Random Things from Today

~ It's raining buckets in Toyohashi today.

~ Canadian consulates in Japan don't seem to be into picking up the phone. They ask you to leave a message. So much for "emergency services" available. I left them a message today saying that I have a number of questions about passport renewal procedure, I wonder if they are going to call me back.

~ My baby class wasn't so horrible as the one last week. The little 2-year old crazy girl that I am forced to teach actually sat down through most of the lesson. Maybe in the next few months this class will get better...

~ Apparently it's not a standard procedure in Japan to request police checks for foreigners. As the police officers I went to see explained, it seems that I need to go speak with immigration, they can't do a police check for me because I am a foreigner. We were laughing so much today when one of them said, "you can probably get this record from the immigration, and check with your employer and the school board too, you might not even need this record, because basically if you committed any offenses, you would already be deported." True, isn't it. I guess since they have records on all the foreigners, this somewhat makes sense... I didn't have time to call immigration after talking to the police, so I'll be doing that tomorrow. Sigh... it's going to be interesting if there's nobody who can speak English there. Talking to the police in Japanese was ok because it was in person and I could use gestures if anything. Talking on the phone is more difficult. Well, I have to see what the JET coordinator in Toronto says anyway, hopefully she will reply to my email today. That's one nice thing about the time difference, I can do all my emailing late at night, and get a reply by morning.

~ I made a doctor's appointment for tomorrow. I hope they can do everything in one go. I also hope my health insurance covers at least some of the fee.

~ I wanted to eat out today, but I got soaked on the way home so I gave up on that idea.

~ Wow, I didn't use mixi for a long time. I posted something last night, but otherwise it's been a while since I blogged there or here... I can't believe lesson planning is keeping me this busy.

~ My first year junior high school kids had a kick out of making ID cards for imaginary characters (like Doraemon), I guess that's because I let them draw the mug shots too :P. I didn't think they'd enjoy it, but I am happy they did.

~ I taught them some crazy vocabulary last week, like "health insurance card", because we were talking about ID cards and stuff, and guess what. One of them actually remembered it today. I was quite shocked.

~ I should put more pictures into my Anki vocabulary file for these guys. It's pretty boring now with just the Japanese translation. Actually, I'll go do that now.

~ Oh, and this reminds me, I have to go to an internet cafe and print out my damn tax declaration. I still can not believe how stupid CRA is. But I guess I have to print out stuff for the JET documents too... so I have to go find a printer anyway. Once I know my placement, if I don't have to move then I am going to buy myself a printer. It sucks not having a printer in the house.