Friday I was busy during the day finishing up the interview tests for my first year students. Technically today was the last day of classes for me, but I’ll still have some filler classes the week after next, so that is something to look forward to.

In the evening we had Yasu and his mom come over. Kuniko split from work early, and so together we got everything ready and served up tacos. It was a first for them, but everyone seemed to enjoy them. They came to the house loaded with presents – farewell gifts. It was a big surprise to us – we weren’t expecting a gift exchange and as such were totally unprepared.

We drank a bottle of wine, several beers, and Kuniko and I even got a little bit into the tequila. After two tacos each everyone was full, but we dug into some dessert that Kuniko brought from Kobe, so it was a gutbuster evening. After they left we opened the presents, and Yasu got me a earthenware sho-chu server with two big glasses, and his mom got Kuniko a new train pass case. She also gave us some money as a gift – it was all really too much.

Drunk and full of food, we took off to Ito Yokado after they left to do some late night shopping, but I’m happy to report that we didn’t come home with a new widescreen TV or anything.

Kuniko and I were on garbage station duty again today. This is another rotating responsibility at the apartment complex were we live. Usually they skip the foreigners, but since Kuniko moved in we are now stuck with the duty like the rest of the people that live there (except for Jane). It’s not too difficult, just collect the public trash and put it out in the morning. An interesting rule is that you are supposed to clean up the trash area as soon as the truck leaves to take care of any spills or leftovers. Of course we both work, so we can’t do that. Most people here have a wife that stays home all day, so it usually isn’t a problem. Kuniko is a very rare exception.

I had a pretty easy day at school – only two classes and a session with Miyake sensei. The classes went pretty smoothly. In between I had time to study and also to clean up some of the junk that has collected around my desk over three years. I’m going to have to clean it up really well for the next person. It is covered with textbooks that I am going to have to gradually shuttle home.

Speaking of the next person, Miyake sensei and I talked for a long time about her. Miyake sensei is eager to talk with another person from America. She wondered aloud if she is a “typical” American. Apparently she sees me as a very unusual American. She says I am quiet and modest, which goes against what she sees Americans as. She says that Japanese people feel more comfortable with me than with most Americans. I don’t know about that, but it was an interesting insight from someone that is used to dealing with different cultures.

Today was hot, just like yesterday. Everyone was sweating in the classrooms, and in the staff room too. I saw an interesting situation develop in the afternoon – something I might have missed if I didn’t understand Japanese.

One of the teachers was talking to another teacher, and he motioned to the air conditioners sitting idle in the hot room. He asked in a lightly sarcastic tone, “What are those for?” Everyone around him laughed, and he smiled and then walked over and turned them on. This is a big deal – apparently we are not allowed to use the air conditioners until a certain date dictated by the board of education. The idea I guess is to cut energy costs. Usually that date is around the first of July, but that is about a week away.

Once the teacher turned it off, other teachers helped him close the windows in the area, and then we sat around and enjoyed the cool air.

It got interesting when one of the administration teachers came in and noticed. He asked the nearest teacher why it was running, and the teacher explained that he had nothing to do with it and it sure is kind of early for air conditioning isn’t it? He didn’t sell out the guy who turned them on, though. The admin teacher left them running, though. The weirdest thing is that my side of the staffroom was being air conditioned, but from the administration teacher side to the end of the staff room they were sweating in their chairs with the windows wide open – doggedly observing the board of education regulations. Over in my section it was like a party, everybody sitting around and eating snacks and talking.

Antoine told me that in his first year there he just walked over and turned the air conditioning on, and screw the rules. Nobody knew what to do, so they left it on. I think it is a yearly tradition for his school, now. Their aircon goes on when Antoine feels hot. I’m not sure, but that’s the way I remember his story.

This evening I’ve been doing lots of research into next steps, both in my job and my career. There are a lot of interesting trends out there. It looks more and more like to take the next step I will need some more education. It makes sense – I’ve been teaching without any kind of credentials and it is fair to expect a future employer to ask for something more than a deep interest in teaching.

One thing I really am interested in is something called “Computer Assisted Language Learning” (CALL). It is concerned with the idea that you can use computers/internet/technology to more effectively learn a language. I have really seen the advantage in my own study of Japanese. I carry every word I’ve ever memorized in my handheld computer, I practice writing Japanese characters with my Nintendo DS, and also by writing emails in Japanese to Kuniko and other people via my cellphone. I am always searching for new tricks and tips online, and now I can’t imagine learning a language with just a textbook and a CD.

Anyway, it is fun to do the research into what is going on out there. Whether I can leverage my interest in this field into a job that I love – well, that remains to be seen. I remember singing this same song years ago leaving the winery to jump into the computer industry.

Kuniko is getting home late tonight, and so I’m going to cook up some somen noodles to serve ice cold when she arrives. Tomorrow is Friday and we’re having taco night with Yasu and his mom, and then on Saturday depending on the weather we might head to Kyoto for a BBQ with a bunch of Kuniko’s old college friends. I’m hoping for sun!

Sometimes Wednesday can be a busy day for me, but today it was pretty mellow. I had just two classes instead of the customary four – two classes were dedicated to preparation for exams next week.

I used my free periods to do some research on the web, some revisions for the upcoming listening test, and to dodge the history teacher.

The classes I did have were interview test classes, and those went pretty smoothly. I can’t say enough how much fun those classes are. I know the students dread them, but it is great to talk to everyone.

In every class of students I have some favorites. They are the ones that I talk with in the hallways between classes or have impressed me in the past with their confidence or bravery. Today I seemed to be interviewing lots of my favorites, and they all responded well with a good score.

I had lunch in the cafeteria today with Moriguchi sensei, a new math teacher that is kind of a young guy, and Nozaki sensei. We talked in Japanese since Moriguchi sensei doesn’t speak any English. He seemed more than a little interested in the new ALT, especially when he heard that she is female. I don’t know what’ll happen, but she may be in for a warm welcome.

Nozaki sensei wanted to look over the application of the new ALT (Brenda). She looked it over and said that she writes like a young person, and I can see what she means. My experience over the phone with her gave me the idea that she is a lot younger than she looks in her picture. I hope she’ll be fine with the job, though – hopefully the teachers will be patient with her.

At the end of the day there was a staff meeting, but I heard it was about the schedule for August and September, and since I’m going to be gone by then I wondered out loud to key people if it was absolutely necessary for me to be there. Turns out that the key people thought it might be OK for me to skip it, which was big progress. As soon as everyone went up to the staff room I made a dash for the door and got out of work 30 minutes early.

The key to a good escape is to do it without attracting a lot of attention, but as I left all the students leaving outside were shouting out “Goodbye Bryan!” as I walked away – the bad news is that the teacher’s meeting was being held in the second floor right above the students, and since it is hot all the windows were open. I fear it was not the most inconspicuous exit I’ve ever made.

I got home and took care of some chores, and then walked over to Carrefour to do some shopping for a little Mexican party that we are going to have with Yasu and his mom on Friday night. I got back home with some marked down cheese, but Kuniko called at 8:45 saying that she was stuck at work, so I ate it alone while watching the Tigers game.

Tomorrow I have day two of the presentations, and just one other class so it should be a light day. Kuniko will get home pretty late tomorrow as well. I hope she’ll be able to get free for the party on Friday…

The rain let up today, replaced with heat and steam. The humidity was so high that we couldn’t scoot the desks around the classroom because of the thin film of condensation over everything. It was a very wet day.

My first class was a preparation class for students that are going to take the upcoming STEP test. I started by doing a practice interview with one of them, and then we had kind of a group discussion. I had them sit around in a circle and I asked them questions – all in English. It was actually kind of fun, and everybody was fairly relaxed. I told a few stories and hopefully it will build their confidence just a little bit for the interview test.

The next class was with Tsutsumi sensei. We’ve been working on doing presentations, and today was the first of two days of the actual presentations. Each presentation was supposed to be five minutes long, with a sheet of paper as a visual aid. Most students cut out pictures from magazines and pasted them on their paper – some of them looked really good.

About half the students did their presentation today, and the results were mixed. Most lasted about 3 minutes, some were five plus minutes, and a couple were just over one minute. I had all the other students grading the speaker, and their scores were averaged and combined with Tsutsumi sensei and my score to create a final score which will be their final exam for my part of the class.

I think it was overall a success, but some people didn’t put much effort into it. The good news was that other students gave them a hard time for flaking. One student forgot her paperwork, so she got a flat out zero for the project. Tsutsumi sensei is pretty strict sometimes. But we did warm them every class for the past three weeks, so what else can you do?

My final class was in the afternoon, and it was another interview test. I’ve got lots of these coming up. It went a bit smoother than yesterday, and everyone was so nervous they were jumping around and couldn’t really sit still. My students did well, once I got them to relax. I really enjoy doing interviews because it is my chance to sit down and speak with the student, and they can’t really run away. If that sounds sinister I don’t mean it that way – it’s just a rare chance.

I was out the door right on time and headed to the train station. Today for some reason there were lots of my students around the station. With the exception of a few they try not to sit anywhere near me, because they feel like they’ll be obligated to speak English, and also because they want to use their cell phones, and my status as a real teacher is a little unclear. They aren’t supposed to use them at school, but of course everyone has one, and I’ve never given any students a hard time about it.

I’m back home now and chilling out. Today I reserved the last hotel room for the trip to Europe – a really simple-sounding place in Dijon, France. We’re going to have a day of walking around eating and relaxing in Dijon right before we get on an overnight train to Venice, Italy.

Tonight’s menu depends a lot on when Kuniko gets home – we are thinking about skipping somen tonight in favor of butakimchee (pork and kimchee), if Kuniko gets home at a decent hour…

The rain kept on falling all day today, and everyone is saying that it will be a regular feature for the next few days. I plodded to school in the rain under a big green umbrella that I mistakenly took leaving a restaurant drunk a couple weeks ago. It is bigger than the umbrella that I unintentionally left behind in trade, but it tends to want to unfold by itself, so I have to keep a close eye on it.

At school I had just one class in the afternoon, so the rest of the day was spent doing preparation for the upcoming exams, and writing a couple of last minute lesson plans. I did get almost two hours to study, so I caught up on all the vocab that I didn’t deal with over the weekend. I’m getting in a bad habit of skipping my vocab over the weekends, and catching up on Monday.

My class today was the first set of students to undergo the interview test this term. They did really well, but at first they couldn’t understand what was going on. I put up a big group of numbers on the board, and everyone thought it was were they were supposed to sit. Yamamoto sensei was shouting at them to sit in their regular seats, but they weren’t listening to him. He finally lost it and told them they should learn to listen in Japanese, and then we’ll worry about listening in English. They finally settled down, and we explained the procedure and got going.

Part of the interview test this year is new. Mori sensei asked that we request that the students make a short speech, on any topic they like. It is a good chance for them to use English in a free form, and for the most part the students did well. Some students froze up and didn’t say anything, but most said at least something. One student of mine went on and on in English about how much he likes the class, and how he hopes to travel overseas someday and that is why he is studying English so hard. It was really good, and I couldn’t believe that my students were speaking so much English at once.

When I got home today I cooked up somen noodles and had them all ready to go when Kuniko got home. They were really good, and very healthy. Unfortunately our health plans went awry when Kuniko brought some goodies home from shopping. We had some Frankfurt flavored potato sticks that could not be considered even remotely healthy, and followed that up with some Japanese desserts and chocolate mint bon-bons. When we flunk a diet, we do it right.

I heard back from a recent job prospect, and they are passing on me. It was one of those jobs that sounded great in the posting, but the more I found out about it, the worse it sounded. I was almost relieved to hear that they didn’t want to hire me, although I was hoping to at least get a chance to practice interviewing with a Japanese company. The school was a night school, and they are in the boonies a bit. The advertisement said west Kobe, which is close to where we will be living, but upon further communication it turns out there are two school locations and one is in the boonies up north where no trains go. Sneaky. Anyway, the search continues, but most people now are looking for someone to start in July or the beginning of August, and both of those times are not good for me.

I woke up late on Sunday with a slight headache and a giant vibrator next to the bed. Actually, it is a back massager, and this morning we tried it out a little bit. It seems to work pretty well, especially around the shoulders. I think I prefer the manual massage better, however.

This morning we spent time cleaning house, taking long leisurely baths, and doing laundry. Kuniko and I even had time to take a nap in the afternoon for an hour or two. It was nice to rest up after all the fun yesterday.

I talked on the phone with my successor on the JET program, Brenda. She sounds like a nice enough girl. The thing that struck me most was that she sounded so young. She was giddy with excitement, though, and it made me think back to when I was in the stage she is in, about to leave on an unknown adventure. It’s a great time, and I hope she can savor the moment and enjoy it.

Kuniko had to leave for a school party around four. I made some reservations for our Europe rail passes, and spent lots of money on our transportation for the trip. It looks like it will be a lot of fun.

Since Kuniko is gone for dinner I thought I’d make the trip to the yakitori. I haven’t been in a few months, and I want to check in with the gang there. I get the impression that my successor won’t be visiting that kind of place very much.

Tomorrow it is back to work, and I’ve got lots of interview tests to do for the first year students. It’s also somen week – every night, noodles!

This morning we got up fairly early for Kuniko to hit the road and teach a couple of classes at her school. I spent the morning getting ready for Tsuji-san’s wedding at noon – I had to find just the right clothes to wear, you know.

My folks called just before I left, so we chatted for a while. My mom did a very brave thing at work, and we talked about it – I was impressed. We couldn’t talk very long, though, and soon I was out the door and headed to Takasago. I met up with Alexis on the platform in Takasago, and together we took the next rapid train to Himeji.

We were a little early arriving in Himeji, so we went over to the Starbucks to hang out and have a quick pre-wedding snack. We had a chance to talk about what Alexis will do (and what she wants to do) after she goes back to the US next month. She is realistic about it, and I hope she finds something cool when she gets there.

We caught a taxi from there and headed to the wedding place. It was only five minutes away, and it looked deserted when we pulled up. Luckily there was some activity inside, and we got directions and headed upstairs to wait in a reception area. We got a lot of looks from the large group of older people. We definitely didn’t fit in, but I sat down with Alexis and I smiled at people and they seemed nice enough.

Soon after we arrived Tsuji-san’s dad came by and thank you for coming. He looked a little nervous but I could tell he was happy, too. We said thank you back and we each did a bow, and before we knew it, it was time to head outside and see the wedding.

The ceremony took place in kind of a courtyard garden, complete with waterfall and ferns. It was a nice place to hold the wedding – really pretty and private. The ceremony went pretty quick, and I took lots of pictures and was only rewarded with the back of people’s heads. I didn’t want to run around and take pictures – it seemed like a very big distraction.

After it was over we joined a lineup to say congratulations. From this point on, Tsuji-san’s new name is Okamoto-san, so I’ve got to take care to call her that. They both looked very happy, and they gave us a small parting gift before they headed into the studio for lots of pictures with family.

Alexis and I split from there, and walked back to the station. She decided to go home in the gap between the wedding and the second party, so I hung out in Himeji for about 90 minutes until Kuniko arrived. I read some books for free in the air conditioned bookstore.

Once Kuniko arrived we walked around doing some shopping, eating snacks, and drinking a green creme soda with a big scoop of ice cream inside. It was a great way to kill time, and soon we met up with Alexis and headed to the second party. We caught a shuttle bus near the station, which was also being boarded by a slew of old people.

Old people in Japan both annoy and scare me. They annoy me because they act like they are entitled to everything without having to repect anything, and they scare me because I don’t want to end up like that. There was a slight disturbance when one of the old guys started pulling at one of the old ladies, trying to get her to do something she didn’t want to do. I watched in fascination as the drama unfolded, but things calmed down quickly as no doubt one of the participants forgot what the big deal was all about in the first place.

We arrived at the Himeji Castle Hotel and went inside to the restaurant – that was the location of the party. At the registration desk one of the groom’s friends asked me in English “Do you speak Japanese?”, and I gave him a big smile and returned “Do you speak English?” His friends all laughed at him, and we got all set up and went inside.

Kuniko and Alexis and I all sat together and Alexis enjoyed a vegetarian meal while everyone else had a wide variety of foods – pizza, tofu, fried shrimp – there was a lot of food and beer.

The second party was one of those very organized affairs with an emcee who did lots of games and contests. I’m not a big fan, because it gets in the way of meeting people and drinking together, but apparently it is the normal deal at second parties in Japan. They had a portable pedestal that was called the “Party Dam 30”. It had all kinds of activities built into it: karaoke, bingo, music, you name it.

Alexis and Kuniko got along really well and so it made the table really fun – we were joking around most of the time and we were kept entertained despite the “Party Dam 30”.

We played bingo, and I was lucky enough to win once again – I’m 2 for 2 at wedding second party bingo. I scored a giant green and black vibrating back massager. It was quite big, and due to the amount of alcohol I had consumed at that point I was fond of calling it a vibrator.

One of the groom’s friends was doing a lot of camera work, and I had noticed at the wedding that he looked a lot like a young Don Johnson, of Miami Vice fame. I tried to explain this to Alexis earlier, but Miami Vice is a little old for her. She asked me if Don Johnson was Asian – because if he isn’t how the hell can this guy look like Don Johnson. Good point, but for some reason this guy really reminded me of him. I took a bunch of pictures in an effort to catch an image of him to compare later – you can see the fruits of my labors in the picture gallery.

Finally the party wrapped up, so we lined up and said goodbye to the Okamotos. They handed over more gifts and the groom gave me his brightly colored plastic Hawaiian lei, so I wore that the whole way home. I noticed that when you are drunk you don’t seem to care about wearing a bright yellow lei and carrying around a giant vibrator in public. It’s just not a big deal.

It was a good time, and we split up with Alexis in Takasago and headed home from there. I was really bushed – I had been walking the streets of Himeji all day long, so we headed straight to bed. It was a really fun day, though – and I can’t wait to hear how the Okamotos new life goes. Check out the pictures from the day.

Friday I had a busy morning doing catch-up classes to make sure that all my first year students finish up at the same time. The morning was really busy, and then in the afternoon I had lots of free time to grade papers and get organized for next week.

I was walking around the school at one point in the afternoon and I walked by the gymnasium. I looked inside as I walked by, and there was a class of boy students all laying on the floor sleeping. It looked like it was an organized activity. Maybe they were supposed to be meditating, but they were all sleeping soundly. I just shrugged and moved on – who knows what that’s all about…

When I got home I cooked up a nice easy (and healthy) dinner of somen for me and Kuniko. It was delcious – so good, in fact, that we declared next week somen week and we’re going to eat it every night for dinner.

I sent off the money for the new apartment today, so it should be official – we’ll be moving around July 21st. It is a relief to at least know where we’ll be living, and it will help me while I continue my job search. Progress!

When I was a kid my parents took me and my brother to Universal Studios in Hollywood. There were a lot of amazing things, but the thing that stayed with me to this day was a show, based on the character of Conan made popular by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The show itself was so-so, but as the audience came into the auditorium at the very beginning of the show, the stage was shielded by a curtain of water. The water fell in streams from the ceiling into a small moat that separated the audience from the stage. It was noisy and it made the air humid but there was something exotic about it that IÂ’ll never forget.

That is why I donÂ’t seem to mind the rainy season in Japan. Outside right now it is exactly like a curtain of water, and the air is wet and warm and it reminds me very much of that day at Universal. Some teachers said that it may last all week and weekend.

My first class today was a lecture on international understanding, and I spoke with seven students who had different reactions to what I was talking about. I lectured on trying to keep an open mind about different cultures, and I told them what things Japanese people do that would be considered crazy in America, and also what Americans do that would be considered strange or rude in Japan. We watched parts of the movie “Mr. Baseball”, and I tried to get them to point out behavior that they thought was abnormal. Overall I thought it went better than last weeks lecture, and I hope the students will remember that there are other cultures walking around Japan besides their own.

I worked with Miyake sensei on her listening skills just before lunch. We had a good talk about her weekend, and we’ve been talking about current events and politics more to expand her vocabulary a little bit more. She’s getting quite good at expressing her thoughts in English. She’s dying to speak more, though, and she really enjoys studying English. It is a good combination – and it is showing some results.

In the afternoon I had a class with Tsutsumi sensei, and we talked about how the new ALT will be fitting in, and how she will work the class once she arrives. It is becoming apparent that it will be a challenge for everyone at first, but I think it is a good thing to shake up the teachers a little bit. It will be tough at first on Brenda (the new ALT) when she gets here, though.

I came home in between rain showers, and spent around two hours looking at jobs and careers on the internet. There are a lot of jobs out there, but only occasionally does the perfect-sounding one show up. I’m keeping an eye out – hopefully something will show up.

Kuniko and I bought sausages at Carrefour last night, so I’m getting everything ready for when she gets home. She has to work the study room tonight, so she won’t be home until after nine. Tomorrow is Friday, though, so there is an end in sight.

Today I did the last two lessons about money, and it was nice to finish that off. The students are all complaining of the heat, and people are a little resistant to getting up and doing anything in class. Summer is the toughest time to get people moving and learning.

After school we had an ESS party. The students wanted to have a party as a farewell to me, but I ended up organizing the whole thing, buying the snacks, and carrying them all back to the school from Seiyu. The students mostly just joked around and I used the opportunity to introduce the information I had about the new ALT, Brenda. They were slightly interested, but a little concerned that Brenda doesn’t speak Japanese. They might actually have to use English in English club!

We watched a movie (Corpse Bride) and because of it got out a little late. I got home after Kuniko, which is very rare indeed. Kuniko made a really good shabu-shabu salad for dinner, and soon after we went to Carrefour in a vain search for a wedding present for Tsuji-san. I think I will end up giving her cash – nothing jumped out at me as totally appropriate for her in Carrefour. One tragic thing we say there was that the Starbucks was torn out and gone. It was there just a few days ago, but that makes it another of the peripheral stores at Carrefour that has sunk. The place is really starting to clear out, and I fear that someday Carrefour itself will go under. Then where will I get my Mexican food supplies?

Today I was in a rush to leave this morning and I totally forget my cellphone and my handheld computer at home. That meant that I couldn’t do flashcards, and I was out of contact with people all day. It was kind of refreshing.

I had an appointment to return a book to Tsuji-san in the morning, so I went over there and she looked nervous about the upcoming wedding. She gave me some presents to say thank you for helping her with her English, and her parents even came out and admired my Japanese and to say thank you. It was the first time that I could speak to her father for an extended period of time. He is a stern looking guy. Her mom is always smiling, though. I’ll probably have some pictures of them after the wedding on Saturday.

Classes went smoothly today, and since I wasn’t cramming vocab into my head I spent time looking for good hotels in Venice and Florence. I also spent a while writing emails to Brenda, who will be taking over my position at the school. I detect just a little concern about the protocol among the teachers, and one teacher asked me hopefully if I could be around to help out with the transition. I said that if I was free I would be happy to, but of course if I’ve got a paying gig somewhere else I’ve gotta do that.

I was home at a reasonable hour today, and surprisingly so was Kuniko. She cooked dinner for us, and in the evening I watched “Mr. Baseball” in preparation for a class that I am doing on Thursday. The class is about cultural differences and culture shock, and that movie is full of them. I recommend the movie if you get a chance to see it. It was a lot more surprising when I saw the movie years ago – now Japanese baseball is not so unusual.

Since Sunday when we went to the crazy apartment company, they have called every night to let us know what is going on. They call and urgently ask for Kuniko, and even if she is right next to me I hem and haw and subject them to my bad Japanese, play stupid sometimes, and generally just frustrate the guy. Then when they call back later Kuniko gets on the phone and it turns out they are just letting us know the status of the process. Relax guys, we trust things are going fine.

I’m off to bed a little early tonight. Tomorrow I’ve got lots of flashcards to do to make up for my forgetfulness today.

Today I got up early and made lunch for Kuniko and I, and then jumped in the bath. Once I finished I did a little bit of studying until Kuniko woke up. She had trouble again sleeping last night, so it was a challenge to get up and ready on time. We had a quick breakfast and then hit the road.

Today at school I spent a couple hours pondering my future instead of pondering Japanese vocabulary, and organizing my thoughts. Despite how I felt yesterday, I already have a general sense of what I want to do; it is just a matter of carving out a path in that direction. And, do a better job of communicating it to the people around me.

In the late morning I got a big package of papers from Yamamoto sensei – it was the information about our next ALT that will replace me in August. It’s a 20-something year old woman from Minnesota! More American accents for our students to pick up.

I went through the paperwork and it was in a way retro-embarrassing. I’m sure three years ago Mr. Hayashi and my predecessor Andy leafed through all my personal information trying to get an idea of what kind of person I am. I read through her application, her school transcripts, her passport photos, letters of reference, everything. I remember well pulling together all that information and getting it to the embassy in time.

Yamamoto sensei will be her supervising teacher, so we spent a little time talking about what we should do from here. I sent off an introductory email to her, and we’ll see what kinds of questions and issues she will have.

Other than that it was a pretty quiet day. I spent more time planning and thinking, less time studying, and hopefully the kick in the pants that I got yesterday will keep me working hard for a while.

I got a sad e-mail from Antoine, apparently he and his girlfriend finally had the big fight that broke them up. We’ll see if that holds, but Antoine sounded pretty sure that it was over. I think there probably is a lot of pressure on Antoine to get a job and stay in Japan, and maybe start thinking about a future together with Miwako. Maybe that pressure finally got to them.

I headed home right on time, and walked to the train station in the heat. It is starting to really warm up now, in between rain storms. Today I was hoping for air conditioning in the office, but I think it is still two weeks away.

I did a little shopping at IY for some basic supplies, and then headed on home. Kuniko should be home pretty soon, so I’m just hanging out until she gets back. I’m doing a little bit of research on the web, and trying to stay cool. It’s going to be another warm evening.

What a weekend. Saturday was fairly mellow. Kuniko went off to work in the morning, and I stuck around to do the community cleanup at the apartment complex. The cleanup went pretty well – I received my instructions from the manager, who plopped some hedge clippers in my hand and trusted that I was familiar with the topiary arts.

Not having done a lot of hedge trimming in my life, I approached it hesitantly at first, and later with much more gusto – shaping the unruly bush into a big arc. I had fun clipping away while other people did much the same thing. Nobody here was an expert clipper, but we just had fun with it and the hour passed quickly.

I chatted a little bit with Jane on my way back to the apartment, and we talked about her new neighbor who will move into my place after Kuniko and I leave. She even offered to help us move, which was very nice of her. I think our move won’t be too tough though – she should be safe.

I cleaned house and did laundry throughout the morning, and when Kuniko came home in the afternoon she did a load of laundry, studied, and got some well-deserved time to relax. Later in the evening we went over to the Kageyama household for dinner to celebrate an early father’s day.

Kuniko’s sister was there as well, so it was nice to have everyone around. We had a big feast and then sat around the TV and chatted and ate dessert. We had brought along our Nintendo DS with the brain training game, and that was a big hit with Kuniko’s sister and father. They both played it for a long time.

Sunday was a really crazy day. We got a chance to sleep in, but Kuniko couldn’t sleep very well and ended up staying awake most of the night. I managed to sleep in a little bit, though. We spent the morning reading and relaxing at home, and then drove to Carrefour to park the car. We parked there and then walked to the nearest JR train station – Tsuchiyama, and from there took a train to Nishi Akashi station. In Nishi Akashi we had an appointment with an apartment rental place to look at some places. We need to get serious about moving – the deadline to move out of the teacher’s apartment is at the end of next month!

We had trouble finding the place at first, so Kuniko called and a few minutes later an employee came running up to guide us to the office. He was a really talkative guy, and he had us both on edge the whole time we talked to him. Unfortunately, he was the guy that was going to drive us around to see the apartments today, so we got plenty more exposure to him throughout the afternoon.

Back at the office they gave us some papers listing a few of their recommended properties to look at. We had found three properties on their website that we wanted to see, but they didn’t seem aware of those. We asked about it, and they went to the back room and soon emerged with those three property sheets as well. There was a really pushy boss working there, who told us that he was sure we would find something we liked today – he had a feeling it would be one called “Green Heights”.

We headed out to the car, and drove off to the first place in Okubo. We had decided to look around Okubo because of it’s proximity to a JR train station, the big shopping center that is attached, and it is a little closer to Kobe than where we are now without getting close enough to be more expensive.

The first place I liked immediately. The neighborhood was just one street off the main street leading to the station, and it was only a 2 minute walk from the apartment to the station. It was on the third floor above some offices and down at the floor level there was a nice looking yakitori right there. The bad news was that it was too small. One of the rooms was just about the size of our bed – no room for anything else. Unfortunately, that was a show-stopper.

We looked at a few others without finding one we liked. There was a big one that was part of a duplex in a quiet neighborhood – and at first I really liked it. It had two floors and its own parking spot, which is a big deal in Japan. The rent wasn’t so bad and the place was huge – maybe a little too big.

As soon as we entered the place the agent started saying bad things about it, and he continued to say bad things about any of the rental places that they didn’t recommend. He pestered us for our opinion and wanted us to list our preferences in order all the time – “Which is your favorite so far?”, “How about this one?”, “This must be better than the other one, right?”

It was the hard sell – I’ve seen it before. He was pushing the recommended properties, and he wanted us to sign up for one of them today. Even though we knew we were getting the hard sell, it didn’t make it any easier to deal with. Luckily we could speak English to each other and exclude him from the conversation. He would interrupt us and say “What’s that?” “What did you say?” Never has speaking English in a foreign country been so useful.

We got to the “Green Heights” place that his boss had recommended, and he was gushing about it before the car stopped. It was a 7 minute walk from the station, on the third floor of a building on the main street. We climbed the stairs and went in, and looked around. I had steeled myself to be wary of this one – it was one that he was pushing. We looked around and it seemed nice – very clean and pretty spacious. The price was OK, so why was he pushing it so hard? Kuniko and I talked about it, sometimes talking right over his “What do you think?” and “Do you like it?” questions that he fired at us constantly.

I liked the place, but I was a little worried about the neighborhood. Right across the street was a gas station, and I didn’t know how much traffic noise there was, especially during rush hour. There was no air conditioning, but he assured us that we could install it without a problem. I wanted some time to think about it.

Part of the hard sell is not giving you time to think about it. You push someone into a decision. We were hoping to just look around today and then if we liked something, talk about it and come back later. We had hoped to get dropped off at the nearby station when we were finished, but that wasn’t in the cards. He wouldn’t drop us off, but said that his boss wanted to talk to us about Green Heights, and I knew that was the big push to seal the deal.

We made up a story about having an appointment to get to, but it didn’t faze them a bit. They sat us down in their office, and said that a place like Green Heights was sure to move soon, maybe in the next few days, so we had better jump. All my instincts were to walk away and talk about it at a leisurely pace with Kuniko. Kuniko, though, didn’t really want to wait – she was fine with the place and didn’t see why I would need time.

In the end we said that we wanted some time to think and we put down a little bit of money to hold the place for a week – we had to fill out an application, and then they finally let us go. The money part was funny – they asked how much money Kuniko had, and she said she had only 3000 yen, and so they said “no problem” and took that. I’m lucky I didn’t say how much money I was holding, because I think they would have taken that, too.

After getting manhandled we walked back down the street, relieved to be away from such an annoying and pushy company. Just as we were about to turn the corner, the annoying guy came running and calling our name – he had forgotten to make a copy of one of the forms, and so we had to wait outside a nearby convenience store while he made a copy. Kuniko and I were getting pretty pissed off by then.

He apologized and we gave him the curtest of goodbyes and then headed to the station. We were so flustered that we took the wrong train from the station and ended up in Akashi – we had to catch another train to go back the right way. Eventually we made it Okubo, and decompressed by eating McDonald’s (we didn’t have much cash on us anymore) and talking about the day.

Without all the high pressure it was easier to think about the place and whether we liked it or not. It was clear that Kuniko was ready to pull the trigger – it was just me holding it up. I had lots of questions – renting an apartment is tricky in America, let alone in a foreign country where it would take me a month to read the contract. Kuniko answered the questions and explained everything to me, and it helped a lot.

We did a little bit of shopping and then decided to walk from where we were to the Green Heights apartment. It took just 7 minutes to get there, and we were able to look around the neighborhood on the way. There were a couple of shops on the ground floor of Green Heights – a Los Angeles-themed hair salon, and a cake shop (danger!)

We walked up to the apartment and stood outside, looked around and then walked to the nearby supermarket to look at what they had for sale. It was no Ito Yokado, but I don’t think we’ll be in a good situation like that again soon.

We walked back from there and I finally decided that it was OK and that we should go for it. I had gotten my questions answered, but the biggest holdup for me was that this place was the one that the pushy people were pushing – so something must be wrong. I almost didn’t want to take it just to spite them, but it is a good place, and that is what is most important.

Just to top off the day, on the way home we started talking about my future in Japan. It’s a tough topic to talk about since there are so many question marks for me. Kuniko asked me some good questions, and I had no good answers. It made me feel bad that I couldn’t answer them and a little like I have been wasting time the last three years instead of working towards something.

That depressed me even more on top of the pushy real estate company, so by the time we got back home I was pretty bummed out. We went to bed and talked a little bit, and that helped a lot. We talked about we wanted and what we expected, and talked a little bit about our different cultures and how those were shaping our expectations.

Just before we fell asleep the real estate guy called to bug us some more, and then he called again about 10 minutes later but we didn’t answer. Then he called our home phone number, but we didn’t answer that either. Enough is enough.

I think about their sales process and I can’t believe how it is going to work out for them despite almost everything they did. They need to let the properties speak for themselves. Now we will rent this place despite hating (hating!) the people that are renting it, and resenting the whole process. In the end, they will probably think their tactics were effective, and they’ll keep doing it. Even if we wrote a letter complaining, the manager will still say, “But at least they rented something!” Scary!

Finally, the day served as a gigantic wake up call for me that I have to focus on my future more. I’m sure I’ll have no problem landing a job in the short term, but as for five years from now, ten, twenty, I’ve got a lot of thinking to do.

Today was my last culture festival at Takasago Minami, and so I approached it keeping in mind that it was my last chance to enjoy it and spend time informally with my students.

As usual there were lots of interesting exhibits. Nothing as dramatic as last year, probably because of the price tag of last year. In the morning I walked around enjoying the displays, like the little green men from Toy Story set up to greet people as they arrived. They also had a huge banner made out of tiny squares of colored paper. From a distance it looked like a photograph of my school. Very creative!

The format of the event was the same as the previous two years, but this time I was a lot closer to the students participating, so every time they did a dance routine or an exhibit I knew at least one student well, and that made it much more interesting.

As usual it is a sweaty place in the gym during the festival, because they have to close all the doors and windows to make it dark for the dancing and plays. The first year I sweated the whole time and was miserable. The second year I froze some sodas in plastic bottles the night before, and then brought those with me to keep cool. This year I sat right behind the principal with the student council – those are choice seats. They had a fan dedicated to keeping the principal (and those behind him) cool, and we were right next to the cement wall of the gym so it was naturally cool. Good spot.

The dances were interesting – lots of variety. One class did a very quick version of West Side Story, and another class did a pretty bad version of Cinderella. The taiko drummers were the best, though – and it was unanimous among the students and staff that it was just like seeing it at a real concert. I was really impressed – I haven’t seen much taiko but this was really, really good.

The teachers even did a couple of songs. It was pretty bad, but I guess that is part of the entertainment value for the students. They had some new members this year, and Nozaki sensei dressed up in a red dress and a blonde wig and did what I can only describe as an interpretive dance number while everyone else sang. She seems normal enough in the staffroom, but she was one freaky lady today on stage. She stripped off the wig and the dress during the number, and everyone in the gymnasium was very relieved to see that she was wearing a jumpsuit underneath.

Sitting with the student council was fun, too. They are all pretty outgoing people because they are generally the leaders of their classes, so they were completely comfortable to talk with me about what was going on. It was a pleasure to have the chance to chat with them.

What else? I did the tea ceremony with the tea ceremony club, stopped in at all the classrooms at lunch to see some of the interesting exhibits. One class had a mural made entirely of folded cranes – very impressive.

Now I’m back home and pretty tired out. I put some pictures here if you’d like to check out today’s events. Tomorrow is Saturday but I still have to get up early to help with community cleanup. Kuniko has to work, but Sunday we both have the day off – for Kuniko it will be her first day off in about 20 days!

Kuniko came back from school pretty stressed – she had a busy day. Her speech went really well, so I was glad to hear that. Her school has her working right up until the day we leave for our vacation, and there is a chance I might go and help her out. I’m not sure yet, though, so we’ll wait and see.

Today I had just one class in the morning, since the afternoon classes were cancelled to prepare for the big culture festival tomorrow. The class was a guest lecturer at an international understanding course. The students listened to me lecture in English, with the history teacher translating. My message was that it is a very good thing to study other cultures, and it is one of the things that have changed me profoundly. After a forty minute lecture, we opened it up to questions and answers. The only question was “Are you married?” Ouch – so much for an effective and interesting presentation. Actually, later there was a sign that at least some things sunk in.

In between classes I was walking down a hallway and saw two boy students pushing each other. One left quickly, and the other one followed yelling at him wanting to fight.

In three years at this school I’ve never seen a fight, and I always thought that was weird. I didn’t want one to start now, so despite what they tell us in Assistant Language Teacher School I stepped in and held back the kid that wanted to fight. He just tried to push forward past me, but I did the passive resistance thing and told him to head back to his class. After a few minutes I got him turned around and headed back. Later I went to the teacher in charge of the students and reported what happened in broken Japanese, so hopefully they won’t pick up where they left off later. It won’t make me popular with either of the students, but I think I did the right thing. Ask me again in a week, though.

In an interesting coincidence, Tsutsumi sensei told me that she had to break up a fight between three different groups of students. She said they were all girls, and the leaders of the groups didn’t get along. She got involved in separating them and the subsequent discipline, so she was late to our class yesterday.

Today was the last day for the student teachers, and although there is no English teacher’s class to evaluate, I dropped in on an international understanding lecture done by a young student teacher. Earlier I had walked by a class being taught by her and everybody was making “Help me I’m bored out of my mind” faces at me while her back was turned writing on the board. I was a little nervous that the class would be mind-numbing.

In fact it was quite good, and the students all stayed awake and alert throughout the class. Part of the reason might have been that the back of the class was full of VIPs like the principal and vice-principal. Anyway, the student teacher did a really good job and explained well about the United Nations and how and why Japan is not a member of the Security Council.

After that class I ran over to have lunch at the cafeteria really quick, and then met up with Miyake sensei for a quick English lesson. At 12:30 the school stopped early to get ready for the festival, and so I spent time with the ESS club and also walking around looking in on other classes preparations. I spoke a lot of English and it was good to see everyone working hard.

One of the topics I touched on during my international understanding lecture today was what things I liked about Japanese culture and things that I didn’t like. One of the things I complained about was how people tend to not greet each other while walking around. I told the story of how I have often seen people in Japan work very hard not to meet my eyes or say hello, but in America people that happen to walk by each other are more likely to be friendly and say hello.

During preparations I was walking around and walked by two of the students from the international understanding class, and they made a special point to say hello and make a greeting. At least they understood that much of my lecture.

At four o’clock we met up to take a picture of the ESS club, and then soon afterwards I went over to meet with Tsuji-san. Today was our last meeting, since she will be getting married in a couple of weeks and moving to Himeji. We decided to make a party out of it and go out with her other student, Alexis, and Alexis’ boyfriend from the USA.

Tsuji-san and I walked through a torrent of rain to get to the restaurant. We were a few minutes early, so they set us up at the table to hang out. The owner of the restaurant came out and said hello, and gave me a small ceramic plate from the local shrine as a gift.

It turns out the owner is a big fan of traveling and he really likes meeting foreigners. Alexis has been there a couple times, so he went out and bought a small Pennsylvania state flag to hang in the restaurant to make her comfortable.

We didn’t wait long before Alexis showed up with her boyfriend visiting from home, Jake. Jake was a really quiet guy but he seemed very intelligent and was still in kind of a shock stage about Japan. It was fun to watch him struggle with the sashimi platter and decide what to eat and what was too risky. He’s been in Japan for just over a week now, and he’s been sick twice in that time. There was lots of cooked food, though, so he got by just fine.

The conversation was pretty much just in English because Alexis speaks just a little bit of Japanese and Jake doesn’t speak any at all. It was a challenge for Tsuji-san, and we didn’t make it any easier for her by talking about nostalgic American cultural icons like Chutes and Ladders and Candyland. I tried to bring her into the conversation when I could, but it was pretty tough to bridge the gap between all the different backgrounds at the dinner table.

They kept bringing food and we kept eating it – loads of do-it-yourself BBQ, fish, eggplant, tamagoyaki, fried potatoes, and even big plates of tempura. When we finally got full we tried to head out the door. They told us that they had more food coming for us, but we pleaded full stomaches, and they let us slide by having us drink fresh green tea at the bar with some dessert. This was after we paid the bill – it was just a chance for them to talk to us and get to know each other better.

The master of the place was happy that he could speak to me in Japanese, and we compared notes on our visits to Texas. His whole family was working for him, and he has sent all of them to be students of Tsuji-san at some point. He feels that English is important for them to be better people.

We finally extracted ourselves from their hospitality, but not before taking home some sushi for the next day. They were really nice, and I was sad to think that I’ll be finished with the town of Takasago in a few months and won’t really be able to drop by and say hello in the future.

Even though I went out I still got home before Kuniko, and she was happy to dig into the sushi that I brought back once she made it home. We crashed out in bed exhausted. Friday is the culture festival at my school, so I’ve got something to look forward to.