Today’s weather started off cloudy and ended up raining by the end of the day. Luckily I had a spare umbrella in my bag and didn’t get too wet going home.

Four classes today, with another four tomorrow. These two are my busy days, but after that it’s easy. Today’s classes went really well. My students were really into answering questions today, and the only thing slowing them down was the freezing temperatures in my classroom.

Mr. Hayashi also helped me out with a Japanese lesson. He estimates that I am reading at the junior high school level now. I would disagree with that – junior high school students know more kanji than I do, and they probably read a lot faster. We did translations today, and it went pretty well. Going from Japanese to English is a lot easy than the other way around!

After school I met with Tsuji-san, and we practiced for her upcoming stint as a STEP test interviewer. She’s really nervous about it, but I think she’ll do fine. We talked about lots of possible problems and things to look out for. She had an interview today for a new job at a children’s school. If she gets the job we’ll probably have to end our conversation practice sessions, which would be too bad. The job would be really good for her, though.

I came home and had an official looking envelope in my mailbox. It was the test result for the Japanese Language Proficiency Exam I took back in December. Good news, I passed! I did better than I expected, with an 81% overall. I thought I bombed the listening section, but I got 72% there. I aced the kanji section with 97% – wow! The next step is to study for the second level. It’s a big jump from three to two, and I’m not sure I can study enough to pass at the end of the year. I’ve got lots of other things to worry about this year, like getting married and lining up a career after JET. My goal is to pass level 2 this year or next. With a level 2 certification it can really open doors to jobs in Japan.

I did some rice, kimchee, and sushi for dinner tonight, and spent some time on the phone with Antoine. He had lots to talk about and we chatted for 72 minutes according to the timer on my phone. We’re planning a poker night on Thursday night, so I’m sure we’ll have lots more to talk about then.

I spent most of today inside, studying Japanese grammar, and reading a remarkable children’s book in Japanese about excrement and urine. I’m learning lots of great new words that aren’t in my dictionary.

For dinner I walked across the street to a new ramen restaurant that opened a couple of months ago. It was actually pretty good – cheap, no nonsense, no frills ramen. There’s another ramen restaurant ten minutes walk north of me, but there was a murder there last year and so I’m not to keen on going in there anymore.

Kuniko called me from work and asked me a question about an English translation. She was busy working on a Sunday night – no fun. She called me again when she got home and we talked for a long time about the weekend, next week, and our upcoming trip. We’re both really excited about going to the States. It was good to hear her voice.

Before bed I watched a downloaded copy of “Sideways” – and it was really a great movie. It brought back a lot of memories of working in the wine country. I think it’s up for an Oscar this year. I haven’t seen any others that it is competing against, but I really did enjoy it. Extremely well done.

Off to bed now. It’ll be a short week this week because we have Friday off. I’m not sure what the holiday is, but hopefully we can squeeze in a poker game.

This evening Kuniko and I went over to visit her parents in Kakogawa. Her father had offered to buy us yakiniku for dinner. He wanted to chat with us about our future plans, get an idea about what we are planning for our wedding, and eat lots of meat with us. Kuniko told him that I’m a big beef eater, so he was excited about this shared interest.

We got there and relaxed, and her dad spent some time talking about various issues with Kuniko. I struggled to catch what was going on, but I was able to pick up the gist of the conversations, so I wasn’t totally lost. We talked about meeting my family when they come over for the wedding, and there were some interesting cultural differences going on there.

We went to one of the family’s favorite restaurants, and ordered up a variety of meat to cook up, along with some Korean rice and some side dishes. We had rib meat, regular beef, liver, and tongue. Kuniko ordered up something called “yuke”, which turned out to be really good. It was just raw ground beef with spices mixed in, with a raw egg yolk on top. You mix it up and eat. Kuniko’s folks seemed a little alarmed that we actually ate it.

The conversation was all over the place, and I could tell that her dad had some concerns about the immediate future – where Kuniko will live, what her new job will think of her situation, etc. Her dad was also really excited to hear about the different kinds of beef available in America. It sounds like he’d really like to go and eat his way through California. Beef here in Japan can be expensive, so my tales of cheap and plentiful beef really got him amped up.

After dinner he picked up the tab, and we went back to their place to watch some TV and have some tea and coffee. Around nine o’clock Kuniko drove me home. She has to work tomorrow, so she’ll be staying at her folks place tonight and then heading back to Osaka.

Tomorrow I’m planning on taking it easy and studying – I’m doing a little planning for the trip next month, and doing some financial planning as well. I need to make sure I have some money in America when I get there. I guess I can’t walk around with loads of cash like I do in Japan. At any given time I have between $100 and $500 worth of yen in my wallet when I walk around. Back in the states I was dependent on my bank’s check card, so I carried almost nothing. Time to get back in the habit of traveling light.

Today was an easy day as far as classes go. Mr. Hayashi also has lots of free time, so we’re doubling the amount of lessons that he gives me. We’re focusing lessons on reading and translation rather than conversation. He’s been giving me some verbal exercises to try to keep my mind flexible – having me repeat Japanese sentences, and then subtly change them into questions or different sentences. It’s a good drill, and it closely replicates a real conversation where you have to think fast.

After school three ladies came into the staff room wearing lab coats. They apparently walk around cleaning your glasses for free, and then try to sell you something afterwards. Two of them were pretty cute, so I some of the teachers were practically lining up to have their glasses cleaned. Interesting service. I tried to get the history teacher to ask one of them out, but he was too shy.

Maeda sensei invited a few teachers over to his house after school yesterday, and I was really looking forward to seeing his family again. He’s got three really cute kids and his wife his so nice – she always is fun to talk to.

We went over after school and settled into his apartment. They have a big doll collection for the Doll Festival holiday coming up. It was really spectacular – it dominated one of their rooms.

Everyone drank lots of beer and we ate a lot of nabe. Nabe is just a huge pot of soup that you add ingredients to. The first round was fish nabe, so lots of different kinds of fish that Maeda sensei had caught himself, shrimp, octopus, squid, and oysters. They add lots of vegetables, and then cook it until it boils. Then you just stick your chopsticks in and take what you want. You have a little bowl of your own with spices and onions, and the combination of flavors is great!

Maeda sensei’s son kept asking me questions, in English! I think Maeda sensei invites me over to expose his kids to a native speaker, even though they are so young. His son is six years old, and we played a game where we threw a ball back and forth and counted each time. We went up to 100 in English! Very impressive.

Maeda sensei also pulled out some videos taken from his previous school, and apparently he was quite a celebrity there. He did some singing and dances with his homeroom class, and it was great to see. At our school he is pretty new, and hasn’t yet reached celebrity status. Still, he tried to get us to perform onstage during the next culture festival. I think we might have agreed, but I’m not sure.

We had a lot to drink, but that didn’t stop us from taking out the kids’ toys and games and trying them out. We had tops spinning all over, and I’m surprised nobody got hurt.

Ikeda sensei and I decided that it was time to hit the road, so we took off. Ikeda sensei is a temporary teacher, very young, who closely observes the social hierarchy. He knows how old everyone is so that he can afford the proper respect. He’s younger than me, so our conversations have him agreeing to everything, apologizing for everything, and generally treating me like I’m god on earth. He walked me to the station, and in true Japanese fashion waited at the gate while I walked to the train, not leaving until I was out of sight.

Today is setsubun in Japan, the last day of winter. Japanese people celebrate this with some odd traditions. One tradition is to have somebody wear a devil mask, while the rest of the family throws beans at them. Then they pick up the beans off the floor and eat them. That means they will be healthy during the next year.

Also, it’s a tradition to eat sushi while facing the lucky direction (this year is apparently southwest). You are supposed to eat the whole roll of sushi without talking, too.

Cool traditions, but I only did the sushi one today.

At school I had just two classes, so I spent some time with Mr. Hayashi studying, and also had a really fun ESS club meeting. We had four members there today, but we had a guest boy that was lingering in the area. We talked him into joining and I think he might have had a good time.

Tomorrow is Friday, and I’m looking forward to wrapping up the week. This weekend should be interesting because I might be having dinner with Kuniko’s family. I haven’t heard yet whether it’s going to happen for sure, but if it does we’ll be handling some interesting topics.

I walked to the train station today with the wind blowing snow all over the place. The blizzard seemed to be confined to my part of town, because when I got on the train and started west, there wasn’t any snow blowing. When I arrived in Takasago, there was a bit of snow on the ground, and it was a first for me to walk to school in the snow.

My entire morning was spent studying and doing lesson preparation. I talked with Mr. Hayashi about world peace, and with the history teacher about hybrid oranges.

As for classes, I had a couple in the afternoon, and they went pretty well. The students were full of energy, and the classes always seem to go better when they are wired. I really enjoy teaching my students. Even though their level of English is not high compared to other schools, they will usually listen when I am talking, even if they can’t understand. They will struggle to figure things out, and when the light dawns in their eyes – it’s a great feeling.

After school we had a lecture from a visiting counselor who was advising us on how we can best counsel students that need extra help. They have a counselor that comes to our school once a month to deal with any issues that students want to address. It seems like a good idea to me, especially with the suicide rates in this country being so high. Mr. Hayashi considers it a waste of time and money – he says they need security guards more than counselors.

I went over to Azusa’s place for her English lesson, and her mother made me a nice big cup of coffee when we were finished. That hot coffee kept me going on the walk home – that and the gloves, scarf, giant jacket, and four layers of clothing underneath.

I caught dinner at Ito Yokado – some Korean food that I am hoping to cook myself someday. My research method is to eat it, ask the cashier what some of the vegetables are, and then try to source the veggies for myself.

Back home I had a package waiting for me. The music teacher, who had been laid up in the hospital for more than a month with heart problems, came back to school several months ago. He sent me a package of household cleaning supplies as a thank you for the small cash donation I gave him, and as kind of an announcement that he is officially back on his feet. It was a nice gesture – he probably spent all the money that we gave him on gifts for us.

Tomorrow is the last day of winter according to the calendar, and there are some interesting ceremonies that occur in Japanese families. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow as I eat sushi without talking, facing the lucky direction.

Man, it was cold on the way to work today. The wind has been blowing like crazy, and there was a light dusting of snow on the ground when I peeked outside this morning to decide whether to go jogging. I decided to skip the jog.

There’s not a lot of trees or other buildings besides Ito Yokado, so when I go to work I’m usually walking straight into the wind. This morning it was burning my face it was so cold. I got on the train and warmed up pretty quick, though.

Tuesday is my last busy day of the week. Most of my classes from Wednesday through Friday have been cancelled because the third year students don’t come to school anymore. I just have to get through Monday and Tuesday, and then it’s easy street.

My lesson today was for the second year students, talking about their recent school trip to Hokkaido. I have the same lesson twice with Mr. Yamamoto, and once with Mr. Kimura.

Mr. Kimura has a flair for the dramatic, and sometimes can get off topic. Apparently he does it in Japanese as well as English, but he can make it tough on his students who struggle to understand him.

My lesson today had the students listening to a conversation between Mr. Kimura and myself. I asked him some questions about the trip, like “What did you do in Hokkaido?”, and “Did you go skiing or snowboarding?”. The students are expected to write down his response on their answer sheet. We did the conversation three times, and each time Mr. Kimura would give a different response. Instead of a nice “Yes, I went skiing”, he would say “I enjoyed skiing and dogsledding and eating ramen very very much!”. Then the next time he would say “Dogsledding was fun, but I enjoyed skiing and not snowboarding!” He wasn’t really doing it on purpose, he just likes to talk. The students all had different answers and the lesson didn’t go so well.

Have I ever mentioned how much people in Japan are into brand names? Mr. Hayashi likes to show off the label from his jacket, flash his Rolex, and drop loads of money in Korea on brand name items for his children. It’s not just Mr. Hayashi, though, everyone seems to pay a lot of attention to brand names.

It’s an interesting thing to watch, because I’ve always cared very little about what I wear or who makes it, as long as it is comfortable I’m fine with it. Some students today noticed that I had the word “Columbia” on my jacket, and they were laughing because the name sounds funny. The good news about this brand name infatuation is that you can get great clothes without a brand name cheap in stores like UniQlo. People around here are just slaves to fashion, I guess.

Mr. Hayashi spent some time grinding on me today, telling me to move to San Francisco after JET and get a degree there. He’s not hinting really, just telling me to do it. Like you would tell a teenager to get a haircut. He also told me to start a family and that he knows lots of foreigners in Japan who are miserable.

It would be easy to let the things that Mr. Hayashi say get me down, but when you consider this is the same guy who enjoys discussing his erection problems in public, who considers marriage only a necessary step to having children so you can boast about their success, who compares his students unfavorably to dogs… well, it’s easy to take it all with a grain of salt.

Sometimes it’s nice to get some advice on living in Japan, but in the end I take all his suggestions, commands, and advice and file them away in my short term memory. I think I’ll find my own key to happiness, and go from there.

Tonight’s key to happiness was a big bowl of homemade yakisoba in my (comparatively) warm apartment. I’m getting ready to go in and do some studying – I’ve got a kids book that Tsuji-san loaned me all about pee. Can’t wait.

The second year teachers came back from their school trip to Hokkaido today, and they had lots of omiyage for everyone. I made out really well, with loads of high calorie candy to munch on. I had put in an order for Melon Chocolate flavored Kit Kats, and scored a couple boxes. Nice!

I was busy with classes today, and I had lots of papers to grade, too. One of my students wrote about going to the spermarket to buy things to prepare for a possible tsunami, and I found this unintentionally risque mistake quite amusing. I kept it to myself, though.

During one of my classes the students were really anxious to answer questions, since Mr. Kimura was giving out souvenir chocolates for the correct answer. One particularly active student kept yelling out “I’m Honky! I’m Honky!”, having trouble with the word “Hungry”. I had a good laugh at that, too. Good times at my school.

After school I went over to Tsuji-san’s for Japanese conversation practice, and then I went home. It’s been cold and windy lately, and this week it’s supposed to get really cold. I don’t mind the cold so much as the wind, though. It’s really tough to stay warm in that.

Dinner tonight was some homemade curry that Jane dropped off the other night. I spent the whole evening updating this site – weekend catch-up takes a long time. I’ve got my bed being warmed up with the electric blanket in the next room, and it’s calling my name.

I had a weird schedule today. Kuniko and I got up early, but fell back asleep after breakfast and I didn’t get moving until 10:30. I was due to meet Mr. Komuri in Akashi at noon, so I high-tailed it out of there and got to the station with ten minutes to spare.

We were meeting up for an annual sake brewery party held in the Akashi area. The name of the brewery is Akai Ishi (red stone), which sounds like “Akashi” when you say it fast. Clever.

We met a few ex-Takasago Minami students that were attending the party as well. They were only three years out of high school. They remembered Mr. Komuri really well, and my predecessor, Andy. There was actually a pretty good mix of people, younger and older. We all got on the train to Eigashima, where the brewery is, and I sat down with Mr. Komuri. One of Mr. Komuri’s friends steered a tall Japanese girl over to sit next to me, and I found out that she spoke great English. Her name was Yasuko, and she had done a two year homestay in Canada.

We talked continuously on the train ride over, much to the amusement of Mr. Komuri who was doing everything short of elbowing me in the ribs while I talked with her.

Once we arrived at the brewery we grabbed some seats, and they told us the plan. We took a brief tour of the sake brewery, which was really interesting.

The tour was short but informative. It was all in Japanese, but I could follow the process and see how things were done. This was a really old sake brewery, and it reminded me a lot of the old wineries back home. About the same level of cleanliness, too.

We came back out into the sun, and the drinking began. Each table got two 1.5 liter bottles of sake to drink. They had three different kinds. One kind of sake that I’m getting into lately is nigorizake – cloudy sake. It’s unfiltered, and it has a slightly bitter taste, but it’s really good.

While we were drinking, Yasuko took up a position on my right and introduced us to her family. She had a sister there, her sister’s friend, and then her mother and father. They were all really nice, and because they had gone to Canada many times to visit Yasuko, they were really into all things Western, for example, me.

Yasuko was really asking me lots of questions, slowly circling inward into more personal ones, and I recognized the pattern. She asked if I had a cellphone, and I said yes, and then she asked if she could call me sometime. All this in front of her whole family, who are enjoying the sight of a modern mating ritual. Yikes.

I said sure, and as I turned towards her to give her my number I said in a lower voice, “But, I do have a girlfriend…” She had a good reaction – she just gave me a big smile, and said “OK, maybe I’ll call you to practice English sometime.” Whew.

Mr. Komuri was no help, proclaiming to the table that I was single and available. The table responded with introductions to the single girls. Mr. Komuri probably thought he was doing me a favor. I’ve got to tell my teachers sometime. Maybe it will be soon.

Meanwhile, our table was full of snacks and everyone was eating and drinking. Someone had brought pigs feet and passing those around, and Mr. Komuri was drinking a lot. I knew that I had another event to attend, so I took it slow. As is the case at most parties I go to, I was a big attraction and lots of people came by to say hello, practice English, and compliment me on how strong a drinker I was. A 72 year old guy said that I looked like Tom Hanks. How nice.

Flash forward an hour, and the party is really revving up. The mother of the family is taking picture after picture of everyone – one of me with each of her daughters, and the guy across the table is ready to offer me a job sailing transport ships to Australia. Mr. Komuri was going for broke, so I finally told him that it was time that I should get going. He took the cue and we said goodbye to everyone. Then I guided a slightly wobbly Mr. Komuri down the road towards the station.

We got on the train, and I dropped off Mr. Komuri at the station. He was walking home, so when I saw him head the correct direction I got on JR and went once again to Kobe to meet Kuniko.

It was good to see her at the station, and together we walked out of the station and north. She was hungry and we thought it would be a good idea to get some food before the wedding chapel just in case we got stuck talking to somebody too long. We went over to McDonald’s for a quick burger, and then caught a cab to the wedding place.

This place was similar to the other places that we had looked at. A very nice man named Yamamoto gave us a tour, and even paid for our cab fare. The building was full of different themed rooms. I guess the idea is to get you to fall in love with a room, and then they have some way to get you to get married there. We’ve looked at lots of places, and most look like this:

Sure it looks fancy, but it isn’t really our style. Yamamoto took us to another room, though, and as soon as we walked in, we both got excited. Much more our style:

It was actually two rooms, a reception room that had a full bar, and then the banquet room that was really stylish. It reminded me of the 50’s modern look of “The Incredibles”. The funny thing was that Kuniko really liked it, too. Yamamoto, like a professional sensed this, and told us all about it.

The next stop was a fake wedding ceremony. It went OK, but there was far too much singing and praying going on. We both had some fun with the foreign priest’s accent. He switched between English and Japanese. I asked Kuniko how his Japanese accent was, and she said it wasn’t so good. His English accent was really tough to understand as well. We wrote that information down on the survey they had given us. I only hope he has another language – he wasn’t doing too hot with either of the ones we heard.

Finally we went to a free dinner. It was a way to preview what a reception dinner would be like, and they pulled out all the stops. The had all the Japanese wedding stand-bys… the bubble machine, the memorial candle, the mixing of glowing chemicals, cake cutting ceremony, a chef who came out to cook our steaks to dramatic music, lasers, music videos, everything. I guess if you like something, them you’ll order it for your wedding, so it’s a good way to try everything out.

Kuniko and I were making fun of some of the really cheesy things – and enjoying lots of free food.

It was all fun and games until they announced that the person with the piece of chocolate cake hidden in their dessert should announce themselves. Kuniko had it, so she got to keep the flower bouquet that the fake bride was carrying around. Score!

Finally we wrapped up dinner and headed downstairs. Yamamoto was there and we consulted with him and a few other people about our likes and dislikes. They drew up an estimate based on a very simple wedding – none of the flash and cheese – and so we took that with us to think about. He was pushing us to make a reservation, but we told him that we’d rather wait and decide later. He saw us off at the door, and we headed on foot back to the station, full of delicious food.

I said goodbye to Kuniko at the station and got home fairly late. The last couple of days have been full of events, and it sure feels like the future is coming up fast. We’re both excited, and looking forward to seeing what happens next.

This morning I took the opportunity to sleep and and enjoy a quiet morning. Just before noon I took a train into Himeji and went over to the glasses shop where I had gotten an exam last week. The guy recognized me as I walked in – when you’re a foreigner it’s pretty easy to find your name and order.

I tried on the glasses, and they seemed to fit just fine. He made a few adjustments, and I was pleased with the fit. I put them in their case and packed them away in my backpack – since I was wearing contacts I couldn’t walk around with the glasses on.

My next stop was a train ride into Kobe. Kuniko was in Kobe doing an interview and exam with a high school there, in the hopes of finding a better job than the place she works now. She actually got out of her interview a little early, so we met up at the station. She wasn’t so confident about how she did, but judging from what she said and her body language I think she did OK.

We had expected to meet earlier, so we had lots of time to kill before dinner. We walked around town, tried to catch a movie, but nothing was showing, had some coffee at Starbucks, and finally went over to Tarou, my favorite ramen restaurant. It’s a cool place because they give you all-you-can-eat kimchee. Oh, yeah.

We ate our fill there, and then with full stomachs took the train to Osaka. While we were on the train Kuniko’s phone rang, and it was her school. The guy asked if this was a good time, and Japanese phone etiquette is that you call back when you get off the train. Kuniko rung off and we were left wondering if he had good news or bad. When she had left the school they said that they would get in touch next week.

It was a long train ride, and the suspense was killing me. We got off the train and Kuniko called, but all she got was a weekend answering machine. Oh, no! She called a couple more times, and it was just the automated machine. Bummer. We went back to her place and tried to relax, but they had gotten our hopes up and they were probably sitting at the school waiting for her to call without realizing the answering machine was taking all the calls.

We were just thinking about dessert when he called back and offered Kuniko the job. Kuniko took it on the spot, and now she’s got a one year contract working in Kobe which is a whole lot closer than Osaka.

Now we had some things to think about. We had talked about having Kuniko move in with me – obviously she doesn’t want to stay in Osaka if she’s working in Kobe, and things looking more and more like a November wedding it would be a bad idea to get a place on her own for just a few months. Kuniko got on the horn and sent messages to friends and family telling them the good news. Her father sent a message back and asked when she would be moving back into their house, and so I left it to Kuniko to handle breaking that news to him. We’ll be eating a yakiniku dinner together next Saturday, so this will be a topic for discussion.

Still, we had a lot to celebrate. Kuniko’s job is very stressful, and I’m hoping that she can find a place that is comfortable and fun to be. This will be an exciting change for everyone I think.

I’m wrapping up this strange week of light classes and heavy Japanese study. Today I only had one class – a good group of first year students who were having fun with the lesson.

I spoke a while with Yamada sensei, the head of the first year teachers. We’ve only spoken a few words in the past, usually in Japanese, but she’s been curious lately so we’ve talked a bit more. Today we had a full blown conversation in Japanese, about some pretty heavy topics.

She surprised to hear that most people in America go home after work, that is to say, right after work. In Japan it’s usually the man that works, and it is very common for him to put in lots of overtime, and then go drinking with his co-workers or play pachinko and not get in until 8 or 9 p.m.

She was wondering what American men do when they get home. I said that maybe they help clean the house, maybe make dinner, maybe work on projects, maybe just watch TV. Your average Japanese house is pretty small, and so she thought that the only way that arrangement could work is because American houses and yards are so much bigger. They can accommodate two people being home at the same time.

She was impressed that men sometimes help with cooking and cleaning, which from what I hear is pretty rare here. We talked for a long time, and in the end I was exhausted but glad that I could communicate. Later she commented to me and some other teachers that my Japanese has really improved. To me it seems like it’s always the same, but I guess something must be changing.

We had a sporting event for the first years today during sixth period. It was a three legged race – where you tie two people’s legs together and then they run. They had an interesting twist though, they tied the whole class of 40 students together by the ankles. It ended up being one giant line, and then they had to run 30 meters.

This made for some spectacular wipe-outs, with people’s legs being pulled apart in opposite directions. I walked around and cheered on the students, who constantly tried to get me to join the line. It looked dangerous, though, and I didn’t want to hurt myself or others.

One of my students who has been too shy to speak with me outside of class until now made an effort to come up and say hello. She seems really nice, but so shy – you get the feeling if somebody popped a balloon across the schoolyard she would jump up and run. Anyway, we did a conversation half in English and half in Japanese, and she looked really happy to be talking with me. It was my personal intercultural moment of the day – very cool.

After school I snuck out a half hour early and caught the train home. I bought some chicken that was on sale at Ito Yokado and made a chicken and vegetable rice bowl. It turned out really good – I think I’ve been overcooking chicken all these years. This time I pan seared the pieces in a teriyaki sauce with some sesame oil and a shot of Jamaican hot sauce. Oh yeah.

Tomorrow I’m meeting Kuniko in Kobe after her interview. She has an interview at a private high school in the northern part of Kobe. She’s really hoping to get out of her current job situation at the end of the term, and so I’ve got my fingers crossed for her. We’re planning on catching dinner in Kobe and then heading to Osaka for the evening. The next day I’m going to a sake party with Komuri sensei, and then going right back to Kobe for another wedding fair/dinner with Kuniko. This weekend will be over before I know it!

I skipped running this morning and did some stretches and exercises at home instead. My legs are feeling better, but why push it?

Only one class today, so I spent lots of time studying. I recruited a few Japanese teachers to teach me Japanese, and talked to a few teachers that I don’t normally chat with. I’m trying to use Japanese in the staffroom a little more. It worked really well. Some of the teachers were surprised that I spoke well. I’m not really that good, it’s just that they never hear me speak. Anyway, it felt good to get some feedback.

The history teacher came by several times to chat. He was really excited about how much his English has improved since he has been talking to me. I’ve seen a little improvement, but he tends to make the same mistakes, over and over again. He’s not interested in why he should say things, he just wants to know what to say.

He was saying how great that he was getting this all for free, while the other teachers end up going to private schools and paying for lessons. I thought that was a good time to drop a hint. I told him that I had heard other teachers wanted to speak with me, but they were too nervous when he was around. This is true, and I hope it will give him pause and think about how much time he actually spends chatting with me every day. He estimates 15 minutes a day, my guess is about 45 minutes on average.

I also had a good ESS club meeting. There were only three students today, and we had a really cold classroom to work in, but it was fun. I played a couple of games with them, and helped them with their homework. Ikuko, one of the members, was in my class earlier today and she looked sick or nervous. She wasn’t doing so well. I didn’t think she would make it to ESS but when she got there she was smiling and happy.

Tonight I had sushi, kimchee, and miso soup for dinner. It was quick and easy. Now I’m cleaning up around the house and trying to stay warm. Tomorrow is Friday already!

This morning I went running for the third time in a row, and I think I’ve found my limit. It was harder going this time, and I think I’ll take tomorrow off. Running three times a week seems like a reasonable goal to me.

At school I had just two classes, both in the afternoon, so my morning was free. I spent about half the time preparing for the two classes, since they are new lessons and I wanted them to go smoothly.

The history teacher made four visits in the morning to chat with me, and during one of the visits he told me about how he watched an Eddie Murphy movie last night called Boomerang. He was very excited because he was able to pick up some new moves on picking up women. He seemed eager to try them out. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it was just a movie, and he was really pumped up. It was a scary thing.

My afternoon classes went really well, mainly thanks to my English teachers helping me. We worked together and the time flew by. The students are working on giving and receiving directions in English, and I think I’ve got them to the point where if you say go left they will go left with only the slightest hesitation.

After school I went over to Azusa’s for a lesson, and then after that went to try out a sushi restaurant near my house. Unfortunately, they were closed on Wednesdays. Instead I headed over to a new ramen restaurant, and it turned out that they were closed Wednesdays too. I ended up back at the yakitori, and the master was busy in there. We talked for just a bit, and he customized his regular yakisoba with some extra kimchee sauce. He knows that I like it spicy.

I’m back home now and getting ready to hit the sack. I’m looking forward to the weekend – I’m getting new glasses, and also going to a sake tasting on Sunday night.

Today I had no classes at school, just a meeting with the first year English teachers. I used my time to study all day, and put in a solid nine hours. I hope I learned something, it was a lot of time and I had a headache at the end of it.

In a stroke of good fortune, the history teacher didn’t come in until noon, so I had a distraction free morning. He more than made up for that by visiting and chatting throughout the afternoon.

For lunch I brought in a big sandwich that I made from the leftover beef, and with a couple of chipotle peppers stretch across the top it was a pretty scary looking sandwich. The other teachers walk by and watch with a sort of mortified fascination. Maybe it’s the carnivore noises I make when I eat. Grunt, grunt!

I came home and spent the evening doing anything but studying. I watched some downloaded TV, downloaded some new music, and cooked up a big pot of soup to eat for dinner.

Tomorrow I’ve got two classes in the afternoon, and it’s already getting to be the middle of the week. The weekend will be here before you know it.

I’m trying to get into a new morning schedule, where I get up early, go jogging, do some stretching and exercises, take a shower, have breakfast, study for about 30 minutes, and then go to work. Hopefully it’ll work out – it feels great to run around a little bit in the morning.

This week there are no classes for the second years and third years. The second years are on a school trip to Hokkaido, and the third years are taking final exams. That means that I only have seven classes out of eighteen this week. Three of those classes were today.

My students were full of energy on a Monday, and they did really well. Some had a little too much energy, but I just worked with my teachers to try to channel that energy in the right direction.

The history teacher came to visit me four times today. This morning he was waiting for me when I was walking to school and he said that he was super busy over the weekend working on an exam. He said that he had lots more to do. Every time he came to talk to me, I asked him how the exam was coming along. That seemed to keep our conversations shorter.

I had to cancel my lesson with my tutor because I needed to send a deposit via the ATM at the bank after school. This was the first time that I have done it on my own – doing it within Japan is a little tricky. There is no English screen – it’s all in Japanese. It ended up working OK (I hope), so I’ll call and confirm later but it looks like we’ve got plane tickets for America lined up.

Tonight for dinner I went meat crazy – I was shopping over at Ito Yokado and found a good deal on beef. I made up a big beef sandwich for dinner, and made another one for lunch tomorrow.