Ep 38. Bubbly Boosh

With a pounding of absolute fury, and a fury experienced only on travels and trips to the tropics, the rains have come. It is now the rainy season here in Japan, and that means that every day we are set to experience the ultimate in hard rains. Most people over here are apathetic to the change at best, with others keen on showing their displeasure. For my part, it's rather fun having such hard rain, and I have really enjoyed going on walks at night that end with me being completely soaked. It gets the greatest looks ever from people on the street.
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Quick note: As I am writing this I am experimenting with a bread recipe. Rather than using regular milk I am using soy milk, because the soy breads that I have had over here are absolutely delicious. However, the milk is causing the bread to expand terribly in my bread maker. As such, there might be a picture later on of exploded bread in a bread maker...either that, or my apartment fire will make the nightly news.
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Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, the rain. Well, thankfully the rain is keeping most people off of the streets, so I can explore with a little me time again. However, that also means that everywhere inside--such as the trains, or shopping malls--that are normally empty have suddenly turned into the place to be. So long getting a seat, hello standing awkwardly and looking sexy. Goodby short food lines, hello queue's of death. Ah well, se la vid. To be honest, I don't know quite what is more unpleasant: the number of people inside when it's raining, or the sudden rise in humidity when the sun suddenly shines through. So, it's a bit different than what I'm used to, but it's rather fun.

In terms of what I have been doing, we have a new teacher at work. That means that someone I have been working with for the past 9(ish?) months has left. In this case, it was one of my American co-workers. Her successor is another woman, but this time from the UK. Now there are two English accents at my school. So, last Sunday I took her to the Japanese tutoring I occasionally go to. To be honest, I am perfectly happy on my weekends to do absolutely nothing--mostly, that is, because I can get a little tired of dealing with people during the week. While it will definitely allow me to live here, my Japanese definitely needs some work. Mostly, I need to get better at not answering Japanese questions in Spanish. Anyway, after the tutoring, we met up with my now ex-coworker for one final, "see you later." Finding Something that I can actually eat can be tricky, even in Tokyo, but we managed to find a fun place called Grandma's George's. There were actually two things on the menu that I could eat! I had options! We all had a very nice (if overly warm) lunch together. My ex-coworker was meeting with an old friend of hers, a friend from Osaka. May Americans tend to think of Japan as a small country, where everyone has been everywhere. And yet, this friend of hers had only been to Tokyo twice before, and all three times were within this year. This was not some recent college graduate who was just starting on her own. Instead, this was someone who had lived a little and seen a little of life (she was only slightly older than me, but still...). But she had only visited Tokyo--the biggest city on earth--three times. Mind blown, I reassessed my base assumptions and moved on with my life.
We parted, as it should be on a bittersweet note. However, I know that it we are meant to be friends, that we will see each other again. The next day, I met up with a few friends in order to see a movie. But first, since I was with someone who understood a bit more Japanese than me, I decided to get some sunscreen. My biggest problem, though, is that every sunscreen over here has an SPF of 50. In the US, there are tons of SPFs, all the way from the lowest, "wouldn't it be better to go without" to the highest, "why would you use that?" SPF 50 is a common place where sunscreens start to enter the latter scale. Usually, I use SPF 30 which, from what I have read, seems to be a good number that offers a good chemical balance while still providing decent protection from the sun. It took some hunting, but I found what I was looking for.
The movie (the new super hero one) was great. It does strike me as odd the way that foreign movies are released over here. For example, this superhero movie came out within a couple of weeks of its US debut, but the new 300 movie isn't coming out for a few more weeks. This isn't how it works in most countries around here, and yet in Japan the schedule to release these things seems almost random...ah well.
One final note about last weekend: I went out to the poppy fields. They were gorgeous, but were far outshone by the setting sun. The day that I went was one of the high pollution days, where not even the closest mountains are visible. But because of this, the sun was actually tolerable to look at. It really is majestic, our great sol, and closer to the horizon it was magnified while turning blood red. What was more impressive, though, was that as it went down, it revealed the hills in front of it. It was breathtakingly beautiful and horrendously sad at the same time. I am so glad that I got it.
For the most part, my week went well. I helped the new teacher where I could (still had some hiccups, but that's to be expected). Mostly, though, this week really reminded me why I want to work with high school aged students later on. Don't get me wrong, I always enjoy those classes, but this week those two ages really stood out. My first on (freshman age, so last year of Junior High over here) was a class on our houses.
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Bread came out fine. Woot!
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So, we started talking about our houses (simple, fast) and then we got into a dream house. This is supposed to be a warmup. Something simple, fast. Somehow, we made a house together. It was all of their ideas, though I helped them with some of the English. It ended up being five stories (the fourth floor was extra wide and the the second floor was a maze). It had an elevator to the top floor which had a vending machine, and a diving board on the roof. The diving board was used to dive into the swimming pool (which had a shark, named after one of the students). Next to the pool was a garden (with a killer plant, named after another student). And, to make it all better, there was a pet bear (named after a third student, just because). Later on, we all made our individual dream houses, and they showed a surprising amount of creativity. I was very impressed.
My other class (about aged grade eight) was just--and always is--fun. But today we had to write a postcard to our friend Nick, so I asked them to think of what they wanted. One boy called me over to help him with English. He drew a picture. After a few expansions to the picture, I discovered that I was right, and he did indeed want to know the word, "steal." The next word that he needed was, "police." He also wanted me to teach him decapitation. I did not want to teach him decapitation, so I had him figure out an alternative. He decided on, "kill." The final message: Dear Nick, I will steal your treasure at 8:00AM. Do not call the police. If you call the police, I will kill you. I could barely keep myself from laughing. Also, one of the kids found a piece of a foam sticker on the floor. I looked it over, and then (I thought) badly pretended to put it in my mouth. And they bought it. So, I naturally did what any mature adult would do, and kept going with it. I convinced them that I ate it, before I showed it to them again. The look on their faces (and their laughter at the joke) was incredible. I love those kids, and I love that age group.
On Saturday, I had two near heart attacks (in addition to the amazingness above). The first was a prospie, aged five (almost six) who cried for 13 minutes of the 15 minute lesson. The kid would give me high fives, would touch the cards, and would make letters with her arms, but just would not speak. By the end, though, she was smiling and laughing. Crisis averted. Then, at the end, in front of the parents, my manager asked the students if they understood me. They said, "wakanai" [no comprendo {I don't understand}]. AAAAAHHHHHH! What am I doing wrong? It turns out that they didn't understand what I was saying in the lobby, but that they understood me in class. Crisis averted.
This weekend, aside from the tutoring, I haven't done much with people. I did take a trip to Konosu stadium, though, because I haven't been down that way in ages. What I found was fascinating. There is a certain section of the shrubs along the walking path that is covered in spider webs. And it's not just one kind of spider either. There are many different kinds in close proximity on one side of the path. So, the question becomes, "why?" I have a few hypotheses. Maybe the proximity to the stadium draws in a large number of bugs. However, I do not see such webs among other people magnets, so that seems a bit unlikely. It might have something to do with the shade, or the proximity to flowering plants, but an inability to find similar webs in similar situations on my walk back made that unlikely. In terms of why they were on one side, the answer seems to be that the spiders favored the slanted side, rather than the flat one. That makes sense, considering that a more vertical web would capture more bugs. I also noticed that there were come vertical webs in over hanging trees, and that those webs tended to have bigger spiders (I didn't look too long, those things still give me the willies). This--to me, at least--implies that these are preferred spots, so only the largest specimens may hold them. However, that does not change the fact that I did not notice the arachnids in other locations. My current hypothesis is that this particular area is rather protected from the recent rains we have had. Given a dryer environment, more webs will flourish elsewhere. As such, I will need to test my hypothesis later, when the weather has been dry for a few days.
Well, I have just sampled the Apple Cinnamon bread, and it is delicious. With that, it is time for dinner. This has been another adventure in the austentacious. If you liked it, tell your friends; if you hated it, tell your enemies; and if you didn't care either way, then tell everyone. Bon apetite.