I had a strange day today – nothing particular happened – in fact, I had no classes today. We were supposed to do a sports day, but because it was raining it got cancelled, so we had classes as usual. Tomorrow if it doesn’t rain we will try to do a sports day, but if it does rain I’ll finally have one or two classes to teach.

Today was strange because due to a problem with my PDA I couldn’t study vocabulary, so I just spent the day reading passages in Japanese and translating from a Japanese textbook. It was hard work, and I took frequent breaks to walk around the school and see what was going on elsewhere. It was like my brain was burned out on studying, and trying to get me to do other things. I think I’m going to take the hint, and tomorrow I’ll probably just study a little bit.

I talked with the principal today, and we sorted out what they want me to do. I told him that I have an evening appointment right in the middle of the days they want me to work, and hopefully that will keep me out of any overnight trips. I don’t mind helping out, but I do mind camping out.

Lastly I had a meeting with the other English teachers, and we talked about the students that were failing, and we talked about what we should do. Mr. Yamamoto was running the meeting, and as usual he asked me to give my opinion of each class as we went through. It’s nice to be able to participate in these meetings, even though it’s not happening in English. Of course I give my comments in English, and I think that makes everyone happy.

Tonight for dinner I made a hot ham and cheese sandwich, and I had a side of chirashizushi. For dessert I bought a peach from Ito Yokado – there are a lot of peaches in the store right now, but they are all expensive. I thought it’d be a shame to let the season go by without even trying one, but I was so full from dinner that I’m going to save it for breakfast tomorrow.

It’s really feeling like summer now that the cicadas have started making their distinctive noise. In Japanese commercials on TV when they want to give the impression that it’s a hot summer day they play the sound effects from the cicadas, and it’s amazing how fast you think of summer – it’s an audio lightswitch. I still remember stepping off the bus into Yashiro to meet Mr. Hayashi and Andy for the first time, and the cicadas were making that noise. I turned to Antoine and said “What the hell is that?” and we both knew we weren’t in California anymore.

No classes today! We’re in the weird period where there are some classes, just four a day, but they don’t really count. I spent most of the day studying, memorizing words like “民間伝承” (folklore), and “人質” (hostage). My tests are all graded and everything is done for me for last term.

Mr. Komori dropped by today, like us he had only morning classes, so he was free in the afternoon. I chatted with him a little while, and he looked like he was enjoying life. Kuniko sent me a message in the early afternoon and she got to leave home early, too. I figured I’d study until around 3:30, and then sneak out myself.

I did a little shopping for this week at Ito Yokado – I bought some bacon, some cheese, some octopus, and some shaved ice for dessert. For dinner tonight I made some traditional octopus balls (takoyaki), and then some non-traditional ones with cheese and bacon instead of octopus. They both turned out OK, although I’m a little out of practice flipping them on the special stove that Kuniko gave me. I ended up putting lots of hot sauce all over the cheese and bacon ones – yum.

While I was cooking dinner my cell phone rang, and it was the principal of my school. It was a strange conversation because my principal can’t speak any English at all, and so he pushes forward in Japanese, and he talks fast. At first I thought he was asking where I disappeared to this afternoon, but it turns out that the board of education was looking for me to find out if I can work sometime in August. This is the phone call that I’ve secretly been dreading – the request to work at Yashiro.

When I first arrived here two years ago we had to attend a mandatory three day session at Yashiro, and it was a boring orientation punctuated with drunken partying, and sleeping in dorm rooms with six other people, no private baths, and bad cafeteria food. At the time I remembered thinking, at least I don’t have to work this thing and clean up the puke afterwards. Guess what…

I told the principal that I’d call them tomorrow and let them know if I’m free. The principal seemed happy enough with that, but I wonder if he spent the hour from four to five p.m. today walking around the halls looking for me. No problem – I’m not worried. Really… I’m not. Well, maybe a little.

Saturday morning I was up at 7:30 in order to report for my community clean up duties around the apartment buildings where I live. A couple of weeks ago I got a little note in English that explained the system to me. I’m guessing that Jane upstairs also got the same note, since she has missed the clean up lots of times.

I really don’t mind doing the cleanup, it’s just that the schedule is erratic, and I’m never quite sure when it is. The last time it was on Sunday, but every time before that it was on Saturday. Maybe it is influenced by the weather.

Anyway, I was outside raking away at the leaves with Jane, and we got a good chance to catch up. She’s really enjoying her life in Japan, and she seems a little more relaxed lately. At first when she arrived she was a bundle of nerves, and I think it took a while for her to settle into a routine that she is comfortable with.

She mentioned that she knew a local elementary school that might be in the market for a foreign English teacher, so I might get in touch with them. It’s a year before I need a job, but maybe it would be worth talking a little with them. Teaching English to elementary students is a much different ballgame than teaching to junior high or high school students. Is it something I’d be interested in? The focus at that age is more on singing, games, and physical activities. People I know that do it full time come home exhausted. Still, I love kids and it might be fun to try a few times and see how it goes.

In the evening Kuniko came over and together we went over to a karoke place across from Carrefour for a post-wedding party for a friend of mine who is a regular over at the yakitori. He’s one of the first guys I met at the yakitori, and he invited Kuniko and me to join in the fun.

Kuniko and I each contributed 15,000 yen (about $150) and wrapped them in a symbolic envelope with our names on them. Then we went into the party and met with the organizers (more regulars from the yakitori). We paid 5000 yen each ($50) for all you can drink and all you can eat (and all you can sing, for that matter). Kuniko drove so she just had a couple of glasses of orange juice. I had four or five cups of beer, and they kept the beer flowing pretty good. The food was a little scarce, actually, and I was pretty hungry. For my 5000 yen I don’t think I got my money’s worth, but at least the party was good.

There were lots of people I didn’t know, but some people sang karaoke. There were a few speeches by the bride and groom, a few kisses, and some games. They played this weird game where six people came up on stage and each one ate a creampuff. Six other people watched them eat the creampuffs. The gimmick was that one of the creampuffs had something evil inside, I don’t know what. Maybe wasabi, maybe something salty, I don’t know. Anyway, the people observing have to guess which person ate the bad creampuff. If the observers guess correctly, the creampuff eaters have to drink a shot of oolong tea mixed with Tabasco sauce. If the observers guess wrong, they have to drink the shot.

The first round, Kuniko got called up there, and she ate a normal creampuff no problem. I was up there the second round, and I had a normal creampuff myself. Delicious, but I wanted to see what was in the weird creampuff.

The final game was one where we had a relay, and you had to eat two saltine crackers, swallow them, and then the next person goes. Kuniko and I both competed in this one, and we both cheated. I saved up lots of saliva and also secretly dipped my cracker in mayonnaise. We still lost, though, and so I got to drink the Tabasco tea cocktail. It wasn’t so bad, really, but maybe that’s because I like Tabasco so much.

We had a good time at the party – the only downside was that everyone was smoking there. It seemed like everyone, anyway. The kids that were there weren’t smoking, but them and us and that was it. When we left we reeked of tobacco smoke. Yuck. On the way home from the party we stopped in at a ramen shop to get some food – I was still hungry. The noodles hit the spot.

Sunday we got up and headed to the town of Shingu, west of Himeji, to see Yuri perform in a taiko drum concert. I’ve always been a big fan of taiko drums – they are so loud and the effect of their noise shakes you from the inside. Yuri got us free tickets, so we went and sat right in the front to root her own.

She did a great job – it looked really difficult, but she seemed to do it effortlessly. The other drummers were also very talented, and I was so impressed. They played for about two hours, interspersed with a dance troupe that did a variety of international dances.

At the end of the show we got to congratulate her and she looked really happy. There was quite a big crowd there, and she must have been nervous performing for so many people.

Sunday night Kuniko and I just hung out and had a simple dinner of tantan noodles (cold spicy noodles with a meat and miso sauce). The rain is coming almost every day lately, so it’s good to stay in and stay dry. This week I’ll have to go out and face it, though. It has been a pretty wet season so far.

We finally wrapped up the exams today – just two left, and the students were free to go out and participate in their clubs, go home and relax, and get ready for the meaningless classes next week before the big summer break.

I went to school and studied hard through the morning until about lunchtime, and then packed up my gear to go. It was interesting to see that lots of teachers that were leaving early the rest of the week were sticking around today, but I followed through and walked right out of there. A couple of teachers made comments that it must be nice to be able to leave early, and I just smiled and told them just how nice it is.

Even though I have permission to go home, even though I have a special arrangement, even though I put in plenty of hours and a few half days every year doesn’t really make up for it, I still feel a pang of guilt as I leave all the other teachers behind. I know I shouldn’t, but it still creeps up on me. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in Japan for so long – maybe the overwork culture is creeping up on me. I decided today that if I’m going to show people what its like to work a reasonable schedule and still do a great job, I’m going to have to get over the guilt pangs.

This weekend is the STEP test, and for the first time ever Mr. Hayashi wasn’t asking me about whether I had gotten a phone call from STEP headquarters. Usually he’s really eager to find out if I’m going to be doing the interviews – this time he was silent about it. I never did get the call, and I think I might have been bumped off the A-list. I don’t mind – Kuniko and I are planning on seeing Yuri perform at a taiko drum concert that day, but it was kind of strange. I hope my students do well – I’ll be thinking about them on Sunday.

Back home I spent the afternoon scrubbing the bathroom. Later this month the Kageyama family is going to remodel their bathroom, so I offered the use of my bathroom for bathing purposes in the evenings, for about a week. So, I wanted to scrub that sucker clean. I won’t go into detail, but there were some things that had been in there long before I showed up – I don’t think my predecessor Andy did much in the way of cleaning.

I got a message from Carrie this afternoon – she invited me and Kuniko to go drinking at the rooftop beer garden in Akashi if we were free, but I’m a little light on cash lately, especially with the post-wedding party we’re attending tomorrow night. Instead I spent tonight working on my Japanese, listening to loud music (Unida). I had zarusoba for dinner – delicious.

I’m back from an evening in Kobe trying on clothes for the wedding. We went over to the wedding place and had lots of talks and discussions about the various decisions we’ll be making in the near future, and we also got to let loose in the dressing room and try on different clothes.

Kuniko of course looked just beautiful in the dresses she wore, and picked out a couple to wear. I tried on a couple of suits, and I think I found one that I like. Choosing between gold and pink is tough, and the blue ones were really nice. I’m not entirely sure, so next time they are going to help me decide.

We spent about two hours playing around in there, and then we went into Sannomiya to have some ramen at a restaurant that Kuniko wanted to introduce me to. It was really good – the ramen I had was in a shrimp/salt broth, and it had a couple of shrimp wontons floating in there. Yum!

After dinner we shopped around a little to burn some calories, and then we had a couple of parfaits for dessert. It was the first time for me to have a parfait in Japan. The stores that sell them have these giant plastic replicas in the window, and you can choose the one you want – the have lots of flavors. I settled on a chocolate one, and Kuniko had a tiramisu flavored one. They were really good – like a milkshake on steroids.

Tomorrow is the last day of an easy week for me, and I don’t have much planned actually. I’m looking forward to relaxing a little bit and studying hard.

Today I woke up with a slight hangover and I remembered that I have a special lesson this morning at a junior high school to try to get students to come to our school next year.

I got over the hangover quick enough, went into school, and before long I was speeding down the road with Mori sensei. She was running a little late, so we got there with just enough time to have a short chat with the receptionist, and before we knew it, we were standing in front of a class of students.

The students gave us a premeditated round of applause, and they even had made their own name cards, so it was very easy to call on the students.

I had never taught with Mori sensei before – she had always struck me as the type to over-prepare and then get caught up in the details. I think today that happened, and so the lesson (at least to me) didn’t go that smoothly. That’s not to say that it wasn’t a success, but it didn’t live up to what it could have been.

Mori sensei had lots of teaching materials – probably too many, and so she spent lots of time leafing through them looking for the right one. She spent a lot of time trying to convince the students to come to our school by showing off the things that they don’t have at their junior high school (like a cafeteria, a table tennis room, etc). The students didn’t react to these things at all, really. They just waited for the next English question to come. That wasn’t the only problem, though.

This is going to sound egotistical, but the class didn’t focus on me. What I mean is, any Japanese teacher can go in there and teach the students, but it’s a rare opportunity for them to interact with a native speaker of English. Although the lesson plan called for me speaking with the students in several parts of the lesson, we tended to skip over those. Instead, Mori sensei used her English to instruct the students on what to do. Unfortunately, sometimes even I couldn’t understand what she was trying to say to them.

Another example was pronunciation – she would introduce a new word, and then I would say it, and the students would repeat after me. After a couple of times, Mori sensei decided to cut the middle man (me) out, and so she had the students repeating after her. That’s probably a bad idea, because her accent isn’t very natural sounding.

You might think that I thought the class went horribly from what I’ve said so far, but there were some good points. The students reacted well to the questions that I posed to them, and I was impressed with their confidence. They were generally pretty quiet, but occasionally they would laugh at something or talk about an answer among themselves. They weren’t as relaxed as my classes are, but my classes have students that know me and each other quite well by now.

After class as we walked back to the principal’s office for the traditional chat over coffee I got a chance to say hello to a lot of students in the hallways, and that was fun. They reacted really well, and their greetings in English sounded very natural.

The principal had us in his clutches for almost an hour talking about all kinds of things, from ESL teaching in America, to the jungles of Africa – he seemed like a lonely guy. He said that he’d like us to come again soon, and seemed very positive about the class.

On the drive back I gave Mori sensei my honest opinions about the lesson, and she took them to heart. She was excited about the chance to go back and teach another lesson, and I mentioned that of course he would be willing to have us back – we are teaching his students for free. His teachers are getting some time off, and our school is paying the bill. She thought that it was funny – I guess she hadn’t thought about it in that way before.

I did a little paperwork when I got back to school, and then took off around noon. I took the local train home from Takasago, and when I got off a pretty blond foreigner that I ran into a while back came walking down the steps of the station with me. I said hello in English, and she answered in Japanese, and so we talked in Japanese. She is from Russia, and is working for about 8 months in Japan in Kobe. I guess she lives around here somewhere.

We talked about life in Japan and she was really interested to hear about America and California. When we got to the bike rack where her bike was she rustled through her bag and came up with a menu of a restaurant where she works. It’s a “European” food restaurant, kind of a mix of many different styles. She invited me to come there sometime, and said she wants to chat with me more. She seemed nice enough, but it’s weird to speak Japanese with another foreigner – and it’s weird to see a foreigner in Japan who is not teaching English in some way.

Now I’m back at home and getting ready to go into Kobe and meet up with Kuniko to try on some wedding garb. I’ll write more later!

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!