Nothing special

I took care of some things today. I finally put on the buttons to some of the clothes that I had before. They had fallen off long ago, but I have been too lazy to put them back on. But since they are summer clothes, I didn’t need it for a long time, so that’s why I waited. But I’m glad that I took care of it now. I think I did a pretty good job with the sewing too.

I was also watching the high school baseball tournament. I was watching Yokohama high school beat the crap out of Waseda high school. When I last saw the game, it was 13-3 and I saw about 13 points of it. It was really severe and there was breaking news that the top person of the Democratic party of Japan resigned over an email scandal, which really didn’t involve him, but rather a member in his party. But anyways, that interrupted the broadcast, so I couldn’t finish watching the rest of the game. I made a little breakfast for me to eat while I was watching the game.

I was looking around the internet and studying different things like the greek and roman gods. I was also looking at different facts on factopedia or something like that. It was interesting and occupied a lot of time. The plant that I have been trying to take care isn’t growing… it is supposed to grow in 5 days, but I’m on my 4th day and nothing has sprouted. I water it everyday and it gets sunlight too. What else does it need?

I was watching Music station tonight and I saw a lot of songs that I liked so I will be looking for them too. It was a special since it was like a countdown of the best 111 songs, I guess for spring. Or highly requested or something. There was another program on Fuji TV that was also interesting because they featured artists that remade old famous songs in Japan. So I will be looking around for those too. There was also Lord of the Rings on TV tonight. It was weird watching the Return of the King in Japanese and tomorrow will be the conclusion. They broke it down in parts, which I’m not surprised since they probably have been playing it all week long.

I didn’t work on my textbook tonight because I wanted to take a break from it, but I know that I have to get it finished soon. I should get it checked over by a few people before I present it to the other teachers. I need to have a better, clearer idea of what I want to do before I bring it up to them. I have a general idea, but the textbook that I was working on last night went pretty well. I have included a lot of the things that I have learned over the past year and half and incorporated it with the new topic for the 11th graders. I think it will be a fun year and one that will educational for the students, if they are active. The trick now is to get them to be active.

It has been really cold tonight too. My hands were almost frozen as I was making dinner tonight. I mean it has been near winter like weather recently. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were snowing outside. I mean degrees have been in the single digits. I think the cherry blossoms would die because it’s been so cold recently.

Yakumo Brass Band Concert

So I went to the brass band concert tonight. It was pretty much all that I did. I talked to some friends and family, but that was for like 20 minutes. I really woke up a bit late, around 2pm and needed to leave around 4pm. I finished off my food from before, so that I wouldn’t let it sit out for a very long time and go bad. It was incredibly cold last night and it was again today. So I wore a suit with a thick overcoat, and it was still cold. I’m really glad that I decided to wear it though since it was really really cold. I thought it would rain too, but it didn’t.

It took me a little while to get there, but I got on all the right trains and everything. I made it to Shibuya at exactly 5:45pm, which was the time I was supposed to meet CP in front of the Keio Inokashira gates. We went in and saw many students and former students, but the train was packed so we thought we would go on another train. Little did we know, because we both weren’t paying attention and just talking to each other, we jumped on the express train. We ended up passing the station by like 5 stations. So we had to backtrack for a little while. It was a good thing that we decided to go early otherwise we would have been late.

I didn’t get a really good seat either. I mean it was good, but not for taking pictures. I was in the third row from the front and center. So I was pretty close to the action, but I was too close to take any good pictures because I couldn’t fit everyone in the shot. So I didn’t take any pictures, which was a waste. I met a lot of former students there and I was sitting next to CP and another English teacher that I have started to talk to a lot recently. She was really tired and both were a bit sleepy. MTra or Tanechi just came back from our Hakone residence with the 7th grade and 9th grade students today, so it must have been really hard for her.

The concert itself was great. They were really really good. I really like going to their concerts because it really was good. The sound was very clear and it was powerful. Really great! The concert lasted for about 2 hours, which did go by really quickly. It was weird seeing all the students wear makeup and out of uniform. But it was interesting to see how they dress on their off times.

After the concert, I got some news about what has been going on at school. I learned that most of the teachers got moved around and jumped grades and I’m sure that there will be a lot of movement in the teacher’s office. I also learned that I really don’t get much of a say in what I will do next year. I know that I will be leading and probably be the only teacher of the 11th grade, which is something I like. The other classes that I teach will be sprinkled around much like it was last year. I would like to be able to pick some classes that I could teach and I think that it depends on who I will be partnered with too. Most of the decision making is out of my hands, but at least I know one thing for sure that I will be leading and taking care of the 11th graders. I’m a bit excited about that since I didn’t teach them much last year and it’s a high school class.

I also learned a few other things that I need to look out for next year. The schedule hasn’t been revealed yet, so no one knows what’s really going on, but at least I have an idea now. I heard about some homeroom teacher shifts and I really feel sorry for a new teacher since she will be leading, probably, the most difficult group of girls. Last year 9th graders Ran and Yuri were difficult apart, but next year, they are going to be combined… so that is just problems in the making and with a first year homeroom teacher. That’s just a formula for disaster. I know it sounds weird, but I think I would like to try to lead that class… I think I could be gutsy about it and get control.

On the train ride home, I was thinking a lot about what I wanted to do for the 11th graders. I have already made a tentative plan for them, so I think that I will be a step ahead before we meet on the 10th of April to punch out all the details. I’m also planning to make my own textbook for the students because I hate the way that textbooks are made with things that are irrelevant. So I’m going to do one that gets to the core of what I want to cover and what they should learn. I think I could manage it, but I have to get started on that right away and make sure my plan is detailed perfectly. But that’s hard to do since I know the schedule will change a few times and things won’t always be perfect. So I have to factor that in too.
I had dinner at Jonathons tonight and got Tonkatsu since I have been craving that. I didn’t get home till around 11:30pm, which is a bit late to be honest with you. I sat there having dinner and working out my plan of what I wanted to do based on the new information I got tonight. So I think that once I get home, I will start working on putting things together and making things work with my plan and the syllabus that has been created.

Out and about in Ginza

Today I was actually pretty productive. I got more things checked off my list which were mainly things that needed to be cleaned. I talked to family for a little bit. I asked them about my ideas for my class and they offered me their suggestions. They were studying for their Spanish classes, and we were speaking to each other in Spanish, which is really weird. We didn’t talk that much either. They needed to sleep because they had early classes the next day. I was also talking with my friend that lives in San Francisco. She was recommending to me that I get a magazine with the events around Tokyo and Yokohama, so I could get out of the house more. I really should do that too, but I’m just getting lazy about it.

I had made plans to meet with one of my friends from high school. He didn’t go to my high school, but was a friend on mine from that time period. He’s a really intelligent and able person. He’s studying at Harvard Law School right now, which is pretty cool I think. He’s here on a trip with school. He was shopping around in Ginza, and I would meet him around there. But I wouldn’t meet him till 9pm. So I decided to give myself a haircut before then.

At first things were ok, but when I almost finished, I messed it up and now it is a little too short for me. I wanted to have my hair longer, but now it is really short, like the time I used to have it. For some reason, I don’t like it though; even though it is the same length that I’ve had for a year and a half now. I think that was a weird feeling too. For me, it just looks strange now, but it actually is quite usual. I ended up fixing it enough so it doesn’t look horrible, but it’s just short. Today was actually pretty cold too, so having short hair really isn’t very beneficial for me.

I had to leave the house soon after that to catch the train to get to Ginza on time. We only planned to have dinner together, and I really had no idea what to get, so we just went walking around. We found a nice little ramen place, it really wasn’t nice, but we found his friends inside eating there. It was the strangest thing since we were walking around for a little while and in such a big city with so many restaurants, we ended up going into the ones where his friends from school and on the same trip. We went in and just said hi and then we left to go find another restaurant since they were just finishing up. They suggested that we try a Korean BBQ place.

So I thought I found one, but it turned out to be a BBQ beef tongue place. The beef tongue place was a Sendai themed restaurant. I was pretty close and did read the kanji right, I just neglected the tongue part in the translation. It turned out to be pretty good and we got a nice set to eat with that. I didn’t finish the food and was eating really slow and I’m not sure why either. We were talking for a few hours while we were there. It was good to catch up and hear about the things that he’s been up to. We tried to think about the people that we knew from high school and who we keep in contact with. All of them were Key Club people since that’s how we knew each other. It was really good. It was just by random chance that I found out that he was in Tokyo too. I read it on his xanga since I get daily subscriptions from my friends. So it was great to see him. He looks exactly the same as I last saw him, like 4-5 years ago.
After that, we went to a convenient store and he bought Green Tea Kit Kat, which he shared a little bit of. I was surprised that it tasted pretty good. I’ll probably have to be more daring and try more things. Then we walked back to Ginza station, he was taking the subway and I was taking JR, so I made sure that he jumped on the right train and platform and then I left for the JR lines.

Not very productive

Well, I woke up late again. I did talk to family for a little bit today, and I found a few more friends on MySpace. That was a surprise, actually they found me. It is actually pretty incredible since one of them was from a trip that I took when I was in the 11^th grade to Washington D.C. She was part of the group that I hung out with. We have only met for that one week and we kept in touch in high school, but after we graduated, we haven’t kept in touch. So MySpace really is incredible. I never thought that I would talk to some of the people I have on my list again. It is pretty cool. It’s always nice to talk to people that I haven’t talked to in a long time. I really do have to get some things done tomorrow since I will actually start to have some things to do in the coming days.

So I was happy about that. But I didn’t get my laundry done today. I made a new list of things to do and I didn’t accomplish one of them. I did cook dinner and lunch for myself, so I’m happy about that too. I have been reading a lot of news lately. I have been watching a lot of news on the TV too. The TV programs on Tuesday night aren’t very interesting, but I still watch. As I was watching some TV tonight, there was an earthquake. It was actually pretty big. It was a magnitude of 6 on the Japanese scale at the epicenter. It wasn’t so strong where I am, but the house did shake for a good 30 some seconds. The TV was late to report it by a few minutes. Usually they are pretty good with the warning, but I actually felt it before I saw the report on TV.

Something of recently that I have been pissed off at is that people spell my name wrong. What’s up with that? At first, I didn’t mind, but recently everyone has been doing it. I know that I haven’t talked to some people in a long time, but come on, my name isn’t that hard to spell. The thing that really gets me is that they spell it wrong, when my name is already present. I mean it’s already there!!! So why are people spelling it wrong? I just don’t get it. It has been bothering me though.

Accomplished

I left the house again today. I was a bit surprised actually. I made a list of things I needed to do for this week and the most surprising thing about it was that I got it all done today. I have been getting to bed really late recently and waking up equally late. I would say my average bed time is around 4-5am. I think I get up around noon to 3pm. That’s definitely not good for when school starts. I just find myself reading more and being awake and more productive at night. I don’t know why, but I’ve always been that way.

When I got up, I thought that I needed to get some laundry done today, but decided to push that off till tomorrow since it wasn’t that important. What I really needed to do was get some dry clean done, since I was planning to do that the week after school finished. That didn’t happen, so I needed to get it done soon before I run out of time. Then I thought, since I’m going to be out, I should get the other things done too. I needed to get some school supplies, since school will be starting soon, and I want to be ahead of the curve instead of behind it. So I got a lot of the materials I needed for when school starts up again. I still need to get my planning done though, but that will come in due time. I also did a lot of grocery shopping and even bought some clothes today. I was a bit surprised that I spent so much money in the past two days. But I guess that it was necessary and I probably couldn’t have avoided it either way.

The next things on my list of things to do are plan my classes, look for some contractors in La Mesa, and study some Japanese. I have been studying a lot of Japanese music and trying to translate and understand the meanings. It’s not easy to do, especially at my level. I enjoy it though, and I think it is good practice. There was a lot more that I wanted to write, but I can’t seem to remember what I wanted to say. I didn’t watch too much TV today. Yeah, there are still lots of things I have to do before my vacation is over. It has been weird because I have been itchy all over recently. I have some rubbing cream for that, but it doesn’t work so well. I don’t know what it is, but it surly is annoying.

There is a commercial on TV about a car called Zest. I know that would be a bar of soap in the states, but here it’s for a car. And in the commercial, there is a news broadcast that says a second Tokyo Tower has been erected. In the commercial, because it’s a car commercial, they decide to jump in the car and go check it out. Well it turns out, IT’S TRUE!!! Read article below, provided by the Japan Times - http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060326a1.html

New Tokyo Tower to be built in Sumida

Transmitter would be tallest in world

NHK and five commercial TV broadcasters in the Tokyo area have decided to build a new radio and TV transmitter dubbed New Tokyo Tower, in Sumida Ward by 2010, sources familiar with the project said Saturday.

The tower is to be about 600 meters high, or nearly twice as tall as 333-meter Tokyo Tower in Minato Ward and higher than the world's tallest tower, the 553-meter CN Tower in Toronto. It will be built on a former railway shunting yard along the Tobu-Isesaki Line's Narihirabashi and Oshiage stations, they said.

Tobu Railway Co., owner of the site, has expressed willingness to shoulder part of the estimated 50 billion yen construction cost.

NHK and the five broadcasters are expected to put up several hundred million yen each for the project.

The broadcasters will officially announce the site by the end of this month, the sources said, adding the railway operator will soon set up a task force for the project and call for investment from other entities.

The broadcasters are using Tokyo Tower as a transmitter for both analog and digital terrestrial broadcasting. But Japan plans to switch broadcasting waves completely from analog to digital, which will offer high-quality audio visual transmission and two-way communications by July 2011.

A new service for cellphone-based terrestrial digital broadcasting named "wan-segu" (one-segment) broadcasting is also being launched in April with the hope of offering clearer images with less disruption while in motion.

In view of such changes, and to make use the features of digital broadcasting, the broadcasters drew up plans for a second tower that would be tall enough to transmit digital wavelengths over high-rise buildings.

Several local governments and businesses were competing to have the tower built in their areas.

They included the municipal government of Hachioji, which wanted to build the tower at a site in Tama New Town, and the city of Saitama, which wanted the tower to be part of its Saitama New Urban Center project.

In March 2005, the broadcasters tentatively concluded that an area in Sumida and Taito wards would be the most suitable.

But they spent time examining the Saitama plan, which would offer advantages in case a disaster hits Tokyo.

The Sumida Ward site was picked in the end because the location is close and convenient to the broadcasters' headquarters and because support from local businesses was seen as favorable.

The Japan Times: Sunday, March 26, 2006

(C) All rights reserved

Song of the moment: Utada Hikaru’s cover to Yousui Inoue – Shou nen ji dai

Finally left the house

I left the house today to throw away some trash that was starting to pile up and to get more food. That was the only reason why I left today. I really do feel like hikikkomori, which means social withdrawal. I have to find reasons for me to leave the house otherwise I wouldn’t. Sakura, cherry blossoms, are in bloom now and it will start to be really “pretty” out. I didn’t take many pictures of them last year, so I need to do it this year to have a good collection. It really is a Japanese experience. There is a scheduled Red Shoes Ohanami party on the first next month. Ohanami is a party sitting under the Sakura trees, enjoying time with friends while watching the beautiful Cherry Blossoms. I’m looking forward to it, but I have many things to do before that day.

Today, I just sat at home in front of my computer and watching more TV usually. There is the high school baseball tournament. That really does take up a lot of my time. I didn’t cook today and bought my food at the grocery store. It was good to go out and go for a walk. I bought a lot of stuff and more rice so I could cook. I think it was the last time I have to do so since I will be leaving soon. I’m already in the mode of leaving and not really enjoying my time here. I think that is a bad thing and I need to find a way to snap out of that. I have been really interested in cover versions of songs. I sometimes think they are better than the original versions. I find that one a bit weird too since they would have to be good in order to be covered. But the covered version just sounds fresh.

The song of the moment listed below is one that I have been listening to all day. I even wrote down the lyrics in Japanese as part of my Japanese practice. I will probably translate it soon too. It’s not a very difficult song to transcribe, but there are some parts that aren’t clear and I haven’t finished it yet. I still have many thing to do, but I haven’t started it and not sure when I will either. I will probably get around to doing things next week, but next week I will actually be a bit busy. So I probably should get started tomorrow.

Song of the moment: Hitomi Yaida’s cover of The Blue Hearts – Love letter

Back to Metacafe

I got sucked back into metacafe today too. I just couldn’t get off the computer. I’m sad to say that I’m addicted to stupid videos of people. There are really short videos too, but there are so many that it just fills up a lot of time. I wanted to get a haircut and I need to buy some stuff, but I neglected to do that in the day time.

I was watching a lot of TV again. I usually watch TV when I’m eating and was watching during brunch. There was the high school baseball tournament on TV again, so I was watching that. After that, there was the volleyball tournament, but I didn’t see any of that. I didn’t watch the sumo tournament too. There was a soccer game on TBS today though. It was the Urawa Reds versus Yokohama Marinos. Yokohama lost though, which was a bit sad, but I think that Urawa is the better team. They seem to have more talent and some of the players are on the national team for Japan. I only saw a few of the goals, since I tuned in late. But it was an interesting game. It was weird how it ended with a goal by the Reds during lost time.

I’m not sure what I will do about tomorrow or the rest of the week. I worked on updating my calendar yesterday and I got a call from my co-worker that helped me plot a more accurate plan of when school will start. But I’m all confused about that since she told me that school starts on the 12^th of April, but I was told the 13^th of April before. There are some meetings I have to go to, but not sure when. There are things that need to be worked out and I need to start working on the materials for my classes.

Song of the moment: Utada Hikaru’s cover of Mr. Children’s - ??????

Metacafe

I didn’t do much again today. I had plans to go out, but that really didn’t come through for me. I woke up late since I sleep really late now. I didn’t think I got to sleep till around 7am this morning. I was watching a lot of TV since it is tournament season. Well at least it seems that way. I was watching the high school baseball tournament. It is actually very interesting. They are very good and I think that it is more interesting than professional baseball. I only watched one game as I was eating breakfast or lunch since it was already in the afternoon. It was pretty cool and the games are close. You don’t really see too many blowouts in high school baseball. Well I haven’t seen so many at least.

After that was finished there was a volleyball tournament. I think it was for high school, but I can’t be too sure. It was ok, nothing that interesting, but still only watched a little of it until I got bored. There was also a big spring sumo tournament on TV, but there is only so much you could watch of that too. I should go to a tournament one day, but I doubt I could stay for a long time since I would get bored.

The only other thing I did today was go on Metacafe. If you don’t know what metacafe is, it is similar to YouTube, or Bolt.com. It’s a place where people have uploaded videos and are streaming online. I just got interested in it and I don’t know why. I think I was working on my Google homepage and there was link to it somewhere. I just got stuck there for a very very long time. I was watching it all night and day. I took a break to make dinner and eat dinner.

I watched the rest of the first DVD of GTO. I’m now on volume II of the 5 disc series. I really like that animated drama and I’m really not sure why. It’s funny though and I like that. It gives me something to do and laugh. Although I can’t say that a life in front of the computer and TV is a good thing, but I’ll eventually break out of it.

I went back to metacafe and just watched it till around 3am. I didn’t even realize the time since it is all the same to me, but time really does fly by so fast. I mean all I was doing was watching stupid videos that other people have posted up. It was a bit ridiculous, but some are really hilarious.

Trip to H.I.S. Yokohama

Today I was determined to get back to my goals today. I was finishing off my research online and printed out a lot of pages so I went into prepared to ask the right questions and decided to go to the HIS office in Yokohama and ask them what they had and what they recommend. I found out a lot of information and narrowed it down to a campaign special. It was about ?60,000 for 4 days, which is a little steep for such a short trip. But when I got there, they showed me something more interesting. It was something my research failed to reveal. It said that for ONE person to join a tour group they add an additional ?40,000. That meant the trip would have been over $1000 with taxes and everything. That isn’t even including an optional tour that I would have requested to go on… that is a bit much for me and since it’s such a short trip, I decided that I probably won’t go.

My backup plan was to just go there using a very discounted plane and stay at a cheap hotel and just go on my own, but I didn’t want to get a bad impression of Hong Kong and I really haven’t researched enough to go. So I think that I’ll go when I’m more prepared to go. When I have more time and more money, I’ll make a better plan and plan ahead. I think that my procrastination really kicked me in the ass this time, and I think that I’ll have to take this lesson and be prepared for the next time. This is the best time for me to go, but there is something deep inside that tells me to not go this time. I don’t know why, but I feel something inside me telling me not to go. I mean if I don’t go, I don’t know what I would be doing for the rest of the time during my spring break. It is really troubling me, that I have this feeling. The lady at the HIS office was really encouraging and she lived in Hong Kong before and said that she really liked it. I have told people that I would be going, so it is a bit shameful to pull out at the last minute. But I think it is the right thing to do.

I was troubled at this point, so what do people do when they are troubled, yes, they eat!! Haha!! So I went to my favorite place at Queens Square and had a nice, delicious Subway meal. I ordered a bit much, but at least I was able to finish it. I was trying to think and get some ideas about what I am going to do. At this point, I could try a different place and go with a different plan. I went to the book store on the 5th floor of the Landmark Plaza and looked at some of their travel books. They had a nice little book on the Best of Hong Kong, but it was about $20. A little much, but I guess they could get away with that since there was only one copy and I’m living in Japan. There was another book on Europe that looked really good and would sell for $14.95 in the states, since that’s what it was advertised as on the cover, but it is ?3500, which is more than double the price… Damn they get away with robbery there.

At this point, I realized that I need to work out a plan for the rest of my life here in Japan. I only have a few more months and I have many things that I want to do, but haven’t accomplished on my things to do list. So I should take care of that since I don’t plan to return to Japan. I could always go to Hong Kong later, since it will always be there. The other plans that I had for travel are to Hawaii in June, and Amsterdam or most of Europe in summer. So there really isn’t anything else for me. I think that I might go with students to the Hakone residence in summer for school since I will be leaving soon after that. At the end of April and beginning of May, there’s golden week, which is a famous time to travel, but everything is really expensive, so I doubt that I would make a trip then, but if Hong Kong is at a good price then, I’ll probably go then.

So for this spring break, I’ll work on making plans to travel, and what I’m going to do after I leave Japan. There have been many changes in the world around me, so I have to prepare to adjust to that. I need to work on the construction of my new room in San Diego. I need to start to study again, since I could potentially be a student again, so I should start to build my habits on that. I will work to be a better teacher and I need to work on the materials for next school year to make sure that becomes reality. I was thinking about taking a class or joining a circle. So I think that I have many things to keep me busy in the meantime.

I got home around 8:30pm after shopping at the grocery store and walking home. I wanted to see the finale for a drama. I haven’t been following it very closely, but I just wanted to see the ending. It ended a bit weird… I think that seems to be usual for Japanese dramas, they all end weird. I watched another teacher drama after that one too and it also had a weird ending. So I was a little disappointed with those dramas tonight, although the first one at 9pm was better. It probably would have made more sense if I followed it. The last one didn’t make sense at all even with the flashbacks. Then I came here to type this. I think for tomorrow, I will read some of the books that I spent a lot of money to ship here. I have always wanted to take the train from end to end and read during that time. I might try that tomorrow since I have time and that’s probably the only place I could get good reading in.

Song of the moment: Ai – story (I don’t understand most of it though, but I haven’t tried either)

Home all day

I spent another day at home with not much to do. I was doing a lot of research for my trip to Hong Kong. I have found some deals that I like and I think would be good even though it is less than the time that I want to be there for. I was looking for a lot of 4 day trips, which are similar to the trip that I took to Korea. They seem to be numerous, so I think that’s what people usually go for. I have found some good deals on them, but I think that since the time is so short, they are either all booked up or I won’t be able to get them for such a short notice.

I did something rather unusual today too. I sent an email to EK to see what was up with him. I haven’t heard from him in over a month. He was supposed to have quit his job and become a full time stock trader, but my initial guess, would be that he didn’t. I was surprised that he didn’t show up last week when JGz was in town. That was a real shocker for me since people that we NEVER see showed up and EK is a usual member and he didn’t. That led me to believe that he didn’t quit his job yet. He does make good money working there, so I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t. We talked for about 30 minutes while he was on his lunch break. He said that we should meet when we have time, which he said possibly tonight.

That never happened though. I was getting hungry around 7pm, when he said that he would call around 5-6pm. I think he got busy with work and didn’t get off till like 10pm or something. That’s cool; I just watched some TV and made dinner. I made something that was left over for like a week, but I think that it was still good to eat… I didn’t get sick from it and it didn’t smell funny, so I think that it was ok. Actually dinner tonight was pretty good. I was a bit surprised; first that the foods weren’t spoiled and second that it tasted good and was filling.

I was watching a Quiz show with some celebrities. It was very interesting and lasted for a few hours. Well, I switched channels and there were two different programs about trivia and quizzes. I have gotten used to watching the TV a lot, which is bad and good in a way. I came back on the computer around 1am and did more research before I just fell asleep.

DAMN I FEEL GOOD TODAY!!!

I didn’t do anything outside of the house today, but I really felt good and motivated. I got enough sleep since I have been waking and sleeping late. So I felt refreshed in the morning. I started talking online right away from the time I got up. That really isn’t good since I usually have breakfast before I do that, but that didn’t happen today. I was supposed to go out to get my tickets for Hong Kong, but I forgot that today is a National Holiday and most of the travel agencies would be closed today. So I was planning to do some research today on finding a good deal and planning my trip. But that was knocked off course because I was talking to some of my friends today. Today marks the official day of Spring.

I talked to YSki on voice chat on Skype today and it was such a good conversation. I haven’t had one of those in such a long time. It was really good and I’m glad that I was able to. At first we were on MSN messenger and we were having a typing conversation. Then I asked her about an hour into it if she had a microphone, which she did. Then I asked to connect and for the next hour we talked. Then I had the bright idea to move to Skype since their sound quality is much better. We talked for another few hours. I mean I spent most of my day talking to her. It was such a great conversation today and we talked about many many things. It was as if she was right here with me too. So it was good. I miss having a friend like her.

I’ve decided that I need to find myself a girlfriend and for reals too. I can’t wimp out and decide not to get one; I MUST do everything in my power to woo a woman into my life. It’s one of my goals that I set out before I got my ass on this island and I must accomplish it. Now just to find someone to fall in love with me… any takers? I only have a few criteria, but they are hard to find in Japan. The first is they must speak English or at least try really hard. I think the effort would be enough for me. They must be a non-smoker because health and hygiene is always important. Cute is more preferable over sexy, hot, fine and ugly. They can’t be too happy, or too sad because too much of anything is never a good thing. They should be rather independent since this is Japan and everyone and their mothers are busy from dawn till dawn. Now is that so hard to find? For the past year and a half, I haven’t found one… but I think it’s because I haven’t kept my eyes open to it. So now I will start. Spring is the season for love and we’ll see if this year will be different for me. But I know deep down that things will be different if I’m different. It all starts and ends with me.

I only had instant noodles at this point because I wanted to continue talking to my good friend, but was starving. It was a way I could get both thing accomplished. But I need to get some real food in my body. So after the long conversation, I was thinking about things that could get me motivated into doing what I need to do. I went to 7-11 to pay my bills and get dinner. During dinner I decided to watch DVDs instead of the TV.

I watched GTO today on DVD and saw like 4-5 episodes. I’m on chapter 6 now and it really just motivated me to be the best teacher I can be. It sounds stupid, but because of this animated drama, I was inspired to give up my perfect life in San Diego to live in Japan and to be the greatest teacher I could be. It’s strange how much influence the television can have on people isn’t it? A bit scary if you ask me, but today, I’m just so motivated to do it. I mean I decided my major based on the very famous drama called the West Wing, which is in its final season this year. But I gave up everything to come here on the sole purpose of becoming a great teacher. I can’t fail to achieve that goal or everything would have been given up in vain. I look back at that decision and realized all the importance of my decision and the great sacrifice I’ve been willing to do to get here to this point and where I am today. I have felt defeated in the past weeks and because of the recent news that I’ve gotten too. I really feel at a loss, but now the thing that I’ve lost was the past year due to timidity.

That stops here and that stops now!! I refuse to lose and I REFUSE TO FAIL!! Recently my friends have been here for me and although I have failed to realize it till now, I understand and know that I have to tackle this with everything that I can. I must win at all costs. I have grown up with the philosophy of whatever it takes and now I have to put it into practice. Today will be the day that changes the rest of my life, because it is the first that I’ve actually realized why I’m here.

All the signs recently have been painting this picture for me and now it has become all too clear. I mean I even got these messages in the email inbox today, which further illustrates my point.

As Bob Proctor says, "you're either living in the problem or you're living in the solution."

There’s no problem that we should be anxious about. We can either solve it or it's impossible to solve.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the Wisdom to know the difference."

"No person can be confronted with a difficulty which he has not the strength to meet and subdue...Every difficulty can be overcome if rightly dealt with; anxiety is, therefore, unnecessary. The task which cannot be overcome ceases to be a difficulty and becomes an impossibility...and there is only one way of dealing with an impossibility - namely to submit to it." - Byways of Blessedness

"The door to a balanced success opens widest on the hinges of hope and encouragement." --Zig Ziglar

This is a sign that things need to be turned around and that I no longer need to go on this road of despair. I only have 3 months left as a teacher in Japan, and I’m going to make them the best! I MUST BE GTB!

Inside Farewell card 

Farewell Card 

Great Teacher Bryan! 

In front of the computer

I didn’t do jack squat today again. I was planning to do some things, but I didn’t. I talked to some friends today, which is a good thing. The most important thing I did today was get ready for my trip to Hong Kong. I have actually really started looking at prices and different travel agencies and such. I think it will be a bit harder to navigate around Hong Kong than it was any where else that I’ve been to before. I mean Hong Kong is just a cluster of islands and I have to figure out how that will all work to get to the places that I want to go to. So far, I don’t have many places that I would want to go to. I just want to go there and figure it all out.

I think it would be nice to go with someone though, so I think for my next trip, I will find someone to go with. I’m thinking about finding myself a girlfriend though, so I could go with her. I think that I should try. No regrets right. I don’t feel like I’m living my life to the fullest and I think that is why I’m feeling this way.

So the plan right now is to leave sometime this week and get back on the 29th or the morning of the 30th. I’m looking for a 5 day trip, which would be pretty nice. The first and last days are of course just transit, so that’s why I want a good 3 days of something to do on my own. One of those days I’m planning to spend in Macau and looking around there. That only leaves me with 2 full days in Hong Kong. I plan to spend it on Victoria Peak on one of those days and going to some temples. I’m not really into the whole shopping thing, but I guess that I will have to pick up some souvenirs. In all reality though, I’m not one bit closer to going than I was before. But at least I feel more prepared to go to the agency and just figure it out there.

I made my own dinner again tonight. It was good to cook again, but it wasn’t that hard and I think that I need to at least go out tomorrow to get more food. I have started to run out of things to eat and I need to purchase my tickets tomorrow for sure if I really want to go on this trip. I think that HIS is a pretty good bet since they don’t really take good care of their customers. I will have a lot of free time and I will have to pay an extra 10000 yen to get a trip to Macau. I’ll need to do more research though. There was a good one that was a week long, and included a trip to Singapore and Bangkok, but I’ve already been to Bangkok and I wouldn’t have much time to spend in Hong Kong, which is the purpose of me going on this trip. So that’s out of the question. I did want to go to Singapore and Malaysia, but I guess since I waited too long, both those are out of the question too.

St. Patrick's Day

In the morning, actually afternoon, I got up around noon after CP called to wake me up. I was planning to meet her today in the Roppongi area and have some drinks with her and a few other female teachers at my school. It was in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. Even though St. Patrick’s Day was on Friday, we would celebrate it today.

I ended up getting ready, but watching a bit of the World Baseball Classic with Japan and South Korea. The South Koreans looked pretty impressive for the first few innings and I wonder how it will end. In the 7th inning though, the game turned totally towards Japan’s favor and them winning 6-0. I think it is crazy how that happened and how they ended up in the finals. I mean South Korea was the only undefeated team beating Japan twice in the qualifying rounds and beating Mexico and the U.S. too. But I guess the third time was the charm for Japan. I’m happy for them since I’m living here now; I generally support their national teams. I hope they win it, and it’s crazy to think that they are playing in San Diego too.

I had lunch today with APca at Saizeria today. I actually had a lot to eat today too. I ordered a cabbage and shrimp spaghetti with cream sauce and a vegetable set with minestrone soup. It was a lot and really filled me up. He got regular spaghetti with garlic bread. It was a nice meal to have at the beginning of the day. It was good to get things started that way. We were watching the baseball game and then talked a bit more at breakfast. He has been really tired because of all the traveling he has done.

After that, it started to rain and rain pretty hard too. We came back and got our stuff and I took him to Totsuka station and then to Yokohama station. Then we parted ways. I jumped on the Toyoko line heading towards Naka Meguro because I really didn’t know where I would meet up with CP today. I called her when I reached Naka Meguro station and found out that we were going to meet in Roppongi. That isn’t too much further so I went over there. When I arrived and got to street level, the wind was blowing really really hard. Things were being knocked over and everything. We found a spot at Starbucks to sit and have some coffee, which is probably one of the reasons why I’m still awake now at 4am typing this. I got a Caramel Frapaccino, even though it was cold outside. We were waiting for the two other members of our group to arrive. They were coming from work, which is weird since we all work at the same place.

They were a bit late to arrive, but we know how busy it can be at school. They went straight to Paddy Foleys, so we went there to meet up with them. It seemed pretty empty when we arrived, well not as packed as I expected for a St. Patrick’s Day party. We didn’t have a place to sit or anything so we went down the street a little to Hobgoblins, which is a British pub. We had dinner here. I got Nachos, which were ok. Nothing compared to the nachos we have in San Diego though, but you know, this is Japan and at a British Pub, and that’s not too bad. It was enough to make me really full though. I was stuffed. I found out some interesting information from them though.

They were trying to be sly about it, but I have found that most Japanese people aren’t really too keen on being so sly. The Japanese co-workers were probing to see if CP would stay for another year and what her role would be next year. It sounds like, she still hasn’t decided yet, but she will most likely stay another year. I have mixed feelings about that depending on how things turn out. She got a raise and I think her classes might be reduced a little. She still has many offers from other schools, but has turned most of them down even though she has a better title and higher salary and such. But the problem I think that she has with them is that she would be more of a full-time teacher and not so much a part-time teacher. That meant that she could only work at one school. I think that the schools are getting really competitive with their teachers and not allowing them to share trade-secrets and things like that. Both ways, I still have mixed feelings, and I think it’s because I get left out in the cold either way. I really have no bargaining tool to ask for a raise since I will only be working for three more months. I’m tired of some things though and if those don’t change then I might make a faster departure than I want.

That has been kind of the feeling that I have had in Japan. I feel great that I’m living in a new country and experiencing many things, but I also have this feeling of defeat. I hate it, and I really hate it. There is nothing I hate more than failure, and that is exactly how I have felt in Japan as of late. Everything is beating down on me and I feel like I don’t want to fight anymore. I don’t see the value in trying. I don’t really feel appreciated by anyone. I don’t feel as if I’m making an impact. I haven’t reached any of the goals I set before I came here. I feel alone in a place where I’m surrounded by millions of people, literally.

The only few things that I have taken from living in Japan is the opportunity to travel and see the world. But even that lately seems to be a problem. I mean I should be in Hong Kong right now, but because of other circumstances I couldn’t get it done. And that in itself pisses me off. So I am sitting here at 4:30am, typing this and getting my frustration out. I’m very good at making plans and putting them into place, but the problem I see, is why should I bother. I don’t feel as if it would benefit anyone anymore, not even me.

I did get an email from a friend the other day that was encouraging, which I’m happy to say. My MSN screen name right now is “I don’t care about anything,” which is the first line for the song Keep Tryin’ from Utada Hikaru. It’s my favorite song at the moment. But when my friend, NAla saw it, she sent me a message saying that Bryan wouldn’t say something like that. “If there is no wind, than row;” and I really liked that message. I like the idea of continuing to make a difference, but I just don’t see why I should. I read another thing on one of my friends, or probably ex-friend on Myspace that was on priorities. And I think that I get a failing grade on that one too. I have been majoring on minor things and that is probably the cause of why I’m still awake in frustration right now. I need to think more clearly. These things have been on my mind for the past week.

I was also thinking about the issue of getting myself a girlfriend. Now since I’m leaving in 3-4 months, it would be a bad thing for me to start a relationship and I know it. But for some reason, I have started not to care about that. I feel like a bit of a loser because I haven’t even tried. All my friends around me have someone in their lives, and I mean some are getting married and having kids already. I need to pick up the ball and at least give it a shot. I’m not sure if I wrote this down or not and it is becoming a really long entry. But I met one of my friend’s girlfriends online. I met her through a Japanese community group similar to Myspace and started to talk to her. I found out later that it was my friend’s girlfriend. Small world eh? And come to think about it, I was surprised that they didn’t tell me earlier about the relationship. Punk ass!! His Japanese is pretty good from what I can read. It’s impressive, which makes me feel like shit since I’m fucking LIVING in Japan and can’t do it. So yeah, I just feel a tad bit on the pathetic side. I don’t know what I’m going to do anymore.

Anyways, back to the story of my day. So at Hobgoblin, we were talking about work and how the trip to the USA was, what will happen next year for the English Department. I heard that one of the older, actually oldest teacher in the department will work with the Oral communication classes, which really makes me feel shittier. Is that a word? Well, you get the picture. Hopefully, if I’m lucky, I won’t have to work with another teacher and could teach my own class. But I’m only dreaming because I’m not lucky at all. During this time, most of it has been a one way conversation, which is pretty usual.

We went back to Paddy Foleys after dinner and around 8pm. It was busier and there was a live guitarist on hand playing some tunes. At first, he needed some work, but he picked it up and was actually pretty good. He was a one man show and playing a lot of requests. Many of them were for U2, which makes a lot of sense since they are the most famous Irish people in the world. I had a tonic and gin to piss the night away. We just sat and didn’t really talk much, just listened to the guy play. When it got later in the evening, and the alcohol was affecting people, they started dancing. It was interesting to see how people act drunk. At this point, the feeling was weird. When we were about to leave around 10pm, bagpipers came into the pub and started playing. They were all Japanese people though playing the bagpipes and one guy was dressed in a kilt and with a green Mohawk. It was pretty interesting so we stayed for a little bit longer to listen to them. The volume was a bit high for my ears so after we left, I couldn’t hear too much. We sat there for like an hour listening to them. I got some pictures with the guy in the kilt and Mohawk so I could show you. It was interesting to see how people interacted with each other. I sort of felt uncomfortable being around so many non-Japanese people. That was a weird feeling in itself too.

We left around 11pm, and when I entered the gate at Roppongi station, lo and behold, I ran into a former student of mine. I didn’t drink that much, so I wasn’t all red in the face or anything, but it was probably the time and place that just made it feel a bit weird. I think she was probably going to stay the whole night there since she was just arriving. I remembered her face, but it felt weird when she called me sensei in front of her friend that she was with. It was an awkward feeling to say the least. I would have liked to stay and talk a bit more, but it was late and I probably wouldn’t have had a train to get back home and I think it would have just been weird too. She had graduated two years ago, which surprised me how I recognized her right away. She recognized me too. Yeah…interesting.

I was sending a lot of emails from my cell on the ride home. One of my friends asked me to go on a “ohanami,” which is a party to watch the cherry blossoms this month. Actually it would be next week, but I had planned to go to Hong Kong, so I declined. I invited her to come with me, but I knew that it wouldn’t be possible. Anyways, that was my long, weird day. I’m surprised you made it this far reading about it. It was a long, cold, weird day for me and I wanted to put it in detail so I remember this feeling. I have pictures that I’ll post up soon too. I think you’d think it was interesting at the pub.

Scene inside paddy foleys

Me with Bagpiper

Bagpiper with green mohawk at paddy foleys

A pretty chill Saturday

I wasn’t planning to do much today. I did the usual for my days off, which is talk to family. This time though, my mom called my cell phone. I really didn’t know why, but I guess that if there was an emergency it would be good to have and know how to use it. I will be leaving Japan soon though, so I didn’t see the point in it. We were talking about many things. I need to look up a few things online when I get a chance to. I need to find some airplane tickets to get to Hong Kong soon and then I need to look for contractors in La Mesa to help me remodel my house. I need to get that all squared away soon so I will have a room to stay at when I go back to San Diego. So these things are kind of top priority right now.

Going to Hong Kong for me is like going to Mecca for those who believe in that. I had always had an image of Hong Kong and I really can’t wait to taste all the wonderful food. I think that it will be very interesting for me. Right now, I have a plan to go to visit Macau too since I probably wouldn’t know what to do with myself by myself in Hong Kong. I’m a bit worried if I could take care of myself or not, but at least I would be in a better position than me being in Korea, or Thailand on my own. So it should be fine.

I also did some laundry today too. It was much needed since I was running out of clothes. I had used up a lot of my clothes today because of me going out a lot. I need to get a fresh new set of clothes to wear, but spring is coming so I have a chance to start wearing my summer styled clothes. It has been getting warm in the afternoons now, but in the evenings, it’s still pretty cold. But spring has finally arrived and I can tell. There are a few Sakura trees blossoming now too, so next month will be great.

Then my friend from San Diego came and stayed over. He’s actually studying at Gifu University right now, but up in Yokohama because he was visiting JGz on his trip here. He kind of got stuck here since he was planning to stay here longer, but JGz left early I suppose. He’s a cool guy though and is considerate. So I thought it was cool, even though it was a tad bit unexpected.

Later in the evening, after he took his nap, we headed out to Ofuna to get some dinner. We decided after walking around the area that we would go to CoCo’s curry shop. It was pretty good. I got a Beef Katsu Curry order, which was enough for me. It was a bit spicy, but just the way that I like it. He got Chicken Katsu Curry. So both the orders were very similar.

Then we walked home. We talked a little more before he just went to sleep. He was tired because earlier this week, he was in America and came back and the next thing he did after that was come to Yokohama and he has been hanging out with friends since then. So he has been quite busy.

JGz Farewell Party

Today would be the last day that JGz would spend in Japan. Well his plane leaves tomorrow, so today, we are having a big party for him and a lot of people would be coming. I got a lot of sleep last night because I got home late and today I woke up really late too. Actually I got up around 11am, which isn’t so late actually.

I wanted to do some laundry since I didn’t do it yesterday, but I think that it could wait till I have things settle down for a bit. For some strange reason, I was just taking it easy recently because of all the tension that was caused since he was here in Japan. He spent the day in Kamakura with APca. They came to my house around 3pm to get his stuff so he could go back to the comfort inn in Kannai. They came to my house much slower than I thought that he would come. I was doing a little cleaning and had a little breakfast before he came.

When they finally arrived, they took a little rest in my living room for a few minutes. It was much warmer today than it was yesterday and it wasn’t raining at all. It was actually a very nice day, but there was only a little wind. We left at a very good time. I made them walk from my house to Hongodai station and then we took the train from there to Kannai station. We walked to the Comfort Inn, which I haven’t ever seen before, but have walked by many times. We chilled at their hotel for about an hour. We were watching a DVD that APca had on his laptop, which is a pretty nice laptop. It’s supposed to the top of the line laptop and best on the market right now. It is pretty nice, and it’s weird that he has his settings for the highest resolution so everything is so small, but he has a big 17 inch screen. It simply didn’t make sense.

We left the hotel around 6:30pm and arrived at Sakuragicho station around 6:50pm. People started showing up not long after that. It was great to see everyone again. I was really happy to see all of them actually. It has been a very long time since all of us have gathered together. Some people haven’t shown up for about a year or so.

We went to zawatami in the Noge area of Sakuragicho. It’s not really far from the main street there. There were about 13 people that came to the party. We started around 8pm and that lasted till around 10pm when they kicked us out because we only ordered our tables for 2 hours. People that we haven’t seen in a year, we saw today. That’s what really made it special. There was Takafumi, Yuji, Megumi, Ayano, Takako, Erika, Natsuko, Kayo, Mio, Jose, Allan, Me were the members that came tonight. It was a fun time.

After that, some of the people, mainly the girls had to go home. But the rest of the members went to a place to Karaoke. It was fun, but a little loud for my ears. We sang for about an hour till the rest of the members needed to leave home. YFto and I decided to take the last train back home, so we had more time to hang out with them. We walked everyone back to the station and then we walked JGz and Apca back to their hotel before we went back to kannai station and took the last train back home. The train was pretty packed in there. I was a bit surprised, even though I’ve been on the last train before.

I hitched a ride with YFto back to my house, and we talked a lot about a lot of things. He’s a really good guy. I’m glad to have made good friends in Japan. I really am enjoying my experience here.

Everyone at JGz farewell party at watami

Another group picture inside watami

Group inside watami for JGz farewell party

Red Shoes group outside watami

Journal Time and the beginning of Spring Break

Today, I finally got my rest in. I slept till about 2pm. So that makes it about 12 hours of sleep. I felt so much more refreshed today than I have this past week. I think that since JGz has come to Japan, it really threw me and everything out of balance and I have just been running on empty this whole week. I haven’t exerted myself this much for a long time. So I wasn’t used to hanging out and moving around so much either.

I wanted to chill out alone today and get some relax time in today. I wanted to use the internet, but it still doesn’t work. I wanted to do laundry today too, but the problem was that MTki wasn’t home and the door was locked. It was really really windy today too. So I was stuck at home typing up my entries for the past week, which is a good thing though. I have been lagging on that.

I was able to get over there to reset the modem and I could get online to check some email and news sites to see what has been going on. But it doesn’t seem like I missed out on much, so I’m all good about that. But I think that recently that it has been so windy that it knocks some of the wires around and I think that is the reason why my connection cuts out. It has been warmer recently, but the winds are very severe and many things are tossed around. I always see benches and bus stop signs toppled.

I went out tonight too. I met up with the guys like usual. There were no girls; that was for the afternoon group. I should have gone to that one too, but decided to get some rest instead, which is probably better for me anyways. It is always better to be well rested, but I haven’t seen any of them for a long time. So that is an on and off good and bad thing. I met up with them around 10pm, which is a bit late to meet actually when I had the whole day to do nothing. We went to a izakaya and had a few drinks and ate dinner together. We talked a lot, which was a good thing, but we didn’t make a plan for tomorrow. I think that it was a tough time for all the Japanese people this week because JGz didn’t plan a damn thing, and it was all on everyone else.

Is that common for Americans to do? Do they really go all over the world and count on their friends to show them around without making a plan for what to do… for even one day? I know a few people that have done that, but I believe that is a real inconvenience for people since, you know they have work and school too. Even though they come, and it’s a once in a lifetime thing, still, we have work and school. Yeah, so I was a bit surprised about that and everyone seems to be stressed by it. We stayed at the izakaya till around midnight before we went back home. I mean it does sound strange since I’m an American myself, but I don’t do that to anyone. I actually do the opposite and give them a very detailed plan and I just want them to join me while I carry it out. I did that over the first summer when I moved to Japan. I think that it makes a big difference, but I wonder if I was an inconvenience to anyone during that time.

The keihin-tohoku line was having troubles again. This time it was because of my home station. Last time I got stuck at Kounandai station for an hour for some reason. Tonight, I would have been stuck there because the winds in my area are really strong. Things have been blowing around and everything. They stopped the train, but lucky for me, I was with YFto and usually I get a ride from him back to my house in Hongodai. I hate to inconvenience him all the time, but we were able to talk a bit more so that’s good. He’s a really good guy, so that’s good.

A long wait and good bye

I only had one class today second period. I woke up a little late since I haven’t been getting enough sleep lately. I got home late last night because I was over at KHma’s house with JGz and YFto. I probably didn’t get home till around 1:30am or something around there.

As soon as I got to school, I had to get ready for class. We had 8th grade yuri today and we did another word search. This time CP made her own version based on the speech contest. There, of course, were many mistakes on there. It was a bit hard for the students to get it because there were that many mistakes with misspellings, and some words missing. Most of the students were able to finish it though, so that was good.

After that class, I really didn’t do too much. I was cleaning up my desk a little bit because technically, I was on spring vacation already. I don’t have any more classes and I’m not required to come to school if I don’t have class. I have to wait till next year when they get the new schedule. CP still hasn’t decided if she will stay or not, which is terrible since I don’t know if I will have to take over for her or not. I have already started working on the preparations for Oral Class if she decides to leave. I kind of wish, she would just decide. She is dragging this decision for too long and it is unacceptable. It is very irresponsible of her to be doing it. I’m stuck in the middle of it too because I don’t know if I will have more classes or less and I don’t know if I have to make the plan to follow the syllabus for all the grades.

I did the scheduling and worked on part of the syllabus that I wanted to work out already. I decided that it would be in my best interest just to do it in case things didn’t turn out the way that I wanted it to. It is always better to be prepared for the worst, so I am ready if she decides to leave. I think that I’ll be able to put in a better program that will help them carry their knowledge from week to week. I really like where it is going.

After I did that for a few hours, I went over to the part-time teacher’s office and hung out there for the rest of the time. I was just talking to MKni the whole time. We are pretty good friends and she was studying a little for the TOEIC test and I was helping her out. We were talking about a lot of other things too. It was fun. We talked till around 4pm because that’s when we needed to leave to go to Jiyugaoka for our farewell party to those who will be leaving the school or getting married.

We had dinner at a place called ?? which means good chicken. It was really close to the station and we had a whole area to ourselves. I was sitting with mostly English teachers, and one Japanese language teacher was sitting next to me. I felt a bit sorry for her since she was very quiet with the table. But our table out ate every other. Every time the waitress brought food, we would all eat it all up. The table next to us couldn’t eat everything once they brought it out so they were running out of space on their table. We had a variety of dishes. They brought us Udon Nabe, chicken cartilage, chicken wings, appetizers, radish salad and a few other things. We had mochi ice cream which was good, but not as good as the ones we could get in San Diego. I was really stuffed after we had finished eating.

Then it was the after party. We decided to go Karaoke at Big Echo, which is just across the street from the restaurant that we were at. I decided to join them, so I could just hang out and get to know the teachers better. It was actually very great because I was sitting next to two hot teachers. The problem was that one is married and the other one is getting married next week. Also the one that is married is leaving the school to be a full-time housewife. She started when I started working at the school. It was fun to talk to them tonight. I really enjoyed the feeling of this group. It is a completely different feeling than that of the teachers in the full-time office. They have energy and they genuinely have fun. I sang a few songs, two of which were in English and two were in Japanese. Many of the teachers were surprised that I sang a Japanese song. They suspected I had a girlfriend because of the lyrics to the song. But it was actually one that I learned in College for my girlfriend at that time. I was happy to come along, it was good.

After that I went home, it was getting really cold at this time. It was around 12:30am when I got home. I was really dead tired too. I haven’t had enough sleep recently. Even though I’m on spring vacation, and JGz is here in Japan. I could hang out with friends and catch up with them, but I think that it would be better for me just to relax and not do anything tomorrow. I needed to get enough sleep because I was getting really tired and unable to do many things. I got a lot of emails today, which was great. I think that it will be fun next year, well I mean school year.

Just a long ass Tuesday

It was just plain long today. I needed to get to work a little bit early because I stayed up late last night to watch a Korean movie and type up the vocabulary words for the reports that we needed for class. The bad part was after I finished at 2am and was really tired. I couldn’t go to sleep for some reason. I just didn’t feel like sleeping, even though I was sleepy. I know that doesn’t make sense, but that’s how it was last night. It took me over an hour and a half before I just fell asleep. I had to wake up at 6:30am to get ready to go work.

I got to school around 9:30am and I made my copies for class and then I had class right then. I didn’t even have time to eat breakfast when I normally do. It was just that busy today. I walked in and immediately had teachers come up to me and ask me things. I gave CHda her white day gift that was a nice chocolate set from Kyoto. I was very lucky to have met her on the way in because it would have been harder for me to give it to her later. It was also convenient for me to talk to her about our elective class today too.

The first class today was 8th grade ran. They had their speech contest last week, so they didn’t have to practice for that today. We reviewed some of the animals with them and then we gave them a word search that we gave to the 7th graders. Surprisingly, the 7th graders did a better job of finding words than the 8th graders did. The 8th grade students simply couldn’t concentrate enough to do it. I helped a lot of the students so that they could finish. The Japanese English teacher in the class is quitting so this was her last day and her last class. I’m going to miss how cute she is, but not going to miss how poorly she controlled the class.

The second class I had today for 3rd period was an electives class for 11th graders. There were only five students taking the preview class and they weren’t high level, like I was planning for. I really had to slow it down for them. I gave them the insight into what the topics were and what we were going to cover. They understood most of it, but it took a long time for them to understand. I wanted to show them a few tricks that they could learn to study English and how to write a better essay and give a better interview when they need to for the University exam. I had planned to do a lot today, but since they weren’t such high level students, I had to take it slower. The most important thing was for them to understand what I was showing them and how they could use it.

The second class that I had with the 11th graders was another lecture. I finished tying everything together and let them read the packets that I had prepared for them. I wanted them to see what I was talking about in the first hour. I wanted to teach them and let them use it right away I did a lot of checking to make sure that they understood. I think that they were able to understand, even if it was only a little. It’s only the preview class so I think that next year, whoever takes over my position will have to teach them how to pass the university entrance exam.

I stayed after school to work on my next year’s schedule. While was I working on this though, one of the heavy basketball hoops fell over. We had to lift it back up and tie it down with rope. No one knew how it happened though. It was a bit strange since it is a heavy basketball set and it moved some 50 meters to where it fell over. Not only did a fall over, it spun around a few times too. I was a bit curious about this. I heard from a teacher that saw it happen that it was a twister for about 2 seconds that caused it. It also broke the glass in the door to her classroom that she was teaching in. That must have been scary. Anyways, we took care of it before the class for that hour was finished.

I stayed after to see if anyone needed my help, but they never came back to the office so, I left school. I was heading home to get changed into more comfortable clothes. Then I immediately went to Higashi Totsuka to meet up with everyone. It turns out that the members were Ken, Jose, Yoichiro, and me. That gets a bit lonely right. We went to Wara Wara in Higashi Totsuka and talked for a little bit. Since I arrived very late, I didn’t get much to eat and drink. I got a gin tonic, but was really hungry. They were about to leave, so I didn’t get much to eat.

After the drinking, we went back to Ken’s house and then we had sukiyaki for dinner. It was really good. I was able to talk to Ken’s parents too and most of it was in Japanese. I stayed at his house until around 12am- 1am. I got a ride with Yuji and talked on the phone with TUda for about 15 minutes about how I teach English to her. She was a bit worried about her English, that’s why she didn’t show up today. I think that might be the problem with other people too, so it did provide a little explanation of why they don’t come out often. It also explains the comment Ken made as we were walking to his house. I think that there is a big gap and I think that it left some people with a strange feeling and a lack of trust. I went back into the room and just hung out for a little bit longer before we left to go home.

I was very tired since I haven’t been getting enough sleep recently, so I came home and immediately slept. I couldn’t even type the entry to this journal. I tried to, but it didn’t make sense when I read it over again. It was all just gibberish.

My internet cut out again. I haven’t had this problem this much before. But I really don’t like it. I would like to have it ready and available when I need it. But I think that since it has been windy that something was disconnected or something like that. It really has been inconvenient for me though. It is really hard for me to do anything without it. I realized how much I rely on the internet and realized that I don’t do anything else with this laptop than go online. There isn’t anything I could do with this computer besides the internet. That is a real problem I think. The only thing I could do is type in my journal.

One Class Monday

I got up a little late today only because I stayed up till 3am to type up the report that I needed for today. I wanted to show CHda what I was talking about for the electives class, so that she would have a better idea of what I wanted to teach.

I dropped off JGz at Yokohama station and showed him around there to get to the places that he wanted to go to. I gave him my address so he could get a cell phone. I did this for about 30 minutes before I had to go to work.

Then I went to work. But I was about an hour and a half early, so I got breakfast at Sukiya. I haven’t eaten there for a long time. I got a ninniku don, which was actually a little spicy, but very good. I was the only person in the store at that time. No one came in or left while I was there. I was eating very slowly too, but I finished much faster than I wanted to. I didn’t want to go to work that early, but I guess that it was probably better that I show up early than late.

Then I went to work, but I was still really early. I wanted to use the LL today, but I couldn’t because they always have class inside there. It really isn’t a Language Laboratory anymore. That’s one of the drawbacks of working at the school. I never feel as if there are actually resources for teachers to use. I think that the school is a bit technologically impaired, which is poor since we are trying to teach these students to be ready for the future, but they hardly know how to use and handle technology.

I met with CHda to talk about the plan for tomorrow’s class. I laid everything out and helped her to do some stuff. She liked it and we worked on making copies, but the problem that I ran into was that the school’s printer in the office was making the copies without some words. They were to faint and you couldn’t read it. I was going around seeing if there was another printer I could use, but I couldn’t find one. Then when I found one, the laptop connected to it was old and couldn’t read the XML format that I usually save my documents in. That’s the irony that Microsoft upgraded its technology and I can’t use it on the school’s computers. It was a tough day for me, as you could tell.

Then I had class 5th period with 7th grade yuri. They did a word search. One of the students in the class was really on top of things. They were almost doing it faster than me. Actually she was faster than me because I started before she did. That was impressive to say the least. They were quiet and focused on getting it done. Most of all the students were able to get the top part and for the bottom part too.

Then I stayed after school because I wanted to use the LL, but it was still busy with after school classes. That was really annoying since I wanted to use it but I couldn’t. The school really needs to upgrade their systems or at least make it available. I wasted a good chunk of the day because I couldn’t do any of the work that I needed to do. It is ridiculous. I was tired because I didn’t get enough sleep last night.

When I left school, I took the regular way home, but stopped off at Yokohama station to get some stuff for White Day. I got some things for my co-workers that got me something on Valentines Day. It’s one of those things that I’m obligated to do. That took a little bit of time. I went to Sogo and just bought what other guys were buying. I figured if it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.

When I took the Keihin-Tohuku line home, there was an earthquake or something that stopped the train from moving. I was stuck on the train for an hour before we moved again. I was stuck at Kounandai station, which is only one stop away from my stop. It was so close, yet so far away. I could have gotten dinner at this station and come back and still the train wouldn’t have moved. I was getting very hungry at this time because it was about 7:30pm. I was a bit hungry as I was leaving work thinking that I could eat somewhere in Hongodai.

I got out around 8pm and got dinner at McDonalds. I was in a rush to get back and get cracking on my work. I did that till around 2am, but that really sucks for me because I have to get up at 6am. I finished up all the work that I wanted to tonight though so I’m good at pacing myself with this assignment for myself.

JGz comes to my house

Today, I was planning to meet up with a friend of mine from the San Diego- Yokohama sister city exchange. One of the people that came with me to Yokohama back in 2003 is coming and other members during that time from the Yokohama side invited me to have dinner with them.

It turns out that they couldn’t get a hold of him, and I got a call from him today. He asked me if he could stay at my place, which I allowed him to. I probably shouldn’t have since I need to get some things done too.

So I met up with him at Totsuka station, we came back to my house and he dropped off his stuff.
Then we met up with TSrai and we had dinner at an Izakaya. It was nice to see her tonight, but she was acting all strange with JGz. It made me sort of sick… for many reasons. She didn’t seem like herself and was friendlier towards him than I have seen her with anyone else. She was all giving him hugs and a massage and everything. It was very interesting. I mean tomorrow night, JGz will stay at her house and her mother will make him Tempura since the place that we went to didn’t have it and he wanted it. I was a bit shocked really. It makes me look at her in a different way.

Then we walked around so he could get more money, and went to a Vodafone place so he could look at the cell phones that he wants. He is looking into pre-paid cell phones.

Then we walked around some more before we came back to my host mother’s house because they were having a party. A lot of people were there, but most of them were leaving when we walked in. I haven’t seen some of them for a very long time. I’m talking like years. It was nice to see them, since I think some of their daughters are pretty, friendly. I had a little dinner since we just came back.

I met MTki’s father for the first time. But the weird part about it was that he was giving me and JGz a lecture about something dealing with America and Americans being the hegemonic. It was very interesting. I was listening and realized that he was scolding me and JGz for just being Americans and asking me why I’m in Japan and can’t speak perfect Japanese. I thought it was interesting, but only a one sided view. I wasn’t offended because, honestly it isn’t a big deal to me. But for JGz, he was a little offended and probably would have said something if he could have done so in Japanese. I’m glad that he couldn’t. It was just better to leave it like that.

Overall, it was an interesting day. I didn’t get any of the work that I had planned to do today or even start on it. That really made me upset. I wished I would have had a little bit longer warning of him coming so I could have prepared. But I think that it wasn’t on me and I probably won’t let him stay another night. I need to plan my trip to Hong Kong. I’m really motivated to go and I can’t let any more things get in the way.

Speech Contest

It was a very long day today. I started off work in the morning thinking I could take my time, but I really was in a rush. I couldn’t sleep well last night. I slept around 1am and had to get up at 6am. My body can’t seem to get ready like that anymore. I need about 8 hours of sleep usually. I think it’s weird that my body is turning against me.

Then I arrived at school around 9am. I couldn’t eat breakfast when I got to school because I arrived a bit later than I wanted to. So I ran into the gym to watch the first group do their speeches. I watched the speeches from the back of the gym so I could get a good view of the whole situation. They didn’t memorize all of them. It was disheartening to watch. They have spent a long time to write it and work to memorize it. They had a lot of practice with it too, but at the end, they just couldn’t do it. They really aren’t in the running to win a prize though.

The second group was better, but there were still big mistakes there too. They also had forgotten a few words and skipped over some paragraphs. But they were better than the first group. Some girls in this group did a very good job with it though. I was sitting in the front row because that’s where the judges were sitting and native teachers too. Because I arrived late, I didn’t know that. I also met the new English teachers that will start work at Yakumo next year. They seem very innocent and kind. They really have no idea what is in store for them.

The third group was good. They had all the words memorized, but lacked the expression they needed to put them over the top. They were good though and you could see that they were really trying hard to memorize it. During the break, I was talking with one of the new teachers to see how good their English ability was. They are ok, not as good as the teachers that we have now. I’m not sure about their grammar or anything, but conversationally, she could improve. She hasn’t studied abroad and that could be the cause of it. I think that it is pretty good for not studying abroad. I mean, what more could I really expect for someone who hasn’t lived abroad. I want to see how well they will fit into next year’s schedule.

The fourth group was the best of course. They did a very good job. They memorized most of the words. The problem was that some of the girls changed the way that they memorized it. They changed it so that it would sound better and lost points because they strayed away from the script or their original essay that they started with and being judged upon. The judges were stricter with fluency and pronunciation and not so much grammar. So that worked against the students who added their own words. During the break, I talked to another one of the teachers. They seem friendly. I was talking to the judges too to see how they were scoring the students and what they would pay attention to. I didn’t get a chance to talk to the last of the three new teachers, but I’ sure that there will be more time later for that. She is the cutest of the three, but seems most likely to quit. I think that it is bad that I think that, but I think that it is the truth. She seems like she won’t be able to put up with the demanding work load of being a new teacher. I mean the teacher that quit last year was a bit tougher than her and she took off a week after school started.

After the contest, I helped clean up a little. Then I went back to the office. Everyone seemed very busy for some reason. So I went over to the part-time teachers’ office and they were tallying the results. I wanted to see how all the students did. I didn’t know what they would do to count them and all. I wanted to see how the process went. It turns out that one of the students that I taught for Oral Communication WON!! I was so happy! I thought that she had a good chance of winning, so I was happy that she did. I was a bit surprised at who won for third place since she was very hard to understand with the bad pronunciation. She tried hard, but I didn’t think that she deserved third place. I thought I saw a lot more people do a better job, but I wasn’t a judge so I couldn’t have done anything about it.

I talked with them for a little while then returned to eat lunch. Then I decided to play tennis because I couldn’t meet with CHda to talk about Tuesday’s class schedule.

During tennis, I got very tired. Recently I haven’t had enough energy to work out like that. My arms and legs were getting sore faster and they hurt longer than they have before. I haven’t been playing tennis for a really long time. I was a bit surprised that I did play tennis today since I probably won’t again. I don’t want to over exert myself, when I don’t think that it benefits many people at all. But I wanted to get a good work out today, so I did a little more.

After tennis, I met with CHda and she was troubled by something. She was tired and couldn’t sleep. One of her students last year, is no longer a student at the school. She didn’t give her speech today and it was noticed by me and CP. We couldn’t get it all finished. So I decided that I would just start to work out my idea and just show her what I was talking about so that she could get a better idea of it. I know that she has been under a lot of stress recently. I didn’t want to keep her late since she still had a lot of work for something else. She never uses this much time to plan out how she will teach a class. I could understand that since most of the teachers simply don’t have any time. I left school around 7:30pm and had dinner at Matsuya on the way home. I was really really tired and sore.

I was very sleepy at home, but couldn’t go to sleep really. For some reason, I was tired and sleepy, but when I went to lie down on my bed, I just couldn’t sleep. I just laid there for like an hour before I think I dozed off. But it was an hour, and I didn’t have anything on my mind or anything. It was a very annoying moment since I know that I would need the rest since I would have a lot of things to do soon.

8th grade speech contest sign

The internet came back

Today I was a bit busy, but only a little bit. I had first period today with 7th grade fuji. They did more on their riddles and they presented. It was their last oral class as 7th graders. They did a pretty good job considering they didn’t get the preparation that they needed for the task. I think the students really are capable of a lot of things. I don’t feel that, we teachers do enough to prepare them for success, and more or less, just expect them to know it. It’s a good thing that when kids are young, they just absorb information without really understand why or how. They were being rushed because they didn’t have enough time to have everyone present, so they didn’t get much time to prepare. I thought that was a bit bad for the students.

2nd through 4th period was Speech contest rehearsal. A lot of the students forgot a lot of their lines. They were still making a lot of the mistakes that were supposed to be corrected already. I really hope that they will be ready for the big competition. I know that a lot of them have been practicing a lot and I’d like to see more of the underdogs to get placed high in the competition. I have been working with a few girls on their pronunciation and their presentation for the speech contest, so of course I will be a little bias as to see who I want to win. It’s a good thing that I won’t be a judge though. I didn’t get to see the first group go, so I can’t really tell, how bad things could get if they don’t remember their lines. I mean the second through fourth groups are supposed to be better too. And they did make a lot of mistakes, which will cost them some major points in the long run. The fourth group though, was pretty spot on. I was a bit tired during the rehearsal since I haven’t been getting enough sleep and food.

5th period was with 7th grade ran, They did the same thing as the first period class. They got up in front of the class to read out their riddles and the students had to guess. They were supposed to have a few more minutes to prepare, as sort of a review of the things that they learned, but that didn’t really happen. We got started almost right away, and I think it was because there are more students in this class. Every pair went up to speak, which went over time, but since it was the last day and the next class would be English class, we decided to go over to finish. I think that their English has improved, but I couldn’t tell by how much. It was good though and it’s nice to know that you’re finished and I don’t have to teach for a little bit.

I left school soon after that. I met one of MTki’s friends on the train going home. It was a bit embarrassing because I was sleeping on the train when I met her. This is the problem with not getting enough sleep and having to sleep on the train on the way home and going to work. The trains are emptier when I go home earlier, so I like that I’m leaving work earlier so I could have a seat on the 2 hour trip back. But that causes me to dose off. I couldn’t hear her at first because I had my headset on. I almost missed my station to be honest with you. But I got lucky, like I always do and woke up at my station.

I came home and changed my clothes a little and went over to her house to fix the internet. All I had to do was restart the modem. It worked and they got the internet to work well after that, but there is no guarantee that it will stay that way. I stayed over there from around 4pm to about 10:30pm. I watched a few movies while I was over there and ate a lot of food.

The first movie that was on, was Finding Neverland. Since I hadn’t seen it before, I enjoyed it. It really has a good story and it is pretty good. But I only saw bits and parts of it because of the conversations that were going on. The second movie that was showing was You got served. I only saw a little bit of that since we turned the channel since it wasn’t very interesting for them and for me. We found another movie called Taxi, which I haven’t ever seen, but they have. They liked it and thought it was funny and suggested that I watch it. I thought it was the typical cliché kind of movie with the characters and plot. It wasn’t great or anything and it was a little funny, but still it missed the target. The last movie that we saw was getting towards the late evening was Taking Lives. It seemed like a pretty good movie before I had seen it, but it is a little predictable since I’ve seen a lot of movies like that one before. We always know who the killer is and it’s easy to tell by the plot. I think that if they just show you who the killer is in the beginning and don’t make it a guessing game, it would be more interesting. It wasn’t a bad movie though, but it wasn’t great. I did have a lot of distractions while watching so I couldn’t really be a good judge to say if it is good or not. At the end of the evening, we watched some CNN news. It was translated into Japanese, so I got to hear it in Japanese. It was live from the East Coast, so we were hearing the news at the same time that people in New York were. I thought that was pretty cool since it was 6am for them and only 11pm over here.

In the meanwhile, some of her friends came over and we had dinner and talked. Then I came back home and got ready for bed around 11pm. I watched some TV because I couldn’t sleep, even though I was tired all day from not getting enough sleep. My body has been weird about that lately. I hope that things get better or I’ll be in trouble physically.