あけましておめでとうございます！

遅れてしまいましたけど、あけましておめでとうございます！ (A bit late, but Happy New Year!)

Wow, a lot has happened since I last posted. I will briefly talked about what's been happening, and (hopefully) go into more detail in future posts.

During December, I attended two kindergartens for Christmas-related activities. More specifically, I dressed up as Santa and played with the children. It was a bit daunting at first, but fortunately it was not that hard at all. I went there early with another staff member from my company and met some of the kindergarten staff and principal, and talked about a variety of topics, before getting briefing on what would be happening during the Christmas activities. After the briefing, I finally got into my Santa costume, and got to meet the children at the assembly where I participated in a song with the teachers, helped give out presents, and finally took pictures with all the children. At one of the kindergartens, I was treated to morning tea with some of the staff after finishing the activities, before they gave another gift bag full of snacks and sweets. Since the visit was only for the morning, I went back to my usual elementary schools to resume lessons for the remainder of the day.
In addition, it was winter break from the 23rd of December until the 9th of January. I took this chance to go to Kyoto to visit my girlfriend and spend time with her for Christmas and New Year. Having been 4 months since I last saw her, it was great to spend time together, even if only for less than 2 weeks.

The other bit of news that has happened is that due to my employer not winning the contract for Kamisu, all the company's Kamisu ALTs will have to move out at the end of the semester. I am trying to weigh up my options at the moment, between staying on with the company and seeing what other city they will offer me; or jump ship and apply for the company that won the Kamisu contract to stay in Kamisu and hope that I will be allowed to continue working at my current schools. At the moment, my coordinator is checking on other positions available, after knocking back a position in Kitaibaraki (after finding out it's right next to Fukushima). It seems that whatever I decide to choose, I will at least have a new 1 year contract with a company, so I don't have to worry about uncertainty of employment.

I hope to go into greater detail for my time in Kyoto, and about my future in Kamisu in a future post. Until then, at least you know that I am still alive (laughs).