Snakes on a Plane! (or rather one snake in my school)

This week I witnessed my first Japanese snake. I was quite impressed that I remembered what the vocabulary meant, after I heard yells of ‘Hebi’ ‘Hebi!’ and a few elementary-school-girl screams, from the stationary cupboard. I rushed over to the front porch to find a snake, as slim as two fingers and about 4 feet long, coiled up in the corner terrified of the 7 year old boy that was bashing the window from outside and screaming at it. For a moment I thought that I might be called upon as the only adult male present, to have to deal with it, despite having no experience with snakes whatsoever (a similar thing happened to my Dad when we were in Italy. There was Pakistani couple honeymooning nextdoor to us and a snake crept in while the newly wed wife was alone. She called on Dad to help, although she must have had much more of a clue what to do). Luckily the Vice Principal came to the rescue with the sasumata, the man catching device I mentioned in one of the previous instalments, and chased it out of the building.

The rainy season really hasn’t been as bad as I anticipated. Or rather the level of rain wasn’t quite as bad as I anticipated. Although it has rained fairly heavily, fairly frequently there has also been decent amounts of sunshine in-between. The main problem has been the heat and humidity, which has been quite unbearable on a couple of occasions. There was one hilarious moment when the Japanese English teacher asked me to drill the phrase ‘I’m really sweaty’. I had to do it three times and control my laughter as 30 Japanese school children replied in unison ‘I’m really sweaty!’.

It was a shame to see England get knocked out of the world cup earlier in the week. The match started at 11pm on Sunday, in Japan, and so what with having to get up for work at 6am the next day, I ended up watching it alone in my flat. Although it was sad to watch them loose after gaining so much of the possession and having a decent few chances on target, I couldn't help thinking that if they were to finally beat Germany in World Cup, I’d like to be in an English pub with English friends celebrating, rather than on my own in a flat in Japan. So I suppose that’s some consolation.

I can’t believe how soon it is until people arrive from Sheffield. It’s only really a week away now. I finally booked my tickets to California. I’m really looking forward to that too. It’ll be really good to see Cortney and Kevin and speak English to anyone in the street. It’ll also be good to get somewhere, if not a little cooler, then a little less humid. It’s going to a summer to remember.