Morning, morning!
How's tricks?
Things of late. On Wednesday I hung out with Yukiko after school. I first paid all my bills, then we had tea at my place, dinner at hers, went to a bar for a drink and then went to do Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging). Forgot my camera though... It was pretty rad. I spent most of the time talking to the husband of the Ikebana teacher abou music. Borrowed a CREAM dvd off him too, which should be sweet :-)
Yesterday, two schools which was pretty busy. I did get a letter from one of the students in the band thanking me for filling in on bass and saying I did a great job. She also said (and this is a very Japanese thing to say) that when she heard that I play guitar a lot by myself, even without concerts or bands for motivation, she was so impressed that it makes her want to practice more. It was a nice letter :-)
At the primary school, it was pretty normal. I cut a hole in a cardboard box and then had students pick objects out of it to practice the phrase "what's this?". After that, I talked to my folks on the phone and then Sakura and I watched Dylan Moran's live show on youtube and had pumpkin soup I made. Tonight, it sounds as though Yukiko, Sakura and I are going to see the Michael Jackson movie, which should be sweet :-) Glad it's the weekend.
I have a conference over monday and tuesday in Wakayama city for all the JETs in Wakayama. It'll be good to see people and not have classes, but I can guarantee that it will be super dull...
Otherwise,I think it's Wakayama city to have a look around on Saturday, dinner at night and that's about it so far.
Three classes at junior and then two at primary today, so I'm keeping busy. THe 6th year primary teacher has the swine, so it sounds like I'm teaching with the principal! Pressure, pressure... :-0
Anyways, that's about it for me. Got to get onto some lesson prep and such. I've almost finished my second Japanese test I got from JET, which is due in Janaury ior Feburary or something. Starting to think I should have gone for the harder level, but it's good revision and not too stressful :-) Japanese wise- I'm covering a lot of bases at the moment.
Teachers and friends - Wakayama dialect Japanese that no one else understands. Some of it sounds rough, but quite native.
Japanese profiency test study - Hardcore Japanese, some of which isnt in common usage anymore.
JET Japanese tests - Revision of things I've learnt before and sometime useful vocab.
My new HOW TO SOUND INTELLIGENT IN JAPANESE book - Good vocab for higher level conversations about politics and humanities and such. Sometimes too hardcore for people to understand. Kinda stuff that you could use in uni essays.
So it's an interesting mix and I reckon that's the best way to learn a langauge. Otherwise I'll just end up speaking like a Wakayama primary school kid or just like a polite teacher or something.
Anyways, hope all is well!
Cheers
Jimmy