Today started off with a bit of a sleep-in – I got some extra rest after so much walking the day before. Steve drove me down to the station, and then I jumped on the train again and headed back into Sydney. I spent some time talking to the conductor, and he gave me some schedules – it makes a big difference having those to consult.

The trains run well enough in Sydney, but I’m by far more impressed with the trains in Japan. I can’t say enough how efficient, fast, and easy the train system is. Sydney’s system is good, but it just shows how much better the Japanese train system is.

Anyway, upon arriving in the Circular Quay (pronounced “Key”, who knew?) I had an extra half hour or so. I walked over to the Opera House, and took some pictures, just like everyone else who visits Sydney. It was very impressive up close, and I’m sure it’s a great place to see a show. Afterwards I went down to the waterfront and caught a ferry to Manly.

Manly is beach community north of Sydney that is pretty touristy. The school that is hosting our students is located there, and all of the homestay families are there as well. Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama met me at the ferry station, and then soon after we met up with Miss Yamamoto, my predecessor Andy, and his wife Michelle. It was really cool to catch up with Andy – he’s such a nice guy. We all had lunch at a fish and chips joint, and it was fun to watch the Japanese folks struggle with using their hands rather than chopsticks.

After lunch the students came by, and it was my first time to see them in their casual clothes. They looked good – dressed for warm weather with hats and funny T-shirts that they had brought from home. We fed them some french fries and then they were off to Sydney to do some shopping.

I took the opportunity to go with Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama to the beach at Manly, and I walked in the surf – enjoying the warm water and beautiful weather. Miss Kageyama gathered up the courage to come down and walk with me, and Mr. Hayashi just waited up in the shade and watched the babes go by in tiny bikinis.

On the way back to the ferry we stopped for some beers, and then took the 30 minute ferry ride back to Sydney. There Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama took the train back to Central station. I decided to walk there – about three miles, but it would give me the opportunity to do some shopping. I still needed to get some souvenirs for the teachers at school, and some goodies to bring back to Japan for myself.

While waiting in line at one store, I was behind two Japanese women trying to buy something with traveler’s checks. They were having trouble, so I stepped in and helped out a little bit. We talked in line for a while afterwards, and I couldn’t believe that I was carrying a full conversation in Japanese! Even though I do this pretty often in Japan, it seemed more dramatic to do it in an English speaking country.

I hiked into Central station after diverting through the Botanical Gardens and then called Steve’s house to check in. Julia took my message, and then I jumped aboard the train and enjoyed a nice ride back to Wollongong.

Steve picked me up at the station around seven o’clock, and then we went over to pick up his daughter Alyssa from work. She works at a bakery, so she brought a whole bunch of bread with her. When we got back to their neighborhood she walked around delivering the bread to the neighbors while Steve and I went inside.

We had a couple of beers and then Steve fired up the BBQ to get dinner ready. I hung out with the girls and watched part of “The Bachelor” until dinner was ready. Brenda said that I failed the “Aussie Male” test – I guess most Australian men gravitate to the BBQ while it’s going.

Dinner was a great BBQ mix of chicken, chops, steaks, and sausages. Brenda had made a salad and some corn on the cob, and we had plenty of bread from the bakery. Steve opened up a bottle of Australian Merlot, and we enjoyed a big feast. A great way to end the day!

Tomorrow I’m planning on joining Steve on a trip up to Sydney. After he runs a few errands, we’re going to meet Mr. Hayashi at his hotel and have lunch. Afterwards Steve is going to give me a guided tour of some points of interest in Sydney that I might have missed, and then we’ll go just to the south of Botany Bay and visit a couple of stores that might have some warm clothes to take back to Japan.

Today was pretty action-packed! Steve dropped me off at the train station, and I took a long journey north to Sydney. The trip took about an hour and a half, and so I spent the time enjoying the beautiful scenery going by.

The terrain was pretty mountainous, right up to the edge of the ocean. The train tracks run right alongside the ocean, and occasionally there are steep cliffs that drop off into the water from high above. The trees are so green and vibrant, and every once in a while there are small towns squeezed in between the trees with beautiful ocean views.

Once I arrived at the airport, I found out the Mr. Hayashi and the students were delayed, so I followed plan B and went over to the domestic terminal to meet Miss Kageyama when she came in.

Her plane from Brisbane was delayed about 10 minutes, and so I just settled in to wait. Finally the plane arrived, and I greeted her at the gate – it was great to see her! She told me all about her stay in Brisbane as we waited for her suitcase to show up. Once we had collected everything, we went out to a taxicab and got a pretty scary ride to Mr. Hayashi’s hotel. Mr. Hayashi hadn’t checked in yet, but we dropped off Miss Kageyama’s luggage so that she could move around the city a little better.

Since we weren’t due to meet Mr. Hayashi until 5 o’clock, we decided to go explore Darling Harbor, a tourist-centered harbor area to the west of the hotel. It was a very short walk through Chinatown, and then we were walking along the water. The sun was shining brightly, and I got some great pictures of the harbor area. We walked around aimlessly for a while, and then I finally gave in to hunger and had a Caesar salad and a beer at a bar next to the Sydney Aquarium.

After eating, we decided to go into the Aquarium and look around, and we were both very impressed. The layout was nicely done, and the exhibits were pretty comprehensive. We finished up and walked slowly back to the hotel, having killed just about all the time until we were supposed to meet Mr. Hayashi.

As it turned out, he was running late, so we went for coffees, and then we sat around the lobby. The hotel is popular with Japanese tourists, and so I spent much of the time practicing my Japanese listening skills and trying to keep them sharp. Miss Kageyama helped me out when there was something I didn’t catch, and between the two of us we successfully overheard several conversations. Nothing too juicy, though.

Mr. Hayashi finally showed, and so we went across the street to a pub for steaks. Mr. Hayashi had ordered everything, but suddenly disappeared to use the restroom – I don’t think he realized that we had to pay first. I ended up picking up the tab, and afterwards he apologized profusely and said that he’d treat me next time. We had more beers (some good Australian beers that I had never heard of) and talked about our gameplan for the next day.

Miss Kageyama and Mr. Hayashi walked me back to the train station, and then I was on my way back. I finally pulled into Wollongong around 10:15, where Steve was kindly waiting to pick me up. Tomorrow is another full day – and a harbor cruise!

I woke up this morning around 8:30, and enjoyed a nice leisurely morning with the Coursey family. They were planning their day around Alyssa’s birthday party. She was holding it in the Botanical Gardens just a bit outside of town, and so in the morning Steve took me along with him to run some errands in town.

The first thing I noticed, nobody gave me a second glance. Nobody stared, and I enjoyed a bit of anonymity that I haven’t had in Japan. Things changed a bit as soon as I opened my mouth, but for the most part, I blended in quite nicely.

We stopped in and ordered some chicken from a rotisserie place, picked up bread and a cheesecake, and a couple of bags of ice. The cheesecake place had some pretty amazing cheesecakes, the mall with the bread store had a pretty good-looking bookstore, and it seems to me that I’ll need to do some serious shopping before I go home.

We got everything organized and went over to the Gardens, and there we set up everything while people began showing up. There were about 15 girls that came by, and they spent the day eating and talking and having a good time catching up. I really enjoyed the Gardens, and walked around taking pictures a bit. I met Brenda’s mom and dad, and I loaned out my camera to Julia and her friend, who took some pretty good pictures.

In one of the ponds Julia discovered an eel, and so she fed it some bread that they had brought for the ducks. The eel was pretty spooky looking, and it was funny to think that I just came from a country that usually serves eel over rice.

We packed up and got out of there, right as a wedding party came in. It seemed like a good place for a wedding, with some dramatic views and a beautiful surrounding. We all went home and shared some tea with a friend of Brenda’s. Afterwards, Julia talked her folks into ordering pizza, and we got three pizzas from Domino’s. I haven’t had real pizza in a long time – almost four months! It was great pizza. I really enjoyed eating pizza that I would have shunned in the U.S. Delicious!

After dinner a friend of Alyssa’s came over and then her dad came by to take Alyssa and her friend home for a sleepover. We shared a bottle of wine and talked for quite a bit – he seemed like a great guy.

Just about 15 minutes later, some other friends of Steve and Brenda’s came by, and they brought along some homemade Chinese dim sum, which we ate with some more wine. I’m really enjoying all the great food and wine… excellent! Afterwards their friends left, we all decided to retire. Tomorrow I’m going to head into Sydney for the first time to meet up with the students and teachers that are flying in. They are going to be exhausted, but it should be fun to meet them there.

I’m running around in shorts and flip-flops, but storms tend to blow in every once in a while, and I don’t want to get caught in a wet one. Starting on Monday the weather is supposed to improve to what the newspaper calls “fine weather”, so I’m looking forward to that!

Today the students met at Takasago City Hall, to see an “art performance”. The performance was a show of Aesop’s Fables, in Japanese. Mr. Hayashi knew that I was getting antsy to get out of the country, so he let me sneak out early.

I went home and did some final packing, and then decided to hit the road. I dragged my suitcase down to the train station, and paid one last bill at the convenience store, and then I was off to Kobe.

There are a number of ways to get to Kansai airport, but Mr. Hayashi had suggested catching a bus from Sannomiya station – it was 1800 yen for a 1-way ticket from Kobe to the airport. I figured it was worth it, since I could skip a whole bunch of transfers through Osaka, especially lugging around my suitcase.

The bus ride from Sannomiya was about 70 minutes, and then went into the very impressive Kansai International Airport. The airport was definitely the biggest airport I’ve ever been in. It was designed beautifully, and I was easily able to find my check-in counter. At the counter there was a line of unhappy people, and I found out there that my flight was delayed three and a half hours. Luckily, they arranged some changes for me and gave me 2000 yen to spend at the airport. I spent the evening there eating Chinese food, drinking beer, and listening to music on my laptop with headphones.

I had just about run out of juice for my laptop when I found a chair next to a power socket on the floor that they must use to vacuum the area. I plugged in, and watched the end of Survivor that I had downloaded. It was very entertaining, and helped the time pass quickly.

At last, at a half past midnight, we were allowed to board the plane and I got a choice seat at the front of the plane with extra legroom. I had a big meal, and then went to sleep in my chair, drifting in and out as they projected “Finding Nemo” on the screen in front of me.

When I woke up Nemo was over, the cabin was dark and everyone seemed to be asleep. There was light showing around the cracks in the window blinds, and so I got up and walked around. Turns out that it was about six a.m., and I had just an hour until landing. Very nice.

Today I had my last class of the term, and tomorrow is a relatively easy day. We are supposed to hang around school in the morning, and then take the entire school to see an “art performance” in the afternoon. Mr. Hayashi has given me clearance to spend 5 minutes at the “art performance” and then take off.

I need to get back home and do some packing. I’m almost done, but there are still some last minute things I need to take care of before I leave. If all goes well I’ll have three hours tomorrow to pack up before I have to leave for the airport.

I was supposed to get my packing done tonight, but the master of the yakitori called me up and said that they were having a “nabe party” and they were hoping I could attend. Nabe is a clay pot that they fill with tasty ingredients and then heat up at your table. I went over there and had dinner with some of my fellow regulars. The food was delicious – crab is in season now, and we had steamed crab legs, along with cabbage, mussels, and mushrooms in a big soup cooked at our table. The crab legs were excellent. The beer kept coming, and I was unsure of who was paying for this whole thing. Nobody said anything, so when I finally left I made sure to leave a lot of money at the counter – I didn’t want to saddle someone else with my bill. The language barrier plays a big role here – I’m not sure what is socially correct, so I end up assuming the worst case scenario and paying when I can.

Tomorrow, I’ll be going to the airport completely by public transportation. That should be interesting – I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. I’ll be getting on the plane around 8 p.m., and I’ll get to Australia the next day, so I should be able to sleep through it. I always have a tough time sleeping on planes, but hopefully a full day before I get on the plane should help with that.

While in Australia I will not be connected to the web, so this site won’t be updated until I get back. I fly back to Japan on the 28th or so. Expect a gigantic update soon after I return – you’ll have lots of reading to do.

After two classes of singing “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”, I was ready for a break, so after school I took the train into Kobe to see the “Luminaries”, a Christmas light show that they have every year in downtown Kobe.

The teachers all day said that it was way too crowded, and it wasn’t worth going. Miss Kageyama was the only one who said it was worth seeing, and she tried to get out of her tutoring appointment to join me, but no luck.

When I arrived downtown, I could see the giant lines forming for people that wanted to see it. Instead of getting in line, I walked over to Chinatown and ate just about one of everything. The street vendors were making good money, and everyone was in good spirits. Most of the food was fried, but overall the flavors were great.

Afterwards, I walked over to the line, but it was just people standing there – nobody was moving. The roads were closed off, and the line formed in the middle of the road. Strangely, the sidewalks were open, so I just walked along the sidewalks, passing thousands of people in the road. I made a few turns, just following the big lines of people. Finally I turned a corner, and the street was lined with lights. Right when I walked towards the lights, they let the lines of people go, and I just kept on walking with the crowd and through the arches of lights. I probably saved an hour by walking along the sidewalk. Weird.

I took lots of pictures, and the lights were nice, but not super-impressive. I wasn’t paying anything, though, so no reason to complain. There were concession stands everywhere, and the local economy was booming. Lots of souvenirs were being sold, and it was a zoo.

After walking around a bit more, I walked back up to the train station and headed home. I made a brief stop at Like, Like for a couple of beers. I think the secret to successful public transportation is to have a good bar or restaurant at every transfer point.

Anyway, I’m back home getting ready for bed. Tomorrow night I have to buckle down and pack for my trip to Australia on Thursday. Woo hoo!

Today started out like a normal day, but by the end of it I was taking part in a Japanese funeral ceremony and cooking homemade om-rice.

When I got to school everyone was running around in a panic, and I very quickly found out that Mr. Kimura’s (one of our English teachers) mother had passed away in the night. It wasn’t unexpected, but it threw everyone for a loop. Mr. Kimura was not coming in for the week, and everyone was busy trying to figure out how they could cover his classes and finish up his final exam grading.

Mr. Hayashi said that there was a ceremony that night after work, and he invited me to come along. I reluctantly agreed – I wasn’t sure if anyone would want me there… wherever I go I tend to get a strange reaction, and I didn’t want to disrupt the ceremony.

After school Mr. Hayashi and I left early and rushed off to pick up Miss Kageyama. Then we drove to Akashi, and found the funeral home. I haven’t been to a funeral home in a long time, but it wasn’t anything like I expected. There were three floors of funerals going on, and in each was a gigantic shrine with a picture of the deceased at the center. The shrine was beautiful, and Mr. Kimura and his family were sitting to the side next to it. I was expecting to go in and say a few words to Mr. Kimura, but Mr. Hayashi said that we had to go through the ritual.

I remember seeing something about this in my JET handbook, which was sitting uselessly in my apartment 20 kilometers away. There is a whole procedure that you go through when doing this, and they were pretty strict sounding on the details. If we stood around any longer, I would have gotten scared, but Mr. Hayashi kept things moving. With a sage nod of the head he said “Do what I do”, and then he walked into the memorial area. Miss Kageyama and I exchanged glances, and we followed him in there. Gulp.

At the front of the room we bowed to the shrine, and then held our hands together in front of our bodies, kind of like a Buddha does. Then we turned to the family and bowed to them. They all bowed their heads back.

As I describe this, try to keep in mind that I am always a second or two behind Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama, who have the routine down.

We turned back to the shrine, and in front of each of us was a little altar that had incense burning. We took a pinch of sand (or ash?) from one side, and then sprinkled a tiny bit on the other side of the altar. Then we took some incense from the side we just sprinkled, and dropped that over the slowly burning incense. Then we did the thing with the hands again, bowed at the shrine, and then turned to the family and bowed to them again. This time they all stood up and bowed, and then we made our exit.

Mr. Hayashi was eager to get out of there. The official ceremony started at six o’clock, and if we were present then, we would have to stay for the whole thing, and that meant at least a couple of hours. Also, formal dress was expected, and we were all in our work clothes still. We blitzed out of there, going down three floors, and out the door just as some of the other teachers were coming in. They asked if we were sticking around, but Mr. Hayashi was already halfway down the block toward the car. I told them that we had already seen Mr. Kimura, and we had to run.

I wouldn’t have minded staying for the entire ceremony, but I wasn’t quite dressed for it. Sometimes I think that Mr. Hayashi sometimes rushes through things that he considers boring, and doesn’t remember that every little thing for me is brand new. Hopefully next time we do something like this I can stick around and observe a little more.

Mr. Hayashi dropped me off at my place, and I made up something that I find every once in a while at cafeterias and restaurants here in Japan. It’s called om-rice. It’s really just a rice omelet. The rice inside is fried just a little, and there is some ketchup in the mix. I made one with a little bacon and sauteed mushrooms, and it was delicious. It was a lot of work to make, but I was very satisfied with the outcome.

Tomorrow I’m going into Kobe after work to see the “Luminaries”. It’s kind of Kobe’s answer to a Christmas light extravaganza. It is being held right near Chinatown, so I’m hoping that I can have dinner from one of those food tables on the streets – everything looked delicious last time I was there, but I couldn’t eat anything then. Tomorrow is payback time.

Today I spent most of the morning kicking around the house doing housework. I’ve noticed that housework has become a consistent theme for me – Antoine called and he was giving me a hard time for doing so much housework. He said that he walks on a pile of dirty clothes wherever he goes. Antoine is the guy that doesn’t cook – he eats out every meal. I figured he probably burned his clothes when he was done with them, but apparently he does laundry.

Around four o’clock Miss Kageyama dropped by to pick me and see The Last Samurai. It just came out here in Japan, and it’s been getting good reviews. Initially we were going to see an early show, but it was sold out, so we ended up sticking around and then going later. To kill time we went to the arcade and played strange games based on capturing candy. We played air hockey, but the Japanese version lets you play for a while and then drops more and more pucks into the action while you are playing. I was pretty surprised when that happened, it got pretty frantic for a while.

We still had seats right near the screen – and during the action sequences it was sometimes hard to keep track of what was going on. The movie was pretty good though – and I could already see that I was taking some things in Japan for granted. What might have had some crowds oohh-ing and ahh-ing had me going, “That looks like Himeji!” or “I want to go there next month!”.

I won’t give anything away about the movie – but at one point Tom Cruise’s character begins to learn Japanese, and he had it nailed in a couple of days. I told Miss Kageyama that I wish I had his language skills. It was piecemeal Japanese, and I found that I could understand it without having to read the subtitles. Now I can communicate in Japanese with small children and Tom Cruise – woo hoo!

After the movie we went out for a late dinner at a Chinese food place near my apartment. The food is really cheap and yet get a lot. The potstickers are excellent, and you can order them by the half-dozen, and the entrees are similar to American style Chinese food. The decor is just like a Denny’s except there are about 10 tables that are on tatami mats that you have to sit on barefoot. We took a regular table, and then they have a bar area. The service is a lot better than Denny’s, though. After a big meal Miss Kageyama dropped me off at my place and I was asleep within the hour.

So a while back Mr. Hayashi was trying to talk me into joining him for a conference in Kyoto. It is sponsored by Casio, and it is promoting their electronic Japanese/English dictionaries. My predecessor Andy had one, and he highly recommended them. All of the English teachers at school have them, and they are really quite useful. I’ve been getting by with my paper dictionary, which is very inexpensive, but very slow. The electronic dictionaries are very complex and expensive – the top model goes for about 44,000 yen (around $400).

Mr. Hayashi seemed to think that if we attended the conference, they would give us each one of these dictionaries outright. For free.

I’ve become used to taking what Mr. Hayashi says with a grain of salt. I’ve sat through long conferences entirely in Japanese about the benefits of algae soap, blueberries and bee pollen, and patiently listened to his theories on the benefits of the alpha waves coming from his tape deck in his car.

In the end, I decided to go with him to Kyoto. At the very least it would be a nice day trip and we were sure to have a good dinner somewhere along the way. Mr. Hayashi asked Miss Kageyama to come along and keep us company, and so off we were to the streets of Kyoto. Mr. Hayashi had already hatched a plan to sell his new dictionary on an internet auction – his daughter was going to charge him a 10% “handling fee” and sell it for him on the open market. He offered the same deal to me, but I was still in denial – they wouldn’t just give them away.

We had a big lunch in an underground shopping center under Kyoto station. Soba noodles and katsudon… The noodles were made right in the shop, and you could watch the guy making them through a tiny window in the wall. It was delicious. Afterwards, we headed over to the hotel where the conference was being held.

Well, Mr. Hayashi was dead-on. We walked in to the conference and they handed us each a bag containing a brand new dictionary still in the box. Miss Kageyama was along for the ride – she didn’t register for the conference or anything, and they gave one to her, too. She’s been saving up her money to buy the new model, and they just gave her one. I was astonished.

Miss Kageyama sat next to me during the conference, and was giddy. It was like someone just gave her $400. I was in shock. I was a little worried about the conference. I was one of only two foreigners in the crowd of 100 or so people. The conference was going to be all in Japanese, and the instructions and controls of the dictionary are all in Japanese. I was hoping I could figure things out.

Five minutes after the conference I looked across the aisle at Mr. Hayashi and he was asleep. Miss Kageyama and I exchanged messages on each other’s dictionaries – suddenly we could communicate much better. I would just punch in the word in English, and a big long explanation in Japanese would come out on the screen for her. It worked both ways, too. I was very impressed.

During the opening speech they led us through some exercises, and I tried to follow along with my limited Japanese and by observing people around me. They had Casio employees around to help people that weren’t “getting it”, and I guess I definitely fit that description. A helpful guy kept coming over and pushing the right button – even though Miss Kageyama was right there to help me. He would smile and say something fast and furious in Japanese, and I would nod wisely, and say “wakarimashita” which means “I understand”.

I was nervous being in there – what if they found out I couldn’t understand what they were saying? What had Mr. Hayashi said to get me in here? It felt like everyone was watching me to see what I did, and my helpful employee kept coming over to push buttons. Mr. Hayashi was still fast asleep and no help at all.

Finally they moved away from demonstrations, and then it was a matter of sitting through two hours of lectures. Considering they had just given me an expensive piece of electronics, I was willing to sit there.

Mr. Hayashi woke up from time to time, but promptly slipped back into his coma. Once we finished up, he sprang to his feet, and we were finally ready to go. We walked back to the station, and then stopped in at an Indian food place in Sannomiya on the way home.

My theory on the free dictionary is that they are hoping that we will recommend them to our students, and that if our recommendations result in only a couple of sales, they will still come out ahead. It seemed crazy, but it must make sense. This time Mr. Hayashi’s hare-brained scheme worked out just fine, and I’ll have to pay more attention to the alpha waves in his car next time.

So I have been downloading and watching Survivor over the internet – I was hooked before I came to Japan, and I am just as hooked now. I don’t have a TV here, which is great… it’s a bad idea to be staying at home when I can be out speaking Japanese and meeting new people.

Anyway, last night I downloaded the new Battlestar Galactica show on the Sci-Fi channel, just for kicks. I watched it tonight and enjoyed it. It reminded me of an old show called Space: Above and Beyond that was one of my favorites a while back.

Today I had only one class, a Christmas lesson. I had 40 students singing Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, and believe me, it was something to see. I was always so embarrassed to sing in my foreign language classes, and I enjoy being able to embarrass others on a whim.

After school I came home and made a couple of sandwiches, and then went over to the yakitori. The dynamic there has changed a little bit – the master’s fiancee is working there now, and tonight she had invited a female friend of hers to sit around and chat. I could tell that the master was relieved to have some testosterone company – he was glad to see me.

We spent some time talking about the weekend. I get my best Japanese language practice at the yakitori, because there are no safety nets – I have to either communicate the idea or fail.

Tomorrow I’m off to Kyoto – I’m meeting Mr. Hayashi at the train station at 10 a.m.

It’s pouring rain outside, and I’ve just settled in for the night here at home. I’ve got the Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” playing, and I’m sipping warm sake while I wait for my rice to finish cooking.

Despite the cloudy weather and rain, it’s definitely cold around here. I’ve changed the layout of my apartment a little bit to accommodate the colder weather. I’ve got a space heater that Andy left me, so I’ve put that right next to the shower. Tomorrow morning when I step out of the hot shower into the cold room, at least the heater will be there to ease the transition a bit.

Today at school the students took the English listening test that I created. I spent some time grading them afterwards with some of the teachers, and boy, did I write a tough test. Many factors could be involved, but really there were not many high scores. I’m afraid when I got back to the classroom the kids will be waiting with baseball bats.

After the test several of the teachers wanted to go out to lunch, so we visited a nearby restaurant where I had some excellent yakisoba. The history teacher, Mr. Kimura, Miss Kageyama, and Mr. Hayashi all came along. We talked about history while the history teacher smoked like crazy. Mr. Hayashi must have been feeling guilty because he let me go home after lunch. Nice!

Tomorrow it’s back to the regular schedule, sort of. We only have classes until noon, and the classes are all scrambled up. I just found out today that I have a class tomorrow. Luckily I am ready for it. I’m going to have my class sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. This should be good. It’s either going to go over like a lead balloon or it will be horrible. Either way, it should be fun to watch. The classes don’t really count for anything – for the next week we will be doing classes but they aren’t part of either last semester or next semester. I figure we’ll just sing songs, play some games, and relax a bit. The students have earned it.

Today after school Mr. Hayashi took me and Miss Kageyama to Awaji Island, a big island south of Akashi, right near where I live. The island is connected by a bridge larger than the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but we took the ferry to get there. The ferry is pretty big (“half as big as a destroyer”, says Mr. Hayashi) and we just parked our car inside, along with several big rigs and a bus or two. We went upstairs and sat in the swanky lounge and had iced coffees while we watched the ferry pass under the Akashi bridge.

At the other end we drove off, and then headed south on Awaji to see Mr. Hayashi’s father, who is in a nursing home on the south end of the island. We stopped in and Miss Kageyama and I stayed in the lobby while Mr. Hayashi went upstairs to see his dad. After about fifteen minutes we were back in the car and headed to the southern-most part of the island to see a famous whirlpool.

The whirlpool was supposedly underneath the next big bridge that takes you to Shokoku. We looked and looked, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Mr. Hayashi conjectured that they “turn it off” after five o ‘clock. It was nowhere to be found. I took lots of pictures of the bridge and the sunset, and finally ended up taking a picture of a vending machine that had a picture of the whirlpool. I guess that will have to do.

Afterwards we drove back up north, and had dinner at a restaurant at a roadside service area. The restaurant was inexpensive, and had great food. The best part was that there were giant windows, so we could see the bridge, all of Kobe, and then a blood red moonrise over the city while we ate.

After dinner we jumped in the car and crossed the bridge itself, paying a discounted but still expensive toll – 3850 yen (about $35). It boggles the mind to think that people pay that price to cross the bridge. The ferry costs about 1600 yen to get across – less than half the cost.

Mr. Hayashi dropped me off at my place, and I went inside to drop off some stuff. Almost immediately I turned back around and went down to the yakitori – it has been a while since I’ve been there. Seems like I’ve missed a lot. The master treated me like a long lost son, asking about what I’ve been doing, letting me try new items on the menu for free, and very happily telling me that he is going to get married around the first of the year. As far as I could tell from our conversation, his girlfriend is pregnant, so they are going ahead and tying the knot. From what I understand, they are just going to sign a paper or something – no ceremony or anything.

He invited me to party with them on New Year’s Eve. I said yes – nobody has made a better offer, and it’s a time to be with family in Japan. I don’t want to intrude on Mr. Hayashi, and the folks at the yakitori really know how to party. It will be fun – I guess we are going to meet at the yakitori, close it down early at 10 o’clock, and then sit around in there and drink and eat on the house until just before midnight. Then we’ll go to the shrine, drink there, and they will ring the bell 108 times – once for every sin that you might have committed in the previous year. I’m looking forward to it!

Well, yesterday was a pretty good day. I was able to leave school early, around eleven o’clock. I spent the morning at school studying Japanese and writing my next lesson about Christmas. My classroom is empty during exams, so I go up there to study. I put a CD on my player and rock out while studying Japanese. It’s a pretty good learning environment!

I did some shopping and shipping yesterday. I sent some Christmas presents home to family. It’s very expensive to ship – I was surprised how quickly it adds up. I handled the shipping all by myself, and I was proud of that. At least, I’ll be proud if everything shows up in the right place in one piece.

Near the post office I had lunch at a Japanese burger place – kind of a McDonald’s rip-off chain. I had a shrimp burger, with french fries and cheese dip. Delicious! I met some of my students there, and had a nice conversation in English with some students from another school. Every time I get a chance to speak English with a student, it kind of reinforces for them that using English is OK, and that there is nothing to be afraid of. I’m proud how far along my Japanese skills have come, but in these situations, it’s best to stick with English.

After work I spent the afternoon doing some laundry, and cleaning house a little bit. I have to start worrying about what to pack for Australia, so I’m starting to get a little organized now while I have the time.

Miss Kageyama came by to pick me up a little early, around 5 o’clock, to go catch dinner and a movie. We had tonkatsu at a small restaurant in the shopping mall next to the movie theater, and we quizzed each other on English and Japanese.

As for the movie – it was really good! I was especially impressed with the artwork – the colors were spectacular, and the different scenes were well put together. The story was great – we both enjoyed the story, and lots of people in the theater were laughing at the lines, so the translation into subtitles must have been well done, too.

After the movie Miss Kageyama dropped me off at home – she had loads of homework to do before she goes to school on Wednesday. Tomorrow we are going to Awaji Island across the Pearl Bridge, and then to an observation point that should be photogenic.

So today I decided to make my decision final and I announced to my school that I intend to stay for another year in Japan. The teachers and staff were very happy, and it sounds like I should have no problem on their side. The paperwork will be sent in but it won’t be official until I hear back from the main JET office – maybe sometime in January.

It was a very hard decision, but with support from family and friends, I think it will be the right one. It’s hard to imagine – with that one decision I’ve pretty much laid out my location, budget, and plans until July 2005. In the end it just seemed like it was the right thing to do – I haven’t gotten tired of anything here yet, and my list of things to do is still very long.

A year from now will you still be reading about trips to Kobe for Indian food? You bet. It’s one of the pleasures I look forward to, and I hope that doesn’t stop in the future.

Speaking of Indian food, today Mr. Hayashi and I split early, and we were joined by Miss Kageyama. She seems to tag along whenever we do fun stuff like this. I don’t blame her – why turn down a free meal and a ride to Kobe?

We had a good ride in the car to Kobe and I practiced my Japanese on the street signs – it’s much easier on the signs and on proper names. Complete sentences such as those in a newspaper are a lot more difficult. On the way there was a big accident that we passed by – and Japanese drivers rubberneck as much as California drivers. A car was smashed between a truck and a bus. It was probably the truck’s fault – an ambulance took off just before we got there, so hopefully everyone is OK.

The Indian restaurant was hard to find – Mr. Hayashi walked up and down a couple of blocks looking for it, and then we just kind of stumbled on to it. The decorations were nice, and they had all you could eat lunch for 1000 yen (around $8). On the menu they had all you could eat and drink dinner for 4000 yen (around $37). I still can’t wrap my head around the “all you can drink” concept. It just seems like it’s asking for a lot of trouble.

Afterwards, I stuck around in Kobe to do some Christmas shopping, and then I took the train home. My legs are still aching a little bit, and I have trouble on stairs, but I think by tomorrow I should be just fine. Miss Kageyama and I are hoping to see Finding Nemo tomorrow night. It just came out in Japan last weekend, and I still haven’t seen it!