Christeph: On the Lam

Every morning I get up an hour before I head off to school. Unfailingly, I have toast for breakfast, which takes 5 minutes in our oven/toaster/microwave unit. I haven’t figured out other breakfast options here yet (except for natto, which I’ve tried and whole-heartedly rejected). I usually have time after breakfast to watch the children’s morning show, which is remarkably like sesame street with puppets and everything. Usually the English portion is on, but sometimes I get kids’ animation in Japanese. This morning was about a superhero who has a magic mochi sword. He conquers his enemies by flinging ice cream at them… when they eat it, their eyes are filled with flowers and puppies and other warm fuzzies. How can you not love programming like this?

I then head off to one of my myriad schools via my one-speed bike, complete with basket. I love biking to school… it reminds me of being in junior high. And right now the weather is so beautiful and I’m happy to have the exercise. I pass all my kids riding their bikes on the way to school. And if I’m feeling awake enough to be sociable, I say good morning as I leave them in the dust.

As for the small town nature of my job… it’s finally sinking in for everyone. Yesterday Chris and I were walking around town when this group of 4 girls I didn’t recognize stop us with an “eeeEEEEEEHHH! Sensei! Hello!” I’ve only been working for a week and have only been to each class once, so there’s no way I recognize these girls, so I use the old trick where I make them introduce themselves to Chris, including their name and school. And I ask them to remember Chris’ name from the self-introduction I did as a lesson plan, and amazingly enough, they come through. I hope Chris isn’t creeped out by everyone in town already knowing his name.

On Saturday, we sucked it up and took the big 4 hour round trip trek to Omagari for… fireworks! Every year in this sleepy little town, they host the all Japan fireworks and millions of people flock there to watch. The show, 3 (!) hours long, was quite spectacular. We found a small group of JETs, where we met up with Corey the guy who is GIVING me his CAR. Woo hoo! I am now mobile, folks! Her name is: the Red Bullet.

Before we celebrate too much, let’s discuss the car. It’s got some severe muffler problems and who knows what else is about to fall off or refuse to work in the dead of winter. It took us $45 to fill up the tank with gas. But hey, you can’t beat the sticker price.

Everyone cross your fingers for me or hold your breath or something, eh?

This entry was posted on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 10:58 am and is filed under Ambiance, Festivals and Events, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.