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)