Kuniko was driving into work today, and so she gave me a ride as far as Sannomiya. That gave me the opportunity to ride an earlier train, and I showed up at work around 7:20, astonishing all the teachers. It is amazing how conditioned everyone is to “The foreigner always rolls in as late as possible”.

Out of the six class periods we had today, I had five classes. I did my self introduction five times, and tried to entertain the students. I think it went pretty well, and everyone seemed comfortable with me at the end of class. Hopefully we’ll build up some rapport over the next few months. I met a few students who had exceptionally high levels of English, so I’m going to try to remember them and encourage them to keep studying.

With so many classes, I don’t really have very many stories to tell. Almost as soon as I finished my last class I had to answer some questions for Harada sensei. She asked me to tell her some jokes, because she likes to learn English that way. I told her the first one that came to mind, an old one about a guy named “Bernie Schwartz”. It went pretty well, and I had to retell the first part to make sure the punchline came through. Now I have to think of another (clean) joke to tell her.

I’m back home and getting ready to go into the kitchen and make tacos for dinner. It’s been a while, and I’ve been seriously craving tacos lately. I found out that the Jusco supermarket across the street stocks salsa, so that was a big score. That and 99 yen avocados.

Saturday morning two delivery guys showed up with our new TV, and set it up for us in the living room. They fiddled with the settings, had me put my personal seal on a piece of paper, and then took off.

I was left with a giant TV and nothing to do all day but try and figure out how the thing works. A couple of things surprised me right from the beginning:

One, it’s bigger than I remember. When we looked at the TVs in the stores, there were big TVs everywhere, and so they didn’t seem quite so big. Actually, as I write this I’m getting used to the size, and it seems like a good size for the room that it is in. So, I got used to it quickly.

Second, we can watch digital TV. I thought that digital TV was a long way off, but apparently it is up and running here. They just hooked up the TV to what I thought was a cable TV jack in the wall. Actually, it goes to some kind of antenna that picks up a digital signal.

The digital signal is amazing. Part of it is that it is on a big TV, but you can compare easily the old regular signal with a new digital broadcast. The digital broadcast takes up the whole widescreen TV, and it is so sharp that you really feel close to what is happening. I always thought it would be a minor improvement, but it is a big jump in quality. And, it’s free – just like getting a signal from an antenna.

One interesting thing is that when you watch shows in digital, it is in widescreen, and sometimes you can see that the cameraman hasn’t quite gotten used to that yet. I’ve seen lots of stagehands and producers on the edges of the screen, standing unintentionally at the edge of the camera’s field of vision. Usually they don’t show up on a regular size screen.

I watched some DVDs to see how the cinematic experience went, and that was fun, too. After watching digital TV you can see that the digital signal is even nicer than a DVD. Watching my favorite scenes from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings was so cool.

Anyway, Kuniko got home in the early evening, and we watched one of our favorite shows, IQ Supli together for the first time in several months. It’s a quiz show, and it is fun to try to figure out the answers. Kuniko has a big advantage over me because of all the kanji questions, but it is still fun.

Later on Kuniko’s sister came by after a concert in Osaka. It was her first time to see the new place, so we gave her the grand tour, and ate and drank in the living in front of the monster TV. Around midnight we set up a futon for her to sleep on in the living room, showed her how the air conditioning worked, and we headed to bed.

Sunday we had chilaquiles for breakfast (from a suggestion my mom made), and then hung out for a while at home before heading to the station about lunchtime. We had some ramen for lunch, and then Kuniko grabbed a train to head to work, her sister grabbed a train to head back to Osaka and catch a bus, and I headed home to relax.

Tonight I’m not sure what we’ll be doing – I’m not sure when Kuniko will get home. It’s raining now, so our options are a little limited, but we’ll probably just stick around here and get some rest. Tomorrow it’s back to work, and I think I have a busy Monday with five classes.

On our commute to work today one of the trains was delayed, so I had to find an alternate train from Sannomiya to Nishinomiya. The Hanshin line that I take has quite an array of different trains to choose from, but I found a special train that bypassed some stations and got me to school just ten minutes later than my usual time.

I had a light day at work Friday – just three classes. Soon we’ll finish with the self-introduction classes, and then I’ll be teaching new material with the teachers. I’m looking forward to that, not only because it is more interesting, but also because I’ll get to see exactly what each teacher expects my role to be in the classroom.

Things were pretty busy all day, so I didn’t have much time to study or to walk around chatting with students. Next week will be really busy – I have 21 classes. The teacher average is around 16 classes, but when you consider that the teachers are doing almost all of the planning, I think I’ll be OK. I’ll be teaching the third year students for the first time next week, and I’m looking forward to that.

After school I hustled back home, and then went on to Kakogawa to meet up with some ex-coworkers from Takasago Minami. There were teachers that I hadn’t seen in a very long time, and it was good to catch up with everyone. I spent most of my time drinking with Ageishi sensei and Matsumoto sensei – two really nice guys that are always nice to me. It was a good workout for my Japanese, although I’m sure I made lots of mistakes.

Kuniko came after she got off work, so we sat around (at different tables) and talked with everyone. The food was pretty good, and I wanted to eat a lot more of the om-soba they served – so good!

I also talked with Obara sensei, who is going to get married pretty soon. We’ll be going to her wedding, and I’m looking forward to seeing it. She was fun to talk to – she seems like a really nice person.

I took some pictures while we were all sitting around, you can see them here.

We left around eleven o’clock, and headed home on JR. Kuniko has to go into work for a little while on Saturday and Sunday, so we headed right home and went to bed. Tomorrow I need to hang out around the house to take delivery of the TV, so it should be a mellow day.

I made a kid cry today. Actually, it really wasn’t me, it was the situation that the teacher put him in, but I still felt bad. The student was a first year student, and in the beginning of class the teacher had everyone stand up and say “Hello, Bryan! My name is X. Nice to meet you!” All the students have done fine, but this one froze up, and despite being prompted by the teacher, he couldn’t continue and he started crying.

One nice thing about the homeroom setup in Japanese schools is that the students rally behind the members of the class that are having trouble or who need support. The students called on the student to try hard, they tried to help him say the words, and when he finally sat down without being able to finish they gave him a round of applause. All this without any prompting or intervention from the teachers.

Later I found out that he is one of the challenged students at our school – mentally he isn’t quite there. At the end of the class I gave him a smile and a wave goodbye, and he nodded at me, so I call that progress.

I had four classes today, and the biggest challenge was trying to keep my self-introduction fresh and interesting. I’ve done it about twelve times so far, and I’ve got twelve or so more to go. I make slight changes now and then to keep it interesting for me, and also to keep the Japanese teacher on their toes.

One difference between high school English and junior high school English is that the classes are infinitely more structured. The students are learning English for the first time, so there is only so much variety that you can introduce. Instead of the free-wheeling classes that I had at Takasago we tend to stick to a script a little more. But, like my previous school, some teachers want to run the show and some want you to run it.

Besides my classes I had a good long talk with Harada sensei (there are three Harada senseis at my school, and all of them are English teachers). This was Hiroko Harada. She wanted to talk to me more because she wants to practice English. She has a really interesting personality. She uses very direct, up front English, and she seemed to be a big fan of American life. She told me today that she used to date an ALT in the past, but they couldn’t make it work out because he didn’t want to study Japanese. We talked about her visits to America (she said the food made her gain 10 kilograms), and she enjoyed looking at all the pictures that I brought. I like her style of speaking and I think she would be fun to drink with – hopefully during a teacher party I can chat with her again.

After school I went up to play a little ping pong with the ping pong club. Today the head of the club came to play. He’s a third year student, and he has won the ping pong championships for the Nishinomiya region, so he’s a bit of a ping pong celebrity. All the teachers had said that I should play him, but when I arrived he set me up with a bunch of lower ability students first. Apparently I had to earn the right to play him. He had a paddle in a velvet case (no kidding), and the paddle surface was covered with a plastic film that he removed just before use. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

I played some of the other students and had a good time. I really puzzled the younger students and did very well making trick shots and taking advantage of their shorter arms. They couldn’t adjust to my style, and ended up declaring me “too strong”. Next I played some of the intermediate players and I did fairly well, coming in about even. Then I played one of the better players. At first I was able to gain some points by being tricky and spinning the hell out the ball. It wasn’t long before they adapted to my style and starting destroying me. I never did play the top guy – I must practice harder to earn the privilege.

I’ve played games with the students before, and my advice is – lose. You are already older than they are, and you are already an expert at English – something that may seem unobtainable to them. By showing a weakness it seems to encourage them, and I like telling them “Nice shot!” or “That was cool!” or “Please have mercy on me.” I had a good time today and I look forward to going back to play again sometime.

I’m back home and it is leftover night. Tomorrow night Kuniko and I are going into Kakogawa to meet up with some teachers from Takasago Minami – lots of people that we taught with in the past will be there. Saturday we have TV delivery and Kuniko’s sister will be spending the night after a concert that she is attending. I’m looking forward to sleeping in Saturday morning.

I have already got a commuting routine down, thanks to Kuniko and Yahoo! Japan. As we settle into the routine, things start to get comfortable. Work is more and more relaxed, people are starting to get used to me, and all in all I’m feeling good as I start and end each day.

That’s not to say that shit doesn’t happen.

At work today I found out two things that interested me greatly about my job. The first thing was that I was part of a long line of ALTs that have worked at the school. Nobody has stayed longer than six months, because they apparently don’t use an ALT at any of the city junior high schools between March and August. That means, that no matter how much I love my job or they love me, I’ll be looking for a new job come March.

That’s fine – I’ve got no problem with that. March will be a great time to be looking for work, since the official school year starts in April. So, the result is that I’ll try not to get too attached to my school, because it is just a temporary gig and I need to remember that.

But it’ll be hard to not get attached to my school. I heard today that my school is the top school in Nishinomiya city – number one among 20 schools. All the teachers hope every year that they’ll get transferred to the school, and all the school’s teachers hope every year that they won’t be transferred away. The students are well-behaved and enthusiastic. The teachers discussing this with me made it sound like the Dream Academy of the Future or something. They clearly love their jobs, and every day I get to see why.

Today I had four classes, and every one of them was an enjoyable teaching experience. The students reacted really well, and the time just flew by. I taught with Matsunaga sensei for the first time. She’s a taco enthusiast and also one of the teachers that gave me so much information today. She’s also got a Costco card and promised to do some shopping for me in the future.

Her class went by the book, but we had a good time regardless. The students in that class were really noisy, especially two guys who just wouldn’t be quiet. But who can complain when they only use English. At that age they haven’t learned much English, so they used variations of what they did know to try to communicate. They were shouting out things like “I like food is hamburger!” and “Yes, me, yes!” Give them top marks for enthusiasm, and later I congratulated them in the hallways.

I made some macaroni and cheese for dinner tonight in an effort to whittle down the very large amount of macaroni that we have on hand. Last night the rice cooker died, so we had to make an emergency run to Kuniko’s parent’s house to pick up her old one from her days living in Osaka. It works fine, though, and our lunch boxes are back in business.

Now I’m heading to bed to try to get to sleep early. We’re getting up early every morning to make it an easier commute, but we end up getting tired pretty early in the evening. The hidden cost of commuting, I guess.

I had just one class today – but I did get my schedule for the upcoming two weeks, and it was chock full of classes. From tomorrow on I’ll be really busy – four classes a day, and that won’t end for a while. Next week I’ll have 22 classes in a week, out of a possible 30. I’m looking forward to keeping busy and meeting all the new students.

Since I had some free time today, I worked on some Japanese, came up with some ideas for some new lessons, and went over some of the paperwork that I received from the staffing agency. The day went pretty quickly, actually, and I had time to meet some students in the hallways and even play ping-pong with the table tennis club after school.

The office manager, Sato-san, came over and spent a lot of time with me looking at the picture book that I brought along. She really enjoyed looking through the pictures, and I get a feeling that she really likes hanging out with the ALTs. She even went to Canada to attend the wedding of a former ALT, so she seems to build close relationships with them. That’s good news for me – since she’s the office manager she can really take care of me.

I was going to the assembly at the end of the day, and one of the handicapped kids grabbed me by the hand out of nowhere and walked with me towards the gym. I was a little surprised, but we walked together and he talked constantly to me in Japanese. I had trouble figuring out what he was saying, and to tell you the truth I was a little nervous because I don’t know anything about his condition, but I could tell he just wanted to be friendly. He seemed like a nice guy.

The school does all it can to help challenged students fit in with the other kids. There are people assigned to help the students go through normal routines, and they work side by side with the teachers to make sure that everything runs smoothly. There is a Chinese girl who is learning Japanese (and English, in my class), and so she has an adult interpreter that stays with her and helps her understand what is going on. The school is built to handle challenged kids, but they make up only a small percentage of the student population – just 10 kids out of 500 or so.

I took the fastest train I could on the way home, and the best case scenario has me getting home around 5:15 p.m. That’s pretty good – and I get a lot of studying done on the way home, too.

Tonight I’m going to make Korean yakiniku for dinner, so I’ve got the meat marinating while I’m waiting for Kuniko to get home. In the meantime I’ll do a little laundry and get the place organized. It’s only Tuesday – I’ve got lots of classes ahead of me and lots of tiny hands to shake.

I just arrived home from my first day of classes at my new job. The verdict – it was great!

I got to work early today, and all the teachers were looking at their watches and acting like I was some kind of crazy workaholic. This is an easy trick to build favor early on – apparently most ALTs roll into work at the very last second possible. Show up an hour early and you are up for the ALT of the year award.

I had three classes today, and they all went really well. The first class was with Kuroda sensei. She is a younger teacher and she has a lot of enthusiasm and she really wants to learn more English. We went through the lesson without a hitch. The class was second year students – most of them around 13 years old. They did a great job with the quiz part of the lesson, and I think I need to ratchet up the difficulty a little bit. Still, I figure it’s best to start easy and help them build a little confidence.

The next two classes were with Harada sensei, and older gentleman who has the attitude like he’s seen it all, but he’s open to new things. I taught two first year classes with him, and they were really fun. The students had all kinds of questions for me: are you married? Do you have any brothers or sisters? How many times a month do you cut your toenails?

My school has some handicapped students in the student body – about 10 students. There was one in my class today, and he did just fine. I’m guessing he’s mildly retarded. In addition, I’m going to be teaching maybe one class a month to some retarded and disabled students. That sounds like a real challenge, and it’s something I’m looking forward to.

Everywhere I go in the school kids are saying hello. I’ve never been around students so eager to make a connection with me. They don’t have a lot of vocabulary to use, but they are dying to talk to me. I made lots of friends with the students today by just walking around during my free periods, and I’ve found that I really like working with this age group. I had a fun conversation with a first year student – fresh out of elementary school and just a tiny little guy. His got huge when he heard that I was wearing size 30 shoes – and we stood next to each other to compare our height. I’m by no means particularly big, but to him – I was something that he had never seen before.

Also, there was a huge relaxation about my presence in the staff room. Last Friday I noticed that some people seemed a little distant – just not so friendly. Today those people were much warmer and as they got used to me, they really were lightening up. During school clean-up time I went unbidden to the third year students classrooms, picked a random one, went inside and picked up a broom and started sweeping. The homeroom teacher was delighted. He had kind of ignored me the other day, but at the end of the day he was at my desk thanking me and laughing with me.

In short, I’m really into my new school. And it’s only day 2.

I’m back home now, and I’m about ready to clean up the house a little bit before Kuniko gets home. She wants to cook dinner tonight, so I’ll hang loose until she gets here and then see whats on the menu.

Tomorrow I have only one class, since there are some exams based on the summer’s homework. I’ll have a lot of time to study at my desk, and that is something I haven’t been able to do in a long time. My Japanese really needs some improvement.

Sunday was a nice easy day, that culminated with a visit to Futami and a chance encounter with just about everybody I know in that small town.

Kuniko went into work for a little more than a half-day, and when she got home we headed to Carrefour to look for a particular tequila that a co-worker had tried in Japan and liked. Unfortunately, they didn’t have it in stock anymore. We bought some Hawaiian beer instead (Kona Brewing Co.) for Kuniko’s dad to get him in the mood for Hawaii, and I bought a couple for me since it is really hard to find ales in Japan.

While we were at Carrefour we bumped into one of the regulars from Denya, Takao-san along with his wife and kids. They were really surprised to see us, and we promised them that we’d go out drinking at Denya sometime soon.

After Carrefour we headed over to Kuniko’s parents house to pick up a futon for Kuniko’s sister to use at our house next weekend. Kuniko’s mom strong-armed us into eating another dinner there, and so we ate and drank with them. It worked out to be a really good thing, giving Kuniko a chance to vent some of her work frustrations in full-on Japanese. We had coffee and dessert, and then headed out. Of course they loaded us down with some goodies – we took home two large bags of macaroni that they had gotten from someone. Next week will be pasta week, I think!

On the way home we stopped in at Ito Yokado to pick up some food for lunches, and we ended up bumping into Yasu’s mom, Yasu, my ex-upstairs neighbor Jane and another ex-ALT named Chris. We shopped upstairs and Kuniko found a new track suit to wear for her upcoming Sports Day. I found a pair of size 30 shoes, which is huge for Japan. I tried them on quickly and then bought them on the spot. Size 30 shoes don’t show up in Japan too often.

Finally we came on home, tired and ready for bed. It was a really nice day because we got to see so many of our friends, and it really hit home how many nice people we know here in Japan.

Today Kuniko and I headed off to our first day of school. She was going back to her school, and I was starting at a new school. I put in a full day at work for the first time in a month, and it felt really good.

It will take a bit of experimentation until I get a good commute rhythm going. Today I made a few mistakes that cost me a few minutes, but on the other hand I was able to sit for most of the journey, despite a packed train every now and then.

I got to school a little early, but not quite as early as I was shooting for. Still, the principal called me to his office and hid me there to make sure that I had a dramatic entrance and surprise all the teachers.

We had a little time to kill, so I sat with him and talked about all kinds of experiences inside and outside of Japan. I learned from him that my new school sends students to Spokane, Washington every year, and that the principal himself took the trip last year. It sounds like English has a big role at my new school, and I was happy to hear that.

He brought me into the staff room for the morning meeting, and introduced me to all the staff. Everybody was murmuring when I came in, and some female teachers near the front kept saying “He looks exactly like Tom Cruise!” The principal bragged that my Japanese was better than his own, and I followed up that statement with a short, nervous introduction. It seems like all the principals like to steal your speech thunder around here – he told them just about everything about me living me with not much left to say.

I sat down after the introduction and got settled into my new desk. It was in a good spot, not isolated from all the other teachers like I had feared. I am sitting next to an English teacher, which helps a lot, although Matsunaga sensei looks at me with just a little bit of fear. She’s trying to keep her distance I think, and I only saw her smile once all day.

The other English teachers were nice enough, and there were a couple that I got along well with right away. I’m looking forward to getting to know them all better later on.

The next stop was the gymnasium for a morning assembly for the students and my introduction. I wasn’t quite so nervous this time, and since I was last on the agenda I could really watch and get a feel for the atmosphere of the school.

This is my first time teaching at a junior high school, and a few big differences became apparent today. For one, there is less worry about being cool. The students are obviously younger and they seemed less shy. Everyone knew the school song, which surprised me – nobody knew the school song at Takanan except for the guy playing the piano. They weren’t being treated as strictly as my previous school. Teachers asked students to behave with a small voice and a smile on their faces, and the students always reacted quickly and behaved.

Finally it was my turn for my introduction. The principal once again told them all about me, and was so excited that he told them that I was a great Japanese speaker. Then he seemed to realize that he had spilled the beans and tried to cover it by spending a few minutes telling them how important it is to use English with me.

I made a short speech in English, and then finished with just a little bit of Japanese. Then, a representative from the student council came up to the stage and made a short welcome speech to me in English. It was a good speech. He said that this school was “the most wonderful in the whole world”, so I guess I lucked out.

After the assembly I headed back to the office, but not before talking with lots of kids on the way. I got a chance to meet one of the disabled students, who was there with his mother. I wasn’t sure if he was even awake, but they introduced him anyway. He was a tiny little guy confined to a wheelchair – my school is actually set up with an elevator to handle physically challenged students, which is fairly rare, as I understand it.

In fact, one of the teachers that sits near me is handicapped – he is missing his left arm from above his elbow. I had lunch with him and another teacher and he set his bowl of noodles on top of the upper part of his arm and slurped it down with an amazing amount of dexterity. I wonder what other surprises lie in wait for me at the school.

My principal even gave me a tour of the school, so I got a chance to see the student council room, the art studio, the computer room, and most of the student’s classrooms. It is a smaller school that Takanan, but it seems like there are a lot of open classrooms – perhaps because of the diminishing enrollment across Japan.

I was eager to get some lesson planning done, since starting on Monday I will be teaching classes. Unfortunately they hadn’t yet figured out when I will be teaching, other than a few classes on Monday. I’m going to do a self introduction on Monday to a few classes, but hopefully that day I’ll know more about what they need me to do every week.

Another interesting person at my school was the office manager, an older lady who speaks really good English. She tried to get me signed up for Toastmasters right away. She was happy to help me get set up, and she told me that I was lucky to be teaching at the school, because the students have such a high level of English. Later this was confirmed for me when looking over their summer homework. The English level was much higher than even the best of my students at Takasago Minami, and that was a high school! Maybe the high level will be a big help while adapting to the junior high school environment.

Before I knew it it was time to go, so I had the vice-principal check off my timesheet and I hit the road. I took my sweet time getting home, choosing slow trains where I could sit over fast trains where I would have to stand, and I still made it back in an hour.

Kuniko was at a school event – a dinner to celebrate the start of the new school term. She didn’t get home until 10:30 or so, so I walked down the street for some gyoza and had a celebration-for-one at home. Now I get a whole weekend to relax before I go back to school on Monday. Lucky, lucky.

I’ve been really busy lately, and I’ve ended up falling behind on the blog. Sorry! It’s one of those traps where I’m doing lots of stuff, so I have lots to write about, but no time to write it down.

We had a fairly successful matchmaking dinner the other night. Kuniko was setting up one of her friends with one of her coworkers, and we watched them get to know each other a little bit over a pretty good Korean dinner.

I tried to get my driver’s license, but was held up on a technicality. It’s a long, boring story, but I’m going to need to write to the California DMV and hope that they can dig something up from their database from 1986. I’m not optomistic that it will work out. Until then, I’m off the streets.

I met up with Komori sensei, and we had a couple of beers and even some sushi at the underground sushi restaurant. As usual, it was fun to hang out with him, and he had an interesting idea for doing an English conversation course using his spare studio on Sundays. We’ll see what develops there.

Yesterday was a full day of shopping, culminating in the purchase of a plasma television. We didn’t really intend to buy one yesterday, but we found the one we wanted for around $600 cheaper than anywhere else. That’s right – and it’s not a floor model or used or the wrong serial number or anything like that. I think we stumbled on a sales manager that needed to move some TVs out of his store before the end of the month.

Here’s the part that blew me away – he showed us the price tag, and then offered an even bigger discount. Then, once we accepted the quoted price, he asked if we had an elevator where we lived. Since we don’t, there was an extra 2000 yen charge for the delivery guys to haul it up to our apartment and set it up. I was already nodded my head imagining the low price that he quoted was starting to get higher, but he subtracted the 2000 yen from the price, to cover the delivery charge. And he apologized the whole time. Service in Japan is pretty amazing sometimes. The TV arrives on Monday night.

That night Ai-chan and Chiemi-chan came all the way out to visit us in our new place. It’s always fun to have them over – they are really nice people and fun to eat and drink with. Kuniko had worked hard to make several dishes that used up all the vegetables that we had received from her father, and the evening started off pretty calmly with conversation over wine with dinner.

Things got a little more lively when Ai-chan had her first taste of tequila, and soon everyone got into the act. I was drinking two shots for each one that Ai-chan drank, and in between we finished a couple of bottles of wine, including a delicious Chianti that we brought home from Italy.

We finished all the food and moved on to dessert, and had some dessert wine interspersed with tequila shots and some cream pudding that Ai-chan had brought along. Around 10:30 we had to break up the party, since it was a long way back for them. We were all bummed out, since things were really going well. I think we decided to do it again just before a weekend when everyone can stay over and not worry about the last train. It was a great night, and both Kuniko and I went to bed a little bit drunk.

I got my act together a little late on Monday. By the time I saw Kuniko off at the door, cleaned up, had breakfast, and got dressed it was nearly 11 o’clock in the morning. My plan was to head to the Japanese equivalent of the DMV to look at the practice course and maybe, if there were just a few people, take a crack at getting a Japanese driver’s license.

I don’t need a license. Generally, if I can’t get there by train then I don’t really need to get there. Unless you live out in the country (or have friends/relatives that do) or unless your job requires it, there is no reason to have a driver’s license in Japan.

But, there are a couple of reasons why I’m going to try and get it. The big one is that I feel bad that anytime we drive anywhere, Kuniko is the one who has to drive. Sometimes that can get old, and especially if we take a long roadtrip it would be helpful. Also, if there was an emergency, I could drive her or someone else to the hospital. Of course, in an emergency I would probably go ahead and do that license or not.

Another less important reason is that her dad wants me to get a license. I’m not sure why – maybe he expects that in a husband and wife relationship, the man should be driving. I don’t know, exactly, but every time we go over there, he asks me how the license is coming along. Maybe driving a car is some kind of status thing, here.

Anyway, getting a license is no easy trick, especially for a foreigner. First, there’s no such thing as a learner’s permit, so people in Japan need to go to a school with a closed course to learn to drive. Nobody ever learns from their relatives – you can’t drive legally without a license, so you need to use a closed course.

In my case I’ll just be transferring my California license over to Japan, but since things are a little different here (right hand drive, etc) I need to take both a written and a practical exam. The written test is just 10 true/false questions in English, but the practical exam is a driving test on a closed course. The test is legendary among foreigners in Japan, and it is not unusual for people to fail the test five to eight times before passing. Somewhere along the way the test gradually turned from a realistic test of your skills in a driving situation to a set of things you have to memorize and do in a particular order to pass.

For example, you need to remember to walk around the car and look for children or animals underneath before the exam begins, look both ways for imaginary traffic before you get in the car, and then make various adjustments of the handbrake, mirrors, and seat before you get started. If you forget to do one of these, you fail. There are 20 places on the course where you are expected to signal a turn, and if you miss one, fail. If you don’t check your mirrors in the proper order while making a lane change, you fail. You get the point.

I found a website that describes all the things that you should watch out for the exam. The biggest complaint is that it really doesn’t test your skills at all – it’s just having a test for the sake of having a test. I’ve found that is a pretty common trend in Japan. They love tests here.

So how do all these kids getting their licenses deal with this overly strict driving test? They don’t take it. There is an option to take a one month driving course at a licensed school, and students passing that do not have to take the driving test at the DMV. They do have to pay around $3,000 though.

I got to the driver’s license center around noon, and asked lots of questions of the people there. The gist of it was, that foreigners can only apply for a license between 9:30 and 10:00 a.m., and since it was too late I was out of luck. The good news was that when I arrived they had just closed the course to cars, so I could walk through the course and check it out.

I tried very hard to ask permission, but in the end I couldn’t find anyone who might be able to give it. So, I just walked out there with some other people and pretended that someone told me it was OK. The course was big – really big. I walked through most of it and there weren’t any surprises. They had an intersection with a traffic light, a couple of hills, and even some fake train tracks and a train crossing signal that would occasionally ring as if a train was coming.

After reviewing the area carefully, I headed on back home. It wasn’t long before Kuniko got home from work. I cooked up stuffed green peppers for dinner, and after dinner we both did a little studying. I found out that the optional training for my new job was not really optional – thanks to a little miscommunication with my supervisor. She is usually pretty good at English but she made a little verbal mistake and had me thinking that I had Tuesday off. Turns out I’ll need to go into southern Osaka again for a three-hour training session. So, I won’t be able to try for my driver’s license on Tuesday. That leaves Wednesday and Thursday to give it a shot.

In the evening we went over to the movie theater for a late show, and saw our first movie in a very long time. We saw Superman Returns, since I was a big fan of the movies when I was a kid. It was pretty good – a fun movie, although it was pretty loud. On our way to the movie we bumped into a bunch of my ex-students from Takanan, a group of around five girls. They were all dressed up for a shopping trip, and they looked much older than they appear at school in their uniforms without makeup. They were out kind of late for students, too – suspicious behavior!

We stopped in at Starbucks to buy a drink to take into the movies, and we spotted an ex-coworker of mine from Takasago Minami, Fujimaru sensei, sitting with a younger female teacher that used to teach at the school a year ago, Watanabe sensei. It looked like some kind of date, so Kuniko and I stayed away because we didn’t want to interfere. Actually, Fujimaru sensei is married, so it seemed like a risky move to being hanging out with a young, single teacher at night in a public place like Starbucks – especially after we had just seen some of his students walking by.

We got our drinks, but the guy who gave them to us indicated that the straws were over there – pointing to a table right next to where Fujimaru sensei was sitting. Oh, well – sorry man. I went over and got the straws, and had no choice but to saw hello. He smiled uneasily at me, and Watanabe sensei said hello and seemed really smiley and bubbly as usual. We got out of there as soon as we could, but Fujimaru sensei really looked busted.

We got home late, late, late, and then headed right to bed. Tomorrow we’ll be meeting up for the big date for Matsuo in the evening. I’ve got training in the afternoon and my long trip to Osaka south. I hope it’s at least entertaining.

Sunday turned out to be pretty busy. Kuniko had to go into Kobe to take an exam, and I went into Kobe to meet her after it was finished. Together we went over to Wendy’s for some quick lunch, and then headed to her friend Tomomi-chan’s place to hang out.

It was a fairly short trip on the Hankyu line, and we met Tomomi-chan and another one of Kuniko’s friends Matsuo-chan at the train station. Tomomi-chan’s place was nearby, just a few minutes walk from the station.

Tomomi-chan got married a while back (in fact, I won the iPod at her second party), and this was the second time to meet her husband. He’s a really nice guy with a good personality. He seemed really relaxed and he was quick to smile.

We sat around and talked, watched TV, and ate lots of food. We also got a chance to look at the pictures from their honeymoon trip to Italy. We had seen a lot of the same things, and it was fun to compare stories. They were also nice enough to open up a bottle of Chianti that they had brought back from Italy. It was delicious, and Tomomi-chan’s husband helped and I both worked on draining the bottle.

Late in the afternoon we decided to head out, so they walked us to the station and said goodbye. It was really fun to talk to everyone, and it looked like they were enjoying their post-wedding life. We shared a train with Matsuo for a little while. Kuniko is doing a little matchmaking and trying to connect Matsuo with Mori sensei, one of her coworkers at school. It turns out that I may be along for the date on Tuesday night, so I’ll get to meet her again soon. Should be interesting.

Kuniko and I stopped at Akashi station and picked up a birthday cake for Kuniko’s sister. She was staying at her folks’ place, so we made a quick stop at home and then drove to their house. We ate dinner there, and had some birthday cake for dessert. Kuniko’s sister looked happy, and I think it was a pretty nice little birthday party.

We couldn’t get out of there without taking loads of vegetables with us. We took onions, a pumpkin, a big bag of green peppers, some okra, and even some white eggplants. Besides the veggies they also gave us some cakes, snacks, and leftovers from a rice dish that Kuniko’s mom made for dinner. We need more people to eat all this food.

We arrived home with full bellies again, and conked out soon after that. Tomorrow the week officially starts, but I don’t start teaching until Friday.

It was a pretty mellow Friday. I slept in, did laundry, worked on the computer, studied Japanese, and occasionally felt guilty for not being part of the workforce. Luckily, Kuniko got home early. We bought a commuter pass for my new job, starting in September, and also did a little shopping around Saty and MyCal.

In the evening we went back to our old stomping grounds in Futami to shop at Carrefour and Ito Yokado. There were a couple of specialty items we were looking for. Carrefour had done a big restock of their beer section – I scored some stuff that is really hard to find in Japan – Negra Modelo, Singh, and XXXX from Australia.

The had lots of others that I wanted to buy, but I’ll hold off for now. The fridge is certainly well stocked for the time being. I also picked up some Cholula hot sauce, so I’m looking forward to the next Mexican meal.

We had tossed around the idea of going to see a movie on Friday, but Kuniko was so tired that we decided to postpone the idea until later. We had a nice simple dinner of cold udon noodles with ponzu sauce, and some tofu with ginger, onions and soy sauce.

This weekend Kuniko has to work on Saturday, but I think that she’ll have Sunday off from work. I’m going to just stay home and stay cool – the heat has been oppressive lately.

I’ve got to get back in the routine of updating the site. Yesterday was a pretty busy day, which is a bit unusual. I’ve had some free time since we’ve gotten back from Europe.

Yesterday I went into Nishinomiya to meet up with the staffing agency and two other ALTs. We met up at the station, and then went to the Nishinomiya Board of Education to meet them. It was a short, simple meeting. The lady urged us to have fun, teach the students well, and speak English as much as we could to the students and the English teachers on staff.

The staffing agency people seemed a little nervous, and I guess it is because this is a new contract for them. Last year the Nishinomiya schools were working with another agency, and for whatever reason they decided to stop (probably price). My agency is really concerned with making a good impression, and so they seemed a little jumpy today.

After the Board of Education meeting, we walked back to the station and then split up to visit our individual schools. It was the first time for me to meet one of the ALTs, a quiet and ever-so-slightly creepy girl named Ellie. The other guy I had met at the interview, a Canadian from Quebec named Louis. He was really nervous today and trying to make a good impression. He had learned some set phrases in Japanese from somebody, which helped him a bit. I mostly just kept smiling and tried to convey the feeling that we were all competent professionals were going to do a great job.

I met up with another guy from the staffing agency to take me to my school. He was a little nervous, too. He spoke pretty good English, so we chatted on the way over there. He didn’t seem all that personable, probably because he was nervous, but I expected somebody with his job would have more of an outgoing personality.

My school is called Hamawaki Junior High School, and it is located in Nishinomiya near the Hanshin station. It will take a little bit of logistics to get me there smoothly every day. I’ll need to change trains once, but after that it’s just a short walk from the station.

The school was a fairly small one, and when we approached it there were a few students doing summer activities – practicing music, sports, or just hanging out with their friends.

We went inside, and one thing I noticed right away was that we didn’t have to change into slippers. Relief! We went up to the principal’s office, and the agency guy introduced me to the principal and vice-principal.

They both seemed relieved that I could communicate somewhat in Japanese. We chatted and laughed about a few things, and they seemed genuinely interested in me and my background. That’s a good sign – I was (and still do) fear that because I’m working through an agency they will treat me as more of a resource than a person. Based on their reactions, though, maybe that won’t be the case.

They brought in the English teachers, who filed in and smiled at me nervously. As instructed by the Board of Education I spoke English with them, and introduced myself briefly. They introduced themselves as well. The English skill level varied a little bit, but nobody was too shy to speak and I think I’ll be able to get along with everyone.

Before I left one of the teachers asked how old I am – which seems to be a common question in Japan. Part of the reason is that it will establish where I am on the seniority hierarchy, and also because I look different and that makes it tough for Japanese people to guess my age. When I told them they acted surprised and smiled and looked at each other. There was something there being exchanged between them, but I think I missed it.

As for the teachers, most of them are on the older side. There was one lady that was a little younger – perhaps a couple of years older than I am. That shouldn’t be a problem, though. The situation was much the same at Takasago Minami.

We kept it short and soon I was heading back to the station with the agency guy. He hadn’t said much during the meeting but I complimented him on how well it went to give him a little confidence. We walked back to the Hanshin station, and I took a train there to Sannomiya, and then changed trains to JR and came back to Okubo.

I had missed lunch, but decided that I could wait for dinner. I spent my day studying Japanese and doing some research on maybe working on a Master’s degree. I’m still in the early stages of research, though. There’s a lot of information out there on picking up a degree. I know what I want to study, but the trick is doing the coursework in Japan – moving from here is not something I want to consider. There’s a couple of interesting possibilities, though, so I’ll keep looking into it and see what develops.

Kuniko had a meet-up with some old co-workers in Osaka Thursday night, so I decided to walk down to the local yakitori. I went in and sat down and the master recognized me immediately and said hello. The other customers looked at me a little bit, and a group of women at a table kept looking at me and giggling. I ordered up a beer and some food, and watched the baseball game on TV while I waited.

A couple of guys next to me worked up the nerve to ask me where I was from, and so we struck up a conversation. Turns out that they are regulars at the yakitori, and they know the master well. The master told them that I knew the master at Denya yakitori, and they nodded sagely, bought me a beer and I was kind of welcomed into their group. It’s almost as if I have transferred my yakitori credentials from Denya directly to the new place.

We talked about all kinds of things. One guy was married and the other guy was single. We talked about vacations and the difference between Japanese high school students and American high school students. It turned out that the single guy knew one of the ladies at the table and so he left us to go try his luck at entertaining them. The married guy and I talked on about politics and sports, and just passed the time easily. His name is Shu-san, and he tried to buy me another beer and a plate of nankotsu (cartilage on a stick).

At one point the master came over and told Shu-san that the last time I was there, I drank six beers and three sho-chus. Shu-san gave me a look that was a mixture of “You must be an alcoholic” and “You must be a god”. I explained that I don’t always drink like that, I was just having a particularly good time that night. I don’t want to set the master’s expectations that I’ll be doing that everytime I eat there.

It was getting on time to go, so I said goodbye to the master and Shu-san. I paid the bill, but before leaving I walked over to the single guy working the table of women. They all started giggling and waving to me as I arrived at the table. I said hello to them and then turned to the single guy and told him how good it was to talk to him and let’s hang out again sometime soon. I shook his hand, nodded to the ladies and left. Hopefully that gave him an edge with the ladies.

Kuniko’s train was delayed – actually, the whole western-bound line was delayed more than an hour. I waited at the Okubo gate and the conductors were busy trying to explain to everyone why they would have to sit around and wait. It’s very unusual for trains to be delayed that much in Japan, and usually it’s because somebody committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. Today it was for some other reason – but the result was Kuniko came home late and exhausted. I walked her home and soon we crashed out and went to bed.

Friday I am free, and Kuniko might be getting home in the afternoon, so hopefully we’ll be able to do something fun. I’m eager to be teaching again, and I can’t wait to start going to work and having some fun with the students and teachers.