A good week

Last week was a good week.

On Wednesday, Onishi Akiko (大西晶子) won the Western Tottori English recitation contest. She will be going to the Chugoku regionals in a couple of months. I coached her along with 2 other girls (尾古百合恵 and 徳永紗代子) for two weeks leading up to the competition. I take just a bit of pride in it, though it was mostly due to their own hard work.

On Thursday, I passed my driving test on the 4th try. Luckily the post-victory celebration did not go out of hand and neither driving center nor the tester was damaged, because the mob was emotionally drained and reliefed and just grateful that the whole saga is finally over.

On Friday, both our boys and girls ekiden teams (check 9/6/04 and 10/1/04 entries for more on ekiden) won 3rd place in the Western Tottori Jr. High meet. They also placed first in our gun (郡, county) which means that they're both going to the ken (県, state) meet. 山本健太 ran 3km at 9:43 and clocked the fasted time for the meet (he's also the best basketball player in our school, although he plays like and models after Allen Iverson which is a shame). At the enkai afterwards, my JTE drunkenly confessed that he may be falling in love with another woman beside his soon-to-be fiance, I wrestled with another teacher on the street (scored two takedowns but was unable to turn in on the concrete), and apparently two other teachers went to a blow-job club (I found out only much after when I ran into another teacher in the drinking district).

And I was not even hungover or tired the next day. On Saturday I found out that my car was way too decrepit to warrant another year of driving. The engine is leaking and the mechanic at Matsui did not recommend fixing it and pay another year of car tax. The good news: he has another modestly souped-up silver Wagon-R available to me for 17 man. It was the same year as my red one, but has been owned by the auto shop's owner's cousin and was in good condition. I am now deliberating whether to buy the car, or scrap everything and just rent for the next 10 months.

And I killed two mosquitos in my apartment on Sunday night. A good week indeed.