Hey, where did April go?

Gah! I hate technology. I spent ages writing a witty, insightful blog entry (well, something like that) only for the computer to eat it. Grr. So, one more time with feeling.
Iain's dad came out for a couple of weeks, and I got to meet the man himself. I met Iain and his dad, Michael, for a couple of beers at Coffee Pub Mango, an oddly named jazz cave near my house. I think we were all nervous and on our best behaviour. Not having had dinner and drinking quickly to compensate for nerves, I ended up getting quite drunk on four beers. Then I went home and made noodles and burnt my tongue and wanted to die at work the following day. I love meeting the parents.
Jen had a huge leaving party that week, so we met up with a crowd of drunken Nova teachers at a bar and it quickly descended into insanity and bad karaoke, with added toxic hangovers for some the following morning.
I had kids training a couple of weeks ago and that was mostly uneventful. Having taught kids for a year, I didn't feel like I learnt much. I met Jo and Thom for a couple of lethal cocktails at Misfits and we staggered onto the last subway at half past eleven. I was ok at Chibiko training (for teaching toddlers) the next day, but judging by their "I hate myself and I want to die" expressions as they sang the Hello Song, I would say that some of the other teachers there hadn't been so careful. They didn't even do the actions. Tsk. The school I work at, Takabata, has lots of kids, so sure enough a couple of days later I had my first kids classes. So far no-one has cried or puked on me, but maybe they're saving it for next week. I did have one kid sneeze on the ball we were playing catch with then wipe his nose on it. Eew. The two other teachers at my school seem nice, Dan and Caroline. I hardly ever see Caroline because we have completely different days off and she works in Kanayama on Saturday.
I've been trying to get to meet more people here (despite Iain's protestation that a boyfriend is all the company a girl needs) but it's difficult. I think last year it was much easier because I was working for such a small company, all the teachers knew each other, lived close together and congregated at the same local. Here there are hundreds of Nova teachers in the city and it's weirdly difficult to meet people outside your flat and your branch school. There was a 'new teachers get together', but that was an odd toe-curling evening and I didn't make any progress. I've replied to a couple of adverts I saw that were looking for people to do language exchanges, so it would be nice to make a Japanese friend or two.
Iain came to Nagoya last Tuesday after he'd dropped his dad off at the airport and we wandered around Kanayama and Asunal (the local shopping centre) until Iain homed in on a huge shop selling an odd mix of cheap CDs. He frequently leafs through my CD collection shaking his head in disbelief at some of my choices, so he began the long process of re-education by giving me a Camera Obscura EP. It's really good. Don't tell him I said that.
I finally managed to buy a bike (I swear the guy who runs the bike shop was shutting up every time he saw me come down the street) and suddenly the city makes sense. I'm actually really close to everything. I can cycle to Nagoya station in about half an hour, Sakae in about 15 minutes, and Osu Cannon (where all the cool kids hang out) in about 5 minutes. I can now stand on a main street and vaguely know where I am without having to get out a map (more or less - I am still pretty rubbish with that kind of thing). I want to see if I can cycle to work, but as my collegue Dan pointed out, that's maybe best kept for a day off. Everyone cycles on the pavement here (very weird), but since the pavements are at least 3 metres wide there's usually enough space for pedestrians and cyclists. They still hate each other, but that was never going to change. I wouldn't like to chance cycling on the roads here, the traffic moves very quickly. It's funny to see business men in suits riding tiny fold-up bikes with mini wheels.
On Monday night a big crowd of us went to Red Rock for Francis' birthday, a rowdy affair that would have involved drinking games had Mitchell been able to count to three. I was knackered, so Iain and I came away at half twelve. It sounds like we got off lightly. Francis woke up the next morning unable to move his leg, and with no idea of what had happened.
Its now Thursday and I'm really tired from sitting out in the sun in the park this afternoon, listening to the wind blowing through the grass and the homeless people snoring and a helicopter overhead. It was the first time I'd been able to laze in the sunshine since last November, so naturally I'm a bit pink now but it was worth it. And then I went to the internet place and wrote a witty and insightful blog entry which the computer ate, and that's us more or less up to date.

Pretty Pictures From Inuyama Festival

Hey, look at this. Isn`t it cool? My very own tiny pixie man, and pretty floats. I really hope this works out. Its difficult trying to work out what to press when blogger page is all in Japanese. Does this button publish or delete everything? Hmm...

Watashi Wa Kososenzai Arerugi Des

Allergies. Gah. Since I came to Japan, I've had the worst excema I've had since I was a kid. My arms are covered in little itchy red bumps, and I'm secretly quite glad that, since Iain's dad is visiting, I'm not seeing Iain much for the next week. It would be pretty nasty, sitting scratching away in class, but everyone else here seems to have excema too. I reckon it must be my old enemy, biological washing powder, so I nip down to the supermarket to get some soft non-bio that won't leave me looking like an extra from a horror film. I wander up and down the supermarket aisles until I realise there are no cleaning products anywhere. How am I going to ask where to find non-bio washing powder? Luckily there is one bag of washing powder beside the counter. I pick it up and say, kososenzai ne? Biological washing powder, right? The girl at the counter nods, and I make a show of putting it back. She natters at me for a bit and I nod, hoping we're still on washing powder and she isn't commenting on how much I smell. The only thing I manage to pick out is 5. Fifth floor? I didn't realise there was a fifth floor. Why put the supermarket in the basement and the cleaning stuff at the other end of the building? I'm sure I must have heard her wrong, but wander up there just in case. A whole floor of cleaning stuff, fantastic. Unfortunately nothing's in English and there no helpful pictures of babies or white packaging to help me tell the soft stuff from the hard stuff like I had with my Babimild in Thailand. I feel quite the moron wandering around the supermarket with a dictionary in one hand and a phrasebook in the other. The best I can do is 'I want to buy washing powder. I'm allergic to biological washing powder' and hope that they will figure out I need them to actually put the stuff in my hand, though the phrasebook might be a pretty good clue.
Eventually a nice lady natters at me in length about a range of products in white bottles, and there's even one that says 'no additives' in English. Hooray, I have managed to get my point across and it only took me half an hour to get what I want. I should just about be able to have a conversation by Christmas.

Time flies when you can`t get a wireless connection in your flat. So, where was I up to? Right. Last Thursday I came into Nagoya to apply for my alien registration card and to get a mobile phone. The alien card took an hour, and the mobile phone also took ages. The guy who sold it to me had spent some time in England and kept dropping in bits of British slang like, "it`s just a couple of quid" which amused me quite a lot. I still find Nagoya incredibly confusing and I can`t find anything, but luckily if you stand and look bewildered someone will eventually take pity on you and help you out.
I got on the train to go back to Inuyama in the evening, but got the completely wrong one. It took another 2 trains and an hour and a half to get to Inuyama and I needed a drink after that. Luckily Iain and Darius were already in the pub having the pants bored off them by a dull American called Ray.
On Friday... what on earth did I do on Friday? I can`t remember. I think it involved loafing around and improving my MarioKart skills.
Saturday was the Inuyama festival. I assume there`s some tradition behind it (unless people did sit around a table and say, "ok... let`s build some enormous 3 storey wooden floats, and put intricate mechanical puppets at the top... and parade them around the street for 2 days. There should be, how many? Thirteen, say? That`s a suitably mysterious number, lets go for that. And everyone pushing the floats should wear the same outfits. All those in favour? Motion passed. Now, on to the coffee morning..."), but I have no idea what the story is behind the whole thing. The streets were lined with food stalls, and it made me oddly homesick for Thailand. We walked around for a while, eating mysterious fried things on sticks and drinking beer. There were lots of small shows going on around the town and we caught live music and dancing and nearly got crushed by huge floats. Photos will go up tomorrow if I can figure out how to do it.
On Sunday it rained horribly so we stayed in, read, and ate comfort food. I went back to Nagoya in the afternoon to meet my flatmate and finally unpack my stuff. My flatmate`s called Lucy and she`s Canadian. Her mum is visiting at the moment so it feels like quite a ful

I made it here in one piece

I`ve been in Japan for 6 days now, and I still can't quite believe I live here. The flight was long and boring, with the traditional delay of the first flight to ensure I could participate in my connecting flight sprint. If I had a quid for every time that happened, I would have a fiver. The man sitting next to me had horrible breath and a nasty cold. He coughed on me a lot. I thought bad things towards him and toyed with slipping a toothbrush into his bag.
Iain met me at the airport, it was so good to see him. I did briefly panic when I was on the plane - what if I don`t like him anymore? Luckily this wasn`t a problem. Mmm, still cute. We went back to Inuyama to dump all　my stuff, collected Jon (Iain`s friend who I haven`t seen for years) and went back to Nagoya. Nova had been quite insistent that I collect my keys as soon as I arrive because it wouldn`t do to be staying in a boy`s flat. Goodness me, no. I phoned the personnel office to confirm when I would be coming in, and they hadn`t sent my keys to Nagoya.
"When can I get my keys?"
"They should be there tomorrow. Sorry about that. Have you got anywhere to stay?"
"I`m staying with a friend."
"Oh right, that`s fine."
Ok then.
We wandered about for a bit and met Thom and had a few beers in Red Rock (I think I`ll be spending a lot of time in there) and headed home early.

On Wednesday I woke up tired from fighting over half a single futon. I`d been wide awake most of the night because it still felt like the afternoon. I hate time differences. We ambled back into Nagoya and dropped off Jon at the station, and I got my keys and information. Still no offical word on where I work, but the guy I spoke to at Lejac thought I was at Takabata. We wandered off to Kanayama and looked around for my flat. The map wasn`t very helpful but we got there in the end. No flatmates were in, so I had a good nose around. Three bedrooms, big kitchen and cozy livingroom. I was delighted to find a cafetiere in the kitchen. Japanese instant coffee tastes like acorns.
We met up with some more of Iain`s friends, Francis, Thom and Jen, and went to the port and the weird fake Italian bit where they do good pizza. They also have gondolas but we resisted. Everyone else got delicious icecream, but Francis mangaged to get the one that tasted of salt. We all tried it and made faces.
In the evening me and Iain went back to Inuyama. I went to the pub with Darius, Iain`s Kiwi flatmate, so not to scare Iain`s timid student who refuses to talk in front of other people. Came back a couple of hours later and discovered the joys of playing MarioKart on the inherited Nintendo. Iain kicked my arse.