Ceremonies, textbooks and glee

By monday I'll be back in my new apartment - in a very awesome part of town, but without any of life's essentials; internet, light fittings, a kettle, crockery of any description, washing machines, cookers, fridges, furniture. Yet, in the wonderful way in which material items seem irrelevant - I have realised that these things are completely unnessecary anyway - I have invested in ridiculous amounts of candles to light my way, my washing can wait for atleast a few weeks, I never really 'cook' as such anyway and due to the annoying lack of any kind of ability to boil or heat water I am sure I will halve my caffeine intake.

Right now my focus is more on the mural I am planning to paint and the fact that luxuriously I get to walk across a bridge and a lake and past a temple every day ! Saturday mornings see the poi artist and nights atleast two or three guitarists strumming, not for money, but because they like it. Afternoons also include a guy dressed in a dinosaur suit - who does some kind of 'street art', two tap dancers, who bring their own slabs of wood to tap on, three girls who practice dance routines, with no music and dressed in what appear to be pyjamas, my favourite cafe - complete with all the stray cats of the neighbourhood and my even more favourite isakaya - a tumbling down, smoke filled,japanese beer brewing kind of place, that lets in light and squeezes more and more people up to the rafters amongst the ceiling rungs.

It is the week of the cherry blossoms - and although as usual Naganuma (the language school) attempts to strangle the life and soul out of japan - I am attempting to rise above it and keep my eye on the beautiful, inspiring setting around me. New houses are ideal for that. Particuarly when they are just next to one of the most beautiful parks for cherryblossom viewing in Tokyo ! Luckilly there is nothing interesting or even vaguely relelvant to my life in any of my japanese textbooks - so I can feel a sense of glee at every sentence or grammer structure that I discard - because I've decided - I never want to be able to be polite, or distinguish 'male' and 'female' language, or say 'the season of springtime is upon us' in japanese. And instead I'll settle for enjoying the every day just a bit.

I think across the world, universally this is the week of people wanting to spread their wings and get away. I feel as though I have awaited this week of the semester and my week off for such a long time that now it is almost upon me my body is poised for flight in an actual physical sense - buckled back in anticipation.

Our class sits distracted through classes, laughing at nothing, kicking our chairs, forgetting kanji at a rate of knots and our teachers can barely contain their own joy at the approaching holiday. As usual tests and ceremony are the order of the day. Last week saw the London office come visit, to "observe" our classes - and we had our second years graduation ceremony, This week we have our semester graduation (oh what a joke) and another two tests on the correct politness level to use when writing a postcard to your housing guarantor or work colleagues - although it is fascianting to know that letters in japanese must always include references to the weather within the first line - they are unfortunately nevertheless horribly, horribly dull and boring...

Well my dear blog readers, it's getting late - I'm full up of the silly chatter that an evening with japanese girls seems to always consist of (not strictly because of japanese girls, but more because of my appalling japanese language skills and the stupidity that that tends to produce in my thoughts and conversations) so I will leave you - hoping that wherever you are - this is your week for flying.