Today was finally the day when my students took the listening test that Tsutsumi sensei and I recorded a week or so ago. I’ve written about it before, but it’s surreal to hear your own voice booming through an entire high school. The tape is played through the public address system in the fourth floor, but since the windows are open and other classrooms are listening in just for fun, you can hear yourself everywhere.

Once the exam was over I spent about two hours marking exams, and once I finished I was out of there. Since I stayed longer than usual, I got to see the gradual exodus of the other teachers, and finally around 2 p.m. I left myself.

On the way home I bought some lunch at Ito Yokado (sushi and spring rolls), and then spent most of the afternoon cleaning up around the house and relaxing.

Around six o’clock I went over to Denya. The guy who works at the Futami liquor store had invited me over, and so I dropped in for drinks and dinner. It was really fun. He’s the guy that sent over a bottle of sake to my parents, and my folks sent back a bottle of Gundlach Bundschu for him. He really enjoyed it. He’s really good at English, and we spoke mostly in English this evening.

It was a fun night. A lady and her boyfriend(?) came in. She knew my companion – she’s the owner of a snack bar in Higashi Futami. A snack bar, in case I haven’t mentioned it before, is a bar that is really high priced, and dedicated to providing an ear to the salarymen of Japan who want somebody to listen to them. I’ve never been inside a snack bar, even though Mr. Hayashi has tried on several occasions to get me inside one. I asked her lots of questions, and I talked with her boyfriend(?) as much as I could, because I didn’t want him to feel emasculated. He was already nervous that two other guys seemed to be getting along with his girlfriend(?) really well, so I wanted to make him feel as comfortable as possible.

Later, a coworker of my drinking buddy came in with her boyfriend, and so we talked a little with them. They were very young (around 21) and very shy – it was tough for me to strike up a conversation. I kept on trying, though, and I think they appreciated the effort.

At first we spoke almost entirely in English, but by the end of the night we were speaking almost entirely Japanese. It was a good chance for me to practice Japanese, especially under the influence of alcohol.

Now I’m back and getting ready for bed. Tomorrow I’m going to be heading into Sannomiya after work to meet up with Kuniko. I’ve got an exam tomorrow as well, but it’s only for 30 students, so I should be able to mark the exams fairly quickly.

Today I started the wheels in motion to move a beautiful woman into my apartment at the end of the month. At work I chatted with the vice principal, who gets a lot of pleasure out of speaking English with me and speaking Japanese on my behalf. I told him about the plans to get Kuniko moved in here around the end of this month, and he took off headed to the office to get the ball rolling. I tagged along behind him, and when we got to the office he told them all about what I wanted.

Japanese companies tend to be slow moving machines, requiring approval at all levels for even the smallest decisions. Japanese public schools are even more so. Luckily the vice principal carries a lot of weight, and the office people were scrambling to do his (and by extension, my) bidding.

With that taken care of, all I had left to do today was meet with Mori sensei about our upcoming class at the junior high school. She was very excited about the class, and we talked over the gameplan. I’m really looking forward to the class – it’s on Thursday of this week. She’s calling it a catered class, and it took me a second to get the joke.

I got home around one o’clock this afternoon, and I swung into action making a tasty cucumber sandwich from the cucumbers that the Kageyama family sent over. After wolfing that down I made a marinade for the pork steaks I’m cooking for dinner, and then I continued working on reorganizing the household. I’m not sure if I’m making any space, but I’m definitely throwing away lots of junk.

Just a few minutes ago the master called from Denya, and he wanted to know if I could make it in tomorrow night – one of the regular guys is going to be there and wanted to drink with me. Should be fun – I love that the owner of the restaurant is handling my social calendar for the week.

Thursday night I’m going into Sannomiya in the afternoon to try on wedding gear with Kuniko for the big ceremony in November. I’m hoping they have a gold tux!

It rained pretty good all last night, and pretty much all day today. It’s the rainy season in Japan – but the good news is that it’s nice and warm, so you can walk outside with short sleeves and an umbrella and be fine.

Since I had no classes today, I studied and talked with teachers about classes next week. I also did some interview tests today for students that were absent last week. They did pretty good – some of them did not have materials to study, but despite that they did all right.

There is a teacher that sits two desks away from me, and I won’t mention his name here. He’s not the most hygenic guy I know. He’s got a bad case of dandruff, and today I was spacing out at my desk and when I looked over to my left he was picking his nose. Big time – going for gold – picking a winner – some serious nasal spelunking. He wasn’t bothering to hide the act from anybody else, and it was a little disturbing to see him do that. Luckily I hadn’t had lunch yet.

Around noon I finished up all my work, so I packed up and went home. Since I started with Takasago Minami High School I have had an arrangement where I work a full day, from 7:40 to 5 p.m. every day, even though my official contract states that I only have to work 35 hours a week. I don’t mind working the longer hours, it keeps me in the eye of the teachers, and it makes me study. The tradeoff is during exams. During exams I can leave around noon.

This arrangement has survived several changes in personnel and two principals and vice principals, and so today I took it another step and didn’t really confirm with anybody that I was leaving. I just left. Tomorrow we’ll see if anyone noticed, and if anyone cared. Probably it will be just fine. If I asked somebody, then they would ask somebody else, and in the end they would say that it’s OK, it would just involve a lot more people in a decision that doesn’t really need to be made.

Back home I started moving furniture around my place. It’s only a matter of weeks now before Kuniko moves into my place full-time, and it’ll no longer be “my place”, it’ll be “our place”. I had some ideas to make some space, and so today I moved lots of stuff around in a very particular order. The result is that I built a library/laundry/computer room in the spare room, I reclaimed the kitchen table for use as a kitchen table (instead of a computer table), and I freed up lots of space in the living room and bedroom for storage later on.

Halfway through the project I quit, tomorrow I’m going to go through all the little papers and junk that have accumulated and see what is needed and what is crap. If my work plan goes the same as today, I should have plenty of time tomorrow.

I got a chance to sleep in and relax this morning, and by the time that Kuniko showed up at 9:30 I was all showered and ready to relax. We decided on going out to Okubo for a little shopping. The highlight for me was driving back – Kuniko let me drive her car home from Okubo. It was a short drive, but it gave me a little bit of practice for later on when I get my license in Japan. Later that evening we went over to the yakitori to have dinner with the master. It had been a little while since I’d been to Denya, and it was actually fairly quiet. The master invited me to a post-wedding party thrown by one of the regular guys who is getting married next weekend. It sounded interesting – they are holding it in a karaoke box across from Carrefour, so there will be some sort of shopping game where we’ll have to go buy strange gifts across the street and bring them back.

Sunday we took a train into Sannomiya and did some more “Bargain” shopping. The phenomenon behind Bargain is really strange. Almost every store is selling things at 30-50% off, so lots of people go in to buy stuff that was full price last week. Kuniko’s shopping style is to look, look, look. She rarely buys, and when she does she looks several times, goes away and comes back, and is really careful thinking about whether she wants it or not.

We had lunch in Sannomiya – I had a roast beef sandwich, Kuniko had a ham and vegetable sandwich, and we split a salad. From there we made our way back to Futami, and had a quiet evening in over spaghetti and business English.

Tomorrow it’s back to work – I’ve got a really easy week, while my students struggle through their exams.

Friday was the last day before the tests begin next week, and the teachers were madly trying to wrap up their exams. Some teachers asked me to double check their English, and so I was a little busy with that. I finished my last two interview test classes. I was getting tired of asking students what their favorite food is.

Late in the day I made arrangements to leave a few minutes early in order to get out to Kobe. Kuniko and I had set a date to go to Sweets Harbor, another theme type food court. The last two times that we tried to go there we arrived too late, so I wanted to finally give it a try. As you might expect, this one was all about dessert. First we had a quick dinner at a fast food court across the street – I had Panda Express, the first time that I’ve been able to eat it in Japan. It was really good – the serving size was a lot smaller, but I was still full after eating it. Interesting…

Across from Sweets Harbor they had an art exhibit set up, and we decided to walk through it really quick. The art is fairly famous, although I can’t remember the guy’s name as I write this. We signed in at the front, they gave us a little sticker to identify us, and then we walked in. Once you get in you can see lots of different pieces, all of them huge and beautiful, and they have lots of salespeople walking around hoping to hard-sell you into buying one for about a million yen. On the whole Japanese people will be very polite and will listen to sales pitches for a lot longer than I will. We were working against the dessert clock, so we got out of there after giving short monosyllabic answers to some questions by a helpful salesperson.

The next stop was Sweets Harbor itself, and we went in to find that it wasn’t so busy. For a Friday night, I was surprised. We walked around browsing through the shops, on top of pretend piers, with pretend water underneath and canned sound effects piped through the overhead speakers. Every once in a while a big barge would come through and make lots of noise. It was really a one-of-a-kind dining experience. I picked out a small cheesecake and some homemade pineapple gelato to share. Kuniko got a banana cream dessert that was really good, and filled with other fruits besides bananas.

After dessert we walked around the shopping center to burn a few calories, and then headed back to the train station. Kuniko went back to her parent’s place, and I came back to my place. Tomorrow we’re going to meet up and hang out for a while.

I split my day today into studying in the morning, and classes in the afternoon. The afternoon classes were interview tests, and they were actually pretty fun. I see these students every week, but during the interview test I actually sit across from them, and it’s like meeting some of them for the first time. I’ve got some pretty weird guys in my classes, but it’s the students that don’t stand out that are interesting to me. Some are really shy, some are so quiet I can hardly hear them, but it’s a good way to show them that they have nothing to be afraid of.

After school the history teacher told me about a last minute staff meeting that they had arranged, but he said that I didn’t have to attend – I could go home if I liked. I liked, so I got to go home early today. Unfortunately Tsuji-san wasn’t available early, so I had to postpone our lesson until later.

Back home I did a few chores, and had a nice simple dinner of rice and kimchee. Two girls out front of the building were playing badminton when I walked in, and they came and knocked on my door and explained that they lost their badminton birdie on my patio, so I went outside and threw it back down to them. They were really brave to come up to knock on my door – I’ll have to work on my scary foreigner vibe.

Antoine gave me a ring and we talked for more than 90 minutes about everything that’s new in his life lately. He sounds busy – he’s moving into a new apartment over the summer, he’s flying to France to attend his sister’s wedding, he’s being sued by Mazda, and he stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Osaka for a night last week to celebrate his first anniversary of meeting his girlfriend, Miwako.

Tomorrow is finally Friday, and I’m looking forward to a pretty easy day at work. This weekend should be pretty relaxing – I hear that storms are going to be coming in so I’ll try to stay dry.

Today it was really muggy. The humidity was so high, and the floors had condensation on them at school. It was very slippery. Today I had just two classes and a recording session, so I had plenty of time in the afternoon to study. Just around 2:30 in the afternoon, the sky became very dark, and thunder started rolling. Suddenly, it started raining – hard. It was like somebody had poured a gigantic bucket of water on our school. You couldn’t even see through the windows it was so strong. Since it was so hot and muggy all the windows were open, so we had to run from floor to floor shutting them as water poured in.

It rained like that for almost half an hour, and then slowed down to a drizzle. By the time I left school it had stopped raining completely, but the humidity was incredible. All the water around made it feel like you were walking through soup rather than air.

Last week Keiko-san had arranged to have me sit in on a Japanese lesson that is organized and sponsored by the Takasago city hall. They are free lessons, and the city hall is right near the train station I use to go home, so it seemed like it was worth checking out. Turns out I was wrong, but we’ll get to that in a second.

I met Keiko-san outside the school at five o’clock, and she lent me her husband’s bicycle. I thought it was weird to ride a bike when the city hall was just a ten minute walk away, but I soon found out that the building I was thinking about was not city hall. The actual city hall was several train stations away, and would take about a ten minute bike ride.

I’m not great at bike riding, but I threw my gear into the front basket and followed Keiko-san on a wobbly path through town just as rush hour was starting to hit. The cars did a good job of avoiding me, and we safely made it to the city hall a few minutes later. The class didn’t start until 7 p.m., but she had a rather complicated plan for the evening.

She called a friend and together we ate a family restaurant (Gusto). I had a fairly big hamburger, and we chatted in English and Japanese. Even though I was just checking out the class, I was already feeling like it was pretty far away, I don’t have a bike in Takasago, and I would have to buy a dinner every week if I went to the class. Still, I decided to keep an open mind – the classes are free, after all.

Keiko-san picked up the tab for dinner, and then took me over to city hall. I went inside and recognized talked with some of the teachers. They were retired folks that are interested in teaching and meeting people from foreign countries. I filled out a short form, and then they loaned me a textbook for the evening. I went up to the classroom, and sat down with some of the students that had already arrived.

The students that were there already were five Phillipino guys. They all spoke pretty good English, and the work on designing power plants using a specialized computer program. They work in Japan for three months, and then go home for three months. They are on some kind of weird rotation. They were really friendly guys, though, and we sat and talked for a while. They pointed over to where some other students had come in and sat down and said that it was the “advanced course”, and we weren’t good enough to participate in that class. I figured they were just playing down their Japanese so I told them that I only speak a little Japanese, and pretty soon we were all tight.

Right about then the teacher came in and told me to go sit with the advanced students. There went all my credibility with the Phillipino dudes. They watched me get up from their table and I sat in with the advanced students. They seemed like a nice enough group, and we worked out of the textbook on some stuff that I’ve covered before but never really use much. It was good review, but I could have done the review at home and got as much out of it.

It seems like with any group of students there is one person that ties their ego to how well they do in the class compared to others, and tonight was no exception. A girl at the far end of the table would answer every question out loud, regardless of whether the teacher had asked her or not. The students would try to think what the answer is, and then boom! She’s said it out loud. She did it several times with me, and each time I looked her straight in the eye afterwards and gave her what I hope was a steely glare. It didn’t stop her though, and I could tell that if I stuck with this class I’d end up putting a pencil through her neck within the month.

Class wrapped up, and everybody was asking me how it was. I said that it was interesting, which is a good way in Japanese to say that it wasn’t so hot. I’m looking for something a little more challenging, and as Keiko-san said later, maybe it would be better to learn from your wife. That sounds better to me.

Keiko-san and I rode back in the dark – a bit of an adventure for me, and even though my life was in danger there was something thrilling about riding around on wet streets in the dark in a foreign country that I enjoyed. I dropped off Keiko-san’s bike at the bike park, and then said goodbye to her.

Now I’m back home and I’m running the air conditioner. It’s hot and wet out, but my bedroom is a cool oasis right now. Tomorrow is a fairly easy day, and another Japanese lesson with Tsuji-san. Let’s hope it dries out a little bit around here.

Two more interview tests today, and Mr. Hayashi didn’t show up for either one. He was doing some work for the guidance department, so we covered for him by interviewing more students. It actually works well with just two teachers – maybe I’ll try to give more people a period off this week.

As always the reactions from the students were interesting, and I have to remind myself that for some of these students it’s the first time they’ve sat right across from a foreigner face to face and had to speak English without any Japanese help. Some of them crack up, some giggle, and some just speak Japanese. One girl waited until the interview was over and then told me that I was very handsome. One boy didn’t understand that the interview was over, so he sat there in front of me until I finally said “Goodbye” and pointed at the classroom door.

I mentioned the other day about the rule that states that we can’t run the air conditioners until July 1st. This had a few people a little upset because it has been really hot lately, and it seems silly to have the power to make our lives easier and not to use it. Anyway, the principal and vice-principal came up with a clever way to solve the problem.

Today they announced that we would be testing the air conditioning system for the next few days to make sure that they are working properly. They said that the testing would likely continue until July 1st, and then we would run them normally. Ha! A slap in the face of bureaucracy!

I had my first bad food experience in the cafeteria today – I ordered katsudon for a change, because I’ve had zarusoba for three meals in a row now. The katsudon tasted a little different, and after a few bites I figured it out… it tasted soapy. I didn’t know how to say soap in Japanese, so I just tossed it and skipped lunch. Maybe my palate is more sensitive to this kind of stuff. Next time I’ll stick to zarusoba. Maybe it’s a sign.

After school we had a mandatory seminar. The seminar happens every few months, and they have different topics. It’s sponsored by the board of eduacation with the idea that it will get us to learn about various things. Mostly it’s a chance for the teachers to take a nap. Today’s topic was about safe internet practices, and I had to sit through a bunch of common sense – if it was in English I would have slit my wrists in boredom. Luckily it was in Japanese, so I could work on listening practice and deciphering the kanji in the guy’s Powerpoint presentation.

The seminar made me late for my train, so I had to sit around in the station for a little while. It was closer to rush hour, and there were a lot of people running around – more than when I usually go home. The train going the other way stopped, and two ladies sitting next to each other looked out the window at me. I looked over and they both smiled and waved. I tried to figure out if I knew them, but I didn’t recognize them. I smiled and nodded back, and then the train left. Just a few minutes later a lady walked by and smiled at me, and then when I sat on the train another woman sitting across from me smiled at me and blushed at the same time.

As soon as I got home I checked in the mirror to see if I had a booger on the side of my nose or something – nope. Some days when I walk around I get just stares, sometimes I get smiles, but today I got a lot of attention. I have no idea why.

I had a bowl of chili with cheese on top for dinner tonight. A bowl of chili is hard to come by in Japan, so I really enjoyed it. I didn’t put any extra spices in it, I wanted to get the pure flavor. I’ll have to pick up another can or two at Carrefour before it closes up.

Today at school we recorded the listening test for the first year students. I had written it last week, and it got approved by the other teachers today. We went into the soundproofed broadcast club room and recorded it on a cheap tape deck, and hopefully it will sound good when they review it this week. If it’s all good, we’ll be ready to give it to the students next week.

I enjoy doing the recordings. It’s fun to concentrate, project your voice, enunciate every little detail, and then hear the final recording. Tsutsumi sensei, the teacher I was recording with, broke into laughter every once in a while – that’s the real threat when you are recording something like this. Once she starts laughing then I do, and then we can’t stop.

It was freaking hot today – the humidity was over 90%, and about 30 degrees. They have this kind of interesting rule that no matter what temperature it gets outside, they won’t turn on the air conditioning in the staff room until July 1st. Some teachers formed a mini-committee to try to get the policy changed today, but upper management held fast and told them to tough it out. I personally don’t mind the heat; it’ll make the air conditioning feel that much better when we turn it on.

During the sixth period we started up our interview tests. This is the first time that our students have had the interview test, and some were so nervous that I thought they weren’t going to make it through the interview. I had given them hints earlier about speaking in a clear, loud voice, and making eye contact. Some people took those hints too seriously. One girl watched me carefully the whole time, breaking eye contact only to blink. She is a really shy student normally, so she must have made the sacrifice for a good grade.

For dinner tonight I decided to make up some zarusoba, the dish that I usually get at the cafeteria. It turned out pretty much the same as the cafeteria one. It’s a really healthy dish, just buckwheat noodles dipped in a cold salty broth with onions and wasabi. I served it on a straw basket, and for dessert had a couple of pieces of koyadofu – a slightly sweet tofu that tastes of slightly sweet cardboard, but it oddly delicious. I don’t know why I like it so much.

The heat hasn’t really dissipated tonight, so I’m staying mellow tonight – just doing some reading and listening to loud music. Tomorrow is a slightly busier day at work, and we’re supposed to have some thunderstorms!

I was up really early Sunday morning to do a hike before it started getting hot. There were a surprising amount of older folks out walking around with me. They had full hiking gear, like they were going to climb Everest or something. I was just wearing shorts, a shirt, and hiking boots.

I traveled in a gigantic loop around southern Futami, and it ended up being a two hour hike. It felt great to get out there, and I stopped in and watched a couple minutes of a soccer game that was going on in the park south of town.

The rest of the morning I did chores, organizing the house, doing laundry, and studying.

I followed up a dinner out with friends on Saturday with dinner out with friends on Sunday. I went into Akashi in the evening and met up with Yuri, Tamura sensei (nickname: micchi), and Micchi’s boyfriend. Just a few minutes later Kuniko showed up, she was coming back from meeting friends in Umeda.

Together we all went to a yakitori near the station in Akashi. We sat around the table and ordered up lots of food and drink. It has been a long time since we all got together. Yuri had been to America and back, and so she had lots of omiyage for Kuniko and me. We related our story of our trip to America, and we just talked and talked for a long time.

After dinner we ordered up dessert and then went on home. I shared a train with Yuri on the way back and we talked about various foreigner issues that we’ve had in Japan.

At last I stumbled into my place, laid down to rub my sore shoulders, and the next thing I knew I woke up around 2 in the morning laying on the floor with all the lights on. I saw that Kuniko had left a couple of messages wondering if I got home safe, so I sent one back, but I felt guilty for leaving her hanging.

Anyway, it wasn’t long before I crashed out again – maybe it’s the heat but lately I’ve had a lot less energy than usual.

Saturday I stayed in during the day in an attempt to avoid the heat outside. It worked well enough. I did projects around here that I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I replaced my old clothes washer with Kuniko’s new one, and moved my old refrigerator and washer out to the front balcony. I wrapped them up in a big blue tarp like some giant birthday present for the next teacher that moves into my apartment when I leave.

In the evening I went into Kobe to meet up with Inoguchi sensei, his wife, and Kuniko. We all met at Motomachi station. I am terrible at doing introductions in my own language, it’s really difficult in another language. This was my first time meeting Inoguchi sensei’s wife. She was really nice – she had a big smile and seemed really friendly. As it turns out, looks can be deceiving.

Just kidding – she was a nice person. We went to a chinese restaurant that is one of Inoguchi sensei’s favorites, and they served us a set course with all kinds of food. Chinese food is a little different here in Japan, but this was really well done. It might be because Chinatown is just down the street.

As the dishes kept arriving we talked about all kinds of things, and I was impressed how easily Kuniko got comfortable with new people, and I think we both brought a lot of energy to the table. They seem like maybe they are a quiet couple. Maybe they were sick of us by the end of the night. Inoguchi sensei kept a close eye on everyone’s food and drink and made sure everything was going OK. We poured beers and tea for each other (never for yourself!), and powered through five courses of great food.

After dinner we walked over to Starbucks because it is one of Inoguchi sensei’s favorite haunts. We spent more time talking there, and I told all the amusing anecdotes that I could think of that I could translate into Japanese (and that’s not many). Around nine or ten we headed back to the station, and we went our separate ways. I had a good time with them – I think that Inoguchi sensei is having a little bit of a hard time fitting in right now, but I think that soon people will get used to him and he’ll be fine.

Kuniko and I caught a train out of Motomachi. I got off at Akashi, and Kuniko headed on to her place in Kakogawa. Tomorrow she’s going out to lunch with some friends in Umeda, and then in the afternoon we’re going to meet up with some other friends for dinner in Akashi. The evenings this weekend are pretty busy, but luckily the daytime is wide open. I might sneak in a hike tomorrow if the weather cools down a bit!

There have been lots of little things that have happened over the past few weeks that for one reason or another slipped my mind. Here they are, in no particular order.

The teacher that sits next to me is a part time computer teacher. She is a younger woman, maybe a couple years out of college. She is built like a truck and probably had a future in wrestling if she gave it a shot. Anyway, she is obsessive-compulsive. Every morning that she comes in she spends ten minutes arranging all her things on her desk. During the meetings her hands straighten objects around her, and she probably doesn’t even realize she does it. I’ve been experimenting with it a little bit. I put big stacks of messy papers right on the border of my desk, never quite crossing the seam onto her desk. She didn’t seem to notice – it completely didn’t bother her. Recently when she’s in class I turn things on her desk one or two degrees in a various directions. It never lasts long, though – as soon as she comes back she arranges everything symmetrically again. You should have seen her folding her coat during the winter.

The girl students at my school seem to go on a cycle of having a crush on me and not really caring one way or the other. At any given time the amount of girls that giggle and coo when I walk by is probably a fixed number, but as time passes hormones change and shift, and now girls that couldn’t get enough of me barely say hello as I go past. Then, as if to compensate, some girls that have never said anything to me in the past will suddenly smile and slow down when I walk by. It’s a strange phenomenon. The boys seem to remain constant – which I would expect.

There’s this guy who occasionally smokes in the non-smoking area of my train station in the mornings. Actually, there is a small smoking area, and everywhere else in non-smoking. Anyway, the other day he was smoking and I started working out the Japanese in my head to make a sarcastic remark. While I was working it out I was looking at him and I must have been giving him a really dirty look; he started watching me out of the corner of his eye, checking me out a couple of times, and then finally he got up and went to the smoking area before I could let him have it (verbally). I was amazed at this power, and it has had a lasting effect, recently I’ve seen him standing over at the smoking area looking back at me warily to see if I’m going to attack or something.

An interesting cultural insight into Japanese businessmen is that a lot of respect is given to people who are stern and serious. I guess it goes all the way back to the samurai (at least that’s what the history teacher told me), but a guy that is relaxed and happy looking apparently isn’t serious about his work. I find this attitude interesting because I’m exactly the opposite – maybe as opposite as you can get. You see lots of guys staring off into space seriously, and you wonder if they’ve forgotten how to smile. When do they give it up? I’m sure this, like a lot of other things, is starting to change over time.

Thanks go to Junichiro Koizumi, the prime minister of Japan, and to his cabinet. Recently they’ve introduced a new idea for summer – the idea of a casual “no necktie” look. Why? The idea is to save money on air conditioning. Imagine all these serious businessmen all wearing serious suits and ties, and sweating like dogs in the heat and humidity. They think they can save lots of money by loosening up a little, and turning down the AC. The prime minister and his cabinet have made lots of appearances wearing casual open neck shirts, sometimes even for big meetings, and it is making an impact. You can’t change everyone right away – maybe it’ll take years, but I see it as a step in the right direction. I can’t believe how many suits I see around here. I’ve never liked wearing suits – they are uncomfortable and stifling. Now, quite by accident I have the same fashion sense as the Japanese government. Scary.

Well, that’s all I can think of right now. I should write this stuff down – my life is full of these little tidbits that come up.

There’s not much to write about today – it was a fairly normal day. I did a special class for the students going to Australia this summer. We practiced pronouncing “Perth”, and I played the role of an impatient immigration agent, and we had students “go through customs” in English.

The vice-principal has really been helpful, and with Mr. Hayashi generally very busy in the guidance room, he has kind of taken over helping me out. I appreciate the attention, and although I can usually manage day to day, it’s nice to have backup when I need it. Today he came by and asked me if there was anything that he could do for me – help with Japanese study, help with wedding plans, anything. I told him that over the summer I would need to make arrangements to get Kuniko moved into my place, at least the paperwork side of it. He sounded very happy to help, and so that will be nice to get taken care of.

I was bushed at the end of the day, so I split soon after the Australia lesson. Now I’m home doing chores in advance of the weekend – I’m pretty tired out so anything I can get done now will give me free time later. I’m thinking about dropping in at Denya later tonight to see how those guys are doing. It’s been a while since I’ve said hello.

Two classes today. The scheduling fairy has been working overtime trying to get all the classes to end at the same time so that we can properly have interview tests next week.

Unfortunately today I was teaching with Mr. Hayashi, and he got all confused. We were combining one class, but he thought both were combining, so he brought the whole class, much to the surprise of me and Mr. Yamamoto. By the time that we explained everything to Mr. Hayashi the bell had already rung, and so we couldn’t send the students back to the classroom because they would make lots of noise in the hallways and disturb the other classes. So, I taught the lesson, and twenty students had to listen to the same thing for the second time.

On top of that, Mr. Hayashi was a little frustrated, maybe about his mistake, and so when some boys were chatting while the lecture was going he walked by and hit them both on top of the head – hard, too. I don’t know when Mr. Hayashi started this violent streak. Especially after having classes with him since I arrived in Japan – for the longest time he just let everything slide. I don’t appreciate it happening in my classes, though. I don’t want students to associate English class with physical violence. I think there’s probably a middle ground in there somewhere.

I spent an hour and a half with my ESS students after school. We worked on the ESS bulletin board, and I noticed that the second year students are really starting to get comfortable around me. There’s more and more English being spoken these days, and I’m hoping that they’ll be talking up a storm over the next year.

After school I went over to Tsuji-san’s place for a Japanese/English lesson, and her mom told me all about some free Japanese classes that are going on at the city hall of Takasago on Wednesdays. Tsuji-san’s mom and Keiko-san are all networking together with who knows who else, and they arranged for me to sit in on a class next week. I think that Keiko-san is even taking me out to dinner next week as well. Should be interesting.

It was late by the time I was heading home, so I dropped in at a ramen restaurant near my house to have some noodles. A middle aged lady took my order and was all smiles and giggles over the fact that I ordered without a problem in Japanese.

After I finished my noodles I asked for a “kaedama”… a fresh batch of noodles that you dump into your soup broth. The nice thing about kaedama is that it’s cheap – only 110 yen. The whole bowl of ramen was 600 yen, so it was a great deal. The server was really impressed that I even knew about kaedama, and the chef came over and talked to me. It was good to try to speak and listen to Japanese with some fast-talking locals.

At around 9 p.m. Yasu came over to pick up the pictures that I took during our trip to the Tiger’s game. We chatted in English until I mentioned how I’m looking to speak more Japanese, and so then we switched to Japanese and talked about various things. It went pretty well, and Yasu was polite and didn’t point out my mistakes. It was good practice.

Tomorrow is Friday! It’s been a long week. Saturday Kuniko and I are meeting Inoguchi sensei and his wife for some Chinese food in Kobe, but other than that it’s a slow weekend. I’ll definitely get some sleep this weekend – I’ve been really tired lately. It might have something to do with the heat and the humidity. It’s been about 81 degrees F and about 80% humidity… hot and sticky.

I rocked through four classes in a row today, nicely cutting my day into three distinct parts. The morning was spent preparing worksheets for the classes, the day was spent actually teaching the classes, and in the afternoon I did a little bit of studying and chatting in Japanese with the part-time computer teacher that sits across from me.

Students in my two second year classes today didn’t know it, but it is their last class with me until after summer vacation ends, sometime at the end of August. I sense that they are really pretty overwhelmed by my lessons, so I’m going to spend some time over the summer trying to come up with simple ideas that they can work with.

The computer teacher that sits across from me, Matsumoto sensei, is pretty good at English. She enjoys talking with me in a blend of Japanese and English, and she is really outgoing. Oshita sensei sits right behind her, and I often see him leaning over to listen in on our conversations. Oshita sensei is an English teacher, but he’s pretty shy and is kind of afraid of speaking English out loud. Matsumoto sensei is not afraid at all, and sometimes she outdoes the English teachers – not for being correct, but for being unafraid of mistakes.

After school there was a couple of staff meetings, and I wasn’t invited. That is actually great news. I could sit and study in peace and quiet. The vice-principal came by and told me that it was fine to leave early if I liked. I thanked him, but it was bad timing. Today at five o’clock I had an appointment to chat with the Takasago ladies lead by Keiko-san. So, I had a free ticket out of work, and I couldn’t use it.

At five I went outside and met up with Keiko-san and another lady, and we walked over to a restaurant near Takasago station. We ate big and chatted in English. We covered all kinds of topics: the increasing power of women in Japan, famous Japanese food, American agriculture, my girlfriend, my future, their husbands, housework, single sons and gigantic families. It was a nice time. After about an hour and a half I made my goodbyes and took off. It’s actually nicer with a small group. I’ve talked with them when there were seven or eight ladies, and it’s a little overwhelming.

My stomach handled the food from the restaurant OK, so that was a relief. I spent the evening pleasure reading in the living room, and I’m going to hit the sack early. Ever since yesterday I’ve been really sleepy. An early bedtime might be just what I need.