Last day of the first month of the year

This month went by fast. I hardly realized that one month already passed since the New Year. I’ve got a lot of shit to take care of to say the least. Final exams are coming up and I’ve got to prepare what I’m going to do after that, but it doesn’t sound like I have anything else to do for the rest of the semester. Which could be a good or bad thing, but I’m not sure about that yet. I haven’t made any plans for my classes after the 8th of Feb, so that means I don’t know what’s next for my students. Last time I had a full three weeks to prepare for my 10th grade students for their debate, which finally in the end worked out. Because today was the day I was finished correcting their papers and told them how I wanted it done. They each had to come to me and I explained it to them. It turns out that they misunderstood my directions and it wasn’t my fault since other students in the class were able to understand and follow them. It’s a big burden off my shoulders since I had help from another teacher who felt as if she was responsible for it, even though she is. I didn’t want her to be all stressed out, but at least she takes her work seriously.

But that was at the end of the day. Let’s rewind a little bit and start with my first class. I’m lucky that I start the day with 3rd period, which gives me an extra hour of sleep. So I really like it. It was a 7th grade class and we just did what we did with the other class, which was the hobbies activity. They are a very energetic group and have a certain spunkiness to them. Some of the students in this class are really smart, and some are incredibly lazy. This is one of the higher level classes, so I really didn’t have much to worry about. Since there are two other teachers besides me and they are well experienced with handling a loud class. Come to think of it, it was the first time I saw them all year. Since I was teaching the 12th grade classes, I haven’t seen them since the end of the session in December which was over 7 weeks ago.

The same could be said for my 8th grade class. I haven’t seen them in a long time. I realized that this class is the highest level. Before I didn’t really notice, but I could really tell today. I was standing in the front corner with one of the best English speaking students in the whole school and yes, she’s in the 8th grade. The lesson of the day was Fast Food like it was in the other class. We did our schema activation activity to get the class started, but they nailed it. I started to notice that doing the same approach doesn’t work with this class.

They need a more challenging stimulating activity and they should be treated differently than the other 8th grade students. I would probably be the only one to say such a thing since everything is based on equality in this country. Everyone values being fair for everyone, which is a problem I ran into with the 10th grade classes and having them graded at different times was a big no-no. But I think since next year, most of the English teachers will be leaving and I’ll have more control of what I can do next year, I will try to implement something to challenge them more.

I had noticed that the advanced students were getting bored with the lesson, so I offered a little side lesson. Since we were talking about fast food, I asked her if she had any idea why they call French Fries, French Fries. She didn’t, so I decided that I would give her some trivial knowledge. Most people believe that it originated from France, and in a way it did. Thomas Jefferson, one of the most famous Americans, actually was the inventor of French Fries. So you could blame him for the horrible health conditions in the United States. He was on a trip to France because he enjoyed their culinary arts, and learned how the French cook their foods. They use a pan to fry items in oil. But the way that they cut their potatoes is what they call frenching it. So it actually refers to the way they prepare them. Now you have more useless knowledge to fill up some of that much needed brain space of yours. This is from what I’ve heard on The Learning Channel way back in the day when I watched a lot of television. See, you can learn something from TV.

Anyways, back to my life. After the 8th grade class finished, we had lunch. The 5th period 8th grade class was cancelled because there weren’t any afternoon classes. The school needed to prepare the classrooms for the next weeks’ entrance exams by prospective students. So it was a pretty chill day. I took my time to leave and studied Japanese a bit, and learned something pretty interesting that I tried with the history teacher behind me. It helped me with particles more, even though it was a bit more confusing, some how it just made sense to me. I left work earlier than usual; it was actually the first time all month that I had the chance to go home before 5pm. I took my time to go home, and bought some stuff at the grocery store before I actually arrived home. That way I would have food for the next few days. I opted to get a healthier meal for the next few days. I was planning to watch another movie, but got so interested in researching for a shorter way to learn Japanese, and I think I’ve found it. Something that at least will work for me, but I won’t share until I actually learn it. But I think it’s much faster than the way that I’ve been doing it. I practically spent the whole night researching it till I fell asleep.

Private lesson number 2

I had my second private lesson today. I had awakened earlier today than usual. I mean the appointment wasn’t until 1pm and I was awake by 9am. I think it could have been because I went to sleep earlier. I seem to be getting tired faster and having to go to sleep earlier. That’s not a bad thing since I usually get up early for work. I guess I’ve formed my daily routine and my sleeping patterns have developed. Well I suppose that’s what’s happening. So what I did in the morning was just plan for the lesson and the one thereafter. I think that I put together a pretty comprehensive lesson and I think it will be challenging for her. I think it should be helpful for her to improve her English.

The location was nice too. It seemed pretty busy on a Sunday, but it wasn’t that bad inside the library. We found a nice place to sit and spent the next 1.5 hours engaging in English. I think I learned a lot about her and something that I didn’t realize about what I planned. But I think that it might have sparked something in her that would be able to help her improve on her own, if she wanted to. I reviewed the homework that I gave her and then pointed some things out to her. Like some errors that I found and what I would be able to help her to do. She’s at the level that I feel she should be in high school because she’s only 17 years old and hasn’t ever lived abroad. I think that she should be exactly where she’s at, but of course it’s not where she wants to be, especially since she wants to go live in New York in about a year. I think she has some room for improvement, but she isn’t bad either, she’s in between.

If I could improve I think I would need to add more focus into what she wants to learn and have her apply more of what she already knows. I feel as if I think she just has the yearning to speak. I just let her go and speak even though it wasn’t as structured. It’s only the first meeting anyways. I think that she’s got the capabilities but is too dependent on the dictionary. Of course like I could say anything since I live through the dictionary too, and I’m in a position that I should speak fluent Japanese since I’ve lived here for about 7 months now. I’m falling behind rapidly.

After the lesson, we parted ways at hongodai station and then I went to the restaurant I have been going to on my way home to grab something to eat. I ordered ramen today. It was much smaller than I anticipated, but it was still delicious. I think I shouldn’t go to that place so often because they give me weird looks, but they seem like nice people. After that I just went home and took care of some things and hung out in front of my lovely computer. Seems like I’m only doing one or two things a day and I don’t feel like I’m living the whole I’m in another country experience. I feel lazy, that I should be doing more than I already am. But honestly, what more could I do? I felt like I’ve done everything that I came here to do and hit every major tourist spot in Tokyo and Yokohama. I guess I could go a little further once I get my hands on more dough. That’s what I’ll plan for then.

At night, since it wasn’t so freezing, I decided to watch a movie on my new DVD player. I mean the room wasn’t so bad, so I could tolerate it and watch a movie and eat dinner. So it was nice. I decided to watch Big Fish. It’s a great movie and very inspirational, well at least to me. But near the end of the movie the disc must have been scratched because it kept on skipping on me. I was pissed off because it was right at the part when it was about to end and the son was telling the story. It almost made it all the way through, but it was still nice to see it.

Massive Update / Wasted day

I woke up rather late today. I didn’t manage to get my ass out of bed till around 2pm. I was just watching a little TV while eating my Croissants that I had bought from Costco. It was good, but really not enough to get me full. I then spent the day reading all my e-mails, only reading. Then I was checking up on some news and talked to my family. That was basically it. I wanted to do more, but didn’t feel like it. I think that tomorrow; depending on when I’m going to meet my student for a private English lesson will determine how I spend the rest of my day. I also realized that I will have a lot of vacation time coming up too. So I need to make a plan for what I’m going to do on all that time off.

In February, I have a total of 16 days off including weekends, and only 13 days of work. That’s really cool! I’m thinking about going to a trip either in another country or another part of Japan that I haven’t been to. I’ve got enough money saved up to do either or, but I just hope that I don’t end up staying at home and wasting all that time. I’ve been meaning to buy some DVD’s and an mp3 player and a new computer. But I’ve got to decide which ones I really want and when I’ll be able to afford to get all of them. So I think tomorrow, I’ll start planning what I want to be doing. I’ll keep you posted. Hopefully my internet will stay online.

Hotel Nikko Tokyo

I felt as if I woke up late today, but I probably didn’t. I was rushing to get to work, but I didn’t have a first or second period, so class didn’t start for me till 10:50am. I wanted to get some things done before I got to work though. Since I checked my mail last night upon arriving at home, I got my electric bill. The electric bill was over $75, which is ridiculous for just 2 people. I think that having a roommate might have added to the bill a little bit. Usually it isn’t over $30, but in this case it doubled. So in the morning I had to get to the bank and get some cash.

When I got to the bank, I had trouble again with my passbook. I think I’m going to give up on it and just stop trying to use it. I’m not sure how it works, but I don’t really care either. As long as I have more money in my account than I can account for, I’m cool. I pulled out some cash so I could pay that bill and just to have enough to pay for food and such.

I then went to work and the first class was an 8th grade class. They were pretty good, which is weird. There was a parent of a potential student who was watching over the class. The lesson was on fast food. It was making me and the other teachers very hungry. I started to miss IN-N-Out a little bit too. And Jack in the box too. We weren’t getting too in depth with it because they don’t really need to know all of it till next year when they will be going to America to eat all the things that we were talking about. Plus they have some of those places here in Tokyo too.

The next class was the 11th grade. Their lesson was just to complete the report that I had introduced to them 2 weeks ago. Some were getting too into it. They had all bought some movie guides that outlined the movies that they wanted to report on. I told them that all they needed was just 3 main points, but some of the students had so much trouble just finding three. I thought that was interesting. Others were getting out of hand giving too much information. I had reminded them that they did have to memorize it. It was quite a spectrum of skills in the room, but I think it should be interesting to listen to. They have till Monday to turn them all in and have them all graded and given back. I’m happy that I won’t be grading them and turning them back to the students. From what I’ve heard from the other teacher is that many of the English teachers will be leaving the school. I find that sad and encouraging at the same time. I think it’s good because I could start to formulate what I want to do with my classes with more freedom, but then again, I already have that freedom. I find it sad because these are such great teachers. I mean they are really really good English teachers and I give them much respect. They are really flexible and have enough expertise to help and still be encouraging. So I think overall it’s a bad thing that so many are leaving and some are going to part-time. I knew that it was coming, but from what I’ve heard that it will happen in March. I don’t know the stress that they have undergone to get them to that point. Since it’s not really traditional to leave your work after you have obtained it.

After that I had to go back to grading and correcting the assignment that I gave the 10th graders. That took an enormous amount of time and once again stretched many hours. I don’t know how it took so much time to do. I think it was only 120 papers or so, I think I’ve got to develop a way to go faster. Some of which were really interesting, but most of it was the same. I think that I’ve got to be able to do it much faster because I think in the future there will be more papers and since I’ve got all the grades levels to do, it should be much faster.

Today I was just taking my time because I had to wait around till 6:30pm anyways. At that time I would be leaving to go to the Hotel Nikko Tokyo in Odaiba. That’s the place where the school will celebrate the birthday of the Headmaster of the school. It was a nice lavish event filled with many activities and much food. I don’t think that I took advantage of the food and ate enough. The night was filled with music by the music teacher at my school, who plays wonderfully and a full on magic show.

I want to mention the magic show because we had a world-class magician perform. It was pretty cool to sit that close to the action. I was practically front and center for the whole show, meaning I was sitting with all the top dogs, with the exception of the headmaster himself, but with all of the head of departments. The magician was some name who escapes me at the moment, but his sons are incredibly famous in Japan. His sons are just little boys and do a wonderful magic show. They were on TV many times and I even knew about them and I hardly ever watch TV. But they are famous in Japan. So sitting up close made it all worth it. It was pretty interesting to see, even though you could spot how they do some of the magic tricks, you really couldn’t guess how they did it all. But it was cool to see. The last act was really cool too.

After all that, there was another after party that only a few teachers were invited to. My host, the English Department chair didn’t realize that and was a little offended when her boss told her to take me to the third floor to Ocean Dining. She had thought that I could take myself, but hadn’t realized that not everyone was going to go, so then she realized that she did need to take me to the 3rd floor. It had a great view of Tokyo. It looks like a mini-New York City. You can look at pictures on the website of the incredible view from the Hotel to the city. http://www.hnt.co.jp/english/. I thought it was pretty cool, but realized that it lasted pretty late. So late that in fact I didn’t have a train to take me home to Hongodai. So they decided to foot the bill of a taxi ride home. I bet you couldn’t guess how much the school had to pay to send me home that one night. But the total was around $215 from Odaiba to my front door. Now that’s pricy! That’s the most I’ve paid for any ride except for my airplane ticket. Of course in a plane you’re going a much further distance than from Tokyo to Yokohama. It was a ridiculous amount to have to pay, but I’m grateful that my school paid it for me. I love working at my school and there is NO doubt about that.

Easy Day

After tutoring last night, I felt a bit guilty. I feel as if I’m charging too much to teach private lessons, but that’s the average price and I even gave her a discount for going 3 hours. But I wanted her to see the value of what she’s getting herself involved with. I’m getting soft and it’s embarrassing. I don’t know what happened to me, but I don’t like it. I stayed up pretty late last night, so I thought that I would sleep in today. I didn’t have much responsibility today since I only have one class. I took things slowly and woke up later than usual. That’s always nice I feel, because I was refreshed.

I went to get lunch before I stepped into work and the place I went to was packed and half. It was a yoshinoya of course, but I had a place to park my ass and get the food that I wanted. I felt as if I wasted a lot of the day because I woke up so late and got to work so late. I came to school right before lunch time so I had to sit there and watch all of the other teachers eat their food. They make me hungry, it’s really bad. I would get all hungry even though I just ate.

The 7th grade class today wasn’t too bad. It was an open school so there were parents looking at different rooms. There were supposed to be parents in our room, but it turned out that there were only other teachers coming in and out. I thought that was incredibly strange. But it was not a big deal. The lesson was on hobbies and we made them interview each other and ask questions. We wanted to get them ready for the English Fun Fair coming up on the 19th of Feb. It’s a good topic to ask the native speakers.

Class finished like normal and students weren’t too out of control. I stuck around school till late again. This time I stayed late because I had massive amounts of papers to grade. I was checking my 10th grade students’ manuscripts for their “debate” test. It was a very time consuming task, but I wanted to get them back to the students as soon as possible. I went through two classes of correcting English and interpreting sentences till 8pm. That’s quite a long time, from 2-8pm just grading. I did a little more than half of the correcting and figured since I’d have to wait around a long time tomorrow for the event in the evening, I would just finish up the next day.

I went home and grabbed some food at a place I’ve never even heard of before. I went to Kannai station and just started walking around till I saw something that I liked. I decided on a place that had something similar to Yoshinoya, but offered other things too. I had a katsudon type of dish with a side of udon noodles. I really was craving some ramen, but couldn’t find a shop to provide that for me. It’s really weird that on my way to work and going home there aren’t any that pop out at me to go to and get some ramen. There is this one place at toritsu-daigaku station right next to the Tokyo-mitsubishi bank, but I think that’s too close to my school and it wouldn’t be advisable to eat there. But I think one day I will and I am still waiting to try freshness burger too. That’s two places on my list that I need to do sometime in the near future.

When I got home, my internet was restored. I don’t have a very high signal or anything, but I’m happy that at the very least it works. I stayed up late to do some things and to check my e-mail. I turned out that I had collected over 500 e-mails in my absence from the internet. But I hadn’t even checked all my accounts either. Damn spam.

My first private lesson / QA's Birthday, Happy Birthday QA!

Today is my day off working at my full-time job, so what do I go do with it; I spend it teaching private lessons. I don’t really need the money, but I guess it would be nice to have a little extra money on the side. I started off the day kinda early since I didn’t have crap to do until late in the evening. I woke up at 10am because I had wanted to do some laundry, and wanted to get another go at fixing my internet connection. But I was just cleaning my room and RWd’s room since I haven’t done any cleaning in about 3 weeks. It was starting to collect some dust and I didn’t like it. So I did that in the afternoon. I went back to my addiction. I was playing solitaire for most of the day. It’s a great waste of time, but I’m getting really good at it. I topped my score at 7487 today, which I haven’t done in a long time. My personal best is 8000 plus, but that was a long time ago. See what happens when my internet is gone. I miss the internet so I went over to MTki’s house to try to fix it.

Actually she had called me over to try to help put together her new sofa bed. But all I did was stand there and watch her other friend’s fix it. They had called me over to help because all the directions were written in English. But I had told them that it was easy to put together and it turned out that it was pretty easy. They had figured it out, but they just wanted me there just in case. I also talked to TTki a little bit today. He was speaking for his mother that they apologize for the internet connection being disrupted. I was like; it was no problem because they don’t have connection either. It’s something that we can’t help. It’s not like I blame them for it or anything. I tried my best to figure it out and fix it, but was unable to. We even went to Yamada Denki today to buy a new wireless router and after I installed it, it still didn’t work. There wasn’t an IP address reading, so therefore it wasn’t a problem with the router, which was a pretty expensive router too. I blame it on NTT not being able to give off an IP address. I spent most of the day to try to fix that. I only stopped because I had an appointment to teach someone a private lesson in English.

My latest student is the daughter of one of MTki’s friend. I think they are going to give me a try to see if I’m a good teacher, since I am pretty expensive in their eyes. But in all actuality, I’m pretty cheap compared to other teachers. We had agreed to meet at Mister Donut at 6pm. I was a little late and she was already waiting for me. I didn’t recognize her at first, but it’s hard to miss her. She’s a nice looking 22 year old female. I wouldn’t say she’s an ugly person because she’s not ugly at all. She’s quite the opposite. I had originally thought that it might be difficult to teach her English because I felt that her ability was limited, but I was surprised. She actually understood a lot. I hoped that I would be able to help her improve though. I think the part that really helped her was just to talk naturally. She knew when she would make a mistake and try to figure it out so that was good. I did my lesson on FORMS and only started the first step. I think it’s effective once you get a foundation down to get the other things in place. I’ll have to be able to extend her learning by adding a few more challenging steps to make her think out of the box. I’m so glad that I make my own materials; it really helps to focus in on what I really want to teach and make it specific to my student.

All and all, I think it went well, kinda long though. She had talked for about 3 hours until she realized that I charged per hour not per time. Since it was her first time, I decided to give her a break and give her a discount. It’s still quite expensive, but she didn’t have to pay me on the spot. She will pay me next week. I think it was worth her money though, even though it might be out of her reach. I believe that it will encourage her to value her time more and be able to get more out of each lesson. I imagine that it will last for a fairly long time. But I’ll have to wait and see about that. Something that my dad told me to look out for is that August of this year; I will run into problems with money if I don’t have enough saved up. So all I’m doing is saving up my money for a rainy day. My mother had told me that this year; my horoscope says that I will have females chasing me. I’m not sure if that will hold true, but I do feel as if that is happening. It’s a strange feeling to have. Since at this moment in time, I feel like I want to have a girlfriend, but then I do really love going it solo. But I guess if the time and girl is right, I’ll go for it. But I might be so dumb and just move on with my life without noticing that there are wonderful people all around me.

I wanted to wish my good friend a Happy Birthday. I’m glad that after all these years we are still friends. You’ll always be a good friend and I hope that we never lose touch. Even though I’m all the way on the other side of the planet and you’re living a dream. I don’t think that your life could be more perfect. I hope that your wishes this year come true and I know that great things await you this year. Happy Birthday! Thanks for always reading too.

Preparation for the Debate Class

Today’s 10th grade lesson plan was to prepare the girls for a debate that we will be having in 2 weeks. Like I expected the day would be, it turned out to be exactly as I imagined it.

The first 10th grade class that I taught was horrible. It was really mismanaged and the students had no idea what was going on. The other teacher barely had an idea of what was going on too. I think the communication between me and her was poor and therefore led to poor translations, which led to much confusion among everyone. This is one of the higher level classes too, which puts me in a difficult situation of how to handle it. It’s gotten much worse and I see no end to the dismantling of their education. They are being taught by two first year teachers, I have an idea of what I want them to do, since I’m the one who made it up. But to put blame on the other teacher just wouldn’t be right, since it’s my job to communicate these things with her and to make sure that she gives the correct translation. Which I’m sure she hasn’t because the students are really absolutely lost. So what am I to do, the next meeting is the debate, and I know they are not prepared to answer the questions or even speak up at the front of the room.

The second 10th grade class was also not done to the best of level. There were only 27 students which is by far the fewest of any of my classes. They are one of those in between classes. They are believed to lack the ability to speak and learn English, but I believe that they could do it and are probably the most creative of all my classes. They pointed out something that I didn’t catch before while I was making the plan of how to teach the class. So I was able to make the adjustment, although I could tell the other teacher wasn’t happy. We made the final adjustments at the end of class, and hopefully they will be able to get it done in time. They were supposed to have another week to work on it, but next week there is no school. I have encouraged all the students to come to talk to me in the office, but I know for a fact that none of them will. The other teacher suggested to me that I be a little bit more organized for the next class since they are a bit out of control. And if they don’t understand it will be just a mad house.

So I worked throughout the whole lunch break fixing all the errors from the first two classes. I got all the papers printed out and made the adjustments of how I will teach them. So the third 10th grade class, supposed to be the lowest level actually got it. With the adjustments that I made during lunch, this class went absolutely fabulous. They even had enough time to finish and turn it in, even though it wasn’t due till Thursday. I think the explanation was clearer than in the first two classes and even the other teacher said that it went well. Quite a shock to me since I always get the feeling she hates me. So that was a relief to finally get a good class out of the day. But then again, I expected this because this was how things went last week too.

The last 10th grade class is said to be the highest level in ability, but I feel they lack the creativity to be superb. In this class, I had to do the first 20 minutes alone with no translator. At first it seemed as if I was losing control until I got their attention by yelling. It worked quite well I think. Once I was able to get control, I finished explaining it. After I yelled at them, it was a little too quiet though. Like I would ask a question and no one would say anything. Their homeroom teacher is a very strict fellow and they are often scared to be out of control. But I think that they thought they could get away with it today since I was on my own. I explained it to them and then we went on with the lesson. I think it went well except for the fact that I had to yell to get their attention. But at least they were able to listen and get it so they will be ready for their test in two weeks.

I would later meet some of the girls from the last class in English club. They thought I was mad. I wasn’t, just needed to get their attention to show them how I will grade them. It was important stuff and that’s why I needed to do it. The club seemed fun today. There weren’t any junior high school kids today, which is weird since Tuesdays are the junior high school students English club day, and Mondays are the high school students. But it was fun; we talked about universities differences from the States and Japan. And then we planned the end of the year party. We will throw a party for one of the English teachers that will be married soon.

My Last Senior class

Today was my last day to teach the senior class at my school. The plan of the day was something that I’ve been planning for a very long time. I came up with the idea way back in the day, but I only started to work on it recently and though that this would be the perfect opportunity to unveil it. It’s a pretty conservative school, but they are open to use different methods of teaching and learning. Most of the other classes that I teach, we use more traditional learning methods like lecture and repeating, but with this senior class, I’ve been able to try a few things.

From what I’ve been reading on the internet, most of the other Native English teachers get to play games all day. I think that games are only a good tool to use, if it serves a higher purpose. I wouldn’t use it all the time, and since I’ve been used as only a part-time teacher for the students I’ve had the opportunity to use games. I think that when you play games all the time, you get the students off track on the way that other teachers will teach them and sure they might like the games, but you in fact hurt all your counterparts at the school, because they wouldn’t be able to teach the way that the students are used to. So it’s good and bad at the same time.

But since these students only get me to teach them for 2 weeks and only 3 times each week, I figured it would allow me a chance to prove I could make things happen for them. Today’s lesson was a game I concocted after watching TV a few months ago. It was during a baseball game between the Japanese all stars and the American baseball all stars. I used the concept of baseball from that, but how I incorporated it into an English lesson was through something else that came into my life just recently. In Japan, all the students must take an English test named the Eiken. There are many levels to the Eiken test ranging from fifth to first, first being the hardest. Most students only go up to second grade, and hardly get to take the pre-first or even the first grade level.

So what I did was take questions from the Eiken tests at each level and gave them a different base value. Since questions from the fifth grade are too easy, I made it a practice round. The next level, which is fourth-grade, would be a single, and the third would be a double, and the pre-second would be a triple, and second a homerun, and I included questions from pre-first and made the value a grand slam. I made a PowerPoint presentation and put it on the computer and projected it on a screen so that everyone could read the questions. I added a little twist to the game play though; the person up to bat had to face me as I was reading the question. Therefore I would test their ability to listen. Next year and beyond, in order to get to a university, there will be a listening comprehension part to the entrance exam. So I was getting the students prepared for that.

At the beginning it was pretty difficult for them, but once they got into the swing of things it started to pick up. It can get boring at times, just like baseball so you’ve got to be careful with it, especially when a lower level student gets a tough question. You can’t really tell who is at what level and when it comes to listening, you really have no idea. But I think it was a success and will probably use it again some other time. I was very worried that it wouldn’t go over well because it could be really difficult. I gave a reward for the winning team and I believe they all enjoyed the game.

English club today was a little interesting. We met in the Language Laboratory even though we weren’t supposed to. There were a lot of laptops there for a computer class and they didn’t want any students in there, but being the westerners that we are, we didn’t care and still met there anyways. We just talked mostly about the wedding plans and looked at pictures that CP took while she was in Australia. It was interesting to see her family pictures. I also showed my limited family pictures. I asked my sister for some more, but since I don’t have the internet I’m not sure if she had sent some or not. Club ended around 5:30pm, but I stuck around to finish my lesson plans for Tuesday.

I was working the last minute details for what I was going to teach the 10th grade students. I finally figured out a way to get everything that I wanted to get done for the day. It will be tight, but I think I can manage to squeeze everything in, all but one class. I finally have started talking to the other teachers more. Which I feel is really good. I’m more accessible than I was before, partly because I didn’t leave school till around 8pm. And when I finished all my work, I got news that they had shut down the Tokyu-Toyoko line because of an accident. That’s twice in a week. That’s a total of 4 accidents that has affected me since I’ve been in Japan. I still managed to get home at least, but was limited in the dinner that I wanted to get, so I just stopped off at McDonalds. Even when I got home, I started working on finishing my paper work.

Costco

I really enjoy going to this place. Costco is the greatest store in the world. It’s the only store I go to that I spend ridiculously. It’s actually quite dangerous if I get out of the control. So that was the plan for the day. I would also go with my host family to somewhere else too.

Today for some reason was incredibly cold and even snowing a little. That was a little weird since the day before, it was rather warm for January. Anyways, I got up around 1pm, which really is late. I cut my hair before we went and did a little cleaning. The departure time was about 3pm and that’s about when I finished doing everything. It was a little cold to cut my hair, but I did it anyways. I know that if I didn’t it would get out of control and it was starting to look gross, and quite embarrassing.

There were a lot of people that would be going to Costco with me. My host family had invited a lot of people go to, not sure of the reason why, but I guess the more the merrier. They were the people that I saw yesterday and since they were there while we were doing the planning it would be only appropriate to invite them to come along. I had met them for the first time during new years at TTki’s house. It took a little while to get there since there were two full cars and they were taking a longer way.

Once inside I kinda broke away from them because I had my own things to buy and I didn’t want to be stopping them from all their shopping either. I think it would have been better for me just to go on my own. The first thing that I grabbed was a DVD player. It is quite nice, and is non-regional. That means I can play DVD’s from the U.S., Japan, Australia, and anywhere. Not only was it non-regional, but it looked nice. It’s a nice silver color and it was cheap. It cost me about $70. That was the bulk of my check. I also decided that I should go back to cooking some more when I’m on my vacation break the beginning of next month. I think I should start to get good at it, in case I need to impress anyone. I also bought some other necessities. All and all, the total was $140. Kinda pricy for only nine items. I was going to buy a memory stick for the computer that I could use as a disk from the work computer to my laptop since every time I take my laptop to work; I never take the working dock. So I really can’t transfer files from one to the other. It gets annoying because I have to then use a small 3.5 floppy. It’s an ancient way of doing that, but I guess if I wanted to spend another $60 I could have gotten it. But I guess I will eventually get it. I have been spending a lot of money this month and would like to get paid before I spend anymore.

After we all finished shopping at Costco, we all packed into the car. It was a tight fit since I was the only one who spent less than $200. There was a lot of stuff that we needed to put into the car. After we successfully put everything inside, we went to a sushi restaurant. We went to one of those conveyor belts restaurants. It was very interesting to see and the food was delicious. I would have thought it would be impossible for me to become full from eating only sushi, but actually it’s pretty filling. I had tried some sushi that I hadn’t had before. It was an interesting and active atmosphere. I would definitely like to go back to one, but I’m sure it must have cost a lot of money. Each plate that we picked up was a buck and some were $10 bucks one small plate of something. It was really expensive, but extremely delicious.

From there we went home and unpacked the car, which was the end of the evening for me. All I did from there was just refilling my heater with some kerosene and just chill. I’m still pretty bummed out that I don’t have any internet connection. I hate not having an internet connection. I’ll need to find another source somewhere and somewhere soon.

Laundry, Dinner and new student

I was invited by MTki’s to go over to her house for some dinner. I had done some laundry during the day after I got a good night’s rest. I slept for a really long time and felt like I caught up on all the sleep that I needed from the two weeks of work that I had. I had a full load of clothes to wash since I didn’t get a chance with so much going on and taking care of my roommate for the time he was spending in Japan. All and all, I think that experience was good for him. I think it was also good for me too. I think that I learned a lot from having a roommate since I haven’t had one before. It was interesting how I had to adjust to sharing things that I normally didn’t care about. I mean my room was messy before so I guess it was good that I cleaned up my room.

While I was over at MTki’s house, I was trying to fix the wireless internet connection. It seems as if she didn’t have a connection either. It was so bad that the cable to the machine wasn’t able to establish a connection, which was an extreme bummer to me. I miss my internet and was doing everything that I knew that would work in America to fix it. Some how it just didn’t work and I wasn’t able to get a connection. I couldn’t get it working either. I was pissed off. HTki’s friend wasn’t able to fix it either and even after we called the modem company’s number. Nothing was fixed.

Some time later, we all got together for some dinner, which was nice, since I was incredibly hungry. I was there a little early and was talking to a few of their family’s friends. They were the same people that I met during the beginning of the New Year. There were a few other people that I didn’t know, and never really talked to them either. There were some children there too. And some time later, my newest student came. It was one of the younger girls that I met from the New Years party. I had only seen her for a split second before she left to go to work. She looks to be about my age and potentially younger. She’s one of those cutesy type of Japanese girl. She wants to learn English and is willing to pay me for lessons. So I’m game. I really can’t tell her age, but I remember that she told me when we first met. Anyways, it doesn’t matter.

I started giving her an English conversation lesson tonight, just to see her level. It’s not very high to say the least. She’s got a lot of work ahead of her if she wants to learn. But I think I can do a little to help her improve. She’s quite busy working at an Okinawan restaurant. I’m not sure if she’s a student too, but I will need to find out more about her when we meet in the coming week.

Role play / Talk with Mrs. Katoda

Today’s senior class lesson was role playing. In today’s class with the seniors, we did a role playing activity. The activity was to make up the dialogue from a comic strip that is famous in Japan. My teaching partner had prepared some comic strips from Sazae san and I asked her to blank out the words in the dialogue box. The object of the game was to make them fill in the blanks and to perform it for me. There were quite a few comics that each group would have to do. At first I thought it might be too difficult for them, but at the end I felt as if theirs was better than the original one. It took up most of the class time all the way into the second class period. They are really creative, something that I haven’t seen in any of the students ever. So that was a shock for me. But then I guess if you give them an activity that will allow that, they will go off with it.

The next activity was a detective game. It was a short little activity that the other teacher prepared for me. We would have a card and you’d have to ask the other students certain questions to determine who the criminal was. It wasn’t that interesting, but served as the perfect time filler since it lasted the rest of the period. I would always call out the people who were very shy and quiet and say they were the criminal. They enjoyed the class so I was happy.

After class, I was already preparing for Monday’s lesson. I had asked another teacher to a projector and some wires ready so I could test my laptop with it. It will be for a slide show presentation that I have prepared for the class. So we went into the tatami mat room where all the equipment was. I tested the other teacher to see if she could answer all the questions that I would be asking the students. Some of the questions she couldn’t answer because they were at a very very hard level. But I decided to be an asshole and leave it in there anyways. I felt as if the students would be able to answer.

But after the slide show presentation, I started talking to her and we got into a deep conversation talking about a lot of things. It was really quite enjoyable since this was the first time I really talked to her. It’s been six months since I’ve been working at the school and this was the first time that this English teacher really talked to me. I think she enjoyed it a lot too. We were talking for about 2-3 hours and it was really getting late. I think that we ended our conversation around 8pm and then we went home. She’s a really great person and I think her and her husband make a good couple. Her husband is the teacher who sits behind me. He talks to me frequently so it’s odd that her English teacher wife doesn’t. As we were leaving another English teacher caught up with us and wanted to join in the conversation. They tried to invite me to go see Around the World in 80 Days with them, but I decided to pass. I was aching for a break from school. I hadn’t really had a day of rest in a long time. But since I wasn’t going to go, I decided to watch it on my computer. It wasn’t that great of a movie, but I did like the principle of it that you should go after your dream, willing to give up everything that you have for it. But that review will be for another day.

Schedule Mix - Up / Talk with Ms. Sakai

Thursdays are really weird days because it seems like almost a waste to go to school. I only have one class that I help to teach. We really don’t get into it since the 3 teachers that teach that class only have one class that day and it’s all the same one. We are all part-time teachers so it’s a weird feeling when we go into it. They had moved the classroom on us because there was construction going on in the regular building that caused a foul smell. So it was a difference in environment and it was gloomy outside. The class lacked the energy required to teach these 7th graders.

Today was the day that I was supposed to meet RWd before he left for America. But I had forgotten my schedule and made it at a time that would be virtually impossible for me to meet him. I wanted to meet him as this would be his last day in Japan. But I had mixed up the time to meet. I remembered the 40 minute schedule instead of the regular 50 minutes. I needed to talk to another teacher for the 10th grade class so that everything would be clear. It turned out that it was clear at that time. I also needed to talk to another teacher about Friday’s lesson on role play. I didn’t quite understand the activity and since all the instructions were in Japanese, I decided it would be best to ask her. She cleared things up for me. But by the time I had finished all my work, it was already over time to meet up with RW. So I just stuck around. I needed to get some more work done to prepare for the lessons coming up and for the English club. I wanted to be ahead of the game by leaps and bounds, so that I wouldn’t be surprised by anything. I didn’t end up leaving school till around 8pm. It seems as though that I’m leaving school later and later.

During that time, I was talking to the teacher sitting in front of me. I was asking her about her private lessons, turns out that I’m a cheapo. I only charge one-third of what she pays for lessons. That’s freaking ridiculous. She pays her English tutor more than what a doctor makes. I was absolutely flabbergasted when I heard it. I attracted a lot of attention by all the loud noise that I was making as the things she told me. I was very jealous because her tutor was making bank, that I decided that it might be in my best interest to start my own English language school. I think that I would be able to do it since I have the resources and knowledge of doing these kinds of things. So it is a possibility. And since I know there is a niche, it might be well worth looking into.

Oh by the way, I just wanted to let you know that RWd had missed his flight to go back to San Diego. I thought that was incredibly funny since he had left 4 hours in advance and should have been there in enough time to have everything taken care of. But jumped on the wrong train and got stuck at a station not knowing where he was or what to do. It was sad to hear, but funny at the same time. Kinda reminds me of someone else I know, and when it comes down to it, I don’t see much difference between the two. Not really a surprise to me, but I think he was a little better than someone else, but not by much. I wish the best for them, but I think sometimes, a person needs to grow up and take hold of some responsibility for themselves.

Jeopardy / Lost my internet

Today’s senior class lesson was a game of Jeopardy. Based on the popular television show that I’ve watched many years in the U.S., I thought it would be good to bring it into the classroom here in Japan. I’ve been preparing questions for a long time and asking all the teachers whether they thought it would be too hard or too easy. I was shocked to find out that all my questions were too easy for the students, which in fact they were. So during the break, my partner and I worked on making more difficult questions. I added some really hard questions on there too. Just to be an ass, but I thought it would be funny too. Which in fact, it was. They said that they hated me after the class because I had included some ridiculously hard questions. But I wanted to get them to think, I had asked all the other teachers in the office that question too and everyone got it wrong. It was a trick question that’s why.

The questions that I asked related to the things that we’ve been doing in the previous classes. I had worked with other teachers to figure out what they were doing so I could ask questions about topics that we didn’t cover in my class, but would be good to test their memory. It was good that everything was tied together and I think they really learned a lot over the course of the past two weeks.

When I went home I found out that there was a problem with my internet. I thought that I was my computer at first and I wanted to go online to help RWd find the best way to get to the airport and get some information too. But I couldn’t so I figured that when he left I would go over to MTki’s house and see what was going on. I can’t live without the internet, so I really don’t like it.

Tuesdays are always tough

I had a full day today. I was teaching a total of 6 classes in one day, which I think no one at the school, does. The first class that I taught today was an 11th grade class. I don’t normally see 11th graders so it was good for me to be a sub for the day. CP was still in Australia for her sister’s wedding and the lesson plans was still just to introduce the test topic on a movie report. My partner was Ms. YWbe, and she was worried about doing the lesson by herself so I came and helped since I’ve done it with other classes already. I kinda got the hang of how the 11th graders are and know their ability. I personally think they are the highest in the school. I think the lesson went really well, meaning it accomplished what I was planning to do, I prepared the students for their test and I made it enjoyable. It was a little shocking to hear, but one of the students in the class had told me that she loved me. She just shouted it out in the middle of class, which was pretty awkward to say the least. Since I don’t know why she did it, since we weren’t even talking about it and it was only the first time that I’ve ever walked into that class. But it’s better than having them say that they hate me.

The 9th grade class was quite interesting today too. They were all chatty which isn’t usual and they were trying to take advantage of the situation that I haven’t taught the class before, I’m just there only as an assistant. So I turned the tables on them. Since I was working with them at the English Festival in December I started to get to know the students by a first name basis. The lesson for the day was food and restaurants so I was just talking about different kinds of foods that we have in America since they will be going to Santa Barbara in March. They were getting a little out of control and not paying attention so I started to call out names and have them read the dialogue out loud. I made the really loud ones come up to the front of the room to do it. I would then break them up into groups and if I heard any Japanese they would have to go in front of the whole room and have to perform with everyone watching. It worked beautifully. I think my partner for the day was happy since it’s her homeroom class. I think it went better than usual and no one was speaking in Japanese. I love fear, it has its advantages.

Today for my four 10th grade classes, I just introduced the debate topic and had them start working on the debate materials. I had made a sheet for them to use and to get their ideas out onto the paper. But because I hadn’t realized that Feb. 1st there aren’t classes, I was actually a week behind. So I had to get the students to finish two papers, when I normally planned for one. I was falling behind because I should have started earlier. I tried to get them back on track and have them finish more of what they needed to do. In the first class, things went incredibly horrible. Things were all getting mixed up and my Japanese English teacher partner. I think many things were getting mistranslated and therefore led to much confusion amongst all the students. Of course, no students ask me what I wanted them to do even though I’m the one going to be grading them. But that was all in the first class. In the second through fourth classes, they all seemed to understand completely. I had developed a pattern about how I would go about to teach these girls. So by the end of the day, I was able to communicate what I wanted from them perfectly.

After school we had a little pow wow with the English club. My girls from junior high school showed up too. I didn’t have anything really planned for them, so we did something that I did with the seniors. Since there was a lot of them today and almost none of them yesterday we played Shiritori. That’s basically the game where you have to say a word that begins with the last letter of the previous word. It was a good activity because there were some junior high school girls there and they don’t know that much English. Although there was one eighth grader who’s English is almost perfect. After that, I practically collapsed because I was getting too tired. The time was about 6pm when we stopped club, I didn’t want them to go home too late. But I still had many things to do and to prepare for the next day and for next week as well. I didn’t end up leaving till around 8pm. That’s pretty late for me.

Mondays

I had to get up freakin early again today. Wake up call was at 5:30am, but I didn't roll out of bed till around 6:30am, which is usually the time I leave my house. So that meant I had to take the Tokaido line from Totsuka station to Yokohama station. It's a faster, more crowded train. Which meant I had to take the bus too. It wasn't that bad today, but I should have left earlier than 6:30am. Usually if I have a first period I have to get there early enough for the teacher's meeting at 8:20am, and go to the morning assembly at 8:30am before my first period class at 8:50am. But if I don't have a first period class, I can get to school around 9:30am for a 9:50am class. That's an hour and a half later. But this week is an off week because CP is in Australia for her sister's wedding.

Tomorrow will be my last day for first period, but it happens to be the first time that I have to teach 6 classes and advise my English Club. So it will be a long day for me, to say the least.
Today started off pretty good. I felt as if I did a fairly good job with the 11th grade class. I like teaching the 11th grade as I've recently found out, just too bad it's first period classes. They have a higher ability and are more able to talk out loud and even try to speak English. So went over the movie review section of their final oral report of the semester. It was pretty fun too, and I like this 11th grade class the best. They have a warm energy to them and they actually understand my off the wall jokes.

The next period was actually a mix up. I had thought that I would be teaching 2nd period, but it turns out that they had made a switch in the scheduling and neglected to tell me about it. Although today, it worked to my benefit because I hadn't prepared the lesson for the 3rd period class. So I had about another hour to do so. I was making a game for sentence forming. I had another teacher grab some sentences from the entrance exam that they are studying so diligently for and then cut up the words of each sentence and put them in an envelope. I had about 30 sentences and broke the girls into groups of 3 with one group of 4. So each group would see about 10 sentences that they haven't seen before.

They really enjoyed it. I mean I had them form the sentence at their table with their group, then write it on the board and then speak it out, but the catch was that they had to memorize the sentence at their desk and write it from memory and then speak it from memory. It was interesting to see, and it even spilled over into 4th period. Since I teach them for 2 periods straight, I just continued on with the game. They went at it for a whole 2 hours and did about 13 sentences each group. There was a tie at the end and I had the winner be decided by Rock, Paper, Scissors. The winner was a group that was doing well with the sentences anyways and was leading the whole time till the very end. I think that class went well and that I like teaching the seniors. Of course there was only 10 of them, so that makes it incredibly easier.

The 8th graders were a nightmare. I never had control of the class and it was the complete opposite of what I had imagined. It was just horrible. Smacked reality back in my face that I'm only a first year teacher and one that most the students don't understand and don't want to understand. I never wanted to work with Junior High school students, but hey, what can I do about it? I've got to make the best with what I have. So I guess, I've got to develop something to be able to connect with them and to get them to listen and learn. It's a great challenge to be a teacher.

From 6th period, there was a special guest who survived the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb. He was 70 something years old and was telling about his story. Of course it was all in Japanese, and I didn't understand much. I learned some new things from the teacher that was sitting next to me so that was good. It was fortunate for me.

After that, I was just preparing my lessons for Tuesday. I had totally rearranged my plans for the 10th grade. I decided that I fucked up with the original plan and that I needed to fix it before it got out of hand. Actually I don't think it would be that bad, but I think I made an improvement to the lesson plans and something more tangible for the students to be able to pull off a debate for the 10th grade teachers. One of them is behind me all the way, no matter what I do. The other is probably the opposite and the other is somewhere in the middle. I've got some challenges in front of me with teacher politics.

Another thing I want to mention is that I've been hearing my name tossed up in casual conversation all day today. I'm not sure whether to be worried or to be happy or to be pissed off. I just don't know since it's all in Japanese and I don't understand all of what is being said. I mean no one would tell me what's going on and I've just got to get better at Japanese to understand. So I'm not sure what is going on. I need to get to the bottom of it, and I know not to let it get to me. Since this is very common and something that I expected even before coming to Japan. I think it's a sign to push me to learn Japanese. I mean if I could understand I could improve on the things they say are bad, or keep on doing the things that they feel are good.

English club was more of a joke today. It lasted a whole 15 minutes. Since the assembly ran late, the club started late and the students needed to leave early to study at Juku or cram school. It's that time of the year, where they are constantly cramming for English material and Math. They probably need every ounce of it too, but what can I do about it. So I expect that attendance will be low for the rest of the year and that things won't get too exciting that is if they show up at all.

Song of the Moment - Vanessa Carlton - Ordinary Day

Yoke Meeting

I had forgotten that I had a YOKE meeting to attend today, so all the things that I didn't do yesterday I really couldn't get finished today. I woke up late since I didn't have anything to do till later. Then I got ready and left. It was pretty cold, but since I had warmer clothes on today, I didn't get that chilly.

The meeting itself was pretty long from 13:30 - 17:00. That's fairly long from the beginning to the end. I was talking to more of them today too, well not all of the members, but more with a few members. I really don't talk to them that much since the communication thing and they are always busy doing the work that they are supposed to. But today seemed a bit more relaxed even though it's one of the last meetings before they have to make a presentation to the City of Yokohama about their trip to San Diego and have all their literature finished. They will be producing about a 60 page booklet detailing their experiences from the trip, one of which is mine. So, they've been busy since October when they first went to San Diego. I felt like I was able to talk more and I actually have gotten better at listening as it seems.

After the meeting, Me and KHma went to go grab some dinner. We went to La Pausa in the Cross Gate building right in front of Sakuragicho station. It was very cheap and very uncrowded. The food was also delicious. We had ordered peppered french fries and a mixed pizza. It was extremely cheap considering the taste and the size of the food. It was almost enough for me, a little more would have been nice but still it was good. After that we went our separate ways to go back home.

It didn't snow today either, it just rained a lot. It wasn't that hard, but just constant. I wanted to do some laundry today, but the rain prevented that. I wouldn't get another chance until next week. But maybe I'll try to squeeze it in on Wednesday right before I go to work. I'll just have to get up a little early to get it done. I have enough clean clothes to last me the week, I just would like to have more clean clothes. I was told by one of the members that it was going to snow tomorrow, but after two days of wrong predictions, I don't believe it anymore. She said that the trains might not be running if it snows a lot, but once again, I don't buy it.

Nothing, well not really

Today was basically a waste of a day. I slept in till around 11am, which for me is really late. I mean RWd came in my room this morning to use the bathroom so I woke up for a little bit to say good bye to him as he left for his trip to Nara. When I finally decided to get my ass out of bed. It was raining outside. So I really didn't feel like doing anything that I had planned to do. So I just spent another day sitting in front of my computer doing nothing.

I did in fact talk to my family today though. I don't remember the last time that we last talked. My mom was updating me on my year forecast. I hadn't become interested in Chinese Horoscopes until last year, when my mom called all the events that would happen to me. She made me a believer since I had a pretty good year. So I decided that I would like to get a little preview of my future. It's not supposed to be a great year all year long, but only during the first 7 months. The last 4 months of the year, will be challenging for me. And I can already see what events would cause that to be true because of my tentative travel plans. Now I'll have to look at different options and to see how I could save money to pull everything that I wanted off. It's really pretty cool how it has worked for me and I'm glad to be in the situation that I'm in. I really feel as if I'm living instead of dying. Which is always a great feeling. I was also getting a little update on some Key Club news from my sister since I've been out of the loop for a little bit.
I found out that my sisters, thats right plural, will be getting jobs. That's such an amazing thing for me to hear that it's almost unbelieveable. I had to hear it a few times before it sunk in. My sisters are getting a job. It sounds like the middle sister is going to get hooked up with a pretty good gig. It pays pretty well, not as well as me, but still extremely good for someone with no degree and no experience. My other sister will work for Kiwanis doing data input, which isn't the greatest sounding job in the world, but it pays and she's working with people she's familiar with. And at the very least, she's working. So my mom is pretty happy that all of us are putting money back into the family account instead of sucking it dry. Even my dad has a part time job now too working for the government as a social worker. How crazy this year has been so far, and it's only January.

It was supposed to snow today, but I didn't get to see any. It was just raining. I mean it wasn't that cold so that could be the reason that there wasn't any snow. But maybe tomorrow. I spent a majority of the day writing my journal entries for the past week since I've been so busy that I haven't done it in a week.

Song of the Moment - Ayaka Hirahara - Jupiter

Eigo de shabera - night

I only had 3 classes today, which isn't bad at all. But the bad part was that the first class started at 8:50am, which meant that I had to be there by 8:20am because of morning assembly. If I have to get to school by that time, that meant I had to wake up at 5:30am, and because I slept at 2am, I didn't get much sleep. Not only did I not get enough sleep, I felt really ill in the morning. I put the blame on the ramen, perhaps that I ate too much and that I had a bad reaction to it. So, adding it all up, I didn't feel that great.

I arrived at school just in the nick of time to get to the morning assembly. I was talking a little to the principal of the school as we were walking to the gymnasium together. He was asking me about my commute to work and how it's been difficult.

The first class that I would be teaching was the 9th grade. This was a class that I've never seen before or taught before either, so it was a little nerve racking. I think I did a fairly good job of stretching it out and covering the topic, but one comment that the Japanese English teacher pointed out to me, was that that the vocabulary was a lot. So I should have only covered the most important ones and that I should have had them speak more. I'm an oral communication teacher and that's what I should have been doing. But I only did what I saw the other Native English teacher do. So I was getting the point that I should have done something extra instead of doing the same thing. It was actually very good advice and that I'd need to keep it in mind.

During 2nd period I was talking to another teacher about the class that I would be doing in the next period. Since we didn't really prepare anything, I had no idea what I wanted to do. The topic was Eigo De Shabera - Night, which is a popular English TV program on NHK. Ms. Sakai, had recorded it earlier and she had a copy for us to look at. So we watched an interview of Will Smith and the two hosts of the show Matsumoto San and Patrick Hurlan. The interview wasn't that great, but I was just going to use the concept of the interview. We then reviewed the Pakkun's Eiken Test. So that we could cover two things in the class, asking and answering questions and vocab.

When 3rd period started we started off by just chatting a little and then we had everyone situated to watch the tv. We watched the interview while I explained the concepts and points to an interview. The prompt would to be ask a celebrity some questions. I had each student write down two questions that they would want to ask their favorite celebrity. And in turn, when they asked, I would answer them. It got interesting when one of the girls asked me how I keep my beauty, a question directed toward Julia Roberts. But it was fun and I think that there was significant progress, because I would in turn ask them the same question and have a little conversation with all of them while the rest of them sat and listened. I think they improved a lot and I think this class helped a lot for me to assess them and their ability. They haven't spoken that much English until it came around to their speeches.

So after class, I was on a little high. I felt pretty happy that I was able to pull off a pretty good class. The other teacher said that it went very well. She didn't want to interfere with anything and was just watching the whole time. She said that it was very interesting to watch. So, I was stoked. The next challenge would be for me to teach the 11th grade a brand new lesson.

So I would have to invent my own way of presenting the information since I haven't seen it in action myself. Their assignment is to write a movie report about their favorite movie. So we did a listening exercise for Gone with the Wind. I read it a few times and then we went over the answers as a class. Then I had them break up into groups and work on some VERBS vocabulary, since they were all trying to be quiet and not say anything when I called on them.

The thing was that the answers were on the other side of the paper, but no one took notice to that until the end of the class when I pointed it out to them. We then reviewed when the test dates were and then it was lunch. I haven't seen that side of Ms. Asada, but she seemed to be happy. I appreciated her advice earlier and I think she enjoyed the class, well at least it appeared that way. Not sure if it was that way though.

I hung around school for a little while longer, 4 more hours to do some Japanese language study. I learned that no one uses Jya Arimasen, it's dewa arimasen. Something that we learned in first semester Japanese class and is in Chapter 2. So, that pretty much destroyed my foundation of Japanese. After a little while later, I was getting very tired. So I took off. I had to help some other teachers with some coursework like speeches and entrance exams and some grammar questions. I had many teachers come up to me and invite me to the Principal's birthday party on the 28th, kinda refreshing that I'm being reminded 5 times. I guess don't communicate among themselves of who will tell me so they all do. It's nice to be notified at least since most of the time, I'm not. So I don't complain that I'm being notified a lot. And also, one of the girls from the 12th grade invited me to the Graduation Party for the seniors. It was pretty cool. She had to ask in English, but the invitation paper itself was in Japanese. But I got the details from another teacher, but I couldn't comprehend that much since I was tired as hell.

I went to eat at Jonathons, which in fact is very expensive. I had tonkatsu since I haven't had that in a long ass time. It was pretty good and I enjoyed it, but felt like I got ripped off. The waitress was cute though, which is always nice. Very polite, sort of annoying, but at least she wasn't rude.

I got home and RWd was here again. His parents had emailed me to tell him to call them. It was weird, but kinda funny since they asked me to do it. We talked a little more about his trip to Nara and focused on getting more details squared away and then we went to sleep because he'd have to get up early and I was just going to sleep in.

TTki came over to give me the dvd's that he's burned for me and let me know that he would be leaving for Australia around noon. Kinda weird that he's leaving. Now I really have no help for Japanese if I need it. I'm really on my own now. But then after realizing this I fell asleep.

Shibuya, Roppongi, Tokyo, Asakusa Tour

I think I finally was able to get a fairly good amount of sleep. I didn't have class until about 3rd period so I could get a late start today. One thing that I did notice about going to work this week was that all the trains I have taken had been a little late. That's extremely rare for Japan. NOTHING is late, and the trains are one of the most reliable transportation methods here. Like on Tuesday there was an "Accident" at the Den-en Chofu station. There were no express or limited express trains, but fortunately I was able to get to work on time, barely. And on Wednesday when I was going home, there was someone who was on the wrong train and left, but as he was leaving, got his backpack stuck as the doors were closing, so they had to hit the emergency stop button or the guy would dragged along the platform. So that's weird to see.
But today I think things went pretty smooth. I got to work a little early and was able to review what I was going to cover with the 12th grade girls for their elective class. I was subbing for the other teacher who is now in Australia for her younger sister's wedding. So they were surprised when I walked into the room. They were like "eeeehhhh" and I asked what was wrong. It sounded like they didn't want me to teach. We just went over a funny song and worksheet that went over it. It was to review what they had covered last semester on their presentation about travel.

We listened to the cd and then they started filling in the lyric sheet. That didn't last very long, and we went over some discrepancies on the lyric sheets. It turns out that in Japan and in England that they teach that there are only 5 continents. I've always learned that there were 7 continents. That's a difference in the education from overseas. That's always neat to learn.
Then we went over some past participles. That was fun and interesting. Not really, that was even confusing for me. Swim, Swam, Swum. Just by listening to it, I could tell you which would be more common, but I determined that the difference lies in who you talk to. They learn Brittish English here, so I'd have to go with that. It's kinda difficult to learn English from books that are written by Brits and to have a yank teach them oral communication. Since by all means, we are FAR different from each other. The problem with not having a standard of English which is universal.

The next class would prove to be a challenge since it was the 7th grade. They aren't ever an easy class to deal with and since we were going to cover clothes today. I had a feeling that it would become more difficult. I was just supposed to play a bingo game, read a book, and cover some vocab. Nothing too difficult, but the class has the opposite effect from the 9th graders, they talk too much. They can be at times, out of control, but they were pretty good today. Enough for me to finish the lesson and move on and get out of there alive.

I was planning to make an early exit from work today, which would probably be the first that I've taken since I started working at the school. Making and early exit meant that I was leaving just after my classes were finished, since I usually hang around till late at night even after all my classes have finished. But today I would visit some of my friends that I haven't seen in a long time.

I took the earliest train I could to Shibuya and meet at Hachiko, which is the statute of a dog that sits outside of the station. I arrived a tad bit early and just found a place to sit. I didn't realize the I was sitting next to someone that I'd be hanging out with for the next few hours. I saw someone that I recognized from GC and was completely shocked. Then the name came and things started to make sense. From all the stories using the name and the behavior, I started to get a clearer picture about the situation that has been going on in San Diego since I've left. RS came a little later and then we were just waiting there till RWd came. Which he didn't until after we left to go to a restaurant. When we arrived at the restaurant he had arrived to Shibuya. So I went to go pick him up at the station.

He had gotten lost coming from Akiharbara, because the station gate entrance is fairly weird. I would agree with him. If you go around that area, make sure that you remember where the train station is, or you'll get stuck there for a long time and with a bunch of geeks. But he made it and we went to the restaurant. The restaurant decided to separate our group which was a bummer. It was kind of stupid too, since I was sitting with RWd and not with the friends that I haven't seen in a long time. They ate dinner, and I just had a little dessert since right before I left work, I had lunch.

After that, we walked around Shibuya and went inside of Shibuya 109. A place where there are a lot of girl things and nothing for boys. I feel dirty just walking in there if there isn't a girl accompanying me. It's an interesting experience though.

From there, we decided that we would go to to Asakusa to see the big red lantern. We took the Ginza subway line from Shibuya to Asakusa, and went from one end of the line to the other. It took about 30 minutes to get there, and then we took pictures in front of the lantern. Then we went to the temple. I prayed and made some requests in the form of wishes. But of course it would only be wishes. I knew this next year would be a bad one for me, and I did some fortune things to prove it. I had told everyone ahead of time that I would end up getting a bad one.
Low and behold, I ended up getting a bad fortune. It was pretty bad too saying that I would have a shitty year. So what did I do, I decided that I would go and try it again, after tying it to the pole and having the gods take my bad fortune away. Not only did I get another bad fortune, IT WAS THE EXACT SAME ONE! I used a different canister and everything. It was funny, but very sad since I'm going to be cursed. So I tied it to the wall and said the third times the charm. It turned out to be, I got the best fortune. It was pretty good too and said that money would come my way. Strangely enough money did find its way to me, I had found some on the ground right away and then one of the other people in our group Sean gave me a 50 cent Korean coin. Completely worthless to me, but still money is money.

We then decided to go to Tokyo Tower in the Roppongi area. We were supposed to go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in Shinjuku as we planned, but somehow we didn't go there at all. It turned out to be 820 yen to get up 150 meters into the first observatory deck. That's kind of expensive since we wouldn't be able to get up that high and that we all didn't have that much money on us. But up we went. Sean was deathly afraid of heights, which by appearance came as a shock. He's a big guy that you wouldn't want to mess with and it was surprising that he'd be afraid of anything.

It was fun, I was telling Japanese people what they were looking at. It's weird in a way since they didn't know even though they themselves were living in Tokyo at a time. But the viewing didn't last that long since Sean had to be at Tokyo station around 9pm so he could catch a Shinkansen down to Kyoto with his girlfriend.

So after we finished with Tokyo Tower, we went to Tokyo station. We waited at the Marunochi gate while his girlfriend was waiting on the complete opposite side of Tokyo Station. It took a little time to for her to get to where we were. But at this time, I realized that one of the people we were with was EXTREMELY crazy, for a smart guy. We all knew there was something particular about this guy, but I didn't know it was to this extent. Because after Sean left for the shinkansen, we decided to go BACK to Roppongi. I mean that was just a waste of money to go back and forth to a place that we just came from. We wouldn't be doing the same thing, but it was time comsuming and costly. But we went with it anyways because there was supposed to be some really good ramen place there.

It took a few minutes to locate, and it wasn't far from CP's house either. It was called Ichi Ran. They have quite an interesting setup because there are partitions separating every customer and you could not see the servers because they would be behind a barrier and had blinds to cover it. The concept was that you had to completely be focused on eating. You would get a questionairre about what you wanted to eat and they would tailor it exactly the way that you wanted it. It tasted extremely good. It was probably one of the best ramen I've ever eaten in my life, and I ordered another bowl.

We then decided to go home since it was around 10pm and I was stuffed like a turkey. The food was delicious, so I was happy about that. But at that time, many people were taking the trains to get back home. So it was pretty crowded. We had to leave Naka-Meguro station to get back in and buy a new ticket. But the other two followed even though they didn't have to, which costed them about another 2 bucks for no reason. They are strange.

We caught a local to Jiyugaoka station and then transfered to an express train to Yokohama Station on the Tokyu - Toyoko line. When we arrived to Yokohama station, I had showed RW where the Currency Exchange office was since it was a little bit difficult to find. Then I went over again to tell him how the Yokohama line worked so he wouldn't get lost to take the Shinkansen to Kyoto and Nara.

We waited on the platform to go home and the train was late. That make it 3 days in a row that the trains were late. That's sooooo weird. But we got home in time, I mean around 1am. So the next day I knew I wouldn't get enough sleep.

Having class on a day off

I don't normally have classes on wednesday, so having to come is kinda weird. I only had two classes today, and both are with the same people. It was an elective 12th grade class about English Conversation. I was working with Higa sensei today. I think that's my first time to be working with her too. I was kinda fatigued from not getting enough sleep the past few days, even though I had a chance to get up later today.

The class went well, in my opinion. The first period we just did a little introduction of vocabulary with a game Japanese call shiritori, which is beginning the next word with the same letter as the last letter of the previous word. It was fun, we went through it for around 3 rounds. Up until I could remember all their names. There were only about 10 girls there. That took the whole 50 minutes and only the last girl struggled with it.

We then took the break and when we came back, we would start a scrabble game. This scrabble game was a tad bit different because we didn't use the regular scrabble game board, but the chalkboard instead. For the English festival in December last year, one of the teachers had prepared letters for a hangman game. So I just borrowed her letters and added a few more vowels and we let them play. We broke the girls up into three teams and gave each team the same amount of letters and the same letters and the contest would be to see who could make up the most words.

The longest word formed was America, but that was the team that only produced 12 words. The middle group produced 15 words and the leading group formed 18 words. Many of which were abbreviations which isn't allowed in the regular game, but I had to amend the rules since we didn't have that many letters. It was really quite impressive to see them produce that many words. I didn't think we had that many letters to begin with. I was planning for it to be done in a different way, but the other teacher suggested this way. That was fine with me and it lasted the whole time so I had no problem with that.

I stayed at school a little longer, and then I went home since there wasn't much for me to do.
Tonight I went to Bamiyan to grab some ramen to eat. It wasn't the best, but it was still good and since I was craving Ramen, it hit the spot quite nicely.

When I got home, RWd was already there again. For a tourist he comes home pretty early. It was around 8pm around this time, but I would figure since he knows how to get home and use the trains now that he should stay out later and hang out.

He went to Ueno park, but was late and couldn't catch the guided tour. But instead, another Japanese person who spoke English came up to him and just started talking to him. He then decided to give him a personal tour around the park. RWd was kinda shocked, but it was nice that he had someone take him around the temples and onto the island in the middle of the little lake to see another shrine. So that was good. It took longer than he had expected and he had told me that the wind was blowing strong so it was freezing as hell. So that's why he decided to come home earlier. I think the food that he has been eating has been bothering him too. I'm not sure what he is eating, but when I first came to Japan, that's exactly how I felt too. So I could really understand what he was feeling. He didn't do as much as he has been doing previous days, but still he's been seeing something new. We stayed up late talking again, but I was telling him about the plans for tomorrow. Since we would all meet and hang out. I would leave work earlier than normal to catch up with a few friends.

The First Day of School

Today was the first day of classes back from the vacation. I didn't get much sleep last night and it wasn't difficult to get up because I didn't sleep much. We stayed up late talking and then I went to sleep late.

Anyways, I had a total of 5 classes today, plus English club. Kinda a lot for the first day and because I wasn't well rested. I was feeling a little bit uneasy about it.

My first class was second period and it was for the 9th grade. It was kinda eerie since all the students were extremely quiet. Some were falling asleep, but only some. The rest were very attentive, but extremely quiet. It made all the teachers uneasy too. I figured this was a sign about the rest of the day and possibly the rest of the semester. I didn't like that though. I'm sure not many teachers would like a very silent class, exspecially if they teach oral communication. The lesson was covering Health and Money for their trip to Santa Barbara in two months.

The next classes were the ones that I planned for. I was excited about it at first, but then came the reality of what if it sucks? It didn't turn out exactly as I planned it, but it got better throughout the day. I taught 4 classes consecutively using the same lesson plans. So each time I was able to improve the lesson and build upon it and fix all the kinks to it. I think that helped a lot to see how something goes from beginning to end. I'll have to do the same for next week as well. I could easily see the flaws in my lesson plans and how I was going to transition from one topic to another. And I don't have a set topic in place either. I'll have to think about it in more detail soon, since the next step is coming up fairly quickly. I don't have much of an idea of what I'm going to do yet, to fix the problems, but I know I've got to devote some time to it.

And for English club at the end of the day. The girls didn't show up. What was that all about? I waited around for another 2 hours after school, but the girls never showed up. One of them did to apologize that the members forgot, but I didn't really care either. Since I was already soo tired, I prefered just to go home and gather some rest. So that's what I did, I started to get my stuff and go home.

I went to another place at Kikuna station to grab some dinner. It was a Matsuya. I don't really like that place, but it offered curry rice which was something that I wanted to eat. That's why I went back to Kikuna station, and it was cheap and came with free miso soup. The meal was fairly good, but I didn't feel well and didn't want to eat that much anyways. So then I went back home.

To my surprise RWd was already back from his adventures of the day. I was like what's going on here? He's in Japan and he's staying at my house. I was hoping that he didn't stay there all day. So I started talking to him about what he did during the day. He had told me that he went to Yokohama to spend the day with his Japanese teacher from State. It sounded like fun, but they went to places that he's already been since I took him there already. He basically went around the Minato Mirai area from Sakuragicho station, to around the Yokohama World Porters building. I then asked him what he would be doing for the next day.

We started talking about it and then he decided that he would take the guided tour around Ueno park. There was some flyers that we had picked up about a free guided tour at the park. So he'd have to get up pretty early to get there in time to take the tour.

We were talking late again, and once again, I went to sleep late. That's so bad since I'm already tired.

Song of the Moment - Naotaro Moriyama - Sakura

Shinjuku Tour

Our only destination today was Shinjuku because I had to get back early. Work starts tomorrow and I would like to get enough rest and prepare my lessons. We once again woke up late, again around noon. But this was because we had walked a lot in the past few days and I'm sure he's tired as hell. hehe. We decided to walk to Hongodai station and I told him that would should try the speciality hamburgers at McDonalds. He ordered the McGrand, and Teriyaki Burger. He liked them both. They aren't really the specialty items, but for some reason they didn't sell them at this location. I told him to order in Japanese, but the lady taking the order could speak English and spoke English because I suppose he was doing a bad job. We had noticed from the McDonalds that there were people dressed in the kimonos for Coming of Age Day. So that was pretty cool to see.

After that, we continued on our way to get to Shinjuku. We jumped a couple of trains before we got there. We took a fairly scenic route. We started from the south exit going towards the main area where the studio alta is, and then taking a deeper look into the Kabuki-cho. I showed him a few more things, while we were being asked if we wanted a sex massage from dirty old pimps trying to pitch for their girls. It was amuzing though. We walked around a little more till we got to the Takashimaya Times Square and decided to look for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Building. It's got a great view of Tokyo and you could even see Mt. Fuji. Best of all it was free, which we didn't think would be open because of the holiday. It was awesome, the sun was just setting as we were looking at Mt. Fuji. We stayed there for a little while before we decided to go back home. We got back to Shinjuku station really quick and started searching for something to eat. We walked around aimlessly, and then decided to start going back to home and see if we run into something we like.

We ended up back at Shibuya going in a different direction than we did before. And since we were getting to the point of really getting hungry, we ended up at a shop that was similar to Yoshinoya. Which was a surprise we didn't go there since there are 5 of them within walking distance of the station. But I like Yoshinoya a little better, but I think this store offered a bit more for a cheaper price.

Then after that we started back on our way home. It was much better today. We didn't have to deal with the freezing cold. When we got home, we just talked for a long while. I was waiting for my show to come on, but it never did. I didn't end up going to sleep till around 3am, which wasn't good since I get up at 6:30am. And I have the most classes of the week on Tuesday. And 4 out of 5 are my lessons that I'm in charge of for the first time. So I had a lot of pressure on me. I couldn't sleep very well either. I hate when that happens.

Tokyo Tour

We started out late in the afternoon because we like to sleep in. We didn't even get up till noonish. Then getting ready and other things. Right from the start, I pushed him to call his people so he could make appointments so I wouldn't have to take care of this trip the whole time. Therefore he could get a better idea of what he wanted to do. So he did that today, and we were actually going to meet them today.

We took the bus to Totsuka station, and stopped to eat lunch or breakfast at MOS burger. I made him order in Japanese and made him go first too. He did an ok job, considering he's been through a year and a half of Japanese classes. They really don't prepare you for the practical things. That's a sad thing I believe. I wished they did, I think many people would be better off than they are now. We took a while to eat lunch and just watching people. I was letting him sink in the idea that he was in Japan.

As we left the store to go to Totsuka station, I ran into a couple of friends of mine from the San Diego - Yokohama sister city society. Turns out that she lived in Totsuka-ku. It's a small world after all. So we jumped on the tokaido line to head for Tokyo station. We were going to meet his friends Kristen and her sister Diana. These are people that he met on the plane flying over to Japan. Kristen is only a 15 year old girl too. Kinda weird that she would be flying to Japan alone to visit her sister. I feel, I'm not sure if that's usual or not.

We walked from Tokyo station to Yurakucho station where we would meet the girls at Bic Camera. We took another little stroll to the Imperial Palace. It was very windy, and now I know why they call it wind chill. It was soooooo cold because of the wind. It was really ridiculous how cold it was. We just walked around there for a little bit, then we hopped on the Tokyo Metro to get to Roppongi. We went to Roppongi Hills to look at the shops. It wasn't that interesting since I've been there a few times already and it's lost it's luster for me. We went into TV asahi, which was ok. I took another picture with Doraemon, but with RWd this time.

From here they were starting to get hungry so we went back to Roppongi station and we all split up. The girls would go home and get some thing to eat, while we decided to go to Shibuya. Half way, we decided to jump off at Ebisu and go looking around there. There really wasn't that much, which was to my surprise. There was a mall which we went to and to the restaurant floor. We ended up at a Chinese Restaurant. He couldn't finish his ramen, and I had finished up my Fried Rice. It was pretty good, and reminded me of my mom's cooking, just not as spicy as my mother's which would have made it nicer.

Then we jumped back on the Yamanote to Harajuku. We took a walk down Takeshita street to look at all the stores on the street and in the area. Then we went to the "Goth" hang out place, but no one was there. Kinda sad that we missed the goth appearances. But I'm sure he will get a chance to go back and see them. We walked to Shibuya from here too. It wasn't that bad, and I was able to figure out which direction it was. We strolled around and I showed him the "bad" areas and the "entertaining" areas of the city. It was quite interesting and pretty funny. After that, we decided to go home since it was getting pretty late.

Yokohama Tour

Today, we got up late because I let him catch up on sleep. We didn't get up until around noon and didn't leave until around 1pm, but I managed to squeeze everything that I wanted to do in today. I gave the typical Yokohama tour that I normally give, but actually today was a little extended. Normally I would guide people from Sakuragicho Station to Ishikawacho station or the Landmark Tower to Chinatown / Motomachi street. But today we went from Yokohama station to Chinatown / Motomachi street. It wasn't that bad of a walk and we finished everything that I wanted to cover today before we went back to grab dinner at TTki's house. I was happy that we were able to squeeze everything in, I think it was a good experience for him and I think he enjoyed it. I liked it too, since I haven't taken that tour myself in a long ass time too.

Then around 6pm we started our trip back home. We stopped by the grocery store to pick up some drinks, mainly for my earthquake kit. It didn't take long to get home it seemed and when we got home, we just kinda hung around till dinner started at 7:30pm. I went through some magazines that I picked up at HMV just to review what's popular. But I really wanted him to call to make the other appointments so that things would be scheduled so I know what to plan for and how to handle the situation. I would hate to be inconvenienced on his part since I already hold a considerable amount of work as is. And I will start work soon, so he'll be on his own no matter what. He only made one appointment, but that was one more than we had before, so I was happy.

Then after that we went to the party dinner. It was quite fun actually. I was happy that I understood most of the conversation and the topics discussed. I was quite surprised too. We were watching Shaolin Soccer on TV, which was good to see again, even though it was dubbed in Japanese. It was fun when we were talking. I have met most of the people before so that was good. I think it's much better when they drink because they will enjoy themselves more and are more open to conversation and such. It's a really good icebreaker. That lasted a few more hours. I had two drinks, but RW took a lot, probably more than he's used to. So I'm sure he had fun. I just hope that he will take it upon himself to decide what to do. I think I'll make him do it tomorrow, so that he's assured a good time. He's not that excited to be in Japan I feel. It could be the jet lag, but I think that's a lousy excuse because if you're excited, you don't get jet lag. When I came to Japan both times, I wasn't jet lagged coming here, but going home sucked ass. I thought that was weird. Anyways, I'm going to shower and sleep now so we could get an early start tomorrow going to Shibuya, Harajuku, Ebisu, and maybe one other place. We'll see.

Clean up day

Today, RWd is coming to stay at my place. The first friend to do so. I'm excited, but he hasn't planned much for his trip in Japan. That really puts a lot of pressure for me because I don't want to be planning his trip. But I needed to get my room ready for him to come over. I mean my room was quite messy before, so I needed to clean up a lot. But I managed to do so before he arrived. Just in the nick of time too. I'm glad I was able to finish, I feel better just knowing that my room is much cleaner too. I did some laundry and actually finished putting together my emergency kit. I'm still missing a few things, but I will add that soon.

He arrived around 8:30pm at Totsuka station. But was having trouble locating his ticket, that could lead to us standing there for 10 minutes until he could find the ticket. My first impression wasn't good. It shows a high level of irresponsiblity. Something that I don't have much patience for. I'm being tested on that and I'm sure that will pushed to its limits. I can already tell, that I'm not going to like this visit very much. Only to be honest and only because I know that no one that reads this knows him. That's something that I really dislike, people who aren't responsible for themselves.

I mean before the trip began, I had asked him for his plan when he came to Japan, but he never gave me a clear cut answer. That was the beginning of what I would know to be as a bad answer. I posted a little while back, that if you fail to plan you plan to fail. So I can see that his trip will envitably be average because he won't be able to take care of himself. Still like a child in my eyes. Always relying on other people to help him out. Reminds me of someone else that I know. Which is a trait I don't think to highly of. I don't like it when people who are old enough to take care of themselves can't and won't. It's quite ridiculous as a matter of fact. But we will see how things turn out. It's only the first day and I shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

After we came back to my house and he unpacked, we had dinner at Saizeriya. Interesting, not that great, but not as horrible as everyone makes it. I also realized that his Japanese isn't up to par either. Something that I'm quite surprised about. Since he's studied more than I have and has a lot of Japanese friends. And seems to have a lot of Japanese female interests. Anyways, I'm not judging, just simply stating the obvious. I like him, that's why I decided to take him in and let him stay with me. I'm just worried that he won't have fun and take it out on me because I have to work next week. And not to mention I still haven't finished my lesson plans for that yet. I really need to get started on that, or I'll get screwed on my first day on the job on my own. So I'll get started on that soon. Quite interesting fellow to say the least.