Kuniko was completely awake at five a.m. – apparently her body cannot tell the difference between a work day and a weekend day. I woke up for a while too, and we made some breakfast, chatted for a while, and then pretty soon we fell asleep again. This time we slept until 10:30 or so in the morning, a proper sleep-in time.

We got our act together and went to Umeda. We were in search of an engagement ring.

Kuniko and I had talked about the ring the day I proposed, and I explained what my thinking was behind not buying it on my own. I wanted to get a ring that she liked. She agreed completely, and so together we went to some stores in the Umeda area to see what was out there.

I think at first Kuniko had a bit of sticker shock. Maybe she didn’t realize how much these things can be. I knew it could get pricey, and so I had been saving some money, just in case.

To make a long story short, we found a ring. We were both happy with it; it cost a lot less than what I had expected to pay, and it looks great on her finger.

After making the buy, we went back to her neighborhood to rent a movie and stay inside where it was cool. We watched “Love, Actually” which was a pretty fun movie. For dinner we went over to the local Indian food restaurant, where the cooks prepared a great spicy meal for us.

We made plans to see each other again next weekend – the last weekend before I leave for my trip to the USA. It was a great weekend with Kuniko, and it was tough to say goodbye.

As I walked home from my local station in Futami, I bumped into a nice lady that I’ve seen around town a couple of times. We chatted in Japanese and she said that she wanted me to teach her English. I explained that my schedule was a bit full. She complained that she was lonely, and wanted to learn English. I got the heck out of there as fast and as politely as I could.

Now I’m off to bed. It’s back to work tomorrow, and I have my first Japanese class at the YMCA in Sannomiya.

I got up this morning with ‘nary a hangover and was off to Befu to run some errands in town. The big shocker was that the local Uniqlo store was closed, so I missed out on the chance to buy some cooler clothes. It wasn’t a wasted trip, though – I picked up some goodies for the folks back home and got some roast beef at the Ito Yokado near the station.

Back home I ate a roast beef sandwich and got all packed up for my trip to Osaka. I left a bit early for Osaka, in order to stop at Universal Studios Japan to buy a present for Kuniko.

Lately it’s been hot and humid in Kansai, about 80 degrees F and 80-90% humidity. Oh yeah. I’m a sweat machine. The air conditioning on the trains and in the stations is a life-saver. At USJ I picked up the gift for Kuniko, and I had a little extra time to spare, so I walked around and took in some of the sights outside the park.

I found a couple of interesting restaurants that look like they were imported here along with the rest of the part – a rib restaurant/microbrewery, and a Hawaiian burger restaurant. It’s a long way to go for ribs, but I might do it – I’m hoping to try one of those in the near future.

I met up with Kuniko at her place around 6 p.m., and she cooked up a great dinner. I sliced ingredients, and she managed the rest of the dinner. It was a Japanese cold noodle dish, with some spicy sauce, and strips of egg, cucumber, and ham. It really hit the spot.

Afterwards we spent lots of time chatting about our week and talking about the future – it was time well spent. I think that Kuniko and I are both on the same page in terms of timing. We ended up staying up late watching TV and talking – we finally went to bed around midnight. Luckily, she’s got air conditioning.

Today was the first day of exams for our students. They get a half day of school during the exams, and I usually also get a half day. Because of some situations in the past where I’ve had to stay longer, I don’t usually plan on getting out early, but if it happens, great!

My test is administered on Tuesday of next week. I’ve heard rumors of an inter-high school softball game that is supposed to happen next Tuesday as well. I think they are trying to recruit me to play. No thank you! Let me know when the ping pong match is.

Ms. Miyake took the written STEP test a couple of weeks ago, and she was going for the second highest level. She insisted after the fact that she failed, but today she found out that she passed. Mr. Hayashi went over the results with her, and they spent a lot of time going over the answers. Mr. Hayashi has the top level of STEP qualification, so he’s able to help a lot of our teachers towards getting there.

After talking with Ms. Miyake, Mr. Hayashi told me that he thought the STEP test must be getting easier. He seemed worried that many people will get the same qualification as him – it seems to be a bit of a blow to his ego. I told him that everyone knows his English is great – no need to worry. Still, I think he’s not happy with more and more teachers getting better. He likes being the big fish in a small pond.

Mr. Komuri invited me to lunch at noon – we decided to meet at my desk before heading out for some food. I had an extra hour before that, so I went up to my classroom with Ms. Miyake and we did some listening practice for about 45 minutes. She had recorded some English conversations off of a radio program, and I asked her questions to test her comprehension. I also explained some of the vocabulary for her. I think it will be a benefit for her in the long run.

We wrapped up the practice at five minutes until noon, but when I got to the staffroom, Mr. Komuri wasn’t there. I waited at my desk until about 12:30, and then figured he wasn’t coming. I walked to the neighborhood grocery store and got a sandwich, instead.

Around 1:30 Mr. Komuri showed up, and he asked what I had for lunch. I explained that I had waited for him for about half an hour, and then just went out for a sandwich. He seemed surprised. I guess Mr. Hayashi had seen me and Ms. Miyake head our of the staffroom together and told Mr. Komuri that I was eating with her instead. Mr. Komuri apologized, and I chalked it up to a communication problem.

Around 2:00 Mr. Hayashi came back, and sat down with me to chat for a while. He asked me what I had for lunch, and asked me if I had been helping Ms. Miyake with her English. I think he was jealous! He told me that if she passes the next test, she’ll be giving me the credit. He said it all with a smile, but I don’t think he was too thrilled. Hmmm…

I did get to leave school early, so it was easy to meet up with Antoine in Sannomiya at 7 p.m. We walked around in vain searching for a revolving sushi type place, and finally gave up and went to a regular sushi place. There we did our best ordering sushi in Japanese. Antoine knows no Japanese at all, so it was all on me. I did my best, and we got a pretty wide assortment of raw fish to eat. This restaurant was strange in that they gave lots of fish, and only a tiny little lump of sushi rice underneath. It was good, though!

Afterwards we went to the Belgian beer place and I ordered the “Large Glass” of Hoeegarden White. It’s the size of two pints – you need to use both hands to lift the glass when it’s full. The price is cheaper by 200 yen than buying two individual beers.

Antoine and I struck up a conversation with a couple of teachers sitting next to us. The guy was a teacher at a school near Akashi – he teaches math. His English was pretty good, though. He was with a 19-year old girl that was cute. Apparently she is a part-time teacher at the school as well. She said she also works at Starbucks and plays in a punk rock band. She didn’t seem to thrilled to chat with us, but her friend made her keep talking.

He said that he is married, and has a 2-year old daughter at home. It seemed strange to Antoine and I that this guy is out drinking with some 19-year old girl when he’s got a wife and child at home. This is something that we’ve seem before in other situations. That definitely wouldn’t fly back in the USA.

The guy insisted on giving me his phone number and e-mail – he wants us all to go to dinner together. Maybe we will – he might be a good connection for a job down the line.

After the Belgian place we went back to the trains and headed home. I was pretty zonked out. I’m definitely ready for the weekend.

Today was the last official day for classes at my school. Tomorrow, the final exams begin for the term. Most of my classes today were review classes, so there wasn’t a whole lot for me to do but chat with the students and goof off.

I did spend a long time studying today. Ms. Miyake found an interesting textbook for me to use, and I’m able to practice reading with it. It’s much easier than the children’s books that I had borrowed. The level is a bit more advanced, but the vocabulary is more focused on what I’ve learned already.

Mr. Hayashi spent a lot of time today trying to convince me in a very Japanese fashion to do things that he wants me to do. For example, he told me that he heard that people that know Japanese have a very easy time finding a job on the west coast of America. I told him very directly that I’d much rather work in Japan. For some reason, he doesn’t seem to be too excited about me doing that. There are a couple of theories that I have, but who knows his real motivation?

Lately his tune has been the same, so I’ve decided to take all his career advice with a grain of salt. After all, he’s the same guy that forgets classes, listens to blank tapes in his car for the positive alpha waves, and calls his students monkeys without tails. I like the guy – he’s really a good person, he’s maybe just a bit too much sometimes. Can I work with him for two more years? Sure, it’s like jousting with Jell-O.

I left the staffroom about 15 minutes early because I wanted to watch the baseball team practicing after school. One interesting ritual they have is when somebody walks to the field, they all say something I couldn’t understand and they take off their hats and bow. No matter what they’re doing, they stop and bow. Weird. I watched them practice for a little while and while I was watching, one of the managers gave me a glass of iced soda.

A baseball “manager” in Japan means the person that manages the equipment, keeps the players refreshed and happy, and generally cleans up after the team. There are two managers for the baseball team, both girls. I know them from my classes, so I chatted with them a little bit. Everyone was curious why I was out there, but it was fun to watch and see some of my students in a different context.

Back home I cooked up some sausages that I picked up a long time ago at Carrefour, and had some wakame (seaweed) rice on the side. I decided to take a night off of studying to relax and recharge – I don’t want to burn out.

After dinner the YMCA called and said that I was accepted for the Japanese class. They asked me to come tomorrow to the first class, and I said yes, and thank you, and hung up, before I realized that I had already made plans with Antoine. Oops. Well, it’s a free class, so I’ll catch up with them on Monday. I’m already cutting classes – can you believe it?

The last two words of last night’s entry were “blissful sleep”. I can’t believe I said that. In the middle of the night I woke up with itches all over my arms and legs, and I had mosquito bites everywhere. When I rolled over and tried to sleep the whine of mosquitos buzzing around my ear would keep me from sleep. I tossed and turned, hiding under my sheet, and had the worst night of sleep in recent memory. I woke up this morning with two new words on my mind: “kill mosquito”.

At lunchtime Mr. Hayashi took me to the hardware store and we looked at the vast array of weapons of mosquito destruction. I could choose from several different ways to kill the little flying bastards. On Mr. Hayashi’s suggestion I got a nightlight thing that emits some kind of oil that is supposed to keep them away. I’ll try it out tonight. I hope it works! If it doesn’t, it might be mosquito netting for me. It’s only just the beginning of mosquito season around here – I’ve got a long way to go.

The big talk today at school was about bonuses. In Japan, all civil servants (that includes public teachers) get bonuses. I think that the bonuses come three times a year, at the end of each term. Also, to a certain extent, private companies sometimes follow this same schedule. Unfortunately for me, I am classified as a part-time employee, and so I’m not entitled to a bonus.

People were walking around talking about how much their bonus was, and it seemed like I was the only one who didn’t have a fat wad of cash to burn. The bonus varies based on experience, but it can be anywhere from $5000 – $9000. That’s right… big bucks!

I don’t mind not getting a bonus – these people work very hard and they are on a long, straight-forward career path that inevitably leads to mandatory retirement at age 60. They work tons of hours, with no overtime. My job by comparison is much easier, and so I don’t feel so bad. I remember my predecessor Andy getting a little upset by the lack of a bonus for my position.

Another big topic at school today was that the air conditioning was coming on. We’ve got air conditioning in only select rooms in the school – the teacher’s office is one of the rooms. There’s no rules about it, but they usually wait until July 1st to flip on the A/C. I guess it’s an effort to save money.

It was funny to hear the announcement that they were turning on the air conditioning at noon that day. Apparently it was an action of such consequence that a formal announcement was necessary. I was hoping for a speech or something, but no luck. Anyway, now it’s much cooler in the staff room.

For dinner I made some fried rice, with lots of veggies and shrimp mixed in. It was kind of like a chef salad of fried rice. Or something.

Off to bed – hope the mosquitos stay away!

With a whopping four classes today, three of them being the same lesson, I was pretty bushed by the end of it. We had a big cleaning day after school, which means that they dedicate 30 minutes to scrubbing the school down in some of the harder to reach places.

Some of the students were hanging out the second and third story windows to clean up at the top, and I couldn’t believe the teachers were letting them do it. I had a huge cleanup crew show up to help me – I guess I’m known to be a bit of a softy. With an army of six students we swept the floor of my classroom, cleaned the chalkboard, and listened to Marvin Gaye.

At five o’clock I hit the road towards Kobe, and made the fifteen minute walk from the station at Sannomiya to the Kobe YMCA. It wasn’t quite what I expected – no gay indians or construction workers, just a big warehouse type building full of sports equipment and cheap rooms.

I found the school area, and they had me take an exam. I noticed that there was absolutely no English on the exam itself, and they assumed that I already knew kana. I passed the test, but barely, with a 74/100. They said that it was enough to get in the level 3 class. Since I have no idea what the levels mean, and since the class is free anyway, I wasn’t too concerned. Just hook me up with the lessons, dude. They’ll confirm in the mail, but my first class should be next Monday. It’s two 2-hour classes, until the beginning of September. Excellent!

I ate at a donburi restaurant on the way home – kimchee and pork donburi – and then I took the train back. It’s getting pretty warm around here, and the humidity is rising. I had almost forgotten how sweaty it gets around here.

Just before bed I got a phone call from one of Melanie’s co-workers. He wanted to explain why she didn’t attend the party, and I could tell he was breaking the rules by telling me. He gave me some details, but I won’t post them here. At least I know a little more about the situation and I also know that she is safe and sound. If you’re dying to know shoot me an e-mail and I’ll give you the scoop.

I’m off to bed. The air conditioner is running and I’m looking forward to a nice cool evening of blissful sleep.

Sorry for the delay in posting. Things have been busy here and I suggest you skip down to Saturday’s post to see what I mean…

Late last night Kuniko called and we recapped both of our days. Her conversation with her father sounded like a pretty rough one. He’s very concerned about her and her future. Who is this American dude coming out of nowhere to marry his daughter? What future does he have in Japan? He’s not even Japanese! Anyway, he’s eager to meet me and put a few questions to me. Kuniko says that he’s concerned that I haven’t put a lot of thought into our future. Sounds like a fun evening.

What’s worse, a big thunderstorm came through around 2 a.m. I had left all the windows and doors open because it has been so hot. The sudden loud rumbles of thunder and bright flashes of lightning were a pretty harsh way to wake up. I stumbled around closing things. I couldn’t get right back to sleep, though. This was one loud storm.

At six a.m. I got up rather groggily. Today I had some great leftover shrimp and rice to take to work for lunch, but I was busy in the morning trying to get organized and I walked out leaving my lunch on the counter to get warm and go bad. My only excuse is that I’ve got a lot on my mind lately.

At school everything was chugging along normally. People asked how my weekend went, and I told them just that it went fine, saw a movie, studied. All true.

I had three interview test classes today, and they all went smoothly. The students were very energetic and did great – they were really nervous, but afterwards they seemed a little more confident.

The other day I heard from Struan that they are offering free Japanese classes during the summer at the YMCA in Kobe Sannomiya. I called today and signed up to take an entrance examination on Tuesday night. Tomorrow I’ll head over there and see if I can get in. I’m hoping that will help my Japanese a bit more.

Mr. Hayashi came up to me and gravely said that my career plans are looking pretty bad. This came as a surprise considering he had told me as recently as Friday that getting a job in Japan is pretty easy with the right qualifications. I asked him what had happened to the Japanese economy in the last 72 hours to create such a situation. He apparently had talked to a guy he knows that works in a grad school – that school is hiring people from colleges in America – so they don’t need people from Japan. I just smiled and told him that I’ll burn that bridge when I get there, but I don’t think he understood the mixed metaphor joke.

When I got home from work, I called around to some of the JETs that know Melanie to find out where she might have disappeared to. I got in touch with one of her co-workers, and she got all mysterious on me. She said that she isn’t allowed to talk about it, and then later said that she didn’t know anything really. All I got was that she isn’t in her apartment, she is still in Japan, she’s “safe where she is”, but she’s not teaching at the school anymore. Her contract is up anyway in just under a month – I wonder what’s going on. At least I found out that she is OK.

Dinner was breakfast today – scrambled eggs, Japanese bacon, and a nice big hit of salsa to spice things up. I spent time doing laundry and writing down some thoughts and plans career-wise. Between Mr. Hayashi’s grave predictions for my future, and what Kuniko’s dad said about careers, I was a little worried. What if I can’t find something stable? How am I supposed to support a family if I can’t get a job? If somebody asked me right now what my plan is for the next five years I couldn’t really map it out in detail. Is that a problem? Have I ever had a five, ten, or twenty year plan?

Mr. Hayashi has a saying… It doesn’t matter how hard you work if you are moving in the wrong direction. I’m taking a little time now to dream a little bit about the future and see if I can crystallize it into something interesting. I’ve got some things that interest me, and I know there is a market for them in Japan. It’s just a matter of positioning myself to be as good a fit as possible. Maybe now is the time to finally realize my dream of becoming an exotic dancer.

This morning I woke up in kind of a daze. Everything seemed normal – I tooled around the house. I ate a big salami and cucumber sandwich. The salami came from my parents and the cucumber came from Kuniko’s parents’ garden. I studied Japanese, and tried to read a first grade picture book (I couldn’t).

Around the middle of the morning I called my folks and gave them the news. They sounded a little surprised, but happy. I was glad – they have been a constant source of support for me here in Japan. We talked for a long time and then later in the evening they called again to talk some more.

We talked about a lot of the repercussions of my decision, the big one being where Kuniko and I will live. Kuniko and I are planning on staying in Japan in the near future. There are tons of reasons why, and it just makes the most sense. I haven’t gotten enough of Japan yet – I feel like I’ve only grazed the surface. No place is perfect, but to spend years learning about something new, be it language or culture, is something that appeals to me.

This morning Kuniko told her mom about it at breakfast. Kuniko’s folks don’t know anything about me – they don’t really even know that we’ve been dating. There are a lot of reasons behind this – some I understand, some I don’t and never will. The important part for me is to trust Kuniko and her timing – they are her parents, after all.

Her mom apparently took it well, and said that we should get together for dinner sometime. That should be a nerve-racking experience! Tonight at dinner Kuniko will spring this on her father. I hope that goes OK.

I had some leftover shrimp from last night so I’m cooking up a spicy shrimp and rice dish that should be interesting. I celebrated with myself by drinking a couple of Guinness and I’ll cap off today by ironing shirts. Woo-hoo! More news soon!

Hmm, what’s new? On Saturday Kuniko came over to visit; originally we had planned to go out to dinner and then see Harry Potter 3. I came up with the great idea of firing up the BBQ and doing shrimp skewers instead. So we stayed in, instead of going out and blowing cash at a restaurant.

We had some time to kill before the coals were ready, so I proposed to her. In English. And she said “Yes”. In English.

While I cooked up the shrimp out on my back patio Kuniko joined me and we looked out over the town of Futami and thought about what just happened. We were excited and scared and nervous and glad and, speaking for myself, hungry.

The shrimp turned out great! I painted on a garlic butter sauce, and we also had a green salad on the side – it turned out to be a great improvisational meal.

After dinner we washed the dishes together and giggled nervously, and then we went to Okubo. Our habit is to hold hands when she drives which is going to get us into an accident one of these days if we’re not careful. Once we got there we saw the movie, and we cuddled up as close as possible when seated in two different movie theater seats.

It was cool that we went out and saw a movie, since it was after a movie in November that I first told her that I was interested in more than friendship. Since then I’ve learned a lot about her, and we’ve both been working hard to bridge the language and culture differences that we have.

She dropped me off at home and tomorrow she is going to tell her folks about us. I’ll be staying home tomorrow with crossed fingers hoping that everything comes out OK.

What a strange night… I went over to Yasu’s place at seven o’clock. After waiting about twenty more minutes, we started to get worried that the guest of honor wasn’t going to make it.

After an hour we decided to go ahead and eat, after making lots of phone calls trying to figure out where Melanie was. Yasu and his mom had worked throughout the afternoon preparing a huge feast. I did what I could to help eat and drink, but I felt bad. For some reason Melanie wasn’t there, and it just adds to the mystery surrounding the vice principal asking for her spare key. What’s going on here?

Even though Melanie and her friend didn’t show, we still had a good time eating sushi, three different salads, yakisoba, edamame beans, and drinking beer. It was good to catch up with Yasu’s mom, she is a great lady.

Anyway, we had a good time, and I’m back home early and getting ready for bed. I even got some leftover yakisoba to have for lunch tomorrow… woo-hoo!

I woke up this morning with a grease overdose – I had this awful feeling in my stomach that lingered throughout the day. It wasn’t from booze – I only had four beers. It must have been from all the fried things. Ugh.

At school we had a couple of changes in the schedule that had me hopping from class to class. I helped teach an extra lesson for the kids going to Australia, which turned out to be kind of fun. I pretended to be a flight attendant and walked around asking kids what they wanted to eat or drink. Some of them got into it, and some couldn’t believe how cheesy it was. At least I had fun.

I was coming back from lunch and the principal asked me to come into his office. On the way he asked how my Japanese was coming along, since he can speak almost no English. We sat down together in his office, and I admit that I was a bit nervous. The only other time I had been in the office was for a job evaluation, and that had been with Mr. Hayashi.

I concentrated hard to understand what he was saying, but he spoke really fast. I asked him to repeat a couple of things, and I think I finally understood what he wanted.

Every school in the prefecture conducts entrance exams to keep the quality of students high. Part of the entrance exam is a listening test that is created by the prefectural government and sent to all the schools. From what I could tell, the principal wanted me to work with the prefectural government somehow to make the listening part – maybe I’m voice talent, maybe just advisor. Maybe I’m doing a striptease on Monday in the teacher’s office, who knows? Whatever it was, I agreed to it.

Here’s the weird thing – he said that I couldn’t talk to Mr. Hayashi about it. Huh? He said that the vice principal would meet with me on Monday to talk more about it. Luckily, the vice principal has pretty good English skills. The downside was that he had to give my answer to the government today, and so I was really getting into this without knowing exactly what I will do. I told him that I’m flying back to America next month, and he said that there would be no conflict.

A couple of things – some Japanese guy talked at me for five minutes, and I got all this information. Holy cow – that’s great! I really might be improving. Also, why cut out Mr. Hayashi from the conversation? Why is it a secret? My theory is that there might be some kind of conflict of interest thing if an English teacher knows about it, since the English teachers might advise potential students. Strange.

Anyway, after school the ESS club got together to snap a picture for the yearbook. Everyone was in fine form, and some members that rarely visit even came by to get in on the action.

I just ducked out of school, and now I’m getting ready to go over to Yasu’s house for a farewell party for Melanie. I think that Chris and Lisa might also be there, so I’ll get to say goodbye to a lot of people!

The weather has started to become pretty humid, and the rainy season is in full effect. Although most of the day was dry, things started to get wet in the evening. That makes a big difference if you had planned to sit around in an outdoor beer garden.

My day went really well. We had a short ESS meeting and I spent a lot of time with Iku-chan, one of the new members. She is so shy, and so quiet. If a balloon popped in the next room she might faint. As she gets comfortable hanging out with me, she tends to talk more in English. She also is a great artist, so if she has trouble describing something in English or Japanese, she’ll draw it, and she’ll draw it well.

After school was out, Mr. Hayashi and I caught the train in Kakogawa and went all the way to Sannomiya. We met up with Mr. Kimura and Miss Yamamoto, who is now teaching at another school.

Her English has improved a bit since I talked to her last. Small differences, but altogether our conversations went pretty smoothly. Together we all walked to the entrance to the beer garden and took an elevator to the roof. The sky was cloudy, and rain was threatening. We each paid around 3000 yen for all you could eat and drink.

They had a full cocktail bar, two kinds of wine (sweet stuff, yeck!), and two kinds of beer – a black “stout” (not really that stout) from Kirin, and Heineken. The place was sponsored by Heineken, so their logo was on everything. As for food, they had every kind of fried food you could imagine. They also had some salads to keep the health department happy, but it was all about the fried stuff. The baseball game was on a big screen projected against the wall, and so we just relaxed and drank and drank.

While Miss Yamamoto was loading up on food and drink, Mr. Kimura made a comment that sounded like he was interested in her. Mr. Kimura seems like a pretty shy guy – I wonder if he’ll make the move?

Finally we started to feel sprinkles from the darkening clouds. Luckily we had gotten our fill of booze and grease, so we adjourned to a nearby coffee house to sober up for the train ride back home.

It was a school night, so I didn’t get back so late. Even so, I drank lots of water and popped a few aspirin before I went to bed. Just in case!

Today was a fairly easy day at school – only three classes, and one of them involved watching a scene from the movie Superman with the students and helping them with their listening skills. The other two classes were preparing for the upcoming interview tests. Like I said, an easy day.

At school I had a nice chat with Ms. Miyake. She is going to help me find some books in Japanese in my reading level – which is probably sixth grade elementary school. She said she’d see what she could come up with, and she said her neighbors might have some, too. Nice to see everyone chipping in for the foreigner – we’ll see what happens.

My hair has been raging out of control – and with the sweaty weather lately it’s been a real pain. Today on the way home from school I stopped at the barber and got a nice short haircut. The place was empty, and I tried out my Japanese with the barber that was cutting my hair. I did surprisingly bad, actually. There were lots of times when he couldn’t understand what I was saying – that might have been because I was trying out lots of new vocabulary words on him. Luckily the quality of the haircut didn’t reflect my poor communicative ability.

I went next door for some cheap yakisoba noodles for dinner, and then took the train the rest of the way home. Since I had dinner out of the way, I was able to study for a little while at home memorizing even more vocabulary to perplex Japanese people. I spent almost an hour on the phone with Antoine, who is trying to arrange his re-entry permit back into the country before his flight to America in August. We chatted about all kinds of crazy things, and it was good to catch up with him.

Around 8:30 I called Kuniko, and she was on the train platform waiting for her ride home. She called me back when she got to her apartment – around 9:00. We talked for almost an hour, and it was a really good conversation. We did the first ten minutes or so in Japanese, and that actually went pretty well. It’s nice to be able to do some of the heavy work in our conversation, instead of leaving it all on poor Kuniko.

We’re hoping to spend some time together this weekend. She’ll be in Kakogawa and we’re both hoping to see the new Harry Potter movie that is out this weekend.

I dreamed up a lesson today where our class listened to Coldplay’s “Clocks”. It actually turned out to be a good lesson. The students spent time with a map of England finding where each of the band members originally came from, and they answered questions based on a short biography that I adapted from Coldplay’s website.

We listened to the song, and the students followed along with a lyric sheet. It was interesting how different classes reacted. The afternoon classes almost fell asleep, and the early classes gave a big round of applause afterwards. It was fun.

After lunch I got a phone call from the vice principal of Akashi Nishi high school. Akashi Nishi is the high school right next to my apartment, where Melanie works. The vice principal said that she had heard that I have Melanie’s spare key, and she wanted me to bring it to them at the school.

It was kind of weird for them to call me, especially while I was working. I was curious, but I agreed to drop it off after school. Strange.

Mr. Hayashi had said earlier this week that he was planning a trip to a beer garden in Kobe to have beer and sausages on Thursday night. Today he said that he had invited Miss Yamamoto, the former English teacher from our school. He said that since a woman was joining us, we would be going to a nice restaurant instead.

I told him that I was looking forward to beer and sausages, and so I’d skip the trip this time and go with them next time they go to the beer garden. Mr. Hayashi beat a hasty retreat and said that maybe we’d go to the beer garden after all. So I think I’ll get my beer and sausages on Thursday.

After school I left a bit earlier to give me time to swing by Akashi Nishi. At the school the vice principal happened to be outside saying goodbye to somebody. She came up to me and said “You must be Bryan”. How’d she guess?

I gave her the key and asked about Melanie. She said that Melanie was doing fine and still in the apartment. I think that soon she’ll be moving out though. I’m going to attend a party with her on Friday, so I’ll be sure to get the details then.

I asked about the replacement ALT, and she said that they are getting two new ALTs this year. One is a girl from England and one is a girl from Canada. She wasn’t sure which would be living in the apartment, but it sounds like either way it’ll be female.

Tonight I converted some leftover scraps into tacos, and had a Mexican feast. I spent some time memorizing vocabulary, and now I’m getting ready to hit the sack early. The weather has been really nice lately, and I’m hoping it’ll hold through the week!