Today I was feeling much better – lots less coughing, and less bodily fluids to hack out in the morning. Kuniko got up early and made lunches for us, and then together we marched off to the train station in the cold morning.
I had only two classes today, mainly to balance out the busy day I had yesterday. The classes were a lot of fun, with students that I don’t see very often. In my third year class we are studying a little bit about sign language, and the teacher had thoughtfully provided a chart detailing Japanese sign language and how to do the Japanese characters by signing.
One of the sounds in the alphabet – “se” – had a very surprising gesture. You signed “se” by extending your middle finger only. While the students were working on something else I quietly mentioned to the teacher that “se” would not be a good sign to use in America. She figured it out pretty quick, and then announced to the students that they shouldn’t sign “se” in America. Immediately after that, everybody in the class was flipping each other off. Oops.
The other class was with Matsunaga sensei’s class. She is the homeroom teacher for the class. You would think that since she is the boss of the class, when she happens to come in there and teach English that the students would be quiet and orderly, but actually, the opposite is the case. The students are really comfortable around her and really let it loose. We had a really good time today, and I think it was one of my better classes lately.
Also, the end is near for my term at Hamawaki. I saw on the schedule that I will be saying my goodbyes to the students on February 28th. I don’t rate a ceremony in the gym. Instead I’ll be doing a farewell speech over the TV system with a video camera. It’ll be my television debut.
In kind of a bittersweet coincidence, my last day at Hamawaki coincides with graduation day at Takasago Minami. That means I can’t attend the graduation at my old school. I really wanted to congratulate all my old students on their big day, but it looks like I’ll have to leave that to Brenda, my successor.
Tonight I cooked up pork steaks and seasoned them with some Mexican spices that we had sitting around. That and a cabbage salad and we were all set for dinner. I picked up a couple of bottles of wine at the Hanshin department store, and so we are working on a bottle of Italian red while we sit around the kotatsu and relax.
Tomorrow is Friday, but for Kuniko it is just another day. She’s going to be working this weekend, making it three weekends in a row. This article really scared Kuniko and me. How many more hours can she work in a week?
