Poor Kylie is sick. I feel bad for her, but also I feel a little bit like giggling like a madwoman, because I had to cover her classes this afternoon. This means that instead of teaching one half of a group of nearly 40, I had all the girls. We had to do a couple of listening tests, but after that I was pretty much free to do what I wanted. We are approaching the textbook at different speeds so that was out. Apparently she and Pania will usually do extra listening tests to eat up time on these days but I wanted to try something different, so we played some games. I spent this morning frantically scrolling through the pdf book Stu sent me about language activities for teens to find a game that didn't require any props or prep and found a pretty good one that was easy to understand AND meant the girls actually had to all talk. So we did the listening tests, then played two games, none of which really involved a lot of effort on my part. I explained the premise, and then monitored. The best part of this is that not only was it fun for all of us, I got paid double. So two 45 minute classes this afternoon netted me 18 000 yen.

Hence the insane giggling.

Also a cause for giggling is the last few diary entries of one of my returnee eight year olds. She has taken to filling up her weekly writing quota with asking me questions that I have to answer by circling yes or no. Things like "Do you like chocolate cake? Yes or no?" Last week one of her questions was "Do you think I like Ibuki?" (a boy in the class and her friend). I know it was juvenile but I couldn't resist circling "no" and adding "I don't think you LIKE Ibuki. I think you LOOOOOOOVE Ibuki." She laughed and laughed and laughed and all the other kids demanded to know what was so funny, Ibuki included. This week's diary asked me "What would you do if Ibuki wants to marry you? Would you marry him? Yes or no." I explained that the 28 year age gap presented something of a logistical problem and asked if she would consider marrying him instead.

And now I have to go hunt down the mosquito that has managed to bite me at least three times in the last thirty minutes. Wish me luck.

Today I met the cutest little old lady in the imported alcohol section of the grocery store at the train station. I was staring at the Belgian beer, thinking wistfully of last weekend, when suddenly from somewhere below me (she was teeny tiny AND I was wearing 3.5 inch heels, I felt like a giantess the entire time) piped up a little voice asking me if, of all things, I was a foreigner. Why, yes, yes I am. How could you tell? She spoke English quite well, if rather slowly and precisely. Apparently she studies by listening to English radio programs designed for learners. I run into these kinds of people from time to time. Having tried my hand at Japanese lessons on the telly, I can only conclude that they have an inborn talent for languages and a much stronger will than I possess.

Turns out she has a special affinity for Canadians, as in the past she has done a short homestay in Vancouver and also hosted a Canadian student doing a homestay in Japan. So this is obviously one old lady with impeccable taste in foreign countries.

Apparently her husband teaches ceramics classes and she offered to have me come take a class or two for free (in the name of fostering international relationships and also because we Canadians are just that awesome.) So that sounds like a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon one of these days! Then she tottered off with her bottle of Moet after we had a discussion about the joys of any wine that contains the word "pinot" in the title and I mused about the possibility of maybe one day creating a lovely ceramic champagne flute.

Tomorrow is my first payday from Seien! Excitement! I have no idea when the money will actually be transferred, but I intend to run to the bank on my lunch bank and see if it shows up by then. I'm not actually sure how much I'll get as I'm unclear on how much I'll be taxed. Since it's a secondary income the tax is apparently pretty high (although you get much of it back in tax season, which is going to be a whole lot of fun as this time I will have to do my own, ack), but Kylie thinks that it might not be so bad for me because I'm just not working that many hours. Plus I get my commuting fee, which really adds incentive to ride my bike because every time I do, not only am I getting exercise, I'm making an extra thousand yen.

And I will need that money to make up for the weekend, because holy crap is it expensive to take a day trip to Yokohama. I mean, it was worth it to attend the Belgian beer festival, but the shinkansen tickets alone cost 14 000. (For reference, I can fly to Seoul starting at just under 17 000. Fly. To another country. Just let that sink in for a moment.)

The festival itself was quite reasonably priced and filled with delicious beer. It felt wrong to bypass my beloved Chimay, but we made a point of only trying beers that we can't actually buy in the import store at Hamamatsu station. If we wanted to sit around in a park drinking Chimay, we could do it for a lot less than 14 000.

I managed to get a bit sunburned before the rain started, although thankfully not too badly. I did put sunscreen on but we are rapidly approaching the season where it needs to be reapplied every 30 minutes or so. I'm trying to ignore the rapid onset of summer, but alas, it is not ignoring me.

I will now take a break from not talking about my last vacation to talk about my current long weekend. Two in a row! I think this may be the first time ever that I am experiencing Golden Week properly. Usually we either work right through it or else we have the whole week (sometimes more) off, and I flee.

This year is mostly due to a weird scheduling convergence. My Monday classes dropped from five to two in April, so Masami made the executive decision to switch my schedule to Tuesday-Saturday. (That is a whole rant in and of itself.) So last Monday, which was a national holiday, I only had one class. I was in Tokyo from Saturday, and Andrew kindly offered to work my one class on Monday so I could stay a bit longer. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were not officially holidays, although many companies gave their employees the whole week off. School kids were forced to go to school, although as far as I could tell, on Thursday the entire school system went "Fuck this noise" and everybody went on a field trip to all the places. Attendance at MI was spotty so I declared it a game day and broke out the board game I pretty much only use during Golden Week and Obon in August.

Today, Friday, was another public holiday, so I didn't have to go to Seien, and my 5:45 class (a tiny brother and sister combo) were in Nagoya, so I only had one class at 8 pm. (One student came, so I spent my entire working day today playing Rummikub and discussing the new Iron Man movie with a 16 year old boy. Apparently it is "awesome" but he cannot articulate why.) For reasons I do not entirely understand, the new Tues-Sat schedule is not actually kicking in until next weekend, so I don't work tomorrow morning, but also my Monday class is gone baby gone, which means that aside from that one class tonight I essentially have a four day weekend.

I celebrated by meeting Kylie for lunch (with wine! On a workday!) and then helping her buy an insanely expensive Coach bag. I mean, really. You know how you think "Coach" and think "oof, that is probably expensive?" Yes, turns out the price is almost doubled in Japan. I'm still not entirely certain if she bought it so easily because she had been eyeballing it for a while and talked herself into it over time, or if she was still drunk from the night before. Possibly a combination of the two?

Before heading home we ran into some Seien students at the station. Apparently this is now an occupational hazard I will have to face, although today's encounter was pretty great. The girls were surprisingly enthusiastic about running into us, although I attribute that at least partly to the fact that one of the students is named Arisa and she is really quite stoked about having a teacher with the same name. They were all dolled up for the festival and I regret not snapping a picture of their hair, as one girl had her hair up in Minnie Mouse ears and a bow (to repeat: she turned her HAIR into a BOW and MOUSE EARS)

Tomorrow I plan on not going to any festivities as I need to shovel out my kitchen and clean the bathroom. Sunday will be an all day yoga workshop, so clearly Monday I will need to spend the day eating ice cream and drinking to make up for all that enlightenment and health.