I split my day today into studying in the morning, and classes in the afternoon. The afternoon classes were interview tests, and they were actually pretty fun. I see these students every week, but during the interview test I actually sit across from them, and it’s like meeting some of them for the first time. I’ve got some pretty weird guys in my classes, but it’s the students that don’t stand out that are interesting to me. Some are really shy, some are so quiet I can hardly hear them, but it’s a good way to show them that they have nothing to be afraid of.

After school the history teacher told me about a last minute staff meeting that they had arranged, but he said that I didn’t have to attend – I could go home if I liked. I liked, so I got to go home early today. Unfortunately Tsuji-san wasn’t available early, so I had to postpone our lesson until later.

Back home I did a few chores, and had a nice simple dinner of rice and kimchee. Two girls out front of the building were playing badminton when I walked in, and they came and knocked on my door and explained that they lost their badminton birdie on my patio, so I went outside and threw it back down to them. They were really brave to come up to knock on my door – I’ll have to work on my scary foreigner vibe.

Antoine gave me a ring and we talked for more than 90 minutes about everything that’s new in his life lately. He sounds busy – he’s moving into a new apartment over the summer, he’s flying to France to attend his sister’s wedding, he’s being sued by Mazda, and he stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Osaka for a night last week to celebrate his first anniversary of meeting his girlfriend, Miwako.

Tomorrow is finally Friday, and I’m looking forward to a pretty easy day at work. This weekend should be pretty relaxing – I hear that storms are going to be coming in so I’ll try to stay dry.

Today it was really muggy. The humidity was so high, and the floors had condensation on them at school. It was very slippery. Today I had just two classes and a recording session, so I had plenty of time in the afternoon to study. Just around 2:30 in the afternoon, the sky became very dark, and thunder started rolling. Suddenly, it started raining – hard. It was like somebody had poured a gigantic bucket of water on our school. You couldn’t even see through the windows it was so strong. Since it was so hot and muggy all the windows were open, so we had to run from floor to floor shutting them as water poured in.

It rained like that for almost half an hour, and then slowed down to a drizzle. By the time I left school it had stopped raining completely, but the humidity was incredible. All the water around made it feel like you were walking through soup rather than air.

Last week Keiko-san had arranged to have me sit in on a Japanese lesson that is organized and sponsored by the Takasago city hall. They are free lessons, and the city hall is right near the train station I use to go home, so it seemed like it was worth checking out. Turns out I was wrong, but we’ll get to that in a second.

I met Keiko-san outside the school at five o’clock, and she lent me her husband’s bicycle. I thought it was weird to ride a bike when the city hall was just a ten minute walk away, but I soon found out that the building I was thinking about was not city hall. The actual city hall was several train stations away, and would take about a ten minute bike ride.

I’m not great at bike riding, but I threw my gear into the front basket and followed Keiko-san on a wobbly path through town just as rush hour was starting to hit. The cars did a good job of avoiding me, and we safely made it to the city hall a few minutes later. The class didn’t start until 7 p.m., but she had a rather complicated plan for the evening.

She called a friend and together we ate a family restaurant (Gusto). I had a fairly big hamburger, and we chatted in English and Japanese. Even though I was just checking out the class, I was already feeling like it was pretty far away, I don’t have a bike in Takasago, and I would have to buy a dinner every week if I went to the class. Still, I decided to keep an open mind – the classes are free, after all.

Keiko-san picked up the tab for dinner, and then took me over to city hall. I went inside and recognized talked with some of the teachers. They were retired folks that are interested in teaching and meeting people from foreign countries. I filled out a short form, and then they loaned me a textbook for the evening. I went up to the classroom, and sat down with some of the students that had already arrived.

The students that were there already were five Phillipino guys. They all spoke pretty good English, and the work on designing power plants using a specialized computer program. They work in Japan for three months, and then go home for three months. They are on some kind of weird rotation. They were really friendly guys, though, and we sat and talked for a while. They pointed over to where some other students had come in and sat down and said that it was the “advanced course”, and we weren’t good enough to participate in that class. I figured they were just playing down their Japanese so I told them that I only speak a little Japanese, and pretty soon we were all tight.

Right about then the teacher came in and told me to go sit with the advanced students. There went all my credibility with the Phillipino dudes. They watched me get up from their table and I sat in with the advanced students. They seemed like a nice enough group, and we worked out of the textbook on some stuff that I’ve covered before but never really use much. It was good review, but I could have done the review at home and got as much out of it.

It seems like with any group of students there is one person that ties their ego to how well they do in the class compared to others, and tonight was no exception. A girl at the far end of the table would answer every question out loud, regardless of whether the teacher had asked her or not. The students would try to think what the answer is, and then boom! She’s said it out loud. She did it several times with me, and each time I looked her straight in the eye afterwards and gave her what I hope was a steely glare. It didn’t stop her though, and I could tell that if I stuck with this class I’d end up putting a pencil through her neck within the month.

Class wrapped up, and everybody was asking me how it was. I said that it was interesting, which is a good way in Japanese to say that it wasn’t so hot. I’m looking for something a little more challenging, and as Keiko-san said later, maybe it would be better to learn from your wife. That sounds better to me.

Keiko-san and I rode back in the dark – a bit of an adventure for me, and even though my life was in danger there was something thrilling about riding around on wet streets in the dark in a foreign country that I enjoyed. I dropped off Keiko-san’s bike at the bike park, and then said goodbye to her.

Now I’m back home and I’m running the air conditioner. It’s hot and wet out, but my bedroom is a cool oasis right now. Tomorrow is a fairly easy day, and another Japanese lesson with Tsuji-san. Let’s hope it dries out a little bit around here.

Two more interview tests today, and Mr. Hayashi didn’t show up for either one. He was doing some work for the guidance department, so we covered for him by interviewing more students. It actually works well with just two teachers – maybe I’ll try to give more people a period off this week.

As always the reactions from the students were interesting, and I have to remind myself that for some of these students it’s the first time they’ve sat right across from a foreigner face to face and had to speak English without any Japanese help. Some of them crack up, some giggle, and some just speak Japanese. One girl waited until the interview was over and then told me that I was very handsome. One boy didn’t understand that the interview was over, so he sat there in front of me until I finally said “Goodbye” and pointed at the classroom door.

I mentioned the other day about the rule that states that we can’t run the air conditioners until July 1st. This had a few people a little upset because it has been really hot lately, and it seems silly to have the power to make our lives easier and not to use it. Anyway, the principal and vice-principal came up with a clever way to solve the problem.

Today they announced that we would be testing the air conditioning system for the next few days to make sure that they are working properly. They said that the testing would likely continue until July 1st, and then we would run them normally. Ha! A slap in the face of bureaucracy!

I had my first bad food experience in the cafeteria today – I ordered katsudon for a change, because I’ve had zarusoba for three meals in a row now. The katsudon tasted a little different, and after a few bites I figured it out… it tasted soapy. I didn’t know how to say soap in Japanese, so I just tossed it and skipped lunch. Maybe my palate is more sensitive to this kind of stuff. Next time I’ll stick to zarusoba. Maybe it’s a sign.

After school we had a mandatory seminar. The seminar happens every few months, and they have different topics. It’s sponsored by the board of eduacation with the idea that it will get us to learn about various things. Mostly it’s a chance for the teachers to take a nap. Today’s topic was about safe internet practices, and I had to sit through a bunch of common sense – if it was in English I would have slit my wrists in boredom. Luckily it was in Japanese, so I could work on listening practice and deciphering the kanji in the guy’s Powerpoint presentation.

The seminar made me late for my train, so I had to sit around in the station for a little while. It was closer to rush hour, and there were a lot of people running around – more than when I usually go home. The train going the other way stopped, and two ladies sitting next to each other looked out the window at me. I looked over and they both smiled and waved. I tried to figure out if I knew them, but I didn’t recognize them. I smiled and nodded back, and then the train left. Just a few minutes later a lady walked by and smiled at me, and then when I sat on the train another woman sitting across from me smiled at me and blushed at the same time.

As soon as I got home I checked in the mirror to see if I had a booger on the side of my nose or something – nope. Some days when I walk around I get just stares, sometimes I get smiles, but today I got a lot of attention. I have no idea why.

I had a bowl of chili with cheese on top for dinner tonight. A bowl of chili is hard to come by in Japan, so I really enjoyed it. I didn’t put any extra spices in it, I wanted to get the pure flavor. I’ll have to pick up another can or two at Carrefour before it closes up.

Today at school we recorded the listening test for the first year students. I had written it last week, and it got approved by the other teachers today. We went into the soundproofed broadcast club room and recorded it on a cheap tape deck, and hopefully it will sound good when they review it this week. If it’s all good, we’ll be ready to give it to the students next week.

I enjoy doing the recordings. It’s fun to concentrate, project your voice, enunciate every little detail, and then hear the final recording. Tsutsumi sensei, the teacher I was recording with, broke into laughter every once in a while – that’s the real threat when you are recording something like this. Once she starts laughing then I do, and then we can’t stop.

It was freaking hot today – the humidity was over 90%, and about 30 degrees. They have this kind of interesting rule that no matter what temperature it gets outside, they won’t turn on the air conditioning in the staff room until July 1st. Some teachers formed a mini-committee to try to get the policy changed today, but upper management held fast and told them to tough it out. I personally don’t mind the heat; it’ll make the air conditioning feel that much better when we turn it on.

During the sixth period we started up our interview tests. This is the first time that our students have had the interview test, and some were so nervous that I thought they weren’t going to make it through the interview. I had given them hints earlier about speaking in a clear, loud voice, and making eye contact. Some people took those hints too seriously. One girl watched me carefully the whole time, breaking eye contact only to blink. She is a really shy student normally, so she must have made the sacrifice for a good grade.

For dinner tonight I decided to make up some zarusoba, the dish that I usually get at the cafeteria. It turned out pretty much the same as the cafeteria one. It’s a really healthy dish, just buckwheat noodles dipped in a cold salty broth with onions and wasabi. I served it on a straw basket, and for dessert had a couple of pieces of koyadofu – a slightly sweet tofu that tastes of slightly sweet cardboard, but it oddly delicious. I don’t know why I like it so much.

The heat hasn’t really dissipated tonight, so I’m staying mellow tonight – just doing some reading and listening to loud music. Tomorrow is a slightly busier day at work, and we’re supposed to have some thunderstorms!

I was up really early Sunday morning to do a hike before it started getting hot. There were a surprising amount of older folks out walking around with me. They had full hiking gear, like they were going to climb Everest or something. I was just wearing shorts, a shirt, and hiking boots.

I traveled in a gigantic loop around southern Futami, and it ended up being a two hour hike. It felt great to get out there, and I stopped in and watched a couple minutes of a soccer game that was going on in the park south of town.

The rest of the morning I did chores, organizing the house, doing laundry, and studying.

I followed up a dinner out with friends on Saturday with dinner out with friends on Sunday. I went into Akashi in the evening and met up with Yuri, Tamura sensei (nickname: micchi), and Micchi’s boyfriend. Just a few minutes later Kuniko showed up, she was coming back from meeting friends in Umeda.

Together we all went to a yakitori near the station in Akashi. We sat around the table and ordered up lots of food and drink. It has been a long time since we all got together. Yuri had been to America and back, and so she had lots of omiyage for Kuniko and me. We related our story of our trip to America, and we just talked and talked for a long time.

After dinner we ordered up dessert and then went on home. I shared a train with Yuri on the way back and we talked about various foreigner issues that we’ve had in Japan.

At last I stumbled into my place, laid down to rub my sore shoulders, and the next thing I knew I woke up around 2 in the morning laying on the floor with all the lights on. I saw that Kuniko had left a couple of messages wondering if I got home safe, so I sent one back, but I felt guilty for leaving her hanging.

Anyway, it wasn’t long before I crashed out again – maybe it’s the heat but lately I’ve had a lot less energy than usual.

Saturday I stayed in during the day in an attempt to avoid the heat outside. It worked well enough. I did projects around here that I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I replaced my old clothes washer with Kuniko’s new one, and moved my old refrigerator and washer out to the front balcony. I wrapped them up in a big blue tarp like some giant birthday present for the next teacher that moves into my apartment when I leave.

In the evening I went into Kobe to meet up with Inoguchi sensei, his wife, and Kuniko. We all met at Motomachi station. I am terrible at doing introductions in my own language, it’s really difficult in another language. This was my first time meeting Inoguchi sensei’s wife. She was really nice – she had a big smile and seemed really friendly. As it turns out, looks can be deceiving.

Just kidding – she was a nice person. We went to a chinese restaurant that is one of Inoguchi sensei’s favorites, and they served us a set course with all kinds of food. Chinese food is a little different here in Japan, but this was really well done. It might be because Chinatown is just down the street.

As the dishes kept arriving we talked about all kinds of things, and I was impressed how easily Kuniko got comfortable with new people, and I think we both brought a lot of energy to the table. They seem like maybe they are a quiet couple. Maybe they were sick of us by the end of the night. Inoguchi sensei kept a close eye on everyone’s food and drink and made sure everything was going OK. We poured beers and tea for each other (never for yourself!), and powered through five courses of great food.

After dinner we walked over to Starbucks because it is one of Inoguchi sensei’s favorite haunts. We spent more time talking there, and I told all the amusing anecdotes that I could think of that I could translate into Japanese (and that’s not many). Around nine or ten we headed back to the station, and we went our separate ways. I had a good time with them – I think that Inoguchi sensei is having a little bit of a hard time fitting in right now, but I think that soon people will get used to him and he’ll be fine.

Kuniko and I caught a train out of Motomachi. I got off at Akashi, and Kuniko headed on to her place in Kakogawa. Tomorrow she’s going out to lunch with some friends in Umeda, and then in the afternoon we’re going to meet up with some other friends for dinner in Akashi. The evenings this weekend are pretty busy, but luckily the daytime is wide open. I might sneak in a hike tomorrow if the weather cools down a bit!

There have been lots of little things that have happened over the past few weeks that for one reason or another slipped my mind. Here they are, in no particular order.

The teacher that sits next to me is a part time computer teacher. She is a younger woman, maybe a couple years out of college. She is built like a truck and probably had a future in wrestling if she gave it a shot. Anyway, she is obsessive-compulsive. Every morning that she comes in she spends ten minutes arranging all her things on her desk. During the meetings her hands straighten objects around her, and she probably doesn’t even realize she does it. I’ve been experimenting with it a little bit. I put big stacks of messy papers right on the border of my desk, never quite crossing the seam onto her desk. She didn’t seem to notice – it completely didn’t bother her. Recently when she’s in class I turn things on her desk one or two degrees in a various directions. It never lasts long, though – as soon as she comes back she arranges everything symmetrically again. You should have seen her folding her coat during the winter.

The girl students at my school seem to go on a cycle of having a crush on me and not really caring one way or the other. At any given time the amount of girls that giggle and coo when I walk by is probably a fixed number, but as time passes hormones change and shift, and now girls that couldn’t get enough of me barely say hello as I go past. Then, as if to compensate, some girls that have never said anything to me in the past will suddenly smile and slow down when I walk by. It’s a strange phenomenon. The boys seem to remain constant – which I would expect.

There’s this guy who occasionally smokes in the non-smoking area of my train station in the mornings. Actually, there is a small smoking area, and everywhere else in non-smoking. Anyway, the other day he was smoking and I started working out the Japanese in my head to make a sarcastic remark. While I was working it out I was looking at him and I must have been giving him a really dirty look; he started watching me out of the corner of his eye, checking me out a couple of times, and then finally he got up and went to the smoking area before I could let him have it (verbally). I was amazed at this power, and it has had a lasting effect, recently I’ve seen him standing over at the smoking area looking back at me warily to see if I’m going to attack or something.

An interesting cultural insight into Japanese businessmen is that a lot of respect is given to people who are stern and serious. I guess it goes all the way back to the samurai (at least that’s what the history teacher told me), but a guy that is relaxed and happy looking apparently isn’t serious about his work. I find this attitude interesting because I’m exactly the opposite – maybe as opposite as you can get. You see lots of guys staring off into space seriously, and you wonder if they’ve forgotten how to smile. When do they give it up? I’m sure this, like a lot of other things, is starting to change over time.

Thanks go to Junichiro Koizumi, the prime minister of Japan, and to his cabinet. Recently they’ve introduced a new idea for summer – the idea of a casual “no necktie” look. Why? The idea is to save money on air conditioning. Imagine all these serious businessmen all wearing serious suits and ties, and sweating like dogs in the heat and humidity. They think they can save lots of money by loosening up a little, and turning down the AC. The prime minister and his cabinet have made lots of appearances wearing casual open neck shirts, sometimes even for big meetings, and it is making an impact. You can’t change everyone right away – maybe it’ll take years, but I see it as a step in the right direction. I can’t believe how many suits I see around here. I’ve never liked wearing suits – they are uncomfortable and stifling. Now, quite by accident I have the same fashion sense as the Japanese government. Scary.

Well, that’s all I can think of right now. I should write this stuff down – my life is full of these little tidbits that come up.

There’s not much to write about today – it was a fairly normal day. I did a special class for the students going to Australia this summer. We practiced pronouncing “Perth”, and I played the role of an impatient immigration agent, and we had students “go through customs” in English.

The vice-principal has really been helpful, and with Mr. Hayashi generally very busy in the guidance room, he has kind of taken over helping me out. I appreciate the attention, and although I can usually manage day to day, it’s nice to have backup when I need it. Today he came by and asked me if there was anything that he could do for me – help with Japanese study, help with wedding plans, anything. I told him that over the summer I would need to make arrangements to get Kuniko moved into my place, at least the paperwork side of it. He sounded very happy to help, and so that will be nice to get taken care of.

I was bushed at the end of the day, so I split soon after the Australia lesson. Now I’m home doing chores in advance of the weekend – I’m pretty tired out so anything I can get done now will give me free time later. I’m thinking about dropping in at Denya later tonight to see how those guys are doing. It’s been a while since I’ve said hello.

Two classes today. The scheduling fairy has been working overtime trying to get all the classes to end at the same time so that we can properly have interview tests next week.

Unfortunately today I was teaching with Mr. Hayashi, and he got all confused. We were combining one class, but he thought both were combining, so he brought the whole class, much to the surprise of me and Mr. Yamamoto. By the time that we explained everything to Mr. Hayashi the bell had already rung, and so we couldn’t send the students back to the classroom because they would make lots of noise in the hallways and disturb the other classes. So, I taught the lesson, and twenty students had to listen to the same thing for the second time.

On top of that, Mr. Hayashi was a little frustrated, maybe about his mistake, and so when some boys were chatting while the lecture was going he walked by and hit them both on top of the head – hard, too. I don’t know when Mr. Hayashi started this violent streak. Especially after having classes with him since I arrived in Japan – for the longest time he just let everything slide. I don’t appreciate it happening in my classes, though. I don’t want students to associate English class with physical violence. I think there’s probably a middle ground in there somewhere.

I spent an hour and a half with my ESS students after school. We worked on the ESS bulletin board, and I noticed that the second year students are really starting to get comfortable around me. There’s more and more English being spoken these days, and I’m hoping that they’ll be talking up a storm over the next year.

After school I went over to Tsuji-san’s place for a Japanese/English lesson, and her mom told me all about some free Japanese classes that are going on at the city hall of Takasago on Wednesdays. Tsuji-san’s mom and Keiko-san are all networking together with who knows who else, and they arranged for me to sit in on a class next week. I think that Keiko-san is even taking me out to dinner next week as well. Should be interesting.

It was late by the time I was heading home, so I dropped in at a ramen restaurant near my house to have some noodles. A middle aged lady took my order and was all smiles and giggles over the fact that I ordered without a problem in Japanese.

After I finished my noodles I asked for a “kaedama”… a fresh batch of noodles that you dump into your soup broth. The nice thing about kaedama is that it’s cheap – only 110 yen. The whole bowl of ramen was 600 yen, so it was a great deal. The server was really impressed that I even knew about kaedama, and the chef came over and talked to me. It was good to try to speak and listen to Japanese with some fast-talking locals.

At around 9 p.m. Yasu came over to pick up the pictures that I took during our trip to the Tiger’s game. We chatted in English until I mentioned how I’m looking to speak more Japanese, and so then we switched to Japanese and talked about various things. It went pretty well, and Yasu was polite and didn’t point out my mistakes. It was good practice.

Tomorrow is Friday! It’s been a long week. Saturday Kuniko and I are meeting Inoguchi sensei and his wife for some Chinese food in Kobe, but other than that it’s a slow weekend. I’ll definitely get some sleep this weekend – I’ve been really tired lately. It might have something to do with the heat and the humidity. It’s been about 81 degrees F and about 80% humidity… hot and sticky.

I rocked through four classes in a row today, nicely cutting my day into three distinct parts. The morning was spent preparing worksheets for the classes, the day was spent actually teaching the classes, and in the afternoon I did a little bit of studying and chatting in Japanese with the part-time computer teacher that sits across from me.

Students in my two second year classes today didn’t know it, but it is their last class with me until after summer vacation ends, sometime at the end of August. I sense that they are really pretty overwhelmed by my lessons, so I’m going to spend some time over the summer trying to come up with simple ideas that they can work with.

The computer teacher that sits across from me, Matsumoto sensei, is pretty good at English. She enjoys talking with me in a blend of Japanese and English, and she is really outgoing. Oshita sensei sits right behind her, and I often see him leaning over to listen in on our conversations. Oshita sensei is an English teacher, but he’s pretty shy and is kind of afraid of speaking English out loud. Matsumoto sensei is not afraid at all, and sometimes she outdoes the English teachers – not for being correct, but for being unafraid of mistakes.

After school there was a couple of staff meetings, and I wasn’t invited. That is actually great news. I could sit and study in peace and quiet. The vice-principal came by and told me that it was fine to leave early if I liked. I thanked him, but it was bad timing. Today at five o’clock I had an appointment to chat with the Takasago ladies lead by Keiko-san. So, I had a free ticket out of work, and I couldn’t use it.

At five I went outside and met up with Keiko-san and another lady, and we walked over to a restaurant near Takasago station. We ate big and chatted in English. We covered all kinds of topics: the increasing power of women in Japan, famous Japanese food, American agriculture, my girlfriend, my future, their husbands, housework, single sons and gigantic families. It was a nice time. After about an hour and a half I made my goodbyes and took off. It’s actually nicer with a small group. I’ve talked with them when there were seven or eight ladies, and it’s a little overwhelming.

My stomach handled the food from the restaurant OK, so that was a relief. I spent the evening pleasure reading in the living room, and I’m going to hit the sack early. Ever since yesterday I’ve been really sleepy. An early bedtime might be just what I need.

Today I had a short day at school, and I spent most of the day planning for tomorrow’s lessons. I had only two classes, and they both went just fine. The students are getting ready for the interview test that is coming next week, so I’m all full of dire warnings and urgings for them to study hard. They are pretty sleepy, though, so I’m not sure if it’s sinking in.

Since I had to work late yesterday, the vice principal mentioned that it would be no problem to sneak out early and we’d call it even. I did just that, and came home on a train full of my students. One guy was brave enough to sit next to me and talk with me in English. I was surprised how good his English was outside the classroom. He’ll be one to watch.

Almost as soon as I walked in the door I had an upset stomach. After an hour in bathroom, I abandoned my dinner plans of chili and cheese, and instead went over to Ito Yokado and bought some udon noodles. I made up some soup and just stayed near the bathroom reading a book.

A little later on the doorbell rang and I was surprised to see Kuniko there. She had read my message about being a little sick, so she came by with some groceries, offered to give me a massage, and took care of me for an hour or so. It was so nice to see her, but I felt bad that she came all the way out here on a school night.

Now she’s back at home, and I’m getting ready for bed. I’m not sleepy at all, so I might stay up a little longer reading, and then hit the hay. Tomorrow is a busy day, so I’ll need all my energy.

My schedule today was wide open – no classes whatsoever. I spent the morning reviewing vocabulary, and around eleven o’clock I decided to walk over to the bank to get some money, and pick up some cheap sushi from the supermarket on the way back.

On my way to the bank I walked by a small cafe, and Keiko-san (the older lady that loves speaking English) popped out of there and asked me to come in. I dashed in for a little bit and chatted with her and three of her friends. They wanted me to stick around, but I told them that I had to get back to school soon. She told me that this week her husband is in America, so she wanted me to have dinner with her and the other ladies sometime soon. I laughed at her description of the situation, but agreed to have dinner with them on Wednesday. They are always nice to talk to, and I’m sure that my descriptions of the wedding plans will drive them crazy with excitement.

Back at school I worked through the afternoon on grammar, and I’m trying to figure out a strategy on studying it. I think I have enough time, I just need a way to get it in my head and retain it. The obvious answer is to use it, so maybe I’ll just have to spring it on some people.

Mori sensei came by around 4:30, and drove me to a junior high school for what she described as a “tea party”.

The reason I was going to the junior high school with Mori sensei is interesting. I guess we are trying to be more active in recruiting students to come to our school, so we’re doing a dog and pony show to try to impress the students. We’re going to do a lesson for this school’s top students, and hopefully we’ll stick in their mind when it comes time for picking a high school.

Mori sensei was really nervous about the tea party because she was afraid that they would be evaluating her English. Mori sensei’s English isn’t that hot – the longer she speaks it, the worse it gets – just like my Japanese.

When we got to the school we sat in a conference with two other teachers, and Mori sensei explained what she wanted to do, we found a date that would work for them, and then we left. No tea, no party. I didn’t quite understand what we did that couldn’t be accomplished with a phone call, but maybe that’s a Japanese face to face meeting style. On our way out we bumped into three Takasago Minami students who were back there visiting their old school. I also got a chance to talk with a bunch of junior high students who weren’t shy at all. They asked me my name, and everyone waved goodbye as we drove off.

I’m looking forward to teaching the junior high class – it’ll be at a different level of English, so I’m wondering if I’ll enjoy it as much. I hope so!

Tomorrow I do have some classes, so it’ll be nice to get in front of some exhausted students and entertain them and myself!

Had a great weekend – it started off with a mild hangover on Saturday morning, but it improved considerably with Kuniko’s arrival in the afternoon. We spent some time unpacking some of her things that she brought, and soon thereafter we caught a train to Kobe to meet up with Antoine and Miwako.

This is the second Saturday dinner in a series of three that we’ve got planned. Poor Kuniko is getting dragged to all these things, but she’s being a trouper about it, and I’m sure I’ll get the call to visit with her friends in the future.

Tonight’s dinner was Korean food. It got a little dicey there because Antoine is not a big fan of spicy food. He did really good, and the food turned out great. We got a set meal, so they just kept bringing lots of food, and we ate all we could.

The dinner conversation was really interesting – mostly in English I think, but we did slip into Japanese now and then. Antoine’s girlfriend Miwako is getting a crash course in English with Antoine, since he doesn’t speak much Japanese at all. Her skills are pretty good – I was impressed to see them communicating so well.

Anyway, Kuniko and Miwako had lots of talk about, and Antoine and I exchanged comments out loud at the dinner table, telling jokes, and having a good time.

The dessert dish showed up, and it was a mountain of ice cream. I’m talking maybe 12-14 scoops of ice cream on a foundation of mandarin oranges and corn flakes, and a moat of chocolate. It was the biggest ice cream sculpture I’ve ever seen in Japan – definitely influenced by American sized desserts. We left half of it on the table.

Afterwards we walked along the harbor, took lots of pictures, and goofed around in the mini-amusement park. We did the mini-rollercoaster, and got some good screams out of our system. Kuniko and Antoine did the taiko drumming video game, and got some of their aggressions out. They did pretty well, actually.

Finally we called it a night and headed back. The next day Kuniko and I caught an afternoon showing of “Batman Begins”. Kuniko gave me a little teasing about wanting to see the movie. Considering the other movies, I could see why. I had heard this was a little different, and it turned out that what I heard was correct. It was quite good – we both enjoyed it. I still owe Kuniko a movie of her choice – we’ll see what we end up checking out.

On the way home we stopped at Carrefour to do some Father’s Day shopping, and then later went over to her parent’s house for dinner. Father’s Day is apparently a recent holiday in Japan – although I guess Mother’s Day has been around a while. We presented Mr. Kageyama with a bottle of Shochu, and an Italian Muscato, since he liked the Benziger Muscat Canelli so much.

For dinner we had a really good homemade donburi – a bed of rice with shredded cabbage, kimchee, grilled beef, and a delicious sauce poured over the top. It was so good! It was nice to sit around the table and talk. Unfortunately I couldn’t talk very much, so I was satisfied with listening as hard as I could.

We’re starting to dream up plans for people that will be here for the wedding in November. Thinking about train schedules and timing – before we know it there’ll be a bunch of family on our doorstep here in Japan!

What an absolutely jam packed day. I’m exhausted!

Today was the culture festival at our school. It’s the culmination of weeks of practicing, planning and anxiety for the students. Today it all came together, more or less successfully.

When I got to school a lot of the classroom projects were displayed – a giant Elmo, a couple of cool designs hanging at the entranceway, a big dragon boat/float, and the big attraction: a giant whale made of balloons in the central area of the school.

I had helped out here and there with the whale during the past week, and it was fun to finally see the finished product. I heard that it took a long time to set up, and it cost more than 200,000 yen – about $2000. One of the teachers commented that they could have given that money to charity instead of building a giant whale – I agreed with him. Over the course of the day the balloons started popping in the sun, and at the end of the day it was a big, ugly mess. Visually startling, however.

This year I brought a fan, a towel, and a frozen bottle of sports drink along with me to the presentation in the gym. It gets so hot in there – it’s humid, and the doors are all closed so it’s dark for the dancing and skits. All my gear really helped out, though. I stayed in the back of the gym leaning against a cold cement wall, and that helped too.

There was a big turnout of parents, maybe twice what they actually expected. It made for a lot of foot traffic in the back. The parents would walk by and give me a long look until I nodded and smiled, and then they would smile back. For a while the members of the koto club came and hung out with me. They were all wearing traditional Japanese clothing, and so it must have been a weird sight to see a big white foreigner surrounded by twenty kimono-wearing high school students.

The presentations themselves were a little underwhelming this year. One of the current rages here in Japan is Matsumoto Ken. The best way to describe him is a Japanese version of Wayne Newton. He is a pretty flamboyant guy, and right now there is a samba that he does that is really popular. No fewer than four presentations had an appearance by somebody dressed as Matsumoto Ken. After the first time, it got a little old for me. After the third time, it got a little old for everyone else.

There were lots of sound problems this year, with people talking and nobody being able to hear, but the students didn’t let that damper their enthusiasm. They attacked their roles with gusto. It was their moment to be in the spotlight, and it didn’t matter if nobody could understand what they were doing or why.

At the lunchbreak I walked around and checked out all the exhibits. I sat in a wheelchair and tried to navigate through and obstacle course, I watched robots competing for ping pong balls in the science club exhibit, bought cookies from the cooking club, and spoke with lots of people as I walked around.

One exhibit that was really cool was a room completely decorated in origami cranes. They had a gigantic crane in the middle of the room, and a pathway through the classroom bordered by small cranes. It was really well done.

The vice principal had invited me to do the tea ceremony with him. The tea ceremony is a very complicated ritual that I have done one time before at a friend’s house. I really enjoy it – it’s very traditional, and the green tea made by hand is delicious. The vice principal gave me some pointers, and the students were patient with me and I tried to do things the right way. While we drank tea members of the koto club played right next to us, and we had a relaxing experience.

After the break we did more presentations, including one set in New York to the theme of “Shall We Dance?” – a movie that is popular here right now starring Richard Gere. It ended up winning the competition, and I liked it because since it was in New York the students spoke English during the dialog parts. Their English was good, too. They must have gotten some good help from an English teacher somewhere along the line.

We finished up with awards ceremonies, and some final speeches, a closing ceremony, a lecture on getting back to studying, and some other things that dragged on. Luckily, by the time I got out of there it was time to go home.

I came back to my place, took a shower and then went out to Akashi. I had to do some shopping, and I thought I’d throw a few darts while I was there and make an evening of it. I went to Osho first to get some ramen and gyoza. Osho is a chain, and this particular one is in a long narrow room. There are only three or four tables – most of the seating is at the counter. I sat there, and the seats are too small for me. I have to spread my legs completely to fit between the stool and the counter, and my knees were still firmly pressed against the wall. The counter has a big glass panel that separates you from the cooking that is going on – you can watch them make your food right there, and there is a lot of hot water and steam involved. The whole experience combines to make it a really cool experience. It might sound terrible, but there’s something really exotic about being pressed into a steamy noodle joint with a bunch of strangers and slurping down dinner quickly to make room for the next guy.

Donkey was actually pretty busy. There were lots of dart players there, and I was able to sneak into a rotation and throw darts now and then. I spent more time at the bar drinking Guinness and talking with some nice guys there. They are regulars there, and since I’m fairly irregular, we had lots to talk about. It was good Japanese practice for me. Somehow I got roped into giving pointers to a lady playing darts. She was having lots of trouble, and my bad explanations in Japanese didn’t really help much. She started getting a little friendly, and “Mommy” (the master’s wife) helped me out by asking how my fiancee was doing. With relief I told her all about Kuniko, and from then on I was getting a cooler vibe from the dart beginner.

Just before I left one of the patrons produced a cheesecake that we all split up and ate to celebrate another regular’s birthday. The cheesecake was really good – it had kind of a light honey glaze on top – wow. There went my diet.

Since my diet was toast, I thought I ought to drop in on the basement sushi place for a couple of pieces of sushi before I went home. There were only two guys in there, and they recognized me from another time. In fact, they had just asked the sushi master if I had been in lately, and then I walked in. Weird. Anyway, they had chatted with us a little bit when Struan and I were there a few months ago. We talked a little bit, and then soon some of their friends came by, and we all settled in together.

This is where things get a little hazy. I had already had some Guinness before I got there, and then I had ordered a bottle of beer with my sushi. In the Japanese style people were pouring beer from their bottles into my glass, and so I responded in kind. These folks were so happy to be talking with a foreigner that they were giving signals to the master, and he was delivering more bottles to me on their tab. I told the master to just keep me in sushi, and left things in his hands – which is a great idea. He knows what I like, and so I always had something interesting in front of me. The other folks (three guys and two girls) were full of questions, and some of them spoke a little English that they were eager to try out. I talked with one of the girls and she told me all about her boyfriend – they’ve been together six years, but since she is Korean, he hasn’t proposed to her. She was drunk, and maybe she was joking, but it seemed like there was a little truth to it. Koreans that live in Japan don’t get a lot of respect here. A lot of Koreans apparently hide their true ethnicity and take Japanese names in an effort to fit in.

One guy I talked with spoke a little English. He didn’t have a big vocabulary, but his accent was clear and he was very easy to understand. He had the funny habit of saying “I’m sorry” after everything. I would pour him some beer and he’d say “I’m sorry”. I’d say that I have to go to the bathroom and he’d say “I’m sorry”. He was really eager to speak though, and it was fun talking with him.

Finally I decided that it was time to catch a train before I got stranded in Akashi, so I told the master it was time to go. The group tried to pay for everything else I ate on top of the bottles of beer they had already bought, but I insisted on paying – I feel guilty when people buy my dinners. The master flashed me a number on a piece of paper, and the price was way too low, which probably meant that they had picked up some of the tab, but I paid and said thanks to everyone. I only had two business cards left, and they fought over them until one suggested that they could make copies.

I caught a train home with lots of other drunk people, and crashed right out on my bed. It’s the end of the week.

With the big ramp up to the Culture Festival capturing everyone’s attention, it was a miracle that we actually had some classes today, too. I studied in the morning, and then taught a class during fourth period. The classes in the afternoon were cancelled so that there was plenty of time to set things up.

My fourth period class was interesting because Mr. Hayashi wasn’t there. In fact, this is the second time that he’s missed this particular class. The students did OK, but they definitely aren’t getting the full experience. I write my lesson plans with two teachers in mind, and so it gets awfully awkward when a teacher decided to bail out on me. I got through this one, but if this becomes a routine we could have some problems down the road.

To help out with preparations I attached more balloons, helped arrange a giant dragon float, and folded newspapers for my ESS club. All the students were really appreciative, and many took the chance to talk to me. Tomorrow I’m hoping that it will be more of the same.

After school I went over to Tsuji-san’s place, and we chatted for about an hour about all kinds of stuff. Then we went over to Daniel’s house and picked him up. Daniel is Tsuji-san’s other foreigner student from England. They study together once a week, and I have met him once before. He’s leaving the country in another month or so, and we thought it would be a good thing to all get together and have dinner.

We went out to a sushi/tempura/teishoku place and ordered up a round of beers. It was fun to switch in and out of the different languages depending on your mood, and it added a whole new layer of subtlety to the conversations. Tsuji-san was really funny – her face reacts to everything she hears, so she’d be terrible at poker.

I ate sushi and they had tempura, and once we finished up Tsuji-san and I split the bill to say goodbye to Daniel. He was a nice guy to chat with. He’s very soft-spoken, and it sounds like he’s in a tough teaching situation. I hope that he finds something that interests him back in England.

Now I’m back home and getting ready for the festival tomorrow. It’ll be hot and humid inside the gymnasium – I learned that from last year. This year I’ll be a little more prepared.