Shakespeare never had an English GCSE

What is extremely funny to me, well not extremely funny but slightly peculiar is/was my GCSE grade for English literature. I was the boy who read a book a day, there were some times when I would read instead of playing football or read instead of playing kiss chase. My primary school teacher ENCOURAGED me to read Terry Pratchett when I was in year 6 but I preferred a good old Goosebumps. I borrowed tons of books from the library and my library had a lot of cool comics so I got stuck right in, reading was my hobby.

Something happened during secondary school though I am not sure what or why but English Literature provided me with my lowest GCSE grade.  I guess with a subjective subject it is a bit hit and miss. Maybe I didn't understand Shakespeare the way everyone else did Macbeth taught me to stay away from girls in fields and trust my mates, Hamlet was less of a tragedy and more a comedy to me and it is possible that I looked at Of Mice and Men from a different angle than most. Could this be what earned me my dirty little C-cret that I hide behind my  6 A's and 3 B's ? I know a C is an average and even an F gets you a low pass but it's always bothered me. I like to write and am sometimes dissuaded from doing so by this grade. Not anymore though, this post is a middle finger up to that grade and if I ever do write anything of significance ,besides my white paper on Cloud computing a few years ago (NOTE  it was not signifcant) , in my little bio I will put once got a C in English Literature.

Also reminds me of when I wanted to go study Maths at A-level and for some reason I really tanked my mock exams and got a D. I was told that I shouldn't bother applying to study it further and be more realistic with my subject choices.  I was like "OK" studied my ass off got my A, and Maths went on to be my most successful subject at A -Level.

Back for the first time.

So,  a year had passed since leaving London's green and grey shores for the land of sushi, extreme politeness and warm space toilets.I missed my family and friend from the very second I said my teary goodbyes.
I didn't regret my decision to leave the U.K but it was far from easy.

Anyway here I am back for the first arriving at Heathrow after staying awake on a 12 hour flight. My mum greets me and I feel like I just saw her yesterday thanks to Skype. My brother (12 ) got a lot taller and I fear he will be taller than me when puberty really kicks in and my other brother looked ,how do you say, well. HAHAHA.
I got to see my Dad and his new Heisenberg beard and sample his (pepper soup) which I can not handle at all.

Anyway this not a recap but I just wanted to note that in the 10 days I was in London I couldn't see all my friends and family properly and eat enough of my mums food or wrestle or play enough with my brothers or play tennis or call of duty or go to the cinema or dance enough or  anything. There wasn't enough time.

I don't know how it ties in but a lot of the things that were available to me everyday are no longer accessible from my little Japanese town.

Saying that I gave up and lost a lot by moving out here so I'm more determined to make the most of it now.

YDKWYGTIG

Last train winner

Sometimes on the last train, Japanese people are not afraid to strike up convo. it happened to me twice yesterday. Anyway while I was with my friends. This guy started to exercise his English but we kind of ignored him as he was a lil tipsy and we didn't have time for him.
I felt sorry after dissing his high 5 . SO I asked him a question just to help him out. What follows is detailed below.

Me : How tall are you?

Tall Japanese guy : 187 cm (Yes we do cm here)

Me : Wow, really tall .(taller than me)

Tall Japanese guy : Yeah,how tall are you ?

Me: 183cm

Tall Japanese guy : Oh. I'm TALLER than you. I'm the winner. I'm the winner.

He continues in this mocking tone which irritates me a little.Plus his friends were giggling and he was trying to show me up.

Me: How many centimetres are you ?(Pointing to an area of my anatomy)

Tall Japanese guy: (Looking confused) says nothing

Me: WINNER !!! WINNNER !WINNER.

Japan has Valentine's day backwards

So yeah! In comparison to the west Japan does have it backwards but it's a good thing. Instead of the guys spending money buying gifts for the special person in their life and taking them out for over priced meals, Japan has it that the ladies get the guys chocolate and apparently the ladies do all the work, dates and stuff.

I did get some chocolate for all my female teachers at school but that was just to add more height to the towering gentle man image I have constructed of myself.

It is 18:12 pm and I am freezing at home typing this up so I am obviously not going on any dates BUT I did get some chocolate at school which is a result.


There is another day (White day)when the guys get candy/sweets whatever for the girls in return so I guess I'll have to purchase some stuff in return  but I don't know nothing about that yet.

Legally beat them

When I told her what I was going to do I thought she would have an objection, but she told me she was interested to hear that I was going to take part in a Judo PE lesson with her form class and even came and took pictures.

I had wanted to join in training with the Judo club but for some reason or another I hadn't made it. Kawara the Judo Sensei told me I should join the first years for a lesson and that he would bring in his own Judo gi for me. He stressed the length of the arms and legs may be short and this was no exaggeration. It was also a bright blue one which contrasted heavily with all the various shades of white gis the students had. You could tell which students had hand me down gis as theirs were bordering on a creamy yellow colour.  

I walked to the Dojo with a nike pro t-shirt so all my students were in double shock first reaction "Ariyo da!!!" - It's Ariyo. followed by "wow, sugoi(great), tsuyoi (strong), macho baby" etc. They were all excited that I joined in. I was surprised to see two other teachers with their black belts. I never even knew they did Judo.

Kawara sensei passed me the blue gi and Akurai sensei helped me get the obi (belt) on. Orai sensei lead the class through the introductions and I joined in ,as Orai sensei put it, as a foreign exchange student. We warmed up and practiced Ukemi which are breakfalls which I picked up after a while. We practiced a few pin techniques, only Kawara sensei and one of the giant first years( a member of the Judo team) managed to escape my hold.

Finally we had a challenge type sparring round. I was surprised at how many students were willing to fight me. I'm a big guy in Japan and according to my JHS first years I'm a titan. I kicked all of the kids asses, some were easier than others but they all went down. I had a try with one of the teachers and that was a stalemate. I really enjoyed it, might be something to learn ( get my first black belt not from H&M ).At the end of the class all the students bowed and thanked me for coming.

On leaving the gym the class from which I have students that cause me a problem came in. How I wish I had them during judo would loved to have thrown some of those guys around.

Nothing stays the same

no relation to any of the content but I drew it.

Hmm. I feel like there is so much I could talk about. I regret that I haven't updated this. School life has been fun so far. I had my last day teaching at my elementary school last week and that was an indication that I have been here a while.

I have been in a speech contest, had my bike stolen and recovered. Ups and downs turn arounds been in Typhoons countless amounts of earthquakes cat cafes all nighters conflicts of interests, interesting conflicts.Hot like fire and cold like ice. I even had a box beard. I'm In the middle of a 12 week fitness challenge and realise that hitting the blog will help me remember this stage of my life  and allow me to reflect more. So many interesting stories get forgotten or put to short term memory and then deleted.

I think I'll try and go back in my memory banks and fill you in on some things.

Like my bike.