I was pretty beat from my big weekend trip, but luckily today I had only one afternoon class. The day was spent thinking up new lessons, studying flashcards, and reviewing grammar lessons. I did get the chance to speak in Japanese with some of my teachers which was fun.
One of the downsides of learning a foreign language in a foreign country is that when you successfully use some new word or grammar point, nobody is impressed. That’s the baseline, dude. I used a couple of newly memorized words today and I was waiting for someone to say, “Wow, great, it’s impressive that you know that word! Would you mind participating in a parade we’re having in your honor?”
People only notice if you screw up – I rarely seem to get any positive feedback other than successfully continuing a conversation. That’s just the breaks with learning here, and so I have my own little mental pat of the back sessions, when I probably should be thinking about what to say next.
I passed out my omiyage from the trip to lots of teachers, all of whom were impressed that I got to go to Shikoku and enjoyed (or appeared to enjoy) hearing my stories.
At lunch I was talking with Yamamoto sensei about Japanese superstitions. At the train station some guy was changing a lightbulb or something this morning, and he set up his ladder so that you had to walk under it to exit the station. Nobody seemed to mind, and so I was wondering if that was just a Western superstition. Apparently it is, but he told me a good one – it’s bad luck to clip your toenails at night.
I wrapped up my day at school, and Kuniko picked me up at the train station to deliver some stuff from her father for me, and also drop off some things that she’ll need when she moves in here eventually. We’re kind of gradually moving in, so I’m finding places for her stuff as it arrives. So far, so good.
We parked her car at Ito Yokado to avoid another fiasco like yesterday. I talked her into staying for dinner and we cooked up a pretty healthy meal of rice, pork, and miso soup. We had a little ice cream for dessert, thereby killing the healthy aspect of the evening meal, and then I walked her back to her car. Today was a day off for her, so it was nice she could rest after driving so much during the weekend.
It’s fun, fun, fun for me this week. I’m going to have a drink at the yakitori with the Steven King loving man in black mystery teacher on Wednesday, and Friday night is the English teacher welcome/farewell party at a new Italian restaurant in Kakogawa. Should be a kick in the pants.
