Today the students met at Takasago City Hall, to see an “art performance”. The performance was a show of Aesop’s Fables, in Japanese. Mr. Hayashi knew that I was getting antsy to get out of the country, so he let me sneak out early.

I went home and did some final packing, and then decided to hit the road. I dragged my suitcase down to the train station, and paid one last bill at the convenience store, and then I was off to Kobe.

There are a number of ways to get to Kansai airport, but Mr. Hayashi had suggested catching a bus from Sannomiya station – it was 1800 yen for a 1-way ticket from Kobe to the airport. I figured it was worth it, since I could skip a whole bunch of transfers through Osaka, especially lugging around my suitcase.

The bus ride from Sannomiya was about 70 minutes, and then went into the very impressive Kansai International Airport. The airport was definitely the biggest airport I’ve ever been in. It was designed beautifully, and I was easily able to find my check-in counter. At the counter there was a line of unhappy people, and I found out there that my flight was delayed three and a half hours. Luckily, they arranged some changes for me and gave me 2000 yen to spend at the airport. I spent the evening there eating Chinese food, drinking beer, and listening to music on my laptop with headphones.

I had just about run out of juice for my laptop when I found a chair next to a power socket on the floor that they must use to vacuum the area. I plugged in, and watched the end of Survivor that I had downloaded. It was very entertaining, and helped the time pass quickly.

At last, at a half past midnight, we were allowed to board the plane and I got a choice seat at the front of the plane with extra legroom. I had a big meal, and then went to sleep in my chair, drifting in and out as they projected “Finding Nemo” on the screen in front of me.

When I woke up Nemo was over, the cabin was dark and everyone seemed to be asleep. There was light showing around the cracks in the window blinds, and so I got up and walked around. Turns out that it was about six a.m., and I had just an hour until landing. Very nice.

Today I had my last class of the term, and tomorrow is a relatively easy day. We are supposed to hang around school in the morning, and then take the entire school to see an “art performance” in the afternoon. Mr. Hayashi has given me clearance to spend 5 minutes at the “art performance” and then take off.

I need to get back home and do some packing. I’m almost done, but there are still some last minute things I need to take care of before I leave. If all goes well I’ll have three hours tomorrow to pack up before I have to leave for the airport.

I was supposed to get my packing done tonight, but the master of the yakitori called me up and said that they were having a “nabe party” and they were hoping I could attend. Nabe is a clay pot that they fill with tasty ingredients and then heat up at your table. I went over there and had dinner with some of my fellow regulars. The food was delicious – crab is in season now, and we had steamed crab legs, along with cabbage, mussels, and mushrooms in a big soup cooked at our table. The crab legs were excellent. The beer kept coming, and I was unsure of who was paying for this whole thing. Nobody said anything, so when I finally left I made sure to leave a lot of money at the counter – I didn’t want to saddle someone else with my bill. The language barrier plays a big role here – I’m not sure what is socially correct, so I end up assuming the worst case scenario and paying when I can.

Tomorrow, I’ll be going to the airport completely by public transportation. That should be interesting – I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. I’ll be getting on the plane around 8 p.m., and I’ll get to Australia the next day, so I should be able to sleep through it. I always have a tough time sleeping on planes, but hopefully a full day before I get on the plane should help with that.

While in Australia I will not be connected to the web, so this site won’t be updated until I get back. I fly back to Japan on the 28th or so. Expect a gigantic update soon after I return – you’ll have lots of reading to do.

After two classes of singing “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”, I was ready for a break, so after school I took the train into Kobe to see the “Luminaries”, a Christmas light show that they have every year in downtown Kobe.

The teachers all day said that it was way too crowded, and it wasn’t worth going. Miss Kageyama was the only one who said it was worth seeing, and she tried to get out of her tutoring appointment to join me, but no luck.

When I arrived downtown, I could see the giant lines forming for people that wanted to see it. Instead of getting in line, I walked over to Chinatown and ate just about one of everything. The street vendors were making good money, and everyone was in good spirits. Most of the food was fried, but overall the flavors were great.

Afterwards, I walked over to the line, but it was just people standing there – nobody was moving. The roads were closed off, and the line formed in the middle of the road. Strangely, the sidewalks were open, so I just walked along the sidewalks, passing thousands of people in the road. I made a few turns, just following the big lines of people. Finally I turned a corner, and the street was lined with lights. Right when I walked towards the lights, they let the lines of people go, and I just kept on walking with the crowd and through the arches of lights. I probably saved an hour by walking along the sidewalk. Weird.

I took lots of pictures, and the lights were nice, but not super-impressive. I wasn’t paying anything, though, so no reason to complain. There were concession stands everywhere, and the local economy was booming. Lots of souvenirs were being sold, and it was a zoo.

After walking around a bit more, I walked back up to the train station and headed home. I made a brief stop at Like, Like for a couple of beers. I think the secret to successful public transportation is to have a good bar or restaurant at every transfer point.

Anyway, I’m back home getting ready for bed. Tomorrow night I have to buckle down and pack for my trip to Australia on Thursday. Woo hoo!

Today started out like a normal day, but by the end of it I was taking part in a Japanese funeral ceremony and cooking homemade om-rice.

When I got to school everyone was running around in a panic, and I very quickly found out that Mr. Kimura’s (one of our English teachers) mother had passed away in the night. It wasn’t unexpected, but it threw everyone for a loop. Mr. Kimura was not coming in for the week, and everyone was busy trying to figure out how they could cover his classes and finish up his final exam grading.

Mr. Hayashi said that there was a ceremony that night after work, and he invited me to come along. I reluctantly agreed – I wasn’t sure if anyone would want me there… wherever I go I tend to get a strange reaction, and I didn’t want to disrupt the ceremony.

After school Mr. Hayashi and I left early and rushed off to pick up Miss Kageyama. Then we drove to Akashi, and found the funeral home. I haven’t been to a funeral home in a long time, but it wasn’t anything like I expected. There were three floors of funerals going on, and in each was a gigantic shrine with a picture of the deceased at the center. The shrine was beautiful, and Mr. Kimura and his family were sitting to the side next to it. I was expecting to go in and say a few words to Mr. Kimura, but Mr. Hayashi said that we had to go through the ritual.

I remember seeing something about this in my JET handbook, which was sitting uselessly in my apartment 20 kilometers away. There is a whole procedure that you go through when doing this, and they were pretty strict sounding on the details. If we stood around any longer, I would have gotten scared, but Mr. Hayashi kept things moving. With a sage nod of the head he said “Do what I do”, and then he walked into the memorial area. Miss Kageyama and I exchanged glances, and we followed him in there. Gulp.

At the front of the room we bowed to the shrine, and then held our hands together in front of our bodies, kind of like a Buddha does. Then we turned to the family and bowed to them. They all bowed their heads back.

As I describe this, try to keep in mind that I am always a second or two behind Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama, who have the routine down.

We turned back to the shrine, and in front of each of us was a little altar that had incense burning. We took a pinch of sand (or ash?) from one side, and then sprinkled a tiny bit on the other side of the altar. Then we took some incense from the side we just sprinkled, and dropped that over the slowly burning incense. Then we did the thing with the hands again, bowed at the shrine, and then turned to the family and bowed to them again. This time they all stood up and bowed, and then we made our exit.

Mr. Hayashi was eager to get out of there. The official ceremony started at six o’clock, and if we were present then, we would have to stay for the whole thing, and that meant at least a couple of hours. Also, formal dress was expected, and we were all in our work clothes still. We blitzed out of there, going down three floors, and out the door just as some of the other teachers were coming in. They asked if we were sticking around, but Mr. Hayashi was already halfway down the block toward the car. I told them that we had already seen Mr. Kimura, and we had to run.

I wouldn’t have minded staying for the entire ceremony, but I wasn’t quite dressed for it. Sometimes I think that Mr. Hayashi sometimes rushes through things that he considers boring, and doesn’t remember that every little thing for me is brand new. Hopefully next time we do something like this I can stick around and observe a little more.

Mr. Hayashi dropped me off at my place, and I made up something that I find every once in a while at cafeterias and restaurants here in Japan. It’s called om-rice. It’s really just a rice omelet. The rice inside is fried just a little, and there is some ketchup in the mix. I made one with a little bacon and sauteed mushrooms, and it was delicious. It was a lot of work to make, but I was very satisfied with the outcome.

Tomorrow I’m going into Kobe after work to see the “Luminaries”. It’s kind of Kobe’s answer to a Christmas light extravaganza. It is being held right near Chinatown, so I’m hoping that I can have dinner from one of those food tables on the streets – everything looked delicious last time I was there, but I couldn’t eat anything then. Tomorrow is payback time.

Today I spent most of the morning kicking around the house doing housework. I’ve noticed that housework has become a consistent theme for me – Antoine called and he was giving me a hard time for doing so much housework. He said that he walks on a pile of dirty clothes wherever he goes. Antoine is the guy that doesn’t cook – he eats out every meal. I figured he probably burned his clothes when he was done with them, but apparently he does laundry.

Around four o’clock Miss Kageyama dropped by to pick me and see The Last Samurai. It just came out here in Japan, and it’s been getting good reviews. Initially we were going to see an early show, but it was sold out, so we ended up sticking around and then going later. To kill time we went to the arcade and played strange games based on capturing candy. We played air hockey, but the Japanese version lets you play for a while and then drops more and more pucks into the action while you are playing. I was pretty surprised when that happened, it got pretty frantic for a while.

We still had seats right near the screen – and during the action sequences it was sometimes hard to keep track of what was going on. The movie was pretty good though – and I could already see that I was taking some things in Japan for granted. What might have had some crowds oohh-ing and ahh-ing had me going, “That looks like Himeji!” or “I want to go there next month!”.

I won’t give anything away about the movie – but at one point Tom Cruise’s character begins to learn Japanese, and he had it nailed in a couple of days. I told Miss Kageyama that I wish I had his language skills. It was piecemeal Japanese, and I found that I could understand it without having to read the subtitles. Now I can communicate in Japanese with small children and Tom Cruise – woo hoo!

After the movie we went out for a late dinner at a Chinese food place near my apartment. The food is really cheap and yet get a lot. The potstickers are excellent, and you can order them by the half-dozen, and the entrees are similar to American style Chinese food. The decor is just like a Denny’s except there are about 10 tables that are on tatami mats that you have to sit on barefoot. We took a regular table, and then they have a bar area. The service is a lot better than Denny’s, though. After a big meal Miss Kageyama dropped me off at my place and I was asleep within the hour.

So a while back Mr. Hayashi was trying to talk me into joining him for a conference in Kyoto. It is sponsored by Casio, and it is promoting their electronic Japanese/English dictionaries. My predecessor Andy had one, and he highly recommended them. All of the English teachers at school have them, and they are really quite useful. I’ve been getting by with my paper dictionary, which is very inexpensive, but very slow. The electronic dictionaries are very complex and expensive – the top model goes for about 44,000 yen (around $400).

Mr. Hayashi seemed to think that if we attended the conference, they would give us each one of these dictionaries outright. For free.

I’ve become used to taking what Mr. Hayashi says with a grain of salt. I’ve sat through long conferences entirely in Japanese about the benefits of algae soap, blueberries and bee pollen, and patiently listened to his theories on the benefits of the alpha waves coming from his tape deck in his car.

In the end, I decided to go with him to Kyoto. At the very least it would be a nice day trip and we were sure to have a good dinner somewhere along the way. Mr. Hayashi asked Miss Kageyama to come along and keep us company, and so off we were to the streets of Kyoto. Mr. Hayashi had already hatched a plan to sell his new dictionary on an internet auction – his daughter was going to charge him a 10% “handling fee” and sell it for him on the open market. He offered the same deal to me, but I was still in denial – they wouldn’t just give them away.

We had a big lunch in an underground shopping center under Kyoto station. Soba noodles and katsudon… The noodles were made right in the shop, and you could watch the guy making them through a tiny window in the wall. It was delicious. Afterwards, we headed over to the hotel where the conference was being held.

Well, Mr. Hayashi was dead-on. We walked in to the conference and they handed us each a bag containing a brand new dictionary still in the box. Miss Kageyama was along for the ride – she didn’t register for the conference or anything, and they gave one to her, too. She’s been saving up her money to buy the new model, and they just gave her one. I was astonished.

Miss Kageyama sat next to me during the conference, and was giddy. It was like someone just gave her $400. I was in shock. I was a little worried about the conference. I was one of only two foreigners in the crowd of 100 or so people. The conference was going to be all in Japanese, and the instructions and controls of the dictionary are all in Japanese. I was hoping I could figure things out.

Five minutes after the conference I looked across the aisle at Mr. Hayashi and he was asleep. Miss Kageyama and I exchanged messages on each other’s dictionaries – suddenly we could communicate much better. I would just punch in the word in English, and a big long explanation in Japanese would come out on the screen for her. It worked both ways, too. I was very impressed.

During the opening speech they led us through some exercises, and I tried to follow along with my limited Japanese and by observing people around me. They had Casio employees around to help people that weren’t “getting it”, and I guess I definitely fit that description. A helpful guy kept coming over and pushing the right button – even though Miss Kageyama was right there to help me. He would smile and say something fast and furious in Japanese, and I would nod wisely, and say “wakarimashita” which means “I understand”.

I was nervous being in there – what if they found out I couldn’t understand what they were saying? What had Mr. Hayashi said to get me in here? It felt like everyone was watching me to see what I did, and my helpful employee kept coming over to push buttons. Mr. Hayashi was still fast asleep and no help at all.

Finally they moved away from demonstrations, and then it was a matter of sitting through two hours of lectures. Considering they had just given me an expensive piece of electronics, I was willing to sit there.

Mr. Hayashi woke up from time to time, but promptly slipped back into his coma. Once we finished up, he sprang to his feet, and we were finally ready to go. We walked back to the station, and then stopped in at an Indian food place in Sannomiya on the way home.

My theory on the free dictionary is that they are hoping that we will recommend them to our students, and that if our recommendations result in only a couple of sales, they will still come out ahead. It seemed crazy, but it must make sense. This time Mr. Hayashi’s hare-brained scheme worked out just fine, and I’ll have to pay more attention to the alpha waves in his car next time.

So I have been downloading and watching Survivor over the internet – I was hooked before I came to Japan, and I am just as hooked now. I don’t have a TV here, which is great… it’s a bad idea to be staying at home when I can be out speaking Japanese and meeting new people.

Anyway, last night I downloaded the new Battlestar Galactica show on the Sci-Fi channel, just for kicks. I watched it tonight and enjoyed it. It reminded me of an old show called Space: Above and Beyond that was one of my favorites a while back.

Today I had only one class, a Christmas lesson. I had 40 students singing Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, and believe me, it was something to see. I was always so embarrassed to sing in my foreign language classes, and I enjoy being able to embarrass others on a whim.

After school I came home and made a couple of sandwiches, and then went over to the yakitori. The dynamic there has changed a little bit – the master’s fiancee is working there now, and tonight she had invited a female friend of hers to sit around and chat. I could tell that the master was relieved to have some testosterone company – he was glad to see me.

We spent some time talking about the weekend. I get my best Japanese language practice at the yakitori, because there are no safety nets – I have to either communicate the idea or fail.

Tomorrow I’m off to Kyoto – I’m meeting Mr. Hayashi at the train station at 10 a.m.

It’s pouring rain outside, and I’ve just settled in for the night here at home. I’ve got the Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” playing, and I’m sipping warm sake while I wait for my rice to finish cooking.

Despite the cloudy weather and rain, it’s definitely cold around here. I’ve changed the layout of my apartment a little bit to accommodate the colder weather. I’ve got a space heater that Andy left me, so I’ve put that right next to the shower. Tomorrow morning when I step out of the hot shower into the cold room, at least the heater will be there to ease the transition a bit.

Today at school the students took the English listening test that I created. I spent some time grading them afterwards with some of the teachers, and boy, did I write a tough test. Many factors could be involved, but really there were not many high scores. I’m afraid when I got back to the classroom the kids will be waiting with baseball bats.

After the test several of the teachers wanted to go out to lunch, so we visited a nearby restaurant where I had some excellent yakisoba. The history teacher, Mr. Kimura, Miss Kageyama, and Mr. Hayashi all came along. We talked about history while the history teacher smoked like crazy. Mr. Hayashi must have been feeling guilty because he let me go home after lunch. Nice!

Tomorrow it’s back to the regular schedule, sort of. We only have classes until noon, and the classes are all scrambled up. I just found out today that I have a class tomorrow. Luckily I am ready for it. I’m going to have my class sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. This should be good. It’s either going to go over like a lead balloon or it will be horrible. Either way, it should be fun to watch. The classes don’t really count for anything – for the next week we will be doing classes but they aren’t part of either last semester or next semester. I figure we’ll just sing songs, play some games, and relax a bit. The students have earned it.

Today after school Mr. Hayashi took me and Miss Kageyama to Awaji Island, a big island south of Akashi, right near where I live. The island is connected by a bridge larger than the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but we took the ferry to get there. The ferry is pretty big (“half as big as a destroyer”, says Mr. Hayashi) and we just parked our car inside, along with several big rigs and a bus or two. We went upstairs and sat in the swanky lounge and had iced coffees while we watched the ferry pass under the Akashi bridge.

At the other end we drove off, and then headed south on Awaji to see Mr. Hayashi’s father, who is in a nursing home on the south end of the island. We stopped in and Miss Kageyama and I stayed in the lobby while Mr. Hayashi went upstairs to see his dad. After about fifteen minutes we were back in the car and headed to the southern-most part of the island to see a famous whirlpool.

The whirlpool was supposedly underneath the next big bridge that takes you to Shokoku. We looked and looked, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Mr. Hayashi conjectured that they “turn it off” after five o ‘clock. It was nowhere to be found. I took lots of pictures of the bridge and the sunset, and finally ended up taking a picture of a vending machine that had a picture of the whirlpool. I guess that will have to do.

Afterwards we drove back up north, and had dinner at a restaurant at a roadside service area. The restaurant was inexpensive, and had great food. The best part was that there were giant windows, so we could see the bridge, all of Kobe, and then a blood red moonrise over the city while we ate.

After dinner we jumped in the car and crossed the bridge itself, paying a discounted but still expensive toll – 3850 yen (about $35). It boggles the mind to think that people pay that price to cross the bridge. The ferry costs about 1600 yen to get across – less than half the cost.

Mr. Hayashi dropped me off at my place, and I went inside to drop off some stuff. Almost immediately I turned back around and went down to the yakitori – it has been a while since I’ve been there. Seems like I’ve missed a lot. The master treated me like a long lost son, asking about what I’ve been doing, letting me try new items on the menu for free, and very happily telling me that he is going to get married around the first of the year. As far as I could tell from our conversation, his girlfriend is pregnant, so they are going ahead and tying the knot. From what I understand, they are just going to sign a paper or something – no ceremony or anything.

He invited me to party with them on New Year’s Eve. I said yes – nobody has made a better offer, and it’s a time to be with family in Japan. I don’t want to intrude on Mr. Hayashi, and the folks at the yakitori really know how to party. It will be fun – I guess we are going to meet at the yakitori, close it down early at 10 o’clock, and then sit around in there and drink and eat on the house until just before midnight. Then we’ll go to the shrine, drink there, and they will ring the bell 108 times – once for every sin that you might have committed in the previous year. I’m looking forward to it!

Well, yesterday was a pretty good day. I was able to leave school early, around eleven o’clock. I spent the morning at school studying Japanese and writing my next lesson about Christmas. My classroom is empty during exams, so I go up there to study. I put a CD on my player and rock out while studying Japanese. It’s a pretty good learning environment!

I did some shopping and shipping yesterday. I sent some Christmas presents home to family. It’s very expensive to ship – I was surprised how quickly it adds up. I handled the shipping all by myself, and I was proud of that. At least, I’ll be proud if everything shows up in the right place in one piece.

Near the post office I had lunch at a Japanese burger place – kind of a McDonald’s rip-off chain. I had a shrimp burger, with french fries and cheese dip. Delicious! I met some of my students there, and had a nice conversation in English with some students from another school. Every time I get a chance to speak English with a student, it kind of reinforces for them that using English is OK, and that there is nothing to be afraid of. I’m proud how far along my Japanese skills have come, but in these situations, it’s best to stick with English.

After work I spent the afternoon doing some laundry, and cleaning house a little bit. I have to start worrying about what to pack for Australia, so I’m starting to get a little organized now while I have the time.

Miss Kageyama came by to pick me up a little early, around 5 o’clock, to go catch dinner and a movie. We had tonkatsu at a small restaurant in the shopping mall next to the movie theater, and we quizzed each other on English and Japanese.

As for the movie – it was really good! I was especially impressed with the artwork – the colors were spectacular, and the different scenes were well put together. The story was great – we both enjoyed the story, and lots of people in the theater were laughing at the lines, so the translation into subtitles must have been well done, too.

After the movie Miss Kageyama dropped me off at home – she had loads of homework to do before she goes to school on Wednesday. Tomorrow we are going to Awaji Island across the Pearl Bridge, and then to an observation point that should be photogenic.

So today I decided to make my decision final and I announced to my school that I intend to stay for another year in Japan. The teachers and staff were very happy, and it sounds like I should have no problem on their side. The paperwork will be sent in but it won’t be official until I hear back from the main JET office – maybe sometime in January.

It was a very hard decision, but with support from family and friends, I think it will be the right one. It’s hard to imagine – with that one decision I’ve pretty much laid out my location, budget, and plans until July 2005. In the end it just seemed like it was the right thing to do – I haven’t gotten tired of anything here yet, and my list of things to do is still very long.

A year from now will you still be reading about trips to Kobe for Indian food? You bet. It’s one of the pleasures I look forward to, and I hope that doesn’t stop in the future.

Speaking of Indian food, today Mr. Hayashi and I split early, and we were joined by Miss Kageyama. She seems to tag along whenever we do fun stuff like this. I don’t blame her – why turn down a free meal and a ride to Kobe?

We had a good ride in the car to Kobe and I practiced my Japanese on the street signs – it’s much easier on the signs and on proper names. Complete sentences such as those in a newspaper are a lot more difficult. On the way there was a big accident that we passed by – and Japanese drivers rubberneck as much as California drivers. A car was smashed between a truck and a bus. It was probably the truck’s fault – an ambulance took off just before we got there, so hopefully everyone is OK.

The Indian restaurant was hard to find – Mr. Hayashi walked up and down a couple of blocks looking for it, and then we just kind of stumbled on to it. The decorations were nice, and they had all you could eat lunch for 1000 yen (around $8). On the menu they had all you could eat and drink dinner for 4000 yen (around $37). I still can’t wrap my head around the “all you can drink” concept. It just seems like it’s asking for a lot of trouble.

Afterwards, I stuck around in Kobe to do some Christmas shopping, and then I took the train home. My legs are still aching a little bit, and I have trouble on stairs, but I think by tomorrow I should be just fine. Miss Kageyama and I are hoping to see Finding Nemo tomorrow night. It just came out in Japan last weekend, and I still haven’t seen it!

Today I’m posting from school – I have no classes, and I’m just hanging out until around eleven when we will drive into Kobe and eat loads of Indian food.

The teachers I was hiking with yesterday asked about my health this morning, and with Mr. Hayashi around I could finally explain why I stopped yesterday, and then they understood. Mr. Komuri had called me last night and when I told him I had cramps, he thought I had said “craps”, and passed that message on to the other guys. We all got our stories straight today, but I got a big laugh out of that one.

I’m off to decorate my classroom for Christmas – I’ll have one week of Christmas lessons next week, so I’d like to use my free time today to make it look a little more like Christmas in there.

Well, after a nap and big dinner of leftovers, I’m feeling much better. My muscles are feeling a little sore, and I’ll be interested to see what happens when I wake up tomorrow. Mr. Komuri called on behalf of the other teachers to check on me. I guess they were pretty worried – since I couldn’t really explain exactly what a muscle cramp was in Japanese, they were concerned.

Mr. Komuri was wondering if I was going to school tomorrow, and was ready to come by to pick me up and take me to the doctor if I needed it. I’ll be at school for sure – tomorrow Mr. Hayashi and I are leaving early to get some “all you can eat” Indian food.

And over prematurely, at least for me. At Stage 11 my legs cramped up and I couldn’t go on. I completed about 60% of the course, climbing 6 mountains out of 10. Now I’m home and exhausted, but I’ll survive.

I got up at 4 a.m., and met the other three teachers in front of my apartment complex. They picked me up and said that the other teacher had “car trouble” and couldn’t make it. That should have been my first warning, but I ignored it and jumped in the car.

Komuri-sensei came by at the starting line to see us off and take some pictures of us. The other teachers managed to talk him into climbing the first mountain with us. We left the starting point at 5:30, and charged up the hill in the darkness. One of the teachers had lent me his headlamp, but I ended up just using my keyring light in particularly dangerous areas. I made the first hill no problem, and the teachers were all relieved.

We reviewed the map at the top, and it turns out that the course is only 41 kilometers long – not the 50 kilos that was advertised initially. Also I noticed that we would be reaching the summit of ten mountains on the course. In my mind I had pictured hitting the top of the first mountain and then going on some kind of a ridge trail hitting each one with no trouble. Wrong!

After Mr. Komuri split to catch a bus back to his car, we turned and went up through a large town. I was feeling really good – no blisters, no pain, no problem. I was taking stairs two at a time and not even breathing hard. Something that surprised me was that we came completely off the first mountain to sea level and walked a ways to the next mountain. Then we climbed that one. Repeat six times. The mountains were averaging about 1500 feet each, so there was a lot of elevation gain and loss. By the third or fourth mountain, I was starting to feel the effects of charging through the beginning of the course.

The trail was crowded with people also climbing mountains, and they walked very slowly. I usually hike in fast bursts with lots of breaks, but since I was hiking with other people I had to do what they were doing. We took a break every hour, and only stopped for five minutes or so. My hiking partners charged down the hills, almost running, and eventually the pace was getting to me.

As for the other teachers, they were paying a high price for all this speed. At each stop they pulled off their shoes, and worked on their feet – I was surprised to see lots of blood, but they just played it off like it was no big deal. One teacher kept re-taping his leg, and each time he stopped he’d tear it all off and start over.

The last mountain I climbed was 2300 feet tall, and that just about did it for my poor legs. Each break I rubbed them down and stretched them, but the cramps were running up and down, and it got to a point that I had trouble lifting my foot of the ground on the flat trail.

At the top of Mt. Maya we stopped and rested, and I had about twenty minutes to try to get the cramps under control. The rest of my body felt fine, and for a brief time I thought I had it fixed, but as soon as I squatted down they started up again.

I gave the rest of the teachers the bad news, and they tried to convince me to stay the course. Just one more mountain! It’s all easy from here! I felt bad, but I knew that if I kept it up, I’d feel a lot worse. Besides, the last mountain is the tallest, at 3000 feet, it was way beyond my ability at that point.

I took the cable car down the hill, rode the bus to Sannomiya station, and I just got home.

So I’ve learned one thing about hiking – there is a big difference between my idea of hiking and hiking in Japan. Distance and endurance are the focus here, but the things that I’ve loved most about hiking are the exploration, the nature, and taking time to just enjoy nature. There was none of that today – so I’ll have to be a little more selective about choosing my hiking trips in the future.

Well, I’m off to take a nap! Good night for now!

Yesterday I got to cut out early and run in to Kobe to get my re-entry permit for my trip to Australia. Apparently, every time I leave Japan and want to come back it costs 3000 yen (about $25). I got a multiple re-entry permit good for one year that will allow me to come and go as I please as much as I want for 6000 yen.

I had to wait in a long line, and none of the government employees spoke English… that was a big surprise. The place was full of foreigners like me, and we were all just guessing how to fill out the forms. At one point I found out that you had to buy a sticker to put on the form to prove that you had paid the 6000 yen. It turns out the stickers are sold downstairs in a convenience store – talk about strange. So I walked down and bought the sticker and went back, then told everyone how to do it. The room cleared, and everyone went downstairs. The employees were nice enough to speak slow Japanese, so everything was OK in the end. I stuck my sticker, and now I’m cleared for departure.

The government office thing took a lot longer than I expected, so by the time I got home it was almost time to go out again and attend my year end party.

While I was waiting for Mr. Komuri at Akashi station I bumped into fellow ALTs Chris and Lisa. They met while on the JET program and have been a happy couple in Japan for almost two years now. Chris is an especially nice guy. He has a good sense of humor and perspective. They were heading off to their own year end party, so they wished me luck. Mr. Komuri showed up and we took the train to Kobe.

Worth noting here is that I suggested the train route to get there – we changed trains once at a strategic station and saved a lot of time. Mr. Komuri was surprised, and he rides the trains all the time. I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp of the train system around Kobe – I’ve gone plenty of times, I guess.

We got to Kobe and Mr. Komuri wanted to take me on a tour of Chinatown. The Chinatown district of Kobe was quite big, and merits a lot more time than we spent there. There are so many tiny shops with food – you could walk around and sample so many things. Since we had a big dinner ahead of us, we had to just look. Still it was a cool part of town that I didn’t know about before, so I’ll definitely be back.

We got to the party – it was being held just south of Chinatown in the Hotel Okura. It’s a very nice hotel – maybe the most famous in Kobe. We walked into the lobby, and were instantly treated like visiting royalty. Two of the staff approached with big bows and asked politely how they could help us. Mr. Komuri explained about the party, and one of the staff led us personally to the elevator, and then we were on our way to the 34th floor – with a beautiful view of the Port of Kobe.

The party is something paid for by all the teachers. They take a small bit of your salary out every month, and then use it at the end of the year to pay for the party. It’s kind of a pressure relief valve – lots of uptight teachers get to let their hair down and relax. Only full-time teachers are invited to attend, with me being the most notable exception. They did invite the janitor and his assistant, which I thought was very nice.

Things started out quiet enough – there were speeches that I didn’t understand, and we ate dinner dish by dish. They would bring out a dish, and then we would all eat it, and then they’d bring another one.

The service was extraordinary. There was a server for each table, and then a backup for each table to cover in case the first server was busy right when you needed something. It was by far the best service I have ever had at a restaurant. You were left to concentrate on the food and the company, and you never noticed how effortlessly they moved around. Each dish came out and there was a presentation. The server placed the dish on the big rotating wheel on our table, spun it around once so that everyone could check it out, and then she served individual portions. The food was Chinese, and it was very good. It was somewhat Japan-ized, but the flavors were great.

Even as dinner was continuing, the strange drinking ritual began. In Japan it is considered impolite to pour your own drinks. You pour drinks for your companions, and they in turn pour drinks for you. Our group occupied a large banquet room with six tables, and I noticed that some people were walking from table to table, pouring drinks for people. Only an hour into the party, some people were giggling and laughing and slurring their Japanese in an amusing way (at least amusing to me).

I asked Mr. Komuri if I should be walking around pouring for people, but he just grinned. He said that my salary is the same every year, so there is no reason to be “grinding seeds” (kissing ass). I laughed at that – and he was probably right. Instead I concentrated on keeping the glasses at my own table full.

Drunken Bingo began soon after dinner, with three teachers up in the front calling out numbers in Japanese, and me struggling to figure out if I had the right number or not. Unfortunately, I didn’t win. Still people walked around pouring. My glass never got less that two thirds full, and that’s with me drinking pretty heavily. Everyone wanted to pour for the American guy, and so I never really even got up. Later I figured out that I didn’t have to drink every time someone came by – I could leave my glass full. Then people came around with liquor, sake and wine, and so at the end of the night I had four full glasses of different alcohol in front of me.

I had heard that Japanese people tend to get drunk quickly, and it was true at least with my teachers. The ones that were driving that night were fine, but some people were train wrecks. The janitor’s assistant was babbling in Japanese at Miss Yamamoto, one of my adult class students brought a whole bottle of red wine and wanted me to evaluate it with her, and people were stumbling around carrying big bottles of beer. I can’t begin to describe to chaos in there.

As things wrapped up, Mr. Komuri told me about one of the teachers that is retiring next year – he had invited some of the teachers to go out drinking with him, and Mr. Komuri wanted to know if it was all right for him to go off without me. The soon-to-be-retired teacher in question was sleeping on the floor in the corner, so I figure they had a good time. I made my way to the elevator, and joined a bunch of my drunk co-workers in a long elevator ride down. Some teachers pushed random buttons on the elevator, so we had to wait a long time to get to the lobby.

I split off from the main group and took a shortcut, and then met another group of teachers at the station. They asked where I was going, and when I told them, they said that I was at the wrong station. I know my way around pretty well, even after all those drinks, but they were adamant. They assigned one drunken teacher to show me the way, and he led me into a subway, and showed me the price board.

I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if they didn’t have my hometown (Futami) on the fare board. He insisted that I pay the 800 yen fee, and then we went into the subway. He was going the other way, but pointed at the train track where my train was going to arrive, and then took off.

I know my town pretty well, and I’m very sure that the subway from Kobe doesn’t run into Futami. That’s like getting on BART in San Francisco and getting off at the Sonoma station. It just doesn’t exist. Besides, I would have heard about it a long time ago. Since I had already dropped 800 yen, I got on the next train, and went along with the ride.

The farther I went, the more sure I was that it couldn’t be right. But, then why did my hometown have a sign in the station?

After three stops, I chickened out and got off the subway, cashed out my ticket, and went up onto the surface streets. From there it was a short walk to the train I usually use, and I was home in thirty minutes. Upon reflection, I figure that somewhere along the subway line is a place where I would transfer to a bus, and the bus would take me back. Next time I’ll stick to my guns and take the right train.