Entries this day: Dream Drizzle Jesse's_high_school Jesse_hangin'_out Naptime Ooops;_I_mean_Kill_Bill_time

Dream

8:50am JST Wednesday 5 July 2006

Riding with my friend in a cement mixer, we took a short cut through the woods and he turned down into a ditch that would force us to dump over sideways, but the other side of the ditch caught us; I realized he was trying to grease up the side of the mixer with mud from the other side of the ditch.

We ditched the mixer and climbed out of the ditch and I found an article about Japanese manga and how back in WW2 it was used as a mental purification rite instead of just mental candy.

Drizzle

9:33am JST Wednesday 5 July 2006

Rainy season here in Japan (at least Tokyo), so umbrellas are rampant. I'm wearing the banana leaf flipflops I got in Bali, though they are a bit slippery so I took them off while walking down the street. Put them on to walk down the steps into the station, wondering at the levels of irony at putting on slippery flipflops when going down more dangerous terrain /slash/ why/if people would care more/at all if I am running around barefootfully in the train station vs outside.

Jesse's high school

9:39am JST Wednesday 5 July 2006

Headed to Jesse's high school English classes before they rock out for the summer. These are the students who knew me before I arrived, so they asked me to come back.

11:18am

First class was a success! We had fun hollering names of students as we handed out papers. A couple of times as we rolled through the stacks of paper, names appeared on top of both stacks, so we were yelling the same names, sometimes pretending not to notice.

One girl kept smiling and giving me eyes; I thought of Indiana Jones.

12:19pm

Second class was suuuuuuuuper quiet!! Pretty difficult to know if they were comprehending, confused, sleeping or something else.

To keep some level of entertainment, Jesse did a little stand-up comedy sketch about Japanese on cell phones, using a long string of short grunts of listening / acknowledgement. I then did a rap, faking on my (Jesse's) cellphone like "uh uh yeah uh"... I cut it short because I thought it was dumb, but the students clapped appreciatively.

- - - -

Lunch now.

2:04pm JST Wednesday 5 July 2006

Last class turned into two half classes; I got pulled into the other assistant teacher's class to read some stuff with good ol' 'merican pronunciation. The students flipped when I walked in barefoot. Hahahah!

Jesse came in soon thereafter and we read in funny accents. (school girl, old woman, southern drawl, etc)

We were each reading from a thin workbook, which I immediately started to spin on my finger - an old trick I learned starting in high school. Most of the boys started to emulate, trying to learn this valuable skill to the possible detriment of their attention to the class.

Jesse hangin' out

3:48pm JST Wednesday 5 July 2006

Semi-wandering around in the rain looking for a non-existant exit on the far side of the school to walk to Musashi Shinjo instead of Musashi Nakahara, thereby saving 20 yen on Nambu Line, and discovering a Korean food store where Jesse scooped up several different food items and a can of coconut juice drink for super cheap.

Takoyaki shop for 6 takoyaki balls for 250 yen. Neither of us noticed they gave us 7 balls before we both claimed the last one wasn't ours. "I ate three" "Well, I ate three..." and we both mulled over the memories to make sure we were right... yes; three.

[um, did you give us 7?]

[yes]

Wow; cool.

- - - -

Jesse decided the coconut juice was fantastic, and well worth the price, so I decided I wanted my own can, but he would have to go into the store because it reeked of stale cigarette smoke.

"The woman's teeth are black, too," reported Jesse.

I sent him in with 200 yen so he could get another can for himself, and he came out with like four cans plus two extra cans of

"they have guava juice!!!" he exclaimed.

"I love guava juice!" we announced in unison.

"Really? You want some?"

"def!"

So he went back in for two more cans of guava juice.

Nice.

- - - -

Canned jackfruit on display outside the store tempted me; I loved the fresh jackfruit in Bali enough to nearly call it my favorite fruit. But canned....?

Hmmm.

Nah.

- - - -

Just a bit ago I gave the shoulder strap to Hiroko, owner of the small casual clothes shop near the station; she had expressed significant interest in it for her son when I went in looking for shorts a couple weeks ago.

I asked if they could order some shorts for me, but the supplier was out.. Columbia Sportswear has some phat rip-stop fabric shorts that I totally would want, but they are too long for me. I like them above the knees. Might go get them anyway.

Naptime

6:36pm JST Wednesday 5 July 2006

I apparently didn't get enough sleep last night; my brain is misfiring like pretty-tired mode, and I can't stand to concentrate on the images project anymore. Came upon a stumbling block about which I've asked the developer, but can't bear to work beyond it right now.

Also, apparently, Americans sleep less than they think they do.

I'm glad to generally sleep each night until I wake up. No alarms for me.

Ooops; I mean Kill Bill time

11:11pm JST Wednesday 5 July 2006

I asked Michael if he'd like to watch Kill Bill. He didn't watch all of number 2, but I watched Kill Bills 1 and 2 instead of napping. Now it's sleep time for real. Probably.