Tottori-City Life

This week was good, the days seem to fly by so fast. I guess that is what happens when you work full time teaching kids. The little ones are so crazy and full of energy that the time just vanishes. The older students are so laid back though, and it is a little harder to teach them. The older ones are so bogged down with homework and studying that they are so tired. I ask them, what will you do this weekend? And 50% of the time they say sleep. That is what they look forward to the most. The other 50% usually say study. I have some really bright students, their English is great and it is a lot of fun to teach them. I found out the other day that I won't have Masayoshi as a student next quarter. I was so upset because not only is he the smartest, he is the funniest. Last week we spent the whole class telling jokes and just talking because the textbook is too easy for him. I taught him some more idioms and we talked about American music. Japanese people enjoy the funniest American music. They love Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Michael Jackson and the Backstreet Boys. At karaoke they always ask me to sing Backstreet Boys or Bon Jovi, I dislike both bands so it is hard, but I do it to please them. They especially enjoy "I want it that way" by the Backstreet Boys.

Anyways, this weekend I had dinner with this Japanese girl named Yorie. I met her a few weeks ago and she said she wanted to learn English. So I told her we could meet up and talk in English and Japanese. She doesn't know much English, so we spent most of the time talking in Japanese. She is your typical party girl, I asked her what her hobbies were and she said, "drinking alcohol and dancing." Not the kind of girl I am looking for, but she was fun to talk to and practicing Japanese is always good. After we ate dinner we met up with Jeremy and his friend Eri. We then went to a bar and hung out for a bit then I went home. It was a fun night, nothing too crazy, but it was great speaking Japanese all night. At work I have to speak English all day, so I don't get to practice my Japanese much during the week.

The next day I woke up and wanted to go for a long bike ride/hike. I followed this river all the way to this trail that led to the sand dunes. I got off my bike and began to hike through the forest along this trail that led to the sand dunes. I thought it would take me to the tourist spot where I was last week with Mitsue. Instead it took me to this desolate part of the dune. It was great because the sand was untouched, unlike the tourist area that is covered in footprints. I walked around and decided to get artistic, so I wrote some Japanese in the sand. The picture below says, Nature. It was a very peaceful afternoon. I returned home and studied some Japanese, ate dinner and watched a movie.

The next day I went to my usual lesson with Mitsue. It was a little longer this time, I was really struggling with some of the material so we studied for about 3 hours together. She is so sweet, she made me these two delicious sandwiches that reminded me of home because they were on sub bread. We had a good lesson and then I returned home. That was my weekend, the usual, going out, biking, the ocean and finally my lesson with Mitsue.

I wanted to talk about one more thing: Japanese people stare at me every where I go. I thought I would get used to it by now, but I haven't. It is really annoying to pass someone and have them turn their head and follow you as you go by. If the cute girls do this I don't mind, but it is the old people. They give me dirty looks and it is quite uncomfortable. Jeremy told me to give them a big old smile in return, but that is hard to do when they are giving you the evil-eye. I guess I'll have to learn to deal with it, so I am going to take Jeremy's advice and give them a big "AMERICA RULES" smile and move on. That is the only piece of culture shock that I have had to deal with so far. The rest of the cultural differences are no big deal to me because I knew about them before I came.

Till next week. ONE