I will take Andy's advice: "I hope you are keeping a diary," and try. The problem is that I have never been good at doing anything every day, and I am even more reluctant to really write down everything that I think. But anyway...

We've been in the house for about a week now. I'm settling in pretty well. Despite my original fears, the house may actually be big enough for all of us all. Patty has set up her desk an seems to be preparing for a siege there. Taiji has made similar arrangements in his room; Sensei has turned the sun porch into an office. John - for not having much stuff yet - is basically camping out...like me.

Moving all my stuff here is going to be an on-going pain in the ass. I don't think all of it will fit. And a lot of things I have are too big for a car, even by themselves. Anyway, the stuff that I've already got here is more than enough for day-to-day. I guess that shows just how much excess I have.

So far I like it. It's hard to say exactly why having an Aikido teacher for a housemate is worrisome. If the past few weeks are any indication though, the only real problem is going to be having to listen to Sensei's many monologues on living--usually late at night.

It's easy to find the monologues boring and I know John often feels that way, but if I suppress that reaction it usually passes. Then the hardest thing becomes the actual work of listening. Sensei's English is very strange; his pronunciation is bad and his grammar is awkward. If he is speaking about matters of fact, it's not too hard. But when he is setting forth an extended chain of logic or making a point by analogy it can be impossible. He leaves out connectives and has no conception of the subjunctive in English. Listening to him often stretches my logic, my intuition and my patience.

Sometimes I think he does it on purpose.

I make the assumption that Sensei is both well-informed and intelligent and that, though it is hard to believe sometimes, he always has a point. Of course any other assumption means that the language barrier is hiding gibberish and my efforts to understand are futile. They say that every man seems a fool outside of his own culture.

One thing is clear though, he means almost everything he says--however outrageous--and he bleeds a fair bit for being as he is.

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