An Enkai, an Illness, and a Dog.

An Enkai, an Illness, and a Dog.

With the new school year and new teachers come to Honjo JHS, it was time for yet another enkai. I was rather shocked to find out that it was happening a mere two weeks after the goodbye enkai (quite the rebound). However, it allowed me to use the following phrase which I had just learned.

二週間ぶり! “The first time in two weeks”, referring to drinking sake with co-workers, that is. And I may not have said/written/understood the grammar correctly in the first place.
We went to a really beautiful restaurant (and ryokan?) in Iwataki. I wish we had come in the daytime and the not-pouring-rain time so I could have walked around the garden on the premises. Instead, we all poured inside the room and sat down (自由席OMG- free seating) and naturally I sat near but not directly next to the fanciable Murakoshi-sensei [from hereon known as “Foxy sensei”] I sat next to the music teacher on my left [Shimizu-sensei] and the math teacher and drinking buddy of mine on my right [Ota-sensei]. I was happy with the surroundings and pleased that after a cup of sake, I was up to speaking some Japanese, answering the usual batch of questions about my hometown, eating habits, cooking abilities, presidential preferences, and love life. Oh, and baseball.
I had been feeling quite under the weather all day… not quite sure why. Mostly the lack of sleep, I had thought. However my feelings of general ickiness kept up throughout the evening, leaving me half conscious for a better part of the dining. Sadly, I couldn’t eat most of my food. This is VERY unlike me. I ignored my death rattle by talking to Foxy-sensei and Shimizu-sensei about the students and music and baseball [hooray for Ichiro, the only thing I know about baseball besides the fact that tight pants have always been my favourite things in the world of athletics.]

After much eating (why do so many dishes have small dead fish with eyes?), we strutted down to a local karaoke/bar named “White Pepper”. It sounded very familiar to me. I then thought that Bryn might come to this bar, which is where I may have heard the name before. Considering for a moment that Bryn’s former JTE was in our company and the lovely bartender had been talking about him for going on three minutes, I decided to invite Bryn to join our ‘fun’. He did so, being the sport he is. After a brief encounter with the not NOT trashed Notani-sensei, he hung out with me in the corner where I shared my half-chair with Aria-sensei [the nurse]. We chatted, wiped the blood from one another’s ears as Kocho-sensei sang his favourite tunes from the 1950’s, and drank whatever it was the bartender kept giving us. Unfortunately I had not foreseen that the gathering of two gaijins in a bar when said gaijins are not of the same gender can only mean one thing – HOT WESTERN SEX (in secrecy). I assume now that everyone things I am dating Bryn. This bodes less well for my romantic takeover of Foxy-sensei, which surely was well on its way. I believe he looked at me once and told me to ‘be careful’ in karaoke. One may recall the last karaoke session with this same set of teachers at the Ine JHS goodbye party. Do I hear wedding bells?

The trip home was no less than terrifying as my ride braved the sheets of rain on the narrow mountain roads of Nii-mura. Finally we arrived at my house, only to have a frantic look for my house keys!

At last, I had found my keys and let myself into my apartment. Only to be followed by some very expensive, Japanese puking. Another first time had in Japan.

Hm.

I was trying to think of the best way to explain my new JTE situation. So here goes:

Tsuji-sensei was a horse.
Notani-sensei is a camel.

Both get you from point A to point B.

However when one switches from horse to camel, one thinks, "This is difficult only because I know what it's like to ride smoothly."

Poorly explained, but there you have it.

And if you've ever ridden a camel... well you just know what it's like.

偀介君Supermanz dat Ho

Letters from Kameshima
(it's an island... kind of close to where I live.)

Thursday
Dear Eisuke-kun, It is only the first day of classes, but already you have made my year.

Kind Regards,

Rachel Teacher

Friday
Dear Mashiba-sensei (may I call you Yoichi?)

I never knew I would be smitten by a 22 year old junior high school gym teacher doing a backflip to the eager applause of thirteen year olds.

I was wrong. So very wrong.

Anytime. Anywhere.

Rachel Teacher

Friday Later...

朝妻(Asazuma) -- part of Ine, but more a hilly village where I do shuji.

I drove around this new rode that leads from Honjo-hama (Honjo beach) all the way around the peninsula, hugging the coast. I didn't really know what to expect, but I got a really nice view as it turned out! I recommend taking mystery roads.

this essentially sums up all that happened in the past 60 hours.

Party in Honjo/Ine/Inaka/Your Mom

Party in Inaka; 6,000 Found Dead.

This weekend was a celebration of nothing in particular. A month ago I had decided to throw another party (the last party being Rachelmas™ back in December). Most of my good friends could come, which was good. A few couldn’t, which was too bad. The most interesting part was the RSVPing, which was usually acquaintances telling me that they ‘probably wouldn’t make my party unless nothing better came up’, which is always a delight to hear. Well, the turn out was a good number of people to the food and liquor that we had prepared. I have more liquor left over in my house than I could ever drink in a year.

Let’s go back in time to Friday, where I drove to Nishi-Maizuru to pick Ian and Megan up at the train station. What a great place to pick people up! It’s only an hour and 15 minutes away from my home and there are no tolls! I believe it’s also quite thrifty for the train passengers, which makes it an ideal Inaka-pickup place for future weekends. We immediately went to Karachi for curry and followed it up with a donut or two. After a lovely drive home (accompanied by Easy-E, as per usual), we watched cartoons and slept in the downstairs tatami room. We didn’t even need the heater! Kirby was pleased to see his favourite guests back in the house. The guests were equally pleased to see Kirby, who is now as big as a wild boar and twice as chubby.


Saturday I left around 1030 in the morning for Yagi (Greg’s town) which is about 30 km from Kyoto as I understand it. I got there in about two hours time and met Greg at the train station. We trained it to Nijo to meet Zara (who was visiting from Kyushyu after dropping her mother off at the airport). We all went hanami-watching [a term used to describe looking at blossoms] in the city while I did errands. Pet food, coffee, etc. The blossoms were indeed lovely! I shall have to plan a proper hanami picnic for next year, but I got my fill of pink flowers, which was my goal anyway. Two hours, one ice coffee, and a subway ride later, we met John ‘Nowun kan oonderstand me’ Blakeney at Nijo. He looked as though he’d been hit by the party truck. He immediately asked if he could have a shower at m house, and we jumped on the slowest train in the world back to Yagi. The ride back was quick and painless with a quick stop off at Miyazu’s most famous beauty spot: MIPPLE. An unbelievable load of snacks and booze and we were back in the car and driving to Ine.


The party was lovely, as I have mentioned. A great group of people came over, plenty of liquor was imbibed, and nobody got so drunk that they threw up in my house or yard, which is always a plus. I am always touched that people will drive all the way up to my town for a few hours of standing around in my kitchen eating pizza and chatting. It’s no small trek.

Around 3am, we called it a night and went to bed. No hangovers the next day, which was fantastic (and VERY different from Rachelmas™). The first problem in the morning was the realization that there was NO MILK. How did we drink a gallon of milk in one night? The answer: we COULDN’T HAVE. Someone had most certainly pilfered my milk. I drove some of the kids out to the Nishigaki about 20 minutes away to get milk and veggies for omelets. Zara made omelets and smoothies for us and we enjoyed them while forcing John to watch “The Little Mermaid” (my work here is done). Eventually it was time to go down to the train stations and get Zara and Greg home.



The only problem was that my car seats four people and we had six. Simple solution, three HUGE boys in the back (all being tall and or bootylicious), Megan in the front seat, and Zara curled up while sitting on Megan’s lap. [PEOPLE IN THE CAR] Zara is also about 16 feet tall, so that worked out as well as it sounds. A dangerous car ride to Amanohashidate saw Zara off! We then drove down to Ayabe to drop Greg off at the station which would save him money. He of course ended up on the SAME TRAIN as Zara. The earth is so small.

• The remainder of the lot found ourselves eating yakiniku and being ripped off on kimchee. Those bastards. Then an ice creamy goodbye and everyone hopped a train or two home. It was a very lonely trip back up to my inaka home, but all in all, a very satisfying and bank-draining weekend. Let’s do it again!

School Year Ends; Teachers Wander Off

Rachel says 'Goodbye' to Teachers, is Heartbroken on Purely Educational Level.

I won’t lie, this week has sucked and it has sucked hard. Last week I believe I studied Japanese for about 6-7 hours every day. It was interesting how much of it I was able to retain considering I have the conversational ability of an autistic panda.

I had an enkai with the Ine JHS teachers on Friday of last week. We went to a beautiful hotel in Amanohashidate (I was terribly underdressed) and ate fantastic food that went on and on for hours, course after course. Sauced up on sake, beer, and whatever liquor the womenfolk were feeding me, I had a good time conversing with my cohorts and taking time out to have English conversations with Aimi-sensei as well. The teachers’ speeches were very boring, but sincere. We are losing seven teachers (of our 15)—but three of them are only going to Honjo, where I also teach. I am sad to be losing one of my favorite teachers in the world, Fujimura-sensei. Her never-ending genkiness and motherly love towards me has really helped me get situated at Ine JHS. I wont’ be forgetting her anytime soon. She’s off to Hashidate JHS! So, at least Bryn can see her for me!

Yesterday (the last day of wretched March, which did not go out like a damn lamb) was my last day of work with Tsuji-sensei – my JTE and the best friend I had in my town for sure. We chatted the whole day about what we were nervous about in the coming year. She told me she really liked a lot of the teachers who are coming (including Notani-sensei, the new English teacher from Bryn’s school). That made me relax a lot. She says her new school is a fairly good size, maybe 300-400 students. Sadly she’s going to Yawada, which is clear across the prefecture (as much as you can get before going into Wakayama). A group of us teachers went to the only restaurant in Honjo (a lunch restaurant by Urashima Shrine that serves famous soba and delicious udon). It was nice chatting with the other teachers; some leaving, some staying. We all came back to school quite refreshed and full of noodles.

Midway through the day, Tsuji-sensei sat down at her desk and informed me that she was unable to make the Goodbye Enkai the next day because she had to drive to her new school immediately after the goodbye teachers ceremony on Tuesday. I was crushed. All of a sudden I went from having one more day with Tsuji-sensei to having two more brief hours. Hours at school, and not drunk at a hotel somewhere. It was a miserable way to end it, I felt. I helped her clean up the student council room with Ota-sensei (the math teacher who has taken a shine to me and likes to try out English on me). Afterwards it was time for me to leave. I said, ‘well, thank you for everything.’ Then she extended her arms for a hug—which I wasn’t sure people ever did in this country. I hugged her goodbye and we said our, “I’ll miss you’s” and “write me soons”. I left the school crying for the third time in one month.

I am at Ine JHS at the moment. We’ve just completed the goodbye teacher ceremony and it was sad, but more boring and cold than anything else. Why is it still cold?! The gym teacher is considerably more good-looking than the last (the 55 year old man) which makes me feel a bit more high-spirited about the coming school year.

Thank you to all the teachers for making my first 8 months in Japan memorable, and for being nice to me even though I could never quite speak to you other than saying all the wrong things in your ridiculous picture language.
Love, Rachel.

The Bay - Could it BE any more colours?