Spiderman 3

I love the Spiderman movies. The first was good and the second near perfect, so much so that it's been a long wait for the third. When I saw the third, I was good. That's enough. I never need to see another Spiderman film again. Between the overstuffed plot and dialogue that only serves to set up the next scene, I'm probably good for the next decade.

It does have its moments. Topher Grace in particular is great as weasally Eddie Brock. I had the most fun when he was on-screen. But if this is any indication of what's to come with the rest of the summer movie season, prepare for some major disappointment.

Octopi

Yujo handed me the small octopus. "Tako." He said.

"Octopus." I laughed as the invertebrate tried crawling up my arm. It held on and struggled against me, but I finally had it cradled in my palm. It calmed down sufficiently and I carried it along as we waded across the shallows, looking for more octopus.

I'm not sure how they did it, but Toshiki seemed the best hunter. He led the other boys--I followed behind with my octopus friend--and pointed into the clear water when he spotted something. He and Okuma-sensei warned us a few times of puffer-fish and another nasty lobster-looking creature with barbed stingers.

We collected six more octopi. Then we returned to school, Satsuko-san threw them on a skillet and we ate them.

Immersed

I've given up Final Fantasy XI since it has a sado-masochistic reward system for the amount of required effort. Instead I've been playing World of Warcraft. In addition to actually rewarding a decent amount of effort, it's a lot more dynamic to play.



I become addicted easily to these games. They provide me precious English communication with souls that can actually effectively converse. I study Japanese, of course, but I crave English conversation that elementary students and low-level JHS students cannot provide. Some of the 9th graders can communicate pretty well, but not at with the necessary amount of engagement I crave.

So yes, back to WoW.

Two Years.

Recent events at my school--which I won't discuss here, but I think you can infer from the following--have reminded me of Manney.

It's been two years now, and all I feel I can say is I wish I had known him better. I didn't know him well enough to know what he thought of me, but I always thought highly of him. I've always felt I was a little boring, but I could never apply that word to Manney.

Thinking of you, Manney. Peace.

Humphrey's Hell

If Sartre's hell is other people, I would like to extend it: hell is other people you cannot understand discussing education and budgets you are forced to listen to for hours.

If I'm going to hell, it's going to be an eternity in a Japanese business meeting that I can almost, but not quite, understand.

Raining Flowers

Recent e-mails from family and friends asked about my sudden silence. March has been a busy month. It's the end of the school year and everyone is busy with preparations and leavetakings. In honor of that, here's the 9th grade class:

Sick and Absent on Ie-jima

Not me. At least, not at the moment.

I was out sick on Tuesday from a cold that crept up on me over the weekend. It was possibly the best sick day I've ever taken. My coworkers actually brought me breakfast and lunch straight to my door, and though I didn't eat it all, it was a thoughtful and effective way of checking in.

I had a surprise though when I went back to work on Wednesday: twenty 8th grade students were home sick with influenza and the principal had gone ahead and cancelled all their classes for the rest of the week, the Minnesotan equivalent to five consecutive snowdays.

Lucky little bastards. What American student wouldn't kill for that?

Seeing as the 8th graders are the majority of my schedule from week to week, I suddenly had a lot of free time, which I effectively devoted to origami flowers. Since the 8th grade is in charge of making decorations for the graduation ceremony next week, the responsibilities fell to the teachers. However, I'm still bored, and having studied Japanese, worked on my taxes and prepped for next weeks classes, I find myself updating my blog.

Reading~

I took a trip to Okinawa City this past weekend to meet with the book club and discuss Saramago's Blindness. The drive to Okinawa city takes about an hour and a half, so there was also discussion in the car. I wish I'd taken notes as I was reading; the discussion was rigorous and I found it difficult to keep up with everyone--particularly David, who reminds me of Graham. Despite its languid pace, the book is a fast read. Saramago's sentences can last for a page, making stopping in the center of one a treacherous endeavor only for the bold. And I've always been a very passive book reader, absorbing and placing myself in the narrative more than stepping back and analyzing.

Reading: I put away about 1/3 of Catch-22 this week, especially on Tuesday night when I went ahead and reformatted my laptop. I've never had more interest in where the next chapter will lead. Once Catch-22 is finished, I'll be ordering new books. I'm thinking of a novel by John Swartzwelder, Saramago's Seeing and another I haven't decided upon.

In related book news, my monthly book club has chosen a book I suggested, House of Leaves. It's tome-like and I hope no one finds it too intimidating, but it is one of the most stylish horror novels I've ever read.

Playing: Final Fantasy V Advance, sent to me from Aaron, who owed me cash from the box of Japanese Naruto mangas I sent. I've never played FFV on an actual system, only through emulators, and it's gratifying to read an official translation instead of one made by fans.

My Place

I've been cleaning a lot, so I thought I'd show a couple pics of my place while I have it reasonably clean.



I have two tatami and two hardwood floor rooms. So what you see is about half of my apartment.



Most of the rooms are clean except for the room which has my desk. That whole room is currently a mountain of papers.

I'd show pictures of my apartment building, but like most buildings in Okinawa, it's short, squat and vaguely fort like.

Platonic!

I love how some weird posters use English.



Brings a smile to my face every time.

Does blogging about work count if most of your coworkers can't read English?

I had fifth graders at Nishi elementary today. Teaching them was unexpected--I had prepared for sixth grade--and therefore had to wing it.

I do quite a bit of winging at elementary level. Every few weeks, I'll show up to class only to find the schedule has changed and no one thought it prudent enough to inform me until I show up 15 minutes before class. Usually I'm bumped in favor of cultural lessons in dancing. Sometimes I'll insist on joining the students, though primarily I'm assigned another class. This event happens enough that I tend to bring an extra lesson along that fits all levels.

But the Nishi fifth graders are a handful: 37 strong, they're the most intimidating class I've attempted to teach. To further complicate matters, they're the ones most often bumped from my schedule. As a result, they're English skills are lacking.

My lessons in elementary school have been on the upswing: I'm planning and teaching better and I'm trying to give students something more than rote memorization. More and more of my lessons consist of songs and games to keep them interested. However, after fourth grade, songs become something stupid and games can be more disruptive than education, particularly if you're dealing with 37 students and depending on their homeroom teacher for crowd control.

I like their homeroom teacher: Satoro-sensei is a good teacher and I have nothing but respect for the man who can handle 37 students. He had to discipline one loud student, but that student came back and we had a good lesson.

It went well. My last class with the fifth graders had been a disaster, trying to teach them an English phrase through a game and none of them would pay the least bit of attention to me. Today, however, I took them through countries and how to ask and respond to questions about where they are from. I had to use Japanese a few times to facilitate, since most of them are not used to English commands other grades have grasped through more exposure and classes, but most caught on quickly, and by the time the period ended they were busy asking each other what country they were from.

It is becoming increasingly easier to joke with students. One kid was insistent that he was from Jamaica, and we had some fun ribbing about his Caribbean desire. It appeared to set them at ease and make them pay attention a lot more than by simply ignoring the behavior. And it felt a hell of a lot better than trying to drill the information into their heads.

Reading: I started Catch-22 about a week ago and interrupted it with Jose Saramago's Blindness. Blindness was one of the most engrossing* books I've read in a good long time. It was impossible to put down, most probably because of the page long sentences. Its sequel is on my reading list.

Watching: Caught up on My Name is Earl episodes. Enjoyable, but now that I'm caught up, I might crack and start in on Heroes episodes.

Playing: I continue to push through Final Fantasy VI Advance in Japanese, which is a nifty learning tool when you've played the English version so many times and memorized the dialogue.

*Does anyone use "engrossing" for anything other than books?

The Week in Review

It's official: another year on the horizon. I will finish here in July of 2008. I'm sure, at this juncture, that three years will be enough and it will be time to get back to American and Life As You Know It.

Life As I Know It continues more or less how I left it: curiously absorbing. I can't ascertain if its a quirk of island life or of living in another culture. I think some might find it suffocating, but part of me finds it comforting. I almost view it as an extended hermitage.

For certain, the other teachers don't look at it that way. Ryoko, the 9th grade English teacher, has inferred that living on ie-jima is restricting. Of all the teachers, she is perhaps the most cosmopolitan and most informed of what's OUT THERE. I can recall few teachers in my junior high or high school years that saw far beyond their immediate surroundings. I can understand why now, more than I care to admit.

In her defense, it is restricting. There's stuff to do, of course, but the variety is sparse. It isn't easy for a young teacher either. How the system works here in Okinawa is that, every few years, a teacher moves to a different school and starts again. On the Okinawan mainland, the tenure is five years, but since ie-jima is an island off the coast of a larger island, the length is three years, and on some of the farther islands, two. When your time is up, you're shifted somewhere else and someone new moves into your position. Nice job security, but going from a larger city to a small island that might have less than a thousand people, or even a few hundred, and you can begin to imagine how isolating it can be. I know at least three of the teachers have spouses that live off island they only see on weekends.

So you make your own entertainment. This week I've plowed through the first season of My Name is Earl and about half of the second while catching up with House. Thankfully my books arrived today: (Catch-22, 1984, The Thirteenth Tale. "Thankfully," since I'm going through The Lord of the Rings for the third or fourth time in the last year.

Those will keep me busy for a bit.