Digital Ninja

THURSDAY, AUGUST 19

I had to be up early this morning since I had to meet the Nishi teacher at the station at 8am. Internet, if nothing else, has made me more productive. I was out of bed and showered much faster than usual and even got a bit of chatting with people back home in before heading to the station.

I even then beat my fellow teacher.

We took the train together and chatted. I told her my gecko story and she said that in Japan, they're considered lucky. So, I'll think of that as my lucky welcome visit. She pointed out that if I take the local train, the station before mine ALSO has the town's name in the name, so I must not accidentally get off at the wrong place. Once in town, we, waited for the bus, which will take us to Nishi High School.

In Japanese buses, you enter through the back and pay your fare when you exit through the front. There's even a little change machine, should you not have exact change. I explained a bit about linguistics, as that's really the only strength I have going into this job. I don't speak Japanese and don't have teaching in my background (just tutoring, which I play up as much as possible.) My real strength, that probably got me this job is my English Linguistics background (and my study abroad experience and work in the study abroad office, but that doesn't come up with teachers.)

At the school, we changed out of our shoes and I put on my slippers. She commented that my pants now dragged on the ground and I explained that it's because in America, I'm short. Here, I tower over people.

We went up to the staff room and I got introduced around. Then briefly shown my desk then got a tour of the building. There weren't many students around. We went to visit the gym and peeked in to see that some girls were practicing volleyball. We watched from the door until I realised that someone may have noticed us. We were just putting our shoes back on when this increasing pounding started. It got louder and all of a sudden the door BURST open and the entire team piled out to say hello. They were very excited. They told me I was cute. We chatted a bit in English about how I'm not good at volleyball but was a rower. They asked me if I had a boyfriend. Then asked me if I thought their coach was cute. It was an odd question and they were delighted when I made a face of indifference and rushed off to tell him – something I hope wasn't dreadful – in Japanese. I justified my answer that he was too old, which I also hope wasn't insulting. But they seemed perfectly up-beat.

In one hallway was a very traditional looking door front, which is where tea ceremony club meets and koto is taught. When I expressed an eagerness in koto, we met up with the koto teacher. It turns out that the professional koto player only comes on Mondays, so that won't work with my schedule, but we did go into the room and watch two senior girls practice. A koto, by the way, is MUCH bigger than I'd expected. Most were over 5 feet, and some probably up to 7.

Once back upstairs in the staff room, I sat at my desk and organized papers from my predecessor's predecessor's predecessor. It turns out that one of the infamously awesome JETs taught at this school until last April. *head desk* I can't live up to that awesomeness. Anyway, these papers were a mess of lesson plans and work sheets that were all out of order like they'd been dropped. It took me a few hours to match them all up again.

By that time, it was time to head to lunch. Actually, we might have gone earlier, but I was still organizing papers and there was paper spread all over my desk and the desk next to mine (as that teacher wasn't there.) We delayed lunch by an hour so I could finish.

Lunch was at a little Nepalian place. It was curry. I don't know much about what was ordered for me, but the school knows very well that I'm a vegetarian, as it was even discussed during the meal. The curry was quite tasty. I'm going to have to learn to cook curry. I think the teachers are also delighted at having found a restaurant that they can bring me to that won't cause a hassle.

After lunch, they dropped me off again at the train station. It was my first time taking a train alone and it was uneventful. Well, actually, the digital sign that posts the arriving trains scrolled something in kanji and it had a digital ninja after it. That was exciting. Also, in hot weather, everyone pulls out fans, even men.

I got home, to my 97 degree apartment, honestly, seriously, and collapsed in front of my internet. I've done little else today than try to catch up on the world, post pictures, and reacquaint myself with long-lost friends.

It's been a good day. Except for the heat.