Temecula tidbits

I was probably still asleep when the Temecula folks left Nakayama this morning.

Overall it was a pretty tepid experience, but there are several things I did remember.

The principle of Maguerita middle school, Karen Hayes, asked me if I wanted to become a teacher. I told her honestly that I have no idea. Later, while we're waiting for that night's party to begin, she gave me a 30 minute lecture about how she has found her life's passion in teaching, how she looks forward to working, how she has raised two perfect sons who love her and her husband, how she love her town, how they have a nice house that feels like a vacation home, how she's not rich but she has sailboats, campers, ATVs and Harleys, and how she owes all this to GOD (she even paused for a half second immediately upon mentioning this) and how she must the happiest person on earth. All while I was imagining putting my fist into her bloated face like a malformed pizza dough. I hate small town American Americans.

The subdued flirting between Alice (or was it Alex?) and 河端寛郎 (Kawabata Hiroaki) was interesting to watch.

It was a lot of fun actually to play with all my students. Hiroaki, 中川幸希(Nakagawa Kouki), 原田泰季(Harada Taiki, the one with overhead pumpkin) joked around all weekend, mostly with 3rd grade stuff like padding on shoulders and making faces. It was nice and fun, but I think the elementary school behavior lost me some respect with other kids, most notably 柴田理愛(Shibata Satomi, from the 2nd to last pic with the V). In contrast to her usually genki self, her sometimes dismissive replies to my approaches could be a direct result of such immature behavior, or it could be that snowball to the head on Daisen.

Oh yeah, we played snowball fight on the Daisen hills on the way to the temple. What started as me playfully making a snowball snowballed into Everyone Against Jeff snowball fight. I hit Satomi with a solid headshot from at least 25 ft, and she grazed an icy one across my ear from no more than 5ft and it was pretty painful. 中田有紀 (Nakada Yuuki, Chika's brother) somehow hit me square on the forehead with a behind-the-back throw (if I had the ability to rewind the action and watch it from 3rd person POV, it'll probably look like I somehow saw the snowball coming from behind, bent down and turned around so that I can be hit right on the head). I also had a few nice decoy hits. The snowballs were cold and hard, but I felt the love.

On the same 新大山町 tour, we also saw the 退休寺, which had a nice view of bamboo forest and LIVE monks! The beach near Nakayama was also nice, where I found a foot-long sea cow.

That night's party was okay. The old lady from the tea ceremony the day before gave me a set of 銭太鼓 (zenidaiko, traditional Japanese juggling drum sticks filled with coins) to play with. Nishiyama was there too and we chatted briefly and awkwardly. My new JTE, 光嶋-sensei(Tetsushima, or Teshima, I can't make sense of the strange Kanji pronounciation) showed up also. He was helping out with cooking yakisoba while wearing a Oki Island wrestling club t-shirt. He is 25 years old, just a couple of years removed from college, swam in high school (something I'm currently trying to pick up) and wrestled at the last highschool where he taught. His English isn't great but we'll get along fine.

Kyoko Fukunaga the music/English tutor dragged me aside at the party and congratulated me on my English teaching. Apparently 3 of my 1st year students just started taking English grammar lessons from her, and she was really impressed with their pronounciation. Somehow I get the props but I'll take it.

The Matsue trip was pretty forgettable. The Adachi art museum was nice but small, and the garden was indeed as pretty as they've been telling me. Skipped Matsue castle to read my book. The boat ride was pretty boring with nothing to see. The greenhouse orchids at Tottori flower garden was nice, but nothing was blooming outside the greenhouse. Naturally I did not have a blast shopping at Jusco. I conjured up a hangover headache to excuse my lackadaisical behavior throughout the day, but I think that might actually work against me in the end. Well, Honda-sensei definitely rolled her eyes hearing that at the end of the day. I did get Ms. Kaneko's card and her promise to show me around Fukuoka when I visit, so I guess it wasn't entirely a waste of a day.

Did talk briefly with Brenton and Laura, 2 of the high school students of the trip (11 total, 1 principle, 1 chaperon, 5 middle schooler, and 4 high schoolers). Nothing impressionable, although I didn't try very hard to make lasting impressions out of them. I mean, they're American high school students. Where I come from, they're dime a dozen.