We were up early this morning because Kuniko had to go to work, and so we got organized and walked over to the taxi stand at Higashi Futami station. The bad news – for the first time that I’ve ever seen, there was not a taxi to be seen.

In Japan there are taxis all over the place, and they tend to cluster at train stations. The one at Higashi Futami is a big one – they’ve got a garage across the street, there is a flower garden that the drivers maintain while they are waiting around, and even a TV that they can watch from their cars.

This morning, nobody. We were bummed out because we needed to get Kuniko home and then to work, and so we had to call for a cab and wait around until he got there. Luckily Kuniko messaged me later that she arrived at work on time, so that was a relief.

It was a gorgeous day, and normally I would be at work, so I decided to go out and enjoy it. I organized my stuff and took the train into Kobe to climb Mt. Maya.

I’ve done the Maya climb before, and it’s pretty arduous. On the way up the mountain behind Shin-Kobe station I bumped into an American who lives on the hillside, a professor at a nearby university. He’s got a doctorate in linguistics, and his hobby is photographing bugs. We hiked together part of the way, and he told me all about where he was from, what he’s doing in Japan, and he struck me as a really smart guy. His speech patterns were different from what I’m used to – he spoke as if he was reading a book.

An interesting thing was that he had lived in Japan for a couple of years, and he had some of the same philosophies that I do. He seemed like a really patient guy, and unlike many of the other foreigners that you meet in Japan, he wasn’t complaining, making fun of the Japanese, or wishing things were more like home. You meet a lot of bitter ex-pats in Japan, but he stood out in stark contrast from the norm. Nice guy.

Anyway, we split ways at the top of the hill – I was going on to Maya, and he was going to the Shinto shrine down the hill aways.

I powered up the hill, passing entire hiking groups. People were nice enough to step aside for me, and by the time I got to the top of the next mountain I was really huffing and puffing. It was good to get out there and do some hiking – it’s been a long time for me.

Going to Mt. Maya is really tough – you have to climb up and down several other mountains to get to that one. All the altitude you gain climbing you lose again going down the other side. I was on the last mountain before reaching Maya when a funny thing happened. My phone rang.

It was Kuniko. She was in Kobe on a lunchbreak, and wanted to know if I could meet up. I was almost to a trail down the hill, so we decided to meet up in town. I sped down the hill, making good time because gravity was on my side. About an hour later I was in the Kitano area of Kobe, sweaty and tired. Kuniko tracked me down and I got a chance to meet one of her students, Sarah.

Kuniko teaches English to Japanese students at her school, but she is also teaching a class to foreign high school students on an exchange program. Sarah is a high school student from Washington state back in the States, and she is living in Japan on a homestay while going to school here. I talked with her for a little while, and it seems like she is really enjoying Japan.

From there Kuniko and I took off to catch lunch. We ate at an Indian restaurant that I had never tried before. They had a buffet set up, so I ate lots of spicy food, and then we walked around the Sannomiya area. The place was crowded with people enjoying the weather and a day off.

After walking, shopping, eating and drinking, we caught a train back to my place and relaxed for an hour or so here. Kuniko was off to meet some friends in Himeji, so we walked to the Tsuchiyama station together, and then I came home.

Dinner tonight was rice balls that I had bought for lunch, but ended up not needing, along with tamagoyaki and some miso soup. I watched Survivor, and then did just a little bit of studying before hitting the hay.

Thursday was like Friday today, because we have a holiday on Friday this week. I enjoyed teaching a couple of classes, and we did some cleanup at the end of the day. After cleanup we had the members of ESS show up for a meeting, and I still can’t believe how many there are. We had a classfull of students, all excited about working on this year’s culture festival project. This year we’ve decided on an English newspaper to pass out to students and staff. It should be really cool – everyone is looking forward to writing something of interest to them.

After school I went into Akashi to meet up with Mr. Komori at Donkey. Mr. Komori is at a new school now, and so we talked about his experiences there. He’s in charge of the flower-arranging club, which only meets twice a month and is a very easy club to work with. We drank Guinness and talked and talked, and before we knew it Kuniko showed up on her way back from work.

It had been almost a year since they had seen each other, so we caught up and told stories, showed pictures from our trip to America. Our next stop was to the sushi bar, and we watched the end of the Tigers game there over some really good sushi. We had a sashimi platter, and then moved on to nigiri sushi – so good. The guy next to me offered his congratulations on our wedding by giving us a bottle of beer – nice guy.

Komori sensei took off from there after paying the bill for sushi, and so Kuniko and I decided to go hit the donut shop for a late night donut. From there I convinced her to stay over at my place, even though she had to work the next day.

Oshita sensei must be a really scary teacher. When I went with him to his class today to do some team teaching, the class burst into cheers and applause, and from what I gather, it’s because they weren’t looking forward to another lecture from him.

I did two lessons today on “describing people” in English, and that was really fun. In Oshita’s class the students listened politely, but didn’t show much interest in the topic. In Maeda’s class they hung on every word, scribbled down notes, and really seemed to enjoy the lesson. If I was trapped on a deserted island with only one class to teach for the rest of my life, it would be Maeda’s class. They really are fun.

I also did a class with Mr. Hayashi, who seems to have settled into a routine lately and seems just a bit more relaxed. He still yelled at some students today, but at least he didn’t kick anyone. I think the longer we go into the term, the more relaxed he’ll get.

Also Matsubara’s class went really well – the students today worked in pairs and I had them writing lines to a story. They would write a line to the story, and then pass it to the next person to continue the story. It was really fun because the students didn’t know who would be adding to their story. At the end they got them back and it was like a game of Mad-Libs gone horribly wrong. With punchlines like “And then she was died!” and “oh my GOT!” I was a little disappointed, but the students were dying of laughter. Matsubara sensei declared the class a stunning success, and the students were all saying goodbye to me when I left.

All these classes were sandwiched between two free periods. I crammed still more vocabulary into my brain, and also chatted with the history teacher who just won’t leave me alone. Today I was talking with another teacher in Japanese, and the history teacher sat in the desk right in between us and told the younger teacher that he needed some of my time. Then he asked me what my favorite Jim Carrey movie is.

I wish I had a George Foreman grill over here. I tried to cook up a hamburger patty that was dirt cheap over at Ito Yokado, but I didn’t want to set up the BBQ for one hamburger patty. I fried it in a pan, but I ended up having to tilt and drain the fat constantly. I’m lucky I didn’t set myself on fire.

Tomorrow I’m going to meet up with Komori sensei over at Donkey, and Kuniko should be able to join us later. She got off work today pretty late tonight – 8:30! Hopefully she won’t be working so hard all year – it sounds like she’s really busy lately.

Well, I’m off to bed. The weather is warming up bit by bit, and I think I’m done with the electric blanket for the year. It’s been nice having the windows open in the evenings, but with the warm weather will come the bugs, the storms, and the humidity. I can’t wait!

During my walk to work I have a few people that I say “hello” to. They are also going to work or school, and so I’ve probably got 10-12 people that I greet everyday. The nice thing about seeing people on my route is that I don’t need a watch – I can tell what time it is by the location I meet them.

There’s one lady that is coming up the steps to the platform in Takasago as I am going down. A long time ago she kind of looked at me, and then looked away really quickly when she saw that I saw her. It’s been kind of my project in the morning to get a “good morning” out of her. It’s hard because there are lots of people and it seems like she’s really shy. Lately though we exchange smiles and nods, which is huge progress.

The history teacher always makes a comment when he’s walking with me about saying hello to everyone. It seems strange to him, but to me it’s just part of my job – besides, it feels good to be nice to people. You don’t have to be handing out information to be nice to strangers.

Today was a fairly light day for classes, just two for the first years and one tutoring session for Ms. Miyake. Normally she takes classes with Mr. Hayashi, but apparently he’s too busy to do classes for her these days. I know how she feels – Mr. Hayashi and I haven’t really been talking much lately. I think it’s a function of stress and his tough schedule.

I had lunch in the cafeteria with the students, and a bunch of first year students sat at my table surrounding me, chatting in Japanese and English, and treating me like I eat lunch with them everyday. This is a big contrast from the second and third year students, who seem to think that I want to eat alone, and content themselves with visiting my table and not sitting there.

Walking around school in the afternoon it really hit me how much I enjoy my students. Now I’ve taught all of the students in the school, and everyone is familiar with me. As I walk down the halls students walk with me and chat, call my name from down corridor, and are generally very comfortable chatting with me in English.

I left today at five o’clock, stopped into Ito Yokado for some lettuce, and made a sandwich and salad for dinner. This evening I relaxed, started putting away some winter clothes, and did budgeting for the next few months.

Tomorrow is my biggest day of the week. I’ve got a pretty complicated lesson plan for my second year students – I hope it works out!

The big news today was the train that derailed at high speed near Amagasaki. Amagasaki is not too far from where I am – it’s fairly close to Osaka and I used to go by there all the time to visit Kuniko in Shin-Osaka. It’s also near the Costco, but I don’t go there too much anymore. I’m not sure which line it was on, because there are two lines that intersect at Amagasaki station. I don’t think it was the one I ride, but still, pretty scary. The photos were amazing to see the train car squashed flat against the side of an apartment building.

I only had one class today – normally it’s three, but the third years are taking short exams right now. I used the extra time to prepare for some classes on Wednesday. The one class I did have went pretty well. It was my first time teaching with Mr. Yamamoto this year. He’s a pretty strict guy, and is not big on the team teaching concept. He’d rather sit in the back of the classroom and only participate when he thinks the students are not understanding. Not understanding is part of my plan, however, so I’ll need to train him a little bit over the next year. My plan this year was to make the Japanese teachers work a little harder in my classes – after all, I’m supposed to be an Assistant teacher.

At lunchtime I walked over to the bank. The banking system is very different in Japan. For one, the interest rates that they pay for savings are just about 0%. There’s no reason to save money in an account in Japan other than to free up space in your wallet or your house.

Also, I don’t get bank statements. There’s no such thing as checks in Japan. You set up recurring transactions to come right out of your account. If you need to send money to someone, you electronically transmit it from an ATM to their account. Everywhere else you use cash, and lately more and more places are starting to accept credit cards.

Anyway, to keep track of your finances they give you a cool little passbook. You take the passbook into the bank to a special “Update Your Passbook” ATM. You open the passbook to the correct page, slide it into the machine, and then it prints line-by-line each transaction from your account.

I don’t do it that often – so when I go in, there’s a long time to wait while the machine catches me up. The cool thing is that everything happens inside the machine, so once it fills up a page with information, something inside turns the page and it keeps going. I was a bit concerned today because I was running out of pages, and I didn’t want to have to go through a big process to get a new passbook.

Good news – once the machine finished it spit out my passbook, and then it spit out another one. It had set one up while I was waiting, all printed with my name and up to date with my bank balance. It was completely seamless and a total no-brainer. Nice!

Nothing much else to report today. I’m working on getting together with Komori sensei this weekend. We’ve got a holiday on Friday, so we’ve got a long weekend just before Golden Week next week.

We slept in this morning – I was especially tired from walking all over Kyoto yesterday. After a quick breakfast we went out to Akashi to look into some possible housing situations for the every growing list of people coming over from America for our wedding.

We had a map and Kuniko’s knowledge of the area to get us to the place, but as hard as we looked we couldn’t find the place. In the end we found some nearby landmarks, but by that time we were so far away from the station that we didn’t think it would practical for people staying here. We’re back to the original plan of using the Akashi Castle Hotel.

We cut through Akashi park on the way back towards the center of town and passed the big lake in the middle. They had paddle boats cruising around in there and so on a whim we signed up for one. They had different ones – some shaped like dinosaurs, some like swans, ours was a giant helicopter. The good news for me was that I could fit inside the boat, the bad news was that my legs were WAY too long to do any serious pedaling.

We made do and patrolled the waters, narrowly avoiding other helicopters and dinosauras powered by parents and being navigated by children. The main dock would time you while you were out there, and the ride was punctuated by the announcer calling out, “Green Dinosaur, please come back, Green Dinosaur, your time is up…” Finally, after doing a lap of the lake we came back a little early got out of our floating helicopter.

From there we did some shopping at the local mall, and then headed back to my place. I had prepared food for dinner the night before, but since Kuniko had brought some delicious food I had put it on hold. Tonight we cooked it up – we had teriyaki chicken with a homemade pineapple salsa, along with some white rice and a salad. The salsa turned out really good, and the extra marination time really made the chicken tender and delicious. Yum!

Kuniko also made reservations for the weekend after Golden Week for us at a hotel in Shikoku. Shikoku is the smallest of the big four islands of Japan. I’ve never been before, and I guess there is a lot to see and eat there. Things were all booked up for Golden Week, so we’ll have to think of something else to do with our three days off.

I walked Kuniko home laden with omiyage from my Kyoto trip for her and her parents, and said goodbye at the Tsuchiyama station. We’re hoping to get together next Friday with Mr. Komori, so it won’t be long before we meet up again!

I cranked myself out of bed early this morning and headed to the train station to make a trip to Kyoto to meet up with Britta and her coworker, Laura. They are in Kyoto for just a couple of days, so this was my best chance to meet up with them.

At the train station I bumped into one of my students heading to school on Saturday for a sports club activity. I chatted with him across the train tracks while we waited for our trains. He seems like a really good kid – I hope that I bump into him more often.

I got on the Sanyo train and then transferred at Akashi, and from there I got almost an hour of sleep on the train and woke up just when it arrived in Kyoto.

I never did get a hold of Britta on her cellphone, but she had sent me her schedule, so I knew where they were staying. I took a taxi to get there – the driver engaged me in some small talk, but it was a classic situation where he thought I knew a lot more Japanese than I really did. I found myself nodding and agreeing to things I couldn’t understand. Usually I stop people when they say something in Japanese I don’t know, but taxi drivers are another story – there was not stopping him.

Gratefully I stepped out of the cab in front of the hotel, and got the desk clerk to look up Britta and Laura. Britta came out and said hello, and we ended up going into the big tatami dining area of the hotel to eat breakfast. Laura was feeling under the weather, so I ate her breakfast, much to the annoyance of the hostess. Still, it’s better than throwing it away.

Over breakfast Britta told me all about her trip so far, and it sounded like she was really enjoying it. They’ve got her organized on a tight schedule, so she’s seen lots of highlights but at a really brisk pace. There doesn’t seem to be much flexibility in Japanese tour schedules.

While they were getting ready I waited out in the lobby, and soon made the acquaintance of the two guys from Sanyo that were going to guide them around. I said hello, and they didn’t know quite what to make of another foreigner. In the end they were really nice guys, just a little surprised.

Britta and Laura had a show that they wanted to see, but they needed to change their train tickets to do it. The guys made the arrangements, and then we were ready to do some sightseeing.

We started at Kinkakuji, the golden temple which I consider a must-see in Kyoto. We had fun walking around, lighting candles, taking pictures, and really enjoying ourselves. Our guides were really knowledgeable about the area, and spoke great English. They had been to America and Britta had taken them sightseeing, so they were eager to return the favor.

Next stop was Nijo castle, which is famous for a lot of things including being the homebase of the Shogun Tokugawa for a while. The interior is really old, ornate and beautiful. The “nightingale” floor was specially designed to creak in a musical way to alert the Shogun and his men of anybody approaching. It was fun to walk around making strange creaking noises.

After touring Nijo castle I said goodbye to everyone – I had to head back to meet up with Kuniko for dinner at my place. It was really cool to be able to see Britta here in Japan, and I think she was having a good time. She’s getting to see a lot, but it’s hard to get a feel for a country in such a short time. I would have loved to take her eat and drink with friends around the yakitori grill, to eat shabu shabu in some skyscraper in downtown Osaka, or to see the Japanese education system in action at my school. Still, a short visit is better than no visit at all!

I went back to Kyoto station and saw some live music and dancing being performed. The girls in the troupe wore colorful costumes – and the front of the costumes were pretty skimpy. There were lots of perverted old guys taking pictures of the girls, but in order to seem more civilized I only took a picture from the back. I’m just a wimp, I guess.

Once I got home I did a little food preparation, and then sat back and rested for a while. Before I knew it Kuniko said she was on her way, and she said she had bought lots of food for dinner.

When she arrived we broke into the food – it was awesome! There was fried crab, tiny pork buns, chili shrimp, and two fried croquettes filled with rice, meat and gravy. Wow! We cracked open a few beers and had a feast in the living room.

Tomorrow we’re going to do a little shopping, hang out, and maybe plan a trip for Golden Week. Should be relaxing!

Today we had our welcome party for our new teachers, and at the same time a farewell party for the ones who were transferred. I had arranged early to go to the party in Himeji with Watanabe sensei, so we met up at the end of the day and got ready to head out. The history teacher saw that we were going together and was really concerned – she is one of his targets lately, and he wanted to know what I was doing going with her. He wanted me to do some research and to get some answers from her, but I told him that we were just going to Himeji, no big deal.

As we walked together out of the gates and towards the station, students riding by on bikes called out “cute couple” in English and various other things in Japanese. Watanabe sensei just laughed it off. When we got to the station we bumped into some other teachers going the same way, and so we all went to the hotel together.

The Himeji Castle Hotel is the same place we had the party last year, and they did another good job. This year I decided not to drink, since I’m going to be up early tomorrow and I wanted to be clear-headed. Surprisingly not many people gave me grief about not drinking, especially when I told them why. The peer pressure isn’t as bad here as it can be in America.

They had lots of long speeches, but when they were over we did the “kanpai!” (cheers!) and then started drinking. Everyone takes the speeches very seriously, but it’s perfectly acceptable to close your eyes and doze while the speeches are going. Then they presented each person that was leaving with a bundle of envelopes full of cash, and that was kind of a quiet ceremony as well. Once the drinks were poured, things spring to life pretty quick!

I sat next to Tsutsumi sensei, and we talked mostly about my upcoming wedding, about Kuniko and our future together. It was really interesting to hear about Tsutsumi sensei’s daily life – she sounds a little unhappy with it. Her husband works all day until 10 or 11 p.m., so her kids rarely have a chance to talk to him, and they rarely have a chance to be together. Actually, it was kind of depressing, but from what I hear, it can be a typical situation in Japan.

Lots of teachers came by to pour beer into my already full glass – the protocol is to sip a little and let them top it off for you. I poured some for some of my favorite teachers, and you could tell who was really getting toasted and who was just there for the ceremony.

After a few hours the party ended, and people filed out the door. The party next door to us had three people wearing different animal costumes that looked a little kinky. I wish I was at that party. Down in front of the hotel, people gathered in a big group, and talk of the second party began. I checked with Watanabe sensei and she was in the second party group, but I wanted to get to bed early tonight, so I took Mr. Kimura and Ms. Okamoto (the P.E. teacher) and we walked back to the station.

A couple of people were staggering around in front of the hotel when we left, and the principal was walking around drunk and shaking hands (Western style!) with everyone he bumped into. Even if they weren’t part of our group.

On the train ride home Mr. Kimura, who had a good part of a bottle of wine all by himself, talked about office politics in his halting but coherent English. I was so tired that I was barely able to hold up my end of the conversation, but it was nice to have someone to ride home with.

Tomorrow I’m heading to Kyoto early in the morning to try to meet up with Britta. She gave me a cellphone number for a phone she rented in Japan, but I’ve been unable to make contact with her. I have the name of her hotel in Kyoto, so I’m going to take a chance and try to meet her there tomorrow. If I somehow miss her, then at least I’ll be in Kyoto to do my own bit of sightseeing. Should be fun!

The weather has cleared up nicely here, and when I exchanged greetings with the morning security guys at Ito Yokado of course we talked about the weather. They always look forward to the good weather because they have to stand around outside all day. I just have to deal with it for a few minutes on my way to and from work.

Speaking of work I had only two classes today, both for the new first years. The students were there early for each class – they can’t wait to see what the foreign teacher is like. First impressions are important, and I can identify and deal with the people that might act up or talk while I’m talking. The girls for the most part hang on my every word, and the boys are about half and half. Some of them are really into trying English, and that can only be good for me. I have a good feeling about this group of students. We’ll see how I feel after six months, though.

Today was our first ESS meeting after we had so many people join. The turnout was OK, about 12 students out of the 20 total in the club. One nice thing about having a big club is that we have to elect a club president, and there are lots of opinions, and my role goes from pushing people to do things to merely an advisory role. That means a lot less work and planning for me, and I’m really happy about that.

A group of the new first year members sat near the front, and everytime I walked by they would giggle and talk in Japanese. I’ve made a point of keeping my Japanese skills secret from the first years, at least in the beginning. Unfortunately for me that means that I can hear what they are talking about. If I can shift some of that energy towards using English, I guess I’ve done my job.

Matsubara was a big help today, keeping everyone on track, electing a president, and shouldering a big part of the burden of advising the club. I feel a little bad because she’s already busy, but she seems to enjoy it.

After ESS ended, I went downstairs and was packing up my stuff when Watanabe sensei came by to say hello. We chatted for a little while in Japanese. I think we may end up heading to the welcome party tomorrow together. I’m looking forward to the party – it’ll be a good chance to corner some of the shy members of the faculty and force them to utter English. Ha, ha, ha!

Next I went to Tsuji-san’s place to do a Japanese/English lesson. We talked about our trip to America, and looked through the pictures. She thought I looked strange in casual clothes – she always sees me in work clothes. We’re hoping to arrange some time when she and her boyfriend can meet up with Kuniko and me. I’m looking forward to it.

I took the train back, and since it was late I headed over to the yakitori for dinner. It was just the master there, watching baseball. I bought him a beer, and we watched it together for a while, chatting about little things. He cooked me a great dinner while we talked. Soon after a couple of other people came in, so I took my leave and headed home.

Now I’m just relaxing at home and getting ready for a big weekend.

The rain this morning was pretty heavy at times, but I was more concerned with the wind. I walked to school with an umbrella, but when the wind is blowing hard it can twist up your umbrella and turn it into garbage. Luckily, I kept it under control until I got to school.

On Wednesdays I have four classes, all in a row, from the second period to the fifth. I get a short lunchbreak, but it’s pretty much back to back classes. I don’t mind – the day goes by much faster that way.

Each class has a different teacher, and it’s an interesting experiment to see the different styles in action.

My first class was with Matsubara sensei. Her English level is not the highest of the teachers, but she makes up for it with enthusiasm and a great smile. We had a pretty good lesson with some of the better English students. They really try hard to do well, but right now they are a mixed class – they’re not used to sitting next to the people around them, and they are pretty shy. I’m working hard to get them to relax, though. Matsubara sensei is really good at explaining things in Japanese and helping them grasp concepts, and with both of us smiling up there, it’s only so long before they give up and relax.

Second class is with Mr. Hayashi. It’s a third year class, only the second time that we’ve taught it. Mr. Hayashi came to class unprepared, which was unusual. He and I put together some handouts and filled out some answers to prepare, while the students talked amongst themselves and waited. Then we got the class going. Mr. Hayashi was doing OK, but when a couple of students started goofing off with their pencils, he kind of lost it. He went over there and kicked them both hard in the foot, and he wasn’t smiling anymore.

You know when something out of the ordinary happens. The whole classroom gets quiet, some people look away, and I’m left there wondering if I should keep teaching and pretend it didn’t happen or stop. I decided to keep teaching. I’ve never seen Mr. Hayashi snap like that. I’ve seen another teacher slap some students last year, but Mr. Hayashi didn’t seem the type to resort to the physical. I think he’s under a lot of stress right now with his job, and on top of that his dog is in the hospital. I hope he gets a chance to relax in the near future.

After that class it was a pleasure to teach with Maeda sensei. This was my first class with him this year, and the students were really excited to have me help out. Everybody was smiling and saying hello to me as I came in, and they patiently sat through my lesson. At one point I was reading sentences, and everyone was quietly listening, and as I looked over the class, one of the girls gave me a big smile, kind of rolled her eyes a little, and let out a big sigh. I almost lost it. She won’t be happy to hear about my wedding plans.

Maeda sensei’s English isn’t great, but he tries his best and he doesn’t pretend that he’s perfect. He organizes things really well and the flow of the class is always excellent. One of the students on the baseball team fell asleep, and Maeda sensei asked him to come outside after class and apologize to me, in English. That’s a cool way to handle problems.

My last class was with Oshita sensei. Oshita sensei’s English is also not great, but he’s also really shy. He seems afraid to speak in front of the students in English. The problem is, they sense the fear and hesitation, and some of them giggle at his English. That makes him more afraid, and that makes them laugh more. It’s too bad, but as a teacher I can’t do much about it except pretend that his English is 100% understandable and keep things going smoothly.

Oshita sensei’s class has about 30 boys, and only 9 girls. That makes for a loud class. We played a game where students had to do a translation relay, and it got really loud as students were running around. I was really impressed when the students translated things correctly – and they were proud of themselves for doing it.

Finally I was finished, and I had sixth period to relax in the teacher’s room. I did a little bit of studying, and talked a lot with one of the new part time computer teachers. She’s been talking to me the last couple of days, and doing lots of giggling and smiling, so I told her today how excited I was to be getting married later on in the year. You know, just in case. I think she got the hint.

After school I went home, walked through Ito Yokado without buying anything, and cooked up rice, miso soup, and kimchee for dinner. I did go to Ito Yokado later to order some business cards, because it’s never to early to start planting seeds that may grow into job leads in a year or so.

Tomorrow it’s back to a relaxed schedule with only a couple of classes, and Friday is the big welcome party for our school. I’m hoping to run over to Kyoto on Saturday to maybe meet up with Britta Dobson, who is here on business doing an overnight trip out of Tokyo. I’m so lucky to be living where I am – to just head over to Kyoto for a day trip anytime I like, that’s nice.

My days are getting busier and busier, but still not nearly as difficult as last year’s schedule. Today I had only two classes, both with the new first years. These classes are a lot of fun, because I get to make a first impression on a bunch of new students.

The students this year seem even more friendly than last year, which is saying a lot. I’ve got them speaking in class already, and some of the students stuck around to chat with me after class, which is always a big surprise.

I caused a big stir in the staffroom at lunch when I cooked up my leftover Korean rice dish from last night in the microwave. Everyone was sniffing around my desk, asking questions about who made it, why I’m not eating at the cafeteria, etc. I ate a little early, around 11:30, and I noticed that once the smell got around the staffroom, lots of other people broke out their lunches. The power of Korean rice!

Also I had a nice chat with Watanabe sensei. She is in charge of the shogi (Japanese chess) club. She has no idea who is going to show up or how many members it has, so she wasn’t sure what to expect. I told her that my club, ESS, only had seven members, so it’s a fun thing for me to do. Last year at this time we only had two or three members that would participate, so I was happy when we got four new students last year.

Today we had the deadline for students to join clubs. Mr. Hayashi said we had to wait in the ESS room, so he and I sat around waiting for someone to show. Finally we had two new first year students come in and sign up. We also had a third year student join up. She is a little out-of-control behavior-wise. She spent the sign up time joking with Mr. Hayashi in Japanese and slapping him on the rear end when he said something particularly funny. They seemed to be getting along just fine – the only problem is that Mr. Hayashi doesn’t really participate in ESS – it’s usually just me and now the new advisor, Matsubara sensei. I hope she doesn’t expect to be slapping my ass every Thursday.

After another fifteen minutes we gave up on new members, locked up the ESS room, and I went back to my desk. On the way there I stopped by Matsubara sensei’s desk. I told her that we waited for almost thirty minutes, and we only got a few new members. She gave me a strange look and explained to me that the new members were supposed to go to another classroom, where she and some of our existing members had been taking sign ups. Oh, I see. I guess Mr. Hayashi didn’t read that memo. I guess neither did the three students that showed up in the ESS room.

Then the real stunner – there was a lot of interest in ESS. She signed up 13 new members! Now all together we have around 20 members – one of the bigger clubs in the school. Holy crap! The new members aren’t just first years – lots of second year students signed up, too. I was really surprised in the jump in interest – a year ago I was thinking that we might have to abandon the club for lack of interest. Now I’ll be working with a whole squad of kids every Thursday.

Luckily, Matsubara sensei is new to the school and really energetic about working with the club. Maybe together we can put together some fun activities for these guys.

On the way home I chatted with three of the parking guards at Ito Yokado. I was feeling more confident with my Japanese, and the parking guys really like chatting with me – it’s a good break from their routine. One guy had heard that I’m getting married in November, and he told me that his daughter was getting married in October. We exchanged congratulations and I went on to the next parking guy to chat with him. They have funny nicknames for each other, so I’m just figuring them out.

I made some real Kraft macaroni and cheese for dinner (SpongeBob Squarepants shaped – Kuniko bought them for me from an import foods store in Osaka) and not long after, the bookstore over at Ito Yokado called me to let me know that a Japanese textbook I had ordered had arrived. I went over there and took a look at it, and whoah, it’s all in Japanese. I talked with the clerk about it, and he figured it would be an OK level for me, but maybe he just wanted to sell the book. I picked it up, and did a few more other things before heading back.

Tomorrow is a busy day with four classes, and three of them are new lessons for the second year students. Supposed to be raining, too – yuck!

Today I was scheduled for three classes, all of them with Mr. Hayashi. As it turns out, two of them had exams, so I was only on the hook for one class – the last one of the day.

Mr. Hayashi had some bad news over the weekend – his German shepherd came down with some kind of sudden illness, so today it was in surgery at the veterinarian. Mr. Hayashi really loves his dog, so I could tell he was really concerned, even though he was smiling the whole time he told the story. I think Mr. Hayashi would be smiling if he was telling someone their grandmother died, it’s just how he talks, at least in English.

Since I had pretty much the whole day free I could prepare for some lessons later in the week, and also do some socializing with other teachers. I chatted with all of the teachers that we partied with on Saturday, and they all said they had a good time. We’ll get to party again on Friday, so that should be fun.

Watanabe sensei said that she really enjoyed meeting Kuniko, and could see why I was so in love with her. I gave her a long list of reasons why I was in love with her – she’s not just a pretty face.

Later I realized that I was doing all these conversations in Japanese, and it surprised me. I study and I study and it’s sometimes hard to see progress. It’s like owning a houseplant – you see it every day, and it seems the same size, but one day you notice that it seems bigger.

There’s a new journal low point – a houseplant analogy.

I finally had my class in the afternoon, and it was shortened significantly because the new students had to undergo a listening exam. It was really nice to get in front of some students again, and unlike other classes with Mr. Hayashi, I was running the show. That meant that I really focused on getting the students to speak English, and I tried to create a relaxed atmosphere.

The students pick up pretty quickly that this class will be totally different, and they react to that in different ways. Some see it as an invitation to screw off, and others see it as a way to finally break out and speak English. If that ratio is only 50%, I’m happy. The screw-offs I can deal with, and I really enjoy seeing the light dawning on the students when they realize they can understand what I am saying in English.

After class I went to the staffroom to chill out, and one of the janitors came by to empty our trash. Usually we have the students do it, but when they have some kind of assembly or exams, the janitor does it. He seems like a nice old guy. A little strange and really hard to understand, but nice.

We chatted about the good old days when he was in high school and he went on a high school trip to Okinawa. He told me the beer in Okinawa was a little better than the beer here, but I was unclear if he had made that determination during his high school trip or not. He said plenty of other things, but I just shook my head when I didn’t understand. That didn’t seem to stop him, though. I get the impression that he doesn’t have a lot of people that will listen to him as attentively as I did – I was leaning forward hanging on every word trying to figure it out.

I found out today that we have at least two new ESS students, and I got to say hello to them. I’m hoping for some more, but that may be it. The existing members will be happy to have some new members to boss around.

I left school and went to the train station, and while there I bumped into a few of our first year students who I’ve not met yet. They know me, though, and so I exchanged a few waves and hello’s. Before the train came one of the new teachers at my school came up and sat down with me to wait.

This guy is interesting – he looks like a combination of Stephen King and Neil Diamond and he usually wears black – all black. Gothic black. He’s really quiet, but he speaks fairly good English. I enjoy talking with him because he’s really low key and friendly to me. I think he probably had a good relationship with the ALT at his old school, because it didn’t take him long to come talk to me. I’m not sure what his name is yet – I checked the seating chart but I can’t read the Japanese characters. Anyway, we talked about his hobbies, and he said he really enjoys reading. His favorite author – yep, Stephen King.

I stopped in at Ito Yokado for groceries and made a vegetable and chicken rice dish that was easy. I got carried away and made too much, so now I’ve got lunch for tomorrow.

This evening I’ll just relax, listen to Japanese CDs, and do a little light reading. Tomorrow it’s back in front of some new students, and I can’t wait to meet them all.

Kuniko and I woke up around seven in the morning, and we were both ready to get to work studying. I got up and turned on the hot water for shower, and while we were waiting for it to heat up, we ended up falling asleep. I woke up a few minutes later, ran in and turned it off, and the next thing I knew it was eleven in the morning.

We finally got out of bed and we hit the shower. Afterwards we made a quick visit to Ito Yokado, and we bought some roast beef to make a couple of sandwiches. Back home I made up some sandwiches, and then we went out to take a walk and enjoy the beautiful weather. It was gorgeous today, and we walked through the park on the southern coast of the inland sea. The cherry trees are losing their cherry blossoms gradually, and we got to walk under trees with petals drifiting through the air on the wind. It was a really nice moment for me – one that I’ll remember for a long time.

We walked back to my place, and did some studying together. Kuniko is listening to English lessons that she records from NHK radio. I was working on Japanese vocabulary, and we worked during through the afternoon with all the windows and doors open to let the breeze and warm air come through my apartment.

Finally around 5 p.m. Kuniko had to head back to her house, so I said goodbye to her out in front of my apartment, and then I went inside to study some more.

Before I knew it I was hungry again, so I decided to go get sushi over at the restaurant close to my place. The last time I was there the locals bought my dinner, so I have no idea what the prices are like at this place. I had a wallet full of money, so I figured it was a good time to find out.

I went inside and there was already a crowd of people in there. I took the last chair at the bar, and everyone was buzzing with the idea that there was a foreigner in the place. The master of the sushi place always has a funny reaction to me being there – kind of like he’s waiting for the punchline of some joke that someone is playing on him.

I sat and ordered up some sushi and sake. Before that the master laid out some food for me, and so I ate some of the mysterious food with the older guy next to me speaking incomprehensible Japanese in my ear. It was some kind of cooked fish suspended in a gelatinous material, served cold on a platter. The flavor was OK, not too fishy, but definitely not my favorite.

Somebody next to me said that I should talk to another one of the customers, and before I knew we were switching seats and I was introduced to Iku-san, a middle aged woman who works for a computer company in Osaka, takes weekly English lessons at a local school, and spent a few months living in Sacramento, California. At first she said that her English was terrible, but of course by the time we started talking she was extremely fluent, and she did a great job. Unfortunately for me I had no chance to practice my Japanese tonight.

Everybody watched me carefully – “Oh, he can use chopsticks!”, “Oh, foreigners can eat octopus!”, etc. There was a lot of food, and I really ate my fill. Which reminds me…

Sushi restaurants in Japan can be pretty daunting. First, there is rarely a menu – you ask what the master has, and what he recommends. Also, at most places I’ve been to there is no price list. At the end, you just find out how much you owe, and then you pay it. This evening, I ordered a few pieces of sushi, but other sushi appeared at my place without me having ordered it. It was like the master was keeping me in food, and if I ran out, he would have some kind of fish in front of me. It was hard to explain, and I asked Iku-san about it. She said that it was just best to bring lots of money when you go to a sushi bar. It’s hard for a foreigner like me to get used to.

At the end I called for the check, and for the second time in a row I found out that the meal was being paid for by one of the other customers. At first I refused, and then said that they were being too nice, and then finally I relented and gave lots of thanks and promises to pay next time. If I ever see these guys again, I’m going to go broke!

This week should be interesting – it’ll be my first full load of classes. I’ll get to meet the first years in my classroom for the first time, and at the end of the week we’ll have the welcome party for the new teachers in Himeji. It should be a lot of fun.

I spent most of the day cleaning up the house and listening to Japanese CDs – focusing on listening. Even listening to passages where I knew all of the vocabulary I would sometimes have trouble. Getting the pronunciations and accents down is a tough part of learning any language. Japanese has fairly easy pronunciation, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t lots of ways to say the same words.

Late in the afternoon Kuniko came over, and together we took the train to the Arai station, just west of Takasago. From there we walked to a local izakaya, and met a large group of Takasago Minami teachers.

The party was organized by Ohara sensei, a part time PE teacher that is currently unemployed. I said hello to him a couple of times when he was at my school, but he didn’t really show much interest in talking to me then. He was much nicer today. There were lots of other teachers though, and we all had a good time drinking, eating, and talking.

People got up to speed about Kuniko and I, and I drank lots of beer and sho-chu. We talked to some of the new teachers, and the best part in my opinion was when the old teachers warned the new math teacher, Watanabe sensei, about the history teacher. It was really interesting to see a lineup of four previous teachers all tell Watanabe sensei that the history teacher pursued them mercilessly. Watanabe sensei took the advice to heart, and I fear that the history teacher will encounter a little more resistance the next time he tries to make a move.

By the end of the night I was pretty drunk, but still managed to get home safely, thanks to Kuniko. We headed back and crashed right out – it’s hard work drinking and eating so much.

This morning I came in to work enjoying some warmer weather and sunshine. Our students are back into a normal routine, except for the first years, who still are doing orientations. Monday will be their first normal day at school, and my first class with them.

Today I had just one class in the morning with Mr. Hayashi. It is another English proficiency preparation class, and it was full of third year girls that love to joke around with Mr. Hayashi. They sat right up front in front of us, and enjoyed the chance to joke and flirt with him, and Mr. Hayashi also enjoyed the chance. We did manage to do a class, but I can tell over the entire year that this will be one of those classes where I wait patiently at the side of the classroom with most of the other students while Mr. Hayashi chats with just a couple of students.

After class I went in to get a chest X-ray with all the other teachers and students. It’s a mandatory procedure in the public school system, and I’m happy to have it done. The vice principal seemed a little worried that I might freak out, but hey, it doesn’t cost me anything and it’s good to know that everything in there is going OK.

At lunchtime I walked over to the local Seiyu mall and there was a new restaurant there – a Danish hot dog place. I don’t know much about Danish hot dogs, but there was a Danish guy working there, and he told me all about his trials and ordeals living in Japan. While he was toasting the hot dog buns he told me the story, bringing his face close to mine when emphasizing a point. He had wet, glassy eyes, and I kept thinking that I wouldn’t likely trust this guy outside of buying a hot dog from him. He showed me a picture of his old restaurant that he had built from scratch somewhere north of here, with authentic Danish architecture. The whole meal was slightly depressing, but I promised to eat a hot dog in front of all the teachers in the staffroom, so let’s hope that helps business a bit.

Once school ended I came home and met Kuniko in the early evening. We ate at the local Korean restaurant chain inside Ito Yokado, and then came back to my place to catch up on each other’s week. It sounds like her new school is keeping her busy, but she’s not working as many hours as her old school, so at least that is a relief.

We’re going to meet up again on Saturday for a drinking party with some Takasago Minami and ex-Takasago Minami teachers, so that should be a good time. I’ll get a chance to hang out with some of the younger teachers – which is a rare thing for me. I’ve been stuck in the older teacher crowd for a while. I’m trying to branch out a little and spend time with some other people… it’s a good way to spread the international vibe, too.