It is freezing cold here! I no likey.
I spent a good two and a half hours trying to install Photoshop to someone’s computer last night. Finally, it worked, but then the Office suite wouldn’t install properly. Compounding our troubles with the installations, the operating system was all in Japanese. I couldn’t read all of the words so I hoped I didn’t mess anything up on that brand new computer.
Did I mention the cold?
I was having a hard time felling my fingers. They were so cold they were almost transparent.
I was handed a paper filled with kanji that I couldn’t read, BUT I had a new app for my phone that allowed me to look up kanji and it gave me somewhat of an understanding of what was going on with the paper.
It was raining and I wasn’t looking forward to riding home in the cold rain. :(
I went home in between schools to change my pants and put on some warmer clothes. My pants were too thin and they got wet on the way home, so they had to be changed. I put some sweat pants on under my fresh slacks and I was warm for the rest of the day! I went to the middle school and finished authoring the DVD I was making for Ookubo-sensei and then I went to watch the boy’s table tennis again. Right before work ended, I was gifted with one of these delicious chocolate scones:
And also a pancake treat with red beans inside of it. This is aparently Doraemon's favorite treat. It is pretty tasty...
This Country Ma'am cookie is, on the other hand, just okay.
I went home and burned a copy of the DVD while I watched Japanese TV. The show was really interesting but rather eclectic. I would get into watching something and then it would change to a different story. A thing about three boys who wanted to become tumblers, maybe join a male cheer squad; a group of high school students who were paired off with famously talented TV artists in order to create some funny computer animated shorts; and some middle school kids who wanted to become anime voice actors. These vignettes were interlaced with a game show. The contestants were high school kids that were split into two teams of four. They were stood in front of a table with a small cardboard screen placed upon it, behind which was a plate of food. The object of the game was to guess what the food was behind the screen while the host wafts the scent toward the teams.
The next show was a quiz/challenge show. A group of people were placed in puzzles and asked questions to which the correct answer got them out of the puzzle. There was a “bomb” wire snipping game. Each of four contestants were in their own, tight, air-duct type space. In front of them were three tubes and each tube had a cap. Twisting off the cap revealed a wire that was color-coded to the contestant and to an answer to a question. The contestants had ear-pieces and could talk to each other, but couldn’t see each other. When a question was asked, they would discuss what the answer was and the person who’s color was the same as the question had to cut the wire and hopefully stop the timer on the bomb. Oh, did I forget to mention the timer on the bomb. Yeah. They had 2 minutes to answer three questions. If someone clipped the wrong wire, their air-duct was flooded with fog and they were out. There was another game where a woman was in a pit of little foam BBs and she was sinking. She had to answer a certain amount of questions in order to stop from sinking, somehow. Another game involved three people and seemed like it was straight out of Saw. The people were chained to the floor and the ceiling was slowly coming down upon them. They had three boxes with locks on them and they had to figure out where the keys were for each successive box as they raced against their certain demise. They got all the boxes open and were rewarded with a screwdriver. They removed a panel from the wall and were presented with three buttons and a video screen. They were told there existed a button at the end of an air-duct which would stop the ceiling from smashing them into pancakes. One of the contestants had to shimmy down the duct and push the button, but there was some plexiglass in the way. I couldn’t understand what made the plexiglass so difficult to move, but the guy who went to move it failed. They were crushed. Game over.
I wish there were more shows on like these, on a regular basis. I only ever find them randomly and sometimes they are not on at the same time on the same channel the next week.
After the DVD burned, I watched “Performance”. Made in 1970 and starring Mick Jagger, the film is about a gangster in hideout from his boss. The gangster went a little too far and became a liability. He was to be murdered but he escaped from his would-be murderers and went to live in a different part of town. He went to live with Turner (Jagger), a rock superstar who has writer’s block. Turner lives with a German chick and a French chick. They do drugs, have sex, and try to make music. It was an interesting flick and Mick Jagger’s first film.
The German girl is played by Keith Richards’ at-the-time girl-friend. She and Mick actually had sex on film instead of simulating it, which made Keith understandably mad. Mick and Keith were to write a song for the film, but after the incendent, Keith refused. He literally just sat in the back seat of a car and didn’t talk to anyone until the film wrapped. Mick had to finish writing the song by himself. Right after the film wrapped, Keith forgave Mick, and they were friends again.
Then I went to bed.
Thursday
The days keep getting colder. Hooray for that.
I am growing increasingly more excited to get home. I can’t wait to see my family and just relax around my house.
It’s 12ºC. That’s too cold no matter which system of measurement you chose to use.
I taught another class by myself today, 5th year students. They were wonderful! When I don’t have another teacher with me, I seem to have more fun…
Today was a pretty good day. We had チョッコ 揚げパン for lunch and I was invited to my first 飲み会 at the elementary school! やった！The lunch lady gave me three チョッコ 揚げパン to take home. Oh Boy! Then she gave me a bowl of milk jello with fruit
The learning never stops around here. I found out the name of the mountain to the east of my city.
It’s called 筑波山 Tsukuba San or Chiku(ancient musical instrument)Billows Mountain . It’s 877m high and it is made up of two different parts the north part is called 女体山 Nyotai San or Woman’s Body Mountain, while the south part is called 男体山 Nantai San or Man’s Body Mountain. Then I found out the first character in the name of my city, Chikusei, is the same as the first character in Tsukuba. Chikusei City is written 筑西市, which means The City West of Tsukuba Mountain. The last character is 市shi, which means city. From the fourth floor of the school, one can see 日光Nikko. Nikko means sunshine. Nikko is a really pretty city, I’ve heard, and I just found out the mountain is a volcano.
After lunch, the health teacher came to class and gave us all an instruction on tooth brushing.
After school more 揚げパンwas distributed. I thought I might be losing weight earlier this month. With all this candy-food, I don’t think it’s the case anymore. As I typed this, more candy and cookies were thrust upon me.
Tonight when I am home, I plan on watching 雲じさん (Kumoji-san)。Kumoji is a portmanteau of “kumo” meaning cloud and “oyaji” meaning old man. Kumoji-san is an old man cloud that flies around Japan and points out places of interest. I’ve watched the show about Chiba and the show about Haneda-area Tokyo. They are really interesting and I can’t wait to see the next episode. The only problem is, the show is usually on at 9 on Thursday nights, yet last week it wasn’t. I hope this week it is!
Friday
Well, I didn’t end up watching 雲じさん last night. I instead watched one and a half movies. I saw “Cat People”(1982) with Natassja Kinski and Malcolm McDowell in its entirety. It was a kind of a remake of a film from 1942, but it really wasn’t. What is was, was a weird flick about a race of half human half black leopard people; changelings. It was fun to watch because of two things: Ed Begley Jr. and the David Bowie score. Otherwise, it’s a throw away film. Unless you like gratuitous ‘80s breast shots. Then it’s a film that will live up to your standards.
The other film I watched, or began rather, is “Perfume.” The movie takes place in France during the 1700’s(?) It’s a movie about a guy who can smell everything. He can smell everything and categorize it in his brain, he can pick apart scents and describe their composition, and he can smell things from very far away. He wants to use his gift to create perfumes or essential oils that capture the scent of people he loves so he can never lose the smell; he wants to create smells that last forever. He is very simple and has never had a formal education, but he did study for a while under a famous perfumer from Italy. He finds his way to a town famous for its flora and the perfumes that are created thus, and it was here that I stopped watching. Bedtime beckoned and who am I to resist?
Work today was somewhat uninteresting at the start. I had one class then a break then two classes then nothing. At lunch I ate with the first year students. When the camera comes out, every once and a while one of the kids will see it and ant me to take their picture.
The girl on the right really wanted to have her picture taken but she couldn't get anybody to join her in the shot. Finally she got her friend to join in. Right after lunch was cleaning time, so I stuck around and helped them clean. I swept and scrubbed the floor. Those poor kids tried and tried to explain something to me but I couldn’t figure out what they wanted to say. After that, I helped a teacher record some speaking bits for an upcoming test. That was easy and I had a fun time. We used my iPhone for sound effects!
Here is the view of the north from the third floor of the school.
That's a grave yard in the foreground and the senior high school to the right.
I went and played table tennis with the girls today. I am still horrible, but I am showing imporevment.
After school I went home and watched the end of "Perfume." It was a good movie and I highly recommend it. Before I got home I saw this:
I went to Gusto, a 24hr Coco's style restaurant, to study Japanese with Paul and Sunshine. We were there from about 7 to 11 and I think we got a lot of studying done. It was really fun!
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