Brian's Japan Adventure

January 21st, 2008

Not Quite The Last Monday

I was hoping for an early morning phone call saying school had been called off, but it never came. Looking out the window, much of the snow had already melted. Late last night, it was actually accumulating. I’d say we had 3/4 of an inch on the ground when I went to bed. It would never have been enough to call off school at home, but I had crossed fingers about them here. Everyone says it never snows, so if it’s that rare, well, who knows what they might do? Apparently nothing!

OK, so I had to go to school.  I thought it was likely to be my last class on Mondays, since exams start tomorrow and go on for two weeks. It wasn’t the end for me though.  I went up the hill this morning and taught my last actual class/lecture for N-Sensei, but he does in fact want me to back on the 4th of February (Monday after next) to give a final exam. My exam will be 30% of their complete course grade, so he’s treating it seriously. He also doesn’t want to see it ahead of time, so he must trust me, which is pretty neat.  I already have half the exam done in the work I did yesterday, but he does think they need a verbal or listening portion to the test as well. I need to come up with something brief that I can read them and ask them questions about. That’s no problem, but it’s not the sort of thing I would have considered for a final exam.

A New Lesson Source

While I was up on the hill, I stopped in the office to print out some materials for classes later this week and to hopefully find some additional materials. I found one new site that had several excellent activity ideas and printouts. I am going to use one or two of these for my classes tomorrow and Friday. I had planned on doing a lesson that revolved around asking questions, and these fit the bill while also being fun and just a little bit cultural.  It’s all about describing movies. Who was in it? What’s it about? What kind of movie is it? And so forth.  There’s even a game where the student fills in a couple of blanks and other have to guess the movie. I think it will be fun for them, and will probably be good for all the various grades I am teaching. I even found an activity for the older folks on Wednesday night, as well as a few rough ideas for next week’s classes. Oh, if I could only get a week ahead with planning, that would be wonderful!

Coming down the hill, I rode my bike to Happy Town. The roads were wet, but there was no ice or snow to ride through. Everything on the roads had melted. It was just too warm for any lasting snowfall. There’s still a little bit here and there in the shadows, but it’s mostly all gone by tonight. I had my usual McDonalds, and picked up a few necessities from the grocery and came right back home. It was just too cold for much else, but I did want to get out of the house a little after being cooped up all day yesterday.

How Would Scotty Order Tortillas?

I listened to a few more Pod casts. One that I particularly like is called “Coffee break Spanish.”  It’s Spanish language lessons in short segments. What makes it interesting is that the two teachers/show-hosts are Scottish. Och Laddie! Rolllll those Rrrrr’s when you say “Burrito” oot lood!. It’s unintentionally funny. They’re teaching the “Spain version” of Spanish, so I have my doubts about how useful that would be.  The “South of the border” flavor of Spanish might have its uses someday though.  It’s gotta be easier than Japanese; at least I know the alphabet!

Back To The “New Old Grind”

I listened to three or four more about Internet business marketing, and got a few new ideas. I’m starting to put together a new project, and it’ll be fully planned and ready-to-roll immediately when I get home.  Or I could even do it sooner if I find myself with too much time on my hands. I’m eager to get going with this, but it is going to take time to get set up with it, so the time here isn’t exactly “lost.”  I am not going into details here, but it’s sort of a combination of several businesses I have had or been involved with in the past, so although it’s not a wholly new idea, it’s at least a new spin on it.

Between pod casts, I got organized for this week’s classes. I put all the materials for the various Fukuyama classes in a folder for tomorrow, and all the materials for both adult classes in a folder for Wednesday.  I think I’ll probably use the same “movie” material for Friday’s class too, but I’ll wait and see how it goes tomorrow before deciding for sure. I had originally planned to “test” lessons on Friday and use them again the following Tuesday for the bulk of my classes, but the stuff Marc and I used last Friday was just too simple to work for the more advanced Tuesday classes I think. It’s so hard to judge their abilities when you’ve only met the students once.  The teachers realize this of course, so I’m not concerned about disappointing them, but the students won’t understand. They expect perfection from all teachers, and if I bore them on my second lesson, that’s just not good. A “boring” lesson toward the end of my stay wouldn’t kill anyone, but I need to get them excited and interested in my early lessons to keep them wanting more. It could be a long six weeks if they decide early on that I am the “boring teacher.”

So there I am. My preparations for this week’s classes are finished, so I don’t have to worry about that (too much). I have a business project that I can work on a little here and there in my spare time (at least it’s more productive than video games). I’ve even got a “heads up” on some stuff for next week. I think I’m in pretty good shape tonight!

January 20^th, 2008

Japan White

It rained all day. All day, non-stop. Then it started to snow. It’s still snowing.  Even Marc stayed home all day. We’re hoping they cancel school tomorrow, but we’re not really even sure that they ever do that. Not that it matters all that much, since we each only actually have one class tomorrow.

First thing this morning, I went through the book for tomorrow’s class and made up a final exam.  Now I know what I want to go over in class tomorrow, and have a test made up if he asks for it, which I suspect he will. If they should actually cancel classes, that will be a major scheduling hassle for someone, since I’ll have other classes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

After finishing the exam, I loaded up Civilization again. I wanted to play a little violently than usual, so instead of some kind of scientific or diplomatic victory, this time I simply built up my military and killed everyone. Everyone. Bwahahaaa!

About the time the game ended it was time to eat. It was alternating between rain and snow by then, and it just wasn’t worth leaving the house to get supper. So I had to make do. Tonight’s wonderful dinner was… bread & butter, followed by popcorn, and Pocky.  And “they” said Japanese food was healthy- I’m going to prove them wrong if it kills me!

Just to round off this exciting wonderful evening of snowed-in hunger and boredom, Marc dug out the last few videotapes from under the TV and we watched two hours of old episodes of The Simpsons. Oh joy. Too bad it wasn’t really educational TV like South Park or something.

January 19^th, 2008

Apple Saturday

It’s library day, so as usual, I rode the train station, walked to the bus stop, rode the bus to the bus station and walked a few blocks to McDonalds for breakfast and then to the library. The place was packed today; I have never seen the library so crowded.  I can only assume that it’s because the end of the school year is imminent and people are working on assignments. Both the two big local universities have finals coming up during the next two weeks, and then they are closed until the new school year begins April 1^st. Much like Winter Break in the States, they get their month off in February.  This long break is why all my university classes are winding down while the non-university classes continue.

I posted a few days of blog reports, checked the usual message boards and emails. I see that in my university academic record, they have now credited me with a TEFL Certification; I guess it does help for the wheel to squeak once in a while.  The university spelled “certification” wrong on my record, so that’s not exactly a confidence-inspiring situation. Hopefully they won’t spell anything on the actual certificate wrong. Ha!  I also downloaded a few articles and material I might use for classes, but I didn’t find anything that really stands out. I suspect I’ll have to use up some of my newly-available Monday afternoon to look for some more.

Say Aloha To The Big Kahuna!

I chatted a bit with Ptuny, but not as long as usual. We talked about where I wanted to go in March. I had though Okinawa would be fun, but it’s still going to be too col there to go to the beach, and I don’t think they have much else. She suggested stopping at Hawaii on the way home. I would never have considered that myself, but hey, why not?  It’s pretty much right on the way.  I’m far closer to Hawaii now than I will be again for a very long time. I did a very quick look to see hotels and the differences in airfare, and it looks like I could do it for around $600 extra air fare (on top of what I’m spending now to get home) and around $100 a night for a hotel. So it basically figures on four days running me $1000. That’s a huge amount of money, but for a week in Hawaii, it’s not so bad really. I just need to decide if it’s worth it.

Growing up, my family never went anywhere or did anything on vacation, so spending large sums on travel just for fun is completely alien to me. That’s one reason this whole Japan Adventure thing was so appealing. Still, I may never have the opportunity and spare cash to go to Hawaii again, so it might be smart just to use the opportunity now that it has come up. Then again, I’ve been saving to make those student loans less painful and the need for rushing right out to find an income less urgent. $1000 is nothing less than three months of payments, maybe more, I don’t know yet. THIS is the kind of decision I really hate making. Still I have time to decide. I mean agonize over the decision. Argh!

Podcasts!

Before leaving the library, I checked for updates for my computer. There were a couple, including one for iTunes. I downloaded and installed the updates, and then started up iTunes to find out what was new. I don’t even remember what was new, but for some reason I clicked on the iTunes Store button and found myself on the Podcast page. I’d never really spent any time looking there before, but they have hundreds and hundreds of audio broadcasts available for free download.

I clicked on everything that interested me, and before long, I got a message that my hard drive was full.  Huh?  I looked, and some of those broadcasts weren’t just audio, but also included HD Video in huge files. I deleted a bunch of junk to make room, and kept on downloading.

I found podcasts for learning Japanese (and other languages), a bunch of stuff about running Macs, Internet Business, Best of Youtube, the keynote speech from the recent MacWorld Expo, and even daily grammar and writing tips. Neat stuff, and I downloaded dozens of individual episodes. iTunes does make it very easy to get large numbers of these shows, and by subscribing (free) you get updates automatically. As you all know, I really like audiobooks and audio dramas, but I’ll be spending much more time exploring these in the near future. I picked up more things than I’ll be able to listen to in a long while, several gigabytes of stuff. I looked at my watch and it was after three o’clock.

Then went home, dropped off the computer and rode back to Happy Town for groceries. I hurried back home and started to listen to all the podcasts.  The video from the Macworld Expo last week lasted an hour and a half, and filled me in on all the new releases from Apple. Maybe I will break down and get an iPhone when I get home. After watching that, I listened to quite a few episodes of the Internet Business podcast, and it got me thinking along some new lines (he said with a sly grin). There was nothing there I didn’t already know, but it was very motivational.  Oh, if only I had easier access to the Internet…

And that’s pretty much it for tonight.  I’ve spent most of the night watching videos and listening to audio broadcasts. I have dozens of hours more stuff here that I will get to eventually, and much more to look at next time I get to the library. I’m going to have to delete a bunch of this stuff to make room for more. Fortunately, a lot of these MacWorld videos are the kind of thing you only watch once.  It’s around 9:45 now, and I’m debating whether or not I want to walk down to the vending machine on the corner for a hot coffee or just sit here in the warmth.

January 18th, 2008

T.G.I.F.

Got up at the usual time and played around with my Palm Pilot a bit. I just don’t use it for much over here, and I’m always trying to come up with some good use for it. It’s too bulky to really use just as a notebook, and not powerful enough to use instead of the computer; it sits on the borderline between both.  Today I gilled it up with audio books and music files. My Sansa player finally seems to be dying. The volume control now has a mind of its own, and tends to go haywire if there is the slightest jostle to the player. I still have a grudge about my untrustworthy iPod, but beyond that, it won’t play many of the audio books I download. Today my Palm becomes a very expensive MP3 player. That’s not a bad thing; if I carry it around me with me everywhere I may find more and more uses for it.

Anyway, 11:30 snuck up on me. Time always seems to fly by when I’m fiddling with technology.  Marc and I rode to the station and I ask him what we’re doing today in class. I had the materials I had already prepared with me just in case, but I didn’t tell him that. He showed me a worksheet he had copied out of one of the books laying around the apartment, and it looked adequate. He also explained a “Name Game” that he has played with his students in the past. This stuff sounds like it could easily fit a 50-minute class. It’s a lower level of English than what I would have used. I was eager to see how well it worked compared to the stuff I had made up.

Then he surprised me. He told me that he as going to tell the people there that he had a meeting with “someone” after the first class, so I was going to be doing the second class alone. Oh joy. He has every right to do that, and it was actually pretty good thinking on his part. He doesn’t like staying that extra hour, and doesn’t see enough benefit in team teaching to spend the extra hour. I do, but he wouldn’t think of asking me. According to the official schedule, he’s supposed to teach the first class, and then I do the second, but today we’d both teach the first and then I would do the second solo. Supposedly, we’ll do them both solo next Friday.

So we arrived at the school and the assistant principal met us in the driveway. He walked us up to get new train tickets for next time, and then we went to lunch as promised. He took us down a dirt path, over a stream, around a corner to what looked like an abandoned warehouse. We went in, and it turned out to be the school cafeteria. It’s amazing; some of the construction that I see here would be instantly condemned or at the very least cited by a zoning board anywhere within the USA. Seriously; a dirt path to the school cafeteria? No elevators, escalators or handicapped entrances? Could you possibly imagine the outcry in the States if children had to cross a stream by stepping on stones?  The Asst. Principal didn’t apologize for the condition of the place; this is probably a very nice school by most standards, but the buildings are pretty old compared to American schools.

Inside, we go to the vending machine and read what’s available today.  No, the food doesn’t come out f the machines, but meal tickets do.  You decide what you want, put your money in the machine, buy a ticket and then hand the ticket to the cook, who then hands the meal through the window.  This is the same process used by the university cafeteria up on the mountain by the apartment. At first I thought it was a stupid extra step, but it’s really not a bad idea. It relieves the food staff from dealing with money at all, and cuts costs by not requiring a cashier. It also eliminates overcharging, stealing, or anything of that nature.

Marc and I ordered the daily special, which was Sukiyaki.  The cafeteria price was 380Y, which is pretty darn cheap for the amount of food we got.  The Asst. Principal got a bowl of soba noodles; I have never seen anyone make a bowl of noodles go away that quickly before. The sukiyaki was a giant bowl of rice with vegetables, beef, and tofu with some kind of sauce on it. Also, right on top was a big, squishy very soft egg. Fortunately, the bowl of food was so steaming hot that it was possible to mix the nearly-raw egg into the rest of the food, hardening the egg as the heat finished cooking it. They seem to like nearly-raw eggs here. Many foods have a soft-boiled (at best) egg on top.  I think that’s pretty disgusting, but I was able to get around that this time since it was pretty well-done by the time I ate it. It was good, but the others seemed to inhale their food. People in the Sates say I eat too fast, but I was the slowpoke today.

The Name Game

Then it was time for class.  We took our trays to the cleaning window and walked back to the appropriate building for the classes, meeting the teacher along the way.  We started out by playing a game where each person had to say, “My name is _____ and I like _____.”  The trick being that the first letter of the liked thing had to start with the first letter of their name.  It was really so simple that I would never have considered it. They took quite a bit of time looking in their dictionaries and textbooks for good words. Then everyone told their lines, and we moved on to part two of the game.

In part two, we broke them into four teams. Each team had about six people. The first one said, “My name is _____ and I like _____,” just like before. The second one had to say, “Her name is _____ and she likes _____.  My name is _____ and I like _____,” telling about the first person and then about themselves.  They all know each other already, but they had to listen to each other to find out the “like” items. Then the third person had to tell about the first two before themselves. Person number six on each time had to introduce all the others and had the toughest job.

Who Was Fat and Who Was Thin?  And Can I Ever Get Away With That Again?

Then for the second part of class, we talked them through a worksheet about opposites copied straight from a book. We had some fun demonstrating “fat and thin, short and tall, young and old,” and so forth. This went on for about twenty minutes and then the class was over.

Then Marc left, and I was on my own for the second class. Basically, I did exactly the same things, but the game took a little longer without there being two of us to help all the students. When we got to the worksheet, they thought it was hilarious when I acted out tall and thin, old and young, and most especially, fat and thin. I finished the sheet just as the bell rang, and then I was done.

The Trip Home: Just in Time

Nobody drove me to the train station this time, but it was sunny and clear (and much earlier than on Tuesdays), so walking was fine.  I arrived at the station at 3:40 and the train arrived at 3:46, so that worked out about as well as possible. I hit Okayama around 4:40 and hit the transfer to Hokaiin at 4:46, which also couldn’t have been better. So the return trip almost zero wasted time.  This is good, because Marc told me about his trip home Wednesday.

Apparently his after-class talk with the teachers there went on longer than mine had the previous day, and he got to the station just after the train left.  He had to wait almost an hour for the next one. By the time he reached Okayama, they were on the evening schedule where the train to Hokaiin only runs once an hour, and it had already left as well. Basically, it took him a little over 4 hours to get home on Wednesday night. I should probably point out that these train stations are just open platforms outside in the wind, rain, dark and cold; there are no warm lighted waiting rooms.  I am going to have to be very careful not to get sucked into anything that is going to keep me even a few minutes late on Tuesdays.

I got back to the apartment before 5:00.  It’s starting to get dark later and later, so it was still mostly daylight then. I decided to skip getting anything to eat on the way home; I’ll make do with chips and junk food for tonight.  Ah. I am so sleepy!  Maybe not Wednesday-level sleepy, but pretty zonked anyway. These new classes are going quite well, everything is coming along nicely, but they sure are stressful. Junior High students are not forgiving of mistakes, so it’s important that I don’t make any.

Weekend Projects

Today’s lesson went flawlessly for this group, but I do think it’s well below the level of my Tuesday group, so I need to come up with something more for them over the weekend. Maybe I’ll start copying stuff out of the books rather than constantly reinventing the wheel or adapting Internet materials.

My two Wednesday afternoon and night adult classes will be restating again this upcoming Wednesday, so I need to prepare something for them. I think something really simple would be fine, or maybe a game would be good. I suspect most of the time this week will be taken up by marathon “what did you do over break?” sessions.

I will work on the final exam for N-sensei’s class sometime this weekend, but that’s all I need to do other than the previously-mentioned Tuesday and Wednesday classes.  I’ll worry about next Friday’s class on Thursday, since I’ll have all day to work on it. Maybe Marc and I can still collaborate on Friday classes even if we aren’t actually teaching together. We’re still dealing with the same teacher at the school, so some consistency would probably be a good idea.

Ah well, T.G.I.F. and all that.  I can’t remember the last time I was so glad when a weekend finally hit. Oh wait, yes I can. It was last week. At least this weekend, I actually have both days off, followed by a short Monday.

January 17th, 2008

Two Down

As I mentioned in yesterday’s report, I slept through all of yesterday evening and into this morning, getting up around 7:00. I wrote yesterday’s blog and then prepared for K-Sensei’s final class. I walked up the hill at about 10:20 for my 10:50 class. I went through my article, explaining how it was structured: main idea, why it was important, sources, methods, etc.  and explained that these concepts had existed in all the articles we have looked at in the class.  This article wasn’t especially interesting or exciting, but it showed all the concepts I have talked about to them through the past few months, so it was an excellent review/wrap-up for me. I have no idea what will be on their final exam, but if I were making it, it’d be all about what I covered today.

K-Sensei finally asked me if I had any parting words for the class, and I gave my canned spiel about how learning English is important in most jobs, especially anything involving (fill in the blank) sciences. Finally, K-Sensei thanked me, we exchanged bows, and the class clapped for me as I thanked them. I still suspect they didn’t understand two words that I said since September, but at least they were polite. K-Sensei on the other hand, on the other hand, I think really liked and appreciated what I did.  He’s probably the nerdiest Japanese person I’ve met; I like that!

Then it was lunchtime. I would have preferred to go to Happy Town, but with the impending Japanese test, I didn’t want to take the time. So I got an egg salad sandwich and orange juice from the convenience store at school.  It was good, but there wasn’t much to it; room for more later.  Then I walked over to the office and check on the Internet.

I checked my email.  Nothing extremely important in the mail, but I did get an answer from Dr. M. about the TEFL Certificates; she forgot about it. Yes, it’s “eye roll time” again. At least she was honest about it. More importantly, I am not in any special hurry for it, and neither is Marc as far as I know. Still, I do want to get everything wrapped up from school while I’m here. I’m going to have enough stuff to deal with when I eventually get home.  I did get an email from the student from Takahashi who took the photos of the ice cream gathering last Tuesday. I’ll post the photos in the gallery as soon as I get a chance.

Where I Study A Whole Bunch!!!

I then posted my last few day’s blog entries and checked out my message board. I ended up chatting with Ptuny and my brother for a few minutes. I couldn’t stay long, as I really wanted to get studying for the Japanese test. I came back to the apartment around 1:30 and cooked up some hot water for noodle bowls. I bought one the other day that looked like it was pizza flavored, but when I opened it up, it smelled like fish. It got set aside in the “maybe Marc will want it” pile while I had two of the little bitty noodle bowls and some instant coffee. Yessiree, I really wanted to get studying for that test. I then went in the bedroom and plugged in my phone, Nintendo DS and Palm pilot to recharge, then I unpacked and photographed my “birthday present” from the kindergarten yesterday. Then I ate a few of the included items, thinking about studying for Japanese class the whole time.  Around 2:15, Marc came down the mountain after finishing his last class with K-Sensei. Together, we sat in the living room, staring at the covers of our Japanese books, hoping that “anger osmosis” would magically work.

Three Down

At long last, around 2:45 we open the books and start studying. At 3:05, Marc asks, “You about ready?”  And then we hop on our bikes and leave.  We arrive at the language school and sit down. Y-Sensei asks if we have any questions, to which we both gave her blank stares. Sheesh, of course not! After 20 minutes of studying, we probably could have taught her a few things about Japanese, right? Right?  Oh.  Well, anyway, she handed out the test and we got started.

Marc had insisted that it would be a standardized test that went with the book. I disagreed, telling him that we weren’t far enough along in the book for there to be a standardized test. I was right. It was a handwritten test designed to cover the things that we knew. A reasonably easy test as well, which really was what I had expected. They aren’t in this to fail us, that would lower their success scores.  I’ll probably never know an exact score, but I probably got a low A on the test. It’s a good thing I studied so much, huh?  I handed over the test and gave her an “Arigatoo Gozaimasu,” followed by “Sayonara,” and then left. Marc was still working, but he didn’t look even close to done. I’m sure he’ll pass, but it did look like he was struggling a bit.

I Survived Nihongo-no-kurasu and All I Got Was This Stupid Te-Shiyaatu?

OK, I’ll admit it, that subtitle only funny if you know about Japanese Te-Form verbs.  After class I rode to Happy Town and did McDonalds. I had another of the soon-to-be-famous “Egg Burgers” and then did grocery shopping. My front tire felt low riding there, so I didn’t buy too much, fearing I’d have to walk it home. The tire wasn’t any lower on the way home, but I think I’ll have to pump it up in the morning.

My next project is to prepare for Friday’s class.  I’m going to cover “asking questions” as my subject. I will design a handout tonight that I will use tomorrow and Tuesday as well.  In theory, the younger students shouldn’t be able to handle the same material as the older students, but I suspect reality will prove that to be wrong. As I’ve said, the younger students seem to be much more open to English than the older students who have had any interest they may have had beaten out of them. Naturally, I’ll have to present the subject a little differently for each class, but I see no reason I cannot use the same subjects and handout for all the classes on both Friday and Tuesday. The trick will be coming up with a lecture and activities for all of them.

So, the next two classes will be about “asking questions.”  I’m sure they will ask tomorrow what the plan is for the next week. I have no idea yet, so that should be interesting.

Soon-To-Be Four Down and On To The Finish Line!

Next Monday will be a little unusual. I will go to N-Sensei’s class and do a review of what I have done in the past to refresh them for their final exam the following week.  Since he asked me to review for “my exam,” I am assuming he wants me to make up an exam, which I will do this weekend. I expect that Monday I will do the review and hand him the exam, and then I hope to be done with that class too. He may want me there for the exam, or even worse, to grade “my” portion of the exams, but I am not really expecting that.  After N-Sensei’s class would normally be Japanese class, but those are obviously done now, so I’ll be finishing a little early on Monday. Assuming that I am really done with N-Sensei’s class, then my schedule will settle down as follows:

Tuesday:  1:30-5:30 in Fukuyama
Wednesday: 10:00-8:00 in Hiroshima
Friday: 1:30-2:20 in Fukuyama

With about an hour and a half travel time before and after each one, since both Hiroshima and Fukuyama are pretty far off.  Hiroshima is actually more than twice as far away as Fukuyama, but there’s the difference between the Shinkansen and Local Line trains to consider.  The classes in Fukuyama stop at the end of February.  The Hiroshima classes never really “end,” but my final one will be on March 12th. March 12th is a special “parents day” at the Kindergarten and they want me there for that.

Upcoming Adventures?

Unless something changes, other than March 5th and 12th, I have nothing else to do in March. My plane leaves here on the 13th, the day after my last class.  I didn’t think about it at the time, but I probably should have bought a ticket for a few days later than that so I could get some more traveling in. I can still change it (for a hefty charge), but I have time to think on it first. If I did change the ticket, then I could go somewhere between the 6th and 11th, and then somewhere else from the 13th till whenever.

I’m weighing various travel options for that time. I could do Kyoto again, since there was plenty left that I didn’t see the first time. I have not read anything that really captures my interest in Kobe, Osaka, or even Tokyo. I need more information, but one idea that I’m starting to consider is that of flying to Okinawa for a few days. It’s the Japanese version of Hawaii, complete with beaches and palm trees. It’ll be expensive compared to doing another Kyoto trip, but it will cost a lot less now than it will any time in the future. I wonder what the weather in Okinawa is like in March? The seissyun juhachi tickets go back on sale on the 1st of March, so that means travel will be cheap again. That ticket won’t help with Okinawa, since I can’t take the train there.

[Update]  Marc came home and asked what I had planned for us for tomorrow. I asked him what he meant, and he said the vice-principal told him yesterday that we would be working together again on Friday. It might have been nice if he had told me that too.  I guess it’s probably a good thing, as I only get half the blame if the lessons don’t work out, and I do have to admit Marc is good at keeping a conversation going, even in class. If this continues every week on Friday, I don’t think I’ll complain.  It just makes things easier.  I showed him what I had worked up (about questions) and he thought it was too complicated for JH students. He works with JH’ers here in Okayama every week, so I’m going to assume he knows their abilities better than I do. He said he would come up with something for tomorrow. I still have the “questions” material ready to go if I need it for next week, but we’ll try it his way tomorrow and see how it goes.  There’s only six or seven weeks of this, so I’m willing to play it one day at a time if necessary.