Entries this day: Bicycle I_spy Monster's_Ball Yumi_lesson china

Bicycle

1:22am JST Tuesday 27 January 2004

On the way to Yokohama Prince Hotel (and back), janette did a great job keeping up with me on her bike. I didn't zoom as fast as I could, but she kept up with me more than I expected she'd be able to. Nice.

I spy

2:18pm JST Monday 26 January 2004

janette and I are playing I spy overlooking the Shinkansen station from a window in the restaurant at the top of Yokohama Prince Hotel.

Her first target was "something old, gray and many." I looked around for a while and made some guesses. She added that they are markers of sorts.

I still couldn't get it, so she gave me another hint after I asked if they were funded by the government. "They are funded by people who never get to see them." Ah; gravestones.

I probably would have gotten it more quickly if I could have seen them.

- - - -

Me: "I spy something yellow."

"Ummm. That building?"

"Nope."

"Ummm, that roof?"

"Nope. Nevermind; it's gone. It was a taxi."

- - - -

Now she has spied something of which there are two. Ah; I see them. The trusses on the bridge.

- - - -

Oh cool. A shinkansen just went through the station without stopping. It wasn't as fast looking as I hoped it would be.

- - - -

Me: "I spy something green."

No pause. "The stairs on that building."

"Hai."

- - - -

She: "I spy a circle within a square."

No looking. "The top of that building?"

"Hai."

- - - -

Me: "I spy that shinkansen. shit I fucked it up again."

- - - -

"I spy something white," I said while looking at the white plate in front of us on the table. So sneaky!

- - - -

She spied an orange dragon going back and forth. It was a lawnmower thing we think.

Monster's Ball

5:51pm JST Monday 26 January 2004

Watched approx the first half of Monster's Ball with janette. I have to zoom to my lesson with Yumi so I stopped the movie as the dad was going into Halle Berry's house for the first time.

janette was a bit teary, so I intoned his voice

"Naih huney, Ima gonna be gown foah cuppla ars. Yoo gonna be aight?"

"Ah reckon."

Hahahah funny.

1:24am JST Tuesday 27 January 2004

Wow. Um, pretty good movie. I was reallly worried about her reaction to seeing the truth of the history of Billy Bob and her husband. It didn't seem realistic, but I was happy for the soft ending because I didn't want to go to sleep with crunchy memories floating around my noggin.

Yumi lesson

6:09pm JST Monday 26 January 2004

On the way to Yumi's lesson. Because we didn't ride bikes, bang, got flowers for Yumi (cause I cancelled last lesson with her).

Though we didn't ride bikes to the station, and were on a local train to Kita Senju (therefore not a train going all the way to Shibuya), and had to wait for a Shibuya-bound train at なかめぐろ, I made it to the lesson with a minute to spare.

I knew 3 hours (planned lesson time) was really long for a lesson, so I taught her only two basic things. 1) "I have been ..." and "I had been ..." and 2) "I am wearing black and red" and "I am not wearing blue or green," plus the word "actually."

She actually had an easier time with the have and had, or I misunderstood how much trouble she didn't have with and and or.

Yumi terminated the lesson after we had been studying for 2.6 hours. She had had enough. "Finish."

- - - -

After lesson, Yumi didn't actually want to wait around for 10 o'clock to meet janette at the time and place we had agreed, but I actually found janette who had been trying on green and black hats or something, and we caught up with Yumi at the Yamanote platform. Actually, she had just gotten on the train. They met and yammered and when we got to Shibuya, janette forgot to get off with me; she actually had been thinking Yumi had to get off there. janette would have stayed on the train, even though I had gotten off, so Yumi had to push her off.

In Shibuya, amazingly, a Japanese guy talked to us. He was drunk (I wonder how long he had been drinking) but even so, no Japanese people have straight up talked to me for no apparent reason, and I've seen lots of drunk Japanese. We yammered as best we could in Japanese and English. As we were nearing Tsunashima, he was inviting janette and I to drink (!) with him in Yokohama or Sakuragicho. No way jack. We're um, meeting friends. Yeah, that's the ticket.

We did meet a friend. Jen was coming the other way as we got to Lawson. She told us about her head injury story and showed us the staple in her head.

(( Her chain popped off her bike as she had been trying to accelerate quickly (standing up) and she just flipped the fuck off her bike and busted her head. She was like, "hey I fell" and was trying to get the chain back on when the blood started to pour into her eye.

Good thing Grace hadn't been too far ahead. ))

china

11:43pm JST Monday 26 January 2004

From a cat who has worked at Nova:

                 [ Nova bashing snipped ]


anyway, enough negative stuff.  you hate nova, you want a change.
would you consider china?  the reason i havent answered you until now
is because i'm now in china and hotmail (for whatever reason moves
really slow here).  my school is hiring and a friend of mine's school
is also hiring.  both schools are in northern china.  the winters are
cold.  COLD.  VERY COLD.  its not easy here but if you're looking for
something different send me your resume and i will take a look at
it. the money is better than japan (believe it or not).  anyway, if you're interested send your
resume.

My resume is online at http://www.robnugen.com/resume/

I'm interested in teaching in China, but not quite yet.  I want to get
a little better grasp on speaking Japanese before I leave here.  I'm
likely to sign with a different school here in February.  Oh, and I'm
not good with cold weather.  Especially not VERY COLD weather.  But
maybe I can work wherever you are for some months and then move to a
warmer part of China.

	Take care
	- Rob