The weather is changing every five minutes today. It was sunny when I left my apartment, although the mountains were swathed in an ominous haze. Now it looks like it's raining over the river. Glad I didn't put my clothes out on the balcony!

I'm in a winter funk today, I think. Feeling low about myself, learning Japanese at an excruciatingly slow rate, and taking a long time to meet people and make friends. Also I left my beloved new hat at Mister Donut yesterday and I have to figure out how to ask for it back...

It was a busy week, although I feel I'm getting the hang of my work and getting a little faster at preparing for classes. I also really enjoy the classroom, and I hope I'm beginning to explain things a little better when students have questions. I marked my first test and corrected my first journal entry from students this week, but there aren't many of those, since we mostly concentrate on spoken English. (Trying to explain the correct use of the phrase "curiosity killed the cat" was my biggest challenge...) I also am making progress on accurately remembering everyone's name; tricky when I'm teaching two Yukos, a Yoko, two Yukis and a Yukiko. Also Atsunori, Atsuri and Atsushi. And Hirokune, Hironobu and Tomohiro...

I was exhausted by the end of the week, but still hauled myself to Kaya on Friday for "Nihonglish". It was the busiest I've seen the place, and certainly the most foreign people I've seen together in Japan. A guy named Colin, who teaches with the JET program (going into Japanese high schools as an assistant teacher) and comes from Lucknow, Ontario, was organising games intended to get the Japanese and foreign people talking to each other. I met a lovely older gentleman and his wife, who spoke English quite well, and were very curious about Canada. I also met Marie from Ireland and her friend Chris (also JET teachers) and Cleve from Chicago, and saw Stephen Haine (from Yukiko and Kei's dinner party) again. I chatted (with great difficulty) with Yoshi and Reiko at the bar, and met a girl named Rika who turned out to be one of my private lesson students; I'll teach her for the first time this week. I told her, "I'm the new Neal". She got very excited. I left pretty early, though, too tired to stay long and aware I had to work in the morning.

Saturday after work was my welcome party. Once again, I wish I hadn't been so tired. About fifteen students and five of my colleagues came. We went to a nice Italian restaurant across the street from the train station. We had a semi-private area to ourselves, and I sat down among my students. I made a short and extremely slow speech (some beginner students were there) saying how happy I was to be in Matsue and how I hoped we'd have a good year together. Small bowls were piled on the table, and trays of food started to come, and just didn't stop. Escargots swimming in butter (even the Japanese are iffy about snails, I noticed). A breaded rice and cheese ball smothered in tomato sauce. A dish with chicken on the bone and potatoes. Different kinds of pasta, with fragrant toasted pine nuts and with a savoury tomato sauce. I ate very well, and had some red wine and blood orange juice. No dessert though... My one annoyance was that Mayumi-san (the assistant branch manager and master of ceremonies for the evening) got me to move around a lot, to talk to different people, which wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been so tired.

Today I'm going to the house of Keiko Sakamoto, one of my students, for lunch and tea; she's promised me sweet potato cakes which she says are her favourite. She's a housewife and her husband is retired. Their kids are in other cities now, and I think she's got 'empty nest syndrome'. I'm looking forward to it.