Children's Christmas Party

Even though the two footy matches were cancelled, it was still a busy weekend.

The Christmas Party on Saturday morning was really nice. Annie, Neil, Debs and I were lead into a room with about twenty six year olds. We introduced ourselves and then the kids lined-up to introduce themselves and say "pleased to meet you" to each of us in turn. We played a couple of English games before a break for snacks and Christmas cake. Then we had a sing-song with Christmas Carols before a big round of pass the parcel. It was funny to see the kids being a shy at first, but then becoming more and more comfortable with us towards the end. When we had a group photo at the end I had a couple of the boys pile on top of me! Pass-the-parcel went down well really well. The kids were really well mannered but a bit unsure at the start but, once they understood that when the music stopped you could unwrap and get a prize, they soon started holding on to the parcel a little longer. The funny thing was as soon as the music stopped, they would pile around the person who had the parcel to see what they would win. A number of times we had to drag them back into a proper circle to start the game again. A little girl won the star prize: a reindeer outfit. She looked a little embarassed as we helped her put the costume on and she soon took it off once the whole room had said "Kawaii!" (cute).

At the end of the party we took tea in the staff room. As we drank, we saw the kids leave and everyone waved and had a big smile on their face. Job done I think.

I drove Annie and Neil back to Matsudai. Neil had brought his PS2 with his copy of Winning Eleven 8 so we spent the afternoon playing that. Oh my word is it good. Basically, Winning Eleven is the Japanese name for ISS/Pro Evo. When a version of Winning Eleven is released in Japan it eventually makes it over to the UK as a new version of ISS/Pro Evo. So, essentially, I was playing the latest version of Pro Evo before all you lot. So Nerr! I'll stop being geeky and just tell you that you're in for a treat when Pro Evo 4 is released.

I tried to leave around 6ish so I could go home, pick up my kit and play footy with Kawaji. I say tried because when I tried to start my car nothing happened. I tried again and still no noise or movement at all. I then started fiddling with switches and found that I'd left my lights on all afternoon. I'd switched them on to drive through the tunnels to Matsudai and forgot to turn them off. Basic as my car is, it doesn't have a reminding chime when you open the door. So I goes back into Annie's house and persuade her and Neil to help me push start the car. We tried a few times but we couldn't get enough speed up in Annie's tiny road. So we pushed it to the local garage, and with broken Japanese and gestures, he guessed what was wrong, pulled his car alongside mine and gave me a jump start. My car was running again, and it only cost me 500 yen (£2.50). Bargain.

I drove back to my flat and gathered my kit while the engine was running outside; I couldn't risk not being able to start it again. I drove to Minami Junior High School for 7pm, ready for a 7.30pm kick-off, as Nachi said on the phone, but when I got there I found I was the only one there. I left and saw Debs and Katie walking down the road since they were planning to see me play. I picked them up, we tried Minami again but still no sign of anyone. So I decided to stay at Debs and drink with her, Katie and Erik (when he turned up).

Because I was drinking, I stayed over at Debs. I got up early on Sunday and headed back to mine for a shower and a chnage before heading out to Nagaoka for a game with the ALT team. As I was about to get in the shower, I got a call from Joe; the match in Nagaoka had been cancelled because of bad weather. What luck eh? No matches for weeks, then two about to come along at once but cancelled at the last minute. So I had brekkie and decided to do my Christmas shopping. I headed out to Muikamachi to see if the shops there were any good, but they were worse than Tokamachi's. So onto Nagaoka with its big out of town shops and plazas. I managed to find a few things for Helen, my Mum and my brothers so it wasn;t a wasted trip. Feeling hungry, I meet up with Rowan for sushi on my way back.

And on to Monday, and exams are still going on at Tokamachi Koko so I managed to finish my Advent Christmas Tree today. It looks pretty good, especially with the spray-snow finishing touches. With the exams, only curious teachers have asked about the tree. Hopefully the students will have time to check it out later this week.

Afterwards I tried to shop but again it was pretty difficult. I've got a vague idea of what I want, but no idea of where to go to get it. And even if I knew which chain of shops to go to, don't know where any branches are. Well, I'll have a quick look round Tokamachi again and see if I can finish it all off then. I hope I can otherwise I'm going to be late with my parcels again.