Monkey Fun

Wednesday, July 23, 2003 :::

Right now, where did we leave off? Chuutan School... last day there was Thursday, so that will be down at the bottom of the list. As for now; today!

Today was a normal, summer holidays day of work. This means that I went in to work and sat at the computer the majority of the time, lamenting my inability to in get to my website in order to update it, or in to my blog in order to update that. It also rained the entire day, this being the rainy season. Most annoying. I had a few encounters with my students who were all in fine fettle and heading off for their club activities and so on. Great chats with them, but overall a rather boring, useless day. But then! Then! I returned home, and found in my post-box a little post-card from the post-office, telling me I had a parcel and could I please come and pick it up? Well, I was off like a shot, puzzled and excited - who would be sending me parcels?

Present from Joules. Brilliant, wonderful present from Joules. I was so excited I opened it in the car and proceeded to startle a passer-by with my squeals of excitement. In this parcel, I have a sweet little monkey toy, with an ear-to-ear grin, a cute little nose and a soft tuft of hair on the top of his head. He also has the most enormous hands and feet and is just utterly adorable. He will be my mascot for all time. Now, he just needs a name?E

But this was not the end of the bounty. For inside this wonderfully wrapped package - silver and black and entirely too sleek - there were three, yes three sachets of Clipper organic hot chocolate, two of them orange chocolate and one double chocolate and, and, and there was a bar of Cadburys Fruit and Nut. I'm being good and restraining myself from gorging on them, but it'sdifficult. The temptation is almost too much to resist.

What else have I done today? Ah! I have successfully made my first loaf of bread, admittedly in my bread-maker, but 'twas something I feel I should be proud of, considering my very first loaf was not good. This loaf is Italian Herb bread, with nary a taste of sugar in it, although sugar was added, of course, in order to feed the yeast. I'm very pleased with it. It's scrummy, proper bread with a scrummy, proper bready sort of taste. Plus it smelt delicious this morning - I left it on the timer overnight so I was awakened by the smell of fresh baked bread this morning. I do believe that it is the reason I got to school on time - would have been early if I hadn'tmisplaced my keys in the other bag.

Today, what did I do? What did I do? Argh! What did I do? I misplaced my hanko (signature stamp thingy) in the wrong pocket of my bag?Espent an hour trying to find the darn thing. I swear, writing your signature is so much more practical, although having a hanko is actually kinda cool. Sort of like a signet ring. Only less so. I also managed to start sorting out my days off and business leave days and so on and so forth. Very pleased, although I'm annoyed that they're telling me I have to use one of my holidays to get paperwork done in Kyoto.

I'm thinking of pulling a sicky instead, probably on Thursday. It'snot as though I do anything over the summer holidays other than use the internet and get bored. I'll probably start leaving early as well, considering I'm told that'swhat everyone else does. Much better than sitting there doing nothing, and the few times I've done it before I've even had teachers smile at me on the way out and give me the traditional greeting for people leaving at the end of work. I think it'saccepted practice.

Ow. Hangover. Nasty hangover. The party last night was incredible, but the hangover is something I could really have done without. Some of the others were heading off for a bashing watermelons contest in Kumihama but I certainly didn'tfeel up to it. Drove home - with a brief stop at Itotome to pick up some foreign style food, like olives and proper mustard - watered the plants, lay down and was out of it for the rest of the day. Opened bleary eyes at 4.30pm, made myself some dinner, drank about a gallon of water, then went back to bed again. Of course I didn'tsleep too well, having slept the entire day, so spent a large portion of the night playing on my computer. But still didn'tmanage to get anything constructive done. How do I manage that?

Today is the day of the Desert Island Party. I sent Katherine off from the station at ten, then rushed about getting packed and ready to meet the others in Mineyama before heading off for the party. Still managed to get to M's half an hour late, but that didn'tmatter because we weren'tleaving until 4.45 anyway. We got the earlier boat - there being an option of two, one at 6pm and one at 8pm - after a small detour in the wrong direction, and landed on the island all of five minutes after we left the shore. Then we dumped our stuff in a random cabin, and proceeded to endure the absolutely torrential rain while eating a traditional Japanese style barbecue on a covered platform. The extra straw protection screens on one side of the platform kept on being blown down, but some brave souls (myself included) jumped into the ankle-deep water and heaved them back into place. I took my shoes off for this little exercise, not that it mattered that much. They were already soaked.

We proceeded to get rather drunk and merry, ate far too much and talked about random things - like racism, the cultural similarities of Mediterranean societies, British comedy shows, rain, other people around us, the brilliant invention of onsens and so on. Then we proceeded into the hot tub - wearing swimming costumes - and soaked for a while. When we came out it had stopped raining, the waitresses and owner of the island were gone and much beer was had by all. This resulted in some people (be it know that it was all boys) stripping off and running around naked for a while. They realised the error of their ways when the girls all started laughing, and got themselves clothed again. We repaired to the hot tub briefly and then someone (psst, it was S) got it into her head to see what the outside pool was like. I was stupid and followed along. It was FREEZING. The sea was far warmer. Yes, I braved the sea as well. Though not for long. Just long enough to tell that it was warmer.

Of course, during all this we were undoubtedly being stung by mozzies, but we were too drunk to care. By morning, everyone cared. Those bites itched. I have upwards of thirty, but no-one can outdo M. She has over sixty. Vicious, horrible little beasties.

Today, while I was doing laundry Katherine watched part of Akira - I don't think it was to her taste really. She was under the impression it was about the environment and environmental issues, which it is but only allegorically. The actual story and the speed of it didn't appeal to her - she said she doesn'tlike action films. Which is fair enough. Although I adore them. After I had finished I took her out to the Oomoto shrine in Ayabe and I marvelled at its vastness once again. We strolled around its garden, then headed back, had a yummy lunch at the Italian at Isa. I love that place - especially the Viking special. Fill your bowl as many times as you like with salad, and your plate with bread, and get delicious pasta on top of it all. Mmmmm.

Next place we went to was Sandanike Park - Three Corner Lake park I believe is the translation. We wondered around the perimeter of the lake, admired the ducks and other wildlife, then rushed to pick up some fruit and drinks for N's barbecue under Otonase bridge. Had a great time, ate scrumptious food, including a really sweet watermelon, then headed home, having been bitten alive by mozzies. Have I mentioned how I hate mozzies?

Closing ceremony at school, nothing too exciting going on. Managed to miss the proceedings by keeping my head low at my desk and pretending I didn'tnotice everyone else filing out. Plus managed to get some more Japanese study in, so am rather pleased with myself. I will conquer this language yet!

Katherine arrived this evening and we had a nice chat - it's rather odd to be having a stranger in your house and trying to entertain them. She seems like a nice girl, pretty laid back and easy-going. Sounds very Ozzie. Of course, she says I sound stereotypically English, which I suppose I do...if the boarding school accent is stereotypically English.

My last lesson before the holidays, and we do Harry Potter. Not only that, but I made them do a transfiguration spell and all - by rhyming it, but nevertheless, it gave their imaginations free reign. We were going to play battleships but ran out of time. Fiddlesticks. Maybe after the holidays. Please note, this lesson was blatantly ripped off from S, the person to whom I turn for all my inspiration.

Managed to get 100 % on my kanji test today, and on my vocabulary test. No spelling mistakes or anything! And K managed the same with her English vocabulary. Very pleased, but really have to study the grammar harder, or else I'll fail the national exam in December. Must work harder.

We had a Sayonara party for all the people leaving this year, which was actually quite upsetting. I hate saying goodbyes. I stayed for a bit but a headache had been plaguing me all day so quietly gave up and left - it was a bit of a drive to get home anyway, and by the time I arrived I was only fit for sleep. Goes to show what four nights of bad sleep and weird dreams can do to a person. Good party though, and I got to buy R his birthday beer, say goodbye to a few people I'm probably not going to get the chance to see again and meet a few people I've been wanting to see for a while.

Last day at Chuutan, and it wasn'tnearly as bad. I didn'tteach the muscular dystrophy class in the end - they changed their minds - and instead had the Junior High kids, some of whom were obviously 18 or over. But they were energetic, cheerful and lively and it wasn't so bad. Then I had a special lunch, which means I was photographed for our local newspaper - again. I swear some people are going to know me intimately by the time I leave and they'll have met me only through the local news. Lunch was nice though - barbecued eel in some sort of sweet sauce and the usual pickles and rice. Very tasty.

At the end I watched their mini High-School Festival, joined in the dancing and so on then headed off back to Fukuchiyama. It wasn'tso bad, but it still left me exhausted and upset, particularly towards the end of the last hour. Oh well. I'm probably just not cut out for this sort of thing, although I have the feeling that I'll be back in December.

::: posted by Saru at 4:57 am