Today started unfortunately with a cold. I woke up in the middle of the night with a sore throat and by the time I woke up in the morning it was a full blown cold. Just to spite the cold I went ahead and ate a crab and cheese omelet for breakfast, and then got organized and headed to work.
It was definitely colder going to work today, and soon I’ll have to break out the long underwear. It’s still not to the “I can see my breath” stage, though.
My day was moderately busy, with only three classes. One of the classes was moved and it caught me by surprise. They came into my room one period earlier than usual, but I was all prepared so no problem. It’s actually my favorite class of 1st year students. I give out “participation points” to students that volunteer to give out an answer. The average student in any of my classes has one or two participation points. This particular class, however, probably averages five or six. They are fearless to a man and just the class I’d want with me if I was invading an English speaking country.
Lots of weird English conversations today with students, almost none of which happened in my classroom. I had a heart to heart conversation with four of my boy students over lunch in the cafeteria. We talked for a long time about American women. They wanted to know a lot more than I gave them, but hopefully it’ll be enough for now. I also talked with a couple of girl students at my desk, who asked me “Are we in the way?” in a chorus of giggles. I had no idea what that meant. Finally, after school was over I talked with one of the soccer team members, who came up and had a serious extended conversation with me. He looked absolutely comfortable talking and it made me think that he was winning a bet or something by doing this.
A while back I had the ESS club working on a bulletin board, and I’ve kind of left the project in their hands. Today I went up to my classroom after school and the two girls that have been working on it had recruited three boys to help out. Cool! It helps that there are some cute girls in ESS. Maybe I’ll finally get some boys in the club.
Tomorrow we are having a Halloween party, so today we went shopping for supplies. I joined three ESS members for a walk to Seiyu to buy goodies for tomorrow. There’s nothing quite like going shopping with three giggling Japanese schoolgirls. I was definitely the odd man out. Students from other schools kept a close eye on us, and when my ESS students spoke English to me, I could tell everyone was impressed.
Finally we got what we needed and I headed back on the train. I had a quick dinner at Ito Yokado and skipped my place and went straight to Azusa’s house near Carrefour. We studied there for an hour, and she had pulled out the kotatsu to keep warm. What’s a kotatsu? It’s a table with a heating element built-in. The heater is under the table, and the table is surrounded by a skirt that keeps the heat in. You can just kind of sit at the table and it keeps everything warm. Some people sleep in them, I hear.
Azusa’s lesson went really well. Her L’s and R’s are improving, and she’s getting a little more confident as she gets more comfortable with me.
Azusa’s mom insisted on serving me coffee after my lesson, and it was nice to walk home with something warm in my stomach. On the way home I had one of those weird moments when I am surprised to be in Japan. I was walking along by a small waterway, and we’ve almost got a full moon. It was a clear night and walking through the rice paddies towards Carrefour in the distance, I passed a couple of old tombs that are part of a tiny graveyard.
I guess that eventually I won’t have many moments like this as I get used to where I am living, so for now I’m trying to enjoy them when they come.
I did one last trip to Ito Yokado for a couple of tiny pumpkins to bring to the party tomorrow, and now I’m back home. The day has flown by – I need to take some time to relax tomorrow.
