I had to surpress I smile today

when my 中1Y class, who are incredibly crap, sweet, maybe, but incredibly crap, all turned to listen to Kotono who asked "Sensei, don't you think that this class uses an awful lot of English in class?  We use a lot of English!"
"Yes", I nodded, "You do.  I'm so happy!"  Oh well, they have yet to learn the full horror of English for six years in a Japanese high school.  Still, that wasn't as bad as discovering that one of my 高IIIF class couldn't spell 'blue' - it's "bull" apparently. Uh huh.  Six years of English.

It's odd

when someone that you were involved with sends you a mail out of the blue that starts "Hi Rebecca". 

Hi?  Fuck.

I should be

getting off my fat arse and finishing my overdue assignment on Functional Grammar.


I, however, find myself doing little dances and performing little ditties along the lines of "Thai...laand, Thaiiiiiiilaaaaaaaaaand, THHHHHHAAAAIIIIIILLLLAAAAAAAAAAAANNNND!"

Off on Christmas Eve.  Wow, the first Christmas for a long time that I won't be alone on a beautiful beach. I'll be "together" on a beautiful beach.  How nice!

Son Son Son of a Gun!

Someone is playing The Vaselines in the neighbouring big purple apartment (next to our medium-sized blue one). That I'd never have expected in a million years (much like the fact I'd be livning in a blue apartment!)

I think like Minako. Worrying.

Not that I told her.  Naturally, I have to try and be somewhat aloof.  I mean, I wouldn't want all the students to think that I, too, pay great attention to the news when a typhoon is approaching and I, too, am crushed when it is heading towards Kansai and then veers off in a perfect right angle never to trouble us and never to give us that extra day off of school/work!

You'd think I'd learn: they've only hit once in nine years!

I achieved a first today

I walked into a 100 yen store with the intention of buying a pack of plastic A4 files and came out with...a pack of plastic A4 files.  Only.  No ear plugs.  No gaget for the kitchen that I will never use. No nothing other than the intended purchase.  How proud did I feel?!

Fuck nostalgia

Have just seen a video of a long, white haired, chubby J Mascis singing Feak Scene in 2008 and it's guaranteed that I won't sleep tonight.  Terrifying.

Suddenly it all makes sense....

Have just been having an early 90's nostalgia-fest on YouTube and got reminded of Superchunk, the only American power punk pop band (or "Chapel Hill  music scene" as their Wiki site would have it!) I really liked.

I loved their second album No Pocky for Kitty, and didn't concern myself with the fact that I had no idea who Kitty was and what Pocky tasted like.

Funny how life works out.

Too amazing for words....Broom Cupboard nostalgia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbbBqZyjkiE&feature=related

 "I am No NO, small robot you know, friend of Ulysses....UUULEEEEEEEEses!"

Go Away, Robbie!

I know he was just a kid, but he was so rude to the others when he left and smug about his success and rubbed the other members' noses in it (although Angels was released three times before it caught on!) I used to like TT, but never liked Robbie that much, it was Mark all the way for me! They went on to have several number ones without him before splitting and several hits without him after reforming.  He was living in the States spotting UFOs  before dropping hints that he'd like to be let back in.  They are very gracious: I'd have told him where to go!

Waking up at 5:30am covered in sweat

It can only mean that the summer has arrived......yuk!

Oh well, as expected

Shockingly poor defence, the Germans more than deserved to win.  At least I got to chant "The referee's a wanker !" after the Lampard disallowed goal.  What was he thinking, though,  with this comment: "Nobody can stand here and tell me Germany were a lot better than us. They were not 4-1 better than us."  Errr, they were from my sofa! The "lions" were lucky it wasn't 6-1.

I woke up to this after I stumbled out of bed this morning...Go Japan!

What a great result.  The match started at 03:30 and unlike the spectator, I didn't have the chance of getting up at 15:00! 

It is quite tragic that England will play Germany: apart from being outclassed, it allows the sun to trot out the tired old cliches about 'Wurst', 'Herr', 'Hun' etc.  It is so cringe-worthy. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/gallery/2010/jun/25/world-cup-2010-england-germany  Ho hum. Germany eh?  Guess that'll be England out then.  (Hope I'm wrong though!)

What you say, what they hear

"Has she gone?" 　"keshigomu?"  - eraser!

"In Japan....."  "Panda?"

And one I'll never be able to top:

Risa: How do you say 買う in English?
Rebecca: Buy.
Risa procedes to write I want to by clothes in her notebook.
Rebecca: No! Buy! B. U. Y.
Risa writes be you why in her notebook.

But the dictionary says....

Students often trust a small electronic device with a small electronic voice more so that the living, breathing personification of the English language in front of them (ie me!) One of the strange (and down right dangerous events for a "safety country") is the piggy back fight on Sports Day.  It has the twist that you have to grab the cap of the opposing team member to win.  The dictionary came up with "Cavalier battle" so no one was that interested in the correct "piggy-back" despite me saying "Are you a soldier?"  It didn't help that 'battle' is a Japanese-English word.

Tusks beach

The Japanese name for the Ivory Coast -  コートジボワール　- is a katakana version of the French Cote d'Ivoire and would be something like kotojibowaru if romanised.  No wonder I had no idea who Portugal (a slightly more manageable ポルトガル potorugaru) were playing the other night.  Y had no idea what kotojibowaru was in English and after several attempts of trying to make Japanese-French sound English said "Tusks beach". Cue fifteen minutes of me pissing myself laughing at the African country of Tusks Beach.  Found out today that the old name for the Ivory Coast in Japanese would translate as....Tusks Beach!  Guess I owe him an apology. 

Da da da da da da da da da Nippon!!!!!

England 1-1 USA Oh...... and it doesn't look any better reenacted in Lego http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2010/jun/14/world-cup-2010-england-usa-brick

Japan 1 -0 Cameroon YEA!!!!!

School moto biscuits!

Gift-giving is very common in Japan.  I'm not quite sure what all the staff had done to deserve biscuits and shudder at the cost when the school is practically falling down round us.  They looked pretty, shame they tasted rank!

The flying futon

Futons should be aired regularly and sunlight helps to kill dani (flea type things) that love futons and tatami. Saturday was boiling so I hung my base futon and left it as I went shopping.  It was pretty windy and I ignored the niggly feeling that it might blow away, as, well, it had never done so before!  Walking down my road, I discovered the futon was no longer there or on the ground, so thought that a futon thief or ninja-speed homeless guy may have nabbed it.  Getting back inside, cue the no lesser horror of seeing it on the roof of someone's garage!  Getting it back was actually very easy but embarrassment caused me to wait until dark: walk through the next apartment and lo and behold the ground is higher, reach up and sprint back inside!

Blown away by my nose-blowing

In my company class last night, Jing, a Chinese girl who studied and now works in Osaka, said that one of her colleagues had asked her to find out whether it was true that British people use the same tissue multiple times instead of blowing and then throwing away the tissue as Japanese do.  As I like her and Tsubasa, and they were the only ones there on time I exaggerated (well, only slightly) how Brits put it up their sleeve and then desperately try to find a usable patch amongst the holes!  Tsubasa, who is the weakest at English in the class, responded "Eco!" They were horrified and amused by my tales of tissues beneath pillows.  Perspective (my new obsession) is always interesting though: I told them how disgusting I find it in summer in Japan when people get out hankie-sized towels and wipe at their sweaty face and back of their neck and then put the towel in their bag only to get it out again and repeat a few minutes later.  They couldn't see why that was gross at all!  I didn't let Jing get away with it though as  I told Tsubasa that in China I'd seen many old men bend over, place a finger on one nostril and blow the offending matter out of the other in a long slimy trail onto the road.