Going to Yokkaichi, gonna eat me a lot of sushi

Blog entry 25/11/05
Hey again from the land of the bright lights, short skirts, and sushi.
Im currently writing this sitting in my bed (should I say my futon – a Japanese style bed that really is just a thin mattress on the floor, with duvet-like sheets. Its actually quite comfortable).
Today I we finished our training. In terms of things going wrong in the lessons, today was the day- I lost track of the time in one lesson, in another I had prepared the wrong lesson, and in another I had students that couldn’t grasp some concepts. After work I went out with my fellow trainees to a restaurant and had some food and beer (a group of POMs). I left in time to catch the train back to Yokkaichi. When I got off the train I decided I would find my branch, in preparation for tomorrow. I found it OK, and then went for a bit of a explore to see what else there was. Lets just say I found the dodgy side of town, which I worked out fairly quickly when I was approached several times to have a massa-gee. Ah no thanks.
Last night I had gone to a place called Sakae (Sar-Kai) because the Brits wanted to get some cellphones, and at Sakae there is a vodafone shop that has an assistant that speaks English. I tagged along, as I thought it would be a good idea to find out where it was for future reference, and to find out more about what phone to get etc. After going to the Vodafone store, I had a bit of an explore. I saw a fountain, and then saw a Japanese punk band playing a song. Following that I went to a church that I saw was open, to see if they could tell me when and where I could find an English service. With a bit of effort I found out some information, so that was good. There is also a cool underground shopping center/bus station with a roof thing that has a fountain on top of it – totally mind blowing stuff. There was a lifesize dinosaur made out of fairy lights there as well. It seems the Japanese love using electricity to advertise anything from coke to vodafone, and Christmas. I saw there was also a tv tower. When I approached it I saw that it was free entry to the main floor, where there was band playing, and they were giving away free drink ( I could have had cups of red wine but settled on two 500ml bottles of soft drink, very similar to grape fanta.)