Kim Jung-Il, Inukai Tsuyoshi and Humous

This week I've been whiling away the hours at Seishi plotting grand schemes and master plans. I'm trying to book flights to South Korea for a long weekend in late November- Pyongyang has announced new nuclear tests, so I thought I might as well go to the DMZ and say hi to all the North Korean guards before we all get obliterated.

Also this week I went to the house and grave of former Japanese PM Inukai Tsuyoshi. Inukai was shot by a military officer in 1932, and his death marked the end of party political cabinets in pre-war Japan, and was an important step in the consolidation of military control over Japanese politics and society. He's one of 2 PMs who were born in Okayama-ken, and his old house is now right next to the Shinkansen tracks, north of Niwase, which is between Kurashiki and Okayama. Its a lovely spot, and two old guys who worked at the museum next door were delighted that I'd took the trouble to search the place out! After looking round, they walked me to Inukai's grave, where they seemed to expect me to observe a moments thought and contemplation- so I did.

On Wednesday me and Chisa Hirota, English teacher at Seishi koko, went to the pet shop to look at all the animals; I hate to bring up an issue I'd apparently killed off, but I'm still toying with the idea of getting a couple of turtles! Then we met Yumiko and her friend Miwa for lunch at a Turkish restaurant run by some of their friends- it was great! It had humous, but not with the lunch deals that day so I'll have to go back to satisfy my cravings. I met my friend Megs in the evening for ginitoniku.

Today was 'teachers day out' at Seishi; theres a prefectural speech contest on Saturday, and this year it was our turn to set up the hall etc. So we went in a convoy of cars, put out chairs, rehearsed, and returned to school. It was quite funny; some of the teachers are a real laugh, and the kyoto-sensei was wandering around in a t-shirt, with a towel round his neck, grinning all the time- he's really cool! Fewer teachers speak English at Seishi, but they all mess around and have a laugh more; probably because we work 1-9pm and theres a lot less to do than at Shonan! Tonight I dragged myself back to Kaminocho, really tired.

This weekend I'm going to a nomikai on Saturday, and a party at a cottage in the moutains on Sunday. Monday is a national holiday- its Health and Sports Day, so I'm going to spend it hungover, tired and inactive.