Saturday, March 11th, 1989

Note:  This is a series of journal entries from my two years living in Himeji, Japan (1988-1990).  I'm archiving them electronically through my blog.  Last names have been deleted and replaced with first initial only.  For details on this series of blog entries, see this post.

 Well, it's been ages (actually a week & 5 days) since I've written, so I guess it's time to catch up.

The week of the 27th (Feb.) to March 5th, I didn't do much of anything.  E.S.S. girls were in Hokkaido, so no E.S.S. rehearsals, Nobu & 2 other teachers on same trip, so no faculty mtngs.  I hung around my apartment all week, did some occasional shopping, cleaned, did laundry, knit, watched t.v. and hibernated...it was great!

Friday the 3rd, I scrubbed all of the scum off of my wash room walls and in the shower...felt good to see the stuff come off the walls.  Also scrubbed floors.

Saturday I met Kimberly in Kobe, ordered the yarn for my sweater, shopped, then we came back here & watched videos and talked.  Kim stayed over.

Sunday we slept in, then lazed around until 2 or 3, and went for okonomiyaki in Mikage.  I gave the lady the Iowa towel I brought back from Christmas.  She was surprised!

Choir practice went well, as did our debut in church (except that the 1st song kind of died in the beginning, because we sang from the back and couldn't hear the piano).  Our anthems went well.

After church was singles.  We did an activity where we signed a piece of paper and everyone int he room had to write something nice about us.  (Editor's note...I still have this piece of paper in my bible!).  It was fun, and good positive reinforcement.  The lesson was about how soldiers are healed when wounded, but when Christians are "wounded", other Christians "finish the job" by adding insult to injury (meaning that instead of building someone up after they've sinned, we say things like "you're kidding", "you did what?", "that's terrible", etc.).

I stayed over at I's.  Carol knit my scarf off the needles, and we had a nice talk.

Monday was a stupid, boring faculty mtng.  I rode in the Nobu and Koko sensei.  Nobu didn't translate shit, so I have no idea what we talked about.  (I was so mad!!).  I got home 30 minutes before Kayo came for her lesson.  She had a cold, so didn't do very well.

Tuesday I bought traveler's checks, sent them to mom, bought Robin's b-day present, sent it off, and taught my Mizoguchi class...only 3 kids showed up.  It was a good class though.

Wednesday was an E.S.S. rehearsal.  It went pretty well, but Michiyo went home sick.  We didn't do the script, we worked on choreography and lip sync.

Thursday, Michiyo, Chinatsu, and Tomoko came over for dinner.  (Tomomi was grounded).  I made chili, and we ate lots of junk food.  We watched part of "Dirty Dancing", but they had to leave before it was over.

Friday was the graduation party.  It was at the castle hotel, and was really nice.  We had a sit down meal.  There were ice sculptures, girls in ceremonial kimono, gifts for sensei (desk lamps), and lots of pictures.  It was fun!

Afterwards, Kimberly and I ran to Kobe.  I picked up my yarn and came straight back.

Megumi class was dull.  I keep saying I don't think I'm teaching after spring break, but no one acknowledges my comments.  

Today I went to A-Coop to buy make-up for my theater class.  How embarrassing (and, with a few groceries, my bill was 10,714 yen...ugh!!).

Tonight I'm going out with J's, K's, and Barrett for Barrett's farewell party.

One embarrassing thing, I forgot to mention- on Wednesday (I think) when I went to school, I went to the station early to buy Kaisuken (11 tickets in a booklet for the price of 10). I went to the window and instead of saying "kaisuken o kaitai" (I want to buy a ticket booklet), I said "kisuten o kaitai"...( I want to buy a coffee shop)...I'm beginning to have a lot of empathy for foreigners who flub in America!