Last night Kuniko made a new recipe, and it was a lot of fun to eat and to make. She made nikuman, which is sometimes called pork buns in American Chinese restaurants. I love to eat them – we eat them quite often and they are available everywhere. I’ve never made them from scratch, and it turns out it wasn’t so hard to do. Kuniko called me into the kitchen to help with the rolling of the dough and filling, and then they cooked up really easily in a hot frypan. They weren’t pretty (at least the ones I made weren’t), but they tasted great. We ate them while watching a movie that we rented, “The Island”. The movie was “mah-mah” as they say here in Japan.

Today I was at work early, with only one class. I spent the morning doing vocabulary and writing the listening test for the first year students. They have a weird sign in the corridor outside the teacher’s room that says that nobody but staff can walk down one side of the corridor. I couldn’t figure out why, so I asked the history teacher. He told me that they are doing an exam tomorrow, and behind one of the doors of the corridor is an automatic grading computer that they fear will be tampered with by students. It’s weird because none of our students are taking the exam, just junior high school students who might want to go to this school. They are fearing some real “Mission Impossible” stuff I guess. Sounds like paranoia to me.

There are no classes tomorrow since we are administering the exam for junior high school students. My responsibilities in this area are exactly zero. I’m not sure why they want me here, but since they are paying me I might as well show up. The history teacher came by and told me that I need to stay late tomorrow, which was hard to figure out since they don’t need me for anything anyway. Later he came back with a sheepish look on his face and said that he had consulted with the vice principal, and he found out that I could leave at my regular time. I think the history teacher enjoys being my mouthpiece – so much that he does it even when I don’t need to say anything.

Back home I found the results from my big exam that I took in December of last year waiting for me in the mailbox. I hate opening envelopes with important results – I tend to build it up too much. I took the envelope from the JET program on a hike deep into the mountains and only after arriving at a waterfall far away from anyone did I open it up. Today I waited just a little while – I did the dishes, washed the bathtun, the usual routine.

So did all those hours of hard work finally pay off? Did I gain an important edge in my upcoming job search? Did I pass the exam that has consumed pretty much my whole life in 2005?

I’m building the drama, even here. Yes, I passed – barely. I’m happy – but the result doesn’t change where my Japanese level is right now. I still can’t have a decent conversation with most native speakers, I can’t understand what is going on watching TV, I can’t read the newspaper without a dictionary handy.

Even though I passed, I’ve got a long way to go.

That being said, tonight I think we’ll go out and celebrate just a teensy bit. Kuniko will be here soon and we’ll head and do something fun.

Tomorrow is an easy day at school – no classes, but I’ll have some planning to do for a lesson on Wednesday.

We had a good time on Friday – a really good time. After school I met up with Antoine to play pool and hang out for a while. Antoine showed up sporting an alternate hairstyle – it was really interesting. Kind of like a mohawk, but a little more subdued.

We went to the same billiard place that we went to last time. It is in a weird location, on top of a game amusement place that looks pretty seedy despite being right across from a police station.

We stepped over a knocked over garbage can to get in the elevator, and arrived at the top floor where all the pool tables are. The beers are pretty cheap here, and the tables are not so expensive either. There were a couple of foreigners shooting pool at the end of the room and then a couple of salaryman types working off their frustrations at the tables.

Antoine and I played for an hour and ordered up beers whenever we were thirsty – the nice young lady would call the kitchen and then bring the beers right to the table. Nice!

We played three games and I lost two to Antoine. We were playing anything goes pool, and it was fun. It’s much more fun when you don’t sweat the rules so much, but as I write this I think that’s probably true with just about everything.

From there we went to Starchild Burgers, which is a place that I’ve been trying to visit for almost six months without luck. This was the fourth attempt, and it worked out that they were open for business. Their menu was filled with a burgers and appetizers, and we both got a bacon cheeseburger, and some nachos for a starter. The nachos were good, the burgers were great, and I had a couple of Heineken darks with dinner. I haven’t had Heineken dark since drinking it on tap at the Silver Dollar Hofbrau in Fresno, California during college.

The next stop was King of Kings, another place that I thought about visiting but never have. The place was quiet, and the jovial bartender led us to a really nice bar. We pulled up a stool and enjoyed some professionally done drinks. I knew it was going to be expensive just from the layout of the place. You can either sit there and worry about how much it’s going to be and hurry through the experience, or you can just relax and enjoy it. The language we used was Japanese – with the exception of a bar waitress that spoke a little English. She explained that she wants to learn English because someday she will travel to Spain. I tried to explain that they speak Spanish in Spain, but I guess English is a little more useful. People tend to be more practical about the language they learn, and English goes pretty far in this world.

We paid the bill (3 drinks, 5700 yen, around $50) and headed back to the station – it was getting late by now, and there was some doubt as to weather Antoine could get home before the last train.

Kuniko was drinking in town tonight, too. She had gone out with a bunch of her teachers, and so we were in touch via cellphone messages throughout the evening trying to coordinate it so we could go home together. As it worked out I sent off Antoine and walked back up the street a little and after a little guidance from Kuniko found the restaurant where they were. I went inside and said a quick hello and goodbye to everyone, and then we hit the road.

Kuniko was having trouble walking – I had to support almost all her weight as we walked, and we quickly determined that a long walk to the train station and a long ride home probably wasn’t going to happen. I walked us up the hill a little bit and as we were getting our bearings on where we were the bartender assistant from King of Kings went walking by and gave us a big smile and hello. What a sight we must have been – that guy was just in my bar and already he’s dragging a beautiful girl around looking for a hotel.

I flagged down a taxi, and he took us to a couple of love hotels, looking for one with an open room. Love hotels are usually just for short term stays – an hour or so, but as it gets later, they rent out the rooms for the night, and the prices are quite reasonable. Usually about the same price as three drinks at King of Kings.

We found one, and watched as an embarrassed young man dug through his pockets and was unable to afford a room for him and his date. They ended up having to leave, and so we stepped up and got a room. The owner’s wife came out to check on Kuniko’s condition, especially since she couldn’t really stand up on her own. I guess we were OK enough to get the room – we went down the hall and crashed right out in a no-frills love hotel.

The nice thing about love hotels is that they don’t do much business in the morning – that means that we could sleep in late. We took advantage of that, and got out of there around 10:30. Kuniko was feeling a little queasy, but we made it home safely and then went back to sleep. By afternoon she was feeling fine, and we both had a big appetite.

Kuniko cooked up a tasty chicken, tomato and cheese dish for dinner, and we had some special shu-mai that we had gotten at IY along with it. The dish turned out great – and it was pretty healthy, too.

Now it’s Sunday, and we’re doing housework, studying, and relaxing. It was snowing outside this morning, but now it has stopped and we’re getting ready to head over to IY for some shopping.

So I went to school and eagerly awaited the result of the purported strike, and it turned out that the school caved in and gave everyone a raise, so there is no strike. Unfortunately the raise doesn’t extend to me, but I’m on my way out anyway, so no problem.

I had a new lesson today – this is my last round of lessons for the first year students – they’ll graduate soon, and so it’s kind of my farewell class. I’ll really miss these guys! During the class I collected surveys from the students to find out how the class was. Of course they wrote in Japanese, but it was fun to read them. I didn’t get much criticism – it was mostly the same friendly, happy stuff. I’m hoping to get some ways to improve for next time.

My last activity is a pretty tough crossword, with the first student to complete it taking home a Choco-Pie. I bought just enough Choco-Pies for each class, but right off the bat we had a problem when the time ran out and I had to award two Choco-Pies to students that had tied. Looks like I’ll need to buy more Choco-Pies.

We had a meeting after school, and it lasted more than two hours. It lasted right through my appointment with Tsuji-san, and way past when I’m supposed to leave the school.

The meeting was the first one I’ve seen that had a genuine argument in it. There is a movement to ban smoking on campus for the teachers, and there are some people really against it. One guy was really freaking out about it, and he was shouting down the principal and vice-principal, which is not a great way to build job security. It was fascinating to watch – I couldn’t understand everything, maybe not even half, but you could tell it was a very unusual situation. Everybody else looked embarrassed, but I was licking my chops. FIGHT, FIGHT!

I got home much later than normal, and Kuniko had gotten home much earlier than normal. She cooked up a great dinner – garlic pasta with ham and fresh greens. I had a Vietnamese beer with dinner that tasted really good, and we ate lots of pasta and then just lounged around in the evening – now I’m off to bed early.

Tomorrow Kuniko has a party with her co-workers, and I’m going to try to meet up with Antoine to shoot some pool. The weekend is almost here!

Today we had lots of hushed whispers around the office, culminating in a mandatory meeting in between classes – something usually reserved for natural disasters and typhoons.

The gist, which I only understood through other teachers later was that there was a chance that some of our teachers were planning a strike tomorrow, and that we were all required to be at school from 8 a.m. until 9:30 a.m., without exception. No ducking out to the convienence store, no runs to the bank. The striking teachers are supposed to skip the first period only to show their power. Apparently the union is somehow strongly influenced by the Communist party in Japan, which is more powerful and less evil than you might expect.

Anyway, I know a couple of teachers that are in a union, although apparently there is more than one. I’m not sure exactly what will happen tomorrow, but everyone was jumpy today about it.

I had a great class with Maeda sensei today. Last week I had tasked the students with developing a TV commercial to perform in front of the class and video cameras today. I was a little worried about it, I had said that they could use both Japanese and English, and I was afraid that all the commercials would end up being in Japanese mainly. As it turned out, there was very little Japanese.

The first group came up with the cameras rolling, and they put on a great 1 minute commercial. Everybody else in the class was a little shocked – I don’t think that they had expected anything quite so good. From there on it just kept getting better. The students that didn’t really practice or study turned out to be a minority – just two groups. They crashed and burned, and since I had all the students evaluating each other it was nice to see the students noticed who studied and who didn’t.

I couldn’t be happier with how the commericals went, and if I can figure out how to get the commericals from the video camera onto a computer, I’ll try to post some of the good ones here. For a two class project it turned out really well, and it makes me want to try more elaborate stuff in the future.

After school today I had the third year students come over to our house for a conversation lesson. We sat and talked about the upcoming Valentine’s Day, about Hokkaido, and about what they did last month. It was fun to chat with them. During the lesson the doorbell rang, and an ex-co-worker of Kuniko’s dropped off a wedding present for us – some artwork by a local artist. He didn’t stick around, though, and it was probably good since I had at least one of his students sitting in the living room.

Kuniko showed up soon after just as we finished the lesson, and once we ushered the girls out the door she cooked up a big stir-fry dinner. We did some shopping at Ito Yokado afterwards, and now I’m headed to bed. Tomorrow will be either a very interesting morning, or completely normal.

I’m tired out from an evening on the town with Kuniko. We met up after school in Kobe – she was busy taking one of her students to get her hair dyed (back to black). I got out of work a little earlier and we met up at the bookstore. After picking out a few selections we headed to a little ramen place we both like near the motomachi station, and settled down in front of a huge bowl of noodles.

I had ordered the cha-shuu ramen, and the rim of the ramen bowl was draped with roasted pork – you just grab a piece and dip it in the noodles and broth whenever you like. As if that wasn’t enough we split an order of fried rice and a plate of gyoza. Wow.

After that we walked around a little bit and ended up having a couple of cookies and some coffee at Starbucks, and then finally we caught the shinkaisoku train (running 8 minutes late) back home. I’m whipped.

Work is going well – everyone there is sick but me, it seems. I’m almost at 100% now, as might be indicated by my diet. I was spared visits from the history teacher today – he was on a business trip.

I spent some time in the afternoon fielding questions from a group of girl first year students who wanted to know what “fuck you” meant. Dangerous territory there, but I think I explained it quite well. I don’t think they’ll be using those words in public in the future.

I’m off to bed – tomorrow is a busy day with students performing commercials, and some students coming over in the evening. They are really into the conversations and want to come twice a month, so we’ll be seeing a lot more them around the house.

I saw a funny thing on the way to work today, a little insight into how some things are so different here in Japan from what I’m used to.

I was walking along the road in Takasago, just about five minutes away from my school. Ahead of me the sidewalk was wide open, there was only two people approaching each other. I watched the two people walking towards each other, both of them with their heads bent down looking steadily at the ground. It became apparent to me that one or the other was going to have to look up soon and see that they were on a collision course.

But, nobody did, and they jumped out of each others way when each other’s feet were in their range of vision – maybe less than a foot apart. It was strange to see given that the whole rest of the sidewalk was open and empty for as far as I could see.

I’ve noticed that people that walk around tend to not be so aware of their surroundings – at least not as aware as I am. Before today I have written it off as me being a little frustrated with the slower walking speed around here, or maybe some frustration at being stared at all the time. But now, I think it is just that people here don’t need to be so aware of their surroundings. If they bump into somebody, nobody is going to make a big deal, nobody is going to yell at them or push them, and nobody is going to pull a knife or a gun. It is interesting what living in a relatively low crime society can do to people’s awareness.

Through a scheduling fluke I had no classes today, and had six separate visits from the history teacher. Despite this I was able to study most of the day and plan a lesson for Wednesday. Outside it was snowing pretty hard in the afternoon – big fluffy flakes that melted soon after they hit the ground. The flakes were the size of quarters or half-dollars – and even though they were falling fast and thick it just wasn’t cold enough for them to collect on the ground.

The English educational system in Japan was struck a critical blow today. The history teacher received a teacher’s license to teach English. He’s been working hard on papers and exams, and somehow, he passed. As I sit and listen to him tell me, “I have great interested in telling you what you do this weekend,” and “Today I hit the punch!”, I wonder who gave him a license. He’s missing some huge fundamentals, but apparently it’s enough to teach English in the public school system. I feel sorry for his students. He wants to keep the certification a secret for now – he’s afraid of the reaction of the English teachers. I don’t know what I would think if I were them.

This afternoon the vice principal stopped by and invited me to join a class being taught by an American college professor from Osaka. The VP said that he was going, so he invited me along. I told him that I’d meet him there, and headed upstairs a little while later. The professor was teaching away, and the students all turned back to look at me with an expression of “what the hell is this guy talking about?”

It turned out he was lecturing about the upcoming iPod/Levi’s jeans cross-promotion, and he had the students looking up words like “frenetic” and “drooling”. I walked around and tried to help the students out. The professor had a great lecture, but it seemed like it would be better suited for a college or higher level high school class. The professor asked me if we had some speakers to plug his iPod into to play some music, but unfortunately we didn’t.

Overall I thought it was a wasted opportunity, but something that the school will publish as one of the advantages of going there – courses by college professors. The guy was nice enough, though, and he was really happy to have me around.

I was looking at some of the major events coming up in the next six months for me and Kuniko. We’ll be taking a trip to Hokkaido at the beginning of next month, Mark will be in town at the end of March, I’ll need to renew my passport at the embassy in Osaka, and then change my visa to reflect my new status as married. The visa is important because it will allow me to stay in Japan regardless of my job status. I would hate to be against a deadline for a visa and take a crappy job – this will give me a little more flexibility. Finally, I’ll need to get a new re-entry permit once I get all the other things taken care of, so I can come back into Japan if I leave it.

Lots of fun paperworky-type stuff to look forward to, with a culmination in hopefully a honeymoon trip in the summer and a new job soon thereafter.

Friday night Kuniko got back from her hike fairly late, and she was exhausted. She had brought along dinner – some makizushi from Ito Yokado. Friday was setsubun – the last day of winter. The tradition is interesting – you are supposed to eat sushi facing in a particular direction (this year, south-south-west).

We ate sushi and gyoza, and Kuniko had even bought grilled sardines, which apparently is another tradition for today. I skipped those – I’m not big on eye contact with my food.

Today Kuniko had to go into work again, so I’m here doing laundry and concentrating on getting my health back. Relaxation, Survivor, maybe some Battlestar Galactica – it should be fun.

One thing I did the other day that was fun – I downloaded some of the music from Disneyland. Not from the movies – from the park. I’ve got a few tracks from all over the park, and it’s fun to listen to audio from the rides. There are even some tracks from the ambient music in the park, and from the lines. Especially good is the ambient music from the line of Indiana Jones the Ride.

Laundry is calling – back to work!

Today the history teacher had only one class, and that was my signal to make myself scarce throughout the day. I was preparing my classroom, working with the ESS students, and overall avoiding my desk most of the day.

As usual my classes were a lot of fun. I’m really going to miss teaching my students when I leave. I was talking to the ESS students and it suddenly dawned on them that I’ll be leaving this year. They were all disappointed, and it was nice to see that they cared.

I was teaching English to a lot of Japanese teachers today – Tanaka sensei and Yamada sensei were both asking me questions about how to say things in English. One thing that strikes me about the staff at my school – they are all interested in English. It’s an interesting trend that I’ve noticed. Even teachers that can’t speak it at all will ask me how to say a phrase in English now and then.

After school I visited Tsuji-san and talked with her for over an hour. She had big progress with her wedding – her fiancee came over and asked her parents again for permission to marry, and this time her father said yes. Now everyone is happy and they can get busy on planning the wedding and building a house. Tsuji-san will quit her job once she gets married because that is what her husband-to-be wants, and so she’ll be staying at home and studying English and Spanish all day.

I’m back home now and waiting on Kuniko. She’s getting home late tonight, so I’ve got curry all ready to serve when she gets here. Tomorrow she is going on the hike with her students, so she’ll be really tired for the weekend. Tomorrow is setsubun – the last day of winter, and the start of spring. There’s an interesting tradition of eating sushi facing a particular direction. I’ve got to figure out what direction it is the right one for tomorrow!

I had a great day today at school, and it just kept getting better afterwards.

I had just two classes today, half as many as I normally do, and they were both fun. The first class with with some second year students and Kobayashi sensei. We met in my classroom and watched parts of “The Incredibles” while the students listened carefully and tried to understand the English dialogue.

It went really well and the students were surprisingly interested in the class. It’s amazing what adding a TV and a DVD can do to the student’s interest level.

In fourth period I taught a class with Maeda sensei. His students are the highest scoring English students in our school, so I introduced a project for next week – they will make their own TV commercial and perform it for our class. Maeda sensei is going to bring his video camera, so we should have some good video of some Japanese TV commericals next week. The students are allowed to use English and Japanese in their commercials, so I’m not sure how it will turn out. If it was just English the project would last four weeks – with Japanese we can do it in two.

After school three second year high school students from Akashi Nishi high school came over and we had a great English conversation. This was the second visit for them, and they were a lot more comfortable with speaking English compared to last time. They brought pictures and omiyage from their school trip to Malaysia. We had a great time talking about their trip, and it was nice to see them getting comfortable with speaking English. I don’t speak any Japanese with them, and as far as they know, I don’t know how to speak Japanese. It’s a good experience for them.

Kuniko got home a little bit after the girls left, so we went out to Denya to deliver a letter and some pictures from my mom, and have a great dinner. We ate a wide selection of yakitori and talked with the master and Masao, a friend I made last time I was there. Kuniko translated the letter from my folks, and the master looked very happy.

I’m off to bed now – the rest of the week should be considerably more relaxed.

Things are ramping up at school – the exam period is over for the third year students, so now they can come and go as they please. Their school responsibility is over until graduation. Still, some students are still looking for some guidance, so they’ll be around now and then.

Since their exams finished they let the students back into the staffroom, and that livens it up a whole lot. I’m looking forward to having more visitors at my desk to chat with.

I had two classes today and I helped out Mikyake sensei with some dictation that she did, so I was fairly busy. I spent a bit of time getting ready for tomorrow’s lessons – two new ones for the second year students.

One of the first year teachers, Yamamoto sensei, came by and chatted with me for a while in English. This is a pretty rare thing – he’s not very confident in his English. He seems to be getting comfortable with me, though, and more and more he comes by to say hello.

Today he told me that he told his homeroom class about how hard I study in the staffroom, and the unique way I learn vocabulary – by using the handheld computer. He said that his students seemed pretty impressed. A couple of students asked me about it later, so I think it made an impression.

Now that I’m using the handheld computer instead of flashcards, I can’t imagine ever going back. My big fear is breaking or losing the handheld – if that happens I’ll still have the data backed up on my computer, but I wouldn’t be able to memorize anymore. I’ll have to think of a plan just in case, and be really careful.

Tonight Kuniko and I are going to try to organize a trip to Hokkaido in the beginning of March. Neither of us has been yet, and we want to go enjoy the snow, the crab, the scenery. It’s supposed to be beautiful up there.

With only one class today there wasn’t a whole lot to write about, but I’ll try. Being a desk jockey all day has it’s benefits, and it’s drawbacks. The drawbacks are easy: I feel like the cop that got assigned desk duty and I’m off the street. My ass gets wider. And, I’m a sitting duck for the history teacher who can come and bug me at will.

The history teacher came by today looking for deep conversation. His 50th birthday is coming up, and he thinks he has only 20 more years left in him. He still isn’t married, and he’s sure that he needs to learn English before he croaks. He was telling me all the things he still wants to do today, while I sat in my desk and tried to cheer him up. I could tell he really had a brush with mortality.

We talked about spirituality (and my lack of it) – comparing Buddhism, Shintoism, and Christianity’s concepts of the afterlife. I hate talking about deep stuff with the history teacher because of the language gap – we end up simplifying things to the point that it isn’t deep any more. Also he takes anything I says and expands it to include every American. So I mention that I don’t believe in the afterlife, and he says “I didn’t realize Americans didn’t believe in the afterlife.” Enough to send me running for the hills.

But I didn’t just chat up the history teacher today, I did teach a class in the afternoon. My first year students did pretty well with the culture shock quiz that I give, with the exception of the last question. To a man my students believe that Italians sometimes wear spaghetti in their hair.

At the end of the day the vice principal walked by while the history teacher had cornered me and told the history teacher he should think about paying me for my time. And he was serious. The history teacher stammered and hemmed and hawed and left for his desk, saying that someday he will show his appreciation.

Also the principal came by and asked me how my home life was working out. Since most people don’t live with their spouses before marriage, I think there can be a shock when you move in with someone for the first time. I took the chance to tell him all about how we both do housework and share the cleaning and cooking, just to show him how the future is looking. I also got to use a new word I learned the other day, “tomobataraki”, which means “both working” – usually people get married and the wife quits.

Kuniko just sent me a message and she’s on the way home, so I gotta go and put some nabe on the burner. More fun from the trenches tomorrow!

I’m continuing to feel better, but it’s a gradual process. Saturday morning Kuniko and I were able to sleep in a little bit, and we spent a nice relaxing day at home, studying, watching TV, you know – the usual weekend fare.

In the afternoon we headed to Kakogawa and stopped in at Uniqlo to get some gear for Kuniko to wear on her Sunday hike. Her school is going to be hiking next week, so Sunday she and her teachers are going to walk the route to make sure it is acceptable. Kuniko is not a big fan of hiking, so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes.

We got some good gear for her to wear, and from there we went over to the big mall in Kakogawa to meet up with Robert and Junko. They were already at the theater and they had bought tickets for us to see “Oliver Twist” with them. We all gave it a good review but Junko, who has enough depression at her workplace to have to take it in during her free time.

After the movie we went to Befu to catch dinner at one of their favorite restaurants. We drove there and it was an out-of-the-way place – in a building that didn’t look from outward appearances like a restaurant at all. There was only a small sign in front, otherwise you’d think you’d be stepping into someone’s house.

The restaurant was an Italian place, and the owner and his wife were a friendly couple who cooked us up a great meal while we drank wine and ate cheese. We really enjoyed the atmosphere and the food, and it was one of those times where you feel like you’ve stepped out of the normal routine of your life – like you are tucked away in a little corner of the world where nobody can find you. We’ll definitely remember the place and come back again.

The owner was nice enough to pour us a couple of glasses of a Turkish liquor that he had gotten as a souvenir from a friend. It was licorice flavored and at 45% alcohol was quite a drink. We barely got it down – and I was tasting it for a couple hours afterwards. It was like Sambuca from hell.

From there we split up and headed our separate ways. Kuniko has her hike tomorrow, so I’ll be hanging out at home and doing a little bit of clean up. We’re planning on meeting up with Kuniko’s folks tomorrow night – something to look forward to.

Hey, it’s Friday and I’m feeling a whole lot better. I woke up with clear sinuses, and once I shake this cough I’ll be back in business.

I had two classes today, and after I finished marking papers I left work early to come home and rest up. I figured that it’s best to kick this disease while it’s down and not push myself. I limited myself to one load of laundry at home, and spent most of the afternoon doing job research online.

Kuniko came home exhausted this evening so we just had store-bought sushi and sashimi for dinner. Luckily, Kuniko has tomorrow off, so we’ll get to sleep in and get some rest. We are probably going to go out and catch a movie with Robert and Junko (otherwise known as the Dan senseis). Other than that, there is not much planned for the weekend.

That’s it – I’m heading to bed to do some reading and catch some Z’s….

Today I woke up with another headache and a head stuffed full of snot, and I maintained my plugged up state right up until now, as I write this. Rather than give you the full details on being sick, it suffices to say that I am still sick and hoping for a recovery by the weekend.

The history teacher was worried about me today – he said that my eyes look tired. He said that usually my eyes are like a hawk’s… always alert and looking around. He said that instead my eyes look like a, well, he couldn’t think of a suitable animal to compare it to. He just said I look tired.

Despite being tired I managed to teach two classes today, and they went pretty well considering. It was a new lesson, and I really enjoyed it. Despite feeling crappy during the day, teaching in front of a bunch of crazy students really cheered me up.

Right after my classes I went home to try to get some rest. I cleaned up around the house and then decided to lay down and take a nap. I slept soundly until Kuniko got home, and she cooked us up a great dinner of mabodofu donburi. Now I’m typing this out as she’s in there doing the dishes, and I’m experiencing sick husband guilt.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to find the road to recovery – I’m eager to be able to taste my food again.

It was a tough call whether to go into work today or to stay home. I’m feeling a little better, but I don’t have any classes today so it would be perfectly OK to call in sick. I decided to go in to work, though, on the premise that I’ll get more done at work than I would at home.

I did get a lot done at work, and I’m all set with my new lesson for Thursday. It should be a fun one – I’m not sure if it will last long enough… we’ll find out tomorrow.

We continue to get reports from Hokkaido on the antics of our students skiing there on their school trip. The vice principal stands up in the morning meeting and gives us a dry report on their activities. Luckily they are relaying pictures back to be posted on a website, so we can see all the fun they are having. I’m so jealous!

After a solid day of studying, I’m back home now. I just finished straightening up the house a bit, and I’m looking forward to staying warm inside tonight. It still smells a little like kerosene in here, though. Nobody light a match…