IrishOboe

Monday, Sept 26. School was okay, I was a bit out of it with clumsiness, Sasaki pulled me in for another introduction lesson at the last minute and had me grade their papers plus gave me 120 more papers to look at. No classes the next three days, though. So I got home before 5pm and biked to the Ogino near the new Pax and liked its selection and prices very much. Paid rent, fixed tofu steak (first nearly flop) and egg rolls, had dessert of ice cream with chocolate sauce, walnuts, and chocolate rice things – yum. Listened to Braveheart and got inspired and took out my oboe. It feels good to use my mouth again. It wasn’t so bad, though my chops are pretty weak!

Tuesday (Sept 27). Exams are this week (Tues-Thurs) so I had no classes. I worked on translating the Shirane promotional video for the group of Australians that will be coming next week. Administered 3^rd year listening test, graded them, planned next term. Made fried rice with shrimp, egg rolls, salad, fried fish, ate and cleaned up all in less than an hour! Studied Japanese and took a bath. Census lady came. I feel special! It’s going to be remembered that I came to Japan for a year!

Finished 3^rd year test grading and made Excel spreadsheet (was quite happy), graded Sasaki essays (quite hard), left an hour early (shh), met downstairs neighbor, went shopping at Ogino again and bought more mintchocchip icecream, had packaged pizza for dinner (not bad), studied Kanji, planned talk for tomorrow night, played oboe (listening to Laurie’s CD and learned Bulgarian tune) for a while, update. Bed around midnight.

Thursday (Sept 29). I don’t remember it all, but tried to deal with grades and hanko points and exams. I stayed an hour late getting stuff done. I met with Yuko (Sasaki sensei) and Shimizu sensei about the next lesson plan and worked on handouts. I still had a little time to catch my breath at home and have a frozen pizza, play some oboe and get ready for the international night at Mie’s. She picked me up at 7:30 and she has a lovely little studio at the top of her house where she teaches English and her mother teaches quilting. I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been (I kind of forgot about it) and there were only two students, but we had fun talking anyway, I think. I showed my pictures, played whistle and oboe and danced a little. I got 2000 yen but I would have done it for free. I’m not sure I would have done it for 2000 yen, though, if that makes sense.

Friday (Sept. 30). I practiced the rhythm game more in the morning and was nervous for class but it went over really well with 1-5 and 1-4 did pretty well, too. The surveys took longer than I thought they would, but I was totally, totally excited about the rhythm thing. Now (Monday) I see some problems and some classes haven’t gone as well, but Friday was great. 6^th period I met with the music teacher and we played a little together (whistle and piano – an interesting combo) and that was fun, though I did have a lot of stuff to do. We arranged to meet again on Monday. She was mostly speaking English to me but I tried what little Japanese I know. She let me play shamisen, which was cool, too. After cleaning I recorded my voice for the video after school and I just enough time to run home and Yuko (Sasaki sensei) was already waiting for me with gear for rice cutting (rain pants/jacket and boots). I had a few hours to get ready but it was cut short when Mark invited me out to Kofu for his birthday dinner. I knew I couldn’t stay long, but I went the ½ hour early since I was almost ready. I had the ride in the car and about 20min at the Rink with him then had to catch the 8pm bus to Fujiyoshida so I could get to Mike’s and be ready to cut rice in the morning. I caught the bus no trouble and studied Japanese while on it. Three high school boys (3^rd years) we somewhat attracted to me. I could hear them saying things from time to time, like a repeatedly louder “kawaii” (cute) and eventually a loud “sumimasen.” I looked up at that point and engaged them in conversation. I mostly had to use my Japanese because they didn’t speak much English. It wasn’t too long of a conversation, however, and it ended when one of the boys asked if I’d be his girlfriend . . .

I’m afraid this is where I’ll have to stop this post. I’ll write about the weekends (sometime, really), but it’s 10pm and I need my rest because I’m sick. Luckily I’ve been taking very good care of myself (sleeping a lot, drinking, taking vitamins) so my symptoms are small, but I’m cycling through the stages of a cold and I’d like to continue to cycle through and out. It’s a fine time for the TV news to tape my class tomorrow . . . Wow, my life sounds busy and important! Well, the former is certainly true . . .

Love to all,