it's not life that matters but the journey...

Wow - things have been busy here lately, for a change.  I met my friend Naomi on Thursday night for dinner - took the train out to Fuji first to buy some peanut butter at the grocery store near the station (found Skippy for a reasonable price, though its really expensive here - but its a necessity for me!)  -- and then went to Kambara and walked the 15 minutes to her house.  It was a rainy day, and though the temperature was not that high, the humidity was extreme, so by the time I got to her place, my shirt was soaked and I was a wreck - my hair was all frizzed and I spent at least 20 minutes fixing my makeup and hair before we could go out to dinner.  We drove out to Shimizu (about 20 minutes by car) and went to an Italian restaurant.  I ate way too much - pasta and then two scoops of gelato ice cream - but it was delicious!  then we went to the game center where she played with some taiko drumming machine and we took "purikura" pictures - the little print club pictures that are all the rage here in Japan.  I will try to scan one and put it on here later, but you can see the purikura machines and the taiko drumming game Naomi was playing on my photobucket site:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/laurafuji/purikura.jpg ; http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/laurafuji/purikura2.jpg ; http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/laurafuji/taiko2.jpg ; http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y289/laurafuji/taiko3.jpg

Friday was super busy.  First, in the afternoon I took the train out to Shizuoka about this part time teaching job.  ( Shizuoka is 35 minutes from Fuji station by train - which is about an hour commute one way adding the 15-20 minute drive from our house to the station).  The school is called Beeline and it was just opened last September by a Japanese couple - the woman has lived in Seattle so her English is quite good.  Her husband apparently runs the business end since he can't really speak English.  The school is very clean and small, and the courses seem very organized by level - all the way from Kindergarten to adults!  The interview itself was pretty disorganized - they asked me a few questions and then asked me to demonstrate a beginner adult lesson about Regular and Irregular verbs.  that is something that I really needed some time to prepare, and also not something that can really be taught in 20 minutes for a beginner student of English.  but I complied and it worked out okay.  At this point, the school only employs part time teachers, and they are continuously adding more students and classes, as well as shuffling around the schedules of their teachers, so I got confused about my schedule.  It seems I will be working two days a week, Saturdays and Mondays (about six classes in total) for now - and might get extra classes or another day after a month or so.  Also, the owner wants me to fill in for teachers who will be taking vacations in August, so I will be busy then.  the pay is okay, but they will also pay for my transportation, which is good since it costs well over $10.00 round trip to take the train! 

After my interview, I sat in on a lesson with one of the other teachers, a girl from Tazmania named Ailsa.  The class was just one 4 year old boy named Takumi.  She just uses flashcards and plays games and does a lot of repetition i.e. "I am wearing a yellow jacket" and we sang the "ABC" song.  I might be teaching Kindergarteners and primary students, so it was good to see how its done!  wish me luck!

On Friday evening I went back to Fuji station to meet my friend Rina, who I used to teach with at Ihara High School from 98-2000.  I hadn't seen her since I came back here in April.  I got back to Fuji by 5:15 and wasn't to meet Rina until 6, so I went to Mr. Donut and got coffee and two donuts (I was famished since I hadn't eaten since 11 that morning) and waited.  Luckily I ate something, since she was 40 minutes late meeting me.  I used to go to Mr. Donut a lot when I lived in Japan before, and actually spent one Christmas eve there with my friend Nikki!  Anyway, Rina showed up and we ate at an Indian restaurant - had curry and nan - it was good!

I went back to Shizuoka on Saturday for my first "demonstration" lessons (to demonstrate my abilities). One of my classes was a private lesson - an older man who basically just wanted to talk in English about his recent trips to museums and temples in Nara and his trip to Ireland.  He was very nice, but the lesson was not structured - just talking. the second lesson was two adults - we discussed a newspaper article. they are both maybe early '30s - the woman works for a company that makes ultrasound machines, and the man works for Yamaha motorcycles - he is one of the people who comes up with ideas for new motorcycles!  Interesting!  anyway, I am not sure if I will teach them again since the schedules are so confusing, but it was not a bad first day. 

I was supposed to go to Tokyo with Masahiko today, but that didn't work out unfortunately.  He is playing a very short gig - only 30 minutes - with this boy that he met while we were living in Chicago.  This boy, Yosuke, apparently has a management company that is organizing this gig, and there will be some label execs there, and its all very structured and organized.  Masahiko will get paid, but its only a one time gig.  He went Thursday for a rehearsal and said that Yosuke is really talented and his band is good.  But he had to go back today for another two hour rehearsal in a tiny studio and then a sound check before the actual show.  so since I can't hang out and wait for him in the studio, and I can't really go around Tokyo alone without getting lost, I stayed home.  Its okay since I have to be back at the school tomorrow for more training and I'm pretty tired.  I should be meeting another former student tomorrow for lunch too!

Today, I think I'll walk to the convenience store for some snacks and watch a movie I downloaded from this server (Masahiko's friend has lots of movies downloaded - we even saw the new Star Wars! ) and try writing some more of my book.  I'm sure that I will be miserable after walking in this humidity - its like 90-100 percent humidity these days - my hair is frizzing and everything is perpetually covered in a haze.  I hate it, but its just typical Japan in June!