So I had heard a couple of days ago that there was a murder in Akashi, which is the name of the big town that I live in. I live in a small town called Futami, which is in the western part of Akashi. I found out yesterday that the murder happened just a couple of blocks from my apartment, in a ramen restaurant that I’ve been to a couple of times.

The story is that there was only one employee closing the place down, sometime after 3 a.m. He was killed with a knife, and the place was robbed. There aren’t many gun crimes in Japan, so I think most crimes are at knifepoint. The sister of one of the part time helpers at my yakitori hangout worked there – I had ordered noodles from her before. I’ll have to find out what happened from the folks at the yakitori – I’m sure they’ll have the whole scoop.

It was a big surprise to me – I’ve been used to walking around without fear. It served as a good reminder that you are never 100% safe, and to be careful wherever you go.

My cold is starting to go away. My cough has died down, and I’m feeling much better. I’m hoping to be healthy by Friday. I haven’t been exercising since I’ve been sick, and I’m dying to burn some calories. Saturday is a free day for me – I’ll probably end up doing laundry and if I’m healthy, taking a hike. Sunday I’m working as an interviewer for the STEP test – it’s an easy job that pays really well. The tradition is that after the test we go to Graciani’s for a big dinner – that should be very nice.

Classes today went really well. My second year class did a great job with the food activity – they run around the classroom piecing together a sushi recipe. They were actually looking up words in their dictionaries without being prompted – it was unbelievable. Mr. Yamamoto, the somewhat scary teacher, had a belly laugh at the sight of all the students running around like crazy trying to solve the puzzle. I think he liked it.

There are subtle indications that the temperature has been gradually increasing. I’ve noticed a bug or two flying around lately. After being inundated with bug life upon my arrival in the summer, the winter has been remarkably bug free. Today on the way to work I noticed some blossoms on an old tree on the temple grounds near my apartment. Spring is coming.

My cold seems to be winding down a bit, but my throat continues to hurt. I had a full schedule today, and the second year students really put my hollering skills to the test. They are definitely the loudest class I have, so I need to shout to make myself heard. Each time I shouted I could feel the damage I was causing to my throat tissue – sharp jags of pain along the back of my throat. After the class finished I drank a couple glasses of hot water and had a throat drop, and I felt better. I’m scared that tomorrow I’ll awake without a voice, though.

Shigata sensei, a second year teacher, pulled me aside and invited me to join her and some of her friends in Kyoto at the end of this month. I’m a little averse to the idea, especially since she’s been giving me looks from across the teacher’s office since I arrived. I suspect she has ulterior motives, so I’m going to apologize and miss the trip. I’m also on Kyoto burnout right now – I’m hoping to explore some other parts of Japan next.

Mr. Hayashi asked me to leave a little early today – he is worried about my cough and wants me to get some rest. I took him up on the offer (again) and left work around 4:15. I used the extra time to do some shopping at Carrefour – I bought a couple of interesting things. I picked up a nice Italian Sangiovese, two bottles of Negro Modelo, some odds and ends for the household, a couple of nice cheeses, tortilla chips, and some sushi. There’s lots of great stuff there, but I’m trying a minimalist approach. It’s nice to have a place nearby with so many interesting things.

It was a big contrast shopping there – not very many customers tonight. One thing I thought was interesting is that they had too many cashiers up front, but instead of re-assigning some to restock, or sweep the floor, or whatever, they just wait patiently there with their hands crossed. It was kind of creepy – there is no way that they will all be busy, but they just sit there. It seemed inefficient, but who am I to say how to run a French store in Japan.

I dragged my coughing, hacking, sorry body into work today, knowing that I have a big week – if I don’t go in and do my classes, nobody else will. Luckily, the day turned out pretty well, and I feel much better this evening.

I did a new lesson for the second year students on food. We talked for quite a while about food, and the students did a pretty good job. At the end of the lesson there is a game that makes everyone get up and run around, and that was a big hit. I am doing the class five more times this week, so hopefully it will stay fresh and interesting.

I’ve turned into the sadistic teacher when it comes to calling on students. All the kids are watching me and they are trying to figure out my patterns. Who is going to get called on next? What’s the best way to avoid getting called on? Sit in the back and hide? Stare at your textbook and don’t look up? A year ago I was taking Japanese at Grossmont College in San Diego and I did the same thing – I was hoping that the teacher wouldn’t call on me to speak in front of all my peers. I’ve been there, and so I’ve had a chance to think up all kinds of insidious plots to throw students off balance.

In one class, I only called on the last two rows the whole class. The next week everyone moved up to the front. I called on the back rows for the first half on the class, just so the kids in the front would relax, and then I called only the front row kids the rest of the class.

Today I asked the first student in the row to pronounce a word, and then I walked down the row, each student pronouncing the word. Once they figured out which row is being worked, people would relax. After doing four rows like this I would walk down the row and then suddenly point at someone across the way. You should see the facial expressions – as my students would say, “I have shock”.

Another one of my tricks is to walk towards a student, making eye contact, just like I’m about to call on them, and then at the last second call on the kid next to him who is already relaxing thinking they are off the hook.

Sadistic, I tell you. Anyway, the tactics are extreme sometimes but they do a pretty good job of keeping people guessing, thereby paying attention. There’s always some exceptions, but it’s working so far.

Today I made a pretty good haul on Valentine’s candy. A student wanted to meet me in my classroom after school so she could give me a big bag of Valentine’s goodies. She said that she made them “especially” for me. There was a bunch of cookies, and even some chocolate truffles in there. Nice. Another student gave me some chocolates, and a part time teacher, Obara-sensei, gave me some homemade cookies that she baked.

After school the teachers had a big mandatory meeting that I was excluded from, which is always great news. I got to leave an hour early, so I snuck out and did a bit of shopping in Befu. I was looking for some specifics, but I struck out. I may need to go to Kobe to pick up what I want. Dinner tonight was kimchee fried rice with carrots and sprouts on the side. Delicious!

Saturday I couldn’t really shake my sore throat – I still felt good but the throat was annoying. I was pretty bummed out because it buts a damper on my weekend. I went and did some shopping around lunchtime, and then came back here to rest. Around three o’clock Miss Kageyama came over – we originally had considered going out to dinner in Tarumi, but since I wasn’t feeling great she insisted on coming over and checking in on me.

She brought some goodies – some Valentine’s chocolate, Tomb Raider 2 on DVD (in Japanese and English!), and a new CD by one of my favorite Japanese groups, SPITZ. We settled on simple dinner of rice with chicken and egg – kind of a Japanese comfort food.

While we were eating dinner the weather started blowing pretty good – it was raining and howling outside. I walked Miss Kageyama back to the station because I hated to send her off in the weather… then I came on back and went right to bed.

This morning I woke up even more stuffed up, and so I’ve been resting today and trying to recover. Next week is a big week for me – I’m going to be teaching a lot more classes than usual. I’ll need my energy. Today I may just lay around the house and rest.

One thing I rediscovered lately is that I can listen to NHL hockey games over the internet. It’s nice to catch up with the Sharks and Sabres here in Japan of all places.

Today was Friday, the last day of the work week and also the last working day before Valentine’s Day. This week I had no Friday classes except my adult class, and even that one only had two students today. Anticipating an easy day I brought in a book to do some pleasure reading.

When teachers started arriving, there was a buzz in the air – something was different today. Then I realized what it was – Valentine’s Day. In Japan, Valentine’s Day is celebrated by the females giving the males chocolate. The guys just sit back and watch it roll in. The payback comes on March 14th, called “White Day” in Japan. Then the boys return the favor by giving white chocolate to the girls that gave them something.

I was certainly happy that it worked out this way – if it was the other way around then I wouldn’t know who to give something to and who not to. Just as this alleviates social pressure for me, it creates a lot of tough pressure for both male and female students at my school.

The girls have to work hard to make candy – I understand that they usually give out homemade candy and chocolates to the ones they REALLY like, and store bought for everyone else. The boys have to sweat about whether they are going to get anything or not. Talking to some of my adult class teachers – their sons had been really disappointed the last couple of years that they didn’t get anything. Ouch!

Miss Yamamoto, Miss Kotera, and Miss Saito all went in together and got some really expensive chocolates for the first year teachers. They put in a nice note (in Japanese) but with Miss Yamamoto’s help I could translate it OK. The chocolates look great – truffles from a confectionery store in Kobe. One of my adult class teachers got me a small box of rum filled chocolates (wow!), and then Miss Yamamoto got me a bottle of wine, too. It’s a bottle of 2000 Rabbit Ridge Zinfandel. I couldn’t believe it! She said that there is a great wine store near Sone (north of the school) and that they had lots of interesting wines there. A while back she had asked me for some wine varietals that Mr. Hayashi might like. I had given her a list like Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Zinfandel. I guess in order to thank me, she got me a bottle too. Now I have a really good California wine for my collection.

She had also picked up a bottle for Mr. Hayashi – I asked her what one she got, and she couldn’t remember the name. She went back to her desk, opened up the bag and pulled out a 1997 Benziger Reserve Merlot!

I almost fell off my chair! I explained my history of having worked there, and she just laughed and laughed. Apparently the store owner had recommended it to her. Now I have to get to that store and check it out. Miss Yamamoto said that she would drive me there sometime after work to see it. Amazing that a wine like that is even in Japan, let alone in my neck of the woods. I can’t imagine what it cost her, but Mr. Hayashi was very happy with it. Mr. Hayashi drinks three liter casks of cheap California wine all the time, so it’s a bit like pearls before swine – but he’ll enjoy this one for sure.

After school ended I had several visitors come in to say hello, and one student even came by to give me some homemade chocolate. It was a second year student that I had talked to (mainly in Japanese) a while back – she was showing me pictures of her family’s new puppy. Anyway, she remembered that and decided to bring me chocolates. Very cool. I wrote down everyone’s name and next month I’ll be on the lookout for some white chocolate to pay back everyone.

Tonight and tomorrow Melanie is having all her girlfriends over to stay, so I’m anticipating a lot of giggling, pillow fights, and Guinness consumption upstairs. As for me I’m just trying to get over this cold – I’ve taken enough Vitamin C to start to worry about toxicity levels. I’m downloading Survivor now, and hopefully I can watch that this evening and then hit the hay early.

As I was going to bed last night I felt the dryness in the back of my throat that usually means an oncoming cold. I took action immediately, taking two vitamin pills, drinking a hot brandy, and going straight to bed with the heater and electric blanket both cranked up pretty high.

This morning I woke up with a run-of-the-mill sore throat, but that’s it. The sore throat isn’t bad, today I was sucking on some cough drops during the day, and I had some spicy soup for lunch and dinner to try to burn the engine clean. Hopefully it won’t turn into a full-blown cold. The timing sucks – right before the weekend. Ugh.

I had two classes today, and we reviewed songs by Britney Spears, Sum 41, White Zombie, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. Nobody has picked Frank Sinatra yet, but I’m hoping it will happen soon. Next week I’m going to force my students to review some stuff they’ve never heard – it will be fun.

After school Mr. Hayashi and I taught some of our students how to prepare for the STEP test coming up. We did mock interviews so that they could get a feel for it, and they were really nervous, even for the fake test. I hope that they do OK for the real thing.

After school I got a ride with Mr. Hayashi to the Kakogawa station, and from there I took the train to Uozumi to pick up a package that my folks sent. It was full of good foods and spices. There was even some Valentine candy hearts – I’m going to take them into school tomorrow and pass them around. On the way home I grabbed a big bowl of ramen with kimchee, and then I went home to rest up. I’m off to bed early tonight – I’ve got to let my white blood cells do their work.

Today is a holiday here in Japan, and I finally took an oft-postponed trip to Kyoto to do some things on my own. The last few times I’ve been with other people and this time I wanted to set my own pace and look around. The trip to Kyoto takes about an hour and a half from my doorstep to Kyoto station – just 30 minutes longer than a trip to Osaka. With all my gear in my bag, I made the trip, rocking out to my mp3 player the whole way.

I had an improvised itinerary thanks to Yasu, Miss Kageyama, and some other folks at school. I walked a big loop in eastern Kyoto, starting with a 20 minute hike to the first temple, Sanjuusangendou.

This temple is a Japanese National Treasure, and is famous because inside the huge building are 1001 statues of Buddha. These statues are human sized – and they really fill up a temple. No pictures allowed, but I managed to sneak one without the flash. It didn’t turn out great, and it does no justice to how awesome it is to walk through the smoke and incense in the temple under the eyes of all those statues. There is one gigantic statue in the middle of the temple, where everyone was praying. On either side there were 500 statues made of cypress, and painted gold. The whole site was amazing – I spent about half an hour walking back and forth past the statues.

Afterwards I walked past the Kyoto National Museum, which was featuring a special exhibit on the art of Star Wars. Unfortunately it was only for the last two movies, so I decided to skip it. I walked north from there to Kiyomizu-dera, a temple built on the side of a mountain. The hike was pretty steep to get there, and the pathway that I found went through a huge graveyard. It was an amazing sight to see all the gravestones stretching up the hill.

At the top was a huge orange gate, and beyond that the Kiyomizu-dera temple. I walked around the area and took lots of pictures. Mr. Komuri said that the balcony of the temple is famous – apparently it used to be believed that if you jumped off while making a wish and you survived… your wish would come true. It was a big drop to the ground, I can’t imagine many people surviving the drop.

At the bottom of the temple grounds there is a waterfall, and the water is supposed to have healing properties. I paid 200 yen to collect some water in a cup and drink it. It tasted great, by then I was pretty thirsty.

I made my way north from there and passed many smaller temples – the area is full of religious areas. I found myself at Yasaka-jinja, a somewhat newer temple that had some music going on. An old lady was singing a traditional Japanese tune, and boy was it terrible. Maybe I haven’t listened to enough of that kind of music, but it sounded really bad – kind of like a cat in heat. It probably sounds a lot like what Corrosion of Conformity sounds like to my students. Anyway – just relating my thoughts here. I didn’t clap at the end of the song.

Getting out of earshot became top priority, so I went behind the temple and found it surrounded by smaller temples – set up in squares somewhat like booths at a fair. Beyond the small temples I found a park that Yasu recommended, Maruyama-koen. The park was pretty bare right now – there are cherry trees everywhere, and soon they will blossom and create a tourist stampede. The park was nice to explore, and I took lots more pictures here.

Beyond the park was another huge temple, Chion-in. The gate is enormous, and once you walk through there are gigantic stairs that lead to the main temple. When I walked through the gate and saw the stairs, I realized that I had seen this before. It turns out that they had filmed part of The Last Samurai here. If you watch the trailer you can see the stairs that I’m talking about – in the trailer there are two guards flanking the steps. There’s also a castle at the top in the trailer – something that they added later with computers.

The temple was pretty active. There were priests praying and chanting, lots of incense burning, and plenty of tourists running around. I walked through the grounds and went all the way back down the huge staircase before I realized that I missed seeing a 67 ton bell that they ring every year. I turned around and went right back up the stairs and found the bell. It was enormous – apparently it takes seventeen priests to ring it.

I took a shortcut back since I had done the stairs three times, and I got to see some lonely temples on the way back. At the bottom of the hill I went due west, and entered the downtown Kyoto area. I flirted with the idea of getting a traditional lunch/dinner here, but Miss Kageyama had warned me that the prices were way too high. Instead I went back to the station, and walked through the underground shopping center. I found a good ramen place with homemade noodles, and I sat back and slurped noodles happily.

I got back on the train, and got home around six o’clock in the evening. It was an easy day trip, and I got to see lots of new things. There is still a lot more of Kyoto to see, but I’m on a temple burnout right now. It was great exercise though, and it sure beat sitting around the house on a holiday. I took 140 pictures, which is pretty good for just one day’s work.

Today I kicked off my new lesson on music, and I have to say that it worked pretty well. I’ve built in some precautions to make sure that I don’t get bored with the lesson, and there is also some inherent randomness in my system, so things stay interesting. I’m always pumped on the first day of a new lesson – hopefully this one will keep my interest through the next two weeks.

I printed up a big list of music for the students to choose from, and then they actually do a music review of three songs. They have about thirty to choose from, and I tried to do a wide selection of genres so that it isn’t just pop music, which is very popular here.

I’ve set it up so that I can choose songs for them to review or they can, depending on how I think the class is going. In the classes that were excited, I let them choose. There was a big fight in my last class on who got to request a song – one of the guys that usually sleeps through class was wide awake and making requests.

Other classes were quiet and afraid to make a request. In those cases, I picked the songs or had the Japanese teacher pick the song. At one point I had the whole class listening to Corrosion of Conformity. It’s a metal band I really like (here’s a clip of one of their songs). The class sits in stunned silence and then almost everyone writes a scathing review. One student really liked it, though. We talked about his other favorite bands after class.

After school I made the long journey to Nishinomiya Kitaguchi to get my camera back from Antoine. He had taken tons of pictures at the car show, and once I looked at the pictures he took I realized why he went. Here’s a sample:

I think I got the ratio about right – he had 28 megabytes worth of girls and cars from the Osaka car show. Antoine is actually a big car fan, and he runs a big Mazda bulletin board website. Still, most of the pictures were girls, and that shows you exactly where Antoine’s mind is these days. Not that I’m complaining, really.

I had to get the camera back because I’m planning a solo trip to Kyoto tomorrow. I’m going to hit a few shrines that I’ve heard good things about, so it should be fun. I’m staying up late tonight getting ready, and then I’ll sleep in a bit tomorrow and head out. Tomorrow is Foundation Day, a national holiday. I should have some great pictures from Kyoto posted here soon.

Sometimes the smallest little things provoke the strangest reactions here. Today I brought in some leftover pizza to eat for lunch. No problem – no big deal. Then I pulled out the carrot sticks that I cut up at home and got an amazing reaction from teachers and students alike. They couldn’t believe that I was eating a raw carrot. No spices? Not cooked? Mr. Komuri said that “I must be a horse”. Other teachers gathered around to watch me eat the carrots, and oohhed and aaaahed when I chomped one down.

Some students were asking about the bag of carrots that I had on my desk, so the teachers asked me to go out into the hallway to show them. They were laughing hysterically as I ate the carrots. I felt like charging admission and taking my show on the road.

I had my last official Valentine’s class today, and it was with my rowdy group of kids. They were a little better today, because the lesson was a little more interesting, but they were pretty much ignoring most of the lesson. Mr. Kimura was extremely frustrated, but he couldn’t really do anything about it. I went into a zen-like state – I taught the lesson, but without getting worked up about whether the kids were “getting it” or not. No frustration that way.

Mr. Hayashi was going through some kind of guilt trip today and so he said that I should leave early. I took him up on it and left about an hour early from school. As I walked by the outside of the school grounds, I passed a group of three schoolgirls from another school. The giggles started up, and then I could hear running behind me. One brave girl said “Hello”, and I turned and smiled and said “hello” back. Her friend said something in Japanese that I didn’t catch, and then she said “I love you” in English. I said “thanks” and kept walking – I guess it was a successful intercultural exchange.

One of my male students rode by and his bike and gave me a big grin – he had overheard what happened and wanted to see my reaction. About two blocks later I heard running behind me again and got worried, but it was two female students from my school this time. They asked me to pose with them for some pictures, so I posed with each of them as they snapped photos. They were very polite and it was nice to talk to them.

The attention I get is a lot of fun, and I have to admit that I enjoy it quite a bit. It is dangerously inflating my ego, but on a more positive note it’s a great opportunity to show a positive foreign face to people. This morning as I walked to school, three people on my route said good morning to me first – all my smiles, bows, and good mornings of the past have been paying off. I feel like I’m making a positive impact on my little corner of Japan, even if it’s only in the smallest of ways. It’s been a while since I’ve made an impact on something other than some company’s bottom line.

Today was a pretty relaxing Sunday. I spent some time on the phone with my folks and my brother in the morning, and then I worked on a project for the next lesson at school – it came out looking pretty good.

I got a call from somebody that spoke only Japanese. After a fair amount of slow talking I figured out that it was the STEP test headquarters, inviting me to be an interviewer during the next STEP test. The pay is good – one day’s work pays almost 30,000 yen (around $300). When I worked at Barnes & Noble it took me two weeks of sweating and lifting boxes to earn that kind of money. Here I am qualified simply because I speak flawless English. Miss Kageyama is going to take the interview test for the 1st grade – it’s the top level, and she’s been studying hard to try and pass it. She failed last time, so she really wants to get through it. She’s testing at another school, so there will be no chance of anyone from Takasago Minami cheating her through.

I spent the afternoon pleasure reading, and then around 5 o’clock Miss Kageyama dropped by for dinner. I had been hoping to have a pizza delivered at some point, and the master of the yakitori had given me a nice big ad full of different pizzas. I had translated a couple that looked good, so Miss Kageyama called it in for me, and twenty minutes later the guy was knocking on my door. Unfortunately he didn’t have change for the big bills I tried to give him, but Miss Kageyama came through with some small bills.

The pizza was pretty good. It had a lot of toppings on it, and although it was just a little bland, it was nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a splash of Crystal ‘extra hot’ hot sauce. Miss Kageyama even took a shot at the Crystal and she liked it. Definitely an atypical Japanese reaction. Maybe next time she’ll be ready to try the Yucateco habanero sauce.

After dinner I walked her back to the train station. She had ridden her bike to the Takasago station and then taken the train over. The difference in cost is about 400 yen – so she saved about eight bucks by riding the bike. Good call.

Antoine hasn’t been feeling great the last couple of weeks. He’s had some minor health problems, his computer croaked on him, and he’s also starting to feel a bit homesick. We cooked up the idea a week or so ago that we’d go into Osaka, find a Mexican restaurant, and eat some spicy food to remind us of home.

I met Antoine in Umeda near a car display in the Hankyu station entrance. The Hankyu station is visually the most impressive of the stations in Osaka – it’s built into part of a shopping plaza, and the architecture and layout are a lot of fun.

First thing I wanted to check out was a place called Joyopolis near the station. It is an arcade/amusement park sponsored by Sega. We walked across the street but had trouble tracking it down. We ended up asking some employees in the lobby of the shopping center we were searching. Before I could ask in Japanese one of the employees asked me in English if he could help us. I realized that he was a foreigner – maybe European. He had blue eyes – something I haven’t seen in a long time. They were so strikingly blue that Antoine and I later conjectured that he was actually a robot – some kind of weird Osaka AI experiment. He creeped us out a little.

Anyway, he told us what we wanted was on the eighth floor, so we went on up, and then walked around the amusement area. There were little booths were you paid 500-600 yen and then walked through “Virtual Reality” exhibits. We ponied up for Terminator 3, which turned out to be pretty strange.

First, the guy asked us if we spoke Japanese, and I told him that we only spoke a little. He got a worried look on his face, and then asked us to wait outside. He ducked into a little room, and popped out two minutes later in full military gear and a gun. It was a little shocking, but he had us stand up straight, salute, and promise that we wouldn’t hurt anyone. His English was broken but quite good.

We walked in, and there were a number of cheesy things in there – a broken mannequin on the floor that was supposed to be the last people that went through, and a couple of robots that shot “bullets” of compressed air across the dark room. The best part by far was the cheesy acting by our guide – I’m sure it was more compelling in Japanese, but he did his best in English, and we were laughing pretty hard. At one point he tried to say “fuck” in English, but pronounced it wrong, and so with all the “bullets” flying by and the robots bouncing around we taught him how to pronounce it correctly.

At the end some poor employee dressed up in an alien suit chased us down the hallway towards the exit. Very cheesy, but I think I got my money’s worth of entertainment. We decided to forgo some of the other rides – although some names were pretty good. There was a bingo parlor that looked interesting, and a giant room full of print club picture machines. You could even rent strange costumes to wear while the pictures are taken. I tried to get Antoine to rent the French maid outfit, but he wasn’t going for it.

We took the subway from their to Shinsaibashi, and our first landmark – Bar, Isn’t It? Above that bar was one that was open, so we went in there to have a couple of beers and get our bearings. After chatting for an hour or so and drinking Coronas, we headed over to the Mexican restaurant, and found it closed. Ouch.

We did a quick check for another place, and found one called Ola Tacos that sounded promising. After a ten minute walk we found it – and it was closed too. It seemed like a bad time to close – Saturday night was jumping.

We were pretty bummed, so we ended up going to an Italian place for pizza. We ordered up two pizzas, and enjoyed an atmosphere strangely reminiscent of Bucca Di Beppos back in California. The pizza was a little plain, but tasty enough.

We left the place still hungry though, so we went back to Umeda station and found a little place there to eat yakisoba. I ordered a beer, but Antoine was trying to rehydrate and he ordered water. The older lady that was helping us gave him a look of disapproval, and then gave him a tiny glass of water from a big bottle that they had there. He drank it in one gulp, waited about five minutes and asked for some more. They glared menacingly at him, and said that they only had tea, trying to sell him a can of tea. The bottle that they poured from was still right there, but they were getting greedy on us. Antoine insisted on water, and so they poured him some from the tap – and set it down in front of him. We decided to pay up and leave – we weren’t feeling very welcome there so we split.

Antoine is going to a car show on Sunday, but he was bummed because he still doesn’t have a camera. It’s a big car show, one that he’s really excited about, so I loaned him my camera for the show. He was really happy, and I think that seemed to cheer him up the most of the whole night. I’m going to have to come up with another camera for my trip to Kyoto on Wednesday, but Kyoto will be there all the time, and the car show only comes once a year.

We split up from there and on the way home I bumped into Chris Yapp, an ALT that I know – he lives in the next town over. He was coming back from an Iron Maiden concert in Osaka, and so he told me all about that. He’s from Hawaii originally, so he’s having a tough time dealing with the cold weather around here. Chris said that he’s sticking around for year two, so we might have a chance to see a show together in the future sometime.

With no classes today except my very casual teacher’s class, I was pretty bored. I studied a bit, but people kept coming by wanting to talk with me, so I quickly gave up on that idea. Usually when it’s busy in the teacher’s office I go upstairs and lock myself in my classroom, but today they were waxing the floors, so I had nowhere to hide.

At 4 o’clock the second year students got back from the airport and their trip to Hokkaido. They all looked exhausted, and the teachers even more so. I think that they will be getting some good solid rest this weekend. Mr. Urakami and I jumped into his car at around 5, and by six o’clock we were sitting in his favorite restaurant in Himeji. I was in for a surprise.

A while back Mr. Urakami had asked me what my favorite foods were, and apparently he was taking notes. He passed this information on to the chef, who is a close friend of his. We were introduced as we went inside, and she and her staff were working hard on all kinds of things in the tiny kitchen.

Everyone knew Mr. Urakami – he was like Norm from Cheers. We sat down and then the drinks and food started coming. I didn’t have to order, because the entire four course meal was based around my favorite foods.

I’ve never had the priviledge of having a chef cook a meal based on what I like, and it’s a pretty amazing experience. First, they brought out shrimp, prepared three ways. There was a shrimp salad, grilled and butterflied shrimp, and fried shrimp on a big plate with spicy sauce to dip into. We each had our own plate so no worries about who was getting what.

Next they brought out tacos – two tacos for each of us with grilled chicken in one and spicy beef strips in the other. There was a very spicy homemade salsa to put on top, and the tortillas were homemade and had a nice herbal flavor to them – excellent. The fresh salsa was too spicy for Mr. Urakami, so I ate his too. Salsa is impossible to find in Japan, and when you do it’s the stuff in the jar that is just so-so. This was a special treat.

By now I had figured out that he had passed on the information, and I was desperately trying to remember what I told him. The chef had worked hard on this meal and things that just popped out of my mouth were coming to life on my dinner plate. What a surreal experience.

The next dish was homemade raviolis stuffed with shrimp, cheese and basil. There was a rich red sauce over the top with lots of garlic and herbs, and little bites of sausage mixed in. This was really good – the homemade raviolis tasted great and I was in heaven.

After the raviolis they brought out ribs. When I had told Mr. Urakami how much I liked pork ribs, he couldn’t believe that anyone would eat pork ribs. The Japanese don’t really like to eat the ribs, and so apparently the chef had gone to a butcher and requested a special cut. We were served two big spareribs glazed in a sweet orange ginger sauce with just enough spiciness to make your mouth burn just a bit. There was also a homemade sausage served with them and fresh baked bread with a cheese filling inside. On the side was a big salad covered with a vinagrette sauce. Mr. Urakami did a good job on the ribs. I was happily picking them up with my hands and eating them – something that is definitely frowned upon in Japan. Eating with your hands is considered low class here, but I had explained at the outset that it was the best way to get at the meat, and it makes you feel like a barbarian. Mr. Urakami hesitated a bit and then dug in.

On the side they served four fresh sushi rolls – we had talked about food when I was craving sushi, and so that was on my list of favorite foods as well. They made sure that it was included on the menu.

Altogether it was a stunning meal, one made more special by the fact that it was created just for me. We were served draft Guinness while we ate, and then we switched to some other imported beers that they had in the bottle. I was overwhelmed and stuffed with food at the end of the meal.

Mr. Urakami organized it to say thanks for taking the time to talk to him during school, and also to show me that Mr. Hayashi isn’t the only one that knows a good restaurant or two. He wouldn’t let me help with the bill, and I have no idea what something like that must have cost.

We had a great time, and on our way out we said thanks to the master, and then stopped by the kitchen and talked with the chef. She had enjoyed undertaking the challenge of such a wide variety of foods, and the ribs were her first try. I told her how great everything was, and she was genuinely pleased.

Afterwards we went to a bar that Mr. Urakami likes. It was a strange place called, get this, The Spooky Angel. The place was dead with just one lady at the end of the bar. We had a couple of drinks there, and then got out of there. The place was OK, but not my kind of place. Somehow it reminded me of a Hollywood bar on Sunday afternoon.

Mr. Urakami was a bit the worse for wear, so he called a service to help him get home. They send two people and a car. One guy drives you home and the other guy drives your car home. The service only costs 1000 yen (around $10). What a great idea! I got on the train and took a short ride home. I’m back now and it’s still early. I’m off to bed soon. Tomorrow I’m hoping to go into Osaka and cheer up Antoine a bit. We’re on the lookout for a Mexican restaurant in the area.

Earlier this evening I wrote a nice wrap up of today, but somehow it got lost when I tried to post. Bummer. This is the second attempt – I hope it works!

Snow fell twice today at school, once in the morning and once just before lunchtime. The morning snow was lots of small flakes sprinkling everywhere, and the lunchtime snow was big gigantic flakes. The big ones fell slowly, and there was something beautiful about watching them come down on the school on an otherwise sunny day. I’ve never been much of a snow guy, but as long as it doesn’t end up in piles all over the place, it’s not bad.

The wind was blowing big time today after lunch, and at one point it blew right through one of the exhaust ports of the teacher’s room heaters. The result was a huge bang, causing the lid and protection screen to go flying in different directions. Mr. Hayashi joked that I didn’t have to go to Iraq to get bombed – it’s just as dangerous here in Japan.

I only had two classes today – the last two Valentine’s Day classes. Tomorrow I only have my adult class, so I will spend most of the day putting the finishing touches on my next two lessons. After school I’m going to Himeji to have dinner with Mr. Urikami.

For dinner tonight I went over to the yakitori. I haven’t been in a long time, and it was good to catch up with the master. We talked about all kinds of things, including next weekend – he’s going to be practicing softball. He invited me to come – I think he wants me to try out for the team, but I said that I’d see what happens (a polite way of saying no, thanks). I put myself on the mercy of the court and had the master order two items for me. It turned out that I ate beef heart (心), and then I had an interesting one – chicken wrapped in basil leaves with a sour plum sauce smothered on top. It was actually pretty good, and since the master had a 50% discount on beer I got out of there cheaply.

One thing he commented on was that my Japanese seemed to be improving. He asked if I had been studying more lately, and I told him that I had. After putting in quite a few hours, it felt good to find someone that noticed the difference. Mostly I speak English with people at school, so they wouldn’t really notice. Woo-hoo!

I’m munching on some microwave popcorn – I think I figured out how to cook it correctly with my microwave. The highest setting is 500 watts, so it takes a little while and some kernels don’t pop. Still, the bag is almost three quarters full, and it isn’t burnt. Nice!

After unsuccessfully looking for sushi yesterday I tried another store today and found three long sushi rolls for only 100 yen each. I ate them tonight for dinner with some homemade miso soup, and it was good!

I confirmed today that Melanie, my upstairs neighbor from England, is not going to return next year on JET. She is going to go home for a while and then try to do some traveling in Africa. I think she was in a tough situation here on JET, and that contributed to her decision to leave. She was working at two schools, so she had to split time between the two and get to know two staffrooms full of teachers. Her primary school has three ALTs working – and they all work together in the classroom. There is no lesson planning for her, and she gets about 15 minutes of teaching time during any given class. That means that most of her day is spent at her desk sitting around waiting for the day to end. Also, I think that things can sometimes be tough for women in Japan – it is a very male centered society, and a strong female personality can come as an unwelcome surprise to some Japanese.

As for other JETs that I’ve gotten to know here, Antoine is staying for another year at least, Carrie is signed on for another year, and Nell has signed up, too.

Anyway, I’m going to meet up with Mel in the next couple of weeks at the yakitori and talk about it with her. This means that I’ll have a new neighbor upstairs next year – I hope they are nice!

The history teacher Mr. Urikami and I have been chatting quite a bit lately, and today we went out for lunch. We had some curry at a local restaurant. I asked for extra spicy but it still was very mild. It was also fairly expensive – for the same price you can get all-you-can-eat authentic Indian curry. I was a little disappointed, but it was fun to try a new place.

On Friday he invited me to join him for dinner at one of his favorite restaurants in Himeji. The chef is an ex-girlfriend of his, and I guess they are still on good terms. When Mr. Hayashi found out that we were going out without him, I think he got a little jealous. He jokingly called our dinner a “sausage party” and tried to get us to invite a female teacher or two along with us. We’re just there for a little dinner and some Guinness, so we’ll pass on the teachers. Then I had to explain what a sausage party was to Mr. Urikami, who got a big laugh out of the definition.

The teacher’s room is pretty quiet these days with the second year teachers gone to Hokkaido on the school trip. All of the second year students are on the trip, the third years are on mandatory vacation, and so it’s just the first year teachers and students running around.

Today was the first day of spring (or so I’m told), and so there are some Japanese customs that were brought to my attention. The first one I found out about when the cafeteria staff gave me a small packet of beans with my lunch. They were packaged like snacks, with the head of a devil on the wrapper.

I took them in to Mr. Hayashi, and he says that the beans are considered good luck to eat. Apparently tradition is to throw the beans (inside the kitchen, I guess). After you throw the beans you collect them and eat them. You are also supposed to eat one bean for each year that you’ve been around. Mr. Hayashi and Mr. Komuri both joked that there weren’t enough beans around to do that one.

Another tradition that Mr. Hayashi mentioned was that you are supposed to eat a sushi roll while facing south. I thought that was an interesting one – so I said that I would stop in for sushi on the way home. I guess the tradition is popular, because two supermarkets I went to were cleaned out of sushi. They had stuff to make sushi, but I bought some Chinese rolls and ate them facing north in my apartment.

After one of my classes today I was reading the journals from the students. One mentioned that he broke his foot over vacation. Later on he mentioned that he went to visit his aunt in the hospital. I marked on his paper that it sounded like he had a rough winter vacation. Two papers later, another student wrote that he broke his foot, and visited his aunt in the hospital. The next paper also said the same thing. Not the smartest thing to write about if you are going to cheat.

I consulted with Mr. Kimura, and he said to give them all zeroes, and so I wrote a note saying that it isn’t nice to copy, and it’s definitely not good to loan out your paper for others to copy. I put the notebooks out to be delivered back to the homerooms, and within an hour I had a pissed off student complaining in Japanese to Mr. Kimura. Apparently he was the one who wrote the story originally, and so he didn’t understand why he got a zero. Mr. Kimura explained the whole situation to him, and said that if he wrote about something else he could turn it in again tomorrow. The other two guys had to eat the zero.

I was kind of surprised that the kid had the nerve to come down and complain about getting a zero. He’s admitting that he lent out his paper for his buddies – and in my book that’s just as bad as copying initially.

Tonight I cooked up kim-chee ramen, and did some audio editing and burning for my next lesson on music. The lesson will either be the coolest lesson I’ve done so far or a spectacular flop. I’m trying to inject some variety into the class, and get the students thinking up spontaneous things in English.

Tomorrow is just two lessons, so I should have plenty of time to dream up lessons for the second year students.