So today will mark the eighth day out of the past ten days that I have eaten takoyaki and sushi for at least one of my meals. For some completely unknown reason (probably because the heat has driven all desire out of me to actually cook anything) I have developed a real craving for this stuff.

Mind you, the sushi I’ve been eating are crab and tuna *rolls* with lettuce, egg (sounds gross but actually not), cucumber and a little mayonnaise (again, sounds gross but actually quite good)–((unless you’re Weenie in which case I guess you would still be really grossed out))

I’ve also been eating takoyaki, which are balls of dough with cabbage, green onion and ginger cooked with a small hunk of octopus (tako) in them. At first I didn’t like these but then I realized I just hate the nasty okonomiyaki sauce they put on them. Same with the sushi. I realized I don’t really care for soy sauce. The octopus freaked me out a little at first but it’s not so bad either. It’s got almost no taste but a decent texture, much less rubbery than calimari.)

I’ve been buying both from the prepared foods case at my grocery store. When I get home I wipe all the sauce off the takoyaki and reheat them in the toaster. Then I eat both of them with delicious nouc mam! (Anything is delicious with nouc mam) And I enjoy with a side of kimchi…mmmmmmm, dat’s good stuff.

See how delicious?

(seventh graders, to you)

One of my first grade teachers is not cute.  She’s nearly dowdy.  This would not be funny in and of itself but she sometimes sets herself up for a bit of a letdown.

Last year she asked a student (during a quiz game) “Am I beautiful?” to which the student promptly replied “No, you aren’t.”

This year she introduced herself to the new class: “I am Ms. Y.  I am a teacher.  And I am cute.”  She paused for a moment to let the words sink in.  During that moment a student pointed to me (:D) and said “Tessa sensei is cute…not you.”

Said the happy ice cream cone to the hot dog. The hot dog did not have an answer. He only smiled.

This was the scene on one of my student’s folder covers and it prompted me to think that hell would be a scary place indeed for a delightful frozen treat like ice cream.

Now we can all ponder:

would ice cream go to HEAVEN for giving so many people so much pleasure?

~or~

would ice cream go to HELL for being so many people’s worst vice? (ok, maybe just mine. :-\)

Saturday was Scotty’s birthday.

We celebrated by going to a rave in Fukuoka.  It was WEIRD.

I’m sorry I didn’t have my camera with me because in this case I think pictures would be worth a million words.

First, we thought it was odd how small the venue was.  It could probably hold 200 people max and was about 25% full.  Later on it got up to about 100 people I think.

Japan is a very group oriented/cliquey society so I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised to see that half the people out were with a “crew” or club, complete with matching outfits.  There were the Aqua Girls with half shirts and shorts with suspenders, then there were the Miami beach girls wearing sundresses and giant floppy white sunhats (yeah, like the kind you would see in Church),  another club was wearing black T-shirts with some sort of flourescent snake painted on and then there were the prom girls.  I’m not sure if they were all in a club since their dresses were a little different but they were all dressed in bad 80s prom dresses.  It was really bizarre.  I guess Scott and I were in the weird-foreigner club.  Yep, it was just us two.  Too bad we didn’t have on matching outfits.

Speaking of outfits…I was casual in some blue shorts, a fitted T-shirt, some cute necklaces and converse.  Needless to say, standing next to the girls (decked out in their prom dresses and whatnot) I looked rather butch.  But I couldn’t even make a joke about looking like the guys because well, the guys all looked like girls too (complete with Gucci shoulder bags and big sunglasses).

To top off the weirdness, EVERYONE (and by everyone I mean like 85%, no exaggeration) had hair that was so teased and so full of hairspray (this is girls AND boys) that they looked like an 80s hair band that had stuck its fingers in a light socket.

At about 2am they stopped the music and gave away prizes (like it was halftime at a basketball game).

The weirdest part though was that intermittently throughout the night everyone would break out into an excited “hai hai hai hai!!!” sort of Mickey Mouse type cheer.

But the DJ booth had cool built in screens that were showing “Pirates of the Caribbean” and later they showed “Babe.”

We also got free samples of…CK One.  I guess that was a perfect way for them to tie in the androgynous theme with the late 80s. :p

Scott and I had a lot of fun and although we thought they were pretty weird I think they were probably more freaked out by us than we were by them.  (Judging from their wide eyed stares and the huge berth they gave us on the dance floor).

p.s.  We found another “overnighter” besides the internet cafe.  This time we went to Round 1, a huge entertainment complex.  First, we relaxed in massage chairs and then we played ping pong.  When we were tired of that we went to the batting cages where Scotty got to practice his lefty swing.  :p

Last year there were about 15 kids in the English elective course.  They were all bad students that had been thrown in there for lack of a better place.  That was with the old teacher–the ugly crappy one.

This year we have a new fun and cute teacher and there are 40 kids in English elective!  There were 60 kids signed up but that was too much for one class, so true to the Japanese way the students jankened (rock paper scissors) for placement.

Today we chose English names.  I passed out a list of “American” names that the students could choose from and then make a name card for their desk.  A lot of students picked nice names from the list like: Aaron, Mia, Emily…

Some of the students got creative on their own.  At the end of class they displayed their name cards on their desks.  Here were some of the more “interesting” names I saw:

*South
*Eyes
*Joyful
*McDonald
*Kentucky
*Mos Burger (Yes, this and the previous three are all fast food restaurants.)
*Don’t Knock New York (??? I don’t even know what this is from)

And my personal favorite.  The small nerdy boy with glasses was:

*Black Hunter Boy

I can’t wait to call on “Kentucky” or “DKNY” to answer a question. :p

Cause my life is boring.

There, ya happy?!?!?!?