Opening Ceremony

Wasn't feeling quite so good this morning when Hannah rang, in fact I think I was still drunk, so that was an interesting conversation - though as usual it's always good to hear her voice. Breakfast was weird again: some kind of strange chicken rolls with a bit of carrot and green bean stuffed in the middle. Not feeling so hot.

Kanashima-san took Drummond, Brendan, and I to the city prefecture in her car to register as aliens (I love that term). I think the Japanese make up for their lack in stature by buying big cars as shells to sit inside. Registration was quite simple, as the form was mostly filled in already. Just sign a few times.

After a chicken and rice lunch (the rice this time wasn't just boiled, but had some other things in it so it actually tasted nice) we had the opening ceremony. The room was like those in which politicians might debate global climate, or such like, complete with a translator. The deputy head of the university, Professor Sato, sat in the main chair, whilst other heads of department were seated around the edges. We were in the middle on fold up chairs in full view. Sato-sensei gave a little speech in Engrish, after which we were required to each stand up and tell them who we were and what we'd like to do whilst in Japan. The whole thing lasted only 20 minutes.

We caught the bus from outside the University to the "Asahi Beer Comunity Hall". Three of the guys (Drumond, Katherine, and Rushen) had been the first to teach this afternoon, and they came back with reassuring comments about the place. I'm teaching tomorrow, but I also have to supervise the children afterwards for a playtime. Scary stuff. Hopefully it will be alright. But I digress. It turns out in fact that beer gardens in Japan are totally void of any grass at all. It's basically like a big restaurant with free flow beer.

The tables had hot plates built into them, on which you cooked the raw beef, and the vegetables provided. Everybody had two small, white, shallow bowls, into which you poured a different sauce each. The food was placed on the hot plate with some metal tongs, and then cooked by the four people sitting around each one with their chopsticks. When it was ready you took the food, dipped it in the sauce and ate it. It was very nice, though I'm not getting much vegetable intake. Lots of protein and carbohdrates, though. How am I ever going to lose weight?

After dinner Chip and Seb took us into Fukuoka - we took three cabs. We went to a ￥100 bar, though it turned out that there was a ￥500 entrance fee, and that the ￥100 was only for girls, it was double for boys. So after staying 80 minutes, and £10 later, we left. Flick and I came home on the train, as I'm not a big party animal, much to Chip's disgust, and Flick's was in pain from what she thinks are kidney stones.