Have I ever mentioned how much I hate westerners? Honestly, half the reason for my departure to Japan was to get away from westerners and surround myself with Japanese people. That being said, I am very glad to be leaving for Akita-Shi in Akita Prefecture on Monday. There is only a very small amount of westerners there, and a large amount of rural Japanese who tend to be very kind, polite, and interested in people like me. I don’t plan on spending a lot of time with foreigners. I’ve had my fill after 22 years in the US.

Anyway, on another note…TRAINING IS OVER!!! I am finally getting the hell out of Nagoya. I’m pretty much done with Nagoya. After living in Tokyo, this city is just boring. There is not much interesting history or entertainment here. It’s pretty dull for such a large city.

So training. It was tough. Not mentally challenging – Just physically and emotionally draining.　Waking up around 6:30am every morning has been pretty tough for me. I can get up and all, but my body aches and my eyes have been swollen for two weeks. Continuing with the soul draining qualities of training. During the middle of this week I found out that my training and another higher up in the company though I would not be able to do the job as if I was some sort of fool. I even had to wake up early on a day I should have been able to sleep in so that I could do demo lesson for my trainer. I hate it when people doubt me like that. Well, I showed him anyway. Got the 2^nd highest score in my training group for the company aptitude test and have received pretty good reviews from the other teachers who have observed me dealing with children.

I got my new inkan (stamp) today….it’s made of awesome, per usual. The character is “Kishi.” It means “Shogi Player.” I think that fits rather well with me since my last name meaning “Chess Player.” I’ll make sure to attach a picture to this blog.

I don’t really have too much to say about the past two weeks. I trained hard…Have swollen eyes and had a kid continuously pull my arm hair. I hope at some point to have pictures of some of the kids I will be working with, but I have to wait for the parents to take the pictures and for them to give them to me due to company policy.

I’ll make sure to write lots about the awesomeness/lameness of Akita (won’t know until I get there, right?)