The clouds and rain lifted and left clear skies and cold weather here in Western Japan. I walked to work in a cold stiff breeze, with my collar all the way up to keep the cold from sneaking down inside my jacket. I’m wearing two layers below the waist and four layers above, including my jacket.
Yesterday, my favorite train broke down, and I couldn’t ride it. Today, I was back on board, and everything was running without a hitch. They had the heaters cranked up on high, and I was able to sit back and relax while heading to school.
At school we continued our interview tests. We’re almost done, and things will slow down significantly once they are finished. I’ll be writing some exams for the end of the term, and we’ll see how that goes. These exams will be my first ones to write – I’ll have lots of help from professionals, though.
I signed up for several events over the next couple of weeks today. I paid for my plane ticket for Australia today, and that should be arriving at school in the next couple of days. I signed up to attend the end of the year teacher’s party in Kobe in December – and if my teachers party anything like the teachers I know in San Diego, it should be a good one.
On December 6th I’ll be attending an early Christmas party with Carrie – she invited me a long time ago, but I think we’re still on for that one. It involves a tie – ick! The next day I’m hiking 50 kilometers along the mountains behind Kobe all the way to distant Takarazuka, home of my party animal friend Antoine.
More events – on Saturday I will be joining Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama on their trip to Fukuyama. Mr. Hayashi is going to humor an old friend of his – he has to sit through a boring seminar. Miss Kageyama felt sorry for Mr. Hayashi and is going along to keep him company on the long (two hour drive each way) trip. I’m going because I have nothing better to do on Saturday. Also Fukuyama has a minor castle that is supposedly worth checking out – I’m going to see that while Mr. Hayashi is busy at the seminar.
In December I’m going to Kyoto to attend a seminar with Mr. Hayashi about Casio electronic English/Japanese dictionaries. The seminar lasts two and a half hours, and is all in Japanese. Why am I going? Afterwards we are going to have a big dinner in Kyoto, and Mr. Hayashi suspects that we’ll get a couple of free electronic dictionaries from Casio when we attend. I don’t believe that they’ll just give them away, but what the heck. It’s a trip to Kyoto, anyway.
Lots more coming up, but I want to build the suspense for later. The deadline for my decision on whether to stay in Japan through August 2005 in coming up. It seems quick, but they are already recruiting for next year, and they need a headcount from us.
