Today I had a short day at school, and I spent most of the day planning for tomorrow’s lessons. I had only two classes, and they both went just fine. The students are getting ready for the interview test that is coming next week, so I’m all full of dire warnings and urgings for them to study hard. They are pretty sleepy, though, so I’m not sure if it’s sinking in.

Since I had to work late yesterday, the vice principal mentioned that it would be no problem to sneak out early and we’d call it even. I did just that, and came home on a train full of my students. One guy was brave enough to sit next to me and talk with me in English. I was surprised how good his English was outside the classroom. He’ll be one to watch.

Almost as soon as I walked in the door I had an upset stomach. After an hour in bathroom, I abandoned my dinner plans of chili and cheese, and instead went over to Ito Yokado and bought some udon noodles. I made up some soup and just stayed near the bathroom reading a book.

A little later on the doorbell rang and I was surprised to see Kuniko there. She had read my message about being a little sick, so she came by with some groceries, offered to give me a massage, and took care of me for an hour or so. It was so nice to see her, but I felt bad that she came all the way out here on a school night.

Now she’s back at home, and I’m getting ready for bed. I’m not sleepy at all, so I might stay up a little longer reading, and then hit the hay. Tomorrow is a busy day, so I’ll need all my energy.

My schedule today was wide open – no classes whatsoever. I spent the morning reviewing vocabulary, and around eleven o’clock I decided to walk over to the bank to get some money, and pick up some cheap sushi from the supermarket on the way back.

On my way to the bank I walked by a small cafe, and Keiko-san (the older lady that loves speaking English) popped out of there and asked me to come in. I dashed in for a little bit and chatted with her and three of her friends. They wanted me to stick around, but I told them that I had to get back to school soon. She told me that this week her husband is in America, so she wanted me to have dinner with her and the other ladies sometime soon. I laughed at her description of the situation, but agreed to have dinner with them on Wednesday. They are always nice to talk to, and I’m sure that my descriptions of the wedding plans will drive them crazy with excitement.

Back at school I worked through the afternoon on grammar, and I’m trying to figure out a strategy on studying it. I think I have enough time, I just need a way to get it in my head and retain it. The obvious answer is to use it, so maybe I’ll just have to spring it on some people.

Mori sensei came by around 4:30, and drove me to a junior high school for what she described as a “tea party”.

The reason I was going to the junior high school with Mori sensei is interesting. I guess we are trying to be more active in recruiting students to come to our school, so we’re doing a dog and pony show to try to impress the students. We’re going to do a lesson for this school’s top students, and hopefully we’ll stick in their mind when it comes time for picking a high school.

Mori sensei was really nervous about the tea party because she was afraid that they would be evaluating her English. Mori sensei’s English isn’t that hot – the longer she speaks it, the worse it gets – just like my Japanese.

When we got to the school we sat in a conference with two other teachers, and Mori sensei explained what she wanted to do, we found a date that would work for them, and then we left. No tea, no party. I didn’t quite understand what we did that couldn’t be accomplished with a phone call, but maybe that’s a Japanese face to face meeting style. On our way out we bumped into three Takasago Minami students who were back there visiting their old school. I also got a chance to talk with a bunch of junior high students who weren’t shy at all. They asked me my name, and everyone waved goodbye as we drove off.

I’m looking forward to teaching the junior high class – it’ll be at a different level of English, so I’m wondering if I’ll enjoy it as much. I hope so!

Tomorrow I do have some classes, so it’ll be nice to get in front of some exhausted students and entertain them and myself!

Had a great weekend – it started off with a mild hangover on Saturday morning, but it improved considerably with Kuniko’s arrival in the afternoon. We spent some time unpacking some of her things that she brought, and soon thereafter we caught a train to Kobe to meet up with Antoine and Miwako.

This is the second Saturday dinner in a series of three that we’ve got planned. Poor Kuniko is getting dragged to all these things, but she’s being a trouper about it, and I’m sure I’ll get the call to visit with her friends in the future.

Tonight’s dinner was Korean food. It got a little dicey there because Antoine is not a big fan of spicy food. He did really good, and the food turned out great. We got a set meal, so they just kept bringing lots of food, and we ate all we could.

The dinner conversation was really interesting – mostly in English I think, but we did slip into Japanese now and then. Antoine’s girlfriend Miwako is getting a crash course in English with Antoine, since he doesn’t speak much Japanese at all. Her skills are pretty good – I was impressed to see them communicating so well.

Anyway, Kuniko and Miwako had lots of talk about, and Antoine and I exchanged comments out loud at the dinner table, telling jokes, and having a good time.

The dessert dish showed up, and it was a mountain of ice cream. I’m talking maybe 12-14 scoops of ice cream on a foundation of mandarin oranges and corn flakes, and a moat of chocolate. It was the biggest ice cream sculpture I’ve ever seen in Japan – definitely influenced by American sized desserts. We left half of it on the table.

Afterwards we walked along the harbor, took lots of pictures, and goofed around in the mini-amusement park. We did the mini-rollercoaster, and got some good screams out of our system. Kuniko and Antoine did the taiko drumming video game, and got some of their aggressions out. They did pretty well, actually.

Finally we called it a night and headed back. The next day Kuniko and I caught an afternoon showing of “Batman Begins”. Kuniko gave me a little teasing about wanting to see the movie. Considering the other movies, I could see why. I had heard this was a little different, and it turned out that what I heard was correct. It was quite good – we both enjoyed it. I still owe Kuniko a movie of her choice – we’ll see what we end up checking out.

On the way home we stopped at Carrefour to do some Father’s Day shopping, and then later went over to her parent’s house for dinner. Father’s Day is apparently a recent holiday in Japan – although I guess Mother’s Day has been around a while. We presented Mr. Kageyama with a bottle of Shochu, and an Italian Muscato, since he liked the Benziger Muscat Canelli so much.

For dinner we had a really good homemade donburi – a bed of rice with shredded cabbage, kimchee, grilled beef, and a delicious sauce poured over the top. It was so good! It was nice to sit around the table and talk. Unfortunately I couldn’t talk very much, so I was satisfied with listening as hard as I could.

We’re starting to dream up plans for people that will be here for the wedding in November. Thinking about train schedules and timing – before we know it there’ll be a bunch of family on our doorstep here in Japan!

What an absolutely jam packed day. I’m exhausted!

Today was the culture festival at our school. It’s the culmination of weeks of practicing, planning and anxiety for the students. Today it all came together, more or less successfully.

When I got to school a lot of the classroom projects were displayed – a giant Elmo, a couple of cool designs hanging at the entranceway, a big dragon boat/float, and the big attraction: a giant whale made of balloons in the central area of the school.

I had helped out here and there with the whale during the past week, and it was fun to finally see the finished product. I heard that it took a long time to set up, and it cost more than 200,000 yen – about $2000. One of the teachers commented that they could have given that money to charity instead of building a giant whale – I agreed with him. Over the course of the day the balloons started popping in the sun, and at the end of the day it was a big, ugly mess. Visually startling, however.

This year I brought a fan, a towel, and a frozen bottle of sports drink along with me to the presentation in the gym. It gets so hot in there – it’s humid, and the doors are all closed so it’s dark for the dancing and skits. All my gear really helped out, though. I stayed in the back of the gym leaning against a cold cement wall, and that helped too.

There was a big turnout of parents, maybe twice what they actually expected. It made for a lot of foot traffic in the back. The parents would walk by and give me a long look until I nodded and smiled, and then they would smile back. For a while the members of the koto club came and hung out with me. They were all wearing traditional Japanese clothing, and so it must have been a weird sight to see a big white foreigner surrounded by twenty kimono-wearing high school students.

The presentations themselves were a little underwhelming this year. One of the current rages here in Japan is Matsumoto Ken. The best way to describe him is a Japanese version of Wayne Newton. He is a pretty flamboyant guy, and right now there is a samba that he does that is really popular. No fewer than four presentations had an appearance by somebody dressed as Matsumoto Ken. After the first time, it got a little old for me. After the third time, it got a little old for everyone else.

There were lots of sound problems this year, with people talking and nobody being able to hear, but the students didn’t let that damper their enthusiasm. They attacked their roles with gusto. It was their moment to be in the spotlight, and it didn’t matter if nobody could understand what they were doing or why.

At the lunchbreak I walked around and checked out all the exhibits. I sat in a wheelchair and tried to navigate through and obstacle course, I watched robots competing for ping pong balls in the science club exhibit, bought cookies from the cooking club, and spoke with lots of people as I walked around.

One exhibit that was really cool was a room completely decorated in origami cranes. They had a gigantic crane in the middle of the room, and a pathway through the classroom bordered by small cranes. It was really well done.

The vice principal had invited me to do the tea ceremony with him. The tea ceremony is a very complicated ritual that I have done one time before at a friend’s house. I really enjoy it – it’s very traditional, and the green tea made by hand is delicious. The vice principal gave me some pointers, and the students were patient with me and I tried to do things the right way. While we drank tea members of the koto club played right next to us, and we had a relaxing experience.

After the break we did more presentations, including one set in New York to the theme of “Shall We Dance?” – a movie that is popular here right now starring Richard Gere. It ended up winning the competition, and I liked it because since it was in New York the students spoke English during the dialog parts. Their English was good, too. They must have gotten some good help from an English teacher somewhere along the line.

We finished up with awards ceremonies, and some final speeches, a closing ceremony, a lecture on getting back to studying, and some other things that dragged on. Luckily, by the time I got out of there it was time to go home.

I came back to my place, took a shower and then went out to Akashi. I had to do some shopping, and I thought I’d throw a few darts while I was there and make an evening of it. I went to Osho first to get some ramen and gyoza. Osho is a chain, and this particular one is in a long narrow room. There are only three or four tables – most of the seating is at the counter. I sat there, and the seats are too small for me. I have to spread my legs completely to fit between the stool and the counter, and my knees were still firmly pressed against the wall. The counter has a big glass panel that separates you from the cooking that is going on – you can watch them make your food right there, and there is a lot of hot water and steam involved. The whole experience combines to make it a really cool experience. It might sound terrible, but there’s something really exotic about being pressed into a steamy noodle joint with a bunch of strangers and slurping down dinner quickly to make room for the next guy.

Donkey was actually pretty busy. There were lots of dart players there, and I was able to sneak into a rotation and throw darts now and then. I spent more time at the bar drinking Guinness and talking with some nice guys there. They are regulars there, and since I’m fairly irregular, we had lots to talk about. It was good Japanese practice for me. Somehow I got roped into giving pointers to a lady playing darts. She was having lots of trouble, and my bad explanations in Japanese didn’t really help much. She started getting a little friendly, and “Mommy” (the master’s wife) helped me out by asking how my fiancee was doing. With relief I told her all about Kuniko, and from then on I was getting a cooler vibe from the dart beginner.

Just before I left one of the patrons produced a cheesecake that we all split up and ate to celebrate another regular’s birthday. The cheesecake was really good – it had kind of a light honey glaze on top – wow. There went my diet.

Since my diet was toast, I thought I ought to drop in on the basement sushi place for a couple of pieces of sushi before I went home. There were only two guys in there, and they recognized me from another time. In fact, they had just asked the sushi master if I had been in lately, and then I walked in. Weird. Anyway, they had chatted with us a little bit when Struan and I were there a few months ago. We talked a little bit, and then soon some of their friends came by, and we all settled in together.

This is where things get a little hazy. I had already had some Guinness before I got there, and then I had ordered a bottle of beer with my sushi. In the Japanese style people were pouring beer from their bottles into my glass, and so I responded in kind. These folks were so happy to be talking with a foreigner that they were giving signals to the master, and he was delivering more bottles to me on their tab. I told the master to just keep me in sushi, and left things in his hands – which is a great idea. He knows what I like, and so I always had something interesting in front of me. The other folks (three guys and two girls) were full of questions, and some of them spoke a little English that they were eager to try out. I talked with one of the girls and she told me all about her boyfriend – they’ve been together six years, but since she is Korean, he hasn’t proposed to her. She was drunk, and maybe she was joking, but it seemed like there was a little truth to it. Koreans that live in Japan don’t get a lot of respect here. A lot of Koreans apparently hide their true ethnicity and take Japanese names in an effort to fit in.

One guy I talked with spoke a little English. He didn’t have a big vocabulary, but his accent was clear and he was very easy to understand. He had the funny habit of saying “I’m sorry” after everything. I would pour him some beer and he’d say “I’m sorry”. I’d say that I have to go to the bathroom and he’d say “I’m sorry”. He was really eager to speak though, and it was fun talking with him.

Finally I decided that it was time to catch a train before I got stranded in Akashi, so I told the master it was time to go. The group tried to pay for everything else I ate on top of the bottles of beer they had already bought, but I insisted on paying – I feel guilty when people buy my dinners. The master flashed me a number on a piece of paper, and the price was way too low, which probably meant that they had picked up some of the tab, but I paid and said thanks to everyone. I only had two business cards left, and they fought over them until one suggested that they could make copies.

I caught a train home with lots of other drunk people, and crashed right out on my bed. It’s the end of the week.

With the big ramp up to the Culture Festival capturing everyone’s attention, it was a miracle that we actually had some classes today, too. I studied in the morning, and then taught a class during fourth period. The classes in the afternoon were cancelled so that there was plenty of time to set things up.

My fourth period class was interesting because Mr. Hayashi wasn’t there. In fact, this is the second time that he’s missed this particular class. The students did OK, but they definitely aren’t getting the full experience. I write my lesson plans with two teachers in mind, and so it gets awfully awkward when a teacher decided to bail out on me. I got through this one, but if this becomes a routine we could have some problems down the road.

To help out with preparations I attached more balloons, helped arrange a giant dragon float, and folded newspapers for my ESS club. All the students were really appreciative, and many took the chance to talk to me. Tomorrow I’m hoping that it will be more of the same.

After school I went over to Tsuji-san’s place, and we chatted for about an hour about all kinds of stuff. Then we went over to Daniel’s house and picked him up. Daniel is Tsuji-san’s other foreigner student from England. They study together once a week, and I have met him once before. He’s leaving the country in another month or so, and we thought it would be a good thing to all get together and have dinner.

We went out to a sushi/tempura/teishoku place and ordered up a round of beers. It was fun to switch in and out of the different languages depending on your mood, and it added a whole new layer of subtlety to the conversations. Tsuji-san was really funny – her face reacts to everything she hears, so she’d be terrible at poker.

I ate sushi and they had tempura, and once we finished up Tsuji-san and I split the bill to say goodbye to Daniel. He was a nice guy to chat with. He’s very soft-spoken, and it sounds like he’s in a tough teaching situation. I hope that he finds something that interests him back in England.

Now I’m back home and getting ready for the festival tomorrow. It’ll be hot and humid inside the gymnasium – I learned that from last year. This year I’ll be a little more prepared.

It’s nice when the most stressful part of your week is over on Wednesday at 2:05 in the afternoon, but that’s just how my schedule is set up. Every other day of the week is pretty light, with lots of my favorite students in classes that I really enjoy and can show up to without a lot of planning.

Wednesday has one easy class, and three tough ones. These tough classes require a new and original lesson plan each week. Some of the students overlap between two of the classes, so I cannot do the same lesson in all of them. I have lots of ideas for teaching, but week after week it can be tough coming up with things to do. Parts of Monday and Tuesday are used coming up with plans for those classes and talking them over with their respective teachers. The teachers like it because it means that they don’t have to come up with a lecture, and the students like it because they can enjoy my class and don’t have to worry about boring lectures.

So when I’m wrapping up the last class at 2:05 in the afternoon, I’m already starting to think about my weekend plans, and how lucky I am to have such a great job that pays me to live in a foreign country and study Japanese, with the benefit of teaching a bunch of great students who are really happy to talk with me.

After school I went up to the balloon room and helped for about half an hour attaching balloons to chicken wire. The balloon room has much fewer balloons in it, but it’s still impressive to see. One of the girls on the student council was running around in there and it was like a huge mass of blue balloons moving around.

While attaching balloons, I chatted with the students around me in English, and they asked me all sorts of questions about my personal life: Do I have a girlfriend? Is she Japanese? What’s her name? Where did you meet her? How many girlfriends do you have? I answered all the questions as honestly and evasively as I could, but the girls especially were really happy to hear about Kuniko. I didn’t mention that she was a teacher here – that leads to some really tough questions. The girls were saying “Rub, Rub”, which translates to “Love, Love”.

On the way home I shared a train with the student that lives in my neighborhood. Tomorrow he has my class, so he was asking me about the homework and what he should write about. I gave him some pointers – he’s really a good natured kid and I think he’s enjoying my class a lot.

For dinner tonight I unintentionally cooked up a gigantic shrimp, cheese, mushroom, and onion omelette. It was awesome – not healthy, not by a longshot, but it was delicious. I only used three eggs, but somewhere along the way things got out of hand and I had to cut it in half just to fit it on my plate. Lucky I only had a bowl of noodles for lunch.

I had a fun day today with just a couple of classes and some preparation to do. The ESS club met to do some final planning for our big newspaper publishing operation this week. We sat and made some big decisions, and it was nice to see the club thriving.

Before we only had a handful of people, and that made for some short meetings and a very casual atmosphere. Also, I knew exactly what was going on with all our projects, all the time. Now we’ve got a lot of things happening – we’ve got a club president, another teacher advisor, and so things change and move around without me knowing about it. I’m comfortable with that, in fact, it’s quite welcome. I like to focus on speaking English with the members, helping them with homework, and doing what I do best.

I had about an hour to kill at the end of the day, and so instead of sitting around at my desk studying, I walked around the school and looked in on the students doing their projects. The students really appreciated a visit on their home turf, and it was fun to chat. In one hallway the student council was attaching ballons to chicken wire, and I stopped in to help out with that for a while. When I ran out of balloons the students just pointed to the window of a nearby classroom. I looked inside, and the room was filled to the level of the window with balloons. Thousands of balloons in one room make for a really impressive sight. I was a little concerned that their balloons would slowly shrink by Friday, but they don’t seem to care about that.

I also paid a visit to some first year student classrooms, and shocked a few people. One girl almost started crying she was laughing so hard. Her friends gave her a hard time about that. Finally I came back to the bottom floor, and two of the ESS members were looking for me. They were going to the store to buy some newspaper printing supplies, and asked me to come along. It was on my way home, so I tagged along.

I’ve had the opportunity once before to go shopping with a group of schoolgirls, and this time was just the same – giggling, joking, laughing, and creating a big scene. I went along with them, and together we found some paper suitable for the newspaper. We packed it up, and I sent them back to school while I caught the train home from Takasago.

I just finished up dinner – some cabbage wraps that Kuniko left for me in the freezer. It’s pretty humid right now – so even with the apartment wide open it’s starting to get a little sticky. Summer is coming – and there’s no way to stop it.

I was really tired out at school today. It was useless trying to memorize words today – I spent almost an hour memorizing twenty words, when I should have done about eighty in that time. The history teacher took advantage of my weakened state to come over and talk with me about Gregory Peck movies. I did have an actual class today, in the sixth period, and it went just fine. Mr. Yamamoto was just as tired as I was – he sat in the back of the class in front of the open window and enjoyed the cool air blowing in.

Today people were dealing with the latest school crisis – some students were caught smoking in the bathroom. Their homeroom teacher was getting ready to go to their house and talk with them at home, since they are all suspended. I’m not sure what goes on during these home visits, but I am sure that it’s unpleasant.

Some of my students came by my desk and tried to help me study Japanese. They are always impressed that I’m studying Japanese, but always disappointed that they can’t understand what I’m trying to say in Japanese. I was talking to two girls from the second year, and I was trying to explain that I got my electronic dictionary for free from Casio, in the hopes that students like them would see them and buy them for themselves. In a way it’s an investment by Casio. Anyway, all I got from the girls were blank stares, and so I had to give up.

Before I knew it the time was 5 p.m., so I went on down to the station and caught a train home. I walked through Ito Yokado without buying dinner, because Kuniko had left some goodies in my fridge for this week. Tonight I cooked up some hamburger patties that she made, and together with some rice and some hot sauce it turned out great.

Today the weather is cooler, and there’s a nice breeze blowing. It was steadily been getting hotter, though, and soon it’ll be air conditioner time. For now I’m taking advantage of the temperature and the wind to dry out my laundry in record time.

Sunday we woke up about 7:30 in the morning to the sounds of equipment and people moving around outside. At first it sounded like the monthly community cleanup, but since that’s always on Saturday, I didn’t know what it was. It was still going strong at 8:30 or so, and then I realized that since it was raining yesterday, they must postponed it to Sunday. I decided that it was probably too late for me to join the party, and instead stayed tucked into bed with Kuniko.

Around 11 Kuniko and I went outside to meet up with Yasu, who invited me to go with him to a Hanshin Tigers baseball game. This year the Tigers are doing pretty well, and Yasu had tickets for a sold-out game against the Nihon Ham Fighters. Their name actually comes from the company that owns them, Nihon Ham – so it’s not that they are good at fighting hams. They are just good at fighting, I guess.

Anyway, all three of us had lunch at Ito Yokado, and then Kuniko went back to my place to study and relax for the day, and Yasu and I caught the train to Koshien stadium.

This was the second time that I’ve been to a Tigers game. The crowds were heavy and we bought a six pack of beer and some tea at the local Daiei store. We also bought some balloons to set loose in the seventh inning, and then we went inside the park. We had bleacher seats, so we picked a decent pair of seats near the Nihon Ham Fighters fan club, and settled in to watch the game.

The game was a blowout, and not in our favor. The final score was 10-3, and it 7-0 after the second inning. Ouch. Most of the cheering was done by the fan club in front of us, and they really enjoyed the game. It always surprises me that there are so few arguments or fights at the games that I’ve been to. That’s considering that you can bring your own booze into the park – and still people don’t get (too) out of hand.

We caught the train home, and during the long trip back there was a funny instance of language miscommunication. Before I went to the game, Kuniko had offered to have dinner waiting for me when I got back. So, on the way to the game I told Yasu that right after the baseball game I needed to go back because Kuniko was cooking me dinner. He said, “fine, that’s great”, and that was it.

Fast forward to the train ride home and just as we walked out of our station towards Ito Yokado, Yasu asked me, “I need to take a shower, so what time should I come over for dinner?”

I was surprised, and I had to think fast. How do you say “Actually, you’re not invited to dinner” to somebody? However, I didn’t want to invite him over without knowing what Kuniko had planned. In the end he said he would finish his shower in about forty minutes, so I figured that would be enough time for me to buy food and cook it if it turned out that we didn’t have enough.

I got home and Kuniko was studying hard. There was the smell of dinner in the air, and it smelled good. Right away I told her about our surprise guest, but she just laughed and said that there was plenty of food. She went over to the store to buy a little bit of salad while I was in the shower, and soon after we all sat down to a delicious meal. Kuniko had made cabbage wrapped beef, rice, miso soup, and we had a duck salad on the side. Everything tasted great, and we even had one cabbage wrap to spare for my dinner later this week. No problem!

Kuniko went home later that evening, and I did some final cleanup and went to bed. I’m really tired out from the weekend, and I’m hoping it doesn’t affect my performance at school this week…

Saturday was a nice relaxing day for me. Kuniko started off at my place and went to a BBQ for her exchange students in the afternoon, so I spent the day relaxing and reading for pleasure. Late in the afternoon I got a message from Kuniko that she was leaving early, so I hit the road for Kobe and met up with her at Kobe station around four o’clock.

We walked around the area, looking at shops and enjoying the scenery, but soon Kuniko developed a dull pain in her hip. We tried sitting down for a while and resting, and that seemed to help, but when we got walking again the pain came back. At one point we sat down and I was giving her hip and back a firm massage to try and loosen up the muscles. The problem with doing a firm massage to a woman’s hips in public when you are a foreigner in a foreign country is that you attract a lot of attention. So, we didn’t do that so much.

After a while though, she felt better, and so we walked out to Mosaic to meet up with Tsuji-san and her boyfriend. This was my first time meeting him, and he seemed like a really nice guy. Since he doesn’t speak a word of English we decided to do the whole evening in Japanese. That made for an interesting atmosphere, because it was really up to me to keep the conversation going, but my conversations were limited to what my vocabulary could do. Things were slow at first, but with Kuniko helping me out we soon were talking comfortably enough. I made lots of mistakes, and people kindly corrected me, and so I learned a lot.

We had decided to go to the Brazilian restaurant – a meat-oriented place that is well-known in the Kobe area. It’s an all you can eat restaurant, but you are limited by how often the guys come over with meat to deliver to your table.

After dinner we walked back towards the station to go to Sweets Harbor, kind of a food court/theme park dedicated to desserts. Strangely enough, it closed at 8 p.m. on a Saturday night – which seemed like a really bad time to close a place that specializes in dessert.

Instead we walked across the street to Starbucks and had some coffee and chatted some more. I tried to give some advice to them about meeting the family for the first time, and things of that nature. Hopefully it will be helpful.

One thing that was really interesting about their relationship is how Tsuji-san has a background of traveling and living overseas. She leans a little more towards the western way of thinking, and it seems like her fiancée is more of a traditional Japanese guy when it comes to relationships and roles.

Tsuji-san told me that after months and months of waiting for him to propose, she checked in with him last week to see if he was really serious about this or not. He said he was, citing extreme shyness as a factor, and then proposed to her right there. Tsuji-san told me that it was weird timing – like if she hadn’t asked about it he wouldn’t have proposed. I guess that took a little bit of the romance out of it for her.

Also, they have to work out what their roles will be. He wants her to quit her job and stay at home, and she just got a great job that she loves and she feels a responsibility towards them to stay with it for a while. The idea that she should be at home is definitely a traditional Japanese one – and her idea of working as well is more of a western one. Which idea wins remains to be seen.

Not much to report from the education front today – only two classes for me, and they were a piece of cake. I heard a rumor that three students were caught smoking in the bathroom (three second year boys). They are getting suspended all next week – and they’ll miss the popular Culture Festival. I wonder where they got the idea to smoke at school? Maybe when they walked by the teacher’s smoking room and saw all their role models in there puffing away like mad between classes. Hmm…

I had a good time chatting with students while they were preparing for their dances and events. They are really working hard, but they don’t mind taking a break and explaining what they are doing to me in broken English.

Between my classes I reviewed vocabulary, and read some Japanese reading material for kids. I’m getting a little better at reading, but only at a elementary school level. I still have trouble with anything more than that.

I came home at the usual time, and picked up some uncooked ramen at Ito Yokado for dinner. I had planned to cook a big dinner for Kuniko, but she had to cancel, so I had to go to Plan B.

Tomorrow Kuniko and I are going to meet up with Tsuji-san and her boyfriend for dinner in Kobe. I’m sure to have some good stories after that meetup!

Today I had the entire morning free, and two of the student teachers asked me to drop by their classes to watch their final lesson, and to give them sage advice afterwards. Of course, it wasn’t just me, there were several other teachers invited. I went to both classes, and although it was sometimes painful to see how nervous they were, overall they did a great job.

Later in the day both of the student teachers came by to say thanks for coming, and I gave them advice as best I could with my broken Japanese. They politely listened and nodded, although I’m not sure they understood. My basic message was keep up the good work – you’ll make a great teacher.

After school we had an ESS meeting to collect the articles for the newspaper that we are going to make for the culture festival. Some students came in and dropped off the paper, others came in and worked hard on their project. I chatted with several of the students, and we had fun talking about sushi, weekends, and the upcoming trip to Australia.

My next stop was across the street to talk with Tsuji-san. We’re planning a dinner together on Saturday, along with Kuniko and Tsuji-san’s boyfriend. She had good news – her boyfriend proposed last week, so we talked about that a lot. That was a very interesting conversation, but I’ll wait and elaborate on it after we have dinner with them Saturday night.

We’re also planning to go out with Tsuji-san’s other foreigner student, Daniel, next week. He’s wrapping up his contract and going home this year, so it’ll be kind of hello/goodbye party.

I stopped in at Ito Yokado on the way home because they were selling Hiroshima okonomiyaki – a real delicacy. They cooked it just the way I remember it, minus the garlic and kimchee. I took one home, and it was still steaming from the pan since my house is so close. It was a great dinner. They don’t do this often, so I just have to take it when I get it.

Yasu came by this evening to drop off some things for me. He wanted to get me properly outfitted for the Tiger’s game on Sunday. He bought me some noisemaking plastic bats, and a replica Tiger’s jersey to wear during the game. I was totally surprised. He said it was no problem, and wouldn’t let me pay him back. Instead I’m going to buy lunch and some beer for the game. The nice thing about Japanese baseball is that you can bring in your own food and beer!

This evening after school I went to Kobe to do some shopping in Chinatown. Chinatown is just south of the Motomachi station in western Kobe, and it was an easy walk from the station to the main part of Chinatown. Kuniko came and met me after her work finished up, and we walked together and ate various goodies from the street vendors. Most of the street vendors are Japanese, but when you go in the little stores behind the vending stands, you realize how many Chinese people are there.

I stopped in one shop and picked up various sauces and spices, for about half the price as you would pay in a place like Carrefour or an import food shop. The cashier wasn’t sure what language I spoke, so he asked his daughter to come over and ask me what I was looking for in English. Later, when I was checking out they had their son translate the amount of the bill and then he gave me a cheerful “Have a nice day!” in English as I left.

Kuniko and I had some trouble finding a decent dessert – we got what were described as Mango and Lychee shakes, but it turned out they were just flavored slushes like Slurpees. Mine was good, but Kuniko’s mango one wasn’t so great.

On the sixth floor of the gigantic Daimaru department store they had an exposition of Hokkaido goods, so we went to check it out. It was really cool – like walking through a farmer’s market in Hokkaido. There were a lot of things that you normally can only get in Hokkaido, so we got some desserts there to take home.

We stopped in at a Starbucks for something cold to drink, and from there went down to the Mosaic pier to walk around, ride the ferris wheel, and relax some more. There were lots of couples there, as usual, and the weather was perfect for enjoying the skyline view of Kobe.

We were both starting to get tired, and since it was a school night we headed back to the train station. Kuniko went on home, and I got off at Akashi, changed trains and went through Ito Yokado on my way back home. It was a nice school night excursion – it’s good to break the routine every once in a while.

Just two easy classes today – one without a teacher to help me out. Both classes went just fine, though, and I spent the time between classes going over Japanese grammar and typing in words to memorize into the computer.

The closer we get to the culture festival the more antsy the students are getting. They have been very friendly in the hallways – even more than usual. I’m hoping that there will be some energy left over after the festival for my classes, but I fear that won’t be the case.

I was busy chatting with several of the younger teachers in the staffroom today. I had a nice conversation with one of the student teachers. She looked really nervous talking with me, but I think she always looks really nervous. It was like at any second she would hear a loud noise and skitter away. Anyway, we talked about her teaching schedule, and it sounds like she’s having a rough time with our students. I don’t think they are so bad, but maybe they smell the fear on her, and like a pack of dogs they’re moving in for the kill.

After school I caught the train to Himeji and met Carrie in front of 31 flavors ice cream. It’s a great place to meet – if you stand there facing 31 flavors you can see lots of ice cream, lots of people walking by quickly on their way wherever, and if you turn completely around you can see the amazing 400 year old Himeji castle in the distance – lined up in perfect symmetry with the ice cream store.

We went to a yakiniku place for dinner, and spent time roasting meat and catching up. We haven’t met up since March, so we had a lot of talking to do. I told her all about the wedding plan, the visitors that will be here in November, and how exciting it all is. Carrie told me about what she’s planning for after her return to the states in 2006, how things are going with her boyfriend, and how the studying is going for the big exam that we’re both taking in December.

We ate lots of grilled meat – different types of beef and pork – and then finally headed back to the station. We stopped in at the aforementioned 31 Flavors for a scoop of ice cream, and we sat out on the step enjoying the nice weather and the conversation.

I caught the train back to Futami, and now I’m getting ready for bed. Tomorrow is my busy day at school – four classes in a row! After school I’m going to go into Chinatown in Kobe to meet up with Kuniko and do some shopping. I’m looking for some authentic Chinese sauces and spices to liven up my Chinese cooking.

Today I had the morning free to study, and so I spent about three hours studying uninterrupted up in my classroom as the school went about it’s business all around me. Two hours of memorization, and one of grammar, and I left my classroom with a tired out brain.

I had just two classes today – both with first year students. No problems today – the students responded well to the lessons. They are getting close to the culture festival, and that means that they pay less attention in class – they are dreaming of being onstage in front of the crowds of other students who are waiting for their turn on stage.

Today I had a couple of the students in my class that I had bumped into at Ito Yokado on Saturday with Kuniko. They commented on what a beautiful girlfriend I have, and they did it all in English. I told them in Ito Yokado that we’re supposed to use English in the classroom, so they worked hard today to ask me all about Kuniko in English.

After school I went over some plans with Tsutsumi sensei about the end of the term – we have to arrange classes to make sure that everything ends up evenly. Most of the time it’s pretty complicated, but today it worked out pretty easily.

I went over to the yakitori for a quick bite and a beer tonight – not really for the food or the beer, but to touch base with the master. He was happy to see me, and we caught up. It was fun to sit there and chat with him and some of the guests, and I really should get over there more. It’s a great chance to use Japanese, without a safety net.

Tomorrow I’ve got just a couple of classes. I am going to do another solo class. Apparently I set a precedent and now teachers are bailing out of my class faster than you can say “50 minute break”.