November 13th-17th in 2015

November 13th through 17th.
I don’t really remember how most of the 13th went, which leads me to believe that nothing of significance happened. It appears, based on Myfitnesspal records, that I went on a walk, but also ate Ramen and Gyoza. Sounds sensible. I seem to remember being very hungry. Well, good for me. I’m also fairly certain I practiced some guitar. I also seem to have gotten to bed at a reasonable hour. That’s good. I really have no memory of the day. Oh, I think that I finished writing a letter to Lindsey, wherein I lamented that I’d received no reply from anybody yet. When I got home, I found a letter from Lauren. Also, in a way, to be expected. So, that was nice. Ebihara was out sick, and Inori was out with a sister in a coma. Based on how she’s acting today (the 17th), and how everybody else is, I suspect no good news. Saturday, I woke up early and then did my guitar lesson. I also feel that I did something else after it, but just what it was escapes me. Oh, that’s right! My first Japanese haircut! I got a shave and a haircut. Not two bits, though. Shave, haircut, brief pneumatic massage, facial, and hair . . . stuff . . . for a grand total of about US$60. Not a bad deal. Sadly, she shaved me wrong, and now my neck is killing me. I’ve been able to avoid a tie for the last few days, but Thursday I’ve got a big conference, and my neck is already terrified. After the barber shop, I went home, killed a few hours, and went to bed. I went to sleep at around 5:30 and woke up a bit before 7 on Sunday morning. It was needed. Sunday I got up, went on a walk, came home, wasted some time, went on a walk again and bumped into a festival. I tried my hand at goldfish scooping, and I got a goldfish. So, that was nice. Not 3 on my first paddle like the first time, but, still. I still have it. I could have gotten more than one, but after getting one on my first try, I was anxious to be done. I have a system, but it takes time, and I was dragged there by a special needs student who likes me, and she was getting impatient. That was fun. I also went on another walk later, if memory serves. Also played a fair amount of guitar. I tried ramen at a new place, and it was pretty terrible. I also made the mistake of ordering the “set” and got some fried chicken, which was pretty awful as well. Which is, honestly, impressive, in its way. Oh, I also took a nap at some point. Oh, there was an earthquake here over the weekend. Woke me up, then I texted Sam to see if he understood the alert that blared over our phones. He said we were safe to go back to sleep, and I did. Wasn’t nearly as bad as the Chengdu one.
Monday I taught at Hirakawa. I’ve only been there once before, the second time I was supposed to go, I had been sick. In an attempt at better dental hygiene, I bought some additional products to use at lunch (we’re al supposed to brush at lunch). I bought some tongue and tooth wipes. Now my tongue just feels terrible. I scraped it and scraped it and scraped it, but the back is just unnatural. I don’t know what to do about it or where exactly it got to be so horrible. Anyway, that was a fun experience. Anyway, played with the kids, which was great. During soccer I kicked the ball, and it hit a 2nd grader, and he went down crying. I felt truly awful. Still, the vice-principal just said not to worry, these things happen, and to try to be softer. To be honest, I hadn’t been trying to kick hard. I don’t have the skills to control that sort of thing. Still, yet another thing I like about Japanese education. Kid gets hurt, he leaves the game, a few friends comfort him, but the game goes on. Because they can deal with it. Thank goodness for Japan. Still, I felt guilty.
I went back to the BOE, and then had to leave shortly thereafter. Eikaiwa was going to be at the Culture Center as opposed to the Himawarikan. Only three students showed up. No idea what the deal is/was. We’ll find out, I suppose. One, I know is prepping for her son’s wedding, one had to work, and one’s wife was sick so he had to take care of her. As for the rest of those loafers . . . grrr.
Oh, I also got up early on Monday and did the exercises I’m supposed to. Felt good to accomplish it. Anyway, after Eikaiwa, I went to the only kissaten in town and wrote a reply to Lauren. It felt good, though my pen is not cooperating as I’d like it to. I think the problem is the stationery, though. As the pen appears to write just fine on regular paper. Which is frustrating. Anyway, after that, I got dinner, then walked, then ate again. I tried to play a bit of guitar, but my hand was still sore from how much I’d already played. Then, talking far too late with a girl from Michigan who is very pretty, and with whom I went to high school, but whose name escapes me, I finally went to bed.
I got up this morning and it was pouring. I tried to do my exercises (I didn’t hurt because I’d only done half doses the day before), but during some thrusts, I felt my ankle starting to hurt. It occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, I’d do better to come up with an arms, chest, back, abs, kind of routine for the week and just not exercise my legs as they’re getting tons as it is and I don’t want to overload them. It was doing calf lifts after a run that damaged my ankle in the first place. After I’m down to a better weight, I’ll segue more into weight work and less cardio, but, for now, my main exercise is the nightly walk/jog. I’m still trying to find a route that’s 5K, though, and it’s rough. A little over or a little under every single time. It’s a bit frustrating. I think that when I up the difficulty, next week, I’m going to add two additional jogging portions. I think that the goal will be to be jogging the entire 5K by April. Then I’ll work on upping it. Maybe. We’ll see. If I’m light enough by April, the 5K may be all I need, especially if I’m jogging it, and then I can focus more on weight training.
I’m more and more sure I need to get out of tea ceremony. Actually, tonight is the Tuesday Satsuma Cho tea ceremony class, and I’m pretty sure I need to skip. I have to get some stuff done, and I just can’t if I’m there for two hours. I need to pick up two dehumidifiers, and I think that Sendai is probably the place to do it. I also need to finish my Japanese class in the next few days (deadline is the 20th) and I’m going out of town the 18th and 19th. Anyway, I think I just need to explain to the teacher that my weight is such that I can’t really focus during the ceremony due to pain in my legs, and I’m not getting much out of it, but I’d like to remain a paying student and attend the pre lesson lessons on how to do stuff.
The girl I was making progress with has stopped responding on Tinder. So much the better, I suppose. Somehow, talking to Lauren and Emily (that’s her name!) seems to help a bit.
As a matter of historical record, I should probably mention that the Paris attacks happened. There’s not a great deal to say that needs to be said here. My thoughts and opinions on this are my own, and this diary is not a history of my political development, nor of my thoughts on controversial subjects. Even writing this much is enough to tempt me to get polemical, so I’ll cut it off here.
While I didn’t finish exercise this morning, I did do contact juggling practice, which was good. I’m realizing that if I can just stick to a plan, I can get pretty good at cards, contact juggling, and guitar this year. With time to spare. I think that I’m narrowing my focus on stuff that I really want to be good at all towards a purpose (becoming an entertainer in Japan), which is a large part of what I wanted here to begin with. So, that’s good.
The weather today is horrible. It’s cold, humid, raining, and thundering. I actually drove to school today because I knew that my cardboard treasure box wouldn’t survive the trip. Also it’ll make it easier to get to the post office, and subsequently Sendai. I may not go to Sendai, I may just buy the dehumidifiers here. As it stands, I’m running both air conditioners in my house to try to keep the humidity down. The cold is fine, and the rain is fine, but when it’s humid . . . nothing ever dries. I don’t want Chengdu all over again.
I feel like I may be missing things, but I also feel like this was a remarkably dull weekend. I’ll end this here.
Goodnight.