Jo's going down in Japan

Today has been so great. And it's not even over yet! I finally met up with all these people who are organising the touch rugby trip to Miyajima in Hiroshima next month. They are all good folk from what I can tell. The girl who I was put in touch with originally met me at Kurashiki station and drove me out to the playing fields where we met another Aussie (finally!) and three Kiwis. That isn't the whole crowd, but for various reasons there are people who couldn't make it today but are coming on the trip. We did a few drills and stuff and had a 3 on 3 scratch match. It was so good to run around again (although typically in this country, we were running around on coarse sand rather than grass)! I am excited about this tournament now. Everyone seems to be at a fairly good skill level so I look forward to picking up a few more tricks on the field... just getting used to all the different terminology is going to be fun. It seems Matt the Kiwi has a few new ideas, or perhaps they are old ideas that I never really twigged on before? How funny, I travel 1000s of kilometres to go to touch training run by Matt... (non touch related people are not going to understand this but it's nothing wildly amusing so don't worry)

We went out for lunch afterwards to a diner called Joyfull (no not a typo, this place is really just FULL of JOY) and this evening we are meeting up for some movie action. Although the film is The Da Vinci Code (and I may have perhaps alienated several readers by mentioning this), it is a chance for me to meet some new people and avoid sitting at home alone yet again. Such is the sacrifices one must make in order to acquire new acquaintances I guess. Sigh.

Tomorrow there is a small party to welcome the new English teachers in the Kamogata area, hosted by the Mayor's wife so I shall attend that and see what beer may be obtained and consumed before slinking back to my abode to ponder the weekend's activities. Oh, yes, that's right. Monday is a holiday too! Gosh, what will I do with myself??