11.18.2003

I love Ooshima. It's this tiny island off of the coast that I go to about once a month. There are a whopping 5 students in this school, making it the absolute smallest that I go to. I got up around 10, had a little McDonald's before catching the ferry and enjoyed the 30 minute ride. Today's lesson was with the first years, of which there are a two students. I even got a free bag of oranges. Sweet. I think I would lose my mind if I had one of these island placements. I like not having to ration fresh water, and eating at restaurants. Definitely puts things in perspective though. Ooshima's society dates back much earlier than all of American history.

Man, I need a raise. Taking a trip to Tokyo's going to cost me, plus I need to send money home and buy presents, etc etc. Looks like it's time to buy some more cup ramen and eat some more free oranges. And of course, double up on my delicious nutritious school lunches.

11.17.2003

Well well, been looking over my expenses for the last month, and for the first time my income has almost reached my expenses. Maybe Tom will actually be able to buy presents for people AND still have money to go travel around Japan this winter break. Maybe someday he'll stop referring to himself in the third person too.

So this was a fairly uneventful weekend. Someone apparently gave my laptop a frontal lobotomy Saturday night, because all of Sunday it had a hard time doing anything harder than turning on. A good 8 hours of work fixing that completely wasted my day, and got it so that now I can waste time here at school. Hooray.

It looks like I will be spending the end of this month in Tokyo, chilling out with a certain Mr. Adil, whom many of you may remember from his wild and crazy days on the third floor at the G-Spot. We'll see how mature he's become when I take him out to Roppongi. Maybe he'll even come back alive and sober. Well, probably not sober. And I probably won't come back home rich. When a beer costs you 500 yen, a night drinking in Tokyo does not end up the same as a night drinking in Urbana, Illinois.

1:00 PM Update:

Just had the worst lunch ever. The salad with hundreds of little white fish in it I can handle. The octopus soup, I can handle. But the fried fish heads. With the nice big fried eyeballs. I lose. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to avoid the “Tokugawa's revenge” (5 points for deciphering the reference).

I wish I could claim selective vegetarianism. "I'm sorry, but it's against my beliefs to eat giant crunchy fish heads. It goes against my faith."

11.13.2003

It's starting to get a wee bit chilly here. Now when I wake up in the morning I feel a little cold. I feel sorry for Miss Jane in Yamagata-ken, where she's probably been freezing for the last two months. If this keeps up it might be time to whip out the cover for my new kotatsu and give it a test run. Today there's a meeting for all of the English teachers in Yawatahama, and I'm team-teaching the example lesson with one of the Atago JHS teachers. Should be interesting. I feel sorry for the kids who have to stay for the lesson, every other student gets a half-day, but they have to stick around and be the guinea pigs for all of the other teachers.

I finally got internet, so now I can finally get to work on updating my page from the comfort of my own home. Lots and lots of pics. And of course, now that I'm back on the internet my productivity has dropped 50%. What's 50% of 0 again? In addition, I got a copy of Halo as a b-day present from a certain Ms. Mulvany, which is only stoking the fires of procrastination.

Only one more week till I get paid, hooray! Maybe I'll finally get around to sending money back to the states. On the other hand, planning trips this winter break without any cash would be a bad idea. Hee hee, the school speakers just busted out with the background battle music for Suikoden III. Only in Japan.

11.04.2003

Japanese language fun point of the day: the Japanese word for "manager" has the same pronunciation as the Japanese word for "menarche". Just thought you all would like to know.

In other news, not much happening on the home front. Went camping with a bunch of the fellow foreigners to a park not too far from my house. Barbequing, ghost stories, and some alcohol. Fun fun. I got some great pictures of the local lighthouse to boot. I also had some culture festivals at a few of my schools on Sunday, I dropped in on three of them. The kids really put on some good shows, and were a lot of fun to visit. Despite not being paid to go, it still turned out to be a pretty good time. Maybe next year I'll whip out the juggling for the schools. Unfortunately the only real skill I possess (juggling), only seems to be done by elderly ladies in this country. That's okay though, cause I can whip all the ones that I've seen in terms of ability.

Older Journal Entries