HILARITY: spoilt child 83

Wow. My time here is almost up. In approximately 6 weeks I'll be heading back to the United States. As you can imagine, I'm anticipating this a lot, but I know that I'll also miss things about this place, as weird as it can be. I won't miss how expensive things are, thouggh, or my complete lack of understanding about anything around me. That's right - despite being here for almost 6 months, my grasp on Japanese is tenuous at best. At least I'm not alone; while some of my friends have picked up the language well, others are as confused by the language as I.

The weather's changing. It's not as bloody cold as it has been; sometimes I can even venture outside with a t-shirt on. However, Japanese weather has kept things unpleasant by becoming horribly windy. Like, super-windy. You know those days when you're driving along and the wind's so bad you can even feel your car staggering under it? Yeah, that's the kind of wind I've been biking to work against every morning. Apparently spring is the windy season!

Ah, springtime - when a young Japanese schoolboy's thoughts turn to his ALT's genitals. You wouldn't believe the amount of gropings I've had to dodge, both front and back. There's been one "kancho" attempt from an elementary school (and if you don't know what kancho is, feel glad), but the junior high boys are the biggest offenders... and they're grabbers. They have learned a few words in that direction as well. "BIG PINISS" is one of their favorite phrases. (I don't really want to correct their pronunciation, when it's already so funny.) I won't even go into their attempts to pronounce certain parts of the female anatomy. One student told me that he liked "six." I had to stifle a laugh and agreed with him that it was a very good number.

Not all of the students are that bad, though. Most of the female students are very well-behaved, if a little too chatty. The elementary school kids have been a lot of fun to work with, mostly because I get to act like a big goof around them. Also, the special ed kid I mentioned last time is cool, even if he never leaves me alone. As some of you might have noticed from my facebook pics, I've been growing a beard for the last 2 months. It's pretty great. Said special ed student does not care for it, as shown by his fretting and rapid-fire Japanese while he mimes shaving. He doesn't speak English, nor does he want to. However, my lack of knowledge of Japanese doesn't deter him from speaking to me all the time. He comes by 3 or 4 times a day and talks to me, despite the fact that neither of us understands what the other is saying. I've decided to make a deal with him: if he can learn enough English to introduce himself to my friends when they visit the school (only about 2 1/2 weeks away!) I will shave my mountain man beard.

I heard stories before I left of people being stationed in super-rural towns where old men pee in broad daylight into the drainage ditches on the side of the road. "Haha," I laughed nervously. When I got to Kitakawabe, I didn't see any of that, despite there being plentiful drainage ditches on the sides of the road. "Whew," I sighed with relief. Guess what I saw the other day? At noon. On the busiest road in Kitakawabe. Not just one. Two. One on the way to the grocery store, one on the way back. Different people. What.

In late January, I caught a pretty bad strain of flu. It laid me low for the better part of a week, but I got better. Then, my computer decided to catch something, so about 90% of Vista isn't working. However, Firefox and iTunes still are, and honestly? That's all I'll need for the next 40 days or so.

I haven't traveled too far in Japan, but when I think about it, there doesn't seem to be anywhere else I want to go. I'm happy with what I've done and what I'm doing, and it'll definitely be something I'll remember for the rest of my life. There may be one more blog before I come back, there might not. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading these, I've definitely enjoyed writing them.