If you’ve been following my blog recently you might have noticed that I’ve been going home pretty early every day. It’s a weird feeling to go in just for a few hours, but getting paid for the whole day. Since I took my vacation just before the official spring vacation, I feel a little bit like I’m double dipping.

On one hand I know that I’m going to be working hard soon enough, and that I put in extra hours normally, more than my contract stipulates. I also know that after next year I’ll have to get another job, and I’m sure they won’t be so cavalier about leaving early.

On the other hand I still feel a little guilty going home early – people I know ask me why I’m not at work. Other teachers are still at work – why am I going home?

Today I thought that I’d work a little later. Keep in mind that I don’t really have any pressing work – I’m way ahead of everything and ready for classes. At lunch time I went over to the cafe next door with the history teacher and Watanabe sensei. He continued to hit on her – enough to make me slightly uncomfortable. She’s a grown up, though – she doesn’t need my help.

After lunch I was hanging out in the teacher’s room studying, and the vice-principal came by to say hello. He’s a really cool guy – he knows about Kuniko and my upcoming marriage, and he’s really excited. He’s also got my back when it comes to telling Mr. Hayashi about Kuniko – just in case. He had this funny smile on his face, and he said discreetly, in English, “It is the afternoon, so you can sneak out.” I thanked him and we joked around a bit in English – he was an English teacher and he really enjoys chatting.

I gave it about 20 minutes and then left. On my way out, I was walking down the hallway and I caught the principal of the school taking off early too. He gave me a look that said, “I won’t tell if you don’t…” and we said goodbye and left. My school seems to suffering from a guilt complex, but we still get the work done.

Once I got home I spent some time doing research on just what exactly I’ll be doing once I finish up on the JET program. There’s lots of information on the web, but I really have to sift through it to find good information. Looking through what’s out there you see a lot of garbage, horror stories, rumors, and flat out lies. What’s it really like getting a job in Japan? I know that it won’t be easy, and I’ll be working a lot harder than I am now for the same kind of money. Add in the idea of supporting a family, and it sounds pretty daunting. I’m just trying to figure what I can do right now to put myself in the best position possible.

For dinner I cooked up some leftover beef and made a big thick beef, cheese and onion sandwich with lots of hot sauce. Delicious.

Kuniko said that she may end up at my place tonight. Tomorrow she doesn’t have to work, and tonight is her welcome party at her new school, so she might be pulling in here pretty late. I’m looking forward to seeing her, even if it’s just for an hour or two before bed.

I was the third person into work today, which is saying a lot. We’re on a really relaxed schedule right now, and the new people are just starting to figure things out. Each new teacher arrived around eight in the morning, and each one was astonished that there were only a couple other teachers there. It’s Takasago Minami High School – get used to the laid back culture…

One of the new teachers was sitting at the desk, so I took the opportunity to strike up a conversation with him in Japanese. We made small talk for a little bit, and then later he came by and talked to me in English. His English was pretty good, considering he’s a Japanese teacher. He seems really nice – I’m hoping to chat with him more in the future.

The place was pretty deserted most of the day – I went through hundreds of flashcards, studied two pages of Japanese grammar, and had some good conversations with the other teachers. The teachers that now sit in my area are definitely more into Japanese, so I might be able to speak Japanese more on a daily basis. That’s a good thing, I think.

The history teacher invited me to go to lunch with him and the new math teacher, Watanabe sensei. During lunch the history teacher was telling her all about his “Achilles heel”, women. He told her “I can’t get the number”. She didn’t understand, because he was speaking English, but he explained it in Japanese. Then he asked her in English, “Won’t you give me the number?” I think she understood, but she pretended she didn’t, and the history teacher said that he’d translate it later. Uncomfortable!

I was out of there by 1 p.m., and since Kuniko had the day off she was able to meet me at my place to hang out for a while. We went shopping at Ito Yokado for dinner supplies, and Kuniko bought all kinds of interesting things. We had a meat and mushroom dish that was flavored with soy sauce and garlic, some rice, and a spinach dish with mayo and miso. It turned out great. For dessert we had a Haagen Dazs parfait – whoah… good stuff.

Now I’m heading to bed – tomorrow is another mellow day, and Thursday is picture day at school, one of the few days where I have to wear a tie. Ick.

Today the new first years came to school for the first time to buy their uniforms, books and bags, to have their bicycles inspected, to have their hair checked for dye and length, and who knows what else.

As a result, today when I walked around there were lots of young impressionable students-to-be, so I made a point to make all my greetings in English. Most of the kids were up to the task. I got some great reactions, ranging from fits of giggling, to complete self introductions in English. I’ve heard that this year’s students scored very well on English, so I’m hoping that is going to be reflected in the classroom.

I’ll have to wait to get them into the classroom, though. They’ve still got a week of preparation, and then next week they will spend most of the time on a student trip to build some class spirit, or something. My first class with the first years won’t be until April 15th. I’ll get to teach some 2nd and 3rd years classes soon, though.

As I walked around the school I constantly heard my name being called out, and when I turned around there would some first year student I didn’t know smiling shyly at me. I don’t know how everybody seems to know my name already, but I’m guessing they used me in some kind of advertisement or promotional material. It’s kind of weird to have so many total strangers know your name.

Mr. Hayashi needed some help with some electronics today, so I went along with him to a few stores until he found what he needed. After the electronics trip we went over to the next-door cafe and had lunch with the history teacher and the new math teacher, Watanabe sensei. She’s fresh out of college, and looking for a crowd to run with. I’m not sure why she’s spending so much time with Mr. Hayashi and the history teacher, but I’m guessing it’s because they like to have a younger woman around. She doesn’t know so much English, so she must get bored easily when I’m around – everybody speaks English when I’m there. I’ll be interested to see how long it takes the history teacher to make his move on Watanabe sensei. Shouldn’t be longer than a few days, now.

I split from school around 2 p.m., did some shopping at Ito Yokado, and then came home to clean my house a bit. I cooked up a tofu dish that Kuniko made for me a long time ago, and it turned out OK. It wasn’t as good as when Kuniko did it, so I’ll have to convince her to cook it again for me. Also working against me is the fact that I can read only about 40% of the recipe.

This weekend Kuniko and I will go to the annual yakitori volleyball tournament and hanami party. Hanami literally means “Flower viewing”, but really it means “Drink-a-thon”. The cherry trees should be starting to blossom soon, but because of the strange weather it might be a little while longer.

Kuniko picked me up early Saturday morning and we drove to Okayama to help her sister move. Kuniko let me get behind the wheel for a little while during the long drive, and it was my first “on the road” experience driving in Japan. Lots of fun. I flipped the windshield wipers on when I wanted to turn, just like Kuniko had done when she was driving in America. I didn’t drive so long – maybe just 30 minutes or so. It was a good practice session.

When we got there we started moving lots of boxes, and soon after we arrived, Kuniko’s parents also showed up with a pickup truck to move the big stuff. We worked all day, and I was exhausted by the end of it. The new apartment was really nice, though, and I think that she’ll really enjoy living there. It’s near some big stores and in a more urban area than where she lived before.

At the end of the day Kuniko’s folks took us out to dinner at a yakiniku place, and we ate lots and lots of food – it was delicious. Then it was a long drive back. Kuniko stayed the night at my place rather than going back to her parents, so that was really nice.

Sunday I spent the morning with Kuniko – we went out for some sushi for lunch and enjoyed a really interesting conveyor belt sushi system. Of course you could pick up something off of the conveyor belt at any time, but if you wanted something special you used a touchpad to choose your item and then somebody in the back made it and put it on the conveyor. Somehow, when it gets close to you, the touchpad terminal starts beeping to get your attention, and you take it off. Fascinating. After lunch we slid our plates down a plate shaped slot and the computer checked to see how many plates we had eaten. A human being came by to confirm everything, and then we could go. Very interesting setup!

Kuniko went on to visit Obara sensei for coffee, and I spent the afternoon doing laundry, listening to standup comedy, and cooking up some ramen for dinner. I’m not sure what’s in store for me tomorrow at school, but I’m sure it’ll be interesting!

Today was moving day at school, and the first day when all the new teachers had to be here. When I arrived at 8:30 in the morning, people were already movings desks around, vacuuming nooks and crannies, and organizing their desks. It was not the ideal environment for studying, so I went upstairs and took over a classroom for a couple of hours.

At 2 p.m. we had a staff meeting and we were introduced to the new teachers. I had already introduced myself to a couple of them. The new English teacher was really nice to talk to. Her English seems to be OK, but not great. Call it hesitant but accurate. Mr. Hayashi had already categorized her skill level and he will likely show a level of respect to her appropriate to that skill level. Too bad. She seems like she’s nervous but excited to work with us.

One of the office ladies finished up her one year contract with our school. If you haven’t heard the term “office lady” used before in America, well, neither had I. Turns out that it’s a common word in Japan – they even have an acronymn – “OL”. Anyway, the office ladies in Japan are known for being cute, and helpful with no real responsibilities – it’s kind of a male oriented work culture here. I think guys enjoy having cute non-threatening girls around the office, and so it’s a fairly common job.

Anyway, one of our OL’s finished up her term, and so we have a new OL starting today. And of course she’s cute, too. The teachers were talking about her already – I even saw some of them pointing at her during the staff meeting. Yikes. I hope she can avoid the advances of the history teacher.

All this new blood introduced at once makes for lots of very interesting people watching. I swear that people watching is my favorite pasttime. Maybe that’s why I like shows like Survivor so much – they put people in controlled environments and you get to see how they react. I left around 5 p.m. today, and I’ll bet there won’t be another person leaving until 7 p.m. All these new people want to show that they are committed to hard work, so they won’t go home on time, and all the old people don’t want to be shown up by the new ones, so they’ll stay too. I have no reason to get caught up in all that, so I left for home with a big smile on my face and not a care in the world.

Today was the last abbreviated schedule day at school – Friday will be a full day of moving desks and getting organized into our new teacher groups. As for me, I’m in the same place doing the same thing, so there’s not much for me to do but help other people move their crap around.

I was out of there by lunchtime, and I went home early to clean house and organize some things. Behind my place one of the houses is being torn down, and the sound of a house being slowly pulled apart punctuated my afternoon. It’s interesting to watch these things happen – it was surprising how much stuff was still in the house while they tore it up. I hope they had the right house.

In the evening Kuniko came by because she had to watch a video from her new school, and now I have the VCR and TV here. I had cooked her dinner (Philly Cheesesteaks) and then we settled down to watch the video. It was a video showing how to clean the bathrooms at her school. We watched a crack team of students scrubbing the bathroom mercilessly – before each task they student would pose with the cleaning implement they were about to use. The sound editing was really low budget – actually the whole thing was really low budget. Kuniko watched it twice to catch all the details. As a teacher she will most likely be directing teams of students to do cleanup after school, so now she’ll know what she’s talking about when it happens.

Video watching completed, we walked over to Tsuchiyama station and I said goodbye to her there. We’re going to see each other again early Saturday morning… we’ll be heading to Okayama to help her sister move.

I put in a whopping three hours at work today and went home to study more there. As I was leaving one of the teachers asked me if I was going on a business trip. I said, “Well…” and he said, “Ah, yes, a business trip.” He even winked at me as I left. My school is so cool.

This evening Yuri came out to chat with me about some lesson ideas for some new classes that she’ll have. We went out to eat conveyor belt sushi, and then afterwards went shopping at Carrefour. Yuri was really amazed at all the nice things near my place – I am really lucky.

I think I was able to help her a little bit, but her teaching situation is so much different than mine. She’ll be OK, though. We bought some souvenirs at Carrefour and then I walked her back to the train station.

I’m off to bed. Tomorrow Kuniko may come over to watch a video that her new school gave her. It’ll be good to see her and find out all about her new job.

Another grueling day at the office had me heading home at 11 in the morning. I walked by the traffic cops at Ito Yokado, and they all watched me go by wistfully – probably wishing they had the kind of job that pays like mine and lets me out after three or four hours.

I got right down to it and made a big bowl of ramen. We had gotten a kit from our visit to a interior design exhibition, and it turned out really well. I had put in some meat that I bought from Ito Yokado (the lady there put in some extra AFTER she weighed it out for price) and it was the closest thing to perfect homemade ramen I’ve had.

Afterwards I spent the afternoon studying, reading, and relaxing. I got a surprise phone call from Kuniko who was in town getting her hair done. I’ve got to get used to having her so close now. She dropped by and we hung out for a few hours.

Her timing was good because I had plans to take Yasu out for dinner to thank him for watering my plants while I was away. Together we all went out for okonomiyaki at a local restaurant.

Kuniko ordered a variation called Doroyaki, which means “grilled mud”. It was served on the hot plate looking like a muddy pile. We scooped it up with spoons and it was actually pretty good. It wasn’t the prettiest dish I’ve ever seen.

Yasu looked pretty tired but I was happy to get a chance to talk with him. He’s hoping to get a job at a Yamaha music store, but I think he was a little depressed because he hasn’t heard back from them after two weeks. His life is kind of up in the air right now – I know how that feels, and it isn’t fun.

After dinner we went out for an ice cream cone at 31 flavors, and then went our separate ways. Tomorrow I’m doing another partial day at work, and then I’ll probably meet up with Kuniko’s friend Yuri to talk about lesson plans over sushi.

Recently Ito Yokado had a promotion at their store next to my house selling what they called “ekiben”. I didn’t know the word, but Kuniko explained to me that it means a boxed lunch available from a train station. Why was a big supermarket like Ito Yokado selling lunches that were supposed to be sold at train stations? Why would anybody want to eat them?

They were actually selling ekiben from different stations all over Japan. You could look through them and pick a lunch from a train station hundreds of miles away, and taste the flavor of that region.

This was really interesting to me. Japan is an isolated country – being an island will do that to you. Also, to some extent Japanese people are isolated from others because of their language. Whereas an English speaker can travel freely and exchange topics with people from Australia, Scotland, Singapore, Guam, South Africa, etc., Japanese people generally can only interact with other Japanese. Maybe that explains why English language instruction is so popular here.

Within Japan people love to travel. One thing I hear about different parts of Japan is that such-and-such town is “famous” for their noodles, or “famous” for their rice balls. Sometimes the towns are as close as only a couple miles away, but this “fame” is held on to and prized – it gives the town or area something to boast about, and brings in tourists from other parts of Japan. Sometimes it seems that every town in “famous” for something.

“Ekiben” was a good example for me of how people in an isolated culture can strive for diversity, even if it’s something as simple as what you eat.

To simplify things a little I’ve posted our vacation pictures into two galleries –

Actually, most of the pictures are from Kuniko’s camera, but there’s a couple winners in among my gallery. There’s two pages of pics in Kuniko’s gallery, there’s a link to page two at the very bottom.

What a nice weekend. Saturday Kuniko came over with some furniture from her place so I put it in storage in my spare room here. She also had lots of little household things to give me, so I’m slowly absorbing what used to be “hers” into what will eventually be “ours”.

In the evening we went over to the yakitori to deliver souvenirs from our trip to America, and we had a great meal there. Kuniko had me trying some things that I didn’t know were on the menu, including an interesting rice dish that had hot tea added – yum!

Kuniko stayed over Saturday night, and it will be interesting to get her parents’ reaction – maybe it’s best to do this early on so they know what to expect. Sunday we took a long walk inside the park on the little man-made island to the south of town. Afterwards we went into Okubo to do some shopping, have lunch, see a movie (National Treasure), and to visit a part-time teacher from my school who is doing part time work somewhere else until she can land another teaching job.

The part time work was at an interior design place that specialized in kitchens, bathrooms, etc. She was there to help people that were taking the tour and she led them through a drawing for a small door prize. We chatted with her a while, and tried to look interested in some things so that her boss wouldn’t come down on her. We pulled a prize out of a box and got a ramen kit, with three different kinds of ramen. The grand prize was a small bike for kids, and luckily we didn’t win that.

Now I’m back home and getting things in order around the house – tomorrow it’s back to work!

Friday was a slow day around school. Well, at least for me it was. There were a lot of preparations going on and last minute meetings and some panicked running around, but I calmly ate sushi at my desk and studied Japanese. Mr. Hayashi spent some time with me doing translations, and we talked about the proposed teaching schedule for next year. Mr. Hayashi is stuck with a lot of classes, and I get the feeling that other people have started to notice how easy he has it. I think he was really surprised – he’ll be teaching most of the first year classes with me.

I also taught a class with Mr. Komuri – we actually taught English together. That’s significant because he’s a Japanese teacher. Still, his English is pretty good, and we had fun doing the class.

Finally around 3 p.m. I left school early and headed home. From there I met up with Antoine in Kobe and we did some bar and restaurant hopping. It was good to catch up with him and see what he’s been up to.

We hit lots of different places, but the last one we went to was an Irish bar called Ryan’s. It was my first time there – I usually avoid it because it’s a foreigner bar. We went in and there were just lots of foreigners there, being loud and singing to 80’s songs. There were some lonely looking Japanese guys there, and one old Japanese guy dancing with all the foreign girls. It didn’t take us long to get out of there.

We had a good time, but I’m looking forward to relaxing this weekend.

Things continue to be really weird at work with the ongoing fallout from the teacher transfers. We had a meeting today to assign teachers to different roles for the next year, and that had people jumping, too. One of the English teachers, Mr. Yamamoto, came by and was whispering to me about some inside information that he had received, and he wanted me to think about this and that – it was just strange.

In the end I think most things are going to be the same for me, just teaching with a new set of teachers. I’m hoping that I get a lighter load of classes this year – at 18 classes last year I was one of the busiest teachers, and I’m supposed to be a part time worker.

I’m glad I don’t get embarrassed much anymore, because today would have been a perfect time. The new English teacher came to our school this afternoon to meet with the principal of our school. I don’t know who she is but some of the other teachers came by to give me a complete briefing – she’s from Yashiro, she’s 35 years old, she’s married, she’s really cute, etc.

When she came into our staffroom all the other teachers were jumping around to say hello and some of the male teachers were paying very close attention to her. I was sitting at my desk studying flashcards, and tried to ignore all the commotion and concentrate. After a little while I had to get up to use the restroom, so as I got up my elbow bumped into somebody walking behind me, and I looked and started to apologize at the same time, and found that my elbow was kind of pressed up against the new teacher’s rear end.

Hi, nice to meet you, I’m going to touch your ass to make a good first impression.

Her reaction was a little surprised but fairly composed considering she was walking around the staffroom and suddenly found some foreign guy throwing elbows into traditionally personal areas of the body. I’m sure she’ll remember me once the formal introductions happen. Yikes.

I was stuck attending a fairly boring English teachers’ meeting, but I did manage to sneak out a little early and get home. I cooked up some soup for dinner and spent the evening watching Survivor, unpacking (still!), and doing laundry.

Tomorrow is Friday, and it looks like we’re throwing an impromptu going away party for Mr. Komuri. I’m trying to decide whether to go or not… it’s at the same old place, Amuse. I’m thinking about bailing on that one and taking him out to sushi some other time. We’ll see how I’m feeling tomorrow.

Wow, what a day. At one point I had to sit and write down all the things that were going on so I wouldn’t forget to write about them tonight.

I got to school and had some paperwork on my desk. One paper was the official acceptance of my contract for my third and last year. That was good to see. Over the vacation Kuniko had the great idea to chat with the vice principal of my school to get some advice on how to handle telling everyone about our upcoming marriage. I got some time with him today, and told him everything. He was really happy, and we talked about next steps. He understood that there may be some potential fireworks with Mr. Hayashi, and he very graciously offered to handle anything that might happen if anyone gets upset.

Today was also a big day because they announced who was being transferred from our school. It was a long list of eight teachers. I was pretty bummed out – one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Komuri, is being transferred. He was pretty bummed out, too. He asked if maybe I could transfer with him. There was a 30% chance that the history teacher would get transferred, but he made the cut and I’ll have to deal with him for another year. Another one of my favorite teachers, Yoshizumi sensei got transferred.

One of our English teachers is getting transferred – Terano sensei. That means that the new teacher will have to come in and take over the ESS club management. I heard that the new English teacher is a 35 year old female, a former student of our school. That fact alone has convinced Mr. Hayashi already that she won’t be able to do a good job. I’m reserving judgment until I meet her.

We had a big cleaning day today, and Mr. Hayashi went up to my classroom with me. I was shocked to see that the classroom was completely stripped. Everything had been torn off the walls, all my maps and postcards and decorations, everything was gone. The books were all gone, even the bookshelf was gone. Why? Mr. Hayashi’s explanation was that one of the students is wearing a diaper now and he needed the room. Huh? I decided to take it in stride and to use the opportunity to get a fresh start for next year.

More excitement – our girls Kent team is going to the Japanese National Finals. That means fame and glory, and so we had a big assembly to send them off, and lots of members of the community and the PTA were there to wish them good luck. The girls looked a bit overwhelmed, but I hope they do well.

Mr. Hayashi took Mr. Komuri and me to lunch. We drove out to northern Takasago for a lunch special that Mr. Hayashi was excited about. It was really good – I was glad to be eating Japanese food again. Mr. Komuri was recognized by one of the waitstaff. He tried to pretend that he remembered her from his class, but she corrected him and told him that it was her daughter that was in his class. Whoops – busted.

Mr. Hayashi got a phone call during lunch that his father was taken to the hospital nearby. After lunch we headed over to the hospital to check in on him. While we were driving I was stunned to see a California Highway Patrol car drive by. It was an older one, maybe from the early 90’s, but it was completely intact – black and white with the CHP logo still on the door, lights and sirens on the roof, everything. How it came to be driving around Japan I’ll never know.

Mr. Hayashi’s father was stable but not doing great, and Mr. Hayashi just checked in with the doctor. After a few minutes of waiting around, we went back to school, and I spent the afternoon studying. I spent lots of time passing out omiyage to everyone, and the reactions from people were great. Some wondered where I was, some I could tell were jealous that I was gone before vacation had really started, and some thought that I was no longer in the JET program for some reason. Anyway, everyone was really happy with their gifts.

After school I walked out to Azusa’s house for her last lesson, and it went really well. We had some great conversations and at the end of it she and her mom not only paid me, but they gave me a bonus – a little Starbucks coffee maker and a bad of ground coffee. Azusa and her mom were really nice to me – I can only hope all students will be like that. I said goodbye to them for the last time, and came home.

Now I’m just getting caught up with everything. I’ve still got lots to do, but I hope by the weekend things will be getting under control!

Well, last night I pulled back into Japan late, and began unpacking all my goodies from a really great trip. Later I’ll get my pictures together and post a bunch, but for now I’ll say that it was a really great time.

Thanks to everyone that we got to see and/or stay with. We had a couple of parties, did San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Disneyland, Universal Studios, the ocean, the redwoods, wineries, and lots and lots of shopping. We even taught an elementary school class with my dad. My vacation has left me completely exhausted.

The best part of the trip was spending so much time with Kuniko, and seeing America through her eyes. She did a great job with what must have been a stressful situation – experiencing a new country, living with new in-laws for a couple of weeks, and doing all of this in a foreign language. In the end California left a good impression on her, and I know she’s looking forward to visiting again.

While we were in America, one of my cats, Maggie, passed away. Unfortunately we were on a trip to Southern California when it happened, but at least I got to see her before we left. I had no idea that it would be the last time I would see her – she was a really loving cat.

It was a wild couple of weeks full of fun things, but it was also nice to have a couple weeks off from blogging everything. Now I’m back in the saddle, and I’ll do my best to report what’s going on.