Whinge

Still in one piece, having recovered from the rigours physical and libational (?) of Sports Day. Great fun was had by all, the mighty Red Team was triumphant (so far as anyone remembers and is bothered) and the karaoke later on was predictably raucous. Met a big bunch of ALTs from the area around for the first time which was nice; the faces of the local kids on catching sight of the biggest group of gaijin they’d probably ever seen parading around town were an added bonus.
Have been in a minor funk since then, chiefly down to lack of sleep (as in Melbourne in 2007, regardless of how early or late I go to bed I find it takes ages to get to sleep and then wake for no apparent reason at 4.30am, leaving me a walking corpse for most of the day – I’m now on medium-grade sleeping pills which have thankfully been helping). A few other factors – I get on pretty well with six of the seven JTEs I regularly work with, but one seems to have taken a dislike to me for some reason, or at least I think she has; even getting a ‘Good morning’ out of her has been hard work in the last couple of weeks, let alone anything resembling an actual conversation. The most she’s given me for ages was a pretty blunt critique (deserved) of one of my lessons; that’s been it. It may be that she’s just paralysingly shy about her English, I dunno, but whatever the reason the effect is pretty chilly and unpleasant. So that doesn’t help. Also I’ve had to cancel next month’s proposed trip to Tokyo due to lack of funds – payday is on Monday but will only be 2 weeks’ worth and as I’m now down to my last 50,000 yen I’ve got to keep the hatches battened. So that’s a bit disappointing too. Hmm, what else? The object of my affections mentioned in the last post has virtually stopped talking to me after I think I made my interest a bit too obvious (too many lame conversations started with the too-obvious purpose of just talking to her; schoolboy error). So that’s that blown. Oh, and my last two lessons went pretty crap. Leaves you feeling a bit rubbish overall and doesn’t help that you feel pretty cut-off and alone anyway; culture shock is biting a bit.
Ugh, sigh, grumble, moan, etc. Self-pity such an attractive read! Sorry about that, it does help a bit to get it off my chest though. On the plus side, I’ve been invited to a shamisen concert next Friday in a local traditional thatched house which should be fascinating, and am ‘playing’ (strictly in inverted commas given my skill level) in a baseball tournament with other ALTs the following day. Guitar lessons continue and I continue to get on well with the other British lads here. No car crashes, I’ve got a job and I’ve got my health :o) Bye for now