One Week Down, Many More to Go

Tommy Lee Jones does all the advertising for the Boss coffee company. It is pretty strange seeing his unsmiling face on every train next to every other window. Speaking of the train, I have had the pleasure of standing next to the strangest people this week. On wednesdays and fridays I have to commute down to Uji city to teach at my visit school, and everyday so far i have been kept entertained by strangest Japanese transvestite i have ever seen. Her/his antics for getting people to give up their seats on a full train are unprecedented and quite comical. She/he starts by staring at the person who is occupying the seat, then she/he moves and stands right in front of that person and stares. In a matter of minutes, the person gets so uncomfortable that they get up and move. Quite entertaining.

On he train ride home, there is a whole new type of strange. There is a young man, probably about 22 or so, that rides the same train from Nara to Kyoto station. I assume that he does this as a nervous tick of some sort but he is a special guy. He spends the entire time while the train is in motion walking up and down between the cars of the train. He paces back and forth and in and out until the train stops. He then proceeds to get off the train in order to throw away torn out pages of magazine, which he properly recycles. Then just before the train doors close he jumps back on the train and continues his giggling and pacing. He does all of this while staring at his cell phone. Not talking, not texting, not watching tv or listening to music, just staring. One time he lifted the seat cushions off of a vacant train seat like he was looking for something. Yesterday, this person get off the train, recycle his magazine page, and leave the station, the train doors closed and we left. Three stops later, in kyoto station, i saw him getting on the train that i just got off of. This blew my mind.

Back to education and teaching and such. I like my job. I teach 4 classes per week at my base school and about 5-6 per week at my visit school. I have 10 different classes of first year students. That means that i can make 1 lesson and have it last nearly 3 weeks at that school, whereas at my base school i have to make 2 lessons per week at least.

This weekend i'm going to Osaka to do a bit of shopping at Costco and toursity things. Pictures to come. I should really find out how i'm supposed to pay my rent...

~Gio