June 6, 2000

Well, today, I tried to get the CPU to turn on again and it wouldn�ft do it.  So I have finally broken down and written a letter to get sent from Ryan`s.  Mom?the machine will be fine?these things happen.  Looks like it is a short from the power switch.  �gTHE GUY�h at my school told me to bring it in and he will take a look at it.  He is certified to repair and maintain computers and does so for our whole school system.  He thinks that he will be able to get it to work again.  So don�ft worry?if it IS something that he cannot handle, then we will have to take it to the Gateway service center in Kobe.  I really don�ft wanna lug that thing all the way down to Kobe if I don�ft have to.  Assume if you do not hear from me in the next couple days online, that this is what we will have to do.  If that is the case, we will take it on the 16th when we go to renew our visas.

Things here continue to be fine.  We are all well after the earthquake yesterday.  I didn�ft see more than a five minute blip last night on the news, and just a snippit this morning as well.  It must have been national news because I got three messages from friends in the US asking if we were okay because it looked to be near us.  The answer is yes, it WAS near us, but no, nothing is very serious?even in the place where it happened.  My Japanese is still pretty bad, but I thought I heard that nobody was killed and that there were very few injuries.  It is the fifth quake in this area this year.  The others have been too weak even to notice.  I only felt one of them, and I just thought maybe it was the taco salad I ate for dinner that night that woke me up!  It wasn�ft until the next afternoon that a teacher asked me if the quake woke me up, and I said that I got a little nauseous in the middle of the night, and she said �gyes!  Oh!  You felt the earthquake then!�h  She was very excited.  I couldn�ft help but laugh.  She said something about how powerful the earth is.  I asked her if she had ever been in a hurricane.  She said she had not.  I contend that she only has a partial idea of how powerful the earth can be.

I have to go teach in fifteen minutes, and then it will be cleaning time.  I will have to pause briefly in my writing, and depending on how the class goes, my mood may change significantly in the next paragraph.  Just wanted to warn you.  Today, I plan to play a new game that I made for them to teach them the proper ways to ask permission.  It is an adaptation of the game �gBattleship�h.  I have several �gbeginnings�h of questions on the left side, and several activities at the top of seven columns.  They must color in seven boxes on the grid, and then ask each other questions, like:  �gIs it okay if I watch TV?�h or �gMay I have a snack?�h or �gCan I wash the dishes?�h  And if the question matches the blocks that they filled in, they have to answer either affirmatively or negatively, and I have samples there for them to model.  I think that they will have fun.  They liked battleships.  I used a similar game to review months and dates with them last year (1st, 2nd, 3rd, as opposed to one-two-three�c) and they really get competitive when they know that ONLY the winners of the game will get the stamps, or ONLY the winners will get to eat suckers in class, or ONLY the people who participate will get the points.  I am crossing my fingers.

The bell is ringing for 6th period?back in awhile�c

Wow.  Really fast class, wasn�ft it?  At least for YOU it was a fast class.  For ME, it was 50 minutes of pantomiming and disco-dancing.  And me without the sequin jumpsuit!  The class went very well.  It is always nice when an activity goes really well.  The students were ALL using their English and practicing their pronunciations with one another.  Because they all worked so hard, I ended up rewarding them all with candy.  First I went around and gave suckers to the winners, and then I went back around and offered to the others, telling them that they tried and they learned, so they really all won.  They loved it?and they dig being able to eat suckers in class.  My rule is that they pick up all the trash so I don�ft get in trouble with the homeroom teacher.  So far so good.  They work well in pairs.  This is lots easier than asking them to speak aloud.  They will practice where ONE other person can hear them, and sometimes will get really shy only when I walk by, but I make sure to do lots of praising and they usually come out of their shells before too long.  There are only two students who have not spoken any English yet, but I think that they will speak to me before too long.  One of these students is a girl who never speaks to anyone, so I do not feel slighted that she will not talk to me.  I just continue to talk to her, while she smiles, and when I ask if she understands, she nods at all the right times.  She just lacks confidence.  The ability is there.  The other is a young man who insists that he is only going to speak Japanese and so WHY should he learn English?  In class during the first week of the new year, he acted as if he was too cool for school, and muttered �gNihonjin desu ga-naze Eigo hanashimasuka?�h (I am Japanese, why speak English?) to his buddy in front of him.  I happened to be making the rounds at that time and heard him.  So I looked at him and said �gEigo wakarimasu ka?�h (do you UNDERSTAND English?)  He looked at me kind of blank-like, mouth open, unaware that I understood or spoke any Japanese at all, then nodded and said �gskoshi wakarimashita�h  (I understand a little)  I repeated what he said in Japanese, translated it into English, told him that learning English will open up the whole world to him, reminded him that he was IN an English class and that there was his reason, and then said all that in my best (limited) Japanese.  I had been afraid that he would continue displaying a really negative attitude.  He hasn�ft, though.  In fact, since that time, he always speaks to me, always in Japanese, but it still shows courage.  He always finishes the assignments, pays attention in class, and shows improvement in the last few weeks since he got here.  I betcha I can get this guy to talk.  I betcha that he really WANTS to talk to me in English.  I just have to find the right arena for his voice.

I am sure that you all were completely spellbound by that last account of my student assessments.  Sorry to bore you with the everyday stuff.  I suppose that I could talk about the weather.  It is hot now and it soon will be even hotter.  This morning I woke up completely drenched.  I splashed over onto my left side and said �gOkay?NOW can we turn the AC on?�h  I got a yes.  I mean, it`s JUNE for cryin` out loud!  And it is tropical here.  There are still a lot of mountain flowers blooming, and the river behind our house still sends us the occasional sweet breeze.  You know, one of those breezes that make you look up from whatever you are doing and look outside.  When I do, I usually catch a glimpse of a crane or a hawk fishing in the river, which is an amazing thing to see.  There are loads of little black butterflies everywhere, too?which like the bush outside very much.  They all load up on the bush, and when you walk by quickly, they all fly away in different directions?kind of gives you the impression that the black bush has exploded.  It is really a neat effect.

Jessica still has to let me transcribe her trip.  I thought maybe tonight, but I will be a little tied up cleaning the apartment for a dinner party.  We aren`t entertaining for another week yet, but tomorrow and Thursday I teach, Friday and Saturday we will be  in Hamasaka for a JET function (with Jessica, at the beach?will be a blast!) and then Sunday I have to do laundry again.  Monday will be the next time I can do the little pickup jobs around the house, so I better work on it tonight.  How is THAT for looking ahead?  It is this same foresight that I use in buying birthday cards for everyone.  I will get them weeks in advance and then forget to mail them on time.  You see, if something comes up this afternoon and I get busy, then I will be all fouled up for my dinner party next week.  Not that it has to be spotless or completely elegant (as if it could be so in an apartment)---we are entertaining Yuko (my friend and colleague) and another ALT named Lyndall from Australia.  They work together at Ikuno SHS now, and Yuko is coming to show me how to tie my obi on my new kimono.  I am so happy!  It is finally finished, and now I just have to learn how to put it all together.  I still have to buy some funky tabi socks and some kimono-appropriate shoes and hair ornaments and then I will be all fixed up.  I think�cI have to ask Yuko if that`s all.  Lyndall is a true Aussie?with a really dry wit and a great smile.  We like her very much, and we are sad that she is not renewing her contract for another year.  It was terribly hard for her here in Japan.  She was very, very lonely.  Everyone she hung out with here was either married or significantly attached to someone.  So she went home alone every day, to an empty apartment, where she could not even understand what was on TV, and she just got really depressed.  We had no idea that she had such a hard time until we invited her over for dinner one night and she just fell apart on us.  I was shocked to find out how miserable she felt.  So, we called her pretty often, and introduced her to some people, and things looked up a little.  Now, she is enjoying it here, but she declined her invitation to stay here months ago, and it cannot be reversed.  Luckily, she says that she will return to Japan to visit everyone, and we invited her to stay with us when she comes.  We try to have dinner together every month, and I have been able to try out my new vegetarian meals on her.  We eat mostly vegetarian meals anyway?it is just healthier?but we get tons of proteins from tofu!  We are not total vegetarians?to be so is almost completely impossible in this country.  The Japanese do not consider fish or eggs to be meat, so they will prepare a vegetarian meal with lots of fish oils or eggs or whatever.  They also do not give much thought to animal fats or by-products when preparing food.  To most Japanese, being vegetarian means that you eat mostly salad, fruit and french fries (prepared in the same animal fat they just fried the fish in�c) and that you refrain from eating the bigger chunks of steak on the buffet.  Steve, you were here?am I right?  Luckily, Ken and I have found a lot of ways around the problems.  Since we cut down on meat, our cholesterol levels have dropped and so has our proneness to indigestion.  I guess I have one two meat-meals a week, mainly lunch meat on my sandwich at work or something, but other than that, we eat a pretty lean diet.

My big meat-meal was last weekend at a place in Kobe?the little Brazilian place I mentioned yesterday with the guy in the clown wig.  That place was great?there was a buffet with lots of bean soups and fresh veggies and some pasta salads and such, and then you sat down and people came around with large chunks of different meats on skewers, and then they just carved a slab off onto your plate.  There were fresh roasted sausages, slices of roast beef, chicken hearts, pork loin and turkey pieces, very fragrant and tender and juicy, and mmmmmmmmmm-it was really delicious, but I paid the price afterward.  We mainly went there for the experience of it.  It was too much.  It was interesting to watch the way they prepared everything, as the kitchen area was open, and the restaurant is run by a Brazilian family.  It was interesting to hear their lilting Portuguese accents on the Japanese language.  They must have found our Americanized Japanese pretty amusing as well.  I really would have been just as happy going back to the Sizzler.  Their salad bar was so fresh, and tentacle-free, and they had great soups and frozen yogurt for dessert!  Yum!  I just gorged myself at lunchtime.  We will definitely be going there when we visit Kobe in the future!

I hadn`t intended to write five pages.  Yes, I realize that I say this a lot.  I can`t help it.  It is now time for me to save this letter, close up shop, go get my sweet girl, and venture home to attempt to turn the CPU on again.  I hope to hear from you all soon!  Love to you from all of us, Lynley