IrishOboe

Mark and I were dead tired when we met Niko at the library to go to the Isawa fireworks festival, but I was impressed with how well we did and how much we enjoyed it despite our state of exhaustion.  On the way to Niko’s place she stopped to by us and Lena (her daughter, though I don’t know how to spell it) bento, which is like a premade lunchbox meal.  It was actually good, and it might be a nice alternative to packing my lunch sometimes.  Of course she wouldn’t let us pay for it.  The traffic was so terrible when we arrived that Niko dropped us (Lenna, Mark and me) off and she went someplace to find a spot, but she ended up waiting somewhere because there were no places!  This festival was even more crowded than Ichikawadaimon because there was less space even though there were fewer people.  Every square inch of space anywhere was occupied.  It felt like all of Japan had come to this place, which makes me rethink just how many people there are in Japan . . .

It actually didn’t bother me too much, we enjoyed the fireworks (standing, of course, since we didn’t come 3 hours early to claim a spot) and the food vendors.  It’s not my idea of great fun, I’d rather watch the fireworks from farther away and away from the crowds (as I said before the Japanese like to be so close!), but I enjoyed it.  The fireworks were more creative than at Ichikawadaimon, but sadly we had to (well, we decided to) leave before the big finally, which was Niagra Falls in fireworks.  They had a line of fireworks strung from one crane to the next.  I’m not so good at distances, but it was really, really long.  I’m tempted to say a ¼ mile.  It’s quite famous, but if we’d waited we would have had to deal with all of the people leaving both on foot and by car and like I said we were very tired.  We managed to meet up with Niko (thanks to cell phones!) and get out, though there was still a great deal of traffic from people leaving early.  As before, we left early, but we still saw over and hour of fireworks!

I came home, and went to bed.

Monday I went to school in the morning and did some looking around my desk and planning with my supervisor.  I think I’ll wait to talk about what I’ll be doing until it’s more set, I’m not sure the details of our discussion would be that interesting to most people.  I was also informed that I’d have to give a speech to the whole school on Wednesday, so after grabbing lunch at the 7-11 (too bad you can’t get rice balls at the 7-11’s back home) I wrote the speech and had Shimizu sensei (my supervisor) translate it and help me with pronunciation.

Inoue sensei told me of a supermarket that sells skim milk, so on my way home I decided to take a different route so I could stop in.  Sure enough, they had skim milk, and a number of other things that I hadn’t seen elsewhere.  PAX is like the Wegmans of Japan.  It’s more upscale and has a quasi-restaurant inside and it even had a player piano providing background music!  I got just enough to fit in my backpack and headed home.  Sadly this route has no sidewalk and the streets are very busy, so I was fearing for my life and realized that this couldn’t be a regular route home even when I get my helmet.

When I got home I threw on comfortable clothes and started trying to make something of a dinner out of what I had.  Rudy (English teacher in Kofu (non JET) who went to UR) called up and asked if I wanted to hang out in Kofu and I said I wasn’t leaving my place again today but if he wanted to come over he could.  I was surprised he took me up on the offer and we had mashed potatoes with green onions, garlic and thyme, sliced tomatoes, fresh soybeans, gyoza, and fruit for dessert.  Somehow we got to talking about homeschooling, in fact, I think it stemmed from the discussion that my sister is a stay-at-home mom and that Rudy wants to be a stay-at-home dad.  In any case, it was a very typically homeschooling conversation for the first hour or so, though he had more interest and was more honest than most.  This was the first time that I had a conversation like John Holt talks about where people are devoted to public school because of its problems and believe kids should have to learn to deal with it.  Anyway, the conversation took an interesting turn when he said that I fit his stereotype of a homeschooler.  This shocked me because nobody has ever said that to me!  It was difficult for him to articulate, which I understand since he’d never really discussed the topic before, but I suppose I’m putting this in my blog because it was a significant event in the life of Janet.  It really never ceases to amaze me how many different stereotypes of homeschoolers are out there and how contradictory they are to each other!  Anyway, that discussion made me loose track of time and I practically cut him off mid-thought to kick him out so he wouldn’t miss the last train.  What’s the secret for getting to spend the night at Janet’s?  Get her talking about homeschooling, of course!  Luckily, he caught his train . . .

Needless to say, I slept in on Tuesday since went to bed late.  I took my time in the morning, talked to Mom, cleaned up a bit, then went for a run.  I picked a much faster pace than I’ve been doing since I’m trying to make a mini boot camp out of the two weeks I have before the Mt. Fuji climb.  I’m not sure how much of a difference two weeks can make, but it can’t hurt.  It actually went quite well and though I was wiped out after the 30min run I felt great after stretching and showering.  Anyway, I didn’t get into work until around 1pm, but nobody was there anyway.  I worked for a bit at my desk and planned some of my introduction lesson.  I also took a little walk around the school trying to find my class rooms (the kids stay put and the teachers move here).

I went home the safe way and stopped at the small grocery store on the way.  I got some green peppers for 30 yen from the sale bin (nothing is every that cheap!) and cooked up a meal with them.  I also had some dumpling things (frozen), more soy beans, and I guess that’s it.  For some reason I’m proud of the fact that I’ve had a few course meal for two nights in a row, but it’s not like I did anything very creative.

Oh!  The skim milk!  Yes, it is indeed skim!  However, it is just as sweet as the others, which makes it good for drinking only with sweet foods.  I’m not complaining, though, it is far, far better than the 3.6% stuff!

After dinner tonight I spent some time playing geography games.  I couldn’t do laundry because it’s been cloudy and went all day.  I think it’s the fringe effects of typhoon Mawar, which is headed our way. . .

Now it’s past 10pm and it’s time for bed!  Tomorrow I give my speech and meet all the teachers so I have to be in by 8:25, which means I’ll get there around 8 . . .  Thus marks the beginning of going to school all day everyday!  I hope it’s as fun as the past three weeks have been.

Love to all!