Randomness

I had my official welcome party on Tuesday night with the people from the yakuba or town office...which ended up being a joint one for the new education superindentent and myself...so we (as the guests of honour, although I felt more like at a wedding head table!!)were sat at the front together on a smaller oblong table...and the other sixty or so people were at round tables in the rest of the room. We both had to do an introduction/welcome speech in Japanese which was a bit scary for me! Very fun trying to communicate though, and it helps when everyone has had a couple of drinks especially the Japanese when suddenly you discover that they do have some English vocab.
Last night I went to the annual soft volleyball round robin and I have another welcome party tonight with the junior high school teachers.
My supervisor and another one of the board of education people are cutting the grass around my house this afternoon which is nice of them! The Japanese are so involved in their community especially as I am in a rural area...half the people I saw at volleyball were at the welcome party the night before!
Lunch today was amusingly spent trying to understand yamanaka san's explanations of cooking techniques, how to make pickles, deer shooting and deer sashimi as well as eating baby bees and that historically in Japan it wss forbidden to talk whilst eating, however nowadays there is much chatter and fun to be had! I think alot was lost in translation though...I just kept smiling and nodding.
Oh my goodness a litlle man just came to the office to clean, straighten and tighten the screws of two of my coworker's glasses!