It's the weekend!!!!!

Have we got a weekend planned or what? Here in Japan, the weekends can mean a great deal to an ALT. A great weekend plan can help get you through the doldrums of everyday teaching class by looking forward to the excitement, and help you blow off some steam and vent the frustration that inevitably builds up from being a foreigner in Japan. If you find yourself relating to anything at all that I just said, you must be a teacher, and you will be jealous of our weekend!
One more thing, for the more rural ALTs out there, the weekend is a must. My personal experience can bring this point home. I spend all week, Sunday night throughout Friday afternoon, in a town of about 4,500 where I am one of two foreign people. I didn’t say “one of two Americans” or “one of two white boys.” Other than myself and one other person that lives up in the hills, everyone in my town is Japanese. You can imagine that by week’s end, I am ready to get out of town.
This weekend is the annual JET Halloween party. Actually it is sponsored by JETs, but anyone and everyone is encouraged to attend. Costumes will be abundant, the air will be filled with laughter, and fun will be had by all. The Halloween party is an all you can eat/drink affair, so use your imagination and think about what 100 foreign teachers in the second largest city in Japan act like on Halloween night. Yup.
After this great night of fun and friends (hopefully a few good brews!!) we plan on heading to two breweries in Hamamatsu on Saturday. Hamamatsu is only about a thirty-minute train ride away from Toyohashi, so we should have a full day of touring and tasting to enjoy. As soon as we return, we will post our pictures and opinions.
Sunday will take us to a local restaurant where our favorite chef will teach us how to cook some good Japanese food, and Monday will see my return to Toei and the immensely popular Flower festival, or Hana Matsuri, or 花祭。
We hope your weeks will fly by and bring you that much closer to the relaxation that only Friday night can bring. Coming soon will be our review of the first bottle of Hickey Brother’s Kentucky Common, and a review of an item that every beer lover has to have. It will be an exciting week!!!