I had lots of free time today at school, and the situation looks to continue until at least the end of the month and beginning of next. I enjoy the free time because it gives me a chance to study, and also to walk around and chat with the students while they are doing club activities in the afternoon.
Today there were a lot of students in the staff room, so I chatted with anybody that was loitering around my desk. The students are completely comfortable with me now, and they seem to get a lot of satisfaction out of successfully completing a conversation with me.
I was working in my classroom late in the afternoon, and two floors above me I could here the brass band practicing a new piece of music. It was a very dramatic orchestra piece, it sounded like something out of a movie. I walked upstairs, and through the open teachers door and around quietly around to the front of the music room. Everybody saw me except for the music teacher who was waving his little wand like crazy. The students played on, but they had little smiles on their faces and some even snuck in a wave to me between notes.
They sounded great. It was cool to be in the same room and get the full effect. You listen to music so often in your life but it is easy to forget that all those tapes, albums, CDs and MP3s are really just a way to recreate the sound of a live performance. There’s nothing quite like the real thing.
The music teacher must have noticed that everyone was looking over his shoulder now and then so he stole a look back at me and seemed pretty surprised. I smiled at him, and he turned around and kept on waving the magic wand. I figured it was time to get out of there – I didn’t want to distract the students, so I gave them a big smile and a quick bow and got out of there.
After school I went across the street to Tsuji-san’s place to chat with her for a while. She is in the middle of preparations for a wedding this June, and her family and her fiance’s family are doing a lot of the Japanese traditional pre-wedding rituals. Tsuji-san was really frustrated with it, but it seems like she is accepting it as something that she cannot change.
Recently her future family-in-law came over to her parent’s house to deliver a huge sum of money and lots of expensive items, to compensate Tsuji-san’s family for taking away her daughter. Tsuji-san’s family will then have to pay for all the furnishings of the house, and that sum is traditionally more than what they received at this stage. There is lots of money flying around, and it seems like such a weird ritual to somebody like me. Tsuji-san is marrying a very traditional guy, though, and with that comes consequences. He is having her quit her job, and she’ll become a full-time housewife, making breakfast, lunch and dinner, and taking care of the household while he works long, long hours. That’s a common marriage model around here, and one I’m glad that I’m not a part of.
When I got home Kuniko was cooking away – and she served up a delicious curry dinner. It was nice to come home to a nice hot meal. Maybe I’m changing my mind about some traditions. <- That was a joke. We walked over to the local convenience store to pay a bill and did some shopping at Ito Yokado. It’s getting close to the weekend, and we’ll be kind of busy, I think. Next week will be even busier – we’re going to see a concert, we’ve got White Day on the 14th, and then I’ve got students over two nights in a row. Kuniko’s friend might come over, too. Luckily I have next Friday off.
