Dartboard

This will be me after tomorrow’s triathlon.

This is Suyama-chan, a little girl who takes swimming lessons at 5 p.m. in the pool everyday. She’s the daughter of the science teacher at my school—very outgoing and sweet. I walked into the pool changing room this week to find her knocked out and snoring on the bench.

Tanabe's classes are tough!

Tomorrow is the Monster Man Triathlon and the island is really getting ready for it. There are flags, banners, signs all over the place. Excitement is in the air! After my swimming part I’ll volunteer for the rest of the race (because technically it’s a work day for me). Another enkai to follow so lots of drinking, celebrating and very little sleeping. I think Monday is a holiday, but I can’t remember now. I need to sleep sometime.

Friday I weeded the P.E. grounds with students and teachers for two hours. It was hot and it really sucked. I talked to a senior, Keisuke, for a long time though. His dream for after high school? He wants to fish off a dock. I asked, “Catch fish to sell? You want to be a fisherman?” No, just to eat himself. The ambition in this student is killing me. I’ve always thought highly of him, but I’m beginning to wonder why. His mom works in the post office, but I never realized she was his mother so I greeted her today. She’s running in the triathlon so I’ll be excited to see her there! They live just down the street from me too.

[Sidenote: I didn’t realize this until now, but apparently Keisuke’s father, Uraguchi-san will be the runner in my relay team! So, I guess his parents have been training for this together.]

After talking to Keisuke I also talked to some sophomore girls. We discussed crushes! Apparently one student (although I’ve promised to keep it a secret) has a crush on Koichiro! I guess it’s not too big a surprise, he’s young and attractive. I told them about my crush on Tanabe, and that he unfortunately has a girlfriend and they’re all like, “It’s okay! Ganbatte! Fight, Sierra, fight!” Huh? Pursue a taken man? I don’t think so? I’m like, “You don’t understand! He’s GOT a girlfriend, already!” “Daijobu! Fight, Sierra!”

Whatever. I’m not into guys with girlfriends.

Oh, and speaking of relationships, my friend Junji and his wife just had a baby.

They look like happy parents.

And this is random, but a friend of mine, Yuki, went to Kyoto and brought me back this omiyage. Colored sugar candies. Very beautiful, but pure sugar!!

I’ve sort of found an eikaiwa—an English conversation class—to teach. When Teru and I were hanging out on the beach we met Kerry’s friend who organizes the Aokata eikaiwa. She asked me to come join them someday and so I said, “How about next Wednesday?” She emailed me and it looks like I’ll be starting next week. I’m not going to go every week, but I’d love the opportunity to meet some more people and these women sound like great fun. Kerry said they were a very informal class—just a bunch of women who like hanging out together—so I’m looking forward to it.

It also means I have an excuse not to go to Wednesday’s school enkai. I’d rather not go to school enkai for a while because I’m not ready to handle Koichiro while drunk. I may as well tell you, since everyone who reads my blog knows anyway, we had sex a couple weeks ago and I’m still not sure what to think about it. He loves me when he’s drunk, but he’d make a terrible boyfriend. I’m still establishing/balancing that delicate line between friends and friends with benefits. Any advice?

This summer I’m not going to be able to take the Japanese language course in Aichi-ken. There’s a two week English summer camp in Sasebo for high school students and I’m kind of required to attend. It actually sounds like a lot of fun, but I’d rather be studying Japanese. I may still be able to do both, a shorter Japanese course in Nagasaki-ken and then one week of the camp, but that’s going to take a lot of organizing and I’m not sure it’ll really end up happening. Well, we’ll see.

Love, Sierra

Trained Osakan squirrels.

Thanks, Dawn!

Monster Woman