Maiden Blog Voyage

So, the first blog entry for my living/working/travelling in Japan experience. Where to start? I'm sitting in my tatami room with the laptop on (where else), my lap, having finally mustered up the courage to write about the not-so-momentous accumulation of events that is my life in Gifu, Japan. I guess I've avoided starting because I've felt like I needed something outrageous to happen before I could justify broadcasting it on the internet. But, having been here for over a month, I think I see a pattern emerging. And it's safe to say there that just like my life in Australia, there won't be many dramas to report. But my friends here (fellow JETs, ie. people on the JET Programme), they're another story. Just a sample:

-One JET jumped off a bridge into the river and did not execute the water-entry properly, fracturing his collar bone and bruising his kidneys (according to the japanese doctors);

-Another was involved in a small car accident in which paint was scraped off her car, after which she spent hours at the police station and hours more being berated by her supervisors for bringing shame upon herself, the school, all teachers, all JETs, all fellow Canadians, the prefecture, her students, the principal, the Board of Education, and probably the local monkey population too;

-Another is taking 3 kinds of medication, following the appearance of mysterious insect bites all over her body, ongoing digestion problems, and the swelling up of her lip to 4 times the size, which occured spontaneously at 4am one morning; -Yet another has returned home after only 1 month... apparently the JET Programme wasn't for her... a conclusion she conveniently reached immediately after the conclusion of all the new JET welcome events, parties and organized tours.

Anyway, I guess I can thank my lucky stars none of these calamities have befallen me. Still, maybe a minor disaster would be preferable to the rather predictable routine I have fallen into. An example of my day:Alarm goes off at 7:30; snooze til 7:40. Eat cereal from miniature box of 'genmai flakes' (I dont know what genmai is). Select work outfit from the 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants I currently own. Get dressed. Pack bag with 5 English textbooks I meant to use for lesson-planning last night. Leave apartment; get on bike. Ride bike one of two routes to school: down the main street, where I'm stared at by the driver of every single passing car, or through the rice paddies, where I invariably take the wrong route and end up entering the driveway of a factory. Arrive at school 8:20. Pass soccer players changing shirts; get stared down. Park bike, walk to shoe sheds to change from 'outdoor' to 'indoor' shoes. Walk 20 meters on filthy concrete in 'indoor' shoes to get to school entrance. Enter school; greet fellow teachers chirpily. Enter staffroom; feel guilty for not bowing low enough to vice principal. Reach desk; greet different teachers. Put bag down, sit there fanning myself for 5 minutes because air conditioner has not been turned on- again. Wait for teachers' meeting to begin... will it? won't it? (it seems to occur on randomly chosen days and at 8:25 precisely). Sit, pretending to look interested even though everyone knows I can't understand what they're saying.I think that's enough of a taste for now. Next entry I'll lift the veil on the events of 9am to 4pm.

P.S. Don't think I'm not enjoying my time here; I AM. I'm just trying to demonstrate that my life here is not one big backpacking trip, but has the potential to be just as monotonous as life anywhere else... except at least it's an INTERESTING monotony!