On Friday morning I took the train to Hoden station to go help out Kuniko’s family planting rice. I did rice planting last year too, but as it turned out it was a little bit of a different activity today.

As I soon found out, we were planting the actual seeds to get the rice started. First someone laid out a layer of soil in a plastic tray, then we used a machine to scatter seeds, wet them down, and then cover them with more soil. Each tray was loaded onto the truck, and then we drove out to the rice paddy with more than a hundred trays.

From there we laid out a perforated plastic tarp down, and then laid the trays on top of that. Then we covered the trays with a big white tarp that was draped over to create a greenhouse effect. Finally we flooded the field, so that they would have plenty of water to get started.

Apparently after a month they would be ready to plant out in the rice paddy with the mechanical rice planting machine. So this was the very beginning, and it was really interesting for me to watch.

Kuniko’s parents were there, and also her aunt and uncle. They are taking a little while to warm up to me, but we’re slowly getting there. They served us up some bento boxes and beer for lunch, and afterwards Kuniko’s mom and I went to the farm and picked lots of peas and strawberries to take back.

That evening Kuniko drove over for dinner at her parent’s place – so we could all be there together and have a big meal. I was pretty sore and tired, so we headed home early. It was a great experience for me to check out. I’m hoping I’ll be free to help out with the actual planting in a month or so!

This morning a funny thing happened when Kuniko and I woke up. We were talking in bed and we heard a phone vibrate. She said that it was mine, and I said it was hers, but in the end it was neither. We couldn’t figure out what it was and about an hour later when Kuniko was getting ready she found a cellphone in her bag. She didn’t know whose it was, but upon further examination it turned out to be Hanayama sensei’s phone. I guess everyone got really drunk last night and somehow his phone ended up in her bag. Must have been a wild party.

Thursday I had the day to myself pretty much, and I didn’t do a whole lot. I did go in to work to prepare for the week ahead. Nozaki sensei was there, and we talked about how things were going and some of the problem students. She was really happy with how things are going, though, and it was a relief for me to hear it.

She also talked about sending me to a couple of conferences/seminars on her dime to help out with my teaching skills, especially with young children. The conferences are aimed at Japanese people teaching English to younger kids, so of course the entire thing will be in Japanese. I’m looking forward to the challenge of following the lectures and materials in another language.

Back home I made up some curry for dinner, and played some video games waiting for Kuniko to get home. We had talked about catching a late show of Spiderman 3. As the showtime approached I still hadn’t heard from her, and I ended up finally hearing from her past midnight. She said she going to get home late.

Talk about late – Kuniko got home around 2 a.m. I was up late worrying about her, but in the end it turned out that she was fine – she just drank so much and was so tired that she slept on the train right past our station. She had to take a taxi home from Kakogawa, and finally made it home safely. Must have been a wild party.

Today I woke up without too much of a hangover, thanks to some precautions I took before going to bed last night. Kuniko was off to work, and so I had the morning to get my brain working again. It took a while – I tried to do my vocabulary drills and was making lots of stupid mistakes.

So, I put away the schoolbooks and took out a book that I’ve been meaning to read for a while. I got all set up in the living room, opening up the windows so that I could enjoy the cool breeze and fresh air from outside. I read through most of the morning, and then decided to take a walk and get some exercise.

Taking walks is a lot easier for me now that Google Maps has got Japan all set up. I took a look at the overhead satellite pictures from the southern part of Okubo, and then set out to find an ocean.

It wasn’t a long walk to get there – maybe about 30 minutes. When I got there I was really surprised at how nice the area was. I was expecting something a little more like Futami, all fishing boats and marina. Instead it was a lot more like Suma, with a beach that wasn’t really sandy but still nice. The best part was seeing all the houses and apartments in the area that enjoyed a view of the inland sea. The view went all the way from Shikoku on the right sweeping to Kobe on the left, with the Akashi bridge in prominent view. There was a nice biking/hiking path newly built as well.

Walking along the pathway I couldn’t help but wonder what it would cost to live here. Having a nice patio with an ocean view would be pretty nice. I was in Eigashima, which is pretty far from the beaten path, but who knew that they had such a great view and environment around here?

I walked a ways down to coast, seeing only two other people the whole way. I stopped at a shrine that was on the coast, and it had some newly built facilities – benches to sit and enjoy the view, and a covered area where you could sit and enjoy the shade and the view. I spent about 20 minutes here relaxing and taking in the sight, and then started walking back.

The rest of the day I spent reading, doing laundry, and cleaning. Not too exciting. Kuniko is getting home late tonight, so I’m just taking it easy (and staying away from beer). Tomorrow I’m going to head into work for an hour or two to get ready for next week, and Friday I’m going to be planting rice with Kuniko’s dad. The days of relaxation are coming to an end soon…

Tuesday afternoon I met up with Antoine in Sannomiya for some birthday recreation. Antoine had made a specific proposal – we play bowling and billiards, and whoever wins the games buys the drinks we consume during the game. The last time we played bowling and billiards he beat me both times, so I’m happy to report that I kicked his ass at both games.

We did bowling first. We headed to a quiet bowling alley off the beaten path above a pachinko parlor. I’m not very good at bowling, but neither is Antoine. We just went out there and threw the ball around. The people around us obviously spent a lot of time at the bowling alley – the guy next to us was doing some crazy deliveries and ending up with a follow-through “guts pose” as it is called in Japan. His girlfriend kept looking up at our scoreboard, taking notes I guess.

Anyway, we played two games, and I bowled a 91 the first game and a 126 the second. Antoine did pretty much the same, but came in a little behind me in total score, so he had to pay for the two rounds of Budweisers (official beer of bowling?) that we consumed while playing.

Next off we went to play some pool. The pool hall had remodeled and upgraded, and it was much nicer. Now they had a phone next to your table – you pick it up, say what you want, and hang it up again. Then your order shows up right away. We played for two hours and really had fun. We play pretty sloppy pool, and Antoine likes to try to say stupid things to distract me during my shots – kind of his handicap. Despite this, I still beat him four games to one. Thanks for covering the beer, dude. Happy Birthday.

By the end of pool the beer was catching up to us, and so we went to a sushi place for dinner. The place was fairly busy, and we sat at the counter and ordered up a small sushi dinner. Antoine told me about his plans to meet up with Miwako tonight for his birthday – he said that he had to leave at 8:30 tonight to get all the way to south Osaka in time. He considers that their relationship is pretty much over, though, and he said that he already told his parents and she told hers. Weird. He boldly declared that he was now single, and I had to remind him that his single status was only until 8:30 tonight.

After sushi we went to the Belgian beer place for one last drink, but Antoine had to leave soon after we arrived, and I was left sitting at the table nursing my beer and wondering just how drunk I was.

I did manage to get on a train going to Okubo, and I sat across from a couple speaking Spanish the whole way. I could only understand bits and pieces, but that may say more about how much Spanish I’ve forgotten than my state of sobriety at the time.

Kuniko actually was on the next train, so I waited at the station and she got me home safely. I had a good time tonight – I hope Antoine did, too.

Monday – the first day of Golden Week. I had the whole day off, and pretty much spent it relaxing, cooking, reading and playing Nintendo. As you might expect, Kuniko had to work.

I also took a crosstown hike to the big shopping center to look at laptop computers. My old Toshiba that I’m using now is getting slower and slower, and now it is to the point that I click on the browser to get it started, leave the room, and when I come back it is ready to go. It takes forever. The computer is four years old, and I’ve used it almost every day of that time, so I can understand why it’s a little tired out.

I was surprised to find that the laptops available for sale here in Japan didn’t give me a lot of value for my money. Without going completely geek, the video cards are cheesy generic Intel cards and the processors are two steps behind what I can get in America. Isn’t that strange? Anyway, I’m going to have to continue with my plan to get the laptop in America and have my folks fly it over with them to Hawaii this summer.

Today was actually pretty hot in the morning and afternoon, but in the evening it got cloudy and muggy. It won’t be long before the air conditioners will need to be running again. I can’t believe how fast the seasons seem to change here.

Kuniko got home a little early, and so I was in the middle of cooking Red Lobster Biscuits, only because I missed them – I haven’t been to a Red Lobster in years. The biscuits turned out pretty good – similar to what I remembered – and Kuniko and I ate more than I’d like to admit on this journal. Luckily I cut down on the amount of butter – I don’t want to kill anybody. We sat in the afternoon sun and chased the biscuits with an endless supply of cold beer from the fridge, and before long we were both pretty drunk. There is not much better than sharing some homemade biscuits and getting drunk in the afternoon – I’m glad I married someone who can appreciate the finer moments in life.

Tomorrow I’m going to meet up with Antoine to celebrate his birthday, and I’m expecting a pretty wild night. Kuniko has to work all this week, so we won’t meet up again until I come staggering home late Tuesday night. I wouldn’t expect a coherent update from me until Wednesday night at the earliest…

Sunday I met up with Kuniko after work in Sannomiya, and together we met up with Masaki and Tomoko. You might remember that we went over to their place a while back, and during that time we mentioned that there was a great place in Kobe for burgers – Starchild’s in Kitano.

With a little due diligence we found out that Starchild’s was in fact out of business, and so we had to go to an alternate restaurant. In the end we picked a Spanish restaurant that I had been to before in the new Mint Kobe building. On the way there we stopped in Tower Records, and Tomoko found a new album by one of her favorite artists – Joe.

I can’t emphasize enough how bummed out I am about Starchild’s. The burgers there were just like a burger you would get at a burger joint in America. Grilled on a real indoor BBQ with a hood, with cheese, avocados, everything you need to make the perfect monster burger. Now, there is no source in Kobe for burgers…. bummer.

We went to a Spanish restuarant, and had a pretty good meal. The food was pretty good, the wine was really good – especially a big 1987 Spanish red that was so mellow – perfect for drinking now. And it was on sale by the glass – yes!

Over dinner we talked and caught up with what we were up to and what our plans were for Golden Week. Misaki had the week off, so he was planning on a little bit of fishing and golf – that sounded like fun.

We got out of dinner for around 3000 yen a head, which is pretty reasonable considering we had a couple of rounds of drinks, too. From there we got a Starbucks to go, and then took it with us on a walk up the hill to Kitano.

Every year at this time they lay out these huge murals on the ground made from flower petals, and like last year Kuniko’s school made a mural. We went and surveyed them all. The evening was perfect for walking the upscale Kitano neighborhood. On the way back to the train station we stopped at “Natural Lawson” – my first time to see one. Lawson is a convenience store, with branches about every 200 feet in Japan. This was my first time seeing a Natural Lawson, where they emphasize fresh and healthy food. It was fun to spend time looking through all the different (and unusually healthy) products that they had.

Everything was just a little more expensive, but I’m thinking it is worth it. They also had some of the regular convenience store food as well, so drunken people walking in seeing a Lawson logo wouldn’t be disappointed. Anyway, I hope I see more of them in the future.

We parted ways at the train station and headed on home, but it was a lot of fun to hang out with them. They are a really nice couple and they are really patient with me and my broken Japanese. I hope we can meet up with them again soon.

Kuniko went into work this morning, and I had a few hours to kill in the morning before going into Kobe myself to meet her and two of her exchange students. I had a little ten-don for lunch and then met them at Sannomiya station around 12:30.

It was my first time meeting Hinzy (from Oregon) and Barbara (from France). Hinzy was very American (as Kuniko and I described her later) and really friendly and outgoing. She was a lot of fun to hang out with. Barbara was still learning both English and Japanese, so she was much quieter, but seemed like a really nice girl.

We took the train to Rokkomichi, and from there walked about 10 minutes to the music hall where the mandolin guitar concert was. I went to the same concert last year, so I knew what to expect, but Hinzy and Barbara were shocked to find out that the concert was expected to last about three hours long.

The reason they were interested in going to the show was because another exchange student, Mayara (from India) was performing since she is in the mandolin guitar club. We cheered her on during the performance, and afterwards we all shared a cab back to Sannomiya. Being around all these unabashedly un-shy high school girls was a little bit of a culture shock to me – just another sign that I’ve really gotten accustomed to Japanese culture.

Once we got back from the show, Kuniko and I did some shopping in Sannomiya and then headed on home. On the way back we saw that Hijiri, a bento delivery place that features steak in their bento boxes, was actually open. Usually we walk by and smell the steak cooking, but our timing is bad and they are closed. So, we bought a bento with steak and came home and ate that along with cheese, crackers, and various prosciutto from Italy that I had found in the import food section of Jusco. It was an awesome dinner. We also had a couple of beers and a bottle of Viognier that I found a while back, so we were feeling pretty good.

Tomorrow we’re back into Kobe to meet up with Tomo-chan and her husband for some burgers from Star Child. Hopefully we’ll be able to get a table – it’s Golden Week and there are a lot of people running around in the big cities.

Friday I had just two classes, but one of them is one of my “challenging” classes. The students are all girls but one. The boy is really sharp and is surprisingly confident with English. There are two girls that are really eager to learn English and pay attention to everything I say. There is one girl that is new and has a pretty high level of English. The last two girls in the class are problems – Mayu and Sakura.

Like most of my troublemakers, they are attention starved, and they are always looking for the opportunity to take the attention off the lesson and put it on themselves. Sakura will tell long winded stories in Japanese when I ask her if she likes apples. Mayu will stand on the table, tackle other girls, and cause whatever disruption she can to get people to pay attention to her. They are about 11 years old, so they are pretty young.

Today Nozaki sensei was around, and listening in behind the door to the classroom. I had told her earlier how sometimes Mayu and Sakura were disruptive, and so she paid a little more attention. She also did something pretty sneaky – she called Mayu’s mom. Mayu was in the middle of shouting that all foreigners are gay when the door opened and her mother came in.

Talk about a complete 180 degree reversal. The room became quiet, I taught the rest of the class and Mayu was my best student. I commented in Japanese that I couldn’t believe how well-behaved everyone had become (mainly a message to the mother). We wrapped up the class and everyone left having learned a great deal more than Mayu’s opinion that all foreigners are gay.

The end result was that the class was under control and we could learn, but I’ve got to figure out a way to get those two girls under control on my own. Maybe I’ll need to threaten to call their moms. Or maybe I should call their moms.

Anyway, the next class comes in and it has a little slice of everything I love about teaching these kids. There are three girls and one boy. The boy is pretty good with English and pretty confident. He’s not shy and he’ll take chances speaking English, even if he’s wrong. Of the other three girls, Kanon is the sharpest. She knows a lot of vocabulary, and she’s not afraid to try to use it. She wears thick glasses, so her eyes seem unnaturally big. Her buddy Manami doesn’t know much English, but she tries hard. I think she’s crushing on me big time, so she is prone to giggling fits occasionally, but she’s got the right attitude about English. Finally Misaki is super shy and quiet, but I can tell she wants to learn more English and given the time and space she can come up with fairly complex sentences on her own.

So, the second class more than makes up for the first one, and I went home pretty happy. It was also the last day of work for a while – I get the next week off of work (it’s Golden Week). Kuniko was stuck at a union meeting at school, so I stopped in at a yakitori that I have always wanted to try on the way home.

This yakitori is slightly bigger than my regular place. It is family owned, and the mother took care of me right off, offering an English menu and speaking as much English as she could. The master was busy at the grill but he took the time to chat with me when he was free. As for the food – the menu was pretty extensive, and along with the usual yakitori fare it ran into the non-traditional – they had lots of cheese on the menu, as well as pizza-style chicken yakitori. It tried the pizza yakitori and it was just chicken with pizza sauce and cheese melted over the top, but it was pretty good.

Three beers and many yakitori sticks later I headed home and an hour or so later Kuniko came home. We went to bed soon after – she’s got work tomorrow, but we’re going to have the chance to meet up and go see a mandolin guitar concert. I’m looking forward to seeing the show, and I might get a chance to meet some of Kuniko’s exchange students as well.

Thursday’s classes went much smoother than the day before – no behavior problems or crazy kids. Actually, there was one crazy kid, but he’s the only one in the class. The other students ignore him, I think the lack of attention will calm him down over time.

It’s a little early, but I think that I’m not a big fan of the textbook that I’m using with the students. There’s a lot of reasons why, but I’ll give you an example from today’s lesson.

I was teaching the students how to make sentences in English and how they change based on the subject. For example, “I wash my hair” becomes “He washes his hair”. Not only does the subject “he” change, but you also have to change “my” to “his”. It’s a little difficult for Japanese speakers because the grammar structure is completely different from Japanese. “We”, “he”, “she”, “they”, “I” – all of these have different modifiers.

This is tough – in junior high school we spent almost a month on understanding this conceptually and being able to use it. With this text book we are supposed to cover it in two 50 minute classes over two weeks. And these two classes are the first two after a month off for spring break.

The strangest part for me is that my students cannot even answer if I ask basic questions like “How are you?” It seems ridiculous to teach grammar structures with no basic foundation. Combine this with the students’ fear of speaking out in English and making a mistake, being embarrassed about having unknown boys and girls around, and having a native speaker as a teacher. It seems too great a challenge for them.

My plan is to get through this week’s lessons, and then spend some time re-thinking my approach over the coming Golden Week. Maybe I can come up with a plan that will teach them not only English, but how to use it.

OK, rant over.

Wednesday I have a pretty hyperactive class first, and today was the world record for crazy classroom stories.

There are two boys and four girls, and they are always talking amongst each other, wrestling, and really not paying attention to me. I can get them engaged if I play a game or something, but they aren’t supposed to just be playing games the whole class. What’s it like? Here’s a sample – I show a flashcard with “hamburgers” on it, I say “hamburgers”, three students repeat it, two students continue their conversation with each other, and one boy says “Hamboooooooo!” and then walks over and kicks me in the balls four times.

At various times during the class I had students climbing up me like a tree, boys wrestling on the floor saying “Hambooo!” over and over, and three of the girls lifting their skirts to compare what underwear they were wearing that day.

Yeah. I know.

As an added bonus, one of the boys was chattering away and his front tooth fell out. He laughed heartily, blotted the bloody socket with his white shirt sleeve, and told everyone that “blood tastes good!” By the time I got there with tissues he was grossing out the girls by showing them his tooth.

Clearly I need to get this class under control, but I’m not sure what steps I’m going to take to do it. On one hand, this isn’t high school and the students aren’t tested on their English – if I don’t cover everything in a class that’s not a problem, but I do want to cover something. I think I’m going to have to just use more Japanese with them, and maybe use a lot more of the “command form” of Japanese. I hate to talk down to kids, but if they act like rabid monkeys then I guess I have to.

Fun, fun, fun. I guess that is why this is a part time job. You’d drop dead working with these students all day long.

However, it’s not all bad news. The next students that came in (and really, most all of the students I teach) behaved, listened with interest to what we were learning, and at the end of the day I think they did learn something useful.

When I came home at the end of the day I was pretty tired out. Kuniko heard my story and said, “Really, don’t try to do too much. You can quit if you want!” I told her that it is a good learning experience, and maybe a nice preview of fatherhood someday. So I’m going to treat this as a challenge. Can’t wait to see what happens next Wednesday class. Luckily I have next week off, so I can take some time and come up with a plan to deal with these guys. Or I could use the time to get six little straightjackets that fit them.

At school today I had four classes in a row. That made it really hard to get prepared in the hour or so that I had set aside for prep time. I did manage to get everything done, though, and when the first students showed up I had everything in place.

The first class was with the youngest kids. We had a good time today, and I led them through a couple of dance routines. The textbook that they are using is pretty ambitious – the songs they are learning have some really difficult English in there. The kids followed through on the gestures, though, and I think they had a good time. The students also made a steady beeline for the bathroom, and now I know why we teach that expression right off the bat.

Kento, the only little boy in the class, is still afraid of saying anything. His dad is a trooper and comes in and sits down with him. His dad tries to get him to talk while I try to keep the activity going without Kento but also try to get him to get involved once in a while. Also Yuzuha (the three year old) is pretty high maintenance. She wants to get my attention all the time, and that pulls me away from the lesson and the other students. Yeah, it’s always quite a lesson.

One thing that surprised me was that when I set the young students on a task to color a picture, they constantly asked me – what color should this be? How about this? Does this shade of green work for the leaves or should I use another?

I had somehow imagined that the students would idly color away while I walked around and talked in English with them about what colors they are using. Instead I was giving them explicit instructions – green there, the hat is blue, the man is pink, etc etc. I don’t remember worrying so much about coloring details when I was coloring as a kid, but I guess that was a long, long time ago. I think I just went nuts and colored it however I liked. Today’s coloring lesson wasn’t so much a creative outlet as a color by numbers. But when you consider I gave them all the instructions in English maybe it is a good thing.

The other classes went smoothly, and now that we’re in the textbook the students are a little easier to guide through the lesson. It’s really nice to see that veteran members of the class help and guide the new students in the class. I haven’t seen a student ignored yet because he or she was new. Part of the “group” mentality in Japan? It really pays off in this situation for all of us.

My junior high class was a lot of fun. I try to goof around with the junior high school students more to keep things light and make the experience of learning English a little more comfortable. One of the students in that class, Yuki, is pretty shy, and when I look at her or ask a question she tends to turn red and/or burst out laughing. It might take a little while for Yuki to calm down, but in the meantime she is trying hard to speak English. The other students are getting more talkative as well.

After class I came back home, walking back in the rain that came around unexpectedly. Luckily I had an umbrella with me. Right when I got home Kuniko sent me a message asking me to meet her at the station with an umbrella, so I turned right around and met her when her train arrived. Since it was so late we got some goodies for dinner at the grocery store and then relaxed at home for the evening. It was a busy day for both of us, but it went pretty well. I’m hoping tomorrow goes just as well.

Today was the first day teaching classes with the textbooks. I got to Nozaki sensei’s place a little early because I figured there would be a lot of prep work to do today. Actually, she and her family were all home, which surprised me. There was a little family emergency false alarm last night, so Nozaki sensei and her husband both took the day off today.

Anyway, Nozaki sensei was there to help me prep for classes, and I had a little extra time before the students arrived so we walked around the neighborhood to introduce me and let everyone know not to panic if there is a foreign guy entering her home.

Nozaki sensei had purchased some little cheesecakes for the occasion. We went to each place, said hello and explained what was going on, and then handed over the present and said goodbye. The reactions of her neighbors were very positive. One lady said that she would be glad to have a foreigner around the neighborhood (whatever that meant). One house had just a college aged daughter home at the time, so we introduced ourselves to her and she smiled and looked at me like I was an appetizer on a plate.

One particular custom in Japan that is interesting to me is giving gifts. Nozaki sensei had bought the cheesecakes, and so when I saw that she had did that I said that it was such a big thing to do and she shouldn’t go to all the trouble. Then, when we walked around giving the gifts, the recipients of the gifts would say that it was way too much and actually appear to refuse the gift. Of course, you can’t let them refuse, and in order to get them to take the gift you tell them that the gift is nothing – very small, and not so delicious. That puts me in the unusual postion of belittling the gift that I recently had said was too much. It all depends on where you are on the respect scale at the moment.

Here’s a gift that my boss just bought for everyone, and here I am, in front of my boss, saying that it is really nothing at all and not even worth mentioning. The trick is to be as humble as possible, far past the point of personal comfort.

As for my classes, they went pretty well. With the textbook the students had a little more structure to their lesson. It was kind of nice, actually – before I would look up at the clock and see too much time left. Now I saw that there was not enough time.

After work I came home and cooked up some of the food that we got from Kuniko’s parents, and then did an hour of studying kanji before hitting the sack. I received a schedule from Nozaki sensei for my holidays this year, so tomorrow I want to check that out. It looks pretty good, though.

Sunday was a rare day off for Kuniko, so we spent the day doing whatever she wanted to do. We studied, played video games, cooked, relaxed, and generally took it easy.

In the evening we went over to Kuniko’s folks place for dinner. We brought along a lot of food that we had bought at Osho, and they also had prepared a lot of food. Kuniko’s mom had made kimchee/octopus fried rice, sashimi, and takenoko tempura. It was the first time for me to eat takenoko tempura, and it was really good. But I’m a fan of just about anything fried. So in the end, there were piles of food everywhere, and lots of cold beer to drink. The biggest challenge was deciding what to eat.

Kuniko’s dad was settling into his favorite TV show, Taiga Drama, so we decided to make our move and get out of there. We came back home early because we both had some things to get ready for Monday, and a nice hot bath at the end of the day really capped off a relaxing day.

Tomorrow my students will start in on their classes with their new textbooks. They arrived on Friday, so I’ll be forcing them to actually learn some English instead of just playing games, which is what we’ve been doing the last two weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing their reaction.

Elections in Japan can be noisy. But there is hope. Change is coming, but it will take a long time before it will quiet down around election time.

In Okubo they wait until after 9 a.m. before turning on the noise machines. After nine, the streets are constantly ringing with the sound of someone in a huge voice repeating “Please vote for me!” ten times and “Sorry about the noise!” once.

When I got Okubo station last night after midnight, a campaigning official wearing the standard “beauty contestant sash” stood at the gates with five of his supporters lined up on either side as swarms of tired, hungover people came out. They bowed, asked for our support in tired monotone, then repeated. My first thought was “tell me why I should vote for you… don’t just bow and wave and hope I remember your name!” But then I remembered.

I don’t get a vote here.

Flagpole Sitta