Entries this day: Dream Japanese_class aries miki zzz_last_thoughts

Dream

8:16am JST Friday 28 November 2003

I was in my apartment here in Japan (and Fred was over) and Elizabeth Anderson (YRUU, Austin) came over specifically to say goodbye; she was leaving. I invited her in, chatted with her a bit, Fred gave her a big hug, and then she left.

Japanese class

1:34am JST Saturday 29 November 2003

I had a different/unexpected success today in Japanese class. I was doing some grammar drills on some new grammar that seemed really difficult and I was like grrr and I reallllly thought あやな must be bored as fuck and that she was really patient with me and I could hardly believe it when she was like, "good job" and I was like "yeah right," but she kept it up and I was beginning to wonder if maybe I really was doing a good job (this is a huge point for me to learn as a teacher; I'm not good at saying good job if it's not as good as I hope, even if it's a good effort) and ANYWAY the point is あやな said がんばって and it made me feel better. Wow; how amazing is that? I chugged on and got through the exercises.

ps: soon as I learn the lesson she'll teach next week, I'll be able to explain in Japanese that she said gambatte (in Japanese). Nice.

aries

12:44am JST Saturday 29 November 2003

Had two >M< lessons with what's-her-name (たかこ?), my Aries buddy at KQ. She's 7B, and seemed to grasp well is/has and some descriptive adjectives and present progressive verbs. Nice. I hope to watch her progress; it's students like her that make me interested in staying around. Not like to hook up with her, but like legitimately to just be excited for her progress.

miki

12:58am JST Saturday 29 November 2003

Hung out with みき immediately after my work. Met up with her in Azalea and we walked to Cinecitta area (and saw / were seen by Phil along the way (eee)) and sat together on the steps (in the cold) to watch two water fountain performances.

She brought a tangerine, which she called a みかん, but which some cat on the web says is not an exact translation; maybe there isn't a name for precisely what we call a tangerine. Anyway, fuck that; we ate it and watched the water thing and had fun yammering about nothing and everything else.

She was a bit congested, so I suggested we send her home or go someplace warmer. Went to Starbucks and had hot cocoa and more tangerines and a chocolate chip scone.

She caught the last bus home (luckily; we just left when Starbucks closed and walked to the bus stop and bang the first bus that came was the last bus that was gonna come tonight) and I fell asleep on the train on the way home. Missed 武蔵小杉 by two stations. Made it back to 小杉 before 12:30 which is basically when the last train comes that will go all the way to 綱島。

zzz last thoughts

1:46am JST Saturday 29 November 2003

From The New York Times:

DoCoMo blocks about 55 percent of the one billion text
messages that reach its servers each day because of suspicious return
addresses or attachments.

(my emphasis)