I don't really have much to write about this afternoon but I thought I'd take advantage of this free time to write an update. The junior high school has exams on this week so I've spent the day reading wikipedia (Dodo, Easter Island, Vikings, and Bach). Also, I've been tearing through my second Murakami book (Norwegian Wood). He's never amazing but I like books with outsider type characters that never really go anywhere. Although I've noticed that I really don't like the way he describes his characters eating or drinking. It reads so fake and it irritates me. "He sat down and ordered a cup of coffee. The coffee was good here and he often found himself staring into the empty cup until the earlier hours of the morning." Everything reads like that... and I know what kind of cafes in Japan he is talking about. I have a bit of a dislike to these crammed, fluorescent lit, miniature tables, tiny glasses of water, bitter coffee and pathetic sandwiches places. Also, I hate the way his main characters always go on about "I know a place with good omelettes." Japan doesn't have good omelettes. They just have these fluffy, tasteless pieces of crap. It's all LIES.

I was going to write in my blog last week about two different experiences I had whilst eating school lunch at junior high school. I was teaching my last class to the 3rd grade and I made them all weep when I gave a little farewell speech. Although... I think it is a requirement at Japanese graduations to cry so I'm not too proud. Later on two of the female students handed me a note asking if I'd eat lunch with them later. This was a nice surprise because I have been the only one instigating conversations at school lunch for as long as I can remember. They usually end up with half the table ignoring me and one of the loud boys making a joke at my expense. Anyway, last week I had a great conversation with the two girls in English. Then they said "Hanta... we think you are.... nice guy" and I almost wept myself into my bowl of grey gloop. It was a lovely little lunch and it's a shame that it's so infrequent and that those girls will be leaving at the weekend. Anyway, the 3rd grade were absent the following day and I sat at a table of 1st grade boys. After offering them half my lunch and trying to talk about baseball they decided it would be better to mock my Japanese for the next 15 minutes. I ignored them in the end and stared at a watering can on the opposite of the hall whilst I tried to repress my desire to swear at them in English.

My trip to Osaka at the weekend was a bit of a rainy mess. It made me realise that I actually prefer the countryside over the cities sometimes. It was just full of horrible young Japanese people whose only goal in life is to buy a new handbag or get a new hair dye.. You'll notice I did not specify a gender because both of them are at it.