rest day 3

Today was another day of not much. I think that’s the beauty of being on vacation. But I did receive some news today that I wasn’t enjoying too much, but was expecting to happen. I was told that the problem that I went back to America to fix wasn’t fixed. I knew that would end up being the case, but I did my best to do what I needed to do. So all that time and money went to waste and I still have the problem to deal with. I know that it won’t be fun or anything, but that’s life right?

So I was talking to family and talking to a whole gang of other people too. It was nice to be able to talk to friends. Some of which will be coming back to Japan soon. And I was finding out who will come back and who won’t come back, so I can adjust my schedule accordingly. I spent the day looking and trying to figure out my Mixi account. I think I have learned a few more things and just adjusted my profile a bit.

I also ran into another problem too. My yahoo won’t let me log on. I mean it will bring me up to where it says how many unread messages that I have, but it won’t get me into my inbox. I’m not sure if it’s just me or if it’s anyone else. But I think that it might just be me since I’m running into a string of bad luck lately. So I was shopping around for a new web browser. I think that I’m going to need to download Mozilla’s FireFox browser, but I need to free up some space in order for that to work. From what I hear, it’s pretty good and reliable without all the security holes in Internet Explorer. I don’t use Internet Explorer now; I use another called Maxthon, which I really like. It’s got a lot of little functions on it and I really like the features and the way it looks and everything. Except that it won’t let me log onto my Yahoo account. I’m up to about 23 unread messages now, but I think that will increase really soon.

I went over to pay rent today and learned a few new things. I learned that there are Snakes in the area where I live. And that the rainy season will start tomorrow. I missed out on a trip to Izu to go to an onsen because I didn’t let her know when I had the day off. I could have gone on the trip with them. There will be centipedes coming in summer and a whole grip of other insects invading my apartment. I learned about the centipede thing the hard way when I was bit by one last year. That wasn’t pleasant… not at all. Then she had to go because she was going to start her Yoga lesson, which I passed on doing. But I think that one day I won’t pass it up. I think that I should give it a try sometime, but tonight wasn’t a good night. I was a bit hungry and wanted to get some grub.

Then I went for a long walk to the train station to get some dinner. I decided that I would hop on the train and go to Ishikawa cho to pick up some MOS burger. I haven’t eaten any junk food for a little bit, so I thought it would be good to take a long walk to work it all off too. It was very good tonight, I’m not sure why. It could have been that I was hungry, but I think the taste was a bit different tonight. I did order something different than the usual though.

rest day 2

I woke up around 8am expecting it to be hot like it has been all week, but to my surprise it was cold and raining. I was like that the hell is all this about. So anyways, I get up looking for something to eat. For some reason I was starving, I think it’s because I have been used to eating breakfast on normal days and when I go to work, I usually grab something to eat in the morning to get enough energy to get me through to lunch. That’s a very weird feeling for me because I never used to do that. So I went and got some waffles that I had bought the other day.

Then I immediately jumped on the computer and stayed there for the remainder of the day. I talked to my family for a little bit and asked how everything is going. It looks like the problem that I tried to fix when I went back to San Diego for spring break hasn’t been fixed yet. I’m still being pestered by it and I don’t think that it will stop anytime soon either. I’ve done all that I could, but I guess some people cannot accept that they are just not worth it and will always continue to bug me. And I’m really getting pissed off about it. I’ve got a really bad temper about it and once I get back, if it’s the last thing that I do on Earth, I’m going to rip that company to shreds. It’s on and I’m not going to stop until… well till there’s nothing left of it.

On a happier note, I was introduced to something that I got addicted to right away. MTka invited me into a Japanese My Space thing called MIXI. I had received her invitation before, but I thought it was like BEBO, which is something that I really don’t like, so I avoided it. But she persisted and I eventually joined. I didn’t think it would be as easy as it was since I can’t read much Japanese. But I guess it’s much better than I thought since signing up was a breeze and getting everything customized too. Then I was just looking for people that I knew and it turns out that there are lots of people that I know on the service. But I think there are plenty more too, but I just need to take the time to go find them. I did this for a very very long time. I mean I didn’t get off of the computer until around 7pm, when I was introduced to it a couple hours ago.

I checked up on my server on Spymac today, and lo and behold, it’s still not working. That’s really starting to get on my nerves too. I planned for a release of my website on June 1st and I really don’t think that’s going to happen now since other people have been having problems with there site for much longer than I have had with mine. So I’m assuming that it will at least take a week and then I will be able to get things uploaded and then I will be able to check to see if it all works. I’m thinking about uploading everything on my backup server and then reintroducing the real one when my server decides to work again. But I’m not sure if I want to do that. I might just postpone the release date again. But it doesn’t matter, it’s not like too many people will see it anyways. It’s more for me just to get something up that I could get people to look at. It’s only a hobby of mine and I really don’t care of anyone sees it. Much like this blog, it’s out there if you want to read it, but I don’t care if you do or if you don’t. I’ve got other things to worry about than the readership of my blog. Much like the food that I need to eat today and all the bills I have to pay.

By the time night fell, I decided to go pay my bills and take a walk 30 minutes to get food. I felt like I needed the exercise since I’ve been sitting at my desk and at my computer for the past few days without even getting out of the house. When I was getting close to the restaurant, my legs were cramping up. That usually happens in the morning when I’m walking to work, so I think it might be because I’m walking too much or maybe because I didn’t have enough energy to get me there.

When I finished dinner and started walking back, I noticed how hard the rain was falling and how constant it was. It was extremely weird because it was falling down sideways and I was getting drenched. I mean when I got home, I was really wet and I had an umbrella, but it looked like it didn’t work at all. It was horrible, but at least I like to play in the rain, so it wasn’t that bad, but it was also getting hot and I was getting sticky so I didn’t like that too much. Then I watched SMAPxSMAP to end the evening. I love that show, it’s the greatest.

A day of rest

I hadn’t done much today. I woke up early since I didn’t have anything to do. I mean 8am is still pretty early, but not as early as usual at least. Well, I had awakened at 4:30am again, but went back to sleep and woke up another time around 6am too, but then I went back to sleep again. Around 8am was when it really began to get really warm and I couldn’t sleep in anymore.

I began real work on my website today. I believe that I was able to get a good chunk of it finished too. Most of it is ready to be published and shown to people, but I haven’t finished the details that I’ve been meaning to finish. There’s still a lot that I haven’t even touched yet, but I think that will be released in the next version. I think that getting something out is good first and then having to update will be much better. That way, there are still improvements ahead of me. But I did add a few things here and there that I just thought about today and was glad that I was able to complete that. I think that it will give the viewers a better understanding of how weird I am.

Here’s the irony of today. Since I’ve been working on my website all day, I wanted to see what my old one looked like so I could see things that I could improve. But to my surprise, it wasn’t there. The server was down and probably deleted my old website. They had just recently converted from having outside FTPs to now an internal FTP, which is software to upload files onto the internet and basically access to their server. But that was down and I couldn’t access it. So I spent about an hour trying to fix that, but I couldn’t. So I sent a little note to the big guys to fix it.

It’s getting to be crunch time because I want it released on June 1st and that’s coming up really really soon. I think that most of the things are ready to be posted, but things are quite finished yet. I think that this server problem needs to be fixed soon, or I’ll have to find another server again. So I’m praying that they are able to fix it in time, or I’ll have to upload things on my backup server first and then come back to this one. I need something more permanent though, but I think having a redundant network is good. I’m balancing my thoughts and since I have the time, I’ll think about it more tomorrow too.

My last day before a long break

I only had two classes today with one student. But I still had to wake up at 5am just to get to school on time. I actually woke up at 4:30am, ahead of my alarm again. So what I did in the morning was different than usual, I was preparing for the day’s lesson. I had finished the lesson preparation last week, but I wanted to get the last details finished and start preparing for next week’s lesson. I’m not sure what I will do for next week, but I want to make it fun and educational. Today’s lesson will be a tough one to get through.

The topic of the day was writing, which happens to be my subject’s most hated. So I had my work cut out for me today. The first class went rather smooth since we just reviewed from the weeks before and to my surprise most of what we had talked about was retained. I finished the class with what she wanted to do if she opened up a school of her own. The topic was to make a dress code, but I wanted to make it more advanced for her since I believe she is able to do it. I was giving her an education about life and finance as well. I think she was interested because she had asked many relevant questions to the questions that I posed her. Therefore, I am happy with the result of the first hour. I think that it was very productive.

The second class was pretty smooth as well. We were doing a lot of conversing and I was trying to expand her mind and sight of her future. I was talking about something that really interested her. Near the end of the class, she noticed that I was trying to speed through the lesson and the PowerPoint slides and asked me if class was almost over. I told her that there’s only a few more minutes left and she replied that class went by pretty fast. That’s good news for me because I believe that means she enjoyed it. She didn’t seem uninterested and was really asking good questions so I was able to get her attention to work on the subject matter.

After class, I stuck around for a little bit, but I realized that I would be doing nothing. Since everyone was getting ready for a parent-teacher meeting in the gym. So I just decided that I wouldn’t wait too long and started asking all the teachers if they needed any help, they said no and told me to go home. I think that they really want me to enjoy my stay in Japan and don’t want me to work too hard. I’m not sure, but it could be just that they want to get rid of me too. They like to use my desk space when I’m not there, but I don’t mind since there’s nothing there anyways.

I got home pretty quick and it was becoming very warm at this time since I was still wearing my suit. Wearing a suit in summer is definitely not fun. But this will be the last day that I have to do so. Since next time I go back, they would have switched from fall uniforms to summer uniforms. I won’t be going to a school function till the Kyougen performance on Thursday of next week.

It took me about 2 hours to get home and I did a little shopping at the grocery store to get myself enough food for the rest of the day and into tomorrow’s lunch. I think that tomorrow I will need to go out for dinner and probably do a little bit of exploring.

When it was around time for dinner, I popped in a new DVD that I haven’t opened yet. I decided to watch Back to the Future Part I. Damn I love that movie. It’s so great and I really enjoyed watching it tonight too. It’s much different from when I remember it before. I think now that I’m more focused and was able to notice more than I was able to before. After that I came here to punch up this entry.

A day that started a bit early

I woke up earlier than my alarm again, which makes that around 4:30am. I’m getting up earlier and earlier and I really don’t like that. I didn’t get to bed till much later than I had wanted to, which makes that about 11pm.

The first class I had today, didn’t get as well as I had expected it to go only because the lesson I planned only turned out to be about 10 minutes long and I still had another 40 minutes to go. I managed to use up a few more minutes before I just let the students work on their paperwork for the test that’s coming up. I’m making them think about what they really want to present and I’m not having them follow any scripts which is the old way of doing things. I think that is making things a bit difficult for them and me, but I think that in the end it will pay off. I’m not sure if it will because things are looking rocky with the process of them learning, but I guess I’ll see what they are really capable of once I get their test papers in and am able to review it.

The second class was another 11th grade class. They are at a much lower level, but I extended my lesson to about 35 minutes, which isn’t bad and added a lot more information than I did in the last class because I didn’t want anyone confused. Although I know that’s virtually impossible with so many students and everything being in a foreign language, I figure it’s still worth a shot anyways. There’s no harm in trying at least.

Third period was a bit different because it was a change in the schedule. That makes 4 for the year so far and it’s still the first semester. Anyways, it was a 7th grade class so we just got them up to the front of the class and they were preparing for their recitation contest. They were reading their parts and we were just helping their fluency. I think they were pretty good and especially when other teachers were coming in the room to observe our activities. Today was an open school to Juku teachers so they could see what our school is about. I heard a couple of the teachers try to speak English too, which makes the lesson pretty good. I was supposed to lead this class at the beginning of the year, but decided that I didn’t want to work with the 7th graders and wanted to put more effort and focus on the 11th grade.

Fourth period was with the loud 9th graders. This class is one of the toughest classes that I work with because they just don’t give a damn about school. Their attitude towards learning is low and they aren’t motivated by much. It’s not just English, it’s pretty much everything that has to deal with learning. So it’s a tough class. I’m glad I’m not leading it, or I’d have to run it military style and make many threats, otherwise nothing would ever be accomplished. We are going through the lesson and they are receptive of it. Well some students are able to understand and are able to participate, even though it’s only limited and they do it in an “interesting” way. I think they do understand though, but just have this air about them that isn’t the best. We just followed along with the book and finished the chapter on talking on the phone.

Fifth period was a test for the 10th graders. We were getting ready for them to take an oral exam, which is basically just an introductory speech. Something that is quite remarkably easy and I’m not sure why they are doing this in the 10th grade when people in junior high school are already doing it. But it’s what the bosses want so I’ll do it. I think that the assignment is easy enough and this is one of the higher ability classes which is also one of the more fun classes I teach too. I know most of their names so I’m able to converse with them. But the other teachers were making comments that I was grading too strict, which I believe I was only grading how I thought was going to be the standard. I think CP’s grading is a bit strict, but I agree with it. I’m not sure how the grading works in Japan, so it could very well be generous. I need to find that out, but I think I worried the Japanese English teacher because she made a comment and then felt reserved afterwards. I felt as if she was holding something back that she wanted to say. In my opinion I was grading a bit low, I thought that they were very good and much better than the scores would reflect, but from what I’ve learned in other classes, I graded as what I felt was good scores. For example, I gave most of the students 8’s out of 10, but that’s only average. In the U.S. that’s a B equivalent, but I guess here it’s an A. That’s what I was told by CP, but I’m not sure how that figures.

Sixth period was with the 7th graders, with the same teachers as the last class. It was the Japanese English teachers’ home room class. They had the same lesson plan as the 3rd period class. We just had them come up to the front of the room and just practice their passages for the recitation contest. I think this class did the best of all the other classes that I teach. They were energetic and louder, which is a bit tough since it was the last class of the day and everyone was beat and tired. I think all the teachers were getting exhausted too since it began to get a little too warm.

I left school really early today. I left a little before 4pm, which makes it seem that I’m leaving earlier and earlier. But I wanted to beat the heat to come home. I wanted to work on my website, which never ended up happening. I bought some KFC to take home to have for dinner and then I enjoyed the Soccer Game on TV. It was between Japan and UAE, and Japan lost. I don’t know how since they were dominating for most of the game, and UAE just got a lucky break, but it was enough to win. I’m not really much of a soccer fan, but I think that while I’m here I should enjoy it. Then after that I started typing this entry.

A day spent at home

I pretty much just stayed home today. I wanted to go out, but I thought that it would be a better idea just to stay home and relax for a little bit. I was able to sleep in today, only till around 9am. Then after I woke up and had breakfast, I signed onto MSN messenger. I was able to talk to a few friends that I haven’t talked to in a little while. I’m glad that I talked to them today since we hardly ever keep in touch. I did some laundry today and dried out my futons. I did a major job of cleaning today and getting ready for the summer season so I will begin to put away most of my winter things and taking out my summer things. Only two more days of wearing a winter suit to work, then its summer suit wear.

I had one conversation with a friend that made me put things in perspective. ALu. I’m glad that I did and realized that I was just blowing things out of proportion. I really haven’t told anyone how I’ve felt about what has been going on in my life so I think that it was a good thing that I finally did. I realized that since I’ve been really independent lately, that I’ve forgotten how to relate to people and to be somewhat human. I put things in logical order and realized the consequences of other people’s actions and also realized that no everyone could be as high as I expect them to be. No one is perfect and no matter how much or how hard I push, it will never happen that way. She also asked me if I was going to go back to San Diego for summer and I said no. I was telling her that I might go to Taiwan for summer, but I wasn’t sure because of a certain situation. I’m not sure if I want to deal with that. I think that at the end of this conversation, I have concluded that I will still remain a friend, although only limited. I have lost respect for this friend and wouldn’t trust them again. But I think that it might be too much to abandon a friendship over a mistake, even if I feel it’s big. Not everything will turn out the way that I want it and I shouldn’t punish people too severely for it. Although being betrayed is never a good thing and it’s something I really don’t like. I’ve still got to think about it, but at least I felt much better after having this conversation. I still need to clear up some things though.

I was able to talk with my family today too. It was weird because they wanted to talk to me today. It has been a long time since we all did talk. Things have finally worked out well for my sister and she’s going to graduate and she’s even gotten her drivers’ license too. My other sister is doing well too. She finally heard that I climbed Mt. Fuji and almost died, which was funny when she reacted by, “how come I didn’t know about this? “ It was nice to finally talk to them. They were asking me if I was going to go back to San Diego for summer, and I said no. I was talking to my mom for a long time. I think that it must have been at least like 5 hours or so and it was great to use MSN messenger to do a video conference. Technology is great.

I’d like to mark today as the second day of the official bug season. Yesterday I was plagued with a bunch of bugs that I had to kill. It was annoying to do so. It took me about 30 minutes to kill all of them, and I’m not sure I even got them all.

A much better day

Things were much calmer today. I was surprised and it was much appreciated. I had awakened about 30 minutes late, but everything was still ok. Even though I woke up late, I was still able to catch the trains that I needed to, to be able to catch up with the lost time. I even arrived to work pretty early, which isn’t bad since I was able to get more sleep.

The first period 11th grade class was just ok. It could have been better, but I’m still working out the details. I think that I had more of a rhythm today than I’ve had all semester. At first the students were lost on what they had to do in class, but I was only reviewing something that they did last year. The problem was that they didn’t remember the lesson from last year, so I had to review it starting all over again. But it was only the help to lead up to the lesson, which I think worked quite well. I think that after the second time taking a stab at explaining it, it really clicked to the students. I mean some students were finished about 2 minutes after I had finished explaining it. I budgeted for them to spend about 20 minutes, so that obviously wasn’t a good sign. So I had to add more things for their test to make it a bit longer and so they would have something to do for the remainder of the class. I think that my plan to get them to write down something in their own words is really starting to pay off. Not only will I have a variety of speeches to hear for the final, but it will sound more natural since they wrote all the sentences themselves without using any script. That’s the idea at least and I’m expecting it to work. So today’s lesson was on how to get to their favorite location, and we used an example from the book they had from last year. It worked out perfectly for me too.

Then it was an 8th grade class. Things in this class were normal. Nothing too unusual happened today. Everything happened like it normally would have. We covered the lesson on asking questions and they were able to do it. They were a bit loud in the back of the room, but that’s usual; especially since it wasn’t that bad like other classes that I’ve had this week. We did change the last bit of the class to add a little game so the students would have to ask each other how tall they were. But that didn’t work out as well as we thought it would.

The third period class was a test for the 10th graders. They did incredibly well, much better than I thought they would have done. The first girl just got up there and just did a great job. It really shocked the teachers because we didn’t know the level of the students and since some of them aren’t interested and sleep during class usually, they were phenomenal. Not because they weren’t sleeping, but because they were actually pretty good. They had very good fluency and sounded native almost. They were just memorizing from the script though and the topic was self-introduction so it wasn’t too hard. But it is in a foreign language so don’t think it’s too easy. I was surprised that some of the higher level students or the students that actually participate in class weren’t prepared for the test. They only received low scores because they didn’t prepare and it showed clearly. But for the most part, it went very well.

Fifth period was a bit weird. The students were a bit out of it and in their strange world. But then again, so was I. It was starting to warm up a bit and since these students are one of the highest level classes, I think they thought the topic was too easy for them. We were doing talking on the telephone again since we only started it last week with the 9th graders. The class seemed to be moving very fast and we were jumping around the book a lot too. We skipped over the parts that we felt weren’t going to apply and were too obscure to cover.

I think that my strangeness lasted into the sixth period with another 9th grade class. I just drew a blank right when I was teaching the class and didn’t know what I was doing or what was next. It was really weird. It might have been that it was getting warmer or because we were jumping around the book so much that I didn’t really remember what we did. I kept on skipping things and having to go back and cover them later. I did my best to cover everything, but I really just don’t enjoy teaching from a textbook. I don’t think that it’s very flexible for the class and they tend to lose interest. I mean if we broke it down into different sections and handed it out when they needed it, it would help them much more to get the information that they needed to achieve. But that’s another topic. This class was a bit dead today, which I’m not sure the reason why. I had to call on them to participate or they probably would have sat there and done nothing the whole time. Midterms are next week and everyone seems to be weird because of that. I think that might be the answer that I’m looking for. Exams are the blame, but then again, I don’t believe that all the students are studying all that they could be. Anyways, we had a lot of time left for them to make presentations so I called them by numbers and they each had to present.

After school, I was just reading a bit of a book that one of the teachers gave me to read about something, but it’s really an all encompassing book about Japan. It’s really good and well worth spending an hour reading even though I could have left work at this time. I still was able to leave school rather early. I think I walked out the door somewhere in the neighbor hood of 5pm.

I decided that I would go have dinner in a place I haven’t been to before. So I stopped at Shin-Sugita station on the Keihin-Tohoku line or actually the Negishi line. I walked around the station for a little bit looking at all the displays of the foods that all the restaurants sell. I was really interesting in one store that seemed to offer a good amount of food for a reasonable price. I had some noodles and it was absolutely fantastic. I’m sure that I will go back there more because I believe that perhaps other foods there will be tasty as well.

Then I came home and started working on my website and other things like updating my xanga. By this time, I should be all caught up and everything released and online. I’ve left a blog on My Space on MSN that I will release my website address on June 1st Japan Standard Time. I’ve been working a bit too hard on it and want to make it worth it. But I think, at the very least, I should let people get a look at it and give me some feed back on what they like and what they didn’t. It’s only version 1, so there will be many more updates to come. I’m already working on the updates as I’m getting ready for the release.

Losing control

Today, things seem to be blown out of proportion. I’m not sure what’s really going on anymore. The first class that I had today went pretty smooth, but there were some abnormalities. The 8th grade class was loud, but they were speaking English. The problem in that class wasn’t actually the students, but with the Japanese English Teacher that is there to assist us. That’s weird; she was having a conversation with a student in the middle of class as we were trying to get the rest of the student’s attention. The lesson was something quite easy and something that the students could easily understand and be able to use, but it was strange that the teacher would be the one speaking in Japanese and not encouraging the students to speak English in oral communication class. The lesson for the day was just on asking questions and them being able to form questions of their own to ask… well me. I was the example that followed pretty closely from the book. They asked the usual questions like, how old am I, how tall am I, where do I live, how many siblings I have, do I have a girlfriend, you know those kinds of things.

Then in the next class, things were getting weirder too. It wasn’t the usual suspects that were being bad today. It was new students that were being loud and inattentive and disruptive of the class. It was girls in the front of the class too, right in the front row where I was standing. So I made the loud and noisy students stand up and give a presentation, well actually just read the dialogue using their real answers and not the ones in the book. For most of the class, we didn’t have any Japanese English teacher support either because she was giving one of the students a lecture about something. That was part of the reason why the class was quieter today. I was stalling a little bit because I needed her to translate something for the students and she wasn’t even there. So we got through the lesson better than the previous weeks, and I didn’t hear any students complaining that they didn’t understand. I actually believe that they were able to understand and just being a little lazy. But today, they weren’t very responsive, so that’s a bit discouraging for me. I don’t like teaching out of a textbook, but that’s what my superior has me doing, so I’m just going along with it. I’m sure it’s boring as hell for the students, since it’s boring for me to teach it too. I feel my style is getting cramped by being standard. I do not really like where that’s going either.

The 7th grade class was much better even though they were a bit antsy. It was still good and they were productive. That’s what’s really good. I think they are making good progress for the recitation contest. They are a bit softer on their voices and expression than the other classes, but at least they are doing it. They need more pep before the performances, or they won’t stand a chance against the other classes for a prize. They are still doing well never the less.

The last class of the day was the 11th grade. This is a class that has always been tough because they are just unruly. Today was probably the worse that they have been this school year. They really didn’t care what was going on and didn’t even have any idea what we were talking about. They were surprised that I mentioned that there was a test coming up even though I mentioned it a lot last week. I’m not sure where they were or what they were doing, but they aren’t paying much attention. But it’s not just in my class; it’s in all their classes too. So, we’ve concluded that we’re losing a lot of control and interest in the students. I’m not sure whether it’s because of the hot, humid weather, or because it’s a week before mid-terms and they are just going a bit crazy to get prepared to take those exams next week. For me though, it’s the weather. I haven’t felt 100% lately and very tired and sleepy during classes. I didn’t really go over much today, I just gave up and just let them work on writing down the information that they would need for their presentation. The teachers just walked around the class and just helped out the students individually.

After class, I hung around school even though I didn’t have to. I was talking to a few teachers about different things. I heard that there will be an advanced screening of Star Wars Episode 3 in Yokohama about 2 weeks before the official release date. Yes its 2 months after the release everywhere else in the world, but its Star Wars tradition to release the movie in July in Japan since that’s the beginning of summer here. I was also reading a book about Japanese history and customs and culture. It was interesting. I was reading quite a bit about it and didn’t end up leaving till around 5pm. I had dinner at the place near Hongodai station, which is always good, but there was an insect in my water, so I didn’t touch that. They always give free coffee anyways, so I just drank that instead.

There was a song at the place I was at on Saturday night that was really popular that they played it at least 7 times. It’s called dragostea din tei by Ozone. It’s a French song I believe, but there are some Japanese sounding words in the song, so the Japanese love to play it in clubs and stuff. I think the Japanese people know is as Maiyahi. The chorus goes noma, noma, yay! Which means Drink, Drink, YAY! Interesting isn’t it?

Here’s another website that I found that has some good stuff on it if you’re interested. Read up on it. http://tumanov.com/entry/297

Check out this little flash website, and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/maiyahi.php

Here are the lyrics in Japanese, well for those of you who have Japanese on your computers or the IME.

??? ?????????? ?????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????? ??????? ?????????? ?????????????? ????? ????????? ?????????? ????? (??????????) ??????? ?????? ???? ??????????????? ?????????????????? ?????????????DAY ???????DE??????? ??????????????? ?????????????????? ?????????????DAY ???????DE???????

Here are the lyrics in English, well translated.
?--------------- ?My Yeah He! ?My Yahoo! My Ahooo! ?My Yeah Ha! Ha! ?---- * 4 ------ ?Crazy Day! ?It's Bomber, Bomber, Yeah? ?Bomber, Bomber, Yeah! ?Bomber, Bomber, Bomber, Yeah! ?Keep Dancing! Love Study Days! ?Now, Best Match Babies! ?Hate Day! ?It's Bomber, Bomber, Yeah? ?Bomber, Bomber, Yeah! ?Bomber, Bomber, Bomber, Yeah! ?Keep Dancing! Love Study Days! ?Now, Best Match Babies!

A weird day

Today started off weird and things didn’t change from there. I mean I woke up earlier than my alarm, but that was at 8am. I was still tired as hell and sleepy, but I figured that if I went back to sleep I wouldn’t wake up again until it was too late. So I just stayed awake. I went on the computer to check up on the news and was reading that so much that I left a little late even. But I still left my house with enough time to get to work on time.

I arrived at 11:30am, which is the usual time I arrive on Mondays. Since I only have two classes today and it’s a week before midterms. All the teachers are busy and none of the students are allowed in the teacher’s office. It was really humid today too so I didn’t feel too good because of that. I mean it’s not that hot really, the temperature is only around 63 degrees Fahrenheit, but the humidity is horrible it makes it feel like it’s around 95 degrees. Plus wearing a suit really doesn’t make it much better either. No one in Japan wears shorts either, which is something that I noticed last summer, even though it was scorching hot. Crazy, I mean crazy.

Since I only had two classes, I wasn’t too worried about being overloaded with work. I’m actually pretty ahead of the curve with the work so I’m not as busy as all the other teachers. I just sat for 20 minutes waiting for class to start, while I was in the office in the morning. There was a lot going on in there, but it’s so weird because I don’t have much going on.

My first class today was with the 9th graders. This class went weird, and I mean weird. It had started just as usual and the lesson was going ok. I mean it wasn’t perfect and I wasn’t leading the class so I didn’t understand what was really going on. But around 12:25pm, CP called it quits in the middle of class. She said that the class wasn’t making an effort to learn English and that they were being loud and inattentive so she stopped it in the middle of class and just left. Teachers have the power to just leave the class and the class leaders have to come and apologize for the class’s behavior and ask the teacher to return. This was a first for me to actually see at the school. I didn’t think that they were being all that bad and I’ve seen other classes behave much worse. I think that they just didn’t understand what was going on. But I could understand what she was seeing with some of the students. I think that the method that she used was a bit drastic, but probably was necessary. There is a student that’s a real big bully and she was bullying other girls in the class, so much that they don’t come anymore. So it’s becoming a big problem, something that I was just filled in on just today. I haven’t really noticed it before, but it’s not just our class it’s in all the other teachers’ classes too.

In our second and our last class of the day, we just went over the passages for the recitation contest. We started it off differently, but things ended up being the same. It’s getting pretty close to the real date that they will have to perform. They are pretty good to begin with since I believe that they are the highest level English class. They might be the highest. They are really trying hard, so I’m happy about that. I could understand that it might get a bit boring for them.

After class was finished, I went back into the office and started working on a form for the 11th graders. I didn’t have my laptop with me or didn’t have access to a laptop at work since everyone else is working on their midterms. But I didn’t mind since I was going to leave early today. I just didn’t feel like staying at school so long today. During my free period, I talked to the accountant at the school and learned that I owe taxes for my income in Japan. That’s so weird since I didn’t even make that much money last year. I only started working in October of 2004. But I guess that in 3 months of work, I made enough that I have to pay taxes. And I figured that the school wouldn’t pick up the insurance so that will have to come out of my income now too. So I wasn’t really happy about that, but then I am too. I’m on traveler’s insurance but that will expire soon since I think I will leave the country again soon. It only expires when I leave the country, but then I would fall under the government’s insurance policy for medical and health insurance plans.

Since I wasn’t having a great day at work, I decided to leave a bit early. I left at 4:30pm which is really really early. But since I stay at work so late usually that I thought I should be leaving earlier now. I have nothing to do and I asked other teachers if they had anything for me to do for them, which they did and I finished that early before I left. SO I really was able to finish everything then I left for home.

I didn’t end up getting home till around 7pm though. I went shopping for food and then just chilled out a bit before working on the papers for the 11th graders. I was actually watching a lot of TV today. I think Monday’s are the best day to watch TV. That’s the day that has most of the good shows. I’m working on this right now watching SMAP X SMAP. I really like that show, it’s great and they are really interesting. I lost my internet connection watching the show, but that’s ok. I was still able to type this entry. I was planning to work on a lot of things today, but I don’t think that I will have the time to get it all finished. So I’ll see how things come up during the week.

YOKE and the Kingdom of Heaven

So I wasn’t able to get up that early and get ready fast enough to get to the meeting on time. I think that I’ve lost interest in the organization. I know that’s really bad to say, especially in public, but I want to be honest with you and with myself. There’s just something about it that doesn’t appeal to me anymore and that is part of the reason why I was getting ready so slowly. The other part of course was that I was tired as hell.

The YOKE meeting wasn’t too bad, since I only was there for an hour. They didn’t talk about anything that I found too interesting or productive at that matter. Perhaps this might be one of those rare moments when I’m not being as optimistic as usual. I don’t know why I’m losing interest in the program. I’m not really focused on what good things could come from it and I’m just allowing things to just run their course. I know that I could be able to influence to be a powerhouse organization and they just seem stuck in some rut. They need to be able to take care of it on their own, but are having difficulty with naming the organization. I’m not sure they know what is really going on too.

After the meeting, the guys went to get some tea at the usual place near Sakuragicho subway station.

Then we all broke off and Me and EK went to go watch a movie. We saw the Kingdome of Heaven. It’s actually a great movie. I really enjoyed it and I thought it was worth the 1,800 yen that it cost me to go see it. I haven’t seen a movie in a long while so I was happy to get to see a movie, even though we sat in the first row and in the corner. I wasn’t able to get the full effect that movie theaters allow, but the story was enough to keep me interested. It’s a bit of a long movie, but you really can’t tell. There were a couple of good things that really stick with me. I don’t know the words verbatim, but here’s just the jist of it. What’s the purpose of man than to make the world a better place? The kingdom of heaven is the peace between all men on the Earth of all religions and to live in harmony. It takes a noble man to make the decisions that will affect the outcome of his destiny. When you are being judged you can’t hide behind the fact that you were ordered to commit a sin, it’s between you and God and it’s your decision.

I was able to find the quote online and here is a section of the place I found it from. "It seems I've lost my religion," he tells a companion, a member of an order of fighting monks called the Hospitallers who serves as his spiritual guide. "I put no stock in religion," the Hospitaller replies. "In the word 'religion' I've seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination before the will of God." Holiness, he explains, is to be found "in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves." From the quotes was taken from the movie and by Orlando Bloom’s character Balian and the person who wrote this article is Hollywood on Crusade
With His Historical Epic, Ridley Scott Hurtles Into Vexing, Volatile Territory
By Bob Thompson Washington Post May 1, 2005
(Excerpt)

Afterwards we went to get some dinner. We went to a Chinese restaurant at the Cross Gate center near Sakuragicho station. It was ok, and a bit on the expensive side, so then we finished dinner at Bamiyan. I really love that place, but today I didn’t really feel like eating there. I had sweet and sour pork with Fried Rice.

EK and I engaged in a lengthy conversation about many things. I was still stuck on a topic that has been bothering me for a bit of time. So I was looking at it in many angles to see if I could see something I didn’t see before and how I could approach it. I want to make a good decision so I need to be able to see both sides and I’m not allowing any feelings to get in the way, otherwise I would have already chosen. So I’m waiting it out for a bit to let my brain do it’s magic and work something out for me. I also gave a little lecture to EK about his gf situation. He’s got to be a man and do something about it, but he’s being a dick and not doing anything at all. It’s making matters worse and it’s becoming something I don’t want it to be. Its been a nuisance for me for quite a bit of time, and I’m beginning to lose my short patience. As we were leaving, I even gave a warning that things and people could disappear if the situation doesn’t improve. I would take myself out of the picture and leave the problem for him to face alone.

Annie's Birthday, and CP's birthday party and another one

I’ll be all partied out today. There is much going on that I’m not sure I’ll have the energy for. But we’ll see.

I had to get up hella early today, once again getting up at 5am. But today would be a little different because I probably won’t be able to get any sleep until tomorrow. So I needed all the energy I could get my hands on. And I didn’t get my hands on too much either.

I had two classes with one student today. During the first period, we finished up the reading session. It was a difficult lesson for her, as I’m sure it would be with anyone. I was teaching her TOEFL skills, but that’s years away for her. She’s only in the 9th grade and learning higher skills than she’s really ready for too. I think that I only have a year left to teach her and I’d like to be able to give her something that will last much longer than I will. I’m working on building the brain muscles she needs to figure these tricks out and how to use them to improve her English. I think that it’s only one area of her life that she’s been working on. Her English ability is almost as good as her Japanese skill, which is a bad thing. Some of the teachers can’t really communicate with her in Japanese at a higher level because she wouldn’t understand. Everyone believes that she thinks in English and that’s why they have me teaching her one on one. The highest ability teachers teach a special class, just for her to give her the special attention that she needs. So we were working on the reading passage that we started last week. She understood with my help and we were working on answering the question and trying to figure out how the questions and passage get the reader to understand the topic. I showed her tricks to understand the passage without really understanding it. I know that doesn’t sound so good, but I’m getting her to work on her skills of learning rather than learning. I believe that the learning part will come later when she builds a larger vocabulary for herself.

During the second class, I worked on building rapport with her and tied that back into the lesson about writing. She’s really being resistant against writing, but I’m going to try to sell it the best I can. We’ll see how things work out. We worked out a deal that she would write something next week and not this week, so most of this period we just spent talking about various things. She didn’t feel like doing the activity that I designed for her, but I think that I needed to give her a heart to heart talk. So I shared more about myself and my history so that she would understand where I’m coming from and how I’m going about to approach her learning. I think she will trust me more and give me more chances to talk and communicate with her. I want her to be able to learn unconsciously in English so that the learning will become easier. I believe that’s what I’m doing and it’s working. I was able to get her interest on the topics that we talked about today and I think that it will continue. She was asking very good questions about what’s going on in the world, something that she doesn’t really pay too much attention to.

After that, I actually left school pretty early. I left a little after noon. Then I took a train to go back home so I could change and get things ready for the parties tonight. I tried to take some naps on the different trains, but it wasn’t really that successful since it was very hot and very humid. When I got home, I had a little bit of lunch and then got changed to go to CP’s birthday party.

I didn’t really know what to expect, and I was amazed at the place. It’s a nice place in Roppongi, with an incredible view; from both the apartment and the rooftop. You’re able to get a 360 degree look at Tokyo and you’re right in the center of it all. I met some new and interesting people. I talked to some people that I’ve met before, but haven’t talked to. We had Greek food at the event and CP was cooking, even though it was her birthday. The food was excellent though. They also had baklava there, and I LOVE BAKLAVA!! It’s some delicious stuff. I really enjoy talking with my co-workers there. It’s really strange, but I really feel close to them, they are some of the best friends that I’ve made in Japan. I think that they have a good relationship with each other and allowed me in on the circle. I feel special because of that. It’s weird when you can joke around with your boss and it would be ok. It was really fun and I enjoyed it. I also realized something about people that I don’t really miss about America. Westerners talk about the weirdest things and it’s strange that I can’t follow the conversation. It’s almost like I don’t even understand their English. They do have a heavy accent, but it’s more than that. It’s something that is really strange about the topics they talk about that I don’t even understand. I’m not sure if it’s a generation gap or something, but I just can’t follow it. It was interesting and I did enjoy it. I think there will be another party in August and I’m damn sure that I will go since it was interesting. Most of the people that were there have been in Japan longer than I’ve been alive, well pretty close to it. I mean they came and they will never leave. There’s something strange about that. When people come here, they never want to leave, but I’m quite the opposite. I feel as if I’ve seen everything and done everything there is to offer and I couldn’t imagine staying longer than the 2 years that I planned. I can’t even believe that I will stay longer than one year. I’ve had just about enough, but I will work on a few more things that I wanted to do when I was in Japan. There are still many things to do and many people to meet. I have much to learn and experience here so I’m not tired of it, but I just need to find them.

After the party, I was supposed to go to Shinjuku to meet up with other friends, but since I would have left Roppongi really late, it would have been better if it just stayed at Roppongi and just wait for them. So while I was waiting I walked around Roppongi Hills and stopped at a book store and read The Little Prince. I was about half way finished when I got the call from MTka. So I went to find out where they were.

What we did after that was something that was a first for me. I haven’t been inside a pub before. But this pub was one where you can dance, smoke, and drink, some of the things I don’t like very much. But you know, I’ve got to try it out and then I can judge if I like it or not. I think today it hit me again how conservative and sheltered I am. I’m glad that I’m bursting out of my bubble and experiencing the world. I’m looking at this as a big step forward to growing into a person that at least has had experience. At first I wasn’t into it, but after awhile, a long while, I started to get into it. I was more or less protecting the girls in the group from being picked up on by creepy guys. It was only Mtka, her bf – Tsunagi, and their friends Ayu, Man-chan, Kaori, and Daisuke. They seemed to enjoy themselves a lot. The place really wasn’t a pub, but more of a place to pick up members of the opposite sex. I could kinda tell when I was there because some of the people were… well they were just a bit strange and probably couldn’t get close to the member of the opposite sex unless they were crammed in a rush hour train in Tokyo. But this place was a little cramped so the circumstances were similar.

We didn’t leave Roppongi station till around 5:30am, so I was really starting to get tired. Then I didn’t get home till around 7:30ish, and started typing this around 8pm after a nice long shower to get out the smoke smell. It’s been one long day, but a day that I won’t soon forget. I learned a lot about relationships today about how they get started, about how they end, and what happens in between the start and the chase. It was interesting because the purpose of the second party was to introduce me to some new friends that could possibly lead to a relationship and at the first party; the host was trying to hook me up with some of his friends. It was interesting to see it happen with me and for other guys to talk to Japanese girls and trying to get their interest.

CP's birthday

I thought that I would have been able to get a good amount of sleep, but it turned out that I had spent too much time updating my journal and talking to a friend that I didn’t get enough sleep. So I was tired as hell as I was going to work today. I slept on the train and lucky for me I was able to secure a seat in the morning. Well at least on the first train and then when I transferred I felt like I still had enough power to last me throughout the day.

I arrived at school later than I have been lately, but still early. So I would classify it as the perfect time to arrive at school. I didn’t really have much of a plan going into my first class. I figured that I would just wing it on a few notes and see where that went. I think that I do better when I’m just paying attention to where the class wants to go, rather than my notes. I think that I’ve been focusing too much on the notes lately that I haven’t been a very effective teacher, at least one that would be able to keep the attention of the students. I was a bit worried since I really don’t know what I want to go on and what topics I wanted to cover, but I think things worked out well. I think the students were pretty interested in what was going on. I introduced more topics that the students would have to cover on their test. Last year they had a lot of scripts to go on, but I want them to think on their own and to make up their own sentences. I wouldn’t want to get bored listening to their speeches because all of them used the same structure. I want them to get out there and try something different. I’m not sure if they are used to thinking on their own in English, so I’m just going to test the waters a little bit. I had them sing Happy Birthday to CP.

The second period 11th grade class was much like the first period class. I just went in going on what I just did in the last class. I think it worked fine, but these girls are at a lower level so they needed more time and more examples. But I think that for some of them it was still too easy, which I also think its way to easy for them. They should be able to pass with flying colors. They just need to put a little effort into it, which might be something really hard for them to do. I’m not sure, but we’ll see how things turn out. I also had them sing Happy Birthday to CP

Third period was a nice little break for me. I had used up a lot of energy with the first two classes and was kinda running on low fuel since I hadn’t eaten breakfast either. I was getting tired faster. We only did the passages for the recitation contest today. We didn’t do any fun games, but getting the students to practice pronunciation and expressions. CP likes to focus and emphasize her efforts on the stress in English so that they sound more natural and more like a native speaker. My main goal is just to get them to understand English and be able to use it. I think that CP might be aiming too high for them since I think that if they don’t understand their pronunciation would be useless. But that’s just my perspective on that.

Fourth period was a bit rough since they are the unruly 9th graders. They were incredibly loud today, and I was beginning to space out here. I mean the topic itself was already boring since I’ve seen and done it a few times already, but the class was just bad and that didn’t go well with me. I felt like screaming shut up in the middle of class because they were getting on my nerves, but then again, I think that was their point. They really didn’t care what was going on, but I think that they understood what was going on. They are at that stage in life where they are just annoying and doing it on purpose. There are some students in the class that are known school-wide for being trouble-makers, which doesn’t make me feel better that I have to be in same classroom as them. I’m glad that I’m not leading this class and that CP has more experience with them and this kind of situation. I think that it’s a challenge that I’d take on at a later date and time when I have more experience to handle it and when I have the patience for it too.

Fifth period was great today. I was really happy that I decided to teach this class. I enjoy teaching this class a lot. I know a lot of the students’ names and I’m able to talk to them at a higher level. They really like to participate a lot, which brings me great relief and I’m happy with the results. I think that everyone in the class is enjoying it even though next week there is a test where they have a presentation of themselves. My partner, Mrs. Ho.da had them sing happy birthday to CP.

Sixth period was tough to get through. I was beginning to get really really tired. I was about to collapse because my legs were about to give in. I was standing for a really long time and really didn’t like it. I think that it was perfect timing when the class finished because I went back to the office and just sat down to get a rest. I mean having 6 classes in one day is tough. Before I could handle it, but the weather is getting freaky bad. I was really tired because it started to get hot and the worst part was that it was humid too. The humidity is starting to kick in and everyone is feeling the heat. And since we were only doing the reading of the passages for the recitation contest it was boring as hell. So the day didn’t end that great. But it was the end of classes for today and tomorrow I get to be in complete control of the class without any worries. I think that I’m looking forward to that.

I left school early again around 5:30pm because I needed to go buy CP a birthday gift for her birthday party tomorrow. I think I decided to get her some Chocolates from Godiva. She’s been talking about chocolates a lot recently, so I thought that it would be a good gift for her. Otherwise I think a book would have been nice too, but I went with an easier one since I don’t have the time or energy to go into too much thought about it. I grabbed dinner at Yoshinoya when I went to the Godiva store on Motomachi street. It was nice to get home earlier, but still I think I’ve been falling behind on things because it’s already 10pm, and I wanted to sleep at 9pm. I won’t be going to sleep tomorrow because I’m going to be at an all-nighter birthday party tomorrow night for someone I don’t even know. But it should be fun, I hope.

Talking to some old friends

I’m glad that I was able to sleep in today. But even as I woke up, I was still feeling very tired and noticed that it was a bit hot today too and a bit windy. That was from yesterday and has carried over until today. I mean it’s so windy that my house shakes. Kinda freaky, it’s like my house might get swept away like Dorothy’s house in the Wizard of Oz. Well actually it’s not that windy, but enough to make it shake.

Even though I got to sleep in and I took about 5 naps in the morning about maybe 30 minutes each, I was still a bit tired all day. But I think it’s really the weather, it was a bit warm today and the air pressure was weird. So I felt a bit dizzy at times today too. But not as bad as it was when I was teaching a class and repeated myself a few times, without realizing it.

I decided that it would be in my best interest to do some laundry today. I wouldn’t want there to be a problem with not having enough clean clothes for the upcoming week. I was planning on cooking something today, but realized that I don’t have any food to cook, so I just went out and bought some thing to bring back and eat. I didn’t feel like cooking today after all. I went over to my host family’s house because I got a piece of mail that looked different from all my bills, it was something about taxes. I’m not sure how to handle that so I’m going to bring it to school tomorrow to see what the accountant can do about that.

I hadn’t done anything today. I really didn’t do much besides talk to my friends on MSN messenger. I didn’t get a chance to talk to too many people, but at least I was able to talk to a few people. I talked to QA today, which is the first time in a long time. She’s in SD for this week and visiting family and friends and she’s got a whole tour of LA and SF too. I mean that’s amazing and it’s cool to go to so many places. We were talking about many things and I’m glad that I was able to talk to her about those things. It was really important for me to be there for her because she’s such a great friend.

Another thing that I noticed today was that I think a lot of my friends are trying to help me out to find a girlfriend. I find that a bit odd. I had expressed some interest in starting a new relationship and I had mentioned that I just don’t have the time to go out there and just meet people, so my friends asked if I would want to meet some of their friends. It’s weird how that works out, but I think it would be a nice change of pace just to meet new people. Not that there’s anything wrong with the people that I already know. But this Saturday is beginning to look like an incredibly busy day for me.

A wonderful Wednesday

Today started off pretty good, which I felt set the tone for the whole day. I woke up a little bit late, but it wasn’t anything that I would have worried about since I normally give myself time to sleep in a little even though I’m getting up at 5am. As you could probably tell, I do not like that. But everything was going smoothly, which shocked me because things lately haven’t been so smooth. I got a good train, which lead me to a fast train to get to work today. I ran into a couple of teachers walking to school, which was neat. I was able to carry a conversation with them too, which was a shock to me. I even had time in the morning, while everyone was at the morning assembly to eat breakfast.

My first class went much better than I expected it to. I really hadn’t prepared too much and just played it by ear to see what I could do. I dragged out the lesson a little bit, but it was ok since I was just giving the students more information that they might not need. They are preparing for an oral speech test next month that yours truly planned for them. It’s not difficult by any stretch of the imagination since they are the highest level English class and the topic is incredibly easy.

Second period was good too, but I didn’t do too much. I was more or less staring out into space. But the class has behaved themselves lately. I think that there is something going on with the weather that is really affecting everyone. They were good, but seemed a bit tired, so I’m putting it on the weather. The topic of the day was basically pretty easy and just getting them to be caught up with the other classes. I think it’s really difficult for the teachers to be teaching the same thing 4 times, which gets to be a bit of a drag sometimes, but at least you could improve from class to class. This was the third 8th grade class in the rotation since the school year started in the middle of the week. So there’s only one more left before we start something new.

I had the same effect in the third period class today too, being tired and spacing out. But it was much better because there was more interaction for me with the students. I was supposed to only help, but the assignment today was to get them ready for their Speech test next week. So they were writing down their speeches and I was helping them with their grammar and topics. They seem to understand it pretty well and are able to take care of it. It didn’t take too much time at all. I think the 10th graders only spend about 10 or 15 minutes to complete it. So I’ll have to think about how I want to run the class on Friday when I teach the 10th graders, and I think that Friday’s class is at a higher level. So maybe I wouldn’t have to give them too much time, but I think again that I might make the test a bit harder to stretch their ability.

Today, I had a nice long break in the middle of the day, which is a really nice thing to have. I was able to enjoy lunch and just relax without any worries. Since I didn’t have a 4th period, I was able to eat earlier and I usually use this time to catch up on other things, but I was all caught up so I didn’t have much to do.

Fifth period was a bit tough. This was the first 9th grade class today. The students seemed to be very tired and antsy about something and were a bit difficult to teach. I’m not sure what it was. It wasn’t really distracting or anything, but something that I would have preferred not to deal with while teaching. I wasn’t leading the class so I didn’t have too much control over that. I was taking notes because I had to teach the next 9th grade class, which would be next period.

Sixth period was great. They’ve been better before, but they have improved a lot since last year, noise level wise. They are really eager to learn English and have a higher comprehension rate because of it. They were a bit sloppy and tired today, but still on the money with answers and comprehension. We went kind of slow through the materials since we will pick it up next week too. But we finished earlier than the other class. I was able to get every student to speak English today, which is something that I have always wanted to do since the beginning of my term here. So I’m happy to get that going for these students. I think they will benefit greatly because of it.

After school, I felt like something hit me and was a bit tired and groggy. So I decided that after a bit more work, I would go home early today too. I ended up leaving around 5:30pm with one of the newer teachers. She doesn’t really like to stay at school that late and usually leaves way before I do. But I’ve been thinking about it lately and that I don’t think it would be worth spending too much time doing nothing at work and instead I could just waste my time at home. There are still things that need to be taken care of after school, but I didn’t want to stay for it. I think the other teachers have seen that I’ve been working hard and encourage me to leave and NOT stay to help finish their work. I think that’s very interesting.

I went to eat at Bamiyan today. But it wasn’t that good today. I had ordered Mabo Tofu, which is usually very good, but today I guess there was just too much for me. I didn’t get enough rice to balance it out. And there was a lot of people there today, so I had a really place to sit too. I didn’t mind it since I wouldn’t be there long, but I would have preferred another place. It wasn’t the best experience, but that’s what I get for going during dinner time and everyone was meeting someone else. But it was ok; I wanted to try something new. I think next week I want to go eat some ramen at a really nice ramen restaurant, but I believe that I will feel sick afterwards since that’s what happened last time. I think that it’s something about the ramen that makes me sick, but it’s damn delicious.

When I got home, I just showered and finished up my day. I didn’t do the work I had wanted to do, but that’s ok. I’ll get to it tomorrow. I wanted to get my xanga all caught up and start working on adding additional pages to my website. I think that is something that is long overdue and should be finished soon. I’ve been putting that off for many years and I think it’s about time that I finally get something presentable up on the internet and something that will be able to connect everything together that I know that is necessary.

A lightheaded Tuesday

Today was an interesting day. The weather seemed to have everyone at its mercy. I mean it’s not half as bad as it will be this summer when temperatures will reach up to 45 degrees Celsius, which is probably around 105 degrees Fahrenheit. The humidity alone will kill me and then mix that in with the heat and it won’t be pleasant. But anyways, back to today. This morning seemed like a regular day because I woke up earlier than my alarm again. But I didn’t mind, since I was able to get ready and leave the house earlier than usual. But as luck would have it, I just missed the express train to get to work, which means I had to take the long ass Local train to get to work. I ended up arriving 10 minutes before class started. It still isn’t bad, but I just hate to stand in a packed train for a very long time. I ran into another teacher while I was on the train. I haven’t talked to her since she’s a new teacher and she’s a part-time teacher so we are in different offices. I really don’t even know what she teaches, but it was nice to talk to her a little bit. She was speaking to me in English, which was pretty impressive. It wasn’t perfect, but much better than I would have thought it would be.

I only had 4 classes today, which wasn’t so bad and since I felt pretty good at the beginning of the day, I didn’t think too much about it. I didn’t really have to prepare too much for class either since I don’t know what I’m teaching until the class before it. All I’m doing is basically copying CP, but adding my own little flare with it. She’s in charge for the grade level so I just have to do what she says. We were teaching two 8th grade classes, one 7th grade class and one 11th grade class.

The first class that we had with the 8th graders wasn’t too bad. They were a bit antsy, more than usual and they couldn’t focus that well. I was surprised since they usually aren’t that way. I was beginning to feel a bit weird in this class too like I wasn’t getting enough oxygen or something. But it wasn’t that bad and I didn’t notice it too much. We kinda just coasted through the class, even though we were really trying to get them to catch up with the other classes. We were supposed to be in Chapter 3, but we were only on Chapter 2.

The second 8th grade class today, was further behind. They just don’t understand English, so it was a bit of a challenge to get them to catch up 2 chapters since they didn’t understand anything in the first place. But I think that something happened today and they were able to understand and catch up. We didn’t end where we wanted to, but still we were able to catch up. They understood the material better than I thought they would have too.

The 7th grade class was when I was really starting to feel the affect of the weather. I was becoming very tired and sleepy. Even though I felt like I had enough sleep. I hadn’t eaten anything today, so I was thinking that might be the problem. We just went over the passages for the recitation contest that is coming up next month. I was bored out of my mind since I didn’t have much of anything to do and I wasn’t leading the class so the weather was really bad here.

During lunch I was talking with some teachers in the kitchen area of the office. It’s not really a kitchen, but it’s where teachers go to nuke their lunches and get their tea. It’s the water cooler area. But they were talking to me about gogetsubyou, which is a disease people often get in the month of May. It is basically as what we know as senioritis, but it affects new workers since they have just been hired in April and in May they get a bit tired of the surroundings and things become a bit too much for them. But when I was talking about it with one of the teachers, she mentioned it kinda loud when other teachers walked in and they assumed that I had it. I was denying it and blamed the other teacher for framing me like that. It was all in the timing of when she said it though, it was funny.

The 11th grade class today was really loud. I was practically screaming and still couldn’t hear myself. It was just one of those days. They decided that today, they wouldn’t listen, and the usual threats didn’t work either. So I just went along with the lesson, which at this time, I learned to present much better, but didn’t get the results I was expecting. I think for the most part, they understood the underlining message, there’s a test coming up. But they don’t know what to say or what to do to prepare to do well on it. That will come later and I’ve really get to get them going on doing well since my major test will come in September when I have to teach them to give an advanced level debate in front of my bosses on another school trip. That’s going to really be the test of what I can do, as well as the other English teachers. That’s going to be one hell of a test too!

After school, we did a little English club today. Since the Language Laboratory was being occupied by a bunch of 7th graders practicing for their recitation contest. So I had helped with that to get the ball rolling and to help out the other English teachers since there was long line. We finished in about 20 minutes with about 6 English teachers doing it. The club basically consisted of 4 girls and we listened to the Carpenters because there was supposed to be another song that was on the tape, but somehow it wasn’t there. Shortly after that I left school. I was planning to attend a rehearsal for an English performance, but my Department Chair told me to go home before I get dragged into doing more work. So I took her advice and left, it was really early too. There was still sunlight as I was leaving school. That hasn’t happened since, I don’t even remember.

It was nice since I got to my train station earlier the restaurant I wanted to eat at was still open. I had tanmen, whatever that is, but it’s delicious. It’s at a small little restaurant at Hongodai station. I’ve eaten there for a few times and really like the food there. Whenever I get a chance, or when I’m craving ramen I go there to eat it. The chefs are pretty good and the people are nice and friendly. I came home early and just chilled and checked up the usual, e-mail, news, and xanga. I still will sleep around the same time though, even though I have to get up early tomorrow for work.

Having two classes today is nice

I really didn’t feel like I had much to do today since I only had two classes and I was allowed to come to school much later than usual. I think that I really get a chance to relax a little bit more when I have this kind of time to do what I feel I need to do. I still woke up early today, but not because of the sun, more because I was trying to cut my hair last night, but the new clippers that I bought didn’t work. So I tried it again this morning. Once again, it didn’t work which really irritated me because I had just bought it and this was the first time I used it. But I think it might have the same problem as the old one that I have which is the voltage. I also need to keep them really oiled down so they won’t make such a loud noise. I had messed up, so I switched to the older clippers, which didn’t give me a problem at all. I thought that was really nice and really appreciated that I kept it even though I wasn’t planning on using it again.

I think that the day started off really early for me, so it was a relief that I had the time to do these things in the morning. I think that I was also quite lucky because I was able to sit down on the train going to work today. I mean there weren’t that many people using the trains and I was able to sit on both the trains I use to get to work. That’s really nice since I was carrying my laptop the whole way. It gets a bit heavy at times, so it’s nice to rest my shoulders and sit down.

The first class I had today was the 9th graders. They were a bit out of it today. I’m not sure if that was usual, but they just didn’t respond as well as I thought they would have. They aren’t the highest level, but I thought they would at least do something. I think for the most part they understood what was going on, but they were just out of it. I felt it was pretty tough to get through, but I wasn’t teaching the class, and just tried my best to get things moving along so that there wouldn’t be any problems.

The second class I had today was the 7th graders. They are a higher level class than all the other 7th graders. I think their ability is quite good for Japanese standards. They are able to distinguish between R and L. Those two sounds plague regular Japanese people with the English language. You might have heard the term Engrish, which is a play on the word English. We want to make the distinction early on so that we won’t have students saying that they want to eat lice for dinner. So I think this class was able to do that. They were enjoying themselves and I think this class moved a bit faster than the others too. We were able to finish in much shorter time than any of the other classes that I have taught with for the 7th grade.

After my classes, I was able to set up my laptop and punch up this entry. I think that with this remaining time, I will try to catch up on the other entries that I’ve seem to fallen behind on. I’m masking what I’m really doing by making a PowerPoint presentation for one of my students that I teach on Saturday. I think that I’ve made a pretty good impression on my co-workers because of the last one that I did, and how effective it was and the learning processes that I have created. I really impressed my Department Chair the other night too, when she was taking a look at it. So let’s see if I could keep it going.

After school today, I joined the English club since I haven’t seen them in a long time. I didn’t go at all last week and didn’t really understand how that happened. But this week we talked about Golden Week and then we did another activity with listening and comprehension. I think that their comprehension is getting much better. They still have some work with the grammar, but that isn’t really my job. We were listening to the Timesaver Raps book that CP bought when she went to the JALT conference last year. It was pretty good, but there are some glaring mistakes with the workbook from the songs on the CD. That gets to be a little distracting and nothing really could become accomplished when there are that many mistakes. Today we listened to The Best Friend Rap and the topic of the day was Best Friends. It was pretty interesting. There were some mistakes in the workbook that the teachers didn’t like, but there isn’t much we could do about that right now.

Sunday, a real day off

I’m happy to report I didn’t do anything today. I wanted a day where I really could just relax and not worry about anything. I stayed up late last night playing Sim City 3000 so I slept in this morning. It really felt good and I felt like I had enough rest.

I was able to watch a DVD that I had bought earlier today too. I watched X-Men 2. It isn’t that great of a movie, but it was really discounted and too good of a price to pass up. I liked the movie though and it was nice to see since I was just able to relax today. I was contemplating whether I should do some laundry today, but decided against it. Since I still have a lot of clean clothes and since I just did laundry a few days ago.

I finally made more attempts to leave the life of being single. I’m starting to make some contacts with people and getting myself out there to see what’s going on in the world. I feel that it would be best to move on with my life and since I have the resources ready, it would be a waste not to go for it. I was talking to a friend of mine who had introduced me to someone that I’m interested in. I think that I will try to take that avenue and see where that goes.

I made myself dinner tonight and got rid of all the junk that I don’t eat anymore. My refrigerator is officially empty. I had eaten a lot and really felt full afterwards. The food wasn’t the best, but I think it still wasn’t bad. I think there are some things I could improve next time too.

After dinner I was talking to EK for about 45 minutes. He called me and I figured that since I haven’t talked to him in awhile, I’d take up his minutes as a fee for calling me late. After that I tried to cut my hair since that’s what I wanted to do today. But that didn’t work out since the machine that I just bought has the same effect that my old one does too. It makes a really loud noise when I use it that makes it almost impossible to use, which really sucks because I just bought the stupid thing. It has a 5 year warranty, but I think that the problem is the voltage. But I use a power transformer to convert the voltage so it shouldn’t be a problem. I don’t understand why it’s still a problem, but I’m pissed off about it. Anyways, I will give it a try when I get up tomorrow since I don’t have work till 11:30am.

Only one class

The Saturday started off very early since I have to get up at 5am to get to school by around 8am. And when I got there, it turns out that I didn’t need to get up that early since my only student wasn’t going to be there for the first period. She had to watch a movie with the rest of the class because they will be doing a performance on the play Annie. It should be pretty good and I believe that my student will probably be the lead role Annie. That would be a pretty good guess since her English level is one of the highest in the school. Before the class, I was able to quiz a couple of teachers to see where their English level was and for them to play the game I was going to show MSta. I think they all found it interesting and it was quoted as “nattoku” which means that makes sense. I will introduce a method to improve on the student’s skill of comprehension with special reading techniques that I learned about in the United States.

I think the class went well. She was active and interested the whole time. I was really testing her English ability. I was speaking fast and she was able to keep up and she was able to do all the activities that I have designed for her. I think that she did incredibly well, but only gets tripped up on the vocabulary. Her speed in reading picked up really quick, but now I’ve got to work on her understanding of the materials and for her to be able to use what she knows. I think that the 70 minutes that I taught her wasn’t enough time. I thought that it would be, but it clearly wasn’t. We finished up the slideshow presentation and went over the things a few times. I think that next week we will go back and review a few things, just so she doesn’t forget what we talked about. I have to teach her how to take notes too. I had given her a paper, but she didn’t use it at all, but I think I want to get her how to listen and write at the same time. I think that in two weeks that would be a good lesson, how to take notes. We also covered a sample reading passage from the TOEFL test since I didn’t have any from the Eiken or Entrance Exam readily available. I was a tad bit unprepared, but I think that things still worked out and I think that she will improve with time and practice. We’ll see how things turn up in the coming weeks and the coming months.

After class I was really getting tired. I really didn’t get enough sleep last night and it would have been nice to know that there wouldn’t be a first period for me since I wouldn’t have had to be at school till around 9:30am. That would have been another 2.5 hours in sleep that I could have had.

Friday the 13th

What a way to spend today than to have 6 classes. I only had to lead three, but that’s still a lot. And because I have so many classes today, I had to get up at 5am to get ready to go to work. I took a faster train to get to work so I arrive really early. It’s not very usual, but at least it was nice to get to school so I could get my lessons ready.

My first class didn’t go as well as I planned, but still much better than Wednesday’s first period class. I’ve been having many problems teaching this grade level, but I do believe that I’m getting better at it. I do better in some classes than others. Not that the students are better or worse, but really it’s what I am doing in the class that I feel I’m not doing my best. My plans when I made them at the beginning of the semester lacked some details that would have been nice to have finished and thought-out so I wouldn’t be running into the problems that I am now. Actually they really aren’t problems, just things that I feel I could be doing better. And that’s only the first period.

Second period was much better. Even though their ability was much lower, they still are able to get involved. I think that’s because I have built a good relationship with each student. NOT THE PERSONAL KIND YOU ARE THINKING OF PERVERT!! But I have started to remember most of their first names and things that they are interested in. So I think that I’m really able to get their attention and be able to teach them English. Last year they were being yelled at to shut up and to obey, now that teacher no longer works at the school, and this year has been a complete turn around for them. I’m really happy that I’m teaching this class because it really allows me to see if I can really teach or not. I think I’m making progress, even though it’s slow, it’s still progress.

The next two classes were just like normal because I wasn’t leading them, there really wasn’t much I can say. I’m glad to be part of the class, but when I’m not leading, I’m really not able to do too much. I think I’ve really got to start to develop a way to be able to be more of an active participant in the class in the teaching area when I’m not leading.

I finished my last class that I was leading with a bang. At first they weren’t too interested and it seemed like something knocked the wind out of them. Before they were very energetic and into the lesson, but I guess it was only the topic. But today, I was able to get their attention because I was talking about what would have to go in their speech mid-term exam. That sounds like fun doesn’t it? Welcome back to school and don’t forget about that mid-term that’s coming up… haha damn I’m evil. They have the ability to do it, but I guess they just don’t want to. So I was able to bring some things and topics up that would help them incorporate what other classes have already done, since they are a few days behind the other classes. I think today was just a day to catch up and possibly even get ahead of other classes. I think I was successful in doing that too. I think the students started to enjoy the class too because by the time the class ended, they were more active and participating. But I made my first mistake today and called a student by the wrong name. The name of the girl was right, but I was just looking in the wrong direction. So I’ll have to fix that later.

I was so beat after all my classes. I mean I felt energized at the end of the day because my last class was good or at least they like to get into the lesson, which at the very least makes me feel good. This class is different from all the other classes because they really enjoy English. They have some of the highest ability speakers in the school and some of the most energetic too. I was very fortunate to pick a good class to teach English and it really helps to boost my confidence and my will to teach. I didn’t have club today after school, but I was getting ready for my class with MSta tomorrow. I think that the lesson will be very fun because it will something that I know she’s never been exposed to and I know that it will work. All the teachers that I’ve shown it too were really thrilled and surprised that I came up with something so revolutionary for teaching a lazy student. They were all confidant in my ability to teach her because they were really surprised by the results when they had taken my little test and it made perfect sense for them too. And it’s something really simple to do, so I’m really happy about that.

Going out in Yokohama

Today, I got to sleep in. That was really refreshing, but I hope that I get enough tonight too. I just did some laundry and reading news on my laptop. I wanted to work on my website today, but didn’t really find too much time to do that. I sent some e-mails to some of my friends that have sent me e-mails like weeks ago. I’m really bad at getting back to people like that. But I’ve got to work at that.

Then Tonight I will be going to Kannai to meet up a friend before she goes to Boston to study. I’m not really fond of her, but she’s not too bad of a person and actually I only started to not like her because of another person. But I decided to give her a chance this year and since she will be leaving soon, she won’t be able to stalk me anymore. So this will probably be the last time that I have any contact with her. So I’m a bit relieved. She can be a bit on the annoying side at times and isn’t the most intelligent person in the world, but I’m not discriminating, since I decided to still be her friend even though she makes me feel uncomfortable.

What was even worst than having to hang out with her, was that I was seen in public with her. I mean there was a person that I knew that saw us and was having dinner at the same restaurant. I never felt so ashamed in my life and especially when she made the comment if I was on a date. I was about to throw-up right there. And that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the evening. I was so embarrassed to be sitting next to her, with her annoying voice and her ugliness, smoking her nasty ass cigarettes, drinking her gross alcohol. I have decided that it would be best for me to never have contact with her again. I gave her a chance, but she blew it. I was pushed to the limit and then some and I might be an asshole, but I’d rather be an asshole than her friend. The whole night she was just bugging me about other people and other shit like that. It’s not my problem so why the hell do you have to bother me about it?? I’m not your father and I wouldn’t want to be and feel sorry for the guy for having to put up with your shit. She decided to get eye surgery to make herself look prettier, but I believe that it failed on many levels and it was to the point where I couldn’t look at her for the fear I might blow chunks. So the last straw was drawn and I’ll say it’s officially over. No more friendship, no more contact.

Regular Wednesday

I actually woke up early today, only to get to school later than usual. It was weird. I got an earlier train too, but it was a local train. I’ve never been packed in like that. It was so bad that I couldn’t breathe right anymore. It was really packed and it was really tough to get to school. I got to the station around 8:15am. It was weird but everything was going so slow and it was something unreal since I had done everything earlier than usual. The trains were late today and that in itself was weird, I don’t really know the reason why, but it was going slow.

My first period class didn’t go as well as I planned it to go. There’s something with these 11th grade students that gets me to teach horribly. I think that we punched out a lesson and they were able to learn something, but it wasn’t where I was planning to go. None of my objectives really came to life and I was more worried about them just speaking English than getting them ready for the test. They are a high level class so I think I will just try to get all of the test material for next week and have them concentrate more on that. Since I wasn’t able to get what I wanted to do done today.

The classes in the middle were about the same as usual. The 8th grade class was just reading up on Chapter 2 after their introduction speeches, and we just followed along the book. The 3rd period 10th grade class went well too. We had just introduced what their test will look like and gave them a paper to work with a partner on introducing each other. I think it’s too simple for them, but that’s what in the syllabus for them to learn. So we just go along with it. They seemed interested and weren’t so bored with the topic. They didn’t understand some of it because they didn’t know some of the celebrities on the sheets of paper since those celebrities were American sport stars.

I had a nice break in the middle of the day to relax and just gather myself before the next two 9th grade classes. The first 9th grade class was a bit loud, but that seems to be usual lately. They were able to complete the assignments and everything. They were on the ball and knew what was going on with the directions. My last class was great. The second 9th grade class was attentive and they really wanted to learn and understand what was going on. They really understood what I was talking about and they focused on a few things that I didn’t think that they would know about or even understand about the directions chapter.

I wanted to leave school early, but didn’t get a chance to because I got asked to do something right before I left to punch in my stamp card. I was planning to leave at 5:30pm, but that incident prevented me from leaving. I will need to be required to submit a proposal for what I plan to do in September on the Gotemba trip with the 11th graders. It kept me after school for another 2 hours. I mean right when I was about to go home I was just assigned with another huge task to do. That wasn’t very nice of the English department chair; of course it was better than me getting the information at the last minute. So as I was leaving I had to contemplate what I will be doing for something that will happen 4 months later. But since the VP had asked for it, I better make it good.

Back to work

I almost forgot how it feels like to teach a class. I haven’t been to school in a long time and so much has happened since I was last here so I really couldn’t get back into it. I would have like to have another day off just to relax all my muscles and just my body. It was put through a lot of vigorous work-out climbing and walking and running. But the day went pretty smoothly. All my classes worked out fine, but I wasn’t able to hack into the school’s internet system in the language lab. I really wanted to get my computer hooked up to the system so that I would be able to work on the internet while being at school. It would have been extremely convenient to do so, and plus I would have more privacy on my computer than having to use the school’s. I think it would have worked out better for me to be able to do that. But I guess that didn’t work out the way that I wanted it to. Oh wells.

I only had three classes today, so it wasn’t bad or anything. I though that I had more classes when I looked at my schedule before, but I was wrong and looking at the wrong day. So it was nice, I just sat back and just typed in my journal all day, well during my free periods. Today, the VP made Ramen for everyone. It was damn delicious, which made me wonder why I had bought lunch today. I didn’t need to and wished they would tell me these things beforehand, but anyways, it was the same kind as we ate at Hakone.

I was working on a new slide show presentation to help one of my students on Saturday. I think that it will be very good and impressive for her. I think that she will improve her English by a lot and hope that she continues to grow afterwards. I’m just working on building the discipline and it’s up to her to do the rest of the work. I’m really excited that I will be able to do something like this and get a chance to actually use it. I think that I might even eat my lunch for dinner today that way I could save some money and be able to do more work while I have the time and aren’t too distracted.

I also got the date of when I will be going to Okinawa. If you are planning to go or just happen to be there, we might be able to hang out. But I’m not sure since it will be work for me. I’m going on July 18-20. It’s a short trip, but I think it will be very enjoyable. Even though it will be hot as hell, I’m sure it will be fun. I’m really looking forward to it.

My day off... sort of

I didn’t do so much today, since I had a day off. I just had the opportunity to just relax for the beginning of the day. It was mother’s day in San Diego time, even though for me it was Monday. So I was able to talk to my mother and she informed me that she was going to send some things to me. I did a bit of laundry, although I wasn’t able to finish the whole load. I needed to separate the colors from the whites and just ran out of time before I had to leave to go to work. It really wasn’t a working day, but I was invited to come to have dinner with the teachers that went to the Gotemba trip. They had arrived back at school around 4pm, so they were really tired.

I could really understand their feeling because I was a bit tired too. We went to the Shabu-Shabu restaurant that the school likes to go to. It was nice since I really like Shabu-Shabu. I think the meal itself was wonderful and the many fixings that came with it. It was more of a review session of how the program went. I only made good points and didn’t really say too much was bad. I think that the game that we played was a bit rushed because of the time, but then again, I had an hour and a half, which is usually double the time of a normal class. The students enjoyed it so I’m not too worried about it. We left the restaurant a bit late and I was worried about the time that I would arrive home since I had work early the next day. But I’m sure it will be fine.