Seki is here!

Today was a pretty exhausting day. Basically because the humidity was up there, but for most of the day it was raining. I had my Japanese lesson earlier today, and learnt a ton of new vocab! AWESOME! My teacher, Seko (I think not Seiko), taught me all these adjectives that end in the 'i' character. So they don't necessarily end with an 'i' as in 'kit' sound. I'll give you some examples

o-ki: big
chisai: small
atsui: hot
samui: cold
takai: expensive/high
yasui: cheap
hikui: low/short

It's great...so now I've got lots of vocabulary to practice and remember, and also try to remember how to write the hiragana and katakana.

Anyway, enough about the lesson. This is my 3-month ANNIVERSARY!!! Mixed feelings I suppose, hehehe. One part of me feels that time has passed so quickly, and another part of me feels that time is going so slowly; I've got 9 months before a year and probably my coming back home. But its good either way. Also a week from now I'm going to SINGAPORE!!!! That's something I've been looking forward to for ages! Gonna see everyone, even people I haven't seen for a while, gonna see Tim and Min get married!!! And gonna songlead too...eech, kinda kowaii ;). But it should be great fun, and I'll get to eat some great food too!

Anyway today I met up with Geoff and Selina and their parents. SEKI'S HERE; they're all leaving for Kyoto for 2 days to sightsee and stuff. I met them today at some shrine in Akasaka (in central Tokyo, called Hiejinje Shrine) but we missed the parade that was on at 11:00am. Oh well. After that we went to Roppongi Hills which is a very nice modern area with a few nice classy buildings. Roppongi is known as the clubbing district where heaps of gaijin (foreigners) gather on weekends. So its kind of a seedy area, but Roppongi Hills is the classy part of Roppongi. We went up the Mori building to the 52nd floor, which is kind of an observatory to see Tokyo but because it was a really overcast day, I couldn't get any really nice photos. By this time we'd been walking for ages so we were dying to find somewhere to eat some lunch or something. We eventually went to Yoshinoya (the franchise symbol for Japanese fast food) and had a really quick meal. During all this time of walking around, we were getting drenched by the rain; I had conveniently forgotten my umbrella that I ALWAYS carry around with me and most of the time don't need to use.






If you look really carefully at the 'twin tower' shot, you'll see its Louis Vuitton (the sign down the bottom, how exciting).


Skip the boring walking parts, we went to Shibuya so Geoff's dad could organise a rail pass for the rest of the week they were here, then we went to Yokohama to an okonomiyaki restaurant that Geoff recommended. Okonomiyaki is basically a Japanese pancake. If you went to Ichiban before it closed, you might have had one of them. Except in Japan its a bit different, and a whole lot better. First, you get to make the pancake, which is fun. And its pretty cheap. Between all five of us, we ate three okonomiyaki pancake-thingies, which cost around 750Y each. I'll let the photos explain a little more.






Anyway, that was pretty much the end of the day for us, so NOW I'll tell you one good student story from Wednesday, coz I couldn't be bothered posting yesterday. Too busy downloading :D :D

---STORY---
Once again, teaching "Asking for Assistance". It's a great lesson, and you can get a few laughs out of it. Anyway, the two students were practicing; one asking for assistance, the other deciding to say yes or refuse. I decided to jump in and spice things up a little. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: (I paused for a while, because I wasn't sure if this would offend them)
Tonight, I'm going to rob a bank. I need your help.
S1: E...I...have enough money..
(laughter)
Me: No, if we rob the bank, we'll get lots and lots of money. And we can share it too!
S1: Mmm...you should work hard.
Me: (?!) (laughter) (I turn to S2) How about you? Will you help me?
S2: Rob a bank?
Me: Yeah. I need someone to drive. All you have to do is drive in front of the bank and wait for me. When I come out, we drive away! It's not hard.
S2: Just drive?
Me: Yep, just drive.
S2: ...Ok.

A very funny conversation. I suppose for some of these, you just HAD to be there. But maybe some of the funniness has been translated.

Australia...you beauty!

This is something to post for. All the way through the match, I was thinking "How am I going to face my students tomorrow? All of them will have a go at me...even the ones that didn't watch the match!"

And it all changed when Cahill popped one in

Now I can face my students with pride, hahahahaha! Anyway, GO AUSTRALIA!!!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!

I can't believe I'm in Japan.

Bargaining

Well, work is gonna change in a couple of days.

One teacher left today (at Tsunashima), going back to Melbourne in about a week. Nice guy, so its gonna be a shame to see him go. Another teacher leaves tomorrow, bound for London and then back to Canada, which is home for her. So we're pretty short on teachers, and one teacher is on leave for the whole month of June, so its only gonna be four of us teaching in Tsunashima. Though today I met one teacher from Kikuna (nearby station) who is the ONLY teacher at his branch. I guess in some ways it can be good, and bad. But just goes to show the massive shortage of teachers that Nova has. Apparently some financial trouble last year has something to do with it, or so I'm told.

Anyway, today's story is about bargaining. My last class today I taught a lesson on bargaining/negotiating. Had two really cool students. Both of them I know quite well, and they're both highschool students, so its a lot easier to have fun in the class. Anyway, we were doing a modeled conversation (like we always do)...and basically what the students said went like this:

S1: How much do you want for this bracelet?
S2: I'll give it to you for $80.
S2: That's...too expensive. I'll give...uh no...I'll take it for $50.
S1: Oh, its worth more than that.
S2: Um...okaaay. What about..........$40?

And at this point, S1 and I looked at each other with puzzled faces, and then started laughing. S2 realised her mistake, and put her face to the wall, kinda embarrassed, but it was all in good fun. We finished the conversation after that, although she bargained very strangely, from $50 to $60, and finally to $74, compared to the seller's (S1) $75 offer. I don't think she really knows how to bargain that well. But she got the english down.

P.S. Shirleen, if you do read this...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
(I pray I got that right...)