Alright. I’m all caught up on the trip, and now I’ll try to condense my last week into one brief blog so that I can completely be caught up. Whew! What a task! Here goes….
Last Wednesday was my first day back. I was at the elementary school, and there was a grand total of six people there, including myself. Last week was only a three day work week, so a lot of people took vacation. I didn’t because I’m saving my days for this summer when I come home. At first, not having anything to do really bothered me, but I suddenly had several things to do, chatted a lot on skype and gmail, and before I knew it, my day was over. It was ridiculously cold last Wednesday, and it snowed. Before anyone gets too excited, it didn’t stick. Despite the fact that it snowed at least an inch, there wasn’t even a dusting on the ground. In addition to the snow, it was incredibly windy. Imagine riding your bike home as cold windy snow smacks your face. Yeah, it’s not fun.
Ian and I have started an afternoon tradition. Whenever I get home from work, I shed my work clothes, put on sweats, curl under the kotatsu, and enjoy a cup of tea. We call it our tea time. It’s so warm and soothing after a cold day at work! I never understood why the Brits put milk or cream in their tea. I thought it sounded disgusting. However, I tried it last week. Ian and I were having tea, and I said, “I wonder what it would taste like to add milk to the tea.” Mr. Smarty Pants said, “Probably like milk tea.” Milk tea is popular in Japan (usually served cold), and I really like it, but I had never thought that it’s actually a cup of tea with milk in it. Call me stupid, but that never dawned on me. My homemade milk tea was delicious, and all I had to do was add a little milk and sugar.
Last Thursday, I went to the JHS and did the same thing that I did at the ES……nothing. I sat around and pretended to look busy on my computer. Thursday night, I still had my night class. This is one of the things I hate most about being here. I absolutely, positively HATE my night class. Despite the fact that last week was a short week and many people were on vacation, it was still on my schedule to have the class. I usually ride my bike there while Ian drives. I went to the BOE like normal, but when I got there, the door was locked. I stood outside for a second, thinking that maybe I was just an idiot, so I went back to the door and pushed, pulled, pushed, pulled. It was definitely locked. I knocked on the security guards’ window, and he begrudgingly got up and walked to the window. I told him in very broken Japanese that I had my night class tonight, and he said something in Japanese that I didn’t understand. It seemed like he didn’t want to let me in, but finally he did. He followed me to my classroom and turned on the lights and heater….things that are normally already done. I called Ian and told him that maybe he didn’t have to come if we actually didn’t have the class tonight. We decided to wait fifteen minutes and see if anyone would come. If they didn’t, I would go home. About fourteen minutes into the waiting period, the door slid open, and one lone kid walked in. It wasn’t just any kid but the kid that is wild and annoying and starts most of the trouble. I should have just walked away when the door was locked!!! I called Ian and told him to come. For the entire class period, we played cards. It was the biggest waste of my time!!
On Friday, I was actually pretty productive at work. I studied four lessons of Japanese and created my English board, which I’m pretty proud of this month (picture below). I have a holiday section (New Year’s Eve and Day and MLK, Jr. Day), family birthdays in January (Daddy and Ian) section, and a featured foreigner (Christina) section. I’m sure from the picture it’s a bit difficult to see all of that, but please know that I’m super happy with it this month!
That night, we went to Hitoyoshi to eat dinner with Justine and Mary at a okonomiyaki place. Saturday morning was spent on skype, and Saturday afternoon was spent cleaning. Our house really, really needed to be cleaned. It’s so difficult to do in winter because all of the rooms are soooooooo cold, and we only want to stay in the warm room. I finally took down our Christmas decorations. This was a far less daunting task than it would be in the States since our Christmas tree was only a foot tall and had to be “put away” by simply placing it in the closet. While Ian balked and complained about our cleaning time, he actually did a really good job. He started off washing dishes. Then he noticed that the china cabinet was dirty, so he cleaned that. Then he noticed the windows were dirty, so he cleaned them. Then he noticed the screens on the windows were dirty, so he cleaned them. Wives, don’t let your husbands fool you! They can clean REALLY well, but it is rare and has to be on their terms. Whenever Ian cleans, he does SUCH a good job. It’s just that that never really happens… 
Saturday night we decided to have a fat and lazy night. I rode my bike to Krista’s house to feed her turtles and stopped by the super market on the way home to pick up a pizza and coke. The pizza was about the size of two large slices, so we also split a piece of homemade cheesy bread. For dessert, we finally opened the two half pound reece’s cups that David and Lucy sent us for Christmas. We felt like fatties eating so much, but that’s the whole point of fat and lazy night!
It was a three day weekend, so I had the day off on Monday. It was Coming of Age Day. In Japan, people “come of age” when they turn twenty. I didn’t get to go to my town’s event, but I heard from a friend about the ceremony. Everyone who turned 20 in 2011 dresses up in the fanciest kimono they can find (literally. They will spend over $1,000 on a kimono.), has hair and makeup done, and stands before the town to give a self-introduction. The whole process (depending on how many people there are) could take as little as fifteen minutes. All of that money and time spent preparing for fifteen minutes! Anyway, it was a good and lazy day for us.
Tuesday, it was back to work. I had emailed my supervisor last week to ask if she knew of any English tutoring jobs that Ian could do. She gave me the information on Tuesday. There’s a place in Hitoyoshi. We know where it’s at, but we’re not sure what the company is. Ian looked it up on the internet, and it looked like the Japanese version of Avon. 
My supervisor knows our level of Japanese, so I don’t think the job is translating, but I am a bit confused! We planned to go to Hitoyoshi on Tuesday night to do a drive-by of the building and perhaps get a feel for what it is. We invited some friends to go to dinner with us. There’s a conveyer belt sushi restaurant that Ian really likes, but we never go there because I don’t like sushi. They have a few other things like fried chicken, jello, and french fries on the conveyer belt, so I usually get those, but when I go out to eat, I generally want a better meal than three little pieces of fried chicken, french fries, and jello, you know? However, Ian pulled the it’s-my-birthday-next-week card, so I caved and made him a deal.
Mary, Melissa B, and David all met us there, and we made quite the spectacle at the restaurant. I don’t think the cooks were used to seeing people eat so much. Ian was the star. Melissa and Mary didn’t eat anything, and David and I only ate a few plates. We stacked our plates at the conveyer belt side of the table (see picture below), and we could see the cooks in the kitchen laughing at the amount of plates on our table. They were pulling other people from the kitchen to the window to look at the foreigner’s table and laugh. It was pretty comical. I had to make Ian stay with the group for a bit so that I could do some birthday shopping for Ian. I won’t say what I got him on here….I’ll leave that for after he opens it. After dinner and my sneaky shopping run, we actually forgot to drive by the potential job place for Ian. Therefore, we went back on Saturday to investigate, but it didn’t help because the building was closed.
On Wednesday, I went to the elementary school. The highlight of that day was playing gestures in 5th grade. The kids were learning school subject and had to act them out. Some subjects, like PE or science, were easy, but then they got to subjects like English. To be fair, how are you supposed to act out English?? The kid who got English, instead of attempting to act it out, immediately pointed at me. Hahaha! I have to give him credit! That was pretty original! At recess on Wednesday, I managed to get a TON of kids to play “it”. I just went around smacking kids on the legs, shoulders, backs, where ever and saying “TOUCH!” (the equivalent to “tag”). By the end of recess, I think at least ten people at one time were “it.” HAHA! I also like to carry it over into the class room. I’ll bend over like I’m helping a student and whisper, “touch”. Then I quickly retreat away before the kid can tag me back. The kids really don’t have time to react, and they know that they can’t run around in class, so they have to sit there and suffer while being “it” or silently tag their neighbor. It’s great!
I ate lunch with the 6th graders. I’m not very fond of my 6th graders. They’re getting to that age when they realize that they have an attitude and can use it. There are kids in that class that are REALLY good at English, and then there are several kids who are complete jerks and ruin it for the whole class. I’ve heard that 90% of communication is through body language. Through my experiences here, I totally agree. When I see the post office worker flit his or her eyes back and forth when I ask a question, I know that they don’t understand me. When the grocery store bagger smiles and bows whenever I offer my own bags instead of the plastics store ones, I know he or she is happy. When my English teacher sucks in her breath and after I ask her a yes or no question, I know already know the answer is no. You don’t generally have to know a language to understand it. On Wednesday, I didn’t know what some of the 6th graders were saying, but I could definitely tell that it was about me and wasn’t very nice. Grrrrrrr…..
My favorite part of Thursday was lunch. Usually, we play the game “everyone at the foreigner’s table don’t talk” for whatever reason—too shy, not enough language skills, don’t like me, etc. I started asking how everyone’s vacation was, if they had a good Christmas, etc, but I wasn’t getting much response. When the Japanese version of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” came on the radio, I started singing the English version. Apparently, that was very funny to everyone, and when I finished, they applauded me. Japan is like that. When I’m having a moment when I’m like WHY AM I HERE?? (ie, no one wanting to talk to me), I’ll soon have a moment in which I remember why it’s all worth it (ie, kids laughing and applauding me).
In my next blog, I’ll write about this weekend. It certainly was a good one full of birthday surprises for Mr. Ian! 
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