A month later.

Its just about a month since my last post and things are still going pretty good. I really enjoy what I do. I teach at elementary and middle school and I really love elementary. The kids are adorable and think I am the coolest thing in the world. They all run up to me when I enter the school screaming "Ben-sensei!" Middle school is a little different because while elementary kids are very out going and full of energy, high school students are very quite, and even the best students act like they don't want to be at school or listen to anything you say, so middle schoolers are kind of in the middle of that. The teachers are all very happy that I can speak Japanese and I still feel very welcomed and wanted everywhere I go.

My town is a really nice place but it is kind of far from everything. If I want to go to the Tokyo area it is 2 hours or so on a bus. That isn't really all that bad but it is an hour and a half drive or an hour train ride to get to church every week. Because it is every week it gets very tiring. If I go up to Tokyo on Saturday, it just kills me to go to church on Sunday. I mean I absolutely want to go to church and my week feels like it is missing something if I don't go, but its tough. My church is something I am really grateful for though. It is small but there is a strong fellowship and so many people who want to help me out. I often just receive random food from some mother who is worried about me.

I really want to get a girlfriend but it is really hard with how busy Japaneses people are. I have tried to set up a date with a few girls from church but it is like the one day they have free I don't. And there are plenty of cute young teachers at the schools around town but I barely get enough time to talk about the lesson let alone get to know them.

I really don't like living on my own. Its too quite, too much time just playing video games, and it really sucks to cook for just one person. I waist so much food because I either make too much or I can't eat the food I buy before it goes bad.

As far as events there were three things. There was field day at the middle school which was kind of cool because I've never seen one in real life. They did a lot of running and some other games but they had this cheering troupe that was just awesome. There was a small festival in my town and they had a couple mikoshi (portable shrines carried on poles) around town. It was nice and had that Japanesey feel. And I also went to Tokyo Game Show. This is a big event where all of the video game companies show off the games they are working on this year. So I got to see lots of neat things but it was crowded. I have never seen more people in one spot in my life. It was a pretty big expo center but it was just solid walls of people.

I guess thats it.