25/05/2006

Hello, tis I again...

Well I'm happy to say that I just bought a new bike about 2 hours ago, and riding it here to the internet cafe I received my first battle wound. I was riding along when a girl came out in front of me and I tried to stop. I realised I was going too fast for the brakes, so stupidly I tried to use my foot as a brake. And of course I was wearing thongs which folded underneath my foot as it bounced along the pavement and consequently I took all the skin off the front of my big toe.

OWWW!!!

So I limped into the cafe bleeding everywhere, and they patched me up nicely. So my toe is sore but it is ok. But my bike is very lovely. I was going to wait till next pay day which is the 15th of June coz I don't have much money yet, but on Tuesday the stand of my other bike broke and it wont stand up any more and I thought, that's it! Time to get one!!  SO I scoured all the bike stores today and picked myself up a very nice second hand one. Its light blue, with a nice big basket and a stand that works! And it only cost me 6,800yen which included tax and registration, so the actual bike was only about 5,500yen which is about $65. And that's very good for a second hand bike in good condition! So I'm very happy. Apart from my toe...

Myself and Kath have lodged a formal request for a transfer to a different apartment because we are not happy with ours. It is just too small for 2 people to live there and the noise factor from the water system outside is driving me insane. I'm not sure how well go, but keep your fingers crossed for me!!
It stopped raining finally!! We had a lovely 3 days of no rain, it came back on Tuesday, yesterday and today were good, but apparently its coming back this weekend. I bought a really good umbrella though, nice and big for only 500yen, bargain!!

Erin has told me she's coming to visit me next month because she has just got her Japanese drivers licence and were going to go driving round Shikoku and ill show her the sights of Matsuyama, not that there are many of those. But itll be really good to see her, 4 days before was not long enough.

Actually speaking of driving, now would be a great opportunity to tell you about Japanese service stations. They are not self serve, attendants do it for you. As you drive in, they run over to you and wave you to a certain spot, put the pump in the tank, then while they're waiting for it to fill they clean all your windows for you. When they're finished and you've paid them, they wave you to the edge of the road, wait till the traffic is clear then wave you out onto the road and give you a bow as you drive off. How sweet!!!!  Only in Japan...
I love watching them, they always make me smile every time I go past one.

Work is still good, haven't been given a kids class yet, but I'm still promised that there's 1 coming. I've had some more follow up training from the bosses and they've all given me really good feedback and said that I'm doing excellent. I try talking to the Japanese staff in Japanese everyday and Erin and I send messages in Japanese to each other, so things are slowly coming back to me. I have my first Japanese lesson next Monday at 2.00 with a lovely lady called Sakai who has very good English. I'm very excited about it, to see just how much I actually remember when I'm put to the test. I've also found a place that does ikebana classes (flower arranging) which I'm keen to start and I checked out the aikido place I was recommended but it was closed so ill try again tonight.

Yay, so life is still happy!!
Ill tell you all now, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be here longer than a year coz I'm havin too much fun.

Love and miss everyone!!
Big hugs,
Lesley. xxxxxoooooo