It was a very sleepy Monday morning, and so we got a late start to the train station. I arrived with plenty of time to spare, however, and settled in to work on the leftover vocabulary that I didn’t get to on Sunday.
The history teacher dropped by and gave me a present. This was a present of appreciation for helping him with the desktop publishing problem he had on Thursday. It also is a little bit of a guilt alleviation device for him; he knows that he takes up a lot of my time everyday, and this is a way for him to feel better about it. A year or so ago he took me out to dinner to show his appreciation, but I’ve avoided his invitations since then since he wants to use me as a wingman to help get one of the part time teachers at our school.
As for the present, it was a cocktail glass – handmade, Italian, probably way too expensive. Only one, but I guess I can have a scotch or a tequila in there sometime. Weird.
The teachers this morning were very busy with various exam announcements and getting the students through several different meetings and ceremonies. We didn’t have the big closing ceremony today, however – I guess that will happen later in the week.
The students were gone by 1 p.m., so the afternoon was a good chance for everyone to catch their breath. I sent a letter off to the California DMV to try to get a copy of my driving record. I’m not sure if they’ll send it to me all the way in Japan, but I need it to prove that I’ve had a valid license for more than three months before I came to Japan. Normally I could use my CA driver’s license as proof, but in a turn of bad luck I had it renewed just a month before I left, so the issue date is too recent to be valid.
The rest of the afternoon was pretty mellow – just studying at my desk and enjoying the peace and quiet.
Later on that night I headed over to Denya to have drinks and conversation with Atsushi-san. It has been a very long time since we’ve met up. We caught up on each other’s lives and ordered lots of delicious yakitori foods from the master. I got to spend some time talking with the master and it sounds like he is doing a fair amount of English study. He’s also busy taking a seminar about selling insurance. I think the master is always looking for ways to supplement his income from the restaurant – maybe he’ll end up selling insurance to people with their yakitori sticks.
At one point a group of three guys invited me over because they wanted to speak English with me. I indulged them for a while, enough for the guy to impress his coworkers. He invited me over by saying, “Will you enjoy me?” He said it twice before I realized he was trying to say “Will you join me?” I hung out with them for just a little while, until the conversation headed towards the length of schoolgirl’s skirts. Then I excused myself and headed back to hang with Atsushi-san.
When I got home Kuniko had just arrived, and it sounded like her dinner/drinking party was a success. I was glad to hear it. Tomorrow is a day off for a holiday, so we’ll get another chance to sleep late.
