I slept in a little later than I should have, and that threw off our morning routine today. Kuniko made it out the door a little later than usual, and hopefully she got to work on time. She was working hard making us lunches while I slept away blissfully.
When I arrived at the train station today, there were two guys holding political posters. One guy was just a stooge holding a poster, and I was surprised to notice that the other guy holding the poster was actually the guy on the poster. He was saying thank you personally to everyone that left the train station that morning. How often do you see that in America? I was very surprised. I’m not sure if he won or lost, but I can’t imagine that if he lost he would spend time thanking everyone. If he won, you’d think he’d be busy at his new job. I nodded as he said thank you to me, and there was something in his eyes – he was watching me carefully. Weird.
As I walked to school there was a tiny drizzle, not enough to open my umbrella. The people I walked by looked at me, and then looked at my short sleeves, and then finally at my umbrella. They must think I’m crazy. I got lots of comments at school – aren’t you cold? People are surprised that I am wearing short sleeves. A week ago we were running the air conditioner – how soon people forget. I’m very much enjoying the cool weather.
In the morning some first year students were lined up waiting to talk to Yamamoto sensei, and looking at their faces reminded me of being a freshman at high school. They are going into the staff room – not a safe place for them. They look scared, even some of the regular visitors. Yamamoto sensei starts into them and they have that “caught in the headlights” look. It totally reminded me of my high school days.
I had a full plate of classes today, and the ones with the second year students were fun. My lesson was a kind of combination lesson on predictions, statistics, and the culture behind flipping coins. Over here, decisions are sometimes made by a game of janken, or Rock, Paper, Scissors. The students are always amused that I don’t know how to play it correctly. There is a song to go with it, and it’s serious business. I broke out a bunch of pennies and had kids flipping coins and counting heads and tails. One pair of kids managed to flip their penny right out the window and onto the school grounds two stories below. In the end, it was remarkably even. 80 students flipping coins 20 times each – we ended up with about 51.3% heads. Next we’ll try typing Shakespeare.
As I was eating lunch I noticed the office lady walking by wearing a printed blouse covered with horse memorabilia. I resisted the urge to mention my most recent experience with horses – that is, eating raw horsemeat in a sushi shop. She probably wouldn’t have been amused.
During the last period we had a presentation to show how the trip to Australia went. They had video from a television news piece that ran here on NHK, and also some home video from Hayashi sensei and Tsutsumi sensei. It was a really great presentation. You really felt like you were there. The students involved did a great job, and it was cool to see the projects and the practice we worked on so hard being put to use out in the field.
I met up with Kuniko for some more wedding planning in Kobe, and we made lots of decisions. Colors, flowers, place settings, all kinds of stuff like that. It took a long time, and we were starving to death by the end of it. From the wedding place we walked to an Indian restaurant that we had last visited two years ago with Hayashi sensei and Komori sensei after a trip to Kyoto. The food was still good. The dessert was still weird – this strange cheese-flavored ice cream with Indian milk tea. Despite that, everything else was delicious. I even took a doggy bag home.
Now we’re back and exhausted. What a busy day. From here on out, things will get mellower for me, although Kuniko still has three solid days of work to go before she can relax on Sunday.
