Hindsight

Today was just slightly more eventful than yesterday…

I met Dion at Ichiran for our usual cubicle-style ramen experience (photos coming soon). After that he finally broke down to pickup a J-Phone. I had to go my way to Best Denki to pickup some blank CD-Rs so that I could make a quantity of “care packages”. Digital I suppose. Sissie way north doesn’t have broadband access and wanted some MP3s and anime.

After the little excursion to Kokura I went to the Sun Live just outside my apt. I bought potatoes and ground beef.

For those of you who know me, this is a milestone. I never cook.

So I cooked hamburger and potatoes this evening. Far from Japanese, but that’s the idea I suppose. I have yakitori (my favorite), school bento, ramen, tempura, etcetera. I think it’s fair to have one meal that brings me back home just a little. It’s like eating at McDonald’s here – I never did it back home. But on occasion I don’t think chicken nuggets will kill me. In any case, I cooked. This is huge. I made a joke of it to some friends online. “I’m cooking beef, and it’s turning into food!”

I was doing a bit of web meddling this weekend. I started work on a project inspired by William’s “out of context”, a photolog of sorts. I’ve just emailed him asking him for his blessing. I don’t like working on a project that’s inspired strongly by something without asking the author of that inspiration. I think it’s only proper to.

This evening I stopped by Chris’ to get some materials that were handed out at last week’s ALT meeting. We ended up talking about my decision a little, I updated him about last weeks good class sessions with the kids at Chiyo.

This coming week holds a holiday on Tuesday. I have only one class tomorrow.

This morning I got up and went to the bus stop for the Fukuoka highway bus, which stops at “Chiyo New Town”. I was apprehensive, there was an “Oshirase” (notice of sorts) but I couldn’t read it. So I stood there until it was ten minutes past. The bus had not arrived. I called the BOE and Nagahata sensei advised me that the bus was out due to the slick roads (everything was more of ice than snow by that time). He advised me to take an alternate route, and thanks to his instructions I was able to still get to school…

…two hours late.

Thankfully my teachers and kocho/kyoto sensei understood. I still apologized for being tardy. Unsure if other, non-Enlish teachers understood, I would observe them and they seemed to not really acknowledge me. Hey, the 75 bus took forever because of a traffic jam. My first experience of major traffic congestion in Japan, ever.

I didn’t miss any classes though. Ni, san and yon jikanme (second, third and fourth periods) were ichi nensei classes. There was also a fax on my desk from a “Maeda Elementary School”. It looks like I’ll finally be visiting a shogakko come March 3 and the 7th.

My bronchitis is a little better. Though coughing still feels like being shot in the upper chest, so that in itself can be draining.

Kids at Chiyo were happy to see me. I was happy to see them smiling and greeting me on. “Whoa! James.” I would surprise many of them just passing by them. When they realized it was me they would either want to shake my hand or greet me with “Ohisashiburi desu.” (It’s been awhile). Some even said “Long time no see.” Good JTEs.

My bronchitis hasn’t seem to change. Last night it killed me just to lay down and breathe, but I got through the night and woke up actually feeling really comfy. I ended up meeting up with M. She came down again from Okayama, just for ramen! If only I had a JR pass I’d be travelling around too.

I missed the ALT meeting. Didn’t feel up to it. Apparently there are some changes happening the next school year, come April. “Good news,” said Chris. I will have to ask him about details. I got some details from the others when I went to Koichi’s, but want more of the specs.

I was at Yakyuu dori the longest. From 7 (when everyone came) until closing. I chatted with K and ended up speaking lots of Japanese to a new friend, Taro. His English is actually pretty decent and we just exchanged languages, so to speak. It was good. I hadn’t had that much practice in awhile and I wanted to practice nihongo.

Koichi drove me home. He offered. It was nearly 1am. To my surprise it was snowing. The streets were getting white. Because it’s late and I walked from the street where Koichi dropped me off to my apartment, it was quiet. The snowfall was beautiful. Peaceful. I didn’t feel as cold as I usually do. I snapped some pictures and video of the snow, and went into my apartment.

My chest hurts badly when I cough right now. The real test is when I return to school tomorrow. Chiyo JHS.

“I think you want to stay in Japan, only in tokyo more than anything. I think, barring that, that you want some time back at home to sort things out.” – Rich

I woke up with daylight through curtains. I overslept. I soon realized it still was tough to breathe so I went to Nishino Byooin. I was there half an hour early and when Nishino-sensei came in he asked me what was wrong. Then..

“..how about your job?”

Don’t worry about the job, I wanted to say. I told him “..It’s okay, I called the board of education already.”

It turns out I now have mild bronchitis. He told me to rest for three days and talked to my supervisor about it. So I’m…. resting now.