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.

I got a chance to relax and sleep in a bit today, and I’m just putzing around the house doing some chores. I cooked up a big breakfast of fried eggs and hash browns with some Mexican hot sauce. I called my grandparents to wish my grandfather a happy birthday – his birthday is on Wednesday. I got to talk to my aunt Vicki who was in San Diego visiting for the weekend – they are planning a big birthday dinner out in Mission Valley tonight.

This afternoon I’m meeting Miss Kageyama in Kobe to do a little shopping. She really knows her way around the Sannomiya shopping area – and I’m clearly out of my element in there. I’ve gone shopping before, but this is definitely a different experience, kind of the major leagues of shopping.

Tomorrow is a holiday in Japan, officially called “Thanksgiving/Labor Holiday”. I’m not sure what it’s all about – but I get a three day weekend, so I won’t complain.

So I’m back from Osaka, and what a strange experience it was. The city itself was just a blur. We explored about 1% of the area we were in – just a square block or two of a gigantic city. The feel of the city was much different than Kobe, where I usually go for big city fun. There seemed to be more smokers, and people were dressed up big time for a night out on the town.

Antoine and I navigated three different train lines and a subway system to get near the party we were attending, and then Antoine messaged his friend using his cell phone. She came and led us to the bar where the party was. The bar was called “Bar, Isn’t It?” I always seem to find myself in bars that use poor English for names.

Antoine had arranged something so that we paid 2000 yen at the door, and we drank for free until 8:45 p.m. I made my money back and then some very quickly. I took advantage of the situation to drink some real Mexican tequila (Patron) and some real American “beer” (Budweiser).

As for the party itself – I don’t know how else to say it… it was a foreigner meat market. Within five minutes of sitting down, we had five Japanese women at our table talking to us. Half an hour later, there were about twelve of them gathered around. Antoine left our table to talk to another group of about six women, and so I was left on my own to entertain all these women. Everyone wanted their picture taken, and when I took pictures, they wanted to exchange keitai (cellphone) e-mail addresses with me to get a copy of the picture. I gave out my regular e-mail, but didn’t realize until later that it was a sneaky way to track me down.

I looked around and there were other tables with foreigners talking to Japanese girls. There were also tables with Japanese men looking forlornly at our groups. They were pretty lonely guys. Apparently they were hanging around looking for castoffs from the foreigners. One came by the table to talk with us, and each and every girl just turned around and ignored the poor guy. Notice the lonely guys in the background in the picture below.

I’ve never experienced anything quite like it. Apparently it is a regular party, but the host imports the foreigners (like Antoine and I) and it is a chance for all these women looking for foreigner boyfriends. Most of the women spoke some English, and when they found I spoke a little Japanese, look out!

Finally, at around 10 o’clock, I told Antoine that I was hitting the road – I had a long way to go to get back to Futami, and I was exhausted from almost literally fending off all these women. Antoine said he was going to stick around and socialize some more. Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure I could navigate my way back to the subway and the train station, but one of the women volunteered to escort me back. I bought her subway ticket, and she got me to Akashi without a problem. I took the Sanyo line from Akashi, and got back to Futami around 11:30, with thirty minutes to spare before the train line shut down. I already had a couple of e-mails from people at the party. They work fast around here.

I doubt Antoine made it back in time – I’ll have to find out what happened with him and where he ended up. As for me – it was a little much. I’m hoping to take the time to explore Osaka later on under less rigorous conditions.

Today we continued interview tests, and next week all of my classes will be interview tests, so I’ll be going through some serious Q&A. The students did very well overall. I had told them that they would get bonus points for using gestures and appropriate expressions, and they responded well. Two students were acting out an entire scene in the hallway. Kind of a “Japanese Hamlet Goes Shopping” scene.

After school I taught an extra lesson for the students that are going to Australia. I did my best to help them with their expectations – but having never been to Australia I couldn’t entirely help them out. Some of the most astonishing facts for them: 1) They will be wearing shoes inside the houses they stay in 2) They will probably take baths and use soap at the same time, instead of washing and then bathing. I tried to get across the “When In Rome” idea, but I don’t think it translated well.

I snuck out of work five minutes early, and caught the train home. Miss Kageyama and I had plans to grab some dinner and go bowling.

We grabbed some ramen at a restaurant near my house, and then we set out to go bowling in Akashi. She hadn’t been bowling in five months, I haven’t been in more than five years. She turned out to be a pretty good bowler.

Since I haven’t been in a bowling alley in a long time, I was impressed with how far technology has come. I rented my shoes from a vending machine (Size 28.5), and strapped on the pink and purple clown shoes. We’re talking neon colored bowling balls, loud music and strange videos. There was a person that stood in the back of the bowling alley behind each lane, and watched while you played – ostensibly to prevent you from doing any damage or hurting yourself.

After two games of bowling (my combined score – 140) we checked out the shopping center’s plaza, but they were just breaking down a food court of Japanese food stands. Finally we got back in the car and she dropped me off at my place. I’m downloading Survivor and listening to A Perfect Circle’s new album. Tomorrow I’m heading into Osaka in the evening to attend a party with Antoine. I have no idea what the whole thing is about – I’m just kind of going along for the ride.

My three classes today went just fine. I conducted my first interview test with the students, and it went well. Most students had memorized a dialog, and then recited it like robots in front of me. I had anticipated this, and gave them three possible situations, so that they would have to react on the spot. Instead, the students just memorized three different dialogs. I’ll have to think of something much more difficult next time.

Today they dragged three gigantic kerosene heaters into the teachers room, and installed pipes to let the exhaust out the side of the building. I guess they do this every year, but it helped illustrate how cold it’s going to get around here.

I sat around with Haruna and Hidemi after school for the ESS club. We listened to music and talked about school and what they are going to do after graduation. Hidemi is hoping to go to university in Osaka, and Haruna recently passed the entrance exam for an international college in Kobe.

Afterwards, we left, and I turned the corner to find the entire girls tennis team doing pushups in the hallway. The weather has forced the sports clubs inside. The tennis club teacher was supervising the students, calling out numbers like a drill sergeant while the girls struggled to keep up.

I talked to one of my neighbors, and it turns out that the supermarket is just doing a quick remodel, and will be back in action on the 28th of this month. Whew – what a relief!

The rain has swept in and started saturating Futami and Takasago. I don’t really mind the weather – especially since it showed up after I walked home today. With the cooler temperatures I’ve been putting on more and more layers – it reminds me of that scene from the action movie where the main character is strapping on more and more equipment. It’s really not that cold yet.

Today during my third year lesson, I was dictating sentences to students, and I tripped up on the Japanese word “okonomiyaki”. The whole class kind of giggled, and then I started laughing, and it was tough to stop. One of the students got the giggles, too, so we both had to kind of settle down for a while.

Usually when I walk into one of my classes, it’s pandemonium. Kids are running around everywhere. The boys will be horsing around – throwing things, wrestling, juggling, whatever. The girls are in groups, laughing and talking. It’s anything but quiet.

This week we’ve combined my 20 student classes, so there are 40 students in each class. Twice the chaos, twice the fun.

Since we combined them, there are actually three teachers doing each class. When Miss Kageyama and I showed up for today’s lesson, there was a big difference in the student’s behavior. Miss Yamamoto had everyone sitting in assigned seats. She was writing down student numbers into a grid, and you could tell they had just gotten yelled at. Miss Kageyama and I exchanged a look and tried to keep things lighthearted the rest of the class. Miss Yamamoto is known for her strict classes, and I think 40 students was a little overwhelming at first.

Tonight I tried my hand at cooking gyuudon – beef strips with rice. There is an advanced part of the recipe where you carmelize onions and combine then with the beef over the rice. Somehow it didn’t work out. I was e-mailing Miss Kageyama trying to figure it out, and she finally just called me and we talked through it. I think I know what I need to do next time. She offered to show me how to cook it, so hopefully I can arrange something so that I can see this firsthand. Gyuudon is cheap, quick, and delicious – if I can master that I should be ready to move on the more advanced dishes.

Tomorrow is another big day – the next two weeks should be extremely busy at work. I’m off to get in my warm bed.

My local grocery store is looking more and more permanently closed down. That’s a blow to my shopping situation. There are two other grocery stores – one within walking distance, but a little out of my way, and the other within biking distance. I’ll probably end up doing the biking thing – that store has a bigger selection of everything.

We’re in the middle of a very busy week. The students are getting the news this week about an interview test next week. They are definitely in shock and awe. The interview itself should be very simple, so it’s really a test of overcoming their shyness. I’m trying hard each day to relax them in class. Hopefully a one on one situation shouldn’t be too tough.