This is a 3-fer, and marks the end of my first month at Sunami JHS!

These are transcribed entries from the journal I am writing in at school. I started the journal for a number of reasons, one of the main ones being that I didn’t have Internet yet so I couldn’t post things online. The other being that I had free time on my hands. These entries are slightly modified, but mostly for grammar. I suppose you’d never know either way. Surprisingly, I had way more to say than I thought. Unsurprisingly, I have been bad (abysmal) at keeping my online entries up to date with my written ones. Someday, the dates will match but for now…These are the voyages of a long time ago in a galaxy far far away:

May 20, Suiyobi (Wednesday)
I don't know if one can say enough about the brilliance that is yakiniku. Last night Bobu bobu and I tried to go out for sushi, but we were stymied when the place we wanted to try decided to be under renovation till June. This was a surprise because we had walked by the sushi place earlier this week and they had been open with no signs about closing down. Because we were so disheartened by this turn of events (well, really, we were just hungry, but Bobu is kind of an Eeyore) we settled on a yakiniku place near Bobu's house, and OMG. The pure delight of freshly grilled meat will never cease to amaze me. Who ever invented fire, you rock. (I'm looking at you Prometheus, totally worth it man. Props.) And I bet that cro-magnon who invented BBQ was the coolest pre-guy in the history of pre-history. Also, I spoke Japanese to the waiters to ask them about beer, and then order food and said beer. (Name biru ga arimas ka? Name biru i pai. Kobe beef, hitotsu, onegaishimas) It felt pretty good. I wouldn't say I'm "comfortable" with the language yet,but there's been some definite improvement.

Speaking of getting comfortable, I am finally feeling good about my school. Not so many surprises anymore, and I've talked to pretty much all the teachers at least once, and I recognize most of my kids know a good percentage of names. But too bad, I'm switching schools at the end of the week. I'm pretty bummed and a little nervous to go through the whole "gaijin teacher" production again. Also, my commute time is about to triple. That's right, this is the part of the season where Alex goes and teaches in the boonies of Japan. Rice paddies and bamboo forests, here I come!

Warm/hot days in Kimitsu are great. One, because, well, its warm, which is a new and exciting twist from life in WA. And two, warm weather always seems to put the children in a frenzy. Blue skies and warm sun, and poof, the kids get loud, agitated, and feisty. Its fun for me because they are more interesting and talkative when they are excited. They also seem more inclined to speak English - go figure. We'll see how I feel about warm weather after track practice today, though...



May 21, Mokuyobi (Thursday)
Sometimes I forget that Japan is a Pacific island/ foreign place. I get lulled by the trains, cars, and concrete into feeling that I am just in a very strange part of America. But then a big mother-'effing bee flies into the classroom and everyone (me included) freaks out! This bee was, no joke, the size of my pinky finger, with wings as long as dragonfly's. Also, they are supposedly pretty dangerous, but jeezzz, sooo big! On top of that, yesterday Winston said that he say a spider that sounded like it could have eaten my bee. And then I remember I live on a Pacific Island, thousands of miles away from redwood forests, Point D., or Shell Ridge.

Back to the more mundane, I just figured out that I am getting a pretty sweet deal on my travel expenses. My company reimburses me for my commute gas at 15 yen per kilometer. This translates into about 900 yen per week. I spend about 1000 yen per week on gas, counting random car trips to the mall, Bobu Bobu's, or restaurants. I figured my gas efficiency costs me about 10 yen per kilometer, which is a sweet deal for me. However, I was warned that the reimbursement stays the same over the summer, when I'm going to want the a/c cranked up (thus destroying my gas mileage - gas meterage?) so maybe I won't count my chickens just yet. And yes, I did spend some time playing with numbers to figure this out. I can also tell you that as long as I spend less than 180 yen per liter, I'll be in the black for commuter costs, (Currently, gas is at about 117 per liter) that I commute 60 km a week to work and back, and spend approx. 600 yen on commuting. And I can get about 12 km to the liter. Nerd Alert.

So one one of the more unruly kids started throwing around the word "bitch" today in class. That was a frustrating moment because I have absolutely zero punitive power and only as much authority as the kids decide I have, so there wasn't a whole lot I could do. He started calling the teacher a bitch, and my disapproving face only excited him, so I just ignored it till he moved on. Maybe I didn't handle it as well as I could have, but I was a little stunned, honestly. It was slightly upsetting to hear him cursing in the classroom and really jarring to hear students cursing at teachers, and equally confusing when I was the only person in the room who seemed to notice. Ahh, the perils of teaching foreign languages to 13 year olds. *sigh*


May 22, kinyobi (Friday)
So today is my last day at Sunami JHS for a month or so; starting on Monday I work at Seiway JHS. I bought gifts for the teachers at Sunami, a kind of thank-you-for-helping-me-out-farewell-and-see-you-again thing. I'm a little nervous because I've bee told that gift giving is kind of a big deal in Japan, but I'm clueless about the actual etiquette. I've decided to lean on the "gifts are always good" credo and hope that the thought and gaijin forgiveness make up for whatever social faux-pas I'm about to make.

I find that the Japanese are pretty tolerant of my social blundering, and for the most part, they find it bemusing and harmless. Last night I went to sushi (successfully this time) with Bobu and damn it was good. Mistakes and corrections were made - which shows that I was enjoying immersion that day: any day where I don't get points on how to be Japanese from the Japanese is not so much a day that I couldn't have used the advice as much as I was avoiding the interactions. For example, I now know that at the sushi place we went to, you're supposed to get your own water, and that when you eat sushi you are not supposed to put the rice in the soy sauce - you're supposed to flip it over and put the fish in the sauce. That last bit of info was news to me, and imparted by a gentleman who sat down to eat next to me (we were at the bar-type seating) and would periodically point out Japanese things to me: "Miso soup", "Shouyu, gohan, chigao," (soy sauce, rice, incorrect) "hashi," (chopsticks) ect.

He was also the one who brought to my attention the fish tank on one side of the restaurant when one of the workers was pulling some fish out of it. The fish catchers proceded to the side of the restaurant where the big cleavers were... that's fresh, and they were delicious! The best piece of the evening was actually clam, but I don't remember what it was called in Japanese or in English. Guess I'll have to go back! 2 months in, and this is the first sushi I've had; I don't think I'm going to wait another two months. Its just too bad that Winston can't eat fish, he's really missing out, and I think I only saw maybe 3 kinds of non-fish dishes in the whole joint.