I don't belong to a gym here yet. I need to do some scouting. I know there is a good one in the city, but pretty far away and very expensive. There is supposed to be one close by, but not so great. I have not checked either out yet.
I may not need one however. I got more comfortable with being around children, so started playing with them more aggressively. Side story: I don't understand Japanese people. As adults, they don't show public displays of affection. No touching.. no hugging.. no verbal expressions of emotions even. But then you look at their children, and you can't pry them apart with crowbars. Back to topic: This had positive and negative outcomes. I found that they like to cling to me. And Japanese kids are light. So I now use them as free weights. I can do curls and stuff with one on each arm. I get a workout, and the kids think I'm the strongest guy in the world, so it's a huge ego workout at the same time! But now you can't pry them off of me for anything. At any given time I can have 5 children hanging off me. Yeah.. I bet my family can't even picture that. It's fun swinging them around, launching them into the air, it's just a blast. Some are shy at first, but once they see 1 student having fun, they ALL want to have fun. I have not got poked in the ass yet. I do however get my crotch grabbed. By 8yo boys. I don't even know how to react to that. I don't do much about it though(other then pry them off at lightning speed), I do NOT want to draw attention to that, lest every child decides its funny and tries to cop a feel. *shudder*
Also I'm a celebrity at every school. Because I only see these kids once a month, I'm a cool special treat. I'm exotic to them. I can do ANYTHING, and they will pretty much say "OH WOW THATS SOOOO COOL" For example, climbing stairs 3 steps at a time, reaching up and touching the ceiling, waving to them, showing them my shoe size. Pretty much if I do anything, I'm cool. Soon I won't be able to function in society if I return to the States. I won't understand why everybody doesn't treat me like I am the next best thing since sliced bread.
People in general here are very nice. I recently took my car in to have it looked at. The previous girl left it in pretty bad shape, but wasn't really aware of the issues when she sold it to me. She didn't deceive me on purpose, she just assumed because it got her from point A to point B fine, it had no problems. But the car's not a complete loss, and everything will turn out fine. At the dealership though, I got treated better than anybody ever has at any car repair shop in America. I was given a discount, just because they liked me. It was a small one, but they didn't even tell me, I just happened to read it on the receipt. And get this, instead of trying to repair stuff that wasn't broken they told me the exact condition of everything I asked. I was debating on what to do with the breaks, because I am trying to put as little money into the car as possible until I scrap it in April and buy a different car. They thought that the breaks would last until then, but were not positive and it might be pushing it. It would cost a few hundred dollars, a little too much for me. So what does the mechanic do? He goes into his own parts supply that he paid money for and brought out some brand new brake pads and offered to give them to me for free. Not only that, but he did the labor for free also. They are also going to keep an eye out for a good reliable car for me when I eventually scrap this one. Used cars here are not too expensive, at least cheaper than in the states.
Bye for now.
Yesterday was my first day teaching. It went well. Ish.
I taught at an elementary school yesterday. The first class I taught, a combined class of 3rd & 4th graders, the teachers knew no English. Which is not uncommon for Elementary schools. English is not a required curriculum for elementary school students yet. The Japanese government will be implementing that in.. 2 years I think. It was a little nerve racking though being up in front of a class for the first time ever, and having the 2 teachers stare at me with more confusion than the 8yo kids. The vice principle there is AWESOME though. The next class, she came up with me and did team teaching with me. So we took turns and introduced some English and games and what not. She saved me. The teacher from the last class of the day, spoke good English and was Super Genki(uhm..type in "define:genki" into google without the quotes. There is no good translation into English.) so the class was really fun, and the kids were motivated.
The kids thought I was a Giant. No ass poking happened, but I did turn into a jungle gym for a small amount of time. My neck/shoulders are killing me. Played with them at lunch also, kick-baseball and dodge ball. I behaved myself and restrained from kicking the ball into next month(It'll reappear next week...), and did not really throw the ball during dodge ball... The kids were super cute. They got into like an argument over which team I should be on and what not.
I have pictures that the Vice principle snapped of me while teaching. I'll upload them tomorrow maybe. I said that about the monkey pics too didn't I....
Today I went to teach at Jr. High. The kids there are a little more shy, and don't want to stick out as much. In class. Outside of class they were really happy when I even walked by and made eye contact with them. heh.
I was told to get there early today so I could give a little self introduction to the office and staff in Japanese. No problem, I didn't bother to prepare a speech like they asked, as I have given this to everybody 90000 times now. Self introductions are big here. Evidently I miss understood something, because after I did that they said "ok, now lets go to the auditorium so you can give a speech to the students". I thought that was odd, since I would be giving my introduction in class to them as my lesson. I walked in and there were 250 students waiting for me to give them a prepared speech in Japanese. I'm not one to panic or get stressed.. but pretty much I thought "oh @*&!#, this is gonna be interesting". Then the principle gave a simple intro of my name, and where I came from. He did that from the side of the auditorium, and not from the gigantic stage set up in front. I felt relieved, as I thought I wouldn't have to stand up high having everybody stare up at me. I was handed the mic, and then shoved up the huge ass stage. Great. I believe the first thing I said in Japanese probably translates to this "holy crap there are a ton of you, I'm freaking out a little" Then from there I attempted to make a speech in Japanese. I learned something. I can not BS a speech in Japanese yet. I'm not ever sure I said anything comprehensible. After half a minute I gave up and gave a speech in English. One of the teachers translated for me. Afterwords some of the teachers came up and said "great speech". I think I just taught Japanese how to use Sarcasm.
The rest of the day went smooth.
I gotta go assemble a bicycle now. Catch you all later.
Ps. Oh. I was just about to post a photo of me in the class room. I just remembered that I can't do that. I am not allowed to post photos of students in class. Illegal or something like that. Because they are minors. I'm not really clear on the details, but I was specifically warned about posting photos of students on blogs and stuff. Sorrrrrrrry.
