Due to some strange scheduling anomalies, I had only one class today. I just got back from teaching it, and now I’m killing time on the internet computer and waiting for the end of my day.

The class went really well – much better than I expected. The students were full of energy, and they volunteered to answer questions, which is very rare. It was my last lesson on money, and so I attacked it with a lot of energy, and that seemed to energize the students. It was a big contrast from my last few ‘money’ classes.

One of the things the students do is buy imaginary items from a list that I created. The list is full of strange things – a heavy metal CD (Motley Crue’s ‘Shout At The Devil’), garlic milkshake, false teeth. Just strange stuff. The kids giggle when they figure out what the item is, and I included some pictures. One of the items was shrimp ice cream, and I had two girls believing that it is the new flavor at 31 flavors. At first they didn’t believe, but I kept insisting that I bought one in Himeji, so I think they might go out and order one this weekend. I wish I could be there when they try to order it.

I’m going to go buy some sodas to do a taste test later today. The history teacher insisted that he could tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi, so I’m going to try to find a small bottle of each and do a blind taste test. Pepsi has a tiny market share in Japan, so it might be hard to dig some up.

Instead of teaching my adult class during sixth period, I’ve been tapped to judge a tug-of-war contest. The first year students are going to battle it out for high stakes. The winning team gets a cream puff for each of it’s members.

I continued my Valentine’s Day lessons today, and I had a couple of very good classes. At the end of the lesson, I do a gameshow type game. The students break into four teams, and I ask them eight multiple choice questions. The team with the most points at the end wins. I give them little cards with the answers (A, B, C, D, True, False) on them, and they flash me the right card to indicate their response.

The game was popular with all my classes, but today I had a couple that were really competitive. They would flash the cards to me behind their back, and I was taking signals like I was a baserunner in the major leagues. As I read each question, there was dead silence in the class as everyone concentrated on what I said. Unbelievable!

I had a lot of fun with the games, and the students did too. I don’t know how much English they picked up, but they were listening and (mostly) understanding me, so that’s good.

After classes, I met up with one of my ESS students for our ESS meeting. I brought some snacks (chips, cookies, sodas) and we sat around and spoke for an hour or so. It was actually pretty fun – I got to practice my Japanese, and whenever I didn’t understand, she had to think hard and try English. It worked pretty well.

Afterwards, we locked up the classroom and walked down towards the teachers’ office to drop off the key. Waiting outside were some of her friends, and when they saw us walking together it was freak out time. The laughing and giggling was so loud that the teachers still in the office came out to see what was going on. Here’s Bryan surrounded by a pack of girls – some of whom are actually falling down they are giggling so hard. Quite a scene.

I packed up my gear and took off, and got home around 6 o’clock. I made a quick curry and rice dinner, and then watched part of Alien: Resurrection – one of the DVDs my brother Mark sent me for Christmas. I tried to pop some microwave popcorn to have with the movie, but my microwave wasn’t dealing well. I think the power on mine is set too low – I have to decipher the kanji on the controls and figure out how to turn up the heat. The popcorn went too slowly, and came out scorched. Ouch – I’m going to try to work out the glitches on a glass of water before risking another valuable bag of corn.

Today when I got home I had a package slip that said a box had arrived from Sara. I decided to take the opportunity to hike out to the JR station that I had discovered recently, and pick it up myself.

It was a 25 minute walk to the JR station at Tsuchiyama, and then a 3 minute train ride to the next station – Uozumi. When I walked out I bumped into a couple of JETs – one veteran that is leaving after staying two years in Japan, and another first year like me. The vet, Lei, commented that she never sees me around, and wanted to know what I was up to. I grinned and told her that I’ve been keeping busy, and that I have been kind of adopted by some locals.

I picked up my package at the post office, and then I was back on the train. 15 minutes later I was at a pretty good Chinese restaurant ordering up some Kim Chee noodles, pot stickers, fried rice and beer. The place is one of my favorites for cheap, greasy food.

I got home and opened the package – there was lots of microwave popcorn (something I can’t find in Japan), some granola bars, and dried mangoes. Good snacks! Now I’m off to do a little studying before I hit the hay. Tomorrow is a relatively easy day at school. I’m going to have my ESS meeting, but I think there will only be one member there – that should be weird.

I spent today pushing the hormones of teenage girls to the breaking point – I had three lessons on Valentine’s Day. I got asked out twice and four girls asked me if I had a girlfriend. No boys asked me this question, however.

I knew this idea was risky, but I just jumped into the fire and went with it. The giggle meter almost broke today with all the laughter. Still, it’s a better reaction than indifference, so I’m happy with it.

After work I cooked up some Cajun shrimp and then had Yasu over for beers. I helped him with some English, and we talked about CD’s. He gave me a pretty good list of temples to visit in Kyoto. I’ve been thinking that it would be fun to do a solo trip to Kyoto sometime soon. It would be a good winter trip. Yasu provided me with locations in kanji and hiragana, and I was surprised to see that I could read several of the kanji characters.

We had a couple of Kirins and talked about his upcoming trip to Cambodia and Thailand. He’s braving the “bird flu” that everyone is worried about over here. I don’t think it will be a problem – and it may even lower prices even more.

I’m off to bed – tomorrow is two more Valentine’s lessons, so I’ve got to be mentally prepared for another love fest.

I had a tough class today – the chaos class. There is a ringleader involved here – one student that gets everyone else riled up. The boys that sit near him get caught up in the excitement, and the girls in the class are quiet and just hope that it will end soon. It’s a bad vibe all around, and Mr. Kimura has a hard time keeping everyone focused.

I went through my lesson, but it was difficult with all the boys talking and sometimes even getting up and walking around the classroom. I’m not allowed to discipline the students of course, but I tried to show my disapproval. The tough part is that the girls all sit and listen carefully – they are completely quiet but they know the answers when you press them. So in the end I really just focus on working with them, and the boys could care less.

It’s the only class that I have that is disruptive or a problem – every other class is kept in line pretty well, or they are genuinely interested in listening to me. All I can do is use the class as a test of my patience and hope for the best.

Mr. Hayashi was exuding garlic today – he smelled like garlic as soon as he walked in the door. Over the weekend he bought some deep fried dried garlic cloves, and he’s been munching on them like popcorn. He bought me a bag, but after I smelled the garlic on him the DAY AFTER he ate them, I’m a little scared to open up the bag and start munching. I figure I’ll do it over beer one night when I’m not talking to anyone for the next few days.

We snuck out of work an hour early. I’m the universal excuse for Mr. Hayashi to get out early… he can always say that we had to go to the tax office or the immigration office or the doctor. I’m happy to go early – there’s nothing really to do after classes end, and I usually just study Japanese until five and then hit the road.

On the way home I stopped in and picked up some pork, green onions, milk, and some interesting looking mushrooms that looked good. They were tiny little things, so I sauteed them in a little bit of garlic and oil. As soon as they came out of their package, I noticed that the liquid surrounding them was behaving in a very non-liquid manner. That’s right – it was SLIME! The package looked good, the date was OK, and the mushrooms themselves were firm and smelled good. I figured I might as well finish cooking them, so I took some pictures of the final product for you.

I added a little soy sauce and a splash of tabasco, and took a bite – hmm, not bad. Not good, not bad, not anything really. The slime thing was still there, though – and so I had two more bites and then dumped the rest in the garbage. Chalk it up to experimentation.

It was cold and windy today, so I stayed inside and spent most of the day watching movies and studying Japanese. I learned some new kanji which will be useful.

I’m off to bed soon – this week should be a relatively easy week. I’m going to start with a new lesson on Tuesday, talking about Valentine’s Day. I’m hoping to break the giggling record for one class.

Last night the master of the yakitori gave me an ad for a pizza place called “Pizza California”. There is a special going on, and they deliver. I told him a long time ago about the tribulations surrounding the ordering of a pizza for me. He offered to order for me – I can just take the menu over to his place and he’ll call it in. Cool – I may make Thursday or Friday a big pizza and beer bash at my place.

The last couple of weekends have been pretty boring – but that’s been by design. I’m trying to save money this month so that I have plenty of money to send home, and January and February are pretty slow months in Japan as far as cultural events go. Next weekend I’m hoping to go to the Osaka Aquarium – supposedly the best aquarium in Japan.

I got a lot of good sleep last night, so I got up and decided to do a hike. I had heard about a JR train station within a mile of my apartment. Usually if I want to ride JR, I take the local train company Sanyo over to Akashi – a trip that costs me 360 yen. From there, I can travel on JR fairly cheaply.

All geared up I walked north for about a mile, passing the crowds of people inundating the new shopping mall, until I reached the surprisingly modern station at Tsuchiyama. The place was really nice, and built for high volume. There weren’t that many people there, so it must be busy during the week. At the signboard I noticed that it was only 210 yen to Akashi from there – much cheaper. Still, it’s a half hour walk to the station, so I really have to plan my time well in order to get there and catch a train.

For hikes, however, it works just fine. I took the train west for three stations, and then walked the long way around to hike Takamikura from the northern side. Usually I go up the southern slope, and I wanted to try something different. The northern side was actually an easier climb, and the views were pretty nice as the train wrapped around the mountain.

It took about half an hour to climb the mountain, it’s about 1100 feet, so it’s a pretty vigorous climb. My legs did fine even though it’s been a while since I’ve gone hiking. At the top I said hello to some folks at the temple and sat back against a rock to catch my breath and take in the view.

I took the trail down the mountain on the opposite side, and walked up the pathway towards the temple – but only to buy a snack. They had some mochi they had made with a sweet bean paste inside. They were grilling them outside and I bought one to try out. It was good – the grilling gives it a nice flavor.

From there I walked to the JR station in Sone, and rode the train back to Tsuchiyama. After I left the station I decided to swing by the big shopping center grand opening. There were tons of people outside the building milling around, and traffic was seriously backed up approaching the center.

I went into the side that was closed last time I was there – the Carrefour side. Carrefour is French owned company, a self-described “hypermart”. Bigger than a superstore, it sells groceries mainly, but has lots of other things as well. I walked in and was instantly overwhelmed by the amount of people in there. I walked along with the masses, and was eventually kind of carried to the grocery store part of the complex. It was big – I’d guess around the same size as a Target Greatlands in the U.S. – maybe bigger.

I randomly walked the aisles, trying to sneak through little gaps in humanity as I perused the selection. They have some great stuff. There is cheese – lots of cheese. French cheese, mainly, but I will not be hurting for cheese anytime soon. What else? I could list things forever. Good tequila, an entire mushroom aisle, Guinness in draft cans (they even have the Guinness Bitter), Negro Modela Mexican beer, an imported food aisle with Mexican, American, Korean, Thai, and Chinese, a huge wine section with lots of international wines (including some ports), fresh rotisserie chickens, a nice bakery, a pizza parlor, a huge food court with a gamecenter for the kiddies – the list goes on and on.

Strangely I bumped into several people I knew there – the part time help at the yakitori, who tried to invite me somewhere but I didn’t quite understand, and also Chris and Lisa – the two JETs from the next town over. Their eyes must have been like mine – huge. There is really nothing in our little towns, so this makes available things that we had to go all the way to Kobe or Osaka for.

The interesting thing is that a big Ito Yokado is going in right next door to me soon, and I’m curious to see if they are trying to compete with these guys. I am certainly will be shopping at the Ito Yokado, since I’m on foot. Still, Carrefour has some great luxury items, and now here they are 10 minutes away.

Tonight I’m banging out some laundry, and I may run over to the yakitori later for some beers and to hang out a bit.

I dragged myself out of bed this morning – it was pretty hard to get up. In the beginning of the week I was on some mysterious medication that the doctor had given me for my chest pain. I went off the meds in the middle of the week because I was so tired after taking them. I’ve been on a sleep deficit ever since, despite going to bed early almost every night. Staying out last night really wiped me out.

It was even colder this morning (-3 degrees C) but I’m getting used to it now. At school I stand next to one of the big kerosene heaters to warm up from my “commute”, and then I’m good to go. The students are still banned from the teacher’s room, so they have no access to heat.

My classes went pretty well. During one of my second year classes, a girl student came up and told me that she had seen me and Miss Kageyama together on Sunday when we had gone to see “Bruce Almighty”. She had a mischievous look in her eyes, and she wanted to know details. It’s amazing how well the students speak English when they find out about something like this. These are the same students that are too shy to say “Hello” in the hallways.

I answered her questions dutifully, making my best efforts at preserving Miss Kageyama’s honor and reputation. I explained that we are just friends, it wasn’t a date, etc, etc. The girl went back to tell her friends, and they were giggling pretty hard the rest of the lesson. Yikes!

My classes ran right through my lunchbreak, so I had to go eat lunch in the cafeteria with the students, which is always an adventure. I bellied up to the bar and laid down my lunch ticket. One of the perks of being a teacher is that if a cook sees me lay down my ticket, she’ll take care of me before everyone else. There’s a crowd waiting for lunch – maybe 40 or 50 students waiting impatiently for chow. It is like the pits of the New York Stock Exchange down there – it can be an ugly scene. One of my students put his ticket down right as I put mine down, so I waited until one of the cooks saw me there, and then I pushed both tickets to the edge of the counter.

The cook was right on it, and delivered a hot bowl of soba noodles and rice for me, and a bowl of curry soba for my student. She turned off and helped some other people, and I passed the curry to it’s rightful owner. The kid figured out what had happened, and said “Thank you very much” in English. That made my day!

I taught my teacher class in the afternoon, and had another weird miscommunication that was pretty amusing (at least to me). One of the teachers had said that I was a “good guy”. Another teacher thought that she was saying a “good gaijin”. Gaijin means foreigner – “gai” means outside/foreign and “jin” means people. So she heard “good guy” and in her mind she thought I was being referred to as a good “gai”. Anyway, once we figured it out they were pretty embarrassed but I had a good laugh.

No snow today, and Mr. Hayashi and I bailed out an hour early. On the way home I took a couple of photos of the train – for some reason we had a train driver and two observers – no idea why.

I used the extra time to walk through the door and promptly crash into bed. I woke up a couple of hours ago and cooked a quick dinner (curry and tonkatsu over rice), and now I’m starting to think about that bed again.

I woke up this morning one minute before my alarm normally goes off. The wind was howling outside – really blowing. In my semi-groggy state it was hard to tell if it was wind or rain or both, but I rolled out of bed and started my morning ritual – which lately means turning on my hot water heater and getting my shower water hot.

The water takes about 20 minutes to heat up, and so I usually lay out clothes, shave, and do some stretches and light exercises while that’s going on. The temperature outside was -2 degrees C, a new low for my thermometer.

Properly geared up with 5 layers, a scarf, and headphones wired to my mp3 player, I stepped outside fearing the worst, but really it wasn’t too bad. I guess after a certain point you just don’t notice the cold as much. As I passed the post office on the way to the train station, one of the old ladies that I usually say “good morning” to came out of the convenience store, and then ran over to me and stuffed a big bag of what looked like candy in my pocket. I tried saying “no thank you” in Japanese, but she wouldn’t hear of it, and kept pointing at her throat while she talked. I guess they are good for preventing sore throats – I said thanks, and she walked off. Strange!

At school I broke open the bag and it was candies made in Okinawa from molasses. They taste like you are sucking on a mouthful of brown sugar, so I really enjoy them. I shared them with some of the other teachers, and they got a kick out of my story of how I acquired them.

The day went by quickly, and just as classes finished, a big snow flurry came through and blew snow all over the place. I took some pictures, and the students watched curiously.

After about half an hour of snow, the clouds moved on and then there was just clear sunny sky. The snow disappeared quickly, melting away wherever sunlight was shining. The teachers all had a meeting, so I threw my stuff together and snuck out while they were gone.

We were planning to meet in Sannomiya station in Kobe at around 6:45 to have a dinner for Mr. Kimura. I had a couple of hours to kill before, so I did some exploring in Kobe. I stopped in at a bar that I hadn’t been to in a long time for two pints of Hoegaarden White on draft. At 750 yen each, it was a great deal, and it went nicely with the cold weather outside.

I also stumbled upon a much-rumored-but-never-found imported goods store in the underground shopping center directly below the JR station in Sannomiya. The store had lots of great stuff – frozen tortillas (corn and flour), lots of cheeses (very expensive), imported wines from all over, with some decent California wines, cake mixes, and even jars of salsa. I made a note of the place and so it will be easy to come back when I’m in need of some foreign stuff.

At around 6:45 I headed back to the station and met up with Miss Yamamoto, Miss Kageyama, Mr. Kimura, Mr. Komuri, and Mr. Hayashi. We all jumped into a pair of taxis and they drove us quickly to House Of Pacific. The restaurant is located on a hill above Kobe with a spectacular view of the city at night through large floor to ceiling windows. The service was excellent as usual, some of the best service I’ve had in Japan. For example, you can’t sit down without someone helping you with your chair. If you get up to use the restroom there is a person discreetly waiting at the end of the room to walk you to the restroom and show you where it is. When you get back you find your cloth napkin refolded and placed next to your plate.

My favorite part is that the servers are great looking. There are about 15 servers walking around in there, I would say 8-10 of them were beautiful women – really attractive. During the evening I kept commenting to Mr. Kimura and Mr. Komuri in code how “nice the view” was at the restaurant. They got my meaning – they were doing some staring themselves.

I had soft-shelled crab sushi rolls with a spicy sauce for an appetizer, and then we all had the same entree – Kobe beef cooked “Cajun” style. There was a complementary glass of champagne, and after dinner I had a glass of Moet Chandon. Talk about living right! Mr. Kimura was in better spirits today, and I kept him on his toes by speaking English with him the whole night. He is still really depressed, but I think the evening did a bit to lift his spirits.

After dinner we packed up and walked back to the station, braving the cold and wind mainly because there wasn’t a taxi available. It was only a 10 minute walk, and I thought it was nice to get outside and stretch my legs. On the way to the station, I saw an ATM inside a convenience store, and decided to run in really quick and grab some cash.

I told the group that I would catch up with them and to keep on going. I went inside and thirty seconds later I was back on the street ready to run up a block or two to catch them. Instead, everyone was standing there waiting. Mr. Hayashi had a big grin on his face, and asked me if I had bought ketchup. Apparently Miss Yamamoto and Mr. Komuri had thought that I had rushed in to buy ketchup – they had misunderstood when I said that I would “catch up”. We all had a good laugh at that one.

The wind was howling once I got back to Futami – blowing really hard. I wrapped my scarf completely around my face, and I felt like the invisible man walking around at night with my entire face hidden by a scarf. When I got home I noticed the temperature outside was down to -2 degrees C. Chilly.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a really cold day, and the weather reports on the web are predicting snow by the end of the weekend. That’s right – snow. My thin skin will be put to the test, especially if I’m slogging through snow drifts on my way to work. Hard to believe I was sweating like a madman just a few months ago.

I had a good time with my classes today. Today marked the last class that I will teach for the third year students – they will graduate at the end of the term, and so they will spend the rest of their term studying for end of the year exams. I spent today with them just screwing around a little. I talked about my trip to Australia, we did tongue twisters (in English and Japanese), and I tried a “two birds with one stone” project.

My upcoming lesson will be Valentine’s Day, and so I brought a lot of red, pink, and white paper to class. I explained briefly about Valentine’s Day, and then asked the students if they would cut out hearts and put Valentine’s messages on them in English. I was hoping to use the finished valentines as decorations for my classroom next month. Once the bell rang, the students liked their valentines so much that they took them along with them. I only got back three valentines, each from a love struck girl. It just goes to show that even when I think I am communicating a idea, it’s not always getting through.

After classes I studied my kanji in the afternoon, and various teachers came by alternatively to give me pointers and be amazed that a foreigner could write kanji. I learned the kanji for “paper”, “close”, and reviewed a few others. Each time I learn a new kanji I start to see it everywhere – it’s a nice feeling.

Tonight I had Jamaican chicken with rice, and a couple of Japanese rice balls thrown in for good measure. I did a last minute cancellation of my taco plans – I want to conserve my tortillas until I can check out a place in Kobe that supposedly carries them.

Tomorrow is the big “cheer up Mr. Kimura” party. I’m not sure who is going to be there, but it should be a good time.

This week the third year teachers are writing examinations for the third year students. The students will start to take examinations at the beginning of next month, and there will be a graduation ceremony at the end of February. There is a lot of pressure on the third year students to do well on the tests and get out of school.

In order to prevent students from “discovering” examinations laying around on teacher’s desks, the teacher’s office is closed to students. Usually students are running around all over the teacher’s office, asking teacher’s for advice or following up on homework. It’s no quieter with the students gone – the students open one of the doors, lean inside, and try to get the attention of their teacher. If the teacher happens to sit far away, then they have to ask a teacher sitting near the door to go get them.

That’s where I come in.

I sit right next to the door – as soon as you walk into the teacher’s room there I am. Usually the students lean in, see me, and then try to get some other teacher’s attention. Today one of my students leaned in and asked me in English to come over. This was a first!

I walked over and she and her friend consulted briefly with each other before asking me where their teacher was. I answered, explaining where he went, and they left, satisfied with my answer. I was pretty happy – finally somebody had the courage to ask me, and in English no less. Nice.

Miss Yamamoto did some shopping for snacks and she found TimTams at the store next door. Some of the people on our trip to Australia had brought back tons of these things – they are apparently one of the things that Australia is known for. I tried one, and it was really good – very sweet and tasting similar to s’mores. Here they were available right next door to our school the whole time.

A good day today, but I am very tired every day after school. I think it might be the mysterious drugs that my doctor has me on – since I’m over the pain I figure I’ll ditch the rest of the drugs and get on with my life.

I jumped on the train today, whipped out my mp3 player, and promptly entered the “StereoZone” where I rocked out while everyone else on the train covertly glanced my way to see why I was tapping my feet. I was so wrapped up in my stereo that I walked right out the train door listening to “American Woman” and left my umbrella hanging on my seat. Maybe somebody yelled something or tried to get my attention. Since I was in the “StereoZone” I guess I’ll never know. Time to buy a new umbrella.

I got to school and lots of teachers came by to check and make sure that I was feeling better – it was very nice of them to do that. Many said that I should leave early today and get some rest, and that was highly unusual. My classes today went really well. I did a new lesson for my second years involving cash – and boy did their eyes light up when I started pulling money out and flashing it around. I sent some coins around the room for them to check out, and they all came back!

The students were fairly interested in the lesson, and I enjoyed teaching it. I’m starting to see a correlation between the amount of interest I have in the topic and the amount of interest the students show. The trick for me is to make lessons that I will enjoy teaching every time. Each one will have to be taught between 8-16 times, so it had better be good.

The principal called me and Mr. Hayashi in for a meeting, and apparently they had evaluated my performance at some point. I’m not sure who did it, but I got A’s in four categories, and a B in the fifth category. Since all the categories were in Japanese I don’t know what I fell short in. I asked Mr. Hayashi later and he said that probably they just fill in A’s arbitrarily and make one a B so it doesn’t look fake. The scary thing is that he’s probably right.

Mr. Hayashi drove me to the bank to take care of some business, and then set me loose an hour early. The bonus for him was that he got to leave early, too. He has said before that he can’t really go home too early. The neighbors see his car when he comes home early, and since they all know he’s a civil servant they get ticked off. They feel that he should have to work a full day. I guess the folks in his neighborhood have a lot of time to kill.

Tonight I cooked nabe. Andrew, my predecessor, had left me a couple of nabe pots – ceramic pots that you fill with a broth and goodies and then make a hot soup. I used cabbage, egg, miso, habanero sauce, a little soy sauce, Japanese mushrooms, green onions, strange Japanese clear noodles, and lots of sesame seeds. It turned out pretty good – I’m taking the leftovers into school tomorrow.

A while back I mentioned that a new shopping center is going in literally right next door to my apartment complex. The other night while knocking back non-alcoholic beverages at the yakitori the master mentioned that a new complex was opening this weekend in north Futami. Today I decided to go check it out.

It was easy enough to find – it’s only a ten minute walk from my doorstep to theirs. The shopping center is pretty big – the best way I could describe it is that it was “American sized”. Kind of like the big shopping centers that might have a Target, Home Depot, and Best Buy.

The big attraction here was Midori, an electronics store kind of like Fry’s, but bigger. Next week the rest of the shopping center opens, with a supermarket, and a mall/shopping center type thing with lots of clothes stores.

I went and explored Midori for a while. The first floor was all electronics, and it was pretty busy, since this was the grand opening weekend. Upstairs was a furniture and housewares area – lots of interesting things. Everything on the furniture floor was pretty expensive – the electronics were priced pretty competitively.

Afterwards, I walked over to the nearby Maxx-Valu and did some grocery shopping. I got some great stuff for this week – it’ll be a good mix of Japanese and California cooking.

Miss Kageyama dropped by to pick me up for a movie in the evening, and so we went out to the nearby family restaurant for a set dinner. The food was OK, but not mind-blowing. It was a good opportunity to do some research and also to chat with Miss Kageyama. She was recovering from a hangover – she was hanging out with a friend last night and drank a little too much beer.

We ran over to the movie theater, and to kill a little time before the show, we went into the arcade and played that game where little monsters pop out of the holes and you have to beat them with a big mallet. They had a head-to-head machine and I got my butt kicked. Miss Kageyama swings a mean mallet.

The movie was pretty good – Bruce Almighty. There was a small crowd in there, and everybody seemed to laugh at the right times. There were a couple of jokes that only I got, but for the most part, people enjoyed it.

After the movie Miss Kageyama dropped me off at my place and I had time for a bowl of cereal before bed. The Frosted Flakes here are not nearly as frosted as the ones at home – I found out the hard way. Finally I did a few stretches and went to bed.

I rolled out of bed this morning and had hardly any pain at all in my chest! Was it the witch doctor remedies? The heater running overnight in my bedroom? The power of positive thinking? Who knows… I’m on the mend, and that means going out and having some fun.

Today I met Carrie for lunch in Akashi. Mr. Komuri had recommended an Indian food restaurant there, and so we walked over there from the station. Anytime I walk around with Carrie we get stared at even more. She looks Japanese, but she is from Seattle. People must look and think, “Wow, she can really speak good English!”

The lunch was very good, and we caught up on each other’s trips during the holidays. Carrie went to Viet Nam with some friends, and it was interesting to hear about her adventures. The big advantage was the strength of the yen there – she got by on five or six dollars a day. The most expensive thing was getting there, but once there, she could do quite a bit.

After lunch one of the employees came over to speak with us. I don’t know where he’s originally from, but he lived in Los Angeles for a few years. He’s been living in Akashi for the last four years, and he speaks only 20 or 30 words of Japanese. We talked with him for a while, and for some reason we decided that it would be nice to pick up a bottle of peppermint schnapps – we were talking about hot chocolate, and Carrie said that it was just the thing to put in there.

We set out on a quest, but we were immediately distracted by the 100 yen store. We walked a little ways through the Akashi fish market, until we both got squeamish from all the fish flopping around on the sidewalk. We tried two stores in Akashi, and then we decided to follow a lead that said there was a big liquor store in Tarumi. Tarumi is only two stops east of Akashi on the JR line, so we each paid 170 yen and we were on our way.

In Tarumi we bumped into another JET that Carrie knew who was coming home from seeing his girlfriend in Osaka. He knew of a big liquor store in the area, so we went there, but struck out on the schnapps. At that point we decided to abandon our schnapps quest, and just go to the outlet stores on the wharf in Tarumi.

I had never been before, so we walked out and just before we got there, Carrie’s phone rang. A friend that she was expecting had shown up in Himeji early, so she had to cut out and run. I kept on heading to the outlets, and found a Mont Bell outlet that was selling microfleece tops for 4000 yen – a pretty good deal.

On my way out of the outlets I passed by another liquor store that specialized in wine. I browsed around and hit the jackpot – a case of Guinness in cans (with the little nitrogen widget in there). I also picked up a few bottles of California wines. I paid around 800 yen each for a Vendange and a Woodbridge. They had a Buena Vista Sauvignon Blanc, but they wanted 2100 yen for it – a little pricey. I also picked up a cheap bottle of champagne, because you never know.

Lugging almost two and half gallons of booze back onto the train, I plugged in my mp3 player and enjoyed a musical train ride home. I made goofy faces at a little kid across the way, but the mom caught me so I made goofy faces at her. She seemed to take it in stride.

At home I unpacked all my goodies, and did one quick load of laundry. While hanging clothes, the doorbell rang, and a guy tried to sell me miso (as in miso soup) right there at the door. I apologized and said no thanks. I don’t use miso enough to warrant buying it in bulk fresh like that. Still, nice to have visitors.

Mr. Hayashi called at eight this morning, and again at eight this evening to check on me. He’s just making sure that I will be there on Monday, and I think he’s relieved that I am feeling better. I am too.

I woke up repeatedly last night with a soreness in my chest, underneath my right shoulder blade. It wasn’t really painful, just sore. I rolled over and it would be fine, but eventually my body would turn over again in my sleep and then it would wake me up.

It wasn’t until I woke up in the morning and I really thought about what it might be that I got worried. What if it was a heart attack? What if I have pneumonia? What if I drop dead while teaching a class? Every time I take in a deep breath it hurts.

I jumped on the internet and found some information about chest pain, and it looks like I didn’t have a heart attack, and more likely I probably pulled a muscle inside my chest while doing pushups. I do 100 half-pushups each night before bed, so maybe that was it.

Anyway, I went to school and I was sitting around talking with the history teacher and I mentioned to him that I had a soreness in my chest, and that I can’t breathe in completely without pain. Within minutes I was sent off to the nurse’s office, and we checked my temperature, had me gargle a strange liquid, and she even put some strange ointment on my back. I distinctly got the impression that these were the kind of treatments more for my peace of mind than for my actual health, but what the heck.

Mr. Hayashi was making lots of jokes, but I think later he started to think that it would look bad if I had a seizure on his watch, so he said that he would take me to the doctor after school. My experiences with Japanese doctors haven’t been great – Andy’s trip to the doctor seemed to be a ridiculous exercise. Still, I figured it was better to go.

Teachers kept coming by my desk to make sure I was OK, and everyone was very sympathetic. I’m not sure how things were getting translated, but everyone was nice enough. After school we went to the “school doctor”, a local guy that probably retired twenty years ago.

He did some listening with the stethoscope (good idea), and then asked a lot of questions of Mr. Hayashi in Japanese. I answered dutifully, and without even touching my skin he said that I was sleeping in too cold an environment. He prescribed a pile of pills and then sent me on my way. I’m going back on Monday to pay the bill – that should be the most interesting part of the whole experience.

Mr. Hayashi felt bad and took me to the post office where a package was waiting for me – my new mp3 player that my folks were kind enough to receive and re-send to me here in Japan. On the way home Mr. Hayashi was talking about his next party in Kobe – a cheer-you-up for Mr. Kimura in a bar called the “Old England”. I was there a long time ago with Nell and Antoine, and they reamed us on price – but Mr. Hayashi has arranged a special deal. Here’s how Mr. Hayashi described it: “It is all you can drink as long as you order beer. But you can’t order some beers. And no wine. Otherwise you can drink all you want.”

Mr. Hayashi also suggested that I ask one of the single teachers in our group, Miss Kotera, to join us. Since it was a suggestion I said that I would take that under advisement. There is another level of something going on here, but I’m not sure what it is.

I’m going to take the history teacher’s advice and go out to get some comfort food tonight. I’m off to the yakitori in the next hour or so to get some grub. I’m not drinking alcohol tonight, so I hope they have juice or something…