2 weeks...

...and a day of actually living in the same prefecture I get my education. That's a new record, by 2 weeks and a day. I must say it's quite refreshing not having to get up so early... except that it's not cause I get up at the same time, it takes just as long to get to school, well a bit less, and I've decided to start attending the morning sessions of my club so I end up leaving earlier and I've lapsed into the habit of evening showers. Except that I have them when I get home from school, which this week happens to be about midday, due to end of semester tests. That happen to be starting almost exactly a month before the actual end of semester...But short days for the rest of term, is a good thing. I' have also worked out why the total holidays for students in Japan is shorter, it's cause half the actual schooldays are short for some reason...I have been typing like I think...jumping here and there in one long paragraph that can't really be separated easily... ごめんね

I was doing some study in my club time last week, as the club decided to spend the first hour of club time studying for tests, and I read someones English lesson book. It had a phrase "don't stop to translate every word." I like this, and have decided to try it while reading my manga, with limited success. I have to find the right words to stop and translate so I can follow whats going on, but skip the superfluous ones so I can read at a decent speed to keep me engaged...
むずかしい

Well another thing I did last week was rather stupid... You play the Koto with a kind of pick that loops around your thumb, well 3, one on the thumb and one on each of the index and middle fingers. My thumb one broke, glue probably was dissolved by my acidic sweat of death or something... So I put it aside and decided to try without it. Then we decided to play all of what we could, this ended badly for my thumb, I spent the rest of the day with a nice blister. Which I eventually got sick of and I wont go into he gory details of what happened then....

I'm reading off a list of things to put in my blog, and next regards LANGUAGE!! In particular the horrible situations that can potentially be caused by differences... Honky, this is a fun word, a playful word, one that you could snigger at easily... However, in Japanese there is the unfortunate word 本気 (hon ki) which sounds remarkably similar... It means "serious" as in "I'm deadly serious so you'd better not laugh", at which point English speakers will burst into gleeful giggling at the serious look of the mans face as he says "honky". Most unfortunate... I have yet to have this happen to me, but it will...

I got a chocolate euro the other day, it was tasty.

The principal at my school, I had been told, was a most interesting man (the word interesting that I know is generally used for "entertaining" as it can mean humorous). So today, as I was studying hard (hardly studying, looking at my test results) in the kokusai center (international room), and having a light conversation with Watanabe Sensei, the principal comes in. Both of us are quite surprised, I'm supposed to be very polite to him... We then have a short conversation, Watanabe Sensei explaining that I'm studying for my test the next lesson, and at the end of that I do my new habit of sticking up my thumb in a sort of "good on ya mate" fashion (while not meaning exactly that). We then get onto how up is good and down is bad, then the principal starts to show off other finger gestures he knows... Peace sign with back of hand facing outward, I quickly explain this is rude. Then he closes his fist and puts up his little finger, and says this is Watanabe Sensei, we all just cracked up. I think I can agree the principal is an interesting man.

Trains are an endless source of entertainment thankfully, as I spend a lot of time on them. It's just fascinating to watch the train staff go about their business. They have windows into the cabin, and most train drivers and, I'm gonna call them back-men cause they sit in the back and do everything else that isn't driving, leave the blinds up. This means I can carefully watch what they do. They do everything so precisely and to the letter. When driving, you see them point at their papers, then point to their eyes, and then point ahead, and then point at their eyes. Maybe they're on camera and they're showing that they're performing the checks correctly. I dunno...
The back-men make all announcements required, assuming they don't use the automated ones, like in Tokyo. But the curious thing is, they all have exactly the same slightly higher than normal pitch nasal voice when doing this... I start to think they train them almost too carefully. (lol train)
But they do what a lot of people don't, they appear to take great pride in their work. I have utmost admiration for their work, and I am proud to be able ride their trains.

In other news, a fish tried to eat my finger. Warning, this is not for the faint of heart. The fish is extremely aggressive and I could have lost my finger...



I want to keep him, he's so cute...

Farewell Olly-Watchers! Till next time (find me if you can)