Return to School

I had a long day today. I left as usual at 10am for school, where we had one Japanese lesson containing one kanji test. We studied a strange grammatical form that allows one to say that are doing something in the style of something else, for example, "Do as I do," and "Assemble it as in the instructions." It is slightly odd, and is another one of those constructions that I cannot see myself ever using naturally. I had lunch afterwards – a large portion of curry rice – and did my homework before catching the 3.15pm bus home.

I left again at 3.30pm to teach for Noriko. I had my usual four classes, though I spent most of the time testing the children individually as a kind of "graduation test." I still find them all cute, and I am really getting to know most of them. They seem less nervous around me nowadays. Most of them are better in the individual "test" situation than they seem to be in the class, especially some of the quieter ones who you always presume are not understanding what is going on. Since it is "White Day" in Japan, I took them chocolate from Hokkaido and let them have some each.

For the last class we went to "Joyfull" one of the 24-hour restaurant chains in Japan. I had a "Chicken Doria," which is like a chicken gratin, but with rice instead of pasta. There were only two students in the class, Shohei and Moe, so it was not a big party. They are graduating from elementary school, which lasts for six years, and are moving up to junior high school. As such, they are both going to cease coming to English lessons, presumably because they will start having them at school. I will not see Moe again (it is a little sad to lose a student!) but I will probably still see Shohei since he does Aikido with me. I got back in at 9.45pm, though I did have dinner paid for me.