Well I'm in the new place. It's a bit of a shoebox but a nice one. There are some things I really want to do with it to make more space. Will think about it on the weekend.

Now for a little fun.

( Here's a pic, add a phrase to it! )

My mind was clearly elsewhere when I wrote this.



Red is not, I repeat, NOT a person, no matter what this video may lead you to believe....

ijyou, kyou no ichimen deshita.
以上。今日のイチメンでした

Jack O Lantern on high-beams!

Well I finally finished watching the first ep of Ryuusei no Kizuna (The Bond of Falling Stars??) *sigh* It just doesn't grip me like Maou did. *ducks a blow* Maybe it's the acting? *ducks another* And well the opening is nice - I like how it's been done, and my absolute fave moment is when Nino's character is against the starry backdrop and turns a little as the stars race on to trace out Ryo's character. Of course I also like the song... But it's not creepy butterflies, red streaks of death, tarot cards, angsty Toma, and scary Riida...and it's not "truth". *ducks a flying couch* Now now. No need to throw perfectly good furniture at me.

The other thing I find odd too is that I actually found Maou a lot easier to understand from a language stand-point. I think the concept of RNK is supposed to be very simple but the way they talk is impossible for me to keep up with - maybe because it's really late at night.

Maybe it's just because I don't like Nino. *dodges a barrage of stones* Okay okay no need to be hostile. No no I admit, I like him in this kind of role a lot better than say Yamada Tarou but still.... Watching Nino (Jun, too) act is almost like watching Shukudai-kun. Oh hey Nino! (Oh hey Jun! Actually, Jun deserves more credit because that definitely wasn't Jun in Pikanchi! XDDD) Ack I know I'm gonna tick a lot of people off with this entry but it's my personal LJ so bleh! I'm too tired to care.

Anyway, one thing RNK does have to it that looks really promising is that it's heading in the Kurosagi direction. Kurosagi, I liked. However, I liked that because main character Kurosagi was cheating on people who were cheating on other people, and working his way back to the man who had killed his family. With the first episode of RNK, I actually felt really sorry for the eventual victim - I didn't think he deserved the Shirosagi/Temptress treatment... Oh well.

Finally, here's a little apology for the Nino/Ryo/RNK lovers out there. Captured at the main train station in Tenjin, Fukuoka.





Back to work tomorrow at my least favorite school. I better get some sleep.

PS I need a huggable Sho-chan to squish! Anyone got some good Sho-chan/Sakuraiba moments for me? Oh I already have the Sho-chan on Masaki's shoulders one from recent scans. XDDD

I love teaching. I don't have a problem with cute, bratty, ignorant, annoying, amusing, monkey-like, impudent, stupid, funny, hardworking kids as my students. Hey they're in school learning a language that makes absolutely no sense if you miss a tiny word out here or add one there, and keeps contradicting itself. All we can do is try to make it fun, make it flow in one ear and out the other and hope a little clings on to whatever else is clogging up the brain.

What I don't like is CORRECTING TEACHERS. They can communicate in English, sure, but their English is all over the place to the point where I'm wondering if they should be submitting homework to me instead.

However there are some nice teachers with fairly good English, usually middle-aged males who have the patience to learn and aren't so flitty or narrow-minded that my corrections will fall on deaf ears. Teachers like this man, whose name I love seeing on the schedule.



Don't ask for pictures.

Ijyou. Kyou no ichimen! deshita.
以上。今日のイチメン！でした。

Today's Ichimen! Because microwaves care about you too!



This message proudly brought to you by the LG microwave in my apartment.

Ijyou. Kyou no ichimen deshita.
以上。今日のイチメンでした。

 It's 6:51PM at the moment and I'm about to go to bed. No really I am. I'm trying to adapt a new sleeping pattern where I go to bed much earlier and also wake up much earlier. I'm hoping this will give me more time before work to do things with a focused mind without having to think about them when I come home exhausted. If this works, it will also mean I will have more time to play with my international buddies without falling asleep at my keyboard. *huggles international buddies, especially saturn_necklace, laurachan2, and kos_mos26*

Well here's today's Ichimen!



It's a little hard to see, but the writing on the left is my normal handwriting. I'm left-handed by the way. The pencil writing on the right that looks like one of my students wrote it - that's actually me writing the same story with my RIGHT hand. It's the first time I've written in English at length (30 lines) with my right hand. I'm hoping that with a lot of practice I will get a lot faster, write neater, and that my right hand won't end up so sore afterwards.

*yawns* Night night!

Today, being a Sunday, was Go class day. I did okay in the class but I couldn't  really focus on the problems as much as I should have been able to. (I'm blaming it on one of the kids who came today instead of Saturday. I think his father actually pulled him out of the class for misbehavior - I mean he fell out of his own chair today and just would not stop mimicking and back-answering the teacher.)

That said however, when it came to playing matches instead of solving problems I seemed to be on a roll today. I did great in class for the fifteen minutes we were allowed to play and then the teacher called me back after class to see if I wanted to come in for some more matches against some women who were also at my level.

I resigned from a game I should have won (had I the patience), and won a game I should have lost (if my opponent had been paying more attention.) All in all though, it's getting the experience which matters.

Below is a snapshot from my second game where we stopped playing (I'm black):



And here is one after a few finishing moves were played and all was counted up:



Last time I played these two women, which was before my accident, I lost to both on 9x9 boards. It's true that I have more experience on the full-sized boards than they do, but I also think I've come a long way from when I first began. Playing matches has actually become quite fun for me.

If you're looking for a game with a difference I highly recommend Go, because unlike Chess and Shogi you absolutely never know where the fire of a battle will end up burning its brightest. If you can get your hands on "The Game of Go: The National Game of Japan" by Arthur Smith, it's a great way to start. If you prefer the drama of a manga/anime, then Hikaru no Go is a must!

Do you have any idea how many summer break English homework sheets I've marked with "August 1th, August 2th, August 3th" written on them? I mean, okay, you're gonna suck at English if you've been studying under the Japanese system of English teaching for the past three or so years of your schooling life but could at least remember the basics that were taught to you in your first year of junior high school? Pretty please?

And that was just one class. It takes me around 3 hours to mark 40 A3 sheets of summer holiday babble because half the time I have no idea what they're saying. The teacher says that she's giving them a separate mark for effort and grammar (kind of like the change of rules for gymnastics scoring at the Olympics.) If they wrote a lot she gives them A for effort. I don't think she should bother - why should kids who wrote a lot of babble be getting better marks than those who at least wrote a few sentences with PROPER GRAMMAR!!!?? (Maybe she should give bonus points to those who can write 1st, 2nd, 3rd.)

Grrrrr! And I have 5 more classes to go through yet....

Before I'm uprooted for saying such mean things about poor kids being forced to learn a new language, they did a hell of a lot better grammatically on the sentence writing task I gave them during a lesson I put together. I don't think the problem lies with the inabilities of the kids...

Anyway here's today's Ichimen. A notepad with a nice cover. Very appropriate if you ask me:


"Welcome to the country of the fruit.
What do you see in this fruit?"

Ok a few things.

Firstly, I've updated my One Facet of Today photo journal with previous shots which I won't be commenting on here. So please head on over there and enjoy those.

Secondly, I bought an application kit and 10000 yen/$100 worth of books for the 2008 JLPT test in December. I've decided to take the Level 1 test (the hardest level) and to AIM for 100% (400/400). To give you some idea, one of my fellow teachers (who is a couple of years older than me) picked up and flipped through one of my text books for the test and was shocked at the difficulty of the contents. She said it was Japanese that was formal and rarely used, and possibly difficult for even her. ^^;;; Wish me luck, ne. Starting from tomorrow I'm dedicating all my spare time at work going through these text books.

Thirdly, Sho-chan was back at his usual NEWS ZERO post last night. Cool biz season is over (out with the cicadas) so he was dressed in a full business suit with a goldish red tie and a matching hankey in his chest pocket (is there a name for that hankey?) At the moment he's even sporting the super-clipped newscaster hair cut. Very cute. It gets better though. Straight after NEWS ZERO was Arashi no Shukudai-kun: 24H TV Behind-the-scenes Special. Though the footage was recorded over the weekend, the opening and ending was LIVE and presented by an announcer (who seems familiar) in another studio. During the opening he said "Okay ZERO has just ended so Sakurai-san could you please jump down to our studio! Let's hope he makes it in time." And sure enough, at the end of the show, SHO-CHAN WAS THERE LIVE, STILL IN HIS ZERO DRESS SUIT! Is it just me or is it the first actual AnS LIVE? And Sho-chaaaaan! XDDDD

Yes, I'm stealing Sho's corner or at least the title for it. I've made a new photo journal for all the funky and silly little things I see around me. From today on, if I see an interesting shot, I'll take a pic on my phone and send it straight to my photo journal. They're all automatically dated and will be kept the same small size, but I'll still post them to my LJ when a new one comes in.

I'm telling you, I see some strange things. Although this isn't as funny as the lonely shoe I saw on the bridge the other week, here is today's snapshot: