Woke up really early today, probably because I passed out @ around 10 last night. Anyhow, was awoken by my internal alarm around 5ish. Couldn't fall back asleep so I decided to check the net to see if anybody was online and to check my email. Was able to get a hold of Tony and Tri. Tony had to fill me in on our current inventory and I placed an order for Yu to bring back to Japan in a week. They're mostly for my good friends out here as well as Takahashi sensei. He's totally stoked bout buddhapparel and is probably our #1 fan in Japan! Spoke with Tri a little bit and it made me happy that he enjoys reading my blog. He told me that N8 Dawg aka. Nathan Owens (a former co-worker @ Prima and former JET teacher) left a Shout Out. It's nice to know that some people are actually reading this because I feel this is the best place for my daily thoughts. Thanks N8 Dawg as well as Tri for the only 2 people who have left me a Shout Outs!
SO THOSE OF YOU ON MY JAPAN UDPATE MASS EMAIL LIST, DON'T EXPECT TOO MANY MORE UPDATES CUZ IT'S TEDIOUS FOR ME TO PUT TOGETHER MY LATEST HAPPENINGS IN AN GENERAL EMAIL WHEN YOU GUYS CAN JUST CHECK OUT THIS BLOG. SO DON'T GET MAD AT ME FOR THE LACK OF UPDATES, CUZ I SENT THE LINK TO MY BLOG IN MY LAST EMAIL UPDATE! PLEASE LEAVE A SHOUT IT, SO I HAVE SOME KIND OF IDEA OF WHO'S TAKING THE TIME TO ACTUALLY READ THIS. THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT NOW! YOU GONNA PASS OR FINISH STRONG?
Whew! I just had to get that off my chest. Sorry for venting, but hey, it's better now than later, ne!
So let me tell ya'll bout my day...
I think today I did my personal best time biking to school. Since getting carried away from chattin', I had about 10 min. to get school. Luckily I made the signal on Narita Kaido 296 (The main street in my neighborhood), even had to wait for 2 trains at the tracks, zipped by some students (almost running into them) but in the end, I made it to school before 8am, which gave me 5 min. to spare and relax.
Since today was the first day of exams, we only had 3 periods. Not sure if it's all middle schools, but they way mine is, the whole school takes the same subject test at the same time. So first it was Math, then Science and then English. So for the first period, just chilled and talked with Takahashi sensei. For the second period, Takahashi had to chaperone one of the classes so I kicked in there while checkin' out the students' progress. Some student's surprised me in their knowledge of Science, guess they don't show it too much in Eigo kurasu (English Class). When that was over we had to prepare for the listening part of the English test. This was one of the coolest things that I've done. For the Ichinen Sei (1st year students, 7th graders) Takahashi sensei and I had proceeded to do our skits over the PA system. Right after that, I did the listening test for the Ninen Sei (2nd year students, 8th graders) w/Takeuchi sensei. Shortly afterwards, we found out that during the Ichinen sei listening test that Takahashi sensei's voice couldn't be heard. So we had to go to each of the 5 classes and redo our skits live. It probably was a little bit easier because the students are used to seeing us and our gestures as we teach.
Since today was a short day, we didn't have kyushoku...but we were able to order some bento. I had my favorite, Karaage. It was of course grubbin' and shortly thereafter I had to take off for my meeting.
I had my monthly ALT meeting @ City Hall today. We talked about our summer work schedule and other events that are takin' place in the next 4 months. Most of the ALTs seem pretty wack...maybe it's just me. I really have no desire to get to know most of them. Besides this guy from LA and another guy from England, I don't really get any good vibes from the other ALTs. However there's this one cute happa ALT from Australia.
Ihato sensei (my boss) helped me out with my keitai paperwork so now I think I can finally get a keitai (Cell Phone)...but until I have it in my hands, I'll belive it.
After taking a quick stop at the 100 Yen Shop to pick up some knick knacks, I hopped on the Express Keisei train back to my house.
Made a quick stop at Mastumoto Kiyoshi aka Matsu-Kiyo for some groceries and then headed to my local bar. Hey, it's on my way home!! @ Ikko (the local bar that I go to), I had some Koi Coroquette (Momma san's special recipe), Yakko (Cold tofu with bonito flakes and onions) and Yamakake (Maguro with yama imo, a kind of creamy potato...it's was da bomb!) and to drink had just 1 Oolong Hi and some ocha and it all came out to be only Sen en (1000 yen = $8). You can't beat that anywhere, not even back home! While enjoying my feast and chattin' w/my buddies, there was this long 'ol TV program about kabi (Mold), the many different kinds of them and how they can get you sick, the places where they lurk and the ways to get rid of them. They were all these people who were getting sick and didn't know why. The Japanese even grow this special kind of nori (seaweed) that when you eat it for a couple of days, it helps clear the passage ways within people's throats! Japanese comes up with the darndest things!
For some odd reason it started to rain when the weather report clearly stated that it wasn't going to. But I thought nothing of it, however I totally forgot that we're in the midst of the rainy season, so when it rains, it rains! Unfortunately for me I forgot my umbrella but since I live so close, it shouldn't be a problem. Boy was I wrong! It was frickn' pouring outside. So I put my hood up and started to run. After going for about 100 meters (yes, the metric system is slowly seeping in) I realized that I had my MP3 player clipped to my waster...however it wasn't there anymore. So I had to backtrack in the rain and luckily it was right in the middle of the street! By this time, I'm drenched. I then started to sprint again and finally made it to the safe haven I call my apartment. As I reached to get my keys out of my backpack...I was in total shock that my front pocket was fully unzipped!!! ARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!! Luckily my keys were latched on as well as my PDA, but everything else was gone! My clothes are soaked now, so I quickly changed, got my umbrella and retraced my steps. About 70 meters from my apartment I see a couple of business cards just floating in puddles! Aiyah!!! A little bit further down I see more business cards...however the main thing that I'm looking for is my jisho (dictionary). Just a little bit further down the road I see my jisho, luckily it was lying flat on it's cover so it didn't get that soaked.
So that was my day today...How was your day??
Kaz out...
SO THOSE OF YOU ON MY JAPAN UDPATE MASS EMAIL LIST, DON'T EXPECT TOO MANY MORE UPDATES CUZ IT'S TEDIOUS FOR ME TO PUT TOGETHER MY LATEST HAPPENINGS IN AN GENERAL EMAIL WHEN YOU GUYS CAN JUST CHECK OUT THIS BLOG. SO DON'T GET MAD AT ME FOR THE LACK OF UPDATES, CUZ I SENT THE LINK TO MY BLOG IN MY LAST EMAIL UPDATE! PLEASE LEAVE A SHOUT IT, SO I HAVE SOME KIND OF IDEA OF WHO'S TAKING THE TIME TO ACTUALLY READ THIS. THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT NOW! YOU GONNA PASS OR FINISH STRONG?
Whew! I just had to get that off my chest. Sorry for venting, but hey, it's better now than later, ne!
So let me tell ya'll bout my day...
I think today I did my personal best time biking to school. Since getting carried away from chattin', I had about 10 min. to get school. Luckily I made the signal on Narita Kaido 296 (The main street in my neighborhood), even had to wait for 2 trains at the tracks, zipped by some students (almost running into them) but in the end, I made it to school before 8am, which gave me 5 min. to spare and relax.
Since today was the first day of exams, we only had 3 periods. Not sure if it's all middle schools, but they way mine is, the whole school takes the same subject test at the same time. So first it was Math, then Science and then English. So for the first period, just chilled and talked with Takahashi sensei. For the second period, Takahashi had to chaperone one of the classes so I kicked in there while checkin' out the students' progress. Some student's surprised me in their knowledge of Science, guess they don't show it too much in Eigo kurasu (English Class). When that was over we had to prepare for the listening part of the English test. This was one of the coolest things that I've done. For the Ichinen Sei (1st year students, 7th graders) Takahashi sensei and I had proceeded to do our skits over the PA system. Right after that, I did the listening test for the Ninen Sei (2nd year students, 8th graders) w/Takeuchi sensei. Shortly afterwards, we found out that during the Ichinen sei listening test that Takahashi sensei's voice couldn't be heard. So we had to go to each of the 5 classes and redo our skits live. It probably was a little bit easier because the students are used to seeing us and our gestures as we teach.
Since today was a short day, we didn't have kyushoku...but we were able to order some bento. I had my favorite, Karaage. It was of course grubbin' and shortly thereafter I had to take off for my meeting.
I had my monthly ALT meeting @ City Hall today. We talked about our summer work schedule and other events that are takin' place in the next 4 months. Most of the ALTs seem pretty wack...maybe it's just me. I really have no desire to get to know most of them. Besides this guy from LA and another guy from England, I don't really get any good vibes from the other ALTs. However there's this one cute happa ALT from Australia.
Ihato sensei (my boss) helped me out with my keitai paperwork so now I think I can finally get a keitai (Cell Phone)...but until I have it in my hands, I'll belive it.
After taking a quick stop at the 100 Yen Shop to pick up some knick knacks, I hopped on the Express Keisei train back to my house.
Made a quick stop at Mastumoto Kiyoshi aka Matsu-Kiyo for some groceries and then headed to my local bar. Hey, it's on my way home!! @ Ikko (the local bar that I go to), I had some Koi Coroquette (Momma san's special recipe), Yakko (Cold tofu with bonito flakes and onions) and Yamakake (Maguro with yama imo, a kind of creamy potato...it's was da bomb!) and to drink had just 1 Oolong Hi and some ocha and it all came out to be only Sen en (1000 yen = $8). You can't beat that anywhere, not even back home! While enjoying my feast and chattin' w/my buddies, there was this long 'ol TV program about kabi (Mold), the many different kinds of them and how they can get you sick, the places where they lurk and the ways to get rid of them. They were all these people who were getting sick and didn't know why. The Japanese even grow this special kind of nori (seaweed) that when you eat it for a couple of days, it helps clear the passage ways within people's throats! Japanese comes up with the darndest things!
For some odd reason it started to rain when the weather report clearly stated that it wasn't going to. But I thought nothing of it, however I totally forgot that we're in the midst of the rainy season, so when it rains, it rains! Unfortunately for me I forgot my umbrella but since I live so close, it shouldn't be a problem. Boy was I wrong! It was frickn' pouring outside. So I put my hood up and started to run. After going for about 100 meters (yes, the metric system is slowly seeping in) I realized that I had my MP3 player clipped to my waster...however it wasn't there anymore. So I had to backtrack in the rain and luckily it was right in the middle of the street! By this time, I'm drenched. I then started to sprint again and finally made it to the safe haven I call my apartment. As I reached to get my keys out of my backpack...I was in total shock that my front pocket was fully unzipped!!! ARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!! Luckily my keys were latched on as well as my PDA, but everything else was gone! My clothes are soaked now, so I quickly changed, got my umbrella and retraced my steps. About 70 meters from my apartment I see a couple of business cards just floating in puddles! Aiyah!!! A little bit further down I see more business cards...however the main thing that I'm looking for is my jisho (dictionary). Just a little bit further down the road I see my jisho, luckily it was lying flat on it's cover so it didn't get that soaked.
So that was my day today...How was your day??
Kaz out...
This entry was posted by kaz, on
木曜日, 6月 26, 2003.
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