Fourtet / Rokakoen Junior High

Went to see Fourtet play live last night at a club called Unit in Daikanyama. He played with a jazz drummer called Steve Reid. Interesting stuff, but mostly atomspheric sounds rather than songs. While the chin-strokers were getting their fix, i would have been happier with a decent beat and melody; still I went to hang out with my American/Israeli buddy cause he is leaving soon.

Yesterday I also spent the day in a beautiful place called Kamakura with my lady friend. It's down on the coast and is famous for it's temples, buddha statue and the beach. Unfortunately my camera has broken again so I don't have any photos of Eri; the lovely lady I went with. But Idid steal some pictures from some other websites to post.

I also went to my first 'gyoza party' (the chinese dumplings) it was very cool. It was at Yoni's girlfriend's house with a bunch of her friends. The ladies made a variety of 'suprise gyoza' so you didn't know what you were eating. Some interesting ones had chocolate and banana; a couple had just pure wasabi as a joke. They gave some wasabi to the girl's bull terrier which was hilarious, more so because of the girls reactions than the dogs; these Japanese girls get very excited by furry animals.

Last week was the first week at my 2nd job at a Rokakoen Junior High School in West-Tokyo. The english teachers that I work with are great ladies. One of them is my age so I think we should get along quite well. The first day I was suprised by how many of the kids slept through class. It's not like at home where teachers lay down the law, here the kids are free to do as they please; they can talk, sleep, whatever. Generally they do the right thing and pay attention, especially the younger ones, but in the older grade they are about 14/15 and they are becoming more independent and less obedient, so you have to keep them interested or they go to sleep.

One unexpected side-effect of working long days 3 times a week is that I have grown accustomed to getting by on 5-6 hours sleep, which was unthinkable until recently. Ever since my uni-days I have required unhealthy amounts of sleep, wasting more hours than I care to think about. Now I'm sleeping less and doing more, perhaps my time is due to grow up and join the working-class society... and make some decent cash money!?! No, I'm not raking it in just yet, but soon I should be earning a respectable living.

Also been looking for new places closer to my job. I have found a few guesthouses in Sasazuka which is a great location, but it's not the nicest area. Too close to Shinjuku (central Tokyo) which means highways and crowds of people, but from that area I can ride a bike to all the key spots within half an hour: Shimokitazawa, Shibuya, Daikanyama, Harajuku... so dope.

That's it for me, hopefully I will fix my camera or have a new one soon. Here are some stock photos of Kamakura.