KONNICHIWHAT!?: 'Tis the season

Been a little while since my last post but hey, work comes first right? Or some such nonsense. Here we are in December and it's getting to be really damn cold here in Japan. We're talking thermal undies cold. Coming from LA, I was quite ill-equipped in the clothing area and have had to spend some dough on heat-tech from Uniqlo. For those that don't know, it's basically casual thermal wear from a major Japanese clothing store. Work has been going alright for the most part. Now that I've had some time with each of my schools and the students that attend them, I've been able to determine which of the three schools is my least favorite. Believe me, I have one. I actually just finished my week there and it was exhausting, both physically and mentally. I have to prepare my mind for some of those classes because the kids there are just out of control. When I first started this job, the hardest thing for me was being assertive with the kids. I don't like having to raise my voice and no one wants to be the bad guy. Needless to say, I've been getting better at that thanks to some of the classes at this school. On more than one occasion, I had to raise my voice and threaten to take things away from the students. Before for one particular class, three boys wanted to play with their Duel Masters cards instead of getting their homework out for me to check. I told them a couple of times to put that shit away and they nod and say, "okay, okay", but of course they didn't. So I spoke to them in a loud, stern voice with a, "I'll burn this place down" stare on my face and said, "either put the cards in your bag, or I put them in my pocket! Which is it!?". They opted for the bag. I hate that some of the classes have to be that way, but with the number of schools us native teachers travel to, as well as the number of classes and students attending, the odds are against us in that we'll be dealing with some less than enjoyable students. Sigh. Simply the nature of this beast I suppose.

On to happier news. One of my goals before coming to Japan was to see the K-on! movie as I knew it was going to be opening on December 3rd, a time in which I'd actually be here and could see it on opening day. I did just that and was totally thrilled in the nerdiest way possible. I went with my friend Takeru, who also loves K-on! and we both were pleased the movie. I know that you're probably wondering how much of the movie I understood, seeing as how there are no English subtitles and my Japanese is not fluent. Well, I was able to lump enough pieces together to get the major gist of it and even without fully understanding everything, I was still pleased. Now that's a movie! It also helped that it felt like a proper movie and not just like a long episode of the series, which some TV-show-turned-movies tend to do. So not only was I excited to see the movie, just as exciting was the fact that I could see it on opening day, in Japan and on the big screen with like-minded nerds. That's an experience I won't soon forget. I'd also like to point out that it made more in it's opening weekend than Steven Spielberg's Tin-Tin movie, which is saying something about how popular this franchise is. Truth be told, I'll probably see it again before it's out of theaters. Good times!

I have only one week left of work before my winter vacation starts and I'm excited to have some time to chill. I don't think I'll be able to fly back home this winter because it's a bit pricey at the moment but I'll have another vacation opportunity next year and I can certainly use it to return to the states. So instead, I'm thinking I'll see some other parts of Japan...maybe finally hit up Tokyo? Who knows. I still got time to decide and seeing another city is as easy as making my way to the train station.