Chorus Competition

Today was the school’s Chorus competition. It’s a competition of all the students in the Junior high school and Senior High school. It was very interesting and very nice. They all sing so beautifully, that I’m glad I wasn’t a judge. I don’t think that I would have been able to do a good job because it was damn difficult.

At the very end the students were all emotional because they really did put their heart and souls into it. It really showed too in their effort. There were a few different categories that the students were competing. The first was for the best conductor, and the second was for the best pianist. The big prize went for the total performance and there was one for the best performance of each grade.

Some of the classes that I lead won, so I’m happy about that. In High school the top prizes went to 10th grade yuri, 11th grade yuri, and 12th grade yuri. They swept the top prizes, and I teach two of the three, which isn’t bad. Then for the junior high school, 7th grade yuri, 8th grade fuji, and 9th grade fuji, but the major prizes went to two 9th grade classes (fuji – I teach this one, and ran) and 8th grade fuji. It was exciting to see them celebrate when they won. The whole competition lasted from 10:30am to 4:30pm, and really it took that long.

Afterwards there was the teacher’s “good work” party at the prince hotel. We all had drinks at the bottom of the hotel then we moved up to the 11th floor where dinner was waiting. I didn’t get a chance to eat too much because I was talking with another teacher 9th grade fuji, about his homeroom class winning and about sea eels. Before I knew it, the different departments had to do a singing performance karaoke style. The English department picked me to be the leader, how nice of them. They chose the song, which was Backstreet Boys – I want it that way. Since I think most of the teachers knew the song, I decided to go along with it. It wasn’t that bad, but I was the only one singing it and the other teachers were just backing me up. That was a bit unfair.

I got in touch with a lot of old friends

Today, I spent my day relaxing and taking care of things that needed to be taken care of. I did a little bit of cleaning of my room and my clothes. Then I paid for rent and my taxes as well as my utilities. So now I feel poor again. But that time always comes every month, so it wasn’t a complete shocker. As I went to go pay for my rent, my landlord let me borrow a DVD set that she can’t watch because it’s all in English. So I have the complete set for the first and second season for Everyone Loves Raymond. So soon I will love Raymond too.

I talked to family again today. It was good, but also bad too. There was something that I thought I took care of when I was in San Diego in March, but it turns out that it wasn’t taken care of. There’s still one lingering problem that needs to be remedied, but it hasn’t and probably won’t for the next year or so. It’s becoming a really big problem and I’m not happy about it at all. It was good to talk to family, but this topic has been plaguing our conversations for a few years now, and I’ve had enough. I’m about to rip someone’s head off, and I’m not talking about any of my family members since they are the ones who have to suffer from the corruptness of other people. Everyone makes mistakes, but I’ve had to pay for mine for a few years and I’ve had enough. I’m sick and tired of being nice, I’m going to fucking explode on their ass.

I spent a good chunk of the day on Myspace updating comments for people. Since I haven’t done that in a long time, I thought that it would be a good idea to get in touch with some people again. Since I needed to calm down and just get back to myself and to relax or I’d kill someone. I joined Skype today. If you have it and want to try it out, I think it’s pretty clear and good if you don’t want to use the video part. So I talked to my friend for a little bit too. I haven’t talked to her for a few years. She just recently moved to Idaho to go to Grad school. I knew her from when she was in her first year at Grossmont, which was 5 year ago. We talked for a good hour and I was thinking about many things. I’m still undecided with what I want to do for summer vacation.

I started making dinner again tonight too; I ended up making mabo tofu. It was good, but maybe a little too watery. I’ll have to fix that at a later time when I make it again. The first time I did it was fine, but I changed the process this time and things ended up being a little different. And I’m planning on getting a haircut too, since today it’s much cooler than usual and it’s the perfect timing to do it too. I didn’t do too badly of a job this time. I messed up a little, but then I fixed it, fortunately. Then I typed a little more to the previous entries so I could catch up with loading it online.

A four class Tuesday

Today was also a 40 minute schedule and I had 4 classes today like usual. But when it’s 40 minutes it just goes by so fast.

The first 8th grade class today was working on finishing up their speeches for their show and tell. They only have one week left before they have to present, so we were getting all the English corrected. It wasn’t that they had a lot to say, but they had to get the meat of everything and they had to be pretty fluent. We don’t like to hear starts and stops in the speech; since it’s all memorized it should be easy. But I remember when I was doing this for Japanese, I just couldn’t do it. My strength was in conversational Japanese and not presentations, so I sucked at it.

The second 8th grade class did pretty much the same thing as the first period class. They were finishing writing their show and tell speech. I found that some of the bad students were working hard to get it finished as well too. Most had already finished writing, so we just needed to correct it and have them memorize it. I think that only giving them one week to memorize really isn’t enough time, but then we all know that they wouldn’t spend more time memorizing it if we gave them more time. Since everyone likes to wait to the last minute to study anyways. So that’s always a bummer as a teacher to have to face and deal with.

The fourth period class was with the 7th graders. We did a little lecture about the seasons and CP had pictures of each season and each student had one. Then they had to get into groups and ask each other question. They did a pretty good job and it took up most of the class time. The pictures were amazingly beautiful. One of her students that is a senior citizen took them because that’s one of his hobbies and they were just amazing. Some of the pictures were hard to tell which season was which, but the students needed to guess. For the most part, it was clear cut.

Fifth period was with my wonderful 11th grade students. Since I am in charge of their education, I’ve gotten to know them much better. But this class needs more work. A lot more work, which I will have a chance to get them up to pace because next semester I’ll have more classes with them than any other 11th grade class. Today, I had one more student give a speech about her favorite place. It wasn’t good at all and considering she had an extra week to do it, I was a bit strict. She left a lot of information out too, which didn’t make me too happy. Then I had the class break up into groups and we did the activity of where they have been and to write two sentences about it. They only got one down before class was over.

I stayed after school a little bit too, so I could practice for the choral competition on Thursday. The teachers will do the last song and I will have to join. I think that I’ve got it down, well enough to pass for it. But it probably won’t be anything wonderful or anything, but then again it’s in another language, so no one expects me to be perfect. I was planning on going to English club today, but it ended at 5pm, and that’s when the teachers’ song practice finished, so I missed it by just a little.

I came home and ate at Bamiyan at the Okurayama station on the Tokyu Toyoko line. It was pretty good, but the Mango juice needed some work. I’m not sure what it is, but I believe that I’m speaking correct Japanese, but it seems that whenever I speak correctly people don’t understand. It seems like it sounds weird to them, but I’m sure that I said it correctly and clear enough for them to understand. They just don’t understand clear Japanese. It’s almost weird that they don’t understand it. But I guess it’s the difference between British English and American English. It’s the same, but not really.

The first real 40 minute class schedule

I only have two classes today. I was able to really sleep in till around 8am. Then I started catching up with my journal entries. Something is starting to break down on my computer and I can sense the wear and tear of the weather that’s having on my equipment. So I’m going to start to turn off my computer and to put it under something shady so the sun doesn’t screw it up. That’s a different change of pace since I normally leave the computer on.

I have to figure out the times that my classes start because today we will have 40 minute class schedule.

The first class is with the 9th graders. We just did a test. They did better than the other class that took the test, but that was expected. I wasn’t too surprised about that. But some students that I thought were going to do well didn’t do so well and the ones that I thought weren’t going to do well did ok. That really took me by surprise.

The last class is with the 7th graders. Since we missed a class week, we are now behind. So we started with the days of the week, months, and dates for this lesson. It was simple for the students, but they still aren’t very good with their vocabulary diary. I had to show a few students how to use it so they wouldn’t fall too far behind. Since they only had 2 words from the beginning of the year, and today they had to add about 20 more. I think it might have been a bit much for them. But then we played an activity to get them in order by birthdays and then broke them into groups of 4 with cards with the months on them. They had to find all of them in a year and arrange them in the right order and take it up to the teacher and repeat them out loud. I think that it was a good activity and it got them interested in it a little more.

After that I studied Japanese for a little bit. I actually learned a bit more today. Not that I would be able to use what I learned, but at least I’m making some noticeable improvement. I just finished Chapter 8 in the Genki book now. I’m pretty good with most of the vocabulary and the grammar points at this time. I think that there is still room for improvement of course and I hardly ever use it, which I think is making it harder and worse for me.

Then the English club took their club picture in the Language Laboratory. Then we had club soon thereafter. We were talking about the differences between Japanese and Western gestures. For example how we do “come here.” In Japan, they gesture with their palms faced down and fingers closing in. But it looks like go away to a westerner. When I first saw that, I thought the person was telling me to go away, which was bad since it was my boss. So it’s vitally important to learn gestures when you cross the border. I once read a book on body language at a book store in Yokohama. It was pretty interesting. In the L.L. today, there was a piano keyboard. It makes me miss my keyboard at home and how I suck at playing it. I couldn’t remember anything that I learned from way back then, like last year. How quick I’ve lost the ability to even play a little. It’s quite shameful, and the students there could really play very well. It was nice to hear since I like the piano.

When I was leaving and club had finished, the Home Economics teacher made the teachers Nikuman, so I felt lucky to have one, since at this time, I was starving. I didn’t eat a lunch today, I just had breakfast before going to school at Yoshinoya and that was at 10am. When I finished, I was talking to some more students in the 8th grade. They were asking me a lot of questions, which I found quite weird. But I thought it was good because they wanted to speak, even though they couldn’t really speak English. So I think I’m making good progress to get the students to try to speak up. I find it more common now that students randomly try to talk to me, and now it’s more than just “Hi, how are you” kind of things too. So I’m glad that it’s starting to make a good impact.

After school, when I was going home, I walked past the temple that I normally go past when I go home, but today, there appeared to be a festival. But little did I know when I noticed it this morning that it wasn’t a festival at all; it was a set for an upcoming drama. I only noticed it on the way home when I saw a bunch of students standing outside and not inside. Since I knew the students that were there, I went up to them and asked them what was going on. So they told me what was going on. It turns out that right around the time I was leaving was then they started filming it. I would have to say that is perfect timing. It’s for an upcoming drama on Fuji TV that’s replacing the popular Engine with Kimura Takuya and Koyuki that just ended about an hour ago. The new drama is called Slow Dance and it stars Ryoko Hirosue. It was pretty cool that I finally saw a set with someone famous that I’ve actually heard of. She’s pretty famous from what I know, at least in Japan. And come to think of it, she was on SMAP x SMAP tonight too, with the Backstreet Boys. The Backstreet Boys have gotten back together, which makes it seem like I’m the last to know, but I found out that on Friday when I was watching Music Station and they were on the show. That was really interesting to see too. Anyways, back to the drama, I took some pictures, but was told that I wasn’t supposed to and was caught by the people on the set. But they couldn’t really do anything about it, they just told me to stop. The pictures I took really weren’t that good, so it’s kind of a waste. But it was cool that it was filmed in the temple right next to my work place.

Yoke meeting and a Garlic Dinner

Today, I was able to sleep in late. I was really surprised that I was able to since the time I woke up, it was already getting really hot. I didn’t really sleep in that late, only till around 9am. Then I started to get ready to do my Sunday routine. But this Sunday was a bit warmer than other Sundays, so I was a bit slower to do things.

I jumped right on the computer to check e-mail and other stuff and just got stuck there for a little while. By the time 10am rolled around, then I really started to get ready to hang my futon and was about to go do laundry, but never got around to that. I just took it easy for a little while, and then got dressed to go to the YOKE meeting.

The meeting today was to discuss what we are planning to do when the San Diego delegates come in November. We are really starting to get the ball rolling since that’s really only 4 meetings away. We usually only meet once a month to take care of these things, but I think that when the time nears, we will have to meet more. They have also decided the name of the youth division of their organization. They will now be known as the Yokohama Red Shoes Association.

I have to start a new paragraph to explain it. In Yamashita Park, there is a statue of a young girl with Red Shoes. The girl was left behind by her parents and was taken to an orphanage. An American family came and adopted her and took her to America. The statue symbolizes the friendship between the United States and Japan. The story ends here because no one knows what happened to the little girl. But KH, wants to put an ending that she was happy and because of the situation, the strength between the two countries is much stronger. Since we are sister-cities, the ties are already strong and will only continue to become better. So I thought that was pretty cool.

I also discovered many other things that I will need to pay attention to for the coming months. I will help the host family group, as well as the visiting the social services group. I really want to help with the symposium too, but I’m not sure what my schedule will have for me in November. That will be a busy time for me at work, so I might not even be able to be part of it at all, but I’m sure I’ll manage to squeeze some time into it. I always have.

After that, EK and I went to the famous Garlic Restaurant in Yokohama. The food wasn’t too bad, just garlicky; but what else would you expect? I had a rice dish with a Vietnamese styled spring roll, and EK had a Korean Bimbibap with a salad. He said that it was pretty good. Mine was just ok, nothing too fancy or anything I could really be happy about.

After that we took a walk around Yokohama. We walked all over the place, from Sakuragicho station to Yokohama station. He wanted to buy something from Yodabashi camera, so that’s where we went. I looked at some new cell phones, but they don’t have anything that looks good, so I won’t buy at this time. I hope that they make something decent so that I could buy a new cell phone. I’ve been meaning to for a long time now. After that, I got ice cream from Royal Sweet Vanilla shop in the Takashiyamaya department store. It was pretty good, but EK thought it was ok. I enjoyed it, probably because it was just ice cream and I’ve been craving for some ice cream lately. So at the end of the day I was happy. Then we went our separate ways and I went back home. It cooled down a lot so that was great too. I learned today that one of my friends from High school is in Japan now. I highly doubt that I’d be able to see her, but I think that it’s good for her to visit. It sounds like she’s having fun and already has gone to the clubbing scene in Roppongi, which is something that took me about a year to do.

Tennis and Star Wars: Episode 3

Today started pretty early. Like every Saturday, class starts early. I left later than usual and arrived at school later than usual too. But I ran into a group of teachers that came about the same time. I think this time it was weird because I ran into so many teachers. I think it was about 4 at the same time. It was really really hot walking to work too. I swear that I was about to pass out walking to work; it was that hot.

My first class started off weird because the room that I normally use was being occupied by other students that normally use that class. I usually check to see if the room is ok, but today I didn’t. I guess that was my mistake, so my first class actually started a bit late. I didn’t really cover what I wanted to. In fact, it was more of a review session with her. I wanted to make sure that she remembers what she’s learned and to learn how to be able to use it in the future. Right now, she’s just remembered the bits and pieces, but it’s not forming a picture in her mind. I’ve got to work harder at putting it together better so she could see it better.

After that I just chilled at my desk for another 4 hours. I studied Japanese for a little bit, but that got tiring and boring really quick. The teacher’s office was really hot like usual, so it made me drowsy. I had to take frequent breaks and get up and walk around so I wouldn’t fall asleep at my desk.

The movie was good, nothing too great though, so I was a bit disappointed after seeing the movie. When the movie ended, EK and I ran to Kawasaki station to catch our last trains. I was able to catch the last train on the Tokaido line, which is a faster train. So I was extremely lucky to get home.

Star wars has an unparalleled view of the real world and how the society of the U.S. is going. I feel that some people are taking their power and instead of hearing what everyone else has to say, they just do what they want. That’s not a democracy and hiding behind the word terrorism isn’t and calling others separatists for having a different view is just plain wrong. The country was founded on debate, that’s what we were intended to do…debate. No one person has all the answers, but it seems like once they get into power, they feel they can do all that they want at the expense of others. Remember, we call them public servants because they are intended to serve the public, but I haven’t seen that in a long while. I only see people as those who only serve themselves. Much like the movie depicts of the empire and how it is formed. It’s not too far off from the truth and that’s kinda scary. The beginning of the movie was good, but I didn’t like the way that it ended; although I know why they had to do that in order to tie up all movies together. It made sense as to how everything fell into place and it’s a tragic story. There could have been improvements, but since I’ll see it a few times in the theater, I shouldn’t complain too much this time.

The first 40 minute schedule this year

Today, all the classes will be 40 minutes long. Some classes have their exams today, but the classes that I lead, won’t be doing anything too important that the time will affect them.

When I arrived at school, I thought it was just going to be a regular day, but I was wrong. So many things changed on me today. The first two classes were with my 11th graders. They did the activity very well and even surpassed my expectation. So I’m happy to report that. The activity was to pick a place that they have been to and to make a sentence using a list of words that I provided. I had them in groups of 5-6 and they had to pick a place that they’ve all been to. That was probably the hardest part, them deciding which place is good.

Then for the 9th grade class today, because of a schedule change, we had a test. They didn’t do so hot, but I guess we weren’t expecting them to do so well. They just don’t study and that leads to their poor grades. I would like to help them out, but they don’t seem to want to help themselves out. It’s not very challenging and pretty much all the other 9th grade classes could do it, but they just seem unmotivated. I’m not sure how to motivate them to become better too. But I’m not leading this class, so it’s not in my charge.

Then fourth period, I had a break. I was the only one in the teacher’s office though, so it got a bit boring. I didn’t like being the only one in the room.

5th period rolled around and it wasn’t too bad. I enjoy teaching this 10th grade class. I was leading this class at the beginning of the semester, but it seems as if I’m not even teaching the 10th grade anymore. I really like to teach at this grade level because they are more motivated and they get into it when I teach. I felt as if I let them down, by not taking the charge and just teaching them. But hopefully things will change in the coming months. I think the Japanese English teacher wants me to take charge too. We are good buddies and she’s been my supporter since the beginning of me working at the school.

Here was another thing that bothered me today; no one told me that classes weren’t 40 minutes today and that there wasn’t going to be a 6th period today. The students needed to practice for the chorus competition so they cancelled 6th period today. I wasn’t the only one that wasn’t told because my partner CP didn’t know as well.

I hung around school for a little bit working on the plan for next semester for the 11th graders. I was torn with what I want to do for them since it’s their last semester of oral communication in high school. I want it to end with a bang and don’t really want to follow the format that was already formatted. I think that there needs to be improvement and to get them really working on building the language to carry on with them for the coming months and years.

After that we had a practice for the chorus competition for the teachers too. I have to sing a chorus song in Japanese, for which the Japanese teachers say the song is hard. I believe that the statement is correct.

I didn’t end up leaving till around 7pm which is really late actually. I wanted to leave earlier, but it was so hot that I didn’t feel like walking in the scorching hot weather.

When I came home, I was enjoying dinner with some music station. I was shocked to see the Backstreet Boys on the program. Then I started watching Star Wars, Episode one. It was showing on a TV station, not sure which one but it was channel 4. They will play Episode 2 on July 8th right before the national debut of Episode 3 in Japan. But I will see the third episode tomorrow. I’m excited about that. I’ve been waiting for years to complete the prequel trilogy.

After the movie, I was flipping around the channels and found another program that I think I’m going to like. On Friday nights, they have a program called our music on Fuji TV. It starts like at 11pm, which is really late for me and goes till around midnight. So I watched it this week because it had Kiroro. I really like that singing duo, so I stayed up and watched it. After the show, I started finishing up this entry.

A time to catch up

Today was a good day to catch up on many things. I wanted to finishing updating my xanga and then with the school work that has piled up at school. I haven’t finished planning the last two lessons for my 11th grade classes, so I’ll have time to do that today.

I really started cleaning my room today too. I’m not sure that it’s that much cleaner, but I was happy that I threw some things away. I think that since it wasn’t so hot today, I liked it better and was more productive. I even cooked dinner again tonight. That’s quite a bit for this month.

But I never end up doing everything. I still have a lot of work ahead of me and I’ve got to get started on that. So I had time to catch up, but wasn’t able to do everything that I had intended to do.

Rainy Wednesday

Today started to look like it was the rainy season. It was pouring when I woke up. I read that this season, the rain drops are bigger for some reason, and from the looks of it, that might be right. Before I got to the train station, my legs were drenched and dripping wet. My shoes were very heavy too, and the worst part about it, was that wearing a suit makes it incredibly hot.

The first class was a test by my 11th graders. For the most part, they did great. It wasn’t that difficult of a test, but it’s something that will require a bit more effort than usual. Since they are a very high level class I didn’t really worry about it. They weren’t off the charts though and some students struggled to get through it, but hey it’s a foreign language. It’s not easy stuff we’re talking about here.

Second period was 8th grade was us getting started with the show and tell speeches. We really got in depth with it since they don’t have a class next week because of the chorus competition. So we had them compose and the teachers were just walking around and correcting their English. This is a fairly good class, so they were a step ahead of the game, so I wasn’t worried too much. They don’t get enough time to write what they want and how they feel, they pretty much stick to the format that they see in the example. But since it’s their first time, it’s not a bad time to start it. They will improve and learn how to write better later.

Third period was with 10th grade and we were getting them ready for their demonstration speech. This would be the last class that they had before they had to give their speeches. I don’t think that they will be ready since they are straggling along with all the paperwork. They are usually very capable of being able to do a great job, but they at times can also be very lazy. Many of these students are still brainstorming what they want to do for their speech and not actually getting to the writing part. That’s really showing me that they will be behind and I highly doubt that they will be able to catch up being behind like this. I think that they had enough chances to get it finished and all the resources of finishing too, but just haven’t done it.

Fifth period was with 9th graders kiku. Since last period was off, I had a little nice break of about an hour and a half. They are a good class, but some students make it not so good. I think that the students in this class are highly capable, but they are highly unmotivated this year. Last year they were very pleasant to teach, but this year it’s more of a pain. I’m not sure why that is either. The topic for today was to get them ready for their oral test too. They were studying for their test on directions and listening to where we want to go and to direct us how to get there. I think some of the students were having some trouble, but other students were very good at it. We pretty much just reviewed the whole day and did Chapter 11 in the book again too.

Sixth period is with the 9th grade fuji, we pretty much did the same thing. I think this class was pretty good about the review though. They are really active and they participate a lot. I think that’s what really helps them learn and they are really like English. It’s one of the best classes that I teach, so it’s always nice to end the day with them. The review was smoothed over a little better than the last class with improvements that both the teachers had mentioned in the previous class like to introduce the vocabulary before going into the lesson. I think that really helps them know what’s going on.

A regular Tuesday

Nothing really special happened today. I only have 4 classes today, so it was a nice day too. I only lead half of them, so it wasn’t too much work either. During the rainy season, the weather is ridiculously hot. I’m not used to the weather and as you’ve noticed from reading my journal, I talk a lot about the weather. It’s the variable in my life in Japan. Coming from San Diego, one would tell you that weather would not be much of a factor in what you wear or what you do, because it’s always the same. But the weather here changes so much and so drastically that it’s hard to plan out and even harder to do.

Anyways, back to the school day.

The first class was with 8th graders. We are really getting them to write down what they will do for their show and tell presentation that is coming up soon. We were focused on having them start composing since not many students know how to do this well. I started it with the 11th graders, and now it’s gone to the 8th graders. I think that it’s good for them to write something down and have the teachers correct it with them, so they could see why it changed and how their errors can quickly become remedied.

The second class was with another 8th grade class, and we pretty much did the same thing. I had to go much slower and give a more definitive demonstration so that they would be able to understand what I was talking about and what I expected from them. We included more details when we wrote on the board what the main points the students needed to add to their composition.

The 7th grade class did an activity with counting beans. We played a little game with them and they had to guess how many beans were in a jar and then we counted them. We broke up the class into groups and they had to count a certain number of beans in a cup and to distribute them to another group once they were finished counting. It usually takes up the whole period so it’s a pretty easy day of just counting.

The last 11th grade class gave their final speeches. They did fairly well in my opinion, and since I’m giving the grades, my opinion does count here. I would say that they are the lowest level class, but that’s based on effort. They really don’t care that much. I mean it matters since it’s their grade, but other than that, they really don’t give a rat’s ass about English or any other subject for that matter.

An extended Monday

I really like my class schedule for Mondays because I really don’t have much to do. It’s a lot like one of my relaxing days because I really don’t have many classes to teach, and I’m not leading any today. I really needed it today because my muscles are still sore from Saturdays’ tennis games.

The first class I had today was from Wednesdays’ 7th grade class. Today we had a schedule change so the class moved to today. We started learning a new section today. We went into learning about the days of the week, months of the year, and each other’s birthdays. It was a bit fun, much like the stuff that I did at my DCM’s when I was a Lt. Governor. It was fun.

The second class of the day was the 9th grade class that’s a little bit out there. But not the worse class though. We were just doing the end of Chapter 14 about taking the subway and starting the review for their test that’s coming up next week.

The last class of the day was another 7th grade class. It’s weird that it’s an all junior high school day. I never really noticed that before, but it’s not like the schedule changed any much from before. We played the bean counting game. It was very good because all the students, at the end were pretty close to the actual number. At worse they were 10 off and I think it’s because they added incorrectly, not that they counted wrong.

After school I went to the school library. I didn’t even know that we had one, so I went to check it out. Then after that I had to hurry to the English club meeting. It was a very productive meeting. We are planning what we want to do for the culture festival in October. I think it’s a bit early for all that planning, but I guess that’s how they do it here.

We decided on the movies that we were going to make a report on and what the name of the room will be. And then what we were going to do inside the room. They are going to make a maze for the people who come in to try. It’s going to be fun and I think that they will enjoy it a lot. So I didn’t end up leaving school till around 7pm. So I got home late.

I decided that I was going to cook dinner for myself tonight. I knew what my dad did when he cooked since it is father’s day in San Diego; I thought I’d try it out. I think I did a pretty good job with it too. It tasted just like home cooking, and it was a lot of fun. I wasn’t able to watch my SMAP X SMAP today or Engine, but I think it was ok. I was talking to my sister who was still awake at 5am. So we talked for a little bit till my mother woke up and talked to me around 7am their time. So it was getting a bit late for me on my end too. I’m not sure what will come of that, but I think that I will be receiving a package soon.

She is still talking to me, and I’m not sure why I have to spell it out for her for her to understand. I think that she’s got to think things through and then she will be able to understand all the people around her and how they feel and how she betrayed all of them including me. There’s nothing that people hate more than betrayal by people they considered to be their friends. That’s the worse and I have no tolerance for that shit, and for the stupid people that think that everything is ok or going to work out afterwards. How dumb can you be?

An amazing day

The weather was pretty good today. I ended up waking up a few times today because I was bit by some kind of bug and broke out in hives. I was itching up a storm for about an hour till I used some rubbing alcohol on it and it went away. I’m glad that I have that from last summer. I think that it works really well, but I’m going to hate to have to use it a lot this summer too. I didn’t like waking up a few times battling a spider and failing to kill it. It was really big and moved very quickly, so fast in fact that I was unable to kill it. It had escaped, but came back many times to torment me. But eventually it’ll die at my hands, or shoes. Which ever comes first.

Then I was off to watch an American football game. It was between Brown University and Columbia. I was shocked that Brown won the game, and won pretty convincingly too. I arrived with EK around half time since we were both late. I had to get my racket restrung because I had broken it yesterday. That took about an hour longer than I thought that it would. After that I decided that I wanted to watch a movie. So we went to Kawasaki station to the movie theater.

We chose to see Batman Begins, and I wasn’t disappointed. In fact it was quite the opposite from what I thought about it at the beginning. It was so damn good that I’m unable to sleep. It was such an amazing movie with a wonderful story and it was really well put. You couldn’t believe how good that movie is and how much I like it. It’s now my new favorite movie because of story, character and everything else. It was very good acting from everyone.

Then we had dinner at Mos Burger. It was good food after a great movie, so I was happy. Then I bought tickets for an advanced screening of Star Wars Episode 3 next week at Kawasaki.

I decided that I was going to sleep late tonight because well I got home late and arrived at my house around midnight. Then after my shower there was kind of a long earthquake as I was talking to CN on MSN messenger. It was kind of strong too. I felt it here in Yokohama and she felt it in Saitama, so it’s kind of big.

One class and then 4.5 hours of Tennis

Today started pretty early. Even though I woke up early, I still left late. I was putting the finishing touches on my lesson for the day. But I ended up not even touching them. I went with the original plan that I mapped out at the beginning of the semester. I felt that I needed to do that because I put a lot of hard work and emphasis on the plan and I think it worked out beautifully. I added some things that made it better though, so it was good.

But as things turned out, I just ended doing something that I planned to do last week. I think that the last two week of this class, I’ll focus more on communication and the things that make it work well. I think the last few lessons will be the most rewarding, but hopefully she’ll be able to take something away and instead of just forgetting things.

I hung around school for a few more hours until around 2pm. Then I joined the tennis club for the first time and played with them for the next 4.5 hours. That’s a long time and I’m sure I’ll feel the affects of it the next day. I was one of the last teachers to leave the school today. That’s really rare, I mean even the teachers that normally leave last left before I did. I didn’t end up leaving till around 7pm, which is still early, but since it’s a Saturday it was really late.

An average Friday

The first two periods were my 11th graders’ tests. They were pretty good, better than I thought they would be. Some could have done better, but others surprised me. But not all of them did very well. Some of the students that I knew better did the worst. I mean the girls in my club aren’t the best speakers in the world, and they show no progress and I really can’t grasp as to why this occurs. It was really strange that it only was those students that don’t do very well. They really like English and everything and study harder than the other students, but they just can’t do it. It’s very disappointing as a teacher to see that happen. I mean after a year, I still haven’t done much to help them either. I think that’s the worse part. But the other students that I teach did very well. I believe that I set them up for success, which is something that I’m not sure all teachers do, or even do effectively. So I’m glad that things are turning out good.

3rd period was fun because the 7th graders were just counting beans, literally. We played a little game with them and they had to guess how many beans were in a jar and then we counted them. We broke up the class into groups and they had to count a certain number of beans in a cup and to distribute them to another group once they were finished counting. It usually takes up the whole period so it’s a pretty easy day of just counting.

4th period we began to hit a few bumps in the road. It was very interesting how things progressed today. I think that everything was going fine up to this point because most of what went on today was under my control and I was running the show. But when things turned over, I noticed that my partner was a little short-tempered today. I’m not sure what the reason was, but she’s been acting a bit weird lately. Today the students were quiet at the beginning of class, but later got more talkative; only because the teachers didn’t have an idea of what to do. We weren’t looking at the syllabus and things turned up weird and the oral test changed dates. Our Japanese English teaching partner is still sick and wasn’t able to come to this class with us again. So she had to scream to get the students’ attention. It was weird because when I was doing the example with her in front of the class, she even scolded me to keep with the language, but I just read what was in the book and the odd thing was that she didn’t keep with the language in the book. I’m sure if the students were paying attention, they wouldn’t have understood what was going on. So I wasn’t very happy either. It was a good thing that lunch came soon after this moment.

Then in 5th period she did the same thing. She had scolded the kids, but they weren’t at fault. I really didn’t know what was going on because normally this is the class that I lead, but because of the schedule changed and the timing was off, I don’t teach 10th grade anymore. I’m going to have to remedy that and go at it in a different way to get my classes back. I’m going to have to figure out a way though. I’m not sure what the problems are, but they are building and I need to resist it. I made some mistakes today in class today because I had misinterpreted what was being asked of the students. But CP had changed the directions again, so not only were the students confused, the teachers were too.

6th period was much like the last class when I could tell that CP was a bit impatient. There were a lot of mistakes on the board and in the speech and everything. So I’m not sure what is going on with CP. It might be the weather, but then again, I don’t want to be making excuses. If I was wrong, I’d admit it and move on. I’m not too proud to say I was wrong.

I came home and made some food for myself again. I hate Japanese supermarkets because everything is too fresh and they don’t add preservatives. I never thought that I would actually not like that. But that means that everything I buy expires within a few days. I just don’t have the time to make all the food that I buy, so most of which go bad really quick. I was able to even watch a bit of TV movie. I saw half of Hollow man on channel 4, then I came back to finish typing this up. I’ve got to go to sleep soon. I haven’t even prepared the lesson for my student tomorrow; I’m such a bad teacher.

Cleaning and relaxing

It’s like a usual day off, a day of nothing much. Just talking to friends and family and cleaning. That was for a good part of the day at least. I was able to accomplish most of the things that I had planned for today. I even made dinner, well sort of, I didn’t have to. I went over to have some of my mail translated to make sure that I wasn’t going to do anything stupid with my tax papers and bills, so I found out a little about that and then MTki offered me some Tempura that she had made. She had made a lot and gave me a good portion to take back with me to my place. So I made rice and miso soup and was able to have a good sized dinner. I’m stuffed actually. I enjoyed a good variety of TV shows today too. I saw a couple in the afternoon when I was eating lunch and then later in the evening starting with who wants to be a millionaire. Utaban was pretty good tonight too.

I think that the situation with the person that is under question has become quite clear, only because I’ve already made a decision even without hearing what that person has to say. That’s a little unfair, but at least I will listen with an open ear, when that time comes. I’m planning to hear the other side of the story next month, when one of my friends returns to Japan. I think that it would be better to hear it then, than to speculate at this time. That has been on my mind recently and I think that the wait is really turning me negative about the situation. I see no hope in the friendship and that I can see it end soon.

A good day

I started off the day quite well. Even though I wasn’t able to get enough sleep, I still felt pretty good. I was able to get a few more minutes of sleep in the train going to work, so I’m happy about that.

My first 11th grade class was good too. I like teaching because of the energy that I get while I’m up in front teaching. I’m not used to teaching this class very well. I’ve had problems with them last year too. Not that they are bad students, but they are usually the first class I have to teach in the rotation and the introduction of lessons, so it’s always a little rough when I start something with them. But today was different since they aren’t the first in the rotation anymore. So I was able to get a lot more accomplished with them too. I think that they are really starting to learn and that they are getting to the point where they will be successful in my class. I like that very much and I think that they will need to get to a higher level and to another stage in the next semester.

The second class today was much easier for me since I didn’t have to do anything really. It was an 8th grade class that we were teaching. The lesson was getting them ready for their speeches by finishing up the chapters in the book. We were trying to get them going in a hurry and just sped through the chapters and the lesson. We wanted to give them an idea of what they would be expecting to do for their first oral exam. We got started with their show and tell speeches and had them writing a little bit.

The third class was fun since it was a10th grade class that I’ve never taught before. Because of a schedule change, I was going to be in the class, but not really doing much. They had to give their introductory speeches today. So it was another chill day. The test was really fast, there was still 15 minutes left after all the testing was finished. That’s really amazing and I’ve never had that before. So we started on the next section for them. They are the highest level 10th grade class, at least that’s what I believe. They did really great on their speeches and most of them can speak very well.

Fourth period I had off, so I didn’t have to worry about it too much. But there were juku teachers at our school that were going to see what we were all about. These are the people who introduce our school to the students that they teach at. It’s important for them to see what we do and how our school runs so we will be able to recruit more students.

Then 5th and 6th periods were with the 9th grade. Since we finished off the chapter of taking the subway last week, we were going to get them started with preparations for their final exam. They would have to give an oral exam, plus a listening exercise on directions. It might be difficult for some of them to do, but if we start now, they will be able to do it. So that’s what we did, we started a bit of review for them.

Open school week

I only had 4 classes today, which is quite a relief, since it’s been so hot recently. But having 4 classes on Tuesdays are actually normal. It’s just appreciated because it’s been getting warmer lately.

The first class was with 8th graders. They were not as interested in the topic. They were talking about the last chapter we covered in the book, which was about telling time. It was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. The chapter had harder vocabulary to explain to the students. I think I did a good job with getting them to understand it. We started working towards getting started with their show and tell speeches too.

The second class was another 8th grade class that I was leading. So it was much like the last period, but just a little slower. We finally caught up with the other class today. I was nice because it’s good to have them all on the same page. I really don’t like it when some classes fall behind other classes. But everyone is on a different level, so it’s understandable. I at least would like to see the improvement of my students, so I’m working towards that. I like the classes that I’m leading to be a bit higher than the ones that I’m not. I don’t really know why, but I’m a bit partial because I’d like to see some results.

The third class was with the 7th grade. Since the recitation contest just finished, we were going to start on some new activities this week. The first activity that we’ve done was to start them on counting. So what we did last year was to have them count beans. They first had to guess how much was in the jar and then they counted to find out. It was good because it got them counting in English and learning bigger numbers.

And the last class today was with the 11th grade. So I got them ready for their test. I gave back their papers and made them finish it. They can be a little bit rowdy at times, and sometimes the day doesn’t end as well as I would hope that it does. But I think that this class will still be able to do it. They aren’t all the smartest people in the 11th grade, but they sure aren’t the worst either. Actually they might be, but I still think they have high potential; I’ve just got to find a way to unleash it. They are pretty good at getting on my nerves.

After school there was club, so I stuck around to hear them out. They are still planning for the culture festival in October and what they will need to do. So they stayed till around 6:30pm to take care of all of the details. They have planned to do something about movies.

One class Monday

Today was another beautiful day. It was getting fairly hot though, I mean like 28 degrees Celsius, but it wasn’t too cloudy or too sunny. I just hate having to wear a suit in weather like this, it’s too hot. Not nearly as hot as it was last summer, since that was the hottest on record in Japan. But you never know this year could be crappier than last year. But I really hope not. I had the opportunity to rest enough today, but since it was so hot I could sleep very well and the sun came out early again. I think that everyday this summer, I will complain about the terrible weather. The first typhoon of the season hit last week too, but only with rains. Nothing too terrible yet, just the humidity is making me sick and weak in the knees and gives everyone headaches.

I only had one class today, so I really wasn’t worried about anything since I don’t even lead it. I just needed to be there, just to be there. It was a 9th grade class. The lesson was on taking the Subway. It was a fairly easy lesson for the students I think. They really understood what was going on and they were responding. They did speak a lot of Japanese, but this isn’t one of the highest level classes, so I guess that is ok. They did fairly fine and the class just went right along smoothly.

After class, there was an assembly. A famous actor was coming to the school to speak to all the students and to some parents. It was really cool, I got really close to him when he was walking in and walking out of the gymnasium. He talked for a little bit about something. I really didn’t understand what was going on, but the audience loved it, so I guess it was good. Everyone was enjoying it. I started to get into it when he showed a bit of the drama that he’s been acting in for the past 20 years. The story is about a family who used to live in Tokyo and after the death of a person’s wife, the family decided to move to Hokkaido and live there. The story goes on about their life as a family and how living in the city is vastly different than living in the countryside. I mean this show has been on the air on Fuji TV for the past 20 some years. Every season they have an episode that’s 3 hours long. The show that I’m talking about is named “Kita no Kuni kara”, which means from the Northern countryside. The actor that I’m talking about is Chii Takeo. He was invited by our headmaster of the school since I think they were friends or something at the same University, Keio University. For those of you who have never heard of it, it’s the nation’s second highest ranking university. So I think that it was pretty cool, I’m really lucky for working at this school. I found out a couple days ago about other famous people who went to the school that I’m teaching at. And even some that are still there. So it’s interesting to see how things turn out like that.

After this was English club. That didn’t really go for too long since most of the students needed to leave to go to cram school. We talked a bit about what we talked about last week debate of Boys versus Girls. They were analyzing the pros and cons of it. Then they wanted to talk a little about the cultural festival that’s coming up in October. They want to get a good jump on it and get things ready for it. I’ve noticed that they take planning for these things way in advance, but I’m not sure they do that with their homework and class work. We’ve got to work on a few things I think.

I left work around 6pm. I caught up with another teacher who was leaving at the same time. I felt sick all day and when I got home, it was much better. I could just relax and eat. I think it might have been hunger pains or it might have been what I’ve been eating these past few days. But I can’t be sure of what’s going on.

When I came home and turned on the TV, there was HEY x 3 on, and they were doing a bowling match against Kinki Kids. I made a bit of dinner and then I watched a little bit of Engine, which is another Fuji TV drama and then my favorite show Smap x Smap. The cooking part, or the bistro smap dishes looked easy to make and delicious too. I think that I might want to try it out some day. The show itself was pretty good this week. They had some funny skits and then it was Naotaro Moriyama, the singer promoting his new album, but is most famous for his huge hit Sakura. I really like that song, and it made the show good. Anyways, I want to get up early so I probably will sleep after I finish downloading and installing Mozilla’s Firefox browser. It will be the third browser that I installed on this computer. My other computer had Netscape’s browser, but I really don’t recommend that one to anyone. It wasn’t good so now I’m shopping around for things.

Basketball game and fishing

The plan originally was to just go fishing with EK, but because of last night’s news, I think that I’ll end up doing both. So I woke up early, but not as early as I thought that I would. I think it was about 8am, but that was a bit late. Since I still hadn’t decided what I wanted to do, I didn’t talk to EK about it either, so then I decided and called up EK and told him my plan. I think that it had altered what was going on for the day.

So I didn’t know whether to wear a suit or just go in casual clothes since it’s a non-school function, but still school related. So I just went in a suit and brought casual clothes too. About half way during my long trip to Sendagaya station, I received an e-mail from a teacher that I had asked and she told me that casual is fine. I think that no one was really expecting me to go, so I didn’t think that it would matter too much.

I arrived a bit late and the game was already in the second quarter. My school was already behind, and they weren’t able to catch up. The other team was really good and it was quite remarkable. They hardly missed a shot that they took. That’s really good. But I felt bad that they lost even though they made it much further in the tournament than anyone expected. They won their first two matches to get to today’s game. They beat the defending champions of the tournament in the first round, and are ranked in the top 8 in the Kanto area, so that’s incredibly good.

After the game, I met with some students and then some teachers gave me a ride to Shinagawa station. I took the Yokosuka line to Yokosuka. It is very far from where I was, but very near to where I live. From my house, I’m guessing it would take about 30 minutes total, but today the trip took about 2 hours. So I think I slept on the train, I’m pretty sure I did, but not sure.

Then I hung around the train station for a little bit, bought lunch and ate it. I went into a little museum since it was free; it was the Verny Museum of a man named Verny who visited the area from France. I wasn’t able to pinpoint what he did that was so significant that they would make a museum for him, but there was one and a park outside it too. Then EK came to pick me up at the station, we drove for about 5 minutes to get some lunch for everyone and then go fishing.

The weather was absolutely beautiful today. It wasn’t too hot or too cold near the sea, so it was perfect to be out there. But else where in Japan, it was too damn hot. The temperature reached up to 30 degrees today, which is really hot with the humidity. But where at the location we were at, it was very nice.

We were fishing for about 7 hours from 2-9pm. It actually didn’t seem that long. I only caught one fish, that died in the process and that was during the first 15 minutes that I was there. All the other times, I was just watching and losing the weights for the fishing pole. During the day I had lost two of them, both times because the fishing line was weak and broke during the cast. But that wasn’t as bad as EK who lost three. He did catch more fish at the very end. It was anchovy time and they all flocked in by the hundreds so everyone was enjoying good catches.

After we decided to leave, we went to get some dinner at a place near my house. It was a keiten-zushi, which is one of those places where they serve Sushi on a conveyor belt that goes round and round and you can pick up the ones that you wanted to eat. The sad part was that I had eaten half of the total amount. Well almost about half.

Recitation Contest

So I had to get up early to go to school to judge for the recitation contest. The contest itself was pretty good. The students did very well, I believe. I’m finally glad that I don’t have to listen to them practice anymore, that’s something really good for me since that’s all I’ve been hearing from them. Now we can get started on really learning English.

Afterwards, I stayed around school for a little bit. I heard news that my high school basketball team, well the one that I’m teaching at had beaten the top ranked team in Tokyo. They advanced in the Kanto area competition. They had beaten the defending champions of the tournament.

Then I came home and made myself some dinner. I actually cooked starting from scratch and it actually wasn’t very bad. I wouldn’t say it’s delicious either, but something that is edible at least. So I was happy about that. I’m finally getting back to making healthier food and I think that I will begin to make more food for myself now.

Then later, I received a call from one of the teachers at my school and she informed me that the team had won the second game and will advance into tomorrow’s competition. So she told me the information about that and I have to decide what I’m going to do. I’m sure that I should go because it’s a big opportunity for them to really get high up there. I think they are in the top 8 now in the Kanto area, which is a BIG thing. So I’ll write more about that later. Since the original plan was to go fishing with EK at about the same time.

6 classes and a trip to Omiya

Today, the classes were very tiring. I was about to pass out by the end of the day. But it wasn’t near the end of the day for me since I still had to go to meet up with my friends in Omiya later on. Since I had 6 classes, which meant I had to get up at 5am to get ready for work. I think I slept on the train to work today, which seems to become more common for me.

The first class was with my 11th graders. We just worked on getting ready for the test that is coming up fairly soon. I believe that it’s next week. So after they passed their papers to me so I could correct them, I gave them back today. I wanted to give them a preview of what their test should look like and did a little demonstration for them. Then I had each one stand up and give a little piece of their speech at the front of the room. I wanted to get them prepared for the test, since I’m a hard-ass grader and not really nice. This is a fairly high level class, so I didn’t expect any problems from them.

The second class was much of the same thing. But the difference was that none of the basketball players were in this 11th grade class. That means that there was a little less than half the class in attendance. They have a big basketball game coming up tomorrow, so they need to practice for that. It’s understandable, but just inconvenient. I really can’t say much because…well, it’s the boss’s basketball team we are talking about here. The class was still fun and more people that haven’t spoken up before started to speak up more often. So it was a nice change of things for me. I just hope that they will be ready for the test that’s coming up.

Third period was a little break for me, since I wasn’t leading the class. It was with the 7th graders. I think that the class was nice. We were only practicing for the recitation contest for tomorrow. They just read their passages, and it seemed that some students still weren’t able to remember it after practicing it for so long. I think that they need to get some really good practice in otherwise it will be disastrous tomorrow.

Fourth period was with the loud and proud 9th graders. They like to be loud for some odd reason. It’s not very good since we are the teachers. It really isn’t helpful when we are trying to teach them. Their test is coming up soon and today we had to do it without the aid of a Japanese English teacher. I think that a little discipline was in order to get them in shape. We had to do some yelling to get them involved and to just be quiet so the students that wanted to learn, could learn.

Fifth period was with the 10th graders. I had to lead this class to get ready for their speech. I was just helping them brainstorm what they wanted to do for their demonstration speech that is coming up. Since CP and I switched from Friday and Wednesday classes, she’s leading this class. I would prefer to, but that’s not really my decision. Although I think that next semester I will take the initiative to do it. They were doing pretty good with their ideas, but some of them are strange. It’s ok, I just want them to be inventive and to be creative as long as they know how use the English correct, it should be fine.

The last class was with the 7th graders. It was a nice break from teaching since I was tired as hell. We were getting the students ready for the recitation contest tomorrow. This will obviously be their last practice before the big show. They did very well and I think that some of the students have a chance of winning tomorrow. I think most of the time I was nervous about what was going to happen next. From next, I mean after school. After the class finished, I left around 4pm. It’s a bit early for me.

I was on the train and e-mailed one of my friends from the Omiya area. From what I learned, we weren’t supposed to meet. I found that very odd since it was her friend that invited me to go. I would have thought that she would be invited too, but she was going to another party or gathering with her friends and teachers. I was confused as to what was going on, but excited at the same time. I really didn’t know what to expect from anyone or anything anymore.

The plan was just to meet up at the same place and to just break up into different groups, but since no one knew what was going on, we just combined both groups. I met up with my friend at Omiya station first. We were there very early and we talking to each other while we were waiting for other people to arrive. It was nice to see her because we haven’t seen each other in a long time. Everyone arrived a little late and the first few people met up with the others at another location. The people that I knew didn’t show up until much later. We went to an izakya place. We had a nice dinner with everyone. I wasn’t too happy because I wasn’t sitting next to the people that I knew so I didn’t feel so comfortable. So it wasn’t bad, I met up with Haruka, Daisuke, Yoichiro, Yuichi, Reina, Mana, Mashu, CNto, and a few other people whose name I didn’t catch. It was fun and I enjoyed it, but it would have been better if I had talked to someone that I was looking forward to seeing.

I didn’t get home till really late, and I mean really late. It was bad because I had to get up really early to go to the recitation contest tomorrow. I didn’t get home till around 2amish.

A day off, but still going to school

The plan today is to get some things finished that I wasn’t able to on the weekend, like clean my room. And then I’m going to go to school to play some tennis with some part time teachers.

I was talking to a few people this morning. Some of which you’d be surprised to hear about. I was talking to my ex-girlfriend’s current boyfriend. I was also talking to one of my good friends too. And then there was EK who wants me to go fishing with him on Sunday. So we talked a little about that to see if that’s possible or not.

Then after I did my laundry I was off to go to school. It was hot during the trip there, but it was getting much cooler once we got to the tennis courts. Playing tennis made me feel really good. I haven’t done it in a long time, so it was good to get out on the court to see if I could still do the things that I was able to do before. The part time teachers weren’t excellent or anything, but they could do the basics, which made it fun. That’s all tennis really is, just playing with the basics.

After a game of tennis we went to eat some ramen. It was delicious Hakata Ramen from Kyushu, well it wasn’t from there, but it tasted like it was from there. I went to this restaurant before with two other teachers after a school festival a long time ago. It’s made with the fat from pork or something like that. Even though it doesn’t sound healthy, it tasted really great. And it’s not like I’m eating it everyday. It was nice that we just got a work out before that too.

Then I talked to EK on the phone for a few hours and talking to each other on MSN messenger 7.0. It was hella fun to draw pictures and use all the crazy shit they have. It was pretty bad because it was getting really late. I was getting really tired since I would have to get up in a few hours anyways. I think that tomorrow I will have a busy day and won’t be able to get enough sleep, so I should have gone to sleep early today. Oh wells.

A five class day

It’s not so bad today because I only have 5 classes as opposed to 6, which I will have another one on Friday. Surprisingly, I woke up before my alarm again. I mean I was dead tired this week so I wouldn’t imagine that I would wake up early and not late. Even though I woke up early, I still left late. I was checking e-mail and the news and just was going really slow and ended up leaving late. I got ready really quick and was out the door. I was lucky enough to catch a fast train to school. So I wasn’t late.

The day started off ok since I had to teach the 11th grade for the first class. I really enjoy teaching the 11th grade; I think it’s my favorite grade level and probably because it’s the highest level and I’m in charge of it. But I’m really able to be able to teach what I want and do it in the way that I want to do it in. Even though there are still restrictions since teachers have to watch me, but today CP was absent for first period. So I felt more relaxed than usual. There was also a student teacher in the room watching over me, but I really didn’t mind them being in the classroom since they probably didn’t speak much English to begin with. This class went by pretty quick and they had something easy to do. I learned that Japanese students usually don’t learn things step by step. They are just told something and they just have to know it. I think that’s why they don’t understand methods as much as they just know things. That’s why something that seems simple for me like answering one question for a week for a span of a few weeks seems so hard for them. And today, they would have to compose it all on a test paper combining all that they have learned in the past few weeks. I didn’t think that they understood it in the other classes, not sure if that was my fault or if the students simply misunderstood what I meant. But I think that I probably made some errors while teaching the lesson.

CP took over for the second class today for the 8th graders. They were a bit tired and uninterested. I think that’s because the heat was setting in and the heat was almost unbearable. This was still in the morning too, so I don’t know what’s going on with this weather. This class had some parents watching us too. We just went along with the book and we started the chapter on telling time in the Expressways book. IT was a bit difficult for them, I think because the format isn’t the same as all the previous chapters. It was difficult for me to teach before too when CP was absent, so I could understand.

Third period was with the 10th graders. It was the first time for me to teach this class, but I’ve been going to this class, just not leading this class. It’s not like Yuri, but I do enjoy it as well. I think they like it too, when I’m teaching since it adds a little flavor in their education.

Fourth period was nice because I had it off and that went right into lunch. So that was a nice hour and a half break before we had to teach again. The next two classes were 9th graders. We were doing the chapter on taking the Subway in the expressways book. I think that the first class, the one that CP was leading was a bit tired and out of it. They didn’t seem to want to be learning or doing anything for that matter, which didn’t help us in front of the parents. They are at a high level, so I’m just wondering what was bothering them to behave like that. I thought that was weird from them.

The 6th period class made me seem like I am a great teacher. Before the class had started, they wrote on the board in big letters LET’S STUDY ENGLISH. I thought that was good since the parents were already in the room before I even walked in. They all participated and got all the right answers too. So I think that was really good. They at some parts weren’t able to understand, but it’s more at the high school level, so I could understand why. I didn’t punish them for it, but I finished the lesson faster than I would have wanted or hope for. I’m not sure why my classes seem to fly by with the lesson that I have prepared, when CP does it just as fast and it takes it up to the last few minutes of class. That’s amazing.

After school, I hung around for a little bit. I didn’t end up leaving till around 7:30pm, which is quite late since I’m used to leaving earlier. I was correcting the papers that I collected today from the 11th graders. It took a bit of time and I realized that I had made a mistake when I was teaching and being punished for it because I was correcting that on all the papers. But it’s ok, I didn’t mind too much, but it shows me how I will explain it for the last class. I think that I’ve fine tuned it all now. I was half asleep and half awake as I was slaving to finish grading it. Obviously it took me a bit of time if I started at 4pmish. I also was helping some students with the recitation contest and getting the last few touch ups ready. And I spent about an hour talking with another teacher which has given me some inspiration on what I will do for the September school trip with the 11th graders. She’s good at that and I like talking to her and her husband. I have come up with a good activity for 144 students and breaking them into groups of 12, so that would be 12 groups. I think it will seem similar to something that I did with the 9th graders on their school trip, but I’m making it a bit harder. So I think that after the oral exam, I will get them to prepare for that and to think on their feet. Then after I finished the details for that, I was talking to another teacher who loves to talk about her husband. There’s nothing wrong with and I enjoy talking to, but it was a weird conversation that we were having. We were talking about my tie and the soccer game.

I came home and watched the soccer game between Japan and North Korea. It was an exciting game, even though I only saw the second half. I saw both goals by Japan and see them clinch a place for the world cup competition in Germany next year. So that was exciting.

Another full day

So today I have to teach 6 classes, that’s a full day of teaching. I woke up before my alarm again. I’m not sure why that is happening a lot lately, but it wasn’t because of the heat either, it was just because I woke up earlier. But then I fell right back to sleep. I guess I was really tired because I didn’t get up again till it was around 6:30am. Somehow I was able to get ready really quick and get out the door. I got to the train station really quick too. I arrived at school about 10 minutes later than I would have normally, but since there wasn’t any assembly or anything today, it was no big deal. I ran into two teachers on my way to work. There seems to be one teacher that I’m running into each week on Tuesday and we talk on the train for a little bit too. She speaks a little English and I guess she wants to practice since that’s what it seems that she’s doing.

The morning started off with me teaching 3 classes of the 8th grade. That’s really really tough. They are the loudest and just craziest group of kids that are at the school. Even more so than the 7th graders, and that’s because the 7th graders are still new to the school and haven’t gotten into the bad habits like the 8th graders have. It’s really bad since each one of the classes is on each different level. So it wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be to deal with the noise. Although working with my partner each time was good. Both of them were able to jump in when I needed them to and they made a difference in the way the class was run. We did a few different chapters even though they were all supposed to be on the same page and have to get ready for the show & tell speech that’s coming up for their final. I don’t think that they are really ready for it, but we’ll see how that turns out.

The next class was with the 7th graders. My partner in this case was actually the English department chair, and I wanted to make a good impression since I don’t normally get a chance to teach with her so I mixed things up a little bit. I was still on a high that I’ve been teaching on my own today and I wasn’t really nervous at all. I really felt comfortable teaching, and I’d have to say that’s the first time all year that I could say that. So they were in their last practice for the Recitation contest which will be this Saturday. I can’t wait to actually start something more meaningful than memorizing lines to a passage. I think it’s good, and it helps them to get introduced to a language, but we’ve been doing it for a long time now and it doesn’t seem as if we have done anything else. So I’d like to kick it up a notch. I focused on adding more energy and pizzazz to their presentation. I think the other class was a little better, but that could be because I was just tired as hell too. I hadn’t eaten too much today and running really low on energy.

After lunch was another big task because I would move into teaching the High School kids. The first being the loud and proud 11th grade Fuji. They are loud and always in their own world. They are fun to teach though. I didn’t realize that they were a week behind on the schedule because we’ve had so many days off because of finals week. I had to review a part that I did in the other classes ages ago, and since they are the lowest level in the grade, I wanted to give them a good chance to catch up. It turns out that they were able to do the assignment and quite easily. Not sure if it was the explanation or if they just understood what they needed to do. So I think that next week, they will be able to finish up their paper test and turn it in to me so I could get it back to them at least a week before the test. I want them to have a lot of time to study and do their best. I don’t think that it will be too hard for them, but we’ll see how things go later.

The last class of today is one that I’ve never taught before. Most of the students and even my partner have never seen me teach before, so it was a treat for them and for me. I think this is a fun class, and it was weird for the students because both teachers in the class were male. That’s very odd and very rare at our school since there are only 10 male teachers and we aren’t usually paired up together. I think the class was fun and that they enjoyed it and learned a lot too. They understood my English pretty well and were even able to joke around. I didn’t want to be too strict since I was only a substitute teacher and I really didn’t know what I was doing or what CP wanted me to do. Anyways, I did what we did with the other 10th grade class from last week. It was great and I really felt good afterwards. I think that I could finally say that I’m actually teaching and being a real teacher.

After school I cleaned up my desk a little bit and did some organizing. I stayed till around 6pm and then walked to the station with another teacher. We had talked about how most of the teachers in my office seem so tired and just incredibly busy. It’s true that it’s like I’m working in a room with walking zombies. It’s really tough for them, and I mean it’s tough for me too and I’m only working there part-time. Other teachers don’t leave till around 9-10:30pm. That’s really late since they get started around 8am. It’s tough for them and for all of us to get all the things that we need finished. I think that I will begin to take more time off and when I finish to leave and enjoy more of my time meeting other people and enjoying my time while I’m in Japan. I think that’s important part of being here.

I filled in today

I had gotten up around 7am, which was good and I thought that I was able to sleep in since that’s when it got a bit hot. I think that it was weird because I thought it was supposed to be raining today, but it was already sunny and hot. I was able to air-out my futon and even get a hair cut before I went into work today. It is so nice to go at this time in the morning because the trains are all empty and I could sit and even sleep on the train.

By the time I arrived into work, I had noticed today was going to be a different day. All the teachers weren’t in the office and to be exact, there were only 2 teachers in the office. I started to get the hint that today we were having a little open school. It really wasn’t an open school where the parents would go into classes, but they were there to learn about the entrance exams and all the other things that go into the school. The day that they get to go into the classes will be this Wednesday and Thursday. I also had a note on my desk that said that CP was going to be absent today. That means there were two classes that are already behind because I wasn’t there to fill in. But there were two other classes that I would be teaching today, that I don’t normally lead. So I think that it was a chance for me to do something different.

The first class that I had to teach was a 9th grade class. This was the one that we last walked out of. I played off the fact that CP wasn’t there and said that she didn’t want to teach that class today because they were bad. So that today they would behave, which I really believe that they did. They were really quiet as I walked in. They seemed very worried and they wanted to be on their best behavior, but it was bad because they even stop participating. So I had to mix it up a little and to get them involved. Since we were doing a chapter that I’ve done before, I was able to change some things around and add some fun to it. I think that after we did most of the boring stuff I was able to add a Bryan touch to it. They enjoyed it and were participating more, so I liked that. I really think that I was able to get their attention, even the bad ones.

The second class that I had today was a 7th grade class. This is actually the first 7th grade class that I taught all year. I wasn’t even nervous about it, because I was at the beginning of the year. I think that this class has one of the highest levels so I wasn’t worried that they wouldn’t understand me or anything. I wanted them to focus on raising their voices because of they are very quiet. It’s hard to hear them when you’re standing in front of them. So I wanted to get them some good practice since it would be their last chance to get what they needed to know. So I found all the exclamation points and had them repeat the sentences. I had them do it so many times that I don’t think that they will ever forget it. So that was fun. I think that all the students enjoyed it, which I think is the most important point. I think that the other teacher liked it too. I used up a lot of energy with that class though, so I’m not sure I could keep on doing that with all the classes. I would wear myself down.

After this class and during 6th period the school met up in the Gym because they were holding their Student Council Elections. I think that it was pretty interesting and I was surprised about some people running. They didn’t seem as if they were the type to run for an office let alone a high office. So that was fun and interesting. They first have the student running give a little speech and then they have two people from that person’s class give a little “encouragement” speech on the side to tell the school how that person is. They did it for members in the 11th through 9th grades. I don’t know why they didn’t go into the 8th and 7th graders. I guess they don’t get an office in the student council.

I didn’t realize it, but I had English club after school. Since CP wasn’t there I guess I had to take over. I thought that it would just be cancelled, but the student asked for it, so I went with them to do English club. It’s the same 4 girls that always come and I think that the club has fewer and fewer people. That’s a sad truth, but I don’t even feel like doing it sometimes. I need to add new energy into it to get a boost for more people or something that would make it interesting for them. Today we went for a debate. Is it better to be a Boy or Girl? I’m surprised that they even wanted to debate that. And the funny thing was that they decided that it was better to be a boy than a girl. I thought that was really funny.

Then I came home and took a shower to get ready for watching SMAP x SMAP. Tonight, in Bistro SMAP, the guest will be Ai Otsuka. I think she’s so cute =D. So actually I’m watching it and typing this right now. It was good, I didn’t know that she liked natto, but she’s from Osaka, so she ordered manjyayaki and other Osaka’s food. It looked pretty good. I think that I will need to get to sleep soon since CP will be absent tomorrow too and I will have 6 classes and English club with Jr. High School. That’s going to require a lot of energy that I hope I will have tomorrow.

Meeting up with a friend for lunch in Shibuya

I haven’t seen one of my friends for a really really long time. So I’m glad that I will be able to hang out with them today.

It was great. We had a lunch buffet at Shakey’s Pizza. I didn’t know that they did buffet for lunch. It wasn’t the best food I’ve ever had, but it was a pretty good price for all you can eat. I would probably go back again. I mean we stayed there for 5 hours talking. I really had a good time and it was weird to see my friend again since I haven’t seen them in AGES. I mean the last time I remember seeing SA, was at least 2 years ago. She disappeared for awhile and I didn’t know what was going on with her. But I’m glad to see that she finally moved back to Tokyo so we could see each other again and talk. I think she’s really an intelligent person who has to deal with difficulties in life. But she’s got a great outlook that I believe will help her on her journey. Since she’s living in Tokyo now, I think that we’ll be able to hang out more often, which is something I’m looking forward to.

After dinner, I jumped on the train back to Yokohama Station where I did a little window shopping for about an hour. I went to the usual stores to see what they had and I wasn’t sure if I was going to get anything since I’ve spent more money in my budget than I would have liked. But I still haven’t gotten any summer clothes either.

Then I came back to get some dinner at Fuji. Then I bought some clothes for work, short sleeved dress shirts. I didn’t want to be the only one with long sleeves during summer since it’s going to be hot as hell. I mean it’s already hot and its only 23 degrees Celsius. I’m really going to hate it when it gets to August and it’s around 40 degrees Celsius. I think the humidity will kill me the most.

I didn’t achieve two of my goals today though. I wanted to get my hair cut and do my laundry. So I think that since I bought some new clothes I could hold off on the laundry till Thursday, which is my next day off. And I think I’ll have time tomorrow morning to do a little trimming.

Yakumo Basketball "Ganbatte" party

I had a pretty busy day today. I would have to be doing something in all periods of the day and then I had some extra stuff after school and another thing with all the teachers and some of the students too. So today was very busy, but the part that I didn’t like so much was that I wasn’t able to get enough sleep and was really tired throughout the whole day. I didn’t have enough energy to get me through what I wanted to do at the level that I wanted to do it. It’s not like I only got a few hours of sleep either, I mean I got a fair amount, but I’m not sure why I’m just so exhausted lately.

The first class I had today, was with MSta, but the problem that I ran into here was that I wasn’t prepared to teach it today. I didn’t have anything set up so I had to get up earlier to prepare the lesson. I ended up being a little late even to get things ready for that. I was getting as much as I could get finished at home, but it just didn’t work. I just ran out of time, so when I got to school, I was finishing up things. As I was getting things ready, I realized that the CD didn’t work. I tried using the computer at school to fix the problem, but it just wouldn’t play, so I wasn’t too happy. We just ended up doing another activity that I did with the 10th graders last year. I think that it was too easy for her. I learned that her ability is much higher than I thought it was. She could hear my English even though I was speaking really fast. I don’t know how she was able to pick it up, but it was good. I then went into a little business talk with her and teaching her things that she might find useful for the future. I’m teaching a lot of business and life to her. I think it’s a topic that she’s getting really interested in. Even though she won’t need to know this for years to come, I don’t think that she’ll have another chance to hear it, I’m just planting the seed, not sure if it will stick though.

Then for 2nd and 3rd period I had to work with the 7th graders to get them ready for the Recitation Contest next week. I had them read their passages to me individually. In the 3rd period, since I had two hours to work with them, I went around to each student and then had the students go up to the front of the room to go again. I made the students recite their passages so many times. I kinda feel sorry for them but now I could understand why they think that I’m strict. But I tried to make it fun, but I don’t think that it worked too well.

After school, I was just working on correcting the 11th graders’ papers for their oral exam that’s coming up really soon. I had noticed that the teachers’ office is really really hot and stuffy. I mean most of the teachers are at the point of passing out, even me. So it took a long time for me to finish correcting the papers because I was half awake and half asleep. Even though I just had a week off to rest, it seemed like it wasn’t enough. That’s the crazy part about it. I didn’t really have that much grading and correcting to do, only about 42 papers for all the students in one class. It’s a big class, but I had till the upcoming Friday to complete it, so I’m happy to get that out of the way quickly. That’s something that I’m glad that I had accomplished today. Correcting English isn’t as easy as many people believe it would be. Since I have to interpret what I think the student means by what they are writing. I mean when you mix up the grammar there’s no telling what someone means, but I do my best to guess at what I think she’s trying to say.

Back to work

So I had 6 classes today. It felt like I had to get up really early and I didn’t get a good amount of sleep last night, so I felt really tired because of that. I started to fall behind on updating my journals today. I didn’t get a chance to write in my journal at school for my classes. I usually have a little journal at school that details what I did in each class so that when I go back in I know what we covered and what we will cover in all the classes. I’ve only fallen behind a few times and I think that this will count as one of the times.

The first two classes I had today were 11th grade classes. I passed out their test paper that they would have to write in complete sentences and turn into me so I could correct their English. It would be hard work for me because I’m not just reading over a script that is standard, each one is different and original and in their own words, which is something that I like. I think that it really gets them to think about how to use English and why they like certain things. I gave them a lot of time to finish it, but they couldn’t finish in time. I think that they were all working hard on it too, so it’s not because they were just goofing off or something. I think that they know it’s their test so they were doing their best. Well there are a few of them that don’t take it serious and I will have to grade them down if they aren’t able to keep up to par.

3rd period was 7th grade class, so it was only recitation contest. I think that during this class, I was beginning to feel tired because of all the energy that I used in the first two classes.

4th period was loud, but what else could I expect. They will always be loud, but they still understand what is going on in the lesson, which is something quite strange. They were in a world of their own, but still able to comprehend and respond to the questions that we asked them. Since they are able to do the work that we ask them to do, we really can’t punish them for anything, but them being loud is very disruptive to the class, or for the students who can’t learn because it’s so loud.

5th period was good because it was the fun class. I didn’t teach though and I was able to walk around and mingle with the students. I think that it’s a good switch for the students to experience different teachers teaching them so they don’t get too bored. CP made some rice krispie treats for them so they were really excited about that. They really enjoyed it and they felt really special. I think that they should have too because it’s not everyday that a master chef would make them something to eat. We did a lesson that last years’ 12th graders did. I think that it was ok since they will have different lessons next year when they are in the 11th grade. I think it’s interesting how things change from year to year, but it’s not really a big change for them. As long as they are learning, it doesn’t really matter.

6th period was with the 7th graders so we did more practice with the recitation contest. But after the class there was a fire drill. It takes about 3 minutes and 26 seconds to get all the teachers and students out of the school, so no one would die if there was a fire in the home economics room. I stayed at school for a little bit and decided to leave around 6pm around that time, there were a bunch of part-time teachers leaving too. So I caught up with them and it turns out that they were going out for some drinks.

We went to an izakaya around the station and just had some food. The food was actually very delicious and unlike any other izakaya that I’ve been to. I didn’t order any alcohol and once again, I was the only one. It was nice to talk to the part-time teachers because they are so much more relaxed than the people in my office. They seem to be so much closer too. I don’t know why, but it’s very interesting and they really get along with each other. I mean they all work at different places and have many other things to do too. So I think that it was good bonding time with them. I really enjoyed the time there. They invited me to play tennis with them on Thursday of next week and since that’s my day off, I think that I will go. I hope it doesn’t rain, I’d like to start playing more so that I’m ready to play more in competition style and helping the tennis team on days that I’m not teaching with the English club. I’ve really got to start to think about how I use my time in Japan now and I don’t want to be doing too much and not getting compensated for it with cash or great experience. I think that I’ve been focusing too much for my job, but not enough for what I’m planning to do after that. I know that it’s almost a year since I’ve been in Japan and I need to see what progress that I’ve made, and I’m not sure that I can measure up to the goals that I’ve set before I came here. So, it’s a good time to test and to see where I’m at. I didn’t end up leaving that party till around 10pm, which meant I didn’t get home till around 12am. I had work early again, so I didn’t think that I would get enough rest for the next day since I would have more to do.

Going to see Kyogen

I went to Kawasaki today. I think it was Kawasaki at least. It was very near to Kamata station, and it was at a place called Aprico Hall. I’m not sure what that means or anything. What was there waiting for me is a farce called Kyogen. It’s traditional Japanese theater. It was interesting because I had arrived about an hour early to the facility so I was having a conversation with one of the teachers at the entrance as we were escorting other teachers, parents and students to the second floor.

The first 30 minutes was one of the main guys of the show explaining certain parts of the farce so that when they performed the audience would understand. The performance would be done in entirely old Japanese, so it would be hard for everyone to understand. This farce is done by a very famous family who specialize in doing kyogen. It was done by the Izumi family and they take this stuff seriously.

The second 30 minutes was the actual play being acted out. It was hard to understand since it was VERY different from normal conversation. I didn’t understand ONE word in the entire performance. It was really tough to get through since I was starving at this time too. I mean it’s all in Japanese, but if it was normal, I might have gotten an idea of what was going on, but I didn’t understand anything.

The last 30 minutes was just going over some parts of the play again. And then they were teaching the students some strict behaviors of the old Japanese era like how to greet and to meet people. They used to have a very strict code when doing things like that. Like at my school, before we start class, they have to stand and bow and say please teach us. But back in the older days, it was stricter and they even had a certain way of sitting with shoulders straight back and knelt down. So it was interesting to see, even though I still didn’t understand. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but then I didn’t think it would be in traditional Japanese either. Most teachers and I’m sure all the students didn’t understand a word either.

After that, I went with another teacher to get something to eat. We decided to go to T.G.I. Fridays to get some food and have a little chat. I think this lasted about 5 hours, but I think it’s some of the best 5 hours that I’ve had in a long time. I really feel at ease talking to this teacher. We have a great connection and can just talk and talk. So I like that. We didn’t order that many things, but somehow it managed to be very pricey. I paid for all of the bill as a gesture of politeness since last time I was treated so I wanted to return the favor.

Met with YSki and EK in Ueno

I didn’t do much today again. I probably should have been working on my website since I told people that I would update it today, but I ran into a little problem with the server not hosting my website anymore. So I’ll deal with that later I guess. I wasn’t in the mood to take care of that problem today. But I should remedy that problem soon.

I got sucked into My Space and Mixi again. I was doing a lot of browsing around to see who I knew. I think I might have added a few more friends. I didn’t know that some of those people even had a profile. I was cleaning up my files too like getting rid of the stuff I don’t need anymore and moving things around. I’m running out of space on my laptop. My vision was getting blurred today too. I really couldn’t see for half the morning and afternoon. I don’t know why really.

I did my laundry today. Something that I didn’t really need to do, but I suppose that since I had the time, that I should do it before things get piled up. But I picked the worse time to do it too. Since I was going to go meet YSki at Ueno station at 6:30pm, I would have needed to leave my house around 4pm to get there on time. But I didn’t start my laundry till around then, and that takes at least 30 minutes. So I did that and some how I was able to get to Ueno station on time.

We had dinner at Pronto, a café / bar place, but they have food there too. It wasn’t too bad, and I ordered a pizza. I have been craving pizza for some odd reason. It’s nothing like the American styled pizza and it’s not as greasy either. But it’s not as filing either. I had finished a whole pizza by myself and still wasn’t full. The whole meeting thing took about an hours’ time, which really isn’t a good balance of time because it takes me about 2.5 hours to get there. So that’s about 5 hours of travel time for only one hour. But it’s YSki, so I thought it was worth it.