Today was an easy day as far as classes go. Mr. Hayashi also has lots of free time, so we’re doubling the amount of lessons that he gives me. We’re focusing lessons on reading and translation rather than conversation. He’s been giving me some verbal exercises to try to keep my mind flexible – having me repeat Japanese sentences, and then subtly change them into questions or different sentences. It’s a good drill, and it closely replicates a real conversation where you have to think fast.
After school three ladies came into the staff room wearing lab coats. They apparently walk around cleaning your glasses for free, and then try to sell you something afterwards. Two of them were pretty cute, so I some of the teachers were practically lining up to have their glasses cleaned. Interesting service. I tried to get the history teacher to ask one of them out, but he was too shy.
Maeda sensei invited a few teachers over to his house after school yesterday, and I was really looking forward to seeing his family again. He’s got three really cute kids and his wife his so nice – she always is fun to talk to.
We went over after school and settled into his apartment. They have a big doll collection for the Doll Festival holiday coming up. It was really spectacular – it dominated one of their rooms.
Everyone drank lots of beer and we ate a lot of nabe. Nabe is just a huge pot of soup that you add ingredients to. The first round was fish nabe, so lots of different kinds of fish that Maeda sensei had caught himself, shrimp, octopus, squid, and oysters. They add lots of vegetables, and then cook it until it boils. Then you just stick your chopsticks in and take what you want. You have a little bowl of your own with spices and onions, and the combination of flavors is great!
Maeda sensei’s son kept asking me questions, in English! I think Maeda sensei invites me over to expose his kids to a native speaker, even though they are so young. His son is six years old, and we played a game where we threw a ball back and forth and counted each time. We went up to 100 in English! Very impressive.
Maeda sensei also pulled out some videos taken from his previous school, and apparently he was quite a celebrity there. He did some singing and dances with his homeroom class, and it was great to see. At our school he is pretty new, and hasn’t yet reached celebrity status. Still, he tried to get us to perform onstage during the next culture festival. I think we might have agreed, but I’m not sure.
We had a lot to drink, but that didn’t stop us from taking out the kids’ toys and games and trying them out. We had tops spinning all over, and I’m surprised nobody got hurt.
Ikeda sensei and I decided that it was time to hit the road, so we took off. Ikeda sensei is a temporary teacher, very young, who closely observes the social hierarchy. He knows how old everyone is so that he can afford the proper respect. He’s younger than me, so our conversations have him agreeing to everything, apologizing for everything, and generally treating me like I’m god on earth. He walked me to the station, and in true Japanese fashion waited at the gate while I walked to the train, not leaving until I was out of sight.
