I'm not sure why, but there's something about teacher's and alcohol, especially when the teachers are somewhere like Japan. Perhaps it's the feeling of isolation that drives you to drink, or perhaps it's the yearning for like-minded company; people who intimately know the frustrations of someone who has to constantly navigate their way around a foreign country they may never fully understand. Or... maybe we just like to drink!
Since my last post several things have happened to me that have caused me some amusement. Firstly I am receiving love letters from one of my students! Fortunately her English ability is so low the love letters consist of sentences like "You smell good. What did you eat?" The downside is she is incredibly incredibly attractive (yes that’s a downside!) Hmmmm... What to do what to do what to do...
Of course I'm not going to DO anything, but it would be so much easier if she wasn't so damn attractive!
Then, the other day I managed to drop 10 yen on the escalator while I was fishing through my wallet for my train pass. 10 yen is the equivalent of about 10 cents... So what did I do? Nothing. It was only 10 yen. Let it fall down the gap and see if I care! Did the Japanese guy behind me let that happen though? Not on your life. It was perhaps one of the funniest things I've ever seen. One man holding up and entire escalator full of people while he valiantly tried to rescue my 10 yen from the abyss. To his credit and my amusement I got my 10 yen back. I'd like to see that kind of thing happen in Australia!!
Oh, and a couple of friends and I invented a new drinking game! I'm going to tentatively call it "Train Sculls". "Train Sculls" grew out of 3 of us standing on a platform freezing our asses off while waiting for a train. Eventually one of us cracked it and suggested we get some beers from the newspaper stand (yes the newspaper stand) and jump on the next train that happened to arrive. Public drinking not being illegal in Japan (although a little frowned upon on the train) we grabbed a few cans of beer and jumped on the next train which just happened to be going in the opposite direction to where we really wanted to be going! The rules were simple. Every time the train stopped we had to drink. Every time an old lady got on the train (every second passenger is an old lady) we had to drink. Every time a cute guy or girl got on the train (we were 2 guys and a girl so we had to go both ways) we had to drink.
Aaaaanyway, this took us into the heart of the Tokyo subway system several km’s underground before we ran out of beer and had to find our way back again. It was, to say the least, a fun experience!
And that, apart from all the photos I've been taking recently, is my life to date. Ok, so it might not be packed full of adventure and derring-do right now, but it is interesting. Well... for me at least!
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