(no subject)
The summer this year is great compared to usual-- it's way cooler than it usually is. However, when it gets humid, it's humid... when the humidity goes down, it's border-line cold at times.
My friend Enoki came to Toyama last week! It was nuts because he came all the way from Kumamoto-ken. We met in Osaka in the morning and drove to Toyama on that night. Luckily, Mr. Shima was also heading to Osaka-- technically, so he gave Miya and I a ride there. Mr. Shima's friend, Yoko Ono, also had something to do in Osaka, so he drove her there with us. Yoko Ono was conveniently staying the night in those parts with her friend, so we had an open seat for Enoki to come back with us in. Mr. Shima had business in Hyogo-ken, which is a little bit of a drive from Osaka. I got to meet his son again on that night with Enoki and Miya. Enoki got a guitar and we got to eat Mexican food. We did a pretty extensive tour of the region that I'm in which I'm pretty sure exhausted everyone involved-- that's not to say that it wasn't fun! I'll post pictures of that later.
So two new ALTs came to Tonami and I spent the majority of last week helping the board of education help them out. It was work, but not like normal work would be during summer vacation (a lot of time to do nothing). I basically spent my time riding around in a car with someone from the board of education and a new ALT going to places to take care of their business. I was the interpreter. The new ALTs both are decent at Japanese, but I think no matter how good you are, once you get off that plane you're exhausted. I think they're both gonna get good at Japanese in a hurry if they put some effort into talking to the local people. I got to help them out, which was nice- but part way through I realized that I had learned a lot through the experience. Initially driven to the job as a diversion from everyday work in the office, I soon realized that I had had my first experience doing serious interpreting (despite the casualness of most of the situations, it was still business). Through the process I also got to know better more people from the BOE as well as people involved in one way or another with ALTs or foreigners in general. Things are really getting intertwined, though, the more times goes on. A woman from the city hall at the BOEs welcome party said that I had met her husband and that he liked me a lot etc etc. I guess I had met him one time when I went to Tabetari with Masaki. As usual Masaki wanted to play music there (there's like a private back room in this bar) and there were a few other people, including the cook on piano/bass. I suggested just trying to go through a 1-6-2-5 type of a pattern and ended up teaching them the basic concept of it, which apparently left an impact. Anyways, she took a "two shot" of us with her cell phone and sent it to her husband which had some people puzzled at the party haha.
I've been spending a lotta time with my girlfriend lately and she usually makes breakfast in the morning and sometimes I'll make dinner at night, but most of the time we end up going out at night because she gets off late. We've been spending a lotta money going out-- and although I've been meeting a lotta people through that, I think it's time to cut down. We decided we wanna cook more at night to save money/time. The problem was, however, that there was this huge obtrusive wall in my kitchen. I was so sick of the thing... I finally had some time off recently, so I went down to the apt. company building and told them I wanted that thing gone-- it took some cajoling, but last friday, at long last, an old man and his wife came and cut the thing down and fixed the floor. The mysterious couple then drove off with no fee and little side conversation and definately no names... I actually did go into the office for a bit that day after helping the ALTs, so I was exhausted and delerious during the operation. Anyways, that was a huge step towards a nicer lifestyle... my kitchen was just not built for an american sized person to fit in-- although foreigners have been living in my apartment since 1983, as the date sticker suggests on the side of my refrigerator (a well as the sedimentary-like layers of crap in the storage areas of my apartment suggested before hucking 98% of it).
I guess I'll post again once I get pictures put up!
My friend Enoki came to Toyama last week! It was nuts because he came all the way from Kumamoto-ken. We met in Osaka in the morning and drove to Toyama on that night. Luckily, Mr. Shima was also heading to Osaka-- technically, so he gave Miya and I a ride there. Mr. Shima's friend, Yoko Ono, also had something to do in Osaka, so he drove her there with us. Yoko Ono was conveniently staying the night in those parts with her friend, so we had an open seat for Enoki to come back with us in. Mr. Shima had business in Hyogo-ken, which is a little bit of a drive from Osaka. I got to meet his son again on that night with Enoki and Miya. Enoki got a guitar and we got to eat Mexican food. We did a pretty extensive tour of the region that I'm in which I'm pretty sure exhausted everyone involved-- that's not to say that it wasn't fun! I'll post pictures of that later.
So two new ALTs came to Tonami and I spent the majority of last week helping the board of education help them out. It was work, but not like normal work would be during summer vacation (a lot of time to do nothing). I basically spent my time riding around in a car with someone from the board of education and a new ALT going to places to take care of their business. I was the interpreter. The new ALTs both are decent at Japanese, but I think no matter how good you are, once you get off that plane you're exhausted. I think they're both gonna get good at Japanese in a hurry if they put some effort into talking to the local people. I got to help them out, which was nice- but part way through I realized that I had learned a lot through the experience. Initially driven to the job as a diversion from everyday work in the office, I soon realized that I had had my first experience doing serious interpreting (despite the casualness of most of the situations, it was still business). Through the process I also got to know better more people from the BOE as well as people involved in one way or another with ALTs or foreigners in general. Things are really getting intertwined, though, the more times goes on. A woman from the city hall at the BOEs welcome party said that I had met her husband and that he liked me a lot etc etc. I guess I had met him one time when I went to Tabetari with Masaki. As usual Masaki wanted to play music there (there's like a private back room in this bar) and there were a few other people, including the cook on piano/bass. I suggested just trying to go through a 1-6-2-5 type of a pattern and ended up teaching them the basic concept of it, which apparently left an impact. Anyways, she took a "two shot" of us with her cell phone and sent it to her husband which had some people puzzled at the party haha.
I've been spending a lotta time with my girlfriend lately and she usually makes breakfast in the morning and sometimes I'll make dinner at night, but most of the time we end up going out at night because she gets off late. We've been spending a lotta money going out-- and although I've been meeting a lotta people through that, I think it's time to cut down. We decided we wanna cook more at night to save money/time. The problem was, however, that there was this huge obtrusive wall in my kitchen. I was so sick of the thing... I finally had some time off recently, so I went down to the apt. company building and told them I wanted that thing gone-- it took some cajoling, but last friday, at long last, an old man and his wife came and cut the thing down and fixed the floor. The mysterious couple then drove off with no fee and little side conversation and definately no names... I actually did go into the office for a bit that day after helping the ALTs, so I was exhausted and delerious during the operation. Anyways, that was a huge step towards a nicer lifestyle... my kitchen was just not built for an american sized person to fit in-- although foreigners have been living in my apartment since 1983, as the date sticker suggests on the side of my refrigerator (a well as the sedimentary-like layers of crap in the storage areas of my apartment suggested before hucking 98% of it).
I guess I'll post again once I get pictures put up!