Expectations

First day at Kamo

Kamo Suisan Koukou. Read: Kamo fisheries high school.

I arrive in the door and struggle to change my shoes, practically dripping with sweat and out of breath. I was doing fine until things took a turn for the uphill ten minutes from the school. After that, there was nothing anyone could do. I’d been frantically trying to remember my speech on my way, the same one I’d given at my main school a week before. It’s okay, I can read from my script if I need to.

Grade Curve

I’ve been meaning to put this up for a while now. Before I took over from the ALT who was here before me, the students had been asked to draw a picture of what they thought I looked like.

Some of these kids did an okay job.
Some of these kids have a bright future ahead of them.
Some of these kids have E.S. frickin’ P.

...and thy name is Typhoon

This weekend I was supposed to be climbing a mountain. The very same mountain that had almost gotten me killed several weeks ago. It’s name is Mount Chōkai, but that is irrelevant. It is the highest mountain in the prefecture and right now, it is my Matterhorn.

Unfortunately, due to the recent Typhoon, the climb was called off, to be rescheduled for next month. I say unfortunately, but really... it was a blessing in disguise. I have been short on sleep recently for reasons that I most certainly will not go into here and a weekend spent trudging my way through wind and rain up a mountain pass may not have been the best prescription. So my action packed “Autumnal Equinox” national holiday was now left decidedly devoid of distractions and diversions. What this means for you lovely people is that you get a couple of blog updates, complete with alluring, amusing (an let’s accept it, asinine) alliteration! And additional assonance!

Quiet Weekend

A bit of down time was in order. I’d been getting ready for my first classes, studying this new language and I needed to prepare for my introduction speech to the school on Monday, which was to be in Japanese. This weekend I would only be making an appearance at a local festival where some new friends would be performing with their Taiko drumming group. Afterwards there was to be some kind of party with food which I had already committed to. Other than that, I had two days to myself. Two days where I would hole up in my apartment and just relax and get a bit of last minute work done. A nice, comfortable, quiet weekend.