Thursday, July 28, 2005

a great 25

25 hours of pretty good life for an English teacher in Hiroshima. Tuesday is my day off work.

A fun English lesson for my Japanese-English exchange friend at the HIC: Practicing describing people, always makes for an interesting lesson, and it is relevant for immediate future use.

Instead of our usual Tuesday night Japanese class, a social gathering for all-you-can-drink-and-eat at the Kirin Beer Garden was on for students and our sensei alike! With people from Brazil, China, Thailand, Canada, Australia, and of course Japan, we were quite a cosmopolitan bunch. I was quite surprised at how everyone was really getting into the swing of the atmosphere: sculling beer and stuffing ourselves full of food, like there was no tomorrow; language sandwiches and plenty of universal laughter.

After the feasting had finished, our gang split into home-goers, kareoke-goers and pub-goers. I think being Australian, I fell into the last category by default. The interesting challenge at the pub was teaching a game of 8-ball to a Japanese friend who'd never played before. A big thanks to Ian for giving me so much helpful advice on my game some months ago (see the bigger balls post).

On Wednesday, I had the pleasurable company of my 1st Hiroshima friend over coffee/lunch on the 3rd floor of Starbucks - sorry Melbourne coffee lovers, there's not much choice of independent cafes and I've just about burnt out the staff at the best one: blue flat cafe.

On the 25th hour, no planning was required to jump in to my first lesson of the day, a Voice class. I was most pleasantly surprised and impressed that a student had brought in a gift jar of the mighty Vegemite for me! I am totally stoked! Not only did I gratefully receive the present, but I also have clear directions and a map of where to buy more of the mighty stuff. The simple things in life... are often the best.

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