Today I came back to a very curious group of co-workers. Everyone was asking me where I was, what I was doing, who I was doing it with. I told them it was top secret, which only made them that much more interested. Mr. Hayashi was dying to know, and he ventured a few guesses to see how I would react. If they knew what I was doing they wouldn’t be so excited.

I had three classes today, and Mr. Kimura and I had our last classes together. He was really excited about wrapping things up. Once we finished, I went back to the teacher’s room to relax. I had given out a couple of Christmas presents today to the people I usually drink with, a bottle of Anchor Steam Holiday Ale for each of them.

I took off early with Mr. Komuri and Mr. Hayashi to have a last coffee. Mr. Hayashi wanted to know what I was doing over the holidays, and didn’t seem to buying my “nothing special” answers. I just finally told them that I was going East.

After coffee I was out the door and on my way home to pack up and organize my gear for my trip to see Kuniko. Shortly afterwards I was on the train to Kobe to meet up with her. We met up at Sannomiya station, and then went south to check out the Luminaries.

I’ve heard that the Luminaries were created to attract people to Kobe after the earthquake. It’s a big draw now, with people coming there from all over Japan. It’s beautiful, but there’s always a big crowd. We waited for about half an hour for the crowd to get moving, and then we walked through. On our way we stopped in a few stores to look at jackets – I’ve been looking for a replacement since my old favorite got stolen from school.

After the Luminaries, we went north of Sannomiya to put in a reservation at a dim sum restaurant that we like. Unfortunately the waitress said the wait was an hour and a half, so we left our phone number and went to go have a drink.

We had a couple of Hoegaardens at another place that I’ve been before, and I showed Kuniko the way to crack a peanut. We cracked peanuts for at least an hour, and then we decided to head to the restaurant and wait there for the last half hour. Unfortunately, when we got there we waited for another whole hour.

Kuniko noticed that they seated some people in front of us that had come in after us, and by the time we sat down we were pretty bummed. We were starved and it was almost nine o’clock. We ate big – it’s all you can eat – and when we had our fill we finally headed home to Kuniko’s place in Osaka.

I went to Akashi station this morning, which is the opposite direction of my usual commute. It was a little surreal to be standing on the other side of the platform and seeing all the people I usually stand with on the other side. They were looking at me like, “dude, you’re on the wrong side.”

I took the train to Akashi a little early, so after I did a little recon on the proper bus stop, I went into Mister Donut for a couple of donuts and an iced milk. The person ringing me up asked me in English if I wanted to eat here or take it away, and so I conducted the rest of the transaction in English. I could tell she was happy to be able to speak English, and it was a good reminder that sometimes it’s best to be a foreigner and act like one, too.

After my donuts I got in line for the bus to Yashiro, and I saw Chelsea, and ALT from the next town looking around for the right bus. I flagged her down and we figured out that we both had the same top-secret mission.

We had lots of time to chat on the long bus ride to Yashiro. Chelsea came to Japan with her husband and son at the same time I did, and so we have a lot of shared experiences. She comes from Wellington, in New Zealand, and I’m already thinking about a trip to visit them when they leave the program. They are really nice people, and they have a great outlook on life.

Once we got to Yashiro, Mr. Hasegawa picked us up and briefed us on our assignment, consulting on the entrance exam for Hyogo high school students. We went over the exam carefully, over and over again, to make sure that all the questions were fair and that everything sounded natural. It was tough because some of the natural English that we were used to had not yet been learned by the students. It’s a careful process because this exam will be taken by more than 30,000 students in March, and the exam will be published in newspapers for everyone to see (and critique) later on.

After a full day of reviewing the exam we took the bus back to Akashi. I toured a new store that had opened recently with Chelsea, and then she went off to a class.

I decided to treat myself a little bit, so I went down the street and downstairs to a little sushi restaurant that Komuri sensei has taken me to a couple of times. I sat down and the sushi master knew already that I was a bit of a neophyte. He helped me through the selections, and I used some of my new vocabulary to order some sushi. As always, it was delicious, and there were two young women there with their mother who were watching me carefully to see if I would drop my chopsticks.

I had octopus, shrimp, tuna, tai, yellowtail, and cod. I also got a free sample from one of the ladies of abalone. The abalone was great – I tried to order some more but the master was sold out. Next time.

Afterwards I went off to Donkey to throw a few darts. I ordered up a Guinness, and the master poured me a free glass of sake that I had commented on. The liquid in the bottle was cloudy – it looked like milk. It was the raw form of sake, unfiltered and pretty strong. It was my first time trying it, and I liked it.

I played darts with a couple of the Donkey team members, and surprisingly, I won. I got out of there quickly before they could start trying to recruit me for the team again.

Now I’m back at home and I need to get organized for a busy couple of days. Tomorrow is my last day of the week. I’ll have four days in a row off, because of Christmas. I’m going to meet Kuniko tomorrow night in Kobe, and we’ll have a good time doing some Christmas shopping (for each other) and sightseeing before going back to her place in Osaka. Thursday is the Emperor’s birthday, so we’ve got another holiday. Kuniko has to work during Christmas so we’ll celebrate our Christmas on Thursday.

Today I went into work and had a relatively busy day – three classes. Two of my classes were listening to “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” which was OK for me the first few times, but I’m rapidly approaching the breaking point. The other teachers only listen to it a couple of times, I get it ten times. How do DJ’s do it?

During the morning break the principal called me into his office alone, which is really weird since he doesn’t speak English and I can understand about 20% of what he says in Japanese. The gist of it is that I’m working for the prefecture again tomorrow. I can’t tell anyone, even the vice-principal, who is normally in the loop on these things. He gave me a faxed document that said some strange things.

Tomorrow I’m going to Yashiro, which is pretty far away. There was no mention of what I will be doing, but I’m supposed to bring my bank book and my personal seal. That’s really weird – why would I bring those? It’s even more hush hush this time around, and I have no idea why. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.

After school Mr. Hayashi discovered 3000 yen in the ESS budget that we had to burn before the end of the month, so we went over to the 100 yen store and went nuts. We got lots of stuff that will be useful for the ESS club – colored paper, audio tapes, Christmas decorations, a Santa Suit (only $1!) and other things of dubious quality.

Afterwards we had an hour or so to kill so we went over to the coffee shop. Mr. Hayashi lately has been telling me all about how to date a Japanese woman. I think he’s convinced that I’m dating my Monday Japanese tutor, Tsuji-san. Maybe that’s because it’s the only woman that he knows I associate with outside of work. Anyway, he’s been giving me a lot of advice today, and some of the nuggets of wisdom are truly amazing.

For example, he says that most Japanese women are not used to hearing the words “I Love You”, and so if you say that, they will swoon. He says that if you take a girl out to dinner twelve times she will see that you are interested, and start having feelings for you. He said that Japanese women are really very tolerant and will let you get away with all kinds of things. He cited his own wife for example, and the fact that he frequently has drinks or dinner with single women without a problem. He says that if he does that more than three nights in a row, he gets in trouble though.

There’s lots more where that came from, but I didn’t want to encourage him by asking questions.

We went back to school and I got my gear together and went over for my Japanese lesson. I found myself speaking Japanese for a little longer this time, and then I read Tsuji-san “The Polar Express” so she could get an idea of how to pronounce the words. She’s going to read it to her students (high school students) later this week to get them ready for Christmas.

I’m definitely an inside shopper at Ito Yokado now. One of my favorite places to visit is the meat counter, where the two ladies that work there know me by sight. I walk up and they both say “hello” and “how are you” and “the pork is really good today”. I know a lot about roasted pork now.

Today I asked for about 100 grams, and she did a nice move where she weighed out 100 grams, printed the sticker, and then put another 100 grams or so in the container. I think she said that it was going on discount soon anyway. Thanks!

Now I’m off to bed – tomorrow is my secret mission!

We slept in big time this morning and didn’t get rolling until around 11 o’clock or so. Our plan was to catch a movie in Ibaraki, the next big town northwest of Osaka. It was my first time to go there, and to add an element of danger, Kuniko mentioned that her students often go shopping there on weekends.

Kuniko led me through the streets of Ibaraki to a big shopping plaza, and there we went upstairs to buy tickets to “The Terminal”, a new (in Japan) Tom Hanks/Spielberg movie. As we waited in the long line, it was getting close to getting sold out, with the next movie almost five hours later. We really wanted to see it, but we didn’t want to have to kill that much time in a shopping center. We went down to the wire, and we ended up getting tickets in the front row.

Since we had about an hour to kill before the movie we went to the nearby food plaza and had Korean food. We signed up for a table, and then I led Kuniko over to play one of those crazy “whack-a-mole” games where you hit the little things that pop up in an attempt to get a higher score than your opponent. As usual, Kuniko won.

When we went back to the Korean place the our name was already crossed out and they were seating the next people. We made ourselves visible, and they seated us right away.

For lunch we had three different dishes – some meat and vegetables cooked over a big iron plate on your table, a Korean pastry made from cheese and potatoes, and we split a big bowl of Bibinba. We barely made it out of there we were so full – but it was delicious.

We went back to catch the movie, and boy was that screen big. I got used to it after a while, but it was pretty tough at first. The movie itself was pretty good – I really enjoyed the story and even though it was a tough to believe in Tom Hanks’ Eastern European accent, eventually you got used to it. I especially enjoyed the parts early in the show where they had miscommunication problems, probably because they hit so close to home.

After the show we did a little shopping and had a cup of coffee together. We also split a piece of cake aptly titled, “Chocolate Explosion”. It tasted better than it sounds.

Kuniko and I parted ways on the platform of Shin-Osaka station, and I rode the crowded train back through Kobe all the way home. The trains are busy lately because of the Luminarie light show in Kobe. Kuniko and I made an appointment to see it together on Wednesday night.

I slept in this morning after staying up so late the night before. Mostly I spent the day cleaning house and doing a little studying.

In the afternoon I packed a backpack and headed into Osaka to meet up with Kuniko. I had originally planned on stopping in to buy a new textbook in Umeda, and then going on to Kuniko’s house. As it turns out, thanks to the wonder of mobile phone technology, we met up in Umeda and we went shopping together.

Shopping at the big bookstore in Umeda is always interesting, especially around the English book section. There’s always lots of foreigners walking around, and everyone is really friendly. I out-maneuver a few people to get the textbook I wanted. There were two I was looking for, but they only had the one. I took a quick glance through it and it looks manageable, but not too easy.

From there we went back to Kuniko’s place on the JR line, and you could barely hear us talking over the growl of our stomachs. We ordered in a pizza, and I unwrapped the insulation from the two big cans of beer that I brought. The pizza was really interesting – four different types of pizza on one. There was a spicy section with jalapenos, an egg section with cheese, egg and broccoli, a standard pizza section, and then an Italian section with lots of spices and good Parmesan cheese. Very nice.

We’re leaning towards seeing a movie tomorrow, but it depends on when we wake up. It’ll be nice to sleep in!

Today we had no classes and instead went to the Takasago City Hall. There is a city amphitheater there – our students were going to watch a “cultural performance”. It’s called Rakugo, a cross between stand-up comedy and storytelling.

A long time ago people traveled from town to town, making a living by telling stories to anyone that would listen – kind of like a bard, I guess. This is considered an integral part of Japanese culture, and I was looking forward to checking it out.

We all entered and sat down, and after we were settled in, they started the show. The performer sits on a pillow on stage in front of a small lectern, and he wears a special outfit. At a certain points during his performance he raps a metal object against the table to emphasize a point, and it is loud enough to get your attention. Also, each performer at some point took off their outer jacket, and there was some symbolic meaning to this, although I’m not sure what.

I couldn’t follow their stories very well, because the Japanese was rapid fire and very colloquial. They also switched characters very quickly in mid-stream, so it was really tough. I was able to catch the drift of the story, and the personality of the characters from the tone of voice and the body mannerisms, but really I was just lost.

There was a magician that came on stage in between performers, and she played terrible 70’s disco music that was certain to have come from a 100 yen shop CD. It was terrible, really. Appalling in it’s mediocrity.

However, her show was quite good, and she had some good comic moments. She had one of our teachers come onstage, and played a few jokes on him.

The final performer is supposedly well known – he’s often on TV and some of the teachers were interested in seeing him. He did a very non-traditional performance – there were stage props, and he did a scary story instead of a funny story, which I guess is unusual. He did have a scary voice, and at one point somebody squirted blood on the paper wall behind him. Suddenly, a figure burst through and ran into the crowd, and the reactions of 500 screaming schoolgirls and maybe 100 screaming schoolboys was classic.

Afterwards, the main performer came up and accepted flowers from the school body president. He made a speech about following your dreams and doing what YOU want to do, not what people say you should do. Interesting.

The students overall seemed to enjoy it, if only for the chance to sleep in their seats in the dark for an hour or so. Even some of the teachers were sleeping – I was surprised at that. I couldn’t understand much at all but I was still awake. Some students were checking for my reactions, so I wanted to be a good example.

After the show I hit the road – arriving at home around 5 p.m. Today the post office was delivering a package, and they had said they would arrive between 7-9 p.m. I made a big Korean dinner of BBQ beef and rice, and I tried to make a Korean soup but I chickened out on all the salt that the recipe called for. That’s way too much – I don’t want to die at sodium poisoning.

Nine p.m. came and went, and still no sign of the post office. I gave up and went to bed around ten o’clock. How very un-Japanese to not show up.

I was rousted out of bed at 11:15 p.m. by the doorbell, and I stumbled in the dark to the door. There was a postal service guy there, and the first thing that came out of my mouth in Japanese was not “good evening”, or “oh, hello”, but “it’s late”. Not very polite – but then again I was still kind of asleep. Here’s this poor guy delivering my package after 11 p.m. and what thanks does he get? “It’s late!”

Anyway, I signed for the package and went straight to bed.

Today at school I continued my Christmas lessons. I’m having the students listen to “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”. It’s all fun and Christmas-y, until the teacher translates the part about finding Grandma dead at the scene with hoofprints on her forehead. The students’ reactions vary from laughter to shock, and the teacher tells them not to worry – that it’s black humor. Still, it beats “Jingle Bells”.

A funny thing happened when the teacher today was translating. He got a little confused and asked me, “So did Grandpa kill Grandma?” and I told him, “No, no. What kind of Christmas song would that be? It was Santa!”

He just nodded and explained to the students. My sense of humor is rarely understood, no matter what country I’m in.

After school I met up with Keiko-san, and she took me over to the local coffee shop to have dinner with a bunch of her friends. They are an enthusiastic group of women that are really into studying English. I spoke with all of them in a group setting, and then did some one-on-one conversations. They really rely on my Japanese, though, and they are clearly relieved when the conversation switches to Japanese. I still feel the same way when I speak with my Monday tutor – I need to get out of the English habit and really just speak Japanese.

We had a good time, and the first group of women left around 7 p.m. The others asked me to stay a little longer, so we chatted for another half hour before I said that I had to go. It was a fun time – they are really nice people.

Tomorrow should be a relaxing evening, and I’m looking forward to it. It’s been a busy week for me. Jane invited me to join a group of her friends for a run to the Mexican restaurant in Kobe, but I’m leaning towards skipping it. Later I’m hoping to go to Kobe with Kuniko to see the Luminarias, so I want to wait it out.

After my lesson with Azusa this evening I stopped into a ramen shop for a big bowl of noodles. They drop in some sliced pork, and a couple of the slices were probably 70% fat. This is pretty common in noodle shops. There are a couple of shops that put better pork in there, and I try to stick to those. Still, it would rude to leave them behind, so I ate ’em. And they tasted great.

At school today the duel between Mr. Hayashi and Ms. Mori continued to rage. They had a confrontation during a meeting today, and Mr. Hayashi challenged some of the things that she had said. I think if I was at the meeting I probably wouldn’t have even noticed, but the other teachers were all talking about it, and Mr. Hayashi came by my desk to give me a blow by blow account of his verbal victory.

He gave me a lot of details, and some of the things they were arguing about involved me, but I didn’t ask for too much information – I don’t want to get involved.

Tomorrow night I’m going to join Keiko-san and her gang of English-speaking women for a dinner at the coffee shop. They’ve been dying to chat with me and so we’ve finally figured out a time to get together. It should be fun – they really enjoy talking.

Today was an easy day for me – no classes to teach. I did help out Mr. Hayashi, though. They have a budget every year to hire some guest speakers for each department, and he had made contact with a college professor originally from New York who has been living in Japan for the last 20 years. We drove over to his college to pick him up, and he was a really nice guy. He was actually one of the first people on the JET program when it started, so he had some interesting insight into what kinds of things have changed over the years.

He had asked that we set up in the computer lab, so preparations had been made, and the class showed up ready to hit the computers. We got them all ready, and then the professor introduced himself, gave the students a web address, and then waited for everyone to load it up.

The site that we went to was really interesting – it was created by Voice of America to encourage people to learn English. There were tons of lessons and activities for the students to play with. The professor just walked around and earned money – he was a smart guy. The students enjoyed the activities, but they slowed down after about 30 minutes, and I could tell they were getting a little bored by the time 50 minutes rolled around. Maybe if the professor talked a little more, or led them through an activity in English it would have been better. But I don’t want to be a backseat-teacher.

The principal and vice-principal were really enjoying it. They came in and the vice principal was snapping pictures for the yearbook. He had me posing in a couple of them – I was like “Oh my gosh, an adverb clause!”, and some other vaguely unnatural teaching positions. It’ll look good in the yearbook, though.

I was surprised how quickly the students took to the computers – they did a great job and had almost no trouble. If they had questions they would ask me in English, and so maybe just the change of scene was a big help.

After the lesson we went to the principal’s office for the ceremonial cup of hot tea and post-visit discussion. This is always interesting for me because you just go in there and sit and drink tea and pretend like you’ve not a care in the world. We talked in big bold terms about English education, but nothing groundbreaking. It was fun. Our visiting professor doesn’t speak much Japanese despite being here for 20 years, but I caught him understanding some complex Japanese, so he’s been learning something.

We finished up with the cup of tea, and then went outside the office to do the bowing and goodbyes. After that Mr. Hayashi drove us to a nearby cafe for lunch. Over lunch we talked a little about what life is like for a college professor in Japan. I’ve heard that it’s the English teacher’s nirvana – good money, less hours, stable job. I was interested to hear the scoop from him, and I got his contact information – he seemed happy to be able to tell me all about what he does.

I got trapped in an English teacher’s staff meeting later in the day. I knew it was trouble when they said it was only a 15 minute meeting, and then they postponed it until 15 minutes before I was going to leave. I had no pressing engagements since the master cancelled our dinner party, but if I did have the party I would have been screwed. I didn’t get out of there until 5:45 – what a boring meeting. We just talked about the students that were likely to fail this term. Luckily, none of my students are on the edge.

I got home tonight and spent some time with Kuniko on the phone. She’s doing well but a think she’s a little worried about her job situation. Both of our career futures are a little up in the air right now, so although we’d like to have something nailed down for the long term, right now it’s just the short term that’s taken care of.

A simple dinner tonight of spicy miso soup and rice. No alcoholic beverages for the first time in three nights. My body appreciates the detox time!

After school today I went over to Tsuji-san’s place for a Japanese lesson, and then went back to school to meet up with Mr. Hayashi. He was planning a get together at Amuse, and he didn’t invite a few people, so it was a delicate situation. I bumped into the history teacher as he was leaving, and I had to lie and say that I wasn’t sure where we were going.

Mr. Hayashi pulled into the parking lot a moment later with Ms. Yamamoto in the car, but I don’t think the history teacher saw them. I was thinking that it was a bad idea to go to Amuse since the history teacher often goes there anyway.

We picked up Mr. Komuri, and then the four of us went over to Amuse to do some eating and drinking. We talked and laughed – comparing stories about the end of the term and the next few weeks of “meaningless” classes. Mr. Komuri and Ms. Yamamoto teased me a little about the history teacher always visiting me to chat, and it was just about that time that the door opened and in he walked.

The history teacher went right to the bar and either didn’t see us or pretended not to. We nervously sat there waiting for him to see us, but since he didn’t look over, Mr. Hayashi decided not to attract his attention. I’m sure he could hear us talking and laughing in English, though. I guess he sensed that he wasn’t invited.

Finally the history teacher made a trip to the bathroom and gave us a big hello. He didn’t stop by, just kept on walking, and later said a quick goodbye when he was finished with his dinner.

We left shortly afterwards, having drunk six rounds of beers and endless plates of food. Mr. Komuri and I took the same train to Akashi, and we were the annoying loud drunk guys on the train. Mr. Komuri has a great laugh anyway, but add a lot of alcohol and the fact that we were speaking in English and we got a lot of attention. What the heck, it’s that time of year.

When I got home I snuck over to the yakitori to chat with the master. He had originally planned on bringing some friends over to my place for dinner tomorrow night, but when I got there he told me that some people had requested that he open up the place on his day off for an end of year party, and the money is too good to refuse. That gets me off the hook for drinking Tuesday night. My body could use the break.

It wasn’t until I got home and the thought of the history sitting at the bar alone eating dinner and listening to us laughing and carrying on really got to me. I felt bad for him – on one hand he’s got nobody to hang out with, and other people make specific requests that he not be invited to various events. That’s sad and I feel bad for him. On the other hand, it’s entirely within his power to change how people feel about him. A little introspection would do some good. It’ll be interesting to see how he acts in the future towards Mr. Hayashi and I.

Here’s more information and some pictures of the spooky buildings we visited last night. Kuniko did some research and found some new information. It’s a waste treatment facility!

Sometimes a day doesn’t go anything like you expected it to. Sometimes that’s a bad thing, but today it was a great thing.

Kuniko picked me up in her car a little after noon, and we hit the road. Originally we had thrown around the idea of going to Himeji and looking around there a little bit. Kuniko had other ideas, however. We decided to drive into Osaka and have some fun there.

A while back Kuniko had told me that at Universal Studios Japan they have the tallest Christmas tree in Japan. We decided to go check it out. We took our time getting there, and both of us went through our first drive-thru in Japan to get lunch.

Finally we arrived, and the place was packed. We parked so far away – it was a 15-20 minute walk just to get to the entrance. The good news was that they had a special for people showing up late in the day – a little over half price to get in. We took advantage of that and started walking around. Unfortunately, as soon as we got in it started to sprinkle. Also the lines were pretty long, with the longest wait time at 150 minutes.

But did we let it get us down? No! We bought a cheap umbrella, walked around people watching, did the Backdraft ride which was only a 20 minute wait, and finally wrapped up our visit with a trip to the tallest Christmas tree in Japan. They had a lighting ceremony at 5:45, and I’ll admit that it was very impressive. They had a Japanese boy band singing at the start of the ceremony, and the lights of the tree were timed with their song – it was pretty good.

I hadn’t planned well since I thought we’d be local. I didn’t bring my camera or my phone on this trip so I can only let you imagine the sight of the tallest Christmas tree in Japan.

We left the park around 6:30 or so, and went across the way to eat dinner at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Company, a guilty favorite of mine from America. We ate big and the food was really good. We sat and enjoyed the seafood and the servers didn’t bug us too much like they tend to do in American Bubba Gump restaurants.

At one point a guy in a Santa Claus suit walked by outside, working the crowds and waving to everyone. This was a foreign guy like me, and I couldn’t help but wonder what career choices put him in a Santa suit in Japan this holiday season, and how close my career path might run to his. The guy stopped at the window outside our table and waved to us, and then smiled under his fake beard at me and pointed a finger pistol at me before being ushered off by his helper.

Filled with shrimp and all Gumped out, we made the long trek back to the car in the rain. Good news – only one umbrella, so it was a great way to stay close to each other on the way back.

Still feeling a little adventurous, we got in the car and drove across the bridge to a couple of big building complexes that we had noticed a couple of times in the past. The buildings from a distance look like part of a giant cartoon castle. It reminds me of modern art, Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, and Aladdin’s Castle all in one. Up close there was nothing to change that impression.

We both were kind of creeped out by the buildings, empty but lit up, strangely painted walls and towers built to look like half tree, half stone. I noticed a tree growing out of one of the windows on the side of the building. The signs in front of the building said that it was for a construction company, but it seemed like more than that. I can’t begin to do it justice by describing it – it’s surreal and is too big to be a joke.

Kuniko and I got out of there in a hurry and we headed back home. Kuniko dropped me off and went home, but then found my sunglasses in the car and drove all the way back here to give them to me. It gave me a chance to exchange gifts with her parents. I sent a bunch of cream and raisin filled pastries, and they sent back some chocolate, a homegrown radish and some shitake mushrooms, and a gigantic apple. Kuniko invited me to spend New Year’s Day with her family in Kakogawa. That should be a lot of fun.

I’m off to bed – I’ve got classes tomorrow on a strange schedule. I’m not sure how it works, but I guess I’ll figure it out when I get there!

Talk about taking it easy… I slept in this morning, fighting the effects from my partying last night. At around 11 in the morning a crew came in to clean out my drains – they were going room to room throughout the whole complex. If the guy felt like commenting on my appearance he hid it well. It probably smelled like a pub the morning after in here.

I spent most of my day studying, but I did manage to take in a movie and to take a nap. Now I’m feeling much better and I think I’ll be back in action tomorrow.

One of my old teachers from the YMCA class called and asked me out on Monday, and when I told her that I had other plans, she insisted on leaving her number with me. She called a couple of weeks after my classes ended, and I kind of pretended that I didn’t understand. Now she’s calling again – persistent! I’m going to have to figure out how to break the news to her delicately that I’m not interested. She speaks no English, but maybe I can drop some subtle hints in Japanese. Or maybe she won’t call again – even better.

Rico sent me a couple of boxes of egg nog chai from Amy’s Kitchen, and I had a couple of tall cold glasses while I was studying today. This is something I look forward to every year.

Well – I’m off to bed now – tomorrow I may go for a drive with Kuniko, but it’ll otherwise be a quiet day. I’m booked up next week with events, so the pace will pick up again soon.

Every year in December the school holds a year end party, called the Bonenkai. It literally means “forget the year party”. After school I went home to relax for a few hours before going into Akashi to meet Mr. Hayashi, Mr. Komuri, and Mr. Kimura. We went to a nearby izakaya for a little “front-loading”.

Mr. Hayashi was skipping the party but he wanted to hang out with us a little. We ordered the big beers – mugs the size of our heads. Mr. Komuri ordered a bunch of food and we talked, ate, and drank for almost an hour. One of the employees recognized Mr. Hayashi – he was a student from a few years back. Mr. Hayashi did a great job of talking to him and asking him lots of questions, but later told us that he didn’t remember the student at all. It did pay off, though, and the kid bought us a round of beers.

Mr. Hayashi loves to talk about his erectile dysfunction and as usual we talked about it tonight. He is taking some mysterious medicine – he paid some witch doctor almost $900 for three months worth of potency pills. Supposedly it helps with the synaptic connections between his spinal cord and his, well, you know.

We rolled out of there just a little late, and Mr. Hayashi paid for the whole thing. He then went off to Sannomiya to meet up with some friends. He doesn’t like going to the year-end party – it’s not really his scene.

The rest of us went on to Nishi-Akashi station and then made a short walk to the Castle Hotel. We got in there a little late for the speech – that’s too bad. They started serving food and the drinking began. After that it’s a bit of a blur, but I’ve got these pictures in my camera. Everyone was having lots of fun.

I remember winning a prize in bingo – but it was some kind of strange stuffed animal. I think it was called an “odor dog”. I left it on the table “accidentally” when I left. Mr. Maeda was drinking water and whiskey with me, and the vice principal told me I “drink like a horse”. At one point I left to use the restroom and Mr. Kimura was curled up on a chair outside the banquet hall.

Mr. Komuri and I took off after the fun ended there and went to Donkey in Akashi. The darts started flying and at one point we had every single person in the bar playing one giant game of baseball. I was a little off my game due to all the alcohol, but it was still lots of fun. They are a great group over there.

I managed to catch the last train to Higashi-Futami, and I made an ill-advised stop at the convenience store for some “I’m drunk and I want some snacks” snacks. I think I got fried chicken and some bread stuffed with ground beef and cheese.

Now’s the time to forget the last year and focus on the next one. Just as soon as the hangover and heartburn passes.

Thank God for microwave pork rinds.