Your One Stop Shopping For Jewelry and Roman Candles

The other day I was driving around and passed a place that I always see, but this time I was stopped at a light and had a chance to actually check out the sign.

It's at the Hiroguchi Intersection of the Route 10 near the Miyakonojo City Hall.

The sign's main title says the name of the shop, "Nichimatsudou".

Under that it details exactly what it is they deal in.

From left to right it reads, "Jewelry, Clocks, Glasses and Fireworks".

Fireworks.

Sometimes people around here ask me if we do fireworks in the States, and I always have to disappoint them with the sad news that the American government has deemed its own people too dumb to be able to handle them so they've been outlawed across most of the country.

In my neighborhood they sell fireworks at the convenience store throughout the warm months of the year, and I regularly pick up a six pack of beer with my bag of fireworks.

As I write this I've got two extra sacks of fireworks we didn't get around to using this summer, so Reiko and I were thinkin' of maybe saving them for New Year's Eve and enjoying them then.

My Slight Obsessive Cumpulsive Behavior

The flu is hittin' hard around here. Today another one of my elementary school students got it and another nursery school canceled their English lessons due to so many kids being absent with high fevers.

In an average week I easily come into direct contact with over a hundred kids of all ages, from all over the greater Miyakonojo area. I high-five dozens of nose-pickers every day.

In January of this year I caught a flu that knocked me out for a full week. A couple of years ago some kids gave me parotitis, a particularly unenjoyable version of the mumps.

Determined not to get sick this season, I've been religiously taking my vitamin C, eating good food, getting plenty of sleep, washing my hands thoroughly and gargling several times a day and teaching all my younger kindergarten students the joys of covering your mouth when you cough. We've made it into a game.

I've also been abusing the hand sanitizer. At my workplace they've placed alcohol-based hand sanitizing spray by all the entrances for guests to use when they enter. It's supposed to help the kids from getting sick at the hands of adults who might have koodies.

Recently I've been hittin' up the ol' hand spray about five times a day or more, usually after each of my kindergarten classes or when I come back from a morning visit to a nursery school. It's probably obsessive, but hey I haven't gotten sick yet.

Last week my boss got slightly angry with me when I told her I hadn't gotten a flu shot. I've never had a flu shot in my whole life. She said it was bad etiquette not to get one and went on a diatribe about how I have to do it. I'll go if she orders it, of course, but I don't really think it makes much difference.

Last week another teacher who did get a flu shot was out for four days with the flu.

Bringing It All Back Home

Pullin' into Togo Town in northwest Kagoshima Prefecture brings back a lot of crazy memories.

I guided the ol' Toyota Estima past the Kagoshima Aiport, through Miyanojo Town and veered right with Route 267 as it runs parallel with the Sendai River, past Noze Elementary School, the Ai-Shop, Maehara Danchi and finally into the tiny center of Togo Town, no more than a few dim specks in the black night.

I pulled the door open and creeped in to Shochan Izakaya and was immediately greeted by the familiar faces and warm smiles of some people very dear to me.

I used to be at the counter in this joint about four times a week in the old days. That was back before there was a convenience store in town and Shochan was really the only place for miles to get a bite and a beer after work.

They make the best meat on sticks and kushi-katsu in all of Kyushu.

This guy is the master's son, Shochan, Jr. He used to work in the izakaya and I'd talk with him every evening over beers and yakitori.  Now he lives in Sendai and just happened to come by for dinner last night with his wife and daughter.

Here I am with Mrs. Shochan. Back in the old days she used to harp on me about finding a nice girl and settling down. She was sad that Reiko wasn't able to accompany me last night, but I promised her I'd bring her along next time around.

And it wouldn't be a night out in Togo without a ride into Sendai to see the Sakagura master. When I met Yasu eight years ago he was living in his car and trying to get his bar going. Now he runs the newly renovated Sakagura and his very own high class lounge, The E Spot.

That girl with him is Saki-chan, who I've also known for years. She revealed to me last night that she's now 23 years old. I almost fell on the floor realizing that when I first met her when she worked at that lounge Bright she was only 16.

And, sadly, Yasu's longtime bartender, friend and shenanigan partner Daisuke is gone. We used to call him the Japanese Bon Jovi because of his hair. During our long chat that went until sunrise this morning Yasu told me he had to let Daisuke go. When I asked him why he said it was just time... and also that he was a lazy jerk.

Two of my other favorite people in the world, Mr. Uendo and Nabe-chan, weren't able to join us last night, so it looks like I might have another good excuse to visit Togo again in the very near future...

Imagine Working At A Swimming School Where the Owner Can't Swim... Now Try To Have A Discussion About the Back Stroke

Last weekend I had planned on driving out to Togo Town in the Kagoshima highlands to see some good old friends and enjoy some beers and meat on sticks at my very favorite spot in all of Japan.

But I ended up with a 38.4 degree fever Saturday morning and feared it was the flu. So many of my kindergarten and elementary school students have come down with it this last week. Mercifully it was just a 48-hour cold and I was back on my feet by Monday.

So tomorrow evening I'll be making good on last week's plan. Shochan Izakaya in Togo is pure gold as far as boozing establishments go, and the folks I'm meeting are priceless. The second part of the evening will take me to see Yasu, the infamous master of a place I've been frequenting for about eight years or so, Sakagura.

Fridays being what they are, there are often unexpected twists.

Today it came while I was typing on the computer in the office at work.

My boss came in to make a copy right next to where I was working and after a moment of silence she asked me what I was doing. If she paid any attention to what I do even a fraction of the time she would know what I was doing, but she doesn't... so she she didn't.

I told her I was typing up some students' English speeches, and she seemed pleased by this. Since the only day of the year she verbally acknowledges the English speech festival is on the day it actually happens I'm pretty sure some of what I mistook for "being pleased" was actually "oh, right, er... the speech festival".

So then she asks me where the "Japanese" copy of the speeches are. I told her there wasn't one but that if she wants one I'll translate them for her. She doesn't speak any English and even speeches by second graders where they say things like "I have a big sister" are a mystery to her.

She put down her copying and was incredulous. I sensed this and kept talking, knowing what it was she was about to tell me.

I told her I've been developing the speeches with my students over the last month or so, drawing from the English they know and creating what they want to say using English as the base instead of thinking it up in Japanese and translating it all into English. My view is that if the kids think up their speech in English they will own that speech. They will own their English words because they thought them up themselves. It will be organically grown, so to speak. I, of course, correct any errors along the way and teach them how to say things they aren't sure how to express.

At some point I got cut off. Part of it may have been that I was keeping my head down a lot because I've got a partially grown beard and look like a hobo from certain angles.

My boss told me I have to make the kids write down their speeches in Japanese, then I should translate them into English and they will memorize them. She told me the reason was the kids are Japanese and the only way they can really express their thoughts is in Japanese.

This is what I'm up against.

As usual, I smiled and nodded. Hopefully she won't think about the speech festival again until the day it happens in March.

88 Beers At Hakkenden

Tonight Reiko and I met up with her mom and aunts Toshie and Junko and her cousin Fumika at Hakkenden, this chain pub down the road from our house.

They just happen to be having an, oh nothing, 88 yen beer special until December 16.

Reiko and me.

Reiko, her mom and me.

 Aunts Toshie and Junko took a liking to the i-pod.

Scaring Children: Highly Underrated

Around Halloween Bruno and I took to scaring the kids at our school whenever we had the chance by hiding behind a counter or something and then jumping out and yelling "Boo!" or "Bwahh!" or whatever.

A few of the more keen kindergarten and elementary school kids decided they would try and do the same to us and the game was on. Everywhere you went you had to always be on the lookout for someone trying to scare you from behind a doorway or around a blind corner. Eyes on the back of your head, man.

Halloween came and went and somehow this game continues.

Man I scared the hell out of a couple of kids today and they screamed like crazy. I know that even as I write this they are planning revenge.

It's anyone's guess how long this is going to go on. I'm hoping that at some point they'll either stop being surprised or just get bored of the whole exercise.

I sure ain't gettin' bored of it yet. As a matter of fact I'm starting to hone my skills at sneaking around and scaring unsuspecting kids. Today I even accidentally startled a junior high school girl who comes for an evening lesson. She got me back later as I was leaving the building. She was hiding behind a bookshelf in the dimly lit lobby and jumped out as I was going for my shoes. Nice move!

I wish I had my camera so I could capture their faces. It's pure comic gold.

So after a hard day of scaring children it's so wonderful to come home and enjoy a delicious dinner with Reiko. Tonight she made one of my favorites: mentaiko pasta. She also whipped up this sausage salad and some garlic pizza bread.

This must be what trolls feel like when they crawl back under their bridge after a hard day.