Week 43

This week just breezed by. No huge events; but a few, small, fun things.

First, I chickened out last Wednesday and didn't end up going to the police. I figure that: if whoever it is actually cuts my chain and "steals" (or moves) my bike I'll get the authorities involved. Anything less is probably not worth the time/effort it would end up taking trying to communicate what was going on. Also, as mentioned last week there's a video camera in the bike parking area so I have little fear that any perpetrator would go un-punished. (It's also just a $60 bike and I don't feel like buying a new chain that would be more expensive than the bike.)

Instead, on Wednesday afternoon I went out Halloween-costume shopping in Nipponbashi (the nerdy section of Osaka) with a friend. It was a fun chance to check out some of the costume shops there (places I usually ignore in favor of the game stores.) We didn't find anything that 1) would fit me or 2) was reasonably prices for "just Halloween". But it was nice to window-shop.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday whizzed by in a flurry of normal work. Saturday after work I had to attend a "school Halloween party" at my usual school. Despite "having to" go it turned out to be pretty fun. Some schools force you to "make the rounds" and you end up doing unpaid overtime 'teaching' but not this time. It was a fairly relaxed event and I think everyone had a good time. I dressed up in my "cos-play" (Japanese anime character costume) and though everyone liked it, no one knew who the character was.

Yesterday was another busy day teaching over the internet. We've recently lost two teachers at that school and everyone else ends up having to shoulder their work load (here during the busiest time of the year.) As a reward afterword (and just because I wanted a good burger) I went to Burger King with some friends after work.

Yesterday I also received a very nice letter from one of my regular students (' moms) saying that the student didn't really want to study English at first but, after taking my classes he really started to enjoy it. He recently went to Australia on vacation and had a chance to put our lessons into practice which he really appreciated it. Included with the letter were some koala clips (the small furry kind you see around) and a keychain. It was a small gesture on his part but put the biggest smile on my face all day.