June 25-29 (Tues-Saturday) - Koto no Koto

Tuesday: I taught 5 classes, ran errands, then cleaned my apartment and sprayed away spiders on the stairwell. It was a long day that was tiring yet successful — until I finished making a stir-fry and realized I hadn’t made rice. I then tried to make rice in the microwave. This was foolish. Not in itself, only, you must know, lifting plastic wrap on something that’s been cooking is. Bakana. The rice turned out fine after another ~8 minutes cooking as I iced my fingers.

No apparent lasting damage.

Wednesday: I finally bought itch-relief and bug-spray. Yippee. I also ate this ice-cream-layered-with-chocolate.

I walked to the store in the rain. It was lovely. Then, perhaps to make up for my failure the night before, I made this.

What is it? you might ask. It must be something fantastically wonderful and delicious! 

You would be right.

I call it what-you-can-find-in-a-Japanese-supermarket-version-of-gyro. Or a gyro bowl, since on top of the lemon rice I layered the tomato-lemon sauce and the steak and the pickled onions and the tzatziki(not tdzatsiki)-sauce-sans-sour-cream-and-sans-a-blender. I may have added a bit too much sugar (since, let’s face it, I didn’t really measure anything) but it ended up totemo oishii. 

I had to use my wild packing skills to fit all the leftovers in the fridge though.

During my class with Miki I learned their word for ‘bald’ is ‘hage’ and it is an insult (baldness and chest hair do not earn guys ‘charm points’ as she put it). She thus called Hugh when he didn’t go to her CD-release party. (I didn’t go either. But I’m not in a band with her.) Her band may never become world-famous, but you never know. When she was in Austria, she visited a friend’s-friend’s house, and at this house she found a CD of a band she knows personally here in Fukui. It’s a small, small world.

(Also, some students and a teacher at Yutaka Elementary said they saw us at Costco in Kyoto. Thus proving it’s a small world after all.)

Thursday: I was mobbed by little kids again. But it was fun anyway.

I spent the entire afternoon in anticipation for... my first koto lesson with Mrs. Miwa. She offered, that one time when she let me try her koto, and of course I accepted but I had no idea what to expect. It may have made me feel a little better to know she was as nervous as I was!

There was little warm-up — we jumped right into the lesson... and right into the music. 

Can you read that? Because I had no idea what it was. But she sat down at the other koto and said the strings are numbered 1-10, the closest (highest) are ‘to’ ‘i’ and ‘kin’ to make 13 strings in all. Then we started to play together. 

(The little box holds the tsume (nails), the picks; next to it the other set.)

Talk about diving in and learning to swim! I know music fairly well so eventually I figured out the swirly brush strokes mean repeat the last measure (oh, and those are measures, the boxes give you the beat), and I suddenly became super fast at reading the kanji numerals, and came to recognize the characters for the 11-13 strings. And it reads right to left. 

So I learned Sakura (it helped that I kind of already knew the melody), which is a simple piece that includes the pressing of the string to make it sharp, and other basic techniques. We took a break after about 15 minutes, I think, or however long I could stand being in seiza (the proper sitting and posture for playing koto). She served me green tea, macha-tea-ceremony style, 

and this purple potato pastry:

While she went to pick up her son from school. Then we had another koto session and I learned the first part of Tanoshii Gassou (fun concert). After that we chatted for a bit, Esho even stuck around (close he comes to speaking to me outside of class :), I learned Mrs. Miwa also does Ikebana (flower-arranging) and she teaches tea-ceremony. She taught me how to fold a napkin, and said she’d be happy to teach me the flowers and tea if I was interested. It’s fun for me, she said, and I was delighted of course. (And I can help her improve her English.)

And she let me borrow it. Finally I can use this phrase — “If someone had told me a year ago that” this would happen

I wouldn’t have believed it. I would have denied it. Koto? Ikebana? Chado? Not really interested, not likely to happen. But here it is. 

And I’m really having fun with the koto. As some of you may know, it’s my not-so-secret desire to learn to play the Celtic floor harp, and as you may also know, the koto is often called the Japanese harp. Ok, and I love music and all instruments, especially big ones I guess.

I uploaded some videos [part 1] [full version] to show you what it’s like. This is the evening after I got back from my first lesson — not bad, right?

(I’ll be honest, this tuning of the strings makes it impossible for it to sound bad. Really. Although for the highest note, the white thing (ji) kept moving which made it a bit out of tune, and I pressed in the wrong spot for the sharp note.)

Friday: Morning at Miyazaki. I carpooled with Hugh, and during his 3rd-year class I studied Japanese history. 

Meeting and Casey shared cake. I drifted about the afternoon, until Kaori came and we practiced dance. Quite late we went with the other teachers and Mako to a bar to celebrate Casey and Chris’s birthdays. Didn’t get home until 1am :O so that messed up my schedule a bit.

Saturday: My alarm didn’t go off, so I slept in almost until 10. This made my groggy, and the sudden heat didn’t help. Golly it was hot today. No kids class in the morning, good thing. Afternoon classes were... well... I hate the one and like the second.

While heading home, I wandered the rice fields of Nanjo looking for the yellow-headed cranes I’d seen around before. Of course, the time I finally remember my camera, they were nowhere to be seen. But I did catch some footage of these beautiful white cranes.

[video]

And I don't know what these flowers are, but they're all over, and I love them.

For dinner, I basically ate cake with coffee (well, after a couple potato croquettes). It was necessary. There was also a failed science experiment involving amanatsu and soy milk.

Before setting down to my computer and kanji practice, I played the koto in the dark (because if I turned on the lights, the bugs would come in, unless I closed the window, but it’s way too hot to close the window). I read that, at one point, koto-playing was reserved for the blind. Yup.

That’s all for today.

Recent Japanese:

kai ga aru/atta = worthwhile / it was worth it

ensou = musical performance

nenbyou = chronology

Kyuuseki Jidai = stone age, paleolithic period

Jomon Jidai = straw-rope period (ropes were pressed into the clay to make patterns in the pottery)

miwatasu = to look out over, survey

kagiri = limit, bounds

kasumi = haze, mist

kobushi = fist

fushi = knuckle

wairo = bribe

Sakura lyrics:

sakura, sakura, yayoi no sora wa

miwatasu kagiri, kasumi ka kumo ka

nioi zo izuru, 

izaya, izaya, mi ni yukan

June 18-24 (Tues-Mon) - Well, I’m Still Alive

Tuesday: I had classes and stressed out about stuff and kids watched my classes in the evening. Arg. But a teacher at Yoshikawa brought in tomatoes and I was given 6 lovely little juicy beauties, and in the eve. my class combined with Hugh’s class for a bottle-cap battle.

Wednesday: I had my first business class, and I didn’t die. It was close, but I survived. There 6 people in my class, and one is a woman (which I hear is very unusual). They were all very nice and a bit hesitant at first, but I think I will be able to get them to speak fairly easily. It’s still bit of a strange environment however — I mean, it’s different from teaching kids at an elementary school. I have to remember to get a badge from the guard at the gate and have this little piece of paper signed by somebody to hand in when I leave. And I have to resist the urge to say ‘sei no’ which is a prompt like 3-2-1 or 1-2-go, which I have to use all the time in my other classes.

The company is Murata Manufacturing (http://www.murata.com) (they make MLCCs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic_capacitor) and stuff), the Takefu branch, where I hear there are 3000 employees. The ones in the English classes are studying to improve their scores on the TOEIC (English language) test. 

So I’m sure the class will go fine now that the first one is over with.

That night I had class with Miki. She showed me pictures and told me all about her trip to Austria. She even brought me an omiyage: Hazelnut chocolate. How did she know?!!

I learned a few interesting things. First, if I understood what Miki was saying (and she understood right), the Austrian university system is strange. You can work at the university for 5 years, and pay (or get paid?) 10 euros a week (maybe?), then after that university is free. 

Light research does not yield more information. (Feel free to investigate and post your findings in a comment.)

Second, tapirs eat bad dreams. So if you are allergic to cats, there is another option.

Thursday: Class and stuff. During my private class, the 3 boys were having trouble concentrating, and near the end of class we just played. Well, they took the ball and played keep-away, I ran after them for the next 20 min. It was pretty fun :)

Friday: Kaori came over in the evening so we could practice dance. We didn’t get very far when Hugh invited us a long to go in search of fireflies over by Kawada Elementary. And we found them! Many of them. There used to be fireflies all over, when the entire area was tanbo (rice paddies). Mako said she had never seen fireflies until then. 

After this, we decided to run around the neighboring parking lot. That was fun. We lasted a few minutes before the rain picked up to a steady downpour, and we were forced under cover of the apartment stairs. From there we ran up stairs and jumped over brooms until we declared ourselves tired enough for the night.

Saturday: Class. A new kid watched one of my classes. He seems pretty cute but he’s well behind the others, so I’m not sure how well it would work out if he starts. 

That evening I went with Casey and Nathan to Yuka/Ralph’s restaurant in Fukui. While we waited for food we played Scrabble (yay, a board game!). The food was tasty, Mexican food made by a Philippine  guy who’s from California (this is Ralph). 

By the way, it’s been raining. It’s almost cold :)

Sunday: This day we went to Costco. We met at 7:37 in the morning and packed a van with ice chests and snacks for the 2-hour drive. Hugh drove. I was offering to drive, but I couldn’t, because I’m not covered by the insurance (being under 26). We stopped at Starbucks on the way. 

Arriving at Costco, we had to go through a line to get parking, stand in line to get a membership, then move slowly about the crowded store to do our shopping. We were there about 3 hours. 

Mia asked for pictures. Well, it’s Costco. Main noticeable differences are the racks of wine and stacks of beer, 

and the spice selection.

The drive back we took surface streets, which took quite a bit longer, but I enjoyed the view. 

This might be Mt. Hiei. I saw the sign for it so it’s somewhere around here.

And here’s a torii in Lake Biwa.

This might seem enough adventure for the day, but it was still early in the evening. So we went with Hugh/Mako on a short walk around dandan-batake...

then sat in my apartment and feasted on gouda cheese, green seedless grapes, lasagna, and muffins — all Costco specials. (Did I mention they don’t believe in real cheese in Japan? Or seedless grapes.)

Kaori and I ended the evening with a Nero Wolfe mystery, courtesy of my great dad, and ended rather late. I slept very well, and finally got to sleep in the next day!

Monday: Internet was irritating -- wasting 30 min. trying to get it to work instead of getting to talk to people. But I have found some kind-of fixes while I wait for Apple to release a Mountain Lion update that works.

I spent a rather slow day that woulda been gloomy but after a week of beautiful, cool rain, it was sunny and almost hot. The evening was nicer and I got some stuff done.

Recent Japanese:

hayashi (林) = woods, forest, thicket

nama = raw

bimyou = so-so, questionable (you may note this word in an earlier post. But I finally understand it. Like, can you draw? Saa... bimyou desu.)

kaba (河馬) = hippopotamus — I only use the full term (which is ridiculous to spell) because it stems from the Greek hippo meaning horse and the rest meaning river, and kaba lit. means river horse, so that’s kind of cool.

tsumuji = the whirl of hair on the top/back of your head (they have a word for this, isn’t that great?)

baku = tapir

kawauso (川獺) = river otter

azarashi = seal (animal)

koi (濃い) =  deep (color), strong (flavor)

kanransha (観覧車) = Ferris wheel — lit. the see see wheel/car. Or maybe see and be seen wheel.

sasu = to bite/stab, ka ni sasareta = I was bit (pricked) by a mosquito

kamu = to bite (like a dog)

tsubusu = to crush/squish

funde tsubushita = I stepped on it and squished it

mizu tamari = puddle

dandan-batake = stair-step fields

kokkyou-sen = border (line)

koubashii (香ばしい) = fragrant, aromatic

June 15-17 (Sat-Mon) - I didn't jump off Tojinbo

Saturday: I played with little kids. Then the troublesome kid was missing from class so I had fun and played with older little kids. 

Then I ate this thing from a conbini:

If it looks gross, that’s because it was. But no worries, I followed it up with a lovely strawberry smoothie thing then a cup of coffee because I felt like it was bedtime.

Then I cleared 15gb of stuff off my computer. Thank you MacPaw Gemini.

Sunday: Kaori and I went running, ate lunch, then went to a social dance party thing. There was kind of a performance and kind of a lesson but mostly we chatted with people and attempted to dance. Others were very kind and helped us multiple times through the steps (the music changed too fast through the types of dances). 

After this, we relaxed. Phew.

Monday: The plan was to get some work done and maybe write some stuff but that didn’t happen. After tkd I talked with family (Happy Father’s Day), planned lessons, then at 2:00 I set off on a grand adventure. My original goal was just to go to Tojinbo, but when I saw it required passing through Fukui anyway, I thought well, might as well check out some stuff in Fukui.

I discovered Fukui castle is dominated by business buildings, I couldn’t see any parking for the ruins (wherever they were); once I found Yokokan Garden I had to circle it three times to find the parking, then figured maybe next time, now that I knew where it was. I hadn’t yet driven through central Fukui city so that was an adventure. Like most cities. 

However, after this failure, I set my Google Map to Tojinbo — then saw a sign for Daianzenji Temple and figured I should visit that. I liked the drive, and I was a pretty place. First there was a flower garden, with ajisai (hydrangea)

and ayame (iris);

then a huge graveyard with some famous people (the Matsudaira)

surrounded by a forest with bamboo — look how thick this is (and hollow)

then the temple itself (no pictures allowed).

But here is the bell.

And what is this tree? I want one.

The other people visiting there were very friendly. I think they were all surprised to see a foreigner there. I met one group of 3 people several times as we went different ways around the complex.

I spent about an hour there, then — Finally! I went to—

Well, on the way to Tojinbo, I happened to see the sign for Mizuni Beach so I pulled off and went down to the water. It is a real beach. Meaning, there is sand. I think it’s man-made (note the tractor treads).

Then! At long last, I drove to Tojinbo. It was completely deserted so I couldn’t be sure I was in the right spot, but there were a few people at the waterside so I figured this must be the main attraction. The cliffs were smaller than I’d thought, but still pretty neat. 

They’d be neater if they weren’t infested with gokiburi. 

The sunset was beautiful, however, so I sat for a while and ate snacks.

After this, it was time to go home. Well, except, you know, I wanted to investigate the seaside the other way, to see if I could get a better view of the island (Oshima)... 

I made it, and walked across the pretty bridge to the island. 

The island is probably very interesting to like geologists or biologists or whatever. But the pathways were overgrown (after all, nobody is touring I guess), and, after all, it’s haunted.

By gokiburi, anyway.

Luckily, these creepy-crawlies aren’t brave, and as long as I tromped about with enough noise they scattered before my arrival. There were no incidents. I was not however brave enough to trudge through the thick growth to the water and made my circuit around the island more of a triangle.

Look, I’ve been there.

After this, tired and hungry and tired of climbing stairs, I headed home. It was a little nerve-wracking as first my phone gave a low-battery alarm (I need you, Google Maps — at least until Route 8), then I couldn’t find a single gas station on the left-hand side of Route 8, until my dial was in the middle of the last tick and I finally found one, then my portable speaker battery died and I tried to get the car one to work, but at long last I arrived home around 8, took a cold shower, ate dinner, thanked Mom for chocolate, thanked my sisters for tea, then slept at long last. Who needs plans anyway.

Recent Japanese:
anago (穴子) = garden/conger eel
saba (鯖) = mackerel (Sabae no saba)
enjiru (演じる)= to perform
yakuyoke (厄除)= warding off evil
kaiun (開運) = better fortune
satsuei = photography (satsuei kinshi 撮影禁止 — no photography)

June 10-14 (Sat-Fri) - Maigo no Maiyuge

Saturday: My little-kids class was going well... but I made the littlest kid cry because I paired her with the other girl, who knows everything, so she kept losing. Awww!! But then I had them color and they liked that.

I’m torn regarding my two other classes. The first one is rather a disaster, because the boy never sits still or pays attention so we can’t get anything done. But I love the second class. So I hate and like Saturdays.

This evening was fun. Hugh, Mako, Kaori, and I drove to the beach, we didn’t have time to go get wood for a bonfire (so prison will have to wait) but we ate snacks, played music, threw rocks at a stick until Hugh hit it and it fell over then we threw rocks at a can. I waded in the water, and when Kaori found a starfish I picked it up, causing the girls to cry out, and Hugh took pictures. Then Hugh and I played with hermit crabs. Then Hugh proclaimed me Maizilla, a hero and savior of Japan who warded away the attacking starfish (and crabs). 

On the drive back we decided, when in this group, to talk only in Japanese from this point on — even ‘katakana’ Japanese is out of bounds (things like mainasu, ruuru, rizumu), which is almost impossible! But we shall prevail. Then Kaori pointed out Hugh’s and my names are ‘katakana’ so we need Japanese names, and she insisted I would be either Mai-yuge (eyebrow) or Mai-go (lost) — causing Mako to go into an endless fit of laughter and keep saying ‘why maiyuge or maigo?’. I thought Maiko was better, but relented and said I could be Maigo no Maiyuge.

There was also an incident regarding a chimpanzee. And another with a giraffe. 

Sunday: Kaori and I walked to the flea market held at a nearby temple. Interesting. Lots of old things, most of it rather expensive (like 500¥ for a tiny old rusty key). But fun. Why didn’t I get any pictures?

Next we made lunch and chatted, then practiced the Cha-Cha with help from YouTube videos. We’ve decided not to attend the classes for a while, since they are preparing for their performance they don’t focus much on us beginners. After the performance (in July) we would like to again attend weekly.

Monday: I spent most of the day doing trip research. Then planning classes.

Tuesday: School classes went fairly well, and evening classes were fun too. Tuesdays are pretty good.

Wednesday: Itou Elementary 5th-grade was fun! We’ve been stuck on lessons 1 & 2 for too long (the kids got it, really), so finally moving to lesson 3 was lovely. I learned janken in other languages.

A note on games in Japan.

Japanese kids are crazy for Bingo (seriously, they don’t get bored, I have no idea why) and Jankenpon — Rock Paper Scissors. Except when we teach them, we have to teach rock, scissor, paper, go! (I try to get them to say ‘scissorS’ at least, but if they’ve been taught before, they don’t notice the difference). 

The sequences is this.

Saisho wa gun —first is rock:

jan ken hoi! — rock scissors hoy!

aiko deshou? — it’s a draw right? [if it’s a tie] 

In French, it’s pierre feuille ciseaux.

In Korean, kawi bawi bo!!!

Of course, the textbook media said the American version was “rock scissors paper 1-2-3”, which is totally wrong, so who knows.

For grade 6, the lesson was ok, but during our meeting beforehand I suggested a game — and we played it, and it was a success. (Credit to Nathan for all his years of game knowledge, and to Hugh who made special cards that he lent me.)

The game is Shichi Narabe (line up the 7s), which we played with months (since there are 12). Deal out all cards, put the 7s (Julys) in the middle, then take turns putting down 1 card, played to the left or right (number ascending or descending) in the line of the matching suit (or, color). 

To top off my victories, in my troublesome (sometimes not so troublesome yet always troublesome) class, the game I picked got both the quiet girl and the unhappy don’t-wanna-be-here boy involved and having fun and — answering my questions in English wO^Ow

Thursday: This day was exciting. Nursery classes went well, school class 1 did not (one girl cried and I was close to following), school class 2 was fun (I think the teacher makes all the difference, honestly), then I had the private class at the Miwa household. This was fun. First, they weren’t ready for me yet, so Mrs. Miwa asked me to wait. I commented on the 3 kotos leaning up in the entry room and asked if she played, she got rather excited and said yes, she does, would I like to try it?

!!!

So she pulled one down and set me up to play with it while she went to pick up her son from school. 

Cool! 

You can move the white 人 to tune the instrument (she had me do that for a couple), then you only play to the right of them. It's played with 'tsume' or nails on the otousan yubi (thumb), okaasan to oniisan yubi (she let me try with the tsume too).

After the English lesson, I sat and chatted a while, and then she asked if I would like to take lessons from her. I accepted. She seemed really excited. She’s played for 7 years, she started learning with her daughter, and her son (one of my students) even plays.

On the way home, I snapped a picture of these sunset clouds.

I hurried home for no reason ‘cause I wasn’t needed for dictation. So I whiled away the hour and a half lesson-planning, then went with Casey and Nathan for sushi.

Friday: To top it off, the mother of the other 2 kids I teach on Thursdays brought me bread. She works at a panya (bread shop). So I had a lovely breakfast.
Doesn’t this look good?

Isn’t this cute? (It was filled with an apple jam.)

At Miyazaki (school) I have made a friend. Her name is Hana and she is a 3rd-year (one of Hugh’s students). She loves me, for whatever reason. Here we are, she is teaching me a clapping game. I got the clap down but have no idea what the words are.

That ends the good parts of the day.

Then we had our meeting, and I had to give a demo business-class lesson. I dreaded it thoroughly, because I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing. Even knowing what I am supposed to be doing. I am not qualified to teach this class. But the demo lesson didn’t kill me (thought it was close), everyone was nice and gave me good advice. (It was more of a ‘how should I teach this?’ session than a demo lesson, as, you may imagine, the other teachers don’t need to learn English from me.)

Plus, this business class is on Wednesdays, which means I can’t go to Itou Elementary when the schedule conflicts. Yuka’s boyfriend, Ralph, will take over on those days. Supreme sadface, as those are my favorite classes.

I played dulcimer-not-mandolin-but-dulcimer for a while, then in the evening Kaori and I went to Fukui to pick up tickets from the dance teacher, but not to dance, and then to check on a Hawaiian 'cafe' we’d seen before and been wanting to try. (It’s not a cafe. It’s a bar and restaurant. If I can be so generous.)
I got this coffee ’smoothie’ (iced coffee with something that I think was ice cream)

and it was pretty good. Kaori tried the ‘honey toast’ which was thick toast — which they managed to burn — topped with ice cream, honey, and chocolate syrup. Not bad.
However, Kaori’s coffee ole was, uh, barely coffee, and surely not ole. And my garlic ‘chicken’ was garlic-paste cabbage-ends with chicken gristle. It was so horrible we couldn’t stop laughing almost the entire time.

Yatte koukai shita hou ga yaranai de koukai suru yori ii.
It is better to regret for doing than to regret for having not done. (Japanese saying.)

Thus Something and Nothing produce each other;
The difficult and the easy complement each other;
The long and the short off-set each other;
The high and the low incline towards each other;
Note and sound harmonize with each other;
Before and after follow each other.
- Lao Tzu -

In other words, you can’t have lightness without darkness, you can’t have happiness without sorrow, and you can’t have good food without bad food.

Thus we drove home contemplating this deep wisdom while under the light of the yellowing crescent moon.

Recent 日本語:
shigaikyokuban = area code number
hitode = starfish
yadokari = hermit crab (lit. house renter)
suiheisen (水平線) = horizon
hodou = sidewalk
oudanhodou = crosswalk
kisoku = rules, regulations (not to be confused with kizoku, noble/aristocrat)
ochiranai you ni kiotsukete kudasai = be careful you don’t fall
italia e iketarra ii na = I hope to go to Italy (in the future)
heikouteki (並行的) = parallel
taishouteki (対称的) = symmetrical
hitaishouteki (非対称的) = asymmetrical
kumo no su = spider web
hachi no su = beehive
tori no su = bird nest
thumb = otousan yubi (lit. father finger). More commonly oyayubi (parent finger).
pointer finger = okaasan yubi (lit. mother finger). More commonly hitosashi yubi (person-pointer finger).
middle finger = oniisan yubi (lit. older brother finger). More commonly naka yubi (middle finger).
ring finger = oneesan yubi (lit. older sister finger). More commonly kusuri yubi (medicine finger).
pinkie = akachan yubi (lit. baby finger). More commonly koyubi (little finger).
meisou = meditation
yatte minai to [wakaranai] = you won’t know unless you try
mikadzuki = crescent moon
mangetsu = full moon

June 2-9 (Sun-Fri) - It's a running joke

Sunday dawned cool and drizzly. Perfect for our run. Mako joined us for the running! So we 4 brave smart crazy stupid souls shall be strong. We did 4k today, then yoga and taichi.

Afterwards, we enjoyed a scrumptious lunch of baguette with home-made avocado dip and oil/vinegar, pizza, orange juice, and coffee, followed by a light fluffy cheesecake (yes, a cheesecake, not a cheesepie). Then we set off on our search for a beach.

Well, we failed. We drove along the coast, but the only spots were really rocky, no good sandy spots. But we ate snacks and chatted and drove to the top of Murakuni-san (mt.) for a view, and we have a (beach) spot in mind that we will probably use next week. However, bonfires are illegal. Will we risk it anyway? How great is the temptation? Find out next week.

Monday: Tkd, tkd, work and shopping and stuff.

Tuesday: In the absence of elementary-school classes, I met with Yuki and Casey to talk about my upcoming business classes. They don’t sound so bad. I just don’t know how to teach them.

(Tonbo next to UFO Academy.)

Wednesday: Classes all day long. One of the teachers recognized that when he plays everything off the computer, I’m stuck with hima (free time). So hopefully next time I’ll be doing more in the class. I like the class, I just don’t like standing around not doing anything.

My evening class with one boy has increased to two boys! I’m glad, I can have them play games with each other now, and they are both about the same level so not too much catching up to do. They can motivate each other. And they’re both well-behaved kids.

Thursday: Nursery-school classes were good. I always go over though. Oh well. Then I had to do a little grocery shopping.

Friday: Classes went well. That night I couldn’t go to dance because I had to go watch Nathan teach one of his adult classes. It was pretty fun. It’s a community class, so a bunch of really nice older (most of them are retired) folk.
Funny enough, two of them remember a former teacher of the class, Andy -- the teacher at SLCC who told me about this program. (Andy was also Miki's teacher for a while.)

Here's a pretty picture of ayame (iris). 

Recent 日本語:

hiniku = sarcasm (I guess Japanese people don’t use and have a hard time understanding sarcasm)

hikiniku = ground meat

shinrigaku = psychology

hyoushiki = sign (or, ‘sain’)

kakashi = scarecrow

takeyabu = bamboo grove

[tonari no] takeyabu ni [take tatekaketa no wa,] take tatekaketakatta kara, take tatekaketa no sa = leaned the bamboo against the bamboo grove because  I wanted to (or something)

tatekakeru = to lean against

shinaru = to bend (or, magaru - but magaru is more 90-degree bend, shinaru is more flexible, like bamboo)

iwa = rock (the seaside was iwa)

hashita ato sutorechi ga hitsuyou nan desu = after running, you need to stretch

May 27 - June 1 (Mon-Sat) - Slow and steady

This is officially the longest I’ve been away from home.

Yes I’m homesick.

Monday: TKD, lesson planning, work.

Tuesday: Classes, afternoon off (scanned receipts), evening classes.

Wednesday: Morning classes at Itou were fun. Afternoon classes at Kawada went pretty well, considering the teacher couldn’t join me for the first class so I was going solo. But she was a big help in class 2 so that was ok. Evening classes went really well. Then I had my class with Miki, right before she goes to Austria to meet with friends she met while in Berlin. Isn’t it cool they can communicate by speaking English?

Thursday: I had classes and stuff. It was beautiful and rainy. Look who comes out to play.

Friday: Fun classes. Meeting. Learned a little about the business classes — that is, English classes at a business — I will be teaching *sigh* (the other teachers dread these classes so I don’t look forward to it). Danced the night away (for a couple hours anyway). 

Saturday: Lovely. Fields of gold.

And a maccha chocolate bar.

Meandering my way home from errands, I passed a temple with this lovely bell.

I spend the evening at Kaori’s, where I ate spicy fries with ketchup-mayonnaise (I said I’ve never tried it but it just now occurs to me this is fry sauce, albeit Japanese-style), and natto with rice. The first and last time I tried natto it was to me akin to the smell of vomit. However, this stuff was quite different and actually quite tasty. 

Tomorrow we shall explore the coast!!

Recent words:

ganjitsu (元日) = New Year’s Day

bimyou = subtle, complicated, sensitive

nuru = to color (in)

~gari = always~ (samugari = a person who is always cold; tabetagari = a person who always wants to eat / who wants to eat everything)

jidouhanbaiki (自動販売機) = vending machine (hanbaiki for short) - lit. self-moving merchandise-selling machine

oomoji (大文字) = uppercase letters

komoji (小文字) = lowercase letters

hitosara = one plate (e.g. kaiten-sushi is 105¥ 一皿)

hasamaru = to be caught (like by a seatbelt)
hakushu (拍手) = to clap