Been neglecting this thing. Back to work.

School has now been in session for me for just over two weeks. It's a new year with many changes.

I now have two Monday schools, Minobusan and Tokai. At Minobu I still teach with the same guy and have only two classes but now I teach both classes twice. So really I have four periods of teaching instead of the two I had last year. I teach the second year students, who are all new to me, the two periods before lunch, and then I teach the third year students the two periods after lunch. I had those guys last year. I'm not exactly happy about the increase in my teaching time as it means I have to catch a later train, but I really can't complain. I am home by about 5:30pm and then have to head out for my Japanese lesson.

My other Monday school is the new one. Tokai. I've only been there once so far and I can't say I was all that impressed. It's a large high school and on my first day I had four classes of kids who seemed not to give a damn that I was there. I taught with four teachers who all seemed nice enough but one of them, I can already tell, is going to be a pain in the ass to "teach" with. After I did my short introduction she had the students say two or three sentences each to introduce themselves to me. First, those not speaking to me were speaking to each other and I had trouble hearing what was being said to me. Second, many of the students simply wouldn't speak in English and the teacher had to do it for them. And third, instead of telling the others to shutup she finally asked me if I would come into the rows and stand next to the students talking so that I could hear what was being said. It was pathetic and I didn't feel it was my job to shut the little shits up as it was my first day there. Anyway, this class might prove to be the low-point of my life here. Course, if that's the low-point then life must be pretty good for me.
The other classes were fine but not all that fun. Hopefully it gets better.
After school I was asked if I could stay for the English club thing and a whole one student showed up. So it was me, a teacher and a student. It wasn't bad and we had a nice half hour conversation.

Tuesdays are also split by week, as they were last year, with me going to Sundai Junior High the first the third Tuesdays of the month. This school is fun and I still have three classes consisting of about 44 second year students each. They are fun and we have a good time. Unfortunately I don't teach with Yamashita anymore as he followed my last year students up to the third grade level, but it's not that big a deal as I now teach with a nice young lady named Kiyanagi.

The second and forth Tuesdays of the month I head out to Shizen Gakuen. I still teach with a lady named Shindo and have two classes. My first class has a grand total of two students and my second class has twice as many. These days are dragging on me in terms of the two hour commute out there and then the two back, but once I'm there I enjoy the kids and the teacher. All are extremely nice.

Wednesdays are at Yuda, the all girls school, and I still have three classes. I still teach with Yazaki but don't with Fujishima nor Tanoguchi (the old guy). I am rather bummed about not teaching with Tanoguchi but on the bright side I now teach with Miki Nishijima who happens to be a rather nice looking 24 year old girl. Ok, she's better than "rather" nice looking, she's actually quite beautiful and very nice and kinda shy. All in all quite sexy if you ask me. But I am a taken man, so Matt, if you are reading this, get your butt over here and I'll introduce you to her.
I also teach one other class with a lady who has been at the school since at least last year, but whose name I have never learned. She seems nice enough but when I did my introduction to her class and they asked me about my hobbies I noticed that she purposely left out the part about making beer in her translation.

Thursdays are still spent at the Japanese Aviation Academy and I still teach with all the same teachers. And I still have no idea what classes I'll be teaching till I get out there. Very confusing, that place, but I really like the students and teachers I work with.
They've hired a full-time native English speaker, too. David is his name and he used to be a JET. Has now lived in Japan for eight years and is from Salinas, CA. Small world, aye? Anyway, seems like a nice guy but the other day at lunch one of the teachers told me that he and I are very different both in the classroom and out of it. They think he's a bit strange but they like him. Makes me wonder what they think of me.

And last comes Friday and Yamanashi Gakuen. I teach the junior high first and second graders here still. Two classes of each. Between this school and Sundai, I've come to the conclusion that I enjoy the junior high students much more that I do the high school kids. The kids here are great and we have nothing but fun. They are energetic, willing to try most of the time, and seem very happy when I walk into the room. Too often, the high school kids don't give much a damn that you're there, are afraid to try to speak to me, and some act like they are just too cool to pay much attention. I don't blame them too much for this as I still remember being what it was like to be in high school, but with them the days and the classes are much more hit and miss in regards to good days. With the junior high kids it is always fun.
Anyway, at this school I teach with two of the three teachers I did last year and also with a new guy. Negishi is the new guy and he seems really nice, laughs at my jokes, and seems willing to allow me to run the show. In fact, on Fridays I run all four classes with very little help from the teachers. They like it that way and although it require more prep work from me, it is fun.

So that's the wrap-up on the new school year. I'd say I have about 75% new students and 50% new teachers to work with. Fun fun.

Today is my last day at the Kencho for a while. Next week...back to school. Checking my schedule it appears that I will not be back here for at least two weeks, maybe longer. Have to admit that I am happy to be heading back to the classrooms. Although the work is harder than simply sitting here at the Kencho, studying Japanese, writing in here, answering emails, reading, and thinking about lunch, it is also much more fun. Will have many new students and one new school. So let the show begin.

The parents left yesterday. Was sad to see them go, but happy to have my small apartment back to myself. So, mixed feelings, as it probably should be. Think they had good time and I had fun showing them my life over here.
At the train station where we dropped them off, I could see mom's eyes starting to tear up, but I reminded her that I'd be seeing her in three months, at Rigel's wedding, and she seemed ok again.
Anyway, I am glad they came.

After Robin, Gary and I dropped them off, we headed over to the Kose Sports Center because the sumo boys were in town. The whole thing took place in a large gym and you couldn't be too far from the action. And all the boys were there: Kokkai, Kotomitsuki, Takamisakari, Kaio, Chiyotaikai, and even the yokozuna (top rank) himself, Asashoryu. I had been wondering if the top-level guys would be present or if this would just be some second-half pre-season football game where all the good guys are sitting out. But no, they were all there.
Robin and Gary aren't exactly sumo fans and I was happy to answer questions when need be. They had seen a documentary on sumo, though, so they weren't completely out of the loop. So we had fun and talked and watched the show and it was a pretty good day.
One thing I will say here, though, is that there was definitely something missing from the feeling of the whole day. I chalk this up to the fact that this was a demonstration and not an actual basho. The matches didn't mean anything really and I kinda had that same feeling I get when I watch a pre-season football game. You wait and wait for football to start and then you see, near the end of July, that there is a pre-season game on tv. So you make it a point to tune in because, after all, it's football. So you get your beer and nachos all ready for kickoff and sit down to watch excited that the last six months have passed. But as you watch 1st and 10 turn to 2nd and 6 and then to 3rd and 3 you realize that this game is missing something. It's the first half and all the prospected starters are out there. The lines seem to be crashing into each other with all the gusto of a post-season game. The safeties are hitting the tightends like a train hits a car stalled on the rails. But nonetheless, something is missing. What can it be?
Well, I'll tell you, it's the lack of something being on the line. Sure, the jobs of some of the players are on the line during the pre-season, but do we sportsfans really care about those on the cusp anyway? No. We just want a good game whose outcome means something. Even a 3-11 team near the end of the regular season is fighting for something. Those pre-season games mean nothing! I'm sure some sportsfans would argue with me on this point but I stand by my claim. I only watch because, well, it's still football.
Anyway, back to sumo. So there was something missing from the feel of the day, but it was still fun to be there and watch. The official events were to get underway at 11:00 but we had arrived around 9:00 and as we walked in I could see many rikishi (wrestlers) out on the dohyo (the platform they fight on). Some were standing just off the dohyo and some up on it. Two rikishi would push each other around for a few minutes and then step off as two others took their places. It looked like the scenes I've seen on tv from sumo stables where they do their training. So it was pretty cool to be able to watch them do this.
Right off I noticed that Kokkai was out there and watched as he stood around, talked to some of the others, and rubbed his two day stubble (he is normally clean shaven). The relaxed atmosphere out there on the dohyo was in direct contrast to the normal tenseness experienced at a basho. These guys are normally up there, staring each other down, going through the pre-bout rituals, and psyching themselves up; all this in front of a crowd that can smell and nearly taste the competition like it was a gourmet dinner being prepared in the next room.
So in this relaxed atmosphere we picked out some seats and watched as Takamisakari, Kotomitsuki, Buyuzan, Kakizoe, and eventually Kaio, Chiyotaikai and Asashoryu came out to play on the dohyo. So we sat and watched and talked.
At 11:00 the real demonstration started. The day ran much like an official basho's day does with a few exceptions. It was all speeded up some as the between bout rituals were shortened, there were demonstrations of things you don't get to see at a basho, and there were a couple of extra shows.
The extra shows included a sort of slapstick sumo fight between two guys whose names I don't know. They got up there and tripped over each other, spit water at each other, picked on the ref, mock-fought, and even went out into the audience and shared a beer. It was funny at points and rather corny at others but I suppose that was the point. Sumo is a very serious business and this demonstration showed that it does, indeed, have a sense of humor.
A little later about seven rikishi from the middle ranks got up there and did a little song/spoken word thing. I guess they picked the best singers cause they were actually pretty good. They sang in that sort of traditional Japanese way and took turns at the mic. And it was interesting to see these normally macho, I'll-pound-you-into-the-dohyo, men singing and moving in a way in which I've never seen them before. Imagine Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Louis, and some of the other heavyweights in the middle of a ring singing a sort of opera and classic jazz tune mix. I'm sure these rikishi did it much better than those guys could.
There were also behind-the-scenes-of-sumo demonstrations. They had a drummer go out on the dohyo and beat the drum that you sometimes hear outside the stadium in Tokyo. Then they had Takamisakari get his hair done by a young expert. A rikishi's hair is much like the old samurai warriors' were hundreds of years ago, and those hairstylists that fix the hair of the rikishi have been in training for many years and travel with the whole circuit. And then they had Asashoryu and five of his attendees show the audience how his large white rope, which signifies his yokozuna status, is tied on. The rope is worn only by yokozuna and is not made until he attains that rank. The lower ranking guys from the yokozuna's stable make the rope when he gets his promotion and apparently it weighs around 20 pounds. It is tied around the yokozuna's waist and the back is fixed in a large arching knot. He does not wear this for his fights but only for what I call the yokozuna dance, which he does once, everyday of a basho, just after the top forty guys are introduced announcing the last and top tier of fights to happen for that day.
So all of this happened between breaks in the demonstration bouts and eventually the big boys came out to fight. There isn't much more to say because, as said earlier, these bouts really didn't mean anything. But they did seem to put fighters of about equal ability against each other so that was a good thing. Kokkai fought Takamisakari, Kotomitsuki fought Wakanosato, Kaio fought Musoyama, and Asashoryu fought Chiyotaikai.
After that last match we had to escape quickly as Gary had to get to work. So it was a good day and the next time I see those guys live will be May 22nd in Tokyo for the real thing.

I'm not sure if the practice of rotation exists in all of Japan's industries, both public and private, but here at the Kencho and at many of Japan's schools the end of March and beginning of April sees many employees moving from one area to another. It seems a strange practice to me, but with a few moments of thought on the issue, it seems like a very good practice in many ways. But rather than get into a discussion as to the merits and deficiencies of such a system I'll simply tell you what has gone on in the last few weeks over here.

In late February, I think it was, I leaned over to Ono-san and requested some time off during my parents visit. I requested five days off running from March 29th to April 2nd so that I could hang out with the parents and be free to leave town if we so decided. It wouldn't be a problem, I thought, because my schools wouldn't be in session then and all I'd be doing was sitting here at the Kencho, hogging the computer, and taking up space. And really, it wasn't a problem. Ono-san actually seemed happy that I was finally taking some of my vacation time.
"But," he said pointing to the week on the calendar I was holding and had just requested off, "we will have party this week." And he indicated that we would be having two parties, one for those people who would be leaving and another for those who would be replacing them. At this, confusion set in, but I had heard about teachers moving from school to school and came to the conclusion that it must be the same for these government workers.
"Ah," I said and asked, "Who will be leaving?" figuring that there was only a month to go and that surely those who would be leaving would know by now.
"We don't know yet," he answered.
This baffled me a bit and I asked the next question in my line of interrogation. "Ono-san," I began, "will you be leaving?" I was not happy at the prospect of this kind and very helpful man whom I had learned to communicate with leaving the desk next to mine.
"Perhaps," was all he said and we left it at that.
So I told him to let me know about the parties when he knew more and went back to my book.

A few weeks later Ono leaned over to me and pointed to the calendar on my desk. "Mah-kahs," he said, "party will be this day and this day," and he pointed to March 29th and April 2nd. "Can you come?"
So I gave it some thought and decided that I would commit to the first one but not the second. I'd let him know about that one as I was thinking of the possibility of mom, dad, and me being out of town somewhere.
But I did, again, take the opportunity to ask him about those who might leave. "Do you know, yet, who will be leaving?" I asked.
"Not yet," was the answer.

And it wasn't until Friday, March 26th, that the office found out who would be leaving. And what makes this so surprising to me is that March 31st would be their last day in the old office and April 1st would be their first one in the new office. That was the very next week!
So the information came down the chain of command and Ono leaned over to me, "Mah-kahs," he said, "I will be leaving." At this I actually felt a tinge of sadness and anger. "Why would he be leaving?" I thought, "He's helped me so much and I have no idea how I will get by without him!"
But these thoughts really had barely formed in my head before he said, "Yamaki-san," aka. my supervisor, "will also be leaving."
WHAT!!!?
As I sat at my desk I began to wonder if I would be regretting, at some point in the near future, my decision to recontract. Yamaki and Ono were the two guys who I spent that first day with. They had showed me the way to my apartment, taken me to the grocery store and liquor store, had always informed me of the goings-on at the Kencho, and Ono had taken me by car to five of my six schools before school started way back in August just so I would know what they looked like and where they were. I was not happy about the prospect of these two leaving the office.
But change is inevitable and after a few minutes I figured, "What the hell? Time to move on, I guess." And then the realization that my new supervisor and Ono's replacement would probably turn out to be two great individuals that I'd grow to like hit me and I figured things would be ok.
And as it turns out my new supervisor is Watanabe-san. Watanabe was the guy who picked my up that first day in Kofu when the bus dropped us newbies off. He was in a position between that of Yamaki and Ono and although he is a rather quite guy, he is very nice and has asked my opinion on things regarding work in the past. He's also a baseball fan.
There appears to be no replacement for Watanabe at this time and his desk is vacant. I'm not sure what's going on there, but it's none of my concern.
Ono's replacement is a young woman named Hiroko. She seems very nice but her English isn't very good and I think we will struggle at times. But she smiles a lot, and seems willing to talk to me so that is good.

I work in an office of about 20 people and 8 of them left. So the office has many new faces in it and although I did miss the welcome party and the chance to meet them all in a more casual environment, they all seem like nice people who are happy to be here. I haven't actually met them all but we smile and say "good morning" and I am sure that things will run smoothly.
Turns out that Ono went a couple towns over to Yamanashi-shi to work in a school district branch building over there. And Yamaki is now working for the new "Sight Seeing" division as he calls it. He will be in charge of advertising for the Yamanashi tourist industry. So I told him that I would tell all of you to visit Yamanashi and tell all your friends how wonderful it is so that they will come too. He thanked me for that.

Getting back to the whole issue of this moving thing, it appears that they move offices and positions but they don't move far enough to warrant a move of family and house. And many of them, at least the few I talked to, seem to like the system. Yamaki told me that one or two years in an office is too short, that four years is too long, thereby making three years at one position the optimal time. He had been in this office for four years and was ready for a change. And when I mentioned that many (I wasn't confident enough to say most) Americans spend most of their adult lives at one job and that we don't have a regulated system of rotation among our jobs (promotion and demotion coming at different times for different people and not really being the same as this system over here), he told me that many people must get bored and tired of the same job year after year. And I have to admit that I agree with him.
So there you are. Something about Japan you probably didn't know. I didn't.

So it's back at the Kencho for me. I took the entire week off last week in order to be able to spend time with the parental units. I think they are having a good time. We've had a nice mix of lazy days and busy days and I think they've got a nice taste of life in Yamanashi (minus the teaching).
I'm not sure how many of you are aware of the importance of the sakura (cherry blossom) season over here but it is a big deal. The trees bloom for only a week or ten days each spring and the Japanese, for the most part, seem to love it. I've been told that the Japanese view the sakura as they do the samurai warriors of the past. Both have/had a brief but beautiful life. I doubt too many of them think of samurai when they see the trees but this is what I've been told, so take it as you want.
And speaking of all this, my parents nailed the sakura season here in southern Japan perfectly. When they arrived the trees were starting to bloom, and by the time they leave the flowers will be falling off the trees to make way for the new leaves. Anyway, my part of Japan has emerged from the winter and the land is quite colorful in places.

On Friday my parents and I rode the train to Shinjuku and then down to Yokosuka to visit a couple we have known since we first lived in Japan back in the 80s, the Davidsons. He is an American and she is South Korean and my brother and I used to play with their daughters way back when. They also lived in Ridgecrest for a few years when my family was there (my parents still are) and so we've kept in touch with them for all these years.
It was a nice visit and since they live on the Navy base down there I got to spend about 24 hours in a little America. We ate at the Officer's Club and went to the Exchange and drove around the base and my childhood came rushing back to me like a troop of Marines storming a beach. It was strange and I have to say that in those 24 hours I missed Japan more than I have missed America in the eight months I've been here. I think moving back to the States is going to be a much bigger shock to me than moving here was.
But it was fun to experience for a day what used to be an everyday part of my life. The military buildings with their coded signs which I never could figure out (e.g. "NAS-4 Headquarters" and such), the ships at the docks, the soldiers in uniforms and the families in the parks. If you've never been on a military installation for any length of time you can't know how different it is from the outside world. I was never actually in the military, but I was raised on bases and the differences that exist on the other side of the gate are sometimes subtle and many times not. I'm not knocking it all, I am just saying that there are differences. I'm sure a whole book could be written about it.
Alright, enough of all that. Anyway, we had a good time. It was great to see our friends.

Coming back was fun. Kind of. Dad wondered if we could take a different route home from the one we had taken to get there. So I checked a few maps and, sure enough, it looked like it was possible. So we took a route that went along the coast and then turned north a little south-west of Fuji. We had to change trains three times and for a while were not exactly sure what we were doing but it all worked out. I at least knew we were going in the right direction, but with local trains it takes some figuring to find out how far a train will actually take you. And I didn't have maps with me, I had only looked and studied a map that Mr. Davidson had brought out. So I wasn't sure of the names of stations other than the ones where we needed to change train lines. Overall the trip was about two hours longer and a little more expensive than the other route but now I know a part of Japan I hadn't previously.

Of course there is more to say about their trip but I should get back to my Japanese studies. I have a session tonight and need to finish my homework so that I can show up Amy.