Bike n' Bow

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21

I discovered on my way to school today that it is possible for students to bow to you while riding a bicycle. Who knew?!

I'm doing my lesson on sickness, which my students still find somewhere between terribly amusing and shocking. The boys have mellowed, though, and settled into their new classes, so they're raising their hands again, thank goodness. I don't think I could stand it if my boys stopped raising their hands. Some students turn it into a competition amongst themselves. Wait until they find out that someone's getting a prize at the end of the semester. I hope that encourages them ALL to raise their hands more.

But this week, once again, finds me in front of the class acting out a stuffed nose, a stomachache, throwing up, and coughing and sneezing fits. The sneezing leads to an interesting side discussion on “Bless you” and “gesundheit.” The later of which I had NO idea how to spell before this lesson, but had to run back to the room and check before my second class. I even cheated and wrote it down. Japan doesn't say anything when you sneeze, so it's a new concept for them. I say “gesundheit,” so that's why I was sure to introduce it, although the students looked horrified at the strange word.

Students think I'm hilarious pretending to be an ambulance. The Japanese ones sound more like the British ones and are less whirring and blaring, than a constant pin-pon.

I chatted about future lesson plans with Sheila. Although I still hadn't covered giving advice when your friend is injured/sick, we decided to move on. We decided for the next lesson to do one on Halloween, which, yes, will be mostly cultural, but is important to America and should be fun for the students. I was eager to start.

I didn't stay too late, as I was tired. I seem to always be tired now. I got a text from Elizabeth asking if I was interested in going to the Hikone Mascot festival this weekend (of course!) And then got a text asking if I could switch from Saturday to Sunday. There's a sumo match in Otsu this weekend, so I'll have to see if I can get tickets to it. If I still can, then I can't go on Sunday to Hikone. I've been nervous about getting tickets because I'll need to buy them from a machine (all in kanji) in a convenience store. It's a bit intimidating.

On my way into the apartment's parking lot, I met up with Edmund. We chatted a bit and he mentioned that he had a friend coming into town – a former JET – for a wedding and invited me out to sushi with them that evening. I accepted.

At about 7:30, I got a text from him and met up with him and the old JET, who was a petite brunette. We walked down to a 100 yen sushi place, but a different one from the one that Elizabeth and I have always gone to. As it turns out, we were meeting three other people, who were already there. On the way over, Edmund and the Brunette talked about old JETs that I never met and old stories. If I learned anything, it's that I need to keep my private life private or 10 years from now, new JETs will be hearing about who I dated, slept with, fought with, how my teaching was, what my JTEs thought of me, and so on. It's intimidating.

At the sushi place, I definitely ate the least, but then, I usually do. The corn sushi was my favorite of the night. I ended up ordering both the chocolate mousse and the chocolate cake, neither of which was stellar, but you do get what you pay for. At this place, you don't get a prize for putting your plates into the receptacle, but when you special order a plate, it's delivered specifically to your table by a shinkansen bullet train. Yes, a TRAIN! It's adorable.

I was fairly quiet throughout the meal, having little I could add to a conversation about people I didn't know. On the walk back, however, I interacted a bit more. I got to hear how one of the boys, who's with Interact, not JET, became well acquainted with the Kyoto jail this summer when he was held there for 11 days without charge. My most pressing question was, of course, did his school make him take nenkyu (vacation days) for it?