I’m back to school, and we’re continuing interview tests this week. The students did well today – they were full of energy and the went at it with gusto. I was proud of some of them – they surprised me!

Mr. Hayashi sorted out my plane ticket, and I should be able to make the buy tomorrow. We ended up getting a direct flight, so I won’t be spending time in any strange southeast Asian countries on the way back, which I’m a little bummed about. I’ll put them on my list of places to visit before I go.

I just made an attempt at Kim Chee Ramen, and it turned out OK. I had to add extra heat at the end, though – although the flavor was just right. My diet has been simplified lately, because the store is so far away, now. By next week my old store should re-open, and then I can buy some key ingredients again!

So I just woke up and I’m getting ready for work. I had this weird dream that I was attending a Black Sabbath show back when Ozzy Osbourne could still be understood. I complemented him on his English, and he didn’t get the joke. He said I was the one that was talking funny.

Hmm, usually I have dreams like that after eating pizza, but I can’t use that excuse here.

Today started with an early morning phone call – the hike that I was planning with Komuri-sensei and Mizuta-san was cancelled due to weather. I was kind of sad about that, but I rolled over and went to sleep, and by the time I was up and at ’em I had other plans. Mr. Hayashi called just before I left for shopping, saying that they had changed their mind and they wanted to do the hike, but it was too late – I was in shopping mode.

After crawling into my cold bed last night and shivering until it got warm, I realized that there is nothing stopping me from just running down to the store and buying an electric blanket. So today I did. While I was out, I picked up a few other things for around the house. I went shopping at the local Target equivalent – Dik. Yes, the store is called Dik. Trust me, I’ve heard all the jokes.

I also went into Ito Yokado across the street to check out the groceries – my store is still closed. The place was a mob scene – the holiday brought everyone out and they were shopping like crazy people. I took tons of pictures of the store – it’s a big one.

Miss Kageyama called in sick today for the shopping trip, so I decided to postpone the trip until next weekend. Instead I walked out to the ramen restaurant and ordered up a big bowl of garlic ramen. I had never ordered it before, and wow – what a surprise. Imagine a giant bowl of ramen with a golfball-sized scoop of minced garlic floating on top. Definitely not an every day kind of thing to order.

Tonight I’m going to stay in and catch a movie, and study my Japanese a little more. Not the wildest Sunday night, but after last night, it should be a good balance.

I got a chance to relax and sleep in a bit today, and I’m just putzing around the house doing some chores. I cooked up a big breakfast of fried eggs and hash browns with some Mexican hot sauce. I called my grandparents to wish my grandfather a happy birthday – his birthday is on Wednesday. I got to talk to my aunt Vicki who was in San Diego visiting for the weekend – they are planning a big birthday dinner out in Mission Valley tonight.

This afternoon I’m meeting Miss Kageyama in Kobe to do a little shopping. She really knows her way around the Sannomiya shopping area – and I’m clearly out of my element in there. I’ve gone shopping before, but this is definitely a different experience, kind of the major leagues of shopping.

Tomorrow is a holiday in Japan, officially called “Thanksgiving/Labor Holiday”. I’m not sure what it’s all about – but I get a three day weekend, so I won’t complain.

So I’m back from Osaka, and what a strange experience it was. The city itself was just a blur. We explored about 1% of the area we were in – just a square block or two of a gigantic city. The feel of the city was much different than Kobe, where I usually go for big city fun. There seemed to be more smokers, and people were dressed up big time for a night out on the town.

Antoine and I navigated three different train lines and a subway system to get near the party we were attending, and then Antoine messaged his friend using his cell phone. She came and led us to the bar where the party was. The bar was called “Bar, Isn’t It?” I always seem to find myself in bars that use poor English for names.

Antoine had arranged something so that we paid 2000 yen at the door, and we drank for free until 8:45 p.m. I made my money back and then some very quickly. I took advantage of the situation to drink some real Mexican tequila (Patron) and some real American “beer” (Budweiser).

As for the party itself – I don’t know how else to say it… it was a foreigner meat market. Within five minutes of sitting down, we had five Japanese women at our table talking to us. Half an hour later, there were about twelve of them gathered around. Antoine left our table to talk to another group of about six women, and so I was left on my own to entertain all these women. Everyone wanted their picture taken, and when I took pictures, they wanted to exchange keitai (cellphone) e-mail addresses with me to get a copy of the picture. I gave out my regular e-mail, but didn’t realize until later that it was a sneaky way to track me down.

I looked around and there were other tables with foreigners talking to Japanese girls. There were also tables with Japanese men looking forlornly at our groups. They were pretty lonely guys. Apparently they were hanging around looking for castoffs from the foreigners. One came by the table to talk with us, and each and every girl just turned around and ignored the poor guy. Notice the lonely guys in the background in the picture below.

I’ve never experienced anything quite like it. Apparently it is a regular party, but the host imports the foreigners (like Antoine and I) and it is a chance for all these women looking for foreigner boyfriends. Most of the women spoke some English, and when they found I spoke a little Japanese, look out!

Finally, at around 10 o’clock, I told Antoine that I was hitting the road – I had a long way to go to get back to Futami, and I was exhausted from almost literally fending off all these women. Antoine said he was going to stick around and socialize some more. Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure I could navigate my way back to the subway and the train station, but one of the women volunteered to escort me back. I bought her subway ticket, and she got me to Akashi without a problem. I took the Sanyo line from Akashi, and got back to Futami around 11:30, with thirty minutes to spare before the train line shut down. I already had a couple of e-mails from people at the party. They work fast around here.

I doubt Antoine made it back in time – I’ll have to find out what happened with him and where he ended up. As for me – it was a little much. I’m hoping to take the time to explore Osaka later on under less rigorous conditions.

Today we continued interview tests, and next week all of my classes will be interview tests, so I’ll be going through some serious Q&A. The students did very well overall. I had told them that they would get bonus points for using gestures and appropriate expressions, and they responded well. Two students were acting out an entire scene in the hallway. Kind of a “Japanese Hamlet Goes Shopping” scene.

After school I taught an extra lesson for the students that are going to Australia. I did my best to help them with their expectations – but having never been to Australia I couldn’t entirely help them out. Some of the most astonishing facts for them: 1) They will be wearing shoes inside the houses they stay in 2) They will probably take baths and use soap at the same time, instead of washing and then bathing. I tried to get across the “When In Rome” idea, but I don’t think it translated well.

I snuck out of work five minutes early, and caught the train home. Miss Kageyama and I had plans to grab some dinner and go bowling.

We grabbed some ramen at a restaurant near my house, and then we set out to go bowling in Akashi. She hadn’t been bowling in five months, I haven’t been in more than five years. She turned out to be a pretty good bowler.

Since I haven’t been in a bowling alley in a long time, I was impressed with how far technology has come. I rented my shoes from a vending machine (Size 28.5), and strapped on the pink and purple clown shoes. We’re talking neon colored bowling balls, loud music and strange videos. There was a person that stood in the back of the bowling alley behind each lane, and watched while you played – ostensibly to prevent you from doing any damage or hurting yourself.

After two games of bowling (my combined score – 140) we checked out the shopping center’s plaza, but they were just breaking down a food court of Japanese food stands. Finally we got back in the car and she dropped me off at my place. I’m downloading Survivor and listening to A Perfect Circle’s new album. Tomorrow I’m heading into Osaka in the evening to attend a party with Antoine. I have no idea what the whole thing is about – I’m just kind of going along for the ride.

My three classes today went just fine. I conducted my first interview test with the students, and it went well. Most students had memorized a dialog, and then recited it like robots in front of me. I had anticipated this, and gave them three possible situations, so that they would have to react on the spot. Instead, the students just memorized three different dialogs. I’ll have to think of something much more difficult next time.

Today they dragged three gigantic kerosene heaters into the teachers room, and installed pipes to let the exhaust out the side of the building. I guess they do this every year, but it helped illustrate how cold it’s going to get around here.

I sat around with Haruna and Hidemi after school for the ESS club. We listened to music and talked about school and what they are going to do after graduation. Hidemi is hoping to go to university in Osaka, and Haruna recently passed the entrance exam for an international college in Kobe.

Afterwards, we left, and I turned the corner to find the entire girls tennis team doing pushups in the hallway. The weather has forced the sports clubs inside. The tennis club teacher was supervising the students, calling out numbers like a drill sergeant while the girls struggled to keep up.

I talked to one of my neighbors, and it turns out that the supermarket is just doing a quick remodel, and will be back in action on the 28th of this month. Whew – what a relief!

The rain has swept in and started saturating Futami and Takasago. I don’t really mind the weather – especially since it showed up after I walked home today. With the cooler temperatures I’ve been putting on more and more layers – it reminds me of that scene from the action movie where the main character is strapping on more and more equipment. It’s really not that cold yet.

Today during my third year lesson, I was dictating sentences to students, and I tripped up on the Japanese word “okonomiyaki”. The whole class kind of giggled, and then I started laughing, and it was tough to stop. One of the students got the giggles, too, so we both had to kind of settle down for a while.

Usually when I walk into one of my classes, it’s pandemonium. Kids are running around everywhere. The boys will be horsing around – throwing things, wrestling, juggling, whatever. The girls are in groups, laughing and talking. It’s anything but quiet.

This week we’ve combined my 20 student classes, so there are 40 students in each class. Twice the chaos, twice the fun.

Since we combined them, there are actually three teachers doing each class. When Miss Kageyama and I showed up for today’s lesson, there was a big difference in the student’s behavior. Miss Yamamoto had everyone sitting in assigned seats. She was writing down student numbers into a grid, and you could tell they had just gotten yelled at. Miss Kageyama and I exchanged a look and tried to keep things lighthearted the rest of the class. Miss Yamamoto is known for her strict classes, and I think 40 students was a little overwhelming at first.

Tonight I tried my hand at cooking gyuudon – beef strips with rice. There is an advanced part of the recipe where you carmelize onions and combine then with the beef over the rice. Somehow it didn’t work out. I was e-mailing Miss Kageyama trying to figure it out, and she finally just called me and we talked through it. I think I know what I need to do next time. She offered to show me how to cook it, so hopefully I can arrange something so that I can see this firsthand. Gyuudon is cheap, quick, and delicious – if I can master that I should be ready to move on the more advanced dishes.

Tomorrow is another big day – the next two weeks should be extremely busy at work. I’m off to get in my warm bed.

My local grocery store is looking more and more permanently closed down. That’s a blow to my shopping situation. There are two other grocery stores – one within walking distance, but a little out of my way, and the other within biking distance. I’ll probably end up doing the biking thing – that store has a bigger selection of everything.

We’re in the middle of a very busy week. The students are getting the news this week about an interview test next week. They are definitely in shock and awe. The interview itself should be very simple, so it’s really a test of overcoming their shyness. I’m trying hard each day to relax them in class. Hopefully a one on one situation shouldn’t be too tough.

I ran down to the yakitori for a plate of sobameshi to supplement my bread, salami and cheese. I’m close enough that I can eat my first course at home and then walk over there for the main course. The idea for my own main course disappeared when I found out my local grocery store was closed.

At the yakitori I watched a game show on TV – there was a part where a contestant had to jump on and hang onto a giant wooden spool that sat on big metal tracks. As soon as his weight hits the spool, it slowly starts rolling downhill. The contestant wraps himself tightly around the center of the spool, and soon the spool is rolling really fast. The guy is holding on as tightly as he can, but the thing is spinning faster and faster, until he is a blur.

Rather than letting the thing slow down, they have a big wall at the end, covered with artificial turf. The spool hits the wall, and depending on what position the poor guy is in when it hits, the guy flies either into the wall, directly into the ground, or two or three feet behind the spool.

I’m not sure what the object was, but it was fun to watch. I’m lucky I don’t have a TV – I’d watch this stuff all the time!

Things continue to cool off here in Japan. One thing I often hear is that Japan definitely has four distinctive seasons. The transition of the last few months was pretty dramatic, and it is only going to get colder.

Work today was a matter of organizing my classes and getting things ready for the end of the semester. Often in this journal I mention that Mr. Hayashi is a very laid back, relaxed guy. Today I got to experience the down-side of that.

While the second year teachers have been working with me to wrap things up smoothly, the first year teachers have been conspicuously silent. Today I asked about the end of the semester, and I get the impression that nobody had really thought much about it. I think they just kind of assumed that I would know how to handle it.

I have a giant spreadsheet to handle the logistics of my classes. Some classes are ahead of others, some skipped lessons, and some are two lessons ahead of everyone else. Every time I miss a day because of a seminar, or a holiday passes, some classes get behind.

The magic trick is to make sure they end with all the same amount of classes, homework, and time enough to study for their final exams. Today was mostly spent trying to organize that. It wasn’t easy, but at least now we have a gameplan. Next time I’ll know how it works, but this time was pretty scary.

At the end of the day I was grading papers, and the broadcast club came in with a tape recorder and microphone, looking for teachers to interview. Luckily I don’t speak enough Japanese to make it work, so they passed me by.

On the way home I stopped by my local grocery to pick up some dinner items, but they were closed. It looks like a remodel, but heck if I could read the sign that was posted. Living in a country where you cannot read makes things like this much more interesting. I’ll check it out tomorrow, and if it’s still closed, I’ll have to get Mr. Hayashi or Mr. Kimura to translate for me.

As I write this post at just after nine in the evening on Sunday night, I am eating salami and dry Italian cheese from Vella’s on top of fresh homemade French bread, and I have an extra $200 in my pocket.

How the heck did that happen?

Today I worked at school interviewing students for the STEP English proficiency test. The interviews were very traumatic for some of the students, and for others it was easy. For me, it is largely a no-brainer. The test is very easy to administer, and the time passed quickly. I enjoyed my time quite a bit, and I even got to meet a few other Americans that are living in Japan and doing the test to earn some spare cash.

When we finished up at the end of the day, Mr. Hayashi paid us in cold, hard cash, and then we were off to Kobe for the traditional post-exam dinner at Graciani’s. I had a steak tonight, but other people had pigeon (!) and beef tongue. I tried both the pigeon and the tongue, and they were tasty. They were prepared in a French style and served along with warm, fresh French bread.

French bread is something that seems impossible to find in Japan. The bakeries have something that looks like French bread, but the outside is soft, sort of like a Dutch Crunch roll. It doesn’t have a sour taste at all like some of my favorite sourdough French rolls. Graciani’s bread is pretty good – as close to Sonoma French as I can get here.

On a whim I asked if I could buy a roll to take home – I have some salami and cheese that my folks sent, and it would be a great way to soak up the leftover carbonara sauce that I have in the fridge. The waiter asked in the back, and then brought out a fresh loaf for me as a present. Yes!

Tomorrow it’s back to work – it seems like this weekend went by way too fast. Next weekend is a trip to Osaka with Antoine to visit some friends of his.

Today I spent some time on the phone with Nancy, Lynn, and Kinsey, and my parents. They all called me this morning while I was putzing around the house doing laundry. It was great to talk to everyone – the voices from home really make my day.

In the morning I took the train into Befu to do some shopping. I picked up an Epson inkjet printer, some cheap-o headphones to listen to movies and music, six pairs of warm socks, and some long underwear bottoms. The stores are filling up with cold weather goods. At the foodcourt I had a big plate of om-soba, chinese soba noodles fried up and wrapped in a thin egg omelete type thing. Good!

For dinner I cooked up some carbonara pasta, thanks to my parents. They had sent the bacon, the sauce packets, the pasta, and some Vella’s cheese to grate over the top. I just provided the peas, onions, black pepper, milk and butter. I had a bunch leftover, so I made them into lunch sized packages for this week.

After dinner, Yasu came over and gave me his old jacket – a really nice Patagonia rain/wind breaker. He’s had it for a couple of years, but didn’t really wear it because it is an American sized large, as opposed to a Japanese sized large. It fits me just fine – it’s nice to have some more cold weather options.

We talked about his job – Yasu is a waiter at a restaurant in Tarumi, a little east of here. I guess a lot of foreigners come in, and so he is the designated English speaker. Yasu’s English is good, but he’s always looking to improve it. I gave him some suggestions, and we dranks some beers and talked about music for a while. I sent Yasu home with some pasta for him and his mom, so they’ll get a chance to try something new. I’m hoping they enjoy it! Before he left Yasu said that it was going to start getting colder. He said that February was the coldest. He described it as being so cold that “your stomach is frozen”. Woah.

I got a late-night call last night from Mr. Hayashi. One of the interviewers for the STEP test tomorrow called in sick, so I’ll be pinch hitting. The STEP test is a standardized test of English ability. My job will be to interview candidates and evaluate their skills. The plan is to work all day and then we’ll go into Kobe and eat afterwards. It’ll be nice to earn a little money.

The last two days I have been attending the mid-year seminar in Kobe for all the ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) in my prefecture. I have had a few other seminars – one when we arrived in Tokyo, and one in Yashiro when we first arrived in Hyogo prefecture. The difference here is those were only for the new teachers, while this one was for all teachers, old and new.

Both days were filled with workshops and speeches. Mr. Hayashi had said that it was really just an excuse to get together and party, and generally a very stressful time for the Japanese teachers of English. Each school had to send one teacher, and the teacher I went with was someone that I hadn’t taught with before. In fact, at school he kind of avoided me – it turns out that he was scared to try and speak English with a native speaker.

This kind of feeling was prevalent at the seminar, with most teachers being extremely quiet during the workshops and small group exercises. Another cunning move was to mix up the groups, so each teacher could not rely on his or her ALT to get them through conversations. My teacher, Momoki-sensei, had a rough time. He had to present my lesson plan to a group of people in English. It was doubly tough because he had never taught the lesson, with or without me. Before the seminar I met with him a couple of times and we went through it, so that helped a lot.

I had one Japanese teacher of English in both my groups, and she looked like a deer in the headlights. I talked with her afterwards, and when she was one-on-one she opened up, smiling, friendly, and initiating conversations. Maybe it was just presenting in front of their peers that is so scary. Anyway, I can’t imagine how stressful it must have been.

After the first day of the seminar, most of the people I knew were going over to Harborland in Kobe, to visit the Hard Rock Cafe. Antoine and I tagged along. We walked down with a large stream of foreigners towards the restaurant. As soon as I walked in I knew it was going to be weird – the people in front of us just asked for a table in English, and the waiter didn’t even bat an eye – he took care of it right away.

I’ve tried to avoid “foreigner” bars. Why come all the way to Japan and then go to a place that is exactly like what you just left? The Hard Rock was a great example of a foreigner bar. Everything was the same as the others – which may be part of the draw. The staff spoke English, the burgers were large (unlike the tiny burgers everywhere else in Japan), the beers were served in real pint glasses. The menu was in both English and Japanese, with the English listed first.

That night the place was filled with JETs – about 90% of the place. The rest were people that came to watch foreigners. Antoine and I grabbed a table, ordered some beers and burgers, and recapped the day. After two burgers, and three beers each, we got the bill – it was 5500 yen (about $50). Yikes! Way too expensive. Looking around at all the JETs drinking like crazy, I got the feeling that Hard Rock was going to do all right that night.

After talking with some of the JETs from my area, and joking with Carrie about the seminar, Antoine and I split early, tired and ready for bed. We bought tickets for our respective destinations, and then as we approached the gate, we looked at the clock and saw that it was only 7:30 at night. It seemed a shame to go home, so we went the opposite direction of all the JETs and visited our old favorite, Like, Like.

Everyone was happy to see us, they knew our names, they called their friends, we talked in a strange mixture of Japanese and English, and got out of there three hours later for 3000 yen (about $30). I decided that I’m not missing a lot by avoiding the foreigner bars.

After the second day of seminars, there was a Pub Crawl organized, but I had other plans. I had seen an advertisement for an exhibit on Alexander the Great at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art. I had done a little research on their website, and figured out how to get there from the seminar. Right after we got out I made a beeline for the train station, leaving the huge group of JETs behind. Two stations east, and a short walk down to the waterfront, and I was there.

The museum was a beautiful building, and the exhibition was great. There were statues, coins, busts, and carvings dating back to 200 B.C. Everything was open and exposed, but they had stern-looking women sitting around each room to make sure you didn’t touch anything.

One of the most interesting aspects was that you could compare artwork before and after Alexander the Great swept through Egypt and Asia. There were aspects of artwork done in Greece before his rule that were startlingly similar to work done hundred of years later in China.

After a few hours in the museum, I walked back to the station and then stopped in downtown Kobe to hit one of my favorite Indian restaurants. The owner recognized me from when I was there with Mr. Hayashi and really put on a culinary show for me.

It was a great couple of days. Now I’m looking forward to the weekend!