Planning lessons is something that I enjoy doing. It’s fun to try to figure out things that will get the students excited, plan it all out on paper, run it by other teachers, and then get in front of a class and see how it works out. Today I was dreaming up my next lesson for the first year students. I wanted them to be involved, active, and give it a gameshow feel. I get a lot of ideas from watching Survivor, actually. The things they compete in give me inspiration for the classroom, and although I haven’t had students eating live worms in class yet, I’m sure it’s not too far off in the future.

I had two lessons on complimenting today, and Mr. Hayashi was my team teacher for each class. During the second class I came to the part where I say something in English, and then Mr. Hayashi says something in Japanese. As I turned to Mr. Hayashi to start the exercise, he was walking out the door in the middle of class waving goodbye.

That was weird. Mr. Hayashi spends a lot of time in the restroom, and he’ll often run to the bathroom right before and right after a class, but I’ve never seen him leave right in the middle of a lesson. I was worried that he might not be well, and also worried about what to do about the twenty students staring at me waiting for the lesson to continue.

In the end, I explained in English, and added a few choice Japanese words in there to help them sort it out. After 5-10 minutes Mr. Hayashi came back, and we finished up the lesson.

After class I asked him if he was OK, and he said that he had a phone call from a friend of his at Casio, and it was to tell him that they weren’t hiring high school students this year. Mr. Hayashi is working in the guidance department this year, so he is wheeling and dealing with companies trying to get our students hired. I was a little irked that he took a phone call right in the middle of class, but there’s not a lot I could do.

In the afternoon we had an ESS meeting. Matsubara sensei was out of town on business, so I met with the students and we chatted about all kinds of things. We played “Hangman”, and worked on the English for their upcoming cultural project, an English newspaper. I think it’ll be pretty cool.

Before going home I went to visit Tsuji-san, and we chatted for an hour in mostly English. Last time we talked almost entirely in Japanese, so this was a good chance for her to pick up some pronunciation tips and learn a few vocabulary words, like “wavering”.

Believe it or not, this week is coming to an end. Tomorrow night is the welcome party/farewell party, and then I’ll be able to relax for a couple of days.

Today I had just two classes. Usually today is the busiest day of the week, but Maeda sensei and Oshita sensei asked if I would skip their classes today because they want to prepare their students for the midterm exams coming up next week.

I taught my favorite class in the morning, Matsubara sensei’s class. I had a prize today, a cafe latte flavored KitKat, and I put it on the desk in front of the class but didn’t really talk about it. From the beginning everyone’s attention was riveted on the candy, and everyone listened carefully to every word I spoke.

At the end I had a word search race, and the winners won the candy. It was dead silent as people sweated trying to finish the puzzle by the end of class. In the end, two girls split the big prize, and luckily it’s easy to break up a KitKat into several pieces.

I did some brain-crushing Japanese grammar study through the afternoon, and sat through a mind-numbing meeting of the entire staff after school. Finally, at five o’clock I took off with the new Japanese teacher, Inomoto sensei in tow.

We took the train to Nishi-futami and went over to the yakitori to drink beers and chat. It was really nice talking to him. He’s a 39 year old teacher on a one year contract. He’s definitely different from a lot of the old-timers in our school. He leaves school as soon as possible, right around the same time I do. He works to live, as opposed to living for work. He loves his wife big time and cooks and cleans their home for her when she’s not around. He speaks three languages: Italian, English, and Japanese.

We had a great time drinking beer, speaking in a mix of Japanese and English, and eating lots of yakitori. He brought pictures from Italy – he’s been there many times, and loves studying Italian art and culture. I particularly enjoyed looking at the pictures – how often do you get to see the inside of the Vatican, views from the hillsides of Rome, and some authentic delicious Italian food. He said that he is thinking about quitting his job after his contract ends and moving to Italy to live there for a year.

After a big dinner I walked him back to the station, and I think we’ll probably get together again soon. He’s a really nice guy, and I like his philosophy on life.

Now I’m back home and relaxing. My brain hurts from studying so much today, so I might just do some pleasure reading and hit the hay early.

During my commute to work I spend time memorizing flashcards. I can go through about 85 flashcards if I’m not distracted by the scenery or the other occupants of the train. Once the train arrives in Takasago I walk to school full of smiles and joy, and it’s nice to get some of those smiles returned to me.

At work I settle into my desk, say good morning to everyone, and spend the first forty minutes before the morning meeting preparing worksheets if I need them, checking that my classroom is ready to go, and and then concentrating as hard as I can to try to understand what everyone says during the morning meetings.

Two classes today, and they both went well. It’s the complimenting lesson, and today one of the girls complimented me by saying “Bryan, that’s a nice body you have.” Hey thanks, I guess you are figuring out the compliment thing just fine. Next lesson.

I also spent a period with Miyake sensei, working with her on her English transcription drills. Kuniko does these as well – they listen to English audio, then write down what they hear. It’s a good way to develop your listening skills, and Miyake sensei did a great job with hers. I can tell she’s doing much better. She’s gearing up for the upcoming TOEIC test – a standardized English exam. Let’s hope she does well on this one.

At the end of school I was working at my desk and watched the math teacher, Ueishi sensei talking sternly with one of the students from his homeroom class. Then he asked another teacher to take over talking with him. This is pretty normal – let the kid have it for about five to ten minutes, and then have another teacher jump in and chat with him. They do a good cop, bad cop routine too. The strange thing about this time was that the teacher he passed the kid on to was me.

I sat him down and chatted him up in English. He was gulping and nervous, but he did fine. Ueishi sensei sat behind him observing, and we talked for about five minutes. The kid did OK, considering he was under pressure. My best guess as to why they had him talk to me was that he is interested in English, maybe he told Ueishi sensei he wanted to be an English teacher someday, maybe he was complaining that he couldn’t afford English conversation classes. Anyway, I was happy to chat with him, and I think it was a treat for the kid rather than a punishment that they usually dole out. Ueishi sensei thought it was great.

Soon after five o’clock I was down the road headed for home. I did some review flashcards on the train, bought some prizes for tomorrow’s class at Ito Yokado, and then came home and made rice and kimchee for dinner.

Tomorrow I’m going to meet up at the yakitori after work, so that should be a lot of fun. I can’t believe that it’s already the middle of the week. Time is flying by.

I was pretty beat from my big weekend trip, but luckily today I had only one afternoon class. The day was spent thinking up new lessons, studying flashcards, and reviewing grammar lessons. I did get the chance to speak in Japanese with some of my teachers which was fun.

One of the downsides of learning a foreign language in a foreign country is that when you successfully use some new word or grammar point, nobody is impressed. That’s the baseline, dude. I used a couple of newly memorized words today and I was waiting for someone to say, “Wow, great, it’s impressive that you know that word! Would you mind participating in a parade we’re having in your honor?”

People only notice if you screw up – I rarely seem to get any positive feedback other than successfully continuing a conversation. That’s just the breaks with learning here, and so I have my own little mental pat of the back sessions, when I probably should be thinking about what to say next.

I passed out my omiyage from the trip to lots of teachers, all of whom were impressed that I got to go to Shikoku and enjoyed (or appeared to enjoy) hearing my stories.

At lunch I was talking with Yamamoto sensei about Japanese superstitions. At the train station some guy was changing a lightbulb or something this morning, and he set up his ladder so that you had to walk under it to exit the station. Nobody seemed to mind, and so I was wondering if that was just a Western superstition. Apparently it is, but he told me a good one – it’s bad luck to clip your toenails at night.

I wrapped up my day at school, and Kuniko picked me up at the train station to deliver some stuff from her father for me, and also drop off some things that she’ll need when she moves in here eventually. We’re kind of gradually moving in, so I’m finding places for her stuff as it arrives. So far, so good.

We parked her car at Ito Yokado to avoid another fiasco like yesterday. I talked her into staying for dinner and we cooked up a pretty healthy meal of rice, pork, and miso soup. We had a little ice cream for dessert, thereby killing the healthy aspect of the evening meal, and then I walked her back to her car. Today was a day off for her, so it was nice she could rest after driving so much during the weekend.

It’s fun, fun, fun for me this week. I’m going to have a drink at the yakitori with the Steven King loving man in black mystery teacher on Wednesday, and Friday night is the English teacher welcome/farewell party at a new Italian restaurant in Kakogawa. Should be a kick in the pants.

Well, I’m back from the weekend trip to Shikoku. Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It’s just south of where I live, and it was surprisingly easy to get there.

Kuniko picked me up early and we hit the road, eager to get there. We traveled across the Akashi Bridge to the small island of Awaji, a place that I’ve been once before. That time Mr. Hayashi was driving me and Kuniko along on a trip to visit his father in the hospital. This time Mr. Hayashi was nowhere to be found and we could go wherever we wanted.

We shot right through Awaji to the next bridge leading to Shikoku. My first impression of Shikoku was that it was the same as everything else that I’ve seen in Japan, but later I found out that I was completely wrong.

As we drove west across Shikoku, the mountains became higher and higher, and the views more dramatic. The weather was perfect, and soon we were on a road following a river through deep forest canyons.

It’s hard to describe what it was like driving through there, and the pictures as I look at them now don’t do it justice. They hills rose on either side of us, and you had lean way over in the car to see the tops. We stopped a few times to soak in the view, and then we moved on.

Every so often we’d drive by a bridge that stretched across the canyon, from one forest to another. At first I was going nuts taking pictures of these beautiful bridges, but I soon realized that there were a lot more bridges than pictures in my camera, so I cooled it down a little.

A couple of highlights – we stopped near a rocky part of the river, and below they were giving boat rides. Stretched above were lots of colorful fabric carp hanging from ropes over the canyon.

We stopped at a restaurant for some udon noodles that are one of the feature dishes of Shikoku. The place was quiet and simple, but the soup was great. We sat at our table and were surprised to find a ninja hanging on the wall above us. As we slurped away at our udon noodles it was strange to have the figure of an attacking ninja in the corner of your eye.

One of the tourist destinations in that area was a really old wooden bridge that crosses the river at one point. We parked near the bridge and paid 500 yen to walk across. It was a sturdy bridge despite its age, and I could see steel cables underneath the wood planks so it was safe. The scary part was the wide gaps between the planks – it would be easy to put your foot in the wrong place and get a big scare. We went across and I took a few pictures but I got nervous about losing my camera so I cut it out.

We got back on the road and headed through another deep canyon area, then finally turned to the south and headed for the ocean. We got to Kochi in the afternoon, and went right to Katsurahama, a beach famous for it’s view and the statue of a famous samurai. Oh, and it’s also famous for dog fighting.

We walked past the souvenir shops, bought a shaved ice, and then went to the beach. I noticed that they had lots of pictures of dogs and ropes, but I didn’t find out the significance until later.

At the beach we took in the view, and I took way too many pictures. The sun was warm and the weather was beautiful – it was a perfect time to visit.

After walking around the beach and seeing the famous statue, we went back to the souvenir shops to look at what they had. From up above the shops I could hear dogs barking and then some horrible yelping, and then I figured out what was going on. What a strange place to have dog fights.

We moved right on out of there and went to check out our hotel and rest up a bit. Kuniko had been driving all day long, and since I’m unlicensed to drive in Japan I wanted to make sure she was well rested.

The hotel was a business hotel, which means it was tiny, but it worked well enough for us. I made a reservation at a delicious looking restaurant on the phone, and then we walked out there to find it.

Kochi is really a beautiful town. The city is built around a series of waterways that come in from the ocean, so there are bridges everywhere. There are lots of gigantic ships harbored there, but then there are neighborhoods surrounded by ocean, too. It didn’t look like a big industrial city – more like what I imagine a European city on the ocean is like.

As we walked around the city of Kochi, Kuniko and I both noticed that we got a lot more attention than we do in Kobe or Osaka. Just from what we saw it appears that foreigners are a little more unusual there, so we had lots of people checking us out. They would look at me, and then look at Kuniko, and it seemed to happen a lot more often than usual.

We got to the restaurant, got some giant beers and ordered up some of the local specialties – katsuo, and kujira. Katsuo is a raw fish with flesh the same color as tuna, a deep dark red. The raw fish is then cooked just on the edges, probably with some kind of flamethrower. Then it is served with onions, garlic, more onions, and basil leaves. It was really good – kind of like seared Ahi tuna, except it is a lot less sear and a lot more fish.

Next was kujira, otherwise known as whale. I had some reservations about trying this one. On one hand, I’m not a big fan of the Japanese whaling practices, and I think that by ordering whale and eating it I’m somehow contributing to this. On the other hand, in this part of the country eating whale is a way of life – a part of the culture. They’ve been eating whale here for a long time. Also, I wanted to see what it tasted like.

It was good. We ordered it served raw over nigiri sushi. The flavor was good, it wasn’t fatty at all, and combined with the taste of the wasabi, wow! I really liked it, but it wasn’t my favorite.

We also ordered a plate of standard makizushi. It was a pretty expensive dinner, so we decided to just eat the local delicacies, and then go out for dinner part two later on.

At Kochi station we bought some souvenirs for the people back home, and then we moved on to a ramen restaurant that Kuniko had seen and we split a bowl of ramen and some chicken in a sour sauce that was really good. I loaded up the ramen with garlic – it also had some tender pork with loads of pork fat floating around in there, so good – especially if you’ve been drinking gigantic beers.

It was a great night and we went to bed fairly early. The next day we got up and walked out to the local castle, walking along a farmers market. We picked up some flowers for Kuniko’s mom, some yuzu juice (some kind of citrus – it’s really sour, but good) for me, and then came back to the hotel and got back in the car.

We drove out of town and headed to the Anpanman museum east of Kochi. Who is Anpanman? It’s this cute character – the story is that he is made of out bread, his head is stuffed with sweet beans (called ‘anko’ in Japanese), and he flies around fighting evil and allowing starving children to take bites of his head. Really.

Anyway, Kuniko is a big fan, and some people say that she looks a lot like Anpanman, especially because of her cheeks. It was a must-see for us, so we drove quite a ways to get there, and then went into the museum and looked around.

It was pretty cool, and it was similar to the Charles Schulz museum that we got to see on our last trip back to California. The design was modern and really well done. The place was crawling with kids all enjoying the chance to see all their cartoon heroes in action, and we took lots of pictures and enjoyed seeing some of the older artwork.

After about an hour or so we headed on down the road. The road through Tokushima Prefecture was even more windy than the road coming in, with lots of rocks and pebbles on the road to remind you that at any point you might get a boulder through your window.

Kuniko was a real trouper to drive the whole way again – windy roads are hard to drive and require all of your attention. I kept the CDs going and just enjoyed the scenery on the way back.

Apparently this area gets a lot of snow during the winter, and I tried to imagine what it would be like then. There were lots of very remote towns, and I also thought about what it would have been like if I had ended up getting placed in some snowy little town in the mountains. Would I still be in Japan? Would I have wanted to stay? It was hard not to be jealous of the mountains – I’m sure there are hiking trails all over the place, and I would really enjoy being close to nature. I don’t know about taking a bus forty minutes to the nearest grocery store, though.

We had a very late lunch in Tokushima, stopping in for some famous Tokushima ramen. The noodles here were smaller but more plentiful, and there was a raw egg in the middle of the meaty sauce. There were also strips of beef in there, and the whole thing was delicious. It was so good.

At last, we headed back to my house. On the way back we saw a factory across the water from my town that was ablaze, but as we got closer it looked like they were doing it on purpose, burning a lot of some unknown substance. It was pretty scary to see, the first for me to see anything like that.

We double parked Kuniko’s car and went inside to drop my stuff off before we drove to Kuniko’s parent’s house. We were inside just a few minutes when we got a phone call from the apartment manager apologizing profusely for bothering us but could we possibly move the car please?

We said we’d be right down, hung up the phone, and then the phone rang again and it was another teacher from the complex warning us that we were parked in the manager’s spot. Thanks, thank you, we’re leaving right now, thanks….

We got out of there without further incident and we went over to Kuniko’s place. It was good to see Kuniko’s folks, and spend a little bit of Mother’s Day with the future mother-in-law. She enjoyed the flowers, and she cooked us all a big dinner. We had a great conversation and everyone is really excited about the big wedding in November. We talked a little logistics regarding the group of rowdy Americans a.k.a. my family and friends who are coming, and threw around some ideas.

Kuniko made one last drive out to my house and dropped me off, and then I went right to bed and crashed. That was great – I’m hoping to visit Shikoku again sometime. It was dramatically different from the Japan I see everyday.

It was back to work today. I went to school in a light rain, shook off my umbrella and jacket, and then went in to say hello to everyone. The teachers at my school had nothing but sad stories about working through Golden Week – I almost felt guilty telling them how I relaxed, went shopping, and there’s just more fun around the corner for the weekend.

My first class was with Mr. Hayashi, and we ground through the class – it was a long fifty minutes. If I’m feeling bored with the class I know the students are. I do feel guilty that they aren’t getting more out of that class. They probably signed up seeing that I would be helping with the class, but in reality they listen to Mr. Hayashi in Japanese for most of the class. I read a few passages and do some pronunciations when prompted. This is apparently very common in the JET program – it’s called the human tape recorder syndrome. It’s not new to me – last year Mr. Hayashi’s classes were the same way.

Afterwards I had two first year classes. These classes have been bumped and postponed due to various holidays and school seminars, so it was my first time meeting some students. I like those classes, and I taught them with Ms. Tsutsumi and Mr. Yamamoto. The Tsutsumi class was really noisy, in a good way. They were really into the class, and not shy at all – I got a good vibe from them. The Yamamoto class was a lot quieter, probably because Mr. Yamamoto is known as a “scary” teacher.

While walking around during my class chatting with students I noticed that I had identical twin girls. They were really funny – I tried to communicate about being twins in English, but it was tricky to explain. They are completely mirror images of each other, they even sit next to each other in class. We have another set of twins in the third year – maybe it’s something in the water around here.

I snuck out a little early in order to stop into Befu and get a haircut. I can’t remember the last time I got one, but according to my website it was 2/17. My hair was getting long and scraggly, always getting in my face and generally a big pain. There was a new barber working, and we chit-chatted about all kinds of stuff. He had a lot more confidence in my Japanese than I did, but I did catch most of it. I wish I had someone like that to talk with more often – there’s no safety nets… if he doesn’t understand then I have to retry another way with another word or phrase. He said that he was glad that I spoke Japanese – it made his job a lot easier.

I went for the whole shave and a haircut two bits thing. Getting a shave in a barbershop is pretty fun, and the I’m sure they can cut some hairs that my electric razor doesn’t get to. I also got a shampoo which felt great. All this for 1500 yen… what a deal.

Coming out of there I couldn’t believe how much better I look. Sometimes I wonder why Kuniko hangs out with me. I must have really looked like crap recently.

I made up a salad using leftovers from the fridge tonight for dinner, watched Survivor, and now I’m packing and getting ready for our trip to Shikoku tomorrow. I promise to take lots of pictures and post them when I get back Sunday.

I’m back at the computer after three very refreshing days off. The Golden Week holidays went really well. It was a relaxed pace, but there was plenty of walking around for exercise.

Tuesday Kuniko and I took the train into Osaka so that we could do some looking around in Umeda. We had lunch at a ramen restaurant, and it was really good. They had quite a variety of different dishes, but since I can only read bits and pieces of the menu I generally have to guess what to have. This time my guess was good – it was delicious.

Kuniko and I hit all the major shopping areas in Umeda, and by the end of it, we were exhausted. We came back to my place and just made up some quick spaghetti and salad. That night Kuniko stayed over and then we got a chance to sleep in on Wednesday. We got a chance to chat with my parents on the phone, and then we were off to Kobe to meet up with Kuniko’s sister Tomoko, and her boyfriend Yamaoka-san. It was my first time meeting him.

When we got there we did introductions and he seemed really nice. He seemed pretty shy, but I did my best to engage him in conversation. At my level of Japanese my conversation topics are kind of limited, but I did my best.

We all went shopping together, and it soon became clear that it might be a good idea to split up and look around separately. I took Yamaoka-san to a bar I know, and we sat down and had a couple of Belgian beers. We chatted more there, but it was tough for me. I would get topics started, but he wouldn’t really follow up on them. He never asked me questions, and he was really quiet. I was undaunted, though. I figured after a few beers he would loosen up, and he did. Our next stop was Tokyu Hands, a big department store full of strange things, which was fun to investigate.

We met up with Kuniko and Tomoko, and then after a bit more shopping we all came back to my place for a steak dinner. I fired up the BBQ and grilled steaks and pork, Kuniko made up some mushrooms for the steak and a killer salad, and we sat around and drank and ate to our heart’s content. It was a rare chance for Tomoko to dig into a giant cut of beef – Kuniko tells me that she really likes meat.

After that we went to Ito Yokado to take purikuras (tiny group pictures) and then Kuniko drove them back in her car. At the end of the night Yamaoka-san was much more relaxed and friendly, and I think I made a good impression on him at last.

Finally, this morning Kuniko came over early, while I was still asleep. She let herself in, slipped into bed beside me, and what a wonderful way to wake up. She had bought breakfast for us, so we had breakfast in bed (yogurts and OJ), and then went to go see a movie in Okubo – “Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events”. We got there for the early show and caught the movie before the crowds got there. It was a pretty good movie – visually very interesting, and Jim Carrey had some great lines.

We picked up drive-thru McDonald’s on the way home and then spent the rest of the day napping and studying. Kuniko went home to catch dinner with her folks, and now I’m just relaxing and getting ready for work tomorrow. It’s just one Friday and then we’re off to Shikoku. I’m looking forward to our trip!

I walked into work all smiles, knowing that today was just a momentary interruption of six days off. That makes things a whole lot easier – Mondays aren’t nearly as tough to deal with.

I am scheduled to teach three classes on Monday, but Mr. Hayashi said that for the first two weeks there is no need for me to show up. My two week reprieve was up today, so I went over to check and see what I needed to do today for class.

Mr. Hayashi told me that they are still doing exams, so I don’t need to come there until sometime after the mid-term exams finish. It’s weird to have me signed up for classes and then not have me come for six weeks. Oh well.

That left me with only one class in the afternoon, so I hit the books hard. I memorized lots of words, did some grammar review, some reading, and generally slaved away over the textbooks. One of the other teachers came by and asked me if I have an exam soon – he thought I looked like I was working against a deadline.

Ms. Mori came by to talk to me. The other day she told me that she needed to talk to me regarding “the future of our school”, and since I’ve only had two other conversations with Ms. Mori in the last year I was curious to know what was up.

She swore me to secrecy and told me that the school is having some troubles recruiting new students, and we’re not considered a popular school to go to. She is going to get a little more proactive and go teach an English class at some area junior high schools. She asked me if I would be willing to help because I am the foot in the door at these places – a rare opportunity for their students to interact with a foreigner.

I agreed, and she seemed really happy, but she abruptly left after securing my agreement, leading me to wonder what exactly I just signed up for.

At the end of the day I had a new lesson about giving compliments. The highlight of the lesson was when we asked the students to each stand up, and alternating between me and Mr. Hayashi, give compliments. They didn’t completely understand, but the ten boys all complimented Mr. Hayashi, and the ten girls all complimented me. There was no alternating going on at all. The compliments were good – some were funny (that’s a nice eye color you have), but we wrapped up the lesson on time and I think it was a success.

I was out of there on time, and I came home to a pretty warm house. After airing out the place I realized that I had nothing in the fridge, so instead of shopping at Ito Yokado I went over to visit with the master at the yakitori.

Holiday evenings can either be really busy or really dead at the yakitori, and tonight it was dead. We sat and chatted about everything we could think of, the master tried out some new English on me, and we had a good time. I like it when it’s not busy, I can order anything I want without feeling guilty for making the master busy. I feel bad ordering something complicated when he’s got a whole crowd of people to serve.

Tomorrow is the start of Golden Week, and Kuniko and I are heading to Osaka to do some shopping and looking around.

This morning it was up early to get Kuniko to the train station on time. We hiked out to Tsuchiyama station again, and I made it home just before the rain started coming down.

I figured because of the rain it would be a good day to stay inside, memorize lots of new words, and just take it easy. Turned out to be a good plan.

I had ramen for lunch, and then steak soft tacos for dinner, so I haven’t exactly eaten healthy today. I also got a chance to chat with my grandparents, and my aunt Nancy called – I also got a chance to chat with cousin Kris on the phone, so it’s been a good day to catch up with family. They had lots of questions about Japan.

Now I’m just listening to music, getting ready to do one last round of flashcards, and then hit the sack. Tomorrow is a regular Monday for me, but then the next three days are holidays. It’s called Golden Week, but it should be pretty mellow for me – it’s a bad time to travel because everyone else is doing it.

Today I got up relatively late and spent the morning cleaning up and doing laundry – not so exciting. The weather was beautiful, however, and the rising temperatures have been a welcome change. Just the other day I retired my electric blanket and now I’m contemplating the air conditioner. Wow.

The gameplan originally was to meet up with Kuniko in Sannomiya after her work ends at around 6:30. She called me a little earlier, though, and so I went in to meet her at the station around 4:00 p.m. While I was waiting around the station a Jehovah’s Witness dude chatted me up in English. I made it clear that today was not the day when I was going to discover religon, and so he was reduced to idle chatter about the bible. I was just about to bring up the dinosaurs when Kuniko showed up, and saved me from being saved.

We walked around Kobe for a bit, killing time by walking through the SOGO department store. Soon we started getting hungry, so we headed over to look for the restaurant. The name of the place was called “Slow Moon Dining”. It was a cheese oriented restaurant – all of the dishes are based around cheese. That’s fine by me.

We sat on the floor and ordered a couple of glasses of wine and lots of dishes to try. We had a salad (with smoked gouda cheese), an appetizer plate of cheeses (gouda, blue cheese, some kind of soft creamy cheese, camenbert, and some yellow cheese that might have been straight cheddar.

Then we moved on to the entrees – a creamy cheese and avocado dish with salmon and some other fish along with a quail egg and salmon eggs on top. We also had some fried bacon and cheese pouches that were greasy but good, and finally a cheese risotto dish wrapped in spinach that rocked my world. It was the best risotto that I’ve ever had – a perfect balance of texture and flavor, without getting to greasy. We had cheesecake for dessert, but it didn’t measure up to Kuniko’s homemade cheesecake. I had forgotten that she had made it for me for my birthday in two years ago – big trouble!

After dinner we walked around Sannomiya a bit, and then caught the train back to Akashi. In Akashi we picked up some donuts at Mister Donut just to cash in on some donut points that Kuniko had. Now we have a Mister Donut tarp – oh yeah.

I convinced Kuniko to come over to my place for the night, and we came back and relaxed around the house before hitting the hay. I’m still sore from my hike the other day, and Kuniko has been working through the weekend, so she’s exhausted too. Lucky we have three days off in the middle of next week!

We were up early this morning because Kuniko had to go to work, and so we got organized and walked over to the taxi stand at Higashi Futami station. The bad news – for the first time that I’ve ever seen, there was not a taxi to be seen.

In Japan there are taxis all over the place, and they tend to cluster at train stations. The one at Higashi Futami is a big one – they’ve got a garage across the street, there is a flower garden that the drivers maintain while they are waiting around, and even a TV that they can watch from their cars.

This morning, nobody. We were bummed out because we needed to get Kuniko home and then to work, and so we had to call for a cab and wait around until he got there. Luckily Kuniko messaged me later that she arrived at work on time, so that was a relief.

It was a gorgeous day, and normally I would be at work, so I decided to go out and enjoy it. I organized my stuff and took the train into Kobe to climb Mt. Maya.

I’ve done the Maya climb before, and it’s pretty arduous. On the way up the mountain behind Shin-Kobe station I bumped into an American who lives on the hillside, a professor at a nearby university. He’s got a doctorate in linguistics, and his hobby is photographing bugs. We hiked together part of the way, and he told me all about where he was from, what he’s doing in Japan, and he struck me as a really smart guy. His speech patterns were different from what I’m used to – he spoke as if he was reading a book.

An interesting thing was that he had lived in Japan for a couple of years, and he had some of the same philosophies that I do. He seemed like a really patient guy, and unlike many of the other foreigners that you meet in Japan, he wasn’t complaining, making fun of the Japanese, or wishing things were more like home. You meet a lot of bitter ex-pats in Japan, but he stood out in stark contrast from the norm. Nice guy.

Anyway, we split ways at the top of the hill – I was going on to Maya, and he was going to the Shinto shrine down the hill aways.

I powered up the hill, passing entire hiking groups. People were nice enough to step aside for me, and by the time I got to the top of the next mountain I was really huffing and puffing. It was good to get out there and do some hiking – it’s been a long time for me.

Going to Mt. Maya is really tough – you have to climb up and down several other mountains to get to that one. All the altitude you gain climbing you lose again going down the other side. I was on the last mountain before reaching Maya when a funny thing happened. My phone rang.

It was Kuniko. She was in Kobe on a lunchbreak, and wanted to know if I could meet up. I was almost to a trail down the hill, so we decided to meet up in town. I sped down the hill, making good time because gravity was on my side. About an hour later I was in the Kitano area of Kobe, sweaty and tired. Kuniko tracked me down and I got a chance to meet one of her students, Sarah.

Kuniko teaches English to Japanese students at her school, but she is also teaching a class to foreign high school students on an exchange program. Sarah is a high school student from Washington state back in the States, and she is living in Japan on a homestay while going to school here. I talked with her for a little while, and it seems like she is really enjoying Japan.

From there Kuniko and I took off to catch lunch. We ate at an Indian restaurant that I had never tried before. They had a buffet set up, so I ate lots of spicy food, and then we walked around the Sannomiya area. The place was crowded with people enjoying the weather and a day off.

After walking, shopping, eating and drinking, we caught a train back to my place and relaxed for an hour or so here. Kuniko was off to meet some friends in Himeji, so we walked to the Tsuchiyama station together, and then I came home.

Dinner tonight was rice balls that I had bought for lunch, but ended up not needing, along with tamagoyaki and some miso soup. I watched Survivor, and then did just a little bit of studying before hitting the hay.

Thursday was like Friday today, because we have a holiday on Friday this week. I enjoyed teaching a couple of classes, and we did some cleanup at the end of the day. After cleanup we had the members of ESS show up for a meeting, and I still can’t believe how many there are. We had a classfull of students, all excited about working on this year’s culture festival project. This year we’ve decided on an English newspaper to pass out to students and staff. It should be really cool – everyone is looking forward to writing something of interest to them.

After school I went into Akashi to meet up with Mr. Komori at Donkey. Mr. Komori is at a new school now, and so we talked about his experiences there. He’s in charge of the flower-arranging club, which only meets twice a month and is a very easy club to work with. We drank Guinness and talked and talked, and before we knew it Kuniko showed up on her way back from work.

It had been almost a year since they had seen each other, so we caught up and told stories, showed pictures from our trip to America. Our next stop was to the sushi bar, and we watched the end of the Tigers game there over some really good sushi. We had a sashimi platter, and then moved on to nigiri sushi – so good. The guy next to me offered his congratulations on our wedding by giving us a bottle of beer – nice guy.

Komori sensei took off from there after paying the bill for sushi, and so Kuniko and I decided to go hit the donut shop for a late night donut. From there I convinced her to stay over at my place, even though she had to work the next day.

Oshita sensei must be a really scary teacher. When I went with him to his class today to do some team teaching, the class burst into cheers and applause, and from what I gather, it’s because they weren’t looking forward to another lecture from him.

I did two lessons today on “describing people” in English, and that was really fun. In Oshita’s class the students listened politely, but didn’t show much interest in the topic. In Maeda’s class they hung on every word, scribbled down notes, and really seemed to enjoy the lesson. If I was trapped on a deserted island with only one class to teach for the rest of my life, it would be Maeda’s class. They really are fun.

I also did a class with Mr. Hayashi, who seems to have settled into a routine lately and seems just a bit more relaxed. He still yelled at some students today, but at least he didn’t kick anyone. I think the longer we go into the term, the more relaxed he’ll get.

Also Matsubara’s class went really well – the students today worked in pairs and I had them writing lines to a story. They would write a line to the story, and then pass it to the next person to continue the story. It was really fun because the students didn’t know who would be adding to their story. At the end they got them back and it was like a game of Mad-Libs gone horribly wrong. With punchlines like “And then she was died!” and “oh my GOT!” I was a little disappointed, but the students were dying of laughter. Matsubara sensei declared the class a stunning success, and the students were all saying goodbye to me when I left.

All these classes were sandwiched between two free periods. I crammed still more vocabulary into my brain, and also chatted with the history teacher who just won’t leave me alone. Today I was talking with another teacher in Japanese, and the history teacher sat in the desk right in between us and told the younger teacher that he needed some of my time. Then he asked me what my favorite Jim Carrey movie is.

I wish I had a George Foreman grill over here. I tried to cook up a hamburger patty that was dirt cheap over at Ito Yokado, but I didn’t want to set up the BBQ for one hamburger patty. I fried it in a pan, but I ended up having to tilt and drain the fat constantly. I’m lucky I didn’t set myself on fire.

Tomorrow I’m going to meet up with Komori sensei over at Donkey, and Kuniko should be able to join us later. She got off work today pretty late tonight – 8:30! Hopefully she won’t be working so hard all year – it sounds like she’s really busy lately.

Well, I’m off to bed. The weather is warming up bit by bit, and I think I’m done with the electric blanket for the year. It’s been nice having the windows open in the evenings, but with the warm weather will come the bugs, the storms, and the humidity. I can’t wait!

During my walk to work I have a few people that I say “hello” to. They are also going to work or school, and so I’ve probably got 10-12 people that I greet everyday. The nice thing about seeing people on my route is that I don’t need a watch – I can tell what time it is by the location I meet them.

There’s one lady that is coming up the steps to the platform in Takasago as I am going down. A long time ago she kind of looked at me, and then looked away really quickly when she saw that I saw her. It’s been kind of my project in the morning to get a “good morning” out of her. It’s hard because there are lots of people and it seems like she’s really shy. Lately though we exchange smiles and nods, which is huge progress.

The history teacher always makes a comment when he’s walking with me about saying hello to everyone. It seems strange to him, but to me it’s just part of my job – besides, it feels good to be nice to people. You don’t have to be handing out information to be nice to strangers.

Today was a fairly light day for classes, just two for the first years and one tutoring session for Ms. Miyake. Normally she takes classes with Mr. Hayashi, but apparently he’s too busy to do classes for her these days. I know how she feels – Mr. Hayashi and I haven’t really been talking much lately. I think it’s a function of stress and his tough schedule.

I had lunch in the cafeteria with the students, and a bunch of first year students sat at my table surrounding me, chatting in Japanese and English, and treating me like I eat lunch with them everyday. This is a big contrast from the second and third year students, who seem to think that I want to eat alone, and content themselves with visiting my table and not sitting there.

Walking around school in the afternoon it really hit me how much I enjoy my students. Now I’ve taught all of the students in the school, and everyone is familiar with me. As I walk down the halls students walk with me and chat, call my name from down corridor, and are generally very comfortable chatting with me in English.

I left today at five o’clock, stopped into Ito Yokado for some lettuce, and made a sandwich and salad for dinner. This evening I relaxed, started putting away some winter clothes, and did budgeting for the next few months.

Tomorrow is my biggest day of the week. I’ve got a pretty complicated lesson plan for my second year students – I hope it works out!

The big news today was the train that derailed at high speed near Amagasaki. Amagasaki is not too far from where I am – it’s fairly close to Osaka and I used to go by there all the time to visit Kuniko in Shin-Osaka. It’s also near the Costco, but I don’t go there too much anymore. I’m not sure which line it was on, because there are two lines that intersect at Amagasaki station. I don’t think it was the one I ride, but still, pretty scary. The photos were amazing to see the train car squashed flat against the side of an apartment building.

I only had one class today – normally it’s three, but the third years are taking short exams right now. I used the extra time to prepare for some classes on Wednesday. The one class I did have went pretty well. It was my first time teaching with Mr. Yamamoto this year. He’s a pretty strict guy, and is not big on the team teaching concept. He’d rather sit in the back of the classroom and only participate when he thinks the students are not understanding. Not understanding is part of my plan, however, so I’ll need to train him a little bit over the next year. My plan this year was to make the Japanese teachers work a little harder in my classes – after all, I’m supposed to be an Assistant teacher.

At lunchtime I walked over to the bank. The banking system is very different in Japan. For one, the interest rates that they pay for savings are just about 0%. There’s no reason to save money in an account in Japan other than to free up space in your wallet or your house.

Also, I don’t get bank statements. There’s no such thing as checks in Japan. You set up recurring transactions to come right out of your account. If you need to send money to someone, you electronically transmit it from an ATM to their account. Everywhere else you use cash, and lately more and more places are starting to accept credit cards.

Anyway, to keep track of your finances they give you a cool little passbook. You take the passbook into the bank to a special “Update Your Passbook” ATM. You open the passbook to the correct page, slide it into the machine, and then it prints line-by-line each transaction from your account.

I don’t do it that often – so when I go in, there’s a long time to wait while the machine catches me up. The cool thing is that everything happens inside the machine, so once it fills up a page with information, something inside turns the page and it keeps going. I was a bit concerned today because I was running out of pages, and I didn’t want to have to go through a big process to get a new passbook.

Good news – once the machine finished it spit out my passbook, and then it spit out another one. It had set one up while I was waiting, all printed with my name and up to date with my bank balance. It was completely seamless and a total no-brainer. Nice!

Nothing much else to report today. I’m working on getting together with Komori sensei this weekend. We’ve got a holiday on Friday, so we’ve got a long weekend just before Golden Week next week.