I had a very busy week this past week! On Sunday, I met up with my friend Masami. She's a graduate student at Waseda University (one of the most well-known universities in Japan). Waseda was having their gakuensai (school festival) and Masami invited me to go with her. It reminded me of the bunkasai my high school had in September, but on a much larger scale. It was fun to walk around the campus, eat some of the yummy food the students were selling, and watch some dance performances.

I attended JET's ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) Skill Development Conference on Tuesday and Wednesday. The days were long and it took me over an hour and several train transfers to get back and forth each day. Even though it was nice to see some of the other ALTs again, I was glad for the days to be over. After the first day of the conference, I went with half of the group to the post-conference nomikai (drinking party). Drinking parties are a very common way of bonding with your co-workers in Japan, so of course the ALTs took it as an excuse to go out and have a good time.

After the conference on Wednesday, I went to a concert! One of my favorite bands, an all-female Japanese rock band called exist trace, was playing a show in Tokyo. (If you're curious you can check out one of their videos here.) I had an awesome time! The band put on a great show and even gave two encores. I also met a couple people and we discussed the possibility of meeting up at future rock concerts. The concert was the best part of my very long week. I was pretty tired afterwords, but it was worth it.

I stayed after school on Thursday and Friday to help some of my students prepare for the Eiken, which is an optional exam that tests English proficiency. I also had to teach classes on Saturday this week. I normally have Saturday off, but we had a special day of classes this Saturday, with an open class period so that parents and prospective students could come in and view our school.

Today, I met up with my friend Leslie and we shopped around Akihabara and Ikebukuro in Tokyo. Akihabara is an area that is famous for selling electronics and anime merchandise. We had lunch there and also bought some delicious macaroons for a snack. I did a bit of more practical shopping in Ikebukuro, where I bought more warm winter clothing. We're getting a mix of nice days and cool days in the Saitama/Tokyo area right now, so I'm starting to prepare for winter.

I'm pretty tired. Luckily, I get Monday and Tuesday off! Monday is Saitama Prefectural Day, so people living in Saitama get the day off. I also get the day off on Tuesday to make up for the fact that I had to work on Saturday. I'm definitely going to take the opportunity to relax.