"Snow Country" my arse!

Four days until Christmas and still no snow. There was some hail earlier and it is sleeting now, but nothing is settling. Im a little disappointed. There was a big storm yesterday which, traditionally, signifies the start of the snow season. Keiko emailed to warn me that it might be difficult driving to Tsunan so I should get up early to get to school on time. As it happens, I did get up early, but set off at my normal time and turned up to Tsunan late. On my way I remembered I'd forgotten some Christmas lesson materials so I had to double back, go to Tokamachi High School, pick up the lesson materials and bomb back to Tsunan. I turned up as my first lesson started, so not too late to cause a problem, but late enough to be incredibly embarassed.

I'm a little worried. This incidence of lateness is just one of a few occasions were I've been totally caught out. One of the things I have enjoyed about Japan is that I have a felt a little more together, more aware of what's going on and being able to plan or adapt to everything easily. But recently I've felt some things slip away and I think the main reason for this is that I feel tired most of the time. And I'm putting that down to not sleeping enough. And sleeping is still a bit of a problem for me. I'm still having to contend with massive truck bombing past my flat at all hours. They're very loud so I have to wear earplugs when I sleep to stop me from waking up. But the trucks also shake the flat as they rattle past; a bit fo a problem since I'm now permenently alert to the tiniest of earth-tremours. Add to the constant visual reminders of cracks and holes in my wall, and I think you have the main ingredients for a psychological timebomb.

The counselling session was good, and I feel safer in my flat than I did before, but I guess, deep-down, don't feel totally safe in my flat; everytime the flat moves I'm reminded of my terror on 23rd October. My supervisor doesn't seem to consider my mental health when I ask her about sorting my flat. Any request I put to her is eventually resolved with a comment along the lines of "some people in Ojiya are still homeless, or have to live in temporary housing". Yes, I do acknowledge that I'm lucky enough to have an apartment to live in, but I'm sure even the earthquake refugees would think twice about giving up a safe shelter for a flat that shakes and reminds them of the most terrifying experience of their lives.

Anyways, today's teaching. Three lessons today; two with Takahashi-sensei and one with Yanagi-sensei. Takahashi-sensei and I had already arranged a lesson plan for her lessons so even though I was late we could go straight into teaching it. Yanagi-sensei was intending to do a lesson on 'Shoe-shop' conversation until I pointed out that it was Christmas and that I had a lesson plan (Takahashi-sensei's) that we could use. The students of 1-2 still acted like a bunch of kindergarten kids, though there was a glimmer of interest from some of them. I might try games with them again in the new year.