Ah! Emperor-san!

New LJ

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:11:24 GMT

The journey that propelled this LJ is over and finished. I'm beginning a new time in my life.

If you'd like to keep following along, I made a new LJ for my Carbondale adventures. It may not be as regular as this one, I'm not sure yet. It'll be friendslocked in any case. I'll get up a post at some point for people to request to be friended, but if I have had you friended on this LJ name you don't need to post to say you're friending me, I'll just friend you back.

I don't have any entries posted on it yet (I just got the internet back today, and for some reason I have been busy today, hmmm).

I named it in honor of my now defunct Japanese cellphone email.

sideburnpower

Let's all enjoy time with us.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 282 (07-27-09) - The Final Day

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:06:50 GMT

The End is ~~Near~~ Here.

I woke up at 6:30 and I took care of the things that needed taking care of – I finished cleaning the bath and the toilet, and I had breakfast, etc, etc. I weighed the bags one last time – one of the bags came out at 24.5 kilograms once I added in things like the past couple day's worth of dirty laundry. So I grabbed the last box I had, threw in two kilograms worth of pants and sheets, and called it a day – I was done with measuring. I might add, I measured the bag three times and each time it came out at 24.5 kilograms. This becomes important later.

I took the scale over to Sachiko-san's house again – I found it in the morning where I left it and used it to measure then I took it back. I then went and took the trash out and then waited for the guy from the gas company to come. He came and it took him half an hour to figure out how much I owed him – it was like 5000 yen, so I gave him the cash and then I put the finishing touches on leaving – I turned off the computer, water heater, and the A/C. I took my bags and boxes out to the car and then I went to say goodbye to Sachiko-san. She and Mitoki and Nene were there to say goodbe, as was Asami-chan and her mother from the balcony of their 2nd floor apartment. I thanked them all and then I got in my car and I left them forever. It was sad, but not as sad as saying goodbye to my students. I do wish my landlord and landlady had been there, but they weren't in yet.

I drove to the board of education where I said goodbye to everyone and I handed a lot of things to Anzai-san – my apartment keys, car keys, 9000 yen for the phone bill, and my national healthcare card. Man, I hated giving up that card. I met Shoji-san and he and I transferred my things out of my car and into the BoE van. He seemed impressed with me, for some reason. He seemed impressed and in awe of me the last time I met him, too. I have no idea why he thinks I'm so awesome, but he certainly seems to think so.

He took me to the post office first, where I mailed off my three boxes – two by air and one by sea. I couldn't remember anything that I put in the boxes for the customs declarations so I just made things up for both of them – I got things wrong and left things out and maybe had half of the things I had listed on each form that were actually in the boxes. Oi. It cost me about $160 to send it all - $40 for the seamail box, $40 for the 2 kilogram airmail box and $80 for the other airmail box.

We drove to Narita Airport, he wasn't very good at driving. He wouldn't use his turn signal until the last moment and he was already turning, to pass somebody on the expressway he would zoom up on them and get into the other lane at the last possible moment as well, and he also kept driving over the center line on the expressway. I wasn't very happy with his driving but there we are. He got us there – and it only cost about 3,200 yen to use the expressway. Taking the train takes 2,500 yen. It's always cheaper for one person to go there via train than by driving.

I got checked in and I gave them my bags and I saw that the bag I measured as being 24.5 kilograms minus 2 kilograms? Came in at 20.3 kilograms on the scale. There was no need for the package and sending it off for $40. Guh. Then we went to lunch, we had Chinese food. I didn't want Japanese food, as I get that all the time. So I had Chinese food for my last meal in Japan – oh well. I had the sweet and sour pork, which was pretty good. Then I exchanged my yen into dollars at the bank branch they have in the airport. I realized after I did it that if I had asked for traveler's checks I could have gotten about another $120 out of the exchange – the difference between 97 yen to the dollar and 95 yen to the dollar. Oh well. Then the two of us sat down and I asked him if Yamaguchi-sensei had called him – she said that she wanted to go to see me off if she could, he said no. I told him that I had to go and get through customs and so if she called him to please tell her I couldn't wait anymore and I was sorry.

I went through customs and I had to go through the immigration office to do so – because I had to give up my foreigner ID card. So I went into the office and I asked if they spoke English – you would think in the immigration office they would staff it with someone who spoke English, but they didn't. So I had to explain myself in Japanese – so I told him: "Kyo wa America ni kaeru, mo Nihon ni ikimasen." (Today I'm going to America and I do not go to Japan." He got a look of panic on his face, and went, "Oh no, not another one" in Japanese, and jumped on the telephone. I couldn't figure out what was going on, and then he finished his talk and handed me a form. And I saw that it was a form to request a reentry permit.

This isn't what I needed. Had I said, "Kyo wa America ni kaeru, mo Nihon ni ikimasen. Shikashi, Nihon ni kaitai" (Today I'm going to America, and I don't come to Japan. But I need to come to Japan.) or something it would have matched up with me needing a reentry permit. I guess he just assumed the last part. I didn't know how to say "go back to" so maybe that made things less understandable. Anyway I realized we weren't understanding each other so I pulled out my foreigner ID card and I said, "Chigau, Chigau, kore," (no, no, this) and I mimed cutting my ID card up.

The guy understood me perfectly. He recalled the person he called to say that we didn't need a rush job for a reentry permit, and then I signed some more papers and he thanked me for my hard work for the past three years, and he let me go after he took my ID card – goodbye ID card. Goodbye, Japan.

We boarded the airplane and we boarded early but ended up leaving on time. It was a Northwest flight, so it wasn't that good. Every other airline I have been on is better – I didn't get my own TV screen, I got a seat in the back and a blurry projection screen I couldn't see very well. The drink service only had like six drinks to pick from, and they didn't have my old standby apple juice. And they only went around to give people water not during a meal or snack time like twice. I normally drink like five cups of water on an airplane, as the air is so recycled and dry. And when the lady gave me a slice of carrot bread during the snack time she did it with an attitude. Stupid Northwest.

I didn't sleep, but instead I alternated between reading The Known World and playing Mother 3 with my headphones on. I got about 4/5ths of the way through the book, and I got through like four needles in Mother 3, so good progress for both.

We landed in Detroit and I went through customs – there was a guy in front of me in the line to go through security again who seemed clueless. He asked me, at first, if this was the line for Cleveland – I told him it was the line for every other connecting flight. Then he went through the metal detector and was confused as to why it went off – he had a belt buckle that was as large as my palm. Golly, I wonder why. I got past him after this section, and I made it to my connecting flight with ten minutes to spare, before boarding time. But we boarded half an hour late because they were missing the third flight attendant. She was in the building, but nobody knew where she was or how long it would take her to get there. Evidently half an hour.

In Chicago I had to get all of my bags. And this was difficult. Very difficult. I couldn't put my carry on on my back, and the other two were both around 20-22 kilograms, so they were heavy and cumbersome. I managed to drag them all behind me and get them to the waiting area, and about five minutes later my father and brother in law drove by. We loaded my things up and I was taken to their new apartment – it's in a nicer area and is larger than their old one, so this was good.

Everyone – my mother, father, sisters Andrea and Heather, and brother-in-law Michael went to IHOP for dinner. Everyone had breakfast but me – I had ribs and chicken. I haven't had ribs in forever, they were very nice. We talked about me coming back and about how tactless Usui-tan was at my farewell party. He's both tactless and tacky. But he's gone forever.

I then rode back to my parents' house with my parents and Heather. It was a long three hour drive but I only napped for a few minutes at a time – I can't nap. Finally we got home around 9pm and I settled in a bit, and I was in bed by 10:30pm. And I needed it. It had been a long, long day – a long last day in Japan.

And this is the end of my journeys in the Land of the Rising Sun. It's been a crazy 3 years. A crazy, interesting, life-changing three years. Thanks for reading along with me.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Days 280 & 281 (07-25-09 & 07-26-09)

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:20:20 GMT

Last entry for awhile, kids. Let's make it a good one.

It was Saturday so it began with laundry. And a call from my parents. We spoke about me coming home in a few days, crazy. They asked me if I wanted to help move my sister from Indianapolis and I politely said no.

In the afternoon there was a matsuri at the nursing home next door, and I went there for the first time. The last three years I have never been able to go – I was in America, or David was here the last two times, but this time, finally, I could go. So I did. I saw some of my students were there, and we talked. It was the last time I would see them, but it was good to see a few of them again outside of school. There were taiko drums being played, and there were a lot of food stands, actually. And everything was free, that was pretty great. I had a meeting for dinner, however, so I didn't eat much. I did get some tea to drink and an ice cream cone with melon sherbet.

When I left I saw my next-door-neighbor, Ishii-san, with a friend of hers, sitting outside the fence and looking in at the goings on – they had some of the food from the matsuri and were enjoying it at their own distance. She asked me why I was leaving so early and I told her I had to meet a friend in Tateyama. She asked if I was going to drive there and then drive back and I said yes, then she admonished me because if I did that I couldn't drink beer.

Only in Japan is a 70 year old woman going to admonish someone for not drinking beer.

So I went to Tateyama and I met Alfred for dinner at the Korean BBQ place. We talked about the end of our school years and about Japanese TV and about the place I'm leaving. I had a good evening and it was nice to see him before I left.

I did more packing in the evening, joy beyond all other joys.

On Sunday I went in to church. There was a DVD, it was a Pastor Joel "My smile will gnaw off your face" Osteen. And it was a DVD I had already seen. But I pretended to be interested in it, as they were trying to accommodate me on my final day. At the end of it all I was given my very own Japanese hymnal and then the lady who comes to church but isn't part of the family who runs it, gave me about a dozen folding fans to give as gifts for people back home. Holy crap. I thanked everyone, we had pictures taken, and then that was it, we were finished. I thanked them all and I left for the last time, they all stood outside and waved to me as I left them.

I went home and I cleaned out my car, then I did more packing and I came to a realization – I don't have enough room anymore. Both my bags are at the limit, and my carryon can't fit anything else inside of it. So I'm left with one option – mailing more things off. So I kept three boxes and I managed to fill up two of them (how? How? How is this still possible?). One of them I will send via airmail and the other via sea mail. I just don't understand at all how this is still possible. But things happen like while cleaning I found an entire bag full of gifts people gave me that I forgot about, and I had all of those fans, and things keep turning up. I'm sure I've packed things I have no use for but I am a pack rat, I have thrown away (at this point) four trash bags worth of things.

The airport has several post offices, I will go to one of them and have things shipped from there. I will just have them all boxed up and ready to go beforehand. Well, one of them I won't address as I will send it EMS – I checked and once again EMS is cheaper than regular airmail for 3.5 kilograms and it's even cheaper than economy airmail. This makes total sense, but whatever.

At 6pm I went to get my haircut for the final time. I have a 1500 yen off coupon that it has taken me 3 years to get full so I can use it, so I used the thing. When she finished, the lady who does my hair took my picture with her kids – I used to teach her boy and her girl in my children's night class. They were good kids.

I then drove to Tateyama to get one of the passport/money holders than goes underneath your shirt. I have lost my old one, it seems, I have no idea where it is. Also that was the belt type and I am not very fond of that sort. So I went to Jusco and they had one that was a lot cheaper than any other kind and I couldn't figure out why, it seemed better than the next most expensive one. Finally I saw that the price-tag on it had been covered up once – it had been a mid-priced one but for some reason was now 400 yen cheaper than the 'cheap' one. So I bought that.

Then I went to Cainz Home just before they closed and I bought some pens. I know this is going to sound crazy but I really like these pens and I wanted to have some more before I go to America and I kept forgetting to get them when I was in Tateyama. So finally I broke down and I got them – it was going to drive me crazy if I didn't. I got there at 7:45 and I was out by 7:50 – they close at 8:00.

I went home and I found that I suddenly didn't care about anything else at all. Apathy. I still washed all of the dishes, picked things up, cleaned out the 'fridge, the toilet, the bath, etc, I did this. But I found that I had no desire to do any of it. I was finished with the entire process. And yet I kept going on. I tried to return the bike charger and the bathroom scale to Sachiko-san but though it was only 8:30 when I tried all of the lights were out at her house, they were all asleep. So I left them in the enclosed area just outside their front door.

I hope that my bags are both under weight by the time I am through with them. I still have my dirty clothes and my toiletries to pack. This could possibly make or break the whole thing, I'm serious. Oh well. If they do guess what I'm doing? Pulling something out and making ANOTHER trip to the post office. OH BOY.

I hope I can sleep tonight.

Alright, so here's where we stand. Tomorrow I go back to the US of A. While there I will update once more with my final day in Japan and my journey home. And then I think that's it for this blog. I will make a new blog and post what my new blog name is sometime after. When I have it I will tell you all. This blog's purpose was to chronicle my life in Japan, now that I am no longer living there it doesn't seem right to keep using this blog.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 279 (07-24-09)

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:18:21 GMT

I no longer have a functioning cellular teleradiophone.

Anzai-san called me at 9am to tell me that he would be over at 10:30 am to take care of more things that needed taken care of. I thanked him and then rolled out of bed – I had set my alarm for 9am and the phone went off like a minute after my alarm had. I took a quick shower and then I waited for him to show up. He came right on time (so much better than Usui-tan ever could manage) and we went to the bank.

We closed out my bank account and I got my hands on a fat wad of cash. We then drove off to the faraway land of Kamogawa to turn my cellphone off. It was discovered that I had 3000 mysterious 'points' credited to my account. Normally these are used to make buying a new phone cheaper. In my case I wasn't doing that. You can also use them to get things out of a catalog. My problem is there was no time for me to get anything out of that catalogue before I leave. So it was decided that I would get something that they had on hand. That left me with three options. Mushroom stuffed animals (a fat mushroom person is their mascot). Hand towels. Telephone chargers. Anzai-san asked me if I would give a gift to the board of education, the gift of a telephone charger. I said yes. So the lady typed that in and then informed me I had 2000 more points to spend.

End result: the board of education now has 3 telephone chargers, courtesy of me.

Anzai-san then took me and my now-useless phone to Gusto for luncheon. I had the "Mexican" platter –curry chicken with cheese on Mexican pilaf, with a salad with corn-flavored dressing, and cold pumpkin soup. Salad with corn-flavored dressing. Seriously. This is the Mexican plate. I give up, Japan. I seriously give up. Curry-flavored chicken is Mexican? I give up.

He then drove me back home and I finished taping up the boxes I was mailing off. I addressed them, and then I drove to the post office where I passed them on to the people. I was upset – one of my boxes was 50 grams over a weight limit – so I paid another $9 for it than the other. Had I not taped everything up I could have pulled out a single shirt and moved it to the other one. Oh well, it was too late at that point. So I spent a squillion dollars and then I went to school.

I stayed there for two hours and said goodbye to teachers. I promised I'd go in once more and say goodbye to them all, and I wanted to make good on that promise. And Usui-tan wasn't there, so it was wonderful! Sadly he came back at 3:45 and he invited me to have dinner with him. He promised me it would only be for an hour, so I said I would go – it's a free meal so I would at least be able to handle him for an hour.

I went back to meet him at 5:45 and I told him I was ready to go. He left the school with me and I told him that I would follow him to the restaurant. He then told me, "Oh well you see, I don't have my car here today."

And I suddenly realized that he invited me to go to this restaurant so I could be his ride.

Stupid, stupid, stupid Usui-tan.

So I drove him to a place in the middle of a rice field, that took up half of the first floor of this lady's house. The road to get there was literally crumbling off into the rice fields around us, it was so in the middle of nowhere. We got there and I asked what the specialty was (these little places always have a specialty) and he told me it was wild boar. I've never had that so I said I wanted to try it – he asked and was told they didn't have any. The woman's husband, it seems, hasn't caught one recently. So they have none. But they had other pork dishes, so he ordered those.

We were joined by the previous principal from Maruyama, whom I know, and somebody from the board of education I am vaguely familiar with. We had tempura fried vegetables, skewered grilled pork, and something Usui-tan called "pork stew." He didn't quite translate that one right – when we got it I thought it looked exactly like tonjiru soup, which is a soup made with thinly sliced pork. It had burdock, konnyaku, carrots, and daikon, like tonjiru. But the meat was a little different – I couldn't figure out what it was at first, it seemed to have no fibers, and was very tender. And then I realized what it was by the funny way that it curled. Usui-tan had left a word out – it was pork intestine stew. Oh well, it tasted fine to me, I didn't care.

And then after an hour of it all I left, and they didn't ask me to pay anything. I never offered to, either. Usui-tan said that we should have dinner together again on Saturday but I declined. I really, really declined that offer. No way in the world that I'm going through another meal with him, I just gave him one where I WAS HIS RIDE THERE, I wasn't going to have another dinner with the man.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 278 (07-23-09)

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:47:03 GMT

Oh hey let's write about Anzai-san's visit and also PACKING.

I stayed at home. Mrs. Tsunoda had helped me clean, but this meant that I had to pick up and pack on Thursday. On Thursday I had to pack. I spent my day and my afternoon in realizing that there was no way in the world I would be able to fit all of my dirty clothes that I've worn this week into my carry on, in addition to the other things I had. So this meant one thing – everything else had to be boxed up.

I got a phonecall at 9am, it was Anzai-san from the Board of Education. He wanted to come over and look at my bills and take care of the final billing for some of the things then, instead of waiting to do it all on Friday morning. So I told him okay and he said he'd be over at 1:15pm. I picked things up before he got here and made lunch, and did some packing.

When he got here I gave him my landline phone and a bunch of old bills so he could call the gas, electricity, telephone, and internet companies. In the end he figured most of it out, after an hour and a half or so, and three bathroom breaks. That man must have a bladder the size of a pea, he left at 3pm but he'd used the bathroom three times since he came. Sheesh. Anyway, I had to pop on the line on occasion to give personal information, or consent to let Anzai-san take care of everything. At one point I had to list my address, telephone number, and birthday. I got everything out correctly until I hit the birthday. And I ended up saying that I was born in "じゅういちにちろくげつせんはっぴゃくはちじゅうにねん (juu-ichi-nichi roku-getsu sen-happyaku-hachi-juu-ni-nen)". Translation: 11th of June, 1882.

Whoops. Anyway as he talked on the phone I kept packing and eventually he left.

I stuffed as much stuff as I possibly could into two large boxes that I had that were too large for the books – the books had to be in boxes that were no larger than 90 centimeters for all of its measurements. I weighed the boxes out and they came out at 6.5 kilograms and 8.0 kilograms each.

I checked the Japan Post website and I found that sending these things would cost me an arm and a leg but there was little else I could do. I didn't want to send this stuff by sea mail – a lot of it was summer clothes and underwear and all of my ties, which I sort of need now. I don't know if I'm going to have to wear a tie to teach in college, but if I do I will need my ties in August, not sometime in mid-October. And I won't need shorts in mid-October, I need them in August. So I had to make the choice to send them via airmail. I checked online and it was actually cheaper to send the things via 3-day insured airmail than it was to send it via regular it-takes-a-week airmail. That makes no sense but that's how it is. It would cost about $240 to send both.

I had an idea later, however. I realized that if I could break those two big boxes down into 7 boxes of just under 2 kilograms, I could send it all at the 'small packet' rate, which would save me close to $60 to send them. And they'd get to America in a week. So I went through the apartment and got every small box I could and I spent like an hour with the scale and the boxes trying to get them all to be at just under two kilograms. And in the end I somehow ended up needing 9 boxes to do this. I couldn't do it with only 7. Sending everything in nine boxes would have ended up saving me about 5 dollars. So I decided to not go through with it, and instead I packed everything back into the two big boxes and managed to fit a couple more items into the box that only weighed 6.5 kilograms. This brought the boxes up to 7.5 and 8 kilograms, respectively. Oh boy, I sure will be happy to shell out $240 to send these things out. Buuuut it turns out I have more US dollarcash here in Japan than I thought, so I'm considering that to be paying for this. And this was basically my entire day, devoted to putting things in boxes, putting them in smaller boxes, then putting them back into larger boxes again. Hurrah for failure.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 277 (07-22-09)

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:29:16 GMT

CLEANING ALL DAY LONG THIS IS THRILLING.

I dreamt of cleaning, and of opening the cabinets underneath the sink and finding a dark cavern of mud with massive river of brown, churning water, with old cardboard floating on top of it, amassing at one end, and I bore the knowledge that I had to clean it, and that cleaning it would be impossible.

I didn't sleep well.

Mrs. Tsunoda came by at 9:10 to help me clean. We started with my bedroom, and we moved things around and she insisted that she clean the ceiling with her dry mop. To knock down the dust. Though there wasn't really any dust up there, all of the dust was in corners and on the ground. We moved things and swept and moved and swept and scrubbed and cleaned and eventually we got my bedroom finished. So then we took a break.

I had made butterscotch pudding and I shared it with Mrs. Tsunoda. She enjoyed it, and had never had American-style pudding before – in Japan puddings are more technically custards. She gave me buckwheat tea that she brought. Then we tackled the front room for awhile, again moving and cleaning and throwing things away. She asked if she could have the birdcage. I told her she could have it gladly.

Then we broke for lunch – she didn't have lunch. And since I had nothing that I could do that wouldn't take a long time to make, I went to 7-11 to buy lunch. I brought it back and I ate it, then afterwards we continued to clean.

She said I looked tired, I told her I was tired. So she told me to sit down sometimes. Half the time she told me to sit down I'd go to some other area where I would clean and pick things up, and the other half I would sit down. We worked our way slowly to the front of the apartment until it was 4:30pm. And she offered to clean the bathroom and the toilet room but I told her no, she'd done enough, and I thanked her for all of her help. She really did help me get a lot of stuff put away and picked up, and with somebody else here cleaning was less stressful.

She had some gifts for me before she left. She had a furoshiki cloth that she had sewn for me – it's bright red and has a lot of Japanese decorative balls on it. She also had some postcards with artwork of flowers for me. She also had very colorful washi - traditional Japanese paper with visible fibers for me, too. And then she left. And I went back inside. And after cleaning all day long I couldn't pack anymore. I just couldn't. So I made dinner and I wrote my journal and I watched things on the internet, but I did not pack.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 276 (07-21-09)

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:38:03 GMT

Oh hey there packing and more packing and also cleaning followed by more cleaning.

I went into work at 10:30 in the morning to pick up my desk and to take back home anything I needed to bring back with me. I brought in the pumpkin bars, and Hirano-san wrapped them individually for me, that was nice of her. The other teachers seemed pleased to see me. Toriumi-sensei gave me a DVD copy of the farewell video they had made up for me, and I checked and it plays on my computer, so there's no crazy Japanese-only region encoding on it. Hurrah.

In cleaning up my desk, it took me quite some time. I brought a small garbage bag with me (an actual official garbage bag, not just an old grocery bag) that was 20 liters in size, and by the time I was done it was packed. When I finished with it, I handed it off to Satoshi. He told me to write my name on it, so I took it and instead I wrote "Tsunoda Satoshi-chan." The other boys on the baseball team all thought that was pretty hilarious. The boys were watching the end of the baseball game on TV between Tateyama High School, and some other high school from Chiba. It's the month of high-school baseball, where the entire country watches as each high school in the nation competes against all of the others to see who is the best. So the boys were routing for Tateyama – who lost 4-0. Whoops.

Satoshi handed the bag off to a 2nd year boy, Shota, who had to put it in the garbage area. He didn't try passing it off to a 1st year, I noticed. At least it didn't get passed further down the line. I did, at least, walk down to the place for trash where Shota had to go to make sure he didn't have any troubles in disposing of it.

I heard other teachers talking, and I had planned on leaving by 2:00 anyway, but Usui-tan was scheduled to come back at around 3:00 or 4:00. And I wanted to make sure I was gone by then. So I left at 2:30 and said goodbye, I had been into work for four hours, and I had to go to the post office to drop off boxes. I had four boxes of books that I wanted to get taken care of, though I will have more boxes later, I at least needed to get some of it all done.

I went in and I showed them they were all books and the boxes all came out at the same rate – 2700 yen to ship them via sea mail. This does mean that I pegged all of them between 4.5 and 5 kilograms, which is what I wanted. I just cannot afford to send them back via airmail. But this does at least let me send them to my apartment in Carbondale, as sea mail takes at least a month, and more likely two to process. And I will be moved into Carbondale in less than a month.

And then I went home and I made dinner and things.

And then my nightmare began. After a day of cleaning and packing things at work, and shipping, I continued to clean and pack in the evening. I started sometime around 8:30 and I didn't finish until close to 11pm. By the end of it I was on the verge of flipping out, I'm very serious. I don't handle moving well. But once I got started I had to keep going, cleaning and packing and cleaning and knowing that I'm never going to fit everything into my suitcases, until I finally had to force myself to stop. I was unfocused and becoming unhinged. It took me two hours to calm down enough to go to bed.

I hate moving.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 275 (07-20-09)

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:35:05 GMT

Cleaning, muffins, cockroach.

I cleaned and I packed and I picked things up. I also went to the grocery store to buy a few things. I broke down and bought fresh fruit – I love Japanese fruit and I only have a short time to experience it. At least I can say that it's healthy for me to have it as a snack. I bought grapes, tiny tiny grapes that are about the size of chickpeas. Seriously, they are tiny. But so sweet and full of juice. I freeze them and eat them that way, it's like an explosion of frozen deliciousness in my mouth.

I made pumpkin bars into muffins in the afternoon. This took all afternoon long, because they took forever to bake, and then I would always try to get them out of the pan before they'd cooled down enough to set fully. Great job. Anyway I set them off to cool and then I frosted them and I set them aside to let the frosting set some so when I covered them with foil the frosting wouldn't all come off. Well, I came back a couple of hours later to find that on the small plate with 3 muffins (the other larger plates had 6 and 7 on them) there was a cockroach. Oh good lord, Japan. Why now? So I did the only thing I could – I got the bug spray (not meant for roaches, sadly) and I picked the plate up and the roach wasn't paying attention – there were pumpkin bar muffins with cream cheese frosting to nibble at – and I managed to knock the roach off into the shoe area where I sprayed it good. The thing ran under the 'fridge, but I know from experience that it will die. It'll just take several minutes, the spray isn't meant for roaches, so it takes time.

I cleaned and packed for two hours in the evening. I packed most of my shirts and some odds and ends. I keep finding more articles of clothing that I need to take with me. That scares me, I worry that I won't have enough room for it all. I feel that I am going to have to send a box of non-book things back to America via the slow boat no matter what I do.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 274 (07-19-09)

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:00:43 GMT

I had a nice lunch at the Kamogawa Grand Hotel as a sendoff from the people at church.

The first thing I did in the morning was I called the Chibachuo Post Office – because if I am going to go to get one of the special bulk-rate mailbags for books, I have to go there, basically. And the day to do it for me would be Monday. But Monday is a holiday and they may not be open. So I decided to call on a Sunday – it's the central post office branch for the entire prefecture, if any branch is going to be open on a Sunday, it's this one. It wasn't open – I got an answering machine. So no special trip to Chiba City on Monday for me.

I went into church and I was greeted by Take-san and his family – Kazae-san, Reo, and Sera. They had come down for the holiday weekend, and to see me off. I thought that was very nice of them. Mieko-san had a cold so she was there to say hello to me and then disappeared. The video was, again, in Japanese. I am now positive that they no longer record the English service for the internets, as it has been months and months. So I leafed through the hymnal and read a book after reading the selection for the day.

After this we all drove off to Kamogawa. I was instructed to follow Take-san, and so I did. We ended up taking a back way into town, because they knew that there would be trouble getting there – it's a holiday weekend and the holiday is Ocean Day and Sea World is certain to be packed. And it was. But because we took a back way in, we were only stuck in traffic for maybe an half hour, compared to the hour that we endured the last time we went to the Kamogawa Grand Hotel. I don't know why they always want to eat there, but they do.

We all had the lunch course menu, and the dishes change with the seasons. When I was taken here before, it was always in the spring, so the salad was always one with raw salmon. Now the salad had some sort of pate. For the main dish I had the fish, it was seasonal but it tasted pretty much the same as the last time I had it. Which is to say it was very good fish. Reo, Sera, and Yuki all had interesting times eating. At one point Sera slapped her mother in the face and said, "Mama kirai!" "I hate mama." Oh the joys of having a two year old.

Reo, at one point in church, came up to me and felt my arms. Little Japanese children do this a lot. And when he did it the other two did it, too. So anyway, during lunch Reo sat next to his father and at one point he rubbed his hands up and down Take's arm. And Reo said, "Papa no wa kimochiii ja nai! Kurisu no wa kimochiii desu!" (Papa's doesn't feel good. Chris's feel's good!) I thought that was pretty amazing.

Lunch lasted until 3pm, oi. So I drove straight home and I sat around for awhile before I boxed up books for two hours. I had to look up to see what the weight restrictions on shipping books for cheap is – 5 kilograms. Since I don't have the special bag, I have to keep a package at under 5 kilograms, or the cost doubles. Well, I didn't have a way to measure anything. So I found my landlord and I asked him if he had any scales, and he said no. Then he asked me if a "health meter" would be okay – this is Japanese Engrish for a bathroom scale. I said yes, so he asked Sachiko-san if she had one I could borrow. She said yes, and that I could keep it for several days, since the packing would last awhile. That was very nice of her. So I spent two hours getting boxes down, and arranging books. The scale only measured by the half kilogram. So I measured the boxes to 4.5 kilograms. I ended up with 4 boxes at 4.5 kilograms and one box at 3 kilograms. And I have more books at school. Oh lord.

The Norton Anthology of World Literature weighs 2.5 kilograms all by itself, I will send it off in an envelope or I will take it in my carryon. That's just crazy but it's a Norton and there's no way I'm leaving it behind.

After that, I packed one of my suitcases and I got it up to 19.5 kilograms. This is still 3.5 kilograms shy of what it can be at a max, so I will fill the pockets with undergarments in all likelihood. Oh boy, packing sure is fun to talk about.

Have some pictures from lunch I took with my cellphone.

Reo sat across from me.

Sera would look at me frequently, perhaps to make certain that I hadn't faded away into the aether whence I was born.

Yuki enjoys a good spoon.

It is a salad!

It is the fish!

It is 8 tiny bites of various desserts with the sorbet melting away into nothingness.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 273 (07-18-09)

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:11:03 GMT

Saturday! Short! Boring!

It was Saturday and I actually did regular Saturday things. I did the laundry in the morning, though the weather was cloudy. And yet it was Saturday and it was laundry time.

So I did the laundry and then my parents called earlier than they have in a couple of weeks, so I hadn't had breakfast yet, though it was 10:30. Mostly because they've been calling around 1:00. But mom didn't have to work. So we talked about things for an hour! Talking oh boy. This is exciting to write about, I can only imagine it's as exciting to read about.

After the phonecall and the laundry I took some things down and put things away, to get ready for packing. But I didn't pack terribly much, I was pretty lazy. Wow, thrilling. This was my day. Laundry and a phonecall. But after the previous two days of crying I suppose a day where I did normal, boring things and sort of took the day off was needed.

Farewell Photos

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:23:16 GMT

Here are some photos from my last two days.

This is the 1A class, the last I ever had.

And the final 1B course.

The 2A class. Who can spot the three boys who don't participate in class? Can you? I can! Takumi is the one on the floor who is dead, Yoshiyasu is next to him looking down and Masaki is leaning against Takumi, facing the other way. Good job, boys.

And this is the final 2B course. Featuring a McDonald's fan and a Final Fantasy fan!

This is the picture I took with the 3rd years. Before I started crying. Nice punch, Kouki.

This is a drawing Kanako drew on the whiteboard. Of how she felt. I was touched. And sad.

First the 3A class during my final lunch. Going around from the front left: Yuki, Kanako, Yutaro, Ishida-sensei, Ryuki, Kurokawa and Atsushi.

Ayano, Shin, Aya, Kazuto, Yuuki, and Mikami Yusuke.

Mana, Nao, Satoshi, Hara-sensei, Takahiro, and Mamoru.

And now the 3B class. Kazunari, Nozomi, Masanori, Shimada-sensei, Riko, Hisato and Gotou.

Takaaki, Yuuki, Marina, Kosuke, Naho & Kouki.

Finally, Hiroto, Nagisa, Youhei, Tanaka-sensei, Momoko, Yusuke Kohara, and Yuichirou.

And here is my final lunch – tempura fried shrimp and vegetables with udon noodles, the waffle with cheese inside, and pudding. With coffee milk! The only way to drink coffee.

Here's the food we had at the enkai. Tempura fried shrimp with vegetable and soba noodles, something that tasted like an egg yolk had been cooked with powdered "cheeze" from cheetoes (it was not a good thing), turban shell, corn, cherry-flavored konnyaku jelly, sea urchin (I didn't eat that), sushi, sashimi (really amazingly good quality), and whale. Not pictured is desert, as that was served in the dark, and was a slice of melon and then anmitsu icecream, with plain jello, anko, kiwi and banana.

Here is the only shot of me being presented with things after the ceremony was over where I sort of almost look okay – in the others I look like somebody just told me that frowny faces were the new happy face.

Hello, strained, odd smile plastered on my face. Hello boys behind me playing with my hair. They were themselves up until the very end, I will give them that.

The tear-inducing bouquet in all of its terrible beauty.

Why, this appears to be the back of some sort of stuffed hairy monkey or something.

Oh no. No, this is evidently not a hairy monkey, it is a hairy, misshapen foreigner.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 272 (07-17-09)

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:54:12 GMT

Oh hello, last day of school ever. Hello breaking heart.

It was the last day of the term and the only thing we had to do was we had the farewell ceremony and an awards ceremony. We had the awards first, and the kids were given awards for sports – the baseball boys got into the best 8, and several of the track and field students had awards as well. And then they had the closing ceremony part. We sang the school song and I, for the first time, sang along with it. I had it written out so that I could read it. I wanted to sing it loudly, but I didn't have the voice for it. So I sang along quietly.

And then Usui asked me to come up on the stage. And he talked about me leaving the school after three years and what I had done in those three years, and then he asked me to say something. So I stood up there and I told them again what I felt in leaving them. I opened it with saying good morning and asking them how they were. Like it was class. Because I wanted to do it once more. I told them that I felt hikikomogomo – alternating feelings of joy and sorrow in my heart. It's a classy Japanese word that isn't very common, but a few of the kids knew it. When I used the word Marina smiled, she'd heard me use it before. I told them that I was happy and sad and that I was going to miss them all. And as I stood in front of them all and I had to say goodbye again I couldn't take it.

At the end I tried to end it by saying "osewani narimashita" but by the end of it I could barely say it. My voice petered out and I started crying at the microphone. So I bowed and I stepped back, unable to speak anymore. I sat down and I dabbed a handkerchief to my eyes – I had thought ahead of time and I stuck a handkerchief I had been given as a gift in my pocket. And then two third year girls came up and one gave me a bouquet and another read a speech she had written about me in English, about how I'd made class interesting and easy and how they would miss me.

And so I cried as I listened, and then I looked down at the bouquet after a couple of minutes, I hadn't paid any attention to it. It had sunflowers in it. And for the guy who was crying because he was imagining the Mother 3 Theme of Love song, holding in my hands sunflowers was that much worse. Sunflowers, in that game, were the main character's mother's favorite flower, and SPOILER ALERT he lays them at her grave after she dies and in the context of this game sunflowers are the saddest thing ever. So, this made me sadder.

And then it was over. I went back and sat down at my regular seat not on the stage, and the vice principal declared it to be over. And the first and second years filed out but the third years stayed in the gym. They had something for me – they had all written short messages to me, one set in Japanese and another in English. And I took them and they wanted pictures so I stopped crying enough so that I could take their things and take pictures with them but I was still very sad. Sad indeed.

And I thanked them all and I talked with them and they told me, again, to come back and see them. And again, it cut me right to my heart, because I know that I can't. Then they went up to their rooms to get their report cards and I went to the office. I read the things they wrote to me – they asked me to come back, and to keep on smiling, they told me that they'd never forget me and thank you for teaching English, and for good luck in America. Unsurprisingly, reading it made me sadder.

Eventually I had to stop reading the things because I had to go to the board of education at 11, and if I was going to drive there I had to be clear headed. I went to the board of education and I met with Anzai-san, Randy was there, too. We had to figure out logistics for me moving and when and how to cancel accounts and pay things and the like. He also gave me the paperwork for how to get my reimbursement of money I had payed into the Japanese pension plan. It took us 10 minutes to figure out how much they owed me – he was reading the Japanese and had trouble figuring it out, so youc an imagine how clear it was in the English version. Finally we figured it out, close to 670,000 yen. At today's rates that about $7000. I could use that when I'm a grad student, certainly.

I went back to school and I had lunch there, and I showed some of the kids the doll Hirano-san made me. They thought it was pretty funny. I was also given presents by Yamaguchi-sensei and by Morikawa-sensei. Handkerchiefs from both and from Yamaguchi-sensei I also got Japanese-style salt and pepper shakers. I saw some of the kids again, and the told me to come back for Undokai (sports day), in September. I told them I couldn't. So then they told me to come back for graduation, and I told them I was so sorry, but I couldn't. They clawed at my heart again, telling me that they wanted me to be here for their important moments.

When it came time to leave I told everyone I would be back in on Tuesday and I went to my car to leave. And the battery was dead. It was raining and I had turned the headlights on when I went to the board of education. And I had left them on. So I had to go back in and ask for a jump. So Tanaka-sensei, Itami-sensei, Yamaguchi-sensei, and Suzuki-sensei all came out to help me, as we had to push my car out so we could get to the battery. They jumped my car and I thanked them for their trouble, and I left. I drove around town for about twenty minutes to charge the car battery.

Then in the evening I had my night class. I only had four students, it's summer so schedules are busy. Messers. Saito & Ichikawa, Tommy, and Mrs. Shimaza were there. So I heard about what they had been doing recently – Mr. Ichikawa told me about the eclipse that's coming next week. Mrs. Shimaza told me about how she celebrated Bon this week. Mr. Saito had questions about how to use things in English, as usual. Tommy told me about seasonal fishing in Japan. And then they all asked me questions about my impressions of Japan, good and bad. So I told them. And then the class was over and I said goodbye to them forever, too. I didn't cry. But as I was driving my car back to Wada, I became very sad all over again, realizing this was the last time I had to visit them. It was a lonely drive back home.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 271 (07-16-09)

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:57:06 GMT

Hey Chris, write us 2000 words about your heart breaking.

I went in to work knowing that it was my last day of classes. And this made me a little sad. But I had classes to teach. I had the first years during the first two hours of the day. We spent both of their classes in having them do summer homework stuff for the first half, and the last half of the class we played the typhoon game. Where I draw houses on the board and the kids answer questions, whichever team answers first gets to erase part of another team's house. In both classes the same thing happened – the middle house got destroyed by the other two sides. I have no idea why everybody ganged up on that house, but they always did. I drew characters for each house, too – Crayon Shin-chan, Sazae-san, and me. Whenever somebody erased me I would yelp in terror. The kids thought that was funny.

So after both classes I had a short time to tell them goodbye, and I felt a little sad. Only a little sad, though, because I have only been teaching most of them for the past 4 months. A few of them I had in my night class for children a year or two ago, but I didn't have the older kids this past year, so I don't have a big connection with them yet. It takes me time to form connections. I was sad to see them off, though.

And then it came time for the 3rd years. We agreed that the last ten minutes of class that all the 3rd years would come together so I could talk to them all and see them all off. I had my Challenge class for the first 40 minutes, though. Masanori's B-note today (He turned one in!) was an entire page of "thank you" and at the bottom "Come back to Wada if you have time." Everyone turned in a diary, too. That was nice of them. Some of them wrote that they'd miss me, others wrote regular diaries. I told them all thank you for being in my class no matter what they wrote. The kids also all said a couple sentences to me in English, mostly saying thanks for teaching them and that they'd miss me. I also spoke to them and thanked them for being with me, and I told them that I'd watched them grow up from being 6th graders to being 3rd years. And I was sad to leave them. But I didn't cry.

But then it was time to go to the public area in the 3rd floor to see everyone off. And so the kids all got together and I stood there and I had to say goodbye to them again. And I said some of the same things I said earlier to the Challenge class, and then I added something. I said that I was glad to have been with them for three years, but sad to be leaving them after three years. Yamaguchi-sensei translated for me. And I was getting sadder as time went on, I said at one point that if I kept talking I was going to cry. So I tried to wrap it up.

And suddenly I had the Theme of Love from Mother 3 stuck in my head. And that game is the saddest thing with pixels you have ever seen. That song plays at the most poignant moments in that game. And saying goodbye to my 3rd years with this song running in the back of my head made me sadder. Stupid, stupid, stupid touching and beautiful videogame. Be sad with me and click this to hear the song. I saw that some of the girls in the group were crying – Kanako always cries at the drop of a hat. And she was joined by a few others.

And then it was the end, and I realized that I had to say, "That's all for today, thank you, goodbye" to them. For the last time. And I had said this to them every single classtime we have ever had, for three long years.

And I couldn't bear it anymore. I told them goodbye, and they told me goodbye and I started crying, standing there in front of them, my nose running and tears leaking out of my eyes. And some boy in the back said, "Chris, don't cry!" I think it was Yuichiro. But I was crying and I couldn't stop. Because I'd given these kids the last three years of my life and I do love them. Even the bad ones, I love them all. And to leave them now hurts. Even writing about this the next day hurts. I gave them my heart. I gave them my heart.

The boys came up to me to shake my hand. But they didn't shake my hand. They acted like they were, and then suddenly they tackled and hugged me. I had a succession of hugs from the 3rd year boys. And I was crying. And so many of them told me, when it was time for them to go or they'd be late for class, that they'd see me again. And it cut me straight to my soul.

I got myself composed enough that I could teach the 2nd year's class after. And we did practice from the book with them about the infinitive, and a worksheet. And then at the end of class I had to tell them all goodbye, too. I didn't cry this time. I came close, though – the 3rd years had left me pretty torn up by this point.

I had my last lunch with my 3rd years, which was a little sad. It was a 'choice' meal because it was the last one of the term – cold udon or soba noodles (I had udon) with tempura fried vegetable cake and shrimp, waffle-with-cheese-inside or grilled mochi with nori seaweed (I had the waffle), and jello or Japanese pudding (I had the pudding.) I went around and I took pictures of everybody at their tables eating, in both of the 3rd year classes.

In the afternoon we had cleanup time and I cleaned the windows on the inside. I always think that what we need is a spray bottle with white vinegar and water in it, but they don't have white vinegar here, so instead we wet down newspaper and use that. The end result being the newspaper rips amazingly easy unless you do it just right, and my hands get black. But I cleaned the windows – it was an extended cleaning period, the last one until September.

After school I went home and there was a postcard for me. I thought it was from sketchyheart because it had forieign words on it but it was actually from vayshti. I was confused by it because I was expecting a post card from Italy but this had a stamp of the Queen on it. The post card turned out to be Spanish, not Italian. Ooops. Aaaanyway, that was a nice surprise.

At 7pm I had to go to my farewell enkai. It was at the Wadaura Drive In. Everyone was surprised when I said I couldn't drink because I drove – how else did they expect me to get there? Nobody offered to take me and I didn't ask for anyone to take me. I was give the Special Seat Of Honor, which was right next to the principal. Oh. Oh boy.

Usui started off by asking me how my knee was, and I told him it was fine now. And he then told me that it's his professional opinion that my knee had troubles because I'm fat.

Nice to see you, too.

So I was told, about a minute after I sat down, that I'm fat and I need to lose weight and I need a diet and he walks for an hour every morning so I should do that, too.

I'll miss you, too.

And then the party began. And there was a lot of food. Most of which I would eat, though I didn't touch the uni – I don't like sea urchin at all. The tuna sashimi was so amazingly fresh it was falling apart in my mouth. And there was Japanese-style jelly (it's made from konnyaku, but it doesn't taste as bad as konnyaku) and sushi and tempura shrimp and cold soba noodles (good thing I had cold udon noodles for lunch), and other things, too. It was a nice meal. Then we had presentation time. And they had a video for me. A video that lasted almost half an hour. Toriumi-sensei had spent time tracking down the 3rd years and getting them to say goodbye to me on camera. And almost all of them spoke totally in Japanese on the video. I understood about 80% of what they were saying, though. And he also asked the teachers to say things about me. And Suzuki-sensei, an English teacher, spoke in Japanese. She got teased by everyone else for that. The other English teachers, and Usui, spoke in English to me. And then there were some surprises – my old principal had a segment for me, which was a big surprise and touching. And then Yasuda-sensei showed up – he had his baseball team from Shirahama stand behind him while he talked to me in English, doing jazz hands. The entire time he spoke. And he spoke for like five minutes. It was amazing. And then there was footage of Toriumi-sensei just taking videos of kids practicing in their club activities, so I could see them one last time. And I was told they would give me the tape and make me a DVD of it by next week, so I could take it home with me.

Then they asked me to say a few words. I had something written down but I was so nervous and sad and mixed up that I buzzed through it and if I didn't say things right I wouldn't be at all surprised. This is what I said:

3 nen mae ni watashi wa nihon ni kimashita.
(3 years ago I came to Japan)
Daremo shirimasen deshita.
(I didn't know anybody)
Watashi wa anata-tachi wo shiru youni narimashita.
(I came to know you all.)
Watashi was anata no kokugo yori mo anata-tachi wo shiru youni narimashita.
(I came to know you all better than I came to know your language) <-- Nobody laughed at my joke. ;-;
Ureshiku kanashii desu.
(I'm happy and sad)
Iroiro osewaninarimashita
(Thank you for everything/for all your support)
Minna-san sabishiku narimasu.
(I'll be come lonely without you)
Hontou ni arigatou gozaimashita
(Thank you so much)

(PS – thank you wingedkuroneko for helping me proofread it all)

And then they gave me gifts. They had given me a nori – a cloth to hang above a door. I have one plain blue one, but now I also have a bright blue one with happi coat designs on it. It's very nice looking. And then Hirano-san gave me a gift and I was speechless. The woman had made a plushie version of me. It included my glasses, my sideburns, and my goatee. And my hair looks like the same color and looks like real hair. And I am adorable. I was dumbstruck.

And then the party was over and I went home.

I'm sorry there are no pictures, yet, this entry took forever to type up and I will try to get a giant picture post done up tomorrow, I hope.

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:10:16 GMT

Oh god they gave me sunflowers when I left them

why did there have to be sunflowers

they only made me cry more

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 270 (07-15-09)

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:03:37 GMT

I had classes yesterday that I barely remember now because today has been an emotional rollercoaster. So let's just hit the highlights.

Yamaguchi-sensei had me take photos with all of the 2nd years today, as well as both classes of 1st years with Suzuki-sensei. That was nice of them, and I'm glad I thought to bring in my camera. We had them do summer work for most of class, and then we broke up the last few minutes so we could take pictures. I will have a big picture post tomorrow probably, combining pictures taken on Wednesday and Thursday, I've got quite a bit.

One of the classes I had with the 2nd years was my last class with them. So I had to say goodbye. And I was a little sad.

When I came home I drove down the hill and there I saw something. My landlady was bathing Wakana in a little plastic tub. Wakana was naked. And I finally realized that Wakana is a girl.

Here's the thing – I was told years ago that Wakana was a boy. I think they used the wrong word. I had my suspicions that Wakana was a girl because they've been dressing her in dresses and her hair is very, very long. Now I thought the dresses thing was a hand-me-down thing, Wakana has one brother who is 13, and 4 sisters who are much younger than that. So I just thought it was a "we have a lot of little girl clothes and no little boy clothes and at this age it doesn't matter. But the really long hair sort of made me go "maybe Wakana is a little girl."

Wakana is a little girl. As I came in, Wakana waved hello to me. Then covered herself, then waved to me again, then covered herself again. I waved back when she waved to me, which is probably why she waved that second time.

Suffice to say, I wasn't expecting a two-year-old naked girl outside of my apartment. And yet there was one.

So most of my entry today is about a naked 2 year old girl. This is totally not worrying at all.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 269 (07-14-09)

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:55:42 GMT

I had all of my classes on Tuesday, in a marked change from Monday. Oh Wada Junior High, when will you ever learn the meaning of the word constancy?

Anyway I had the 3rd years and they were doing, wait for it… WORKSHEETS. Wow I am… so excited to keep talking about worksheets. Boy howdy. I noticed something interesting while checking the B-notes today – Takaaki took a news item I'd given them several weeks ago and he wrote out words from it. The end result was a paper that had two lines each of these words in this order:

kittens
military coup
overthrow
Honduras
president
government

Those darned kittens with their military coups overthrowing Honduras' president & government. I always knew their cute, adorable faces were just a ploy for world dominion. And now we know.

The second years had a lesson on the infinitive, we have moved into the section of the book about using a computer to get e-pals. On the Internet. I was unaware e-pal was a word! I guess it must be as it's in the book. Anyway we're teaching the kids how to say things like "I want to play baseball" and "I like to watch TV" and such. Oh, the infinitive – you help us share our feelings and desires.

Emi: "I want to find some e-pals."
Mike: "OK. Let's surf the Internet and find some."
Emi: "Is it difficult?"
Mike: "No. Many people around the world make friends through computers."
Emi: "It sounds like fun."

There was a beautiful note written on the board during the 2nd year's class from an earlier class. The note said "MASUTAA 7 made" "マスター 7 まで." This was a shorthand note to tell the kids if they were finished with the worksheet that went along with the infinitive lesson we were doing they were to work in their Master workbook up to page 7, literally it would translate to "Master, to 7." Watanabe-sensei's nickname that everyone in school uses for him is Master. The boys saw this and decided to alter it. They changed it to read "マスターは 7日までだ" "MASUTAA wa nanoka made da." Translation: "Master, 7 days left." They took that and turned it into the quote from The Ring. This was the greatest alteration.

So then I had the first years, and the first year's class was of a reading check. I didn't find out until after the kids read the entirety of Unit 3 to me (Mrs. Green's Introduction!) that I was supposed to be on the lookout for what 1st years we should have for the speech contest. This wasn't explained to me. Oops. So I had no recommendations, I didn't think to take notes on anybody. Oh boy. Good for me. And then the other 1st year class didn't do the reading, as they were a day behind, they just did some worksheets and we went over them.

During lunch the kids played nothing but Michael Jackson music on the intercom. This seems a little belated but maybe they couldn't fit it into the schedule any earlier. So we listened to Thriller, Bad, and A, B, C. The kids asked if I was a fan, I said not really.

I went to the post office in the afternoon to see about getting what's called a D-bag in English, it's a special bag you can get to ship books off in bulk for cheap. And I asked if they could get me one at Wada. They got all panicky. This meant one thing – no. The foreigner came in and asked them for something that has a Japanese name, so it must exist, but nobody has ever heard of it ever before. They showed me the bags they have for shipping, none of which are the bag I needed. So I thanked them and I left. So then I went to school and I had the vice principal call the Tateyama post office to see if they could get it for me. And they told me that they don't have them, and I'd have to go into Chiba to get one. I looked at it on the internet, and the Japan Post website told me there were only three post offices in all of Chiba prefecture that had them. And no, they can't possibly get one from one of those places and send it down to another post office, that would be too much trouble for them. The three post offices are at Narita Airport, Chiba City, and Urayasu City, the place where Tokyo Disneyland is. The closest is Chiba City, and that would require an entire day just to ship books. So I will be sending the books back home in boxes at higher expense, as whatever money I would save by getting one of these bags I would spend in train tickets and having to slog that many books up to Chiba City would be a hassle. Hurrah for inconvenience.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 268 (07-13-09)

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:27:19 GMT

It was Monday so I was back at work. Work! Oh boy!

I should say I was back at "work" because I hardly did anything that could possibly be considered work but for the first hour.

During first hour I had the 3rd year class, and the vice principal and I opened it up like regular. It was more worksheet time (joy) but as class went on I heard noises coming from the classroom next door, where Yamaguchi-sensei was supposed to be teaching her class. And yet they were getting louder and louder and I never heard Yamaguchi-sensei tell them to quiet down. So I poked my head into the class – Yamaguchi-sensei wasn't there. And I realized that during the morning staff meeting I hadn't seen her. With meant that these students had had no teacher at all. They were just in the room by themselves.

I told the vice principal that I would go and watch them if he'd take care of the worksheets. He said that was fine, so I went over and I watched them. It was the B course, the low level (not the lowest, the 3rd years have four levels) and most of them weren't working. So I went in and I did my best to get them to do anything. Three of them were working on their workbooks, the other six of them weren't working.

Riko decided that she was going to hit Hisato on the head, and Hisato decided that he would hit her back. This continued through a lot of class. At one point I had Riko trying to draw on his head with markers. I stopped her from that and got her back to her seat by offering her my hand and she placed her hand in my own and I calmly lead her back to where she was supposed to be sitting by saying, "Sit down, madam." And the boys in the class then went, "No, no, not madam." Oh boys. Riko did manage to draw on Nagisa's arm, who was sitting next to her. I was writing a question on the board because Kazuto asked me to so he could write it down in his B-note – he actually was trying to work, good for him when she drew on Nagisa. Also three other boys spent the hour writing things on a desk. I had to tell them to stop writing and erase it all. All I can say is – it's a good thing I was in there because even with me there they were unfocused and writing on things not meant to be written on.

After this all my other classes for the day were canceled. All of them. So the only other thing I did was I had lunch with the 3B class again, so back from me having questions of me and into me being the one who has to ask questions.

Yamaguchi-sensei showed up later in the day and she thanked me for taking over her class and asked how they did. So I told her. She seemed a bit… exasperated by it all, but also she seemed to expect it. Alas for poor Yamaguchi-sensei.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 267 (07-12-09)

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:09:35 GMT

Sunday means church and shopping!

It was Sunday and I went to church in the morning. While I drove there I was thinking about how I had seen Naoto a few times while driving to church, and it's the season now when the high schools are already out. So I was thinking in the back of my mind that I might see him while driving to church again. I didn't – instead I saw Nobu. And I know he saw me because he slowed down and grinned that stupid grin of his at me. I waved back to him. Oh Nobu, I miss having you in class, you were always so very Nobu.

Church was in Japanese again. I looked at the new hymnal – the one that they are going to give me. Sadly, compared to the old hymnal it is much less friendly for me – it doesn't have a listing of any of the English names in the back like the old one did, and in some cases rather than including the lyrics for the songs all within the bars, and in hiragana, it only has the first verse in hiragana, and then the rest is crammed in at the bottom in kanji. So unreadable. So this will limit what I can sing at church when I go back – I have offered to sing something in Japanese. I couldn't find Come Thou Font, which is a pity, but I did find Come Let Us Join Our Cheerful Songs, which I know I can do. When I get one of them for myself next week I will go through it at my leisure and pick a couple different songs to choose from.

Anyway after church I went to Tateyama to go shopping. I went to various places, getting things I need for packing and moving. I need to print off the things I've sent to the ALT and put them in a book – I'm supposed to leave something written behind and I really should, so I got a plastic folder book to put them in, and I got bubble wrap for electronic stuff and figurines, and other things, from various stores. I went to McDonalds and I tried to get the Jirachi pokemon they were giving away but my game wouldn't connect. I tried five times but it refused to connect. So I can only assume that it wouldn't work because I have an English version of the game and it wouldn't recognize it. Alas. I then went to Odoya and I bought drinks and meat – I don't buy anything else anymore, as I have a lot of vegetables (canned and frozen) that I have to eat through. And rice and bread. So there we go.

I packed up electronics and figurines in the afternoon, boxing them up and wrapping them up as well. Hurrah. Packing makes me so happy. For dinner I used the muffin tin to make little tiny chicken pot pies – I cut up chicken and I used frozen mixed vegetables and a packet of instant cream of mushroom soup to which I added no liquid. And then I baked them in short bursts for about forty minutes. And the end result was beautiful – perhaps I should have added like a tablespoon of milk to the soup so everything would have been a little more moist but the chicken and vegetables both gave up liquid and so the mushroom soup powder liquefied and turned into a very thick sauce. It was beautiful.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 266 (07-11-09)

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:43:52 GMT

Here is an update. It is updateful.

It's a Saturday so this is easy to talk about. My knee still gave me troubles, but less than the day before. My calf muscle hurt because of all of the strain it had gone through the day before. The weather was nice today, nice enough to open up and turn off the A/C. So I did, gladly. It was cloudy and cool and the humidity was down. I checked to see how low the humidity was that was causing me to find it so pleasant – it was 83%. This is blessedly low. This is a good indication as to how humid it is here, that I find 83% humidity low and wonderful.

Anyway I did the laundry in the morning and I was still doing it when my parents called me at 1:30. The sun wasn't out and there wasn't really a breeze so the things I had hung up got mostly dry but didn't finish drying. I cleaned out the birdcage, finally, I hadn't done that yet. I had procrastinated. And I washed dishes. And I took stock of what still needed to be divvied up for packing off, though I did no packing. I have a lot of books that I need to mail back home, I need to go to the post office to get a special bag for books, the rate is cheaper if I put it in one of those bags. So I will go to the post office some afternoon to get the bag and fill it up, then send it off later in the week.

I spent like an hour trying to fix the VCR. A tape has been stuck in it for several weeks and I had to take it apart to get the tape out. And in pulling the tape out (it was stuck, no amount of hitting the eject button would get it out) while I got the tape out I didn't get the VCR to work any better – it works worse now. Because with the tape in it it would still turn on and you could watch TV through it. Now the devise that raises and lowers the tape hums at me miserably, moving slowly, and the entire thing shuts off after about ten seconds – it turns the power off. It won't accept new tapes, either. So I got the tape out (I was curious if the tapes that all say COLOMBO on them are really all episodes of Colombo, no actually they have been taped over by the previous ALT, at least that one had been, and after all of viewing it for about a minute the tape decided to stop working and jam the VCR, thanks old tape from Eugene) and the thing won't work at all. So I went to see if my landlord was around to tell him about it – to see if it was okay for me to put it in the pile of electronic junk. I didn't find him but I found my landlady talking with my next door neighbor. And so I got swept up into their conversation. For some reason they declared that I didn't look like either of my parents, so who did I look like? I have the feeling they mean "You are not as slim as your parents are" so I said I looked like grandma Douglas. So was also not thin. Anyway I got across that my VCR was busted and she said it was fine to toss it out. I'm going to call the BoE before I do so, though – I replaced the TV with my own money without thinking that maybe they'd replace it – maybe they'll replace the VCR for the new ALT for free or something. I will just live without watching Dora the Explorer in English, though it was the highlight of my week.

At 10pm I was suddenly struck with the desire to make brownies. And I have brownie mix, Ephie sent it to me forever ago. So I made it at 10pm. I have to use up all of this stuff I've got somehow – though I will never make it through all of the taco seasoning packets I keep forgetting I have and then I buy more at the grocery store. Whoops. Oh well, the new ALT can eat tacos. The brownies tasted delicious, I should add.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 265 (07-10-09)

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 12:41:23 GMT

I love waking up and hobbling around like an 80 year old man.

I woke up at 4am because my leg hurt a lot. And I kept waking up every half hour or so, as I would shift in my sleep and then put my leg in an unhappy position. It was an unhappy way to sleep.

I hobbled my way into work. They took pity on me. I took solace in the fact that there was no first hour class. I managed to get upstairs for the 2nd year lesson. After about two minutes of class, Yamaguchi-sensei asked me (I had barely moved from the spot I was standing in) if I was okay. Evidently I looked strained. I felt strained – I couldn't stand straight on my leg, I had to have my knee bent, which put pressure on my back so I had back pain in addition to a knee that would scream in protest if I tried to make it straighter, or if I tried to bend it too much. The 2nd years had more practice with the grammar points from the chapter on moais, but sadly nothing about moais themselves. This is sad because moais are something we can all get behind. I don't remember much of class, I was strangely distracted for most of it. I do remember that I managed to get Takumi to do four questions on his worksheet. That was a miracle and a half.

The next hour I had the 3rd years with the vice principal. Last week Kouki, when asked for news, would always say "Michael Jackson… DIED." This week he's been saying, "Michael Jackson… COME BACK." Oh Kouki. That wasn't our news item, though – our news was about a rabbit that's been made an assistant shop clerk at a roadside stand. This is a country where a cat can be a station master, so of course rabbits get to be assistant shop clerks. This rabbit is working in a town mentioned in a famous Japanese folk tale about a rabbit who helped some deity get married to a princess. So to commemorate this there is now a store with a rabbit to "help" the customers. It made the national newspapers. I predict this store will see a marked increase in the number of customers they get because of it. This is Japan, if you can make a thing cute, it'll sell.

After the news we had the students check answers on a worksheet, and they also worked on a new worksheet. I could do this while sitting down, so I did. Oh, sitting down. I love you so much.

Yamaguchi-sensei told me not to teach 4th hour. She said that it would be better if I rested downstairs, I told her I was very sorry, and I went downstairs. I was sorry that I couldn't do my job and I was forcing her to do it al. But I did want to sit down. So I sat down.

I went back upstairs for lunch, then I went back and I sat down. Suzuki-sensei told me to skip out on 6th hour, too. So it was boring but to be frank, needed.

In the evening I drove to Kamogawa – my leg was a little better, though still not great. I ate dinner at McDonalds and I realized that if I want to get that stupid Jirichi I have to do it soon, there's only a week left in that promotion. So I should probably eat at McDonalds sometime this coming week to do that, I didn't bring my DS with me to Kamogawa.

I had my night class with only four students – Messers. Okamoto, Saito, Ichikawa, and Tommy. They all wanted my phone number in America in case I left something and they had to call me to get instructions about it. I told them email would work better but they insisted on the telephone. So mom, dad, if you get a phone call from a mysterious Japanese person you'll know why now. Mr. Ichikawa brought in frozen cherries – he had picked them at the place where he has his second home (I don't remember the prefecture, it's somewhere in the Kansai region), Tommy had questions from a book he'd read (he reads childrens' books in English to practice) about some strange word use, Mr. Okamoto told us about his adventure with using Youtube (he watched a news report about how North Korea had bombed two buildings in Japan, so he went rushing to the TV news to watch it on TV, and it turns out that he'd watched a fake news report, not a real one, and he'd been fooled by it), and Mr. Saito told us about how he went to take care of his family's gravestone. And then he was asked to mow the grass at the graveyard for three hours. Sheesh, temple monks, that's pretty harsh. A man shows up to take care of his family grave and you ask him to mow everybody else's grave while he's at it. All in all, an interesting evening. And I was hobbling less by the end of it, too.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 364 (07-09-09)

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:19:01 GMT

Bookended by comments about my knee!

When I woke up my leg felt perfectly fine. I still took the medicine, though I didn't wear the wrap on my leg anymore.

I had four classes in the morning, and I taught them all and I walked around in class and life was easy and carefree. Except for the part where I tried to entreat 2nd year boys who don't want to do worksheets to do worksheets. Is it terrible of me to admit that I don't like having to teach the boys who we pulled out for a month and a half again? Class was, well I'm not going to say it was nice, but it was certainly better without them there. Because now they don't just distract each other, they distract 80% of class. Sigh.

The 3rd years had a THRILLING WORKSHEET after we finished with the reading for the chapter. Ah yes, one of the few bright spots in the third year's book – the girl from Nepal who has to carry water for her family so she can't go to school, please buy things at our bazaar so we can support her and get her a new well. And eventually they get her a new well that's close enough to home that she can go to school for half days, all thanks to Japanese schoolchildren. This is the bright spot in their book, making the crushing labor of an 8 year old girl slightly less crushing, so she can go to school. Happy!

The first years had a continuation of unit three in the book, by having a worksheet, and then the worksheet became the basis for the rest of class, Suzuki-sensei asking questions of the students based off of it. Usui-tan showed up halfway through one class, which set us both on the edge of our nerves, but by rigorously ignoring him I got through class.

It was hot and humid, and during lunch Kazuto told me it was "Very very hot and … mushi." So I corrected him and told him what mushi is in English – humid. I then taught him a new word – muggy. Because it was very muggy.

After work I went home and I ate leftovers! I have so much food I have to eat in the next two and a half weeks – I am a firm believer in the concept of a well-stocked pantry. So I have canned, boxed, and powdered a lot of things sitting on my shelf, waiting to be used in various things. I noticed as I went to bed my leg was a little bit stiffer than it had been most of the day, but I just figured that was because I had been more active than I had been the past couple of days, and it was still recovering.

In the evening I watched the Twilight movie. It was as beautiful as I had hoped it would be. The acting as wooden as I could have wished. The dialogue as terrible as anything I could have dreamed of. "WHAT ARE YOU? I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE." "Your skin... it's like diamonds... you're... beautiful." "Put your seatbelt on" "Haha, put your seatbelt on." This scene needs more blue filter. MORE BLUE FILTER. SOMEBODY MAKE THIS BLUER. I only wish I had had someone to watch it with.

Spoilers: No, this was the onset of a fresh "why can't I bend my knee?" attack that didn't come to total fruition until it woke me up at 4am because my leg was constantly hurting. Good. Times.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 263 (07-08-09)

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:01:52 GMT

On whaling. Survey inside!

When I woke up my knee was much better. It was still a little stiff but most of the pain was gone. But even so I wrapped it up and took my medicine and when I went into work I sort of pretended to be worse than I really was. Because of all of the trouble I caused yesterday, the last minute specialist appointment, the fact that I was hobbling around school when I got back, all stiff-kneed and in pain, to come in the next day and have nothing, well… it seemed too quick for me. So I walked around extra slowly and a little stiff and said I was better. And I was! I wasn't 100% yet, but I was about 90% (kneeling still gave me some troubles). I just sort of pretended to be at about 70% for the day.

And I could do this because I had no classes today. None. The kids were all testing for that United Nations test, I wasn't needed. The tests take 55 minutes to do, class lasts 50 minutes, you do the math.

I did eat lunch with the 3A class again and they asked me some more questions. That was nice.

In the afternoon I typed things up for Yamaguchi-sensei and because I don't have the drivers for the new printers, I had to print things off using the communal computer and my USB drive. They seem to panic over USB drives at this school (there are some virii that live in them and infect computers I suppose) but I used it anyway, nobody told me not to. And I noticed something about the new printer – it doesn't print things you send to it immediately. You have to go up to the printer and press a flashing button and then it will print what you have sent in. Which means that if somebody else prints something off and forgets you get their thing before you will get yours. I had that happen.

At the end of the day, Sasho-sensei asked me some questions. He's a social studies teacher, and because he teaches in Wada he has to teach about whaling. And he wanted to know my opinions on whaling – he wanted the kids to hear the viewpoint not of someone from the area and from Japan, but rather from an American, an outsider. That's remarkably forward of him – this is Japan and this isn't usually done. I guess three years of me being around has gotten him to respect my opinion or something – that poor fool.

He was surprised to hear that whale meat is illegal in America – I told him it was illegal to hunt them unless you were a member of an Eskimo (Inuit) tribe, and that Americans never eat whale. He wanted to know if anything else was illegal to eat – so I told him things like dolphin and polar bear. I was asked if it was illegal to eat dogs and cats, and I said no it wasn't illegal, but it's socially unacceptable.

So I gave him my opinion, and he asked for the opinions of 'most people in America', too so I gave him the best that I could. And I'll share it with you, too. I told him that I don't support the whaling that Japan does in the Antarctic – that's not in their own waters, it's done on a larger scale, and it's not part of any longstanding tradition. The local whaling that the four traditional whaling towns do, however, I am okay with. The whales they catch are locally caught, are part of a longer tradition, and done on a much smaller scale. The four towns catch something like 100 minke whales each year, less than a fifth of what the large-scale whaling catches in the Antarctic each year. And I should mention, the whaling they're doing right now is at like 1/5th of the levels they used to do it in in the 80s. If Japan were to abolish the Antarctic whaling and permit the four local towns to double their catches each year (I know the whaling towns would be in favor of that, certainly), they would be killing less than half the whales they're doing now, it would still be local and sustainable, and I would be okay with that.

That's my opinion, and it's probably tempered by me living here and coming to know the people who are part of this culture (they can date whaling in Wada back to the earliest days of the Edo period in the first decade of the 1600s). But that's the one I have.

So I'm curious now about the rest of you. I hope you don't think of me any less (I know some people feel strongly about whaling) and I won't think of you any less if you disagree with me, but what are your opinions? If you'd care to tell me, I've got a survey.

View Poll: Whaling

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 262 (07-07-09)

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:49:32 GMT

Oh hey there sudden trips to the doctor! How nice to see you, too.

The day started off normally enough. I had the second years first. We had time to go over the previous day's Speaking Plus, and then we practiced more for their United Nations test that they'd be having on Wednesday. So I got to fast forward through the CD more. Hurrah.

During the 3rd year's lesson I started to noticed that my knee was feeling funny – sometimes you get a feeling of pressure, like you need to crack a joint? I had that. And It wouldn't go away. It got progressively worse as the class went on.

The first years had class next. And it got worse. It was my right knee and the pressure increased. Finally I got down and bent my knees to get at a student's level. And my leg hurt and I had problems standing back up. I had no idea what was going on. But after standing back up I had trouble walking.

So I told Suzuki-sensei I was having problems walking. And she panicked. So I was sent to sit down in the back of class. And then I was sent downstairs to the office where the entire office panicked over me. To be frank my knee did hurt and I couldn't bend it far or make it straight without a lot of pain. And so they panicked over me and insisted I go to the doctor immediately.

So they drew me up a map and sent me off to Tateyama. I went to a clinic I'd never been to before, it was a guy who was a knee specialist. I filled out the forms as best as I could and then I waited to be seen. The nurse asked me my weight and when I answered her she gasped a little bit. Thanks, Japan. I only had to wait for like five minutes before he saw me, and then he asked me some questions in Japanese and I did my best to answer him.

He ordered three x-rays of my knee and I had to stand on things and lie down in funny positions on a table to have it done. This was interesting as I had to hobble around to stand on the step to have my knee x-rayed. Why a place that does knee x-rays makes people stand on steps to get their knee x-rayed is beyond my comprehension – I could get up on the steps easily enough but getting down was awful.

So the doctor told me that I didn't have anything noticeably wrong, just that the cartilage was a little thin in the front. So he said he was going to treat my problem like I had arthritis. Oh great, I hope I have arthritis at the age of 27. Anyway he prescribed me stuff to take for a week and then I hobbled over to the pharmacy next door to get it filled. I was given three kinds of pills, some menthol patches, and some old man liniment.

Driving my car was a pain as I had to put all of my weight on that leg to get in and out. Ugh. But I drove back to school in time to be late for lunch, so I ate my lunch at my desk, it was cold. But at least it was there, I was hungry.

I sat around school the rest of the day, not walking or anything. Usui told me that I didn't have to take nenkyuu for my emergency trip to the doctor. That was nice of him (the man is either nice or infuriating). Everyone was concerned with my mystery problem.

One thing I noted, though – Yamaguchi-sensei has a toothache. She mentioned this, and she seemed to be in some pain. Nobody sent her off to the dentist to have it looked at. Because she's Japanese so she's expected to suffer through it. Whereas I get a room full of panicked teachers who make appointments with specialists for me. Oh also the week's worth of medicine and the specialist visit cost me about $38. I am going to miss this country's healthcare so much.

I got a phonecall just before I left work that Anzai-san from the board of education. He said he was coming over at around 4:30 to look at my apartment because he needed to know what the BoE owned and what my landlord owned and what they'd have to move. Because the new ALT is moving to Maruyama. For no reason he'd tell me.

So I went home and I had to emergency clean. And my leg hurt. So I hobbled around for 45 minutes taking out recyclables, picking up boxes, taking out the trash, washing dishes, sweeping the floor, just trying to make the place look like less like the after-effects of a tornado. I killed my back in doing so – I couldn't bend my knees so I had to constantly bend over to pick things up and clean and I was hobbling so I was pretty exhausted when he knocked at 4:50. I had just sat down like two minutes earlier.

He was there with two other people from the Board of Education – I didn't have any lights on in the apartment yet, I didn't feel I needed them, but when the Japanese people came in all I heard was "Kuroiiiiiii!" (dark!) so I flooded the place with lights. I pointed out things they brought in – Anzai-san didn't remember anything about move-in day. The fact that I remember that day surprises me as I was still jet-lagged, but I went around pointing out things they gave me.

"This is your couch?" "No, Anzai-san you gave it to me." "Whaaaaaaat?"
"You bought this desk?" "No, you brought this desk." "Eh, we brought this?"
"Is this your landlord's refrigerator?" "No, you brought it." "Really?"

I also reminded him that my washer has a drier (he was amazed) and I pointed out in the shed where it was sitting. He then said, "We gave you an air conditioner, right?" And I said, "No you didn't, the A/C was installed when I got here."

The one thing he thought was theirs and it was my landlord's. Sheesh.

Anyway they left around 5:15 after half an hour of looking at what needed to be moved into the new apartment for the new ALT. In Maruyama. That is miles away from school. In another town. Where she won't have the benefit of my landlord's family. After I told them not to change apartments.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 261 (07-06-09)

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:37:52 GMT

MONDAYS MEANS BACK TO WORK.

I forgot to mention how I spent my July 5th evening! In watching 1776, the musical. Which is a brilliant piece of theater, oh yes. Oh Mr. Feeney, I never knew you were so musical. And also John Adams. SALTPETER.

Anyway, on to the 6th. I went into work in the morning and things were regular – I had no classes moved around on me or anything, not even a little bit! Until I got to 2nd hour. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I had the 3rd years first off, and the third years had a worksheet that they graded and checked, oh man. This is thrilling stuff. The vice principal has been trying to play the game that Suzuki-sensei played with the 1st years with me – he writes a word on the board and the kids have to give me clues. But they don't seem too into it – none of the girls speak (okay this doesn't surprise me) and only three of the boys give clues usually. So it turns into the Kazunari-Masanori-Kouki game. Alas.

I found out that 2nd hour was canceled so that Suzuki-sensei could have a meeting with the 1st years. At some point this morning or last Friday, somebody took one of the 1st year's personal boards (they write reports and there are pictures of the students on them) and they wrote "SHINE" on it. I was amazed that I could read it – the kanji for "Shi" was written quickly, but with a good hand. So a lot of the elements in the kanji ran together. "Shi" means die, and when you end it with "ne" it becomes the rudest possible way to tell someone to die. So they're having a meeting about this and I had no class.

The 2nd years did a speaking plus, their first for this year. It was about how to ask a favor. I did a funny voice for Ms. Green, that went over well in both classes. We had the boys who we pulled out several months ago back in class. I can safely say that I didn't miss having them. The three of them set off two other boys in class, so then there are five misbehaving boys, three of which can barely be prodded into doing any work at all. So, stress! Good times. The other class, without those three boys, went much better. We had them try to change the script a little – mostly what was changed was the name of Ms. Green, and where the letter in the script was from – originally it was from Canada but it was changed to America and Australia by the kids. Amazing how nobody ever thinks of England for an English speaking country in Japan. But the kids never seem to.

I ate lunch with the 3A class for a change today. They asked me questions! What a wonderful change for me. I'm used to prodding students for three word long answers, but in this class the table I sat at asked me like five questions. I should have eaten with them sooner. I'll eat with the other groups as the week goes on, so they all get a chance to bask in my glow.

After school I went to Tateyama to go to the doctor for the last time. He proclaimed me healthy and had a note for any American doctor who I would see about what I had been treated for while in Japan. That was nice of him. He then sent me off with a prescription for 90 days worth of blood pressure medicine, the most he's legally allowed to prescribe. And then we parted ways. And I went to the pharmacy and got my medicine and parted ways with them, too. The girl who works there who speaks some English seemed distressed that I'd be leaving – who would she practice her English on now? No-one.

I went to the 100 yen sushi restaurant that I didn't go to the day before. And I had several plates of cheap sushi – three different kinds of salmon, egg, scallop, hamburger, taco (this place is crazy), and others. It was pretty good. Also, this place will sell me a little bottle of ginger ale for 105 yen and that's a major plus. So I've had my conveyor belt sushi now – I may leave Japan a happy man.

Life in Japan – Year 3 Day 260 (07-05-09)

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:26:12 GMT

SUNDAY TIMES IS A GO

It was Sunday and I didn't have church in the morning. Everyone from church has gone off to Switzerland this week. Well, everyone but Iyoko-san, the great-grandmother, she's stayed behind. Which makes sense, she's a little old and frail to be traveling to Europe. So instead of going to church I cleaned.

I went up into the storage loft and I took everything out of it but boxes and the few large objects I store up there – a couple chairs, the vacuum, a thing of plastic drawers, and other odds and ends. I discovered something while up there – I have a lawn chair. I've had a lawn chair for three years and I've never known it. Oh my. Also while I was up there I found a trash bag. This shouldn't be noteworthy except I know that this unused trashbag predates me. The trashbag says on the front that it's the trashbag used for trash collection for the cities of Awa-Kamogawa and Wada.

Wada was incorporated into Minamiboso City several months before I arrived. After that point you could no longer use those trashbags – they no longer made them with the 'City of Wada' thing on them. This trashbag that I just found is three and a half years old. Minamiboso was founded in March of 2006. It's July of 2009. I have to assume that this trashbag is from some time before this merger. The previous ALT, Eugene, left me this trashbag in among his other things. And I can't use it because they won't collect trash out of anything but the new trashbags.

This took up most of my morning – I have had three years of tossing things up there to paw through, to glean what few pearls I may from among all of the junk. I am going to have to see about either packing this or shipping it back home. ARGH THREE WEEKS.

I didn't eat much all day long – two poptarts and some cereal. I just wasn't hungry. I planned on going grocery shopping in the evening, though. So around 5:30 I drove to Tateyama. I planned on eating at the 100 yen sushi restaurant but when I got there they were packed, so instead I went to the Big Boy restaurant which is next door, and which was much less busy. I bought a meal and I got the SOUP BAR and I had TWO KINDS OF SOUP and also grilled meats and vegetables. When I left the restaurant was full, and there were a few people waiting around for a table. I felt bad, me taking up an entire booth but they always, always stick me in a booth, even when a table meant for two people is open. I don't know why, but this almost always happens. Heck, once I went to a restaurant, they pointed me to a table, and I sat down at the 2-person table next to it, and they waved me away to the four-person table. Then ten seconds later they seated two people at the two-person table. JAPAM. Anyway I had dinner and then I went shopping at Jusco looking for real sausages and THEY DON'T HAVE THEM EITHER. They used to. So it's official – nobody sells good sausages anymore, so I just bought some crappy "German Sausages!" that aren't that great but they're the best I can get here for now. And then I went home after buying a few other things.