I was grading quizzes today, and this is a match-up quiz, match up the words with the meaning. Not particularly hard I think, involves memorizing fifteen words or so. One of my students got the first ten or so incorrect. Then had what looks like a flash of brilliance because he crossed all of those out (incorrect answers still visible underneath cross-outs), replaced them with the correct answers, and proceeded to get a perfect score on the quiz. Amazing. They do tell me that medical students are quite brilliant at test-taking, having to go through several rounds of tests to get here.

Oh and another student in that corner showed similar brilliance. Only he used a pencil and was able to erase (albeit not very well) his answers and replace them with correct ones. The entire class got perfect scores. Bravo.

I panicked about an hour ago about the amount of sitting on my butt (in front of a computer) I do here. So, I found a yoga instructional video on youtube and started to practice my breathing...and stretching, in front of a shiny screen. Then, when my knees and ankles ached about fifteen minutes in, I took a break and decided to change and go for a jog (I would really prefer to say run, but at the speed I was going, I think it can only qualify as a jog even if it peaked at run speed in brief spurts. sigh.).

We'll see how long I can keep this up for.

For both classes, the students segregate themselves by sex. One long row of girls with clusters of guys around them in one class and in the other, guys on one side of the room and girls on the other. Except there are only two guys in that class so it is oddly lopsided, with girls extending all the way to the back of the room when they could just sit on the "male side" of the room, closer to the front.

It's possible of course, that these girls just prefer the back but I am inclined to think that they self-segregate.

contemplating possible explanations for this phenomenon...

I wouldn't say that this was an adventure exactly but I was put on the bus (for the first time) home today and while reading the new manga I had bought (Darling wa gaikokujin...it's not as trashy as it sounds. I swear. zettai shoujo manga jya nai) I managed to miss my stop. It was the stop before the very last one, so I thought I would walk but first I asked the bus driver for directions to the last stop. He advised me to take a taxi because it was dangerous. I, of course, thought of muggings and such but really what he was thinking was getting hit by a car because of the lack of sidewalks where I am. But it was late, and I was tired so I thought I would just take the taxi, but there were none apparently they close down fairly early around here. He asked me if I could contact any of friends (not knowing of course that I don't have a cell phone...and even if I did, I know so few people right here that it wouldn't help at all) and then offered to take me home. He told me to sit on a bench to wait while he packed up, and as I sat I considered all the things I shouldn't say...like where I worked or (if I could help it) my foreigner status. Perhaps it was an American thing kicking in, but if somebody told me they were getting into a car with a stranger back home I would have told them it was a stupid idea. But I did it, and in the five or so minute drive (it would have been a half hour walk...) it came out that he noticed as soon as I opened my mouth that I was a foreigner. I had been hoping that I could trick people longer than that. And then when he asked me how many years I had been in Japan for...I replied two months...instead of perhaps making up a lie. I must have said sumimasen 15 times in the 5 minutes we talked. I said arigatougozaimashita at least 10 times. Gomeiwakuninarimashita once. I wasn't sure how appropriate that phrase was to the situation so I didn't want to overuse it in the event that it was completely wrong. Must needs study more.
It's funny I think that when he said it was abunai, I thought of getting mugged and thrown in a ditch (over-active imagination I know) when really he was referring to the fact that there isn't a pedestrian walkway. Trains from now on.

Zero percent beer!

No folks, (it is sad writing in this blog sometimes when i have so few readers) it is not zero-calorie beer but zero percent alcohol beer. Apparently taking the nation by storm. Well, popular enough for all of the major companies to put out their version and for Japanese television (monolithic entity of course) to create and air a fifteen minute segment about it.

Reasons to enjoy such a thing, as some people may argue that the point of beer is the alcohol (How silly, my Japanese comrades may answer. I haven't met anybody who has actually had this stuff before).
1. You feel like you are drinking beer like everybody else since you really really can't hold your alcohol.
2. You can have a beer during break at work. and it is a-okay. it relaxes you. (but really? isn't it better for work to have a coffee?)
3. edit, I heard a better reason after asking some of my students about this. Apparently, it's so that people can erm, drink and drive. They also noted that being caught while drunk driving entails more serious consequences in Japan than in the U.S.. Some people have had to quit their jobs (or gotten fired, end result is the same I suppose).
I tried to put up picture but failed for some reason. You can just do a search on google and it will pop up.
Edit: worked!

Suburbia

To give you an idea of how small the area where I am is.
There is only one track running to the train station closest to me (the Iyotetsu line, Iyo being the old name for Ehime). I couldn't figure out how that worked for a while. I just thought the trains going the other way must lead to station located somewhere else, until I realized that trains going in both directions ran on the same track. The trains run so infrequently that they just have a few stations with two tracks and the trains must wait at those key point stations for the ones coming from the opposite direction to pass before they go. During the rush hour periods, the trains run every 15 minutes or so, in the early morning and late evenings every 30 minutes...

edit: it's actually the yokogawa line of the iyotetsu company. which runs all of two maybe three lines.

The trains are also only about two or three cars long and late at night, when there is no longer anybody manning the stations the conductor has to get out of his little conducting booth and collect tickets from alighting passengers. When the station exit is on the opposite end of what it was at the previous stop, it's quite funny to see him walk quite rapidly as soon as the train is in motion from one end to the other so that he can get off as soon as the train doors open to collect tickets. Not because people will run out on the train fare, I think, but to prevent people from having to wait...(There are other ways to evade the train fare if you really wanted to).

There are also various payment systems involving the honor code, that wouldn't fly in the U.S. but I'll leave that for another day.

I have been in the office for a few days now...and for the past two, have been a silent witness to the comings and goings of the head of the Medical Education Department here. Both the office assistant and the professor's fathers passed away recently. As a result, there has been a steady stream of visitors, mostly colleagues I think, who have come to offer their condolences, mostly to the professor. Each time, using almost the same words, in a calm manner, he describes how unexpected it was and always ends with, I do not think that he suffered much, to describe his father's passing away.

These visits are so strange to me. The formality and rigidity, the man's father just passed away and he has to repeat ad nauseum the circumstances surrounding his father's death to every single person who comes in to see him. One might think that he would rather not talk about it over and over again, but these people come, sit down, and he recites his speech.

First Real Day

Why do people see fit to blast the same SAME Japanese pop song over and over again at 8 in the morning? What happened to Japanese consideration for their neighbors? This better not be the high school across the way. Now some band group is practicing...I hear clarinets warming up. Lovely.

先友達のブログを読んだ。ちょっと吃驚した、彼女は今スゴい仕事が持っているけど、どうしてその仕事があるが分からなかった。そのブログを読んだ前、彼女は多分大変だったと思った。仕事を探す時多分大変だったかもしれない。確かに、楽なことではないでも、彼女の場合、自分を勇気を出して、聞いただけは大切な一歩だ。聞かないといつも分からない。私もそのことを覚えた方がいい。自分をチャンスを持つこと、ほしいものを争奪する。失敗しても、最小頑張ったでしょう。

本当に英語で書きたいけど。。。まも一週間だけで終わる！