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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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