When I first arrived here, late last night, the train pulled away from the station and it was pitch black. All I could see were stars. This is crazy, crazy inaka, total countryside. I couldn’t see where my hotel was, and couldn’t ask for a taxi as there weren’t any. In fact there was no one around. In the distance I saw a light so walked across to find an old lady in her noodle shop. She showed me directions to the hotel. But then when I went out again I asked the hotel guy where I could eat and he said the noodle shop was the only option “Is everywhere else closed?” I asked, “No, that’s all there is. Oh and be sure to get back before the curfew”. Curfew? Blimey, needless to say there was no internet in the hotel.

But this morning I woke up to find I was surrounded by mountains and just happened to be right on the edge of town, it’s actually really quite big. So today we had a workshop that was impeccably organised by the fantastic CIR ( Co-ordinator of International Relations) in town with every teacher from every school, over 90 people, all together. That’s not an easy thing to organise, so full marks there!

The actual workshop itself went great. It was pretty much the same as the rest of this week and the teachers came up with loads of questions, got really into all the activities and did a fantastic job. Even the junior high school teachers came up afterwards asking loads of great questions. This was after I’d spent the last 3 hours getting the other teachers to completely forget everything they ever did in junior high. It’s good to see JHS teachers wanting to make a difference as well.

The only dodgy thing was another publisher had turned up handing out leaflets for their training course. At my gig! They didn’t have permission so we got them stopped, but the last thing I wanted people to think was that I had anything to do with that particular company! But no big problem really.

Anyway, we’d finished by lunchtime and ended on a big high note. Then out for some udon noodles and a Starbucks ( it’s really a big city in disguise I think!). Everyone was really great so hopefully we’ll be able to work out something for next year too.

Then I met up with a nearby ALT who had come up with a curriculum for 5th and 6th graders. It’s really very good and the main thing is a very cool 2 page summary that makes things really easy to understand. He wants everyone to be able to use it, and has very kindly offered to let you download it from the website, just as soon as we get an electronic version produced. I think he was a little hesitant that Genki English was the best way to get it out to lots of teachers, but then the waitress in the coffee shop came up to us. She first asked if I was an ALT too, to which I said I run a publishing company ( that’s the easiest way to explain things usually!), she then hesitantly asked if I had a website. I said yes, and she said “It’s not Genki English, is it?” She then proceeded to freak out a little bit. People don’t usually recognise me out of uniform, but I think it created the right impression that Genki English is the quickest way to get ideas out to lots of teachers.

Speaking of which I’ve met a lot of teachers with great original materials on this trip. If you have any yourself then please get in touch. I can either help you make them into products for sale, or if you’re cool with letting everyone get them for free, it’s really simple to put them on the website so everyone can get their hands on them.

Now I’m back on the train towards Nagasaki, I should get in at a reasonable hour and don’t start till the afternoon tomorrow, so it’s kind of like a holiday. Mind you I really love being in Shikoku, it’s so nice having clean air to breathe!