Yoo!
So ya, I know it, you know it, so lets just move past this awkward moment of not having seen each other for a while.
Tons has happened, I don't even know where to start. I hope you don't mind if it's long.
Work! I took on a new job at Mitsubishi in December. I only have 3 students there, and comparatively (to my other students) their English is incredible. I had this whole lesson plan prepared, exercises, pronunciation, topics, questions, debates, everything, and I didn't use any of it. I walked in and was greeted by a very intelligent 26 year old Mitsubishi employee who had a sea of interesting questions and opinions that made my 40 minutes with him absolutely fly by. The other two students, though not as talented, were equally good company, and it has continued this way as I get to know them more and more. My class at Nissan came to an end in early December. My perfectly scheduled 18th chapter on the 18th class gave me just enough time to finish the next 6 chapters on the 19th class before their final test. Pacing, it seems, is a foreign concept to me. Either way the class was a blast, and even though I was allowed to leave early, I stayed in the class during the exam and observed as over 80% of them passed. I had really started to connect with the students as well, so when they asked me to teach the same class in January, of course, I accepted. My 3rd class continues on as per usual, but I made a really interesting observation just last week. While they may not be very strong at keeping a conversation in real time, we did an exercise of hypothetical situations where they had time to prepare an answer, and I was taken aback at how well thought out their answers were. It was as much of a learning experience for me as it was for them. I'm only here for another 5 months but I hope I can teach right up until the end.
As far as life outside of work, well shit, I've been busy. As most of you know, Simon moved back to Toronto in early December, but he will always have a place here at the borderless house. Seriously, if they didn't come to the house, 2 Canadian flags would still symbolize my room's inhabitants on the borderless house website. They were... surprised to see me living on my own haha. But now that the secrets out I might be getting a new roommate. This could be the only situation where being a beloved Canadian could backfire, people are gunna be lining up, ... maybe?
Speaking of the borderless house, since my last blog I have since lost 1 male housemate and gained 2 female ones, and with each major event there is, of course, a party to celebrate. The first of a series of parties was a Christmas party hosted by our neighbors and borderless house rivals, kikukawa1, (my house is kikukawa2), so as you can imagine, the competition was fierce. What competition? Kikukawa1's Jake had prepared several tournaments to put each house's athletic ability, fashion sense, and even gaming knowledge to the test, and eventually, kikukawa2 left with their tails between their legs. The night was filled with lots of Christmas spirit and good times. Charlie Brown would be very proud, particularly of our custom designed 1 foot Christmas tree (I hope I can find a picture).
Christmas approached very quickly, and once again, Kikukawa2 came together for a spectacular Christmas miracle! ... of various dishes from the local super market. We watched love actually and ate potato wedges and of course, got wasted. 3 days later a bit of a party lull was growing so Rina-chan invited 2 of her work friends over for a takoyaki (deep fried balls with octopus) party, which also happens to be one of my favourite foods here in Japan. After a few drinks the takoyaki party had expanded into more of a "whatever you want"-yaki party, and Rina-chan lost in a particularly hilarious fashion to a game of Russian roulette, featuring wasabi-yaki.
Just a few days to New Years and I was particularly excited about some plans I had made with a student of mine to go golfing in Chiba on New Years Eve. 5am rolls around and I make my way to kikukawa station with Andrew's clubs (can't thank you enough by the way), and I receive a call from my student and friend Eiji-san, and although I commend his efforts for speaking English at first, after about 10 seconds we just started speaking Japanese and I met him shortly thereafter. It was about a 2 hour drive to the club, and at first I was really nervous for obvious reasons, but after about 10 minutes in the car my Japanese just started flowing. I can't explain it, but on that day I think I started actually speaking Japanese. We talked about city driving, country driving, music, food, golf, learning english, learning japanese, it didn't stop, and before I knew it I was in the midst of a beautiful mountain range golf club. We dropped off our bags and went inside, where I made my bets for the fanstasy draft and went to the practice range. Eiji-san introduced me to all his friends, and it was such an incredible experience. Meeting new people, have them be in awe at me speaking any Japanese. At one point I remember us all gathering around for group introductions. When it came time for me to speak I was so nervous I was practically whispering. But at that moment, every man in the grouped shuffled in closer to hear what I had to say. It's an experience I can't really describe, and when I finished getting through my rather impromptu introduction they all applauded and smiled and I felt right at home. After that it was all smooth sailing. Having grown up on golf courses, the whole thing was very natural for me. Some of the more humourous parts of my game were learning that "tempura" is used like how we use "sky ball", since when tempura is finished it floats to the top of the oil, or how they shorten the english words "Driving Contest" to "Dri Con", which I misheard and comically mis-referenced as "Dragon". Since it was a country club, it was fully equipped with an incredible kitchen and spa, which I made full use of after the round. The food was excellent, but perhaps the most memorable experience was using the onsen, or public bathing house. After shimmying down and washing up at a little stool, I stepped into an insanely hot tub with my fellow golfing mates, where we chatted about the round and relaxed in the hot water. I've never felt quite as rejuvenated as I did in that moment, and I really look forward to my next onsen visit.
I spent New Years Day at Andrew's house, where his mom cooked us authentic Japanese cuisine, and afterwards I attempted to thank her for the delicious meal, but instead changed an "i" to a "u" and told her that I'm sorry for her loss. What can I say, Japanese is hard.
Since my last blog there have been quite a few arrivals and departures. The arrivals include Dianna and Julia of Portugal and Russia respectively to the Kikukawa2 house, and Alvaro of Spain has moved to a different house here in Tokyo. Also Andrew flew to Australia just 5 days ago to pursue his programming dreams. He will be missed, but I know I'll see him again.
That's it for now, also for those of you who did the math, I am now the only guy in Kikukawa2, living with 4 girls. That is all!
Ganbarimasu!
がんばります！
