This week I am in Saijo. This is Saijo. All first year JETs in the Hiroshima prefecture have been shipped off to language camp - a government sponsored center that gives intensive language and culture courses and throws in a bed and breakfast deal too. The lessons I am taking are pitched just right it seems - I recognise the feelings of frustration, ignorance and shocks of enlightenment from my lessons with Jenkin-sensei back home. This institute is something else. Imagine a Goethe Institute with a holiday Inn attached. Very nice indeed. The whole enteprise, like much of Japan is very eco conscious - when you get into your room you plug your room key into a slot on the wall and this allows you to turn on the lights and air con (meaning that if you arent in your room, these cant be running). clever ne? There are also seven different bins on each floor for trash: plastics, soda bottles, paper and other burnables, razors & glass, batteries and cans. okok thats only six but i cant remember the other one. The whole recycling shtick irritated me at first but now i feel extremely virtuous - taking 15 minutes to throw anything away.
last night i rented a DVD from the institute's library - it was a Japanese animation from the 80s called the old crocodile (me think). It was beautiful. A red ink crocodile on a brown paper forcing this octupus to fish for him by day. then at night he eats the octupus too - one leg at a time until its just a sorrowful black beak and eyes.
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