Some things of interest, some things of noninterest

Well first, its the first day back since Friday's enkai (teachers party where it's all you can drink/pour down throat) I don't think anyone is avoiding anyone else's gaze, oh except probably for Kotcho sensei who frankly got wasted and then proceeded, for some weird reason, to make me say the first names of the female teachers, finding it hilarious each time (I'm not actually sure what that was about but to me it had something of the sleeze to it, a bit like Michael Howard but without these items of clothing) , although it became not so funny when he found I didn't actually know his name, hey sorry but to me he's always been Kotcho sensei. The food as always was lovely, with scollop's on a bed of Okra, a large personal grill set up for slices of beef and vegtables, mixed fried rice oh and I did sample some beef sashimi which, although raw beef stripes wouldn't have been my first choice for dinner, actually didn't taste too bad, although I was somewhat annoyed to finish eating mine to then turn around and find the teacher next to me put her's on her grill to cook because she didn't like raw beef DOH!

Secondly this rather interesting article appeared in the Guardian website just before the weekend, concerning the number of people who work (often in the manual labour areas), but are forced to spend their evenings in Internet cafes, Saunas and capsule hotels because they cannot afford housing. This new type of "night time homelessness" is in contrast to the blue tarpaulin covered shacks you see in the Tennoji area in Osaka and along the river in Kyoto, some of which have been there for years and years. I wonder how long it is before entire families are raised in cubicles. It did make me realise why during our recent trip to the massive spar world (which I will talk about later) located in Tennoji area, we found the complex featured not only two levels of spars (separate men and women floors) but also restaurants, bars, gym, doctor fish (which I will defiantly talk about later) which were open almost all night but the rest area was closed at 9 in the evening in an attempt I presume to stop homeless people from staying there too long. Here's another article on the same subject.

Finally I've been teaching here in Japan long enough (over 2 years, arrhhhh that long!!!) to recognise the look that the third years currently have sprawled across their faces. It's the one where they realise that they have less that 6 months of school left, which means they've just had their final...EVER culture festival, a flood of exams is rushing towards them and a whole menagerie of friends and teachers will never be seen again. So this week we've had some quiet lessons, even the very rough lad (who I had to stop kicking another boy in the face during sports day) has somewhat settled down (well stopped kicking people in the face, which is a start at least). Of course this doesn't stop them wanting to still stroke my arm constantly (yeah I still find it weird when they do that) , superglue things to the wall (thankfully not my arm), read manga instead of their text books and call me by my predecessors name. Still things are a changing and not just the weather.. Oh speaking of which, yeah its finally getting cold again the other night was the first time we actually closed our windows, and sleep with sheets over us. Hopefully it won't get as cold as my first year where I had ice forming around my bath in the morning and we had to sleep in so many layers that I looked like the Michelin man