I woke up today with no headache, and I’ve been feeling fine all day today. I’m off the medicine, even though I have lots left. Maybe it’s better to stay away from the painkillers and muscle relaxants for a while. Even though the headache is gone, there is still a little soreness in and around my head. My teeth hurt from clenching.

Kuniko and I went into Akashi this morning. We did something I haven’t done in nearly five years – we went geocaching. We walked around with my old GPS unit inside of Akashi park until we finally found a cache, but in a surprise move the cache only contained a map to another cache. We followed the map carefully, with clues like “count the number of stones on your right as you walk” etc, and then finally found the cache. We had to walk by two lovebirds making out to get there, and they didn’t really like the intrusion.

Kuniko’s opinion of the treasure hunt was “It was fun.” I suppose we’ll do it again sometime. There are not as many around Japan as there are in the U.S., but I think there are some in Kobe to try out, so maybe we’ll do that next.

After treasure hunting we did another search, and stopped by an apartment hunting place to look for a new place to live. We’ll be moving in July, so we have started looking at places. We’re pretty flexible on location, but we really want to be near a train station (preferably the JR line) and also near a big grocery store. With Kuniko’s car Carrefour is not so far away, so we can always stock up on cheese and wine when we need it.

For lunch we ate at Mister Donut. I know what you are thinking – eating donuts for lunch is not a healthy thing, but they actually have some new lunch items on their menu. We had two different noodle dishes, and they both were really good. They came with some dim sum on the side, and we were both impressed. I could have eaten more, though. We did buy some donuts for breakfast tomorrow.

We did a little bit more shopping in the area and then headed home. We made one last stop at IY and then came back here. Kuniko worked on a project to get all our favorite recipes organized into folders, and I worked on flashcards and fooled around on the computer.

Kuniko and I have been lusting over the new Nintendo DS Lite that came out in Japan a while ago. They have been sold out here and are really tough to come by. Yes, I want to play games with it and so does Kuniko, but the clincher came the other day when I found a program that will help you learn how to write Japanese characters. They also have programs to learn foreign languages, including English. The adult market is thriving. We were able to order one through Amazon Japan, so if all goes well we’ll have it within a couple of weeks. I can’t wait to try it out.

Soon Kuniko is headed over with another teacher to pay a visit to a student that needs a little extra attention, and when she gets back we’re having a sushi dish for dinner. Then we’ll catch a DVD that we rented the other day and relax. This long holiday is turning out pretty nice.

Tuesday I had two classes during the day, and a monster headache to keep me occupied in between. Although I’ve had a cold and a headache the last couple of days, I’ve been avoiding the aspirin, but finally Tuesday afternoon I buckled and took four aspirin. Unfortunately it didn’t even make a dent. Golden Week is from Wednesday to Friday, and usually most places are closed, so Kuniko convinced me to see a doctor in the evening.

When she got home Kuniko drove me to a hospital that was still open, and we talked with a nice doctor who seemed slightly crazy and very nerdy. He was really nice, though, and patient with us. He had me laughing (albeit nervously) and in the end offered to give me an injection in the back of my head to stop the pain. It was tempting, but a little scary. I finally decided to just go with the drugs, so I got a prescription for some painkillers, muscle relaxants, and even some kind of medicine patch to wear on the painful areas.

We got the prescription filled at a nearby pharmacy, and a very serious pharmacist cautioned me about all the medicines. She was completely serious – like the world hung on the balance of my use of these drugs. I think maybe she could have used some of my drugs as well.

After dinner I took the medicine and applied a patch, and things started getting much better. The headache diminished somewhat, and by bedtime it was only a minor irritant. Good advice from Kuniko – I’m glad I went to see the doc.

I woke up this morning with a serious sore throat which promises to turn into a cold by mid-week. I’ve had a headache now for the past five days, and today I just kind of lost my appetite. Kuniko got up early and made breakfast and lunch for us, and that let me sleep in a little bit which felt good.

At school I had just one class during fifth period, so I put in a request to go home early right after the class, and then I went home and slept for a few hours. Now I’m up and about, but getting ready to lay down again. I’ve got just one more day to get through at school tomorrow, and then I’ve got five days off in a row.

I definitely got some sleep in this morning, but Kuniko was up early. She was cleaning house and doing laundry early on. The weather was beautiful today, and so we made some plans to go out and enjoy it.

Kuniko’s sister was still in town, so they decided to do a little shopping at the outlet mall in Tarumi. I came along and we had a good time walking around and seeing everything there. There were lots of people at the mall, and so I enjoyed people watching quite a bit.

We got home from shopping and had Kuniko’s sister come up for snacks and a couple of games of Sorry. She learned quickly, and won the first game she played. After a few games she decided to head on out. Kuniko and I did some shopping at Carrefour and then came on back home, pretty worn out. We’ve both got to work tomorrow, so it should be a pretty mellow night tonight. In addition, I’m feeling a little sickness coming on – maybe a cold. Just in time for the Golden Week holidays…

Saturday Kuniko got up early and headed into Kobe to get ready for the concert, and I followed shortly thereafter, arriving a little earlier at a station called Rokkomichi. I was pleasantly surprised with the area. It had a nice feel to it, and it was in the shadow of Rokko mountain so there were lots of trees and hills nearby. It might be a place to look at someday to live.

I took a short hike on faith and managed to find the music hall, and since I had a little time I went to a nearby restaurant for some okonomiyaki, since I had heard that the concert could last almost three hours. I didn’t want my stomach growling during that time, so I ate a nice lunch and then headed over.

In the lobby of the concert hall I met up with Kuniko and was introduced to her students, both current and last year’s students. They all seemed really nice, and I think they were excited about the show.

I went inside and sat with two of Kuniko’s foreign students – she is teaching them Japanese. They are exchange students from overseas – Haley is from Canada and Jess is from Australia. It was my first time meeting Jess, but she seems like a smart girl and I think they are really enjoying their experience in Japan.

The concert was divided into three parts, and each one lasted about 40 minutes. The students did great – I enjoyed the show. The last part was an orchestra type arrangement, with almost twenty people playing various instruments, mostly the mandolin guitar.

At the end of the show they had a little tribute for two members of the club that are approaching graduation. It was their last concert, so there was a lot of tears and emotion.

Once the show wrapped up I headed back home, and Kuniko headed to Okayama to catch the tail end of a wedding party for one of her friends. In the evening I headed to Denya for some yakitori and had the chance to chat with one of the regular’s brother-in-law, who was a really nice guy. He bought me a couple of beers, and then put in a call to his daughter who came bearing a photo album. They pulled out a picture of me with his brother-in-law, and gave me the pictures. He was a really nice guy, but I had a hard time understanding his Japanese. The master was put in the position of being the interpreter. He translated the very colloquial local tongue into standard Japanese for me – a Japanese to Japanese interpreter.

The yakitori also had a new item on the menu, a steak. He grills up the steak just how you want it, and then serves it cut into strips. The price is right and the flavor was awesome. After the yakitori I headed over to IY and discovered some interesting things on the third floor. Bugs are really popular here in Japan, and they had a temporary wooden cage built and it was filled with insects – giant beetles – crawling around. Kids can buy them and they use them as pets.

Kuniko got home at a reasonable hour thanks to her sister, who drove her back from the wedding party in Okayama. We get a chance to sleep in on Sunday, so that is something to look forward to!

No, not really. But if there was a day to do it, today might have been it.

Today I went into school without a lesson plan for the three first year lessons, but luckily Mori sensei had left the plan on my desk last night, so it was waiting for me when I arrived. I spent the morning going over it and making sure I knew what was going on. It was a very complicated plan, concentrating heavily on the textbook and workbook. Usually I don’t use the textbook so much in my class – but I was letting Mori sensei run with this lesson to see how it went.

It went poorly.

The first lesson was with Nozaki sensei, who is bright and cheerful and refreshingly straight forward. She told me before the class started that she didn’t like such a complex plan – she’d rather leave the class to me and let me run the show. She (and all the other English teachers but Mori sensei) see my lesson as a chance to relax a bit and let me handle things. It’s a good way for the students to be completely submersed in English.

Unfortunately the students in our first class forgot their textbooks at home, leaving us with a pretty useless lesson plan. We improvised by writing lots of information on the blackboard, skipping some activities, and Nozaki sensei even drew a really good cartoon right out of the book on the board. When the class finally ended we were tired out, and ready for a break. Luckily for Mori sensei, our misfortune allowed her to make copies of the textbook for the next two classes. Nozaki sensei politely gave her a very Japanese-sized piece of her mind, and it was interesting to watch the dynamic between them.

My next two classes were with Mori sensei, and right off the bat Mori sensei took control of the flow and the class, and she guided the whole thing in English and Japanese. Most of the lesson ended up being in Japanese, and the students kept looking at me wondering when I would talk. Unfortunately the script didn’t call for too much of me talking. It did focus quite a bit on student pronunciation which I think is a very good thing.

After the first class Mori sensei announced that she felt the lesson put too much emphasis on her talking, and wanted me to talk more. I did my best the next lesson, but Mori sensei frequently jumped in and cut me off with some Japanese. She even made fun of my English pronunciation in a side Japanese joke to the kids. I don’t mind if she makes fun of me, but if kids think they sound stupid trying to pronounce English correctly, they won’t try anymore.

I’m getting all worked up again. Count to ten… OK.

I survived the classes, though, and that was something I wasn’t sure would happen earlier. As soon as I got back to my desk I started thinking about how I can adapt the lesson to something more my style – I have to teach the lesson with several other teachers, too, and today some of them told me they’ll be counting on me to “take care of them” through the new lesson.

The rest of the day was good. In fact, it was great. I marked the homework that the students turned in, and I was pleased overall with the results. The students did better than I expected.

I had some time at the end of the day, so I spent the time walking around the school talking with students instead of just sitting around the staff room. I talked with students hanging out in the hallways, walked through the newly upgraded gymnasium, and poked my head into the kendo room and the ping pong room. The new first year kendo members came over to say hello to me. It’s always strange to carry on a conversation with a student when they are wearing a big metal mask. Behind the metal bars you can see the same old cheerful student from your class, they just look like a pissed off samurai from the outside.

While I was walking around talking to students everyone would take a moment to say hello to me. Everyone was happy to see that I was around and taking an interest in what was going on. Two girls followed me around the whole time. They are kind of Bryan groupies – they always try to get my attention but then they start turning red and giggling as soon as I say something to them.

I left school right on time, feeling pretty good. Walking around making that many people happy was certainly enough to make up for my bad experiences with Mori sensei.

Now I’m home and hanging out on a Friday night. I have a feeling that Kuniko will be home late since it is the last night before her concert, and I’m sure her club members are practicing like crazy. I’ll be heading into Kobe tomorrow to catch the show – should be fun!

Wednesday was a free day for me – I had no classes because the first year students were on their orientation trip to Miki. I hung out all day and studied, paid a visit to have lunch with Tsuji-san during the fourth period, and wrapped it all up and got out of there right on time.

Kuniko got home late again, but we still had a big salad for dinner, and got her to bed early. Hopefully she’ll get a break soon to get some rest. She’s been working very, very hard. Unfortunately with her concert coming up this weekend and a wedding party after that, it might be tough to get that break.

Today my normal morning class was switched out to give me an opportunity to learn how to do tea ceremony at a special class in our school. The class is part of the trial “International Understanding” course offered by our school. The history teacher had arranged it, and when I got to the tea room (our school has a very cool tea room built right in) everything was set up.

I joined about seven students and we learned from the instructor – a woman that comes to our school just to guide the tea ceremony club, and occasionally to teach some other classes.

While one of the other teachers snapped pictures we all sat in a very uncomfortable “seiza” position, which means you sit on your knees and slowly constrict the blood flow of your legs using your own body weight. The history teacher assured me that I didn’t have to sit that way, but I didn’t want to be the only one not doing that, so I held out until one of the students finally gave it up, and then I gave it up too, and sat cross-legged.

I think the students enjoyed having a total rookie around, and so we had a good rapport going despite the very strict lesson we got about the ceremony itself. It’s a very complex ceremony, and there were so many directions on doing such and such with only your right hand, and turn this three times, and fold that twice exactly like this… well, you get the point. Overall it was a good, though. I’m looking forward to doing it again sometime.

On my way home at the end of the day I shared a train ride with one of my ex-students – this one was from two years ago. She is attending a dance school in Kobe and we talked about Takanan for most of the train ride. It was a good chance to speak lots of Japanese.

Kuniko got home relatively early tonight – around 6:30. We had a huge dinner of ham sandwiches and salads, and then walked around Ito Yokado buying some household goods and some things for tomorrow in an attempt to burn off some of the calories.

For the first time in a long time I’m dreading going to work. Tomorrow we have no teaching plan, and the teacher responsible for it, Mori sensei, just got back from the orientation trip today. Hopefully she’ll have an outline on my desk tomorrow morning, but I’ve got to prepare for the idea that maybe there will be no plan. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I’ve got three classes in the morning, and they are all getting the new (plan-less) lesson. Ick.

This week I have a pretty light schedule, partly to make up for last week’s fairly heavy one. I just had two classes today – no sweat. I had fun with the students today, and I even had some come to my desk during lunchtime just to chat. Overall the level of English of the students seems higher than last year, or at least maybe they are less shy this year.

As a result of my meeting with Mori sensei the other day, we were scheduled to meet with all the other English teachers that teach first year English, so that she could explain her plan to them. The time for the meeting came and went, though, and Mori sensei was too busy to do the meeting. Finally, with five minutes left before my regular leaving time, she said she was free.

Nozaki sensei takes evening courses every Tuesday in pursuit of her Master’s degree, and so she always leaves right at five. She was worried that she might not be able to get to her class on time. She called me aside and said that if I told Mori sensei that I had to leave, then she could make her class in time. I don’t know why she couldn’t just say it herself, but it was a fine idea – I wanted to go home on time as well. So I told her that I had to run, and so it looks like we’ll be tackling the next lesson without a planning meeting.

Things in the first year English department are pretty shaky right now, and I’m afraid that my successor will get dropped into a tough situation. It’s not a bad situation, it’s just that there is no clear plan or responsible figure – Mori sensei is too busy to take care of everything, but she doesn’t want to give anything up.

I’m back home and waiting for Kuniko to get home. We’re going to have a healthy dinner after the pizza feast last night. Tonight the plan is avocado salad – hope it turns out OK!

It was hard getting my tired body out of bed early this morning. There’s been lots of running around this weekend, and it caught up with me at 5 a.m. when the alarm went off.

Luckily at school I had only one class, and an afternoon meeting. I spent the day relaxing at my desk and doing Japanese listening drills in my classroom. Normally I would spend some of this free time planning my next first year lesson, but after the last time when I went to all the trouble last time only to have it slashed by Mori sensei, I decided to see how the meeting goes.

I was all ready for my class to show up, and the bell rang, and nobody came. I waited a few minutes because maybe they were coming from a PE class, and they were changing out of uniforms, but… no luck.

That’s a tough time – you start to doubt whether you have the correct info – what’s really happening? I ran down to the staff room and couldn’t find my teaching partner for the class, Nozaki sensei. There were no changes on the schedule, so what was going on?

Finally I went up to the homeroom class of the students I was supposed to teach, and by chance Nozaki sensei came flying out of the classroom having just realized the class was in the wrong place. She apologized like crazy until we got to the classroom with the students, and she was apologizing pretty much all day after that. She’s a new teacher, though, and it’s to be expected.

The meeting with Mori sensei went as I kind of expected. She laid out what she wanted to do, but this time I just went along with everything she said. She had a couple of activities that concerned me a little bit, but this lesson I’ll hold my tongue and see how it turns out.

During Mori sensei’s self-introduction to our class, she makes a point of mentioning how many countries that she has visited (and it’s quite a lot), and then at the end she switches to Japanese and apologizes to the students that maybe her Japanese language isn’t so polished since she has been speaking so much English these days.

The reality is that she is really uncomfortable using English, and she keeps trying to switch to Japanese to explain things. I try to hold her to English though. Today she was trying to explain a passage in the textbook that was written in Japanese. She had some trouble, and so she said that since I can probably read the Japanese I should read it later. I smiled and told her that my job at the school is not just to improve the students’ English – I’m here to get the teachers using it too. That kind of flustered her a bit, but my feeling is that if you are going to talk the talk, you gotta be able to walk the walk. Or something like that.

As you can probably see I’m not a big Mori sensei fan. Luckily I’ll only have to work with her until summertime and then I’ll be out of there. I feel sorry for the poor soul who takes over for me. But maybe a little structure early on might help my replacement get started on the right foot.

Tonight we’re taking it easy and ordering in pizza for dinner. Kuniko is even more exhausted than I am, so hopefully we’ll have a low impact evening and be ready for tomorrow.

I met up with Antoine and Miwako in Sannomiya Sunday to go on a little day hike in the mountains over Kobe. We met up and then headed up the side of Rokko mountain. It was the first time for both of them, and so we could enjoy the waterfalls and the views even more.

We spent about three hours hiking around the hills, and I guided them to a few of my favorite spots. The weather held up nicely the whole time, and once we got to the top the sun really started shining. It was a great hiking trip.

We came down off the mountain around five or so, and then headed to a bar to wait for Kuniko to get free. Once she got loose we all walked over to Tapas, a great Spanish style restaurant that Kuniko and I have been to one time before. It was just as good this evening, and we ate plates and plates of food – and it was a pretty reasonable price. I think my favorite was the gnocchi with a pumpkin sauce, but there were lots of other tasty things to try as well.

We headed on back after dinner, while making a brief stop for dessert – crepes from “Dipper Dan” Crepe Factory. Mine was good, and I got stuck eating Kuniko’s since she couldn’t finish it. All in a day’s work.

Pictures from the hike are posted right here.

Kuniko was up early today for her friend Tomomi-chan’s wedding. She got dressed and was out the door early, and I was left to sleep in, eat a big lunch and do some laundry. Not so exciting, but I was invited to the second party, so around 2:30 I headed out the door to go to Osaka.

Since I had finished all my flashcards I listened to music on the train with my mp3 player. It’s a bit old and bulky, but it holds 20 GB of music – plenty of tunes for just about any occasion. I was listening to the new Tool album on the trip down. It sounded pretty good.

First in Umeda I walked through Yodobashi Camera in search of an adapter for my new cell phone. I found it pretty quickly, and then walked around and just enjoyed some people-watching. There was a good mix of shoppers there. Lots of foreigners, too – come to check out the latest in Japanese electronics. In a bit of perfect timing Kuniko called me as I was leaving, and we made plans to meet at a nearby subway station. I caught the train without any trouble, but on the other end I wasn’t sure which exit to take to meet up with her.

Subway stations usually have many exits – Yodoyabashi station has 12 exits. I went up one that looked like a major exit, but couldn’t find Kuniko. Right then she sent a message saying she was at the northeast exit. Where the hell is that? I went back downstairs and looked at a map, and then according to the legend found exit 4, which seemed to be the most northeast exit. When I got there, I found out that it was in fact the wrong exit – no Kuniko. Finally we figured out via a series of phone calls where each other was, and we met up and headed to the place for the second party.

Kuniko was on the hook to do reception for the party, and it was pretty expensive. Women paid 6500 yen, and men paid 7500 yen. Once that was settled up I went inside and sat down with some complete strangers to chat while Kuniko was working outside.

The people I sat with were curious about me and it was easy to strike up a conversation. Most of them were visiting from Tokyo – I could easily pick up their standard Japanese… it was like right out of a textbook. We soon became fast friends and were pouring each other drinks and telling stories. They asked me all about my married life and work life and social life and drinking life and American life – I was really getting a Japanese language workout.

Finally things wrapped up outside so I said a quick goodbye to them and took my bingo card and beer over to sit with Kuniko and some of her old college friends. It was my first time meeting them, and they were really nice. They kept me in beer and we asked each other lots of questions. There was never a time were I was bored or standing around hoping to talk to someone. Everything just meshed nicely.

The place was a really nice upscale place, and the food was pretty good. It was drink-oriented food – not to say that it was bar food, but it was all food that goes great with beer. Having dropped 7500 yen at the door I wanted to make sure to get my money’s worth of refreshment, so I attacked it with gusto. Most of the wedding guests had just had a big meal at the wedding reception. I just had cheese and crackers at home, so there was plenty of room.

The format of the second party was a bit more organized than our own last November. They had lots of speeches and a couple of quizzes, and bingo. Bingo was really being talked up, and I realized why when they said what you could win – they announced that you could win some bottles of wine, cakes and candies, and even a couple of iPods were on the roster.

The first person won bingo and they had a serious gauntlet of things they had to do. First, they drew a number, and that matched up with their prize. Then, they listened to a trivia quiz about the bride or groom, and if they guessed the right answer then they pulled a lottery stick out – the lottery prize could be anything, from a butter knife all the way up to an iPod.

I was surprised to find that I was close to bingo early on, and then soon after that I pulled out a bingo. Another guest had won as well, so under the principles of “ladies first” she pulled a prize, and won a bottle of white wine. Then, I pulled a paper out of the hat. To be honest, I was more worried about the upcoming trivia quiz – a real test of my Japanese.

But, good news, I pulled out a paper that had the number “1” on it, and that corresponded to the top bingo prize, and iPod nano. The emcee congratulated me and handed it over, and announced that since I won the iPod, I probably shouldn’t take a shot at another one and I heartily agreed with him. That got me out of the trivia quiz, so I went back and sat down and got a round of applause from our table.

Suddenly the money I paid to get into the party seemed like a pretty good bargain. The bingo suspense continued, and eventually Kuniko won, too. She picked up some cakes which looked pretty delicious. Also, we walked over to the bride and groom table and said hello and took some pictures. They looked a little tired but very happy. It was my first time meeting Tomomi-chan’s husband, and he seemed like a really nice guy. Hopefully we can have them over for dinner sometime soon.

Just before we left I reconnected with the group of Tokyo guys that I had sat with before. They were just sitting around as a group of guys, so I collected the single guys and took them to a table of women just sitting around. I introduced myself, and then the guys introduced themselves. I got them talking to each other and it was going pretty good – I’m hoping that somebody got a phone number in there somewhere.

Kuniko and I headed back to the station and were lucky enough to get a seat for the long trip back. Finally we got home and were exhausted. We crashed out and went to bed right away. Lots of walking around today.

I’ve posted some pictures from the wedding (Kuniko took those) and the second party, so you can check them out here.

Friday night we had the going away/welcome party for the teachers affected by the transfer this April. That meant a trip to Himeji, to the Himeji Castle Hotel for a good meal and lots of speeches.

The speeches this year did tend to go a little long for my taste. Luckily I was sitting at a table next to Arai sensei, the P.E. teacher. He speaks quite a bit of English and so we chatted about various things while people droned on in the background.

The party was a little more wild this year. The new math teacher sitting to my left, Moriguchi sensei, was a big drinker. Every time somebody came over to pour some beer for him he would drink the whole glass. Pretty soon it caught up with him, though, but he stayed on his feet the whole night.

The former vice principal made an appearance and a speech that had everyone laughing. I guess now that he is a principal at another school, there’s no reason to be diplomatic, so he told some good stories while keeping a straight face. He was a big hit, and there was a line of eight or nine people waiting to talk to him afterwards.

Finally it came time for the lights to come on, and they started playing loud annoying music to let even the most blasted teachers know that the party was over.

Outside in the lobby a couple people had gathered, and Watanabe sensei was busy trying to avoid being sexually harrassed by one the drunken groundskeepers. I gently held him back, making it into kind of a joke and his ardor seemed to calm down a bit.

On my way out I found that Kimura sensei was waiting for me. He wanted to take the trip back together, so we caught a Sanyo train back and spent that time speaking English. He really tries hard to speak English – I admire his effort. I can tell that he misses Takanan already, but I’m sure he’ll settle into his situation soon.

I heard from Kuniko that she was shopping at IY, so I met up with here on the way back, and together we headed home. I was tired out from a long day and all the partying, so it was to bed early for me.

All day long it was really windy, both here in Futami and at work in Takasago. The wind today blew off pretty much every last cherry blossom hanging on the trees. As I was walking home the nice carpet of white petals was gone. I’m not sure where it went, but it ain’t here no more.

I had a busy day, but the highlight was teaching with Okamoto sensei, one of the new English teachers at my school. He was visibly nervous whenever we spoke, so we haven’t much. I thought he would crash and burn once the class started, but it was just the opposite. He was an English superstar! He did a great self introduction, and talked about his love for music. The students watched with their mouths hanging open.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. I had a lesson with Tsuji-san at the end of the day, and I gave her a box of chocolates and an Easter card from Nancy and Lynn, and she was really happy to get some presents from America.

On the way home I shared a train ride with a very talkative lady who I used to see every morning on my way to work. Since my schedule changed, I don’t see her as often. She seems to be under the impression that I can understand everything she says in Japanese, so I get a full shot of it with no English backup. It’s a good way to learn a language.

For dinner we just had cheese, salami, bread and some meat that I picked up at IY – it really hit the spot. We had hot pepper cheese from Sonoma Jack – delivered by Mark on his recent visit.

Tomorrow I’m headed to a farewell/welcome party at the end of the day, so I’ll try to take some pictures. What happens this weekend will really depend on the weather. I’m hoping it stays nice.

The cherry trees are turning from white to green as the blossoms are giving way to the surprisingly robust new green leaves. As the blossoms start to fall there is a nice effect of the petals floating through the air like snowflakes. There’s a Japanese word for it, 花吹雪 hanafubuki, which means “flower blizzard”.

It is a really beautiful thing to see, almost as impressive as the blooming itself. A lady on the way to work commented to me out of the blue about how beautiful it was. The ground is sometimes carpeted with blossoms. Later I was talking with one of the groundskeepers of our school, and his perspective was great – he said that they were just something he’s going to have to sweep up soon. Practical guy.

I had a full load of classes today. My two first year classes had previously scheduled interruptions for the students to – according to the Japanese teacher – “have their organs examined”. Sounds like fun.

Although I had just a short time with the new classes, they both showed their personality pretty quickly. The first class was quiet, barely cracking a smile and looking completely miserable. They will be my most challenging class, I can tell. The second class was full of giggling girls who told me how handsome I was during the walk to the nurses room, who giggled at everything I did or said, and blushed when I looked at them. The boys, for their part, did some blushing too – they had some trouble answerign some pretty simple questions.

I had two second year classes as well. One of the classes is the top level students – all gathered in one room. The English teacher with me was Yamamoto sensei – he’s a little self-conscious about his English ability, and he was very nervous today. Once the class was over, he was very relaxed, though. It went much better than he expected, I guess.

Part of the lesson has the students walking around looking for people that meet certain criteria on a list that they have. For example, they have to find someone that lives in Futami, and have them sign the paper. I purposely put some tough ones in there so that they would have to come to me for a signature, but my plan backfired when nobody else in that class lived in Futami. I was like a celebrity being swamped for autographs – I tried to back away from the mob of students, until they finally cornered me. A taste of paparazzi attention, I guess.

Between classes the history teacher asked me to participate in a new curriculum that they are trying out this year. There are seven students taking an “International Understanding” course, and as part of that the history teacher wants me to attend several of their classes. Some of the classes are about Japanese cultural things like tea ceremony, and flower arranging. I’m going to try these things out with the students, side-by-side. Then, at the end of the year I will do two lectures on how it felt and my thoughts on experiencing Japanese culture as a foreigner. Part of the fun for the students will be able to not only try out some these things themselves, but watch me struggle through them.

It sounded like a lot of fun, so I said that I would be happy to do it. I’m really looking forward to my first class, at the end of this month. I’ll be participating in a tea ceremony, which is a pretty involved thing.

After school we had an ESS meeting, and most of the third year students came (but none of the new third years, hmm…) and both new first year students came. We did self-introductions, and the hardcore third year ESS members kept a running support group going with cheers and applause for the new students, and plenty of heckling for the veteran members. When I brought out the Peeps candies from America, everyone really liked them. I don’t really like eating them, but I had to ration them out to the students. I explained what Peeps meant, and made it into a little mini-English lesson.

One of the new students told me after the club meeting that she doesn’t like English very much, and does pretty poorly on her English exams. I was struck by that, and it reminded me of an article I read recently that talked a little bit about that phenomenon. Japanese students (and even adults) see a weakness in their learning or skills, and they work hard to bring that skill up. I can’t imagine somebody who hates English voluntarily seeking out a club or group to put extra time into it. It’s commendable, and maybe I should use a little bit of that strategy myself for Japanese study.

Last night Kuniko got back late so she went with a beef and vegetable stir fry. The benefit of getting home late is taking advantage of the cheaper meats that are marked down over time. She stole two big plates of beef for half price. I got my meat fix, and I was a very happy guy. Tonight she’s going to try out the recipe that she didn’t have time for yesterday. As they say at McDonald’s, I’m lovin’ it.

Today I had two classes – one during first period and one during the last. My morning class was no sweat – doing interview practice with third year students. After that I wrapped up some lesson planning for later this week, and then did a little bit of studying through until the afternoon.

My sixth period class was with Mori sensei, and I think we’ve got a pretty good system working now. I can see that she is struggling with not being in charge of the classroom, but for now she is dealing well with it. The students in today’s class were a little shy, but there were some really sharp girls in the class – they responded well to my questions and weren’t afraid to speak out.

Continuing on that theme, after school we got a new cleaning squad, and so I cleaned my room with a couple of students I don’t usually talk to much. I like talking to the students in English, but I try to balance that with silence, too – I don’t them to be afraid to be in the same room with me for fear of having to do a full-blown conversation.

Afterwards we all gathered and signed off their sheet, and it was great to joke around with everyone. There are a lot of dynamics at work in these situations, some of which are the emerging recognition of the opposite sex. The hormones are starting to overwhelm the shyness factor. You can see a glimpse of it now in the third years, and it should be in full gear by graduation.

We had registration for clubs after school, so I went to the classroom where we were taking registration and hung out. The class was filled with some of the students that I’ll be teaching tomorrow, and I hung out with them chatting about this and that. After about 20 minutes ESS members started showing up. We had only two new first year students, but we had one new second year student and about ten new third years.

Most of the new third year students are interested because they will undergo English testing on their way to college. Hayashi sensei thought that they’d show up at first and then disappear once they take the test. I was happy to see that some of the regulars were there to support the club. They are the ones that show up every week, came to my wedding, and try hard to keep the club going. They may not be the most popular or cool students, but they are the heart of the club. I’m hoping that we can get some more like for the future.

One of the new first year ESS students came up and started speaking to me in English, and she was going for broke. She must have some experience speaking with another teacher or maybe at a language school. She was talking up a storm in English, and kept on speaking it even after I said goodbye. The other students I think were a little worried that this might amp up the pressure on them. I hope it does, to tell the truth.

Lastly, when I sat back down at my chair at the end of the day I there were two new first year students talking to their homeroom teacher, Nishikawa sensei. He urged them to talk to me a little in English so I chatted with them a bit. They said that they couldn’t possibly say a word of English. Nishikawa sensei asked them about the ALT from their junior high spoke mainly just in Japanese. Scary thought, but the board of education is paying someone to come all the way from some Western English-speaking country and the guy is teaching the class in Japanese. Ouch.

Tonight Kuniko is going to cook up dinner and I’m in suspense about what it might be. I’ll try to remember to post what it was tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ve got a full slate of classes… actually, they’ve changed my schedule this week so I’ll be really busy. I’m looking forward to it – I think I’m ready.