Got some classes then long weekend. I totally forgot this was a long weekend too. My weekend plans look like this:

Saturday - gotta do laundry, it had been raining for about a week straight until the typhoon passed through. I need to buy groceries. Also gotta clean up the apartment. I'd gotten a bit slack on the housekeeping since classes started back up again.

Sunday - a friend is having a birthday party Sunday night. Until then I don't have much to do. I'd like to go somewhere and take advantage of the nice weather.

Monday - day off, I suppose recuperating from the party will be in order but I don't anticipate drinking much/at all at the party - did I mention I was getting a bit tired of alcohol and wanted to cut back?

Heck, maybe I'll visit some used car lots and see what's going on. I haven't done much in the way of exercise at all lately. I need to hop on the bike and ride around. I've been taking the bus to work due to the bad weather. I need to start biking to work again.

I just realized that the longer I wait, the possibility increases of the technology items I want to buy with my funding getting cheaper/having better specs. I don't need anything right now. Perhaps I'll just wait until towards the end of the funding period and then buy. Too bad the funding doesn't carry over - I could buy a really sweet set of toys with that much to play around with. Oh well. (ETA: I just did some price checking... I actually can buy both a NetBook and external BluRay drive with my funding IF I pay for the JALT Conference registration out of pocket. Hmmm....)

Dang, I need to prep my classes for today. Not that I should be complaining though, after I knock these out I'm free for the long weekend!

Watching the World Volleyball Grand Prix (womens), Japan vs. Korea. They're playing in Korea and right now the Japanese team is playing very well. High Definition women's volleyball... (^_^)

So I took the day off (from the travelers, lol) to run some errands downtown. I bought some clothes (shorts & t-shirts), A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (good reference book), and some saxophone stuff. I didn't really need the clothes, but I just wanted to mix things up a bit. I did need a good Japanese language reference book. I still need to get a text/workbook. The sax stuff, just maintenance goods.

After I got home, I did the little bit of sax maintenance and then practiced for a bit. (I took my sax back to the apt for the summer.) I've had to take the practice sessions down a notch. When I first started getting back into this my first few practice sessions were pretty intense, trying to pick up where I left off I guess. However, after thinking about it some more they weren't really quality sessions. If I had made a recording I would have heard lots of little missed notes, inconsistent tempo and rhythm, lack of dynamic control, etc. I started to notice these anomalies while listening critically during today's practice. So yeah, I'd be better off playing more basic material correctly versus playing advanced material incorrectly. That and my endurance isn't quite there yet, my chops get worn out rather quickly. I need to build that back up.

(oh btw, Japan won in straight sets - dang.)

Street Fighter 4 continues to vex me. It's really quite difficult. I beat it for the first time on medium with Zangief, of all characters, yesterday. I got to the boss with Blanka and E. Honda today, but haven't even gotten close with any other characters. There are a few new wrinkles in the game engine that I need to get used to. It's been such a long time since I've played any fighting game regularly. (I suck, basically.) At least I'm doing quite good with the driving game.

I've got nothing planned for tomorrow. I have the following on my "to do" list though (in no particular order):
1.) practice
2.) study Japanese
3.) go for a bike ride
4.) buy groceries

I think if I could maintain a similar set of activities (need to throw in "play video games" and "watch videos" lol) for the rest of the summer that would be great.

Saturday - got an e-mail in the morning that my friend's schedule had changed. He could only meet on Saturday. So I hopped on the bullet train out of Shizuoka into Tokyo. Found his hotel and we met in the lobby. First we did a little walking around the Imperial Palace and Gardens. That was nice. Then we went to Shinjuku and Shibuya to see more "urban" stuff. (The only thing he's seen so far is the route he takes to work, which is fairly nondescript.) After that, we took the bullet train back to Shizuoka where we had dinner and then walked around downtown. Admittedly, it wasn't much to see compared to Shinjuku/Shibuya, but really he just wanted a chance to say he rode the bullet train. I saw him off and then went home. I was really tired and achy after that. Oh, and his job - his company is working with Tsutaya, helping them develop a DVD rental kiosk. Basically something like this. Coming soon to a konbini near you?

Sunday - Did some laundry, aired out my futon and re-did my computer. Well, I still need to re-install Office, Photoshop and a few other programs. I wanted to go for a bike ride, but I'm not feeling all that great today. I might even have the flu. I'm still achy and my stomach is kind of weird. :( Fortunately, I don't have to do much else today. I need to buy some groceries, but that's pretty much it.

I've been trying to write this up for a while now.

Work is going ok. Getting busy, but ok. Lots of little things have been coming my way and it's been a challenge to keep on top of everything. I'm afraid something is going to get overlooked sooner or later. The end of the term is coming up, a month to go actually. After that, I'm not quite sure what's going to happen. The next term doesn't start until October. As much as I'd like to think that we're going to get all of August and September off, I seriously doubt that's going to happen. I do know that some of the committees I'm on are going to meet and do some work. From what I gather, they're going to try and schedule those meetings at the beginning/end of the break in order to give everyone as much consecutive time off as possible.

I've been feeling kinda lonely lately. Part of that is homesickness. Odd that as I haven't been homesick for a long while. I guess I was due for a bout. Checking out family/friends' pics on facebook has really done it to me. Maybe I'd better just not check facebook as much. Also, I still haven't made many friends here outside of work. Moreover, my work friends are all older and married so they've got their own thing going on. Lastly, I haven't seen Miyuki all that much lately either. It was much easier to deal with the infrequency of meeting each other when we were living far apart, as it was something that just couldn't be helped. Now, she just lives about 10 km away and we still hardly ever see each other. I can meet where/whenever. She however, has been too busy to meet. Also, the few times we do get to meet, the mood has been well, kinda awkward. We did have a talk this past weekend, and she says her feelings for me are still there, mine are for her too. I don't want to put a timeline on things, but if we keep having these awkward moods I have to wonder if we really are right for each other after all.

In other news, my stimulus money came in. Good timing too as I just paid off my Saitama Residents' Tax. It is payable in installments, but I just wanted to get it over and done with so I paid the thing off in full. As the thing is from Saitama, the only place I can pay it off is at a bank downtown. I ended up wasting half of my day Wednesday to run this errand, and I didn't want to do that again, so yeah.

So I've been watching more of my digital cable TV and I'm actually kind of underwhelmed. It just doesn't have as much stuff as the digital cable TV package I had back home. On the flip side, my internet connection is about 5 times as fast, so I guess it balances out. With a good torrent, I can download a 700 mb video in about 2 minutes, a DVD-R image in 15. It's like having video on demand. Just the other day, I was in the mood to watch Tombstone and didn't feel like riding all the way out to the video store to rent it. Found a torrent, started it up, ran down to the Family Mart to get a drink and a snack, came back and the download was done! I might even cancel my digital cable. Still, it does have a lot more foreign sports and news, so I guess it's worth it for that. Oh and there is an add-on fishing channel. It's like 10 bucks a month. I might have to look into that.

Speaking of TV fishing, there was a fishing show on regular broadcast TV last night. They were going for yellowtail snapper. First they tried using live horse mackerel for bait. That wasn't producing anything so they switched to cut bait and then they landed 2 big snappers. One was 11 kg and the other was 10 kg. They served one up as sushi at the end of the show. It looked absolutely delicious, wow.

So yeah, I've been feeling kind of blah lately. Also, somewhat stunned at the news of Michael and Farrah. That really puts things into perspective. Oh yeah, and now Billy Mays, the Oxiclean guy. I totally went down to Target and bought some because of that infomercial!

At any rate, I'm going to try to not waste my Monday now and actually do some work.

I was quite busy.

Woke up late and found out my digital TV tuner was en route. I was cleaning my apartment when it arrived. I set up the tuner, but it would take an hour for it to sync up with the digital TV company. A hour? Well whatever, so I finished cleaning. There was still a bit of time remaining so I re-watched Terminator 3. Terminator 2 was on TV last weekend and I got in the mood to see 3, so I grabbed it the other day. For whatever reason, I really got into it. Once I unplugged my brain, ignoring all plot holes, etc... I found it to be quite entertaining.

By this time, the TV tuner and digital cable company were in sync, so I turned it on. It's pretty cool. High definition stuff looks great, especially movies. I watched some of The Mummy and man, the added sense of depth is just amazing. As if I could climb through the TV screen and step right into the movie. Then Lord of the Rings: Return of the King came on and wow. In addition to the increased sharpness, motion looked a lot smoother - almost as if it had a higher frame rate, especially the CG stuff.

Still, I didn't have a router, so I couldn't watch digital cable and use the internet at the same time. On my bike ride to the electronics store, I couldn't believe how bad the traffic was. Freaking Sunday drivers, now I see how this was turned into an insult back in the day. Then when I got to the store there was a line of cars down the block waiting to enter the parking lot. Anyway, I looked around the store and found one on sale (normal price: 7900 yen, sale price: 5900). Just to make sure, I asked the NTT rep if this was what I needed, and it was. Oddly enough he didn't try to upsell me on the more expensive one. He even noted that if I didn't need wireless, that a non-wireless router or even a hub would work and cost a lot less. (But I wanted the wireless.) Then when I checked out, a special "time sale" was in effect - it was an extra 1000 yen off. Score!

So I brought the router home and set it up. Of course, all the menus are in Japanese... *sigh* p(^O^)q ファイトー！ First, I had to tell the router how to access the internet via PPPoE. Next, I had to set-up wireless encryption so my neighbors don't get free internet. Then I had to enable port forwarding for torrents. That was all accomplished relatively quickly. I unplugged my computer from the router and started doing everything via wireless. Then I hit a speed bump, getting the TV tuner and the router to play nice. There are no settings on the TV tuner to play with, so I had to get it done with the router somehow. Eventually I found out that I needed to enable "IPv6 pass through". It took a while to dig through the menus but eventually I found it. I shutdown and restarted everything. Once it all came back on-line, everything worked perfectly! Whew! I thought for sure that some crazy kanji-intensive error message would come up, but fortunately that was not the case.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for the technology side of my weekend. Some other stuff went on that I'm still trying to piece together.

Didn't do much at all on Saturday. Bought some groceries, did some laundry. Oh yeah, I also bought an electric fan for my office. (It has an air conditioner, but it's not quite that warm yet.) There was one other thing I did but it slips my mind atm.

Sunday, NTT came by and installed my fiber optic internet. Yay! That took a couple of hours. The dude had to literally run a fiber line from wherever the box for this neighborhood is up to and into my apartment. At first there was a bit of a snafu because their fiber optic "wizard" decided not to play nice with my SUGOIENGRISHWINDOWSXPKAWAII PC. Fortunately, I found the log-on application on the CD-ROM they provided and got it up and running anyway. Yeah, the connection is pretty fast. Not as fast as what I've got here at work but it's not shabby. I tested out a torrent just to see how it would go. Once up to speed I was pulling in about 2 megs a sec. I don't need to download stuff quite that quickly and I'd rather not arouse any suspicions so I think I'll dial it down a couple of notches for my next DL. My digital cable tuner comes in later this week. Double Yay! (Why the internet dude couldn't just bring a tuner with him is beyond me, oh well.)

Then Miyuki and I went downtown to have a late lunch and hang out. We went to a pretty good (albeit pricey) Hawaiian cafe. Then on the way home we stopped by that newly reopened fishing store. The place is huge. I was a bit overwhelmed at first. They have a different take on stuff than they do back home. First I picked out a rod/reel combo, then got a small tackle box and proceeded to pick up just enough stuff to fill it up. While it was interesting to put together a Japanese-style fishing outfit, I would have rather gone to a Wal-Mart, lol. Stuff is way more expensive here. I figure everything was at least twice of what it costs back home. In typical Japanese fashion, they also had some super high technology fishing equipment that had me going: "What?!" For example, this one fishing rod which was feather light, super strong and perfectly balanced went for $600. I mean sure it would make casting effortless and you'd probably be able to feel if a fish even looked at your bait/lure. But for that much it had better catch and clean the fish for me as well!

Anyway, if the weather is nice we're going to try and go fishing next weekend.

After the fishing store we had dinner at a ramen place near my apartment and then went home to watch some videos. I kinda wanted to play around on my new internet, but as my laptop is my DVD player that had to wait. Maybe I should get a standalone DVD player, preferably one that plays divx files (as I have a bunch of those). I do need to get a couple of things at the electronics store anyway, hmmm.... Looks like I know what I'm doing after work today, lol.

I got my Saitama Resident's Tax bill the other day. That pretty much wiped out the surprise money I got. (T_T) Oh well. At least they let us pay in installments.

While I'm on a down note, I might as well mention that the Orlando Magic got BLOWN OUT in the first game of the NBA Finals. *sigh* Still, it's just one game in a best of seven series. Hopefully they can regroup and do better in game 2.

On a happier note, I had the best sets of classes on Thursday & Friday. Seriously, it doesn't even feel like I did any work. All I have to do is set up/explain the activities and they go. I then move around the classroom checking for mistakes and such. If I see that some groups are making the same mistake I'll pause the activity and point it out. They then do a pretty good job of self-correction. Prior to university the (Japanese) students have had 6 years of grammar/translation English lessons. They have already been exposed to all of the grammar in our textbook. They can pretty much recognize and analyze it. Not all of them have mastered it and fewer have even actually used it. So what I try to do is get them to access and activate this knowledge they have hidden away somewhere. I tell them to put away the textbooks and electronic dictionaries and try to use what they know. It took a few lessons for them to warm up to the idea but they're making good progress.

Anyway, I've got nothing going on this weekend. I had dinner with Miyuki last night. She's busy this weekend but said she'll try to see me when she has time. In between I guess I'll run some errands: shopping, laundry, etc...

Just some random bits here before I go to sleep....

I got an e-mail from my mom saying she received her Mother's Day card. *whew* I was afraid it wasn't going to make it on time what with Golden Week and all.

I went for that bike ride and it was quite nice. I just basically did a big loop of the area. I should get an odometer so I can track how many kilometers I'm doing here.

I forgot to buy groceries though. I guess I'm going to have to hit the supermarket after work tomorrow.

...there was something else, but it slips my mind. Oh well.

I met a bunch of JET ALTs. Nice kids, but they were just that: kids. I was a 20-something JET myself once, so I've been there done that. Some I talked to told me their stories from the battlefield and culture shock, which was ok. I was a bit annoyed with some of the know-it-all types trying to tell me "how it is in Japan" though. The last thing I need is some kid with not even a year in explaining Japan to me. I also had this vibe that some were trying to size me up, basically through the use of 2 questions: How long have you lived in Japan? and What do you do? Fair enough questions and definitely an acceptable small talk opening gambit. Still, you just know when someone's trying to measure you up. Those that tried to seemed a bit vexed that I had them trumped on both counts: 5 years and a university instructor. At least they didn't do the other big sizing up question How's your Japanese? When people do that, they usually launch some sort of impromptu Japanese language contest - to which I'm like I didn't come to a bar to test my Japanese guys.

One dude I talked to was really keen as to how I got this job. He's taking a break from his MA and wants to work at a Japanese university someday. He was sincere and apologized for perhaps coming off as a brown-noser, but the fact is that I'm doing exactly what he wants to do someday and was really curious as to how I got here.

I also met some Japanese folks and they were pretty cool. Actually, I got reacquainted with this one dude that I met the first time I lived in Japan. His English has gotten really good. At the karaoke, he sang some English songs with hardly any accent. We're going to see the new Star Trek when it comes out here in Japan. Every now and then, some of the other Japanese folks would ask me to sing such-and-such new English pop song. Unfortunately, I hadn't even heard of some of those groups/artists, much less any of their songs. I guess I need to update my repertoire, huh?

At any rate, I'm feeling a bit dried out. I need to rehydrate myself. Then I gotta do some laundry and air out my futon. Looks like a nice day for it. I think I'll also take in a bike ride.

I cleaned up and unpacked a good portion of my junk today. My kitchen table and chairs are coming next week. I need to get a chest of drawers so I can finish unpacking my junk (most of my clothes are still in my suitcases) and a proper computer desk because I hate working on the floor. The gas man came and now I have hot running water and a functional stove - yay!

Then I went for a little bike ride.
1.) I checked out the bus stop.
2.) Found some more mom-n-pop restaurants.
3.) Also found a huge bookstore and funky interior goods shop.
4.) Bought my first load of groceries from the closest supermarket. They have a point card, I should probably get one.

I need to do a few things for tomorrow.
1.) Get my suit ready. Not only is it orientation, there's going to be some sort of ceremony as well.
2.) Get my paperwork in order for possibly going to immigration tomorrow after work.

I think I'll try out my bath now....

At the bye-bye party tonight, they showed a clip of my 1st graders singing a song I taught them. Once again I had a good cry. Oh it was so awesome. The kids were singing in English and looked like they were having the best. time. ever. Some teachers came up to me afterward saying that they didn't know the 1st graders were that good in English. That they could be that good AND have so much fun doing so means that I must be a really GREAT teacher. I just bowed, waved my hand around and said "no, no... I didn't do a thing, it's the kids that did everything." Then some teachers said, "If you want to come back for a 3rd time, please do - we'll be waiting!" At the end, they gave me a huge bouquet of flowers, a couple envelopes of money and asked me to sing a song (in Japanese, I sang Sanpo), and give a speech (also in Japanese, basically the same speech I gave at the school's closing ceremony earlier today).

Afterward, there was a Party Round 2. However, I have A LOT of errands to run tomorrow before I head out to Shizuoka. I need to get up early and run them!

I was thinking about the events of this past year and I started to feel kinda bummed out. After my brief stint with public schools back home, I was SO looking forward to coming back to this school once again. The kids, the other teachers, living in Japan, everything. Then some of my hopes and plans got de-railed by a certain English department supervisor. (T_T)

The silver lining to all this of course is that I start work as a university English instructor next month in a couple of weeks! (^_^) Still, moving on like this has definitely left a bittersweet taste in my mouth.

Speaking of moving on, I started cleaning/packing. It feels like I have so much to do, however in just the little bit I did today I should have this all taken care of in no time. I should see if I can pick up some cardboard boxes from the supermarket.

And now for something completely lame...
( video game dorkery )

Last but not least, yesterday was Shohei's bye-bye party. We all met in Ikebukuro for Okinawan food and karaoke. At the restaurant, we also realized that it's my bye-bye party too. That was a lot of fun. I'm gonna miss hanging out with everyone. (;_;)

Miyuki came up to visit this weekend. Saturday was all QT. Sunday (today), we ran some errands. First we went to my real estate agent and told them I was moving out at the end of next month. We then had lunch at the kaiten sushi place in the mall. Then we stopped by my gym and told them that next month would be my last as I'm moving to an area where they don't have a branch. (They used to actually, but it closed down unfortunately. ;_; ) Then we went to the "kuroneko" to priority mail off my paperwork bundle to the university. After that, we went to a cafe, had coffee & cake, and took a breather. Then we went to the supermarket and bought some goods to make dinner. We decided to make a mushroom and chicken curry. We had the obligatory carrots, potatoes, and chicken. The mushrooms were maitake and shiitake - both were outstanding, they really made the curry. After dinner we debated going to the onsen, but she decided to go home as she didn't want it to be too late by the time she got back.

What else, this week I was going call about my utilities, but she offered to do it for me. I was like "Well, if you really want to... Thanks!" I'll keep my cell phone as it is my internet, they have service in my area, and I still have one more year to go on my contract. Depending on what specials are out there, I may go with some fiber optic internet anyway (I miss *really* fast internet at the house). Oh and I need to do the change of address form at the post office.

The school semester is done after March 23rd. I'll need to head down to Shizuoka for a few days to do some mundane stuff - renew my visa, update my foreigner card. My apartment should be open by then so I can turn on the utilities and throw some stuff in there as well, but I'll likely stay with her for the duration. Wow, that's like a month from now. Crazy.

My contract with the elementary school says I need to leave one month's notice. So I figure I can let them know this Friday what's going on. It didn't have to be this way. Had these guys been nicer about things, we could very well be planning for Miyuki to move up here and me sticking around for a while. What happened happened though, and as such provided the impetus for me to start looking around for another gig. So things DO happen for a reason after all.

Hmmm.... It's not even 9 pm. I *could* go to the onsen. However, I'm already in my PJs. I was thinking about just watching a video and calling it a night. I'm not in the mood for a snack as I just gorged myself on the mushroom and chicken curry. I have one beer left in the fridge. Not really enough to get me through the opening credits of most films, but whatever. Tomorrow's a school day anyway.

Dinner - check. I had a nice curry dinner at Coco Ichibanya. I can't believe this is only the first time I've had Coco Ichi this year!
Bookstore - check. Went straight from Coco Ichi to the bookstore. I bought a kanji dictionary. I didn't see any Japanese language texts that I liked though. I'll have to come back another time.
Starbucks - check. Got a cup of coffee and a piece of cake - yum!
Studying - fail. It was too crowded/noisy and I had an uncomfortable chair/table arrangement. I was just able to have the cake and coffee before I had had enough.

So I'm back home now and will start looking up some of the kanji in my paperwork. FIGHT!

I got my new driver's license today. It took a surprisingly quick 45 minutes. I had an eye check and got a new picture taken. No big whoop.

Later, I went shopping with my sister & brother-in-law. Gorgeous day out. The mission was to find accessories for our respective iPod Touches. However, neither of us saw anything we liked. While at the mall we also did a bit of window shopping. I got a sweater from Express for Miyuki. Then we had dinner at Hooters and watched some of the Magic game (lost ;_;). I got a t-shirt and calendar for myself and got her a t-shirt too.

Finally, I was sleeping soundly and then I just rolled over and was wide awake. grrr... I thought I was finally over this jet lag. I guess not. Oh well, I guess I queue up some videos on Handbrake and then try to get back to bed.

My desktop started acting up this morning so I decided now was a good a time as any to re-do it. It took a while, but it's done. It's running surprisingly well considering it's 6.5 years old. Some processes (e.g. virus scanning, converting videos with Handbrake) take a long time, but other than that my desktop is doing great!

I went with my brother-in-law to the Apple store this afternoon and looked at iPod Touch accessories. They had a couple of cases that looked promising. I didn't get anything as I wanted to price check on-line first. That is one thing about the Touch, it is a smudge magnet. All the smudges just make it look dirty. Also, it's smooth - almost too smooth. I'm afraid it'll slip out of my hands and crash on the pavement or something. I'd like a case/skin just to make it grip better.

ok, so tomorrow I'll renew my driver's license. Depending on what the weather and stuff is like after that, I may stop by some lakes that I used to fish back in the day and see what's up. Also depending on the weather I think I'll wash my car. I need to take an inventory of what car care products I have/need.

Speaking of inventory, I feel lost in my old room. I've only been away for 8 months, and it feels like forever. Heck, I didn't feel this lost after being away for 1+ years between visits last time I lived in Japan.

I'm actually bored now.

I slept in this morning. Rolled out of my futon and was about to take a shower when a lightbulb went off in my head "I know, I'll go to the onsen!"

I did, and it was great. I took a quick shower and then spent a lot of time in the baths. I hit up the steam room and sauna as well. It felt awesome. I used the time to meditate and think about the interview.

After that I had lunch at the mall, which was surprisingly busy. Noon on Wednesday, and the food court was packed. I had coffee and cake at Starbuck's. Then went for my haircut/shave. Nothing like a straight razor shave and a hot face towel. That was relaxing as well.

Now I'm in my apartment and I've got loads of time to kill. I want to make some resume photos, hit up Kinkos and find the interview site. I figure I might as well change some money for my trip while I'm in Ikebukuro. The Yen is killing the dollar right now, so it's a good time to do that. Hmmm... I don't really need to do anything else but I guess I can get in a little x-mas shopping as well. Ok, I'll chill out here for a little bit more and then head on out.

がんばります！ FIGHT! p(^O^)q

Pic Spam
( warning: these are kinda big )

Oh yeah, and I did three things yesterday:
1.) I went to Immigration to get a re-entry permit. That wasn't too bad, considering that this is my least favorite place in Japan. It took about 30 minutes.
2.) I went to Tokyo and bought a laptop backpack. The Targus Dash. I used it to come to work today, so far, so good. It was definitely way more comfortable than my shoulder bag.
3.) I saw Iron Man, The Dark Knight, AND The Incredible Hulk. I actually liked Iron Man the best. Heath Ledger was awesome as The Joker, but there were just some plot holes in TDK that kinda bugged me. The Incredible Hulk was pretty good too, better than the Ang Lee one (which I also liked btw).

ETA: Oh wait, I saw Iron Man the evening after the Sports Day. The other 2 I saw yesterday.

Today's teaching was a mixed bag. Next weekend is the school's sports festival. For this week and next, classes have been canceled left and right in order to prepare for this event. A lot of teachers are doing fun, filler lessons - watching videos and stuff like that. I decided to keep things mainly educational, but fun as well (my basic MO). My classes earlier in the week were good. Today I had my "challenging" 3rd grade class. They were quite a handful. A lot of whiny kids - "Why can't we watch a video like XXX's class?" Even the good kids in this class were not having it today. At least we ended on a high note. I gave them a word search puzzle and they all actually tried their best, covering their papers so that others couldn't copy their answers. Still, I was quite relieved to hear that bell go off at the end of the period.

Then later I had a 1st grade class that was just absolutely wonderful, and all was right with the world. (^_^)

I was really sleepy when I got home from work so I took a nap. Once I got up from my nap, I was starving. So I decided to get something to eat. First I stopped by the 7-11 to pay my electric bill. After that I rode around trying to find something new. I rode out to Miyahara station, but that place was deader than dead. I went back towards my place and ended up at a Yoshinoya. To at least make it seem like I was trying to find something new, I ordered something I'd never had before - the "Sauce Katsudon" (a bowl of rice with cabbage and a pork cutlet topped with a sweet, teriyaki-like sauce). It was pretty good. After that I realized that I basically just f-ed myself as far as going to the gym goes. The last time I went to the gym after eating I felt absolutely terrible. (;_;) Instead, I went to Don Quijote and bought a bookshelf. It cost 980 yen. I brought it home on my bicycle and just finished putting it together.

I was hoping to skype with Miyuki, but if she doesn't show up in the next few minutes I'm going to bed.

I made a pizza today. Well, I didn't make it from scratch. I bought a pizza kit at the supermarket, threw it together and baked it for 7 minutes at 250 C. One thing though: it made my apartment REALLY hot. I don't think I'll be making many more pizza kits until the weather cools down significantly.

It's really hot outside today as well. I did a load of laundry and hung it out to dry. Within a couple of hours it was done.

ok, I'm going to get my stuff together and head out to Omiya to see what flights are like to Singapore. Heck, I may even play some on-line mah-jong at the arcade just to get out of the heat!