Well, yesterday was a pretty good day. I was able to leave school early, around eleven o’clock. I spent the morning at school studying Japanese and writing my next lesson about Christmas. My classroom is empty during exams, so I go up there to study. I put a CD on my player and rock out while studying Japanese. It’s a pretty good learning environment!

I did some shopping and shipping yesterday. I sent some Christmas presents home to family. It’s very expensive to ship – I was surprised how quickly it adds up. I handled the shipping all by myself, and I was proud of that. At least, I’ll be proud if everything shows up in the right place in one piece.

Near the post office I had lunch at a Japanese burger place – kind of a McDonald’s rip-off chain. I had a shrimp burger, with french fries and cheese dip. Delicious! I met some of my students there, and had a nice conversation in English with some students from another school. Every time I get a chance to speak English with a student, it kind of reinforces for them that using English is OK, and that there is nothing to be afraid of. I’m proud how far along my Japanese skills have come, but in these situations, it’s best to stick with English.

After work I spent the afternoon doing some laundry, and cleaning house a little bit. I have to start worrying about what to pack for Australia, so I’m starting to get a little organized now while I have the time.

Miss Kageyama came by to pick me up a little early, around 5 o’clock, to go catch dinner and a movie. We had tonkatsu at a small restaurant in the shopping mall next to the movie theater, and we quizzed each other on English and Japanese.

As for the movie – it was really good! I was especially impressed with the artwork – the colors were spectacular, and the different scenes were well put together. The story was great – we both enjoyed the story, and lots of people in the theater were laughing at the lines, so the translation into subtitles must have been well done, too.

After the movie Miss Kageyama dropped me off at home – she had loads of homework to do before she goes to school on Wednesday. Tomorrow we are going to Awaji Island across the Pearl Bridge, and then to an observation point that should be photogenic.

So today I decided to make my decision final and I announced to my school that I intend to stay for another year in Japan. The teachers and staff were very happy, and it sounds like I should have no problem on their side. The paperwork will be sent in but it won’t be official until I hear back from the main JET office – maybe sometime in January.

It was a very hard decision, but with support from family and friends, I think it will be the right one. It’s hard to imagine – with that one decision I’ve pretty much laid out my location, budget, and plans until July 2005. In the end it just seemed like it was the right thing to do – I haven’t gotten tired of anything here yet, and my list of things to do is still very long.

A year from now will you still be reading about trips to Kobe for Indian food? You bet. It’s one of the pleasures I look forward to, and I hope that doesn’t stop in the future.

Speaking of Indian food, today Mr. Hayashi and I split early, and we were joined by Miss Kageyama. She seems to tag along whenever we do fun stuff like this. I don’t blame her – why turn down a free meal and a ride to Kobe?

We had a good ride in the car to Kobe and I practiced my Japanese on the street signs – it’s much easier on the signs and on proper names. Complete sentences such as those in a newspaper are a lot more difficult. On the way there was a big accident that we passed by – and Japanese drivers rubberneck as much as California drivers. A car was smashed between a truck and a bus. It was probably the truck’s fault – an ambulance took off just before we got there, so hopefully everyone is OK.

The Indian restaurant was hard to find – Mr. Hayashi walked up and down a couple of blocks looking for it, and then we just kind of stumbled on to it. The decorations were nice, and they had all you could eat lunch for 1000 yen (around $8). On the menu they had all you could eat and drink dinner for 4000 yen (around $37). I still can’t wrap my head around the “all you can drink” concept. It just seems like it’s asking for a lot of trouble.

Afterwards, I stuck around in Kobe to do some Christmas shopping, and then I took the train home. My legs are still aching a little bit, and I have trouble on stairs, but I think by tomorrow I should be just fine. Miss Kageyama and I are hoping to see Finding Nemo tomorrow night. It just came out in Japan last weekend, and I still haven’t seen it!

Today I’m posting from school – I have no classes, and I’m just hanging out until around eleven when we will drive into Kobe and eat loads of Indian food.

The teachers I was hiking with yesterday asked about my health this morning, and with Mr. Hayashi around I could finally explain why I stopped yesterday, and then they understood. Mr. Komuri had called me last night and when I told him I had cramps, he thought I had said “craps”, and passed that message on to the other guys. We all got our stories straight today, but I got a big laugh out of that one.

I’m off to decorate my classroom for Christmas – I’ll have one week of Christmas lessons next week, so I’d like to use my free time today to make it look a little more like Christmas in there.

Well, after a nap and big dinner of leftovers, I’m feeling much better. My muscles are feeling a little sore, and I’ll be interested to see what happens when I wake up tomorrow. Mr. Komuri called on behalf of the other teachers to check on me. I guess they were pretty worried – since I couldn’t really explain exactly what a muscle cramp was in Japanese, they were concerned.

Mr. Komuri was wondering if I was going to school tomorrow, and was ready to come by to pick me up and take me to the doctor if I needed it. I’ll be at school for sure – tomorrow Mr. Hayashi and I are leaving early to get some “all you can eat” Indian food.

And over prematurely, at least for me. At Stage 11 my legs cramped up and I couldn’t go on. I completed about 60% of the course, climbing 6 mountains out of 10. Now I’m home and exhausted, but I’ll survive.

I got up at 4 a.m., and met the other three teachers in front of my apartment complex. They picked me up and said that the other teacher had “car trouble” and couldn’t make it. That should have been my first warning, but I ignored it and jumped in the car.

Komuri-sensei came by at the starting line to see us off and take some pictures of us. The other teachers managed to talk him into climbing the first mountain with us. We left the starting point at 5:30, and charged up the hill in the darkness. One of the teachers had lent me his headlamp, but I ended up just using my keyring light in particularly dangerous areas. I made the first hill no problem, and the teachers were all relieved.

We reviewed the map at the top, and it turns out that the course is only 41 kilometers long – not the 50 kilos that was advertised initially. Also I noticed that we would be reaching the summit of ten mountains on the course. In my mind I had pictured hitting the top of the first mountain and then going on some kind of a ridge trail hitting each one with no trouble. Wrong!

After Mr. Komuri split to catch a bus back to his car, we turned and went up through a large town. I was feeling really good – no blisters, no pain, no problem. I was taking stairs two at a time and not even breathing hard. Something that surprised me was that we came completely off the first mountain to sea level and walked a ways to the next mountain. Then we climbed that one. Repeat six times. The mountains were averaging about 1500 feet each, so there was a lot of elevation gain and loss. By the third or fourth mountain, I was starting to feel the effects of charging through the beginning of the course.

The trail was crowded with people also climbing mountains, and they walked very slowly. I usually hike in fast bursts with lots of breaks, but since I was hiking with other people I had to do what they were doing. We took a break every hour, and only stopped for five minutes or so. My hiking partners charged down the hills, almost running, and eventually the pace was getting to me.

As for the other teachers, they were paying a high price for all this speed. At each stop they pulled off their shoes, and worked on their feet – I was surprised to see lots of blood, but they just played it off like it was no big deal. One teacher kept re-taping his leg, and each time he stopped he’d tear it all off and start over.

The last mountain I climbed was 2300 feet tall, and that just about did it for my poor legs. Each break I rubbed them down and stretched them, but the cramps were running up and down, and it got to a point that I had trouble lifting my foot of the ground on the flat trail.

At the top of Mt. Maya we stopped and rested, and I had about twenty minutes to try to get the cramps under control. The rest of my body felt fine, and for a brief time I thought I had it fixed, but as soon as I squatted down they started up again.

I gave the rest of the teachers the bad news, and they tried to convince me to stay the course. Just one more mountain! It’s all easy from here! I felt bad, but I knew that if I kept it up, I’d feel a lot worse. Besides, the last mountain is the tallest, at 3000 feet, it was way beyond my ability at that point.

I took the cable car down the hill, rode the bus to Sannomiya station, and I just got home.

So I’ve learned one thing about hiking – there is a big difference between my idea of hiking and hiking in Japan. Distance and endurance are the focus here, but the things that I’ve loved most about hiking are the exploration, the nature, and taking time to just enjoy nature. There was none of that today – so I’ll have to be a little more selective about choosing my hiking trips in the future.

Well, I’m off to take a nap! Good night for now!

Yesterday I got to cut out early and run in to Kobe to get my re-entry permit for my trip to Australia. Apparently, every time I leave Japan and want to come back it costs 3000 yen (about $25). I got a multiple re-entry permit good for one year that will allow me to come and go as I please as much as I want for 6000 yen.

I had to wait in a long line, and none of the government employees spoke English… that was a big surprise. The place was full of foreigners like me, and we were all just guessing how to fill out the forms. At one point I found out that you had to buy a sticker to put on the form to prove that you had paid the 6000 yen. It turns out the stickers are sold downstairs in a convenience store – talk about strange. So I walked down and bought the sticker and went back, then told everyone how to do it. The room cleared, and everyone went downstairs. The employees were nice enough to speak slow Japanese, so everything was OK in the end. I stuck my sticker, and now I’m cleared for departure.

The government office thing took a lot longer than I expected, so by the time I got home it was almost time to go out again and attend my year end party.

While I was waiting for Mr. Komuri at Akashi station I bumped into fellow ALTs Chris and Lisa. They met while on the JET program and have been a happy couple in Japan for almost two years now. Chris is an especially nice guy. He has a good sense of humor and perspective. They were heading off to their own year end party, so they wished me luck. Mr. Komuri showed up and we took the train to Kobe.

Worth noting here is that I suggested the train route to get there – we changed trains once at a strategic station and saved a lot of time. Mr. Komuri was surprised, and he rides the trains all the time. I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp of the train system around Kobe – I’ve gone plenty of times, I guess.

We got to Kobe and Mr. Komuri wanted to take me on a tour of Chinatown. The Chinatown district of Kobe was quite big, and merits a lot more time than we spent there. There are so many tiny shops with food – you could walk around and sample so many things. Since we had a big dinner ahead of us, we had to just look. Still it was a cool part of town that I didn’t know about before, so I’ll definitely be back.

We got to the party – it was being held just south of Chinatown in the Hotel Okura. It’s a very nice hotel – maybe the most famous in Kobe. We walked into the lobby, and were instantly treated like visiting royalty. Two of the staff approached with big bows and asked politely how they could help us. Mr. Komuri explained about the party, and one of the staff led us personally to the elevator, and then we were on our way to the 34th floor – with a beautiful view of the Port of Kobe.

The party is something paid for by all the teachers. They take a small bit of your salary out every month, and then use it at the end of the year to pay for the party. It’s kind of a pressure relief valve – lots of uptight teachers get to let their hair down and relax. Only full-time teachers are invited to attend, with me being the most notable exception. They did invite the janitor and his assistant, which I thought was very nice.

Things started out quiet enough – there were speeches that I didn’t understand, and we ate dinner dish by dish. They would bring out a dish, and then we would all eat it, and then they’d bring another one.

The service was extraordinary. There was a server for each table, and then a backup for each table to cover in case the first server was busy right when you needed something. It was by far the best service I have ever had at a restaurant. You were left to concentrate on the food and the company, and you never noticed how effortlessly they moved around. Each dish came out and there was a presentation. The server placed the dish on the big rotating wheel on our table, spun it around once so that everyone could check it out, and then she served individual portions. The food was Chinese, and it was very good. It was somewhat Japan-ized, but the flavors were great.

Even as dinner was continuing, the strange drinking ritual began. In Japan it is considered impolite to pour your own drinks. You pour drinks for your companions, and they in turn pour drinks for you. Our group occupied a large banquet room with six tables, and I noticed that some people were walking from table to table, pouring drinks for people. Only an hour into the party, some people were giggling and laughing and slurring their Japanese in an amusing way (at least amusing to me).

I asked Mr. Komuri if I should be walking around pouring for people, but he just grinned. He said that my salary is the same every year, so there is no reason to be “grinding seeds” (kissing ass). I laughed at that – and he was probably right. Instead I concentrated on keeping the glasses at my own table full.

Drunken Bingo began soon after dinner, with three teachers up in the front calling out numbers in Japanese, and me struggling to figure out if I had the right number or not. Unfortunately, I didn’t win. Still people walked around pouring. My glass never got less that two thirds full, and that’s with me drinking pretty heavily. Everyone wanted to pour for the American guy, and so I never really even got up. Later I figured out that I didn’t have to drink every time someone came by – I could leave my glass full. Then people came around with liquor, sake and wine, and so at the end of the night I had four full glasses of different alcohol in front of me.

I had heard that Japanese people tend to get drunk quickly, and it was true at least with my teachers. The ones that were driving that night were fine, but some people were train wrecks. The janitor’s assistant was babbling in Japanese at Miss Yamamoto, one of my adult class students brought a whole bottle of red wine and wanted me to evaluate it with her, and people were stumbling around carrying big bottles of beer. I can’t begin to describe to chaos in there.

As things wrapped up, Mr. Komuri told me about one of the teachers that is retiring next year – he had invited some of the teachers to go out drinking with him, and Mr. Komuri wanted to know if it was all right for him to go off without me. The soon-to-be-retired teacher in question was sleeping on the floor in the corner, so I figure they had a good time. I made my way to the elevator, and joined a bunch of my drunk co-workers in a long elevator ride down. Some teachers pushed random buttons on the elevator, so we had to wait a long time to get to the lobby.

I split off from the main group and took a shortcut, and then met another group of teachers at the station. They asked where I was going, and when I told them, they said that I was at the wrong station. I know my way around pretty well, even after all those drinks, but they were adamant. They assigned one drunken teacher to show me the way, and he led me into a subway, and showed me the price board.

I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if they didn’t have my hometown (Futami) on the fare board. He insisted that I pay the 800 yen fee, and then we went into the subway. He was going the other way, but pointed at the train track where my train was going to arrive, and then took off.

I know my town pretty well, and I’m very sure that the subway from Kobe doesn’t run into Futami. That’s like getting on BART in San Francisco and getting off at the Sonoma station. It just doesn’t exist. Besides, I would have heard about it a long time ago. Since I had already dropped 800 yen, I got on the next train, and went along with the ride.

The farther I went, the more sure I was that it couldn’t be right. But, then why did my hometown have a sign in the station?

After three stops, I chickened out and got off the subway, cashed out my ticket, and went up onto the surface streets. From there it was a short walk to the train I usually use, and I was home in thirty minutes. Upon reflection, I figure that somewhere along the subway line is a place where I would transfer to a bus, and the bus would take me back. Next time I’ll stick to my guns and take the right train.

After a fairly relaxing day at school I cooked up some tacos. Ground beef, refried beans, cheese (mozzarella – the best I could find), onions, lettuce, and lots of hot sauce. Now I have so much hot sauce that I had a different flavor on each of the four tacos I ate.

Today at school I had a meeting with three other teachers that are joining me on the 50 kilometer hike from Kobe to Takarazuka on Sunday. I’ve been looking forward to this hike for a while – it sounds like it will be a long hard hike. There’s plenty of uphill and downhill. At the end we’re eating steak and drinking beer, which sounds like a suitable enough goal for me.

These guys do the hike every year. I’ll be ready to go at four in the morning, and we should be pulling into the finish line around six p.m. that evening. I’ll be one tired hiker after this one.

I love coming up with the titles for these entries.

Anyway, today at school during my teacher-less class, one of the students decided to act up. All of the boys in my class were talking and pretty much ignoring me. I tried one of the tactics that I had seen Japanese teachers take – they pick some random students from within the group of talking students and move them to other seats.

I tried this today, and asked two boys to move. One got right up and moved, but the other one pretended not to understand. I explained it twice in English, and then when he still didn’t move, I asked him in Japanese. There was no going back then – if I backed down and let him stay, the students would totally ignore me. On the other hand, I’m not even really supposed to be teaching alone – a “real” teacher is supposed to handle situations like this. I was on shaky ground, but after several attempts, the student got up and moved. I wrote down his name, and just continued on with the class.

He was really ticked – he stared hard at his desk, attempting to burn a hole through it with his brain laser. I called on him just like any other student, and he seemed to come out of it after a while. Afterwards, I asked him to stick around and I apologized for picking on him. I tried to explain that it wasn’t something that he did in particular, he was unlucky enough to be talking right then. He didn’t quite understand my apology because of the language barrier, but I told one of the third year teachers and he said that he would relay the message. I have a feeling that instead they are going to lock this kid up and beat him with a rubber hose for disobeying. I hope things turn out OK. Anyway, it was the first really “bad” experience I’ve had in the classroom.

Yesterday I was idly daydreaming about roast beef. I hadn’t had roast beef since our welcome reception back in August. Mr. Hayashi casually said that it’s easy to find roast beef in the store. I have spent hours combing the stores for roast beef – carefully reading the complex Japanese kanji characters in the hopes of finding some juicy, barely cooked roast beef.

I asked him to join me in the store after school, and together we could not find any roast beef. He went home yesterday and asked his wife, and she gave him a store near my house that usually has it. Unfortunately, today he had a staff meeting and couldn’t join me. He talked Miss Kageyama into taking me there, and sure enough, within five minutes of entering the store I had about a quarter pound of roast beef. It was priced at about 500 yen (around $4.50). I went ahead and bought it, even though it was pricey. If I tastes terrible, then I’ll know that I’m not missing anything.

Since we were near my place anyway, Miss Kageyama offered to drop me off at my apartment. On the way over there we were talking about e-mails. I have been e-mailing Miss Kageyama every now and then on her phone, and she responds in English. She told me that it’s good practice for her English, but it turns out that it takes around thirty minutes for her to write me back, and some e-mails can take up to two hours! Here I was sending her goofy e-mails about this and that, and she’s on the other side sweating bullets trying to put things into English and get back to me. I felt so bad – I promised myself not to write so many in the future.

Last night Yasu came by to visit and to drop off a container that I had given his family full of pasta carbonara a couple of weeks ago.

As usual, Yasu came bearing gifts – some omiyage from his trip to Kyushu, a gigantic Japanese cake that looks delicious. His mom also sent two apples from Nagano – they are the biggest apples I have ever seen. The Japanese seem to go for quality rather than quantity when it comes to produce. They look delicious.

Yasu and I had a couple of beers and talked about December. Yasu was in a lottery for Radiohead tickets for next April, and he won. He gets the opportunity to spend way too much money to see them in Osaka. Yasu is a big Radiohead fan – he can play some of their songs on his guitar, and he’s got just about every recording that they’ve done. I’m glad that he’s getting the chance to see them.

Melanie was supposed to call and take me over to see some Taiko drummers at the local community center, but I think she forgot. She never called, and so I spent the time with Yasu instead. I’m hoping to see the Taiko drums later on.

The one word in the Japanese language that is the most mystifying for me to understand is the word “Ne” (pronounced “Neh”). It is used almost exactly the same as the Canadian “eh”, and used in all the same places. It is almost like asking for confirmation of a fact, but in reality, you don’t wait for the confirmation and push on.

“How’s it going, ne?” “Cold weather today, ne?” “You are a smart guy, ne?”

I’m trying to get it into my vocabulary more. It is in common usage here in the Kansai area, but I just feel like I’m pretending to be Canadian when I use it.

Today in school the students are gearing up for examinations. I’m looking forward to wrapping everything up – my workload will drop about 90% in two weeks, and then a week later I’ll be in Australia in shorts and flip-flops.

The school staff is pushing hard for me to make my decision on recontracting, and they ask just about every other day. The decision isn’t an easy one, but I’m hoping to spend some time this week thinking about it. There are a lot of positives, but some pretty strong negatives. A tough decision.

Cool weather has become common here, and at school we have all three kerosene furnaces running during the day. I sit near the large sliding door, and so I’m exposed to the sudden burst of cold air everytime someone comes or goes.

Mr. Hayashi is also nearby, and is subject to the same sudden temperature variations. He has been sitting in the same area for years, and that time has made him somewhat philisophical on the opening and closing of the door.

He believes that the way people close the sliding door is a reflection of their personality. The door is a little tricky – it takes just a little effort to get it to close properly. Some people slam the door, making a loud bang. Some give it a halfhearted push, sometimes leaving gaps for the cold air to get in. Some take the time to understand how the door works, and they close it perfectly every time. Each person has a certain way they close the door, and Mr. Hayashi has been around long enough to observe them all.

This morning I called my folks to catch up with them in the morning, and then fixed myself a big bowl of curry and rice and watched Survivor. The curry here is ranked on a heat scale of one to five, usually. I found one that was ranked a ten once, but now I’ve found a place that sells a twenty ranking – which is more like it. While I watched the show I ran laundry in the background, and finally around noon I got organized and went out to do some shopping.

My first stop was grocery shopping in the newly remodeled local grocery. The store looks much better, and now it’s like a tiny supermarket rather than a tiny fruit stand with other things. Everybody else in town had the same idea, so it was packed. People were throwing elbows and cutting in front of other people – it was cutthroat out there.

I got a bunch of good groceries, and then took them home and stocked the fridge. Instead of going all the way to Kobe, I decided to go the other way to Himeji. It is only a few stops and is about 40 yen cheaper to get there on the train.

In Himeji I took some pictures of the castle, because I always seem to do that when I’m there. I found some good stuff when shopping, and I finally came back home around three o’ clock.

Tomorrow is back to the grind. On Friday is our year end party for school. Not many of my compadres are going to be there – Mr. Hayashi is skipping it because of a conflict, and Miss Kageyama wasn’t invited because she is a part time teacher. Mr. Kimura should be there, and also Mr. Komuri. I’m not sure what to expect. It ought to be fun.

Yesterday I spent with Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama in Fukuyama. Fukuyama is a fairly large sized town about a two hour drive west of where I live.

Mr. Hayashi was going there because he was attending a seminar. He talked Miss Kageyama into going to study English on the way there and back, and I went because I heard that there was a decent castle nearby, and I was hoping to take some good pictures.

The day started out with heavy rain, and I was thinking that it was going to be miserable – walking around a strange city in the rain isn’t usually my idea of fun. It stopped raining on the way, though, and most of the day I spent pretty dry. Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama were in the seminar until about four o’clock, so I had a couple of hours to kill. I really enjoyed walking around the grounds of the castle. It was not nearly as dramatic as Himeji castle, but it was still pretty nice.

During my travels I managed to find some interesting food courts, a Starbucks, and a pretty good imported food store. I was able to buy refried beans, root beer, pickles, Crystal extra-hot hot sauce, and Jelly Belly jelly beans.

Finally, I met them after the seminar in the lobby of the hotel. They both said the conference was not very exciting. We talked for a little while longer, and then hit the road back home. We stopped at a restaurant in Kakogawa called “Amuse”. I had been there once before, and the pizza was still good. We drank lots of beer – they had Guinness in bottle (not good) but for laughs I was drinking Corona. It’s hard to find Mexican beer in Japan.

Afterwards Miss Kageyama walked me to the station and Mr. Hayashi walked home – he is a ten minute walk from the bar. It was a fun time – but I’m looking forward to relaxing today. I might run into Kobe to pick up some goods. In other good news, the local grocery re-opened, so I’ll probably zip in there today and get some veggies for next week.

Ever sit in a room with eighty strangers for ten minutes and nobody says a word? That’s what commuting by train in Japan is like for me. Nobody speaks, and eye contact is quickly avoided. It is much different than my times spent on trains in San Francisco, Vancouver, Washington DC, New York, and Los Angeles.

I’ve started to give names to people I see every day. My favorite is the “Tiny CEO”. He’s about eleven years old, and his school uniform is a business suit, complete with jacket and tie. He always has a stern look on his face, and I imagine that he is contemplating important business issues and deciding who to fire today.

I once again helped Mr. Hayashi by teaching a class for the students bound for Australia. They are all excited, and the highlight today was teaching them how to say “G’day Mate!” Try teaching fifteen Japanese teenagers how to speak in an Australian accent. I was almost in tears.

Mr. Hayashi is looking into getting me extra time off during the holidays and trading in some of my vacation days that I will take in Australia. I think somebody pointed out to him that I’m working lots of hours – much more than my “part-time” status requires. In a couple of weeks exams start, and he’s going to let me do part of the day, and then leave. Very nice! I’m going to use the time to get my re-entry permit. Once I leave Japan, I will need a permit to get back in. It costs only 6000 yen for an unlimited permit – it makes sense to get that one.

Tonight I’m off to the yakitori with Mel. Tomorrow is Fukuyama. I’m not sure about Sunday – we’ll have to see what pans out.

Finally, a “Happy Thanksgiving” to everyone following along in the U.S. I got a nice phone message on my machine from everyone celebrating in Glen Ellen. It sounded like a serious party to me. I don’t think they have turkey at the yakitori, but I’ll look into it.

Today I finally got the information on my flight to and from Australia next month. I leave Osaka at night on Dec 18th, fly seven and a half hours to Cairns, Australia, change planes, and fly three more hours to Sydney, arriving at around 9:45 a.m. local time on the 19th.

I come back to Japan on the 27th of December on a direct flight back to Osaka. I’ll be sharing the same plane with some of the students and teachers from my group, so it should be a fun trip back.

I only had two classes, both interview tests. I try to warm up the students a little bit with some quick conversations in Japanese, but they are so nervous that they freeze up even early on. My Japanese skill is probably not helping, either.

While the second class was leaving, many students came up to find out about their scores. While leafing through some of the papers looking for scores, I suddenly felt somebody’s hand go into my pants packet and start rooting around for change. I jumped – it was one of the crazy girl students that crashed the ESS meeting to get food. She pulled out a couple of coins, and tried to talk me into giving them to her. I looked at some of the other teachers for help, but they didn’t seem to think that there was anything unusual about it. I explained to the student to not do that again, and recovered my money. I think I’m going to need to talk with Mr. Hayashi and make sure that it gets translated that you can go rooting around in other people’s pockets. If she had made a right-hand turn in there, we would have been in dangerous territory.

After school we had students that were absent during their interview tests come in and do their interviews for me. Afterwards, I had a grand total of one ESS member show up. We talked for a long time, and then we played battleship. It was fun to play, but I lost by one ship. It was difficult explaining the game, but she picked it up right away.

In the teacher’s room I spent a long time talking to the history teacher. His English is quite good, and we had around four different conversations today. He saw Black Hawk Down last night and really enjoyed it, and wanted to get my perspective on it. We talked about what he wants to do in the future – I think he feels like he’s in a bit of a rut. The career path for teachers does not include a lot of leeway for vacations and the like, so he’s looking at a long time before he has a chance to travel or relax.

Everyone sat around the warm teacher’s room at the end of the day, talking and joking in both Japanese and English. It felt good to be with everyone there – people were laughing and having a good time, and I felt like part of the group… I work with some good people.

I cooked up yakimeshi (fried rice) tonight, but all my vegetables are gone, and I need to get to a store to get some fresh veggies. I’m hoping that my nearby store will open soon. Melanie invited me to join her at the yakitori tomorrow night for beer and “meat on a stick”. I haven’t spent much time with Mel lately, and it will be good to catch up with her. I want to find out whether she is signing up for another year or not – I think we’re both mulling over that decision right now.