Settling In Stuff

So, today I did lots of settling in stuff- I met most of my neighbours, and gave them igirisu o-miyage (souvenirs)- consisting of a pencil saying 'england' and a postcard of birmingham each. Surprisingly they were delighted with these gifts, and extremely grateful. I've been told one of the neighbours has been in and out of mental hospital, and has a tendency to bang on peoples doors at random and charge into their apartments- a bit worrying! Still, she's a fairly old women so I'll hopefully be able to fend her off with a stick if things get tough...

I also got the JR (railway) to Okayama City. The symbol of Okayama is the peach, which in turn is related to the legend of Momotaro, a tiny Peach Boy who emerged from the stone of..you guessed it...a peach. Backed up by a motley crew of a monkey, a pheasant and a dog, Momotaro managed to defeat a three-eyed, three-toed, people-eating demon! Good work...

Okayama is a modern city, with lots of shopping malls, plus a 'castle' of sorts and one of Japan's 'big three' gardens, Kóraku-en. It's a large garden with lots of flat lawns, and is really nice to relax in- more so than the crowded, if possibly more attractive Chinese gardens I saw in Suzhou, near Shanghai, last summer.

The most beautiful place I've been so far however is Washuzan, a seaside town where you can look out (from the hilltop hotel nearby) at Seto-óhashi Bridge, the longest bridge in Japan, which spans the Inland Sea. The Inland Sea is absolutely stunning- there are loads of islands dotted about it, and you can see Shikoku (one of the four main islands of Japan) in the distance. It's the sort of view that you could not find anywhere else in the world- uniquely Japanese. It really is amazing- I found this photo on google which is exactly the same view as from the hotel (I didn't have my camera with me when I went). As you can see from my slightly less impressive photo below, the bridge is lit up at night...

The food so far has been fantastic- I've been cooking stir fry's, although my knowledge of vegetables is very limited and I've confused cooking oil with rice wine on more than one occasion. The fish is great- I've tried all sorts, and supermarkets have such a huge selection of really cheap, fresh fish. Fish with soy, rice wine, ginger and random veg, bamboo shoots and noodles is so easy to make, but so nice. The local delicacy is octopus, which I had with Miyoshi-sensei at the hotel in Washuzan...so yes, fishy feasts are more than possible here- you'll have to come out and try them Dad! I had some great sushi for lunch today, so I decided to go for steak tonight- a bit more expensive, but luckily my wages this year mean I can splurge on tasty food!

The main problem so far has been language- I can hardly speak any Japanese, and the only real questions I can ask are 'Where is this?' and 'What is this?'. Having said that, I even get these mixed up and ended up asking my deputy headteacher ('kóchó-sensei' in Japanese) 'what is a toilet'! In Japan ppl often end sentences with 'desu ne', meaning 'isn't it', or 'desu ka', meaning 'is that right?'- I only know one adjective, 'atsui', so I've repeated the same comment, atsui desu ne, meaning 'isn't it hot', to virtually everyone I've met! I'm sure this will change though- I've got plenty of time when I'm at school but not teaching to learn Japanese.