It was back to work today. I went to school in a light rain, shook off my umbrella and jacket, and then went in to say hello to everyone. The teachers at my school had nothing but sad stories about working through Golden Week – I almost felt guilty telling them how I relaxed, went shopping, and there’s just more fun around the corner for the weekend.
My first class was with Mr. Hayashi, and we ground through the class – it was a long fifty minutes. If I’m feeling bored with the class I know the students are. I do feel guilty that they aren’t getting more out of that class. They probably signed up seeing that I would be helping with the class, but in reality they listen to Mr. Hayashi in Japanese for most of the class. I read a few passages and do some pronunciations when prompted. This is apparently very common in the JET program – it’s called the human tape recorder syndrome. It’s not new to me – last year Mr. Hayashi’s classes were the same way.
Afterwards I had two first year classes. These classes have been bumped and postponed due to various holidays and school seminars, so it was my first time meeting some students. I like those classes, and I taught them with Ms. Tsutsumi and Mr. Yamamoto. The Tsutsumi class was really noisy, in a good way. They were really into the class, and not shy at all – I got a good vibe from them. The Yamamoto class was a lot quieter, probably because Mr. Yamamoto is known as a “scary” teacher.
While walking around during my class chatting with students I noticed that I had identical twin girls. They were really funny – I tried to communicate about being twins in English, but it was tricky to explain. They are completely mirror images of each other, they even sit next to each other in class. We have another set of twins in the third year – maybe it’s something in the water around here.
I snuck out a little early in order to stop into Befu and get a haircut. I can’t remember the last time I got one, but according to my website it was 2/17. My hair was getting long and scraggly, always getting in my face and generally a big pain. There was a new barber working, and we chit-chatted about all kinds of stuff. He had a lot more confidence in my Japanese than I did, but I did catch most of it. I wish I had someone like that to talk with more often – there’s no safety nets… if he doesn’t understand then I have to retry another way with another word or phrase. He said that he was glad that I spoke Japanese – it made his job a lot easier.
I went for the whole shave and a haircut two bits thing. Getting a shave in a barbershop is pretty fun, and the I’m sure they can cut some hairs that my electric razor doesn’t get to. I also got a shampoo which felt great. All this for 1500 yen… what a deal.
Coming out of there I couldn’t believe how much better I look. Sometimes I wonder why Kuniko hangs out with me. I must have really looked like crap recently.
I made up a salad using leftovers from the fridge tonight for dinner, watched Survivor, and now I’m packing and getting ready for our trip to Shikoku tomorrow. I promise to take lots of pictures and post them when I get back Sunday.
