On the way to work today Kuniko and I bumped into a very strange man on what is becoming a very strange train ride to work every day. At first we used to get on at one particular section of the platform, but there was a guy there that stared at us non-stop the whole time, so we moved to another part of the platform. Not long afterwards we noticed that a guy that got on the train after us smelled really bad. It wasn’t just a “no shower in a long time” stink – it was a weird body stink that comes from strange genes, I think.
Anyway, after two days of stinky guy we moved to another part of the platform, and it has been working fine until today.
Today a guy got on dressed in an unusual outfit. He was wearing a dress shirt, exercise pants, and a bandanna around his neck. He wore a hair band – the kind that girls with long hair might wear – and he was listening to a radio with headphones. As soon as he got on, he threw his luggage on the rack above my head, where it landed on my fingers. Then he proceeded to do a full body workout as everyone around him stared in shock. He was hanging from the rail on the ceiling, doing stretches this way and that – it was really amusing to watch. He did heavy duty exercises for about 15 minutes, and then got off at the next stop. Something was not quite right about him – just this sense that he was a slightly insane. If he’s there tomorrow, we’ll have to find yet another place to get on the crazy train.
At school I had my last three classes of the term, and there was a real sense of completion when we knocked out the last one. The students also were really happy to get it over with and start thinking of all the fun they’ll have with two weeks off.
In the afternoon there was a teacher’s meeting, and after that I had some time to kill so I went upstairs and played ping pong for a while. The students were happy to see me again, and they invited me to join them for a tournament this Saturday. It was really sweet – they all asked me in English if I could come, and the teacher even printed out a map for me to find the place. I apologized and said that I couldn’t make it – we’re getting ready to fly in a couple of days, but I told them that I’d definitely be there for the next one.
After school I met up with Inoguchi sensei at Motomachi station in Kobe. He’s a teacher that I knew during my second year at Takanan. He’s a really quiet guy with a unique personality. Kind of atypical Japanese. Right now he’s not working – just relying on his wife to bring home the bacon.
We walked to a really upscale Japanese-style restaurant. It was very traditional, but with a streak of modern in the decorating. I had a good time chatting with Inoguchi sensei. His English is good but not great, and so I really got a chance to stretch my Japanese to the limit. I’ve got a long way to go before I become a smooth Japanese speaker – it’s times like this where that becomes really apparent. Still, I think I’ve made some progress over the last year or so.
After a course dinner, lots of gossip, and a couple of drinks, we called it a night and I headed back to Okubo. I met up with Kuniko at the station, and together we went to Saty (second time in two nights!) to try to do some Christmas shopping for her parents. They are hard to shop for (just like my parents) and so we looked around for a while but couldn’t find the right gift. We’ll keep looking and hopefully get something by Sunday night when we go over for our final visit before the trip.
Kuniko and I just got out of the hot bath, and we’re off to the electrically heated bed. For some reason I was really tired tonight. I’m hoping to reserve some energy for the trip on Monday – I don’t want to be dead tired when we get to California.
