Tuesday was a very hot, very humid day. It was a good reminder of the upcoming Japanese summer. I was sweating like crazy, and although this usually has pretty good weight loss benefits it doesn’t look so great when you are walking around town. It doesn’t feel so great, either.

To beat the heat I stayed inside during the day and then brought a hand towel along to mop up the sweat during the walk to work. Once I arrived there I fired up Nozaki sensei’s air conditioner and was chilling at a nice 25 degrees for the afternoon.

The air conditioner is absolutely mission critical for my classes, especially the younger students’ lessons when me march around, jump up and down, and sing songs. Today’s first class was with the youngest students.

For the first time Kento (the only boy in the class) decided to do the class without his family members hanging around in the hallway. I was glad to hear it, and I was glad that the family can get on with their lives for at least an hour. Kento arrived almost 20 minutes early, so that gave me time to play games with him and get him comfortable. He’s a really quiet kid and seems overwhelmed with being outside his home. He played games with me but the only real reaction I got out of him verbally was when I said “Ay-yi-yi” for some reason. He thought that was the funniest thing he’d ever heard me say.

The other classes went swimmingly. I really like the older students on Tuesdays because after the young kids they seem the most mature people in the world to me. Today was also the only Tuesday of the month when I don’t have a junior high school class. I went home and beat Kuniko back by about two hours. I made up some risotto from a package and served it up with a loaf of garlic bread and some prosciutto with grated Parmesan cheese and parsley. It wasn’t bad.

At home it’s really hot – we had the air conditioners running tonight and maybe that will be a regular thing for a while. Summer is really here, I guess.

Monday night I had a lesson over at Yuka’s house, so after my regular lessons I walked over there and rang the doorbell. But, nobody was home.

I got there around 6:55, and the lesson is usually from 7-8, so I was a little surprised. Then I was worried that maybe I had the wrong day. I decided to go kill a little time at the nearby convenience store browsing the junk food, and when I came back about five minutes later Yuka’s mom was just pulling into the driveway.

She was surprised that Yuka wasn’t home, so she guided me to Yuka’s bedroom where we usually do the lessons, set me up with an iced coffee, and tried to get in touch. Turns out she was running late, and Yuka showed up around 7:25 or so. Her mom was pissed.

Yuka came in and apologized to me quickly in English, and we started the lesson. I wasn’t too bothered with it – as they say in the industry, shit happens. Trains are late, boyfriends are hard to resist, homework is almost finished, etc. It was only 20 minutes or so, so who cares? Yuka’s mom came up a few minutes later and told Yuka to apologize Japanese style, which is to get down on your hands and knees and bow your head to the ground – it was pretty hardcore. I insisted that everything was OK but I realized that how I felt about the situation was really not part of the equation here.

After her mom left we finished up the lesson. We went to eight o’clock, the usual ending time, and she paid me for the full hour (which wsa nice). Anyway, it was an interesting peek into raising children in Japan, and how much discipline is emphasized, at least at Yuka’s house.

Sunday I got up early (for me) and left Kuniko conked out in bed to head to a conference in Osaka. The conference was on “Teaching English in the Japanese Classroom” which is a very broad topic indeed. In certification-crazy Japan the organizers made a very clever play and offered a certificate if you write a paper after the seminar is over. For this reason alone I expected a lot of attendees.

It took me an hour to get to Osaka on the second-fastest train and then I transferred to the loop line and rode a local train to the bottom of the loop at Tenouji. I’ve been there before, but only to quickly transfer somewhere else – this was my first time to look around the area. The station was pretty big, and the surrounding area had lots of stores and restaurants. Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard, so I hurried over to the seminar venue and registered.

The organizers were also quite clever in not only charging the attendees for the seminar, but they also had three different textbook publishing companies there with booths overflowing with books. No doubt they helped sponsor the event, because they often would make announcements about this book or that book now available.

I sat towards the front and center and looked around at the other attendees. It seemed like about 70% foreign and 30% Japanese. I was sitting next to a Japanese lady who I chatted with for a while. Her name was Naho, and she teaches at home to young kids (kind of like what I’m doing). Her husband was at home taking care of their baby boy while she came to the conference and she seemed a little worried that he might not be up to the task.

As for the conference itself, it was all in English and really well done. The speakers were all professors at various colleges in Japan, and since teaching at that level is one of my long term goals it was interesting to see them in action.

First, I was really impressed with the depth of their knowledge. Everyone not only knew their field and the current trends, but they also had a really good sense of how things applied to their Japanese students. I also noticed that their vocabulary tended to be much better than mine. I guess it’s high time I went back to school and got a vocab upgrade.

There were four speakers throughout the day, each one lecturing about 90 minutes. All the topics were about helping students learn to speak English better, and they gave study tips, teaching advice, and lesson ideas. Very practical, useful stuff. On another level, almost all the tips can be applied to your own situation studying Japanese – although I didn’t mention that out loud. Now I have some new strategies for my own studies.

During the day I spoke with most people in English, but Naho complained that her head was getting tired from all the English so we mainly spoke in Japanese. We had lunch together and some coffee afterwards, and it was a good exercise for me to speak about more technical stuff than the weather and travel plans. She was really nice and we’ll try to stay in touch.

After it all wrapped up I found a couple of textbooks that I ordered, and then hit the road. The weather was still pretty crappy, so I made it to the train station and then rode the train through the big storm to get get home to Okubo. Overall it was a good day – I learned a lot and was inspired to work harder on my own Japanese and college studies.

Kuniko had dinner ready for me when we got home: a tofu salad and some nacho potato wedges that she made from a kit she had brought home from New Zealand. Dinner was great, and we just relaxed at home and stayed dry. Tomorrow it’s back to work…

Saturday was a nice easy weekend day, and I stayed busy doing laundry, cleaning, and taking a long walk around town to enjoy the beautiful weather. Kuniko had to work Saturday, but she has Sunday off (finally a day off!) and she can relax then.

While walking around I walked past a Zelda video game for the Nintendo DS, and it was reasonably priced so I picked it up. Of course the whole game is in Japanese, but as it turns out it is a really fun way to study. As I read along there comes a time when an unfamiliar kanji comes up, and when this happens you just tap the kanji and the correct reading appears. I learned a lot already (I didn’t know 海賊 – pirate), and I learned that I have been reading some words wrong all this time. Anyway, it’s a fun game and usually play it with my dictionary sitting right next to me.

Saturday night Kuniko got home on the late side, so we had some pizza (half Korean and half bacon and mushroom, with little sausages rolled into the crust) and beer and celebrated the end of her 21 day work week.

Tomorrow she’ll be relaxing but I won’t – I have a conference in Osaka to attend. The weather is also supposed to turn stormy, so I’m not looking forward to leaving my exhausted wife behind to brave rainy weather and the unknowns of Tenouji station.

These last couple days I’ve been working hard trying to buy a computer in America and have it shipped to Hawaii so that I can pick it up this summer when we’re there visiting. I think I finally found a way to do it, but there are a remarkable amount of roadblocks and obstacles to overcome to do it. Who knew giving somebody money could be so difficult?

That got me to thinking about banking in Japan versus the United States. I could write for a long time about my good and bad experiences in banking in both countries. Today I just want to talk about one interesting difference: checks.

In Japan, there are no personal checks. There’s a big difference right there. Towards the end of my stay in America I had started moving away from using checks, and started moving towards using my debit card to take money directly out of my checking account.

Japan is a cash-centric society, so most people carry around lots of cash all the time. Nobody blinks an eye if you use the equivalent of a $100 bill to buy a soda. The situations when you might normally write a check are handled electronically by ATMs and banks. For example, all my utilities are withdrawn automatically from my bank account every month. Otherwise, I use cash to buy stuff on a day to day basis. If there is a big purchase, I go to the bank and withdraw the cash, or use a credit card that is linked to my bank account. Easy.

The really cool part of the Japanese banking system (and there aren’t that many cool parts, to be honest) is the electronic wire transfer system. From an ATM I can put money into any bank account that I like. It costs about $2 to do normally, and the people get the money the same day. I signed up for online banking so I can do it from my home computer for free. You can even buy big items online and just send them the money right away – it’s just as easy as a credit card.

Anyway, as you might expect there are lots of differences, and working in both systems really highlights those differences sometimes. Hopefully I’ll get this all worked out before the trip to Hawaii…

Roaches. They are not the most popular thing in our household. After never really ever have seen a roach in America I had some in my old apartment when I first moved in upon arriving in Japan. Since I killed them off and sealed up some holes, my experiences with cockroaches were really just in the occasional restaurant.

Last night after work I saw a cockroach go running into the small air conditioner in our bedroom. That was a big surprise, because our house is pretty clean and airtight. After thinking about it I realized that they had probably done a bug cleanout in the vacant apartment two doors down – maybe this guy was looking for new digs.

I tried a little bit last night to get him out of there, but it’s a pretty big piece of machinery and there were a lot of places to hide. Cut to this morning, and I pulled the air conditioner off the wall and took the thing apart looking for the little bug.

After an hour of taking the thing apart, cleaning it up, and putting it back together there was no roach to be found. I figured it had either left the room or went out whatever hole he came in.

So I put the AC unit back on the wall, plugged it back in, and turned it on to test it out. And a little cockroach came flying out on a cushion of cold air. Ah, ha!

Unfortunately for him he didn’t have a parachute, and he landed squarely on his back. I did a quickdraw with a newspaper and flattened the little guy. Roach problem solved.

After all that adventure I’m going to have to get ready for work now. Today I have a couple bad students, so I may need to have a chat with one or two of them. My little talks with them seem to be pretty effective.

This evening I had four classes, so it was one of my busier nights. One of the highlights was my junior high school class. A student from one of the other nights was absent, so she asked if it was OK to come to tonight’s class.

Her normal class is pretty quiet because nobody nows each other very well. Tonight’s class is really tight and they joke around and are really comfortable trying to speak English. I thought it was a good chance for her to see what other classes were like and realize that being a little less shy might help.

Between classes I got a message from Kuniko – she had locked herself out of the house by leaving her keys inside when she left in the morning. She had gotten out early today but she ended up having to kill five hours until I got off work. She went and saw “300” in the theater, and graded her student’s exams in Starbucks until it was time to come pick me up. Bad luck!

I usually don’t post much more beyond my daily activities, but I just finished watching Michael Moore’s Sicko, thanks to the magic of the internet.

I’m not sure why I decided to download it, but it may only be because I had the opportunity to check it out after reading about how it leaked on the internet two weeks before release.

So I watched it, and I thought it was a really good movie.

I think most people reading this probably have more experience with the health care system in America so there’s really no point in me talking about my experiences. The most interesting thing about the movie to me was how Moore would take viewers out of America into other countries and see how things work there.

Moore’s movies tend to be over the top in terms of how he presents his arguments, and often times I really can’t bear to watch because it’s like he’s taking a joke way too far. Even so, intelligent people can sniff that out and make decisions for themselves about what is likely to be exaggerated and what is likely to be the real deal.

Anyway, the American health care system is completely screwed up or maybe I’m a communist pinko. Possibly both.

In Japan health care isn’t free, but it is subsidized by the government. I really don’t spend much time in a hospital or at a doctor, but when I have gone nothing has cost more than $10-15. Pharmacy visits are really cheap as well, so I really can’t complain. Older people in Japan go to the doctor as a way to kill time during the day – they socialize with their friends and talk the ears off the doctors, nurses, and other patients.

In Japan, I can go to any doctor (or hospital) I like, which I find really nice. I remember working in America and getting some very complicated paperwork about how much I had to pay for this and that and where I was allowed to go and how I had to make a phone call at certain times before treatment at a non-plan doctor or hospital. What a huge pain in the ass. Now going to a different doctor just means I have to fill out an extra sheet of paper for my file.

Probably the single most important thing I can relate to Americans living in America is to take a look at your country and lifestyle from an outside perspective. Take a foreign newspaper. Read about America on a British or South African news website. Sometimes you can see things you didn’t before.

Oh, and go see Sicko. I’d be interested to hear your reviews of the movie.

As you might expect, teaching young kids can be an interesting job. One of the things I love about teaching is that the students make every day and every class interesting. Each class is more than just going through the textbook, and the dialog between the students as we progress through the lesson is what I like most.

One of my students asked me out of the blue if it is OK to fart in America, and so I had to analyze that question a little before coming up with a suitable response. It’s not just a simple question of whether it is OK or not – it depends on the situation. In the end I told him that it generally isn’t acceptable to fart in public, and if he had to fart to please go to the bathroom. He assured me that he didn’t but it did make me wonder why the topic even came up.

Such is the level of general discourse in my classes.

After I wrapped up three classes I made the short walk over to teach a private one-on-one lesson with Yuka. Yuka is a first year high school student and she’s trying to really boost her English speaking level. Mom is footing the bill for a private tutor, and so I work with her three times a month in an effort to get her more comfortable speaking English.

The walk to her place is really nice – it’s a ten minute walk through a quiet neighborhood. During one part of the walk I cross between two big rice paddies and even though the pathway is narrow and paved you are completely surrounded by water and rice seedlings. One of my more interesting commutes.

The classroom at Nozaki sensei’s house isn’t always available to me on Mondays so I go to Yuka’s place and we talk in her bedroom. I personally would prefer somewhere a little more public (like the living room) but the mom wants it that way and apparently Yuka doesn’t mind.

We usually just chat, and I try to get her to form some opinions in English, and talk about what she does. Her vocabulary is pretty limited though, and I think she needs to do a little more basic memorization before she can really excel at English.

Kuniko and I both arrived home after 8 p.m. so we had a very simple dinner of tonkatsu and rice and then went to bed. Tomorrow I have one more night class and then I’ll be free and clear in the evenings this week.

Saturday passed with not much going on – I stayed home and did all the weekend chores at once. Since Kuniko was at work all day I just puttered around the house and cooked some dinner (zucchini bacon casserole) for when she got home.

Sunday she was back off to work and I took the opportunity to go hiking with Antoine in Kobe. On the way to Kobe I got a cryptic message from Antoine asking if it was OK to bring a special guest, and I said sure.

When I arrived there I was surprised to see that he had brought along his (ex?) girlfriend Miwako. It was nice to see her, and I was a little surprised that they were still hanging out together. Apparently breaking up is a little hard to do.

Despite some initial awkwardness once we hit the trail and everyone was sweating things settled down. Antoine and Miwako still have some unresolved issues I think, and maybe they wanted to be around a third party to lighten things up.

We hiked to the lake in the mountains above Shin-Kobe, alternating between following and leading a big pack of YMCA youths and volunteers. After about an hour long hike in the heat (it’s getting humid lately) we decided to pack it in and head back to Kitano to have some lunch and cold beer.

We ended up eating at a French cafe in Kitano. It was a nice light lunch and the cafe was staffed by about half and half Japanese and French people. The owner was French, and he made a big production about scolding our server because he couldn’t understand what she wrote on our bill. She had written in English, probably because she is studying it and wanted us to be able to read it, but the owner was kind of jerk to her and so I wasn’t that impressed. I’ll skip that place next time.

We did some shopping in Sannomiya and then walked to Kobe Harborland to wander around and sightsee. Antoine and Miwako were getting along really well and I think having me around was defusing some tension between them – they didn’t really want me to leave. After a couple hours of walking around we sat on the patio of Mosaic in Harborland and had more beer. It was a really slow paced Sunday and I was really happy to get out of the house and just relax.

We finally went our separate ways around five in the evening, and I beat Kuniko home by about 20 minutes. She made dinner tonight – nikujaga and “german potatoes”. They were both really good but they barely put a dent in the pile of potatoes that we got from her folks last weekend.

After dinner we went to K’s electronics so that I could but a printer (also scans and copies!) and then went to the Kageyama residence for a little Happy Father’s day gift giving.

We stopped in Ito Yokado on the way home and we didn’t really get to bed until after midnight. It was a really busy day, and tomorrow is Monday. Must get some sleep…

Friday I left home early and went to Takasago to visit my old school on their culture festival day. It felt really weird to be walking through the town of Takasago again. On the way to the school a (crazy?) lady called out to me saying that I was going the wrong way – she said the factory was down the other direction. I just smiled and kept walking.

At the school there were a few teaching standing around outside guiding visitors, and so I got a chance to see Mr. Hayashi again, although we didn’t really have a chance to talk much. I went inside the school and I was guided to the staff room by Yamamoto sensei.

Not only were they expecting me but they had a bento lunch for me as well. Another teacher was absent so they gave me his lunch – thanks! We sat and talked and ate, and I got to say hello to my ex-coworkers as they walked by. Afterwards I walked the hallways with Maeda sensei, and it was great to see all my old students again. They were really happy to see me, and it was tough to try to say hello to everyone… it’s like suddenly meeting 600 of your friends… who do you say hello to first?

I stopped by the ESS room and was really impressed with what Brenda has done with her classroom and the club. The place looked great, and I think the students are really active. I talked with Brenda and with Nozaki sensei as well, and they seemed really happy that I visited.

Walking back to the station at one in the afternoon I couldn’t help but notice that Takasago was like a ghost town. It really felt empty and dead, and to be honest it kind of creeped me out. Maybe it was the contrast with Okubo, maybe it was just after leaving all the hustle and bustle of the culture festival, but it was spooky.

Overall it was a fun day, and I’m really glad that I stopped by. Afterwards I had some extra time so I took the Sanyo train to Akashi. On the Sanyo train I bumped into an ex-student, so I chatted with him in Japanese until I got to Akashi. There had some coffee at a coffeeshop there, and then took the JR train to Higashi Kakogawa to go to work. As I was heading to work I passed a few ex-Takasago Minami students and it really struck me how deep my connections are with the town of Takasago after three years of teaching there.

I had just two classes to teach at work, and then I was out of there and headed home. Kuniko wanted to celebrate Friday night with me so we went out to dinner at the local yakitori that I like and that Kuniko had never been to. We really enjoyed the evening and drank lots of cold beer with our meat sticks.

One of the cool options that I am only just figuring out after four years in Japan is that many restaurants will make a bento lunch for you to take home that night and eat the next day. Maybe it’s because you will be hungover, or maybe because your wife will be mad at you for drinking all night and won’t make you a lunch. Whatever the reason, you can just ask and they’ll set you up. I decided to ask for a bento for Kuniko to take to work on Saturday, and the master hooked us up with a custom-made lunch for her. Nice!

The other day when we went over to Kuniko’s parents’ house for dinner one of the things they sent home with us was a big plastic bag full of dry shredded wild pork. I opened it up the other day and was kind of at a loss at how to eat it.

It is shredded almost to powder, so I ended up taking a pinch and popping it in my mouth. The flavor is good – it just kind of absorbs the moisture in your mouth and then you have what tastes like an exotic powdery beef jerky. It’s a strange snack to have around the house.

Today is Friday and I’ll be going to visit my old school in Takasago today for part of the culture festival. I was invited by Yamamoto sensei when we were drinking together a couple of weeks ago, and it sounds like it is OK so I’ll head over there in a few hours to check it out and meet my old coworkers and students.

I was a little hesitant because my replacement (Brenda) will be there, and it is her first culture festival. I kind of wanted her to experience it on her own, but I don’t think it’ll matter if I just pop in during the middle and then leave. I have to go back to Kakogawa and teach two classes at Nozaki sensei’s classroom.

Now that I’m dialed in for grad school I’ll need to make a few investments. The first is one that we already had planned – a new computer. I’m going to buy one online in America and ask my parents to bring it with them to Hawaii when we meet up this summer. My computer now works but is slowing to a crawl. Time for something newer to crank out those papers.

Also on the list is a new printer, because the deskjet printer I have now is fine for printing the occasional picture, but unless you use it often the ink cartriges dry out. If you do use it often, then you have to buy replacement cartriges all the time and they are really expensive. I’m not a big fan of inkjet printers. Nozaki sensei has a laser printer/scanner/copier that I was impressed with. I might get one of those.

Well, I should get ready. It’s already Friday and it looks like a sunny weekend after a week of rain. The mountains are calling my name…

Finally something (relatively) interesting to write about. Finally a big event that will change my life forever. Yes, it’s true –

I tried Ice Cucumber Pepsi.

I didn’t set out to try Cucumber flavored soda, but I was shopping for groceries last night and there it was sitting on the shelf. I picked up a bottle and took it home to chill until Kuniko got home from her drinking party.

We tried it together, and it was better than I expected. After trying the wasabi soda a while back I was ready for anything, but this one wasn’t as exotic as I had hoped. When you open it you really do get a gentle but unmistakable hint of cucumber. It’s pretty heavily carbonated and that kind of balances out the sugar level, which seemed kind of high for a cucumber soda. It reminded Kuniko of melon soda which is a staple on the soda fountain machines here in Japan.

I don’t know if I’d buy it again, but it is kind of fun for the novelty factor. It was cheap, too – only 97 yen for a bottle.

Kuniko crashed out but I was still awake so I camped out in the living room with the laptop and surfed the web hoping to fall asleep. There was some good news, however – I got a congratulations e-mail from the grad school I had applied for – I’m in! They are sending the official paperwork by “courier”, which I think it Australian-speak for “mail”, but I’m not sure. Anyway, that was really good news, and the next step will be getting the classes I want, getting the right textbooks, and paying the (gulp) first bill.

Kuniko is in the second of three weeks in a row without a day off. Having a drinking party tonight was a good stress reliever for her, and I was glad she could do it. Hopefully she’ll have another chance or two before the ordeal is over!

Not a whole lot to report for Tuesday. My first class was with the youngest students, and as always it was an adventure. Yuzuha and Karin, her sister, had a big fight right off the bat about where book they could use, and I had to spend 10 minutes just refereeing that fight before we could get on with the lesson. Luckily the other students are patient.

I really noticed today just how high maintenance Yuzuha and her sister are. They haven’t really developed much independence like the other students in my classes. Maybe just a difference in parenting styles. Anyway, they literally can’t do much of anything without direction.

On the other end of the scale my junior high school class went pretty well. The students there were pretty tired out from some school activities, but they participated in the lesson and really tried their best.

Oh, almost forgot. One of my students decided to quit. I’m not sure why, but it is one of the quietest students in my Tuesday classes. She will barely talk to anyone in either Japanese or English, and so maybe she just is too intimidated by the very vocal classroom. I don’t know why, but there will be one less student for me to teach every week.

Wow, long time no post! It has been nearly a week. What have I been up to?

I’ve been cranking through the work week, and having generally pretty good luck with keeping my students in line. On my way to work I usually bump into an ex-student or two, so even the walk to work can be really interesting. This week I have two junior high school classes, but they’ll be done after tonight, so I can relax a little bit.

Saturday morning Kuniko had to go to work, but it turned out she forgot something at home. She called me and asked me to gather it up and come to Kobe to deliver it. I headed into Kobe in a storm, but by the time I got there it was clearing up.

I walked up the hill to the school, but my timing wasn’t so hot and I had to walk by lots and lots of Kuniko’s students. Nothing like visiting a private girl’s high school in Japan to get the giggles going. Some of the students recognized me and said hello, and if you imagine what a Beatles concert was like with all the screaming you might get an idea of what it was like.

Luckily I found Kuniko outside the gates talking with some of the students from her class, and so I delivered the goods and chatted with them for a while. Kuniko said that she could drive home soon, so I decided to kill the time in Kobe until she was ready. I ate lunch at Taro ramen (free kimchee!), and then had a big black sesame soy latte at Captain Terry’s Coffee Stadium. There are a lot of interesting ways to kill time in Kobe.

Sunday Kuniko had to work again and I took the train to Hoden station and then walked to Kuniko’s parents’ place. I caught a ride with Kuniko’s mom to the family rice paddies, and then spent the day with them planting rice.

It was a beautiful day, and the biggest concern was if I was wearing enough sunscreen. The work isn’t really too tough considering they have a riding rice planter, so we just helped load it up with rice seedlings whenever he drove nearby. Just as we were finishing up in the afternoon a storm appeared on the horizon and quickly threatened the planting operation. We packed things up and got back to the garage just in time. It rained hard, complete with lightning and thunder, and at one point it even hailed. Weird to get hail in summer.

We cleaned up while the storm passed, and then picked up some fresh veggies from the garden for dinner. Back at the homestead I worked on getting their computer up to speed on the internet, and I think they are set up pretty well now. Kuniko came by in the evening, and we all had dinner and dessert before Kuniko and I headed back to get our tired butts in bed.

That’s the update. I’ll try to post a little more regularly this week and onward…