Getting into the swing

Bit of an update as I'm slacking a bit already. In fact I've only sent this webpage to about 2 people so far as I'd already covered all the stuff in it in numerous group emails. Probably expose a few more people to it now, however I'm unlikely to update it any more regularly as I'm a lazy bugger.
Work is still pretty hectic, classes are all ok now. Have one student who comes in and pretty much collapses as he's so tired. He's a typical Japanese student in that they're expected to do silly amounts of work - normal school all day, cram school at night, extra tuition, English classes, etc. - glad I didn't get edumacated here. Need to mess about with his lessons and get him a bit more involved, but aside from that I think everyone is happy. Doesn't help that he has a book based purely around grammar, his last teacher just played games with no educational merit, and the book is too difficult for him. So basically gonna change the book.

Got all my regular classes and I have about 40 students in all spread across the week. A lot of those are in private lessons, the biggest group I have is 4 students, and their ages range from 5 to about 55. Get a few more classes with people who just turn up or have missed their regular lessons too. Average class time is about 45 mins but again it varies, shortest I have is 25 minutes for a private lesson with a 5 year old and the longest is an intensive course with 4 elementary level adults on Sunday which is 3.5 hours long....pheeeeew eh?.

An Irish guy called Neil has moved into an apartment 2 doors down so had a bit of company in Shimo Igusa rather than just meeting people in schools or miles away from my house. Had a wander around the other night and got a few drinks. I normally get by with pointing at things and using broken Japanese to say 'ichi bieru' but Neil studied in Japan for a couple of months a year or so ago so is quite handy to have around.

Few more pics for you, nothing too exciting, just been trying out the camera on my new phone (3.2 megapixles for those of you who are interested in that sort of stuff - also got GPS, a Japanese to English dictionary, street fighter 2 game, etc.) with some random pictures. I'll try and get some more wierd stuff cause there's plenty of it around, I think you start to get numb to it all though and take it as normal somehow. If I remember I'll get picks of the ridiculous number and variety of vending machines which are everywhere, Tokyo rush hour, some neon, and whatever else I can find.

Another few pics at... http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Bits%20and%20bobs/