Friday
I taught at the middle school. It was fun as always! I taught only third year students today and we learned about:
“It is~~for ~~ to~~~”
Example!: “It is difficult for me to keep from smiling when I’m telling that funny joke, you know the one about the horse and the bartender.”
During one of my breaks, the head of the English department came over and asked me to prepare a lesson for next week’s first year students(!). Oh boy! I get to create my first work sheet! I’ll post it next! I spent a good amount of time writing it up, but I started to wander into something a little inappropriate for this school, so I split it into a separate worksheet that is just for all my faithful readers. I’ll post that later as well. I asked the Sensei if she wanted pictures as well or just words. Pictures got the go-ahead so I set to work finishing the copy in order to let myself know what I would be drawing. I thought about using pictures from the interwebs, but I decided I wanted to draw them instead. Using MS Paint. Ha!
They came out quite camp and I like ‘em that way! I’m sure you’ll like them as well.
I tried to make the questions funny or interesting enough so the kids would enjoy doing the worksheet. I hope they realize I drew everything, instead of assuming they are doing the same stale old worksheet the samurai’s used to work on back in the Edo period. Dirt roads, horse drawn carts, bushido law, and this worksheet. No way! This is a modern
Lunch was pretty fun and tasted okay for the most part. The noodles came in a plastic bag and were heated prior to my receiving them. It tasted as though the plastic flavor leached into the noodles… Also, the ika-age was cold and greasy…
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| Give your camera to the students and they take "candid moments" shots. |
After lunch I had the rest of the day free so I got back to creating the strikingly good looking worksheet I was conjuring up from the greatest depths of my inspired psyche. I was approached by an English Sensei to grade some “What I did for Summer Break” papers. Yay! I love grading papers! I’m a weirdo, I know. After the grading concluded, I went to discuss with her some of my amendments. We got to talking about some of the places the kids had gone to and a little place called “Summerland” came up.
I wanted to link to the Summerland website, but the English version of the site does such an injustice to the park, they really should think about hiring me to write some copy for them.
How about wikipedia? Wikipedia only has an article if you use WikiJapan.
Maybe try GoogleTranslate? A little better...
I have actually been there! I went when I first came to Japan, in 1991! I thought someone had told me it had been close down, but apparently it lives on! I think I want to go back…
I didn’t have speech practice with that guy today because he had a student council meeting to attend. That’s okay, there is always next week!
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| Plaque awarded for some outstanding achievement in the category of a sport |
After school I went to a cake store near the school to buy Asuka a cake: Then I went home and got ready to go out for Asuka’s Birthday Party in Roppongi. All night clubbing is what I thought I was in for… Another long weekend? Hopefully I could ride the trains home successfully this time. I reserved Sunday for my stay-in-bed-resting-all-day day. I got home a little too late to make the train I wanted to, but I was able to make it to the station on time to get another train and not be that much later in my arrival. It turns outs this didn't matter because I didn't check my e-mail before I left the house. It turns out Asuka had sent me a message letting me know she was going to be late by at least a half an hour. I showed up on time at the meeting spot at 7:35pm.
She didn't arrive until about 8:15pm.
Oh, well. At least I didn't get stood up! We went to dinner at at tiny little restaurant near the station. When we got there, I asked the maitre 'd if he would put Asuka's cake in the fridge. He obliged me and we ate our meal.
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| Beef stew and Caesar salad |
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| Blurry enjoyment |
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| Birthday girl had a Spumoni |
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| Seafood soup and Margherita pizza |
After the meal I requested the cake and the waitress brought it to us. In the box. They weren't going to allow us to enjoy her birthday cake at the restaurant.
:(
We left and decided to go back to her house in Chiba instead of going clubbing all night because her other friends bailed on her and we thought sleeping and hanging out the next day would be better for our health.
When we got to her house her parents were still awake! I really like her mom and dad, so this was a great treat. We had a mini-party for Asuka
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| Birthday cake! |
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| Snazzy spectacles! |
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| Okaa-san wears 'em too! |
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| Make a wish! |
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| Okaa-san made this in a flash when she heard I was coming over. "Kee-chan Welcome" |
then went to bed.
Saturday
We got up the next afternoon and had a nice big lunch. Okaa-san is an incredibly skilled chef and she whipped up all this food in less than an hour!
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| Chef and the Sous |
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| Tempura and seaweed. With green tea. |
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| Such a bounty! |
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| Ika and nasu, or, squid and eggplant |
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| Tamago and chisai sakana, or, egg and tiny fish |
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| Pickled and preserved bits of fruit and veg |
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| Soba and okra |
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| Onigiri! It has red beans in it because we're celebrating a birthday! |
Okaa-san taught me how to make "matcha." Matcha is expensive green tea of a very high quality. It is made with special implements:
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| "Pay attention!" "I'm mesmerized..." |
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| I like tea! |
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| Sometimes, one needs to add a personal touch to one's creations |
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| Yum! |
After lunch Okaa-san left for work so we sat around watching youtube videos and just relaxing. We tried to muster the energy to go out and do something, but we never got around to it. We made dinner for ourselves and her Dad, who was due to arrive home from Osaka at 9pm. We started it late so we finished making dinner at around 10:15! It was as fun to make
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| Whisking the white sauce with flair |
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| White sauce on top of eggplant, sauteed onions and ginger, rice, and seafood with cheese melted on top. |
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| Potato salad with slices of bell pepper |
as it was tasty!
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| Veggies with mushrooms and some bits of meat thrown in for good measure |
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| They call me "'tater salad" |
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| Finito! |
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| Lovely! |
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| A glass of wine, some slightly burnt fish, what more could one ask for? |
During dinner I had my first drink of alcohol in over a year! I don't like drinking anymore because I don't like the effect of the alcohol on my brain and I'm trying to live a healthier lifestyle. Also, I feel it is too expensive for me, and since I don't like the effect anyway, I can't justify the purchase. Otoo-san had purchased two bottles of wine on his walk home with the intent of sharing a bottle with me. The last time I had visited we drank every night and had a good time bonding. He wasn't aware of my status on-the-wagon, so I felt it would be prudent of me to partake of a glass, since he had gone through so much trouble. I'm glad he bought wine at 7-11, because then I couldn't tell if it had just been a while since I had tasted chardonnay, or it was the fact that it came from 7-11, but it wasn't too palatable, so I was fine with just one glass.
After dinner, since it was quite late, we retired for the evening.
Sunday
The next morning we got up at 7:30 and got in the car to venture into the day. The fam had made plans to visit Okaa-san's mom in a city far away, and invited me along. Sadly, I was unable to join them since they would be returning on Monday morning, and I have work to go to. They dropped me off at the nearest station, and with a gift package of giant grapes, they sent me on my way.
I made it home on all the right trains this time!
I boarded my first train and began playing "Kirby's Dreamland" on my old school Gameboy. On the trip to meet Asuka, on Friday, I had played through and beaten the game in about 45 minutes. This time I was playing on hard mode and I beat the game before I reached my home station! Achievement! The last few bosses were really tough, but nothing I couldn't handle!
I was relaxing in my apartment just now, minding my own business, reading the interwebs, when I heard a ring of the old doorbell. I answered and was greeted by a shy man whom I thought had uttered something along the lines of: "Sorry, wrong house..." because he looked shocked to see me answer the door, and he left. Ten seconds later, another chiming of the bells. Open the door and am greeted by Shy Guy and an accomplice. Accomplice extends a bag containing a book toward me, and upon further review, I understand what jig this is. And let me tell you, the jig is up! Proselytizers!
No, Thank you!
Have a nice day!
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