Currently Reading The Little Friend (Vintage Contemporaries) By Donna Tartt see related

I`m still here.  Over-worked and under-paid but grinning inanely nonetheless.  Probably as punishment for my trip to Okinawa, my junior high has decided to get it`s money`s worth this week and so I have been really busy.  Am now sneaking a few minutes before I return to correcting third year tests.  I actually really enjoy correcting tests.  I don`t know if it`s a power trip with a red biro or what but I get such a kick out of it, although obviously seeing the disgraceful mistakes some of them make is demoralising as the one who helps to teach them English.  However, it`s hardly surprising considering the lack of discipline in the classroom.  The person who is meant to discipline them is the Japanese teacher, not the cuddly foreigner (me).  However, in the two third year classes today I saw behaviour that would surely not be tolerated at home.  I won`t even go in to the constant hum of conversation in the background as that is just a given.  Fellow teachers on the JET programme will probably nod in recognition of how commonplace the following occurences are.  In one class, a student slept and four students were busy putting a blob of glue on a desk and trying to stick a pencil case to it.  This exercise was fascinating to watch, though ultimately unsuccesful.  Both in the sticking of said pencil case to said glue and also in the acquisition of any English.  In the second class, two students slept and whilst one looked all the better for it at the end of class, I`m pretty sure very little English osmosis took place.  Two students were busy with a piece of paper and a scissors, making a nice little mess on the floor by cutting said paper up FOR THE ENTIRE CLASS.  Other students were also trigger-happy with their scissors` and some did not have their books open on the right page.  Another student decided to use this prime opportunity to change out of his PE clothes (thankfully this involved no stripping).  All the above behaviour was unchecked by the Japanese teacher and I have long since learned that getting upset about such rudeness only serves to raise my blood pressure.  Therefore, I am going to vent my frustration in my blog.

My birthday passed without major incident: presents, cake, food, drink and karaoke.  What more could a girl of 26 (aaargh!) want?

Okinawa, specifically Ishigaki and Iriomote islands, was a nice trip.  The weather was not great the first two days but in true Irish style, myself, Noelle and Debbie ate, drank and were merry, laughing at the fact that even though we were in the southern-most part of Japan, in the middle of the Pacific, we had "brought the rain with us", as we say in Ireland.  On the third day, we headed to the rainforest island, Iriomote.  We took a boat trip, trekked through the forests to see some waterfalls and ate pot noodles and drank the local beer outside a little gift shop, there being no restaurants around (Iriomote being remote, as it were).  Wednesday saw us hitting the beach back in Ishigaki and me getting spectacularly sunburned on half of my body.  Very attractive.  All in all, a good time was had by all and it is true what you read about Okinawans: they are super-chilled out and maybe even happy.  Guess that`s why so many of them live so long...

Not much else to report for now.  Our mid-year conference in Nagasaki is next week and the following weekend I`m going to see sumo!  Looking forward to these. 

Ok, this was supposed to be an entry about me but now it`s an entry about COMPUTERS.  Computers are evil machines spawned by Satan himself, determined to make you grind your teeth in frustration and inspire enough anger to make you homicidal.  I had written a verbose, witty and fascinating account of my life in the last month, ripe and ready for your reading pleasure, but a COMPUTER decided otherwise and somehow, despite clicking "submit", my precious words have been lost and I am left a sorry, demoralised mess.

Edited highlights -

Mum and Dad`s visit: great to see them.  Very enjoyed.

School: super busy.  I love my elementary kids!  I don`t love my junior high kids.

Happenings: Saza town tug-of-war.  Didn`t win, lots of pain in the aftermath; concert with Japanese guy doing crazy Mongolian traditional music.  He could make two sounds come out of his mouth at the same time!

Computers: hateful, spiteful, wicked.

How do I feel right now?: anger is slowly subsiding.  Am determined to fight another day and beat this computer!

Currently Reading Tokyo By Mo Hayder see related

Well, school lunch was truly awful on Friday, as I predicted.  Why always on a Friday?  I don`t know the answer to this but I have solved another mystery that has been plaguing me for quite a while: the ingredient that occasionally rears its ugly head and turns me right off school lunch is the humble lotus root.  It really does turn my stomach, a stomach which admittedly has never been an iron stomach but has digested things in the last twelve months it had never even imagined before.  It seems lotus root, however, is a bridge too far...

Had a nice weekend.  Gym, study and hanging out with Robin and Greg.  Greg is one of the new people living nearby.  We met in Sasebo (nearest city to us - about 25 minutes away by car) and had dinner in one of our favourite restaurants, "Ratou".  We were going to go and see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" afterwards but decided to go back to Saza instead and have a few drinks and watch some footie.  Didn`t stay awake for the two-match Premiership marathon but the two Arsenal fans in my company (Robin and Greg) didn`t seem to mind too much, or maybe even notice.

Sunday saw us eventually making it to "Charlie..." and I actually liked it.  Didn`t have any strong feelings about it being better or worse than the original.  Just wished that there were a real-life Willy Wonka and I won a golden ticket to tour his factory.  Luckily, I had a supply of chocolate to stave off the cravings during the movie.  Afterwards, we took Greg for his first taste of Sasebo`s finest gastronomic speciality: the Sasebo burger.  Well, what do you expect from a city that has a large American naval base?  Didn`t feel bad about eating either the chocolate or the burger because I went to the gym afterwards.  What I didn`t burn off on the machines, I sweated off in the sauna and jacuzzi (or so I tell myself anyway).

Monday and today (up until now) have been really busy in school.  Not helped by the fact that the classrooms are REALLY stuffy and I can feel little drops of sweat forming all over.  Then I come back to the staffroom and the air-conditioning is blasting away, almost making me too cold.  It`s no wonder I`m constantly sniffling.  The irony is that though I am complaining about the current meteorological situation, it`s nothing compared the the ranting I`ll do once it`s winter and the reverse is the case: FREEZING classrooms and roasting staffroom.

For those of you unfamiliar with how my job works, I am actually an assistant teacher so I generally teach with a Japanese teacher of English (except in my kindergarten and elementary where the homeroom teacher is present but I pretty much run the show myself, and the odd time in my junior high when a teacher can`t come to class and I do it on my own).  There are three years in junior high school so I have a different teacher for each year.  Two of them left in April (which is the change-over period; Japanese teachers move around every three/four years - this is compulsory) and one of the new ones is leaving next week to have a baby.  Her name is Ms. Sonoda and she is absolutely lovely.  Her English occasionally leaves a lot to be desired but what she lacks in grammar, she more than makes up for in enthusiasm.  She is really kind to me and we get on super-well so I`m sad to see her go.  I have already met the substitute teacher, Ms. Yasunaga.  It`s hard to tell what she`s like yet but hopefully we`ll get on alright.

Mum and Dad are Nippon-bound.  They will fly in this Thursday and I will meet them on Wednesday next week in Kyoto.  Hope they like it.  Let`s enjoying Japan! 

Have just finished the book "Tokyo".  It`s fiction but deals with a bloody period in Japan`s past, specifically the 1937 invasion of Nanking, then capital of China.  The Japanese were pretty nasty, by all accounts, but incredibly, it is only recently that it has begun to be mentioned in history textbooks (I wrote before about how the rest of Asia is angry with Japan for not facing up to her wartime past).  This book also details how the "yakuza" operate in Japan.  The "yakuza" are the Japanese mafia.  There are currently about 80,000 of them and apparently they are untouchable.  You don`t want to meet them down a dark alley, that`s for sure.  You can usually spot them by their sunglasses and tatoos.  Naughty!  In olden times, the Japanese believed that if you couldn`t see someone`s eyes, you couldn`t trust them.  But nowadays, people are a lot more pragmatic and wear sunglasses in strong sun.  Young people even have tatoos.  Therefore, spotting yakuza is more difficult.  Not that yakuza-spotting is something I particularly want to engage in. 

Another Japanese person who is seemingly untouchable is Koizumi, the Japanese Prime Minister.  A few weeks back, when he wasn`t getting the support from his party to get some legislation through, he called a general election and in a few short weeks, culminating in yesterday`s official victory, he has not only consolidated his power but also increased it.  There are mixed views about him but clearly the majority are in favour of him as he takes control again.

Nothing more for now. 

Thank God (or Crunchie, depending on your religious persuasion) it`s Friday!  Mr. Exit said to me one Friday ages ago, "TGIF" and I nearly fell off the chair.  I guess some former teacher must`ve taught this expression to him.  We had a good laugh over it.  He told me that the Japanese say "hana kin", meaning something like "flower Friday", which I guess is just a more poetic way of expressing the wonder that is a Friday.  When I rule the world, every week will have two Fridays: Friday and Monday.  Now isn`t that just the kind of manifesto to sweep me to victory?  Of course, when I retire to my desert island, every day will be Friday but that`s another day`s work.

Enough ramblings.  Have such an exciting weekend ahead, not.  Monster session at the gym after school (with the obligatory soak in the jacuzzi after - it`s the only reason I make it to the gym at all, to be honest) and am making tacos for dinner - mmm!  Only the crappy Old El Paso ones cos it`s impossible to source proper ingredients where I live but Mexican nonetheless.  After a week of school lunch, it`s well-deserved.  To be fair, there has been an interesting addition to the school lunch repertoire: this funky pseudo-Indian thing with nan bread and spicy mince and chickpeas.  Of course, it`s permanancy on the menu will probably be dictated by how many people ate it and it was maybe only 50-50 in the staffroom.  Fingers crossed!  It was delish.  Dunno what delights await me today as I haven`t read the menu yet but Fridays are generally super-bad.

Other than gym and lots of sleep, my weekend will also consist of lots of STUDY.  Is there a more hated five-letter work in the English language?  As I mentioned before, am doing a proficiency test in Japanese at Christmas.  Have managed to deny to myself how hard it is actually going to be but reality hit home yesterday and I really have no choice but to swat, swat, swat for the next few months to have any hope of passing.  Met a new guy at my Japanese class last night who has studied Japanese for many years and took heart from the fact that even he still has major communication difficulties.  Well, in a language where there are 6 different verbs to describe the act of giving/receiving (humbling yourself, exalting the other person, being societal equals, being the person who gives or the person who receives),  it`s hardly surprising.  Even advectives change depending on plain or honorific language, present or past tense and how many adjectives are in the sentence.  And don`t even get me started again on "kanji"...But I am the sod who is willingly staying a second year so I just have to get over it and get stuck in those books.

Have a good weekend, my loyal readers (all 2.4 of you)... 

I am listening to Goldfrapp`s new album, "Supernature", which is not in the options for "currently listening to..." but would recommend it if you come acoss it.