The Yen - A Shadow of it's Former Self

August has come to a close and it's still annoyingly hot and humid here. Currently it's raining, which makes for all the more uncomfortable situation. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to fall's arrival. I miss the dry heat of California and next summer will be much different. That being said, I've pretty much decided that I'll ride out my current contract (which ends in June of 2014), and I'll return to California. That means I'll have spent two and a half years of my life here in Japan. Part of me thinks that isn't that long, but the other half can't quite believe I've been here this long. One huge disappointment is that the yen is so incredibly weak right now (and has been for the past half year), so sending money back to the States hasn't been as exciting as when I first arrived. I'm pretty much cutting even with what I send home but when I first got here back in 2011, I was getting a few extra hundred based on the strength of the yen. If only I had a crystal ball.

So with summer school a thing of the past, I now have to focus on parent observations, which start Tuesday. The parents observe the lessons, all except the grammar classes. I'm not sure what the reason behind that is; maybe it's too dry for the parents to give a crap. I'm not even nervous about these P.O.'s like I was in the past. I've realized they're definitely not a big deal. Most of the parents are either lost, focusing their child's siblings, or messing with their cell phones. I pretty much do my lesson as normal, albeit with a small speech beforehand to welcome parents, let them know about what's going on in the class and any other information they might need to know. This time around, with my friend's help, I've created a quiz about myself that I plan to give students and their parents, which they'll do together before the lesson begins. Basically, how well do you know Jason sensei!? They've had a couple of years now to get to know basic things about me, so it'll be interesting to see how well they do...at least for me anyway. With that, it's going to be a busy September, with the inclusion of me covering Japanese teacher lessons at two different schools the first week. My birthday lands on a Saturday this year, which would be cool except for the fact that it's also the same day as our September staff meeting. Maybe I can lay a guilt trip on everyone and get a free lunch out of it. ;0)

Maple and margarine hotcakes sandwich.

Basically meat and mayo shoved inside.

Red beans and mochi. One of my favorite Japanese treats.

Hot and spicy potato strips.

Terrible grape soda.

Best Doritos I've had here. Very hot.

...really satisfies you.

Summer School - That's a Wrap

Yes indeedy do, summer school has officially come to an end. I'm incredibly happy about this fact and now it's time to return to some normalcy around these parts. The last two weeks were a bit of whirlwind in terms of schedule and fatigue certainly started setting in a bit. Truth be told, the classes that I had for SS weren't too bad at all three of schools. However, I had to help out at another teacher's school, teaching his last two classes of the day. His last class was a bit of a nightmare. It was just five girls, but they were five ball-busting girls. At times it was like talking to a brick wall and when I did get through, it was all for not because they really seemed misplaced in the advanced SS course. Luckily, it was just two days with these troubling gals and now they'll go back to being the other teachers problem when regular classes resume again.

Today, Saturday, we had a staff meeting, which is highly unusual as most of our staff meetings are held on Mondays. I think I liked it being on Saturday better though because Mondays tend to suck no matter what, and having to get up at 9am for a meeting makes it extra crappy. I had a good time at the meeting, as it's usually a nice period to socialize with some of the other teachers I don't get to see so often and our boss isn't really a hard-ass. After the meeting, four other teachers and myself went to a cafe for lunch and chatted about one of the teachers drinking problem. It wasn't behind-the-back gossip, as the teacher with the problem was at the lunch, openly discussing it. It was quite fascinating to hear someone speaking firsthand about a substance abuse problem, their awareness of it and the challenge to nip it in the bud before it gets any worse. So yeah, life could always be worse.

In less heavy news, I beat the incredibly awesome game, "The Last of Us", but I've started it again on the, "Survivor", difficulty level, which really is a pain. There's definitely less items along the way to pick up and they've taken away Joel's ability to, "hear", where the enemies are, so you really have to be on your game. I have one week of regular classes next week, starting on Tuesday, before a week of vacation begins. I don't have any plans, but that's okay. Time to save a little dough. I wrote this blog listening to the soundtrack for the film, "Prince Avalanche". It's music by Explosions in the Sky and David Wingo. Not too shabby.

Mint-chocolate ice cream bar. Pretty rad.

Pepper-salami flavored Doritos. Too salty.

Korean kimchi Pringles. Yeah...not for me.

One of my favorite curries to make.

Little box of french fries from the corner store.

Basically a carbonated, energy-drink version of Powerade.