itai

Oh, one other downside of the rainy season is it's a common time to get sick, what with the high humidity and constantly changing temperatures.

At least, that's one explanation for why me, Jim, Pete and Pete's friend all got sick in the same week and all with the same symptoms. Pete called it 'gaijin flu'. ('Gaijin' means 'foreigner'. Pete is my new co-worker.)

I got sick over New Year's but that was mostly during my holidays; this is my first time working several days while sick. It's not fun - me going through the exercises thinking 'the sooner I finish this exercise, the sooner they'll be looking at their books and I can discreetly wipe my nose' - but probably the worst part is taking trains and having to stand up the whole trip, and my body aching, I've been feverish.

I dunno exactly what I have but I'm spending the whole day at home today. -_-

Mushiatsui

I was saying how we'd had an unprecendented six days of pleasant, clear weather. That time is over now, and I suspect there'll be no further reprieve until autumn.

The rainy season is now unmistakably here. The humidity has gone way up. In my apartment it's now about 28 and humid. This season has a host of associated problems:
-insect life (I found my first cockroach a couple of days ago)
-mould (fortunately haven't gotten any yet, but you have to leave all your cupboards and drawers open to ventilate, and hope that you don't come home to green fuzzy shoes or clothes
-clothes don't dry because of the high humidity inside and the rain outside
-food goes soft and/or rotten in the damp air
-it's really muggy and unpleasant
-food poisoning becomes a potential threat and you have to be really careful with any food preparation
-expensive electricity bills
-outside may be cool but if it's raining, you can't open your windows as it would 'let all the moisture in'; thus all interiors are really unpleasant
-the air conditioning in public places, though it may be blasting freezing air as before, doesn't feel like anything!
-my hair goes fuzzy
-everyone is sweating up a storm (though as yet, I haven't noticed a serious BO problem, just the odd person here and there)
-knowing that in a month's time, the humidity will be even higher and the average temperature at least 5 degrees more
-and of course, continual rain! (in this season, most people carry umbrellas every day as a matter of course)

I'm going to buy some dehumidifying pellets to leave in my cupboards. These things soak up extra moisture from the air, and thus protect your clothes etc. I might look into dehumidifiers too. If they aren't too expensive...

Oh well, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better, so no doubt I'll be posting numerous complaints about the weather...

Difficult task

For the kids' lessons, we sometimes sing famous kids' songs, such as 'Old MacDonald', 'This Old Man', and so on.

Today our manager was trying to translate them into Japanese for the parents. I felt sorry for her when the assistant manager came in and asked me:
'What does 'nick nack paddy-whack' mean?'

...

Ahhh

The rainy season was officially declared a week and a half ago. It did rain last Thursday, but the last six days have been unmitigated sunshine and warmth. This is the longest stretch without rain I can remember since spring began. In fact, the weather has been wonderful. We even had four clear sunny days, after countless weeks of overcast skies.

If this is the rainy season, bring it on!

I'm tired...

I'm tired... been tired all week, I don't know why, really. This week is a 'break' week, where half our classes are not on. In theory this would mean I have half as many classes to teach. In reality, I actually have more, because a) a couple of the part-timers took a day off, and b) a lot of people are taking private lessons this week. Which is a good thing, and I particularly like all the students who are taking PLs.

I also had three days in a row where I've taught 4 classes in a row. Actually, these days, I have 4-in-a-row every day but Friday. It's fine but at some point during the later classes my brain does start turning to mush and I teach on auto-pilot. Which is not as hard as you might think.

So, I have three kids' classes now. I had my first class with two 2-year-olds, and no parents, last week. After the screaming that took place the week before, I was expecting Bad Times. Fortunately, both parents were in the waiting room, and they were needed, because the kids did occasionally take off, and I couldn't very well leave the other one to go round them up. So actually the parents did end up spending part of the class in my room.

But, to my great astonishment, my existing student, the girl, suddenly became the perfect student. Now, usually, while I'm saying things (over and over), she's running around and apparently not hearing a word I'm saying, let alone responding. But this time:
Me: Let's open the window! Open! Let's open! Ooh, how's the weath-
Her: SUNNY!
Me (almost falling over): Yay! Sunny! Good!!

Me (holding out a banana): So... can you find the BANANA? Where's the banana? Hmm...
Her: (grabs it and puts it on the right picture) Banana!
Me (thinking): How many times have I tried to do a matching game and failed...?! (aloud) Good job!! Banana! And how about apple? Where's the APPLE?
Her: (grabs it and puts it on the right picture) Apple!
Me (thinking): Any moment now I'm going to wake up...

Me: And what's this? It's a cat! Meow, meow!
Her (by this point in the lesson she's usually getting antsy and throwing things): Meow! Meow! (imitates my gestures)

Sooo... I was pretty apprehensive about having two of them together... but it's actually had a good effect. I think she's a bit more stimulated, and since she is suddenly being a model student, it gives him a good example of what to do. He's still at the 'everything is new so I'm going to run around a lot' stage, while the girl was suddenly really task-focused and did everything I gave her. Positive peer pressure. ^_^

I was concerned the boy would be stronger than the girl (they are both 2 years old but he has developed a bit more language and is a bit bigger and stronger) and possibly a little aggressive. But he was very friendly. Kids that age like picking things up and giving them to people. Every time the girl gave him something he would say 'arigatou ne!' in such an affable way!

Actually, almost all small Japanese children are extremely cute, and mine in particular. The best part was at the end. This boy never wants to leave; it's a big effort to get him to put on his shoes and walk out. But since the girl put her shoes on, he was willing to follow suit. And then - get this - she took him by the hand and they walked out together!!! As Jim said, that's almost too much cuteness.

Anyway, it's only been one class, no doubt in the future there will be various dramas, tears, even fighting, but at least the first class went well. ^_^

Akihabara massacre

I was planning to meet some people in Akihabara ('Electronics Town') yesterday, but not everyone could make it so we didn't go. A fortunate thing for us, at least. It's been a big news story that today a guy drove his car over three people, then started stabbing people with a knife, killing 7 and injuring 11.

Hmm... ii n ja nai...

Well, I just took a sample JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) level 4 test, just out of curiosity. (here, if you're interested.)

I passed with the not-very-impressive score of 83%. I also went outside the time limit, because my reading of Japanese characters - though greatly improved - is still very slow. This sample test had 60 questions; I got 10 wrong, 7 of them verb-related questions. I do loathe verbs. There are far too many of them. We should just eliminate them all and use 'o shimasu' with everything.

So, I think I will take the real JLPT test in December. The question is, which level to shoot for. My Japanese teacher thinks that I can get up to 3 standard by December. I am not so sure. I'm sure I can if I study around 4+ hours a week... I guess it's better to have a goal to work hard for than a goal I've already achieved...

Doshi ga suki ja arimasen desu...

Am studying Japanese at the moment.
The verb endings are horrifying.
Right now I'm learning 'have to'.

So, example verb: tabemasu ('eat')

Here's 'I have to eat sushi':
'Sushi o tabenakereba narimasen.'

nakereba narimasen! for 'have to'!

'wanted to' and 'didn't want to' are also easy to forget/confuse:
'Sushi o tabetakatta desu.'
'Sushi o tabetaku nakatta desu.'

Bleagh... no wonder I just randomly say 'hai' to everything people ask me...

Aquarium

Finally got down to the southern part of Yokohama Bay, and went to the aquarium. The highlight was seeing over ten thousand sardines swimming in formation in different patterns. Like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PswC_RSBSmU