Monday was all relaxation for us, and it was nice to take the time and do practically nothing. Kuniko cooked some dishes she’s been wanting to try, and we played lots of Wii in the living room. So much that Kuniko was complaining of a sore arm from swinging the racket.

Tuesday was the start of our week – and it’s always nicer to start a week when there are only four days in it. We got up early and caught an early train. At school I had one of my classes cancelled, so it was an easy schedule of just two classes.

I was able to use my spare time to do some newspaper reading – and I finally finished reading the Japanese newspaper that I bought a week ago. I’m not quite ready to read it daily, but it is fun to plug away at.

My second class was under observation by members of the PTA, and so I was working with a big audience. I had ten or eleven mothers watching from the back of the room, and they happened to be watching one of my most frustrating groups of students. The students are all smart, but they don’t generally get along with each other. That makes teamwork a little more challenging, and so the games that I had planned weren’t so successful early on. Later they warmed up a little bit, but still, not the best class to observe.

Tonight I cooked up a ham and served some macaroni and cheese freshly arrived from the USA thanks to my parents. It was good to get a taste of the USA for dinner. Kuniko surprised me by serving up homemade chocolate for dessert. She had secretly made it last night while I was reading in bed, and so we enjoyed that after dinner. It was really good. In Japanese it is called nama-choco, which literally translated means “raw chocolate”. It is super creamy and rich, kind of like a torte. Yum!

Sunday Kuniko and I went into Kyoto to go to one of Kuniko’s favorite shrines. She has been going there and making wishes since she was in college, and each time her wish comes true she goes back and makes another one. We made the journey on the Hankyu train and got there around nine in the morning.

There was already a line forming of people that wanted to walk through the shrine. Part of the walkthrough is a lecture from the priest, and since we didn’t want to hear that, Kuniko went directly to the shrine window and bought a couple of charms. The priest there gave her a little crap for not listening to the lecture, but she was able to buy them and get out of there. We made our wishes and prayed, and then hit the trail.

Kuniko was a little put off by the priest’s attitude – the idea of religion as a business has been around for a long time, but when something like this happens it becomes all the more apparent.

Next stop was a little shrine in town that was having a mini-festival. It wasn’t really a festival – more of a gathering. The shrine is known for making sweet sake, and they were giving it away for free, so we each had a hot cup of sake and enjoyed the warming sunshine. We also walked through the gardens, but they weren’t as impressive as I had hoped. The plum blossoms were just starting to bloom, but I think it won’t be in full bloom for another couple of weeks.

From there we took a two kilometer walk to Arashiyama, a famous part of Kyoto situated in the mountains next to a wide river. The walk was really refreshing. We got a lot of exercise, and it gave us a chance to chat with each other and talk about some of the big picture things that we’ve been struggling with lately – jobs, houses, kids, etc.

We walked into Arashiyama, and then visited some of the shops there. I bought omiyage for my teachers, and we had lunch in a small restaurant just as some rainshowers came through. It was really nice to see the people running around outside getting rained on while we sat in front of steaming bowls of rice, egg, and fried pork.

By the time we finished lunch the rain had stopped, so we did just a little more shopping and I picked up some famous sakura mochi to take home. Then we walked back to the train station and headed home.

On the Hankyu trains, the first car and the last car of the trains are “no cellphone” cars. They ask that you power off your cellphones. I guess it is for people with pacemakers to ride in safety, but it might also be a manners thing. Anyway, on the ride to Kyoto we noticed a couple of people using cellphones in those cars, despite the signs everywhere and the announcements of the conductors.

On the way back home a guy was sitting right next to us typing away at his cellphone, when suddenly a lady suddenly shrieked at him to shut off the power. He calmly did while everyone else looked at her incredulously. She started to chat with some ladies sitting across from us, and they got so scared that they got off the train at the next stop. The crazy lady was following them as our train pulled away. Weird.

That evening Kuniko made up some really good yakisoba, and then after dinner we caught the late show of “Shiawase no chikara” or in English, “The Pursuit Of Happyness”. It was a pretty depressing movie, despite the relatively happy ending. It made us very appreciative of the roof over our heads that night.

Friday I cancelled a date with Antoine to stay home and rest up my body – I’m sure that with rest I’ll shake this cough and get completely better. I barely got through my workday even though I had only two classes. Some other teachers noticed that my morning was pretty open, so they had me interviewing students to practice for their high school entrance interviews.

Friday night Kuniko and I took it easy and just had some delivery pizza for dinner. Then we were off to bed early. Saturday Kuniko had to work, so I stayed home and did my usual laundry/cleaning routine. Then we met up on the train to Himeji so that we could have dinner at the Okamotos’ house.

The former Tsuji-san, now Okamoto-san, lives in Himeji in a new house that they had built on some property that her husband’s family had. The property used to be a rice field, but the whole area is being converted into housing. It is quite a ways from Himeji, though, and they met us at the station in their car, and we drove to their house from there.

The drive was about 20 minutes, and the area where they live is really out in the middle of nowhere. There were a lot of new houses in the area. The nearest convenience store was a good ten minute walk from their place.

The house itself was great – really nice and full of cool amenities. The toilet alone was worth the visit. When you walk into the bathroom the light comes on automatically, the toilet seat opens automatically, and it has all the water squirting fuctions including a butt dryer to ventilate the area afterwards.

We had takoyaki for dinner, homemade right in front of us. Their recipe was just a little different from the Kageyama recipe, but it was good, too. They added dried shrimp to theirs which is something I’ve never tried before.

After dinner we played Japanese Monopoly, which is pretty much the same as the American version except for the names of the properties are Japanese cities, and the money is all in yen. It was pretty clear after we started playing that they hadn’t quite nailed down the strategy of it, and I bought up properties like mad and then started building houses as fast as I could. We wrapped up the game around 9 o’clock, as the handwriting was on the wall and everyone knew it was just a matter of time before everything they owned would be mine. Bwah-ha-ha….

During the evening we looked at the pictures from their honeymoon in Spain. Some of them were pretty dramatic – it looked beautiful. Spain is somewhere I’d like to go someday, so I watched with a lot of interest. Another thing that was interesting was that during the whole night Okamoto-san (Ikuko) didn’t speak any English. She said it was because she had forgotten it all, but I think it might really be because she wanted to keep her husband from feeling like an outsider.

We had lots of dessert, and then hit the road back towards the station. Kuniko and I took the train from there home, and then hit sack pretty early so that we could get up early and head to Kyoto on Sunday.

Hello, did you miss me? I was suffering from a burning fever last night, with temperatures reaching up to 38.4! I had the chills and I was sweating, so I just tried to rest last night.

Kuniko was nice enough to care for me through the evening. I don’t remember much but she suddenly slapped some kind of wet compress on my forehead, which felt like a bucket of cold water while you’re taking a hot shower. I eventually woke up this morning feeling much better, and I have her to thank for it. The fever was gone, and I was able to go to school and do a reasonably good job with my classes.

Today at school I had to help my students sing “We Are The World”, and we also watched a DVD documentary of the song and the recording of it. It was fun for me to watch, and see what the video described as “America’s Greatest Popular Artists” gathering together to make the song. It was entertaining, and the kids reaction to Ray Charles was good. They laughed at how he sang the song, and when Michael Jackson appeared they couldn’t believe how different he looked from the images of him that they see now.

I’m back home staying warm and getting some rest. I want to gather some steam for the get together this Saturday at the Okamoto’s house. What’s nice is that it is a three day weekend, so Kuniko and I will both have all of Sunday and Monday off.

Well, that’s all for now. Back to healing.

Kuniko had a whole bento spread set up by the time I rolled out of bed this morning, and while she was in the shower I got everything placed into the right comparments of each bento box so that everything would remain separate and pure from the juices of its neighbor.

Today was a big day for me because it marked the first day that I used my new handheld computer to do memory drills. I loaded all the old data in from the old handheld, and it worked great. I did lots of drills and even had time to memorize a few extra words at the end of the day. The biggest difference was battery life. My old handheld had to be charged up while I was in class, and then I would use it for forty minutes and drain the battery again. I used the new handheld for about two hours today and it held up without even dropping below half a charge. Nice!

The biggest challenge for me today at school was talking. Although I am almost over my cold, I’m coughing a lot, and sometimes it is hard to keep it together through a whole English class. After school I helped Kuroda sensei record a listening test, and I couldn’t even clear my throat during the recording – that was tough.

My teachers asked me yesterday to bring in a recording of “We Are The World”, so I pulled a copy off the net and burned it to a CD. Today they asked me to teach the correct pronunciation to all the students in the school. I think on Thursday we’ll have students come into the music room and watch a DVD about the making of the song, and then I’ll help them sing it. As Kuniko said, “Funny.”

On my way home today I was crossing the street towards the station, and I could hear a low whistling sound. As I got closer I saw that it was coming from a huge kettle sitting on top of open flames in the back of an idling truck. It was a steamed potato vendor, advertising his potatoes by the sound of the steam escaping the top of the kettle. It was a little scary to see a full blaze going on a metal truck bed, just inches above a gas tank underneath. It must be safe, otherwise he wouldn’t be allowed to do it, right?

I’ve had a lot on my mind the last few days. Mainly it has to do with my job situation, and my future in Japan. I’ve been communicating with my staffing company, trying to get a grasp on the likelihood of a securing another contract starting the next school year. They are horribly vague, and always give me a wait and see response, which is not what I want to hear. Maybe I am just getting to the age where I need a little more security in my job life.

Anyway, the goal I’m shooting for is to earn a Master’s degree, and then use that to teach school at a different level, probably at a college. I really like teaching, and I think I have something to offer students in Japan.

The trick is pulling it all off while not going broke and helping support the household. Can I do it? I don’t know. I have a line on something that might be interesting, but I still need to think it through and see if it is the right thing for me.

Anyway, lots to think about lately. More updates as events warrant!

I’ll start off today’s entry with an update on dinner last night. Kuniko and I drove over to her folks place, and we were there before her sister and her boyfriend (Yamaoka-san) made it. We helped out her mom a little bit to get dinner ready, and then had everything set up and ready when they arrived.

They both seemed healthy and happy, and as always Yamaoka-san was a little shy, a little quiet, and it was hard to tell if he was really comfortable or not.

We sat down for dinner, and soon after Kuniko’s dad came home late from working at his part time job. He’s always working overtime, even at a part time job. We had set up Kuniko’s sister and Yamaoka-san at the dinner table with Kuniko’s parents, and Kuniko and I sat at the table in the living room. Dinner was really good – there was a lot of food (too much!) and good conversation.

We wrapped up dinner and Kuniko’s mom went to work in the kitchen, and Kuniko’s sister came to hang out with us. Yamamoka-san was left to chat with Kuniko’s dad. I’ve been in that position before, and I noticed that Yamaoka-san was adopting the same strategy I do – listen carefully and agree now and then. The difference was that he could understand 100% of what Kuniko’s dad was saying as compared to my paltry 60%.

We all left on the early side, loaded down as always with rice and fresh vegetables to eat over the next week or two. It was a nice evening, and I think everybody got along OK – no big surprises.

Today it was tough to get up in the morning. Mainly it’s because it’s freaking cold outside. Also because it’s freaking early. But we managed to pull it off and get out the door on time.

With the exception of just one class, my students were plenty active and ready to use lots of English. My morning third year class is always really lethargic. Today they didn’t respond to anything, but I kept trying. When students are that quiet the only thing that is really effective is to diverge from the lesson plan a little bit and start talking to them directly. That seems to help, but it’s nothing to base a whole lesson on. The teacher that I was working with at the time doesn’t seem to mind – he treats all the students the same whether they are active or not. It’s interesting to see him work almost as if in a vacuum.

My teachers are starting to wonder just what is around the corner for me job-wise, something that I am wondering myself. I tell them what I know, which is not much, and they think I’m crazy for being in a position like this. Maybe I am, who knows? I’m going to get in touch with my staffing company again and see what they’ve got going.

I’m back home now and getting dinner ready for Kuniko. We’re having vegetarian nabe tonight to try to eat a little healthier. I’m going to make it spicy tonight – I want to be sweating when we’re done eating it…

We’re just sitting around this weekend relaxing and playing Wii. My cold is much better this morning, which is great news. Kuniko is baking and enjoying her day off. All is right with the world.

On Friday I got a “used” handheld computer to replace my dying iPAQ. The new “used” one is also an iPAQ, but made about six years later so it is much lighter and more efficient. I ended up finding it online in a tiny electronics store in Tokyo. The guy said it was used only in that the box was open, and it was true – everything was sealed and in perfect condition. I saved a lot of money and was able to finally buy the one I wanted.

Tonight we’re heading over to Kuniko’s parents for the first visit in a long time. Kuniko’s sister is going to be there with her boyfriend, so that should be fun. It’ll be my first time to see him in that environment. I’m looking forward to it.

Not much else to report this weekend. Things are kind of quiet for now. Next weekend we’ll be going over to visit Tsuji-san (now Okamoto-san) in her new home for a takoyaki party. The weekend after that is Kuniko’s birthday, and then the third weekend we might have Miyake sensei and Nozaki sensei come over for dinner. Entertaining should be fun!

Last night before bed Kuniko and I played some Wii, and it didn’t turn out really well for Kuniko. She beat me in tennis the first match 3-0, and then lost the next two matches – 6 games to none. Then we played boxing to change the pace and she got knocked out in the second round. She had a pretty tough Wii experience last night. Kuniko likes to win, and there wasn’t much of that happening. I hope she’ll play it again with me sometime…

Today at school we had a few issues with some students and their parents, and I wound up with one class cancelled and more time to nurse my cold and stay warm in the staff room.

Apparently, a couple of students were cheating at an exam and they were caught. They sent the students home, where they told a different story to their parents. Then the parents were angry at the teachers, and the teachers had to make several visits to the parents.

It was plenty stressful for everyone involved, but for me, it worked out very nicely. I had a pretty good headache in the morning, and since I had a free period I went down to the school nurse’s room looking for help.

One of the biggest unseen benefit to my job is the school nurse. You step out of the cold into a nice toasty room with polished wood floors. The nurse worries about you like she was your mother, and gives you all kinds of medicine, advice, even hot tea. I sat and talked with her for a while over tea. In the corner of the room are three big beds that students who are tired/exhausted use during the day. One of the boys from the baseball team was curled up in a bed covered up with a huge comforter. The school nurse offered me a bed, but I had to decline – I’d sleep there the rest of the day and miss my classes.

I came home tonight and cooked up a simple pasta dish with some pasta that we brought back from Italy. It was really good. Right now Kuniko is doing the Wii again, so that’s a good sign. Tomorrow she’s got a hike with her students, but there is snow in the forecast, so it might be cancelled. For her sake, I hope so – she could stay home and rest…

Kuniko had to drive in to work today, so I caught a ride with her and ended up arriving at work at seven, about forty minutes early. I don’t mind getting there early – I used to be one of the first people to arrive at work at Takasago Minami.

If you want to impress your Japanese co-workers, come in early. It doesn’t have to be much earlier than normal – but they’ll think you are amazing. Today everyone was astonished to see me there, and the principal came by later to thank me personally for working so hard on the behalf of the school’s students. It was nice to get all the attention, but I couldn’t help but wonder if I had stayed forty minutes later would anyone have noticed? I don’t think so…

At lunch today the broadcasting club played some unusual selections – Eric Clapton blues numbers from his early career. I was a little surprised with their musical selection – I wouldn’t have expected it from thirteen year old kids. It sounded great, though, and I went in afterwards to tell them how much I liked it. They let me borrow the CD, so I ripped it to MP3 on my computer and I’m a very happy man.

The big event today was the observation lesson by Kuroda sensei. She has been working hard the last month to prepare for it. There were people from the board of education there, as well as other English teachers, staff from our school, and parents of the students. They even videotaped it.

All of her hard work paid off, though, and the class went off really well. It wasn’t so exciting to watch, but language learning rarely is. The students tried so hard to do well, and some of their behavior was a little over the top. One of the girls was always shushing the other students so they wouldn’t be a distraction. She’d never do that in a regular class, and I’m sure the other teachers noticed. Her heart was in the right place, though.

I made a brief appearance at the end to do some dictation, and I got a big round of applause from the students. I even got a little nervous doing my routine in front of total strangers. It seemed to go OK, though.

Tonight was leftover night at home, and we’re going to play a little Wii and then go to bed. I played some Wii earlier this evening and ended up soaked in sweat. I swear that this thing is making me lose weight. My arms feel much stronger from boxing, too.

Kuniko and I caught an early train, but because of a peculiarity in the schedule, I spent an even longer time standing on a train and I got at my station at exactly the same time. That sucked. Next time we’ll just hang out in our living room in comfort if we’re ready early.

I forgot to mention that yesterday our school served whale meat for the school lunch. Actually, it wasn’t just our school, it was the whole Nishinomiya school district. The whale was served fried like chicken, and the overall review was faintly positive. Every now and then whale makes an appearance on the school lunch menu as part of the government trying to get rid of that “scientific” whale meat that they harpoon.

Today there wasn’t that much to report. I had a full slate of classes – but nothing out of the ordinary happened. One of the teachers at my school, Miki sensei, brought in nankintamasudare sticks and did a show for us. It is a little hard to explain, but there are lots of bamboo sticks that are tied together at strategic locations. The performer folds and moves the sticks so that they create huge shapes, often times much bigger than the performer herself. There is also a song to go with it, but Miki sensei was a little embarrassed and so sang it kind of under her breath so it wouldn’t bother the other teachers. It was really cool.

On the way home I picked up a couple bottles of red wine to keep us warm in the evenings, and then came back and made up a vegetarian stir fry for our dinner. Kuniko was at a doctor’s appointment, and after that she came home and we ate big. It was the first time in a long while that Kuniko has gotten home before 8 p.m. Nice!

We’re both tired out from the day, and heading to bed soon. Kuniko is doing some practice cooking tonight, so I’m on duty to eat her mistakes. She’s baking some different cakes and cookies. Hoo-rah…

I’m in the middle of a little bit of trauma with my handheld computer. I’ve used this little iPAQ computer for the last two years or so doing flashcard drills of Japanese language. Lately, though, it is starting to show it’s age. Things are happening slower and slower, the backlight flickers unpredictably, and it seems like I should start looking for a backup plan. If this thing dies, I lose a major study tool. I generally use it about two hours a day.

I found a suitable replacement, and I ordered it through Amazon, but I got a mail from them a couple of days later saying that they did not in fact have the product, and so now I’m back to square one. I feel like I’m holding a time bomb everytime I use the old one – I hope it lasts until I can find a replacement.

School was fun today. I had the last four classes of the day, and the students seemed pretty energetic for a Monday. They talked to me between classes, and in one of my classes the teacher had to leave for an emergency and I ran the class for about thirty minutes until she came back. It reminded me of the good old days at Takanan when I taught a couple of classes a week solo.

Also, we had a new teacher come in today. She’ll be at the school for the next three days in kind of an orientation. She passed the teacher’s exam for junior high school, and so she’ll officially start next April as the new social studies teacher. She made a big impression in the staff room during the morning introduction – she is really good looking, and she had the principal tripping over his words and four or five male teachers helping her set up her desk. I noticed with some amusement that her temporary desk was set up right in front of the vice principal – instead of the usual place with other temporary teachers sat. I didn’t really get a chance to say hello today because I was busy, but there is a definite change in atmosphere among the female teachers.

I’m back at home now waiting on Kuniko. Dinner is on standby, and I’m just relaxing and thinking about opening up an Anchor Steam beer that we bought from IY. More stories from the trenches tomorrow…

This weekend was pretty quiet, which was very nice. Unfortunately for Kuniko, she had to work both days and was pretty busy. I was doing some chores at home, and mixing it up with some errands around town.

Today when Kuniko got home we went out and did some shopping at IY, and bought some stuff at Midori Electronics. Kuniko had to burn what was left of her yearly education budget, so we bought some things that would help with our education. Her school pays for quite a bit of stuff – a nice little side benefit.

Kuniko also said that her principal called her in to chat with her about the possibility of hiring her on permanently. It sounds like it’s still up in the air, but that might change a lot of things. More updates as events warrant.

On my job front I was busy today translating my updated resume into Japanese. It took about an hour and a half to do it, and then Kuniko looked it over and started to make some changes to make it sound more professional.

This week looks to be busy for Kuniko and for me. I’ve got a full schedule of classes, about four a day. Kuniko has even more classes and then lots of meetings on top of that. Ouch.

Oh, I posted some pictures from the trip to America in the gallery. Check them out!

Today I was feeling much better – lots less coughing, and less bodily fluids to hack out in the morning. Kuniko got up early and made lunches for us, and then together we marched off to the train station in the cold morning.

I had only two classes today, mainly to balance out the busy day I had yesterday. The classes were a lot of fun, with students that I don’t see very often. In my third year class we are studying a little bit about sign language, and the teacher had thoughtfully provided a chart detailing Japanese sign language and how to do the Japanese characters by signing.

One of the sounds in the alphabet – “se” – had a very surprising gesture. You signed “se” by extending your middle finger only. While the students were working on something else I quietly mentioned to the teacher that “se” would not be a good sign to use in America. She figured it out pretty quick, and then announced to the students that they shouldn’t sign “se” in America. Immediately after that, everybody in the class was flipping each other off. Oops.

The other class was with Matsunaga sensei’s class. She is the homeroom teacher for the class. You would think that since she is the boss of the class, when she happens to come in there and teach English that the students would be quiet and orderly, but actually, the opposite is the case. The students are really comfortable around her and really let it loose. We had a really good time today, and I think it was one of my better classes lately.

Also, the end is near for my term at Hamawaki. I saw on the schedule that I will be saying my goodbyes to the students on February 28th. I don’t rate a ceremony in the gym. Instead I’ll be doing a farewell speech over the TV system with a video camera. It’ll be my television debut.

In kind of a bittersweet coincidence, my last day at Hamawaki coincides with graduation day at Takasago Minami. That means I can’t attend the graduation at my old school. I really wanted to congratulate all my old students on their big day, but it looks like I’ll have to leave that to Brenda, my successor.

Tonight I cooked up pork steaks and seasoned them with some Mexican spices that we had sitting around. That and a cabbage salad and we were all set for dinner. I picked up a couple of bottles of wine at the Hanshin department store, and so we are working on a bottle of Italian red while we sit around the kotatsu and relax.

Tomorrow is Friday, but for Kuniko it is just another day. She’s going to be working this weekend, making it three weekends in a row. This article really scared Kuniko and me. How many more hours can she work in a week?

Today I had a full schedule – five classes out of six. The only break that I had was during second period, and I was busy marking papers. Lots of stuff to do today.

Still, anytime you have tons of classes that means more time to chat with students, and that’s my favorite part of my job. My conversations with them are generally pretty simple, but the excitement that they get out of it is really cool to see.

One of the problem students in Kuroda sensei’s class was asking me over and over in Japanese if I spoke Japanese. I played stupid and pretended that I didn’t. He was so sure that I did that he enlisted the help of the students around him and asked me in English. He didn’t really notice that I had motivated/tricked him into speaking English unprompted for the first time in his life. Kuroda sensei couldn’t believe it when she looked over and saw her worst student asking me quesitons in English.

Tonight I made roast beef sandwiches with the amazingly low priced roast beef that we got at IY the other day. I brushed olive oil on french bread and toasted them, and then put on avocado, garlic salt, tomato, and then some cheese on top of the hot roast beef slices. It turned out pretty good.

The bed is calling, so I’m going to go hit the rack pretty soon. Tomorrow I have just two classes, so I’ll have lots of time to study. That’s something to look forward to.

I got up this morning pretty tired out, and Kuniko even commented that I looked terrible. Every morning lately has been full of nose blowing and loogie hocking, and so I’m sure I look pretty bad. But, I’m feeling a little better day to day, so I guess that’s what matters.

When I got to school I found out that the two teachers I had infected had both lost their voices. I only teach with one of them, so I had to do all the talking in her two classes today. Sorry!

In a somewhat embarrassing story, I think I pulled a muscle playing a video game. That’s right – my first Wii injury. My shoulder was a little sore yesterday, and again a little today. It’s from swinging away at Wii baseball – when you bat during the game you hold the remote like a baseball bat and swing for the fences. Maybe I’m getting a little carried away, but it’s just so much fun. I’m always sweating and panting after a video game session, so I figured nothing bad could happen. Maybe I should start doing some warmups and stretches before playing the game.

Tonight when I got home I went to work making the ramen that we got from Yasu. When Kuniko got home it was ready, and we ate it while Kuniko told me about her day. I guess one of her coworker’s brothers died of lung cancer, and he was only 34. Scary to think that someone so young could die like that.

Tomorrow is already Wednesday and the week is moving along at a pretty good rate. I’m looking forward to resting up on the weekend, and maybe enjoying some fresh air outside. Maybe a break from all these high-impact sports in the living room.