June 2013
Hello, hello!
June and warmth are finally here to stay! My temporary staffroom overlooks a tree-lined mini-lake rather than the baseball pitch as the previous one did, and I seem to spend half my time watching the leaves flutter in the breeze. I’m British, so forgive me for the weather talk, but the end of May was glorious; hot, but with cooling breezes, night time and shady spots remaining cool. Essentially, it’s perfect British summer weather and I love it. Of course the rains will come and humidity head through the roof, but I can’t help but smile for the moment at least.
The end of May also, of course, meant the real start of the end for us leaving JET in the summer – the 2013 contingent (hello if anyone’s reading!) are finding out their placements. As soon as I started seeing posts on the Hyogo AJET Facebook page it all became that more immediate. I’ve attempted to start a manual to relate some of the ins and outs of life of my school. 5,500 words later, I think I’m in overkill territory and I’m not even done yet. That said, there might be something in it somewhere that’s going to be useful. At the very least writing it kept me entertained during the midterm exams.
I have a horrible feeling that these last few months are going to fly by in a haze of busy-ness. My cunning plan to slowly but steadily improve the cleanliness of my house (so I have less to do just before I move out) has rather fallen by the wayside. I keep noting things I could do, and then deciding that I’d just be doing them again before too long. I managed to pack away the kotatsu blanket, heat-tech and jumpers in a vacuum bag though, so that made me feel like I’d done something. Now if I could just get off my arse long enough to sand and varnish the table…
But hey, enough talk of moving and cleaning. It’s Hyogo Times, err, time. This month we have the return of Miso Green, a trip to the top of Japan and time spent appreciating the fleet footed inhabitants of the Hanshin racecourse. We also have another delicious treat being whipped up in the Kicchiri kitchen and some suggestions for a night on the tiles in, shock horror – Osaka! It’s at times like this that I wish my computer had a glare-free screen so I could toddle off outside, sit down in the sun, and peruse.
Enjoy!
Imi
P.S. The joys of getting everything together before the PDF is actually due out. Can you tell that I wrote this before May 28th…
