Gomen Ne!

So this week was fairly routine...but it was also busy! (did you really expect any different?) Primarily, this was because the teachers and I were busy preparing for today. Government officials and English teachers from all over Hokkaido descended on Shikaoi to study our method of teaching English. So of course, the teachers were incredibly nervous, and had extremely well-prepared classes, with a huge amount of special materials. My contribution was to photoshop up a number of posters that said things like, "Smile," "No Japanese," "Eye Contact," etc. It was actually kind of fun, and really got me a lot more into the teaching thing here. Turns out all those skills I picked up in university might not be so useless after all! With all the prep, the classes themselves went great, and were actually alot of fun to do.

I found that when I was under pressure to perform, I became a much better teacher. On the other hand, I still haven't finished editing any of the videos that I've been meaning to, which is weighing heavily on my conscience. (Though not too heavily. ;)

In other news, I climbed one last mountain last Sunday, but have otherwise been pretty lazy. I'd like to try kendo, but I am nervous as to whether I can make the time commitment, as it takes place on Wednesday and Friday (why friday??) nights. Tonight I'm going to my Junior High's enkai, and tomorrow I think I will drive to Obihiro to do a little shopping, before making my way to Urahoro ( a small town) to meet up with Gwendolyn whom I met last week and do a little partying. Sunday, maybe I'll go to an onsen, as I still haven't been to one! All in all, it's a pretty ordinary weekend in Shikaoi! Hell, if I can pull myself away from Bioshock (best game since HL2 by the way) maybe I'll even have to time to post some photos or finish a video. If a picture says a thousand words, then a 30 sec video would say at least 900 000 words! Damn thats a long blog post!