We had a good evening with Tomomi-chan and her husband Kohei. They came over in the early evening, and we spent a nice time eating tacos, playing Wii and drinking and eating some of the spoils of 中元 (chugen).

Nozaki sensei called and said she had some presents for me from some of my students’ parents, so she was nice enough to drive them over. There was a big box of beer, some somen noodles, and lots of sweets. Luckily Tomomi and Kohei helped us out with eating the desserts.

Tomomi wasn’t drinking, and when Kuniko asked why she told us that she was pregnant! That is exciting news for them. They are such nice, gentle people – they’ll make great parents! They are expecting sometime around February of next year, so it’s pretty early in the pregnancy but you could tell that they were really excited.

Kohei did the drinking for both of them, and he very gamely had a shot of tequila with me, and drank beer and wine throughout the evening. We all had a great time with the Wii, and I’m a little bit sore from playing so much tennis with them.

As usual it was a great evening with them. We walked them to the station and promised to get together again soon.

Last night it got windy, it got rainy, but nothing really dramatic ever happened. The typhoon that was approaching stayed on a southern course, and we missed the brunt of it. Kind of anti-climatic after I braced the stuff outside for a beating.

Today is Sunday morning and we’re just cleaning house, relaxing and doing laundry. Usually Kuniko doesn’t have this much free time, so we’re trying to enjoy it.

Tonight we’ve got a taco party to look forward to, and I bought a little bit of Garlic Tabasco sauce to prepare. We’ve got to go get some avocados across the street (only 99 yen each!) and then we’ll be ready to party. Tomorrow is a holiday, so we might need to bring out the tequila too…

I’ve put together a new blog to cover all the work I’m doing while studying. There are a lot of online courses and since most of the discussion is online and digital so I thought I should have a place to keep everything separate from my day to day posts here.

I probably won’t be posting nearly as much as I do here, but if you are interested feel free to stop by.

Friday night I met up with Antoine after my classes, and together we tried to search out an alternative burger source since our favorite burger place, Star Child’s, went out of business.

Burgers are a big deal. Star Child’s had been doing it the right way, grilling the burgers, big patties, and lots of fresh vegetables and toppings like avocado and real cheddar cheese to make it seem like a burger from back in the United States. Unfortunately, they are gone, and we had to follow up on a couple of rumors before we decided to try a new place tonight – Freshness Burger.

At first when we went in it looked like just another burger chain. The good news was that they had a really big burger on the menu, not just the usual McDonald’s sized burgers. We both ordered the big one, and then drank some Miller beer out of bottles and waited. They also had lots of condiments and hot sauces sitting around which I considered another positive sign.

The burgers came and they reminded us a lot of In-N-Out burgers. They were really good, and although they weren’t grilled they satisfied the burger craving I had. I put some hot sauce and garlic chili sauce, and that made them taste even better.

It took us less than a minute to eat the burger, much to the surprise of the staff, and then we hit the road for our next stop. We walked through Chinatown looking for a seedy Chinese drinking hole but surprisingly almost everything was closed up at 9 p.m. on a Friday night. There were a couple of places that looked spooky and mysterious, but they weren’t the kind of places that two foreigners just walk into. I’d like to find a good place to drink in Chinatown, though. The atmosphere there is really interesting.

We ended up drinking a giant beer at the Sapporo German-style beer place, talking religion, Japan, and driver’s licenses. Since we kind of had a late start to the evening it was already getting late, so we went for one last drink at the Spanish restaurant that Kuniko and I had visited a while back.

We had a glass of port with a big plate of cheese to serve as dessert, and I talked a little bit with the lady working the bar. I asked about all the California wines on the wine list, and it turns out that her husband is the owner and he has a lot of interest in California wines. I told her a little bit about my background, and she soon brought over her husband from the kitchen and he talked with us for a long time. It was really nice to chat with him, and he asked us a lot of questions about what we are doing and also about my background in wine.

We stayed for about an hour, and since the place was pretty empty I think the staff didn’t mind at all. We promised to come back for dinner sometime, and then hit the road. Antoine stopped in the bathroom on the way out, but there was somebody in there. While we waited patiently chatting with the owners suddenly there was a banging noise from inside the bathroom – and it was loud. The owners flinched and Antoine and I looked at each other, but what do you say in that situation? A moment later a drunk foreign guy came out mumbling and walked by us back to his table. Scary.

Anyway, we got back to the station and each went our separate ways. Kuniko was home watching movies when I arrived, and we stayed up until about one a.m. or so before finally heading to bed. The typhoon continues to approach slowly, and it should be arriving right in the middle of the weekend. The good news is that Kuniko has lots of time off because of the bad weather. She might get a very rare three day weekend out of this. My rain dancing is starting to pay off.

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!