Summer Holidays are over let's get blitzed!!

Today marks the end of summer holidays at my school. I say holidays but I've been working in the summer school all the time as I don't get paid holiday yet.

If you didn't know I work in the most fantastic kindergarten in Koenji, Tokyo. It's an all Japanese school for kids aged 4-6. My job is basically to play with the kids all day and just be their friend. Well, it's the best job in the world, or at the very least the best job I could ever want to have. It suits me down to the ground, I just have to be my happy fun loving self and everyone seems to think I'm doing a great job.

Well it's been maybe two months since I saw most of the kids, who I pretty much consider my little mates, I'm so looking forward to next week and seeing them all again. Summer school has been a mix of easy days and boring days. There haven't been more than 15 kids there at any one time so sometimes it's got slightly boring, but the pool made it entertaining. I made that into my own hot tub XD Weirdly I was the teacher who would get in with the kids. I'm pretty unique how I go about playing with the kids. I always play 100% hardly ever taking a minute to rest, which means a lot of running and fighting and rolling around. I end everyday looking like the rest of the kids, where most of the teachers look pristine. I know the heads of the school like my style though, it's exactly what they want. And everyday I get kids so happy to see me and shouting 'Makkusu Sensei!!!'.

There's nothing that fills me with more pride than the kids calling me Sensei, and especially when they tell me they love me <3 Sweetest kids in the world and I love them all x1000000000000000 Who would have thought I'd end up loving kids so much.

I've been thinking about my visa recently, seeing as it expires in mid January. Basically the school are more than happy to sponsor me for a full visa. GREAT!! But I never did finish my degree. BAD!! So soon I'm going to get legal advice and find out all my options. Being a native Englishman gives me a huge selling point though, and hey, if anyone is gonna get a visa out of these people it'll be me!

COMING SOON.....

Some of my highlights of my stay in Japan so far, including adventures in the mountains, almost losing my arm and soul to a dirty voodoo man in Roppongi and oh so more.

Picture tours of my fave places in East Tokyo. My apartment, school, reading spots, drinking holes and the rest.

YES!

English man in Tokyo part one

Hi and welcome to my blog bloggy blog, brought to you from the land of insantity and stupidness that is Japan.

You probably know me already right? Well maybe you do and maybe you don't. Maybe you only half know me. So let me fill you in briefly on how I came to be living in Tokyo.

MAX PROFILE GO!!!!!!

1980 - Born Leicester England

Drunk....

2004 - Discovers the Japanese dance called parapara

2007 - Goes to University of East London to study degree in history so I can move to Japan to dance parapara

2009 - Failing the degree decides to go to Japan via a working holiday visa for 1 year

2010 - In Japan being drunk

I'd like to think many things have happened in between but to be honest... I was drunk and I forget. So here I am in Tokyo in August 2010. I moved in January and since then I haven't looked back. So yeah, I'm here on a one year visa but I have THE best job ever and noway do I plan on leaving it in the next few years. Visa?? Just leave that to me, I never fail!!

Oh the job? Kindergarten teacher, teaching the greatest most fun kids in the world. All aged 4-6. It may sound young but they are all my bestest mates and I love them more than words could express. Oh how I love them. I love my job and I love Tokyo. 

I live in Shin Nakano by the way, which is just west of Shinjuku. A great party location but at the same time really nice and with a lot of atmosphere. I live with two of my best friends, Gaby and Jasmine, from England and Sweden respectively. I love them both so much and feel so blessed to be living with them, as I know this will only be a short a period in my life. 

My life in Tokyo mainly consists of working at my kindergarten and clubbing/drinking. But when I say clubbing  mean parapara clubbing. Most people think it's rubbish but I love it more than anything else in life, I had my own night in London I love it that much.

I love Tokyo, the whole vibrant way of life and how it's pretty damn hard to be bored here. I do find a lot of similarities to London in the way there's so much going on but only if you look for it. I've always loved the fast pace of  life, not really for me, but for other people. I like to see a city on the move. The architecture, the lights, the hustle and bustle. It's so different to where I grew up in small town Wigston, England. The things I hate about Tokyo??

Not this!! This is me and friends boozing in a river in the mountains during a bbq a few weeks ago, one of the most fun days of my life!!!

BUT.....,

I dislike the people always in a hurry being rude and just rubbish and racist. Yeah it does make me laugh how some people are to foreigners, is it weird there are people outside of Japan?? In fact most of my complaints come from the people, the way they can't communicate and are just so different, but that's just the way they are here. And obviously the lack of space. It's hard to find a private space to chill out. You can't just go to the park and read a book on your own, people are always there. But saying that deserted car parks are a great reading spot of mine XD

My weeks here consist of working at my kindergarten, para clubbing, drinking, eating, reading and the odd bit of culture when it fits into my schedule. I've never been happier tbh, there's not a lot I miss from England, although I guess I DO miss it.

Me and one of my bestest mates Jasmine <3

If you're wondering about my love life, I doubt you are but I guess it makes up a lot of peoples life's, I have none. Hell, lets be honest, it's a new blog after all. I have no love life, I never have. Never had a girlfriend, never had a boyfriend, a virgin at 30. BUT HELL, does that make me boring in anyway, hell no, I'm boom town central baby and to be honest all that stuff doesn't mean a hell of a lot to me. Ahhhh that's for another day, but just know all that stuff other people think about, it really doesn't enter my mind like hardly ever.

So yeah, loving it in Tokyo 2010, hope to stay here a hell of a lot longer. Look forward to clubbing updates, thoughts on Tokyo, the people, and life as an English man in the weirdest city in the world!

Me teaching at a school festival