It was cloudy all day today with a lot of moisture in the air. Sometimes this makes doing laundry tough – towels can take all day long to dry out on the rack. Today was one of those days. Bleah.

At school today I had three classes, and everything went pretty smoothly. In my last class it has three boys and three girls, and they are always competitive with each other. I did a lesson that exploited that into a kind of like a game show atmosphere, and asked lots of questions. They did really well, and after almost 40 minutes of asking them non-stop questions in English we played a game of cards at the end. These students really enjoy card games, and it provides a welcome break from bingo (for me, too).

Kuniko was working overtime tonight, so I went ahead and ate before she got home, and then had her dinner ready when she arrived. She had requested a healthy dinner of nato, shiso leaves, and tofu with green onions. I ate grocery store yakitori. That’s a big swing in calories.

I received a mail from my grad school saying that I am officially signed up for the two courses that I wanted, and that means that I need to buy textbooks. It’s been a while since I bought textbooks – I forgot how expensive they are. Rather than buying from the school bookstore in Australian dollars I used Amazon textbooks and found things much cheaper. They will soon by on their way to Japan, and I should be ready to go when the term starts at the end of the month.

After having a tough day at work yesterday today was smooth sailing. Everyone was in a pretty good mood (including me) and the students did well with the lessons today. I had one student insist on doing my hair, but he got a little too excited so I had to tickle him into submission. No more Mr. Nice Guy I guess.

One of my most challenging students (a young little guy named Fuwa) told me today that his mother is taking him out of English at the end of the month and putting him into a swimming class. Fuwa has had a tough time getting along with other students (and me, for that matter) and generally he spends the lesson looking for ways to either roughhouse with the other boy student or hit a girl on the head. Too much energy, I’d say, and maybe using up some of that energy in a swimming pool would make life easier for everyone.

The textbooks that we are using are starting to wind down to an end, and according to Nozaki sensei the next books will arrive sometime in August. That gives me some extra classes at the end of July and beginning of August to do whatever I would like. The challenge is to find something interesting and fun that isn’t too expensive or time consuming to implement. I’ll probably end up doing some review of the previous stuff, and maybe some fun and games. Today I announced a speech contest for my oldest grade school students, and although it will be a low-key casual affair I think they are somewhat interested. I didn’t really give them a choice, though.

Kuniko and I arrived at the station at the same time, and so we walked home together. A student from her school happened to be walking the same way, and her eyes bugged out when she saw us (holding hands) as we walked along. Kuniko gave her a cool nod, but I said hello and turned her face red.

We had Thai fried rice for dinner and then went out to rent some movies for Kuniko’s class. The rest of the evening was pretty quiet, just sipping iced coffees (actually cafe au laits) and staying cool inside. There’s word of a typhoon approaching this weekend, but it sure doesn’t feel like typhoon weather. We’ll see if it makes it to Japan.

My first class on Tuesday was with the youngest students, and it was probably the biggest disaster in my teaching career so far.

I don’t know if you know this old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie called Kindergarten Cop, but I have new respect for that movie. Tough guy brought down by mischievous kids – nothing new, but now I can see clearly understand the basis for that plot idea. I gotta see that movie again.

My students were just flat out misbehaving, and we had a new student trying out the class with her mother. I’m pretty sure they won’t be coming back. The worst two students were Yuzuha (the three year old) and Karin (her five year old sister). Yuzuha talked and talked and talked and screamed if nobody talked back to her. Karin did her best to try to do the opposite of every activity. Here’s some alphabet cards to hold… she throws them in the air and jumps up and down on them. Let’s listen to a story… she leads the class in a sleep-in revolution, moving the other students under the table for a nap. She was also teasing her sister and making her cry throughout the class. Kento was no picnic either. During bingo he threw his cards across the table and told stories in Japanese about his father’s bathroom habits.

The new student kept looking around wondering when the lesson was actually going to happen, but I probably only got in about 20 minutes of teaching during the 50 minute class. The mother had this look that was a mixture of disapproval and sympathy, and afterwards she was surprised that I was able to survive the class. I tried to explain that it was my most challenging class, but I think she already understood that pretty well.

Anyway, after that class I had much better classes with my older students. I had a minor breakthrough with Ikumi, a super-shy girl who usually freezes up when I ask her questions. She’s really smart – and she’s starting to get more comfortable with me, and we’re starting to develop a rapport. She put a few stickers on my back when I wasn’t looking, so I’m thinking that’s a good sign.

One of my super students (Mana) missed her class on Monday, so she came in today to sit in on a class that is on the same lesson. The class has a completely different vibe than what she is used to, and I used her as an example to show the other students that the questions that I am asking in English aren’t so impossible after all. I do think Mana will be happy to be back in her regular time slot.

I had a night class with my usual junior high school students, and I had a great time with them. I really look forward to those classes – I think that junior high is my favorite age level to teach.

After school I dragged my dispirited ass back home and Kuniko cooked up some pasta to cheer me up and gave me a little pep talk. I’m going to have to try to think hard about what I can do to get the kiddies in line. The challenge is the different age levels and agendas. Maybe it’s time for bad cop to make an appearance…

We both woke up with a pretty good hangover Monday morning, but the difference was that Kuniko had to get up and go to work at six in the morning, and I could afford to nurse myself to 100% before going to work at noon. It was a pretty slow morning around the house.

I went into work early to prepare for the week and that turned out to be a good idea. There was a lot of work to do today, and I kept pretty busy until the first students started showing up at 3:30.

Classes went smoothly. I’m getting more and more in tune with the chemistry of each class, and it is fun to see it play out. You can see who is going to grow up and be a bully, who is going to be a nice kid, and who could go either way. Although I often make guesses about students, a lot of times they will do things that surprise you, and you have to be careful to keep your mind open and flexible.

After my regular classes I walked over to Yuka’s house, and we had an hour lesson. We talked about her upcoming trip to New York. She’ll be going alone, and staying for about ten days with some of Nozaki sensei’s friends in the area. Her mom is a little worried because of the violence she hears about in the news, and Yuka’s top priority is to go shopping on Fifth avenue.

I’m trying to get Yuka to keep an English journal, and today I brought some books on the subject to try to convince her. Her weakness is vocabulary and making sentences, and I think the journal will be helpful in both of those areas.

On the way out of the house I met some more of the family, including their three little dogs, Yuka’s older brother and his girlfriend, and Yuka’s boyfriend (who was over for a visit). He was really nervous to talk to me but he seemed like a nice kid.

I made a seafood salad on toast for dinner tonight, and watched some trashy TV shows with Kuniko. There’s some good vocabulary to be picked up on those shows!

Sunday in the afternoon we met up with Kuniko’s coworker Hanayama sensei and his wife to play a little bowling and then go out to dinner. A long time ago Hanayama sensei came over with some teachers and we all played Wii bowling. He lost the game at the time, and I could tell he was a pretty competitive guy who wanted to show he could excel at the real thing.

Lately he has been asking Kuniko and I to do stuff with him and his wife, and we’re not sure exactly why. Kuniko and I conjectured that perhaps it is because he and Kuniko work together (they are both in charge of the tennis club at their school) and he just wanted to build a little harmony in the group.

We went bowling just down the street at Saty, and had a pretty good time. I usually suck at bowling, and today was no exception. For some reason my fingers are too big for the balls – I always end up holding the ball for too long. Anyway, lots of gutters but I’m used to it and I enjoyed myself despite the lack of beer at the alley.

Hanayama sensei was a good bowler. He stood at the back of the lane, almost in front of the chairs, and then ran at the line, flinging the ball down the lane with a lot of speed. His aim was pretty good, and he got quite a few strikes. It looked like the delivery was pretty tough on his body, though. He was rubbing his side the whole time.

We played for about two hours, and then caught a train and headed to dinner in Nishi Akashi. The restaurant was one of their favorites, and everyone knew them there. I guess they eat out quite a bit. The food was Japanese style, but they had all kinds of things on the menu. We started out with a big plate of sashimi, and then moved on to karaage (fried chicken), sausages, soba salada, okonomiyaki, and butakimchee. We drank beer at first, and then Hanayama sensei called for his “keep bottle” of sho-chu and we drank that.

We drank a lot of sho-chu – we killed his first bottle (it was half empty already) and then we killed another full bottle. That’s a lot of booze. Everyone was pretty drunk, and so we stumbled off to the train station and came home soon afterwards. We did a little bit of drunken shopping (always a bad idea) and then came home and drank lots of water and took some aspirin before hitting the sack. On a school night, too…

Friday at school I had a weird day where all my good students were acting bad and my bad students were acting good. I’m not sure if they worked together to plan it that way, but it extended to several classes and perhaps could be established as a teaching phenomenon that would bear my name as it’s first known observer.

“These students show the symptoms of Fredricks’ disorder. Get them to a psychiatrist as soon as possible.”

“Oh my god. I didn’t know it was that serious.”

Actually, before I even arrived at school I had a weird experience. Walking to Nozaki’s house I heard somebody behind me call out “Sensei!” and when I turned around it was one of my students’ parents. Her son, Junya, was absent last week and came halfway through the lesson with his mother on Thursday nearly in tears. Although she didn’t say anything about it on Thursday (not in front of the students) I kind of had an inkling and it turned out that I was right. She said today that Junya had skipped the English class last week and was trying to do it again when she caught him walking around town instead of joining our class.

She apologized profusely and asked me to contact her if he doesn’t show up again, and I promised I would. About this time I noticed that while we were walking slowly towards the school an old woman had snuck up behind us and was keeping pace while listening in to (what I had thought was) a private conversation. She broke into the conversation by saying with more than a little astonishment that she couldn’t believe how well I spoke Japanese. This is something foreigners hear a lot in Japan – you can just say hello and they’ll say you have mastered the Japanese language.

Anyway, she was dying to talk with someone and Junya’s mom bore the brunt of the conversation while I looked for a way out. Luckily soon I had to turn right, and so I said goodbye. Right around the corner was Junya going home from school with a bunch of his classmates. I said hello to him in English and talked a little bit while all his classmates looked on with their mouths hanging open. Junya explained to them that I was his teacher and I did everything I could to make him look like he was a great student and a good speaker of English.

The students had lots of questions, and Junya fielded most of them for me. I walked with them for about two blocks, and I’m sure it was funny to see this tall foreign guy walking surrounded by lots of grade school kids in school uniforms saying “Hello” over and over because that was all they knew.

After my classes ended I came home and had dinner with Kuniko – she made a new dish that was really good – grilled ham, onions and tomatoes with melted cheese and a tofu salad. After dinner we decided to go rent a couple of movies and we stayed up late watching “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Kinky Boots”. Both of the movies were pretty good, and we have one more rental to see by next week, “The Sentinel”.

As most people already know, Japan has a big gift giving culture. The last couple of days have been a new introduction to that culture with the arrival of several gifts for me from my students’ parents.

The occasion is Chu-gen (中元), a celebration of the first half of the year and an expression of thanks for the help that you have provided thus far. Usually the gifts go uphill… you send the gifts to someone at a higher level than you (for example, your boss, your supervisor, your teacher, etc). This kind of gift giving doesn’t really happen at a public high school, so this year is my first time actually receiving gifts.

Nozaki sensei also received some gifts, although most of them came for me since I am the one handling the day to day teaching of their children. Now I’ve got a refrigerator full of sweets thanks to my students’ parents, and some thank-you notes to write. The giving season isn’t over yet, however.

We had a storm yesterday and I ended up having to slog through the rain on foot on the way to work. Luckily I had my summer jacket to keep most of the moisture off me. On the way back the rain had stopped, and that was good news for lugging lots of gifts around.

My evening class was with junior high school students. I only teach them once a month, but they are really good at English. A new student named Seika has joined the class, and the dynamic has changed slightly, adding just a bit of boy-girl tension. The only boy in the class, a slightly effeminate guy named Masayoshi, asked jokingly last time if Seika had a boyfriend, and that has carried into this month with a few wistful looks and distracted responses.

Kuniko had dinner ready for me when I got home, om-rice and some avocado salad that she had whipped up with the leftover avocados from the taco party. I washed it down with a cold beer and could finally relax – the night classes for this week are over!

It’s the middle of the week, and I’m convinced that the weather is playing some part in the doldrums that Kuniko and I have been in lately. We’ve both been getting home on the late side, and with almost no energy from teaching lethargic students we don’t really do much when we get home.

Lately it hasn’t been so hot as humid, and the walk to work and back sometimes feels more like a swim. I buy a cold drink at the convenience store before setting off for work in the afternoon, and even on the way home at night I’ve got a good layer of sweat going. Sounds like fun, huh?

Last night Kuniko cooked up some shisomaki for me – it’s my favorite yakitori dish, and it turned out great. We watched a little TV and then headed to the air conditioned bedroom to mark papers, play Nintendo, and use the computer.

The heat did drive me to get a haircut yesterday (finally). After a bad haircut experience last time I thought I’d put it off as long as I could. Kuniko mentioned the other day that I probably have reached that point, so I went off in search of a haircut.

First I went to the place I tried last time, hoping for some improvement, but they were closed up. Instead I walked back home using the back roads, and I walked past a small barbershop that was open. I decided to try it out, and it turned out great.

There was a guy getting finished up at the moment, so the barber’s wife sat me down and I read the newspaper until he was ready for me. He was a talkative guy, and it was great practice for me to try to keep the conversation going in Japanese. He did a really good job with my hair, and did all the old fashioned barber routines like shaving, shampooing, and even a strange kind of neck massage involving snapping his hands together on my shoulder blades. His wife had coffee ready for me when I was finished, and the barber and I watched TV and chatted while I drank my coffee. It was a really good experience, and now I’m actually looking forward to my next haircut.

Well, my computer is heating up the room too much so I’ve got to sign off and call it a day. I’m leaving for work in a few hours, and so I’d better get ready…

We had a busy Sunday and I’m still kind of recovering. I ended up (unintentionally) sleeping late and I’ve been struggling to get my act together this morning.

Tonight I’m working late, and I’ll be doing late classes until Thursday of this week, so hopefully I’ll have time then to write up the weekend and what’s been going on.

More later!

Finally getting around to posting about last weekend. Sunday we had three of Kuniko’s international students over to make lunch, and then afterwards the Okamotos over for a taco party.

After a slight mixup at the station (one student caught the wrong train and came a little late) we did a little bit of shopping and then came back to our place to cook up lunch.

Kuniko’s idea was to show them how to make some traditional Japanese dishes, so together they made oshizushi, shogayaki, and tempura. I generally tried to stay out of the way but occasionally I would step in and help out. I helped Myra (from India) peel shrimp, and showed her some of the tips I picked up peeling shrimp living with my aunt and uncle in San Diego. I also helped Barbara (from France) grind down some raw ginger into a usable paste for the shogayaki. Hinzy (from America) acted as kind of a supervisor for the group, and did a lot of work with the tempura.

Lunch turned out to be quite big, and by the time we finished (and had dessert from the grumpy baker on the first floor) I was stuffed. We played a little bit of Wii to burn some calories, and then headed to Saty to take some purikura to commemorate the event. From there we sent them home and headed back to get the taco stuff ready for dinner.

A couple of impressions from lunch… Kuniko gave them all the instructions in Japanese, and generally they did OK. I was surprised how each of the students relied on English for communication, despite coming from three different countries. I guess it would be tough to fumble through Japanese since everyone is studying at a different level. Still, I would think that they would welcome an opportunity to speak some Japanese.

Another thing I noticed was how hard it was to think of them as high school students. They acted much more mature than the students that I’m teaching nowadays, and hanging out with them in a relaxed party atmosphere made it that much more difficult. I had a good time talking with them, and I think they really enjoyed the afternoon.

I was pretty full by dinnertime, so I was a little worried about hosting a decent taco party, but in the end we did OK. The Okamotos came on time at the train station and we walked them over to our place. They marveled at how close we were to the station… they live in the sticks, 30 minutes to the nearest train station by car!

Although we live closer to the station, our place is pretty small compared to their house. The benefit of living way out in the country is that you have more space to build, and so I’m sure they also were wondering how we could live in such a small space.

The taco party was nice, and we chatted and ate while looking at vacation pictures and talking about how things are going. I noticed again that Ikuko stuck to Japanese and hardly spoke any English at all. It seems like she is studying English at home (she’s got all day long at home with nothing more than laundry and dinner to do) but she didn’t seem to want to try and use it. I think she has just lost a lot of confidence in her English skills.

Her husband is a really quiet guy, so it was a little tough to get him to relax and enjoy himself. He doesn’t really drink (so tequila was out of the question), but we played a little Wii and he kind of loosened up a bit.

Afterwards we walked them back to the station and said goodbye, and Kuniko and I chatted about them on the walk home. She kind of felt like I do – Ikuko has a lot of free time during the day and it seemed like a good opportunity to study, get a degree, teach students in her home, or do something more. Her English was really good, and it seems like a waste to just let it slide away.

So we were pretty tired out after all the entertaining, and the worst of it was that it was Sunday and we had to go off to work the next day. We had a great time, but I’m was in desperate need of an energy boost.

In a couple of my recent classes I have been writing some kanji on the whiteboard to illustrate how to remember the days of the week in English. My students are at the age now where they are just starting to study how to write kanji in school. They freaked out the first time I wrote some kanji on the board.

When I first learned to write in Japanese, my teacher was really strict about what order you write each stroke of the kanji with your pencil or pen. I remember her saying that the order of the strokes is preserved in history because they can tell from carvings on ancient weapons from thousands of years ago.

My personal feeling is that as long as the end result is the same, what does it matter how you do it? While that philosophy might not fly in politics and government it certainly seems fine for writing the alphabet.

Anyway, my students are spending lots of time at school every day doing the order just the right way, and that makes them ideal critics for my haphazard writing style. Their criticism also extends to numbers and the alphabet. It’s good for them to see that it is OK for someone to write in a different way, but they are always astonished to see someone flout conventional wisdom like I do.

A while back while playing Brain Training on the Nintendo DS I noticed that the handwriting recognition software wouldn’t recognize how I wrote the number “5”. Apparently, everyone in Japan writes it the same way – the whole bottom section first, and then one horizontal line across the top. I had to change how I write the number to be able to use the software. I wonder if the American version of the software is the same?