Today I caught another half day at work – the last exams were finished, and so tomorrow we got back to our regular programming. The weather has turned to heavy rain, but I’m hoping it clears up soon. Walking to work in the pouring rain is no fun… the water always manages to get to you somehow.

The time off has been nice – I’ve been able to catch up on all kinds of things. I’m actually considered a part-time employee at work, they are really only supposed to have me working for 35 hours a week. In reality, I put in about 40 hours a week. I’m not making a big deal out of it, and times like this are nice ways to get some of that back.

More details are emerging on the trip to Australia this December. We are getting close to buying my ticket. There may be a chance for me to have a couple of day layover in Seoul, Korea – it would be a good opportunity to explore a little, and the ticket is much cheaper. I understand that the hotel and food is really inexpensive there, so it would be fun. I’m hoping that it works out that way.

Mr. Hayashi must have been feeling guilty about me working over the weekend. Today, since there were no classes, he let me leave around 10:45 in the morning. I got did some shopping for teaching materials, supplies for home, and a scale to weigh myself.

The scale is pretty funny. It is digital, and on the pad it says in English “Everything under control?” with a picture of a guy looking down at the scale. I think that’s an excellent question for people worried enough about their weight to buy a scale. As for my weight, I weigh 87.2 kilograms, which according to Google is about 192 pounds. I’m not sure what I weighed when I left, but I think it was around 200 pounds. Despite all the beer, great food, and the comparitive rarity of my hikes, I seem to be losing a little weight. I was very surprised.

I also went to the 100 yen store and bought all kinds of little chintzy things – a curry mix that looks extra hot, dried chili peppers, lots of candles, fun stuff like that. Afterwards I made a quick trip to the post office to mail some things off – it has been impossible to get there earlier, since they close promptly when I walk by in the evenings. I picked up 5 kilos of rice at the store, so I’m all stocked up on essentials. Now I’m unpacking everything, and enjoying a rare leisurely afternoon at home.

Today Mr. Hayashi hired me to work at school for a half day – we were administrating a test of English. All I had to do was sit around in the hallways, and point people to the bathroom if they got lost. I worked the half day, and then Mr. Hayashi asked me to stick around for the afternoon. Since I had nothing better to do, I went ahead and stayed.

My job really was pretty easy – nothing much happened, and I got to speak a lot of Japanese with people that were coming in for the test. I got a free lunch, and after it was over, I got an envelope with 14,000 yen in cash inside (around $125).

Afterwards, Mr. Hayashi got on the phone and arranged a custom meal at Graciani’s in Kobe. We drove out with Miss Yamamoto and Miss Kageyama. The first stop was an apartment complex in Kitano – the restaurant district that has so many different restaurants to choose from. We went up to an apartment, and then Mr. Hayashi knocked on the door. We went inside, and the place had been converted into an imported food warehouse. The selection was mainly Indian food ingredients, and I found some interesting things to buy – I ended up settling on just one thing, a jar of pickled garlic in curry… the owner of the place said that it was very spicy, so I can’t wait to try it out.

Graciani’s was excellent – it was the same restaurant that I went to for our first big meal together. The food was exceptional – a four course meal that topped the last one we had there.

As Mr. Hayashi drove us through the city lights of Kobe on the way home to my apartment, it occurred to me how surreal my lifestyle is nowadays. I’m really incredibly lucky to do what I’m doing here. I’ve talked to other ALTs, and their experiences vary significantly. I talked to one ALT who has to wait for a ferry to leave her island, and after a two hour ferry ride, it’s a half hour walk to the train station, and then a one hour train ride to get to the nearest large town. Here I am getting a ride into the upscale Kitano part of Kobe, to eat five-star food. Unbelievable.

Today I spent the entire day in Kyoto with the PTA of my school. A long time ago the principal invited me to come along, and at the time I had plans to go to Hiroshima. As it turned out, there were so many things going on this weekend that I postponed the Hiroshima trip, so today I got aboard a bus at 7 a.m. and we shipped off to Kyoto.

I met the PTA members here and there on the three hour bus ride. The PTA is all women, except for the president, who is a man. The teacher I talked to spoke about that like it was a natural thing – there might be a rule about that. There was nobody on this trip that spoke any English, so it was up to me to speak Japanese. It actually worked out pretty well – I was able to communicate for the most part. More complex things had to be skipped over, but I could handle the basics, and every once in a while, someone would come up with a word in English to bail me out.

The trip was organized by a tour operator, so they sent a bus and a guide, and the experience with the guide was kind of strange. Everything was organized down to the minute, and the guide spoke almost constantly on the intercom on the long drive to Kyoto, so I obviously didn’t get a lot out of that.

We made a bathroom stop on the way to Kyoto, and then we traveled up into the mountains north of Kyoto until we reached a major river. There was a boating station, and the tour had organized a boat trip into Kyoto itself. The boats carried around 25 people, and there were three employees handling the steering, rowing, etc. That turned out to be a good thing, because the rapids were actually pretty good. I got a little wet, but not too bad, and all the PTA members were shrieking each time we went through some rapids, which was very amusing.

I took lots of pictures on the way, and the two hour boat ride went very quickly. Towards the end a boat pulled up along side of us, attached itself, and sold us snacks, beer, sodas, everything. It was like 7-11 on a boat. I couldn’t help thinking of a scene from The Fifth Element, when Korben Dallas gets noodles from his apartment window.

Once we arrived in Kyoto, we walked to one of the major temples in the area, and ate in a restaurant on the property. Once again it was traditional Japanese style, so I was on my knees for most of the meal. My legs are pretty strong from hiking, but staying on your knees for that long is pretty painful. The people I was with looked like they could have kept it up until Christmas, but I had to sit indian-style in the end. I wasn’t sure if that was OK, but later on I saw someone at another table doing the same thing, so I felt better.

After a big lunch with lots of beer, tea, and unidentified (but delicious) food, we split up into small groups and wandered around that area of Kyoto. I saw a bunch of temples that I hadn’t seen before, and had a great time taking pictures and seeing the sights.

One thing I couldn’t figure out was an extra three hours in our schedule that was pretty much free. So far the tour company had been totally exact on time, so it seemed weird that they would have three hours of slop time in there. It turned out that the time was dedicated to a fascinating phenomenon called omiyage.

Omiyage means “souveneir” in Japanese – it is buying things to take home to your friends, co-workers, and family to show them where you were. As for me, if I’m out somewhere and I see something especially interesting, I’ll pick it up, but I’m not the kind of guy to go to Disneyland and buy personalized snow globes for everyone I know.

Here in Japan, the concept of omiyage is so strong that they… well, they dedicate three hours of your day to picking it up. I smelled a rat when the bus took us to a specific shop to pick up omiyage – but nobody else said anything – maybe kickbacks are normal around here. I went into the store, and I’ll be damned if I could identify one product that they sold. All the items were food items, but other than that, I was clueless. I didn’t buy anything there – one, it was way too expensive, and two, I didn’t know what the heck it was.

After that store we went to another area that had more stores, and shopped there for a while. People from my group spent almost a hundred dollars on various omiyage. I couldn’t believe it.

Anyway, we finally hit the road, with the very energetic tour guide speaking frantically, telling jokes and generally amusing the people in the front of the bus. On the way home they put in a movie to watch – The Perfect Storm, which was dubbed in Japanese, so that was very interesting. I guess we’ve dubbed enough of their movies that they certainly have the right to dub some of ours. We were approaching our destination, and they had to cut off the movie about fifteen minutes before it finished. The tour guide apologized, and then proceeded to tell everyone what they missed and gave a blow-by-blow account of the ending. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that – would you want to know the ending? Would you want to rent it? I already have seen the movie, so I knew already, but still – kind of weird.

Last night at the yakitori place I had told the master that I might drop by and look in on the Hanshin Tigers – they are playing the first game of the Japanese World Series. As I sat down, the part time girl came by and brought me a beer, and I did a double take – she was wearing makeup! I looked at the master and he just shrugged, so I don’t know what it’s about, but I’m hoping it’s not me. The game was tied when I left about an hour later, and so I finally dragged my tired body into the apartment, and I’m gearing up for another big day tomorrow. I’m helping Mr. Hayashi do a standardized English test – I’m not sure what it entails, but it sounds like I’ll be working for at least a half day tomorrow starting at eight in the morning. I’m off to bed early tonight!

Today was another day of exams, and I once again had almost nothing to do. Mr. Hayashi, Mr. Komuri, Mr. Kimura, and myself all went out to a place in Sone that serves tacos, and so we had a big lunch on Mr. Hayashi. The food was OK, but not Mexican by any stretch of the imagination. I loaded the tacos up with garlic tabasco sauce, but they could have used some of the habaneros I have stashed away at home.

After lunch we came back and I lounged around the school for a while, until it was time to get out of there. Mr. Komuri shuttled me off to Miki town in his car, and we found a parking spot near downtown Miki and walked into the town center. As soon as we arrived, there was a cluster of men surrounding a mikoshi, or portable shrine. Everyone was drinking and having a good time, and I was surprised to learn that these guys would be lifting this gigantic shrine up a steep staircase to the temple grounds. The mikoshi was a lot bigger than I had imagined – it looked like a tough job.

There were eight mikoshi all together, and each one had a huge team of people that would lift and carry it around. Inside the mikoshi there were young boys catching a ride, and also a drummer, who would beat the drum frantically or slowly, depending on the mood of the crowd. It’s hard to imagine, so I’m posting a movie to get a better idea of the scale of one of these things.

You can download the movie here. It is around 4.5 MB, so it should take a while to download.

Each mikoshi had to go up the steep stairway, and if the mikoshi went down at any point, it was considered a major problem. Bad luck, a pox on your family, you name it. We followed one of the mikoshi up to the top, and I couldn’t believe how many people were running around. The mikoshi that had made it to the top were circling in a giant courtyard, and people were milling around taking pictures, flirting with the people carrying the mikoshi, and drinking way too much.

Mr. Komuri went to a local high school, and so he knew a lot of people. We met one of his friends that lives in California (Pleasanton, CA) and comes back to Japan once a year to attend the festival. He spoke English quite well, and it was fun to talk to him and get his impressions of California, especially while being surrounded by such a unique Japanese atmosphere.

After watching the mikoshi run around for a while, we went down the steps and had dinner in a tiny restaurant at the base of the hill. The dinner was traditional Japanese, and so I really had to work with the chopsticks. Everyone in attendance praised my ability, but it was not easy slurping down giant udon noodles without flinging sauce all over the place.

After dinner we went out on the street, and we set up shop along the main avenue where the mikoshi come back down the steps. Each mikoshi weighs, according to Mr. Komuri, almost 2 metric tons. I’m not sure how much a metric ton is compared to a regular ton, but it sure sounds (and looks) heavy. The first mikoshi started coming down the stairs, and Mr. Komuri explained that the first mikoshi is not tied down, but each one after that is tied up so that if they drop it, it won’t go crashing into the crowd killing everyone. The first one is kind of a throwback to tradition, so everyone watched to see if they would be crushed by a runaway shrine.

I managed to survive – nobody dropped the shrine, so we were able to get out of there relatively early. On the way back, I couldn’t help thinking that I’m going to do this all over again in two weeks, when my hometown has it’s Matsuri festival. I had promised the gang at my yakitori that I would be there, so it should be interesting.

After I got home, I started downloading Survivor, and then headed over to the yakitori to grab a quick bite to eat. The gang was all there, along with a new guy. I spent time talking to him, and making him comfortable speaking English. We got to talking about the Matsuri festival in Futami, and one of the guys offered the use of his ceremonial robes for carrying the mikoshi, called a hoppi. I was hoping that it would be “no foreigners allowed”, but once you are wearing a hoppi, you are cleared for take off. Now I’ve got the gear, and I’ll be carrying one of these things around Futami in a couple of weeks. Yikes!

Tonight I cooked up some fried rice and gyoza, then started watching “Animal House” – a DVD that my folks had sent. In the middle of the movie, Antoine called me up to say hello. Apparently last night he went to his usual Wednesday night dinner joint, which is a “rastofarian Japanese yakitori”. He bumped into a guy who turned out to be a member of the Japanese yakuza, or mafia. It was one of those weird situations where he was talking to the guy for a half hour before he found out about his job, and then it all started making sense. The nice clothes, the attitude, everything.

The guy ended up buying Atoine dinner, so he can tell his grandkids that the Japanese mafia bought him dinner. Great stories here in Japan. I have yet to see a mafia member, and I’m not really looking forward to it.

Today was the first day of exams for the students, and for me, the start of the weekend. I had to go in to work, but there was really nothing to do. I had signed up for the teacher volleyball game in the afternoon, and until then I just sat around and talked with other teachers, read magazines, and did my budget for next month.

One of the third year English teachers came over to talk to me, a guy that had never even said hello before – kind of a nervous looking guy. I knew what it was about as soon as he came over – he must have drawn the short straw, and so he has to go with me to the mid-year conference. He was so nervous talking to me – I felt bad for him. I told him that I would do as much as possible on my own, so he didn’t have to worry too much, but I don’t think he was really comforted by that.

In the teacher’s office I sit with the ichinensei teachers, teachers that only teach the “freshman” high school students. There are about 15 teachers in my group. I was assigned to sit with that group because Mr. Hayashi is my master teacher, and that’s where he is. I may be playing favorites here, but it seems clear to me that most of the teachers in my group closely match my personality and I am very comfortable with them. Looking at some of the other groups, they are nervous all the time, they are bucking for promotions, yelling at kids, brown-nosing the principal and vice principal, and more.

In contrast my group for the most part has teachers that are done climbing the ladder, and are comfortable where they are. They seem to be more relaxed and easy going, and if you know me, that fits my personality well. All the teachers at the school care about the students, but the ichinensei group seem to extend that caring to coworkers as well.

It is perhaps due to this attitude that we got slaughtered today in Teacher’s Volleyball.

That said, we had a great time. Several times we were laughing too hard to really put up much of a fight. When we were behind by twenty points some of the teachers would goof around and hit the ball with their head. It was a lot of fun, but I think the other teachers were hoping we would take it a bit more seriously.

It ain’t easy playing volleyball in a foreign language. I probably should have figured out how to say “I got it!” in Japanese before stepping on the court. I just jumped up and down and tried to use my height to freak out the other team. I certainly couldn’t hit the ball to save my life.

At the end of each game we had to line up and bow to the other team, and I figured that out when everybody started walking away from me and lining up. I was left looking around like a tourist in Tokyo.

At the end there was a formal award ceremony (seriously!) and they gave out first and second prizes. We came in a very distant third (out of three) and so we got nothing but polite (and maybe embarrassed) applause from the other teachers.

I ducked out of school early, and hit the road.

I slept well last night and felt a little better today. I had a full slate of classes today, and they all went very well. The lesson I’m doing is on clothing, and all there are a couple of places to get some easy laughs from the kids.

Tomorrow exams start for the students, and they look pretty nervous. It’s easy stuff for the teachers, we have no lessons, just sitting around and then grading the exams afterwards. I am exempt, since the regular English teachers do all the examinations. Easy!

In mid-November there is a conference for all ALTs, and I am required to attend with a teacher from my high school. Mr. Hayashi was all set to go, but he was reassigned to go with the 1st year students to Universal Studios Japan, and so they need another teacher to go with me. Mr. Hayashi told me at lunch that all the other teachers were drawing straws – none of the other English teachers are particularly good at speaking English, and they are afraid of being embarrassed in front of all the other teachers. I didn’t hear who lost, but I’m not thrilled about going either – I’m missing a free trip to Universal Studios for this!

At lunchtime I kidnapped Miss Kageyama and had her translate the lunch menu in the cafeteria for me. There were all kinds of interesting things on the menu – now I have a few more options if I eat in there.

After school I came home and roasted the jalapenos and habaneros that Sara sent me last week. I skinned them and then sauteed them separately in garlic and olive oil. My mom had suggested freezing them afterwards and so I put them into ice cube containers – little frozen chunks of deadly heat. Now I can use them through the upcoming winter!

I cooked up curry tonkatsu tonight – a fried pork cultlet on a bed of rice with curry sauce on top. I added a little more heat, and now I’m sweating away the cold.

My mom had stayed up late in the United States to call and let me know that my grandmother passed away today. Her health was deteriorating steadily over the last week, so it wasn’t a surprise, but it was still sad to hear. One of the problems with being so far away is that I have limited options when it comes to being with friends and family back home. The picture below was taken on Thanksgiving last year.

Today I woke up with a cold – probably the consequence of my big three day birthday weekend. Yesterday I went to bed early, but today I have a stuffed up head. I got up and walked around a bit to see if it cleared up, but no luck. I went to school anyway, since I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do to call in sick, and overall, I’m really not too bad.

At school everybody asked about my cold, and I quickly learned the Japanese words for cold and sickness. I actually worked my cold into each of my lessons today, and since I probably got it from one of the kids, it’s kind of poetic that they have to learn a little English about colds.

As soon as Mr. Hayashi found out, he assured me that I could go home anytime, and that I could skip tomorrow as well. We’re leading up to midterms, and I think the kids could benefit from some extra study time, but I told him I’d stick it out, and stick it out I did. I ended up leaving a little earlier than normal, around 3:15, but I managed to cover all my classes without a problem.

Miss Kageyama dropped by and said thanks for the CD – I guess she had thought that it was English homework that I wanted her to transcribe, until she popped it into her player and Coldplay started playing. I did have a bit of a time convincing her that the cheesecake she made me was totally unrelated to my illness.

I’m making up some noodle soup tonight, and bundling up in warm clothes. I’m drinking tea right now, and hopefully I’ll get to bed early and get over this. Most of the other JETs I’ve talked to have gone through some kind of sickness since arriving, and the weather change is a big factor.

Yesterday was an empty day – I spent most of the time at home studying Japanese and goofing around on the internet. At 5:30, I met Antoine and Struan at the train station, and walked them back to my place. We had decided to go ahead and do our first poker night, even though we only had three people. It had started out with a few more, but some folks had to bail. My emergency calls to get another player didn’t work out, so we ended up with just the three of us.

I cooked dinner for everyone, and then we settled down for some beer and poker. Antoine is on a red wine kick, so he was putting away a Stone Cellars Merlot that I found in a local store. Struan is quite good at poker, and I’ve played a few hands before, so Antoine was having a rough go. It turned out at the end that Struan had won a little, I won a lot, and Antoine lost quite a bit. After playing for three hours or so, we decided to run down to the yakitori place on the way back to the station.

We walked in and I was surprised to see the exact same crowd that was at the BBQ, with a couple extra people. Everybody cheered when we walked in, and they started getting to know Struan and Antoine. At some point in the past I had mentioned to someone there that my birthday was on October 11, so word had spread, and everyone sang a quick Happy Birthday to me. It was pretty overwhelming. One of the guys insisted on buying beers for us, and so we stuck around until Struan had to go. Antoine decided to crash at my place and head back to Takarazuka the next day.

I woke up around seven in the morning to hear the wind whistling outside and the roar of rain coming down hard. I closed up the apartment, a little surprised that nobody had mentioned anything about a typhoon last night. There were two or three community announcements over the large loudspeakers outside, but since I couldn’t understand them, I was a little worried. I flipped over and by the time I woke up again at nine, the rain and wind had gone.

I was a little worried about the weather because Carrie and I had planned on going hiking today in Kobe. I called Carrie, and she was game for trying it out, and so Antoine and I got cleaned up and out the door. I said my farewells to Antoine as I jumped off the train in Akashi, and then went down to meet Carrie in front of the Starbucks next to the station. After getting our act together, we went up to take the next train to Kobe. At the station, we bumped into Struan – he was off to Himeji castle to look around with a couple of his teachers.

Carrie and I charged up the northern hills of Kobe until we reached Nunonobiki falls, and then went even farther up. There are miles and miles of trails, and lots of interesting things to see. There were beautiful views and waterfalls, but then right next to them were construction sites and water treatment plants. It was an interesting contrast.

We had our lunch on a bench overlooking the green forests above Kobe, and talked about our JET experiences so far. It was very interesting to hear about some of the trials and tribulations of teaching through Carrie – she had some good insights into the attitudes and enthusiasm of the kids.

After a pretty good hike we came back down into Kobe, and we split up – Carrie was headed to Uniqlo to pick up some clothes, and I headed back home to get ready for next week.

On my walk home from the station, I recognized one of the kids from my apartment complex, she was standing across the street alone and she smiled and waved at me. I waved back, and kept on walking. About a minute later, she chased me down. I was a little surprised, but she just started walking with me. We talked in Japanese, and I found out that she had just gotten out of piano practice, and since her mom still hadn’t shown up to pick her up, she would just go with me back to the apartment complex. We walked along and talked about our days, and what we were having for dinner tonight.

All of the sudden her mom pulled up, and she didn’t look happy. I just waved and kept walking, and the poor little girl jumped in the car – I’m sure she was going to get a lecture. As they passed me on their way home, both of them gave me a big smile and wave, so I think I’m not in trouble 🙂

I’ve lit a couple of candles, pulled out some snacks and a bottle of red wine, and I’m listening to the blues as the sun sets outside. I had a good weekend. I’m looking forward to a nice short week, and then another busy weekend.

Last night Miss Kageyama and I went out to see “Tomb Raider 2” in Akashi, about a 15 minute drive to the east of my town.

When I got in the car, Miss Kageyama gave me a birthday present – she had made a CD of popular Japanese music, complete with liner notes in both English and Japanese. She had also made a cheesecake, and presented that to me as well. I had brought a congratulations gift for her – a CD that I had made of popular American music, so we both have some listening to do.

In Akashi we went out to Chinese food. It was pretty Japan-ized, and tasted fairly similar to some soup dishes I’ve had in Japan. I tried to get the equivalent of chow mein, but the noodles were fried until they were hard, and then soaked in the sauce. It was actually pretty good, but definitely not the Chinese food that I’m used to.

We went up to the movie and sat down, but we were a little early. Something that is different is that they have people that sell ice cream to you while you are sitting waiting for the movie to start. The poor kid walks down to the front of the theater, bows, and then loudly explains that he has such and such flavor of ice cream, the cost, and how happy he is to serve you. Then he walks slowly up the aisles, looking at everyone hopefully. I feel bad for the poor kid.

The movie itself was a lot of fun – I think it was a little better than the last Tomb Raider. They had the sound cranked up in the theater, so it was very loud during the exciting parts – cool!

Afterwards, Miss Kageyama dropped me off at my apartment, and I had a couple of slices of cheesecake to celebrate. All in all, a very good day.

Friday was an easy day for me – no classes, except for my adult class in the afternoon. I spent the day planning lessons and grading papers. Many people came up to me to ask what I thought of Arnold winning in California. The people here are highly amused, and I think that I probably feel the same way. Finally after six o’clock we drove into Kakogawa to have a birthday/birthday/congratulations party at an Italian restaurant.

The food was good – there was an appetizer of spring rolls, chicken sashimi, a fried foods platter with french fries, fried cheese and potato balls, shrimp and fried chicken. As for the main course, we had a pizza, which really only had cheese, basil, and tomato sauce on a very thin crust. It tasted great, but as a pizza it wasn’t really satisfying. I tried to describe a Mary’s Pizza to everyone, but they couldn’t comprehend something with that many ingredients.

It was “all-you-can-drink”, and a couple of the teachers took advantage of that. We had a great time – making a lot of noise and carrying on. Most of the good stuff was in Japanese and I missed it, but I got the general gist of the conversations and we had fun.

Afterwards, the group wanted to go to a “Snack” bar, which I haven’t been to yet. I’ve heard that it is similar to strip clubs in America, just no stripping. You sit down with some girl who you buy drinks for, and in exchange they talk to you and make you feel important. I begged off that trip, and jumped on the train for home. I got the “Survivor” download going, and this morning I watched the latest episode on my computer.

Sara called around 8:30 this morning to wish me a happy birthday, and we talked for a bit. Nancy and Lynn called and I got to talk to them for the first time since I left San Diego to go to the airport in Los Angeles. It was great to catch up with them. Melanie left a birthday card in my mail slot, and I got some great e-mails. Thanks everyone!

Just as I was wrapping up dinner, the doorbell rang and a delivery guy was standing there with a large box. It was a big birthday package from Sara. She had sent tons of stuff – things that are hard or impossible to find here in Japan. It was amazing what she fix in there – a couple of bottles of hot sauce, three big chunks of cheese, a bunch of fresh peppers (Jalapenos, Anaheims, and Habaneros), chips, a DVD, candy, corn nuts, and the list goes on. It was amazing.

As everything was unpacked and laying all over the place, Yasu called from next door. He is the guy that helped when Andy went to the hospital. Melanie was at their place, and they invited me over, since she was over there cooking some homemade curry. I had just eaten, but I went over anyway to visit a little bit – Yasu’s mom has kind of adopted us. We sat around and drank beer and ate curry, although I only had a little bit. There was another neighbor there, an English teacher from a nearby school, and so we talked to her a little bit. She seemed very nice, but maybe a little shy.

Anyway, afterwards they brought out some delicious cakes, and I left there on a sugar high. Melanie dropped by to pick up Count Of Monte Cristo, since I had just finished it, and almost passed out from exhaustion at my kitchen table. I’m hoping to stay up a little later tonight doing some work that I’ve been putting off, since I have no classes tomorrow.

I came in this morning and found out that yesterday after school, a girl had been caught smoking on school grounds. Many of the teachers were pretty upset, but Mr. Hayashi thought it was hilarious. There were six kids involved – one actually doing the smoking, and five (!) kids posted as sentries to watch out for teachers.

Mr. Hayashi and I were impressed how intricate the plot was, but in the end, having so many sentries backfired. One of them spilled the beans under intense questioning, and so even though the smoker wasn’t caught red-handed, she was still busted. She got suspended for one month.

All over the school are posters saying not to drink or smoke, but then it takes just one visit to our teacher’s room and you see the teacher’s standing by the fans smoking like crazy. Kind of mixed messages, I think.

Our freshman are going on a field trip next month to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, and I was locked in to going, but I found out that I have a prefectural meeting in Kobe that is mandatory for me to attend. One meeting a year I’m responsible for, and I miss out on an all-expenses paid trip to Universal Studios Japan with my students. Ack!

Today was ESS club, and only two girls showed up. They were the two that were overcome with hormones last time – they are new to the club, and are just trying it out. They didn’t want to do any of the activities I had planned – they wanted to try to get me to say Japanese swear words, and so I ended up getting them to translate Japanese words that I knew (not the swear words). At least they worked on English a little.

A big “Happy Birthday” to my brother Mark – who just got one year older. Keep up the good work! Sorry I can’t be there to tip one back with you.

Today, through some strange quirk in the schedule, was the toughest one yet for me. I had only four classes to teach, but each one was with a different teacher and all of the ability levels were different. One lesson that I taught in the morning had run out of time before I could finish, and the same lesson in the afternoon finished with almost ten minutes left. The planning of the lessons is difficult – there are so many factors that vary with each class.

Other than the classes, the day went great. I caught a free lunch from the home economics class. It was a rice dish with egg and chicken over the top. They call it “Oyako”, translated as parent (oya) and child (ko). It was really good, although it could of used a big hit of hot sauce. I didn’t tell the home economics class, though.

After school, Mr. Hayashi had offered to take me to the post office and attempt international shipping. All of the sudden he got called into a meeting, so he roped Miss Kageyama into taking me instead. Miss Kageyama did a great job, and we were easily able to figure everything out. The only thing I’m worried about is US Customs – I understand it’s pretty tough to get stuff into the States.

When we got back to the school, everyone was still tied up in a staff meeting. We decided to bail out while everyone was gone, and so Miss Kageyama drove me all the way home. We practiced speaking English, and had a good time on the ride back.

When I got home, another part time teacher had left some goodies on my doorstep. A while back she had let Andrew (my predecessor) borrow a scale to weigh his luggage. She had forgotten about it, and had asked me to put it out on my doorstep a few days ago. I totally forgot, and so after many apologies, today I got it right. I had left a small “I’m sorry” gift for her, but she out-gifted me! Two giant Japanese pears, a basket full of monster Concord grapes, and some sweets.

I’m defrosting some tortillas right now for my big Mexican dinner – yum!