Today was the second Friday this week – it’s nice to have a couple of them in a week. All of the classes today were shortened by 10 minutes to make room for a big assembly in the afternoon. It made my classes a little tough to teach. Most classes are lectures, but my classes are activity-based, so timing is key.

The result of the crazy schedule was that I had to eat lunch in the cafeteria with all the students. Two other teachers were there, too. I can see that my acceptance level has gone up because students actually sat at the same table with me and chatted while we ate. The new P.E. teacher sat alone surrounded by tables crowded with students.

The assembly was pretty boring. I don’t understand much of what they are saying. I understand one out of every ten words or so, which sometimes is enough to develop a theme about what the topic is, but rarely enough to understand completely what is going on. This assembly was about two things, drugs and bike safety. The drugs talk was pretty good because they had a video. The video had a twenty second clip of a Japanese dude freaking out on some substance while swinging a sword around wildly. Other than that, it was clinically boring. The teachers walked around at first to wake up students, but soon the teachers were sleeping too. I did my best and managed to stay conscious the whole time. It was hard, believe me. The bike safety speech was worse – forty minutes of advice from a cop about riding your bike.

After school I met up with the ESS club since yesterday was a holiday. They were pretty excited about the school festival project, and had some great ideas. We decided to do a display about the differences between daily life in America and daily life in Japan. Everyone was shocked to find out that I take a shower in the morning every day. They asked how often I wash my sheets – they were afraid that I was going to bed dirty and somehow that was really bad. Interesting.

At around five o’clock I left school and met up with Keiko-san, a lady that had flagged me down a long time ago and wanted to know all about me. She wanted to meet up with some of her friends, and I think her ultimate plan is to get me to teach them English in private lessons.

I joined them for dinner at a curry place, and they insisted on paying. We had lots of chit-chat in English, and I brought my picture book so that they could oohh and ahhh about America for a while. They were all really nice, and they were really excited to be speaking English with a foreigner like me.

They insisted on taking me out for dessert, too, and then gave me lots of chocolates to take home. I left them and headed for home, and couldn’t resist stopping in at the yakitori to watch a little bit of the Hanshin Tigers game. The Tigers were winning, and I ate a few salty snacks and had a couple of beers while chatting with the usual gang in Japanese. After two beers I pulled out the chocolates and handed them around – I gave some to everyone, even a family that I didn’t know.

Now I’m home and getting ready to go to bed early. After nearly falling asleep during the assembly I can tell that I need some good shut-eye. Tomorrow is a clean up day and Sunday night is the big poker party. I heard from Carrie that she might be free, so we could have as many as six people. Sometime soon I have to think about a menu for this event!

Today was Green Day here in Japan – and nobody I asked knew quite what it was about. Kuniko looked it up in her dictionary, and apparently it was the former emperor’s birthday. Then he died, and they renamed it Green Day. Every new emperor’s birthday is a holiday automatically – after 300 more emperors Japan will have a pretty light work schedule.

I slept in this morning and then headed out to Osaka to meet up with Kuniko. We ordered a pizza in after she showed me a Domino’s Pizza ad – they have a habanero pizza. Bonus points – it has shrimp on it. It turned out that it was pretty nice. They also had an option where they bake Camembert cheese into the crust. Interesting – very decadent.

After lunch we did some shopping Osaka. I picked up a belt because my old one is out of holes and a little too big. Kuniko was searching for a watch, but we struck out wherever we looked.

We stopped in a juice bar for some refreshments, but we were still looking for something more substantial, so we ended up going to the Indian restaurant near Kuniko’s apartment. The food there is great, and very spicy. We both had a couple of beers, and we felt pretty good. Afterwards I headed back to my place, and I just got home around 11:30 p.m.

It was a pretty nice day – I’m sure the emperor would have been proud of me.

Today was like a Friday for us, since tomorrow is a holiday. I taught only three classes today, one of the lighter teaching days that I’ve had. I met with the first year teachers to discuss the next lesson plan, and basically sat around and chatted with other teachers in English.

I had two introduction classes today with the new first years – I have a total of fourteen of these intro classes, so it’s hard to stay energized after the eighth or ninth one. For the students it’s the first time they see me, and their reaction is interesting. Today one of the boys was walking out after class, and instead of goodbye he said, “I don’t like boys. I like girls only.”

I told him that I agreed, and he seemed satisfied with my answer. Maybe I’ve got some kind of gay vibe going – who knows? Some of my new ESS students were in class today, and so they were a little more comfortable than the other students. Normally the ESS club meets tomorrow, but because of the holiday we are going to try to meet up on Friday.

We had a mind-numbing meeting for the teachers after school, and it was mandatory. Ugh. I wish I could tell you what it was about, but I think it was just a regularly scheduled monthly meeting. One thing that was interesting was that we will have some student teachers coming to work with us for a couple of weeks. Mr. Hayashi was licking his chops at the prospect of breaking (in) a new teacher.

After school I did some shopping and picked up some sushi for dinner – I’m on a bit of a sushi kick. It’s so cheap here. The sushi I make at home is pretty good, but it’s nice to get some exotic ones every once in a while. In the evening I did some laundry and straightened up the house. It’s a poker party on Sunday, and the place is a bit of a mess.

The plan for tomorrow is to head to Osaka to meet up with Kuniko. She’s still looking for the perfect watch to buy, so I’ll walk around some posh department stores with her and look around. The last time we shopped I found a watch priced at 650,000 yen. That’s $6,500… whoah. Some of the department stores are really nice – all the employees are beautiful and they watch you carefully to see if there is any possible chance that you’ll buy something. Kuniko and I together get extra stares, but it doesn’t seem to bother her. It still weirds me out a little.

Well, I’m off to bed. I’ll write more when I return from Osaka.

Today was quite a crazy day, full of surreal moments. It rained all night last night, and so I was prepared in the morning to walk off to the train station. I grabbed my big umbrella, wore my rain paints and coat, and even put on my hiking boots. The biggest trick was managing the umbrella while I carried all my gear wrapped in plastic bags, too.

The rain wasn’t ralling down too hard really, it was just the strong wind that accompanied it. I constantly had to turn my umbrella around to keep it from blowing away. Unfortunately the wind was swirling so fast that it pushed my umbrella inside out, and twisted and broke the metal braces to keep it together. It was a sorry looking umbrella by the time that I arrived at school.

Mr. Hayashi and I worked out the details of my tutoring sessions – we are going to do them on Mondays and Fridays, starting this week. I’m really happy about this arrangement – it will give me a chance to upgrade my Japanese even more.

I had four classes today, and they were all pretty good. All my classes today were in the student’s classrooms, rather than mine. Usually the teachers wander up there during the 10 minute break between classes and wait for the bell to ring. I’ve been doing that and now I’ve noticed that students that are normally shy will come out and talk to me. I had some good conversations today – some kids were really nice and I think they surprised themselves how well they speak and understand English when the pressure is off.

Two of my classes are with Mr. Yamamoto, who is a big music fan. He was asking all about Radiohead the last couple classes, so this time I brought in a CD with two Radiohead songs and we listened to them in the classroom. The students really enjoyed it, mainly because it gave them four or five minutes where they were sure they weren’t going to get called on.

The best part was the sight of all the students, their heads bent over studying the lyric sheet, and the sound of Radiohead playing through the whole classroom and drifting down the hallway to the other rooms.

An informal poll found that mostly girls liked Radiohead, and the boys didn’t like it. There were exceptions on both sides. As I walked by students writing about the music some had written “I don’t like this music” – but when Mr. Yamamoto asked them to read their sentence out loud they changed it to “Good music”. My theory is that they didn’t want to hurt my feelings. I was just happy to see them change the sentence on the fly – that’s quick English for you.

Mr. Hayashi mentioned that there is another student that is interested in joining ESS. Guess what – it’s a boy! Unbelievable! Astonishing! The end of the world is near! This is only the second boy I’ve heard of joining ESS in the whole JET program. I haven’t met him yet, but I have a feeling it’s the boy that I talked to the other day that had an American accent. He was pretty excited about English. Wait until the girls get ahold of him.

The rain cleared up around lunchtime, but the wind just kept blowing. On the way home I stopped in Befu to pick up some printer ink cartridges and I bought a burger at MOS Burger while I was there. The burger took longer to make than it did to eat, and as I got up and left people stared at me like I had just did a magic trick. Granted, the burgers are pretty small around here. I can’t wait to get my hands on an In-and-Out Burger.

Right now I’m home typing away. The wind outside is blowing furiously, what they might call gale force winds back home. Every now and then some big noise happens outside from something blowing over. All my stuff is secure outside, so I’m going to cuddle up with a movie I downloaded and relax tonight.

Not so bad actually – Monday is a heavy teaching day for me. I had four classes, but they were introduction classes for the most part and not so difficult. It’s always fun to meet the new students and talk to them a bit. Sometimes it is the first time that a foreigner has ever looked them in the eyes and said hello, and so you get some strange reactions sometimes.

One student came into my class, walked right up to me and started speaking English to me right away. The scary part was that he had an American accent – he was good! I found myself talking at regular speed with him but I could tell I was losing him now and then. Still, an outstanding student – I’m hoping that he will keep up the studies. I’m guessing that he’s been taking conversation classes at a local English school.

Mr. Hayashi was pretty busy today as well, but around lunchtime we managed to find time to sit down and look through the paperwork that I had edited for him. We made a few more changes and then he was going to send out the document again. Someday there will be money for this he assures me, but it’s really not that big of deal. It’s easy for me to do and I don’t have a lot of other pressing issues.

I asked Mr. Hayashi for some names for a Japanese tutor – I want to take Japanese lessons twice a week if possible. He offered to do it for me for free – I think lately he’s taken an interest in my Japanese skills and has quizzed me a couple times on my flashcards. We’re going to get started soon after the big holidays coming up – it’ll be nice to get into a rhythm and learn from a native speaker.

I snuck out early to be home for my Costco delivery, and at 5:15 a big truck pulled up and the guy lugged up the two boxes and brought them in for me. I signed on the dotted line and opened the boxes. They had packed everything securely, wrapping the breakables in bubble wrap and organizing everything efficiently. The service only cost $6 for the two boxes – a great deal!

A big storm is approaching, and the wind is blowing around outside pretty well. I’m expecting a big downpour tomorrow and the next day, but hopefully things will clear up for Thursday – it’s a holiday, and I’m hoping to get out and about a little bit after hunkering down for this storm.

Also, things are coming together for the big poker game on Sunday. So far the players are me, Antoine, Struan, and Regina – a ringer that Struan bumped into a while back. I’ll be spending the weekend getting ready for company – it’ll be a good time.

This morning I had the chance to talk to family – I spoke with my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, and my parents and brother. It was good to talk to everyone and to hear what kinds of things are going on at home.

In the middle of the day I went outside and put the sticker on my bike, narrowly avoiding it getting thrown away. It has a flat tire because it is missing a couple of pieces. It looks like someone probably had the same problem and grabbed mine. I’m going to swing by the bike shop near my school and try to pick up the missing pieces. Luckily Andrew left me a pump, so I can pump up the wheel once I get the pieces. It’s not like I really use the bike, but sometimes Melanie borrows it for her friends, so I felt like I should get it in shape.

Around lunchtime I went down to the yakitori, and waited around there for the master. I sat around with a couple of the regulars, two of the female volleyball players. One of the ladies had brought her young son in, just a year and a month old. Strangely enough this was one of the ladies that was flirting with me big time before she found out I was dating Kuniko. Seeing her with a baby was put her in a whole new light for me.

The master was busy making bento lunches for his parents and brothers and sisters, and then some customers came in and wanted lunch. The original plan was for him to drive me over to the softball game in south Futami, but he was so busy that he called some friends who drove me over. The friends were pretty surprised to see a foreigner jump into their car, but we had a nice conversation and they seemed really nice. The softball field was actually inside the big Mitsubishi plant on the ocean, so these guys played softball underneath a giant Mitsubishi logo – it was an interesting sight.

The ladies that I had hung out with earlier in the yakitori came by to watch for a while, and we all sat back on the bench and watched the guys play. They did a pretty good job – they were definitely the bad boys of the softball league. As soon as they got off the field and were batting everyone would light up cigarettes and sit around heckling the other team. Then they’d go back out in the field and run around. The opposing team was definitely more serious, but they only won by one point.

I left the game and one the guys gave me a ride home. Once I got back I ironed shirts and wrote some e-mails, and then watched a couple of Penn and Teller episodes that I downloaded off the ‘net. For dinner I tried a fried rice recipe that I found on the web, and it turned out pretty good. A little more oil than I normally put in, but it turned out pretty good. I also drank a bottle of Rabbit Ridge Zinfandel that Ms. Yamamoto gave me a while back. It was really good – much better than the French stuff that is everywhere around here.

I’m off to bed – back to work tomorrow, but it’s an abbreviated week – I’ve got Thursday off for “Green Day”. Whatever that is.

I’ve heard great things about Nara, one of the oldest capitals of Japan, since I’ve arrived here. I finally had the time and the weather going for me, and today I decided to go check it out.

I took a multitude of trains – five different train lines all together. I’m learning the layout of Osaka a little bit better now that I’ve gone through there several times. I listened to music on the train as it went right through the heart of Osaka and headed east to Nara.

Nara was beautiful. I walked around with lots of other people, but the crowds were nothing like Kyoto or Osaka. This is a city, but it felt more like a town. I wandered around fairly randomly, and all the major sights were within walking distance.

The big attraction of Nara is Todai-ji, the largest wooden building in the world housing a huge Buddha. I just followed the people in that direction, and we walked through a nice park filled with tame deer. The deer were used to getting food from people, and weren’t shy at all. They almost attacked some kids walking around, but I guess that’s par for the course. There were lots of vendors selling food for the deer, and the deer food looked suspiciously like some food that Ms. Tsutsumi gave me a couple of weeks ago.

I got to Todai-ji, and it was as big as advertised. There were lots of student groups walking around for some reason – strange for a Saturday. Inside the building the star of the show was the giant Buddha. It was pretty impressive – they like their gods big around here. Around the back were many other statues, that in any other temple would be amazing, but next to the Buddha they were just kind of ho-hum.

At the back of the building one of the support posts had a small gap in the base. Apparently it is said that the person that can squeeze through the gap reserves a place for themselves in paradise. The tour companies had their folks lined up for hours to do this, so somebody must buy into it.

After Todai-ji I walked around Nara to take pictures, and dropped into a few shops to pick up omiyage for everyone at school. In the afternoon, I got back on the train and headed back to Osaka. In Osaka I did some shopping for some sunglasses, but they only had super expensive ones. I started talking with a store clerk about them, and he went into a full-on sales pitch that had me lost.

Since I had finished touring Nara fairly early, I decided to stop in Amagasaki on the way home to try to find the Costco that is in the area. According to the map I had it was just a short distance from the station, but as it turned out it was a 20 minute walk. I bought a membership card and went in and looked around.

Costco Japan is pretty close to the same as Costco USA. The items were almost the same – there were an equal amount of American and Japanese goods when it came to food. There were almost no books and very few CDs and DVDs. One thing that was interesting was that the cleaning supplies were gigantic by Japanese standards, and the laundry soap was a very popular item. The funniest part of the trip was to sushi area – they had sushi out for sale just like in the U.S., but the Japanese customers just gave it a curious look and moved on. I guess they figure they can get fresher stuff at the local convenience store.

I decided to grab a cart and buy a few things – it would be a shame to leave without anything, and I thought I’d test the idea that you can’t get out of Costco for under $100. It cost me $170 to get out of there.

Here’s what I bought – it’s an interesting insight into what I can’t get in Japan, and also my particular cravings at the time:

Paper towels, Poppycock candy (a gift for Kuniko), 2 packages of Bratwurst, 2 big bottles of Tabasco, Ritz crackers, a big bag of tortilla chips, a jar of mixed nuts (a gift for Mr. Hayashi), paper cups (for the ESS parties), a jar of pickles, Farmer John’s bacon, Q-tips, 10 frozen tonkatsu pieces, 3 jars of Tostito’s salsa, Skippy peanut butter, a pineapple, a bottle of Edna Valley Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and a bottle of Chianti.

That was far too much for me to carry home, so I shipped everything but the cold stuff and it should show up here on Monday evening. If it all works out OK, I may go back on foot. If it doesn’t, I’ll try to talk someone with a car into taking me there next time.

I got back on the train at Amagasaki station and got a great seat right by the door, which was a little unusual for a Saturday. At the next stop, I was watching people come in and I remember thinking, “That’s the ugliest woman I’ve ever seen!” The woman sat right across from me, and it turns out it was a man. He was wearing a dress, but with jeans on underneath (which is not unusual in Japan – but usually women do it). He was wearing silver tennis shoes, and a grungy jean jacket over the top of the dress. He looked at me funny, probably because I was doing the same thing to him, and I struggled to figure him out without getting caught peeking.

At the next station the seats next to both of us opened up, and a beautiful girl walked in. I thought I was a shoe-in for sitting next to her, but she sat right down next to the guy in the dress. I watched casually, and after a minute or two she looked at the dress, and then looked up at the guy, and she actually jumped a little. How strange. I was reminded of those stories of the people that get weird sentences in court – like wearing a sign that says “I stole a library book” or something like that – maybe that was this guy’s story. Weird.

Anyway, I lugged my cold goodies home and had some tonkatsu for dinner – it was really good. I just finished watching Survivor, and I’m getting ready to go to bed early. Tomorrow should be a nice relaxing day.

Friday turned out to be a bit of a strange day. Kuniko and I had planned at the last minute to meet up at her place Friday night. The plan was for me to spend the night and then go on to Nara from there on Saturday. At the very last minute she had to cancel, because of some weird stuff going on at her new job. I was pretty bummed out about that, but I’m very adaptable.

Instead of eating out with Kuniko in Osaka I walked down to the yakitori, and watched the Hanshin Tigers game with most of the usual suspects. My Japanese studies have really helped with conversations and vocabulary. I’ve been able to do some better communicating.

The master invited me to join him to watch the softball game on Sunday, so I’m going to meet him at the yakitori Sunday afternoon and we’ll go over and check it out. It should be fun.

After I got back from the yakitori I called Kuniko and said good night, and then crashed out myself. Tomorrow is an early wake up call to go to Nara.

I had a relatively easy day at work, with only three classes and the ESS meeting. Today in our ESS meeting we had the four new members show up and introduce themselves in English. They were all very nervous, and tried hard to make a good impression. The veteran members did a good job of making them feel at home, and I even had a couple of new students come by from the third year class. The ESS club has officially exploded in size.

Besides the four new members, we had five other regular members. A few months ago we only had two people showing up, and I remember a day when I only had one student show up for an ESS meeting. As for the new students they are really shy, but I’m hoping that hanging out with the rest of the members will loosen them up a bit.

Since we’re such a large club now we’ve got to do a “cultural performance or display” in June. I’m not sure what it involves but it has a budget, which makes me a little nervous. I guess last year they did a song on stage and everyone enjoyed that. Lots of the members weren’t too hot on the idea of getting on stage, and some members of ESS are members of other clubs as well, so they wouldn’t be able to participate on stage. I think we decided to do some kind of display, but what that entails is a mystery to me. Tomorrow I’m going to talk to Ms. Tsutsumi and see what the story is.

I brought lots of food to the meeting, and the girls really chowed down. The only thing left was a small tray of sushi, so I’m eating that with a big bottle of beer as I type this. The weather is warm tonight and I’m wearing shorts, I have the doors and windows open, and a gentle warm breeze is coming through the apartment carrying smells from my neighbors’ cooking.

This weekend’s plans are starting to form up. I’ll either be in Osaka or Nara – and maybe both.

Mr. Urakami has been my nemesis at school – stalking me throughout the day and looking for a chance to speak English with me. I’m not sure why I don’t enjoy the experience more, but for some reason talking with him can be a real chore. Maybe it’s just the sheer volume of time I spend talking with him, or the fact that he doesn’t mind interrupting me when I’m doing something to talk about the weather or the true meaning of the movie “A Few Good Men”.

Recently I’ve found that if I talk about girls it makes him uncomfortable and nervous, and he tends to leave quicker. If I bring up this subject he’ll leave within fifteen minutes or so. A normal visit can last up to an hour.

Unfortunately I’ve used this trick once too often, because today he said that he’d rather change the subject and talk about politics or world history. Ugh. I’ll have to think of something else to chat about. Today he stopped by four times and talked with me for about 90 minutes all together. If I had something better to do I could tell him that I was busy, but sadly, I’m just studying Japanese.

Mr. Hayashi has been amused at the attention I’m getting from Mr. Urakami, but lately even he’s been a little creeped out. Another habit Mr. Urakami has is to sit down behind me when I’m talking with someone to “practice his listening”. This usually freaks out whoever I’m talking to, in addition to me. Mr. Hayashi is usually the one that leaves when this happens. Leaving me alone. With him.

It’s not that bad really – when Kuniko was working at the school one of the part-time biology teachers would look over her shoulder while she was working and offer English study tips. I guess it could be worse.

This morning Mr. Hayashi was typing up the translation that I had helped with, and he’s not a very fast typer. There were seven pages and it took him about half an hour to type just a few sentences. I offered to help and finished the whole thing in just a few minutes. Evidently there is some money floating around on this deal, and some may end up in my pocket.

Just one class today, a solo class with third year students. They were surprised to have no Japanese teacher to rely on for questions, so a lot of them were very confused. I think it will be better as they get used to it – sometimes you make sure to do everything right when there is no safety net below.

I made a plateful of gyoza and some rice for dinner, and I had some cafe au lait flavored frozen yogurt that I made the night before and stuck in the freezer. It turned out pretty good – I surprised myself.

Today’s weather was back to blue skies and warm temperatures. One thing that’s funny about Japanese English is that people always say that sunny weather is “fine”. “The weather is fine today!”, or “It is fine outside…” It takes some getting used to.

I sit in the first year teacher’s section, but today they and all the first year students took a bus to Miki, which is a town north of Kakogawa and Futami. The students are going through an overnight orientation, but it’s really just a way for everyone to get to know each other. Today all the teachers that are usually surrounding me were gone, and so I got a chance to do some serious studying without distraction.

I had four classes today, so I was pretty busy during the latter half of the school day. Mr. Hayashi came over to visit and we talked for quite a while. I helped straighten out some English on a technical document that he was translating, and so he was very happy about that. We razzed the history teacher a little bit about chasing the women in the office around, and basically just relaxed for the afternoon. Some students came in and so we chatted with them for a while. Finally, Mr. Hayashi said that I ought to sneak out early, so I did just that.

On the way home I did some shopping, and took a picture of the “bent fish” that gives me nightmares when I see it in my food.

For dinner I made yakisoba with a side of sushi. I bought the ingredients for a frozen yogurt milkshake, since I discovered a blender in the very back of my kitchen cabinets. There’s also one of those sandwich toasters, but it’s designed for American sized bread, not the monstrous Japanese bread that is everywhere here. I think I might drop in on the local bakery next time and see if they can custom cut some bread to a “normal” sized slice.

Tonight I sent some e-mails, listened to music, and studied Japanese. I’m expecting to do the same thing for the next three nights. Nothing too exciting – I’ll leave that for the weekends.

The weather has been warming up lately, and I spent this last weekend wearing shorts. Unfortunately, the weather has turned wet. I’ve found a good Japan weather website and I check that frequently.

I normally have four classes on Mondays, but today one got cancelled because of an assembly. I had two introduction classes, where I meet the first year students for the first time, and that is always fun. First impressions and all that. The way I’ve set up the lesson is such that the Japanese teacher starts off the class talking only in English for about five or ten minutes. The reaction is great – the kids think #1, this teacher knows how to speak English pretty well, and #2, I’m going to have to understand pretty quick what’s going on or I’m going to be lost.

The teachers gradually slip into Japanese to support my English, and I’m trying hard not to speak Japanese in the classroom.

That being said, Mr. Hayashi had a judo tournament to attend and so I had to teach one of his classes all by myself. I didn’t really teach actually, just kind of administered in-class assignments. He had it all set up with instructions in Japanese on the worksheet. The students did have to translate five paragraphs into Japanese, and it was pretty tough. They started asking me questions, so I had to try to explain the translation in Japanese to get the point across using the really simple vocabulary that I know. After a couple times of doing this I was surprised that I was able to explain it, and that the students were able to understand.

After classes ended I sat and chatted with Mr. Komuri and Mr. Urakami (the history teacher). Mr. Urakami always asks what I’m cooking for dinner, so today he asked and I told him about some udon noodles that I had gotten from a friend (Kuniko) that were made in Shikoku. Apparently these are world famous udon noodles, but I’m not sure that I can tell the difference. Mr. Urakami and Mr. Komuri had all kinds of advice about what to eat with the noodles, but when I asked how to make it or what the ingredients were, they didn’t know. Japanese men don’t spend much time in the kitchen, and so they couldn’t help me much.

After school I walked home in a heavy rain, and the wind was blowing hard enough that I had to hold onto my umbrella with two hands. It never rains and blows like this in California, that’s for sure.

The udon noodles turned out great, even though they probably weren’t the most exciting dish in the world. I followed Mr. Komuri’s advice and cooked it in the “Kansai” style served in Western Japan, and next time I’m going to make it in the “Tokai” style served in Eastern Japan.

I’ve got some roast beef in the fridge and I’m going to make a giant bloody meat sandwich for lunch tomorrow. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Another busy weekend for me – this one was especially nice because I got a chance to see Kuniko both days. Saturday I was hanging around the house most of the day, but in the evening Kuniko picked me up and we went to see a movie – “Oceans Of Fire” which was called “Hidalgo” in the U.S. release.

The movie was pretty good, a little ambitious though, and maybe a little long. Lots of cheesy parts but overall good entertainment. After the movie Kuniko and I did a little shopping and then she dropped me off at my place.

Sunday I slept in until about 9 a.m. which was much needed, and then went to Befu to get a haircut. They switched around the barbers so the same guy could cut my hair. I’m not sure why he always does it – it’s not like we speak English or anything. He did a good job though, and only charged me 1000 yen, which is a great deal.

After the haircut I bought a knife sharpener at DIK, and also some meats for this week’s lunch and dinner. I also picked up an Australian Shiraz for 1000 yen and a couple of bottles of Tsing Tao beer. I packed up all my gear and headed home, and then a couple of hours later went right back out the door to go to Osaka.

Antoine and I had arranged to meet up in Umeda so that he could buy a digital camera, and I invited Kuniko along as well. The big plan was to buy the camera and then go to Outback Steakhouse and have an American-style feast. Kuniko and I met up with Antoine and all together we went to the Yodobashi camera store right next to the station. Antoine was not shy about asking questions of the employees, unfortunately it was mostly in English. Still, the employees were used to foreigners and did a pretty good job. They listened to Antoine’s question, and then gave the answer to Kuniko in Japanese. Unfortunately the answers were pretty technical and it was hard for Kuniko to understand what they were talking about in Japanese, let alone translate it to English.

After making the camera buy we went over to Outback and started ordering food like crazy. Kuniko and I had skipped lunch so we were both starving. I ordered the Alice Springs chicken, with a side of beef ribs, and we had a “Bloomin’ Onion” for an appetizer. Kuniko had a steak with shrimp on the side, and Antoine did the Alice Springs thing as well with soup and salad. It was an unbelievable amount of food – after seeing tiny Japanese sized portions for so long, this felt like we were getting away with something.

We ate and ate and ate, and really enjoyed the food. There were lots of foreigners in the place, and everybody seemed to be going through the same sort of nostalgic dining experience we were enjoying. The food wasn’t that great really, but it was huge and it reminded us of home and that was a good thing.

Kuniko and I got Antoine to the right station gate, and then we walked back to the JR station. We said our goodbyes – it might be a couple of weeks before we get together again. I caught a super express back home and now I’m just trying to digest all the food I ate. No wonder I’ve lost weight since I came to Japan.

I woke up exhausted from the concert last night, and dragged myself to the train station. I had to wear nice clothes since I was going directly from school to Himeji for the big party to welcome new teachers and say goodbye to the old ones.

My schedule had three classes – a first, second and third year class. The second and third year classes were fun because they were with students I had last term. The third year class was with Mr. Hayashi, and he runs these classes on his own. I’m just there to help with pronunciation and to correct sentences that the students write on the board. This is nice for me – I don’t have to plan a whole lesson every week. This is the third class like this that I’ve taught with Mr. Hayashi and he has an interesting habit that I’ve noticed – he only calls on girls to answer questions. The boys are getting a free ride. Usually he asks students questions maybe ten times in a class, but it’s never a boy. I’ll keep an eye out and see if the theory holds in future classes. Strange.

On our way out of that class a student in the next class stepped out in the hallway to say hello. She is one of the ones that has a crush on me, and Mr. Hayashi and I said a quick hello and moved on. Once we turned the corner, he told me that she had asked him how to approach me to ask me out for a date. Mr. Hayashi had given her the whole “he’s a teacher, you’re a student” speech, which I was very happy to hear. He did tell her that once she graduates she’s free to take a shot – he thought that was funny. Thanks a lot.

I taught a class with Ms. Tsutsumi and she said that we had four new students sign up for ESS yesterday – wow! That pretty much doubles the size of the club. Next week we will have a welcome ceremony and they will have to introduce themselves in English. That’s scary enough that they might quit right there.

I snuck off the to cafeteria and got some katsu-curry. The cooks there know me enough to give me the big sized katsu without me asking – nice! As I sat down a second year girl’s P.E. class walked by and everyone came in to watch with fascination as I ate my lunch. I knew quite a few of the girls in the class and so we talked in English in between bites of katsu. It’s the times like this that I feel like I’m having the most impact on English learning in this school. The students were in a comfortable setting with a foreigner and able to have a full conversation. The classroom setting is OK and we have fun there, too. It just seems like the casual out-of-class conversations give the students a lot more confidence.

After school Mr. Hayashi drove Mr. Komuri and I to his house to drop off his car, and then Mr. Hayashi’s wife drove us to the train station. It was great to see Mrs. Hayashi – she’s a really nice person with a good sense of humor. We jumped on the train and we were in Himeji in fifteen minutes. We were almost an hour early, so Mr. Hayashi and I introduced Mr. Komuri to the English term “front-loading”.

We pulled into an izakaya and ordered three large beers. These mugs were huge – almost two liters of beer in a heavy glass mug. It was hard to pick up. We also ordered some greasy food to absorb some of the alcohol and sat around talking. Mr. Komuri and Mr. Hayashi traded barbs in English about their various personal problems, laughing the whole time. Mr. Komuri had apparently gone to a special clinic to deal with a prostate problem, and somehow heard that Mr. Hayashi had been there for an erectile dysfunction problem the day before.

I’m not sure either of these guys expected these personal maladies to be published on the world wide web the next day, but I had to sit through the painful conversation, and I might as well share it here. Apparently Mr. Hayashi got caught about five years ago with a woman in Korea, when he was supposed to be in Hokkaido at a teacher’s conference. He thought that he had his bases covered, but one of his co-workers called his home to ask a question, and got his wife instead. Busted! Ever since then, he’s had problems performing.

We joked for almost an hour about their (very) personal problems, and then got out of there. We walked a couple of blocks to the hotel and stepped inside. They had ushers guide us to our seats, and to my relief I was sitting between Ms. Tsutsumi and Mr. Hayashi. Miss Shigata was safely at the other side of the room sitting next to the new P.E. teacher.

Thanks to our “front-loading” we had a nice buzz during the opening speeches – each teacher that was leaving made another speech – about forty minutes of speeches in total. Finally, we made a toast, and then everyone started drinking. They had a Japanese bento type thing in front of us, but they also had a fork and knife. I enjoyed using a fork when I really should have used chopsticks, and talked with Ms. Tsutsumi for a long time.

Every once in a while a drunken teacher would come up to pour something for me, and even the new principal staggered up to pour. His face was pink, and turning red fast. He expressed his love for me through Mr. Hayashi, whose political capital has gone up enormously with the changing of the principal and vice-principal. I just smiled, nodded, and kept drinking.

Towards the end of the evening I was happy to point out to Mr. Hayashi that Miss Shigata and the new P.E. teacher were getting along pretty well. They were laughing together and leaning a little closer to each other than was normal. Mr. Hayashi agreed with me that it was pretty good news for me – I hope this means that the pressure from that direction is relieved.

Mr. Kimura and I were heading to the same station, so we made the trip back together. We talked high-tech on the way home- one of Mr. Kimura’s favorite topics. I pulled out what gadgets I was carrying so he could check them out. He loves electronics.

I walked home from the station and got back around 11 o’clock, and went right to sleep. I’m hoping to catch up on some rest this weekend. Whew!

I continued to have more classes with my new teachers and students. Today Mr. Maeda and I taught together for the first time. He has transferred from another school, and he was pretty nervous, too. He brought in some props like I have to introduce himself and his family. The best part was when he was describing his hobbies – he said that he likes fishing a lot. Then he pulled out a monthly fishing magazine and he was on the cover. Nice! The kids were not so impressed.

After school I had arranged to leave early to head over to the concert. Unfortunately, today was the registration day for clubs. I wasn’t holding out much hope for ESS, but Satomi and Ms. Tsutsumi said that they would handle it for me. I hope we get some new folks!

I dashed home and changed my clothes, and then met Yasu out in front of the apartment complex. We walked together to the train station and then Yasu led me to a discount ticket shop in Akashi. We saved about 600 yen by buying discount tickets – that’s about $6. I’d like to think that I could go there and be able to order the tickets from the lady myself, but it sounded pretty complex. Afterwards Yasu admitted that even he didn’t understand what the lady was talking about.

We wanted to catch something quick to eat, and Yasu had mentioned a place that he knew in the area. We walked across the street and along the shops in front facing the station, and then suddenly Yasu turned down an alley – it is one of those alleys in Japan that are filled with tiny shops. We stepped over wet broken pavement and passed by many doors and windows with plastic food inside to entice customers. Yasu found the place he wanted and we ducked in. Three old women were in there reading a fashion magazine, and they sat us across from them so they could keep an eye on us. The place was tiny, and Yasu ordered up some akashiyaki and okonomiyaki. This was one of the places where you cook your own okonomiyaki, so Yasu had a go and it turned out great. It’s an interesting experience.

After dinner we caught the train and started making our way to the show. We did lots of transfers, and Yasu knew some shortcuts. I memorized the station names and the subway lines so that I could come back on my own someday.

As we got closer to the station, we bumped into more and more foreigners. At one point Yasu and I were crammed into a tram car with about eight foreigners that teach for Nova. It sounded like there were some Americans, some Australians, and some British folks in the group. It was strange to stand in a train car and be able to understand what people were saying.

I’m starting to show some signs of “going native”, which is supposedly normal after living in a foreign country for a certain amount of time. The group of foreigners were loud and exclaiming with big arm motions, and as I looked at the Japanese people on the train they were looking away, almost embarrassed. I’ve heard that it’s rude to speak loudly on a train, and these guys just didn’t care. They were talking about the show and some were drinking beer and belching loudly. I probably wouldn’t look twice at a group like this if I was in the U.S., but here they stood out. By standing next to them on the train I was automatically included in the “rude group” by most of the Japanese people there – it was weird, but it bothered me a little bit.

Anyway, once we got to the arena we produced our tickets and went inside. There weren’t seats so much as zones that we were allowed to enter. We had the front zone, so we got fairly close and just waited for the show. Shows in Japan start and finish early so people can catch the trains home. This show started promptly at 7 p.m., without an opening band.

I’ve never seen Radiohead live before, and they put on an excellent show. I recognized almost all the songs, and they had put a lot of money into the design of the stage and the lights. In between songs the place became so quiet – I’ve never been in a room with so many people being that quiet. People just patiently waited for the next song, except for the odd screams or yells which likely came from the foreigners in the crowd.

The played a two hour set with two encores, and then the lights went up. Yasu and I were both happy about the show – the played all the songs we wanted to hear. We crammed ourselves back in the trains and headed home. As the first train pulled out I noticed that the parking lot for the event was about the size of a grocery store parking lot back home. Most people just don’t drive around here.

We were hungry and thirsty after the show so we stopped in for some noodles and beer at a little ramen shop near Umeda station. That really hit the spot and made the long train trip home much easier to deal with. After standing at the concert for two hours, we had to stand on the train for the hour trip home. We pulled in Futami around midnight, and I went right to sleep… tomorrow is a work day – yikes!