After last night I felt surprisingly well this morning. And today was our first teaching seminar for non-ALTs in Hokkaido. The teachers were really, really good! There were over 40 of them (a huge number for a bookstore presentation) and they were all really great. We did 2 hours and everyone seemed so into it that I said that if people who had bought the superpacks were up for it then I’d be quite happy to stay behind and do another hour. The bookstore were paying for the room and stuff but if it meant people could get more use out of their CDs then they were cool. So I did another hour doing requests and everyone was good. But then I was a bit shocked as quite of few of them who had asked for another session, after getting 3 free hours of training, walked off without buying anything! Sarcy beggars! I thought that was just downright cheeky of them. I guess the mentality of “everything for free” is still going strong, eventhough they don’t see all the costs of doing a presentation like today (i.e. travel costs, hotels, advertisements, room rental etc. etc.).

So thank goodness for the honest people in the group!

Mind you one really good part was near the end when a German teacher stood up and started telling everyone how they had to stop thinking English was difficult. She basically confirmed everything I say in my “English is easy speech”, and she could do it fluently in 3 languages! Her best line was “Look, if you think English is easy, you want to try German!”. Good point.

One thing about being in Japan is that unlike in the West where people travel to see museums or scenery, in Japan people travel to hot springs, or more importantly to eat! Every place in Japan has it’s own famous food for tourists to try, and Hokkaido has more than its fair share. Last night I had Sapporo ramen (it’s the equivalent of a kebab) and tonight it was all you can eat crab and Ghengis Kahn – a Hokkaido special lamb BBQ. Lovely!