hey all,
So today was my first day and it was interesting, but at the same time really grueling. I got over to Ageo by train, and tried to take a bus to the junior high school. It started out looking like it would be easy, but soon the bus started going on streets that didn't look familiar, so I asked the driver if this bus was stopping at my stop, and he seemed to say no. So I got off, and used my map of Ageo to ask some people on the street how to get to my school. They gave me directions in Japanese, but I understood them more or less, and I asked a few more people as I got closer, until I finally arrived.
They had a teacher show me to the teachers' room, and I spoke with a few of the teachers. Then there was some kind of ceremony in the gym involving several speeches, songs, and several rounds of introductions. Then back to the teachers room, where I chatted with a few of the teacher some more, in a mix of Japanese and English, and then we had lunch. It was sushi and soba (raw fish and buckwheat noodles), and most of it was actually pretty good. A few of the pieces of fish were too chewy, but the soba was nice. After lunch there was another ceremony, this time with some guest speakers from the PTA and local government. More songs, speeches and bowing than I care to remember later, we do more introductions. After that ceremony, I worked on my introduction and some activities to do, then chatted with the teachers some more. I left at my leaving time (4:15PM), and walked back to the train station, which is a 45 minute walk.
I bought a new bike on the way back (the cheapest one I found after stopping at two bike shops cost about $102, which includes a crime-prevention registration fee), and tried to buy a parking space at the train station. This would make it very unlikely that my bike would be missing when I came back to Ageo. But, the old guy at the train station bike parking garage couldn't seem to understand anything I said to him in any language, and when I tried putting my bike in several different spots, he ended up telling me that those were full. I asked if he could show me an empty one (in English), and he couldn't understand that, so I finally just rode my bike back to Omiya, which took about an hour.
The teachers at the school were all incredibly friendly, interesting, and put up with my bad Japanese by complimenting me on how good it was, but the problems of getting to the school and back kinda messed up my good mood. I spoke with Masa, and he suggested I try a different parking garage on the other side of the station (apparently all of the spaces were booked in the one I tried, which I hadn't even thought about), and even told me how to ask if there were any open parking spaces (まだばしょがいっていますか?: are there any spaces left?). So, tomorrow, I will supposedly be teaching 4 classes in a row, and maybe I can even get a parking spot for my bike, both of which are pretty exciting prospects. But, I still have over an hour long bike ride to get over to the school tomorrow morning, which means I'm going to bed around 10PM tonight (again) so I can get up at 6:26AM.
I'm sweaty from running to the school this morning, walking back to the station, and riding my bike back to Omiya, so I'm gonna take a shower, eat some food, brush my teeth, and go to bed.
Cheers,
