nightmare booking a hotel. Eventually I got a room in the city for friday night, and a room at the airport hotel for saturday night. That's ok since I fly out at around 10.30 am sunday morning.
I have a festival day pass reserved for Saturday, so I'll be watching films all day. Unfortunately I will miss the Tezuka retrospective (think Astroboy) on Sunday, but I have to be back in time for work on Monday, so I can't dilly dally.
My camera packed it in on the flight over, so i am resorting to my mobile phone (ketei) to take pictures. Apart from at the Matsuri when Sam gave me her camera, I flattened the battery on her 2 days running. I guess I should stop messing around with cut price gear and finally get a real camera again, the Holmesglen equipment room isn't a 5 minute drive away anymore.
