December 16th through 18th in 2015

In looking back over my last entry, I’m amazed at how it feels like it was in a different world. Such is life, one supposes.
The 16th finished without anything of particular note happening. I’m eating a lot of 7-11 these days, mostly salads, so fun details about spectacular feasts are not to be expected. It’s really hard to eat out and budget for food here. On a happy note, I’m back down 1kg below the weight I was at before I shattered my diet and had my little meltdown. Melted cheese meltdown. I had Eikaiwa, which was fun as usual. I think I prefer the Wednesday ladies. Had a very long walk, and ended up far below my calorie goal for the second night in a row. Which was good because I’d be over on the 17th. Anyway, yeah. Not much to report. When I got home, I saw that I’d missed a delivery. Really, other than eikaiwa, the 16th does nothing but to set up the 17th.
On the 17th, I went to Kukino elementary. I always enjoy Kukino-sho. I started off at the BOE, and double checked my schedule, which is very confusing. I think I’ve got it figured out now. Anyway, after all of that, I went off to Kukino and had a fun time with the three students. The Vice Principal speaks good English, and, for whatever reason, I was feeling well and did pretty well in my Japanese. Lunch was big, and, because there are only a few people there, they don’t let me take smaller portions than the students. So, full calorie lunch. Which was pretty bad. Anyway, at recess, we played soccer, and that was where I got into some trouble.
In Japanese gyms, you need to have special gym shoes which are distinct from your school shoes and your outside shoes. Yeah. Kind of a problem when you’re a traveling gaijin. Anyway, not having gym shoes, I did what I normally do, which is to just play in my socks. Well, this went badly for me. A girl, missing the ball, as was her custom, ended up kicking me right in my left foot, my super-secret weak spot being my left ankle. I was limping the rest of the day. After Kukino, I picked up my package, then went to Yamasaki where I had a meeting regarding lessons for the students next week and prepping for a presentation where I am to feature. I love Yamasaki, for so many reasons. One of the strongest of which is that they actually do stuff like this. I have no idea what’s happening most of the time at most of the places where I go but Yamasaki? Bam. I love those guys. Anyway, after that meeting, I went home, and I texted Kyoko to let tea sensei know that I couldn’t make it. Foot was hurting, and I wasn’t going to be able to sit seiza, or squat on a stool, for two to three hours while frequently getting up and down. Nope. I’ve learned that when the left ankle goes, you just go with it. So, I sat under the kotatsu and did nothing productive. Which wasn’t so bad. It was a guilt free day. I knew that walking wasn’t an option, so I didn’t have to feel guilty about all of the stuff that I should have been doing. Anyway, ended up staying up way too late and that was a problem.
This morning was freezing, as I knew it would be. I’d slept under four blankets wearing a sweat suit and long johns with the space heater on. That made it relatively tolerable. However, my main window has really good light, so my main living area was really nice. Relatively speaking. Still cold, but doably cold. I didn’t get moving as quickly as I should have. For one thing, I wasted a bunch of time warming my mousse bottle with my body heat. I have learned that cold mousse is bad for your hair. I have learned this by enduring so many bad hair days. Now, I’m keeping the damned bottle in my bedroom to keep it warm. Still, the cold is oddly bracing. I’ve always done better in the cold, the humidity was respectable.
Yesterday, there was snow on the big mountain whose name always escapes me. It was amazingly beautiful. It’s so odd to live in a place that you feel should be some kind of Bob Ross painting. Still, I’m not complaining. This morning, everything was covered in this beautiful silver blue frost as the winter light cut through the bamboo, lighting up the mist of the sublimating water, and making everything just beautiful. However, the entire front of my car was covered in frost, and, this not being Michigan, I didn’t’ have a car scraper handy. I mean, why would I? That’d be crazy.
I wouldn’t have needed the car this morning, but I had forgotten to stock up on breakfast bars, and I had to run to 7-11 and get breakfast. This is partly a bad excuse. I also went there for tea (need to start making my own tea again). However, I did fail to budget my time quite thoroughly and had to eat breakfast in the parking lot of the school.
The office is relatively warm today. They kept a heater on. It’s a big kerosene number. When I got in this morning, I was a little bit frustrated. I’ve got on my heavy long johns, my actual shirt and pants, a tie, a cardigan, and a sports coat. I was roasting! Thankfully, Japanese idiocy took over and people started to open the windows while complaining that it was getting cold in here. As if these two things are unrelated. Anyway, that got us down to a reasonable temperature relatively quickly. In related news, I need to buy new socks. The long johns are too short, and they pull, and my socks end up sliding down and I have a nice little ring of frigid around my lower shins. Also wearing sandals indoors. I think I’ll get a nice big pair of, like, soccer knee socks so that I know my legs will be warm and then put my black socks over that. Yeah. Good plan. Seriously, guys who wear white socks with real clothes need to die.
Along those lines, my principal is so cool. Well, today he gave me a copy of the newspaper (I’m in an article about playing my uke at Tomarino’s festival). However, his clothing. I love how he dresses! The day before yesterday he had on this amazing luminescent silk tie. Light lavender. It was so beautiful! He also had on this amazing checked sports coat made of oversized hounds tooth print! Today, he doesn’t even match. It looks like a three year old dressed him. He’s so cool! Every article of clothing he owns is perfect, but nothing ever seems to match, unless he’s wearing just a bland (but always perfectly tailored) suit and tie. It’s bizarre. His clothing is so nice, each article is perfect, and either Japanese clothing uses him as its model, or else everything he owns is tailored . . . but nothing matches. I love him so much! He’s such a cool guy for so very many reasons.
I feel like I’m starting to be accepted here. The teachers around me are talking to me more. The kids are getting used to me. Today, in 2-1, the kids were actually asking me questions in Japanese and weren’t afraid of me. Well, most of them weren’t. At least, not very much. And that’s a big step in the right direction.
Things I need to do:
Figure out when I take the car in for its checkup. Because I’ve got to send money back to The States in order to buy a bunch of stuff that I need. Mostly more junk out of Oriental Trading Company. My treasure box is about dead. Hopefully I’ll have a new one before too long. I also need to figure out my schedule for the 23rd as a custody battle seems to be shaping up. Because of course it does.
Tonight is the end of the year party for Miyachuu, but I’m not really looking forward to it. I made a bad decision and didn’t sleep enough. Now I want to sleep. Also, I don’t want to deal with the calories of a big meal out. As soon as I get home, I need to go out and buy breakfast stuff for the next few days.
This weekend should be exciting. I have those events on Saturday, and I have Kimono after that.
Oh! I figured out that I can load flashcards directly from my dictionary app to anki, the memory app. Freaking awesome!
So, yeah. Goodnight.