Entries this day: Dream_alarm How_to_catch_a_train Kikijoji

Dream alarm

8:56am JST Saturday 2 September 2006

skating on skateboard back to the church, from the opposite direction on the map, but I simply rememmbered it from last time and I turned left and went past the exit ramp to the main thing and then it was wet and I slipped and slid on my shoes for 30 meters (paced out later) and then my dad called me, with some note of calling me before work.

I paced off the thing to tell him how long it had been, and then woke up.

oh shit; my alarm didn't go off; good thing my dad called!!

How to catch a train

9:26am JST Saturday 2 September 2006

Zoom

I'm panting, catching my breath....

I just got the train at 9:14am in Sakurashinmachi... as in I arrived at the station at 9:13, and was running down the two flights of stairs as the train was entering the station.

Stepped on with no worries.

(( The trains in Tokyo are really excellent. The train system in Tokyo is second to none in the world for on time departures, precision arrivals, cleanliness of trains, low price tickets, and sheer stunning volume of passengers that ride every day. ))

Because of the "precision of arrival" factor noted above, I knew exactly which door I should exit for fastest transit to my next line.

zoom running up the stairs, around the corner through the gates, run up the still-empty escalator, up more 1.5 flights of stairs, outside, walking up the long escalator, right to the gates of my next line, just as the bell was going off to signal doors closing.

Here's the part to watch on video in super slow-mo:

Two people in front of me, "rushing" for the train

Doors begin to close

The two people in front of me give up, effectively blocking the doors

I bolt to the next set of doors as they are continuing to close

Punch the air between the doors as they close on my arm

Doors open, and I step politely onto the train.

さくっと

Kikijoji

12:52pm JST Saturday 2 September 2006

Students today have been cool so far, going from high speed chat about exporting slag (byproduct of steel production) to use as concrete (while I slurped down a couple of jelly drinks from the convenience store, to my answering a spew of questions with quite limited relation to each other, as in very low comprehension on my answers, though she didn't ask for clarification. (Same as last week, apparently, when I wrote '"I don't understand" <‐‐ I taught her how to use this.')

It doesn't seem to have stuck.

6:37pm JST Saturday 2 September 2006

Last two lessons were husband and wife; Hideaki and Sayaka. They are both high level, so I enjoyed finishing out the day with them.

Actually there was a level-check in between them, scheduled at the last minute. A woman named Junko whose English is even *better* than theirs; she live in Ohio starting at age 15 and somehow survived though she went in with zero English ability. Now her skills are money and I was hard pressed to find any errors. She missed a single plural: "month" instead of "months" in our 18 minute chat.

Super funny: on the level check guide, there are questions that are rather strange, and just serve as suggestions. In Junko's level check, I was able to ask one of the stranger questions, and it was only slightly strange!

I asked what she had done today and she said she had gone out with her mom. That was my chance: "does your mother like animals?"

Junko assured me her mom likes dogs (big dogs) and told me the sad tale of their 16 year old dog recently leaving the family for doggie heaven.

I switched back to the vocabulary and made an error: completely underestimated her vocabulary memory. I was like, "are you an optimistic person or a pessimistic person?" as I was certain she knew every other word on the list.

She goes, "what kind of question is that?"

That's when I showed her the sheet and that I was glad to have been able to use the strange question.

Had to wrap up soon thereafter.