Yes that's right - I have now finished my training. I can't remember if I mentioned previously that I was about to do any training, but I was and I have (if that makes sense). The training took place over tuesday-thursday. I was a little worried about it at first because, as you'd expect, we had to wear a suit. Now this weather makes you sweat when you are in a t-shirt and shorts, let alone a suit. Fortunately however I awoke on tuesday to find that the heavens had opened and that it had rained throughout the night. This was brilliant as the rain had dropped the temperature loads and also got a lot of the water out of the air so the humidity was now down to a comfortable level. It was like some good old British weather had come all the way over to Japan just to help me out. Unfortunately, the price for this was that everytime I left the house, the weather would wait until I was about halfway between my house and my destination and then it would rain on me and I got soaked. This literally happened without exception everytime I went outside - even if I had been watching the weather and it hadn't rained for a good couple of hours beforehand. Needless to say, I wasn't overly impressed with that. I then bought an umbrella from some random store, but I have a feeling that it is a women's umbrella as a) I bought it from the women's section and b) the brand name is 'Dandy' - it was one of those really tiny 'will fit in a hand bag' style umbrellas too. So no doubt I was looking like the most macho Gaijin in all of Japan. I didn't care though - it was the first one I saw in the shop and I was in a rush and getting really tired of being wet. Unfortunately, the second time I opened it the thing decided to open up inside out and I ended up looking rather silly in Yokohama centre (another Silly Gaijin moment - there will be many of these).

Anyway, that is all besides the point. As I was saying, I have just spent 3 days doing my teacher training, or OJT as it is known (no I don't know what that means, but I'm guessing the last word is 'Training'). It was all pretty nerve-wracking as I have never taught anyone anything really (despite claims to the contrary at some previous job interviews), let alone teaching people how to speak English. The first day involved observing lessons and learning the rules and then climaxed in teaching the first half of a lesson. We were all really nervous about this, but it went well and was kinda fun really.

I have just realised that I said 'we' and I have totally neglected to mention the people who I met on the course. I was one of 4 people being trained. There was another British guy called Sam who I had met on the Visa day in London and also on my flight over, then there was an American called Dawn and a Canadian guy called Yimen. They were all really nice and we all went out each night after training and no doubt we'll continue to stay in contact throughout our time here. Although having said that I need to get a phone first - life without one really is unpleasant. Hopefully my bank card from my new Japanese bank account will turn up soon and then I shall go straight to Vodafone and sort myself out with something awesome. As you can no doubt imagine, over here the basic free handset is pretty much on par with the really expensive stuff back home in terms of features (ie. mp3, camera, video etc - and you can chose colours too).

Anyway - day 2 of training: On this day we taught 3 full lessons. Again, everyone was a bit nervous about it, but we all got through it and like anything, the more you do it the easier it gets. It felt good to finish the second day and get a few lessons under our belts. After training we went to a cool restaurant called Asian Kitchen. It is kinda funky as there are touch screen computers at each table that you can use to order more stuff and it comes really quickly.

On Day 3 we taught 4 lessons. This was 2 lots of 2 lessons back-to-back. This was more nerve-wracking as this time we got to chose which lessons we taught (there is a massive amount of different ones) and then had to plan for two lessons in a short period of time. It all went well though, as I am still alive and they didn't fire me. I was being slightly cocky about it all and when asked what areas I will try and improve upon I just said that "I will try and be slightly more awesome, if indeed that is even possible" - I'm sure they loved it.

When Day 3 ended we met up with my housemate Callum and some of his friends (another Scottish guy called Dan, who I'd met before, and a Canadian called Amy) and trekked round some bars. All but 3 (Dawn, Sam and myself) of us headed back at 12ish to catch the last trains back home. The 3 of us that remained trekked round various bars until the first train which was at 5:30am. Sam and Dawn joined me on my train to come have a look at Kamiooka and we got a McDonalds for breakfast as it seemed to be the only place open at 6:30am. Then they headed back to their homes to get some sleep and I walked back up the hill to get 4 hours of sleep.

Fortunately I have had today off as I have felt like death for most of it (as I am sure you can imagine). It is now almost 2am and I need to get up for no later than 8am as I have my first full day of work tomorrow, so fingers crossed it is awesome. I am not at my normal branch for tomorrow as they needed me elsewhere, so I will actually be at the Kamiooka branch which is good as I won't need to get a train. I will be at my usual branch (Daie Kanazawa Hakaie) from sunday onwards (with the exception of the 2 subsequent saturdays of this month where I will be at Kamiooka branch again). So essentially I am going to get 2 first days I suppose as my second day of teaching will be my first day at my new branch. Then on sunday night, it is the first of Callum's leaving nights as he is leaving Japan later this month. He has booked a cool bar in Yokohama which is actually on the roof of this massive building and over looks the centre. If you watch the video I posted showing the centre at day and night, then you might see it. It's the building on the right, which I think has 'Mores' written on it. Well, if you can see it - it's on the roof of that building. So that should be brilliant. That'll be another 5am job, so work on monday should be interesting. Fortunately I am only doing a 1pm-5pm shift on monday though, so it shouldn't be too bad (I hope).

Anyway, I will update you all about that as and when it happens. Again, sorry for the no doubt large amount of typos you will find in this. I need to go to sleep and can't be bothered to proof read it, but I said that I would post this today and I knew that if I didn't do it now, it wouldn't get done for ages.

Right - g'night all :)