Random Things

Once again time went fast in the office today. I have to tell you how great it is to wake up, get all irritated that I have to get ready to go to work, only to get here and get a warm greeting when I walk in. It's so much better than the lukewarm greeting in my former office. I also did some more cleaning and work unrelated to teaching English and it felt just as rewarding. It's a bit strange doing cleaning for an office that I only joined like last week, but already feeling like one of the group. I had to throw away most of the ALT crap that I know I, and any other ALT won't need. I threw away a basketful of crap, and I still have enough crap to fit and overstuff my cabinet.







I had this DELICIOUS Bento for lunch today. It's called Buta-Namban, and that's just pork with namban sauce, which is like a delicious, tangy tartar sauce. The best thing about it is that it's really crunchy because it's fried and even the tartar sauce doesn't make it TOO soggy when poured on it. The drink with it is a delicious white grape drink with soft white grapes in the drink itself so you're swallowing and chewing. It tastes like real grapes. Fantastic!







I ran into Iihoshi-sensei today (the guy who I used to sit next to), and as usual he manages to just say some stupid nonsense that only makes me even happier that I don't have to sit next to him. We were talking about lesson plans (which I normally avoid, but he brought it up) and he explained that since I was here for a year, maybe I should be the one to pick which days I do lessons with teachers. Then I look at him, think in my head, "Oh of course...he manages to prove AGAIN how little he knows," but out loud I go, "??? What do you mean?" Then he explains for the past month how I haven't picked the days and how one of the other teachers always does it for me. Then I calmly explain, and try and use the simplest English I can think of to tell him that yes...the lady did help me...for ONE MONTH. I can't be expected to know what classes they are and aren't having because I don't get a schedule. What usually happens is that I'll get a template and I pick which classes I want to do and when, she helped me out in the beginning before I got the hang of it. For some reason, however, when he hears the other teacher say that she'll pick the classes for me last month, that means that she's been doing them since last September............no. Then I tell him that he's wrong (again), and that I've been choosing which classes to go to SINCE OCTOBER and I needed her for this month because this is my first April in Japan so I DON'T KNOW HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO GO, like is it really that hard for him to slowly work that through in his mind without having to say dumb crap out loud? Then he looks at me all skeptically and goes, "....Hontou? (really?) Then I just sigh, call him a moron in my head, smile and go, ".....Yes. Why didn't you know that?" But then I quickly change the subject because it's time like this where I remember that I don't have to tell him anything because he has already made his mind up about foreigners and 100 Americans can walk up to him tomorrow, speaking perfect Japanese and he'll STILL think that Americans are small minded and feel as though they don't have to learn any other languages because English is a universal language....stfu. He's like a dark cloud of annoyance, irritation and ignorance, all rolled up into a little ball made specifically to annoy me, but whatever! Moving on.

Anyway, after he left, life got easier again and I just decided to walk around and talk to students. My students are quite interesting and always have something funny to say. Of course they're completely different people when we're doing classes, but a good amount of them are really good kids...even the "bad" ones. I'm looking forward to talking with them again and meeting the new students who are coming tomorrow.





I have normal black people hair. It's not a big deal, it's curly, cute and can do well in most weather patterns, it's NOT a perm. Most people in Japan assume that my hair is a perm but why? Clearly I have different hair than they do since I'm not Japanese, but in any case I always get the occasional group of girls and boys who just stare at it, ask the SAME QUESTIONS, sometimes in the same order and ask to touch it. In Japan, a perm for a Japanese person would be similar to my natural hair type. So it's a big deal to them when I explain that my hair is naturally that way. I don't mind when they touch my hair because it's the first time they have seen this type of hair, so it's a big deal for them. In any case, I go through the usual motions of yes, it's naturally curly, no it's not a perm, yes I put color in it, yes most of the time it's easy to manage...etc etc etc. I always explain that if I had a perm, then my hair would look like theirs. In any case, it's nice that they feel comfortable enough with me to ask random questions and to completely ignore any kind of personal space to get IN my face to see my hair up close because of their comfort. It still might take some getting used to though.


Also, IT'S ONLY BEEN THE SECOND DAY THAT IT'S BEEN CONSISTENTLY WARM...WHY DID I ALREADY SEE 4 SPIDERS IN ONE DAY? :(