Sept 8-11 in 2015

Yesterday didn’t go according to plan. I ended up staying at school until 6. At 4:30, I helped one of Inori Sensei’s students with her English pronunciation for a contest. I got to solve a minor phonological problem and got to experience that brief and wonderful joy that comes from solving something like that. Then, I chatted with Matsumoto Sensei about phonetics, phonology, and everything of that sort until six. Then, I went home. It had done so much to elevate my mood that I couldn’t stand the notion of giving it up. Finally, I was feeling honestly elated. It was just wonderful.
I went home and then killed a bit of time. Doing what beyond the immediately obvious is beyond me, as I try to think on it. It couldn’t have been much. I ended up going on that walk that I’d promised myself I wouldn’t go on. Partly, it started out as a quest for food. I was hungry. Then, it kind of escalated. I just couldn’t bear to go back home. I wanted to move. And so, I did. I walked quite a bit, singing most of the way. A guy asked me if I’d been drinking. I wish I had been, and if there were a place outside of the Don shop where I could have just gotten a drink without the full service, I’d have done it. But, that wasn’t an option. Unless I felt like downing a can in the parking lot of a party/liquor store. And I didn’t. Though, I did get a ginger ale, their last one, at Sugimoto’s. That was wonderful. A nice Canada Dry. It helped my pretty miserable stomach. I don’t know whether it was stress, lack of sleep, forgetting to take an antacid in the morning, or way too much coffee, but my stomach was no cooperating yesterday. The ginger ale was a good idea. Anyway, I got home and then got to bed before too long had passed. It ended up being later than planned as I spent a bit of time on the walk.
I didn’t sleep well last night. According to Fitbit, I slept for just shy of seven hours, but that was with three times waking and eighteen bouts of restlessness. I think that it usually over reports my sleep and under represents my time awake. I’ve trained myself, when I wake up, to generally lie still and to try to get back to sleep. Anyway, come 6, I debated going back to bed, as is my invariable custom, it seems, but decided to go on my walk instead. It worked out well as it was recyclable day. I got rid of a bag and a half of plastic bottles and cans. Definitely worth the time. My room is still covered in clothes, and my house still has some unfortunate piles of garbage, but getting those big bags out of the way helped a lot. But, between that, and trying to seal a letter for Simona, and being generally out of it, and spending a lot of time drying, I screwed up my schedule. I ended up having to drive to 7-11 after 8 to get tea, coffee, and breakfast. However, I’ve definitely found an amazing, seemingly American, breakfast treat. It’s a breakfast sandwich made out of various kinds of breakfast sweets. It’s freaking amazing, and I love it. Mustn’t indulge in it too often, though.
Work today has been dull. I thought I had a class with Ebihara Sensei. As it turns out, I don’t. Rather, she has an English class today, but I wasn’t needed in it. Apparently 2nd through 6th periods (9:50-4:55) are practice for the sports festival on Sunday. I’ve got too attend that. Thank goodness that I’ll have Saturday. Pushing 30, after a Japanese drinking party (scheduled for Friday) odds are pretty good I’ll have a hangover. Even with The Feast of St. Swithen. Now, of course, I just read an article indicating that hydrating and eating fatty food doesn’t help hangovers. I find this very hard to believe. We’ll see what comes of it. Click bait is click bait. Though I think I read this in the BBC. Still, the BBC reports click bait from time to time. Let’s hope this proves to be an instance, because it certainly runs counter to all of my first hand, and vicarious, experience. Well, I corrected a big pile of students’ diaries for Ebihara Sensei. Oh, also, found out that Matsumoto Sensei is married. Oh the troubles of being attracted to people who have graduated college. Anyway, I’ve mostly been rereading The Cross Time Engineer books. I finally have more than that on my Kindle, but they’re fun to mindlessly reread. Also, starting from book one this time has given me a new perspective on them. I’m finding a lot more right with them than I’d seen before, and a few more glaring mistakes. That dude can’t write women. Not at all.
There is a teacher here whom I have named “Copper Kettle Sensei”. There’s a story that I read about, in a book of Japanese stories, involving a badger that could turn into a copper kettle, and into various states between the two. I imagine that if this badger could take human form, he would be Copper Kettle Sensei. It’s just too perfect. His skin looks like burnished copper. I’d never understood what it meant when people said that a pregnant woman was “glowing”. I’ve never seen a person glow. Copper Kettle Sensei seems to have a kind of beautiful, iridescent, illumination coming out from under his skin. I sometimes have to force myself to stop staring. One tragedy inflicted by the sports festival is that all of the teachers (except me) are now outside prepping for Sports Day, and Copper Kettle Sensei is now tanned. It looks like he was heated in a stove and nobody’s cleaned the soot off! I just want to find some careful maid to give him a good washing. I’ll bet he’d enjoy it.
After getting home, I didn’t do a great deal. I changed my clothes and shortly thereafter mailed my letter to Simona. After that, I dropped by the Udon place. The old man’s shaking is doing better, but there was still nobody these. I talked a lot on LINE with a girl I’d met. She works at a girl bar. However, her Facebook status says that she’s in Tokyo. I suspect she’s been sent here to rusticate a bit. See, of course, the fact that she’s a hostess is bad enough, but to make her completely beyond the pale, it turns out she’s got a 2 year old. No interest, really, in dealing with that sort of thing. So, yeah. First girl in town who seems even vaguely into me and she’s a 21 year old unwed mother. After that, English. After that, went home and killed time on the computer. I think I may have gone on some kind of walk? It’s possible. Everything was very dull, and my biggest priority was sleep.
This morning, I got up at 6, but I didn’t go on my walk. I knew I was going to need to leave early, so I figured it was best to get moving quickly. Also, I had a few things to do. I took my laundry in from outside, it was still wet, and I shaved. I didn’t trim my beard, but I did get the hair off of my neck and some from off of my cheeks. Then, I went to Kukino elementary school. Turns out, I got there too early. I was supposed to go to the BOE first. So, I drove back to the BOE. Then, after a short wait, drove back to Kukino.
It’s a lovely school off on the side of a hill. Actually, it may be more of a plateau. It seems to be on a raised platform of sorts with rice fields all around it. The school is, I believe 167 years old, though I’m willing to bet that there’s not a scrap of it left from its initial construction. Still, you can feel the history of the place. Laughter and memories seem to be resonating from the walls. Yet, now, there are only three students. Tsugumi, Tomoe, and Mai, if I remember their names correctly. Tsugumi is an adorable, dull, very overweight girl. Tomoe is an adorable, if slightly mousy, slip of a thing. Mai sits in the center of the room, in that single row of three, and dominates the class. They’re all sweet things, though. I had two periods with them, and we had a lot of fun. It seems that Tomoe and Mai are a bit fond of pranks at Tsugumi’s expense. We did a game where a player was a robot with closed eyes and the others had to give them directions, “Stop, turn right, turn left,” or “go straight” to guide them. Well, it went pretty well, but Tsugumi got banged up a bit.
After our two classes, we had lunch together. Some kind of veggie and sausage (?) chowder, two pieces of bread, and some egg with a side of cabbage. The cabbage was foul, but I ate it. The rest was quite good. For a while, until they put on some j-pop, in the silence of an empty school (another teacher, the nurse, three students, and me). I struggle to describe it.
The rice fields are the most amazing color of golden green. They stretch out and catch the sun in the most fascinating ways. Around us are the tiny houses set up on the sides of the hills to allow more room for the paddy. The school is on what must be some kind of boundary. All around us, on the sides of the mountains, there is a tall bamboo forest. I never see anyone in the fields, and the road in that place is nearly empty. We were so utterly alone. It was wonderful and beautiful and just mystifying to be so alone in that place. My goodness, I wanted to run everywhere at once. Knowing this, I just wanted to sleep there with that sense of peace all around me.
As an aside (currently the 11th) I just finished skimming over the last book in the Conrad Stargard series. Just . . . wow. Depressingly suck. Two major characters become arbitrarily evil. I mean, yeah, there’s kind of an excuse, but . . . wow. Glorifying China for . . . some reason? I don’t know. It’s an instance where you can see the private life of the author meddling in his works. He wrote the penultimate book while having marital difficulties (presumably), and this books post-divorce. Naturally, in the penultimate book, his wife is insufferable and, in this book, she’s a complete traitor. She also has an affair with Conrad’s boss who he loves and respects, and who loves and respects him. Sure, there was a lot of tension, but it worked. Father Ignacy, the kindly and understanding priest, becomes a bad zealot, Sir Vladimir cheats on his wife, quite casually, after, literally, half of book two was their romance. It’s just like . . . and then everybody was an insufferable dick. Conrad becomes more luxury loving and . . . the whole thing just seems like the wishful thinking of a dying man who’d been disappointed in life. Which is exactly what Frankowski was. The optimism of the early books is gone. Hell, so’s the fun! And, making it worse, he’d already sketched out information about the end of the series midway through, and it goes counter to this. Granted, he didn’t write the whole thing. He sketched an outline and had somebody else do it, but still. This is just bad! I couldn’t even get through the whole thing. The penultimate book was really atrocious, but this one . . . just . . . why?
Right, so, back to the 10th:
I wrote two songs, simple ones, for ukulele. Used the 50’s progression for the first and then Closing Time for the second. Then I made a simple melody to use the target grammar. It was easy, but it impressed, and the kids had fun. Just, good kids. It’s so sad to see that school close.
Well, then I returned to the BOE and did some reading, but I felt so crappy that Hirayama noticed and sent me home early. 4:10 instead of 4:30. I got food at 7-11, far too much, and downed it. I’m putting on weight lately, I think, and a lot of it is just because of how crappy I feel. Stupid stomach. Well, anyway, after that, I basically went to bed. I woke up repeatedly during the night, but I stayed in bed from about 5:30 or 6 PM last night (the 10th) to 6 the 11th (this morning).
Then I got up, but I didn’t go for a walk. Felt too crappy. Maybe I should have anyway? Oh well. I puttered around taking it easy, hoping I’d feel well. I really want to be doing well by the time of the big drinking party for me tonight. Don’t want to miss out on that. Not for anything. Pretty dull, beyond that. Taught one class, first period. Another self intro. Nothing much to report.