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So there is another typhoon coming to Japan. It`s going to hit Osaka at about three in the morning. This is unfair for two reasons. One, I don`t get to see the destruction as I`ll be asleep and two, a day later and schools would have been cancelled and I wouldn`t have to teach. One measly day.

Oh well. Have a look at the path the typhoon has and will take. It`s funny as it`s as if it got to China and thought no I`m scared of the Chinese, lets pick on the Japs again. Coward.

I was at war with a cockroach last night. Fresh from the hiding I took the other night, a cockroach was spotted at nineteen hundred hours taking temporary shelter under a cushion on the floor. My sentry - Reiko - had spotted the enemy and after having alerted her commanding officer - myself - and taking refuge on a chair, battle lines were drawn.

I was using 30 mm assault weapons - also known as a rolled up newspaper. The cockroach, though physically unarmed, was using its menacing disgustingness to full effect in an effort to thwart my plans.

I lifted the cushion up and Bang Bang Slam with the newspaper. These preliminary attacks left neither party harmed thanks to the incredible speed and manouverability of the enemy. It ran under the table and thought it was safe but I had spotted it. Bang Bang Slam again with the newspaper. One of these attacks had landed taking the enemy`s wing with it but still the evildoer remained.

Reiko went out to the bathroom to get the cockroach spray and came back with it. I continued with the paper efforts but the soldier was quick and well trained. Bang Bang, Slam. No damage. Bang Bang, Slam, Spray! Finally. Success! I had struck him again. And now he was in trouble. Having caught the full blast of the spray and receiving another blow with the heavy assault weapons he took refuge under a cushion. Seizing the moment and complete with mighty war cry, I jumped on the cushion feet first over and over again with all my might in an attempt to crush him. Not a single centimetre of the area did I neglect. After the smoke had cleared I lifted the cushion and surveyed the damage. The lone soldier was mortally injured but amazingly still alive writhing in agony from the poison gas attack. I fashioned a coffin for him from tissue paper out of respect for a fellow war veteran and laid him to rest in his eternal grave situated in the rubbish bin. Another casualty of war.

So today and from now on, we are practicing getting up at a normal kind of time. On Friday I have to be about 6 miles from the house by 8:30. Seeing as I wake up at 9:30 on average and much later if I`ve been doing anything strenuous such as frisbee or drinking we are in training. Today I woke up at 8:30 which is an improvement you will no doubt agree. Yesterday I drank lots of coffee - When I woke up, at lunch, mid afternoon and in the meeting with the coordinator. I had hot black, iced black, black with syrup and more black coffee. After the meeting I felt like Superman. If you`d asked me to run a marathon I would have given it a go, I would have attempted going to Zanzibar for your favourite meal. Of course at midnight, then one and then half past two, I still felt near to that state and so I had a very short night`s sleep and being asked to wake up at 7:30 which was the target time for today was nigh on impossible. I was left feeling cranky.

Over the last few days we have been debating buying a Playstation 2 or a X-Box. Reiko wanted a Playstation, I wanted a X-Box. The reason is that most of the PS2 games require a PhD in Kanji whereas the X-Box games mostly have language options. In Japan though I read that they sell 66 Playstations for every X-Box and so it is really hard to find shops which sell a lot of games for it.

Of course in this kind of situation as history will show, Reiko wins. So there is no use fighting over it. There are some good games out for the PS2 though including Taiko Drum where you bash an ancient Japanese drum to the rhythm according to whether there is a blue or red circle on the screen. It should be out by Christmas in the West. It`s a lot of fun. There are arcade versions of this in the arcades funnily enough and they are really addictive. Follow the link below. We got a kanji puzzle game for Reiko and Go the black and white territorial board game, played by ancient emperors for me. This game appeals to the general in me. Of course the general in me is short, blind and badly trained but it`s a start.

Of course I should be preparing some lessons now. I am thinking about numbers now. I have a couple of lessons on Monday about it. Any ideas for number games anyone?

The coordinator for the school I`m working for on Friday rang me up at five and wanted to meet me. I stupidly said meet in half an hour. After a frantic fifteen minutes of showering and finding a clean shirt, trousers, belt and shoes I cycled near to the local train station on my rocket powered bicycle and met her in the Jolly Pasta restaurant. She asked me some questions, gave me an idea of what she wanted me to do. She couldn`t speak much English and so it was a fun time I had for about an hour and a half. I said I was going to play this game she said no play this game oh well. She is bringing balloons. Make of it what you will…..

Four days to go until I start my new job. I am busy preparing the lesons now. More accurately I have copied the timetable out into a more readable version and am now writing my blog entry. The lessons I will be teaching are Seasons, Sports, Numbers and my favourite Lets Make A Data File(?) Going to the Sports Day on Saturday made me realise that the children aren`t going to hate me but actually be interested and curious in me. I went to Ultimate Frisbee practice with the Americans in a park in Umeda yesterday and they told me the key is to get them on your side first and then go into the lesson. (They also taught me an incredible frisbee throw called the Hammer which you throw above your head and to the side and it loops up and over) There is a curriculum for the schools with sample lesson structures with chants, flashcards and games like Fruitbasket(?) and I am reading through this now. I am so nervous.

Yesterday we went to another festival. It was similar to the last one with danjiri but this time they were carried instead of pulled along. Have a look at the (slightly unclear) picture below. A large float is being carried up steep stairs into the temple. They spent most of the day carrying this danjiri up and down one street. It was pretty to watch but a bit repetitive and nowhere near as much fun as the previous danjiri festival in Kishiwada. After that they went on a little excursion around the town we went off to get some udon noodles.

Reiko`s sister is a teacher at a deaf school. I helped out in a lesson there when I was in Japan in April. So whilst the danjiri were on their excursion, we went to their sports day at the school. Sports days in Japan are held on the weekends and the kids get the following Monday off. They didn`t concentrate so much on actual sporting events although there was the running and realy events but rather on games like a crazy one where they have logs of different lengths in the middle of the field and two teams at either end. These teams have to get the logs to their side of the field in a crazy mass tug of war game. Much pain and many tears ensued but it was really fun to watch. Whilst we were there we saw the danjiri float being carried on a side street as if they were angry with us for ditching them. Tough. Get more interesting.

We went to the Yakitori last night (Skewered chicken if you please) As it was a weekend evening it was incredibly busy. It was good just to hear the crazy man speak again. Memories.

The other night as I was going to the fridge, I saw two cockroaches in the rice container having a feast. I couldn`t get them out. They are too grim. They are massive and scuttle around quickly. I wanted to crush them with a litre bottle of water or pour boiling water over them - anything indirect - In the end I closed the lid and left them in there over night with a note in Japanese by Reiko like the wimp I am and let someone else deal with them.

I also haven`t started preparing my lessons for Friday yet. I think it`s better to pretend that it doesn`t exist to protect my sanity for the time being. Yes.

Suzuki Ichiro. The Japanese Seattle Mariner`s baseball player is attempting to break a 70 year old record of most hits in a season. The bloke is a genius. He is ten hits away from the record set in 1920 of 257 hits in a season and has only ten games to go. He is naturally a hero in Japan for moving from the East and doing incredibly well in the USA.

Today I had my training in Kobe or more precisely Nishinomya. There were 8 Nishinomiya people and one Sakai (me.) They concentrated on third grade games and stuff. I felt like crying. I`ll be teaching sixth grade. I had big doubts about it and my abilities. The number of students I`ll teach rose to 40 with little help from the actual teacher. The people there were nice. I met the first English person I`ve met in Japan there she was called Briony(?). There were three Japanese people there working for the company who gave a really unprofessional view of their abilities and their understanding of schools and work in general. Then they brought out Arnold Schwargenegger`s body double. Born in Hungary educated in Germany, US and Japan and as wide as I am tall ve haf ze Instructor. A large, intelligent and forceful man - what he told us boiled down to you will go through hell and nobody there will help you, it`ll be fun too but mostly hell. This is how to play games with eight year olds.

I left feeling a bit down after all that. My first lesson is 1st October and I have to prepare lessons on the seasons and sports. More happened today but I am emotionally drained. Ah