It’s Wednesday morning, and I just woke up about an hour later than I usually do. Normally I would be waiting for my train right now, but instead I am here updating my website. Cool!

Yesterday I had four classes, and three of those were classes where I plan the lesson. I showed up for one of the classes, and another teacher was in there teaching. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but the students got a big laugh. I went downstairs to the teacher’s room and figured it out, and then talked to the scheduling people. Originally my schedule was very light, and then Mr. Hayashi wrote me in on a bunch of classes. When these classes are rescheduled, they inform the original teacher, but they don’t know about me. Now I’ve got it set up correctly.

The classes themselves went well – better than I expected. Mr. Yamamoto is great during these classes, and he runs the class just like I had imagined before I came to Japan. He’s funny, he translates at just the right point, and he creates an atmosphere that makes the students wish they could understand me more, which is the right motivation for them to listen.

Two of my classes had an observer – the student teacher was watching from the back of the class. She was in my class with Mr. Kimura, which was an interesting experience. He sometimes goes on this torrent of English that nobody understands, and then he’ll look to me for help to dig him out. I wonder what the student teacher thought of that.

After school I came home and started organizing for my seminar in Kobe. I chatted with Richard via cellphone in Shikoku. He’s going to meet me on Friday afternoon in Sannomiya, so that should be fun. Afterwards he’ll stay for the weekend. It’ll be nice to see someone from San Diego here in Japan.

I am due to meet Antoine at 11:30 in Sannomiya today. We both got the full day off, despite the fact that the seminar doesn’t start registration until noon. All of the re-contracting ALTs from western Japan are going to be in Kobe for three days, so it’ll be crowded. Lots of these guys have been stuck on a tiny island somewhere and getting out to the big city is a big deal for them. Antoine and I are a little ho-hum about it, but it should still be fun. The energy there will be different than the Tokyo orientation, which was full of excitement and anticipation.

I’ll check back in when I return from the conference this weekend!

Today was a busy day for me – I had four classes. Three of the classes were ones that I had planned, and one was with Mr. Hayashi. The student teachers started today, and the English one was in my class with Mr. Hayashi to observe. Next time she’ll be running the show.

The teachers have caused quite a stir among the men in the staff room. The new teachers are mostly women, with the exception of one guy. The male teachers that were assigned to the student teachers walked around with a bit of flush in their face.

The student teachers each say “excuse me” before they enter or leave the staff room, just like the students are required to. I guess since they are not official teachers yet, they can’t just walk in and out like everyone else. Strange.

I also had a Japanese lesson with Mr. Hayashi, and I did much better than last time. I was strong on the kanji thanks to all the studying I’ve been doing lately. The grammar is still tough for me, but hopefully it will come along in time.

During the morning time it was sunny and clear, but by lunchtime a big storm moved in. The rain was coming down hard, and Mr. Komuri asked me about the expression “raining cats and dogs”. Why cats and dogs? Why not horses and cows? Good questions – I wish I had the answers for him.

After school I did just a little grocery shopping for dinner – Yasu came over to study English. I cooked up some spaghetti for him because it was easy, and we had beers and went over his pronunciation. It was good practice for him – he’s doing a great job. We also chatted for a long time – it’s been almost a month and a half since I’ve hung out with him. He’s a really nice guy.

I did my dishes and now I’m heading to bed. Tomorrow is the last day before I leave for my seminar, so tomorrow will be spent getting organized for three days away in Kobe.

I took the opportunity this morning to have a bit of a lay-in and slept until 8:30 or so. Then it was guilty pleasure time – I watched the director’s cut of Robocop, but since it had been so long since I’d seen it last I couldn’t tell the difference. Still, good flick.

I did a load of laundry, cooked up some curry and rice, and hit the books. I studied for a couple hours – vocabulary memorization and grammar. At one point the sun started streaming in through one of my windows, and I realized that the promised rainstorm just wasn’t going to show up today. I put on my hiking shoes and headed east.

This time I kept walking to the next town – Uozumi. I’ve been to the northern part of Uozumi before to pick up packages at the post office. The southern part had been largely unexplored by me – the Sanyo line goes right through there on the way to Akashi but I’ve never gotten off the train.

As I walked around the town I kept my eyes open for things I couldn’t find in my town – I’d hate to stumble on a Taco Bell or something out here… that would change everything.

Walking back west towards Futami I found a manmade beach in front of some large high-density mansions. The beach was nowhere near as nice as the one in Suma, but it had sand, it had water, and there was plenty of sun. It’s a beach! The day was very warm, and I was tempted to wade out in the water, but I couldn’t help thinking of all those factories just a couple of kilometers away. Too risky.

Back home I rinsed myself off and crashed on the couch for a little nap. I was just starting to think about what to cook up for dinner when the phone rang, and it was Kuniko.

She was doing the same thing – wondering what to cook up for dinner, and decided to give me a ring and invite me over. I jumped at the chance and was on the next train out of town. Kuniko was waiting for me at the gate in Shin-Osaka, and we walked back to her place. She cooked up spaghetti with alfredo sauce. The sauce had bits of sauteed bacon in there, and she even toasted up some bread to soak up the extra sauce. Excellent.

We caught up with each other – she hadn’t heard my Hanshin Tigers story and I wanted to hear how she enjoyed the movie “Ladykillers” (she thought it was boring), so it was good to see each other.

Finally at around 10 o’clock we walked back to the station. I stepped up to the ticket machine to buy a ticket home, but Kuniko stopped me and pressed a card into my hand. Her father works for JR Railway, and she got a pass from him. It’s one of the new integrated circuit cards – you just wave it in front of the gate and you go through. She had charged it with 2000 yen for me. What a cool present. I’m not clear on whether I am borrowing it or if it’s mine, but it was certainly a timely gift.

Now I’m home and getting ready to go to bed. It turned out to be a good weekend. I’m going to have to prepare for a short week at school and the big ALT re-contracting conference in Kobe.

Today was a pretty mellow day, as expected. In the morning I took a walk across Futami to the eastern side of town, and then cut south across a bridge to a peninsula that is full of industrial type warehouses, public parks, and fishing wharfs. Once on the other side I walked alongside the water through a big park.

During the walk I bumped into a guy that spoke pretty good English. We talked for a little bit. He’s an import/export guy, who sells Sanyo appliances overseas. His territory includes China and the Middle East, so he speaks English and Arabic. He was really happy to be living in Futami – he thinks it’s a great spot to be.

After my walk I came home, hit the shower, cooked breakfast, and then cracked the books. I talked to my family on the phone and also called Victor and chatted with him.

While I was studying in the afternoon I got to listen to my brother’s radio show. He is a DJ at a radio station in Sonoma, and because there is a web stream from the station I was able to pick it up and listen to the show clearly all the way over here in Japan. It was cool – the show was very good. Some of the music I liked, some I didn’t, but it was a good mix.

The rest of the day was making flashcards, working on Japanese grammar, and relaxing. In the evening I watched a movie, Bound. It was pretty good – very tense. I also downloaded Robocop, Girl With A Pearl Earring, and Japanese Story. I may watch a couple of those tomorrow.

Well, I’m just doing a little laundry and then I’m heading to bed. Tomorrow it’s back to the books!

On my way to school today I bumped into the usually unintelligible old lady who talks my ear off despite the lack of verbal feedback from me. Once she stuffed a bunch of candy in my pocket because I looked cold. She’s really a nice lady – and I think we’re both a little frustrated with the language barrier. Today something strange happened – I understood what she said. It took me a second to work it out in my head, but she said “It’s getting warmer nowadays, isn’t it?”

I answered “Isn’t that true?” which is not really the right thing to say, but I was so surprised that I understood that I fumbled the response. She just smiled and waved goodbye. Maybe next time I’ll do better on my side of the conversation.

By now my route to and from school is full of people that say hello to me, smile, or nod. I’d guess that on my commute during any given day I see on average fourteen people that acknowledge me in some way. When I first came to Japan Antoine and I joked that it was impossible to get a total stranger to smile at you, but I’ve got a lot of friendly people in my town.

Today a young boy that I’ve smiled at the last three or four days was standing instead of sitting, and when I got close to him he held out a package of gum for me. I smiled and said “thank you” in Japanese. He didn’t say anything, but it was very nice of him. The gum was strange, too – kind of a combination of blueberry and mint.

My classes were spread out over the whole day, and it was a good mix of helping and leading. Mr. Hayashi and I spent lots of time chatting. I listened to the latest gossip – he was sniffing around to find out whether I had asked out the girl on the train on the way back from the Tiger’s game.

We also got a phone call from the hotel that is hosting my mandatory JET conference next week. They hadn’t received any money from me, and they wanted it sent to their account. Mr. Hayashi figured that we should also send off the money for my plane ticket. We rode the school bicycles over to the bank, and we sent off the money electronically to everybody’s bank accounts. The hotel cost $200, which will be paid back to me someday. The plane ticket was $800. Now I have about $300 to get me through until next payday in the middle of June. That means that my life won’t be too exciting over the next few weeks. It’s bad timing because of the conference in Kobe, and some friends visiting from San Diego. Since money is tight I cancelled my trip to Lake Biwa on Saturday. The weather forecast is rain in the afternoon anyway, so maybe it’s best to stay local and cheap.

On the way home I bumped into one of my students on the train platform, so I chatted with him in Japanese. We did pretty well, but there were lots of parts that I couldn’t understand at all. We got off at the same stop today – usually I keep on riding and he gets off. I went shopping for some supplies for ESS in Befu. Luckily I’ll get the money back for this, too.

Back in Higashi Futami I got off the train and stopped in at the local bakery to buy some custom sliced bread. I explained to the lady how excited I was to be able to buy thin bread. She couldn’t comprehend a country with only thin-sliced bread. The bakery smelled great, and it’s always fun to try to identify all the baked goods and figure out what might be inside them.

I’m back home now, and getting ready to go over to the yakitori for dinner. I know that it’s not a great way to save money, but considering I’m going to be cooped up at home studying and watching movies for the next two days, I figure it’ll be the big splurge of the weekend. I’ve got almost $50 in pocket change alone!

Today I had another easy day at school. My classes were finished by lunchtime, so I had the afternoon to study and relax. After school, we had our ESS meeting, and we spent some time folding origami cranes while we chatted in English in Japanese.

The origami cranes are part of a massive school project. Every student is expected to fold ten cranes, and the resulting 10,000 cranes will be used to make some kind of display for the upcoming cultural festival. We had some extra paper so Iku-chan, one of the ESS students, helped me learn how to fold one. It wasn’t easy, but everyone was doing well. Harada-san folded a black piano – very impressive!

I went home and had a nice easy Japanese dinner of inari (fried tofu stuffed with sushi rice) leftover from the Tigers game, and some homemade miso soup. After dinner I called Kuniko, hoping to catch her before she went to bed. Instead I woke her up – she was zonked out at 7:30 at night! They are working her hard over there.

We had made plans to meet up in Osaka on Saturday night and eat Shabu Shabu, but she had to cancel. She’s just too tired to do anything, and so we’re going to take the time to catch up on other things. I was disappointed, because I could already taste the Shabu Shabu, but it’s probably a good idea. A quick search through my journal finds that I’ve spent time with Kuniko the last four weekends in a row. Maybe a break would be good.

Anyway, I’m off to bed. Tomorrow is Friday and I’ve got a free weekend ahead of me!

Wow – what an experience! My day went by pretty fast, and Mr. Komuri and I scooted out of work a few minutes early to catch the train to the game. We stopped for snacks at the local store, and then we caught a Sanyo train out of Takasago.

I was trying to figure out the logistics of getting to the stadium, but Mr. Komuri said that we could just stay on the same train. This was a revelation for me – the same train that runs right by my house in Futami eventually pulls up at the foot of Koshien stadium, where the Tigers play. Cool!

It took about an hour to get there. We got off the train and bought some beer from the kiosk vendor inside the station. Then we walked across the street and right into the park. The Tigers were playing the Yokohama Bay Stars. The place was packed with around 50,000 people, another sell-out crowd.

Our seats were apart, so we grabbed two empty seats that were together and ate beer, sushi, and fried chicken until the owners of the seats came. Then we sat in our own seats for the rest of the game.

The crowd noise was amazing. When the Tigers were batting, everyone cheered, banged plastic bats together to make noise, and sang songs. There was a different song for each player. Since I didn’t understand what they were saying I was a little lost, but I clapped along. The only time it got quiet was when Yokohama came up to bat, and then it was fairly quiet. Anytime the Bay Stars were out, everyone would sing a song that ended with a big “OUT-O”.

My senses were a little overwhelmed. Everyone was looking at me at first, and I didn’t see another foreigner at the game until we got on the train afterwards. I got a lot of attention.

Other things I noticed that were different from the USA… they served beer in the stands. There were lots of beer vendors, and they called out the Japanese equivalent of “How does a beer sound?” They also had yakisoba, ice cream, and takoyaki. I didn’t see any sushi except for what we brought to the game. Also, you could bring all the alcohol and food that you wanted – they didn’t do a search or anything. People were uniformly polite – no one got belligerent. I noticed that the Yokohama fans were only sitting in one section – Mr. Komuri said that somehow that was enforced. They don’t mix the two types of fans.

For all the singing going on they had cheerleaders for each section. They somehow indicated what song would be appropriate, and everyone just jumped right in. The cheerleaders were usually old guys in Tigers outfits.

The strangest thing was a phenomenon that I had heard about before I came to Japan. Instead of the 7th inning stretch, everyone in the stadium releases balloons that sail all over the place. There’s nothing quite like seeing it firsthand, but I managed to take a video of it. You can check it out here, but be warned – it’s 17 megabytes, so it’ll take a long time to download.

After the game we joined a huge line for the train home. The train was packed tight, but as soon as we got west of Kobe things emptied out. A pretty lady stood next to me and Mr. Komuri on the train and was listening in to our conversation. I saw that she was eager to speak with us, so I said hello. Mr. Komuri was a little shocked to see me suddenly open up our social circle. At one point she asked what school we taught at (in English) and Mr. Komuri told her that it was a secret. Strange. Anyway, it was nice talking to her – she is a dance instructor in Osaka, but lives in Himeji. That’s a long way to go for work, but she seems to be doing well. She’s taking English courses as well, so that’s why she was hoping to talk with us.

I finally got home around 11:30, and I was exhausted. The game was such an overwhelming experience. It’s a long way from the games spent relaxing in the sun in San Francisco’s PacBell Park.

What’s that? Who won? The Tigers lost the game – it was four to zero. I spent so much time enjoying the environment, that I could only barely follow the game!

Today my clairvoyance turned out to be correct – I didn’t get out of school until around 2 p.m. Still three hours early, so nothing to complain about. While I was studying at my desk one of the students was getting chewed out behind me by one of the “bad cop” teachers. He left for a while and left her to sit crying at the desk next to me. It’s a little unnerving to have some poor girl sniffling away while you’re trying to study.

Mr. Hayashi treated me and Mr. Komuri to coffee at a local coffee house. We talked mainly about prostates and erectile dysfunction again – a recurring theme with Mr. Hayashi. It’s a good thing all the old ladies surrounding us didn’t speak English. I think Mr. Hayashi kind of relished the idea of speaking about a topic like that in public without anyone knowing.

On the way home I stopped in at the grocery store and picked up three pork steaks for 200 yen – what a bargain. Back home I rubbed them with a little salt and a mustard/garlic/black pepper/oil combination that I created. Once the grill was hot I cooked up the pork steaks and also I grilled some onions that I had leftover from a previous meal. I made up a green salad and together it was quite a feast. Not a lot of food, but quality stuff.

The little grill has really changed the way I cook. Now I use the grill about twice a week to make some kind of meat or seafood main course. The rest of the week I either cook up traditional Japanese or non-grilled American food. Anyway, I’ve stopped pan frying my meat which helps cut down on the grease.

Tonight after dinner I watched “School Of Rock” which was a pleasant surprise. I thought it was a pretty fun movie – and the end song that went with the credits was pretty good, too.

Tomorrow night I’m going to the Hanshin Tigers game with Mr. Komuri – it should be a blast! The weather has been beautiful lately, so there’s no chance for a rainout. I’ll be taking tons of pictures. Japanese baseball is a whole different experience.

Today was another day of exams for our students, and another day of relaxation for the teachers. I went in at the regular time, and Mr. Hayashi asked me to help interview someone that may help us with the STEP test interviews. She was kind of a high school prodigy, but she ended up making what Mr. Hayashi called a “wrong turn” in her career. Now she is looking for some extra cash, and the interviews might be just the thing for her. Her English was really good – better than Mr. Hayashi’s I thought, but don’t tell him that.

After the interview I asked Mr. Hayashi if I could split and he hesitated just a nanosecond before he said “Sure, no problem.” I have a feeling that I probably won’t get as much time off tomorrow, so I figured I should make today count. So what did I do with almost the whole day off and beautiful weather outside? The same thing I did in San Diego – I went to the beach.

It’s a short train ride to Suma beach, and there I laid out a blanket, had a mini-picnic with some store-bought sandwiches, and soaked up the sun, while the waves from the inland sea lapped at the shore. The beach is not the most beautiful beach in the world – off the coast there is lots of water traffic, and there are plenty of fisherman looking for tonight’s dinner.

I spent about two hours out in the sun, drinking water, reading my Japanese homework, but really just relaxing. I saw a few other foreigners out enjoying the weather. You could tell the foreigners because they were wearing swimsuits. The Japanese people for the most part were completely covered up.

Afterwards I walked back to the station, rubbing the sand off my bare feet on the sidewalk. I had a nostalgic moment remembering doing the same thing in San Diego after coming back Silver Strand or Black’s Beach. I’m glad that I can still enjoy the beach and the ocean here in Japan.

The train ride was an easy one, and I opened up the house when I got home and enjoyed the cool breeze and sunshine. After a shower to get off all the sweat and suntan lotion, I was feeling great. I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing listening comprehension from my old textbooks and doing laundry.

What a nice day – it was great to get some relaxation time in.

I slept in a little bit this morning, cooked up a fried egg sandwich, and then went out the door to meet the school librarian at Befu station. She had planned a trip to see some monkeys – I joined her family on a mini-roadtrip to the northwest of my town.

The drive was easy – we loaded up the family wagon. The librarian’s husband and son came along, and I sat in back with the son. He was so shy that it was a pretty quiet ride. The drive took about 90 minutes, which isn’t so bad. We traveled away from major cities, and ended up in some pretty hilly countryside.

We ended up at a temple built on a green hillside, and after walking through the temple grounds we followed a path up a hill until we came to the “Monkey Park”. They charged us 400 yen a head to get in, and then there was another fairly long walk up the hills, walking alongside a fast moving stream. The stream had some nice waterfalls along the way, and the whole time we were searching the treetops for monkeys.

Finally at the top we found the monkeys.

The place was full of monkeys, and the monkeys were running wild. These monkeys were running around chasing each other, jumping up and down on the rooftops of the buildings and walking right by you as if it was perfectly natural for a big human to be in the way. The monkeys weren’t friendly at all – they bared their teeth if they felt threatened by you, but generally if you let them do what they want, they tend to get right up close to you.

At first it was cute, but after a while it got a little scary. They had a cage for the visitors, and inside the cage you could buy “monkey food”. The monkeys would casually walk up to the cage and wait for someone to come by. You were supposed to put the food on a little area near the bottom of the cage, but most people held open their hand and the monkey reached right in to take it off your hand. Sometimes kids would piss off the monkeys and they would screech or swat at the little kids. It seemed like a dangerous situation – something that wouldn’t fly back home.

We took quite a few pictures, and then headed back down the hill to our car and the next stop.

We drove about twenty minutes to a town up in the hills that is a ski resort during the winter. Right now it’s very green and lush, and they were having some kind of town event in the field located in the middle of the tiny town. We joined the event to picnic, and as far as I could tell it was some kind of event celebrating wood. They had woodcutters, contests involving cutting wood, and even some prizes given to people that handle wood in the most extraordinary way. Wood.

Before I know it the librarian had not only laid out a huge picnic spread for everyone, she entered us in various contests despite our relative ineptitude with wood. There were a lot of people that looked like they worked with wood all the time, and I was a little intimidated.

After lunch Hiro, the librarian’s son, and I played catch. We were having a good time when they called our names. The event that I competed in was a log throwing contest. They had small logs, and you had to get the log as close to another log as possible. The crowd actually hushed when I stepped up with my log. Can the foreigner throw a log? Will he show us all up?

I chucked the wood, and it came within a few meters of the target. I was happy enough with that, but they made me throw another one, too. That one landed a little closer, and everyone clapped politely as I made my way out of the limelight.

We played another round of baseball, and then we packed up our gear and took off. I think that some of the people were hoping I would compete in the fastest saw competition, but we had things we had to do. The next stop was at a natural spring. We filled up all of our containers and the librarian had even brought a giant plastic jug to fill up.

After that we were pretty tired. We made one last stop along the river to walk around a bit, and then we headed back. As we drove back through the mountains, rice paddies, and waterfalls, I couldn’t help thinking how different my experience in Japan would be if I was placed somewhere this remote.

I imagine that I would probably do a lot more hiking – the hills and views in this area were dramatic, and to be able to do that every day would be great. Right now I have to take the train to get to a mountain to hike, which is not so convenient. I think my diet would be different – I would have to take a bus to get to a supermarket or the nearest train station. I probably would end up buying a car. I might have only stayed for a year being out in the boonies – who knows? There is a whole part of Japan that I’m missing by sticking to the trains. I need to think about ways to explore these areas, too.

On the way home there was some serious traffic, so it took a long time to get back. One thing about traveling by train everywhere is that there is usually no traffic. I had forgotten what a bummer traffic can be.

It was a great day – I saw monkeys as advertised, and it was good to spend time with a cool family. They were all really nice and I’m hoping that we can do something again soon.

Yesterday I had gotten a message from Kuniko about being sick – she went to the doctor and they took care of her. This morning I went to Osaka to see if there was anything I could do to help out.

Kuniko is a little isolated in Osaka – there isn’t really anyone there to take care of her if something happens. When I got there she was up and about, but she looked exhausted. I tucked her into bed and busted out my sick supplies – Amino Suppli (the Japanese equivalent of Gatorade), orange juice, throat drops, EmergenC packets, and some chicken noodle soup.

Once Kuniko started drinking the Amino Suppli she started feeling much better. I know how that feels – I remember a horrible weekend in the dorms of Fresno State. I got a couple of bottles of Gatorade in me and I felt like I had been born again.

Since she was feeling better I cooked up some lunch for her, and we sat around eating soup and sandwiches. We spent part of the day just napping on the futon together.

Kuniko’s sister called, and she was in Okayama, and a little concerned about her. She had some extra time so she came over on the Shinkansen. It was the first time that I’ve met a member of Kuniko’s family. Her sister, Tomoko, was really nice. It was her first visit to Kuniko’s apartment and so we sat around and admired the place and talked about her job in Okayama. She is a school nurse for a high school there. I was relieved to hear that – now we had a professional on hand to take care of Kuniko.

We went out for ramen and Kuniko had no problem with the spicy noodles, so it looks like things are getting better fast. I got a few pictures of Tomoko – she was fun to hang out with and we practiced each other’s language on each other.

After dinner I left Kuniko in Tomoko’s capable hands and headed home. Once I got to Akashi I decided to drop in at Donkey and throw a few darts. There were some dart veterans there, and the bar’s top player and I played a couple of quick games of baseball. He was really good – he beat me both games with very little effort. I’m hoping that the master won’t bug me about joining the team now 🙂

Once I got home I had a little pineapple for dessert, and now I’m getting ready for bed. Tomorrow is the mystery trip to supposedly see monkeys. Whatever happens, it should be a good story.

I invited Antoine to come all the way out here for some steak, so I wanted to do things right. I started by calling my aunt and uncle and asking for advice on grilling the meat. My uncle Lynn gave me some great tips on cooking the steaks, and it helped a lot.

I bought some steaks at Carrefour – about thirty dollars worth. Steak is expensive here in Japan, so it was pricey, but something we both needed to have. I also got a couple of different beers – two Mexican beers, an Italian beer, and a Korean beer. I had some Guinness and Japanese beer at home, so we had an international selection.

I also got some garlic bread, mushrooms, and salad stuff. The meal was awesome. Antoine helped me by making the salad, and then he helped grill half the meat. Following my uncle’s advice I rubbed in some sea salt and some black pepper and garlic. I also put a couple of drops of olive oil on the steaks. The grill was super-hot, and the meat turned out perfectly. We had a Norton Malbec from Argentina, and the entire meal was a huge success.

Antoine was pretty hungry even after the steaks, so we threw on some bratwurst that I had bought at Costco. The grill was still hot, so they cooked up nicely.

After dinner we walked down to the yakitori for a beer there, and chatted with the master and some of the regulars. They were in a great mood, and asked all kinds of questions of Antoine. They were very curious about his lifestyle in Takarazuka.

Finally, we walked down to the station and Antoine headed home. We had a good time, and I’m hoping that we can do it again sometime.

Kuniko messaged me and said that she caught a serious cold. She went to the doctor with a 102 degree temperature, and ended up having a drip put in to counter the dehydration. I was worried so I called her, but she assured me that she will be fine. She asked me to stay away because she’s sick and she doesn’t want me to catch it, but I’m going to try and visit tomorrow anyway. She doesn’t have anyone to take care of her in Osaka, and I want to make sure that she has enough supplies to get her through until she feels better.

Well, I’m off to bed – the steak party was a huge success! Now I need to sleep it off….

That was tough. I went in today at work and stayed for about an hour, and then went right back out the door. Mr. Hayashi had me sign a time off request form so that if anything happens to me, I’ll be covered and on the clock. Now it’s almost 10 a.m. and I’m at home. Yes!

I’m getting ready to go over to Carrefour to do some shopping for tonight’s steak dinner. It should be a nice relaxing day!

Today was the first day of midterm exams, and so most of the teachers had it pretty easy. The teachers just administered the exam, and the students were gone by noon. We had a free bento lunch, but it wasn’t as good as the usual ones we get. No raw fish in this one – just cooked fish, shrimp, and lots of veggies.

Mr. Hayashi ducked out just before the teacher’s volleyball game. I went over to the gym and played three games. It was pretty fun, and you could tell which teachers were super-competitive, and which were there to just have fun. Somehow, a winner was determined, and the winners got a case of beer that they split up among the team.

I did pretty well, actually – I tended to screw up as many plays as I did well on, so I figure in baseball that’s batting .500, which is pretty good.

After volleyball was finished Mr. Hayashi mysteriously reappeared, and soon after we piled into his car to go to a dinner that he was hosting. During the drive over we picked up Miss Yamamoto from her house, and also Mr. Komuri came along.

Mr. Hayashi had bought a veal tenderloin from his favorite restaurant in Kitano, and so I helped him slice it up and he pan fried it outside on a portable burner, since it was raining and we couldn’t use the BBQ. The meat was great, and I had brought a bottle of Sangiovese that I had purchased at Costco. It tasted great. Mr. Hayashi also contributed a box of Franzia California red wine. I don’t think many people noticed the difference.

There were some other teachers there, and everyone was very happy to be visiting. Mr. Hayashi’s friend was there who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. I guess he doesn’t have all that much longer to live, and Mr. Hayashi wanted to have a big party for him to “send him off” (his words). He was a mountain climber, so we exchanged stories as much as we could in Japanese. He’s a really nice guy, and his wife is the new P.E. teacher at our school.

After dinner they gave Mr. Komuri and I a ride to the JR station, and I took the train to Tsuchiyama station. From there it was a 20 minute walk in heavy rain to my apartment, but my new ultra large umbrella kept me dry.

This weekend should be interesting. Tomorrow I have a short day at school to try and even out all the extra hours I’ve been putting in. Antoine is planning on coming over for some steaks and vino. Saturday I’m planning on visiting Kuniko in Osaka, and Sunday the school librarian is taking me to see monkeys somewhere in Hyogo. Monday and Tuesday will also be short days, but I haven’t come up with any plans for those days yet.

I had a pretty good day, with lots of new developments on several fronts. I have no classes during the first two periods, so I locked myself in my classroom and studied Japanese.

It was helpful to sit down with a book and study without distraction. Outside the weather was rainy, and I sat at a desk facing the window watching the students and teachers move between classes. One thing I thought about was that here I was in a classroom all to myself, getting paid to study a foreign language. I can practice the language anytime I want, and everyone I meet is very supportive of my studies. What an amazing opportunity, and a great situation to be learning a language.

During a break Mr. Komuri came up to me and told me that he has great news. He got tickets to a Hanshin Tigers game! He said that he’ll take me along, so I’ll finally get to catch a baseball game in Japan. The tickets are very hard to come by, but he managed to get two singles. We’ll be separated – sitting very far away from each other, but we’re both lucky to even be at the game. The game is next Wednesday night – hopefully it won’t rain out!

My third period class went really well – I skipped a few activities because tomorrow is the beginning of mid-terms, and I wanted the students to be able to relax a little. We did drawings, and I stretched that to almost half an hour of free drawing. It was fun, and the students seemed to appreciate it. I took the chance to chat with them in English while they drew, and that seemed to make them more comfortable.

A while back a student had asked for a Radiohead CD to listen to, so last night I burned one with some of my favorite songs, and brought it in. She came down to the teacher’s room and was so happy to borrow it. She was actually jumping up and down when I gave it to her. I hope she likes the other songs… Radiohead can get pretty weird.

Mr. Hayashi came by and seemed pretty excited – he has lots of free time because he finished writing his exams, so he wants to teach me more Japanese. This is something new – usually we have been doing lessons only during the two sessions we had scheduled. The other day he brought in a tape that he recorded from NHK – a course on how to speak Japanese. I did some transcription from the tape – listening and writing as much as I could understand. Today we did some more reading and he’s helped me get a little more comfortable. I usually read to myself, so now that I’m reading out loud I make all kinds of mistakes that my brain didn’t notice before.

One of my first year classes had an ESS student in it. She is fearless – she walked right up to me and asked me about some English terms for one of her friends. She’s hoping to go to Australia this year with the group led by Mr. Hayashi, so I hope that works out.

The new student teachers came in for a meeting today. There were about eight of them, all women around twenty-two years old. The history teacher timed it perfectly so he was chatting with me in English as they all walked by my desk. He pretended to be non-chalant, but his side of the conversation drifted considerably when they walked by. Mr. Hayashi is in charge of the English student teacher, and he brought her over to meet me after their meeting. She was pretty nervous, and I didn’t dumb down my English. She did a great job – she knows her stuff. Mr. Hayashi wanted me to meet her because he said if she’s a “charming woman” he’s going to buy her dinner after their two weeks of classes end. He’s looking to me to help him decide if she’s “charming” or not. Sheesh.

After school I went shopping for some dinner items at the local grocery store. Suddenly a small boy came running up to me and said “Hello, how are you?” in English. I was startled, but answered back in English. I was thinking, who the heck is this kid? Then around a corner came his mom and sisters, and it was the Maeda family. The same Maeda family that “kidnapped” me the night of the English teacher’s party. The boy that was so shy on Friday night was the same one that chased me down today and talked with me in English. We talked a little baseball and then we said our goodbyes. What a nice family!

Back home I cooked up some ramen with pork, but somehow I screwed up the broth. I’m still not sure how the heck they do it here. I need to use a lot more salt, and maybe some stronger stock. Hmm… more research needed.