Those Autumn Stinkers! What started as an attempt to get a little dust off my tatami turned into a full blown killing spree as more and more of those annoying bugs appeared. They were everywhere! Especially in the cracks between my sliding doors. Ick. I heard this is the season for them (harvest season). As of yet, I have not smelt the stench they apparently produce but that may be because my squishing involves so many tissues, that the odor cannot get through. Luckily they are not hard to kill, being slow and not making good use of the wings they have. Unluckily, they seem to increase in number every time I use my heater.

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Track 10 My game for the 5th and 6th graders was maybe a bit easy, but went over well. Basically I showed them a color square and a garment (I brought in some of my clothes as examples) and had them say "I'd like a green skirt." or whatever. I'm PRETTY sure I did not make any boys want a skirt, but I wasn't paying that close of attention. Anyway, I was not sure how much they were really enjoying themselves until they begged their regular teacher for a little extra time to do another round. Cool! The 3rd graders can't really read English and the 4th graders just barely. Since it seems having them remember on sound alone is only working for the smarter ones, I might start katakanizing the words I want them to say (in this case: Here, There, and Over There) so they don't stress over the games. I hope this won't turn them toward the Katakana English Dark Side. In other classes, this month is Song Month for the 1st and 2nd graders and I actually had a lot more fun than I imagined I would singing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. The kids sung and acted along cheerfully and I was having a grand old time as well. Having the CD with music and lyrics saved me (since my voice is awful) but the CD not-very-cleverly puts the number of the song next to the name (which is NOT the number of the CD track since many songs have both a regular version and a karaoke version) and it took us some time to find the song by trial and error. The song was the 5th song, but was Track 10. Now I know.

I'm Really Going Out of My Way, Now Remember that woman who came to my door asking for 1600 yen as payment for the next year in case the weather screws up the TV reception? Well, Tomoko asked her mother (Maruyama-san) about it and Maruyama-san's response was that I DID have to pay it. (At first, when she talked about wanting a receipt, I thought she meant they would cover the cost, but as I found out tomorrow, no.) But WORSE THAN THAT, she wanted me to GO TO THIS PERSON'S HOUSE AND PERSONALLY PAY THEM! Look, my TV reception isn't that big a deal, and neither is 1600 yen frankly, so why do I have to knock on this person's door to pay THEM? Argh. But I did it. If the house was not directly on my way home, I may have protested. Anyway, initially, it did not look like anyone was home, but some guy answered and was ready to take my money despite that I did not know who the heck he was. Sigh. The only good thing about the deal was that I got a nifty map of Lower Sakugi showing who lived in every single building in my neighborhood. It was a bit outdated since the Japanese man who lived at my house before my predecessor was listed but still, cool!

Rice Balls I was asked to bring rice to the nursery school today since they were planning to make 'rice balls.' The request confused me a bit since I always bring my own rice to eat with the nursery school lunch. (It's BYOR.) It was not until just before I went that I was told to bring uncooked rice. It was no problem given how close I live, but I wondered how we could make rice balls when it takes an hour or so to cook rice. When I walked in, I realized the obvious - that they had made all the rice ahead of time and the uncooked rice grains I brought was presumably to replenish their supply. Anyway, it was a special activity day for the little kids and their grandparents, so lots of older folk (maybe even great-grandparents?) were sitting along tables with in the main room when I arrived. I found a seat at the emptiest table and even though I seemed to get served tea last, it was pretty fun! I talked to a nice woman beside me for awhile though I had the hardest time asking which one her kid was. (Maybe I should have used 'grandchild' instead of 'child' but I did not know the word.) At one point, I was kind-of chatting with the others at the table and one little boy sitting in a grandparent's lap started, I swear, making comments about my breasts. ("o-chichi" with the honorable "o") Eventually I just said "dame," in a friendly tone, but it kind of surprised me that not a single one of the grandparents said anything, even as he went on talking. Hello! Stand up for my rights, someone! I'm a helpless foreigner. Anyway, the nursery school staff called up the children to form lines and begin getting rice to make the balls. They had several big bowls of rice on a long table in the front and beside that was a row of smaller dishes with different fillings. The kids took a pre-sized piece of plastic wrap and stuffed their rice in it, then put the fillings in. I wish I had asked the names of all the fillings since they were all quite strange. I think I saw fish flakes. The one I liked the best looked the least appetizing. It looked kind of like a bunch of little smooth, black baby slugs or something. I'd had it at lunch before, actually and am surprised I like it. It begins with a 'C' but I can't remember what it was called. Anyway, after squishing the rice and shaping it into a round triangle shape inside the saran wrap, you put the seaweed holder thing on and chow down! It was really yummy! I ate three.

Pitch Black One of the teachers told me there was an enkai (staff party) on Friday night in Miyoshi. Despite that I was getting up really early to go see sumo the next morning, I did not want to miss an opportunity to get to know the teachers outside of school, so I said I'd definitely come. Anyway, I left a bit later today than usual and, oh my god. The sun had gone down and it was dark outside. Really dark. I walked out of the door and could not even see the parking lot across the way, let alone my car. Maybe a light was out or maybe it is always this dark, but it was nearly pitch black. A few house lights and distant street lights provided enough reflection that I could make out a few shiny objects like bumpers and window panes. I walked to my car mostly based on memory of where I parked it but since part of the road is a bridge over gutters, I walked very carefully. I could not even be positive that it was my car that I was getting in when I finally reached it. But luckily, the key worked. I can't believe so many teachers regularly leave this late in the darkness.

When I Give People My Cell Phone Number, I Shouldn't Be Surprised When They Call My eikaiwa class was pretty fun tonight and I think it's because we used real phones as props. (I think just about everyone had their own cell phone.) I had them 'call' each other and do some sample conversations. At one point, I gave out my home number and my cell phone number. I was explaining something else when suddenly my phone rang and I jumped three feet in the air. I didn't have any idea who it was and my phone did not recognize the number. Then I answered and quickly realized that it was, of course, one of the people in my class! He had been so amused at my reaction at his call that he completely forgot what to say in English and had to search through his notes, but it was pretty funny.

Corner of Porno I couldn't think of anything to put up on my Corner this month. I did a whole Thanksgiving thing in my newsletter and did not feel like printing out giant turkeys. My sudden inspiration came form Nosohara-sensei's comment that "It was my Corner and I could do what I wanted with it." So what am I excited about right now? My song of course! So I printed out the lyrics in Japanese and English and put up the album cover and a picture of Pornograffiti. Yes, it's silly, but hey, it's MY Corner. I haven't gotten many questions recently beyond the first dozen, but I left the question section up anyway, mostly because I did not have anything else to put in its place.

Because I'm Such a Loving and Caring ALT Tomomi-sensei has been working late and seems so busy recently. I'm not sure what he's swamped with but figured that I could maybe lift some of the burden, so I went through and found/made up some activity ideas for upcoming grammar points. I then organized the ideas, showed him briefly, and offered to help if I could. Either because he was honestly busy or because he took my offer as a request for more stuff to do (no, it wasn't really!) he came over and asked me to do an activity for the really hard grammar point the 9th graders were doing. So I thought hard, came up with a fun, visual, but not too mind-straining activity focusing on "This is the book THAT I read" and other THAT statements. I got his approval and had a massively fun hour and a half finding pictures and making the game. I was really excited to do it and had a feeling it would be fun and successful, which I really wanted to do for the 9th graders since I can so rarely think of a good activity for them since A; they are shy and B; their grammar points are much more complex. I'm finally set to redeem myself. So why does this suck? See tomorrow's entry.