After a fairly relaxing day at school I cooked up some tacos. Ground beef, refried beans, cheese (mozzarella – the best I could find), onions, lettuce, and lots of hot sauce. Now I have so much hot sauce that I had a different flavor on each of the four tacos I ate.

Today at school I had a meeting with three other teachers that are joining me on the 50 kilometer hike from Kobe to Takarazuka on Sunday. I’ve been looking forward to this hike for a while – it sounds like it will be a long hard hike. There’s plenty of uphill and downhill. At the end we’re eating steak and drinking beer, which sounds like a suitable enough goal for me.

These guys do the hike every year. I’ll be ready to go at four in the morning, and we should be pulling into the finish line around six p.m. that evening. I’ll be one tired hiker after this one.

I love coming up with the titles for these entries.

Anyway, today at school during my teacher-less class, one of the students decided to act up. All of the boys in my class were talking and pretty much ignoring me. I tried one of the tactics that I had seen Japanese teachers take – they pick some random students from within the group of talking students and move them to other seats.

I tried this today, and asked two boys to move. One got right up and moved, but the other one pretended not to understand. I explained it twice in English, and then when he still didn’t move, I asked him in Japanese. There was no going back then – if I backed down and let him stay, the students would totally ignore me. On the other hand, I’m not even really supposed to be teaching alone – a “real” teacher is supposed to handle situations like this. I was on shaky ground, but after several attempts, the student got up and moved. I wrote down his name, and just continued on with the class.

He was really ticked – he stared hard at his desk, attempting to burn a hole through it with his brain laser. I called on him just like any other student, and he seemed to come out of it after a while. Afterwards, I asked him to stick around and I apologized for picking on him. I tried to explain that it wasn’t something that he did in particular, he was unlucky enough to be talking right then. He didn’t quite understand my apology because of the language barrier, but I told one of the third year teachers and he said that he would relay the message. I have a feeling that instead they are going to lock this kid up and beat him with a rubber hose for disobeying. I hope things turn out OK. Anyway, it was the first really “bad” experience I’ve had in the classroom.

Yesterday I was idly daydreaming about roast beef. I hadn’t had roast beef since our welcome reception back in August. Mr. Hayashi casually said that it’s easy to find roast beef in the store. I have spent hours combing the stores for roast beef – carefully reading the complex Japanese kanji characters in the hopes of finding some juicy, barely cooked roast beef.

I asked him to join me in the store after school, and together we could not find any roast beef. He went home yesterday and asked his wife, and she gave him a store near my house that usually has it. Unfortunately, today he had a staff meeting and couldn’t join me. He talked Miss Kageyama into taking me there, and sure enough, within five minutes of entering the store I had about a quarter pound of roast beef. It was priced at about 500 yen (around $4.50). I went ahead and bought it, even though it was pricey. If I tastes terrible, then I’ll know that I’m not missing anything.

Since we were near my place anyway, Miss Kageyama offered to drop me off at my apartment. On the way over there we were talking about e-mails. I have been e-mailing Miss Kageyama every now and then on her phone, and she responds in English. She told me that it’s good practice for her English, but it turns out that it takes around thirty minutes for her to write me back, and some e-mails can take up to two hours! Here I was sending her goofy e-mails about this and that, and she’s on the other side sweating bullets trying to put things into English and get back to me. I felt so bad – I promised myself not to write so many in the future.

Last night Yasu came by to visit and to drop off a container that I had given his family full of pasta carbonara a couple of weeks ago.

As usual, Yasu came bearing gifts – some omiyage from his trip to Kyushu, a gigantic Japanese cake that looks delicious. His mom also sent two apples from Nagano – they are the biggest apples I have ever seen. The Japanese seem to go for quality rather than quantity when it comes to produce. They look delicious.

Yasu and I had a couple of beers and talked about December. Yasu was in a lottery for Radiohead tickets for next April, and he won. He gets the opportunity to spend way too much money to see them in Osaka. Yasu is a big Radiohead fan – he can play some of their songs on his guitar, and he’s got just about every recording that they’ve done. I’m glad that he’s getting the chance to see them.

Melanie was supposed to call and take me over to see some Taiko drummers at the local community center, but I think she forgot. She never called, and so I spent the time with Yasu instead. I’m hoping to see the Taiko drums later on.

The one word in the Japanese language that is the most mystifying for me to understand is the word “Ne” (pronounced “Neh”). It is used almost exactly the same as the Canadian “eh”, and used in all the same places. It is almost like asking for confirmation of a fact, but in reality, you don’t wait for the confirmation and push on.

“How’s it going, ne?” “Cold weather today, ne?” “You are a smart guy, ne?”

I’m trying to get it into my vocabulary more. It is in common usage here in the Kansai area, but I just feel like I’m pretending to be Canadian when I use it.

Today in school the students are gearing up for examinations. I’m looking forward to wrapping everything up – my workload will drop about 90% in two weeks, and then a week later I’ll be in Australia in shorts and flip-flops.

The school staff is pushing hard for me to make my decision on recontracting, and they ask just about every other day. The decision isn’t an easy one, but I’m hoping to spend some time this week thinking about it. There are a lot of positives, but some pretty strong negatives. A tough decision.

Cool weather has become common here, and at school we have all three kerosene furnaces running during the day. I sit near the large sliding door, and so I’m exposed to the sudden burst of cold air everytime someone comes or goes.

Mr. Hayashi is also nearby, and is subject to the same sudden temperature variations. He has been sitting in the same area for years, and that time has made him somewhat philisophical on the opening and closing of the door.

He believes that the way people close the sliding door is a reflection of their personality. The door is a little tricky – it takes just a little effort to get it to close properly. Some people slam the door, making a loud bang. Some give it a halfhearted push, sometimes leaving gaps for the cold air to get in. Some take the time to understand how the door works, and they close it perfectly every time. Each person has a certain way they close the door, and Mr. Hayashi has been around long enough to observe them all.

This morning I called my folks to catch up with them in the morning, and then fixed myself a big bowl of curry and rice and watched Survivor. The curry here is ranked on a heat scale of one to five, usually. I found one that was ranked a ten once, but now I’ve found a place that sells a twenty ranking – which is more like it. While I watched the show I ran laundry in the background, and finally around noon I got organized and went out to do some shopping.

My first stop was grocery shopping in the newly remodeled local grocery. The store looks much better, and now it’s like a tiny supermarket rather than a tiny fruit stand with other things. Everybody else in town had the same idea, so it was packed. People were throwing elbows and cutting in front of other people – it was cutthroat out there.

I got a bunch of good groceries, and then took them home and stocked the fridge. Instead of going all the way to Kobe, I decided to go the other way to Himeji. It is only a few stops and is about 40 yen cheaper to get there on the train.

In Himeji I took some pictures of the castle, because I always seem to do that when I’m there. I found some good stuff when shopping, and I finally came back home around three o’ clock.

Tomorrow is back to the grind. On Friday is our year end party for school. Not many of my compadres are going to be there – Mr. Hayashi is skipping it because of a conflict, and Miss Kageyama wasn’t invited because she is a part time teacher. Mr. Kimura should be there, and also Mr. Komuri. I’m not sure what to expect. It ought to be fun.

Yesterday I spent with Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama in Fukuyama. Fukuyama is a fairly large sized town about a two hour drive west of where I live.

Mr. Hayashi was going there because he was attending a seminar. He talked Miss Kageyama into going to study English on the way there and back, and I went because I heard that there was a decent castle nearby, and I was hoping to take some good pictures.

The day started out with heavy rain, and I was thinking that it was going to be miserable – walking around a strange city in the rain isn’t usually my idea of fun. It stopped raining on the way, though, and most of the day I spent pretty dry. Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama were in the seminar until about four o’clock, so I had a couple of hours to kill. I really enjoyed walking around the grounds of the castle. It was not nearly as dramatic as Himeji castle, but it was still pretty nice.

During my travels I managed to find some interesting food courts, a Starbucks, and a pretty good imported food store. I was able to buy refried beans, root beer, pickles, Crystal extra-hot hot sauce, and Jelly Belly jelly beans.

Finally, I met them after the seminar in the lobby of the hotel. They both said the conference was not very exciting. We talked for a little while longer, and then hit the road back home. We stopped at a restaurant in Kakogawa called “Amuse”. I had been there once before, and the pizza was still good. We drank lots of beer – they had Guinness in bottle (not good) but for laughs I was drinking Corona. It’s hard to find Mexican beer in Japan.

Afterwards Miss Kageyama walked me to the station and Mr. Hayashi walked home – he is a ten minute walk from the bar. It was a fun time – but I’m looking forward to relaxing today. I might run into Kobe to pick up some goods. In other good news, the local grocery re-opened, so I’ll probably zip in there today and get some veggies for next week.

Ever sit in a room with eighty strangers for ten minutes and nobody says a word? That’s what commuting by train in Japan is like for me. Nobody speaks, and eye contact is quickly avoided. It is much different than my times spent on trains in San Francisco, Vancouver, Washington DC, New York, and Los Angeles.

I’ve started to give names to people I see every day. My favorite is the “Tiny CEO”. He’s about eleven years old, and his school uniform is a business suit, complete with jacket and tie. He always has a stern look on his face, and I imagine that he is contemplating important business issues and deciding who to fire today.

I once again helped Mr. Hayashi by teaching a class for the students bound for Australia. They are all excited, and the highlight today was teaching them how to say “G’day Mate!” Try teaching fifteen Japanese teenagers how to speak in an Australian accent. I was almost in tears.

Mr. Hayashi is looking into getting me extra time off during the holidays and trading in some of my vacation days that I will take in Australia. I think somebody pointed out to him that I’m working lots of hours – much more than my “part-time” status requires. In a couple of weeks exams start, and he’s going to let me do part of the day, and then leave. Very nice! I’m going to use the time to get my re-entry permit. Once I leave Japan, I will need a permit to get back in. It costs only 6000 yen for an unlimited permit – it makes sense to get that one.

Tonight I’m off to the yakitori with Mel. Tomorrow is Fukuyama. I’m not sure about Sunday – we’ll have to see what pans out.

Finally, a “Happy Thanksgiving” to everyone following along in the U.S. I got a nice phone message on my machine from everyone celebrating in Glen Ellen. It sounded like a serious party to me. I don’t think they have turkey at the yakitori, but I’ll look into it.

Today I finally got the information on my flight to and from Australia next month. I leave Osaka at night on Dec 18th, fly seven and a half hours to Cairns, Australia, change planes, and fly three more hours to Sydney, arriving at around 9:45 a.m. local time on the 19th.

I come back to Japan on the 27th of December on a direct flight back to Osaka. I’ll be sharing the same plane with some of the students and teachers from my group, so it should be a fun trip back.

I only had two classes, both interview tests. I try to warm up the students a little bit with some quick conversations in Japanese, but they are so nervous that they freeze up even early on. My Japanese skill is probably not helping, either.

While the second class was leaving, many students came up to find out about their scores. While leafing through some of the papers looking for scores, I suddenly felt somebody’s hand go into my pants packet and start rooting around for change. I jumped – it was one of the crazy girl students that crashed the ESS meeting to get food. She pulled out a couple of coins, and tried to talk me into giving them to her. I looked at some of the other teachers for help, but they didn’t seem to think that there was anything unusual about it. I explained to the student to not do that again, and recovered my money. I think I’m going to need to talk with Mr. Hayashi and make sure that it gets translated that you can go rooting around in other people’s pockets. If she had made a right-hand turn in there, we would have been in dangerous territory.

After school we had students that were absent during their interview tests come in and do their interviews for me. Afterwards, I had a grand total of one ESS member show up. We talked for a long time, and then we played battleship. It was fun to play, but I lost by one ship. It was difficult explaining the game, but she picked it up right away.

In the teacher’s room I spent a long time talking to the history teacher. His English is quite good, and we had around four different conversations today. He saw Black Hawk Down last night and really enjoyed it, and wanted to get my perspective on it. We talked about what he wants to do in the future – I think he feels like he’s in a bit of a rut. The career path for teachers does not include a lot of leeway for vacations and the like, so he’s looking at a long time before he has a chance to travel or relax.

Everyone sat around the warm teacher’s room at the end of the day, talking and joking in both Japanese and English. It felt good to be with everyone there – people were laughing and having a good time, and I felt like part of the group… I work with some good people.

I cooked up yakimeshi (fried rice) tonight, but all my vegetables are gone, and I need to get to a store to get some fresh veggies. I’m hoping that my nearby store will open soon. Melanie invited me to join her at the yakitori tomorrow night for beer and “meat on a stick”. I haven’t spent much time with Mel lately, and it will be good to catch up with her. I want to find out whether she is signing up for another year or not – I think we’re both mulling over that decision right now.

The clouds and rain lifted and left clear skies and cold weather here in Western Japan. I walked to work in a cold stiff breeze, with my collar all the way up to keep the cold from sneaking down inside my jacket. I’m wearing two layers below the waist and four layers above, including my jacket.

Yesterday, my favorite train broke down, and I couldn’t ride it. Today, I was back on board, and everything was running without a hitch. They had the heaters cranked up on high, and I was able to sit back and relax while heading to school.

At school we continued our interview tests. We’re almost done, and things will slow down significantly once they are finished. I’ll be writing some exams for the end of the term, and we’ll see how that goes. These exams will be my first ones to write – I’ll have lots of help from professionals, though.

I signed up for several events over the next couple of weeks today. I paid for my plane ticket for Australia today, and that should be arriving at school in the next couple of days. I signed up to attend the end of the year teacher’s party in Kobe in December – and if my teachers party anything like the teachers I know in San Diego, it should be a good one.

On December 6th I’ll be attending an early Christmas party with Carrie – she invited me a long time ago, but I think we’re still on for that one. It involves a tie – ick! The next day I’m hiking 50 kilometers along the mountains behind Kobe all the way to distant Takarazuka, home of my party animal friend Antoine.

More events – on Saturday I will be joining Mr. Hayashi and Miss Kageyama on their trip to Fukuyama. Mr. Hayashi is going to humor an old friend of his – he has to sit through a boring seminar. Miss Kageyama felt sorry for Mr. Hayashi and is going along to keep him company on the long (two hour drive each way) trip. I’m going because I have nothing better to do on Saturday. Also Fukuyama has a minor castle that is supposedly worth checking out – I’m going to see that while Mr. Hayashi is busy at the seminar.

In December I’m going to Kyoto to attend a seminar with Mr. Hayashi about Casio electronic English/Japanese dictionaries. The seminar lasts two and a half hours, and is all in Japanese. Why am I going? Afterwards we are going to have a big dinner in Kyoto, and Mr. Hayashi suspects that we’ll get a couple of free electronic dictionaries from Casio when we attend. I don’t believe that they’ll just give them away, but what the heck. It’s a trip to Kyoto, anyway.

Lots more coming up, but I want to build the suspense for later. The deadline for my decision on whether to stay in Japan through August 2005 in coming up. It seems quick, but they are already recruiting for next year, and they need a headcount from us.

A couple of interesting facts:

Trucks in Japan do not have “smokestacks”, the exhaust is fed out the bottom of the truck and floats around in the air low to the ground. As a full-time pedestrian, I noticed this quite quickly.

The upside of being a full-time pedestrian is that I don’t have to worry about drinking and driving. The biggest consideration you have to worry about when you go out is that you catch the last train, and failing that, have the cash for a taxi ride home.

One great thing about living in Japan is that it is easy to find great Japanese restaurants. They are everywhere. In California, the search is a lot more difficult.

Meat doesn’t really need to be refrigerated THAT much.

I’m back to school, and we’re continuing interview tests this week. The students did well today – they were full of energy and the went at it with gusto. I was proud of some of them – they surprised me!

Mr. Hayashi sorted out my plane ticket, and I should be able to make the buy tomorrow. We ended up getting a direct flight, so I won’t be spending time in any strange southeast Asian countries on the way back, which I’m a little bummed about. I’ll put them on my list of places to visit before I go.

I just made an attempt at Kim Chee Ramen, and it turned out OK. I had to add extra heat at the end, though – although the flavor was just right. My diet has been simplified lately, because the store is so far away, now. By next week my old store should re-open, and then I can buy some key ingredients again!

So I just woke up and I’m getting ready for work. I had this weird dream that I was attending a Black Sabbath show back when Ozzy Osbourne could still be understood. I complemented him on his English, and he didn’t get the joke. He said I was the one that was talking funny.

Hmm, usually I have dreams like that after eating pizza, but I can’t use that excuse here.

Today started with an early morning phone call – the hike that I was planning with Komuri-sensei and Mizuta-san was cancelled due to weather. I was kind of sad about that, but I rolled over and went to sleep, and by the time I was up and at ’em I had other plans. Mr. Hayashi called just before I left for shopping, saying that they had changed their mind and they wanted to do the hike, but it was too late – I was in shopping mode.

After crawling into my cold bed last night and shivering until it got warm, I realized that there is nothing stopping me from just running down to the store and buying an electric blanket. So today I did. While I was out, I picked up a few other things for around the house. I went shopping at the local Target equivalent – Dik. Yes, the store is called Dik. Trust me, I’ve heard all the jokes.

I also went into Ito Yokado across the street to check out the groceries – my store is still closed. The place was a mob scene – the holiday brought everyone out and they were shopping like crazy people. I took tons of pictures of the store – it’s a big one.

Miss Kageyama called in sick today for the shopping trip, so I decided to postpone the trip until next weekend. Instead I walked out to the ramen restaurant and ordered up a big bowl of garlic ramen. I had never ordered it before, and wow – what a surprise. Imagine a giant bowl of ramen with a golfball-sized scoop of minced garlic floating on top. Definitely not an every day kind of thing to order.

Tonight I’m going to stay in and catch a movie, and study my Japanese a little more. Not the wildest Sunday night, but after last night, it should be a good balance.