This morning I stepped off the train onto the platform at Takasago station, and there was a couple of girls staring at me. As I got closer, I realized that I knew them – they were graduates from my school last year! They had dyed their hair, and they weren’t in school uniforms anymore, but I still recognized them. They made a big fuss on the platform, lots of people looking over to see why these girls are yelling “Bryan!” “Bryan da!”
I stopped and chatted with them for a while, and they were really cheerful and fun to talk to. After a few minutes I said goodbye and headed to school.
At school I had only two classes today, and one of them was a review for the exam we’ve got in store for them on Friday. They listened patiently, being very quiet and taking notes. Even when I tried to solicit some response everyone stayed silent – it was hard to get them talking. Next week I’ll be teaching this class solo, which is against the rules, but I don’t really mind doing it. What should I do? Matsubara sensei said that I can do anything I want. Should it be a real lesson, or should we just play games and have fun?
In the afternoon it was just study, study, study for me. The vice principal and the principal both paid a visit to my desk to chat with me. They like the fact that I’m working hard on learning the language, and they’ve both offered to help me out whenever I need it. It’s very kind of them – they are very busy guys, and I hate to bug them. Actually, I hate to bug any of the teachers – but if I’m gonna bug somebody they will probably be a little lower on the totem pole.
I snuck out fifteen minutes early, and caught the train to Akashi. From there I transferred to the JR line and bumped into Shigata sensei on the same train to Sannomiya. She and I chatted for a while about her new school, her honeymoon in Italy, and good Italian restaurants. Her English is pretty good for being a Japanese teacher, and it was easy to hold a conversation with her. She said that she has a friend that works as a translator (Japanese/English) at the Swedish embassy in Osaka. That sounded like a really confusing job.
I met up with Kuniko in Sannomiya – she came over to the station after work, and it was great to see her. We went over to a ramen restaurant that she introduced me to a long time ago, and we had a big bowl of ramen and shared a small bowl of fried rice. She looked pretty tired from working so hard, and so we didn’t walk all over Kobe this evening. After ramen we went over to a coffee shop and looked at some documents that Kuniko needs to translate for her foreign exchange students. I’d like to say that I was able to help out, but Kuniko had most of it already figured out. I was trying to come up with the English name for that little band you use to tie up a ponytail. Is it a braid? A hair band? A hair tie? If I was a girl I’d know it, I guess.
It was a great chance to see Kuniko, and now I’m back home and getting ready for bed. I’m tired out, but it was worth it to see her. The next few days should be a piece of cake at work – we’ll see if it turns out to be true.
