I am all for languages appropriating words from other languages. As an English speaker, I sort of have to be. The Japanese, however, have taken it to a whole new level. Instead of just taking words that describe things the original language had no need to describe, they take words and then assign them random meanings, hence the conversation I had with my private student earlier tonight.

Y: Your hair is very cuticle!

Me: *blink*

Y: Is that right? "Your hair is very cuticle?"

Me: *cautiously* You mean...cute?

Y: No! Cuticle! Like shiny?

Me: *blink. blink. blink*

Y: *sighing* This is Japanese English, right? Ok, what does cuticle mean?

I directed her to her dictionary, and once she found the meaning, she, too, spent a few moments blinking in disbelief.

I mean, usually I can trace the evolution of the original English to its new Japanese-English meaning. But this? I'm stumped.

I didn't need a quz to tell me this:

You're a Pack Rat in Training

You know those crazy old people with a ton of video tapes and cats? Well, you're training to be one. Time to do some spring cleaning. Even if it isn't spring!

Are You a Pack Rat?

Sometime on Sunday afternoon, Liz got a phone call from one of Pauline's friends in Hong Kong. She was calling to find out if Pauline was ok. Somewhat puzzled, Liz said that as far as she knew, yes. The friend was referring, of course, to the earthquake that hit Japan on Sunday morning and killed one person. We didn't even feel it and had to go look it up on the internet, and at any rate, Pauline is safe in Australia. There are about a million things that could kill her there, but earthquakes are not really one of them.

Nobody ever called/emailed Liz or I to find out if we were ok. I have come up with three explanations for this:

1) our friends and family do not watch the news

2) they watch the news, but do not care whether we live or die

3) they watch the news, care whether we live or die, but have a basic grasp of Japanese geography and realized that we were not in the affected area.

Please tell me it's the third one, guys.

For over six years now, Liz has been kicking my ass at Scrabble. It's annoying...I just have no head for strategy, and Scrabble is as much about strategy as it is about vocabulary. I've only beaten her once, and I only remember one tie. Last Sunday, however, I discovered Boggle. We played 11 games, I won 10. Was I gracious about it? Hell no. I'm writing this entry, aren't I? Seriously, though, six years of ass-kicking. You'd gloat too.

Two more weeks until I start morning classes. Urg. Andrew has come up with a new schedule, though. He is taking over my Monday classes at MI, so I just have to teach in the morning and will be done by 11:30 (1:30 once a month, because they want me to stay for lunch. I have no idea why. Lunch in a kindergarten...should be fun.) Of course, it's way out in the middle of nowhere (yes, even more middle of nowhere than where I am), and I don't know how often the bus runs, so I probably won't be getting home until 12:30 or 1. I dunno, though...I mean, once I'm up, I'm up. Not like I have big plans for Monday afternoons/evenings. And I'm gonna miss my Monday kids...sniff.

After he showed me this schedule, I thought about it for a moment and asked if this would be taking effect right away in April, because that would give me two long weekends. He looked startled, then horrified, then cautiously said that no, probably I should continue teaching the afternoon classes for the next two weeks.

Hmm, this means I'll only be teaching at MI three days a week now. Dammit. I LIKED not commuting.

So sorry, no hair pictures. Really, though, it's the exact same haircut as before, just shorter. I keep squealing "I have no hair! I have no hair!", but really, I still have hair. It's just that there is a huge difference between hair halfway down your back, and hair that stops just below your shoulders. It doesn't LOOK that different, but I can sure tell there's a bunch missing. I think what I like best about it is this: before, when I would put it in a ponytail and brush my teeth, when I bent over the sink to spit out the toothpaste, the ponytail would swing over in front of my face and I'd get toothpaste in my hair. Ick. Now? The ponytailed hair stays at the back of my head where it belongs. Much more hygienic.

I keep swinging my ponytail around and exclaiming about how "jaunty" it is.

It was no snowboarding in Hokkaido, but I had a good week. Went out to Tokyo on Sunday for one last visit to Greenhills, as everybody in it is moving. The following picture is really only for Cat and Sheila, to illustrate how times have changed:



No chairs! Purple rugs! Dishes that don't match! Wineglasses with flamingoes for stems! Awesomely, sour cream comes in a tube now!

Then I went and got my hair cut, and then I went shopping in Harajuku, where I bought shoes. Again. Some more. My third pair in one week. I am not allowed to go anywhere near shoe stores anymore ever again.





While shopping, I came upon a shop selling zodiac socks. The twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac are, in no particular order: horse, monkey, rooster, dog, boar, snake, dragon, rat, ox, rabbit, tiger, and sheep. Apparently the designer felt, however, that "rooster" was just too long to fit on a short little sock.



I hung out for a bit at the park in Harajuku. It was a weekday, so there were no cosplay kids or dancing Elvii, but I did spot one cherry blossom tree in bloom:




Then I started heading back, stopping overnight in Shizuoka. Today Liz and I went shopping at the new department store downtown. We tried on sunglasses, but to cross-purposes...she thought I looked cool, I thought I looked like a bug-eyed pretentious freak. I guess the two are not mutually exclusive.

Ok, this t-shirt nearly caused me to spit beer all over my computer.

I still want this t-shirt. How long until my birthday again?

Noooooooo! If we can't trust the weather officials, who can we trust? Although I'm not sure that I'd want to have an ohanami party this weekend anyway. It's still cold out.

Today was Miho's last day of work. Starting next Thursday, Masami will be back full-time. I'm sad to see Miho go, although she did say she would probably try and drop by on Tuesdays to see what I baked that week.

Andrew gave me a fantastic White Day present...imported beer! Does he know me or what?

Miho called Hiroki's mother yesterday...he's fine, just some scrapes and bruises and probably no idea of how lucky he is.

I ran the punk haircut idea past another group of students, and they gave it the thumbs down. Literally.

I think I can safely say that I am not being melodramatic or even particularly blasphemous when I say this: JesusJesusJesusJesusJesusJesus!

I should probably also preface this story by saying that the kid is ok, he appeared to have only skinned knees, and although he was quite scared and shaken up, probably the next time I see him he'll tell me all about how he got to ride in an ambulance, isn't that cool?

Yes. So. The class of 6/7 year olds had let out, and all the moms save one were there. Hiroki usually rides his bike to school and back alone, but he almost always forgets his helmet and he is not very good about checking for traffic. Not surprising, I guess, given that he's seven, but we are always shouting after him to be careful and LOOK AT THE ROAD. Well, today he veered out onto the road without checking for traffic and promptly got rear-ended by a (thank GOD) scooter. It could just as easily have been a car, and then this would be a different story altogether. I was busy cleaning up the mess the little kids had left behind and didn't see anything, but I heard all the moms suddenly scream and looked up to see them rushing outside and Miho rushing to the phone. I have to say, they leapt into action like troopers. After checking to make sure he had no visible serious injuries, one mom brought him indoors while another directed traffic around the fallen bicycle. Luckily all the moms know each other and so knew where his mom was to be found (at the sports center for another son's swimming lesson), and she showed up shortly after the ambulance arrived. The poor kid was very very scared and shaken, but I don't think he was badly hurt. It looked mostly like a case of scraped knees, and the paramedic didn't seem worried.

I have to say, I feel terrible for the lady that hit him. She probably feels just awful, but it was in no way her fault. On the other hand, you can't really blame a seven year old, either, especially when he's in tears on the couch. I am betting, however, that he is going to be a lot more cautious after this, assuming his mother ever lets him out of the house again.

Luckily my next class provided some comic relief. I asked one of my students how I should get my hair cut next week, and in all seriousness she gave me this answer: I should leave some long front bits that frame my face, get all the rest cut to a bob length, and dye the long front bits pink. I told her I'd think about it.

Argh. I am never again attempting to travel somewhere with someone. Solo travel all the way, baby. I never cancel on me at the last minute, leaving me stranded.

I already mentioned how Pauline is going to Australia instead of with me to Hokkaido, yes? Well, after I got back from last weekend's trip, I started emailing around to see if anyone else wanted to go. Since a) I don't know all that many people, really, and b) it was really short notice, I was not all that hopeful, so I also inquired about the possibility of going to Okinawa. Well, turned out Okinawa was going to be pricier, but then my private student said she'd go snowboarding with me. Yay! We met for our lesson on Friday night and talked about it, and I went to the travel agent yesterday, and he regretfully informed me that these kind of package deals need to be booked 10 days in advance, and this was only 8 days in advance. The original package was about 50 000 yen for return airfare, three nights hotel, breakfasts, and two days of ski passes. Without the package? 35 000 for one way airfare.

I swore under my breath and gritted my teeth and started asking about overseas fares, because, bizarrely, it is cheaper to go overseas than it is to travel in Japan if you can't take advantage of these package deals. About the best he could come up with was four days in Thailand (although, thanks to travel, it is technically just two days in Bangkok.) While I really don't want to just sit at home for these five days, I also think my first trip to Thailand should be slightly longer. So now I'm thinking of taking some of my travel money, going to Tokyo, and just treating myself to a really fabulous haircut and colour.

I did have a good weekend, though. Tomoko and Heidi came up with Tomoko's new boyfriend, who is very cute and very nice and did not run screaming for the hills, even after we showed him the kangaroo dance Heidi invented. (Ok, so often at dance clubs here, Japanese people like to dance in unison...it's called para-para. It's kind of like line-dancing, but to funkier music, and it's really odd if you're just trying to dance and suddenly the entire rest of the floor is in sync. So Heidi made up an Australian para-para. The best part? The last time we went out dancing, we started doing it for fun, and a random Japanese girl joined in, because she obviously felt she should know these moves. 6 months later and the memory still gives me the giggles.)

We went out dancing at Fahrenheit, which is always fun. (And I'm not just saying that because I know the singer in the main band, which makes me feel cool. ) The club is a bit pretentious, though. When we first got there, we had to wait outside in a lineup, in the rain, before being allowed in. And when we got in? Approximately 15 people inside. Yeah. It did fill up, though, and eventually was so crowded we could barely move. There was a Brazilian band playing at first, and although I am not good at the salsa-esque dancing, the boys in the band were really, really, really cute, so that was nice. (Seriously, I think I have a schoolgirl crush on the lead singer. So. Cute. I wonder if he needs a groupie?) There were a lot of Brazilians there, to the point where it did not even feel like we were still in Japan. We had a good time, despite having to fend off some boys who seemed to feel that the best way to follow up "Hello" is with licking your ear. Call me old-fashioned, but what ever happened to a handshake?

Today Heidi and I went shopping. Well, she went shopping and I helped. She is moving back to Australia in two weeks and needs presents. I did find some red vinyl shoes that I find myself oddly drawn to:



And then, in a different shop, I found what may actually be the world's ugliest shoes:



A thousand words could not do these shoes justice, but even the picture is a poor substitute for the actual thing.

At one point this morning I was afraid (read: hopeful) that we weren't even going to be able to find the kindergarten. It turned out to be hiding down a side street under a big construction tarp. Everything went well (d'oh). It is a gorgeous kindergarten, about 10 times bigger than the Friday kindergarten (henceforth known as Isaji). It makes Isaji look like quite the dump, actually, with its offices and lunchrooms and stage for school plays and shower and, y'know, chairs. Also, gloriously, heaters/ACs! I taught three lessons today to five year olds. They were all well-behaved, but that's probably just because I'm new. Kids are always well-behaved when presented with something new and intriguing. Once I lose my glamour, the running around in circles begins.

So it appears that I will indeed be working there starting next month. Not until the 16th, so at least I have a lot of time to practice waking up before 10.

Oh, and my poor, overworked travel agent? Quitting next week. Although since he gave me his personal email address so we could keep in touch, I'm assuming it's not my fault and my many many travel requests that have driven him to this.

Well, that was fun. We spent the weekend snowboarding in Hakuba, located in the southern Alps. (The Japanese ones, not the Swiss.) It was insanely warm...I ended up stripping off my shirt and just wearing a tank top (with the jacket, natch), and Liz ended up just...stripping. On top of a mountain. Hee. The snow was kind of soft, but all in all, a good time was had. Wataru lent me my usual board, so I was able to actually snowboard this time. (Last time, the board was way too big for me, so my legs were forced into a perpetual squat/split cross. Try sustaining that for five hours.) I still haven't learned any tricks, but I've picked up speed.

Alas, it appears that my dreams of trying out fluffy powder snow in Hokkaido are not to be realized. Pauline and I were all set to go in two weeks, when she changed her mind and decided to go to Australia instead. I suppose you can't really blame her...oh, what am I saying? I totally can. Pauline, if you're reading this, I blame you. Blame!

Since snowboarding is really more of a social thing, I don't want to go alone. (Not to mention, if I injure myself, who will bring me ice and beverages when I can't walk?) It's highly doubtful that I'll be able to find someone else who wants to/is able to go, so I'm looking at other options. My poor, overworked travel agent.

The views from the mountains were spectacular...I didn't take any pictures, but Wataru took about 300 (seriously, after the first hour I wanted to take the camera away from him and not let him have it back until he promised to practice some restraint), so once he gets those uploaded I'll link to his photo page.

Tomorrow is the trial lesson for the kindergarten. I'm not sure at this point if wishing me luck means it'll go well or not. Either way, wish me luck.