the 21st is a special day

The 21st of every month is a special day for me. That's right, it's payday. When all those hours in front of sarcastic, annoying adolescents pays off in the form of Japanese yen automatically deposited in my bank account. It used to be pretty exciting to see how many digits were in my salary (my income is in the millions), but the charm has worn off I'm afraid. But I can always look back and remember those days...

Anyway, this blog could use an updating. Since this last post I went to Tokyo for a recontracting cconference. The seminars were mostly long and boring (as they always are) but hey someone paid for me to go to Tokyo for 3 days. Not bad.

Then I returned in time for a full week at Elementary School. I orchestrated such classics as head, shoulders, knees, and toes; run for the eraser pictionary; and drawing picasso-esque versions of the human face. It was pretty fun and often adorable. Though I found out the hard way that 3rd graders are too little for pictionary, and some of the slower kids were unable to articulate with chalk even some basic objects like apple and bicycle. I nearly made one kid cry when he drew "capt jack sparrow," which was my bonus challenge card. I got to make up for his almost crying later when I taught the 1st graders (about 6 yrs old) and I made at least 3 kids cry. I'm not exactly sure how I made them cry, but they were upset about something. Didn't stop the rest of them from adorably enjoying whatever silly game they were doing though. yokatta.
So in conclusion: elementary school is busier and more physically tiring than junior high, but it has some nice pluses. I don't necessarily feel like I've really DONE something when I leave (I can't teach an 8 year old English in 40 minutes) but at least I feel loved. I don't know what it is about Japanese children that just exudes love and adoration and friendly happiness, but it is pretty great. But by the end of Elementary their adultification sets in and is established by the end of Junior High (grade 9). Their happy energy, ability to speak up, desire to try new things, and so on seems to just disappear (at least while in front of a group, which is always the case) within a very short period of time.
Fushigi (mysterious) and a little sad.
But after the tiring week me and Ambs set sail on my toyota corolla II, and headed North for an hour or two to eat lunch at this cafe that we had happened upon earlier and found totally ridiculous. It's in the blog if you can be bothered searching for it. Anyway it's German theme is pretty over the top, and must be seen to be believed:

Amber takes her coffee seriously... deadly seriously.

I know this is a bad picture, but I needed to give some example of this guy's art that adorns the walls of this place. He painted many many different images, but they all or mostly all have the common theme of a younger him (maybe) and a smiling German woman (maybe). I wonder if his love still remains outside the reach of his small country town...
And I may spend too much time with 14 yr olds, but this is a great cup.

Moving along, this was a 3 day weekend for me, and a super special one in that a buddy of mine from America happened to be in Tokyo! Katja Holmes finished up her summer study in Sendai and brief travel across Japan and had a few days to spare in the metropolis before heading home. So I went down and did a little bit of showing around my fave spots of Tokyo (Kichijoji, Koenji, golden-gai in shinjuku, shimokitazawa). She has silly pictures herself, but this is the one proof she needs that she was in Japan:
There it is: she was in Japan.

It's bed time, and I have a big day tomorrow (as far as ALTs work goes). I'm teaching with a student teacher (whos 7 years older than me, and my new buddy named suzuki) and will be observed by many other teachers at my school, as well as parents and probably some stuffy people in suits taking notes. I'm of course a bit removed from what's going on, but regardless my coworkers are watching me in action, which is a little bit unnerving.

soredemo, gambarimasu.

See you all soon (just one month!)

all my lovin
(to youuu)

aaron