The first thing you will notice about this pic is that it sucks. It's incredibly small and the quality is so shoddy that I could easily have drawn a better picture with a crayon. This is a picture from my phonecam. What do you expect?
This is a shot of the street my school is on. The streets are virtually empty because it's early Sunday morning. The tranquility is a welcome change from the usual hustle and bustle of the city. Call me anti-social, but I enjoy not being touched by strangers.
The weather was incredible this morning. It was sunny, the air was clear(er) and it was just a little too chilly to be outside without a jacket. Since these moments are so rare in Tokyo, I took the time to stand there and just enjoy it. I even took a picture to help me remember.
The coffee I was drinking was not from Starbucks, Second Cup or Tim Hortons. It was a hot can of coffee that I bought from a vending machine. Somehow drinking hot canned drinks just doesn't seem right to me. But, as I stood smiling in the middle of the street, holding my hot coffee, I couldn't help but feel a little homesick. The things you take for granted back there are gold here.
This tender moment was brought to you by Nescafe, makers of premium hot, canned coffee. We select each bean with care.
Work just flew by today. I thought I was screwed for at least one of the lessons, as I had underestimated the students and they just blew through all my drills in about 15 minutes. I was panicking, but luckily, right at the end, they hit a little snag and I had to spend some time to straighten it out. Moral of the story: always have a back up plan.
I am starting to get to know some of the students at the school. I get to talk to all sorts of people, ranging from highschool/college students, to house wives, to engineers and fashion designers. Just today, I met a man who did all sorts of high level marketing in Japan. The stories he had to tell were just amazing. I wish I had more time to pick his brain.
I also met an airplane maintenance man today. I didn't get much of a chance to talk to him, but what little I did gather was intruiging. If only I could just sit and chat all day, rather than teach dry English structure. Bleh.
I just finished watching From Dusk til Dawn, with Jason and his friend Scott. That movie pisses me off because it starts off so very well and then ends horribly. And it's only the last 30 minutes or so of a two hour movie, but if the ending blows then it kills the entire film.
They had lots of cool actors in that movie though. I normally hate Clooney, but he was good. Of course there was Harvey. He's great. Some bonuses were John Saxon (from Enter the Dragon fame, but he didn't fight) and Cheech Marin. Where's Chong? Is he dead?
I often wonder if people are dead. Like the Three Stooges. I'm sure they are dead, but when did it happen and how? Who went first? Moe? He was always a little too hot headed. That's bad news for your heart. Larry was a bit of a wuss, so if he ever stayed in prison (lots of their sketches ended that way), he wouldn't have lasted to the end of the month. Curly was just plain stupid. Perhaps all that glass he ate and all the physical abuse he took from Moe finally caught up with him.
I didn't like Shemp, or later, Joe. They weren't Stooges.