Big In Japan

I've been here a tenth of a year already, 5 weeks. Time is really flying by fast.

After last week's adventures, my day off on monday, and with the fact I was feeling a little under the weather I decided to take it easy this weekend. Wednesday I walked from town in the opposite direction than the one I went on Monday. After about an hour I wound up at the next stop down the train line and rode back (return trip taking only 5 minutes.) Late in the evening I tried to go out for Yakitori (grilled chicken on a stick) and beer with a friend only to find out that every Izakaya (bar that serves the above) in Fujisawa closes at 11:00pm sharp. Discouraged we got cans of beer from across the street and watched cable in the apartment instead. Today I must say I really accomplished nothing. I suppose it felt kind of good to take a day off from doing "stuff"...

This upcoming week is looking very busy. Tomorrow I have kids training which will enable me to teach classes with kids under the age of 12. Monday is both my first payday and the first time I get to teach at another branch other than my home branch. I understand the other branch might be a kids school (basically exactly what it sounds like, a school with only young students)... guess I'll be able to put my training to use immediately. Back at my usual branch on Tuesday I get my one month evaluation to see if I'm on track for getting off probation and becoming a full fledged teacher (which, when it happens means a nice pay increase.)

Keepin' it short this week.

Jaa Mata Ne!

So, today I had a surprise day off. Thanks to my training schedule at work I need to work on one of my days of later in the month. In exchange I got a free day today. I didn't have too much on the docket for the day except to walk down to the "Hard Off" to see if they had anything new. After walking there (but before I went inside) my wanderlust kicked in and I decided to see what was a little further down the road. 10km (about 5mi) and a little over an hour later, I arrived in Kamakura right outside the Giant Buddha. I suppose that solves the mystery of where the road outside my apartment goes... I hopped the Enoden back to Fujisawa, relaxed, and cleaned my apartment for the rest of the afternoon. Around sunset I headed out for dinner but before I left I went up to the 11th floor and saw this: