The gyogi have been silenced, the yokozuna has stopped his shuffle, the rikishi have retired to their heya and my rabbit ears have been lowered.....sumo has ended. Osaka is quiet once again.
Well, as quiet as a city gets anyway, and I've never been there so maybe the crowds are simply elsewhere. I don't know.
Your winner, taking fourteen of his fifteen matches, is, once again, Asashoryu. Mr. Yokozuna now has eleven yusho (a basho championship) which ties him for eighth on the all-time list with Akebono, a household name....in households that enjoy sumo.
Asa looked on form throughout the entire basho and even on his only losing day it took two matches to get him to lose. This came at the hands of Tochiazuma who, going into the match, was tied with Asashoryu in head to head matches at seven apiece, an impressive stat for the Ozeki. In their initial rumble things looked pretty even and ended up that way as both men fell off the dohyo touching down at the same time; for Asa, an elbow, for Tochi, a hand. So they lined up to do it all again and again it looked even. But eventually Asa tried to wrap up Tochi's belt and in so doing left himself vulnerable. Tochi took the initiative and charged Asa back where he teetered on the edge of the dohyo before being bent over backward and down. At this the crowd went nuts and cushions flew through the air in a wild frenzy of emotion you hardly ever see from the people of this country.
But although Tochiazuma's victory sparked the crowd, not to mention Tochi himself, it did little to alter the course of the basho and Asa won the next day, mathematically eliminating all would be challengers. He finished at 14-1.
For the March basho Tochizuma, Kaio, and Chiyotaikai all lined up as Ozeki but only two of them will be safe in the next meeting, in May. Tochiazuma and Kaio both finished at 10-5 while Chiyotaikai will be fighting to retain his rank due to a lackluster showing in which he finished at 6-9. Remember that is takes two consecutive basho records at seven or less wins to demote an Ozeki so Chiyo won't have to search far for motivation.
As for the other two, sure, 10-5 is good but not good enough. It was good to see Kaio back in form after an injury in January saw him pull out early, but he'll have to do better if he hopes to get back to Yokozuna considerations. Tochiazuma, on the other hand, had flashes of brilliance, which handing Asa his only loss attests to, and he did beat both of his rival Ozeki, but that only means he lost to guys of lower ranks which obviously won't go over well with the man. Consistency is what he needs if he is to climb to the top.
Hakuho (my personal favorite) started off the basho with a bang, as in bang bang, you're dead. He lost on days one, two and three and essentially--not to mention immediately--took himself out of yusho contention. It was a tough beginning to the basho for the Sekiwake ranked fighter, but he finished with a record of 8-7 thereby allowing himself to retain his rank. He'll have to show better form next time. Meanwhile, his east counterpart, Miyabiyama finished at 5-10 and will therefore be demoted come May.
At the fourth ranking, Komusubi, both Iwakiyama and Kotooshu had dismal appearances chaulking up only four wins each. Both looked out of form the entire basho and will no doubt slip down the ranking quite a bit.
Kokkai, our friend from Georgia (the republic, not the state), ended up at 9-6 and will climb the rankings. In this basho he looked more controlled in his form which is hopefully a sign of things to come from the M4. Look for him to be around an M2 or even an M1 in May.
So those are the highlights from Osaka. Two more to go while I am still in the country and then the search will be on for Stateside NHK reception. That's the station that carries the sport. Hope I can get it.

In other news, I have managed to get myself out of this place for all but today and tomorrow this week. I decided that since I have plenty of vacation time left I'd use some of it to save my sanity. So this weekend will be a 5-dayer for me. Don't have anything planned at this moment other to say that I am waiting to hear back from Yamashita-sensei to see if Amy and I will be visiting his family this weekend. If that doesn't happen we will probably take off on a day trip to Tokyo. Have to get sumo tickets for May (uncle Ray and aunt Judy's inauguration into the world of the great sport) and have also been getting that bookstore itch. So we might take Saturday and go to the city.
Other than that I have no plans and am looking forward to sleeping in, lounging around and taking those small journeys to the BVM.
And with that I shall take my leave of you.

Well, there ain't much going on in tinseltown. And when I say not much, I mean not much. Schools are done, I am trying to save money for a certain couple's visit in May, and I'm in that sort of limbo period when it's too early to get ready to move but not so early as to allow you to settle in and buy that new lamp you've been wanting. And no, I don't have my eye on a new lamp. Just a figure of speech....That I just made up.
Anyway, blah blah, kencho, home, kencho, home. Come about the middle of April I will be quite happy to be getting back into my schools. I honestly have no idea how these people here can come here every day and not go nuts. Or maybe they are and I just can't understand them. Or maybe it wouldn't be as dull if I had some work to do and could speak to those around me. Or maybe it's one of the differences between me and those who are able to work in offices day after day. I don't know. But hell, it's quite tough coming to work and having nothing to do other than things you find to do. I read, I write, I look at the clock, I stare at my fingernails. I'm not one of those people who gets bored easily. Really, I'm not. But day after day of this is getting to me. I used to think that if I ever got arrested for some heinous crime and put into solitary I'd be able to handle it, but now I am not so sure. But then again, perhaps solitary would be better than the kencho.
Yeah, I agree. Enough dramatics.

Ok, so life is good (don't read the above). Amy's back from Aloha-land where she apparently was given the gift of illness from her father. She had a good time, but they both had their off days. Not good when you only have five or six days in some kind of paradise. But I think overall it went well.
She brought me back a new video game which has reminded me that I missed my calling in life--racecar driving--for which I can blame my parents, as we all know that racecar drivers begin at the age of six or eight and move up from there. They also tend to have parents who are willing to give up dinners so that they can fund their little star though all his car repairs and hospital visits. Unfortunately for me, my parents ended up having another son who ended up eating us out of any possibility of me getting to realize my dream. And if you don't believe me here's a little story.
Dad, mom, Rigel and I were in Indianapolis, home of the world famous (why are things in America always world famous?--you think they've heard of Earl's World Famous Fried Chicken in Japan?) anyway, home of the world famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway. So we went to the track and talked to some guys and one of them even agreed to take us around the track in his van. We also visited the museum there at the speedway and it was then that I said to myself, "Hmmm....perhaps I'll give up that lofty dream of taking over the family business and dive into motor racing." This decision based not only on my new dream but also on the fact that we had no family business.
So with my new career pathed outlined in my head, we left the speedway and headed back to our hotel in downtown Indy. Along the way Rigel's stomach was growling which only served to remind me of engine noises, but which to Rigel himself meant a very different thing. He was hungry. So we got to our hotel where dad decided to splurge on dinner and told us that we were going to the restaurant at the top of the hotel. I remember mom saying, "Danny, can we afford that?" to which dad said, "Of course. The boys don't each much and we can split something." Mom and dad were always splitting things.
So up we go in the elevator, all the way to the top. It was a nice place where the food smelled good, the waiter brought us our menus, and the tables had cloths on them. I think we even had two or three forks from which to choose. As we opened our menus, though, I distinctly noticed my father let out a little gasp at the prices. But I didn't say anything. This was a family vacation of which dad could be proud. His eldest son had found his calling in life and now he wanted to celebrate with a nice dinner.
The waiter came back a few minutes later asking us if we were ready to order. So I went first and ordered a club sandwich. "Not too expensive," I thought visualizing myself going down the straightaway at 200mph. Then dad ordered a modest plate of pasta with a small salad. "So far, so good," I thought. But then came Rigel. Now, keep in mind that Rigel is a young boy here cause he didn't. He proceeded to order oysters on the half shell for his appetizer (a dish none of us knew he liked) and then went on to order a bowl of soup, a steak dinner, and some kind of dessert which by this time I was too distraught to notice. In all, his meal cost more than what the rest of us had ordered...put together. In fact, mom, believing that Rigel would never be able to eat everything he had ordered, decided not to order anything and just to help him. But as the dinner wore on, mom was going hungry. In fact, the little pig ended up eating part of my sandwich when I decided I'd had enough.
So there you are. My racing career went down the esophagus of my brother. Mom and dad couldn't afford my racing and I have forever, since then, been searching for something else to do.
Now, how did I get into all that.....Oh yes, Amy got me that game. Good stuff. Good thing she's not having to feed my brother.
Oh, and the above, while true as I remember it, may exist in a different version in the heads of my family. But rest assured, what you are reading here is the correct version.

Oh, I forgot, something is happening today. It is office rotation today here at the kencho. You might remember this game from last year. Apparently, some bigwig in an office with a view takes the names of all the people who have been in their current departments for more than a year, makes name cards of them all, and then throws them all up in the air. Depending on where your name lands is where you are placed. Last year my supervisor went to the tourism department and Ono-san went to some department at a branch over in another town.
So today the cards landed and eight people from this department will be leaving. I have no idea where they are going but if I am correct, and I think I am, that leaves only one guy who will remain in this department that was here when I got here. Does that make me number two in command? Cause if so, I'm taking the rest of the month off.
But anyway, the guy that is staying is none other than my supervisor, Watanabe-san. He's a nice guy; doesn't talk to me much, but he doesn't bother me either, so I can't complain.
Tomorrow night we have a small party for the five of us that I used to refer to as the "private schools division," but have since learned that I was mistaken about that. For, the whole office is the shigaku bunshoka (not sure if I've written that right but it means 'private schools division') meaning that I have no idea what the five of us really are, no idea why we are a little separated from the bigger group. I've tried asking but to no avail. The five of us have gone out for small "parties" about three or four times.
Anyway, one of us is leaving and we will have a going away party for him. Then, next week, we have a bigger going away party for the whole office. Then, the week after that, we have a welcome party for all those who come in to fill the empty seats. Meanwhile, during all this shifting and moving, I just sit here at my desk reading and writing and wondering what's going on around me. Have you ever watched a movie and wondered "Now, what happened there? Did I miss something? Who is he? And why is she angry at him?" Well, that's a frequent feeling over here. I see things going on, but I have no idea why they are happening or even if I am understanding them at all. This is where a nice bottle of sake helps. Thus, those parties are good.
I think I'll try asking again about the five of us and why we have little parties without the bigger group. Now it's bugging me again.

Perhaps I watch too much news (mainly because I don't get many channels and therefore don't have much choice) but right now we've got Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, Robert Blake, and Brian Nichols all front and center. Wow! And it all revolves around the courtroom. Isn't America great!?
And this is not to mention the new bestseller The Pupose Driven Life. Go out and pick up a copy. Maybe it will change your life. Give it some purpose.

Ok, sarcasm ends there. I do miss America as you'll read below......if you're still with me.

With about four months to go over here I have to admit that I have begun daydreaming about being back in America. I think that if I've learned one thing about myself whilst on this journey it's that I am an American. That may sound strange but growing up and living in the States you tend to not think about all this much less notice it. But when surrounded by a culture that isn't yours I think you tend to see the differences and at times say to yourself, "Hmmm...that's not how we do it in my country." Not that they do things wrong over here, just differently. And this ranges from things at work to things on TV to things you see on the street. And because of all of this, your life tends to be a bit different from the one you lived back at home. There are countless little differences that were charming at first but after a while become less so.
But don't think that I am disgruntled with Japan. I love it here and I am glad I came. But with four months to go I have been thinking of some of the small things that I am looking forward in getting back to. I would assume this is natural human behavior. Anyway, I thought I'd write a short list of things that I am eagerly anticipating. Take it as you will....
1) I can't wait to be on the open in road in my own car with the music turned up and an hour or two left to my destination. I am thinking mostly of the highways between Bakersfield and the Monterey Peninsula, highways 5, 46, and 101. I've driven those roads so many times that I can do the entire trip in my head. I know where the rest stops are, what fast food places are on the way, the way the hills look as you drive by them, and where you can and can't get radio reception. But whether it's this stretch or some other, I just can't wait to be back behind the wheel and speeding along.
2) Can't wait to be either back in school or at some job where I can turn and talk to the person next to me in normal speed English. I've got Amy and some friends here that I can do that with but it's always nice to be able to go to work and shoot the shit with someone you like. When I worked at the university in Bakersfield before I came over here I always enjoyed going in to my boss's office and making small talk and a few jokes. Can't do that here as you have to slow down, talk about easy things, and sometimes my jokes aren't understood. I also had a few friends that I'd see around school and the ease with which a short "Hello" and the ensuing conversation would flow is something I just don't find here.
3) Walking on the beach. Yeah, this sounds sappy, I know, but it's damn true. I guess I could live in Kansas and miss it just as easily as I miss it here in land-locked Yamanashi, but I miss it nonetheless. When Amy and I would go up to my aunt and uncle's place, aunt Judy would grab her dog, Cookie, and Amy and I would tag along for about a mile or two's journey down the sand. Amy and Judy would talk and Cookie and I would somehow end up making each other bleed. Cookie is quite the stick/ball/anything you throw chaser and this always led to her making her own gums bleed and me getting scratches on my legs from her nails. Fun stuff. Anyway, the waves, the sand, the blood...I miss it all.
4) Family and friends, but that goes without saying. The one mortal I really miss is my cat. Whereas I can call or email family and friends, Ares never learned how to type or use a phone. It's been over a year and a half without the little motor-mouth and I can't wait to get back to alternating between petting and wrestling with him. I just hope he remembers me.
5) Mexican food. Now, I admit that I will completely miss Japanese food when I leave here but rather than dwell on that right now I'd like to eat fajitas. Mmmmm.....fajitas. And don't get me started on guacamole.
Ok, that's enough for now. Simple things, but things that I will wallow in when I get back. For a while anyway. I am sure that fairly soon after my return I will begin to miss things about Japan. I guess we humans are never quite completely happy. And in a way you gotta love that. Keeps us moving in one way or another.

Last night I went over to teach little Keichiro and afterwards his father took me out for our usual post-English lesson celebration. He first took me to a rather large, by Japan standards, restaurant which served rather large, by anyone's standards, portions. When he ordered I heard him say the name of the food, which I had no idea about, and indicated that we wanted two of them. Then he ordered gyoza (pot stickers as some of you might know them) and again indicated two.
About five minutes later enough food to feed at least eight hungry adults showed up at our table. The bowls of stuff where huge and both came on silver trays to catch the extra stuff that overflowed out of the bowl. What we got were large bowls that had bean sprouts, a little meat, carrots, garlic, and a few other things in a thick broth and on a bed of rice that was concealed until you mixed it all up with your chopsticks. But I'm serious! Eight adults would have walked away satisfied with the amount of food we got. It was nuts. He'd never been there before and was as equally surprised as I was.
Then the gyoza came and it, too, was huge. Each plate had five of them and each gyoza was about three times as big as any I'd ever seen before. "There's no way I'm getting all this down," I thought to myself. And true to my thoughts neither of us did. We walked out of there half an hour later stuffed and in a bit of pain and had left enough food behind to feed the next customers.
So after this we headed back to our little area of town and had intended to meet Nakamura-san, the 20 year old who works for him at the liquor store, at a small sushi restaurant where we'd been before a couple times. I had no intention of eating, and neither did Tatsumi, but he knows the owners and it's a nice small place to have some beer and sake. Unfortunately, though, when we got there Nakamura was standing outside and yelled at us that the place was closed. So he jumped in the van and we went to some place around the corner.
As we drove up to this place it looked like we were going to make a housecall because we were driving into a little parking area for a house. And sure enough, the house was exactly where we were going. If it hadn't been for the sign hanging outside I would have thought that it was, indeed, just a place where a family might have lived.
So we walked in and immediately I could see that it was a house/restaurant type place. These places exist all around Japan and I have to admit that I only go to these kind of places when I have a Japanese person with me as they never have picture menus and they never have anyone who can speak English in them.
We sat in the "dinning room" which held four tables with four seats at each. Besides the "mom and pop" we were the only ones in there and we ordered food for Nakamura (he had been closing up the shop when Tatsumi and I had gorged ourselves earlier) and some drinks for all of us. The pop was a tall man and one of the very few Japanese I've ever seen with a beard and the mom was a short, very slightly overweight lady a little shorter than me with short hair. Both were probably in their mid-fifties and both seemed very friendly.
As we sat down and ordered I noticed that mom was at one of the tables and had papers spread out and was, between her greetings and questions to Tatsumi, working on them. I figured they were the restaurant's taxes or finances or something along those line and didn't give it much thought. So we got our drinks, Nakamura got his food and all was going normally.
The conversation was mostly Japanese with Tatsumi translating some of it for me but then, a little while later, Tatsumi brought up something about his son's name and the kanji involved in it and the number of strokes for each kanji character. I thought this was a little strange but over here you tend to get used to what seem to be sudden questions and topics and quite often have no idea what's sparked the conversation you now find yourself trying to understand, so I didn't think too much of it and just tried to understand. It's a way of life. So Tatsumi tells me about Keichiro's kanji and that he had painstakingly tried to match up "good" kanji in order to give his son a lucky name. Strange, I think, but I guess I can understand a father wanting a good name for his son.
Then during our conversation that I wasn't sure I was understanding, mom says something to Tatsumi and Nakamura and the Japanese words go back in forth over my head and beyond my reach. I wasn't completely off the boat, though, because I did realize she had asked some question to which Tatsumi answered in Japanese, "He lives in Yokohama." That much I got and figured that we must be talking about his brother. He had told me about him before.
So from these two conversations somehow we get onto the kanji for Tatsumi's brother's name. She brought a piece of paper over, Tatsumi wrote it out (given name and family name), and she proceeded to count up the strokes. Turns out that she is really the one who is into this apparent superstition and when I say that I mean she's really into it. All those papers on her table were not taxes or financial stuff but were, in fact, papers and books dedicated to the art of kanji character stroke fortune telling. Or something like that. I don't think she was actually telling fortunes. She was just telling us what was good and what was bad.
Tatsumi told her that his brother seems to always have some kind of health problems going on and she confirmed that, "Yes. His kanji donesn't look good." Of course, I, being the unbeliever in just about everything I can't see with my own two eyes (read "a logical thinking sceptic") just sat there facinated by the fact that anyone could put so much time and effort into something like this. It was interesting, sure, but I mean c'mon, it's kanji, it's numbers, it's just whatever your parents happen to name you and it doesn't mean jack. But I was respectful and just tried to follow the conversation as best I could.
During all this time she had let a cat in who seemed like a great big happy thing. The pop picked it up off her table and held him in a Christ-like pose while the cat calmly waited to be put back down. Also during this time another patron came in a took a seat at the table across from us. But the conversation never stopped, and pretty soon Tatsumi and Nakamura had written out their names for her and the news wasn't all that good.
Tatsumi--"Here's mine." Handing her a piece of paper.
Mom--"Oh, this is not good. You've got this stroke here and this stroke here. That is not good at all. And by the way, your handwriting is terrible!"
Tatsumi--"Oh, sorry....."
Mom--"You should change your name."
Tatsumi laughed at this.
Nakamura--"Here's mine."
Mom--"Oh, your's is good. You'll be happy until your about 50 but then it will be bad."
Nakamura--"Oh...."
Tatsumi--"Here's Keichiro's name? What do you think of it?"
Mom--"His is ok."
Me--"Can she do English names?"
Nakamura--"Mom, can you do English names?"
Mom--"No! No English names! You know, I changed my name because the one my parents gave me was bad. You can always change your name."
Nakamura--"No, sorry."
Me--"Ok.......But what's the cat's name?"
Tatsumi laughing out loud--"Mom, he wants to know what the cat's name is?"
At this everyone in the place burst out laughing and Mom said, "Oh, I named him so I can assure you it's a good one!"
Soon after this surreal conversation we departed. It had been an entightening evening and as Tatsumi drove me back to the store so I could get my bike, I thought to myself that I had learned something new and had met some nice people. But more than that I was happy to know that at least the cat had a good name.

Well, Amy has taken off to Hawaii and I am stuck here at the kencho. Not exactly situations of equality, I would say. This kencho life is dragging me down. When I first got to Japan I just figured that kencho days were part of the experience and all was ok. Now, I feel that they are useless and stupid. But hey, I don't want to rampage down that trail right now. No use in thinking about it.

On Friday I had school and had my normal first period and then two group sessions. I can't remember if I mentioned these group sessions I have been doing for about two months now. My second grade junior high classes (8th grade for you) will be going to Australia in July. By then they will be third graders and I won't have them anymore, but anyway, I was asked back in January to take them on as small groups instead of one big class and to talk about Australia and get them ready for their trip.
Now, I have never been to Australia and I don't know much about the "land down under" but apparently that doesn't matter. To the Japanese much of the time it seems that they see the world in two catagories, Japanese and not-Japanese. So from that mathematical equation Americans and Australians are lumped into the same catagory so they must be basically the same and know everything about each other. This also reminds me of the time I was asked, "What's a billabong?" and to be honest, besides a clothing company that seems to specialize in surfwear I don't know what a billabong is. Well, I didn't then. I later asked a friend from New Zealand and found out it was a small stream of sorts. And you thought I was learning about only Japan.
So, these groups consist of a fourth of the class, about ten students per session, and have always been either boys or girls. As opposed to that third sex we have yet to define. Ok, just kidding. What I mean is that either I get ten boys or ten girls. They are never mixed. Since I am at this school once a week and because I get a fourth of class, it took me four weeks to get through an entire class. I would have two sessions a visit, one with a group from the first class and then a group from the second class. It was all quite easy but certain groups were definitely more "fun" than others.
There was the time a group of boys came down to the conference room and immediately cheered when entering the room seeing just me. This group then went on to ask me various questions in the lulls in our "Australia" conversation which consited of things like "Do you have adult video?" and "Do you have adult book?" As you can see, the subjects of their questions were not much varied. I did manage to slip in a few moments of proper Australia talk but this group was more interested in joking, laughing, and apparently the content of my conjectured library of adult products. Funny thing was that as we were coming to the end of our little session they told me, "Uh, Mr. Koshiishi (the English teacher for this class).....this room....don't tell." Obviously they knew that their behavior and line of questioning were a bit off the mark in terms of acceptable school behavior. One even told me in that I've-seen-many-American-movies way, "Hold your tongue," which I couldn't help but laugh at. Of course, as you can imagine, I didn't quite let them off that easy and told them, "You want me to hold my tongue....you bring me omiyage (gifts)." To which they all cheered and promised that they would. Of course, I have yet to see anything.
So this last Friday I had a group of girls come in and, like the boys described above, these girls were fun. Although they didn't ask me about my porn collection they did say they wanted me to kiss them. This, they said, they wanted as a prize for the winning group.
I had prepared a little bingo game based on Australia. It was easy stuff using all things Australia such as kangaroo, koala, vegemite, boomerang, etc. I had looked it all up on the net and put it together in hopes that I could teach them something about the country they will be visiting this summer. Of course, in the process I, too, had learned something. Did you know that Australia has 20 million people? Maybe...maybe not. But even more impresseive than that is that the country has 120 million sheep. No wonder all those jokes exist. "What jokes?" you say? Forget it.
Anyway, I was explaining to them how we'd run the game and putting them into groups of two (they are much less intimidated if they have a partner) when the girl to my right, who is, by the way, very UN-shy, asks me in a desperate voice, "Uh uh......prize...winner...what give?" which can be translated into good English as "Excuse me, most excellent teacher, but do you have any prizes for the winner of this exciting game? And if so what?" So I told her that I hadn't brought anything, but that didn't seem to matter to her and she asked again, "No no....want...prize!" At this point I wasn't sure what to do but was thinking, "These dumb girls. Why do insist on torturing me?" So I said, "What do you want?" thinking that maayyyybee, if I saw a pig flying later in the day, I would buy them some small chocolates and bring them next time. So I asked, "What do you want?" And it was here that the little spokeswoman for this harem said to me, "Oh oh, a kiss, a kiss!" and about three other girls laughed and said, "Yes yes, a kiss, a kiss!" I just rolled my eyes thinking of an early return home after a night in jail and an embarrasing confrontation with the Japanese authorities. Thanks, girls, but no thanks.
But we did have a good time and as it turned out in the end the winners wanted my autograph. Now that I can do.
So the groups are now over and their preparation for Australia is complete. But I can't help but think to myself, "Who's going to prepare Australia?"

Sumo has started again. Yesterday was day one.
Hakuho, that dumb butt, lost. And to someone he shouldn't have.
Asashoryu won, as usual.
Kokkai won.
Kaio won.
And then there are all the others.
Today Hakuho faces Kokkai. Interesting bout.

Ok, that's all for this lovely day. More kencho time to come which means more writing to come, so stay tuned.

It is snowing today. And I don’t mean just a light bit. It is really coming down out there. And it’s sticking too. Strange because lately it’s been getting warmer and I thought spring was on the way. It’s still not really cold out there, but I guess it’s cold enough.

For the last month or so there has been work going on around here. Apparently my building is getting some kind of electrical overhaul. A couple weeks ago I got a notice in Japanese, which one of the guys here translated, that informed me that I had to be in my apartment on the morning of March 4th. Today.
So about fifteen minutes ago some guy came and buzzed my and Ben’s (my neighbor from England) doors to tell us that the electricity would be going off soon and that he’d be back at the designated times to do something inside our apartments. He was, of course, speaking Japanese but I know what he said because a friend on the other side of the building has already gone through this earlier in the week and told me about it and because Ben speaks Japanese and filled me in on the details.
So now here I sit on a Friday morning, no electricity (which means no heat), no internet, and no tv, BUT….no work today either. I am writing this on a Word document and will later copy and paste it to the blog. I just hope my computer battery holds for the duration of the dark age.

This weekend we have a pub quiz for us JETs. We’ve done this twice before and it was good fun both times. It takes place in some little restaurant/bar over in a town called Otsuki which is about a 40 minutes train ride from here. The owner of the place has been hosting the event for years and always seems happy to have us there. And as a business man, who can blame him? We JETs are known to eat a fair bit and then spend the next several hours drinking anything and everything we can get our hands on. Quite a lucrative evening for the man, I am sure. Last time I went the guy asked me my name when I went downstairs to buy my first beer and then promptly welcomed me back by name, “Ah, hello Marcus, another beer?” every time thereafter (his English is fairly good, too). He really is a nice guy.
So anyway, we have this quiz thing tomorrow night and although I can usually hold my own in your typical game of Trivia Pursuit, these quizzes are much more difficult. Probably because you don’t get the American slant that you do from the board game. The question writers, as far as I know, are a group of girls who are from England, New Zealand, and last year we had a gal from Scotland. So while I can answer various questions on geography, a few on history and a couple on sports, getting the answers right to such questions as “Who led the 2003 Cricket World Cup in runs scored?” or “What famous sitcom was invented in England and then remade in countries all over the world but never made it in America?” proves quite difficult. I think the girls try to give us a few “American” questions but last time my team, which was made up of about five Americans and one guy from New Zealand lost big time. But hell, it was still fun and I don’t get competitive enough to care. Tomorrow, though, I hope to have a few more countries represented on my team.

I mentioned in my last post that I’ve had a few schedule changes. Well, last time I went to Tokai high school I ended up going to two new classes with this young female teacher I’ve been with a number of times. She is a nice lady but a little strange in some areas which I won’t elaborate on. I like her, though.
So we were heading to a class I’ve never been to before when she asked/told me (I say it like that because it is sometimes quite difficult to tell whether you are being asked or told something over here—gets real confusing sometimes), anyway she said to me, “Ah, today will you shake hands with students?”
So I said, “What?”
“Will you shake hands with students? It is good chance for students to practice American. Maybe this will be first time and last time for them to meet foreigner.”
I hope you people are rightfully as shocked by this as I was. Just what the heck does she mean that these 16 year olds will never get to meet someone from another country again in their entire lives? Then again, this is Japan.
Thinking about cleanliness, I then asked how many students there were in the class to which I was told “about 30.” So under the assumption that it would be quite an awkward and strange thing to do, I agreed. But I did tell her, “You know, teachers in America don’t go around and shake the hands of all the students.”
“Oh, really?!” she said. And then went on, “If you don’t want…”
“No, no, I can do it,” I said, “It’s just a bit strange.”
“Oh.”
And that was that. A few minutes later I was going up and down the rows shaking hands with a lot of teenagers. The boys thought it was funny, the girls all giggled when our hands touched, and Miss teacher-lady seemed pleased to be exposing her students to this strange and wonderful practice from lands afar.

Ok, it’s getting downright chilly in this apartment. It’s normally this cold when I first wake up, but as I set my alarm about a half hour before I intend to actually get out of bed and then hit the heaters on for that half hour, by the time I actually do get up it’s a good temperature. I have strategically placed the kerosene heater within arm’s reach of my futon and my electric wall unit has a remote control which I place next to me every night. So I just tap those two buttons and go back to sleep. And when the second alarm goes off I can no longer see my breath.
It is 12 degrees C in here (about 53 F, I think) right now. Not a bad temp when you are out and moving around but not very warm when you are sitting still (and no, I am not allowed to leave the apartment just yet). Time for the electricity to come back on, I’d say. I just resorted to putting on another layer and wearing a hat. But my hands are quite cold and I can’t type with gloves on.

Ok, I'm getting hungry. Time to raid the fridge. Might write more later, might not.

I am not sure where to begin since it has been so long since my last substantial piece of writing. Much has happened in the last month in terms of small stories I could tell you. In fact, quite often something would happen and I'd think to myself, "Hmmmm....that would make a nice small story for the journal," but it seems that now I've forgotten most of them. Laziness is a terrible thing. But hell, let's see if I can come up with something.

Due to 3rd year high school students essentially wrapping it up around the end of January, February saw a few schedule changes for me. At Yuda (girls) I picked up two new classes to replace the two I'd lost and promply had a few girls seem to fall in love with me. I don't consider myself anything special in the "love, romance, looks" department but for some reason these girls really took to me. Like I told Amy, in America most girls don't look at me twice. Sure once in a while some girl might have had a crush or something but I'm pretty sure I could count the instances of that happening from the last ten or so years on one hand.
Anyway, these girls look at me in the manner, if you can remember this, that the girl at the beginning of the first Indiana Jones movie looks at him in class. You might remember this. There is some girl in the class he is teaching near the start of the movie and she has somehow written "I love you" on her eyelids and then she closes her eyes when he looks at her during his lecture. Ok, minus the writing on the eyelids this is how about four or five of the girls look at me. Makes me unconfortable but then again (I can't lie) quite happy. Of course, they are high school girls and I have to remember that I am twice their age but still, as a guy who got diddly-squat for attention from girls in my high school days I have to enjoy it when I can.
So I teach them and they look at me and smile and eventually I leave and they see me in the hall and blush and it makes for a nice day. Some of them even gave me chocolate for Valentine's Day. That day is slightly different over here, in case I haven't ever told you about that.
Valentine's Day in Japan is a day on which girls give chocolate to boys they like. They also give it to their fathers, male teachers, and sometimes even their brothers. Like everything else the Japanese take from the west, they do it in a slightly different manner. In fact Valentine's Day has a companion holiday in the form of something called White Day, which falls on March 14th. On this day it is the boys who are supposed to give things to the girls they like, and probably their mothers, female teachers, sisters, nurses, cheerleaders, dental hygienists, etc. I don't know. Anyway, I got a few chocolates from about seven girls who all seemed happy to give them to me and looked a little embarrassed.

In other news, Minobusan (Buddhist school) has managed to screw me over twice. Not that I care too much.
This last Monday and the one two weeks before that I showed up at the train station down there at my designated time to wait for the bus. But no bus came. This has happened before and only once did they not send someone to come get me in one form or another (one time a guy came to get me in his car, another time a guy showed up to put me in a taxi and another time they called the taxi dispatcher who came running out of her office to put me in a taxi). That one time last year that nothing came for me I went back to the Kencho and told them what happened and that was that. I think I wrote about that way back when.
So anyway, the last time I was there was about six weeks ago and Kobayashi-sensei told me that I had two more times at the school before the end of the school year. So I wrote down the dates he told me and this is what happens. Both times I gave the bus or person to pick me up or message about what to do an hour to get there and both times I have ended up boarding the 1042am train back to Kofu. I don't get it but I ain't gonna rock the boat so soon before I leave. Honestly, I just don't care. These last two times I've just ended up coming home and essentially taking the day off. Screw it, I say. I don't think I deserve further punishment in the form of sitting at the Kencho all day because some school forgot about me.
So there you go. I'm not sure when I am supposed to go back there but I am sure it won't be until April after the new school year starts. I guess I'll have to have Hiroko at the Kencho call for me.

My lessons with little six year old (he had a b-day in January) Keichiro continue. I've been about four or five times now and before every lesson wonder, "Am I going to be able to pull this off?" and after every lesson think to myself, "Well, that went ok." I honestly don't know how I am doing it other than to say that Amy is helping me. I don't know a damn thing about teaching, much less teaching small children, and someday I will look back on this whole experience like one who has hung from a small rope off a cliff or someone who has narrowly avoided a major traffic accident might look back at their experience.
I will say that it seems to be working out for the most part but leading up to every new session with the little man or every new game I play in some class I wonder how I am going to get through it. I just hope I write better than I think I teach. But hey, the students love me and I have a whole new respect for teachers of all students and especially those who teach small children; Amy, her sister, and my aunt Judy are the first people that come to mind.
Anyway, tonight I have the little bugger and I plan on teaching him a little about numbers. He knows one through ten but eleven and beyond are not programmed into his memory. Not exactly riviting stuff for yours truly but it's only 40 minutes and then his father and I go to celebrate another successful session. At least that's how I look at it.
Last week he took me to a yakitori (yaki means grill and tori is chicken) place where we ate chicken, tofu with garlic (this was excellent), salad, potatos, and various other things served to us on individual dishes. We also had a couple beers and a little sake.
After that he took me to a bar where there was already a small office party going on. The guys were singing kareoke and laughing and carrying on at a table so we sat at the bar and enjoyed the show and talked to each other and the bartenders. The bartenders were a couple young ladies who seemed very happy and delighted to serve us drinks. One of them even spoke pretty good English and told me that she'd like to practice her English more regularly. In fact, she offered me free drinks anytime I could come back and talk--yes, she made a very convincing argument. I haven't been back yet but perhaps soon I might go back and take her up on the deal. Let's see....speak English to a young cute bartender and get free drinks. Now there's a tough decision to make.

Yesterday I hit Sundai junior high for the last time this school year. At this school I teach 2nd year students (the American translation would be 8th graders) and have three classes of 'em consisting of about 40 students in each.
These kids were always good, probably because at one visit every two weeks we never got to really know each other to the level where that comfortable familiarity settled in. At my other junior high the kids, at one visit a week, have really loosened up on me and at times I have to shout above them to get them to shutup. But here they always sat at attention and really never got out of hand.
But anyway, yesterday was my last time with these guys and as today starts their final exams the teacher wanted me to just have a nice relaxing time with them and play a game. So I took one of the games that worked well for me at the other junior high (I've also played it once or twice at the academy) and used it on these kids.
It's a game I call 'catagories,' is very easy to run and provides a little vocab lesson for them too. What I do is put up five catagories on the board--yesterday it was Sports, Food, Animals, 'That is a _____ cat.' and Things in the this Classroom. I put them into groups and tell them I want one word for each catagory that begins with the designated letter. So let's say I give them 't'--they can give me tennis, tomato, tiger, tough, and teacher. I put them into groups for this game and we keep score as follows. Say group 1 gives me tiger for the Animal catagory, group 2 gives me turtle, group 3 tiger, group 4 tortise, group 5 tiger and group 6 turtle. Since tiger was repeated by groups 1, 3, and 5, they each get one point. Turtle was also repeated so groups 2 and 6 also get one point. But group 4 said tortise and was the only group to do so, so they the much coveted two points.
So after every letter I give them, I give them five or six minutes to come up with answers and then I collect all the papers and go about writing it all up on the board so that they can see what each other came up with and so I can easliy tabulate the scores. I can usually get through about three rounds in a class. Most of the time I give them relatively easy letters such as 's' or 't' or 'a' but once in a while I'll throw something a little more difficult such as 'r' or 'f' at them. So far I have not given in to the temptation to give them 'x' or 'q'.
So we are playing this game yesterday and it's the last class and group 6 has a little troublemaker in it--I call him 'genkiboy' (genki essentially means happy and healthy) cause believe me, he is happy and healthy. He's a good kid and actually I really like him but I can guarantee you that in a couple years when he's a bit older and more cynical he's going to be trouble for some teacher. Anyway, the letter is 'a' and for 'things in this classroom' he has his group write 'adult book'. Now that's funny coming from a high school class but from 8th graders I wasn't sure how it was going to be taken by the teacher or by the other students. But I wrote it on the board anyway and the whole class laughed and laughed. For this catagory I have sometimes had the students show me that what they've written for the answer to this catagory is actually in the classroom, so I turned to him, looked him dead in the eye and said, "If you can show me an adult book I will give you your two points." To this his teacher then said, "Yes, and I will take book away." Of course, the students thought all this was hilarious and Kiyanagi-sensei and I just looked at each other and shook our heads while slightly smiling. It was damn funny but I thought that as a teacher I shouldn't congratulate the kid on a job well done. So I just held it all in and tried to look somewhat professional.
But it gets better....same class, same group, same genkiboy about fifteen minutes later. Letter is 's' and for sports they had written 'sex'. "That little shit," I thought to myself as I wrote it on the board. Now, of course, some of you might be questioning my wisdom at writing these things on the board--why not just skip it? Well, that thought did occur to me, but I honestly don't believe in sheltering kids from real world. If they are old enough to write the words 'sex' and 'adult books' as jokes then they are old enough to deal with the aftermath. And really there isn't too much of an aftermath. I just play it down and don't hoot and howl with them like they probably expect me to. So for this instance I just looked at their group and said, "Sex isn't a sport cause you don't keep score," and wrote a big zero next to it. And no, I don't need any frat-boy humor on that one. I can figure it out myself. So that was that and the class thought it was funny and group 6 lost.
I actually had the same thing happen at the academy a couple months ago but as they were high school boys it was a little easier to have fun with.

So that is all for today. Amy's mother has alerted me to the fact that I never finished my Hokkaido story, so I will try to get back on that beast and finsih it soon. Sorry, Mrs. Schaumburg.