A few days in

Well im a few days into Japan and it has been a crazy induction. I never appreciated what culture shock was untill I came here. I feel like ive drunk about fifty cups of coffee but feel knackered. Theres so much to absorb that it can be a bit overwelming. I feel like a baby just taking everything in and staring aimelessly. I woke up on saturday at three a bit dazed and confused and just walked around and got the feel of the city. The first thing you realise and probably what is the the MOST striking element is the monculutural nature of Japan, thats not to say there is a lot if western influence (the first advert I saw was a picuture of referee Collina advertising profiteroles!!) But there aint many foreigners in Japan (probably 100 to 200 in my city of 661000) and you do stand out. Japanese ｐｅｏｐｌｅ　ｄｏｎｔ　ｓｔａｒｅ　at you because they consider it impolite but you know theyre pearing at you from the corner of their eye and you get the occasional exclamations of gaijin (foreigner.)Having said that they are incredibly friendly, I had a very broken conversation with some ladies on the train and they seemed really interested in what i was doing and where I was from. Similarly on my second night I went to an irish bar downtown and got asked by a couple of Japanese girls to go to the beach with them. They are incredibly genuine and unduplicitous which I am not used to although you do need to be particularly astute in reading into their feelings because they dont like to reveal to much. They tend to have gone ooooh and aaaah quite a lot which could mean I dont have a f ing clue what you are saying! I have already started to nod incessantly which they all do over here as well which is a sign of conformism.

I started training today which was very scary, particulalry after having drunk half a bottle of absinthe the night before. After 2 hours I was made to conduct part of a lesson and then another bit onto that all within a frantic time limit. I also had to make evaluations about pupils performance. My brain didnt work and I almost felt half dead but somehow I got through, thank god my trainer is nice!