Today is my first day at the Kencho in quite a while. It is hot, humid, and my clothes are sticking to me. So I've decided that summer is the worst season of them all around here. And it's going to get worse before it gets better. Why would you not air condition a building where hundreds of people work many hours a day? I just don't get it.

Earlier this week we had a "recontracting conference" in Shinjuku (Tokyo). Got there Monday and was done on Wednesday. Parts of it were better than expected and other parts worse.
We stayed at the Keio Plaza which is a pretty upscale hotel and is where the conference was last year when we first arrived here. I really don't understand the reason(s) for having a recontracting conference but since there were a couple of good moments at the conference and since there were many good moments outside of the conference, I won't complain.
It was set up nearly the same way as the initial conference was with different presentations being done in different conference rooms. Names such as "Being a second year JET" and "Motivating your students" and "Lesson Planning" filled our schedule books. You might think that all of these sound interesting, and they do, but truth is that a few of the presentations last summer were quite bad and I wasn't expecting much from this conference either.
But hell, besides one presentation it wasn't all that bad. The terrible one was about motivating students which turned out to be more of a "how to motivate yourself" type thing and quickly morphed into a "you're not here to teach English so just have as much fun as you can." Which actually is about right on the money concerning my particular assignment, but the speaker's attitude, while being quite energetic and all, was one of "don't even try." So Amy and I walked out of there on Monday afternoon wondering what the next day and half would hold. Worst part was that the speaker thought she was being funny and it is true that much of the audience was laughing, but I don't think Amy and I laughed once (along with the guy sitting almost in front of us); we just found it insulting.
But that was the low point. Everything else was either quite good or just ok. The last day was the best. We attended two seminars by two different guys that really had something to say about things in Japan. The first guy talked about just living and working here--he's been here for 18 years--and the second guy's thing was about teaching in Japan. Funny thing was the two very different styles they had. The first guy just sat in his chair and talked to us, while the second guy was all over the place, running this way and that, using big gestures, and basically flying around the room. But, you know, they both held my attention, as well as the rest of the attendees, for the full hour and twenty minutes of each seminar.
Anyway, it wasn't a total bust after all, and although I was ready to come back home by Wednesday, it was a nice break from teaching. That and the evenings on the town were fun.
The first night Amy and I went with Dilek and her visiting mom to the Hard Rock Cafe. Her mother was very nice, had a good sense of humor, and best of all, matched me drink for drink. I liked her.
The second night saw a few of us go up to the 45th floor to a bar and have a few before we went out on the town. Drinks up there were quite expensive on the menu but we lucked out and hit happy hour so we only paid about $8 a drink. I had a martini and a beer, Amy had a daiquiri and a beer; total....about $25.
Then we headed out to an izakaiya (Japanese bar) and had more to drink and a few things to eat. There were six of us here: Sebastian x2 (and both from France), Jay, Dilek, Amy and me. We stayed there a couple hours and then the girls decided to turn in while we guys decided to hit the Irish pub.
So we walked over to it and proceeded to get a bit drunk. It was great fun with stories not fit for this journal. Nothing bad happened, mind you, just one of those nights that I'd rather tell you about over a beer in a bar (perhaps in St. Kitts). Eventually we all sloshed our way back around the train station and to the hotel.
Anyway, that's the story of our Shinjuku seminar.

Three weeks from today I will be boarding a plane in the next hour. Oh yeah!

Two weeks from today I will be coming to the Kencho after work (6pm) to go out with a few of the people from here for our "summer party" whatever that means. Apparently we will be seeing some flamenco dancing. Yes, I am still in Japan, not Spain, and am confused too.

One week from today I will be going out with Sebastian and his girlfriend to a French restaurant near where we live. He is from France and says the place is expensive but good.

Tomorrow I am going to a J2 (think triple A baseball level) soccer game here in Kofu.

Keeping busy and having fun.