Yesterday was my first day at my new school; Narita Nishi Chugakkou. So far, I think that I will be very happy here. It certainly hasn't been as stressful as my first few days at my last school.

First thing that I noticed was that the school is very new. The school was extensively remodelled in the 1990's and everything is new. The most astonishing thing I noticed was that the playing field actually has grass. This is a rarity in Japan and it is the first school I have seen in five years like that.

Today was my last day at Nakadai. From April the 1st, I will move to Nishi Junior High School. To be honest, I was really sad today. It was hard to say goodbye to all my favourite students. However, I am also looking forward to starting at Nishi-chu. It is very close to my apartment, so I can get there easily in the morning.

Well, this is one day that I came to work with absolutely no good reason to actually be here. I was scheduled to come in, but there were no classes, no preparation for me to do, nor even a perfunctory meeting. I feel like one of those extra widgets in a quota driven factory stock pile. We have no work for you but you must fill in these days of work. Go forth and be idle. The most work I did today was cleaning out my desk to have it ready for the next teacher that uses it, since I will be teaching elsewhere next year. I am truly in work limbo.

Last night I couldn't sleep. Despite being really tired, I just lay there with thoughts running through my mind until I finally dropped off around 3ish I guess. Trouble is, I was up again at 6.30 for work. I am sitting here, waiting for 8 o'clock when we start feeling like utter crap.

Last night's dinner was very good. Sukiyaki - my favourite Japanese meal. For lunch today though, we have come to a very interesting yakiniku restaurant near the ski resort. For anyone who doesn't know, yakiniku is a popular cuisine in Japan. Originally Korean I believe, it consists of thick slices of meat that you cook on a barbecue in the center of the table.

Today my girlfriend and I came snowboarding for probably the last time this season. We came to Iwappara in Niigata, which is possibly the closest place to Chiba with snow at the moment.

After a week of looking, I still haven't found a silver Blu-ray drive. I have found black, beige and white; but no silver. What's more, after researching it a little bit more, I am not even sure I want one at all (at least for the time being).

Since I have a very big HDTV in my apartment, I have fairly recently moved my PC into the TV room. Before that I would either stream video from the PC to the TV using XBMC, which unfortunately can't play HD video very reliably due to the lack of memory and processing power on the Xbox.

Since I didn't get the job in Abiko, I have been doing a lot of thinking. Whilst I wasn't so brash that I was depending on the job, I was really hoping that I would get it.

Part of the interview was in Japanese. Although I don't think that was why I didn't get the job, I realised that after 5 years in Japan, my level of Japanese should be much higher than it is. Part of my 'plan in Japan' was to learn Japanese and use it to look for a better job. Although the job I have at the moment isn't bad per se, there is little room to move upwards.

As I didn't get the job yesterday, I was feeling a little sorry for myself. One of the benefits of the job I have now, however is that it pays more. So, to cheer myself up, I wanted to buy something expensive.

Now that Toshiba has pulled out of the high-definition disk wars, it looks like Blu-ray is the future, so I decided to go and buy a Blu-ray drive for my PC. After work, I headed out to PC-Depot to see what they have. I don't usually buy much stuff from there as they are a little over-priced, but it's a good place to see what's about.

Damn it. Didn't get the job. But, as they say in Japan -
shouganai.