Report from Greater Tokyo

So yesterday I went and bought myself a new keitai. That's mobile phone to the rest of the world. This one has some nice new features, many of which I haven't tested yet. It has a radio receiver for use with headphones, and more interestingly, it has a camera built in. Of course, cameras are pretty old technology for mobile phones now. My old phone had one, and that was from three years ago. But this one has a high enough resolution (up to 1024 x 768) to make half-decent prints from.

As an added bonus, because I had been with the same phone so long, they let me have the new one for the cost of the administration fee, saving me ten thousand yen or so.

Also in the news, I have a job. I sign the contracts on Friday. In the afternoon, just in case.

Here is a video of a sea octopus, disguised as a coconut, and walking on two legs. Actually, that's the main article, but the video is linked from that page. Why does he do this? No one knows. But marine biologists believe it may be a form of disguise to help escape from predators and humans.

Or maybe they've been watching us and playing monkey-see-monkey-do.

So there I was, minding my own business, playing computer games, playing international currency markets, playing music, playing at being a real human being.

And the windows start rattling. This being Japan, at first, I thought this was an earthquake, and prepared to find somewhere safe in case it was the big one. Then I noticed something. I felt a light gust of wind from outside.

And my windows were shut.

So naturally I opened a window to have a look outside. A helicopter flew past. Every day occurrence I suppose. It was flying level with the 5^th floor between some of the buildings diagonally opposite my house. I wish I was faster with my camera, but I only just missed shooting it. Twin main rotors and European forest camo scheme painted on it, no noticeable national insignia, but obviously military owned.

No, I have no idea what an army helicopter was doing flying at low altitude amongst the buildings of downtown Tokyo.

So after what must be weeks of going without coffee, I had two mugs of the stuff this (well, yesterday now) afternoon and evening. Big mistake. My body obviously shook off its caffeine addiction and that coffee hit me with full force. It's now 4 am and I barely feel sleepy.

On the work side, I'm mostly waiting to hear back from a bunch of interviews, although i am still sending my CV out to all comers.

So today was my final day working at the kindergarten. And the principal (a lovely lady I hasten to add), asked to speak to me afterwards. Apparently, the one on one lessons I teach in the afternoon are boring. Now, to be fair, she is perfectly correct, and I have never denied this, nor claimed to be able to teach one on one to four year olds effectively. I suppose I should have put up a spirited defence. I could have pointed out, for example...

• The kids in question never bring their assigned English books.
• Assigning text books to kids that age probably wasn't a wise move anyway.
• I was never issued the CD for that book, which is a critical resource for every lesson in the book.
• Since the kids are girls and I am an adult male (and a single one at that), this leaves me open to certain accusations. If they say "don't come any closer", even if I am at the far end of the room, I will stop.
• Similarly, I will not crawl under the desks at the far end of the room to chase after them (they seem to want this game a lot), as that would place both of us out of sight.
• Their other favourite game happens about every ten minutes, when they imagine their mother has come to pick them up and so they spend ten minutes looking for her.

With all these issues, I have no difficulty in believing that I have never presented an interesting lesson to these afternoon classes. There simply isn't any time left after all that to actually present any lesson.

Of course, I never said anything to the principal. She didn't seem to realise that the best time to give someone the "must work harder" pep talk is NOT right after they have finished the last class on the contract. It was far easier just to nod and say that I would teach a very good lesson the next time. Somehow it must have slipped her mind that there wouldn't be a next time.

My life is inherently ridiculous.

It's snowing again in Tokyo. Only an inch or two, but it is settling on the roof at least, and despite my landlady saying I am using way too much electricity (shared bill for the house), snow is all the excuse I need to turn the electric heaters back on.

Oh, job interview on Tuesday. Wish me luck.