May 21-26 (Tues-Sun) - Inch by inch, row by row

Tuesday: Long day. Went to the office at 9am, was done with work at 8pm. A couple short breaks in the middle but basically tsukareta. Kids were fun though. And I ate another banana nutella crepe. 

Wednesday: I woke early enough to make myself a feast — a cheese-tomato-onion-bell pepper omelet, + half an apple. And 3 ‘cups’ of coffee (but a cup is 4oz). And a small banana crepe. This batter goes a long way... but I’m running out of nutella :OH NO

Following, I had a super fun 4th-grade class at Ito Elementary. The kids are great. The following classes were ok. I observed a large ant crawling over a girl’s desk, and she was completely unbothered by it. She just kind of watched it. Strange?

I had enough time to break at my apartment for a 5-min meditation, a quick lunch and cup of coffee to keep me going, then I set off to Kawada Elementary. The kids were rather unenthusiastic and it kind of killed my enthusiasm. Plus I’m tired. 

And I’m tired of the MONTHS!!! I think the textbook lessons seem so boring to us teachers because we have to teach each one like a dozen times. 

My brain was shot... but not done yet!!!! I had two Nakano classes (at the office), time for dinner, then my class with Miki. From 8:45am to 10:30pm. That is what I call a long day.

Thursday: *Sigh of relief*. Not so many classes today. I was mobbed by 4-year-olds again. They drained the energy right out of me so I had to take a nap after lunch. Or wait, maybe that was the exercise/stretching I did while listening to history podcasts. No, definitely the kids.

Here is a picture of part of the Miwa house.

Later, one of Casey’s students brought spinach from her garden. So I got spinach. It came with some friends.

This one I walked down and deposited in greenery near the tonbo. The next two I flung gracefully out my window generously equipped with small leaves. 

Friday: I really like Fridays. Miyazaki Shogakkou is a nice place with really friendly students. I joined Hugh this time as he went out to play dodgeball with them between classes. I didn’t really play, but that’s ok, I didn’t really know the rules and the students weren’t used to seeing me out there. One really cute girl (maybe a 3rd-year student?) chatted a little with me once she found out I could speak Japanese, she gave me a hug, and later said hello in the hallway. 

After Miyazaki, Hugh and I have to rush back to UFO for the staff meeting. Luckily it was only about 5 minutes long so I got some lunch, then we went to Kitanakayama. The students here aren’t the most cooperative, but they’re funny. The teachers try to use English for almost everything, which I think is great. Maybe the students don’t know ‘I’m tired’ yet but most of them could tell you the date in English. And that it’s sunny.

That night, ballroom dance. It was fun, but I’ve never worn heels so much my entire life put together. Ashi itakatta.

Saturday: Classes. Morning class went well with only 3 kids. Afternoon classes were kind of a pain because the mother of 2 students — one in each class — was there to watch because her daughter couldn’t see well because of some eye medicine (or something). So not only couldn’t I do much since Haruka couldn’t see, but there was somebody watching. Funiki yokunakatta.

Sono ato, I ran errands. Got gas, bought myself some more cds, shopped for household items, got groceries, then at last returned. I ate a lovely cucumber-spinach-tomato salad...

while waiting for my eggplant pasta to cook.

I finished it off with some ice cream. It was lovely.

Sunday: I made miso soup for breakfast and finished reading the False Prince which I much enjoyed. At 9:30 I went running with Kaori and Hugh, with Mako coaching from the bike. We did almost a half hour, 2.2 miles (maybe). After that us girls did yoga and tai-chi. Phew.

Later we met up for coffee, joined by Nathan, then together went to a brass-band performance held at the gym.

This guest performer was cool. Her music was so-so, but the way she played was fun. She had a flute, guitar, and her hands and voice. She would record a little bit of one using the device at her feet, then start it playing, record a little bit of the other, get that playing too, then sing or play some, switch to another recorded riff, etc. Interesting to watch.

I thought it was pretty fun, but guess the others got a bit bored, so we didn’t stay for long *sad face*. Oh well.

I had macha ice cream and this gohei-mochi — mochi fried in soy sauce.

We watched some stuff, but it was just too too too hot. So we decided to head out on an adventure in search of somewhere to swim. Mako drove, we went to Ikeda to some waterfall. Hugh and I got in and swam (for about 2 min.), Kaori slipped and thus got wet without the benefit of swimming, and Mako took pictures. 

We passed godzilla on the way back.

Sono ato, we made dinner and enjoyed much food. At the very end we were ambushed by a platoon of little mayflies (kamo), luckily many of them committed jisatsu in the ketchup remains and my water glass. I vacuumed up the rest then sprayed poison. I don’t know how they got in but I’m not taking any more chances. 

Recent words:

choushi wa dou? = what’s up, how’s it going, how are you doing

koukun (校訓) = school precepts (e.g. kindness, strength)

haru (張る) = to stick, paste

jougi (定規) = ruler (measurement)

tsuchihumazu = arch of the foot (lit. what doesn’t touch the earth)

ashi no ura = ball of foot (lit. reverse of foot)

sebone = spine

uta wa atama kara hanarenai = can’t get that song out of my head

ice cream o tabenakatta hou ga yokatta na = it would’ve been better if I hadn’t eaten that ice cream

sore hodo arukanakatta hou ga yokatta naa = it would’ve been better if I hadn’t walked that much

shiagaru (仕上る) = to finish, to be complete

sutte (吸う), haite (吐く) = breathe in, breathe out

funiki (雰囲気) = atmosphere (i.e. as that of a restaurant)

kojin de = individually

kaishou = negotiation

my bobo = oh my god (in S. African dialect)

May 19-20 (Sun-Mon) - The Suisen Marathon

Sunday: Kaori and I had a lovely breakfast, then guided by our professional yawning coach Hugh on a bicycle (he broke his toe so he can’t run), we went out on the beautiful cloudy day for a 4k run. Banzai for the First Annual Suisen Marathon.

It took us about 20 minutes and we ended fairly exhausted. However, when has that stopped anyone?
Hugh backed out but Mako (his girlfriend) joined us for Yoga and Tai-chi With Kaori-sensei.

Having thus fulfilled out exercise quota for the week, Kaori and I made a lunch of chickpea salad and fresh baguette with oil/vinegar. Yum.

We all know how advanced Salt Lake City is. This is further proven by the fact this Sabae library has no renewal system — or if it does, it certainly has no online renewal system set up. So we had to return the books we borrowed a mere 2 weeks ago. Also, the library does not allow check-outs of cds or dvds. They can’t possibly fear they might be stolen? Or maybe they are in such high demand they don’t want them leaving the library? Mystery.

The library is organized using the Dewey Decimal System. Maybe. Except I didn’t see any decimals yet so I’ll have to get back to you on that one. After the number, they are alphabetized by hiragana. I know all the hiragana, but have I memorized the order? No. I believe it starts with a-i-u-e-o, then it’s possible the ka section is next, but I couldn’t say. Perhaps this is something I should learn. If the 5th-graders have to learn not only the alphabet but the order of the letters — to such an extent as they can shuffle them up and put them in the right order in 20 seconds, something I’m not sure I could do — then shouldn’t I learn the order of the hiragana chart? Eh, maybe.

In the afternoon, Hugh and Mako joined us for movie afternoon/night. We watched Toki o Kakeru Shojo (the girl who leapt through time - an anime movie), in Japanese, no subtitles. We snacked on kuri (chestnuts) and chick-pea salad and popcorn and dried ika (squid). Then we went out and got frozen pizzas, which are smaller than American personal pizzas and cost about $4 each, ate those, then watched the first two episodes of the Walking Dead. The first 2 minutes was enough for me, thank you very much. I hate hate hate zombies. But now it seems we will be watching it again next week. Komatta. I should have picked Wall-E. It’s what I get for feeling adventurous. Luckily, we watched in Japanese, no subtitles. Kaori-sensei translated some stuff for me :)

Monday: I woke, I drank coffee, had tkd class, walked to the supermarket and found the close one does not have coconut milk. Ochikonda. But then inspiration struck.
After practicing tkd for like 2 hours and fair killing myself, I had a gourmet lunch of chickpea salad, baguette with oil/vinegar and actual PEPPER! Then I made this.

Oh, but not like that. Like this. Duh. The way hotcakes are meant to be eaten.

Then I happened to notice on Wikipedia (which is my default ‘is the internet working’ page) that the Eurovision contest had ended, so I whiled away almost an hour watching the entries. They were disappointingly boring, aside from the few I liked. Dress. Song. Music video.

Finally I dragged myself over to the office to do some lesson-planning, since this week is going to kill me, I know it. I got some stuff done, but spent most of the time chatting with Hugh and Nathan as Hugh finished burning the 80 DVDs of student end-of-year uh, performances? for the parents. I don’t know why he got stuck with the project, maybe he volunteered.

For dinner I had leftover split-pea soup, dipped baguette in the most delicious dipping sauce, and followed it up with this.

Which is this.

Which soon became this.

That’s what happens to 98¥ mousse pudding things. I’m sure they don’t regret their fate, for all the joy I felt with each bite.

So now it’s time for bed. Oyasumi.

Recent words:
nobasu (伸ばす) = stretch (also, sutorecchi)
sebone = spine
hiyokomame = chick-pea
chikachika = flickering (lights)
nou[miso] = brain
tataku = to clap, but they often say dondon/tonton
oshii = regrettable, close, almost
jikai = next time
fushizen = unnatural
yoko tate = horizontal vertical
deejii = daisy (common, common, common — yet there is not a Japanese name, it seems)

May 13-18 (Mon-Sat) - Heroes to the rescue

Monday: I woke late, made coffee, ran errands, did tkd, talked with family, replied to emails, downloaded stuff, pulled out fans and shorts, made dinner, ate ice cream, and so forth. Productive hot hot hot day.

Tuesday: I only had one class today. So I did stuff and relaxed. It was hot.

I walked to Nishiyama Koen in the morning. The azalea are in full bloom.

I made a new friend.

During my walk, I finally saw a crane while in possession of my camera. 

Most of the rice fields are flooded now, most were planted over the Golden Week holiday. Every tanbo has a ramp down from the road. Some are more sophisticated, some are packed dirt. 

Here is one of the planting machines.

Wednesday: Make-up class in the morning. 30-min class — I forgot, so it was 45-min. Heh. I’ll not cease making mistakes. But oh well. 

Then Hugh and I went to watch a couple of Casey’s classes. That was pretty fun. We stopped on the way back to grab coffee and donuts (yup :p). 

Class 1 went well. Class 2 was cancelled unexpectedly. So I made dinner before going to Fukui for class with Miki. That was fun. Her class is only an hour, usually I’m there hour and a half. This time was closer to 2 hours as I explained some idioms :p (hard to explain, I say!). 

Thursday: Tkd, then played with kids. They went a little wild today. Which was kind of funny. Kind of scary as well. 14 4-year-olds can mob you. They really, really like me.

Private class at the temple. Only the 3rd class, and there were 2 more kids there to watch. So it was just review. I talked a bit with the mother afterwards, nice as always. But I know nothing about schools in the U.S. We don’t have a sports day, right? 

Friday: A day off. Hugh gave me magnets and I had a field day. (My bathroom door is magnetic.) Dance in the evening.

Saturday: I went with Hugh to Sports Day at Kitanakayama. We watched for the morning. The team colors were red, blue, and white. They had team races, where each kid runs half the track to pass the item off to the next kid, 

and they had various competitions with gigantic balls. And masked senshi.

After that, I fixed part of my computer, went out for a walk, then settled in to get some work done and read more Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Recent words:

ajisai = hydrangea

tanbo = rice fields

moya = mist, haze

shokuinshitsu = staff room (where teachers usually wait)

me no tankobu = lit. lump on the eye. Something really annoying that gets in the way.

rinkiouhen = play it by ear

karakau = to tease, mock

itazura = prank

undoukai = sports day

akiraka ni naru = to become clear, to be made public

iratsuku = irritating

oodama = giant ball

ichirensha = unicycle; also, wheelbarrow

May 7-12 (Tues-Sun) - Cough and I start dance

Tuesday: I coughed, I taught, repeat. My favorite class, of two little boys, has become sad, as one boy quit. Two more kids did trial classes, but either way it will be lonely.

Wednesday: I feel my condition is deteriorating. Thus I finally resolved to find medicine. If only I could speak Japanese.

I had it all planned out how I would ask for help, but I walked into Genky (the big pharmacy store), and on the left, arranged in neat sections by ailment, were all the medicines I might need. Easy. If only they would cure me.

I inadvertently bought butter (searching for cheese), and also ended up with this ‘sweet ball’... which was really just bread, because remember all bread here is sweet. I toasted it and had it with butter. Ah, yum.

Thursday: Every time I feel things are going well, I do something stupid, like misreading my schedule. So I was late for my nursery classes. It’s always 10:15, but I read it as 11:15. I misread several other things so I can only blame my fever. But this (missing the first class) left me discouraged. I was happy for the duration of the next two classes (I mean, they’re cute little kids) then flop. :( 

Elementary class was fine. The software that goes along with the textbook had videos of counting 1-10 in several languages, and for playing rock-paper-scissors.

In Japan, it’s called Janken(pon), and this is rock-scissors-paper. So I have to teach them rock-scissors-paper. Iyada. But they love it. They could seriously janken all day.

Friday: The dreaded day has arrived. People watched my class. It was only the second time I’ve taught at that school, the first time was weeks ago, so I don’t feel it went so great, but it wasn’t bad either. I’ll accept valid criticism.

Then I had new classes at Kitanakayama. The kids all wanted me to sign their stuff (books, pencil cases, those hard plastic things they stick between pages when writing on the page, etc.).

That night I went with Kaori to try out a ballroom dance class in Fukui. It was pretty fun, and we decided to continue. 

Saturday: Morning class went well. Afternoon classes went well enough. I stopped by a 8ban-ramen on my way home and had ramen. Notice the hachi-ban on the fish cake. 

Later I ate this wafer-chocolate ice cream bar. It’s a new favorite.

Then I continued the evening with plenty of tea and coughing. 

Sunday: I slept in until 8! Then I enjoyed a tkd class. I am grateful my instructor is willing to take the time for these classes. The day was sunny and lovely. Kaori and I made coffee and sandwiches for lunch, took a walk, then went out to shop for dance-wear (I am shoe size 24.5. Large.). For dinner we made split-pea soup, for dessert we ate Nutella on baguette. Life is so hard.

Recent words:

torihada = goosebumps

koumori = bat

akubi = yawn

kushami = a sneeze

hakushon = achoo

nesage = price cut

shakou dance = social dance

Day 53-54, May 5-6 (Sun-Mon)

A walk to a cafe rendered us helpless the rest of the day. It didn’t help there was no room at the cafe so we had to come back later, and by later we didn’t want coffee, we wanted fruit smoothies. 

We made (by me I mean mostly Kaori) split-pea soup for dinner. Afterwards, we took the train to Fukui to see Miki perform. 

I ate this, egg-coated ketchup rice:

(about as weird as it sounds)

and these yummy little ice-creams:

Her performance went until exactly 9:38... the time of the return-train we wanted to catch, so we had to wait until 10:38. It was cold and we were exhausted.

So the next day was a relaxing day. We went to A-Plaza (mall-type store) to get coffee, bread, cheese, and other essential breakfast items, and had a lovely brunch. 

We watched movies, did yoga, and ate sandwiches for dinner. Since there are no streaming services available in Japan (...seriously, none...) we are soon to run out of options. For movies, not sandwiches.

Day 51-52, May 3-4 (Fri-Sat)

On Friday, Kaori and I made sandwiches and walked to Nishiyama Koen. We met up with Hugh and Mako and ate lunch while observing the tsutsuji (azalea) blooming all over the park. 

Close up:

Look at all the pretty colors:

Ani, you're going to have to explain this one to me:

It’s a holiday and the Tsutsuji Matsuri so there were tons of people and stalls. 

Kingyou-sukui (goldfish scooping)

We walked around for a bit, visited the zoo,

(say hallo to my friend)

got our glasses cleaned for free, then parted ways to go home. Home passing by all the stalls, hehehehe.

I tried ringo-ame (candied apple), which is basically an apple covered in hard candy. Not that great, but look how pretty it is!

We also got a little bag of fried castella to split : )

Then, also on our way home kind of, we passed by what looked like a tea ceremony. We were trying to figure out what it was, if we could join, if there was a fee, when one of the women sitting on the benches waiting came over to us and asked if we wanted a ticket. She had an extra, and she gave it to us. Wow! How nice. Lucky :)

The ceremony wasn’t that interesting, but it was in a nice little area overlooking a koi pond and the scenic maples.

Later that evening, I hosted movie night at my place. No one else had volunteered so I did.

We watched the first episode of Firefly, all the 90min through the 45 minutes (‘is the first one 45 min or an hour and a half?’ I’d asked. ’45 min’ they said); Maisson Ikkoku episode 1, so Mako could actually understand what was going on (and, surprisingly, I understood 90% of the Japanese); then we watched Fight Club, and at this point it was nearing midnight and I was nursing my 3rd pot of tea so I didn’t really care, though I still don’t like it.

Then, because because nothing, I read my email and stuff before going to sleep. I still woke up at 7am.

On the bright side, this bright, early start allowed me to write some of this post, do my laundry, do the dishes, answer emails, put up actions, etc. before Kaori came over.

After a walk in the nice mostly-sunny day, we set off to buy soil for our plants and seek out the Brazilian store for cooking ingredients. We made a Columbian soup for lunch and gathered energy to run to Nishiyama Koen. We made it all the way there! (about 20 min.) Walked around for a bit then ran back. It was pretty tiring. So we ate more soup.

Here are my plants, chamomile and thyme.

Day 50, May 2 (Thurs)

Most of the day I just felt sick. But I had fun skyping with people :)

My elementary classes went well. In the first one, when I was teaching classroom phrases (I forgot, once more please, I don’t know), I taught them ‘I got it’ and added the alternative ‘ah ha!’. For some reason, a group of girls were really cracked up by me saying that with the gesture. They ambushed me when class was done, and one girl kept asking me to do it. The others looked through the flashcards, and when one picked up my bag they all had to hold it to remark on how heavy it was, whereupon the first girl offered to pound my shoulders in return for me saying ‘ah ha!’ again. 

In the second class, there is a boy who is always reading through most of the class. At the end, he asked me to hold up my hand, so he could punch it (I guessed that’s what he was doing), then I said ‘wow, nice, do it again’ and that caught him by surprise, he followed me to the stairs and said we should have a match, I said I was wearing a skirt so I couldn’t. 

Kids are funny.

After this, I drove to Ikeda. I just wanted to go somewhere. There’s not much in Ikeda, but I did manage to find a shrine, and I got to drive under the torii. 

For dinner, I made donburi again, basically stir-fry with egg (and, in this case, tofu) on rice.

This was dessert. Mmm... I love these roll cakes.

But they’re dangerous. When I was in Japan with Mia, we would split one, right? So you know what happens when I get one on my own....

I had J.High dictation, then I took my trash to a pick-up location, and tried to hold out as long as I could so maybe I can sleep later tomorrow so maybe I’ll last later tomorrow... because today I started to fail around 7:30. My head is clogged and I have this infernal cough. Hugh said he's heard that new teachers are always sick the first year. I hope he was teasing....

Day 49, May 1 (Wed)

It rained. I had class in the morning, then free time to shop, go to the bank, try to fix computer problems, drink more tea, and cook dinner before going to Fukui for class with Miki.

Look. I got honey. (Hachimitsu.) I like the design of the bottle. It’s... actually... smart.

Mmm — shiroanpan. (Bread with white bean paste.)

Happy birthday to my friend.