Monday morning, and according to my schedule I have one class for the day – and it’s during sixth period. That means that I had all day to do whatever I wanted. I spent the time planning my next first year lesson. The lesson will be on music, and I’m trying to think up ways to make each class different while still teaching some English in there.

The history made frequent trips across the room to talk to me. Over the last few weeks he’s said that he wants to spend 15 minutes a day talking with me. Today we probably talked about two hours. I usually enjoy our talks, but his timing wasn’t that great today. I hate to be impolite – so I’m going to have to figure out a way to get our talk time down a bit. He enjoys saying something in rapid fire Japanese, and then asking me if I understood. Usually he uses Kansai-ben (the local dialect) or he uses a Chinese expression that has been adapted to be used in Japan. Either way, I’m usually lost.

I’m experimenting with a new diet – instead of ordering salty or fried food in the cafeteria, I’m just ordering rice and soup. The soup is a clear broth with a little salt, and the rice is very filling. It only costs a dollar for a meal, as opposed to the three dollars I would normally spend on something else. It’s also a lot healthier for me. I’m going to try it for three weeks and see how it goes. The dinner diet remains the same. This morning I weighed myself and I weigh 187 pounds. On October 20th I weighed 192 pounds, so I haven’t really changed in three months. The wildcards here are all the alcohol I consume and all the exercises I do every night. I do a lot less hiking than normal, but I am walking all over the place every day. I guess the important thing is that I’m paying attention – we’ll see what happens.

This morning I met up with Miss Kageyama on the train platform in Akashi, and we took the super express train into Osaka. There were a couple of things I wanted to see in Osaka. The first was the aquarium – it has a great reputation in Japan. I also heard that the smallest mountain in Japan is near there, so I was eager to climb it.

The aquarium wasn’t too hard to get to. We made two subway switches and then we were there. Next to the aquarium was a big shopping center, and in front of the shopping center was a huge ferris wheel.

In front of the aquarium there was a small area where some emperor penguins were enjoying the great outdoors. There were people milling about, and it would be easy to stick your hand in there and get bit. I was surprised that they were so close to the public. There were also a couple of minders there to politely ask folks to stand back if they were getting too close.

The aquarium layout was really interesting. You start at the top of the large building, and then work your way down into the depths. They had some huge tanks, some of the biggest I’ve seen. Even the monstrous whale shark had lots of room to roam. As you proceeded deeper in the aquarium, you are able to see animals swimming deeper and deeper. At the bottom are jellyfish, giant crabs, and it is pretty dark. We took about an hour to go through the aquarium, and it was really interesting. I took lots of pictures, but most didn’t come out very well – just blurs of fish whizzing by at full speed.

We left the aquarium and went over to ride the ferris wheel. The sign out front said it was the “world’s largest giant wheel”. I don’t know if that’s true – I went on the London Eye a couple of years ago and that was pretty big. The ride took 15 minutes to go all the way around, and the views from the top were fantastic.

Afterwards we went into the nearby shopping center to get some snacks. We tried some Chinese meat rolls (called “nikuman”) and then ate a few more selections from the food court styled places. We asked around afterwards, and found the direction we needed to go to climb Japan’s smallest mountain. It was only a fifteen minute walk north.

The mountain is called Tenpozan (天保山), and when we got there we saw why it is the smallest. Miss Kageyama took a picture of me standing on the summit. It wasn’t much of a climb.

After our “strenuous” hike, we went back to Osaka to see meet a friend of Miss Kageyama’s – she works at the Umeda Sky Building – one of the more interesting architectural wonders of downtown Osaka. I had always wanted to go check it out, and it turns out that Miss Kageyama had an insider track to get in.

We met her friend in the lobby, and then she got us a discount to go to the top observation levels. The view was the best yet of Osaka. We were even above the ferris wheel from our previous trip.

By that time we had hiked all over Osaka. We were both tired, so we decided to skip dinner in Osaka, and I invited Miss Kageyama over to my place for dinner. Surprisingly, she accepted, and so we had to sneak her into my apartment. I stopped at a grocery store to buy some supplies, and then we walked the long way to the apartment complex. We checked to see that everything was clear, and then we walked up and in.

Miss Kageyama helped me cook up some spaghetti with a white mushroom sauce, and then we ate a pretty simple dinner and talked about our day. After dinner I walked her back to the station – by then it was dark so I think we escaped undiscovered.

I’m glad I posted that bit during the day, because Friday turned out to be full of adventures. First – the tug-of-war turned out to be a lot of fun. I ran out there for sixth period, and all the students were very competitive. The homeroom teachers were rooting on their classes as they tried to pull themselves to victory.

I was a judge for one of the areas, and it was a lot of fun. What a rush to be able to blow a whistle and have all the students start pulling like mad to try to win the event. One homeroom teacher kept second-guessing me – he was convinced that since I didn’t speak Japanese I didn’t know the rules. I just let him be mad – I knew I was doing it right so that was what mattered.

The winning team was awarded cream puffs – the second place team got a cup of pudding, and everyone else got a polite thank-you. After the winners and losers were decided, all the teams lined up to watch the worst student team challenge the teachers. I was put at the anchor position, which is in the very back. I was pleased to see that I had a pretty big fan club – lots of students lined up near me and said things to encourage me, like “Fight!” and “Win!”. I wrapped the rope around my arm and dug in.

After giving ground a little bit, the teachers came on – and there was a time there when I stopped trying to not lose and tried to win. And that’s what we did. We pulled the students to the ground, and they lay there heaving while the teachers walked away. I went over and gave them some encouragement, and that seemed to raise their spirits a bit. After all, they lost to everyone, even the teachers!

After class Mr. Komuri mentioned that he was hoping to head over to Donkey after work, and since I had no plans I said that I would join him. He has been trying out darts, but the guys at Donkey have made it pretty complicated for him. I felt that it was necessary to intervene a bit and make sure that he has a good time while he’s playing.

We met up at Donkey around 7 p.m. and had a couple of Guinness to build some courage. Right away when I walked in a couple of ladies in there were giving me the eye. When I told Mr. Komuri, he got all excited and tried to get me to ask one of them out. Uncomfortable situation.

There was a regular dart player there, who was quite good. Everyone was watching me when I stepped up for my first throw, and unfortunately for me I hit a bulls-eye and two very close ones right outside the bull-ring. After that, everyone was expecting a lot when I stepped up, which made it a high pressure game.

I did pretty well, but lost the first game to the regular. He taught us a new game, and so I beat him at that pretty handily. Mr. Komuri was having a great time – I gave him a few tips, and his game improved significantly while we were there. It was fun to see him get excited as he improved.

The regular tried to get me to join his dart team. The master of the place came out to watch me and he tried to get me signed up. Apparently if you are on the team you drink for free while you are playing, which is a heck of a benefit, but I politely declined. The last thing I need is free booze – I drink enough as it is.

Despite eating some snacks while we played Mr. Komuri asked me if I wanted to go out and eat some sushi. He promised me a traditional Japanese sushi experience, so we packed up and settled up our bill with the proprietor of “Donkey”. As I left the girls were leering at me in a big way, and I think our timing was good – they might have gotten physical if we stuck around any longer.

We walked back towards the station, and then made a right turn into the basement of a large shopping complex. One floor down, and around a corner was a tiny shop. As we walked into the shop three people were just leaving, and it was just as well – there were only five or six seats in the place.

The master was a really nice old guy that knew enough English to encourage me to eat more and give me directions. His wife was there too. She didn’t do much work, just kind of keeping an eye on things. The place was tiny – the whole restaurant was about the size of my bedroom, which is pretty small – believe me.

Everyone was surprised to see me eat sushi. I am used to the “Wow, he’s good at using chopsticks” comments – I get them everywhere I go. Mr. Komuri was astonished that I liked sushi, and that I ate what I did. Andy, my predecessor, was here for three years, and somehow he got through the experience without eating fish and rice. I guess he was a bit of a picky eater. I was glad to show them that I could eat raw fish with the best of them.

I put myself in Mr. Komuri’s hands – and he handled the ordering. We had sashimi first – raw yellowtail, squid, and tuna. Afterwards, we had some sushi on rice, and then Mr. Komuri ordered four pieces of fugu. Fugu is blowfish – one of the things I had heard about fugu before I arrived is that there are poisonous parts, and only licensed sushi chefs can serve it. I don’t know if our guy was licensed – the place didn’t seem like the kind of place that would be licensed.

I had always pictured going to some expensive restaurant in Osaka and ordering Fugu. I expected to pay big money for it, and that it would be something akin to culinary Russian roulette.

As it turned out I was served two big slices over rice in a smoky sushi bar underground in the heart of Akashi. Not anything like what I pictured. They served up the fugu, and I took a nervous sip of beer. The master, his wife, and Mr. Komuri waited eagerly for me to eat some.

And just like that, I popped it in my mouth.

My first impression – I’m in trouble. The taste was delicious. The flesh was a little tough but delicious and the bit of sauce he had put on top was spicy with little onions in there – it was excellent! I’m in trouble all right – it was the best sushi I’ve ever had. I would like the most expensive one.

Along with the fugu they served a glass of hot sake with a somewhat crispy fried fugu fin floating on top. Mr. Komuri poured me a glass, and it was pretty good. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Afterwards we cleared our palate with another beer and some octopus, and then we got up to go. Mr. Komuri said something in Japanese to the chef to the effect of “bill me for this later” and so I didn’t even get to pay for the experience. I tried to pay, but he wouldn’t let me. Next time, I said.

I caught the train with a half hour to spare, and now I’m home getting ready to go to bed. Tomorrow I’m off to Osaka with Miss Kageyama to see the aquarium there. It should be fun!

Due to some strange scheduling anomalies, I had only one class today. I just got back from teaching it, and now I’m killing time on the internet computer and waiting for the end of my day.

The class went really well – much better than I expected. The students were full of energy, and they volunteered to answer questions, which is very rare. It was my last lesson on money, and so I attacked it with a lot of energy, and that seemed to energize the students. It was a big contrast from my last few ‘money’ classes.

One of the things the students do is buy imaginary items from a list that I created. The list is full of strange things – a heavy metal CD (Motley Crue’s ‘Shout At The Devil’), garlic milkshake, false teeth. Just strange stuff. The kids giggle when they figure out what the item is, and I included some pictures. One of the items was shrimp ice cream, and I had two girls believing that it is the new flavor at 31 flavors. At first they didn’t believe, but I kept insisting that I bought one in Himeji, so I think they might go out and order one this weekend. I wish I could be there when they try to order it.

I’m going to go buy some sodas to do a taste test later today. The history teacher insisted that he could tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi, so I’m going to try to find a small bottle of each and do a blind taste test. Pepsi has a tiny market share in Japan, so it might be hard to dig some up.

Instead of teaching my adult class during sixth period, I’ve been tapped to judge a tug-of-war contest. The first year students are going to battle it out for high stakes. The winning team gets a cream puff for each of it’s members.

I continued my Valentine’s Day lessons today, and I had a couple of very good classes. At the end of the lesson, I do a gameshow type game. The students break into four teams, and I ask them eight multiple choice questions. The team with the most points at the end wins. I give them little cards with the answers (A, B, C, D, True, False) on them, and they flash me the right card to indicate their response.

The game was popular with all my classes, but today I had a couple that were really competitive. They would flash the cards to me behind their back, and I was taking signals like I was a baserunner in the major leagues. As I read each question, there was dead silence in the class as everyone concentrated on what I said. Unbelievable!

I had a lot of fun with the games, and the students did too. I don’t know how much English they picked up, but they were listening and (mostly) understanding me, so that’s good.

After classes, I met up with one of my ESS students for our ESS meeting. I brought some snacks (chips, cookies, sodas) and we sat around and spoke for an hour or so. It was actually pretty fun – I got to practice my Japanese, and whenever I didn’t understand, she had to think hard and try English. It worked pretty well.

Afterwards, we locked up the classroom and walked down towards the teachers’ office to drop off the key. Waiting outside were some of her friends, and when they saw us walking together it was freak out time. The laughing and giggling was so loud that the teachers still in the office came out to see what was going on. Here’s Bryan surrounded by a pack of girls – some of whom are actually falling down they are giggling so hard. Quite a scene.

I packed up my gear and took off, and got home around 6 o’clock. I made a quick curry and rice dinner, and then watched part of Alien: Resurrection – one of the DVDs my brother Mark sent me for Christmas. I tried to pop some microwave popcorn to have with the movie, but my microwave wasn’t dealing well. I think the power on mine is set too low – I have to decipher the kanji on the controls and figure out how to turn up the heat. The popcorn went too slowly, and came out scorched. Ouch – I’m going to try to work out the glitches on a glass of water before risking another valuable bag of corn.

Today when I got home I had a package slip that said a box had arrived from Sara. I decided to take the opportunity to hike out to the JR station that I had discovered recently, and pick it up myself.

It was a 25 minute walk to the JR station at Tsuchiyama, and then a 3 minute train ride to the next station – Uozumi. When I walked out I bumped into a couple of JETs – one veteran that is leaving after staying two years in Japan, and another first year like me. The vet, Lei, commented that she never sees me around, and wanted to know what I was up to. I grinned and told her that I’ve been keeping busy, and that I have been kind of adopted by some locals.

I picked up my package at the post office, and then I was back on the train. 15 minutes later I was at a pretty good Chinese restaurant ordering up some Kim Chee noodles, pot stickers, fried rice and beer. The place is one of my favorites for cheap, greasy food.

I got home and opened the package – there was lots of microwave popcorn (something I can’t find in Japan), some granola bars, and dried mangoes. Good snacks! Now I’m off to do a little studying before I hit the hay. Tomorrow is a relatively easy day at school. I’m going to have my ESS meeting, but I think there will only be one member there – that should be weird.

I spent today pushing the hormones of teenage girls to the breaking point – I had three lessons on Valentine’s Day. I got asked out twice and four girls asked me if I had a girlfriend. No boys asked me this question, however.

I knew this idea was risky, but I just jumped into the fire and went with it. The giggle meter almost broke today with all the laughter. Still, it’s a better reaction than indifference, so I’m happy with it.

After work I cooked up some Cajun shrimp and then had Yasu over for beers. I helped him with some English, and we talked about CD’s. He gave me a pretty good list of temples to visit in Kyoto. I’ve been thinking that it would be fun to do a solo trip to Kyoto sometime soon. It would be a good winter trip. Yasu provided me with locations in kanji and hiragana, and I was surprised to see that I could read several of the kanji characters.

We had a couple of Kirins and talked about his upcoming trip to Cambodia and Thailand. He’s braving the “bird flu” that everyone is worried about over here. I don’t think it will be a problem – and it may even lower prices even more.

I’m off to bed – tomorrow is two more Valentine’s lessons, so I’ve got to be mentally prepared for another love fest.

I had a tough class today – the chaos class. There is a ringleader involved here – one student that gets everyone else riled up. The boys that sit near him get caught up in the excitement, and the girls in the class are quiet and just hope that it will end soon. It’s a bad vibe all around, and Mr. Kimura has a hard time keeping everyone focused.

I went through my lesson, but it was difficult with all the boys talking and sometimes even getting up and walking around the classroom. I’m not allowed to discipline the students of course, but I tried to show my disapproval. The tough part is that the girls all sit and listen carefully – they are completely quiet but they know the answers when you press them. So in the end I really just focus on working with them, and the boys could care less.

It’s the only class that I have that is disruptive or a problem – every other class is kept in line pretty well, or they are genuinely interested in listening to me. All I can do is use the class as a test of my patience and hope for the best.

Mr. Hayashi was exuding garlic today – he smelled like garlic as soon as he walked in the door. Over the weekend he bought some deep fried dried garlic cloves, and he’s been munching on them like popcorn. He bought me a bag, but after I smelled the garlic on him the DAY AFTER he ate them, I’m a little scared to open up the bag and start munching. I figure I’ll do it over beer one night when I’m not talking to anyone for the next few days.

We snuck out of work an hour early. I’m the universal excuse for Mr. Hayashi to get out early… he can always say that we had to go to the tax office or the immigration office or the doctor. I’m happy to go early – there’s nothing really to do after classes end, and I usually just study Japanese until five and then hit the road.

On the way home I stopped in and picked up some pork, green onions, milk, and some interesting looking mushrooms that looked good. They were tiny little things, so I sauteed them in a little bit of garlic and oil. As soon as they came out of their package, I noticed that the liquid surrounding them was behaving in a very non-liquid manner. That’s right – it was SLIME! The package looked good, the date was OK, and the mushrooms themselves were firm and smelled good. I figured I might as well finish cooking them, so I took some pictures of the final product for you.

I added a little soy sauce and a splash of tabasco, and took a bite – hmm, not bad. Not good, not bad, not anything really. The slime thing was still there, though – and so I had two more bites and then dumped the rest in the garbage. Chalk it up to experimentation.

It was cold and windy today, so I stayed inside and spent most of the day watching movies and studying Japanese. I learned some new kanji which will be useful.

I’m off to bed soon – this week should be a relatively easy week. I’m going to start with a new lesson on Tuesday, talking about Valentine’s Day. I’m hoping to break the giggling record for one class.

Last night the master of the yakitori gave me an ad for a pizza place called “Pizza California”. There is a special going on, and they deliver. I told him a long time ago about the tribulations surrounding the ordering of a pizza for me. He offered to order for me – I can just take the menu over to his place and he’ll call it in. Cool – I may make Thursday or Friday a big pizza and beer bash at my place.

The last couple of weekends have been pretty boring – but that’s been by design. I’m trying to save money this month so that I have plenty of money to send home, and January and February are pretty slow months in Japan as far as cultural events go. Next weekend I’m hoping to go to the Osaka Aquarium – supposedly the best aquarium in Japan.

I got a lot of good sleep last night, so I got up and decided to do a hike. I had heard about a JR train station within a mile of my apartment. Usually if I want to ride JR, I take the local train company Sanyo over to Akashi – a trip that costs me 360 yen. From there, I can travel on JR fairly cheaply.

All geared up I walked north for about a mile, passing the crowds of people inundating the new shopping mall, until I reached the surprisingly modern station at Tsuchiyama. The place was really nice, and built for high volume. There weren’t that many people there, so it must be busy during the week. At the signboard I noticed that it was only 210 yen to Akashi from there – much cheaper. Still, it’s a half hour walk to the station, so I really have to plan my time well in order to get there and catch a train.

For hikes, however, it works just fine. I took the train west for three stations, and then walked the long way around to hike Takamikura from the northern side. Usually I go up the southern slope, and I wanted to try something different. The northern side was actually an easier climb, and the views were pretty nice as the train wrapped around the mountain.

It took about half an hour to climb the mountain, it’s about 1100 feet, so it’s a pretty vigorous climb. My legs did fine even though it’s been a while since I’ve gone hiking. At the top I said hello to some folks at the temple and sat back against a rock to catch my breath and take in the view.

I took the trail down the mountain on the opposite side, and walked up the pathway towards the temple – but only to buy a snack. They had some mochi they had made with a sweet bean paste inside. They were grilling them outside and I bought one to try out. It was good – the grilling gives it a nice flavor.

From there I walked to the JR station in Sone, and rode the train back to Tsuchiyama. After I left the station I decided to swing by the big shopping center grand opening. There were tons of people outside the building milling around, and traffic was seriously backed up approaching the center.

I went into the side that was closed last time I was there – the Carrefour side. Carrefour is French owned company, a self-described “hypermart”. Bigger than a superstore, it sells groceries mainly, but has lots of other things as well. I walked in and was instantly overwhelmed by the amount of people in there. I walked along with the masses, and was eventually kind of carried to the grocery store part of the complex. It was big – I’d guess around the same size as a Target Greatlands in the U.S. – maybe bigger.

I randomly walked the aisles, trying to sneak through little gaps in humanity as I perused the selection. They have some great stuff. There is cheese – lots of cheese. French cheese, mainly, but I will not be hurting for cheese anytime soon. What else? I could list things forever. Good tequila, an entire mushroom aisle, Guinness in draft cans (they even have the Guinness Bitter), Negro Modela Mexican beer, an imported food aisle with Mexican, American, Korean, Thai, and Chinese, a huge wine section with lots of international wines (including some ports), fresh rotisserie chickens, a nice bakery, a pizza parlor, a huge food court with a gamecenter for the kiddies – the list goes on and on.

Strangely I bumped into several people I knew there – the part time help at the yakitori, who tried to invite me somewhere but I didn’t quite understand, and also Chris and Lisa – the two JETs from the next town over. Their eyes must have been like mine – huge. There is really nothing in our little towns, so this makes available things that we had to go all the way to Kobe or Osaka for.

The interesting thing is that a big Ito Yokado is going in right next door to me soon, and I’m curious to see if they are trying to compete with these guys. I am certainly will be shopping at the Ito Yokado, since I’m on foot. Still, Carrefour has some great luxury items, and now here they are 10 minutes away.

Tonight I’m banging out some laundry, and I may run over to the yakitori later for some beers and to hang out a bit.

I dragged myself out of bed this morning – it was pretty hard to get up. In the beginning of the week I was on some mysterious medication that the doctor had given me for my chest pain. I went off the meds in the middle of the week because I was so tired after taking them. I’ve been on a sleep deficit ever since, despite going to bed early almost every night. Staying out last night really wiped me out.

It was even colder this morning (-3 degrees C) but I’m getting used to it now. At school I stand next to one of the big kerosene heaters to warm up from my “commute”, and then I’m good to go. The students are still banned from the teacher’s room, so they have no access to heat.

My classes went pretty well. During one of my second year classes, a girl student came up and told me that she had seen me and Miss Kageyama together on Sunday when we had gone to see “Bruce Almighty”. She had a mischievous look in her eyes, and she wanted to know details. It’s amazing how well the students speak English when they find out about something like this. These are the same students that are too shy to say “Hello” in the hallways.

I answered her questions dutifully, making my best efforts at preserving Miss Kageyama’s honor and reputation. I explained that we are just friends, it wasn’t a date, etc, etc. The girl went back to tell her friends, and they were giggling pretty hard the rest of the lesson. Yikes!

My classes ran right through my lunchbreak, so I had to go eat lunch in the cafeteria with the students, which is always an adventure. I bellied up to the bar and laid down my lunch ticket. One of the perks of being a teacher is that if a cook sees me lay down my ticket, she’ll take care of me before everyone else. There’s a crowd waiting for lunch – maybe 40 or 50 students waiting impatiently for chow. It is like the pits of the New York Stock Exchange down there – it can be an ugly scene. One of my students put his ticket down right as I put mine down, so I waited until one of the cooks saw me there, and then I pushed both tickets to the edge of the counter.

The cook was right on it, and delivered a hot bowl of soba noodles and rice for me, and a bowl of curry soba for my student. She turned off and helped some other people, and I passed the curry to it’s rightful owner. The kid figured out what had happened, and said “Thank you very much” in English. That made my day!

I taught my teacher class in the afternoon, and had another weird miscommunication that was pretty amusing (at least to me). One of the teachers had said that I was a “good guy”. Another teacher thought that she was saying a “good gaijin”. Gaijin means foreigner – “gai” means outside/foreign and “jin” means people. So she heard “good guy” and in her mind she thought I was being referred to as a good “gai”. Anyway, once we figured it out they were pretty embarrassed but I had a good laugh.

No snow today, and Mr. Hayashi and I bailed out an hour early. On the way home I took a couple of photos of the train – for some reason we had a train driver and two observers – no idea why.

I used the extra time to walk through the door and promptly crash into bed. I woke up a couple of hours ago and cooked a quick dinner (curry and tonkatsu over rice), and now I’m starting to think about that bed again.

I woke up this morning one minute before my alarm normally goes off. The wind was howling outside – really blowing. In my semi-groggy state it was hard to tell if it was wind or rain or both, but I rolled out of bed and started my morning ritual – which lately means turning on my hot water heater and getting my shower water hot.

The water takes about 20 minutes to heat up, and so I usually lay out clothes, shave, and do some stretches and light exercises while that’s going on. The temperature outside was -2 degrees C, a new low for my thermometer.

Properly geared up with 5 layers, a scarf, and headphones wired to my mp3 player, I stepped outside fearing the worst, but really it wasn’t too bad. I guess after a certain point you just don’t notice the cold as much. As I passed the post office on the way to the train station, one of the old ladies that I usually say “good morning” to came out of the convenience store, and then ran over to me and stuffed a big bag of what looked like candy in my pocket. I tried saying “no thank you” in Japanese, but she wouldn’t hear of it, and kept pointing at her throat while she talked. I guess they are good for preventing sore throats – I said thanks, and she walked off. Strange!

At school I broke open the bag and it was candies made in Okinawa from molasses. They taste like you are sucking on a mouthful of brown sugar, so I really enjoy them. I shared them with some of the other teachers, and they got a kick out of my story of how I acquired them.

The day went by quickly, and just as classes finished, a big snow flurry came through and blew snow all over the place. I took some pictures, and the students watched curiously.

After about half an hour of snow, the clouds moved on and then there was just clear sunny sky. The snow disappeared quickly, melting away wherever sunlight was shining. The teachers all had a meeting, so I threw my stuff together and snuck out while they were gone.

We were planning to meet in Sannomiya station in Kobe at around 6:45 to have a dinner for Mr. Kimura. I had a couple of hours to kill before, so I did some exploring in Kobe. I stopped in at a bar that I hadn’t been to in a long time for two pints of Hoegaarden White on draft. At 750 yen each, it was a great deal, and it went nicely with the cold weather outside.

I also stumbled upon a much-rumored-but-never-found imported goods store in the underground shopping center directly below the JR station in Sannomiya. The store had lots of great stuff – frozen tortillas (corn and flour), lots of cheeses (very expensive), imported wines from all over, with some decent California wines, cake mixes, and even jars of salsa. I made a note of the place and so it will be easy to come back when I’m in need of some foreign stuff.

At around 6:45 I headed back to the station and met up with Miss Yamamoto, Miss Kageyama, Mr. Kimura, Mr. Komuri, and Mr. Hayashi. We all jumped into a pair of taxis and they drove us quickly to House Of Pacific. The restaurant is located on a hill above Kobe with a spectacular view of the city at night through large floor to ceiling windows. The service was excellent as usual, some of the best service I’ve had in Japan. For example, you can’t sit down without someone helping you with your chair. If you get up to use the restroom there is a person discreetly waiting at the end of the room to walk you to the restroom and show you where it is. When you get back you find your cloth napkin refolded and placed next to your plate.

My favorite part is that the servers are great looking. There are about 15 servers walking around in there, I would say 8-10 of them were beautiful women – really attractive. During the evening I kept commenting to Mr. Kimura and Mr. Komuri in code how “nice the view” was at the restaurant. They got my meaning – they were doing some staring themselves.

I had soft-shelled crab sushi rolls with a spicy sauce for an appetizer, and then we all had the same entree – Kobe beef cooked “Cajun” style. There was a complementary glass of champagne, and after dinner I had a glass of Moet Chandon. Talk about living right! Mr. Kimura was in better spirits today, and I kept him on his toes by speaking English with him the whole night. He is still really depressed, but I think the evening did a bit to lift his spirits.

After dinner we packed up and walked back to the station, braving the cold and wind mainly because there wasn’t a taxi available. It was only a 10 minute walk, and I thought it was nice to get outside and stretch my legs. On the way to the station, I saw an ATM inside a convenience store, and decided to run in really quick and grab some cash.

I told the group that I would catch up with them and to keep on going. I went inside and thirty seconds later I was back on the street ready to run up a block or two to catch them. Instead, everyone was standing there waiting. Mr. Hayashi had a big grin on his face, and asked me if I had bought ketchup. Apparently Miss Yamamoto and Mr. Komuri had thought that I had rushed in to buy ketchup – they had misunderstood when I said that I would “catch up”. We all had a good laugh at that one.

The wind was howling once I got back to Futami – blowing really hard. I wrapped my scarf completely around my face, and I felt like the invisible man walking around at night with my entire face hidden by a scarf. When I got home I noticed the temperature outside was down to -2 degrees C. Chilly.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a really cold day, and the weather reports on the web are predicting snow by the end of the weekend. That’s right – snow. My thin skin will be put to the test, especially if I’m slogging through snow drifts on my way to work. Hard to believe I was sweating like a madman just a few months ago.

I had a good time with my classes today. Today marked the last class that I will teach for the third year students – they will graduate at the end of the term, and so they will spend the rest of their term studying for end of the year exams. I spent today with them just screwing around a little. I talked about my trip to Australia, we did tongue twisters (in English and Japanese), and I tried a “two birds with one stone” project.

My upcoming lesson will be Valentine’s Day, and so I brought a lot of red, pink, and white paper to class. I explained briefly about Valentine’s Day, and then asked the students if they would cut out hearts and put Valentine’s messages on them in English. I was hoping to use the finished valentines as decorations for my classroom next month. Once the bell rang, the students liked their valentines so much that they took them along with them. I only got back three valentines, each from a love struck girl. It just goes to show that even when I think I am communicating a idea, it’s not always getting through.

After classes I studied my kanji in the afternoon, and various teachers came by alternatively to give me pointers and be amazed that a foreigner could write kanji. I learned the kanji for “paper”, “close”, and reviewed a few others. Each time I learn a new kanji I start to see it everywhere – it’s a nice feeling.

Tonight I had Jamaican chicken with rice, and a couple of Japanese rice balls thrown in for good measure. I did a last minute cancellation of my taco plans – I want to conserve my tortillas until I can check out a place in Kobe that supposedly carries them.

Tomorrow is the big “cheer up Mr. Kimura” party. I’m not sure who is going to be there, but it should be a good time.

This week the third year teachers are writing examinations for the third year students. The students will start to take examinations at the beginning of next month, and there will be a graduation ceremony at the end of February. There is a lot of pressure on the third year students to do well on the tests and get out of school.

In order to prevent students from “discovering” examinations laying around on teacher’s desks, the teacher’s office is closed to students. Usually students are running around all over the teacher’s office, asking teacher’s for advice or following up on homework. It’s no quieter with the students gone – the students open one of the doors, lean inside, and try to get the attention of their teacher. If the teacher happens to sit far away, then they have to ask a teacher sitting near the door to go get them.

That’s where I come in.

I sit right next to the door – as soon as you walk into the teacher’s room there I am. Usually the students lean in, see me, and then try to get some other teacher’s attention. Today one of my students leaned in and asked me in English to come over. This was a first!

I walked over and she and her friend consulted briefly with each other before asking me where their teacher was. I answered, explaining where he went, and they left, satisfied with my answer. I was pretty happy – finally somebody had the courage to ask me, and in English no less. Nice.

Miss Yamamoto did some shopping for snacks and she found TimTams at the store next door. Some of the people on our trip to Australia had brought back tons of these things – they are apparently one of the things that Australia is known for. I tried one, and it was really good – very sweet and tasting similar to s’mores. Here they were available right next door to our school the whole time.

A good day today, but I am very tired every day after school. I think it might be the mysterious drugs that my doctor has me on – since I’m over the pain I figure I’ll ditch the rest of the drugs and get on with my life.

I jumped on the train today, whipped out my mp3 player, and promptly entered the “StereoZone” where I rocked out while everyone else on the train covertly glanced my way to see why I was tapping my feet. I was so wrapped up in my stereo that I walked right out the train door listening to “American Woman” and left my umbrella hanging on my seat. Maybe somebody yelled something or tried to get my attention. Since I was in the “StereoZone” I guess I’ll never know. Time to buy a new umbrella.

I got to school and lots of teachers came by to check and make sure that I was feeling better – it was very nice of them to do that. Many said that I should leave early today and get some rest, and that was highly unusual. My classes today went really well. I did a new lesson for my second years involving cash – and boy did their eyes light up when I started pulling money out and flashing it around. I sent some coins around the room for them to check out, and they all came back!

The students were fairly interested in the lesson, and I enjoyed teaching it. I’m starting to see a correlation between the amount of interest I have in the topic and the amount of interest the students show. The trick for me is to make lessons that I will enjoy teaching every time. Each one will have to be taught between 8-16 times, so it had better be good.

The principal called me and Mr. Hayashi in for a meeting, and apparently they had evaluated my performance at some point. I’m not sure who did it, but I got A’s in four categories, and a B in the fifth category. Since all the categories were in Japanese I don’t know what I fell short in. I asked Mr. Hayashi later and he said that probably they just fill in A’s arbitrarily and make one a B so it doesn’t look fake. The scary thing is that he’s probably right.

Mr. Hayashi drove me to the bank to take care of some business, and then set me loose an hour early. The bonus for him was that he got to leave early, too. He has said before that he can’t really go home too early. The neighbors see his car when he comes home early, and since they all know he’s a civil servant they get ticked off. They feel that he should have to work a full day. I guess the folks in his neighborhood have a lot of time to kill.

Tonight I cooked nabe. Andrew, my predecessor, had left me a couple of nabe pots – ceramic pots that you fill with a broth and goodies and then make a hot soup. I used cabbage, egg, miso, habanero sauce, a little soy sauce, Japanese mushrooms, green onions, strange Japanese clear noodles, and lots of sesame seeds. It turned out pretty good – I’m taking the leftovers into school tomorrow.