On my way to school today I bumped into the usually unintelligible old lady who talks my ear off despite the lack of verbal feedback from me. Once she stuffed a bunch of candy in my pocket because I looked cold. She’s really a nice lady – and I think we’re both a little frustrated with the language barrier. Today something strange happened – I understood what she said. It took me a second to work it out in my head, but she said “It’s getting warmer nowadays, isn’t it?”

I answered “Isn’t that true?” which is not really the right thing to say, but I was so surprised that I understood that I fumbled the response. She just smiled and waved goodbye. Maybe next time I’ll do better on my side of the conversation.

By now my route to and from school is full of people that say hello to me, smile, or nod. I’d guess that on my commute during any given day I see on average fourteen people that acknowledge me in some way. When I first came to Japan Antoine and I joked that it was impossible to get a total stranger to smile at you, but I’ve got a lot of friendly people in my town.

Today a young boy that I’ve smiled at the last three or four days was standing instead of sitting, and when I got close to him he held out a package of gum for me. I smiled and said “thank you” in Japanese. He didn’t say anything, but it was very nice of him. The gum was strange, too – kind of a combination of blueberry and mint.

My classes were spread out over the whole day, and it was a good mix of helping and leading. Mr. Hayashi and I spent lots of time chatting. I listened to the latest gossip – he was sniffing around to find out whether I had asked out the girl on the train on the way back from the Tiger’s game.

We also got a phone call from the hotel that is hosting my mandatory JET conference next week. They hadn’t received any money from me, and they wanted it sent to their account. Mr. Hayashi figured that we should also send off the money for my plane ticket. We rode the school bicycles over to the bank, and we sent off the money electronically to everybody’s bank accounts. The hotel cost $200, which will be paid back to me someday. The plane ticket was $800. Now I have about $300 to get me through until next payday in the middle of June. That means that my life won’t be too exciting over the next few weeks. It’s bad timing because of the conference in Kobe, and some friends visiting from San Diego. Since money is tight I cancelled my trip to Lake Biwa on Saturday. The weather forecast is rain in the afternoon anyway, so maybe it’s best to stay local and cheap.

On the way home I bumped into one of my students on the train platform, so I chatted with him in Japanese. We did pretty well, but there were lots of parts that I couldn’t understand at all. We got off at the same stop today – usually I keep on riding and he gets off. I went shopping for some supplies for ESS in Befu. Luckily I’ll get the money back for this, too.

Back in Higashi Futami I got off the train and stopped in at the local bakery to buy some custom sliced bread. I explained to the lady how excited I was to be able to buy thin bread. She couldn’t comprehend a country with only thin-sliced bread. The bakery smelled great, and it’s always fun to try to identify all the baked goods and figure out what might be inside them.

I’m back home now, and getting ready to go over to the yakitori for dinner. I know that it’s not a great way to save money, but considering I’m going to be cooped up at home studying and watching movies for the next two days, I figure it’ll be the big splurge of the weekend. I’ve got almost $50 in pocket change alone!

Today I had another easy day at school. My classes were finished by lunchtime, so I had the afternoon to study and relax. After school, we had our ESS meeting, and we spent some time folding origami cranes while we chatted in English in Japanese.

The origami cranes are part of a massive school project. Every student is expected to fold ten cranes, and the resulting 10,000 cranes will be used to make some kind of display for the upcoming cultural festival. We had some extra paper so Iku-chan, one of the ESS students, helped me learn how to fold one. It wasn’t easy, but everyone was doing well. Harada-san folded a black piano – very impressive!

I went home and had a nice easy Japanese dinner of inari (fried tofu stuffed with sushi rice) leftover from the Tigers game, and some homemade miso soup. After dinner I called Kuniko, hoping to catch her before she went to bed. Instead I woke her up – she was zonked out at 7:30 at night! They are working her hard over there.

We had made plans to meet up in Osaka on Saturday night and eat Shabu Shabu, but she had to cancel. She’s just too tired to do anything, and so we’re going to take the time to catch up on other things. I was disappointed, because I could already taste the Shabu Shabu, but it’s probably a good idea. A quick search through my journal finds that I’ve spent time with Kuniko the last four weekends in a row. Maybe a break would be good.

Anyway, I’m off to bed. Tomorrow is Friday and I’ve got a free weekend ahead of me!

Wow – what an experience! My day went by pretty fast, and Mr. Komuri and I scooted out of work a few minutes early to catch the train to the game. We stopped for snacks at the local store, and then we caught a Sanyo train out of Takasago.

I was trying to figure out the logistics of getting to the stadium, but Mr. Komuri said that we could just stay on the same train. This was a revelation for me – the same train that runs right by my house in Futami eventually pulls up at the foot of Koshien stadium, where the Tigers play. Cool!

It took about an hour to get there. We got off the train and bought some beer from the kiosk vendor inside the station. Then we walked across the street and right into the park. The Tigers were playing the Yokohama Bay Stars. The place was packed with around 50,000 people, another sell-out crowd.

Our seats were apart, so we grabbed two empty seats that were together and ate beer, sushi, and fried chicken until the owners of the seats came. Then we sat in our own seats for the rest of the game.

The crowd noise was amazing. When the Tigers were batting, everyone cheered, banged plastic bats together to make noise, and sang songs. There was a different song for each player. Since I didn’t understand what they were saying I was a little lost, but I clapped along. The only time it got quiet was when Yokohama came up to bat, and then it was fairly quiet. Anytime the Bay Stars were out, everyone would sing a song that ended with a big “OUT-O”.

My senses were a little overwhelmed. Everyone was looking at me at first, and I didn’t see another foreigner at the game until we got on the train afterwards. I got a lot of attention.

Other things I noticed that were different from the USA… they served beer in the stands. There were lots of beer vendors, and they called out the Japanese equivalent of “How does a beer sound?” They also had yakisoba, ice cream, and takoyaki. I didn’t see any sushi except for what we brought to the game. Also, you could bring all the alcohol and food that you wanted – they didn’t do a search or anything. People were uniformly polite – no one got belligerent. I noticed that the Yokohama fans were only sitting in one section – Mr. Komuri said that somehow that was enforced. They don’t mix the two types of fans.

For all the singing going on they had cheerleaders for each section. They somehow indicated what song would be appropriate, and everyone just jumped right in. The cheerleaders were usually old guys in Tigers outfits.

The strangest thing was a phenomenon that I had heard about before I came to Japan. Instead of the 7th inning stretch, everyone in the stadium releases balloons that sail all over the place. There’s nothing quite like seeing it firsthand, but I managed to take a video of it. You can check it out here, but be warned – it’s 17 megabytes, so it’ll take a long time to download.

After the game we joined a huge line for the train home. The train was packed tight, but as soon as we got west of Kobe things emptied out. A pretty lady stood next to me and Mr. Komuri on the train and was listening in to our conversation. I saw that she was eager to speak with us, so I said hello. Mr. Komuri was a little shocked to see me suddenly open up our social circle. At one point she asked what school we taught at (in English) and Mr. Komuri told her that it was a secret. Strange. Anyway, it was nice talking to her – she is a dance instructor in Osaka, but lives in Himeji. That’s a long way to go for work, but she seems to be doing well. She’s taking English courses as well, so that’s why she was hoping to talk with us.

I finally got home around 11:30, and I was exhausted. The game was such an overwhelming experience. It’s a long way from the games spent relaxing in the sun in San Francisco’s PacBell Park.

What’s that? Who won? The Tigers lost the game – it was four to zero. I spent so much time enjoying the environment, that I could only barely follow the game!

Today my clairvoyance turned out to be correct – I didn’t get out of school until around 2 p.m. Still three hours early, so nothing to complain about. While I was studying at my desk one of the students was getting chewed out behind me by one of the “bad cop” teachers. He left for a while and left her to sit crying at the desk next to me. It’s a little unnerving to have some poor girl sniffling away while you’re trying to study.

Mr. Hayashi treated me and Mr. Komuri to coffee at a local coffee house. We talked mainly about prostates and erectile dysfunction again – a recurring theme with Mr. Hayashi. It’s a good thing all the old ladies surrounding us didn’t speak English. I think Mr. Hayashi kind of relished the idea of speaking about a topic like that in public without anyone knowing.

On the way home I stopped in at the grocery store and picked up three pork steaks for 200 yen – what a bargain. Back home I rubbed them with a little salt and a mustard/garlic/black pepper/oil combination that I created. Once the grill was hot I cooked up the pork steaks and also I grilled some onions that I had leftover from a previous meal. I made up a green salad and together it was quite a feast. Not a lot of food, but quality stuff.

The little grill has really changed the way I cook. Now I use the grill about twice a week to make some kind of meat or seafood main course. The rest of the week I either cook up traditional Japanese or non-grilled American food. Anyway, I’ve stopped pan frying my meat which helps cut down on the grease.

Tonight after dinner I watched “School Of Rock” which was a pleasant surprise. I thought it was a pretty fun movie – and the end song that went with the credits was pretty good, too.

Tomorrow night I’m going to the Hanshin Tigers game with Mr. Komuri – it should be a blast! The weather has been beautiful lately, so there’s no chance for a rainout. I’ll be taking tons of pictures. Japanese baseball is a whole different experience.

Today was another day of exams for our students, and another day of relaxation for the teachers. I went in at the regular time, and Mr. Hayashi asked me to help interview someone that may help us with the STEP test interviews. She was kind of a high school prodigy, but she ended up making what Mr. Hayashi called a “wrong turn” in her career. Now she is looking for some extra cash, and the interviews might be just the thing for her. Her English was really good – better than Mr. Hayashi’s I thought, but don’t tell him that.

After the interview I asked Mr. Hayashi if I could split and he hesitated just a nanosecond before he said “Sure, no problem.” I have a feeling that I probably won’t get as much time off tomorrow, so I figured I should make today count. So what did I do with almost the whole day off and beautiful weather outside? The same thing I did in San Diego – I went to the beach.

It’s a short train ride to Suma beach, and there I laid out a blanket, had a mini-picnic with some store-bought sandwiches, and soaked up the sun, while the waves from the inland sea lapped at the shore. The beach is not the most beautiful beach in the world – off the coast there is lots of water traffic, and there are plenty of fisherman looking for tonight’s dinner.

I spent about two hours out in the sun, drinking water, reading my Japanese homework, but really just relaxing. I saw a few other foreigners out enjoying the weather. You could tell the foreigners because they were wearing swimsuits. The Japanese people for the most part were completely covered up.

Afterwards I walked back to the station, rubbing the sand off my bare feet on the sidewalk. I had a nostalgic moment remembering doing the same thing in San Diego after coming back Silver Strand or Black’s Beach. I’m glad that I can still enjoy the beach and the ocean here in Japan.

The train ride was an easy one, and I opened up the house when I got home and enjoyed the cool breeze and sunshine. After a shower to get off all the sweat and suntan lotion, I was feeling great. I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing listening comprehension from my old textbooks and doing laundry.

What a nice day – it was great to get some relaxation time in.

I slept in a little bit this morning, cooked up a fried egg sandwich, and then went out the door to meet the school librarian at Befu station. She had planned a trip to see some monkeys – I joined her family on a mini-roadtrip to the northwest of my town.

The drive was easy – we loaded up the family wagon. The librarian’s husband and son came along, and I sat in back with the son. He was so shy that it was a pretty quiet ride. The drive took about 90 minutes, which isn’t so bad. We traveled away from major cities, and ended up in some pretty hilly countryside.

We ended up at a temple built on a green hillside, and after walking through the temple grounds we followed a path up a hill until we came to the “Monkey Park”. They charged us 400 yen a head to get in, and then there was another fairly long walk up the hills, walking alongside a fast moving stream. The stream had some nice waterfalls along the way, and the whole time we were searching the treetops for monkeys.

Finally at the top we found the monkeys.

The place was full of monkeys, and the monkeys were running wild. These monkeys were running around chasing each other, jumping up and down on the rooftops of the buildings and walking right by you as if it was perfectly natural for a big human to be in the way. The monkeys weren’t friendly at all – they bared their teeth if they felt threatened by you, but generally if you let them do what they want, they tend to get right up close to you.

At first it was cute, but after a while it got a little scary. They had a cage for the visitors, and inside the cage you could buy “monkey food”. The monkeys would casually walk up to the cage and wait for someone to come by. You were supposed to put the food on a little area near the bottom of the cage, but most people held open their hand and the monkey reached right in to take it off your hand. Sometimes kids would piss off the monkeys and they would screech or swat at the little kids. It seemed like a dangerous situation – something that wouldn’t fly back home.

We took quite a few pictures, and then headed back down the hill to our car and the next stop.

We drove about twenty minutes to a town up in the hills that is a ski resort during the winter. Right now it’s very green and lush, and they were having some kind of town event in the field located in the middle of the tiny town. We joined the event to picnic, and as far as I could tell it was some kind of event celebrating wood. They had woodcutters, contests involving cutting wood, and even some prizes given to people that handle wood in the most extraordinary way. Wood.

Before I know it the librarian had not only laid out a huge picnic spread for everyone, she entered us in various contests despite our relative ineptitude with wood. There were a lot of people that looked like they worked with wood all the time, and I was a little intimidated.

After lunch Hiro, the librarian’s son, and I played catch. We were having a good time when they called our names. The event that I competed in was a log throwing contest. They had small logs, and you had to get the log as close to another log as possible. The crowd actually hushed when I stepped up with my log. Can the foreigner throw a log? Will he show us all up?

I chucked the wood, and it came within a few meters of the target. I was happy enough with that, but they made me throw another one, too. That one landed a little closer, and everyone clapped politely as I made my way out of the limelight.

We played another round of baseball, and then we packed up our gear and took off. I think that some of the people were hoping I would compete in the fastest saw competition, but we had things we had to do. The next stop was at a natural spring. We filled up all of our containers and the librarian had even brought a giant plastic jug to fill up.

After that we were pretty tired. We made one last stop along the river to walk around a bit, and then we headed back. As we drove back through the mountains, rice paddies, and waterfalls, I couldn’t help thinking how different my experience in Japan would be if I was placed somewhere this remote.

I imagine that I would probably do a lot more hiking – the hills and views in this area were dramatic, and to be able to do that every day would be great. Right now I have to take the train to get to a mountain to hike, which is not so convenient. I think my diet would be different – I would have to take a bus to get to a supermarket or the nearest train station. I probably would end up buying a car. I might have only stayed for a year being out in the boonies – who knows? There is a whole part of Japan that I’m missing by sticking to the trains. I need to think about ways to explore these areas, too.

On the way home there was some serious traffic, so it took a long time to get back. One thing about traveling by train everywhere is that there is usually no traffic. I had forgotten what a bummer traffic can be.

It was a great day – I saw monkeys as advertised, and it was good to spend time with a cool family. They were all really nice and I’m hoping that we can do something again soon.

Yesterday I had gotten a message from Kuniko about being sick – she went to the doctor and they took care of her. This morning I went to Osaka to see if there was anything I could do to help out.

Kuniko is a little isolated in Osaka – there isn’t really anyone there to take care of her if something happens. When I got there she was up and about, but she looked exhausted. I tucked her into bed and busted out my sick supplies – Amino Suppli (the Japanese equivalent of Gatorade), orange juice, throat drops, EmergenC packets, and some chicken noodle soup.

Once Kuniko started drinking the Amino Suppli she started feeling much better. I know how that feels – I remember a horrible weekend in the dorms of Fresno State. I got a couple of bottles of Gatorade in me and I felt like I had been born again.

Since she was feeling better I cooked up some lunch for her, and we sat around eating soup and sandwiches. We spent part of the day just napping on the futon together.

Kuniko’s sister called, and she was in Okayama, and a little concerned about her. She had some extra time so she came over on the Shinkansen. It was the first time that I’ve met a member of Kuniko’s family. Her sister, Tomoko, was really nice. It was her first visit to Kuniko’s apartment and so we sat around and admired the place and talked about her job in Okayama. She is a school nurse for a high school there. I was relieved to hear that – now we had a professional on hand to take care of Kuniko.

We went out for ramen and Kuniko had no problem with the spicy noodles, so it looks like things are getting better fast. I got a few pictures of Tomoko – she was fun to hang out with and we practiced each other’s language on each other.

After dinner I left Kuniko in Tomoko’s capable hands and headed home. Once I got to Akashi I decided to drop in at Donkey and throw a few darts. There were some dart veterans there, and the bar’s top player and I played a couple of quick games of baseball. He was really good – he beat me both games with very little effort. I’m hoping that the master won’t bug me about joining the team now 🙂

Once I got home I had a little pineapple for dessert, and now I’m getting ready for bed. Tomorrow is the mystery trip to supposedly see monkeys. Whatever happens, it should be a good story.

I invited Antoine to come all the way out here for some steak, so I wanted to do things right. I started by calling my aunt and uncle and asking for advice on grilling the meat. My uncle Lynn gave me some great tips on cooking the steaks, and it helped a lot.

I bought some steaks at Carrefour – about thirty dollars worth. Steak is expensive here in Japan, so it was pricey, but something we both needed to have. I also got a couple of different beers – two Mexican beers, an Italian beer, and a Korean beer. I had some Guinness and Japanese beer at home, so we had an international selection.

I also got some garlic bread, mushrooms, and salad stuff. The meal was awesome. Antoine helped me by making the salad, and then he helped grill half the meat. Following my uncle’s advice I rubbed in some sea salt and some black pepper and garlic. I also put a couple of drops of olive oil on the steaks. The grill was super-hot, and the meat turned out perfectly. We had a Norton Malbec from Argentina, and the entire meal was a huge success.

Antoine was pretty hungry even after the steaks, so we threw on some bratwurst that I had bought at Costco. The grill was still hot, so they cooked up nicely.

After dinner we walked down to the yakitori for a beer there, and chatted with the master and some of the regulars. They were in a great mood, and asked all kinds of questions of Antoine. They were very curious about his lifestyle in Takarazuka.

Finally, we walked down to the station and Antoine headed home. We had a good time, and I’m hoping that we can do it again sometime.

Kuniko messaged me and said that she caught a serious cold. She went to the doctor with a 102 degree temperature, and ended up having a drip put in to counter the dehydration. I was worried so I called her, but she assured me that she will be fine. She asked me to stay away because she’s sick and she doesn’t want me to catch it, but I’m going to try and visit tomorrow anyway. She doesn’t have anyone to take care of her in Osaka, and I want to make sure that she has enough supplies to get her through until she feels better.

Well, I’m off to bed – the steak party was a huge success! Now I need to sleep it off….

That was tough. I went in today at work and stayed for about an hour, and then went right back out the door. Mr. Hayashi had me sign a time off request form so that if anything happens to me, I’ll be covered and on the clock. Now it’s almost 10 a.m. and I’m at home. Yes!

I’m getting ready to go over to Carrefour to do some shopping for tonight’s steak dinner. It should be a nice relaxing day!

Today was the first day of midterm exams, and so most of the teachers had it pretty easy. The teachers just administered the exam, and the students were gone by noon. We had a free bento lunch, but it wasn’t as good as the usual ones we get. No raw fish in this one – just cooked fish, shrimp, and lots of veggies.

Mr. Hayashi ducked out just before the teacher’s volleyball game. I went over to the gym and played three games. It was pretty fun, and you could tell which teachers were super-competitive, and which were there to just have fun. Somehow, a winner was determined, and the winners got a case of beer that they split up among the team.

I did pretty well, actually – I tended to screw up as many plays as I did well on, so I figure in baseball that’s batting .500, which is pretty good.

After volleyball was finished Mr. Hayashi mysteriously reappeared, and soon after we piled into his car to go to a dinner that he was hosting. During the drive over we picked up Miss Yamamoto from her house, and also Mr. Komuri came along.

Mr. Hayashi had bought a veal tenderloin from his favorite restaurant in Kitano, and so I helped him slice it up and he pan fried it outside on a portable burner, since it was raining and we couldn’t use the BBQ. The meat was great, and I had brought a bottle of Sangiovese that I had purchased at Costco. It tasted great. Mr. Hayashi also contributed a box of Franzia California red wine. I don’t think many people noticed the difference.

There were some other teachers there, and everyone was very happy to be visiting. Mr. Hayashi’s friend was there who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. I guess he doesn’t have all that much longer to live, and Mr. Hayashi wanted to have a big party for him to “send him off” (his words). He was a mountain climber, so we exchanged stories as much as we could in Japanese. He’s a really nice guy, and his wife is the new P.E. teacher at our school.

After dinner they gave Mr. Komuri and I a ride to the JR station, and I took the train to Tsuchiyama station. From there it was a 20 minute walk in heavy rain to my apartment, but my new ultra large umbrella kept me dry.

This weekend should be interesting. Tomorrow I have a short day at school to try and even out all the extra hours I’ve been putting in. Antoine is planning on coming over for some steaks and vino. Saturday I’m planning on visiting Kuniko in Osaka, and Sunday the school librarian is taking me to see monkeys somewhere in Hyogo. Monday and Tuesday will also be short days, but I haven’t come up with any plans for those days yet.

I had a pretty good day, with lots of new developments on several fronts. I have no classes during the first two periods, so I locked myself in my classroom and studied Japanese.

It was helpful to sit down with a book and study without distraction. Outside the weather was rainy, and I sat at a desk facing the window watching the students and teachers move between classes. One thing I thought about was that here I was in a classroom all to myself, getting paid to study a foreign language. I can practice the language anytime I want, and everyone I meet is very supportive of my studies. What an amazing opportunity, and a great situation to be learning a language.

During a break Mr. Komuri came up to me and told me that he has great news. He got tickets to a Hanshin Tigers game! He said that he’ll take me along, so I’ll finally get to catch a baseball game in Japan. The tickets are very hard to come by, but he managed to get two singles. We’ll be separated – sitting very far away from each other, but we’re both lucky to even be at the game. The game is next Wednesday night – hopefully it won’t rain out!

My third period class went really well – I skipped a few activities because tomorrow is the beginning of mid-terms, and I wanted the students to be able to relax a little. We did drawings, and I stretched that to almost half an hour of free drawing. It was fun, and the students seemed to appreciate it. I took the chance to chat with them in English while they drew, and that seemed to make them more comfortable.

A while back a student had asked for a Radiohead CD to listen to, so last night I burned one with some of my favorite songs, and brought it in. She came down to the teacher’s room and was so happy to borrow it. She was actually jumping up and down when I gave it to her. I hope she likes the other songs… Radiohead can get pretty weird.

Mr. Hayashi came by and seemed pretty excited – he has lots of free time because he finished writing his exams, so he wants to teach me more Japanese. This is something new – usually we have been doing lessons only during the two sessions we had scheduled. The other day he brought in a tape that he recorded from NHK – a course on how to speak Japanese. I did some transcription from the tape – listening and writing as much as I could understand. Today we did some more reading and he’s helped me get a little more comfortable. I usually read to myself, so now that I’m reading out loud I make all kinds of mistakes that my brain didn’t notice before.

One of my first year classes had an ESS student in it. She is fearless – she walked right up to me and asked me about some English terms for one of her friends. She’s hoping to go to Australia this year with the group led by Mr. Hayashi, so I hope that works out.

The new student teachers came in for a meeting today. There were about eight of them, all women around twenty-two years old. The history teacher timed it perfectly so he was chatting with me in English as they all walked by my desk. He pretended to be non-chalant, but his side of the conversation drifted considerably when they walked by. Mr. Hayashi is in charge of the English student teacher, and he brought her over to meet me after their meeting. She was pretty nervous, and I didn’t dumb down my English. She did a great job – she knows her stuff. Mr. Hayashi wanted me to meet her because he said if she’s a “charming woman” he’s going to buy her dinner after their two weeks of classes end. He’s looking to me to help him decide if she’s “charming” or not. Sheesh.

After school I went shopping for some dinner items at the local grocery store. Suddenly a small boy came running up to me and said “Hello, how are you?” in English. I was startled, but answered back in English. I was thinking, who the heck is this kid? Then around a corner came his mom and sisters, and it was the Maeda family. The same Maeda family that “kidnapped” me the night of the English teacher’s party. The boy that was so shy on Friday night was the same one that chased me down today and talked with me in English. We talked a little baseball and then we said our goodbyes. What a nice family!

Back home I cooked up some ramen with pork, but somehow I screwed up the broth. I’m still not sure how the heck they do it here. I need to use a lot more salt, and maybe some stronger stock. Hmm… more research needed.

When I go into a classroom, especially one that’s not mine, the students are almost always expecting a show. I have a couple of classes with Mr. Hayashi where I just repeat a few lines for pronunciation practice and that’s it. Most of the time I’m running the show, and these kids expect entertainment.

Today I had three classes which I’ve dubbed “Anything Classes”. The teachers have me come in one day a week and I can do anything I want. I was about to say “anything I want within reason” but no such limitations have been placed upon me yet.

Some of the students see it as an opportunity to catch up on their other homework, some sit there captivated, hanging on every word, some fall asleep, and some watch me politely and wonder what the heck I’m saying.

Today Mr. Yamamoto had asked me to do a couple of things that I would consider pretty boring if I were a student there. One was dictation using the new vocabulary words that they have been memorizing. I made four sentences using the vocab and then read them off. The students dutifully tried to copy down what I said. Usually small problems with the difference between my accent and Mr. Yamamoto’s throw them off.

After that the class was all mine, so I had them read an original story that I wrote about learning how to drive and the fate of my first car. They liked the story – they couldn’t believe that you could be behind the wheel at sixteen years old. The age here is eighteen, but it’s prohibitively expensive to get a car and drive right away.

After that, I passed out a word search puzzle using their new vocabulary. As everyone was thinking about how boring this was going to be, I reached under the desk and pulled out a bag of mini-Oreos. That perks the students right up. I told them the rules and said the first one up to the front of the class with everything found would win the sugar.

The students really get into it – the class is almost humming with excitement. You can bet that no Japanese teacher has thrown down a prize during class – I know that it rarely happened to me in my high school days. For about eight minutes all the students are hunched over their papers trying to find all the words. One kid got a nosebleed but didn’t want to go to the nurse because he would miss out on the chance to win. One of my winners came up to the front of the class with shaking hands. This is high stakes stuff here. We’re talking about a bag of Oreos!

My other class was with Mr. Hayashi, and we were doing pronunciation practice. Mr. Hayashi decided to have some fun – he had me try to pronounce some Japanese words. The kids were laughing at my pronunciations – and I think it made them feel a little better. It’s easy to get discouraged, but when we were joking around trying to pronounce “Fukuoka” it was nice for them to see I was human, too.

I also spoke with Mr. Hayashi and got the low-down on Thursday. It’s the first day of mid-term examinations, and in the afternoon we are going to try to play a teacher’s softball game. After school, Mr. Hayashi invited me to a BBQ at his place. He’s going to have a veal tenderloin that he bought directly from his favorite restaurant in Kobe. We’re going to eat that with a cheap Chianti and tell stories in Japanese. It should be good practice for me.

I also managed to negotiate an abbreviated schedule on Friday, Monday and Tuesday. I will be working just a couple of hours each day and then I’ll be free to do whatever I want. Now I just have to think about what to do. None of my friends are on the same schedule, and Kuniko has to work, so whatever it is will have to be local, and solo. Hmmm… what would you do?

There was a big PTA meeting in the afternoon so I snuck out early, and came home to cook up some gyuudon. Mine never comes out like the cafeteria’s, but I’ve decided that it’s because the grade of beef that I use is probably much higher. I’ll just have to enjoy the homemade stuff.

Monday morning, and the weather is still a little wet. I have developed a small hole in the sole of one of my shoes that collects water during the rainy days, and makes obnoxious squeaking noises as I walk. After a couple of days the water dries out and then I can walk without the soundtrack.

I joked around with the teachers from the English department in the aftermath of the big party on Friday. Mr. Yamamoto had just seen me bustled into a black van and didn’t see who I got in with – he jokingly thought I was being kidnapped. I told him that I kind of was, but that I had a great time.

I had three first year classes today, and the students were full of energy. They like the shakeup of going to a new classroom, even if it means they might have to do something goofy in front of the class.

Mr. Hayashi taught me Japanese during the extra afternoon period, so before I knew it it was time to get out of there. On the way home I picked up some groceries and had a big bowl of macaroni and cheese (sent by my folks) with little weiners cut up inside. I had a decent salad alongside, and it was delicious. I also had a XXXX beer – it’s as close as I’m going to get to microbrews around here. It costs me about $2.50 a bottle, so I better enjoy it. It’s still cheaper than buying it at a bar – that’s what I have to keep in mind.

I did an hour of studying kanji, and then I hit the sack. The weather is warm enough that I’m just sleeping under a sheet now. Soon, it’ll be off with the sheet and I’ll be opening my doors and windows. It’s warming up!

Today was dedicated mainly to studying. I studied some new kanji, as well as some new grammar. I actually spent about four hours straight studying – it kept me busy.

In the evening I cracked open the Guinness Bitter and tried it out. It was actually pretty good – unusual, but nice.

While drinking the Guinness, I started up the grill with the new firestarter, and it worked great with almost no smoke. My neighbors will be happy with that development. I grilled up some chicken with the Jamaican rub that Nancy and Lynn had sent me a while back. I also grilled up some pineapple and had some rice with black pepper. The meal was great – just what I needed to wrap up a hard day of studying.

I called Antoine and talked to him for almost an hour – we compared experiences over the last couple of weeks and made plans to try and get together next weekend. I also called Kuniko and chatted with her for a while. She told me all about her dinner – the Japanese version of meat and potatoes. Afterwards I went down to the yakitori, which was packed! I had a couple of beers and some snacks and talked with the master while he tried to keep up with everyone’s order.

Now I’m back home and getting ready for bed. I might put in just a few more minutes of studying, and then I’ll be ready to head back to school tomorrow.

This morning was reasonably slow paced. I spent some time on the phone with my mom and we caught up on things. I made myself a nice breakfast of eggs, tortillas and salsa. The weather was pretty nice – with some high clouds and no rain.

Around lunchtime I walked over to Carrefour, and picked up some luxury items. They have a big machine that cuts up a fresh pineapple and leaves all the good stuff for you to buy in a bag for 400 yen. I picked up one to try – the one I got at Costco was a lot of work to cut up, but it tasted great.

I also picked up a selection of beers – Guinness Bitter, a beer that I first saw in Scotland at a grocery store there back in August 2000. It’s taken this long for me to find it again. I haven’t tasted it yet, but I’ll post a review when I do.

I got two other beers, a bottle of El Sol from Mexico, and a bottle of XXXX from Australia.

Besides beer and pineapple I got some firestarter cubes to try with my BBQ in an attempt to keep the smoke to a minimum. I also got some chicken breasts for dinner on Sunday night.

After I got back I sat down to study, but ended up giving up and taking a nap. I ended up waking around five o’clock. Twenty minutes later Kuniko called – she and some of her friends were heading my way and wanted to see if would join them for a movie.

I got organized and ran outside just as rain was starting fall. Kuniko picked me up, and behind her car was a car with her friends – a teacher from her old school and an ALT friend from Himeji that I’ve heard a lot about… Yuri.

Yuri is a Japanese American who learned Japanese as her first language. She looks Japanese, she talks Japanese, but she also speaks fluent English having been raised in Los Angeles. She has signed up for a second year on the JET program, but it sounds like she’s already getting tired of it. She’s looking to settle down somewhere.

We went to Kakogawa and saw “Big Fish”, which was a strange but pleasant experience. I enjoyed some of the visuals and the jokes – but nobody else in the theater was laughing. Maybe it was a tough translation.

After the movie Kuniko drove Yuri home to Himeji, and dropped her off there. By then it was pouring rain, and so our goodbyes were very brief. It was good to finally meet her – for a long time she was the “other ALT” that Kuniko taught with, and it was interesting to hear about her experiences through Kuniko.

Kuniko drove me back to my place, and even though it was getting late I talked her into coming up for some fresh pineapple. I had the benefit of a nap so I wasn’t so tired, but Kuniko was exhausted. The pineapple was a nice treat to cap off a relaxing day.