Good day

Today, I was actually attentive for all of class. In order to save money after my commuter's pass expired, I decided to at least try to ride my bike to school.

I live at 36 north, 7 east. My school's at 7 south, 26 west. Sapporo is basically set up on a Cartesian coordinate and Sapporo really is flat, so no crazy math needed. The only problem is that I can't take the hypotenuse to get to school. The exercise and especially hot day, 33 C, helped get me get my "juices running" (as my dad sometimes says) and I only felt slightly sleepy during the first session with Denpo Sensei whose quiet nervous laughter usually puts me and the rest of the class to sleep. (but actually she is a good teacher. She answers my questions before I even get to ask, which accounts for the awkward laughter because the class is quiet. A vicious cycle.)

In the second 2 hour session, only me and another person were left in a class of 11 students. The other 8 went to a sumo tournament and one (the Princeton kid) skipped the second class to do laundry and go to the beach. Suffice to say, I was nervous having really one on one teaching. What if the Sensei finds out that I'm not fit to be in the class?

Luckily, I prepared the night before and wrote all the readings and translations for the kanji I didn't know so I had a faint idea of what the passage was about. Also, the second teacher, who was new, was very good and extremely nice. I felt like I learned a lot. She used the Socratic method to teach by asking us to summarize each paragraph orally, in which oral practice is surprisingly rare in upper levels.

After class, a couple of the JET program teachers studying here for the summer session and I went to an Italian restaurant to eat pork curry. The woman was very motherly and very excited to speak English and was shocked when I told her about Las Vegas. I told her to that she should go now when the hotels are cheap because the economy isn't so good. Then she talked about Bush and the upcoming election. She really wanted me to come back to eat Italian food, they were out of the daily special so that's why we opted for the curry.

During the meal, I found out that one teacher taught on the border of Thailand and Burma teaching English for 3 years. Surprisingly, during the meal all of the teachers were focused on me and kept asking about Vegas, Mom and Apa, and my host family. All the attention felt strange, almost performance-like. Also, the teachers were extremely nice. Almost to the point that it didn't genuine, as if they were trying hard to be likeable. But I don't think that was the case; maybe the majority of teachers tend to be that nice and similarly natured.

In any case, we parted ways and I made my trek home. I took my time since I didn't have any major plans, so on a whim I biked around Odori for sports shop to buy DJ some Misanga or Phiten bracelets. I went to about 3 or 4 of them that were on the way home but none of them sold the Misanga and Phiten is about $20. They have a Cubbie's Phiten bracelet. Do you want that DJ? Sorry brother, I'll try to buy it in Tokyo/Kyoto/Nara.

Even though my efforts were fruitless, I felt like I accomplished something. I was able to talk to the cashiers without feeling nervous or embarrassed. Maybe because I knew the thing I was looking for wasn't for me so I couldn't give in and not ask. It was the first time I didn't feel nervous and I understood what the workers said.

The last shop I went into, was mistakenly a small badminton and tennis only shop. I thought it was worth a shot. Once I asked the Apa-aged man stringing a badminton racket, he immediately asked me where I was from. His English was surprisingly good, and mixed Japanese and English together. I got lost on the way home. Took a nap.

and then there was tempura for dinner.

A good, but hot, day.

Oh yeah, I just killed a mosquito in my room. Awesome. Night y'all.