Happy June! I've officially been in Japan a week. In some ways it feels very short and in some ways very long. I have to face the fact that I haven't "just gotten here" any more. Regular life will start forming its way soon.
[It JUST started raining right now. It was silent and now I hear the heavy drops pouring out into the street. Weird.]
Tonight I made fried tofu for the first time. I kinda burnt a few pieces but on the whole it wasn't too bad. I also made soba. I feel like people my age and younger are already such good cooks, because they either learned how to cook growing up or have had an interest in it for a while. I want to try and learn how to be a better cook, to save money, and for my future family. (That sounds awfully housewife-ish. Not saying my husband isn't going to cook, but of course it's an important and useful skill to have since children can't cook for themselves.)
The kids that come to our house for English Club are awfully cute. Our lead teacher, Atsuko (who is supremely pretty and fit after having two children), has a 2-year-old boy Kaname and a baby boy Narumi. Narumi is probably the cutest and happiest baby I can remember having seen. He just lays there on the ground with another mother during our classes but he doesn't cry; in fact, he smiles at anything and everything you do. You can just look at him or touch his cheek and he will smile. I'll definitely get pictures soon. :)
English Club is wild and crazy compared to Seido but still fun. It's more what I'm used to working at Music School--a non-classroom setting. It's more comfortable and fun, but with less structure and a lower English level, it's more tempting for me to use Japanese with them. It just kinda breaks my heart when I obviously know how to give them directions in Japanese and they can't understand the same command in English, but I still have to use English. But I keep telling myself it's for their own good, and using Japanese isn't teaching them anything, it's just playing.
Tomorrow after school I'm going to the Atomic Bomb Museum and Peace Park. I was figuring out logistics on the city webpage and I ended up reading 3 survivors' stories which are written in translated English on the webpage. They are so immediately heart-wrenching and horrible. I teared up. You say the word "A-Bomb" throughout your life, without really thinking of the severity of what happened and what it meant to those who experienced it. No one should ever go through any disaster of this magnitude, and to think that it was intentional and not natural is just scary to comprehend.
Sakue's Story
Yoshiro's Story
Koichi's Story
See for yourself if you want.
On another slightly downer note, I think I'm getting sick. It hurts to swallow. The silver lining is that I don't have to sing for a while (the school assembly was yesterday, and other than that I have no pressure to perform/sing.) Back at home when I got sick it would mean days of not being able to contribute in choir and while teaching. But here it should be okay given I don't lose my voice completely. :)
It's almost the weekend again! Time flies. By next weekend I might have travel planned. :O
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