Meiji Shrine and Akihabara

Today I spent the day in Harajuku and Akihabara. EK and I decided that since I haven’t been there, that it would be a good place to go. It really wasn’t something I was planning on doing soon, but I guess it would be better to get it over with. I was actually waiting to go another time and didn’t really want to go now. But, I was happy that I did. I mean I was able to see many marriage ceremonies at the shrine and the weather was very nice too. I mean it was a nice day to go so I guess I was lucky to go today. It wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t too cold. But the problem I did have was that we planned to meet at Shibuya station and I ended up having to walk to Harajuku station, which got to be a little warm during the walk and the wait. I walked from one station to the other and knew that I would still have to wait for EK’s late ass. It was interesting to see the few Goths that hang out there and the few Panda Eyes girls that still remain from ages ago. I think that in itself is worth going there to see, but they aren’t there in the big numbers as they were before. I think that it’s still interesting and I would like to go back to get a picture with them. I think they are really nice people and that they are willing to take pictures with people, so I’d like to do that. I was able to get some pretty good pictures from around Meiji shrine. It’s a nice place and it’s surprising that it’s right in the middle of a major metropolis. There is far too much green for a major metropolis, but that’s the special thing about it. It’s Japan’s most treasured shrine and the largest sitting right in the heart of downtown Tokyo.

After the nice little walk around the shrine and the many pictures that I took. We went to Akihabara to help EK’s dad start to build a new computer. We were just looking at the parts and the prices for them so that when EK really starts to build it, he would know where to go to get it. Walking in that town makes me feel awkward. I really didn’t feel comfortable there. I mean we went from place to place and spent about an hour looking for parts. I think that was past my limit and I wasn’t able to handle it anymore. After checking out a few places and running into endless amounts of nerds, we decided to get lunch at a nearby place. They had a nice lunch special and it looked good from the outside. It really wasn’t enough for either one of us, but it was enough to calm our hunger. We stayed there till the afternoon and then I needed to get back home so I could go to dinner with MTki and one of her friends. She had mentioned her name and I didn’t understand who she was talking about. It sounded familiar, but it didn’t register.

Then I came home for dinner, and we went to a restaurant not too far from my house. I found out that one of my friend’s name was different than I thought it was. I guess I heard it wrong the first time and imagined that it was similar to my other friends’. So all this time, I’ve known her by the wrong name. That’s embarrassing. I mean I met her on my first trip to Japan so that’s about 2 years and I finally realize what her name is. Well the place we went to wasn’t too bad and a place that I wanted to try. It was weird because when we walked in there were more of MTki’s friends. So the party grew from 3 people into 5 people. Then after a little while and some eating and drinking, the party expanded again into 9 people. It became an interesting evening and one I didn’t feel too comfortable with, but I didn’t care too much about either. It was fun and I met some new people, too bad none of them were around my age and most of which couldn’t speak English. I couldn’t understand their Japanese either, not because I didn’t understand what he was saying, but because no one understood what he was saying. He has a slurry speech, partly because he was drunk, so his wife had to translate this Japanese for everyone. That was interesting. We didn’t get home till a little late, but it was ok because I wasn’t in any hurry to get home.

Sea Shell Hunting

We did this for a majority of the day. I woke up early and actually couldn’t really sleep well. The departure time was 8:30am, which really wasn’t bad since I wake up around 6:30am every morning nowadays. So technically I was able to sleep in, but really it’s still quite an early reveille time. Actually I really didn’t care since it was something to do and I was on vacation so I needed to enjoy my time somehow. I thought it was going to be a very fun and very relaxing

We went hunting for sea shells for about 5 hours, and it gets to be very tiring.

It was a nice area and all I remember doing was eating. It was very American style and everyone was doing it, but the difference was what they were making on the BBQ. We went to an area in the Kanazawa ward near Yokosuka called Umi no Koen, which means the park of the sea. It was fun, but tiring and I was stuffed like a turkey. I had eaten so much that I felt like I have gained a lot of weight recently. I really don’t feel like I’m really gaining weight, as much as I would say just getting fat. It’s not really weight, but more like the saturated fats in foods that really are getting me down.

I was really tired after all that digging in the sand. I have pictures from this, and you will see them posted sooner or later. I might have gotten a bit of a tan too, although it probably wouldn’t be one that is good. I was standing and squatting in such a weird position all day that it just wore me down. I was glad to go home and I think that this might have been a once a year kind of thing. I wouldn’t want to do it everyday. The food was delicious though and I had eaten a lot, but maybe too much is not a good thing.

When we got home, I walked into my room and just started to clean up myself. I just felt so dirty from the experience that I just wanted to wash my clothes and to take a long shower to clean myself of all the cuts and sand that was all over me. After that I was able to relax in front of my computer and just do nothing. That was a fun experience, but it just lasted too long. I think that perhaps if there were more people I could talk to or more my age, it might have been a bit better. But still an experience I’ve had in Japan. I’m glad that I’m on vacation to recover from this.

Golden Week Day 1 - at least for me

I did some laundry, and talk to family. These are things that I haven’t done in a long time. I was told that if something bad happens in Japan, I need to send e-mail to my family to make sure that they know everything is ok. I think that’s a good idea, but there’s no telling if that will happen or not. I’m not sure if I even have the time to do that since I’ve been working so much and just because there is a lot going on all the time. But it was nice to at least let them know that I’m alive and that they are alive as well.

I have found out that there have been some complications with my sister’s senior project. I think that things will be ok at the end, but it’s just crappy that she has so much crap to deal with even though she should be able to get through it really quickly. Remember in a few posts ago that I had mentioned about my sister and her senior project, I’d like to reiterate that I hate the senior project. That’s all I have to say about that for the moment

I had the cut the conversation short with my family because I had to meet with EK for dinner. I was expecting him to be late, but I didn’t know if he was going to be late. I think that I ended up being late since I expected him to be late. Oh wells, it’s just retribution for all the times that he was late when I was planning to meet him. We went to T.G.I. Fridays at Sakuragicho since that would be less busy than the one at Yokohama station. It was still pretty packed, but it was ok. There were more Japanese people there than I thought that there would be, but still there were also a lot of foreigners too. I think it’s a haven for people who miss their home country to go there and hang out and drink. There were some waiters and waitresses that spoke English, but not all of them did. So I had to order in Japanese. It wasn’t so bad, or even that hard. We had a pretty decent conversation during dinner, and we had ordered a lot of food. I was really stuffed and the Buffalo wings, things that I usually love and enjoy, actually tasted like crap today. But I really didn’t care since the rest of the food was pretty good. After dinner, we went to the station and watched a concert outside in Sakuragicho. That was my day, how sad eh? Damn I was stuffed too.

A day before Golden Week

Today was the last day of work for me before it was Golden Week, which is a week in Japan that is called Golden because of many holidays in a row. Many families and people take a trip abroad or do something because there is about that a week that is all holidays in a row. I think that we as teachers were operating in vacation mode and getting ready for that to come. I had 5 classes today, which was a tough task to get through. I started off the day very strong and getting one of the best classes to start the day. I had to teach the 11th grade for the first period and they really did exceed my expectations. It was fun as I had promised some of the students and everyone was speaking English. It went like clockwork and I was happy with the results.

The 2nd class I had today was with the highest level 8th graders. They were pretty good too. The topic of the day was the Self-Introduction. Since we didn’t have a CD for them to listen to last week, we introduced it to them this week. We got up to the point in the textbook where they would write their own introduction speech substituting words in a script for their own real answers. I think that they added higher level content in their speeches, which really changed the dynamics of the speech. The hardest word that we had to deal with is the word introduction. It is a fairly hard word for 8th graders.

The 3rd period class today was more alive than they were last week. They were able to participate a lot more and weren’t asleep. We had talked about a more interesting topic than Free Time, but it could have been just because they were out of it. I’m not sure, but that’s what I believe. I think since they watch a good portion of TV and there are only a few main channels that everyone watches, it was fairly good. They were more opinionated and we were able to get them interested in the topic for their mid-term speech. I think that we needed to expand on it a little bit more, but it was a good start for them. The textbook hasn’t been used that often because it doesn’t help us with the way that we want the class to be structured. It breaks the rhythm that we have started teaching them up to the point we are now. They were at least interested and we have to think on our feet in this class.

I had 4th hour off, which was a nice break since I was getting really fatigued. It was pleasant just to sit at my desk and really just kick it and talk and even have lunch early. During the 5th hour, we started the topic of directions with the high level 9th grade. But I think we really affected them because they weren’t able to follow along as well as I would have imagined. It does go a bit fast, but they were introduced to new words and they came so fast that they just immediately got distracted and couldn’t follow along.

The same thing happened in the 6th hour too. The class that I was leading usually gets really into it, which they were today. I think they understood the material, but were getting distracted with the vocabulary words. I went slower than the other class, so I think they were able to pick it up better. We really broke it down, but my drawings didn’t help too much either. But overall, I think that the lesson went very well. They weren’t as energized as they were last week, but one of the students was missing who usually provides the energy. They really want to learn the material and I think that they are doing their best.

After school I was working on some things that I needed to finish before I went on my little vacation. There are things that are right after the vacation break that I will take another trip to Hakone with the 11th grade girls and then while I’m there, I will go to a facility near Mt. Fuji because the next day I will go on a hike there. And later that evening I’m in charge of the games that will be done in English. So I will need to be there to lead that. I think it will be fun and exciting since that activity will be done with the 9th graders.

A not so bad Tuesday

Today wasn’t that bad of a day. I really didn’t have much of a plan at work today, but I just coasted along. The classes I taught weren’t horrible and some of which were pretty good. I felt at least that I was able to get to the students and to force some of them to learn. I saw my partner writing down many notes and doing some of the things that I’ve been working on as well. So I think I’ve been making an impact, whether it is good or bad, I’m not to sure. But I guess it’s all in who you ask at my workplace. I’ve gotten most of the English teachers on my side, but I get along with all of them. In fact, I think I’ve gotten about 99% of teachers on my side. I think there’s only one teacher that doesn’t like me very much, but I could understand her. I make fun of her that she doesn’t want to speak to me and imitate her funny little laugh. But then again, I felt as if she brought it on herself.

I was able to leave pretty early today; I left work at 7pm. I ran into some students on the way home and was talking to them on the train. I think it will help to encourage them to speak more when they see me at school. I think I’m going to proliferate my teaching by going through all the clubs and teaching them during their off time. But I’ll start slow and easy getting them one by one. I think that all the students really want to talk, but they just lack the confidence to do so. They are too caught up in thinking about what they want to ask and don’t spend too much time asking.

CD burning Monday

That was pretty much the story for my day. I didn’t do much but burn CD’s today. After I had worked on making the speeches ready for the recitation contest that is coming up in June, I was asked to burn them onto CDs so that they would be given to the students before Golden Week, which starts this Friday for them and Thursday for me. I walked into work about an hour early and got started right away. I wasn’t planning on doing this since I thought that they had someone that they could pay to get it professionally done. But I guess that plan fell through and I was left burning some 160 discs for my students on a few laptops that were crappy as hell. It took a long time because of the slow burning speed and because most of the time, it just wouldn’t burn. I didn’t finish till around 7:30pm starting at 11am. Now that’s long, I only had two classes today, so the rest of the day was devoted to burning.

I did get to walk to the train station with the cute new teacher and we had a conversation about my teaching style as opposed to CP and how things are ran at the school. She had mentioned to me that she wanted me to include her in a more active role in my classes, and I can truly understand where she is coming from. So I explained to her my position and the situation that is going on at the school, but I then told her that I would do my best. And since I’m the leader in some of the classes, I’m just going to do things my way, whether they are good or not.

I had KFC for dinner tonight, which was good. I was watching SMAP X SMAP, which I think would be my favorite show in Japan. It’s really interesting and great to watch. Then after that I was checking up on the news and heard that there was a massive train accident in the Kansai area. It’s really quite freaky because trains are the backbone to the country. Without them, the country couldn’t function because no one would be able to get to work. I mean it was pretty bad, the worst in 40 years. It puts things into perspective again and now I’m looking at things that I haven’t looked at for awhile.

Yoke, Dinner with EK plus other news

I was really tired from the past week of work so I really passed out. But I did manage to wake up early. I wanted to do some laundry, but that plan went bust when I got a call from EK early in the morning. There was a meeting at the Yoke office today, but he wanted to meet up earlier to get some lunch. Too bad he was late by 45 minutes, punk ass. He was questioning whether I would make it on time or not, and he’s the one that’s late. There was this Festival there in the Noge area around Sakuragicho. It was weird because I was waiting for EK and I met two other people who were going to the YOKE meeting too. One of them was looking around the place because of the festival, and the other was going to go the meeting early to set things up for the meeting. So after all that time, I was able to see a couple of shows. I saw a main one right out front of the Crossgate center where they were displaying an Okinawan dance. There were a bunch of clowns there, which I thought was weird, since I didn’t know that they had clowns in Japan. But I guess that they do.

The YOKE meeting was just as usual and nothing really special. It was a time that was spent more efficiently and that each section had a certain amount of time to it and how long that we would discuss it. That was much better for everyone and things seemed to get accomplished. It was good because everyone was able to get their voice in, even though many of the members weren’t able to make it. We had elected some of the people who would be the leadership of the newly founded organization. I think that the setup was good, but just that they lack the ability to really do many things. They are more of a support group that has limited responsibilities and duties, but at least there is something that is setup to help and aid the government of Yokohama. So I’m happy with the end result and there has been many things that have hindered and affected the startup, but at last, something was setup to be productive.

After the meeting, we went around Yokohama to see what we could find for dinner or something to do. All the members went to a little café that was really inexpensive near the Sakuragicho subway station. It was really cool, but the drinks really weren’t the greatest. It was fun to talk to everyone and just relax. They hardly get a chance to see and meet each other, so it’s nice when they do. From that point, people started to go home. Everyone is really busy and it’s hard to find a time for them to meet and hang out with each other. Everyone ended up leaving and it was only just me and EK for dinner. We went to the Yokohama (Sakuragicho) location for the restaurant that we went to in Shibuya before. We had a discount and it wasn’t a bad place to hang out. So that’s what we did. It was pretty good and I think that we’ve gone there a little too much though. I always get the feeling that there is something up with EK. He always works it out that everyone would want to leave and that we just hang out with each other. It’s interesting how it always happens that way.

I had learned some interesting news today. Alex Smith from my high school, and the principal’s son, was drafted into the NFL, as in he’s a professional football player making millions of dollars and playing a game as work. Wow! That’s really all that I could say. I knew that our high school football team was good, but I didn’t realize that they would be that good; I mean he was the first overall pick in the draft, which is amazing. He’s up there with the best like Michael Vick and the Mannings. So, I want to wish the best of luck to him. I can’t imagine that we were in the same Spanish class and now he’s all big and stuff like that. It’s really surreal.

Anyways, I have other news too. It’s about BH and how she’s being a bitch to people. From the story that I heard, and believe, she’s been doing things that I don’t find to favorable. In fact, it’s so bad that I wouldn’t really want to call her a friend anymore. What she did was wrong and I hope that she knows it. I thought that she had learned a lot and become a better person, but I guess since I’m not there to see her anymore, she’s changed into someone who is much worse than from when I met her. I’m really not surprised; in fact I was expecting it. But I was expecting it to happen much sooner and in a different way. She’s always only just looking after herself and not about the interests about other people. She would rather be selfish so she could be happy at the expense of other people. That’s not a good way to live and proves that she hasn’t changed much from when I first met her. I know that she will be reading this and that I hope that it does something to change the way that she behaves and the way that she interacts with other people. But I know that in the end, she won’t. She hasn’t been able to develop the strong enough character to put Morals over emotions. She doesn’t have the firm principles that other people have to guide their lives. She just compromises to make sure that she’s happy and even if other people aren’t. I hope that you’re happy with what you’ve done and how the organization now won’t be able to work well with each other. You once told me that you wanted to be part of something that was there to help other people, then why would you be the reason why one falls apart? You should think of the consequences of your actions before you take them, so that other people wouldn’t have to clean up after you when you mess everything up. I hope I said that well because it’s been years and still nothing has changed. I wasn’t happy when I heard it, but only believed it to be true, even though I can’t really verify it. I’m not too shocked that it happened, only that I allowed it to happen.

Saturday classes

I only had to teach 2 students, but that’s a lot of work because they are the highest in the school. Well that’s what the school believes. It was at the special request of the parents. I really wanted to make this class something different and had many ideas going into it on how I could do that. But in the end, I really didn’t get much accomplished in setting up the class. I really didn’t do much teaching today, only just conversation and pretty much whatever they wanted to do.

I wanted to test the waters and to see what they would do if they had the freedom to do what they had wanted to do and to learn what they wanted to learn. In a sense, I let them be in the driver’s seat on where they want their education to go. I have really changed the rules on them and I’m hoping that it will expand their mind to think more out of the box and to be able to learn at a faster rate. I want to be able to offer something to them that they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else in the world and something that they would cherish and remember for the years to come. I only gave them a test to take that will probe into what they already know about English and to dig a little deeper into their minds so I would be able to get a better understanding of how to teach them and the direction for which I should be going. I think after I get these established, I will be able to chart the course for the approach I will take to teach them the lessons that I want to teach. I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve and I’ll see how things go from here.

I’m really glad that I have the opportunity to be able to teach the things that I want and that I really have all the freedom to do anything. It has allowed me to dream up some interesting plans and lessons. So in the coming weeks, I’ve got to be able to come up with a plan to get something going. I know that she doesn’t like homework, but I’ve got to get her to study out of class. That’s the only way that she’ll really be able to understand what is going on. So I’m working on it.

Sushi night again

Fridays are long long days. It was tough today and I mean really tough. I thought that I enjoyed my day off and then I would have enough energy to get through today, but it was still tough. I was physically tired and drained from all the work that has gone on this week. I mean having 6 classes and then having to have the ability to have enough energy to get me through the day was the toughest part. I mean the lesson preparation, I feel doesn’t get enough attention that I think that I should put into it. I think that I want to be able to raise the standard and to be able to help the students achieve more. So I try to get enough sleep to get me through the day and to be able to get me through the classes with the students getting a little more than just having a fun class. I want them to learn for crying out loud! Anyways, after class and since I was still sitting at my desk around 7pm, a person that helps the school organize trips for the students came to school. Usually when he comes, they take him to the sushi restaurant that the school always goes to.

Tonight the headmaster invited some teachers to go to the sushi place that we always go to. The meal was nice as usual, since each person’s meal costs $100. We really could just order anything we want to too and the guy would make it for us right away. It’s really some delicious stuff since I really enjoy eating sushi. I was sitting in an awkward position at the restaurant, but I think I was able to manage it pretty well. I mean the Japanese language was still difficult, but I was able to pick up things that I wasn’t able to pick up before. The headmaster came and went and then came back. During the time he was back, I had asked the headmaster to send me to Okinawa for the school summer school trip. He’s going to let me go to Okinawa with the school. YAY!!! I’m super excited since I’ll actually visit all the major cities in Japan after those trips. I mean it really has been a great experience for me working at this school because they sent me to everywhere I haven’t been, but wanted to go to. So I’ve had a really complete trip during my stay. I’ve explored and done pretty much everything, and not only that, I will be able to have such a unique experience as well. I think that so far it’s been great, and even though I’m tired as hell, I still enjoy it. I really can say that I’m living each day to the fullest and getting a lot of work done that I don’t even have time to add to this journal or even work on my website.

Day off, but still working

Well today, I woke up late, and it was ok! I was really excited that I finally got a day to rest and woke up around 11am, but then I had many other things to attend to. I finally talked to my family again today. It was only a little while. My sister is going to graduate now, that’s good. At first we were worried that she might not because of the Stupid Senior Project at our high school. I could completely understand her situation since I almost couldn’t graduate either because of that stupid project that doesn’t prove anything. We are more than capable to do a simple project so the project board would always change the rules in the middle of the project and require us to do more things than other students. This, I feel, is a really big discrimination case. But we went along with it. It’s like running a marathon with a thorn in your foot. It’s annoying, but you can still do it. The project never really made me learn anything that I didn’t know how to do already. It was more of a pain in the ass than anything else and proved to be nothing more than just a waste of my time and energy. So I can completely understand the situation that my sister is in.

I also talked to ACk and he was thinking about getting a new car. That’s pretty pimp. I’m not sure how that will affect him coming to Japan in the summer or going back to England. But we’ll see what happens with that. By this time it was already 3pm.

I needed to go to the bank to get some cash to pay some bills. Then I wanted to get some new toys for my computer and make the upgrade that I really wanted to do for a long time. So I walked to Ofuna station area and just walked around to get a full picture of what’s going on over there. It really is nice and different during the day. I’ve only been there during the evening time so it’s quite different.

I then went to Yamada Denki to get some stuff. I had bought some batteries for my mp3 player and then bought 6 DVD’s. I now have the complete Back to the Future trilogy set. And then a few others that was on my list of things to get. After all that shopping I went to grab some dinner. I wanted to eat some ramen, since it’s been awhile since I’ve had some. I walked into a little store in an alley. It was very delicious and when they say big, it really was big. It was almost too much for me to eat.

Then I walked home and watched a little bit of a movie that I had bought. I wanted to get in the vacation time before I had to work again.

Exhausted

I remember the times when I used to have Wednesdays’ off, but now I don’t. Work was just incredibly exhausting. After three days of non-stop work of 12 hours a day, you really do get tired. I’m enjoying my time working and I am getting a lot done. I’m making good progress with all the classes that I’m heading. There’s always room for improvement of course, but it’s been a good start to the semester, but it’s only the first week. There are many things to come and I’m sure that it will make things more interesting.

One of my classes moved from Wednesday to Friday so today I only had 5 classes to teach and I finally handed the reigns to the club back to CP for Wednesdays. I’m glad that we took care of that because it was beginning to become too much for me. Right now everything is just going well and things are looking good for the next few weeks.

I had planned the activities that we will do on my extended trip in Hakone and Shizuoka with both the 11th graders and the 9th graders. I’m really looking forward to it and now that I’ve gotten things out of the way, I’m really excited about it. I will complete one of my goals to go to Mt. Fuji. It will be a great opportunity for me show the other teachers what I’m really made of and see if I can really be able to teach English to our students.

After that I was called upon for one more task. Mind you this was already at 7pm and I was getting ready to leave. But I didn’t mind since I was helping one of the people who helped me get used to the school and made me want to work here in the first place. I had to tackle the job of reading and editing the passages for the 7th grade recitation contest. The English department had decided that instead of going with 4 Harry Potter passages, they would split with Disney. So now there are 2 Harry Potter Passages and 2 Disney passages. I had the privilege to choose which ones we would use, and then the honor of editing it to fit 7th grade reading and speaking level. If you think this is an easy task, it’s not as easy as you’d think. This took about an hour to complete, but really it wouldn’t be completed because I would have to go home and to work on it there because I have the nice computer set up to get everything in the right format that the computers at school aren’t able to do.

After school today, I had dinner with two teachers; one of my closest friends in the office who I’ve had many conversations with and her husband. We went to Peco in Jiyugaoka. Since we all had worked very hard and she had invited me to dinner I had to accept.

I was reminded today, you can't hit them all

I wouldn’t say that today was a horrible day, but it sure wasn’t one of my best days. Even as I woke up this morning, I felt as if something was off. Right from the get-go, my 8th grade class today, could have been better but I just wasn’t getting it. There were things that just didn’t work right and I wasn’t able to get into it. They simply just didn’t understand what I was saying. I’m not sure if its my fault or if there is something more to it that I don’t know about. My 11th grade class was good, well good for them. They weren’t really good, but compared to last year they were really good. I had heard stories that the 8th grade class that I didn’t teach today was really something and that I was probably quite lucky not to be teaching it. I never realized how much work it would be to teach 20 classes and do so many club activities. I mean in San Diego I was busy, but I guess it doesn’t compare to how I am this kind of busy. I mean I get to work around 8am and don’t leave till around 8pm and that’s become quite standard now. That’s not that great in my opinion, I really feel beat when I get home that I don’t even have enough time to eat without worrying when I could sleep. I need to make sure I get enough rest or I’d die. So with that said, I’m going to get some rest.

The days are getting longer

I didn’t have class till 4th period today so I could get a late start. But it didn’t really turn out to be that late of a start since the sun came up early and it got too hot for me and I had to wake up early. I still got enough sleep to get me through the day, but it would have been better to get a bit more sleep. I had time to take my time today though. I sat and had breakfast and just chilled at home for a little bit. My sister came home from the Key Club convention and she was stoked about it. I’m glad that things turned out good for her in the end. She’s had a rough time being District Treasurer, but she felt accomplished that the Dues Increased had passed. Something that didn’t really need to happen, but did because she pushed for it and the district believed in her. She also did a great job with the Penny wars even though she didn’t think that it was good. I would like to point out that it’s not the amount that makes a difference it’s the effort. Any donation is better than no donation and she did a good job mobilizing the district to raise tens of thousands of dollars for it. Anyways, it was nice for her to reflect on her year and that my mom and sister got to go to convention too. So my mom was finally able to see what this whole Key Club thing is all about and why my sister and I were so passionate about it.

Anyways, I wasn’t in a rush to get to work which is something quite odd, but a nice change of pace. It was really weird going to work today too. I mean when I was going to work, everything seemed shut down and as if it were a holiday or something. No one was out on the streets, the trains weren’t packed, and the stores were closed. But it turned out that it must have been my imagination because there was school today. It was an interesting day to say the least. One of the new teachers finally returned only to tell me that she just quit. It wasn’t really a shock because rumors have been spreading all week about it. Although, it did affect me because I was looking forward to working with her. She seemed like a nice person, but I can tell that things must have been too tough for her. I can see the eyes of the teacher in front of me faltering too. She’s really one of the most beautiful women I’ve seen in Japan and her eyes don’t lie when she says it’s hard to get used to working at my school. I really agree with her since everyone’s schedule had just changed because one of the new teachers quit. I now have 20 classes and I’ve done about 4 clubs this week which is everyday that I’ve had work. I think that I’m about to drop some of the club activities because it’s too many for me to have to do. There are 4 advisors, but I’m usually the only one available to do it.

For example today, after I had 2 classes it wasn’t so bad. But having to do it so often won’t make it special and is draining my resources to do a good job. The two classes weren’t bad really. The first class was with 9th graders. They were being typical and messing around and not paying too much attention. They understood and enjoyed it, but it didn’t seem as if they cared too much. Oh how I miss my high school days. The 7th graders on the other hand were quite surprising. They had a very high comprehension rate that I’ve seen in all the students I’ve taught. We used complicated English with them and they were able to follow us. So I’m looking forward to working with this class in the future. The new teacher in this class seems nice too, even though we haven’t had the opportunity to speak much. We only teach one class together too. But I’ll have to find the time to build that bridge to be able to talk to her.

I didn’t get home till really late today because I was working on some things after club for the next week’s lessons. I really want to get all my work done early because I know that I’ll get dragged down by many things all year if I start to fall behind. I’m really afraid that will happen, but fortunately things will come to a break during Golden Week. I was thinking about going to China or something, but maybe I will just have dinner at different teacher’s houses. I think that will be a good plan for the week, but maybe I’ll be able to do something else too. Only just starting to think about it, since it’s coming up and some teachers have already invited me to dinner. I really want to get ahead of my classes otherwise I’ll be suffering more later.

It was weird that just about the time I wanted to go to sleep, there was a thunderstorm. That hasn’t happened in a long time, last I remember that happening in Japan was in August of last year. So I just started to update my xanga about that time too.

A nice day

The weather was really nice today. It was nice and sunny out, it was a bit windy though. But other than that, it was beautiful. I was able to do my laundry today after a week of trying to. That was something that I really needed to get finished today because I was down to my last few clean clothes. But I made it through without having to wear anything that wasn’t washed.

The plan was just to sit and update this journal so I wouldn’t be behind on anything anymore. But from what I was suggested yesterday, I decided to act on it. Ms. Abe said to me that tomorrow’s weather would be nice so I should go out. So, since everything has been going well for me lately, I think that I’ll just go and do that. My friend KHma invited me to go for a walk in Yokohama, the Sakuragicho area. So I think that it would be nice to go out and do that. So that was pretty good timing I think.

It was nice, we went around the minato mirai area and then to Yokohama station. I also got to go to Osanbashi pier. I’ve been there before, but only the main lobby area and not the upper deck. It was pretty cool and you get an awesome view of the city from there. While we were walking there, I got to snap some pictures of the K-1 fighter Bobby. He was at muscle theater to promote the show that he has there. So I was surprised to see him there. I mean I’ve seen more famous people in Japan in this past one year than I’ve ever seen in my whole life in America. How weird is that? Well it was pretty cool and I think I got a pretty good picture too. I’ll post it up later though. Over all I think it was pretty cool. I got to meet KyoHma’s friend too. She seem pretty cool, JK.

One hell of a day

Today was busy to say the least, but it was adventurous. I had fun today, but it really did tire me out.

I woke up early to go to school because today 8th and 9th graders were going to watch October Sky. I really like that movie and thought it was great. Even though it was all in Japanese and that I didn’t understand what they were saying. It’s a good thing that I’ve seen it already so that was good. Mr. Eto even mentioned that I came to school on my day off because I wanted to watch this movie. He added more comments at the end about the story that I explained to him. That was pretty cool, but weird. I’m really in trouble though because of another teacher. I really feel lost and feel as if things are really slipping away from me. I’m in a hard situation that I really can’t control and I just have to live with it.

Afterwards another teacher was giving out lunches to people and I happened to be one of the lucky ones to get one. I didn’t have time today to buy a lunch so it was perfect. After the lunch, I studied a little Japanese and then Ms. Abe invited me to go watch a soccer game. It was really cool because we went to the National Stadium in Shibuya-ku next to Sendagaya station. It was the Chiba JEF United versus the Ibaraki Antlers. I know silly names, but I didn’t care because I was with Ms. Abe, who happens to be the older sister of a very famous Captain of the JEF United soccer team. So I got to meet the Abe family and sit with their 60 closest relatives as we were watching the game. There were two other teachers too, so it was really fun to go and see. You really get into the game when you’re there and not watching it on TV. It really is amazing since I didn’t like soccer before I came to Japan, but now I really do enjoy watching it.

After that I went back home. When I got home and finished dinner, MTki invited me over to her house since a bunch of her friends were over. We ate more and she gave me a gift from one of her friends that I met last week. It was like an anko cake, which wasn’t all that great, but some expensive stuff from what everyone told me. She was having a difficult time because she had to take care of some stuff. The son of her husband’s friend got into an accident. He was hit by a car while riding his bike and was sent to the emergency room. Then the girl two spaces away from had committed suicide while he was there. So it was a very eventful day for him. We watched two movies while I was there. I saw about half of phone booth and all of Daredevil. They have cable television so they get to see a lot of movies. Plus TTki has a large collection of DVD’s that he rents out to people who want to see them. I felt a little awkward though. I learned a lot of new things that made me feel uneasy. It was weird because I stopped doing private lessons with one of her friend’s daughter and the parents were there. They didn’t mention anything about it, but they didn’t act normal around me either. So I’m not sure what’s going on with that. I only stopped lessons because she wasn’t going anyways and my school schedule had changed so I don’t have Wednesday’s off anymore.

At the end of the day, I feel as if I’m just watching life pass me by. I felt really accomplished this week because I was teaching great classes. I really thought that I made a good impression on the other teachers and the students and started off the school in a good way. But then I feel so left behind all at the same time. I realize now that there’s a hole in my life that hasn’t been filled yet, and needs to be. But every opportunity that I’ve had for so long has now gone away. The moment was long ago and I missed the boat. It’s really starting to eat at me and I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it. I’m not in a position to do much about it anyways, but I need to figure out a way to actually be able to do something about it. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to succeed, which are rare words to come out of my mouth or my mind for that matter. Well, I’m not sure… I’ll see what I can do about it. I mean I couldn’t give up even if I wanted to. I’m in too deep now and there’s nothing I could do about it.

Another busy day

I had 5 classes today and club. I didn’t get much sleep either since I got home late last night. So that means I was pretty tired the whole day and just trying to tough through it the best I can. I mean if I didn’t use so much energy teaching my classes I’m sure that I’d be ok. But I like to really pump the classes up for learning English. I really get them going.

Today really started off great. I was so pumped after the first class, it just went so well. I had to teach first period which I’m really not used to, but I think it went incredibly well. It was a class that I was familiar with from last year so I got along well with them. And I felt pretty good that it started off so well especially since my senpai was watching me. I think that she felt very comfortable with me teaching the class and it takes a little pressure off of her.

I ran into a problem in club and realized something I hadn’t noticed before and was really quite shocked. One of the girls seems to not like me, well, it might not be me that’s the problem, but there is one. I need to do some research to figure out why she acted up in club in front of new members. Her English is one of the best in the school and we were trying to appeal to get some 7th graders into the club, but the way that she acted I highly doubt that we’ll see them anymore.

Hanging out with RW's GF

I’m not going out, going out with her, but just hanging out. She came back to Japan and happens to live fairly close to where I live so we planned to get together to probably go drinking or something to that effect in Ofuna. We went to a very popular and famous izakaya called Doma Doma. We didn’t eat much or drink much either. But we did talk a lot. Her English ability is much better than I thought that it would be. Since when I first met her she was very quiet, but I think that I’ve warmed up to her and that she was able to speak to me more. She seems really nice and I guess we talked about her impression of San Diego and of America. She didn’t have that great of one, and I could understand why. She met some of the weirdest people that I know too. Well, I think that she will have a better time, when she goes back after this short little trip. We only spent about 2 hours there, and it seemed as if time really flew by pretty quick. I did enjoy the time there and I did learn a lot about what’s going on in San Diego since I have now come back.

She actually informed me that she is no longer going out with RW and that RW has another GF. He’s such a weird fellow, interesting, but definitely weird. I think that he has some things to work on if he wants to keep a relationship going for a longer period of time. But who am I to judge right, since he has a relationship and I don’t.

But before that happened I started working on a huge project to clean up my room and get some laundry done. I mean it was a pretty big job to get all the cleaning done because my room had gotten itself in a large cluster of messes and I’m not sure if I liked what was happening. I mean when I start to really clean up my room, at first things get really messy first and then it begins to clean up. But for me, if I stop half way it just ends up being really messy and becomes a nightmare to clean up. So I was able to finish and it was much better than it was before. I was glad that I finally was able to finish cleaning from the unpacking session from spring break.

Hanging out with RW's GF

I’m not going out, going out with her, but just hanging out. She came back to Japan and happens to live fairly close to where I live so we planned to get together to probably go drinking or something to that effect in Ofuna. We went to a very popular and famous izakaya called Doma Doma. We didn’t eat much or drink much either. But we did talk a lot. Her English ability is much better than I thought that it would be. Since when I first met her she was very quiet, but I think that I’ve warmed up to her and that she was able to speak to me more. She seems really nice and I guess we talked about her impression of San Diego and of America. She didn’t have that great of one, and I could understand why. She met some of the weirdest people that I know too. Well, I think that she will have a better time, when she goes back after this short little trip. We only spent about 2 hours there, and it seemed as if time really flew by pretty quick. I did enjoy the time there and I did learn a lot about what’s going on in San Diego since I have now come back.

She actually informed me that she is no longer going out with RW and that RW has another GF. He’s such a weird fellow, interesting, but definitely weird. I think that he has some things to work on if he wants to keep a relationship going for a longer period of time. But who am I to judge right, since he has a relationship and I don’t.

But before that happened I started working on a huge project to clean up my room and get some laundry done. I mean it was a pretty big job to get all the cleaning done because my room had gotten itself in a large cluster of messes and I’m not sure if I liked what was happening. I mean when I start to really clean up my room, at first things get really messy first and then it begins to clean up. But for me, if I stop half way it just ends up being really messy and becomes a nightmare to clean up. So I was able to finish and it was much better than it was before. I was glad that I finally was able to finish cleaning from the unpacking session from spring break.

The first day of school

Classes resumed today, but I had awakened late, about an hour late. Not the best way to start the brand new school year. But I managed to get to school on time for class. I mean I arrived on campus about 2 minutes before class started and I would have to lead the class today. I didn’t have time to be nervous let alone did I know what I was doing, which I didn’t. I did the best job I could just trying to wing it, but I’m not sure that it was all that bad. I only had a half-baked plan for what I wanted to do for the first lesson and it didn’t take up the whole 50 minutes like I would have liked it to, but it was ok since it was the first day. We just chilled a little bit and talked about spring vacation.

I had 6 classes to teach today, which is quite a full load to be honest with you. Then I have English club after school. The second class wasn’t so bad either.

But to end the day with English club is really difficult because it was just so long. I didn’t end up going home till around 8pm which means I didn’t get home till at least 10pm. That’s about the time I usually go to sleep since I have to get up so early.

a long nap

Today I slept for most of the time. I thought was a bit of a waste, but since I slept so long, I figured it would be necessary. I didn’t get up until around 5pm and slept last night around midnight. So that was the longest sleep I’ve had in a long time. I didn’t do too much today either. I got some wrapping paper for some souvenirs that I collected when I was in San Diego for a few teachers. I thought that would be nice to give them so I got them ready for tomorrow.

I also started to prepare my materials for my classes. I didn’t realize that I have to be the head teacher in two of the classes tomorrow. Since we planned that I would lead only after I had gotten a better idea of what is going on. But since school starts in the middle of the week, that won’t be the case, I will actually be going first and setting the tone for the other classes, unless I concede and allow CP to be the head teacher. But we’ll see how things go tomorrow.

I had unagi today, it was very delicious and it’s a rare occasion when I get a chance to buy and eat it. So I enjoyed dinner tonight.

I opened up an English group web forum on Yahoo groups Japan! That took a bit longer than I would have wanted, but will work well to converge my efforts into making a full functional website to teach English with tons of valuable resources.

There was another earthquake today too.

A long day at work

Today started a bit early. I didn’t get that good of a sleep last night because I was working till late. There was the new student welcome party at the beginning of the day. It was pretty good and interesting, but similar to the other festival parties that I’ve seen already.

Then there was a teachers’ meeting with all faculty. This lasted for about an hour or so and talking about big things around school, I guess. I wouldn’t really know because it was all in Japanese and I couldn’t understand most of it. Not because I don’t understand Japanese, but couldn’t really understand their Japanese. I think I have selective hearing. Some people’s Japanese is better than others.

Then we took pictures with all the teachers. I was sandwiched between two of the most beautiful women I’ve seen at the school, and who happen to be great people. They actually both just recently gotten married too and seem really happy. I’m really happy for them because they deserve it.

Then we had an English department meeting. Things seemed to drag a bit only because there was so much work to get done, but couldn’t finish on time.

We needed to head out to the new teacher’s party at Imperial Hotel. This was actually a fun event because I knew most of the old teachers and was able to talk to them more often. Even in Japanese. I understood their Japanese, but probably because I’m more used to it.

Then there was the party after the party, which was excellent because I was sandwiched between two of my teacher friends and we had our own little conversation separate from the rest of the teachers. It was a great time to actually get to talk to them and be open about everything. Actually, they just got married too; damn everyone is getting married recently. So she had changed her name and we were talking about the pronunciation of it because the kanji reading has many forms. Then that turned into a Japanese language lesson and then into a whole bunch of other things. I miss being able to talk to them like that. It seems that no one really has time to do that anymore and that since things are changing and school will be starting soon, that there won’t be much more time to do things like that.

Then I hitched a ride with Koyano. I think he got lost again, even though he’s done it a few times. It’s difficult to find my house so I’m not really surprised, but I didn’t really care because I was able to talk to the teacher who used to sit next to me. Now she sits in front and to the right of me. She’s further and buried under a pile of books so it’s hard to talk to her in the office. At least she’s more willing to talk to me, which is great for me.

There were a total of two earthquakes today, they were kinda strong too. I actually felt both of them, but I haven’t felt some that other people said that there were. Like the time I was at the English Speech Contest, I didn’t feel anything but other people said there was an earthquake. I’ll have to go back and try to keep count again.

Meeting at Yoke

Today, there will be another meeting at the YOKE office. I’m not sure how things will turn out, but we will see that later. As things turned out, I felt as if it was a one way conversation. I didn’t feel as if there was much of a discussion because it was more about defending against the criticisms instead of hearing them out. There are many things that could improve with the program and with the system itself, but there’s only so much that this organization can do because of the restrictions of the government and how slow the process is. It was, at the very least something to do and a good way for the delegates to say something. It might not have been heard, which really defeats the purpose of having the meeting in the first place, but it’s a step in the right direction. I only stayed for two hours and had to leave not because I was tired of listening to everything, but because I had another engagement. The YOKE people have gotten better with their time efficiency though, which is a great improvement.

I was going to attend a little get together that was arranged by my pseudo-host mother, MTki. We went to the Ofuna area to go to an izakaya and drinking, I believe we went to a place called Kafune. It wasn’t all that bad, but wasn’t the best food I’ve had either. I didn’t drink any alcohol because I know that I have to go to school tomorrow. I just didn’t want to feel weird when I had a full day of school the next day. Even though I’m not working, I don’t want to feel sick all day. But it was nice, even though I was the youngest person there and by a few years away from everyone else. I met her Yoga teacher, who seems very nice. The food there was pretty good, I mean for an izakaya.

I worked on the syllabus for my 11th grade class when I got home. I did this till about 2am, which I felt was a pretty good time to go to sleep. Even though the plan wasn’t completely finished, I thought that it was a great start to precise planning of the each individual class that I would teach. It was only a start for me, but still it’s a lot more than I get from other teachers since they know what they are doing and I’m only just guessing. I guess they can do that since they have more experience than I do. I think that’s very helpful to be able to learn from them like that too.

Gone to school

Today, the only thing that I did was go to school. Since I had slept really late… early around 6am and woke up around 1pm, I didn’t have much time to do anything. I wanted to finish cleaning and maybe even do some laundry, but that didn’t happen. I had to get ready and go to school. That was the main thing for the day. I grabbed some lunch at Yoshinoya and then went to work. I was a little bit late since we had agreed to meet at 4pm and I showed up around 4:15pm. But that didn’t matter because CP showed up around 4:45pm and we couldn’t start without her. I was seeing some parents around school meeting with teachers I’m assuming.

The meeting was able our schedule and which classes which teacher would be leading. I am taking the lead for 8 classes of the 21 oral communication classes at my school. It’s not that big of a number, but I’m not including the 2 extra classes for one student. I’m doing one per grade and all of the 11th grade classes. I’m not too worried about anything, but I’m not liking that CP will have to be in the room too while I teach. It’s in her contract that she has to be in all of the classes, so there’s not much I could do about that. But I’m going to be helping her with lightening the load of classes. We have Tuesday and Wednesdays loaded up with 6 classes each day. I requested to take 4 of those classes off since I’m on a different agreement than her, but I’m still doing way more than I am assigned to do. I will be in 20 classes when my contract is only for 15, so I’m doing more than I’m getting paid for. But I’m not really worried about that. I find it more enjoyable than anything.

The meeting lasted around 4 hours to talk to all the different grade heads to punch out the syllabus and tie up other loose ends. I’m really excited that I will be able to take on the lead role in some of the classes. Even though I know that CP will step in and try to take over, it’s in her nature. I know what I’m doing and it’s going to mess the flow of things, but we’ll see how things go. She might even leave after this semester because she might get paid less. That’s not something that she wants so I believe that there are some tough times ahead for her and for the school to have to make some decisions about what to do. I think the people that I will be working with are going to be very good, so I’m super excited about that and now I know what I need to get done so I can finally start planning the rest of the year. It’s a shame that it’s all at the last minute, but at least I have it.

I was one of the last teachers to leave the school again. I mean there were only about 5 left after me. That’s quite rare, and I think it sucks for them because they still had a lot more work left too and it was already past 8pm and it was a Saturday.

I grabbed dinner at Mos Burger, which was pretty good. Then I came home swiftly and started to work on my website and updating my pictures. So now that things are starting to wrap up with that, I’m getting happier. I’ll post the link later since there are still some pages that I haven’t even started, but I wanted to get those done first before I release the final version. I’ll need to do that soon, since school will be starting and I won’t have too much time to take care of that, once things start picking up. But I did take the time to finish writing this entry. So now I won’t be falling behind either.

Meeting EK in Shibuya

Today was a weird day too. I was extremely happy, and for no apparent reason too. I felt like I had a lot of energy all day, even though I didn’t get much sleep. The sun is starting to affect my sleeping patterns again. Since the sun rises around 6am that’s when I get up too. The sun shines right in my eyes, so I’ll need to think about investing some money into buying curtains.

I was working on my homepage all day. I’m getting most of it updated with new pictures and using a different server and everything. It’s got a nice new look to it, but it’s a little dark and not as vibrant as it was before. But I like the look of it. I’m having some problems with some pictures that have disappeared some how and I’m not sure how to get them back. But I was just chopping away at it all day. I didn’t get much into making the new pages that I had wanted to do, but at least I got it updated with many new things. I’m really excited about the new release and everything. So I upgraded it from BETA version to Version 1.0. YAY! I’m making some progress here, but there are still some kinks in it that I will have to remedy soon. I hope to get it ready for wide release, so far only a few people have taken a look at it. I’ve gotten only good feedback so far, but I’m sure that they wouldn’t say it sucked, even if it did. But it’s a good thing that it doesn’t suck… hehe. Once I get it mostly finished I’ll put out the address, but since I’m so close to finishing it, you’ll just have to wait.

The other thing that I was doing today was cleaning. I was both at the same time, which turned out to be disastrous. I didn’t get either one finished before I needed to leave to meet EK. I started the cleaning process a little bit late too, but I did get one of my rooms cleaner than it was before. I will have time tomorrow to get the rest of it finished though, so I’m not really stressing about it. I actually left my house a little late today to get to Shibuya on time. At least it felt like it. The weather was being funny again. It was all hot in the afternoon, but got really cool in the evening time. So finding the right clothes to wear was a bit difficult.

But somehow I arrived at Shibuya on time. EK was actually waiting for me, only because he was closer and got off of work early. We walked around a little bit because we weren’t too hungry and just talking about things. It was something that truly amazed me; we found a Vietnamese restaurant in Shibuya. I’ve walked past this place on numerous occasions, but haven’t noticed it there before. It’s actually underground and I’m shocked that we saw it because we were looking across the street at first at the radio station. It was a little shop underground. It wasn’t as good as Saigon or as cheap either, but it wasn’t horrible either. For being the only Vietnamese restaurant that I’ve seen in Japan, I thought it was a relief. I might have to stop by more often to get my dose of Vietnamese food.

After dinner we went walking around some more. We decided to go walk to Harajuku since it wasn’t too far, well wasn’t too far for me at least… hahaha. EK is an old man who gets tired too easily. I would say that going from Harajuku to Shibuya is less than a kilometer, but he got soo tired. So I took him to Takeshita street and Omotesando to look around. We had a crepe, my first crepe ever. I had a caramel cheese cake with Vanilla ice cream. Sounds good, but it was only ok. It was nothing too impressive to be honest with you. I had always envisioned that it would be better. Anyways, after this, we walked back to Shibuya station. I got back just in time to get on the last Limited Express train to go home. We parted ways and I got home fairly quickly too. That was a good day I think, even though there was lots to be finished. But when I got home, I jumped right back on the computer and did some other stuff. There was a new release of MSN messenger version 7.0777. I had downloaded it and so far, so good. I like all the features that they’ve been working on and would like to say GOOD JOB with it. Well I haven’t used all the functions yet, but all that I’ve read about makes me excited. I still need to get more work done with my website though and still have other little things to take care of too.

I had a nice chat with ICn and AWs in the wee hours of the morning too. That’s always nice since I have a lot of energy right now and can’t fall asleep. Which I’m sure will come and haunt me later since I haven’t been sleeping well.

Entrance Ceremony

Today was really great day, even though I didn’t sleep very well last night. I woke up early by about 30 minutes, so I was up at 5:30am. But I felt like I had a lot of energy and couldn’t really go back to sleep. I know I didn’t get enough sleep though, but I felt good today, which is something that is unusual. I was convinced right from the beginning that today would be a good day.

When I went to school, there were many things that were awaiting me. After the ceremony, which was actually very short, some of the teachers got together to go to an exhibition. Actually the teachers were the top teachers in the school, meaning seniority. I went to see an exhibition of photographs of Myanmar taken by a friend of the headmaster of my school. There was a big ceremony at the temple in Shiba Park next to Tokyo Tower for the anniversary of the temple being built, so the timing was excellent. The Tokugawa Shogun Burial site was open to the public, which is rare and only happens once in a long while. I was thrilled to be there because of the nice background of the Sakura trees and the backdrop of the city and the Tokyo Tower behind it. I felt pretty confident with my Japanese that I didn’t need a dictionary. We had a light snack at the Tokyo Prince Hotel, which is pretty famous in this town. I was able to collect my transportation fee for the Commuter pass for the next six months. When I was leaving, I left with the new teachers, and I showed them the “teachers’ path” to go to the station. Teachers take a different path to work because it’s shorter and because no students go that way.

I worked on getting my schedule punched out with the English department chair, even though nothing really worked out in my favor. Found out a little more about my situation teaching at the school. I will be working more than I did before and still getting paid the same. I’m not really concerned with the pay since I don’t use much of the money on anything, but it would just be nice to have a raise.

I had given all the teachers a gift from San Diego, and they were delighted by it. This made me happy about it too. I went into the headmaster’s office too. That was a first and gave him a gift too. I’m happy with my new seating position in the office. I’ll have to warm up to some people who sit next to me, but I think it will be fun. I feel really part of the group now and I’m getting along with the new teachers very well.

I’m surrounded by too many good looking people, it’s ridiculous. It’s almost unbearable almost as if it was only done that way to torture me or something. I mean of all of Japan, when I visited everywhere, I haven’t seen such a collection of good looking people in the same place, except for my school. And I’m not talking about my students either. I’m talking about the teachers at my school. Sorry, I really can’t get over that since it’s in my face every single day. And you’re probably wondering why I’m complaining about seeing great looking people everyday, and the problem with that is that its only taunting me. It’s not like I would want to have a relationship with them or anything, but they are all married too. Some of them are married to each other, which is another weird thing about my school. It’s distracting though, it really is hard to get work done. I don’t know, it’s strange but it’s true. I won’t deny it. I’ll be honest, since you’re brave enough to read these entries, it wouldn’t help me to lie about it.

When I went to the Ticket office, there was a really long line out front. When I finally arrived to the front of the line, I found out that my old transportation ticket is still valid, which means I’ve wasted some money that could have been saved since I have arrived back into Japan from my spring vacation.

Meet the Parents

So today, I didn’t want to do much, well actually I wanted to do a lot, but I just stayed confined to my room and didn’t end up doing much, again. There are things that I should be working on right now that I know I haven’t been doing. I need to jumpstart my life again and I think that once school picks back up, I’ll be able to get into the swing of things again. I just need that routine to get me going. I’m looking forward to going to school tomorrow for the Entrance Ceremony. I think it will be nice since all their ceremonies are extremely nice. Everything is very peaceful where I am and it’s a nice change of scenery for me. I mean, I’m free to do whatever I want to do, but somehow I just haven’t got enough oomph in my life to go out there and go do it.

I had ramen for lunch today, which wasn’t so bad. I watched Meet the Parents on DVD today too. It’s nice to see a funny movie from time to time to get in touch with laughter. Seems like a long time since I’ve laughed even.

I’m going to have dinner at Denny’s tonight. I haven’t eaten there in a long while. I went there when I was in San Diego, but couldn’t eat anything because I had to take a blood test the next day. The doctor told me not to eat anything for 12 hours before the test, so I was starving waiting my friend eat. How horrible is that? But tonight I get to eat and I’ll enjoy it too, even though it’s about a 45 minute walk away. So it will take about an hour and a half just for the round trip alone, not even talking about the eating.

A day of not much

I just watched a lot of TV today and sat in front of my computer. Notice that this has become something rather common in my life. I do force myself out of the house to get some exercise so I don’t become some fat slob that oozes to work. I mean I walk 30 minutes just to get food only to walk back that far after I’ve eaten it. I’ve notice there has been a slight problem with the picture on my TV screen too. Things are starting to get blurry and it’s not my vision. It’s the TV.

I think I’m back to my downloading days where I don’t do much other than download and read up on news. I took a stab at making a lesson plan for the rest of the year for my students, but then I realized I really couldn’t do that because I don’t even know the schedule for the year yet. It would be wasteful to start that only to have to move everything around later. So I’m going to wait till the opening ceremony at my school before I do that. I was told that will be when I get my schedule for work and all the other good tidbits that I’ve been waiting for. But lets hope that things go according to plan, otherwise I’ll have to wait till school starts, which I think would be a little too late to get some real good planning done.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the people in my life recently. I’m not sure why, but it’s been really intriguing for me. Since I’ve had a lot of time lately, I’ve been thinking about my past and to see how I’ve come to where I am. The people in my past have really contributed to everything that I am. I’ve been thinking about the past loves in my life too. It really is interesting when I think about all the times that I’ve spent with all of them. Each experience was different and I enjoyed all of them, even though I felt like killing someone. I was very frustrated with love before, but now I’m more at peace for going through all of those experiences.

I think that my eyes have become worse because I’ve been looking at this computer screen too long. I’ve developed a long standing headache too. It’s a dull pain in the top right part of my head that hurts when I touch it. I’m not sure what it could be, but hopefully it’s nothing serious, since I’d be pretty screwed if it is.

I’ve been staying up lately, but at least I’m back to my regular sleeping patterns. Meaning I at least get a good amount of sleep and sleep pretty comfortably the whole time. I don’t get up in the middle of the night being dehydrated or have nightmares anymore.

Another wasted day

Computer and watched SMAP X SMAP. I did go out of the house today twice, but only to get food and go for a little jog. That little jog got me thinking about how out of shape I am. It was also an indicator that it’s still freezing outside. It was so cold in fact that I almost had an asthma attack as I was running and it was so incredibly hard to breathe. When I got home I used an inhaler for the first time in about 10 years.

But anyways, I’m glad that I’m at least making an effort to try to stay in shape. I might not be succeeding, but at least I’m putting the effort into trying it out. I’m not sure what might happen, but it’s not a big deal. I’ve been doing a lot of researching lately about how to teach English better. I’m looking forward to starting a new semester, but I want this year to be much better and more influential than last school year. I guess I’ve got to take the time to get things into place and to see where things will go. I think that as soon as I get my schedule, I’m going to start to implement some of my plans and to see where they will go.

Returning to Yokohama

I had a lot of time to reflect on what is going on in my life at the moment. I was really shocked by many things this weekend, as I was warned would happen to me. But I think they were referring to other things, but still I was shocked. I think that once I got home, it was like I had the wind knocked out of me. I’d like to refer to the Alanis Morissette song, “ironic” how things turn out the way that they turn out. I found out a little more about the people I work with and more about myself and the things that I want to accomplish in my life. The time we spent there was great. I really enjoy spending bonding time with my co-workers because they are really good people. They like to have a good time, but they never have much time to do the things that they really want to.

So when I got home, I just relaxed a bit and tried to get back to the feeling that I’m living in Japan. It was easy to get things back into place, but it was really weird to be at home in the middle of the afternoon. I talked to a few friends on messenger even though I just saw them a few days ago, but other than that, I just chilled at home and tried to unpack all the things from my San Diego trip and from Hakone.

Going to Hakone!

My school has a residence in Hakone. Today all the teachers, including the new ones that will join, will go to the residence to bond. It’s a good way to celebrate the new school year as a staff together, but I feel sorry for some of the teachers. I feel as if they are always being dragged to come to these events, when I’m sure that they would just like to relax at home or have time for themselves and their families. We will have a BBQ and other exciting things. I guess I’ll update you when I find out more about it. I’ve got to get to school around 10AM, so I’m going to bed now. This is actually the first time I’m ahead of the game and not behind.

The first day and the first impression was quite remarkable. I was worried because all the other teachers had played it down saying that it wasn’t a hotel or anything, so I was expecting old styled cabins, but it was actually a pretty new and modern cabin. It was nice and had all the things that anyone would need, but that’s just the facilities itself. I mean it’s a hell of a lot better than some of the places that I’ve stayed on other trips that I’ve taken in America.

I also had a good impression of the new teachers that were coming aboard. They seemed very nice and really nervous about starting to work at my school. It was as if they were freshmen joining high school. They had the same looks and the same worries that reminded me of that. It was weird because I was no longer the bottom of the totem pole and that I actually had more experience at the school than they did. But they still had more teaching experience than I have. Most of them did, but a few didn’t. They were a bit shy with their English ability, but I think that they speak pretty well for being Japanese English teachers. They aren’t native, but then again, I wouldn’t expect them to be. Since they were all English teachers, I was warming up to them since I would be working with them a lot. I think that we all made a good impression on each other and that each of them are able to communicate better with everyone. I am acting as a bridge with the new to the older teachers. I think that if I would have had that when I first started working at my school, I would have liked it a lot better. But for me, joining half way through the year was an awkward situation.

We took a stop at a nice place to have lunch. The spaghetti was great there, and the service was pretty good too. I was sitting with all the new teachers so it was a great opportunity for me to talk with them. After that, some of the teacher split up and I had a chance to go to the Venetian Glass Museum in Hakone. It was quite interesting how they made things of glass that were just marvelous. But there is only so much you can see before you begin to become a tad bored. I think that it was nice to look at, but I couldn’t spend a whole day there. After that short little excursion, we went to the Hakone Residence. This would be the first, but definitely not the last trip to Hakone.

When we arrived the first thing that I noticed all the teachers were doing was cleaning up and getting ready for the BBQ that we were going to have. Most of the female teachers were cleaning the tables and setting up for all the food. All the male teachers were outside next to the Barbeque stoves and getting the fire going. In Japan, they use a different type of charcoal than we use in the United States. Not sure which one works better, but it works, so I don’t complain.

The food was pretty good and it was like your typical American style Barbeque. They added their own little flavor to things, but relatively everything else was the same. After that, we cleaned up and moved inside to have more to eat. That seems to be the thing at this school, eat and then eat some more. So we had a little more to eat while we were inside the house. That was fun and I got to talk to more teachers than I did before. I made a new friend with the high school boss and now that has really helped my position in the teacher’s office, only because we are the only two of the teachers that don’t like Natto. How odd, but fortunate for me. The teachers came up with a new name for me, meaning they showed me some better kanji characters for my name. They didn’t like the darkness thing, so they decided to offer me some suggestions.

After that, we split up and separated into the different houses where the teachers were going to stay. I moved to the first bungalow and guess what we did. That’s right drink and eat some more. I didn’t eat so much since I was stuffed already and I and a few other teachers were talking about how the other bungalow was haunted. It was pretty cool and I think some of the teachers were pretty freaked out though.

Just stayed at home, Happy April Fools y'all

I picked up some lunch and some dinner at the convenient store. I also paid rent today and some other bills. That took a huge chunk of my money. I talked to a friend that I haven’t talked to in YEARS! It was great to finally talk to her again. I miss her and it’s weird that we’ve known each other for seven years and met in Washington D.C. It’s a small wonderful world. She asked me to send her a postcard, but I’m still shocked that we even talked to each other. She’s from Texas and I’ve only met her one time for a week. She’s really cool and actually it’s a really funny story how we met too. That week in November my 11th grade year, was strange, but we met during lunch when we were waiting in line together. I’m not sure who started the conversation, but we got started and it just continued.

I paid a visit to my landlord’s house and just stayed there for a little bit playing with their dogs and enjoying a conversation in Japanese. I’m not good, but I can carry one. It was nice, then I came back home and watched some Music Station on Asahi TV. They had a 3 hour long special today. It was pretty good and some of the bands that I know were on there too. I think it’s a great show and I’m learning a lot of what Japanese people like to listen to. It’s an interesting mix to say the least.