DearScotty

Before an exciting game of Jeopardy the third year English teacher put on some tunes for the students. Before class begins she always sings along with the song for that month. I have this logged in the Bosom Buddies thread. Well, turns out the kids aren’t too keen on Billy Joel or John Lennon so they finally got to put a request in. This month she’s singing Eyes on Me from the Final Fantasy VIII soundtrack. At first I thought the kids really wanted to hear the song but after hearing the teacher sing it I realized they pulled one over her head. They obviously chose a song about 3 octaves out of her range. I would’ve laughed except I thought she was so brave to be singing in front of all these kids.

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I’ve finally discovered the mysterious flavor of the cold wilted salad that’s served with the fish. For school lunch we get a bowl of rice which is usually safe to eat and a bowl of hot soup. The main dish is normally some cold piece of meat or cold undercooked omelet thing. Next to the main plop of cold meat is a mysterious wilting salad consisting of grass, spinach, carrots, bean sprouts, and other mysterious greens pulled from the ocean. I can never figure out what this taste is, but I eat it anyways so I don’t offend anyone.

Well today I discovered what it is that I’m actually tasting. After realizing that I’d been eating salad dressing that comes from squeezing out sweaty gym socks, I choked a bit, put down the sticks and quit. Somewhere in pre-modern Japan, a future chef was fighting with his older brother about green tea until it got violent. They fought and rolled into a western camp where the older brother grabbed some used underwear of one of the foreigners and stuffed it into the younger brother’s mouth. The fighting ceased and the soon to be nutritionist for the Japanese education system soon found himself sucking on the underpants trying to squeeze out all the sweaty goodness. A new trading system was developed for used underwear and socks that is until the Japanese finally started to wear underwear of their own. Remnants from this dark past are still visible in Tokyo where men can purchase used women’s underwear from vending machines.

After having a relaxing time in South East Asia enjoying cheap and amazing food, I realize how much inaka life in Japan blows. I find my solace in watching Comedy Central and now ESPN. I haven’t taught a junior high class all year and I found out that I will be the listening portion of a test tomorrow. Most sane teachers dread having to be the human tape recorder but me? Wow, this is great, I haven’t planned a lesson since just before Christmas. I’ll go to class, read a dialog, come back to my desk in the teacher’s room and resume watching TV. The line between school and home life is also blurred. Sometimes I wonder why I even leave school. I’m just going to go home, plug in the computer, and resume my anti-diet of pringles and buffalo wing sauce. Is having 3 hot chocolates a day bad for me? Anyways, what’s my point? Maybe I should move to Osaka. I hear the people are semi-normal and they have an amazing underground music scene. The scene here in Fukuoka, you ask? For some reason, East-LA Dodger/Raider Homies are the newest thing.

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Happy New Year and all that smooth Jive. So, I’m back to my routine of sitting at my desk at school downloading American TV and surfing through Youtube. Can’t say I’m bummed to be back, but I’m definitely not happy to be back. Thailand was really nice, well if you exclude Bangcrack. Surprisingly, Vietnam turned out to be the most fun part of the trip, of course the most deadliest. I’ve never seen such horrid, ruthless, lawless traffic in my life, it was exhilarating! There were Vietnamese on scooters flying all over the place. Some scooters had families of five packed on to one moped with one kid on the handle bars reading comics. I’m going to miss the great food and especially the insanely cheap prices in Nam. I’ve uploaded a video from the trip, enjoy!