Last night Kuniko made a new recipe, and it was a lot of fun to eat and to make. She made nikuman, which is sometimes called pork buns in American Chinese restaurants. I love to eat them – we eat them quite often and they are available everywhere. I’ve never made them from scratch, and it turns out it wasn’t so hard to do. Kuniko called me into the kitchen to help with the rolling of the dough and filling, and then they cooked up really easily in a hot frypan. They weren’t pretty (at least the ones I made weren’t), but they tasted great. We ate them while watching a movie that we rented, “The Island”. The movie was “mah-mah” as they say here in Japan.
Today I was at work early, with only one class. I spent the morning doing vocabulary and writing the listening test for the first year students. They have a weird sign in the corridor outside the teacher’s room that says that nobody but staff can walk down one side of the corridor. I couldn’t figure out why, so I asked the history teacher. He told me that they are doing an exam tomorrow, and behind one of the doors of the corridor is an automatic grading computer that they fear will be tampered with by students. It’s weird because none of our students are taking the exam, just junior high school students who might want to go to this school. They are fearing some real “Mission Impossible” stuff I guess. Sounds like paranoia to me.
There are no classes tomorrow since we are administering the exam for junior high school students. My responsibilities in this area are exactly zero. I’m not sure why they want me here, but since they are paying me I might as well show up. The history teacher came by and told me that I need to stay late tomorrow, which was hard to figure out since they don’t need me for anything anyway. Later he came back with a sheepish look on his face and said that he had consulted with the vice principal, and he found out that I could leave at my regular time. I think the history teacher enjoys being my mouthpiece – so much that he does it even when I don’t need to say anything.
Back home I found the results from my big exam that I took in December of last year waiting for me in the mailbox. I hate opening envelopes with important results – I tend to build it up too much. I took the envelope from the JET program on a hike deep into the mountains and only after arriving at a waterfall far away from anyone did I open it up. Today I waited just a little while – I did the dishes, washed the bathtun, the usual routine.
So did all those hours of hard work finally pay off? Did I gain an important edge in my upcoming job search? Did I pass the exam that has consumed pretty much my whole life in 2005?
I’m building the drama, even here. Yes, I passed – barely. I’m happy – but the result doesn’t change where my Japanese level is right now. I still can’t have a decent conversation with most native speakers, I can’t understand what is going on watching TV, I can’t read the newspaper without a dictionary handy.
Even though I passed, I’ve got a long way to go.
That being said, tonight I think we’ll go out and celebrate just a teensy bit. Kuniko will be here soon and we’ll head and do something fun.
Tomorrow is an easy day at school – no classes, but I’ll have some planning to do for a lesson on Wednesday.
