We’re back safely from our holiday trip to California. It was a great trip, and we’re busy this morning sifting through all the stuff that came back with us. We’re both doing fine and getting ready to do some shopping to stock the empty fridge and buy some supplies for the work week ahead. The good news is that we have today and tomorrow off from work, so it gives us a little time to relax and get ready.

Once I get a little time I’ll post pictures from the trip!

Friday night after school Kuniko and I met up for a Christmas concert that was performed by members of her school’s music program. Whenever I join Kuniko for a school event, we get a lot of attention. Her school is a girl’s school, and the students are always laughing, giggling, and smiling in our general direction.

Bringing someone’s spouse to a school event is kind of unusual in Japan. In my three and a half years of teaching at public schools in Japan I’ve only met one spouse of a teacher. I feel lucky to be invited along to these things, and I think it helps Kuniko out at work – nothing like living with a walking English reference book.

Saturday I spent the day cleaning house, and Kuniko was at work teaching four morning classes. When she came home we went out shopping to prepare for the little party we were having with Chiemi-chan and Ai-chan. We drove to Carrefour, and did a final shopping trip through the store. They will be closing at the end of the year, and we won’t be able to go there anymore. I look forlornly at the wine aisle, the beer, and the Mexican food section. Bye, bye!

We scored some steaks and some other goodies, and then came home and started working on dinner. Ai-chan and Chiemi-chan showed up around seven, and we had steaks, cheese fondue, and salad for dinner. We had two really nice bottles of wine – one from France and one that I bought during my visit to Australia two Christmases ago.

It wasn’t just wine, we were drinking sake, tequila, and white wine. After dinner we played the Wii and it turned out to be really, really fun. We all played bowling, tennis, boxing, and towards the end of the night some drunken golf. It turned out that we ate and drank right past Ai-chan’s last train, so she and Chiemi-chan decided to stay the night.

Since they had a place to stay, we poured more tequila. Lots more tequila. Ai-chan really went to town, and she was paying the price at the end of the night. I was trying to show her how to bowl on the Wii again, but we couldn’t seem to figure it out. People were not walking anymore – crawling was just easier. We stayed up late talking and joking around. The sleeping arrangements had to be pretty creative, but I think everyone got to bed around 2-3 in the morning.

Today I got up early and walked to the nearest combini for breakfast supplies. Ai-chan had to get to an appointment in Shin-Osaka by 10 a.m., so she and Chiemi-chan hit the road early. I hope everyone made it OK – it was a pretty heavy duty hangover I think.

Luckily cleaning the house coincided with Kuniko’s planned “end of year cleaning”. In Japan, at the end of the year people clean their houses thoroughly – it’s like spring cleaning in the USA. This is detail work – and Kuniko really threw herself into it. We cleaned everywhere, and we decided to throw out some old crap and buy some new crap when we get home from our trip. The place looks good now, except for the two giant suitcases in the middle of the living room.

I’m almost finished packing, and pretty soon we’re going over to Kuniko’s parents’ place to do our New Year’s cards and to drop off our houseplants for them to take care of while we’re gone. I’m looking forward to seeing them one last time before we go.

Tomorrow morning we’ll be leaving early for our respective workplaces toting a big suitcase. I’ll be leaving early from work to head to the airport, and then hopefully everything is fine and we’ll be able to get on the plane without any trouble and get going towards San Francisco. Looking at all the weird stuff in our suitcase makes me a little concerned about the customs and inspections stateside. It seems like they are really strict nowadays. I hope it’s not too much trouble getting presents to everyone this year.

Well, that’s the latest. I’m going to bring my computer with me on the trip, so I’ll try to post when I get chance. Merry Christmas!

On the way to work today Kuniko and I bumped into a very strange man on what is becoming a very strange train ride to work every day. At first we used to get on at one particular section of the platform, but there was a guy there that stared at us non-stop the whole time, so we moved to another part of the platform. Not long afterwards we noticed that a guy that got on the train after us smelled really bad. It wasn’t just a “no shower in a long time” stink – it was a weird body stink that comes from strange genes, I think.

Anyway, after two days of stinky guy we moved to another part of the platform, and it has been working fine until today.

Today a guy got on dressed in an unusual outfit. He was wearing a dress shirt, exercise pants, and a bandanna around his neck. He wore a hair band – the kind that girls with long hair might wear – and he was listening to a radio with headphones. As soon as he got on, he threw his luggage on the rack above my head, where it landed on my fingers. Then he proceeded to do a full body workout as everyone around him stared in shock. He was hanging from the rail on the ceiling, doing stretches this way and that – it was really amusing to watch. He did heavy duty exercises for about 15 minutes, and then got off at the next stop. Something was not quite right about him – just this sense that he was a slightly insane. If he’s there tomorrow, we’ll have to find yet another place to get on the crazy train.

At school I had my last three classes of the term, and there was a real sense of completion when we knocked out the last one. The students also were really happy to get it over with and start thinking of all the fun they’ll have with two weeks off.

In the afternoon there was a teacher’s meeting, and after that I had some time to kill so I went upstairs and played ping pong for a while. The students were happy to see me again, and they invited me to join them for a tournament this Saturday. It was really sweet – they all asked me in English if I could come, and the teacher even printed out a map for me to find the place. I apologized and said that I couldn’t make it – we’re getting ready to fly in a couple of days, but I told them that I’d definitely be there for the next one.

After school I met up with Inoguchi sensei at Motomachi station in Kobe. He’s a teacher that I knew during my second year at Takanan. He’s a really quiet guy with a unique personality. Kind of atypical Japanese. Right now he’s not working – just relying on his wife to bring home the bacon.

We walked to a really upscale Japanese-style restaurant. It was very traditional, but with a streak of modern in the decorating. I had a good time chatting with Inoguchi sensei. His English is good but not great, and so I really got a chance to stretch my Japanese to the limit. I’ve got a long way to go before I become a smooth Japanese speaker – it’s times like this where that becomes really apparent. Still, I think I’ve made some progress over the last year or so.

After a course dinner, lots of gossip, and a couple of drinks, we called it a night and I headed back to Okubo. I met up with Kuniko at the station, and together we went to Saty (second time in two nights!) to try to do some Christmas shopping for her parents. They are hard to shop for (just like my parents) and so we looked around for a while but couldn’t find the right gift. We’ll keep looking and hopefully get something by Sunday night when we go over for our final visit before the trip.

Kuniko and I just got out of the hot bath, and we’re off to the electrically heated bed. For some reason I was really tired tonight. I’m hoping to reserve some energy for the trip on Monday – I don’t want to be dead tired when we get to California.

Today at school one of my classes was observed by the head of international studies for the city of Nishinomiya. I have met the lady before, when I first started my job. She’s a really nice lady, and she has great English skills.

Today she came just before the third period class, and the principal called me in to chat with her before the class began. I sat and talked with them, and the principal was full of praise for me. It was almost embarrassing to hear what he was saying, but I was also glad to hear that they were happy with my performance. The observer, Ms. Sakurai, said that she had heard in advance how well I was doing and how well-received my lessons were.

With all that build-up, we went upstairs and I stepped in front of a class with Harada sensei with Ms. Sakurai in the back of the class watching. The students were remarkably well-behaved. It didn’t hurt that the peeping-tom student, Shimizu-kun, was absent. Still, it was uncanny how nice the students were and how much effort they put into learning English today.

The only hitch in the class came from the other teacher, Harada sensei, who seemed a little nervous about having an observer. He made a few mistakes in the lesson plan and occasionally had the students repeat after him, instead of after me. Those were little details, though, and I think the lesson came off well.

After the lesson wrapped up, Ms. Sakurai said goodbye and left with a smile but no comment. I hope she liked what she saw. When I went back to the staffroom, Matsunaga sensei asked how it went, and told me that she had told my students earlier on that the class would be under observation, and urged them to make an extra effort to make me look good. I knew something was up!

My other classes today were really good. All the students performed really well, and the last class of the day was a “quiz show” lesson that I dreamed up. I’ve done it before and it’s always a big hit. The winning team got USA stamps as prizes, and all the other students were so jealous. Kuroda sensei was grinning from ear to ear after the lesson, and I could tell she was really happy with how it went.

After school I came home and boxed a couple of rounds on the Wii before Kuniko got home. We had ham and cheese omelettes in an effort to clear out the fridge a little bit, and then after dinner we took a walk to Saty to get some supplies for our trip. The walk back was exhausting – it was like the day caught up with both of us. We went up the stairs and were ready for bed. Kuniko is in bed now, and I’m heading in that direction.

Tomorrow after work I’m going to meet up with a teacher that I used to work with at Takasago Minami, Inoguchi sensei. He’s an interesting guy and very international-minded. Can’t wait to hear what he’s been up to lately.

Kuniko and I slept in and skipped our early morning lunch making exercise, and instead we had to fend for ourselves on the way to school. I scored some sushi from the little sushi store outside the station, and then went on to work.

We had a light schedule again today, and I had two easy classes with Harada sensei. She started out in a really dark mood, but by the end of the two classes she was much more upbeat. The students sensed at first that they were in trouble, but I think it was just her mood coming in.

On my way back from class, I saw one of the “challenged” students running over to the third year classrooms. He is a first year student, and he has some serious problems. He’s always chasing around girls, even though he’s only 11 and he’s somehow underdeveloped physically. He’s a tiny little guy, and he’s constantly ignoring what teachers say and doing what he wants.

Today he went off to the third year classrooms to try to watch the girls changing clothes through the curtains. I guess a teacher was right on his heels and caught him, but not before I could hear the screams from the girls that saw him peeking. He’s consistently a problem at school, and he had the teachers shaking their heads again today.

Things are getting busy here at home. It’s less than a week before our trip, and we’re seriously thinking about packing and getting organized. We’ve got a couple of things going after work this week, a concert on Friday and a party on Saturday. Soon enough, we’ll be in the air and on our way to California…

I’m back on my feet and back at work, recovering from a nasty three day chest cold. I’m still coughing here and there, but I’m sounding much better and feeling much better.

This weekend we took it easy and stayed inside where it was warm. We did venture out to see a movie on Saturday, but other than that it was pretty quiet. I even had the energy for a round of boxing with Kuniko on the Wii.

Back at school everyone came by my desk to see how I was doing, and people had all kinds of theories as to why I got sick. At Takanan the conventional wisdom was that I was taking showers in the morning, which is just asking for a cold. This time I got some other theories. One teacher said that they have me working too many classes without a break, and although I agree I don’t think that’s the cause. Maybe a contributing factor.

This week is a comparatively easy week for me. I have just two or three classes a day instead of four or five. On Friday I don’t have any classes, which will be really nice.

Tonight we’re going to huddle around the kotatsu and each cheese and crackers. We’ve got lots of cheddar cheese to eat before we leave next week, so this will be a fun way to do it. All cheddar and no brie make for a pretty boring cheese and cracker session, so on the way home I did a little shopping at the Hanshin department store for a chunk of brie. It was twice as expensive as Carrefour, but slightly cheaper than what Jusco and Ito Yokado charge.

They have a lot of good cheeses at that store. Today was the first time I shopped for cheese there, and it has one of the top three best selections in Kobe. It’s definitely the most convenient, since I walk through the store every day on the way home. They are expensive, though. They had President cheese there, but at 1500 yen it was way more money than I wanted to pay. And considering we paid just under 2 euros for it in France… we’ll have to wait for a very special occasion.

Yesterday at work I started feeling a sore throat coming on, and in the evening I was congested in my head, down my throat, and it felt like it was congested all the way to my stomach. I went to bed at 6:30 feeling like crap, and woke up the next morning at 5:30 feeling even worse.

Today I left for school a little early, since Kuniko was going in to school late today. I would normally call in sick in this situation, but since I am working with people that won’t let axe wounds stop them from working, I was feeling a little pressure. The protocol is really to go in to work, look miserable, and then beg off early pleading near-physiological meltdown.

Luckily I had only three classes to get through. The classes were pretty voice intensive, though, and since I couldn’t speak very well I had to suck down a cough drop between each of my classes. After the first class I started the very complex procedure to be able to go home early.

I work for a staffing company, not directly for my school. That makes things infinitely more complicated. First, I asked the vice principal if it would be OK to finish off my classes and then go home at around 1 p.m. – three hours early. He could tell by looking at me that I was a mess so he said no problem.

For employees of the school that is enough – just go home. From there, I had to send a message to my contact at the staffing company. She then called to confirm with the vice principal. He was out when she called, so she asked another teacher who had no idea that I was sick. The teacher (luckily) confirmed (based on no visible evidence) that I looked terrible and it was fine for me to go home. Then the staffing company sent me a message saying that I needed to fax them a form showing the time I left early.

After my last class I took the form and faxed it to the company. Then I said my goodbyes and left school, ready to get home and get some rest. About four blocks away from the school the staffing company called and said they hadn’t gotten the fax – I had faxed it to their voice number. Oops. I turned around and walked all the way back to school, faxed it to the correct number, and then finally confirmed with the staffing company that they had the information they needed. Then, I could go home.

All this is really just to cover the staffing company, and to make sure that if I was in an accident on the way home my insurance would still cover me. Still, I’m tempted next time to clear it with my school and just sneak out. It was a major pain, and when you’re sick the last thing you want to have to deal with is a major paperwork hassle.

Coming home was an interesting experience. Coming home at a different time means I don’t know when the trains are running, and so my return time is not as certain as when I go home at four o’clock. In Kobe the trains were running late, so I had to wait an extra thirty minutes or so at two different stations before I could get home.

At one station an old lady came up and started to speak to me in English. I didn’t mind chatting but she was a little odd. Her breath was terrible, and she would smile and laugh at something and then instantly turn off her smile and try to think of the next thing to say. It was a little unnerving, and I almost waited for the next train to avoid her. Luckily she sat somewhere else and I rode home in peace.

I’m back home now in the kotatsu, still congested to the gills. I ate some bread and a leftover taco for lunch, even though I’m not hungry. I’m hoping to get this illness out of my system so that I’ll be healthy for the trip to America. Hopefully I won’t give it to Kuniko and ruin her trip.

I had a long day at school – five classes in a row. The lessons were great, but I was talking loudly for five hours straight, and my throat paid the price. I’ve got a little bit of a sore throat now.

A couple of students were asking me to help them out a little more before and after school. Tomorrow I’m going to spend time with a student to help her prepare for an interview test. That means that I’ll be busy on top of my regular classes. I’m looking forward to helping out a little bit extra, though. The student really mustered up a lot of courage to come and ask me if I would help her, so I want her to feel like it was worth the effort.

After school I spent a long time talking with Matsunaga sensei. She is not really confident in English, but I can tell she wants to talk more. We talked about my upcoming trip back to America for Christmas. She’s almost as excited as I am about it. She had some requests for some things that she missed from her visit to America, so I’ll have to see what I can do to fill those requests on the way back to Japan.

On the way home from school I stopped in Kobe and picked up another set of controllers for the Wii. By sheer luck I got on the same train as Kuniko heading home, and by even more sheer luck I got on the same train car that she was riding in. We walked home together, and Kuniko cooked up a spicy fried rice dish along with a daikon salad and some miso soup.

After dinner we hooked up the Wii and used the second controllers to play each other in some sports games. Kuniko and I went head to head in boxing, and that was great. Controlling the boxing is easy – just hold a controller in each hand and punch like you mean it. We were standing next to each other punching like crazy and it was translating into a great boxing match on the screen.

Kuniko is really competitive when she plays games. When she picked up the controllers to play boxing, she was throwing punches like a crazy woman – and then she was exhausted. She’d rest up a little and then throw more punches in a flurry. It was hilarious to watch, but I had to pay attention to what I was doing so that I wouldn’t lose the game. In the end I won once and lost once, so it was dead even. We also played each other at tennis and bowling, and I won at both those games, much to Kuniko’s disappointment.

When we took a break we were both breathing hard and sweaty – a real workout from a video game. I think this will be a good thing.

Kuniko is working on lesson plans for the students that will be joining her on a school trip to New Zealand next year. She’s going to be in charge of the group, and everybody is starting to get organized now. They will be going sometime in April, I think. Kuniko is not really thrilled about going back to New Zealand. I think they’ll be stuck in the backwoods somewhere. I’m totally jealous – I’d love to go.

Well, my arms are sore from the pseudo-domestic violence tonight, so I should probably hit the sack soon. The week is almost over, and things are going to get a lot easier at school starting from tomorrow.

Today at school I had loads of classes. There were three in a row with the same teacher, but luckily one of the classes was full of speeches by the students. The students in that class were eager to speak English in front of everyone, and people were competing to see who would go next. It was great to see everyone enthusiastic about speaking English.

For lunch I just had a couple of rice balls from the local convenience mart – I was still full from the big taco party the night before. After school I played several rounds of ping pong with the team. It’s a great way to kill time and warm up on these cold days.

On Sunday afternoon I broke down and ordered a Nintendo Wii over the internet. A Nintendo Wii is a video game machine, but the controllers are wireless and motion sensitive. If you are playing tennis, you just swing the remote like you would swing a racket. It’s really intuitive, and it has gotten a lot of good press since it’s launch.

Anyway, they are pretty hard to find nowadays, and people are selling them on auction sites on the net demanding huge price tags. I ended up buying it from the Amazon Japan marketplace, and paying about a 10,000 yen markup. That’s pretty hefty, but it’s nice to have it and I think it’s worth the extra money not to have to hunt around for it all the time. We bought our Nintendo DS like that seven months ago, and it’s still sold out here in Japan.

So today, surprisingly the Wii arrived, and I showed a lot of patience not to tear it out of the box and hook it up right away. Instead we did a little bit of shopping, and when we came back I hooked it up. We played a few games with it and it is really fun. I found myself really getting into the sports, especially the boxing game. At the end I was breathing hard with a light sheen of sweat on my forehead. Maybe this will be a good thing. I predict sore muscles for tomorrow.

Monday night Kuniko had a few friends over for a taco party at our place. By the time I came home from work, almost everyone was there. The tequila bottles were out, and the beer was flowing.

This week is exam week at Kuniko’s school. That means that the teachers can leave early most of the time. That’s how they beat me home and got a headstart on the alcohol.

We all sat around the kotatsu and ate tacos. It was this group’s first experience with homemade tacos. We had all met up in Kobe to eat tacos at a restaurant there – it was fun to see their faces as they bit into some homemade ones. Kuniko had also gotten some cheese and crackers to eat, so along with the chips and salsa it was a serious meal.

We drank and drank, and then drank some more. The tequila went down surprisingly fast – we killed off one bottle and got through most of a second. We were also drinking wine and beer. Everybody had a really good time, and some people looked like they might be starting to fade out a little.

Everyone got organized and ready to head out to the station. Kuniko and I were bringing up the rear after locking the apartment, and as we walked down the stairs I noticed one of the teachers start to slip. Before I knew it she was tumbling down the bottom third of the staircase and she hit her head on the hard cement at the bottom. The other teachers that were already down there came to her rescue, and we all examined her on the ground. My blood was running cold – it was really scary. She was conscious, but she had bumped her head pretty good and had some scratches on her hands.

We decided it was best to get her back inside and rest up a little bit, so Kuniko took her inside while I walked the other teachers back to the station. When I got back Kuniko had her stretched out on the living room futon, with an ice pack on her head and under some blankets. She had a pretty good bump on her head.

She kept apologizing over and over, and drifting in and out of consciousness. I was sure that it was just all the alcohol she drank, rather than a brain injury, but to make sure we called her brother, and he drove over and took her to the hospital. The next day she was at work and said she had gotten a clean bill of health.

When her brother arrived I carried her from the living room to the front of the house where she put on her shoes, and then she had the strength to walk from there. I held her up as she went down the stairs, and if we weren’t there she would have fallen again – she was really shaky.

So in the end, everything worked out OK. Kuniko and I were so beat by the time we got back that we stashed all the dishes in the sink and left them overnight. We went right to bed with bellies full of tacos.

On Saturday night we had a year-end party at the Denya yakitori. I left home a little early to do some brief shopping around Carrefour, Midori and IY, and then headed over to hang out.

I got there a few minutes early, and I was happy to find that the Master’s mother was there. She was helping with the preparations, and when I arrived she sat down and chatted with me for a while. She was in a talkative mood – she asked me all kinds of questions about married life, Christmas in America, and how much money I make. It was fun to talk to her, and at the end of the conversation she commented how much my Japanese had improved since I had seen her last – almost a year ago, if I recall correctly.

The party was fun – all the regular guys were there, and a couple of irregular guys showed up, too. We started off with nabe, and the master had some unusual fish – angler. It was a fatty fish, but the flavor was great. It tasted excellent in the soup.

We also had lots of yakitori, and some salad and sashimi, so the food was covered nicely. It was all you could drink, which was really nice. The master kept the booze flowing, and I made my way through many, many beers. One guy had recently come back from Korea and he brought a bottle of mysterious Korean liquor. It was white, cloudy and slightly sweet, and it tasted like there was no alcohol in it at all. Dangerous stuff.

At the end of the evening I switched to hot sake. Throughout the evening I had a lot of different conversation partners, and it really gave my Japanese a workout. I find that when I’m drunk or getting there, I will take a chance and use some more difficult Japanese. When I’m sober, I stick with what works and stay away from the advanced stuff.

One guy I’d never met came late, and came with his girlfriend. This party was men only, so the mood changed a little bit when they walked in. Everyone got kind of quiet for a little while, but the girl sat in the corner and just kind of spaced out while her boyfriend hung out with friends.

Some guys had come in cars, and so they couldn’t drink. That worked out nicely for me, when I left one of them offered to drive me home. I was pretty drunk by that time – I’m not sure if it would have been a good experience on the train. But, I got back safely, and went to sleep right away. Kuniko said later all she could hear from the bedroom was snores and hiccups.

I woke up today with a slight hangover but no lasting damage. Kuniko went off to a wedding, and I’ve been hanging out at home. Tomorrow we have a taco party with some of Kuniko’s co-workers, so I did a little bit of preparation for that. Kuniko should be home pretty soon, and we’ll clean up the house and get ready for guests.

Next week I have a really busy schedule at school. I hope it goes well – after next week things will go a lot smoother in the run up to our trip to America. Can’t wait!

The end of this week got a little exciting at school. On Thursday during one of my classes I saw the vice principal running as fast as he could towards one of the classrooms, and later I heard the sound of sirens. I knew something was up, but I couldn’t do anything to satisfy my curiousity until after my class.

The story was that the shop teacher was cutting wood with an axe (how could that have been a good idea?) and missed the wood and put the axe into his leg. I guess there was a lot of blood and the guy lost consciousness. The students sent someone to the office, and he was whisked off to the hospital.

I heard all this at lunchtime, and so you can imagine my surprise when the axe-man himself came hobbling into the the office unsteadily on crutches. He was wearing bloody pants with a jagged cut in them – not just from the axe but from the medics cutting away the fabric. Everybody was asking if he was OK, and if he could walk all right, and he waved off their concern and settled into his desk to take care of paperwork. They had even saved his lunch for him so he powered that down.

Later, I told this story to Kuniko and she said that it was Japanese style to come back to work.

I couldn’t believe it. I still don’t believe it. He was up and walking around on a stitched up leg, just hours after he had buried an axe in it. I think that if anything should earn you an afternoon off, it’s a self-inflicted axe wound. The thing that really surprised me was the reaction from other teachers – they were impressed that he kept up with his work. Sometimes the culture here really has me shaking my head.

Friday he came in, wearing a proper set of clothes, but he’s still unsteady on the crutches. He hasn’t had time to get used to walking yet, so he occasionally falls over or bumps into walls or students. I’d say that he could take the weekend to practice but he’s probably coming in to work to cheer on the students playing sports or something.

I’ll put it in on record right now – any axe wounds I sustain will keep me out of work a minimum of one week. I’m not coming back into work prematurely to go crashing into walls, no thanks.

Thursday night we went over to Kuniko’s parents’ to pick up the official “attending a wedding” dress, and we had a sukiyaki dinner. We haven’t had sukiyaki since we brought over my family just before the wedding – and that was more than a year ago! The sukiyaki was great, and we ate way too much before heading home with armloads of vegetables.

Friday night Kuniko had a work party (only the women from work), so I took my time coming home. I stopped at Kobe station to do a little bit of shopping and looking around. I realized after I stopped that the Luminarie has started – the place was pretty busy with people out to see the lights.

Bypassing the mess of people, I went into Harborland and had dinner at Panda Express – the only Panda Express I’ve ever seen in Japan. Sometimes I get a craving for cheap, fast Chinese food. It’s pretty greasy there, but it is good.

Afterwards I walked through the Hankyu Department Store on my way back. It was decorated really nicely for Christmas. They have a huge canal walkway with lights hanging from the soaring glass ceiling, and they looked like stars. They had arranged some into a big constellation of Orion, and at the end, surrounded by water canals and bridges was a huge Christmas tree.

Kuniko got home around 11:30 after a kind of surreal ride home on the train with her coworkers. Some guy was trying to rub his body against Kuniko’s friend, and they had to move to get away from them. The guy was hanging around still, so Kuniko started talking about the time she called the police and had a guy that was perverting one of her students arrested.

Now it’s Saturday morning, and Kuniko is about ready to take off for a Rotary Club dinner for her international students. I’ll be heading to Denya for an end-of-the-year party tonight, and I’m looking forward to seeing everybody there.

Today Kuniko and I met after work to go see a special exhibition of Pixar art that was being shown in a museum in Kobe. The exhibition was really well done. You could see not only concept sketches, but tons of interesting production and post-production art. I really liked the style of the work.

There was also a giant screen showing a movie of art concepts from various movies. When I say the screen was big – it was really big. It was a wide, wide screen – so wide that you were disoriented while watching it.

We enjoyed the exhibit for about an hour, and then headed back towards Sannomiya. We stopped in for dinner at a little soba restaurant, and then came home. Kuniko had to do some baking for her boss – she made little Anpanman cookies because he is a big fan. I’m hoping this will be worth a raise, or at least a little bit of time off on the weekends!

It’s getting near the end of the week, and I’ll be happy to coast into the weekend. I’ll be dropping in on Denya Saturday night, so I’m looking forward to some good yakitori.

The environment of a junior high school classroom in Japan is pretty active. Students get up and sit down throughout the class. At the beginning especially they are difficult to get settled down, and you’ll sometimes have students going over to open and close the windows and the curtains many times depending on their own personal comfort level. Then there’s the goofing off, the pencils dropping on the floor twice a minute, and the rubber bands being shot while the teacher isn’t looking.

All this activity can make for some pretty casual teaching plans. Some of my teachers like it organized, but even the most organized teaching plan isn’t remotely as structured as my high school lessons were. With high school there is more on the line, more things to cover, and students have outgrown all the little quirks that make teaching in junior high so unpredictable.

When I taught in a high school, I used to plan classes down to five minute increments. This five minutes is for greetings and questions, this fifteen minutes is for a listening activity, etc, etc. In my school now it’s a completely different story. For planning I usually plan two big activities, or a set of three smaller ones. Things take unusual turns so often that you can’t make a tight plan and hope it works out.

Making leisurely plans and following them loosely is a new experience for me, but I find that I like it more. The students obviously take more time to pick things up and so you’ve got to be able to adapt to the situation and change things that aren’t working. It also makes me a little more flexibile, which is always a good thing.

Kuniko and I are enjoying the warm environment of our place, thanks to the kerosene heater. We had two electric blankets last night, one for each of us, and I slept soundly.

Tomorrow we are going to go see an exhibition of Pixar artwork that is being displayed at the museum in Kobe. It’s only 1000 yen, and it might be fun to see some of the original art before it hit the screen. I really liked the style of the work at Pixar, especially in the movie “The Incredibles”. I’m hoping to see a lot more of that when we go tomorrow.

Wow, long time no write. Sorry about that. I was tired out after last week and I just kind of lazed right through the weekend. I figured I better get back in gear.

The weekend was a nice one. Kuniko was gone on Saturday but she was home all day Sunday, so we could spend some quality time together. It got seriously cold around here, and just today I broke down and bought some kerosene for the heater.

We saw a movie over the weekend – Casino Royale, and I also unsuccessfully entered a lottery for the chance to buy a Nintendo Wii. It didn’t work out, so we’ll have to keep our eyes open for a chance to buy one in the future. They look like a lot of fun.

Today we had trouble getting out of bed. It was pretty cold, and pretty early, and so we huddled with each other under the electric blanket and slept right through our normal bento lunch making time. The electric blanket that we have is one I bought about two years ago when I was single and not expecting to need a big one. It covers both of us, but if one person rolls over, the other person is immediately exposed. Kuniko is pretty defensive while she’s sleeping, so I’m usually the one that is exposed. Tonight we’re going to head to Saty and pick up a new one.

The train was late this morning, so I showed up at work about 10 minutes later than usual. I had a big day full of classes, but one was moved so I had two breaks during the day instead of just one. Maybe it was just Monday, but the students were tough to get motivated today. With the exception of the first year students, all my classes were pretty quiet.

The first years were full of energy as usual, though, and it is always a joy to listen to their rendition of “Stand By Me”. Both of the first year teachers were pretty tired out from working all weekend, so I think everyone was overwhelmed by the students.

One of the (few) nice things about living across the street from a 24-hour gas station is that it is really easy to walk across the street and buy kerosene. In Futami there was nothing nearby – you had to drive to the nearest station, fill it up, and drive back. 18 liters of kerosene is a little on the heavy side, so you wouldn’t want to walk all the way there.

Now, it’s just a few steps away. Today I went over and talked with one of the guys, who trained me on how it works. It was really easy, and I think we’ll be nice and warm this winter thanks to the heater.

The heater is running in the kitchen, warming both the kitchen and the living room. I’m tucked under the kotatsu, and I’m drinking hot sake and wearing a warm fleece top. It’s not even under freezing yet, but I’ve found my stay-warm setup for the winter. Bring it on!