I’m feeling much better after taking some time off this weekend to recuperate.  The coughing is much better, and there is a lot less congestion, too.  I’m going to need to be in tip top shape since I’m kicking off the new term today.  Nineteen students in total, but there are a few repeating students.  I can’t wait to get started.

Cherry blossoms should be at just about full bloom this week, which should make for some nice scenery going to and from work.  Unfortunately this year it looks like we won’t be able to have a proper sit down party under the blossoms because of the timing.  Hopefully we can pull it off next year.  That’s the thing with all these seasonal events – it isn’t long before it rolls around again.

How do you get rid of a cough?  Every night, after I get home, the coughs begin, and last well into the night.  Even after I go to bed, I wake up several times during the night with a dry hack.  I’m sure the neighbors are wondering when an old man moved into our house.  This cold is lasting forever!  Anyhow, tomorrow I’m taking a holiday from work to take care of some immigration stuff, so it is another chance to recuperate…

I had hoped that I’d be at 100% by now, but unfortunately I’m still coughing away, usually in the middle of the night. It is a vicious cycle – once I start coughing once or twice it makes it much more likely that I’ll cough again soon. My stomach and chest muscles are getting sore from the effort.

But enough about my health… Yesterday at work I had a full day without any classes. In my job free time is a luxury. Usually I have about an hour for lunch, and then about another hour chopped up into little pieces between classes throughout the day. That means I’m always “on” and there isn’t much time to take care of the little stuff, like paperwork piling up and textbooks to evaluate and new English learning apps online.

So this week is kind of a luxury for me, and as an added bonus, there is no need to speak during the day so my throat can work on getting better. Very, very nice.

On Friday I pushed as hard as I could and somehow got through the last classes of the term.  The last thing I wanted to do was postpone the classes because I was sick, and end up having to teach make-up classes this week.  I finished them last week, and classes are officially over.

But it was tough getting through those last classes.  I was coughing every minute or so, my voice was disappearing, and I’m sure I looked like a mess.  It was a hell of a last impression for my students.

This weekend has been only focused on recovery.  I didn’t do anything active – just resting in bed and on the sofa.   I’m still feeling under the weather, maybe about 65%, but a lot better than the 35% I was at on Friday after work.

In which our hero continues to wonder just how much mucus the human body can produce.  Or whether purchasing stock in Kleenex would be a wise choice at this point.

One more day of work, and then, full body shutdown.

Yesterday I struggled through the day, but I was able to attend the presentations of my group lesson students.  With only a few exceptions every student did a great job, and memorized all their English, delivered it nearly perfectly, and impressed the audience that had gathered.  I was very disappointed that some students had to bring notes with them to the stage (after I had forbid it), and then when they had trouble they looked at them with shaking hands (because once you bring the notes your mind will tell you that you can always peek once or twice).  The first time a student looked at his notes it got a laugh from the audience, but after they continued to look and read, it was met with a stony silence.  I think these students could tell that they fucked up that part, and I think that is probably punishment enough.

OK, one last day, and then it is radio silence from me for a while.

This morning as I write this I feel pretty much the same as yesterday.  Not good.  If today was a regular work day I would consider staying home, but we’ve got student presentations this afternoon, and they’ve been preparing for them for a whole month.  It’d be pretty lame if I missed them.

So I’m off to work with a big box of tissues, hourly handwashes and gargling, and just two more days left in this week.  … I think I can, I think I can …

For the first time in a year and a half I managed to catch a pretty serious cold. It started yesterday morning at work, and like an approaching subway train I could feel it coming long before it hit me. Ugh.

I did go ahead and follow through with the party with the Denya gang, but I just had a couple of drinks. It was great to see some old friends, and make some new ones. Luckily I was able to catch a ride with one of the members that wasn’t drinking, and I got home last night at a reasonable hour.

Today I’ve got six classes, so hopefully there won’t be too much talking and I can get through the

Tonight after work I’m planning to head to Tsuchiyama to meet up with the Denya master and the other regulars for dinner.   For the master, Tuesday is the only night he has free all week, and for all the other members Wednesday is a national holiday.  Unfortunately for me, at my company it is just a regular work day.

That means no wild hi-jinks tonight, and instead, a quiet catch-up session with these guys.  It has been almost a year since I’ve seen some of them, so it’ll be good to hear what they are up to these days.  Should be fun!

At the end of last week and during the weekend I spent a lot of time working on my latest home project, setting up a home theater PC.  I bought a tiny little computer and installed it in a dark corner of our entertainment center, and now I’m tweaking and setting it up, installing this and that, and thoroughly enjoying myself.  Last night I even got some emulators working, which means I can play old games on the TV in our living room.  Still, there are a lot of tweaks left before I feel like it is ready for prime time.

On Sunday morning we drove north to visit Kinosaki.  It was the second time that I had been there, located on the north coast of Hyogo, and the weather was beautiful this time around.  We went to the same resort/hot spring as before, and ate a huge lunch of crab.  I think in the end we ate about three crabs each, in just about every variation you could imagine.  Raw, boiled, steamed, grilled, you name it.  Kuniko seems to be on her game these days and I think she is ready to join the workforce again this week.

In the evening we even had a surprise visit from Kuniko’s dad, who dropped off some vegetables and stayed for a cup of coffee. On the way home from Kinosaki we had stopped by their house to drop off some items and omiyage, but we had missed him so he came on over.  It was nice to talk to him again, and it sounded like he was still just as busy as usual these days.

This week at work I have no more group lessons, so that means an extra two hours of time each day that I can use to do planning and paperwork to wrap up this term and get ready for the next.  It feels like a luxury to have so much student-free time.  Let’s see what I can do with it.

The last couple of nights after I get home from work Kuniko and I have been hiking around Okubo at a very brisk pace to try to burn some calories from dinner, but more importantly to get her in a condition where she can walk all over her school and teach lots of classes all day.  She’s been in the hospital and resting at home for the last two weeks, but all that changes tomorrow.  She’ll go in to work in the afternoon to teach a few classes.  I guess all good things have to come to an end, and her stress-free lifestyle is due to end soon.

Yesterday I wrapped up my last group lesson with the same group that I started with.  Their practice for their final presentation went pretty well, though, and I think they will have no trouble at all next week at the meeting.

Tonight after work Kuniko and I will meet in Kobe to go see “Cloud Atlas”, which is only arriving in Japan today, and only in indie theaters.  It is not getting a major release here probably because of the lack of success in the USA, and probably because of the abstract theme.   I’ve been waiting months to see it, so I’m looking forward to this evening.

So today is a big day for Yuki Yamaji – he’s headed off to the airport to fly to San Francisco.  My folks are welcoming him at the gate and he’ll become an honorary Fredricks for three or four days before starting school in SF.  I’m sure he’s going to have a great time, and it’ll be a good chance for him to improve his English.  I have a feeling while he is gone we’ll get a lot more invites over to the Yamaji household – now they’ve got an empty nest.

At work yesterday I said goodbye to my top English class.  They are the ones that tried hard every class, kept speaking English even when I left the room, and had great chemistry.  I’m going to miss those guys!  Today I’ll wrap up my last group lesson of the term, and then the last time I’ll see everyone is during their final presentation next week.  I hope that goes well!

Finally, last night I received a package that I ordered from Amazon.  I set up a tiny computer underneath the TV, which over time will start to serve as a home theater PC.  I haven’t built a computer in a long time, but this was easy.  The hard part will be getting it to play nice with all the other equipment in the living room.

After writing about my student from hell last time, it was nice to work with some motivated students yesterday.   The classes that practiced presentations did much better than before, and I think we are probably in good shape for the final presentation next week.  I hope the students remember to study and practice.

Today and tomorrow I have the last two group lessons, so I’ll use the empty spaces in my schedule to start to do write-ups on each student and give feedback.  Lots of paperwork begins today.  Urgh.

Wrapping up the group lessons at work consists of a final exercise to review all the different skills and activities that the students learned over the course of the class.  In pairs they introduce themselves in a business style, make an appointment via telephone, give each other directions to places, and more.  I made a series of cards that they draw from, and then they have to do the activity with their partner.

Yesterday was the first class to do that review activity.  It went horribly.

Maybe that is overstating it.  One student put in zero effort, but the others did their best.  Often times they found that they had forgotten something, and so I urged them to go back to the text and review what they had forgotten.  But the zero effort student was terrible.  The card said, “Talk about your company for 30 seconds”, so he started talking one word every five seconds to try to avoid the assignment.  Another card said to talk about what is on your desk, and he pretended to not know what “on” meant.  Then he just drew the objects and made his partner actually say the English.

He was like this the whole term.  I can understand being shy, or the student not understanding how to say something or not remembering how to do some activity.  It is the lack of effort that really kills me.  Not even trying, avoiding speaking, and putting the load on someone else – that is just weak.  Thankfully it was my last class with him, and unfortunately for the other students in his class they had to deal with him for six months.  Hopefully he is a better student in the future.

It is officially on!  Saturday afternoon we went over to have a late lunch/early dinner BBQ party with the Yamajis.  Kuniko is still in recovery mode, and she took it easy.  We had a great time talking about Yuki’s upcoming trip, and eating lots of grilled foods.  Chicken, purokogi beef from Costco, and even locally caught sazae (turban shell).

We ended up staying longer than we had originally planned, and when Kuniko’s parents came over to drop off some vegetables they found us over there partying the night away.  Come on over – join the party!  The Yamajis were eager to meet Kuniko’s folks, and they had a good conversation (although I think Kuniko’s parents were a little overwhelmed/surprised).

Sunday we were both in recovery mode, and ended up spending all day watching movies on the sofa.  A storm came through and was blowing rain and wind everywhere, but luckily we could avoid it indoors.

Now I’m headed back to work, with a little bit of an unusual schedule this week.  I’m wrapping up my group lessons, and getting ready to wrap up my one on one classes the following week.  The six month term is coming to an end.

Finally it is Friday, and I can’t wait to get it over with.  For some reason this week seemed longer than usual – probably because Kuniko could stay home warm in bed while I got up every morning.

We are planning to maybe see a few movies this weekend, since we missed our chance previously.  Also we may visit the Yamajis on Saturday afternoon to bid our final farewells to Yuki as he is leaving for the USA soon.  They are holding a small party in the afternoon because the weather is supposed to be good.  There may be a BBQ involved, as well.

It  should be a relaxing, slow paced weekend.  And I’m ready!