Gifts for the neighbours

All lined up in a pretty row, these are the welcome gifts I have prepared for my neighbours. Yes, that's right, for the whole staircase in my apartment building

I am not RISK so bad, see & wait

Another brilliant bentou

Softbank slippers

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYTqaafikQ0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Sunset over Kurume

The sky was buzzing with the sound of chirping insects, and the silhouettes of bats hunting them.

My ¥350 lunch

That's about £2.20, pretty good eh?

Batzilla

For those occasions when Batman can't kick enough ass on his own, he can always call for backup.

Japanese breakfast

Rice, miso, cold coffee, yakult, water

Uneme Festival; Koriyama, Fukushima; Aug 6, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A8zlz4eKrc

This the video I made of the festival in Koriyama on Saturday. Feel free to share it with anybody who might be interested!

Uneme festival in Koriyama

Massive drum party. Cool huh?

Choral poster

And there's one tomo too!

Concert poster

Today we have a concert at my school.

Final fry-up

Last full English in full England.

Goodbye dear friends

These have been my favourite trainers ever. I'm sad they're too knackered for Japan. Goodnight sweet princes.

Look what came in the post!

So much to say...

Christ, I can hardly catch my breath. There's so much to say! I need to tell you about:

• Jo and Simon's wedding
• Finding out my JET placement - Fukushima prefecture
• Lewis and Angela's wedding
• Moving out of Manchester and in to Catford
• Chris and Flora's wedding
• Coming to Ireland for Andrea and Anthony's wedding
• Hearing from my JET predecessor

As you can guess, it's been an ridiculously busy few weeks. I'm lucky enough to be sitting in a hotel room at the amazing Tankardstown house in Meath, so maybe there's a little I can do to catch up. Let's see...

My predecessor

Working as a JET in Japan normally means replacing another JET who did the same job the year before. A JET's predecessor can be a really useful source of specific information about the details of the post, accomodation, the local town, and many other general titbits. I asked my predecessor about three things:

1. The school, and teaching there
2. The city
3. The accomodation

He got back to me today, and this is what he said -

Yo DTRMCR,

Ireland? You must be having fun. Anyway about the questions.

1) The base school we go to is Koriyama Higashi H.S. it is considered a "shin gakku" (academic school) I have about 10 classes a week here, each about 50 min. I'm not sure who you'll be working with for team teachers, this changes every term.

Slane village, County Meath

God, what a tourist.

Chris and Flora's wedding

Chris and Flora were married at the Danish Church on Regents Park today. The reception took place at the Royal Institute of British Architects on Portland Place. We took a few photos, which you can see here via Dropbox. I've a few personal highlights, after the jump.