Okayama so far....

Ok, so I haven't updated this since I got to Japan....like a month ago!

The Flight - absolutely fine because I had Stef with me all the way. Plain sailing, apart from the very unhelpful and monumentally strange Lufthansa information people at Frankfurt airport.

Arrival - It was HOT!! And neither of us had had that much sleep. we were 'met (we had to find him) by a rep from Interac (who had just quit the company and clearly didn't actually care about us). Luckily, all the other prospective ALTs that turned up were lovely and we managed to find a bus to take us to Okayama (longest 4 hours of my life!).

Training - Helpful, although now that I'm on the job some of it was fairly redundant.
The first day was terrifying. The scariest person ever was training us; I very nearly gave up there and then! Luckily he 'niced' up (a bit) on the second day and, apart from having to deliver a pretend 25 minute lesson on the last day, training went pretty smoothly.

A lot of the things they told us haven't been particularly relevant to me but I suppose they have to cover their backs and at least training helped to prepare me mentally.

Okayama - Okayama is nice. It's not huge so it's a good substitute for Leeds. It has most of the things you could need - an arcade, BTSSB, AP, many other excellent shops, a castle, swan peddle boats, nice places to eat and plenty of places to drink. Our resident haunt is the Aussie Bar (of course). Most places here are tiny and some of them turn into mini clubs at about 11. There are some actual clubs but I have yet to check them out.

The river here is swimable and flows tight by Koraku-en Gardens which are beautiful.

Living - So after a week in a hotel with many new friends at my beck and call, the time came to move to our new apartments. They're not as small as I was expecting and slightly more modern than I was expecting. I'm happy with my tiny apartment. I'm not near enough to walk to anyone else but it's fairly easy to just get a train. I'll also hopefully get myself a bike soon too!

Schools - Very brief over-view for now.

Luckily, both of my schools are fine (so far). My JHS is terrifying but I haven't had a horrendous class yet. I introduce myself and then stand around and read what the JTE tells me to. My kids have actually starting saying hi to me now too.
Elementary school is amazing. The teachers are all lovely, speak a lot more English than I was expecting and help a lot with the lessons. The kids are adorable. Pretty much always up for games and none have been rebellious. Tbh, the teaching style here is completely different to the UK but it seems to work for them.

I'll do better posts at some point but there's an over-view of the past month.

Now I'm here, part of me feels like I should've been doing more with my free time but then I have to check myself. I've moved half way around the world to do a job I've never done before. That's pretty full on already. Who cares if I don't city-hop every weekend just yet? For me, this is already a huge step.

I'm glad that I have an English speaking cohort behind me, even if it is splitting up from what it was that first week (which makes me sad). I appreciate that friendship groups will form but I'm hoping it doesn't lead to cliques. I'm happy enough for now in my new life, and in time I'll find out who my true friends are within the group but for now I'm happy to take life as it comes. Eventually I will stop comparing myself to others. I am so proud of myself for doing this; anyone who knows me knows how hard I find it to be sociable and talk to new people. I have been out of my comfort zone so many times I've lost count but I'm surviving and I'm enjoying it.
Douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu