Saturday, Apr 17

IN A NUTSHELL: FBC Comes Through Again

Delivery Despite that I don't like being woken up by delivery vans, I sure like to be delivered stuff. One of the things I got today was Easter stuff from FBC including Easter bunny pin-ups and mini carrot and bunny erasers. I thought, at first, that I would not use the Foreign Buyers Club much, but they are very useful for school decorations and holiday-themed stuff. And they deliver fast and have nice re-usable boxes - I like the boxes almost as much as the stuff inside them.

IN A NUTSHELL: Not Where I Expected To See That Ex-President

Dinner At The Yamashita's Yamashita-san invited me over to his house for the promised "sukiyaki dinner" tonight. He lives really close to me, but in a strangely small house compared to the ones around it (he even mentioned when I walked in how small it was.) I gave them a present from Beijing but had to run back home later to get the wine. (The wine was a gift from the mayor when I first arrived, but I can't drink that much wine by myself.) Yamashita-san is the sweetest guy. He always smiles and has a very good attitude about things (he's also nicely built because he's a fitness instructor, not that I notice stuff like that.) His wife is nice, too, and makes some darn good sukiyaki. Anyway, he showed me pictures of when he was an exchange student at Texas A&M. He apparently had a very religious host mother who made him get up at 5:30am to pray or go to church or something. Ye gads. He asked me earlier what my religion was, and I said Melissa-kyou (Melissa Religion or The Church of Melissa), which is my standard answer since I don't fall into any other category. They were interesting pictures, but one really stood out. It was a picture of him and George Bush, Sr.!! Apparently, Mr. Bush gave him some instruction on fly fishing. Who would've thought?

IN A NUTSHELL: And the Forms Begin

Alphabet Games There's no end in sight for continuing to learn the alphabet, but today was fun. The 7th graders loved the group games like karuta (where I call out a letter and whoever hits the letter first gets to keep it) and the draw-on-your-back game where the students form four lines in front of the blackboard and I draw letters on the backs of the kids who draw it on the kid in front of them and so forth. The front one draws it on the board. I usually try to make the letters spell something like LION, MILK, or SMAP.

New Miyoshi There are a lot of formalities involved in merging us village JETs into the city system. Today, my new supervisor had me fill out a form asking permission to drive my car between schools. I also received information about the upcoming Recontracting Conference in Kobe. I'm not sure how much I'm looking forward to the conference. I feel like I don't have much more to learn at this point. I guess it's a good excuse to go to Kobe and maybe hit Himeji, too. I'm glad the Miyoshi Board of Education happens to be in the exact same building that I've always seen my Japanese tutor in. It's convenient for me to get business done on my way to Japanese class.

Wednesday, Apr 21

IN A NUTSHELL: More Miyoshi

Ack Wednesday is already turning into my most stressful day. First, my JTEs like to call me late Tuesday afternoon and ask me to do activities. I have to get up forty minutes earlier than usual to make it and have to remember to bring a lunch. I usually have four or five classes (instead of my usual two or three) and the students are a lot more unpredictable. In one class, they had trouble cooperating enough to play a game that worked like a charm with the well-behaved Sakugi students. I had one 7th grader spouting out English swear words at me. I am keeping a paper in my desk drawer where I write notes on the personalities of each class I have. Some are good and some not-so-good, which is to be expected. All together, there are twelve different classes I go to and I haven't even been to half of them yet. I am starting to see why city JETs get so sick of self introductions. The students come to my desk a lot and chat, though, which is nice. I have plans to keep adding "cute" things to my desk so the kids (okay, girls and the one mentally disabled, but sweet boy) have something to comment on or play with when they come and talk. Rie-chan (lonely chatty girl) found out I have a cookie stash in my second drawer and now asks for a cookie every time she comes over. (Actually, she asks for stickers, too, and she's not the only one. I think the girls' favorite word is "Chodai" which is "Can I have it?") Minokuchi-sensei (the JTE who sits next to me) is very popular so it is always a happening area near my desk.

Thursday, Apr 22

IN A NUTSHELL: HOT

No, It Can't Be Summer Already It was HOT today. I think it almost hit 90. Please don't let this mean it's going to be hot from now on. I just put my kotatsu away a couple weeks ago for crying out loud. It can't be summer yet!

Ooh, I'm A Fifth Grader I was very excited tonight when, studying the next kanji in my book, I turned the page and realized I had finished all the characters that Japanese students learn in the 4th grade. Woo hoo! I still have to fully pass 6th grade if I even have a chance at the JLPT Level 2 test, but at least I'm making progress.

Friday, Apr 23

IN A NUTSHELL: 2000, 20

It's That Time of Year Again I went to my friendly neighborhood clinic to get some allergy medicine. I had a bit of a snag when I realized that since I have a new employer, I have a new health form and it has not gone through the system yet, but luckily the clinic people were really nice and gave me a couple weeks worth of allergy pills. Lets see how they stack up against American prescriptions.

Is This Still Legal Tender? At the clinic, the lady gave me change in the form of a 2000-yen bill. I don't think I've ever seen one before! I think they discontinued them and 500-yen bills awhile back. I don't want to spend it, though! It's cool looking!

Um, Drinking Age? This was really weird. I was at Popura and realized the kid in line in front of me was one of my 9th graders from last year (one of the two I really didn't like.) I don't think he saw me. Anyway, the clerk was ringing up his items and two of them were big cans of Chu-hi! Chu-hi is alcoholic and is like a wine cooler. I couldn't believe the clerk was selling it to him! I almost said something but realized that he was wearing a school uniform (presumably his high school one) so he certainly wasn't trying to fool anyone. He, and maybe the clerk too, called out to someone outside, so maybe an older brother or his dad was waiting?? I don't know, but I thought that was awfully strange. I mean, granted, you can buy beer in vending machines but still, they warn pretty firmly on all convenience store doors that the drinking/smoking age is 20.