Sayonara Simon-Sensei

AEON Student Party Saturday 19th June
This week has seen the leaving of my very good friend, Simon, from AEON Hikarigaoka. I'm really sad he's left the crew, we've had some great laughs together, and I have a lot of happy memories :) Although Simon is staying in Tokyo, his future remains uncertain until he successfully finds a new job.

 Drawn by one of Simon's kids classes

Simon's replacement is Richard Sensei,  a 30-something French-born Californian. He seems mature, but amicable, and I look forward to working with him.

This leaves me the only British-speaking teacher at the school; my accent is sure to degrade!!! :(

The boys: Richard Sensei (left) Simon Sensei (right)

Last night was the long-anticipated Farewell Part held again at Watami, the local large-capacity Japanese-style restaurant.




Kampai!!!!

The party is a fantastic and rare chance to mingle with so many students of other classes, drink as much as I want for free(!!), get some great travel ideas and importantly to practice my Japanese ^^

I had a fantastic time!

 

I also managed to sneakily watch the Japan vs Netherlands first-round World Cup match via a student's cell phone, which was sadly a loss for the Japan side.

Later on, we hit the Karaoke in Nerima (a 10 minute walk from home-lucky me!)

Simon and I singing a farewell song in Japanese

Our Area Manager joined us- a rare and at first unnerving privilege-and he turned out to be an absolute party animal!!

Next on my itinerary is Cara and Laura's visit- which is only 7 days away!

Aeon Hikarigaoka Welcome Party!

I have survived my first week at work, and although training didn't prepare me for hyper, dissinterested kids, I feel the adult classes at least have been successful!

I'm all settled into my flat, just a few bits and bobs I want to buy to make it more habitable now.

Last night (Saturday 19th) was my Welcome Party to Aeon Hikarigoka! We had chicken broth, octopus pancake, and plenty of sake and beer.
I gave a speech, and they applauded my efforts at using Japanese!
It was a very memorable night, and I did a lot of mingling and even had a conversation about astrophysics with one student in a Japenglish mix :)

This is me eating my first dish of raw fish, sashimi. Oishikatta desu!
(It was tasty!)

Next week Mon-Wedn are bank holidays; it is unusual for all three to follow a weekend, so I have 4 splendid days off work!

The bank holidays are:

Respect for the Aged Day (敬老の日), third Monday of September

Autumnal Equinox Day　(秋分の日), astronomically determined, but usually September 23

Kokumin no kyujitsu　(国民の休日), the day in between the two other holidays.

I will hopefully be going to Tokyo Disneyland on Tuesday.. let's see!!!

p.s. Thank you to to Xor, my collegue, who has uploaded a few photos to the web for me. Please scroll down to view my edited posts!!