This week I am doing a Halloween lesson for my students. I made a costume which includes a bandanna, a mask cut from cardboard packaging, an inside-out yellow t-shirt, and a cape (some random flag I found in my desk). It looks quite funny. Most of the third year students have seen it, but the younger students haven't seen it yet. I think I'll wear it all day tomorrow. I've just been wearing it just for classes so far.

I originally made it for a Halloween party I attended on Saturday. One student's mother is an English teacher at a private cram school. She asked if I would help out at the school's Halloween party. I wore the costume to the party, because it just wouldn't be Halloween otherwise. I asked if the students would have costumes, and she said that wasn't a Japanese tradition. I pointed out that Halloween wasn't a Japanese tradition either, but they were doing a Halloween party. So I think she told the students to dress up in simple costumes if they wanted to. About half of the students were dressed up. Most of the girls were witches, and a lot of boys were ninjas or pirates. I was pretty impressed at their costumes for probably not having done it before.

The party had two parts. The first party was younger elementary kids who were not that good at English. Then there was a party for the older kids, some of whom were students at my junior high school. They thought it was quite funny to see me all dressed up. I think they didn't know it was me for a little while. First they did short skits for us, then we did a skit to explain trick-or-treating to them. We played conversation games to get them talking, then we did a modified trick-or-treating. Another ALT was there, so there were three of us (the Japanese teacher, Nate, and myself). We each had a bucket of candy, and the students came up to us and said trick-or-treat. But before they got candy, they had to answer a question. It was good practice for them, plus they had to say "thank you" afterwards.

After the party, we were invited to have dinner with her family. The food was pretty good, but talking with them was the best part. It is good to talk to Japanese people in private. They don't really open up in big groups. At the end I got paid 5000 yen ($40), which I really wasn't expected. Japanese people love to give gifts like that.

Yesterday the rain decided to keep coming down. I don't know if it ever stopped raining in the last several days. Finally last night at some point the rain stopped, because it wasn't raining when I woke up this morning. Yesterday was actually quite weird, because there were big patches of blue sky during the day, but it was still raining. At one point, I saw one of the most beautiful rainbows I have ever seen. It showed up during a class change, so everyone was standing in the halls staring at it. It was very low on the horizon, so it appeared very big, and seemed to have more than just seven colors. It appeared on top of the city's skyline, and was just amazing. There was a second rainbow higher in the sky, so that was cool too. It was one of those times I wished I had my camera at school.

It's been really cold recently. Today isn't quite as bad, at around 55 degrees fahrenheit. Yesterday was really cold. I don't know specific numbers though. I'm guessing it was around 50. Plus it was raining, so I was soaking wet everywhere I went. If it is going to rain today, I imagine it will be tonight. It looks too nice right now to rain.

I don't normally comment on school lunch, but this one was actually pretty good. For the first time lunch did not include milk! We had orange juice to drink instead. I was in shock for awhile. Every other lunch has had milk. The orange juice was from Valencia, which prompted me to try to explain to the students that Valencia was a region in Spain. I think I was unsuccessful until I drew a map on the board which they understood. Hopefully that expanded their world view a little, or something.

We also had egg drop soup with corn and carrots. It was quite good. The main dish was a pork cutlet with mashed potatoes and some random vegetables. We had bread instead of rice. When I looked at the bread, I noticed there was something in it. It turned out to have little pineapple pieces throughout it. I think it is probably the best meal I've had here, as far as sheer taste goes.

I discovered that one of my first-year students is also a foreigner. I had suspected it since she has darker skin and a different appearance than many of the other students, but I wasn't sure. Her family is from the Phillipines and she doesn't read kanji apparently. She understands most Japanese. She is quite loud and eager to participate in English class, another characteristic that clearly sets her apart from the Japanese students, who are incredibly reserved and quiet all the time.

Big news this week was that my old supervisor at HAHT is leaving the company. He was one of the founding programmers there, so it is a big loss for the company. He will be working at a new Microsoft development group (5 people) starting up in the Triangle area. I'm sure it was tough for him to leave a company he helped build, but I imagine exciting new opportunities await him at his new job. I hope all my old co-workers are placed under some equally good new manager.

Today is another day of sitting around and not doing very much. I think after lunch I will work on a lesson plan for a Halloween lesson. That would be fun for the students, I think. I don't know what I'll do exactly though.

This morning I graded all those poems I posted for you (about 300 total), and I am recording my voice for the listening tests for first-year students. Yesterday I recorded some stuff for the second-year student listening test. I always worry that maybe I am speaking too quickly or other things. Sometimes the teachers will tell me, and other times they won't.

I'm often frustrated with the level of English my students seem to have, but sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. The textbook had a section on poetry for the third-year students. I was a little reluctant to make a lesson for it, but the teachers said it would be good practice writing. I thought it might be too difficult for the students. However, many of them wrote pretty good poems considering their limited knowledge of English. So I took some of the best ones and I'm posting them here on my weblog, so you can see the results. I put the students name and class number after the poem, unless I couldn't read the name because it was written in kanji.

Window
Open it
The beautiful world
What can you see?
Dream
-Emi Matsuki 2


Starry Night
Have many friends
Shine in the sky
Wish for happiness
Beautiful
-Ayumi Matsuda 2


Moon
Night comes
The moon shines
The mysteries of nature
Beautiful
-Makiko Nishino 8


Daytime
Much rain
From the sky
The sky is crying
Sad
-Sasakura 8


Flowers
Very beautiful
Closing opening dying
Already so far away
Time
-Erina Kanazawa 8


Sky
Many birds
Many planes
Across the sky...
envious!
-Itaru Monno 7


Blue
The sea
Spreads the sky
I see a lot of blue
Earth
-Hiromi Takamori 7


Song
People produced
Satisfy our heart
The height of culture
Pleasant
-Tamohari Tui 4


Nature
Very tolerant
Forest, sky, sea
It nestles my spirit.
Life
-Ai Masuyama 4


Sky
Blue Country
peace, wonderful, free
I can not fly.
forever.......
-Yuugi Miyamoto 4


World
Many places
Sea, island, mountain
born to die
wonder
-kanji name - 9


Universe
Many stars
Sun, Moon.... Earth
We'll go to there.
Infinity.
-kanji name - 9


Stars
shine oneself
night sky twinkle
a shooting star wish
beautiful
-kanji name - 9


Tree
Very big
Green old mysterious
I see it calm
Wonder
-Shihoko Sasajima 5


fly
can fly
Sky, free, most natural
But free so difficult
Thinking
-Ryo Kawakami 5


Equality
Don't fight
Liberty, right, freedom
I wish for peace
Peace
-Izumida Toshihide 5


Test
Study hard
Exhausting, bother, difficult
But do my best
Fight!
-Yotutani Akina 5


Dream
Good night
Happy, sad, busy
I don't wake up
Lucky
-Fuchino Syouko 1


Sports
Enjoy running
Running very hard
run against the wind
Wonderful
-Yuka Takabayashi 1


Music
Sweet sound
blues, rock, country
The world is covered
Great
-Masayuki Segawa 1


Tomorrow
Big sky
never ending story
We can't know future
History
-Emi Yoshida 6


Monster
Big body.
Fearful and bad.
It barks at us.
Darkness.
-Mitsuaki Aratani 6


Dream
Very happy
Speak to friend
But we are busy
Regret.
-Harumi Tanii 3


LIFE
Happy faces
laughing, crying, shining
LIFE is only one
Special
-Hayato Kitano 3


Day
The sunrise
The sun rise
The days pass quickly
good
-Kanji name - 3


Leaf
Many friends
They usually dancing
They have many dresses
Beautiful
-Mika Hamasaki 3


Dream
People having
We have possibility
I want to be.....
Forever
-Naohiko Miwa 3


They also wrote some about Mrs. Iguchi and me. I included two of the funnier ones.

Brian
very groovy
He is popular
His class is interesting
Hold out!
-Akie Fukai 1


Teacher
Mrs. Iguchi
Popular, beautiful, wonderful
But she is scary
Dangerous
-Okada Taku 6

Okay, well now the archives are a little messed up after the time change, but the main posts seem to be working okay. Anyway, I don't think I told everyone about the trip Paul and I decided on for Christmas and New Year's break. We are going to Singapore and Malaysia. We have a direct flight out of Osaka airport on the 21st. We arrive in Singapore that evening and we'll go home at 11:50 pm on January 6th. We have a night flight and arrive back in Osaka around 7:00 am on the 7th. School starts the 8th, so we have all day to get home and get situated.

We finally chose Singapore/Malaysia because it is pretty safe and fairly inexpensive (Malaysia is very cheap). Almost everyone I know is going to Thailand for the holidays, so we decided to be different. There's always time for Thailand later. We thought about Taiwan and Vietnam too, but ruled both of those out. I've been looking up inexpensive nice hotels in Malaysia, because there are a bunch with a great rates, even for the holidays. I figured out we can stay at a 5 star hotel in Kuala Lumpur for about $23 each per night from the 24-27. It's really a stellar deal, I think. We can get a nice hotel for about $12 each there. I can't even imagine what true budget accomodations would be priced. Since we can afford it, I think we'll probably stay somewhere nice for Christmas evening and day, and probably around New Year's too. Singapore is almost twice as expensive, so I doubt we'll be staying at such a nice hotel there. there are reasonable rates on cheap hotels though. I doubt we'll be in Singapore too long since it is quite small and city-like.

One of the students in my Japanese class is from Malaysia. She said it is quite nice there and that it's always warm. Since Japanese winters are supposed to be pretty rough (wet and little heating indoors), I figure we'll appreciate the change of climate. I'm going to try to tap her for information about where we should go that might be a little off the beaten path. I think we'll visit the major cities, like Kuala Lampur, but we really like natural things better. I am quite interested in seeing the Petronas Towers, however. They are the tallest buildings in the world, and I would love to add them to my "Brian taller than X building" picture collection. I think going to the top of them would be awesome too since I'm sure you can see quite a long ways.

Malaysia is divided into two parts: Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. Singapore is connected to Peninsular Malaysia, which is where most of the major cities are. However, in Malaysian Borneo, there is one of the largest national parks in the world, with the second tallest mountain in the world, I think. Anyway, it sounds cool, but I haven't looked into how much the flight between lands would cost yet to see if it is do-able.

Our ticket to Singapore was 80000 yen each, which is about 650 dollars. Not too bad for the holidays, but the girl from Malaysia said it was normally about half that, so I guess it's not that good after all. I'll keep you posted as we put together more of a plan. I ordered the Lonely Planet guide to Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei from amazon.co.jp. They have fairly good prices there on English language books, and free shipping if your order is over $12, so it is a good deal. I think the guide will come in the next week or so.

Okay, I think I changed the time zone successfully, so dates and times will be more accurate instead of a day behind in the blog. They will reflect the time I posted it here instead of the time in America.

Today I don't have much to do. Tomorrow and Thursday are mid-term exams. That makes today the last day before exams, and none of the teachers were thrilled about doing anything but last minute reviews before the exams. I find the exams a little funny, because they don't seem to count towards anything. It doesn't seem to matter how you do on exams, because everyone goes on to the next grade, even if you never go to class. The only exams which are important are the high school entrance exams the oldest junior high students take in March. I guess they just like practicing a lot.

On Saturday I went to an English speech contest held at Toyama University of International Studies. I went with Iguchi-sensei, the teacher who took me home from the meeting last Wednesday (we talked about Iraq and things). She was excited to go this year, because she has always wanted to go in the past. Both her children are in college in Tokyo now, so she says she can finally do things she wants to do on the weekends. There were three categories at the competition: junior high, senior high, and open. There were five contestants in each category. One of my students had applied for the speech contest but didn't make it. I think her speech was too long, so that didn't help.

The speeches were generally very good, though they had trouble with the microphone not working halfway through, so it became difficult to hear some of the speeches. Generally we agreed with the first place winner of each category, except for the winner of the open category. I would've given her third, not first. Two of Iguchi-sensei's old students were in the competition. One was a girl she taught as a first year junior high student, who is now a third-year student. The other was a girl she taught in junior high who is now in senior high. Her old students did quite well, getting first and second in their categories. The two of us had fun talking about Mr. Porcaro, the guy who yelled at us about English Club in August. He is a professor at the university and was the chief judge for this competition. He came over to talk to us at one point during the reception afterwards and Iguchi-sensei took off for another conversation. She later apologized for leaving me alone with him, but said she hates talking to him that much.

The campus was quite nice. It was located near a small town and had lots of space. It was surrounded by forests, and Iguchi-sensei kept worrying (unnecessarily, I think), that we would see a bear. I told her I would be really excited if we saw a bear, but I think she was a scared. Anyway, it was a nice thing to do on Saturday morning, and it didn't require me to do anything strenuous, so that was nice. I also found out something interesting. I thought she had taught at 5 schools in 10 years of teaching. Actually she has taught at 8 schools in 10 years of teaching. I asked her why, and she said she wasn't a regular teacher, so she was mainly used to fill in gaps when regular teachers were moved elsewhere. I asked her if she wanted to be a regular teacher, and she said she doesn't want to, because they have to stay later after school. She likes going home early. Apparently regular teachers all have homerooms, so they must stay later to take care of the students in their homeroom. Iguchi-sensei doesn't have a homeroom.

Well, I seem to be at the end of my cold. I barely notice it anymore, which is nice. However, my stupid tonsils still won't return to their normal size. Grr... I just want to be able to feel 100% instead of 90% sometime during October.

It keeps raining here. In fact, it always seems to be raining in Toyama. I think in any given week it probably rains 4-5 days. Everyday I take my rain gear to work, even if it looks nice and sunny. I'm going to blame the weather on my recent illness. Unfortunately that doesn't bode well for me since precipitation rates go up in the winter here. I'm doomed to carry golfballs in my throat it seems.

Apparently people know that some of us Americans drink sweetened ice tea. Because two of my schools have started giving it to me. They pour a tiny amount of japanese tea in a small cup and then proceed to dump about three spoonfuls of sugar into this tiny cup. I've never had such sweet tea in my life! It's akin to drinking pure sugar. At least they're not giving me coffee anymore. Generally I ask for water, but they don't feel like that is being very hospitable, so they want to give me tea instead.

Today at Horikawa Minami Elementary School there was a teacher from Kentucky visiting. There are about 10 teachers from Kentucky in Toyama right now. I think last year some of the teachers from here went to Kentucky. They are here for one week. Of course they wanted me to meet her and talk to her, so we said hi to each other. I guess we sounded too friendly, because then one of the Japanese teachers asked if we knew each other. I couldn't help but chuckle. There's only a small chance I would even know a teacher from my home city, much less another state. She doesn't know any Japanese and she talked quite quickly, so one of the best English-speaking teachers at the school told me she couldn't understand anything she said. I told the teacher it would be okay to ask her to speak slower.

Teaching elementary students while sick is not so fun, because I can't rely on another teacher to talk a lot. However, the kids were genki (happy and energetic) enough to pull me through it.

Another weekend of rest and getting better is hopefully upon me. I just want to be better again by Monday.

Getting Japanese people to give an opinion on anything can be rather difficult. It is impossible in a large group and still challenging in one-on-one conversations. They seem so worried about saying something wrong or offensive that they often won't talk. Arggh!

Yesterday there was a conference in the afternoon of all the English teachers. Mrs. Iguchi took me home after the meeting. I had dinner with her last month, and she volunteered to take me home because she lives quite close to me and the school. The trip was about 30 minutes so I asked her some questions about politics and other such things. During the meeting we saw a team-teaching demonstration at a new junior high school. It was the nicest school in the whole world, from my point of view. Every classroom had ethernet ports for all the students in the floor, sliding blackboards, and a digital projector in the ceiling. The teachers were all loaned laptops to use. The ALT there said that there are more computers than students in the school. Basically, it was amazing the difference between my school and this other school.

Anyway, after the team teaching demonstration, we had a discussion where we talked about how it went. I think only one Japanese teacher had suggestions or gave comments about the lesson (positive or negative). I asked Mrs. Iguchi about this and she said that Japanese people don't like to give their opinions in front of others. Many of them were at the same official "level" as the teacher involved in the class, so criticizing her might've been disrespectful. So basically a bunch of us ALTs gave suggestions instead, though we have some of the least experience teaching. The only Japanese person who did do any criticizing is one of my favorite guys, a famous teacher-trainer, Mr. Nakamura. He has apparently written some books on teaching, and it is considered a big deal when he gives advice on teaching. He criticizes Japanese teachers for teaching just for the end of year tests, and for only using the textbook in class (both of which are quite true). Often it seems less important that students can actually communicate, than if they can understand some written questions in a specific context. I think they learn too many set responses instead of being able to construct their own sentences.

So I also asked her what she thought about the US attacking Iraq, since my mom was curious. In true Japanese style, she tried to dodge the question so she didn't have to answer. She said, "That is such a difficult question." I admit it is a little complex to explain why you think as you do, but saying whether or not you agree is not that difficult, so I pressed her for why it is a difficult question." She replied, "I am not American. I haven't been to America. I don't understand all of its problems." What a cop-out! I explained that I wouldn't be offended if she thought it was wrong, but she still wouldn't answer. I know its on the news all the time, so I was hoping to hear what she thought about it.

I did manage to discuss the Japanese financial system and the North Korea kidnapping situation recently though. I don't know how much about the North Korea kidnapping you heard, so I will tell you. About 24 years ago some North Koreans came to Japan and kidnapped 10 people. They were brought to Korea and forced to teach Korean spies about Japanese culture and language. Japan didn't know this happened for quite awhile, but Japan did find out at some point. A couple weeks ago, North Korea admitted they took these people from Japan, and a couple days ago 5 of the people returned to Japan finally. North Korea says the other 5 died of disease, but Iguchi-sensei said that Japanese people think they were probably killed. I managed to find out that many Japanese people think that North Korea has recently revealed this information and returned the hostages, because of America's threats against Iraq. They think North Korea is afraid that America will attack them next, and they are trying to clean up their act to show good faith on their part. This might be true, I don't know. However, today North Korea announced that it had been working on making nuclear weapons, so maybe they are trying to clear the air some because of this threat. So maybe another reason she is reluctant to comment on Iraq is that it might be helping Japan clear things with North Korea.

We also talked a little about why Japan doesn't have an army anymore, and she basically said that they don't really want one now, because Japanese people look at things differently. She also said that China and Korea would be deeply opposed to any effort to have an army (they have only a national defense force) because of the brutalities suffered in World War II. It was an interesting conversation as a whole, and I appreciate any chance I can get to talk with Japanese people one-on-one.

Okay, I have internet access again. It has been really flakey recently, however I discovered the school computers are working fine. It turns out the proxy server changed IP addresses, so I just had to change my internet settings to get it working again. I think it might still be a little flakey though. I am still sick. My tonsils are quite large, but don't hurt anymore when I swallow. The medicine from the first doctor visit helped, but slowly. So I went to the doctor again yesterday and got more medicine. Also, I had a fever, headache, and runny nose Monday night in addition to the tonsils, so I felt really bad. The doctor said that there does not seem to be a serious illness present, just small annoying ones. It took 3 hours at the doctor yesterday, and that may well come out of my vacation. It has yet to be seen if I can use sick time or not. The Japanese only use sick time when they are dying in the hospital.

I've got a big teacher's meeting soon. The students are all going home right now, so it is sort of a half-teacher's work day. All the teachers have a regional meeting based on their subject. So all the English teachers and ALTs are meeting together this afternoon.

We just got a super cool color laser printer. It totally rocks! I printed out some copies of pictures for Victoria to send home since her parents don't have the internet. The pictures were printed on regular paper, but they look like photo quality pictures. I'm really excited, because now my elementary school flashcards will look super real. The funny thing is that Abi (the other ALT at Horikawa) and I will be the only ones who ever use it more than likely.

Last night I went to the video store and tried to figure out the origanizational system they have. Unfortunately, it is terribly confusing, and mostly in kanji. I did figure out that big cards with pictures on it tend to represent themes. For instance, there was a picture of a school, and this was movies about high schools (American Pie, etc.). Another card was movies about New York. Also, I found cards on AIDS, music-themed movies, love, Leslie Nielson, and Jackie Chan. It is basically quite difficult to find a movie. I did notice that Steve Martin was next to Leslie Nielson. I think they both have gray hair, so that is how they are classified. Luckily the DVD collection is small enough that it is alphabetical (by katakana alphabet), so I have more of an idea of where to look. Also, I can just look through all the titles in about 5 minutes.

This month the big thing at school is singing. There is a choral competition on Nov. 1, so the students must get ready for this. That means before and after school, all the students get together and sing songs as a class. I think each class is in competition against other classes in their grades.

It is nice to arrive at school to the sound of beautiful singing. It kind of makes me think I teach at a private church school. Of course, at moments like right now, when the students are out of tune and the piano player keeps messing up, it reminds me of being trapped in my worst nightmares. Today seems to be a particularly bad day for the class next door, so hopefully 4:00 will come quickly and I can leave.

I think the choral competition will take up most of the day, and apparently I may be asked to help judge it.

Teachers in Japan are not tied to one school in particular. What I mean by this is that teachers are moved around every several years. This tends to help create the hectic crazy atmosphere that many teachers work with. Every year they may have a new boss or supervisor. The principals only stay at schools 2-4 years. I looked at the portraits of all the past teachers and none of them had been at Horikawa for more than 5 years. At the end of the school year, in March, teachers are shifted around to different schools. I think generally they teach the same age level and subject, but schools are randomly assigned it seemed. Apparently you can request a transfer, but many teachers who don't request one are still moved. Proximity to a school is apparently not a factor in assigning where you work. Many teachers come from other towns in the prefecture and have to commute thirty minutes to go to their school.

I talked with Iguchi-sensei and she has been teaching 10 years and has taught at over 5 schools during that time period. She was moved to Horikawa this year, which is actually close to her house (by coincidence). As a counter-example, Yamamoto-sensei has also taught for 10 years but has only worked at 2 schools during this time. Why? Who knows?

Rarely do students return to their old schools to visit past teachers, because it is unlikely that many teachers will be there that they still know. I think that is kind of sad, because I think the things I remember most about my schools were the students and the teachers, not the facilities.

Everyday I eat school lunch. I eat with first-year students, a different class every week. I only rotate between seven of the nine classes, for reasons I don't understand. I think it is because there are 7 teachers without homerooms, including myself, so they always have one teacher at each room. However, this means two classes are perpetually without guests. I think it is just so things are easier for the kitchen as far as how much food to cook for each class. The students go down to the kitchen and pick up big things of food and lug them back to the classrooms. Then those same students dish out food into bowls for everyone. Finally, once all the food is distributed we get to eat. Eating is a strange experience, since the foods can be quite bizarre for me.

They always have milk, and either rice or bread. The Japanese milk tastes different than American milk, and also milk in Spain, I think. I think there is a higher fat content for the milk, plus I think they feed the cows different food. Sometimes lunch is quite good. I enjoyed frozen tangerines more than I thought I would. However once I bit into a small sardine-like fish and it was filled with little eggs. This was quite a disgusting taste and texture, so I didn't eat any more of that. Today we had a sort of curry with tofu, bacon, and eggs. However, the eggs were not chicken eggs. Instead they were the eggs of some small bird. I don't know which one right now. I keep meaning to ask my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English). Sometimes lunch is plenty of food, but other days I feel like I am on a diet. I did realize recently I've lost over ten pounds since coming to Japan. I might have mentioned this in one of my posts during the Toga hostel trip. I think its just extra exercise and eating less food, especially high fat items.

Well, I feel a little better today, though my tonsils are still really swollen. I think maybe it is viral tonsilitis instead of bacterial, since the anti-biotic doesn't seem to be doing anything to help clear it up, like what often happens with strep.

Today I only taught one class. I managed to postpone my other class this morning to Friday instead. Tomorrow I have three classes then English club, so I hope I feel good then.

I am sick. Blah. I think its quite easy to get sick in a foreign country, because of all the new foods and the stress it adds to your life. It doesn't help that this is the time of year during which many people get sick. I went to the doctor on Saturday, which involves lots of waiting. You can't make appointments at the hospitals, so you basically wait in line all morning. They only take new patients at the clinic part of the hospital from 8:30-11:30am (even Mon-Fri), so you have to get there early. I got there at 11:15 so I was one of the last people seen. The doctor says I have tonsilitis, an infection of my tonsils. Sounds like fun, huh? Well, my tonsils are all swollen up and they look infected. The doctor gave me three drugs to take, which I finally understand what they do now. I think one is to ease the pain of swallowing, another to protect my stomach from the other drugs, and a third is an antibiotic. They also gave me something to gargle with (minty iodine?) and mint things to suck on to make my throat feel better. My out of pocket cost for everything was 3,000 yen, about $24 dollars, which isn't bad for a doctor's visit and drugs.

I basically spent most of the weekend watching TV and playing computer games, because I didn't have the energy to go very far away. Victoria was a real sweetheart and brought me some American food products from the foreign food store and orange juice. I did manage to grade almost all of the papers I need to though, so that was good. I had to miss the soba noodle-making party at a nearby town, which I was looking forward to. I didn't really feel like potentially infecting lots of my friends and Japanese children. Today I am at work, but I am trying to take it easy and not teach too much. Hopefully I can get lesson planning done for the rest of the week.

Okay, it seems like Duke's web site is doing strange things. If you can't see some of the pictures, don't worry. I hope the problem will be fixed soon, though maybe they are finally deactivating my account (they were supposed to do it two years ago). If that is the case, then I'll try to find somewhere else to put pictures.

The trip to see Paul was interesting. It was 676 km total distance, and it took about 7-7.5 hours of driving to do it. Driving in Japan is fairly interesting, in that it is the one thing the Japanese seem to do like reckless idiots. They normally follow all the laws to the letter, but they don't seem to mind running red lights and speeding a lot over the limit. We decided to fit in with the speeding thing, mainly to cut down on our travel time. So the speed limit is about 80 km/h, which is around 50mph. This is terribly slow for such big highways. We went between 100 and 120 during most of the journey. It is interesting because some cars are going the speed limit and many are going well above the limit. This causes some serious problems with realizing the car in front of you is going much slower than you, and having to slam on the brakes.

We got started about an hour late and we had to stop and get dinner pretty early. So we really didn't start driving on the expressway until 8pm or so. Sarah drove first, then we switched at about two hour intervals. It wasn't too bad until we got to the Meishin Expressway, which goes from Tokyo to Osaka, and was horribly crowded. Near Osaka half the highway was under construction, so we were slowed there. There were tons of eighteen-wheelers (lorries) on the road also, so things were not as fun here. I had the wonderful honor of driving this stretch of the journey. We called Paul and told him we were running late. He eventually met us with his car at Toga's major landmark, Kirara-taki, a big building by the sea. We arrived at around 3am, so Sarah was getting a little crazy by that point. She was driving the last stretch, but Victoria and I started wishing she wasn't. We got to Paul's place and basically collapsed, since it was so late.

On Saturday we slept in a little bit, and Paul made everyone pancakes. It was nice having a food from back home again. It is pretty easy to find pancake mix here actually, I've just been lazy about making them. Paul showed us the wonder of Japanese music videos (Paul has satellite TV). Some of them were quite scary, worse than a flashback to an 80s video. Paul's theory is that the Japanese artists saw a bunch of Western music videos and just took things they liked from each of them and threw them all together in their videos. His theory seems to hold water after watching some of the top ones. We got all our stuff together and headed to the beach. It is a short drive away, at Kirara-taki. You can nearly see it from Paul's house. The beach was very pretty from a distance (like most beaches in Japan, it was covered in trash), and quite deserted. It was a lot of fun. We played frisbee and swam in the water. Apparently swimming is often bad in Japan because of jellyfish (or so they say). However, we didn't see any jellyfish and the water was really clear. It also stayed shallow for awhile, so we could play around in the waves yet still be far from the shore.

After the beach we went up and had ice cream at Kirarataki. Taki town is famous for fig products (every town is famous for something), and so they had packages of figs and fig products you could buy as omiyage for back home. Also, they had fig ice cream, which I tried. It is interesting, but didn't really taste that strong. On the way home we bought some figs at the grocery store, which we ate along with a cantaloupe, some peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes we found in Paul's garden. It was a nice little fruit/vegetable snack.

I don't know what we did the rest of the afternoon, but I think it involved watching a movie on TV. That night we were supposed to meet some of Paul's friends in Izumo, the nearest large city (100,000), for a dinner. We were a little late, but we got there in time. We went to a yaki-tori restaurant (food on sticks), and the group of people filled up the room. The guests included our host, some director from Izumo University Medical School, foreign students of the med school, local JETs, Toyama JETs, and some other random people, including 5 kids. 4 of the 5 kids ended up sitting at our table, so it was basically the four of us with the kids and one parent who spoke a little English. The food was pretty good, and I ate a lot. Victoria and Sarah played with the kids while Paul and I talked to the parent more (just where we were seated). Then afterwards we went and played with the kittens of a JET in Izumo (Jessica, one of Paul's friends) and then we drove back home.

Sunday morning Paul and I woke up early to go to one of his undokai (Sports Day). His junior high school was having its Sports Day, so I thought it would be cool if we both showed up. However, many people didn't seem to immediately think we were brothers, which I thought was a little strange. I met one of his English teachers (facing backwards in the center) and his principal (right side). The school had many events involving students' legs being tied together. They had a relay involving jump ropes, and another with carrying a ping pong ball in a spoon. My school didn't do anything like that. I only stayed half the day, then I went back to Paul's house. Sarah, Victoria, and I decided to go to the holy shrine in Izumo, Izumotaisha.

The shrine was interesting. It is the oldest Shinto shrine in Japan. It has been destroyed and rebuilt about 20 times, according to the guide book. It used to be quite tall apparently. It is the shrine of marriage and many people who want to find marriage soon come there. Apparently it's not always the person you're there with though. So many single people go too. You are supposed to throw a coin up into this giant rope and make it stick there. Why? I don't know, but I did it anyway. It was fun. Also, many people bought wooden cards and white ribbons to put on trees, buildings, and about anything else they could find. Why? I don't know that either, but it was too expensive to do myself. It didn't look that fun either. Victoria and I posed for a picture by a nearby turtle pond. We walked through the shrine grounds, ate some food, and went to Paul's home again. One curious thing about the shrine is that all several million Shinto Gods are supposed to go there in October to meet. All the other shrines have no Gods during that time period.

The night we went to Izumo to get groceries, and they cooked a spicy creole rice dish, while I sat and did nothing. Paul has a large kitchen, but I didn't really feel like cooking. I just did the dishes later instead. We watched most of "Best in Show" and went to sleep. The next morning we talked to the family on the phone, and then started the epic drive back. This time there was more traffic in the beginning but less on the way back. We got back just in time to return the rental car, and thus ended our trip.

Paul and I have been trying to get vacation plans together. It is time to buy tickets for Christmas right now, but we haven't really figured out where we should go yet. I think we are both thinking someplace with warm weather. Winter is supposed to be a little bad in Japan, mainly because of no central heating anywhere, and little insulation in the walls.

The closing ceremony for my school is on December 24 this year, in one of my school's least wise decisions. The 23rd is a Monday and the Emperor's birthday (a national holiday). This means that if they had made the 20th the closing day instead, that we would get 3 more days of winter vacation. I just don't understand the schools sometimes.

Anyone with an idea on someplace warm to go near Japan, feel free to email me.

I just read something which struck me as really funny, but I think maybe writing it out it will lose some of its humor. I had one of my classes write sentences about themselves on a piece of paper and give it to me. I wrote an example introduction and they were supposed to fill in the details from that.

One student wrote:
I like basketball.
I play basketball.
Hell, my name is Amano Yuta.

I just cracked up imagining this little boy saying "hell" in that context.

A funnier story is one that belongs to my neighbor Elita, but I will steal it for entertainment purposes only (no selling of this story). First I should explain that Elita is from Canada and of Asian descent. So in Japan many people just assume she is Japanese, especially if she is with a white boy, like me for instance. Elita just went to USJ (Universal Studios Japan) in Osaka last weekend. She and some of her English-speaking friends were in Osaka and were searching for a specific shopping district. Osaka is not like Toyama. In Toyama, all the native English-speakers are English teachers, and most of us are in the JET program. In Osaka, there are many more foreigners from lots of different countries. Anyway, Elita found a British businessman that was walking by. She went up to him and started this long question / explanation of what they were looking for. Unfortunately he didn't know where it was either. As Elita turned to go ask someone else, the man said, "By the way, your English is very good." Elita was a little stunned, but quickly replied, "Thank you." She's used to Japanese people saying that to her, but not native English-speakers. Many he was just saying, "For a Canadian, your English is quite good." :)

Blah. It seems I have trouble getting my lesson plans efficiently. It's almost two hours past time to go home and I am still preparing things for tomorrow. I have the main activity done, but I have no idea what to do to teach plural in an interesting way. At least once I get it done I don't have to worry about lesson plans until next week.

This week for ichi-nensei (first year students) we are doing a hamburger restaurant lesson (McBrian's) which includes plurals and the word please. I made a whole McBrian's menu with pictures and the like. I think it looks pretty good, but I always worry that it won't work out well. I also have no idea how long we can do it for, or how to explain it before hand. Blah. At least the other teachers can help out some.

I just found out one of my English teachers' father died on Sunday. No one remembered to tell me, and then my co-worker asked me if I was going to the funeral tomorrow evening. I asked him what funeral, and then he told me the details. I can't make it to the funeral, so it is traditional to give money. I think the Japanese people give a lot of money (almost $100 each), but they told me to just give about $25.