Up at 6AM, me and the girlfriend kiss and snuggle, morning breath be damned. I dress and leave Ashley’s for home. I didn’t even lock my bicycle last night because I figured I’d only be there a few minutes. But, this being Japan… and small-town Ohtawara, no one is going to steal the over-sized bicycle of a gaijin.
It’s a dull, cool morning. I ride home in a brisk 10 minutes and quickly get ready for school.
I do some dishes and swear I’ll do laundry tomorrow.
At school, there’s a bunch of flowers waiting for me and another Christmas cactus. I still don’t know why it’s blooming now. (In 2010, I have a Christmas cactus that supposed to be over 70 years old - it hasn't bloomed in three years!)
Class at Chickasono Junior High School is again kind of boring, but I do get to explain all sorts of cultural differences between Canada and Japan. I almost think I’d prefer to explain all of the cultural similarities.
Sasanuma-sensei drops me off at home at 2:30PM. Instead of going to the OBOE office like I’m supposed to, I go shopping at the local Iseya—a combination department store-grocery store. It’s fairly big, and honestly, it pretty much satisfies 99 per cent of my shopping needs.
By the time I head to the office at 3:30 (detouring back home first), Tomura-sensei, the head English teacher of Wakakusa Junior High School is waiting for me. He and Kanemaru-san proceed over the next half-hour to give me proper directions to Saitama prefecture where there will be a conference for all AETs in Japan—apparently I’ve been suckered into giving a speech on how to team-teach (More on that later). The event isn’t for another three weeks, but I appreciate the due diligence of the OBOE and Kanemaru-san to have Tomura-sensei proffer travel directions. I suppose my reputation as a dunderhead with no sense of direction has proceeded ahead of me.
Afterwards, the two of them read and translate a letter that was sent to them from that boy at Nozaki Junior High School (Nozaki Chu Gakko) who keeps phoning me. I’ve been to Nozaki, but I still have no idea who that kid is. Kanemaru-san is having a difficult time reading the letter, as apparently the kid’s Japanese is as good as my own. He asks if I will meet his English teacher on November 25 – that’s a Sunday! Anyhow, there’s also a nice photograph of myself and three No-chu (short version of Nozaki Chu Gakko) girls at Nikko--Syoichi Matuo (the girl immediately to my left) gave me the photo of herself and two buds - the back of the photo reads: "Good morning, Andrew!" I think she's making fun of the only line I understood of the phone calls from the boy at Nozaki who calls every night. Brilliant.
That done, Tomura-sensei tells me my schedule at Wakakusa next week. Oh the horror of horrors! I have ONE more self-introduction to make! Apparently this one class was absent the last time I visited. I’m unsure how an entire class can be absent.
This intro will make 73. Nuts.
I go home, relax and clean-up. I call Ashley at 6PM from me. She’s in bed. I guess I tired her out. Hee-hee. I know she’ll be asleep by 8PM. I make it to 10:30PM before crashing.
Somewhere dreaming about dirty laundry,
Andrew Joseph
