Wednesday was a free day for me – I had no classes because the first year students were on their orientation trip to Miki. I hung out all day and studied, paid a visit to have lunch with Tsuji-san during the fourth period, and wrapped it all up and got out of there right on time.
Kuniko got home late again, but we still had a big salad for dinner, and got her to bed early. Hopefully she’ll get a break soon to get some rest. She’s been working very, very hard. Unfortunately with her concert coming up this weekend and a wedding party after that, it might be tough to get that break.
Today my normal morning class was switched out to give me an opportunity to learn how to do tea ceremony at a special class in our school. The class is part of the trial “International Understanding” course offered by our school. The history teacher had arranged it, and when I got to the tea room (our school has a very cool tea room built right in) everything was set up.
I joined about seven students and we learned from the instructor – a woman that comes to our school just to guide the tea ceremony club, and occasionally to teach some other classes.
While one of the other teachers snapped pictures we all sat in a very uncomfortable “seiza” position, which means you sit on your knees and slowly constrict the blood flow of your legs using your own body weight. The history teacher assured me that I didn’t have to sit that way, but I didn’t want to be the only one not doing that, so I held out until one of the students finally gave it up, and then I gave it up too, and sat cross-legged.
I think the students enjoyed having a total rookie around, and so we had a good rapport going despite the very strict lesson we got about the ceremony itself. It’s a very complex ceremony, and there were so many directions on doing such and such with only your right hand, and turn this three times, and fold that twice exactly like this… well, you get the point. Overall it was a good, though. I’m looking forward to doing it again sometime.
On my way home at the end of the day I shared a train ride with one of my ex-students – this one was from two years ago. She is attending a dance school in Kobe and we talked about Takanan for most of the train ride. It was a good chance to speak lots of Japanese.
Kuniko got home relatively early tonight – around 6:30. We had a huge dinner of ham sandwiches and salads, and then walked around Ito Yokado buying some household goods and some things for tomorrow in an attempt to burn off some of the calories.
For the first time in a long time I’m dreading going to work. Tomorrow we have no teaching plan, and the teacher responsible for it, Mori sensei, just got back from the orientation trip today. Hopefully she’ll have an outline on my desk tomorrow morning, but I’ve got to prepare for the idea that maybe there will be no plan. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I’ve got three classes in the morning, and they are all getting the new (plan-less) lesson. Ick.
