Mended?

The weekend? What weekend? I hardly remember anything that happened.

Saturday I recall talking to Nate and not much else.

Sunday I met up with some folks and went for a swim at the legendary Niko Waterhole. I'm always cursed to swim on cloudy or rainy days there. Sometime the weather will cooperate with me. I've had the pleasure of jumping off the 30 foot tall waterfall 4 times now. Not that I'm so cool or anything to that extent, it's just that every time I get up there it makes me feel crazy. The satisfaction after the fact is even better. As I drop 30 feet through the air toward the water. My mind lets go and isn't sure what is happening. Impacting the water and sliding into a dark abyss of bubbles around my head is reassuring as I know I'm back down to earth so to speak.

After some talk of Japanese and cookies and who knows what, the friends and I trekked to the local ramen joint which serves up delicious and simple noodle bowls. Always good no matter how many times I eat it.

The best part was probably when we were leaving. I look over at the car next to me and I see something riding shotgun with the lady in the passenger seat. I glance back into my car then look back one more time. No it wasn't really anything. I look at my steering wheel and think that I surely saw something. I look one more time and much to my surprise a giant rooster is riding up front in the car. Now I know people keep pets of all kinds but this is a first to see a rooster riding up front in a car. I turn to my friend's car and smile. I tell them to put down their window and look over at the car next to me. They bust out in harmonious laughter at the sight of a chicken hanging out in a car. I never looked over to see the reaction of the people with the chicken being laughed at. It wasn't so much they were the center of the laughter but the sheer fact of it being a rooster. I wasn't aware chickens made any sort of good pet. Maybe this rooster had some great genetics for reproduction. I will forever wonder in my imagination of such things.

School is still very quiet. I often wonder what the other teachers think of me while I sit there minding my business day in and day out. I like it when hardly any of them are around in the afternoon. It's so peaceful and relaxing in a way. It just so happened that my arch nemesis and I were left alone in the afternoon. Realizing I wasn't coming in tomorrow because of another event and the end of the day was approaching I had to break the icy atmosphere to tell her. Now I could have just left and not told anyone but if I didn't show up tomorrow they might wonder and it would be extremely irresponsible and un-Japanese like to not indicate my whereabouts to some extent. As a side cultural note it's very common for Japanese people to say where or what they will be doing if they leave the room. Just a common courtesy thing I suppose or something to do with the communist ideology permeating the countryside through the sirens and announcements over the loud speakers. Anyway... before I could explain where I was going tomorrow I thought my nemesis was getting ready to leave so I sheepishly asked if she was leaving soon. She informed me that she would be around still and that it was okay if I was still there.

I've had a long standing cold war with this teacher ever since last November and the fateful cultural festival at school. It's been awkward to say the least. But in that single moment of asking a simple question it seems the Berlin Wall has come down between us in some form. We went back to the old times of talking about English and Japanese. I think she was probably happy and so was I. I wonder if she has been waiting this whole time for me to talk to her again or likewise. Perhaps from now on we will have some sort of friendship again. I guess I should have tried to talk to her again sooner.

However you have no idea how prepared I was to win this cold war if it meant leaving without ever speaking again. You know I would do it...

First Week Back Finished Like A True Pro

My right arm is feeling strained from sitting at the computer too much. This can't be helped.

It's not like I am wasting my time at the computer. I'm using it as a valuable study tool. Today was highly productive and I started looking at grammar for the N2 Japanese proficiency exam. A book that I was thinking of buying was located somewhere on the internet and I can know begin preparations instead of wait. I remember reading some of this book when I was doing by first teaching observation. I found it so hard to understand most of the example vocabulary. As continued study has shown, my comprehension continues to improve on all levels. (speaking maybe...) I'm feeling kind of excited about the prospect of taking the proficiency exam. That drives me to keep studying and learning new things.

This morning I told the baseball team members that tomorrow I was going to die. They probably don't have any framework that can contain me. That's good. They don't need to figure it out or want to anyway so we will have an eternal relationship of misunderstanding and confusion. Great.

It's been about 5 years now since I first walked into the Japanese classroom. Formal classroom instruction is only about 3 1/2 years though. It's time to push onward and get my Japanese up to a high level.

Time for the weekend. I want to find a river but dad told me I shouldn't go alone. I will take his advice as I can imagine slipping on a algae covered rock and breaking my neck wouldn't be fun.

Lonely Monkey Traps

Unfortunately the monkey still has not been caught. I think they need to relocate the trap and trying something else. I wouldn't be fooled walking into that rusty old contraption. You always see in movies how animals are so clever not to get caught in traps. Do they really think like that in the real world? Obviously some don't as they will succumb to such devices. Are others smarter than the traps? I don't think they will ever catch that monkey. If they do I'm afraid to even go near a monkey in a small cage. Poop being flung in the face does not sound appealing.

Last night I made brownies and bagels. The brownies were tasty as usual. I've worked out a pretty solid recipe for those. The bagels on the other hand need some perfecting. I want a thick solid inside with a crispy outside. What I got last night was something like that except in the morning the outside was soft and kind of soggy. What is the secret to a delicious bagel? I guess I will have to push deeper to solve the mystery. I'm slowly discovering the secrets of my oven. I was a bit troubled when I made pizza for the first time and it didn't cook anywhere close to what I wanted. On the other hand, the oven is really nice once you figure out the proper baking temperatures and times.

I finally destroyed the impending doom of flashcards piling up against my back. All 1,740 of them finished. Only took me about 4 days and some mental lock down but I did it. I think I should get a book to help study grammar for the N2 Japanese proficiency exam as well as some vocabulary. Kanji wise I think I could probably pass fine in that aspect. Really feels great to have some learning gains that you can clearly see.

With money finally sent back home I can begin looking at a new camera lens. 10-22mm wide angle? Yes please.

Study Attack Go!

As I sat browsing through the depths of the internet today. I checked out the sample test to be certified to teach Japanese as a foreign language. Compared to when I checked that in college I could notice a big difference in my comprehension of the reading portion. Still I need to really brush up on grammar usage and such. I even want to get back at writing kanji again. I've had this burst of desire before and then I let it go. I'll just try to reasonably approach writing kanji at a steady pace. I figure if someday I want to teach some legitimate Japanese I better make my studies count. I have all the time and I'm in the best country to make that happen. So here is to expanding my foundation of Japanese in not only reading but in written forms as well!

In other interesting news... the town office is out to capture a pesky monkey terrorizing the parking lot. That might be too strong of word but he was crawling on cars today from what I could see. They now have a big metal trap sitting in a garden out behind my house with some vegetables and fruit inside. The big problem is that the monkey can probably just reach through the cage and grab the goods. I can't wait to wake up and see a monkey caught. I would even be tempted to let it go just so I could see it get caught again. I'll get a picture of the trap tomorrow perhaps if it isn't too late.

10+ experience points to me for eating a whole box of cookies tonight.

Lets Write

Been just over a year since I arrived in Japan. Blogging on a consistent basis requires supreme dedication which I may or may not have. I would like to start writing things again just for the sake of history. I may want to look back many years from now and reflect on the happenings in my life. Might be good to have a virtual imprint in some form other than pictures.

Here is to my best intentions for this upcoming year.

Lets see what trouble I can get into in Japan round 2.