Today was like a Friday for us, since tomorrow is a holiday. I taught only three classes today, one of the lighter teaching days that I’ve had. I met with the first year teachers to discuss the next lesson plan, and basically sat around and chatted with other teachers in English.
I had two introduction classes today with the new first years – I have a total of fourteen of these intro classes, so it’s hard to stay energized after the eighth or ninth one. For the students it’s the first time they see me, and their reaction is interesting. Today one of the boys was walking out after class, and instead of goodbye he said, “I don’t like boys. I like girls only.”
I told him that I agreed, and he seemed satisfied with my answer. Maybe I’ve got some kind of gay vibe going – who knows? Some of my new ESS students were in class today, and so they were a little more comfortable than the other students. Normally the ESS club meets tomorrow, but because of the holiday we are going to try to meet up on Friday.
We had a mind-numbing meeting for the teachers after school, and it was mandatory. Ugh. I wish I could tell you what it was about, but I think it was just a regularly scheduled monthly meeting. One thing that was interesting was that we will have some student teachers coming to work with us for a couple of weeks. Mr. Hayashi was licking his chops at the prospect of breaking (in) a new teacher.
After school I did some shopping and picked up some sushi for dinner – I’m on a bit of a sushi kick. It’s so cheap here. The sushi I make at home is pretty good, but it’s nice to get some exotic ones every once in a while. In the evening I did some laundry and straightened up the house. It’s a poker party on Sunday, and the place is a bit of a mess.
The plan for tomorrow is to head to Osaka to meet up with Kuniko. She’s still looking for the perfect watch to buy, so I’ll walk around some posh department stores with her and look around. The last time we shopped I found a watch priced at 650,000 yen. That’s $6,500… whoah. Some of the department stores are really nice – all the employees are beautiful and they watch you carefully to see if there is any possible chance that you’ll buy something. Kuniko and I together get extra stares, but it doesn’t seem to bother her. It still weirds me out a little.
Well, I’m off to bed. I’ll write more when I return from Osaka.
