I totally bailed on Nomura San this morning, my cute old little Japanese teacher. I woke up at 8:30 and realized that I just couldn't get up yet so I called in and told him I couldn't come to the lesson. I feel bad, but it's just too long of a day for me. It meant that I was actually really late for school and had like an hour and 45 minutes to plan all five classes. I totally did it and it all went really well. I have to admit that I will miss my class of little girls. I adore them. But they will have to be sacrificed for the rest of the day.
I grabbed some dinner at the Matsuya or whatever the heck it's called. You gotta love being able to find a full (yet crappy) curry and rice dinner with water and a bowl of miso soup for 290 yen. Aw yeah! Then as I got out of the station, I found some teachers (they're married to each other) so we all stopped and I talked to them for like just under an hour. It's really cool knowing that I have fellow Christian brother and sisters here in Japan. We're talking about getting together every now and again to do a church type thing, pray for the school, pray for the kids, talk about God. It was cool for even just the few moments that we talked about "seeker friendly services" and just the theology behind the whole concept and how it's a bit of a cop out and the difference between "seeker services" and Evangelism. It was good.
My Teenagers
Most of the teenagers I have contact with here are different from any other species of teenager than I have ever encountered. I have two returnee boys who used to live in America so they're pretty much fluent. They are the busiest kids I've ever met. Takuya is up at 5:30 for an hour commute to school, 7 hours of school, 3 hours of track, commute home, English class, do 2-3 hours of home work, in bed by 12-1 to be up again at 5:30 am. Shunsuke has about 3-5 hours of sleep a night, he's got the same sort of schedule with less of a commute but more extra-curric, tennis club for 2-3 hours a day plus drama practice and with more homework and extra studying for University entrance exams. Takuya is 15, Shunsuke is 16. I can't even imagine keeping that kind of schedule when I was that age. It's hard to watch and know that I can say nothing of the insanity of it because it's what's expected of them from parents and teachers. I actually gave them homework over summer break (4 weeks, where they each were training 8-10 hours a day in their sports plus studying for exams that were on the first day of school), that was to take a girl out on a date. They didn't, but Takuya said that he at least talked to a girl on the phone. I said that was an acceptable compromise.
