With the lights of Tokyo twinkling on the horizon it was time to head to where I am teaching for the year- Hagi, in the south west of Honshu, Yamaguchi prefecture. Hagi is a little different from Tokyo- a quaint little place on the beach where you can cycle just about everywhere. On the first evening in our new home we were greeted with a festival. Colourful lanterns lit the streets and floats with Geisha’s and Shamisen players paraded the town centre pulled by some tired looking men in white robes. The whole town was there- out in traditional attire, revelling in the atmosphere, playing games and eating yummy food. We experienced both the good and bad of standing out- on the one hand the stares sometimes veered from inquisitive to uncomfortable, but on the other, our celebrity status lead a jolly man running a game stall to insist we try, for free, and when we didn’t win gave us the prize anyway.