I was still feeling crappy today, but the weekend is in sight, and so I’m just trying to get through the next two days.
My students were in a weird mood again today. In my classes they were joking around with me a lot and I’m starting to realize that they are really just starting to get comfortable with me. One kid between classes was whispering things like “Your breath smells bad” to me on a dare. He would look back at the other kid and giggle. I would just smile and shake my head and pretend I didn’t understand.
Some other students came in and asked me how to say “hair growth cream” in English. I’m sure they wanted to torment some poor balding teacher, so I played stupid and it worked nicely.
I had the afternoon free, and so I tagged along with the first year students on a field trip to a local sake brewery.
Interesting story – the school is practically surrounded by sake breweries. There are at least five that I know of, and since they are a big part of the local economy, the students went to learn more about it. Unfortunately they didn’t do any tasting for us.
I went with one group of students to Hakashika (White Deer) sake brewery. To be precise, we went to a sake museum rather than the brewery itself. The museum was full of some pretty nice displays, but there were a few cheesy dioramas in there, too. The students really enjoyed running around instead of being in class, and I guess I did, too.
I asked the age-old question of how to know whether to drink the sake hot or cold, and got the answer I expected to. As we walked back with the students I reflected on the fact that I have a job that lets me visit a sake brewery in the afternoon, and I think I’m pretty lucky. It was a fun change.
Spending the afternoon at the brewery put my studying behind schedule, but it was worth it. I caught up on the train home, and now I’m back and getting ready for Kuniko’s arrival home. We’re going to have a simple salad for dinner tonight. I always start throwing in exotic ingredients into my salads – tonight I’m going to try to resist the temptation.
Tomorrow is Friday – finally.
