Alright, man. I am really falling behind here. The second week of school is now over. Not much to tell as the little details arn't that interesting. I did go out to my sixth and final school on Tuesday. Good place but I'll get to that later. Now, I must continue my story from last Thursday.
So at the beginning of the third period Ms. Ito came and got me at my desk and took me over to a classroom that was just a large room with tatami on the floor. She said something to the teacher in the room and then left me there. There were only 5 students and the teacher, all females. So I take off my shoes and go in. Nobody spoke English except for a word here and there and even that took a major effort on their part. Words like "try" and "you" were spoken only after I saw the wheels turning for many seconds in their heads. Of course, they asked me if I spoke Japanese and I told them I didn't but in all reality, there wasn't much need for talking here. The girls were being coached on how to conduct a tea cermony and I was really just supposed to watch.
So I sat down while they practiced. The girls were probably around 16 or 17 and were all very nice and smiled a lot. They seemed a bit more mature than many of my previous students as they didn't just sit and giggle at me. Yes, we all laughed a few times but it seemed like I was in on most of the jokes. Anyway, I sat and watched as each girl took her turn (two at a time) going through the motions of "tea ceremony." It was pretty interesting as they had to fold the cloth a certain way, hold their hand a certain way, turn the cup as they prepared it, wisk the dried tea leaves in the hot water in a certain manner, etc. Some of the girls were better at it than others but they all seemed to enjoy it. The real plus was that I got to drink some of the tea. I've always liked green tea and being served by these girls was great. "I could get used to this," I thought.
So I stayed there for the full period and had a good time. I thanked everyone on my way out and they all thanked me for being there. So that was cool.
After this I had a class, then lunch and then another class. The classes ran smoothly as by this point in the week I had my self-intro and two games down solid. Ms. Ito seemed to like the way I ran the classes and again, I marvelled at how I was actually pulling this whole thing off.
After the classes I took a short tour of the school with the head of the international division (I forget her name) for the real purpose of telling her how to label the buildings and offices. I was told that the chancellor of the academy is really gung-ho on getting the entire staff there to speak English inside a year and also wants to improve the image of the school by labeling the buildings and offices in both Japanese and English. So my job was to simply tell her how to label these places. It was pretty easy for me and from what I understand saves them a hell of a lot of time, so it went well. She and I just walked around the campus and she would say things like, "This is where the students come and get councelled if they need it. What would you call this." And I would search in my bag of extensive knowledge of American businesses and schools and come up with "How about 'Councelling Center'?" There were many places that needed names so I helped her and got a free tour at the same time.
After this I had to go get my picture taken for the school yearbook or something like that. It took only 3 minutes and then I was free to go.
I like this school. They are a bit military-like but everyone seems friendly. Some of the students salute the teachers, they have a morning asembly in which they raise the flag to the national anthem, and the beginning of school is signaled by and air-raid siren. All a little strange to me as this isn't a military school but then again they are turning out future aviation mechanics and we don't want them slacking off on the job now do we? Discipline is high here but for good reason, I imagine.

Friday took me on a 10 minute bike ride to Yamanashi Gakuen Junior High. There's really not much to tell here as this is just another regular school as I think of them. The kids are smart though. I teach four classes and work with three teachers. All are very nice and again, seem happy to have me there. I did have lunch with a class (not mine) which was rather interesting as the boys kept with each other and it was the girls who tried to talk to me. A few seemed dazzled by my blue eyes (this seems to catching on at other schools too), and some of them spoke pretty good English. So we had a nice short chat and then it was time to get to my class of the day. The best part about this school is that is very close to my place, so on the average Friday I will be home by about 3pm. Beer time!

So that was week one. A good week for me. I will tell you about my first visit to Shizen Gakuen later.

Last night Amy and I went to a soccer game here in Kofu. From what I've been told, ever since Japan hosted the World Cup a couple years ago soccer has been very popular. Baseball is still the biggest sport here but apparently soccer is growing quite quickly. Japan has two leagues. Kind of a majors and minors, if you will. J1 is the top rung, and J2 is just under. Kofu's team is a J2 league team and is the only professional sports team in all of Yamanashi. It was great fun last night. There were probably around five thousand people there (very rough estimate) and we ended up sitting next to what looked like the official cheering squad. There were probably about 50 people with jerseys, flags, and a large banner up behind them. I never saw the large drum but there obviously was one and they spent much of the game singing chants, beating the drum, and cheering (and very organized about it too). Sounded like the soccer games I've seen on tv in all honesty. This is obviously more a European influx than it is an American one. We don't really have musical chants in America. We all just cheer what and when we want. Anyway, the first half was scoreless but then Kofu scored at around 15 minutes to go and the place went wild. Then with about 3 minutes to go Kofu scored again and if you know anything about soccer, that basically put the nail in the coffin. So we (I do live in Kofu, you know?) won 2-0. So I am now an official "Ventforet Kofu" fan. Don't yet know what "ventforet" means but I'll find out eventually. Oh, and beer was only 500 yen a large cup. Less than they are at major league baseball games in America. Whoo hoo!