Too Busy

But not in a bad way. It seems I have been too busy living and enjoying my life lately to spend time writing about it -- a process made all the more difficult when you consider that I exist without internet at home. So what's been up lately? My days have been filled with curry parties, mexican food, tequila, skiing, badminton, volleyball, leisurely breakfasts with friends, The Wyrd sisters, dinner with Hiro, quality time with Cian and Pete, Pete's birthday/sayonara party, 英会話, school, sunshine, car washing, speeding tickets, good books, a little bit of study, jogging, phone calls, flirtations and useless conversations, pick-ups in front of local grocery stores, magic card tricks, dice tricks, and lots of laughter. Sorry to keep anyone in suspense over that, but should I ever hook up, I'll try and do better to keep up.

Stressing and De-Stressing

Go to work. Laugh and joke with the staff. Bite my tongue at another school. Bring it home at the end of the day. Spend a couple of hours planning lessons for the next day, the next school. Sorting out supplies and materials. Look in my wallet, and decline the dinner and party invitations. Scrounge supplies and cook dinner with whatever I can find. Listen to some good music. Worry about studying, without actually doing it. Cook some dinner, wash some dishes. Find some time to do laundry. Talk to my neighbor and listen to her complain about work and life in Niimi. Go for a jog. Enjoy a hot shower. Try to avoid the assault of the kame-mushi which seem to be out in droves this year -- apparent predictors of heavy snowfall come winter. Get up early and race out to meet everyone for a volleyball tournament. Attempt not to laugh out loud during opening ceremony while Kishi-kun stands in front of me, sending sidelong glances and quietly laughing. Get scolded by a friend behind for the obvious repressed laughter that has my shoulders shaking. Win a couple volleyball games, lose a couple. Chatting with Tama-chan about last night's okonomiyaki, and how I should meet her parents. (I hope this isn't a reversion to people thinking I am gay again? Seriously, just cause someone doesn't date much...) Joining a 70 person long single line "wave" as everyone cheers for the most unsportsmanlike team who ends up winning the tournament. Line up, once again ending up behind Kishi-kun during closing ceremony, who makes me withhold my laughter once more, but this time my scolding friend behind joins in. Listen to stories in the car about poor Kuma-chan while trying to catch up on some sleep. Getting caught not sleeping when the conversation takes strange turns and I burst out laughing. Wedding and marriage discussions while someone listens intently without trying to seem so. A declaration from me that there is no way I am going back in a different car, as I don't even want to imagine what they will discuss if I am not here. A perverse keyboard that doesn't have a warm and friendly relationship with the letter "V." Volleyball practice that goes reasonably well. Getting better and feeling slightly more confident, but still don't know exactly where I am supposed to be and when. Plans made for a nabe party on upcoming culture day with the boys who make me laugh in return for the takoyaki fest of a few weeks ago. Cycles about town in an attempt to save on gas, get up off of my ass, and get a better look around. Halloween party preparation. Listening to hundreds of songs in an attempt to make a set that will keep me happy. Laundry -- when the hell am I going to get that done? Cleaning, sure, let me call my maid. And people wonder why I don't invite them oer more often. Snow tires and my lack thereof, accompanied by stories from all my schools about how impassable routes to 3 of my schools will become in a month or so. Chatting with missed friends in Yonago about weather, work and wellness. Partaking of some homemade 梅酒 acquired from a friendly teacher. Enjoying some gorgeous fresh veggies from someone's garden. Munching on some delicious Frankenstein-sized grapes, a 名物 of Niimi. Worrying about how I have been out of touch with people I love for far too long. Wishing I had more time to read, but getting home too tired to care. And now? Who knows...

So Very Hisashi...

In the past couple of weeks, I have been going out and about to a variety of schools, forgetting names, working too hard trying to make some decent supplies, playing volleyball, forgetting to study, making nice with the neighbour's kids, chasing random bugs and frogs out of my house, and not getting enough sleep.

So far, the schools are good -- I have enjoyed meeting the students and the staff for the most part. Although, yesterday, I almost got the feeling that one of the teachers at a very small school I visit (11 kids, 2 teachers) was angry at me because Niimi has decided to implement an English programme in all their schools either next year or the year after. She seemed to be complaining without complaining about how busy the teachers all are, and how the curriculum is no longer being followed in a lot of places, and how the curriculum they have is the one that was set out by the Ministry of Education (I would just like to point out that the curriculum is a suggestion, not required). All this in response to my asking what sentence we should use with vehicles for the 5th and 6th grade class. I thought that, "I'm going by --." would be good, provided it were logically following a class where the students covered something like, "I'm going to --." and suggested that perhaps the order could be adjusted a little, especially since the students will be studying directions in November...

This was taken as if I had intended it as a personal front, as well as being accompanied by her own belief that perhaps English, or things about English were too hard for kids. And her own daughter grew to hate English, as the teacher in her daughter's school went too fast through things without checking to see that the kids understood, nor did she translate anything into Japanese. Foolishly, I replied and said, "Well, I am a different person, and I do try and check every once in a while that the kids understand what it is I am going on about. But I also think that if you translate everything into Japanese, the kids will merely wait for that, rather than relying on their own abilities, and it is not necessarily a bad thing to use English in English class so that the kids can get used to it."

After my foolhardy response, she continued on about the fixation Niimi has with offering English in the schools, how there are only classes every 2 weeks at her school, and other things that I faded out on (I really do appreciate how I can just fade out og the J-go sometimes, although it isn't always by choice). I may have agreed to something inadvertently, but I don't know what it is...

Volleyball has been fun. I have only been twice so far, last week Friday being the first, and people seem pretty friendly, but they aren't nearly as easygoing and relaxed about it as was suggested to me originally. They were almost scary, which made me very very glad I had not agreed to join the serious team. Last night was slightly less scary, although I did make a block on a spike that felt like it could almost have broken my hand. It is however leading to a softball game Thursday night, provided it doesn't rain, and an enkai next Saturday with a bunch of other "circles." Looking forward to it...

Spiderweb

Once again all wound up in music. Planning and plotting and dreaming about my next set at Hi! High? for the World Cup Party. Should prove a busy day, as I have to catch a 6:30am bus to Osaka for a 2 hour job interview at 11am. Arriving back in Yonago at 6:30, I rush straight off to Hi!High? to mess with the decks before going home to change and eat dinner. My 1am set will be followed by a PTA volleyball tournament the next morning. I seriously think the world is having me on right now. Maybe I can use the excuse of my messed up back to get out of it?? (My kids -- I love 'em, but the little bastards are trying to break me.)