My First Email Home - August 6th 2004

I am sure Vinny told you that I managed to get through to you yesterday I think it was lunch time with you. I will probably call again at the weekend when you will all be in. I used up one of the phone cards that I bought in Tokyo, I was under the impression that I had to use a phone box but I think I might be able to dial the code on the card from my house phone, I will try it soon as it wasn't the greatest of experiences walking to the phone box. It gets dark here much earlier than it does at home and I don't know if David told you but the phone box was covered in bugs and frogs!!!

They took me out for dinner, I had a dish that was like a pasta bake but instead of pasta it was rice and it had bits of squid in it, I quite enjoyed it. The teachers spoke in Japanese to each other all the time, I thought they were being a bit rude especially as they are English teachers for goodness sake, but I think it really is that their English is so bad. They are speaking a bit more to me now though.

Like you saw in the pictures my apartment looks out onto paddy fields and mountains - it really is very beautiful, the town is a little bit bigger than I first thought, but it is very spread out and I haven't seen any sign of a town centre. In my part of town, Ohka, there are a couple of supermarkets and a DIY store. I walked up to the bigger of the two supermarkets last night after school it didn't take me too long, I managed to find some food that looked slightly edible! The wines are just the same makes so I got a bottle of Mateus Rose!!!

The school isn't the smartest of buildings, it rained for the first two days and in the entrance hall there were buckets everywhere to collect the rain water and one of the teachers took me on a tour of the school and told me that they would not be using the top floor because it was raining. At the moment it is the school holiday and so the students are only in for their clubs, I met some of the boys on the base ball team - they stank to high heaven!

So even though it's the holidays the teachers all come into school, which of course means I have to. In the staff room everyone has a desk, so everyone justs sits at their desk chatting to their neighbours and going on the internet etc it seems completely pointless. I can do whatever I want so long as I am sat at my desk e.g. read, write letters, go through my Japanese book etc. I have to do this for FOUR WEEKS!!! In some areas people have this time off but I do not think it is uncommon to have to do what I am doing. In three weeks I have a 'mock lesson' from what I can gather it is like an induction day for junior high students.

I was then taken to see where Ohka station is and also Taki station - by bike! As you can imagine I am far too big for the bike, it's got a basket on the front for my shopping and it has no gears, it must have been so funny to see me - this huge person, sweating profusely with a bright red face. I have been going quite smart to work but the other teachers seem to be very casual, maybe this is because it is the holidays I don't know as I haven't actually been told what to wear. So on our bike ride they also took me to see the school farm, I saw the cows and all the greenhouses and then was taken to see the orange trees and the fig trees, I tried fresh fig it was delicious!

• I decided the essay introduction was a little boring and didn't want to leave school today without posting something else. But hey most of the files on my computer are filled with that kind of stuff.

• Anyway ... I found this which I think is a little more entertaining. It's the first email I ever sent to my parents from Taki. I haven't included all of it - just some highlights. I think it's really funny to read how clueless I was about EVERYTHING! I remember I honestly thought that nobody could speak English for about four weeks.

• The part about the phone box is amusing because after I'd spoken to Vinny he'd told my Mum "Oh, it's awful. Helen's having a terrible time. She's stuck in the middle of nowhere. It's really dark. The phone box is covered in poisonous frogs and huge insects and she keeps screaming. It's not good Mum, it's not good' This exaggeration of the situation of course panicked my Mum ... to which Vinny then turns it all around and did his usual "chill Mum will ya? chill! She'll be fine ..."