2nd week, and natto

The last days have kinda blown by. I'll try to fill in the highlights.

Its Thursday (or Friday....1:49am) and I'm trying to recollect my last couple of working days. Monday and Wednesday are quick, quiet days, not too much to talk about.

One really cool thing that happened on Tuesday though, I got the very last class (8:20-9:00) as voice, which one of the students had asked me to try getting. I was supposed to ask the staff for it, but I didn't really feel comfortable with it. Anyway, it ended up like that, so cool.
One of the students is a pretty high level student who I've developed a pretty good relationship with. Actually, a whole bunch of them, really nice and friendly, the type that make for a good day at work. Anyway, previously we had been talking about foods and stuff and foods that I thought were really weird and would like to try. So come Tuesday night, voice class...4 students that I know quite well made sure they were there that night, and there were some other students as well who I didn't know so well.

This voice class had basically one aim: I was to try natto (Japanese food...only). If you haven't heard of it, try looking it up in Google. It's probably one of the foods that most visitors to Japan call disgusting. So I was gonna try it. One of the students had made a whole bunch of sushi, some with it inside, some with some tuna, and some with eel. I was treated to a feast, IN MY Voice class :):). We're supposed to be talking, having conversation, instead we were eating.

Anyway, natto is fermented soy beans, and it literally smells like socks that have been worn all day, or blue cheese. I dunno which one's worse. They had a vomit bag ready for me, it was hilarious. I tried the sushi with natto in it first, and it tasted like cheese. My eyes watered up, I was about to puke a few times. Then I tried the actual natto, which came in a small plastic package (I WISH I'D TAKEN A PHOTO!!!!!). It looked as gross as it tasted...well not really. It was a bunch of brown beans stuck together by some kind of gluey fluid. You had to pour some special sauce, and then mustard, and stir it for like 1 minute. The gluey fluid became all whitish, and pretty gross looking. I was very nervous trying the natto. But it didn't actually turn out to be that bad. The worst thing was that it didn't really taste of anything. The anticipation probably got to me. But after everyone had tried it, most of the students said that they preferred the stronger one. So I had tasted a pretty mild one (the more expensive kind), the person who brought it was considerate enough to get me something mild, so I didn't really taste anything when I ate the fermented beans. It was a hilarious voice class, one of the more eager students kept saying that you can eat natto with milk, and basically any other Japanese food with milk. A great night. Voice class is the best...with those students :)

Ok, moving on... Yesterday (Wednesday) our roommate came, so three of us now. His name's Joash, from Newcastle in Sydney. Nice guy, gotten to know him a little bit better today. We basically did everything that I needed to do when I first got here, apply as an alien at the local ward office, go set up a bank account, and get a phone. So all done in one day. I'm pretty exhausted, but Simon and his friend Nick are rapping all the way into the night in the living room. Laters.

My favourite student

April's crept up, and I've been here in Japan for two weeks. When I think of stuff back home, two weeks would have flown by so much faster than it has here. The time seems to crawl here in Japan for some reason. It could be that its the first time I'm working full-on full-time, and I don't have the luxury of lazing around at home, watching TV/movies/anime or playing games. Even on my days off here I feel busy, because I know I'm not here forever, so I want to explore and see as much of Japan as possible. Inevitably, there will be times when I just kick back and don't do anything. Most of the working nights have been like that, much like tonight. Tonight's a frickin Sunday! But Sundays just don't feel like Sundays anymore because of the whacked out schedule I and most other Nova teachers have.

If I haven't already told you, my days off are Thursday and Friday. I finished work today at 5:00 and went grocery shopping, although because I can't really cook, its not really grocery shopping...more like snack stuff buying, hehehe. Pringles are cheap here, yay!!! And if any of you guys do watch anime, you'll notice that P&G (Proctor & Gamble, maker of Pringles) are quite often a sponsor of some anime shows. Anyway, grocery shopping was a terrible idea; it was pouring like I haven't experienced many times. Luckily I had my 99Y umbrella which covered basically the top of my head. My pants felt like a wetsuit, clinging to me like there was no tomorrow. I was practically drenched, and with the added trouble of lugging groceries home for 15-20 minutes, its a lesson learned. I'm never gonna buy food stuffs after work when its raining.

On a cheerier note, one of the students at work today displayed some sincerely funny ingenuity. The lesson I was teaching was about asking for help from strangers. We had just done an activity which required matching the start and end of sentences.

One of the activity sentences ran like this:
Excuse me, I was wondering...

They had to match it to:
if you have change for a twenty?

I asked one of my students (S1) to ask the other student (S2) this question, to which he (S2) would have to think of an answer to say. Now generally, students think and use language that is familiar and phrases that we've practiced earlier in the lesson, for example:
I'm sorry but I only have a ten

S2 came out with this brilliant answer:
I'm sorry, I am a coin collector

Absolute classic. I literally burst out laughing with the students when he said that. Sometimes the things they say are so bizarre that you just can't help but laugh. I'm sure I 'll encounter many more funny stories and I'll try to remember and share them with you. One great thing about Tsunashima is that because it's a relatively small branch, you get to know some of the regular students quite well. They come fairly often, moreso the women because some of them are housewives, so you can develop good rapport. I find that to be one of the more enjoyable aspects of the job, interacting OUTSIDE the job, even though that technically isn't allowed. :D

Tomorrow's an easy day, 1:20-5:00, and I still need to buy a desk.