Monday was a holiday for us, so we took advantage of it and did a little bit of packing and a lot of resting. The laundry had to be put on hold because of the weather – it was raining all day long. It is hard enough to get things dry in the humidity, but add rain showers and it is pretty near impossible.

In the evening we went over to Denya to meet up with the yakitori gang. Initially we had run into Yamashita-san and his wife in Okubo, and I had made plans with them to meet up. He got in touch with the other folks in the group, and we had full attendance. It was great to see everybody, and there was a new face – a new baby girl who was very curious. I held her for a little while, and she enjoyed eating my hand.

With all the kids running around there, I asked Yamashita-san and his wife if they were starting to think about having a child, and they told me that unfortunately they just lost one. I guess it had died just recently, and this was their first time meeting everyone since it happened. They seemed to be OK, a little sad, but they had a good attitude about it. They even had a picture of the baby on their cell phone, which gave me a jolt when they showed me. It’s sad enough without seeing a picture of the dead baby, but it was important to them.

Yamashita-san’s wife cried a little bit, and you could see that it was still fresh and tough for them. But it was a good place for them to be – with a bunch of good friends at the yakitori. Yamashita-san said that there is a good yakitori in Okubo where we are moving, so I think we will be meeting up there sometime soon.

Kuniko and I both drank too much, and didn’t eat enough, but that was because we were talking with everyone and having such a good time. Everybody there is so nice, and for them to drop whatever they were planning to come over and hang out together – it meant a lot to me.

We’re in the middle of a long weekend here. Kuniko is taking the weekend off, and so we’re working on getting everything organized for the move. It is hard work, and even tougher in the heat and humidity. We work for short bursts between breaks.

Not only are we packing, but we’re also throwing out lots of crap. I had planned on giving some of the crap to my successor, since I received the crap from my predecessor and it seems like some sort of tradition. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do that since she’ll be moving into a different place. And then I’m moving crap into a new place and it looks like what it is – crap. If she arrives and the crap is already in place in her new home, it just seems like part of the scenery and it is not so crap-like.

Anyway, we’ve done a little bit of shopping in between packing sessions, and that has been a welcome break. We can go out there and enjoy some air conditioning, and get a change of scenery. We were in Okubo and we bumped into four different people that I know while walking around the mall. That’s pretty impressive for me – I didn’t know I had so many friends. One of the people we bumped into was Yamashita-san and his wife – they are the couple who had the second party that we attended in a karaoke box.

We decided to meet up, so on Monday night we’ll go to Denya and hang out with the gang. I’m looking forward to it.

Lots of little details going on behind the scenes related to the move, and there will be a week or so where I won’t have internet, so if I drop off the radar, that’s what’s going on. The move isn’t until the end of this week, though, so I’ve got a little time left. I’m also going into Osaka on Wednesday to sign my contract for the new job. Antoine signed his contract this past Friday, and so from September he will be teaching elementary school kids. That should be interesting for him – he’s going the get I workout, I’ll bet. The hours are nice for him, though – Mon-Fri 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. or so. Seems like a nice gig, I hope it works out for him.

I’m sweating up a storm sitting in front of the hot computer, so I’ll log out and go chomp on some ice to keep cool. More later!

It was a very quiet day at work today. I had just one class in the morning, and it went very smoothly. After that I was free. I just ran around town doing errands, ate a big lunch, and tried to look busy. Gradually I’m transferring my Japanese textbooks into my bag and out the door, with the goal of having a clear desk in the next few days.

I accepted the position that I was offered in Nishinomiya, and I heard back from them and they confirmed it, so it’s all good until the contract is signed. I might be busy taking care of paperwork for the new company in the upcoming weeks, on top of all the other stuff I am trying to get down ahead of the big change.

Bad news for the next ALT – it looks like she’ll be stuck with a single apartment, instead of the big one that we’ve got here. The single apartments are pretty small, I hear, although I’ve never been in one. It’s not 100% for sure yet, but it does look pretty grim. That’s also tough for me. The stuff I wanted to leave for the next ALT might not all fit in her new place. That means I might have to hold onto it or get rid of it. Yuck!

I’m sweating it out at home now – it’s another very hot day. We’ve got tons of potatoes to get rid of, so I’m heating up the house even more by making au gratin potatoes. It’s my first time, but with lots of cheese and a little bit of butter, how can I go wrong? We’ll see…

Today it was a little hard to spring right out of bed, and I ended up sleeping through and having to rush through a bath. No time to make lunch, either. That’s what I get for staying out late eating Chilean food with a beautiful woman.

On the way to school it was raining a tiny bit, but it wasn’t enough to postpone the second day of sports for my school. If it was postponed I would have three classes, so I was glad that things went OK. The students are going to be exhausted tomorrow – there won’t be many signs of life in my Thursday classes.

The sports went pretty well, and I spent half my time watching the boys playing kick baseball and the girls playing volleyball. I rooted on the first year students, since they were always the underdogs. I had some good conversations with students, and it was fun to just relax and watch the games. The kick baseball was pretty exciting, but the volleyball was really boring. There wasn’t much volleying going on.

A group of girl students invited me to sit and cheer for their team, so I hung out with them and we spoke lots of English. It was fun to root for their team because they were so bad, but at one point they had a good run and almost caught up with the other team. After they finished I walked around and gave encouragement to the team – they did well even though they lost.

After lunch in the cafeteria I checked my mail and found a message from the staffing company I interviewed with. They offered me the job, and so I sent them a few follow-up questions. I got the answers and I’ll talk it over with Kuniko tonight when she gets home. It was encouraging, though, and if it works out it sounds like it could be fun. I would be teaching at a new level – junior high school, and it would be a job more like a real-life job. Not as much support as you find on the JET program. The pay is not quite as good as JET either, but it is competitive. I’ll mull it over and get back to them tomorrow. It would be nice to have a job waiting for me when I get back from Europe – it would make the trip more enjoyable, that’s for sure.

I stuck around the whole day, even though most of the action died down after lunch. The principal and vice principal asked me separately how the job interview went, so I told them all about it without mentioning that they offered me the job – I want to build the suspense a little bit and also keep my options open. If I don’t take the job I don’t want it to look like I’m too picky… they might not help me out in the future.

It is amazing to me how everyone is asking about me and cheering me on. It is reassuring to know that all these people care about you and your well-being, and that has been nice for me to observe lately.

I survived a blitz of questions from the history teacher. He is making a big push to use up as much of my time as he can before I leave. He’s trying to organize a drinking party with just me and him to say goodbye, but I might dodge it. He wants to invite the new ALT as well, in a bid to trap her in his web of long-winded English questions. I’ll really have to warn her when she arrives.

When I arrived home I found that the railpass tickets had been relayed successfully from my parents, and everything seems to be in order. Whew – what a relief.

Tonight should be a pretty mellow night. Kuniko thought she would get home early tonight, but I haven’t heard from her yet. Hopefully we’ll both have some downtime tonight before things get busy again just before the weekend.

Tuesday and Wednesday are scheduled sports days at our school. Instead of the big multi-event sports day in fall, these are competitions of just two sports, volleyball and kick baseball. The idea is to wear out the students a little bit, and give the teachers a break to calculate their grades for the end of the term.

For me Tuesday was really easy. I walked around watching various games. I cheered for teams that had players that I knew well, and I retreated to the air conditioned staff room when things got too hot.

Today I had an interview in Osaka for a job, so I made arrangements in advance with the vice principal to take half the day off. I had never been to that part of Osaka, so I wanted plenty of time to get there. Since I had asked them for a letter of recommendation, there was no problem taking time off.

I left at around noon, and walked to the train station in Takasago. On the way there, a lady that lives near the school rode by on a bike and commented that I was leaving early. Except, it wasn’t in the tone of “Wow, you are lucky that you get to leave early!”, it was more of “Shouldn’t you be teaching students instead of wasting the taxpayer’s money by going home so early?”

As she rode by I told her that I had in fact taken time off for personal reasons, and she seemed satisfied with that – at least as far as I could tell. Still, what a big culture difference! What if I was going home because a family member was in the hospital, or injured? What if my contract was changed and I’m working nights two days a week? Maybe some people are used to traditional things – sometimes they don’t think about the big picture.

I got home and ironed up my shirt and pants, shaved again, cleaned up and then hit the road for Osaka.

Starting this month many of the train lines have moved to an integrated circuit card, and they are all connected, so you can use the same card wherever you go. You don’t have to buy tickets any more, and you just wave your card over the pad and walk through. Also in many convenience stores you can pay with this card, too. It is a step closer to a moneyless society – if I could only charge the card online from my bank account, then it would be a no brainer.

I used my IC card from my train station in Futami all the way to my destination, changing train lines four times. I used four different companies including the subway and a tram, and I didn’t have to even open my wallet. So cool.

When I finally arrived, it was next to a gigantic building called the Asian Trade Center. In my mind I had pictures floors and floors of offices having to do with the flow of trade within Southeast Asia, but instead it was a giant building with floors and floors of furniture. The building was enormous, with several different wings and around 24 floors of stores. The weird thing was that only about 40% of the stores were occupied, and when I was there only about 30% of those were open. It was as if somebody envisioned a grand showroom filled with people, and it didn’t work out. There was kind of a lonely feel about the place – like you are walking around a giant shopping mall and you are the last human being on Earth.

As I walked around I realized that this place was right on the docks, and it made it really easy to move big things like furniture into the country and put them up for sale without having to transport them too far. The galleries that were open were the size of football fields, and sometimes you could only see people like dots in the distance running the store.

Walking around there were some other stores that looked like they were taking advantage of the cheap rent – they looked out of place. One place was selling Carlberg beer on draft, and that was it. One place was using the space available and built a huge racetrack for remote control cars. I found a store dedicated to selling bigger-than-life-sized robots and characters that are popular Japanese icons.

I had arrived about an hour early, so I looked around for a while, and then finally went in to the place. It was in a wing of the building dedicated to incubating fledgling businesses. The office was completely bare – it looked like a temporary office to me. The people running it were nice enough, and the one that I had been in contact with sat me down and interviewed me in English.

It lasted about 45 minutes, and I think in the end they liked me. They have 10 positions available, and they have already filled three of them. I think I have a good shot at one of the remaining seven.

There is only one potential problem. The school board that I would be working for requires the foreign teachers to hold an instructor visa. This is to prevent some jokers from coming in on a tourist visa and then overstaying. Unfortunately, the take that rule too literally, and even though my spouse visa has no work restrictions and lasts for three years, it is not an instructor visa. For this very foolish reason, I may not get the job. I don’t think anyone has ever gone into the immigration office and asked for a downgrade of their visa.

After I wrapped that up I caught the tram back towards the main part of Osaka. When I got on the tram I was surrounded by beautiful women – all dressed up really nicely for some kind of event. It was like some kind of commercial – I thought perhaps there were cameras rolling to catch my reaction… seriously – the whole car was filled with them, and they all seemed to know each other.

I got back to Osaka, and then caught the train back to Kobe. Kuniko and I met up after she got off work, and together we went to get some burgers over at Star Child. Unfortunately, it was closed on Tuesdays, so instead we went to the Chilean restaurant down the street.

I’ve been to the restaurant just once before with Antoine, but it was a bit more fun with Kuniko. We ordered up lots of food and enjoyed the good service. We were the only people in the restaurant, so they really took care of us. And then Kuniko saw a cockroach.

Usually if you see a cockroach in a restaurant, it’s the kiss of death. I found some cockroaches in my apartment when I first moved in, and it freaked me out a little bit. But I killed them and they didn’t come back. If people see cockroaches, they think dirty and uncared for, and so when we saw the cockroach I thought we probably had a ruined evening on our hands.

The server came walking towards us and almost stepped on the little guy, but I pointed him out in the interest of catching the little bastard, and they soon brought out the cook and the owner and they started hunting him down. He escaped, however, and they apologized profusely. How embarrassing. Kuniko seemed OK with it, and the food was delicious, so we kept at it.

A few minutes later the cockroach made a run from his hiding place, and I jumped up, ran over and gave him a taste of the bottom of my shoe. Bye, bye cockroach. The staff gave me a round of applause, and I returned to my meal, appetite intact.

They brought out some free cocktails to reward us, and probably to make sure we came back, and we enjoyed those while finishing off the steak cooked Chilean style. The owner came out and sang three songs for us on his guitar in Spanish, and then thanked us very much for coming in. Overall it was a great time – I’m totally up for coming back. I think Kuniko is, too. We’ll see.

We came on back home and crashed. It was a busy day, and we were both tired out.

It was a big Monday.

I was tossing and turning all night suffering from sunburn on the tops of my feet, of all places. I guess it is just one of the prices of sitting around on the beach all day. I was musing aloud to Kuniko that I used to be able to sit around the beach in California without sunscreen – I wonder why I got burned this time. Kuniko joked around that it is probably the ozone layer is that much thinner. She might be right…

Actually, I have no one to blame but myself – I put sunscreen everywhere else and the tops of my feet and ankles are the only parts that got crispy. It made my hot bath in the morning and putting socks on a real adventure.

At school I had just one class today, a lecture to a chemistry class. Luckily the class is one that usually teach English to – in fact, I will teach them English next week. They all filed in and immediately started wondering what the hell Bryan was doing there.

The chemistry teacher, Nishikawa sensei, introduced me and told them that I would be talking about wine, and it would all be in English – just to scare them a little. I took over and started off the lecture the same way I do all my classes – “Hello! Good morning everyone!” Then I lectured for the next 40 minutes entirely in Japanese.

At first the students looked around in surprise, and then they paid attention. I had done a Powerpoint presentation so there was half English and half Japanese written down for them to observe. I also had lots of pictures for them to look at, and I explained as best I could the fermentation process, and how everything combines to make a quality wine.

Lecturing in Japanese is seriously difficult. I had no notes other than the Powerpoint as my guide, and I came up with some really strange Japanese. I would start to explain something, get going down the road, and then realize I didn’t know how to finish off the explanation. It was really tough, but not impossible. A lot of times I would hear snickers as I probably had said something really stupid, and other times I could hear myself clearly making stupid mistakes, but the words were already out of my mouth – no taking them back! It was a good insight into how my Japanese English teachers feel every day they teach with me.

To add to the pressure, the principal and vice principal of the school came to watch, the history teacher was there, and three other teachers, one taking pictures.

Once I finished the presentation I asked if there were any questions, and I looked with some alarm at the clock and realized I had almost 10 minutes extra to kill. Luckily, some students actually asked some questions! These are the same silent students from my English class, and now they were talking! One boy asked about how tannins combine in red wine, and if there is an upper limit to the flavor structures they create. Another boy asked me what temperature wine should be stored, and he was writing down my answer – but he was a little young to have a cellar at home.

After those questions the teachers pitched in to help kill the time with some questions. They asked about different wood types – why oak for barrels? How old do you have to be to drink in America, how much flavor does a barrel impart? The vice principal asked me a question in English, which caught me off-guard. I answered in Japanese, just in case.

It was a sweaty, tough lecture, but I got through it and I’m really proud of myself. It’s one of those stories I’ll be able to tell over a beer – “You think that lecture was tough? Check this out…”

Later I dropped by the principal’s office to chat, and it was here that I got a reality check about how far my Japanese has really come. We were talking about this and that, and I asked him if he could write a quick letter of recommendation for me for a job interview that I have on Tuesday. This simple request set off a chain of events that I had to deal with for the next two hours.

It’s a long story, but it seems that he and Hasegawa sensei (the guy who has been looking for a job for me) thought that I had found a job teaching at a language school. As far as I knew, everybody was still keeping an eye out for me, and as it turned out, they weren’t anymore.

We talked it out and discovered that an email exchange I had two weeks ago with Hasegawa sensei in Japanese caused him to believe that I was going to work at a conversation school for a few months until April when the new school started. That is my backup plan, but somehow when I wrote the mail to him, he thought it was my main plan, and he called off the dogs, so to speak.

My principal and I had several other miscommunications while we tried to iron out the original one, and finally we got it worked out and I called Hasegawa sensei and we’re on the same page. It ain’t easy speaking a foreign language, but it’s even tougher when your job future might hinge on what the guy in front of you is saying. More pressure!

Two hours later I came back to my desk and was able to decompress. I had lunch, and then went to attend a meeting of students that are interested in taking the new International Understanding course that will be offered next term. Mr. Hayashi had some friends from Australia coming to talk to the students, so I waited with them while they finished up lunch downstairs with the principal.

It was fun to talk to the students while we were waiting. I taught them useful words like “armpit” and “strict”, and I got a chance to talk to some students who are really good at English but for some reason or another don’t really speak out during my class.

Finally the Australians arrived – three giant people who came into the room and started speaking to the students. The main guy runs a museum in Perth, and will be hosting some of the students on their trip this summer. He seemed like a really nice guy, and he spoke some broken Japanese to the students, while Mr. Hayashi supplied vocabulary when his ran out. He also brought his daughter, and another lady that is teaching English somewhere in Hyogo, although I’m not sure if she was a JET or not.

I couldn’t get over their size, to tell you the truth. The were packing on pounds, and the guy was really tall to boot. They told some good stories, and the students for the most part paid attention and even asked a couple of questions (How old are you?), so I think it was a success. It wasn’t an English class, it was about international understanding, and I think that part worked OK.

The rest of my day I was getting ready for my interview tomorrow, and wrapping up the grades for this term. I got home at the regular time, which was nice, and now I’m getting dinner ready for Kuniko when she arrives. We’re going to have a chicken teriyaki donburi, and we should have plenty of rice leftover from that to power our lunches for a couple of days.

Kuniko was off to work again – on another everlasting weekend-less week. Rather than just sit around at home and sweat and do more packing, I decided to head for the beach.

I went to Suma beach because it is the closest to an authentic beach as I’m going to get. The day was sunny, and there were lots of people out there. I bought a sandwich and two big cold beers and sat out in the sun enjoying the sound of the little mini-waves lapping against the sand.

They had built a lot of temporary restaurants/bars to cater to the beach crowd, and while I was walking around looking at them one of the hawkers out front called out my name. I was surprised – my first thought was, “How do they know my name?” Was I wearing a name tag or something? Then I recognized the guy – he was a student of mine two years ago.

I chatted with him a while in Japanese, and we got caught up. He was a really cool student back then, and now he’s enjoying college and doing part time work to earn spending money.

I found a good place to sit down by the water, and there weren’t too many people around – it wasn’t like some beaches where there are people laying out just a few feet away all around you.

There was a young couple next to me – a girl that looked about 18, but she was drinking an alcoholic beverage so maybe she was older. She was with what at first I thought was her boyfriend, but I couldn’t immediately tell the sex. The girl drinking was wearing a tiny bikini, something you don’t often see on the beaches in Japan. She was bouncing around and splashing in the water and trying to get her boyfriend to come down and play with her. Her boyfriend was interested in smoking and spacing out. Finally when some other guys starting paying a lot of attention to the girl bouncing around he walked down. As he walked down to the water I saw that he was wearing a bra!

Well, it was a sports bra, but it was a bra. I tried not to stare, but they were hanging out and holding hands and not quite kissing but close. They got in the water together and were kind of holding each other, but both of them were acting strangely. I don’t know quite what was going on. One way or another, I think there were two sexually confused people down there in the water.

Other than watching the lesbian bikini show I read my book, did some vocabulary on my handheld computer, and enjoyed the awesome weather. Finally, once the heat was too much I headed back to the train station, and took the train to Maiko park, and then lounged around some more on the grass in the shade and took in views of the Akashi bridge. After about an hour of that, I was finally ready to head home.

I got back, took a cold shower, and then set about doing a little bit of organizing. Luckily, Kuniko got home early, so we were able to have a simple healthy dinner of tofu, stir fried sprouts and mushrooms, and a couple of nikuman.

We got a new game for the Nintendo DS, Super Mario Brothers, and so Kuniko is playing away right now. She’s only got a couple hours to relax this weekend, so I’m staying out of her way and letting her chill out.

Tomorrow is Monday, and it’s back to a long schedule. I’ve got a lecture in Japanese to a chemistry class, and I’m not sure how that is going to work out. It should be very interesting whether it turns out to be a success or a train wreck.

Despite being a Saturday, Kuniko had to go to work just like any other day. It was the last day of exams today, and afterwards she had to attend a PTA party. I don’t think it is going to be a wild one.

I’ll save Kuniko a little embarrassment and not mention how it turned out that she drove to work. I had to get up and help out with community cleanup, but it went fairly well knowing that it is my last time doing it. It was a particulary hot day, and the mosquitos were biting – I came home with seven big bites all over my body.

Lots of sweat the rest of the day. I ironed some shirts, packed away dishes and kitchen stuff, and sat in front of the hot computer typing away at my journal. The good news is that I made some pickles from some homegrown cucumbers and they make a good cold snack in the refrigerator.

I didn’t have any newspapers to wrap dishes, so I walked over to the common room of the complex and found a couple of ladies working on a project. I asked if they might have some old newspapers, and one lady ran upstairs and got me a big bundle. They were really nice, and one of the kids that was playing asked me increduously, “You speak Japanese?”

It should be a pretty mellow afternoon. I’m going to head over to IY to do some shopping for dinner, and maybe enjoy the air conditioning a little bit.

Friday was the last day of exams, and the last day of a nice string of half days. I am sure that once I get a new job my life will have less of these little perks that I’ve gotten used to. I’ve already mentally noted that 2003-2006 will be remembered as the “Golden Age” of my life.

For now, I’m just trying to enjoy the time as it comes. I spent the morning working with one of the chemistry teachers to make sure that everything is ready for my presentation on Monday.

My listening test was administered to the first year students during second period, and once again I had that weird feeling of hearing my voice being broadcast throughout the school – echoing through the hallways and booming out the windows of the first year classrooms out into the neighborhood. It’s a genuinely weird feeling.

After the exam ended I was stuck with marking them all, so I just sat down and busted through them. It went pretty smoothly, actually, and I got finished and out of school by 1:30.

I spent the afternoon working around the house, doing some moving stuff, and reading a book. Kuniko got home early, so we had a quick meal, and then decided to go over to visit her parents to get some paperwork signed. Although we had eaten dinner, Kuniko’s mom served coffee and crackers and dessert, and we left with very full stomachs.

This morning I had to stick around and make a long distance phone call to the USA instead of going with Kuniko to the train station. The call was about the rail passes and train tickets that we are using for our trip. I had ordered a couple of weeks ago, and since then nothing had happened. I called, and apparently there was a problem on their end and the order was stuck in limbo.

I talked to the lady and because of the time that had elapsed, one of the trains that I had thought I had reserved had filled up. We had to choose another train, in a less comfortable sleeping arrangement, and we spend less time at our destination. To be honest, though, I was just happy to get any train there, and hopefully it will just add to the adventure. I politely complained about their system, and she apologized, but both of us could see clearly that there was nothing that could be done about it now.

So, the lesson is, be very careful about buying a rail pass if you travel in Europe, and unfortunately you cannot trust their website to do it correctly. Living in Japan I have to depend on the web a lot to take care of things back in the USA, but this was one instance where I had to buckle down and make a long distance internation call and get things ironed out. Being on hold so long is going to be expensive.

While I was on hold, Kuniko walked by before she left and asked me why I was waiting. I told her that it is quite popular to put people on hold, but she was really surprised. That made me think of all the phone calls I’ve made in Japan (admittedly, not a lot) and I’ve never been on hold. Kuniko said that you just leave your name and number and they will call you back later. That shifts the burden to them and you can get on with your life.

At school I had to do some odd jobs relating to my exam on Friday, and I finished my presentation on fermentation for next week’s chemistry lecture. There’s not much chemistry in the lecture, mainly because I forgot most of it, and also because I fear that I won’t be able to explain the chemistry in Japanese as most of the words are on the technical side. Instead I’ve got really cool formulas like “Yeast + Grape Juice = Ethanol + CO2”. This will be a very rudimentary lecture.

Okamoto-san (formerly Tsuji-san) was at her folk’s house doing some chores and she sent me a message to come over and say hello. She had a return gift since I had given her some money for her wedding. It was a bottle of port that she had found in a local wine shop. It was a nice one, too – straight from Portugal. I’ll stash it away and enjoy it on a cold night with some chocolate. It was a great idea for a present.

On the train home I sat with a bunch of boy students, who all spoke to me in English. We kept it going all the way to Nishi Futami station, and I waved them off to go home and study. At IY I bought lots of meat for lunch and dinner – I’ve been craving meat for a couple of days now. I did shabu-shabu for lunch and then two small steaks for dinner. Oh yeah!

I got some more packing done today as well, but I think I’m approaching the point where we’ve got just the things we use daily, and the kitchen. I’m guessing I can do a little bit of the kitchen this weekend, and then gradually work on the other stuff as we approach the move date.

Kuniko is out drinking with her co-workers tonight – it’s the young teacher group from her school. I’m on call to go out there and take her to the nearest love hotel if the situation requires it, but I think tonight will be a little more mellow compared to the last time.

Another short day at work. I did my vocabulary, read a little bit of the book I am reading, and after the second exam sat in on two presentations. The students that did the presentations were absent for the actual day of their presentation, and because their grade was based on the presentation, they needed to do it.

Right after the second exam was over, I talked to Yamamoto sensei and he saw no reason for me to stick around – so I left a little earlier than usual. I caught the train home, and on the train I sat with one of my students. He and I like the same kind of music – the kid is in a time warp back to the 70s and 80s, and he likes Judas Priest, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, all those guys. I had just a little bit of juice left in my iPod so I let him listen to a little Rob Zombie to bring him slightly more up to date. He really liked it, so I wrote down the name for him and I think he might go shopping later. He’s not a good student at school – I think his grades are consistently low, but he is a nice guy and fun to talk to.

At home I changed clothes and had a quick lunch, and then took the train into Sannomiya. There I went to Uniqlo and bought a couple of pairs of slacks. They didn’t have one of the colors I wanted in my size, however, so another visit to Uniqlo is in my future.

Afterwards I met up with Kuniko and together we went to the Mont Bell store. I found a backpack that will serve as both of our suitcases on the trip to Europe. Now I’ll be able to say that I backpacked around Europe one summer when I was young. It’s not huge but it is comfortable and spacious, and I think I might be able to fit Kuniko in there if she gets tired of walking around.

We did some shopping around on the way back to the station, and Kuniko managed to pick up some new shoes and some new underwear along the way. By the time we got back to Nishi Futami she was running out of gas. We bought some Ito Yokado sushi and ate it in the living room while watching TV, and then I started organizing the house for tomorrow. Kuniko is conked out right now in the living room. Hopefully she’ll get lots of sleep tonight and be recharged tomorrow.

Today was the second day of my easy week. I arrived at work and knocked out my daily quota of vocabulary, and that freed me up to work on my powerpoint presentation for the chemistry students next week. I spent about an hour on it today, and it was fun to try to figure out the best way to explain wine fermentation in ways that the students might understand.

Just before noon I did a make-up interview test for two students, and then headed out the door. At the train station I just missed the train, so I sat around learning some new vocabulary. I looked up at one point when a train came on the opposite side of the tracks, and two boys from another high school were sitting in the window making goofy faces at me. I carefully stuck out my tongue at them, and then we all kind of smiled and laughed about it as the train pulled away. Just a little reminder not to get old yet.

On the way home I stopped in at IY and had a “Hot Chili Straight Burger” from Lotteria. It wasn’t hot, although the chili was quite good. I ate the burger in about 30 seconds, and was wholly unsatisfied. I looked back at the counter to see if they had something else to eat and all three of the employees were staring at me like they had never seen anybody wolf a burger before. I smiled at them, and two of them smiled back while the other ducked into the back of the store.

I went ahead and ordered a regular burger, and then sat down and ate that one a little more slowly. I carefully didn’t look at the counter – just in case.

After a little bit of shopping at the grocery store I came back with some empty boxes to pack up things at home. They are big onion boxes, and luckily they don’t smell like it.

My afternoon was pretty mellow – I called my folks, did some laundry, and spent about an hour or so packing. I figure if I do about an hour a day this week we’ll have a good jump on things for later.

Kuniko promised that she’ll get home late again tonight. She’s going to leave early tomorrow to meet me in Kobe, so she’s going to try to get everything done tonight. Overworked! Underpaid!

I saw a posting today for a job in Kobe, at a Berlitz School. It looked good until I found out that there is mandatory unpaid training, and a one year contract required, effectively putting me out of the job market for next April. They sent me a huge questionnaire to fill out if I am interested, and there are lots and lots of deep questions. I think I’ll have to pass, though. The search continues!

Today Kuniko had to leave early for work, so I left our house at the same time and ended up arriving at school before even the janitor got there. I had to open the door myself which is a very rare thing.

Exams started today at my school, and so I had a lot of free time. I spent almost 30 minutes in my classroom folding a paper airplane for my extra lessons next week. I’m going to do a paper airplane lesson, and I want some examples to show the students. I found the plans for this one of the internet, and it took some work but it came out pretty well.

I flew it around the classroom, but it became apparent quickly that I needed more space for this one. I took it out in the hallway, but it often hit the walls, so that was a problem.

Then I had the bright idea to take it up to the fourth floor and throw it out the window. That side of the school had no students – they were all in the other side taking tests. I opened the window, and hesitated for a little bit. I don’t know why, but I felt a little guilty. Here I was a 34 year old worried about whether I was going to get caught throwing a paper airplane out the window. I looked around, and the coast was clear. Finally I just chucked it out the window.

It flew really well. Lucky for me it flew in a huge circle, eventually coming back towards the school instead of continuing on to the school swimming pool where it would meet a watery end. It drifted for quite a long time, and it really was a good paper airplane. I went out and recovered the plane, and then brought it back inside and stashed it away for next week. Nobody saw me – mission accomplished!

My school principal was on a business trip, but he called in and asked for me. He had talked to Hasegawa sensei, and he wanted me to get in touch with him. I sent an email to Hasegawa sensei and got an answer in Japanese. The gist was that Hasegawa sensei had opened up a dialog with a private high school, but some circumstances changed and it looks like they aren’t looking for an ALT anymore. He asked me a question at the end of the message, and I am a little stumped about what it might mean. I’ll check with Kuniko when she gets home tonight.

I’m leaving school every day this week at noon, because of the exams. I came home today and then went over to the eye doctor to check on contact lenses. We did an eye exam, and then found some contacts that seemed to work for me. They gave me a free set to try for two weeks, and then I’m going to go back and do another check. It’s a nice deal, and I want to take advantage of these kind of things before my insurance expires at the end of my job contract.

I also did some packing this afternoon. I’ve carved out a little corner of our bedroom to start putting stuff away. I don’t think we have that much to deal with, but I’m trying to get a jump on it since this month will be busy anyway.

Kuniko will get back a little late tonight, and the plan is to cook up a little spaghetti for us when she gets home. Tomorrow is another half day, and it will likely be more of the same.

Kuniko and I got up early today – 3 a.m. One of Kuniko’s students was on an early flight back to Canada, so I decided to join Kuniko on her trip to the airport. It is a long, boring drive, and even more boring that early. We got all ready and then hit the road, and the biggest delays were the traffic lights getting to the freeway – they were on a timer that seemed to last forever to switch over.

We made the long drive there and met up with another teacher at Kuniko’s school, Hakogi sensei. We all stood around waiting for Haley to show up, and when she did there were endless pictures. Haley’s friends from school were there, her host family, some Rotary representatives, and us. Everyone had to be in the picture, and everyone had brought cameras so every combination of person and camera had to done.

There were lots of tearful goodbyes, and Haley got to the security gate with minutes to spare for her flight. Soon after we waved goodbye Kuniko and I were at McDonald’s for breakfast, and then back on the road home. We got back around 9 a.m., and we both crashed right out to sleep.

Fast forward to about 2 p.m. and we woke up and got organized. Now I’m typing this up and soon we’ll be heading to Kuniko’s folks for dinner.

Next week my exam period starts, so I’ll get half days all week. I plan on doing some things that I haven’t been able to do because of work. I’ll go to have my eyes checked out, do some packing at home for the move, and take care of paperwork and other fun stuff. Time is really starting to fly, now.

I woke up with a slight hangover but nothing too bad – just the result of combining beer, wine and tequila with lots of hot sauce. Kuniko and I got organized and we were out the door and off to the train station.

We caught a train all the way to the outskirts of Kyoto to meet up with some of Kuniko’s old college friends. The plan was to do a BBQ, and so we met up at the Nagao train station, and looked up at the cloudy sky with a little bit of trepidation.

We decided to go ahead with the BBQ despite the scary weather, and so we went to a shopping center for supplies. On the way there we got to see some firefighters practicing ropework, and it was cool to see how fast they could cross between buildings just climbing ropes.

After we got all our supplies we went to a park and got set up. We put the BBQ under a tree for some shelter, and there was even a fold out picnic table to sit around. The weather finally crapped out on us and it started to sprinkle, and then rain. Fortunately the tree protected us pretty well, and the big umbrella over the picnic table did a good job, too. The rain never really came down very hard, and by the time we finished eating it had stopped for good.

Hanging out with everyone gave my Japanese skills a good workout, and it was a challenge to keep up with the conversations. Everyone was nice enough to chat with me a little bit, and I had met everyone before so it wasn’t like a bunch of total strangers.

After spending quite a while relaxing and talking we packed things up and headed back to the train station. From there it was a two hour ride back, but we went beyond the expected and stopped in Sannomiya to do some shopping at the Bargains there.

The Bargains are really just controlled riots in stores. The more people mob up the more other people think there is a great deal, and the more people mob up.

Whenever I go shopping with Kuniko I get lots of looks from people as we walk around, but try walking around with a white T-shirt with splatters of BBQ sauce. That is a double-whammy-attention-getter.

We were out shopping late enough for me to get hungry again, so we stopped in a conveyor sushi place and ate a snack. It wasn’t so good, though, and we left a little unsatisfied. After we got home, Kuniko had some stomach problems, but I didn’t – even though we split each plate of sushi right down the middle. She was OK after a little while, though – maybe it was just eating too much today.

There are pictures from today in the gallery. Tomorrow we have early morning plans – it should be an interesting day!