Sleepy! I was out late on a week night. Fool! I could barely stop my head from falling forward at my desk this morning. I also have tendonitis right now so I will keep this short. I don’t really know how I got that but my wrist has been very sore and sometimes my hands go numb. I have been getting physio for it everyday. This seems a bit extreme. Do we even do anything for this at home? I have my hand dipped in heated liquid paraffin 5 times then wrapped in plastic wrap and a towel. After this I have a massage. I will do this for about 10 days. I go with Tom who went in a while ago for a sports injury but his doctor generally insisted that he had gout despite him telling them about his childhood knee surgery from a sports injury. Also, the fact that he is only 24 makes it seem somewhat unlikely.
We are currently in exams so I have spent the whole day marking papers. All the first year students have gone to the opera in Matsumoto. I feel a little left out on this one because they know I would be really interested to see this and I have no classes today. I suppose I can see it if they have an evening performance but I don’t really have a free weekday night. Maybe Friday though. They are seeing The Barber of Seville. I have never seen this but I have studied it and would like to go. I can’t complain too much though as I have been having all kinds of free days because of the International Work Camp that is being held now in Shiojiri. There are about 13 people from Europe, Korea and other parts of Japan who will be visiting all the area elementary schools. They join in school club activities and teach about their country by sharing songs and games. In exchange, the kids have been showing them school life and Japanese culture. So when ever I go to elementary school these days I just have to hang out with this great group of people while they do all the classes. It’s an excellent deal! Myself and the local AETs went out with a few of them last night and introduced them to the glory of karaoke and our favourite local bar. The French guys really like their heavy metal. It also gave us Canadian girls (of which there were three last night!) a chance to practice our waning French skills. They didn’t mind that none of us could speak well at all. All of a sudden we were like the Japanese kids in all our classes. They just wanted us to try and communicate even if we were really terrible. They are all staying at a place way out in the country so we invited them all to stay in town for the night on our respective living room floors. I hope to see them all again on the weekend for fireworks in Suwa. This will be the show that previews the new technology that has been developed for the next year’s festival season. I saw it when I first arrived last year and it was amazing. Today's pictures are of a kitten Gisela was babysitting, me and David running down a hill (I miss you David!) and the town of Naria. Ok wrist aching, gotta go.