I don't study enough Japanese either, but I'm working on that, too. As for my real Monday night class, Sakura wasn't there this Monday so I had the teacher to myself. Before I even took Mr. Bear and Mr. Fox out of my bookbag, I told her, "I have a lot of questions tonight" and proceeded to bombard her with questions about going to the post office, ordering food in a restaurant, conjugating the plain form of verbs, talking on the phone, and the connectors "and," "but," and "or." Then we talked about taking cooking classes, and then the two hours was up. It had been a very good class, even though we had to fumble through our dictionaries several times to make ourselves understood. When we finished, I looked up a word on my dictionary and showed it to her, saying, "Sensei wa [show dictionary] desu"-- you are very patient! I left feeling much happier. I've noticed that I'm understanding more, too: today at the speech contest, a man came out at 3:20, said something to the crowd, and walked out again. "We'll start at 3:30, please wait, I'm sorry?" I hazarded to the girl next to me, who speaks perfect Japanese, and I was right! It's moments like these when I mentally high-five myself.
The art teacher at my school really wants to learn English, and he has about double the English that I do Japanese (that is to say, not a whole lot, but enough to converse) and he wants us to exchange our languages. We are writing back and forth bilingually and talking in-between classes to practice. He also makes me worksheets and gives me homework every night--it usually involves writing a sentence in Japanese (with perfect kanji!) 10 times: for example: Watashi wa nichiyoubi ni Toukyou ni ikimasu (I am going to Tokyo on Sunday).
This week was really busy at work; I've been teaching four or five classes a day (out of six) and planning like mad during the 50-minute breaks. I really like my school and the teachers there, but I'm also really busy! I'm actually working from 8:00-5:00 or 5:30, and that's impressive. :) I've also been having to stay after school for the past couple weeks because one of the students was going to participate in the Takasaki City English Speech Contest. It was today, and she was the first student to speak. Five hours and 33 speeches later, they called the results, and she got 5th prize out of six! That means she's going on to the prefecture-wide speech contest in October. Her mom and I were so happy, but we've really got to practice more now!
We've been having terrific weather recently. Another typhoon blew in from the south and covered Gunma in a beautiful, temperature-dropping rain that cooled off the city and made for several days of coziness. I've been coming home from work in the rain and laying on my couch for an hour after work reading or watching something on my computer before I tear myself away to do something productive: usually make lesson plans or materials for class.
I am enjoying living in this apartment: reading a book on my soft futon with my quilt wrapped around me before I go to sleep, drinking hot tea out of a pretty china cup (made in Japan, not China), connecting my computer to these external speakers so music can fill my apartment, eating breakfast and drinking coffee, wrapping up my new robe. None of these things are particularly Japanese, but they make me feel happy.
Monday is a holiday--Respect for the Aged Day--and I don't work. I'm going to Saitama tomorrow (Friday) to see one of my friends from UNCG who is also in JET, and maybe to see some other folk I met at Tokyo Orientation. I'll be there for the weekend. Thursday the 23rd is a holiday, too, the Autumnal Equinox (oh, Evan!) and we also don't work. This also means that the sun will start setting even earlier than it does already . . .
I apologize for the not-very-well-written-ness of this entry, but I wanted to let you know that I'm still alive, and just maybe a little lazy. No great adventures this week, although I did get a free lunch at Denny's today. (NB: Japanese Denny's isn't like American Denny's at all. It is, after all, really De-Ni-Su.) I'll write more soon. I miss you, America, but I'm getting used to this new life, too.
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