Week 16

Since my last post was "post-poned" until Wednesday this one will be fairly short. This week was the first week of kids and group classes at work and was therefore incredibly busy.

Thursday I had to go to the annual "block meeting". The block meeting is a two day corporate event where, each day, half of the employees in the Kansai area go into headquarters and hear speeches from the big-wigs and get some last-minute information about the new school year. It's a two hour event that's supposed to be part of a six hour work day so I got to go in early to one of the local schools, sit around for two hours, take a two hour paid lunch break (an extreme rarity) and then head over to the meeting. As usual there wan't anything particularly useful said at the meeting though it was a nice chance to see all those teachers who I generally see once a year at the block meeting. Since my day ended early I decided to stop in Nipponbashi on the way home and price out computer parts.

Friday's shift was earlier than I had expected it to be and was really easy (I ended up teaching two out of a possible seven classes.) I used my free time at work to prepare a little for Saturday's kids classes (a great thing in retrospect.) On the way home Friday night I went back to Nipponbashi and picked up the parts I was looking at the day before and spent the rest of the evening putting together and trying to start my new PC.

I got up earlier than a human should have to on Saturday morning (7:45am!)  I arrived with a little lead time before my first class but was still struggling to get things in order when my day started and I had to teach three kids classes in a row (luckily, in ascending age and descending need for energy on my part.) The lone upside to a no-break schedule like mine on Saturday is that the day really zips by. The obvious down side is that it drains every last bit of energy from you. A nap was more than required when I got home.

Sunday's web shift was pretty run-of-the-mill and in the evening I went to the going away party for a couple I worked on that shift with last contract. Almost 20 people came to the Hard Rock Cafe to wish these two people a fond farewell and good luck with moving back to the States. I got my usual (the ribs) and stunned  some of the Japanese attendees by not only finishing off a full rack but going in on half of a brownie sundae too. It was really good but I was incredibly full afterwords.

Nothing much on the docket for this 'weekend' but next Friday morning I start my high-school shift again and in the evening my favorite band is playing a concert just down the road. Oh, and Sunday night I've invited a bunch of people over for another 'game night'. I can't wait.