Why vs. How Come

You learn something new every day! Or at least I try to. It’s interesting for me (especially now that I teach English) to learn about different intricacies of English. Whether that’s a grammatical point or a new word, a difference in regional usage or anything else, it’s all interesting to me. It’s so much easier to explain a grammar point to your students when you’ve looked into it yourself. “Ms. Jessica, why do we use such and such here but not there?” That’s a great question! Let me get back to you on it… I like to be able to answer my students immediately if possible, but if I can’t then I can always look it up to tell them later.

Anyway, that brings me to my point! I was wondering if “how come” was grammatically correct, or if it was just a colloquialism. As it turns out, it is indeed grammatically correct and has slightly different usage from the word “why.”

Structure

First of all, when creating a question using “how come” vs. “why,” the word order in the question is different.

Why Questions – Why + aux verb + subject + verb + object?

Why are you eating pie?

The tense in this case is determined by the aux verb.

How come Questions – How come + sentence?

How come you aren’t hungry?

The tense in this case is determined by the main clause.

Meaning

Why Questions – When you want a reason for whatever piece of information you already know.

Why are you studying English? (I know that you are studying English. What is the reason?)

Why can be used in both formal and informal situations. It’s a very versatile question word.

How come Questions – When you want a reason for a piece of information which you are surprised by.

You’re already so good at English. How come you are studying English?

How come you aren’t in Chicago? (I thought you had a business trip.)

How come is used in a more friendly context and is used to express that the asker is surprised by the piece of information which they are asking about.

You shouldn’t use this in a more formal setting such as at work or in a presentation.

Conclusion

Basically, English is super versatile and has an abundance of ways in which to say the exact same thing, or the same thing with a very slightly different nuance. If you’re wondering how these translate into Japanese….

Why = なぜ？

How come = え、なぜ？

Yes, it’s the same thing…you just add some surprise to the second one.

Sorry for the potentially boring post! I found it interesting!

 

Until next time!! xx

Semester’s End and New Faces

So, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. Sorry about that! I’ve been pretty busy with end of the semester things, summer supplementary classes, office paper work, renewing my work contract, and preparing for the two new ALTs who are coming (or rather, recently came) to my town. And no, I don’t mean to the tiny village I live in, I mean the overarching town which encompasses many small villages including my own! Anyway, enough excuses, I’ll fill you in instead!

End of the Semester

As many people who read this blog regularly probably know, Japan’s school year starts in April and ends in March. This is quite different for my American self who is used to the school year starting in August and ending in May or June with a huge long summer break in between school years. Well, the system here includes more school days, shorter breaks, and a lot of activities even during breaks. We’ll get into that later, though.

So the semester ended, and we had a small ceremony to mark the end. Well, really we had multiple ceremonies! One was for the end of the semester, one was to review the goals of each grade and to see if they had been able to achieve them, one was for sports awards, and then we watched our music club do a taiko performance!

Summer Vacation

The students get a month of summer vacation! Well, 5 or so weeks, actually. But here’s the catch, they have a ton of activities and even some supplementary lessons, as well as summer homework. Not quite the care free summer vacation we’re used to in the US! Though elementary school students are entirely free, middle school students do a lot during their summer vacations, and high school students do even more. I had some summer homework when I was in high school, but only for some school subjects, and not nearly as much as these kids are assigned!

For the first week of summer vacation, I was coming to school to help teach summer supplementary lessons. For English, this time was used to do the summer homework which was assigned, to reinforce some of the grammar points which a majority of the students had struggled with, and to give the students an open floor opportunity to ask the English teachers any questions they may have and to get help on anything they don’t quite understand.

Even on days where they had supplementary lessons, students had club activities. They do badminton, softball, or taiko practice every day. Well, most every day. With the heat wave that’s been hitting Japan, we’ve cancelled practice due to safety reasons. Now that classes are over, I still look out the window to see students running laps, swinging bats, and catching balls. Looking across the field into the gym you can see students performing taiko on the second floor, while some of their classmates undoubtedly swing rackets in the main court of the gym just below.

Students do have some good things to look forward to, though! While I’m sure many of them actually enjoy going to their club practices (or else, why would they join in the first place?) there’re also summer festivals, fireworks, and other awesome events that happen in the summer time!

As for me, students not having class anymore means that it’s easier for me to take vacation days! I’ll fill you in on that later. For now, just know that I do have some awesome things planned!

Summer Camp

I also taught at a one day summer camp for elementary school students! It was awesome! I didn’t speak a word of Japanese for the whole day (at least not to the students) and was able to communicate the rules of the game we were playing with them at my section of the camp, as well as practice vocabulary and talk about different things in English. At first, many of the students were quite nervous (speaking in your second language all day can be tiring and tough!) but seemed to loosen up more as the day went on. In the end, I think it was a major success! And I loved being able to interact with students in English that they understood. It truly boosts their confidence when they can understand what’s happening with no Japanese support.

Though I’d love to be able to do English class entirely in English, it’s not nearly as possible when you’re teaching new information as opposed to review, and when you teach a class for 45-50 minutes instead of 10-15. Either way, it was an experience which I can take a lot away from! And I hope to be involved again next year.

New ALTs

Alright, so, two of our ALTs left this year. We only have 4 in our BoE in general, and the one who just came in April will go back to the states soon to continue his studies. This means a few things. (1) I’m now the “most experienced” and most long term ALT at our BoE (YIKES!). (2) I spent a full day yesterday helping the new ALTs with moving in stuff. (3) I’m gonna have to do that again in April when the next new ALT comes…

Yesterday we had two new arrivals to my area of Kochi! The new ALTs are both quite young as they just graduated college. It was a long a stressful day for all involved, but I’m really proud of them for handling it as well as they did! They really held out and we got everything done that needed to be done. What exactly does that entail, you ask?

8:30 – I left the BoE in my village to go to the main office. There I met with a BoE representative who would go with me to pick up the new ALTs. Their supervisor had some business to attend to and wasn’t able to come to the airport. The new ALTs got on a bus to go to the airport.

9:30 – We left the main office for the airport. The ALTs got on their flight from Tokyo to Kochi.

10:30 – We arrived at the airport and prepared to greet the new ALTs

11:00 – The plane lands and the ALTs arrive in Kochi! We load their luggage into the car and begin our crazy day.

11:30 – But first, lunch! It’s going to be a long day for all and eating is the best way to prepare for that. We also had to lay out a game plan and do some general introductions. I don’t think the new ALTs would appreciate being thrown into the fire even sooner than they actually were in the end.

12:30 – First stop, town hall. We went to get their addresses sorted and printed onto the back of their residence cards. This is a longer process than you might think, and involved a lot of forms and a lot of Japanese!

2:00 – Setting up bank accounts is the next step! We started filling out stacks of paperwork, and banks here close at 3:00! That is to say, they don’t begin services anymore once it becomes 3:00. If you’re already in the middle of a service, they will certainly see it through. Opening a bank account takes about an hour or so here, though. And one of the ALTs wanted to convert some American dollars into yen! Around the end of this process, their supervisor arrives. She’s finished her meetings for the day and is able to come along for the rest of the necessary steps of moving in.

3:30 – The bank work is done! But while we were there we learned that the home addresses for the ALTs were somehow swapped…so we had to go back to the town hall to straighten it out. You know what that means? That’s right, more paperwork! At least they’d already done this once and knew how to fill it out this time around.

4:30 – Town hall stuff is finally finished! So it’s time to go get cell phone plans! I was without one for about a week when I came and it was quite frustrating not being able to contact anyone. Around this time, the supervisor for the new JETs tells me that I can go home. Well, if I go home, who’s going to translate for the phone plans? So, I stayed.

5:00 – We’re really getting started with this phone plan stuff! But it’s a long process to set up two phone plans with a translator. The two employees working with us were both 18 years old and had just graduated high school. One of them was the previous student of one of my friends! She was very good at English and was even able to help the new arrivals with some things in English. They were quite tired from the long day and I’m sure they were happy to have someone speaking English to them.

6:30 – Phone plans are set up, and both ALTs have working phones! Time to go see the apartments, drop off luggage, change, and head to the welcome party.

7:30 – Depart from Ino for the welcome party. It’s in the city and we’re all tired, so we don’t want to spend too long. But it ended up being a blast and we stayed for around an hour and a half or so in the end.

9:50 – Return to my car in Ino. Time to drive home to the mountains!

10:45 – Arrive at the office to drop off the key to the car. And now I get to walk home!

11:00 – Finally, I’m home!

It was a hectic and long day…and I’m so tired today as a result, but I’m so happy we got everything done!

New ALT Guide

The supervisor for the main office asked me if I would be willing to help make a guide for the process of moving in new ALTs. It should function in a way that, even without my constant interpreting, the new ALTs and supervisor should be able to handle setting up their new accounts and address among other things. We’re hoping to have it finished within this next year, but I’m not sure exactly how to go about it as I have never done such a project before. Time to get thinking!

Upcoming

I have some events coming up, including fireworks this Sunday, vacations throughout the summer, and conferences on teaching. Hopefully I’ll keep you properly updated!

Thanks for reading!

 

Until next time!! xx

Speech Competitions

Yesterday we had the 8th annual speech competition at my school! While the prefectural competition isn’t until October, we hold one every year where all of the students at my school must compete to see who will represent the school at the prefectural level.

We welcomed two guest judges, an ALT from a nearby town and a judge from the prefectural tournament. We were able to get a lot of good insight and opinions from these two and decided on a first and second prize for each grade! I’d like to tell you about one skit in particular which, while it wasn’t chosen as the winner, was the true winner in my heart. They got a special mention due to their incredible creativity and hilarious delivery.

We set the stage with two middle school boys who decide to spend the Saturday at the mall.

A: Let’s go to the game center!
B: Yes, let’s! That sounds fun.
A: Oh, look! That game looks fun. Let’s go play games! Come with me!
B: Okay! Let’s go.

Suddenly the boys spot a blonde beauty from behind. She’s wearing a school issued skirt and has long blonde hair spilling down her back.

A: Oh my gosh! Look at that beautiful woman!
B: You should go talk to her!
A: No, I can’t do that. You should talk to her!
B: No, you do it!
A: No, you go!
B: Okay, let’s decide by rock paper scissors.

The boys prepare themselves for a battle in rock paper scissors. The situation is quite intense. Rock Paper Scissors Go! Go! Go! They play the same move five times in a row before deciding that they should just go talk to the girl together.
They walk over.

A and B: Hello. What’s your name?

The blonde beauty turns around and…it’s their friend! Who is also a boy!

A and B: Oh my gosh! No!

The boys fall to the ground. The third boy comes over to comfort them.

A and B: GO AWAY!

And that was seriously the best skit I’ve ever seen in my entire life… I wish you could have actually seen it because just the description doesn’t do it justice.

 

Until next time!! xx

Japanese Driver’s Test

Before coming to Japan, I got an IDP or an international driving permit which allowed me to drive in Japan with my American license in hand. HOWEVER, that fairy tale only lasts for a year, so here we are.

Let me tell you about this crazy long process for getting your license transferred…at least as an American.

Step 1: Gathering the Materials

So, first you have to gather a few materials before you can do anything. Those include things that you should already have on you (your IDP, passport, zairyuu card, foreign license, and possibly your hanko).

You also have to get a few things, including a proof of address(juuminhyou), a translation of your licence from JAF, and 2 license sized photos. This is only the beginning of the long process…

The proof of address will cost about ￥300. When it comes to the photos, you can get them for around ￥800 at a photo booth specifically made for this. Just make sure to choose the 免許 option. And as for JAF, sometimes you have to print out the form from the website and take it in with you, but my branch provided the form. All I had to do was fill it out. When filling out this form, take note how long you’ve held the current issue of your license. I had driven for less than a year in America on my most recent issue, so now I have to use a new drivers magnet. It’s not a big deal, but it’s a bit annoying to have to use it for a year.

JAF license registrations cost about ￥3000 and take 1 day to 2 weeks to process depending on your branch.

Which reminds me! There is a LOT of waiting in between steps in this process…

Step 2: The Interview

Now you have all of the things you need! Great. Go schedule an interview. While you can technically make the appointment before getting the other things (so long as you’re not TOO honest that you’re still waiting for certain documents), it’s best to just have everything handy so that you don’t have to worry about not getting some paperwork in time and having to reschedule your interview. Depending on how busy your branch is and how busy your work schedule is, the interview could be another week or two out.

So, at this point we’re anywhere from 2 days to 4 weeks into the process…

For the interview, they ask you things about your driving record, licensing processes in your home country (or state), the age at which you got your license, and so on. All of this is in Japanese, so if your level isn’t that high, it’s best to take someone to translate. While I put myself at a level N3, and was able to do the interview by myself with no issues. However, I feel that I am much better at the conversation side of Japanese than the written side. Depending on where your strength lies, you may be capable of doing it without help! Otherwise, I was told to ask a PA.

I was probably more nervous for the interview before I went in than I should have been. In the end I just had a pleasant chat with a police officer about my driving record while filling the time with chats about other things…like stereotypes of the surrounding prefectures and such. Which brings me to mention that my interview was a one-on-one interview with a police officer at the station. Again, having an interpreter with you wouldn’t be a bad idea. He speaks some basic English, but you’re expected to be the one providing the translation. If you can’t complete the interview due to language barriers, you may have to reschedule it and do it again.

After the interview ends, you wait for a phone call to set the date of the written and practical exam. In my prefecture, those things are done in one day, and getting your license is a whole day affair. But look at that, more waiting! What’d I tell you? This time you have to wait about a week to hear back, which means you can take your test 1-2 weeks after the interview (unless your center is far too busy).

Use the following charts to figure out when you can take your test (if the date is available) for those of you who live in Kochi.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Morning	Written Test (regular car)	Written Test (large specialized)	Written Test (regular car)	Written Test (semi-medium)	Written Test (regular car, motorcycle)
Afternoon	Driving Test (regular car)	Driving Test (large specialized, towing)	Driving Test (regular car)	Driving Test (semi-medium, medium, large)	Driving Test (regular car, motorcycle)

And this one for estimated costs (at least in Kochi, though it should help to guess the costs in other prefectures as well).

License Type	Test Fee	Course Fee	Total
Regular car	2,550円	800円	3,350円
Motorcycle, Large specialized, Towing	2,600円	1,450円	4,050円
Large, medium, semi-medium	4,100円	2,500円	6,600円
Scooter (less than 50cc)	1,500円		1,500円

Step 3: Driving Lessons (OPTIONAL)

When I say optional, I don’t really mean optional. In my opinion, you should take at least a 1 hour driving lesson at a driving school near the licencing center. They can give you a lot of great tips on how to pass the exam, and tell you places to be careful of. Then again, it’s technically cheaper to fail once and retake the exam then it is to take a lesson.

I took a lesson and got a lot of valuable input and advice on how to pass the exam.

Step 4: The Test

Okay, we’re now 9 days to 6 weeks into this licencing process. If you’re a 9-dayer, I’m super impressed! I’m a 4-weeker.

So, now it’s time to take your first attempt at your driving test!

It’s a whole day affair, so you should get there as the license center opens, and you’ll go home at around 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

In the morning you’ll take your written exam. If you fail the written exam then your journey ends here until you reschedule. The test is 10 questions, and you only need to answer 7 to pass, so it shouldn’t be too hard. Most people just study the road signs as the rest of it is usually common sense based.

However, there are some specific points which are different from many of our home countries. If you want to take a practice exam, follow this link.

After you pass the written exam, you take the practical exam that afternoon. At 11:30, you gather in a classroom where they roll a pencil which has A, B, and C written on the sides. whichever side it lands on is the course you’ll be tested on. They say that some courses are easier than others and that, to some extent, passing the exam could come down to the luck of the draw.

I did test B! Each course has slightly different obstacles, such as railroad crossings, high walls, the crank turn, and the S curve. Though, the crank and the S curve exist on every course, just at different times and in different orders.

The biggest surprise to many foreigners is that you are graded on how you enter and exit the car, as well. You must check under the front and the back of the car before getting in, and check for traffic appropriately as you approach the drivers door, and as you open it.

Another big shock for us is that you have to memorize the course which you’ll drive… Here’s an example of one of the courses. This is the actual map and one of the three options of courses at my specific driving center.

Once you finish the test, the proctor will tell you what you did wrong. They won’t tell you if you passed at this time. There’s more waiting and you have to wonder if you’ve actually succeeded or not the whole time.

Results

So, after you wait for another hour (or maybe less depending on how busy the center is) you will learn if you passed the test or not. If you passed, you will go get your picture taken and receive your license! You also have to pay the fees for the test.

If you didn’t pass, better luck next time. You’ll schedule another driving test date at this time. You won’t have to take the written exam this time, so you can come at 11:30 instead of 8:30.

Online Resources:

• National AJET Driving Test Guide
• Kochi Driving Guide with Included Course Maps
• JAF – Japanese Translation of  a Foreign License
• Written Exam – Rules of the Road Book

I was lucky enough to pass the test my first try! But it’s very very rare, and depends a lot on not only how prepared you are but also (1) how picky your driving proctor is (2) how difficult of a course you end up having to do and (3) how well you’ve memorized the course. Just being able to drive isn’t enough to get your license! Keep that in mind and prepare well.

Anyway, I’m one happy camper now that I have my license!

 

Until next time!! xx

Volleyball Continued…?

So, I guess I have PTA volleyball tonight. It’s been confirmed that they WEREN’T joking, and that we’ll continue practicing. I mentioned it to a teacher at my other school and he said that he’s scared to face us next year. If we honestly keep up volleyball all year, it’d be really awesome for my exercise habits! But I’d be kinda shocked. I’m already shocked that they weren’t joking about practice being continued!

Originally I was questioning it harder until I realized that the PTA president is the one who sent the message. He doesn’t tend to make those jokes. And then  he sent a message with more details about when we’d be doing it. And THEN I saw him in person and asked him about it…so it’s confirmed.

So here’s to me improving at volleyball!

Tune in next time to hear about my driver’s license endeavors.

 

Until next time!! xx

The Missing Post Office

Right here in Shikoku (one of the four main islands of Japan) in Kagawa prefecture, there’s a post office on an island in the Seto Inland Sea which collects letters that are never sent. What is the purpose of this, you might ask? Well, the post office is for people to send letters to those who have died, or whom they no longer have contact with.

Many people send letters to their loved ones, and over 10,000 letters have been collected until now. Located on a small island called Awashima, the post office has a website unlike any other post office website I’ve seen before. Check it out at http://missing-post-office.com/ if you’re curious.

 

The Missing Post Office Postcard

 

To send a letter to the post office, you can use the above address. In English it’s as follows:

769-1108
KAGAWA-ken, Mitoyo-shi, Takuma-cho
Awashima 1317-2
Hyoryu post office
(name of your loved one)

Maybe I’ll send a letter there myself, one day. It’s said to be comforting to have a place to send those feelings you’ve been wanting to let out.

Japan is a wonderful, culturally rich, and interesting country which has yet to cease amazing me. I hope that I can learn more about little gems like the missing post office, and continue to share them with you.

 

Until next time!! xx

Tournaments

So, I’ve been pretty busy with tournaments and preparation for tournaments lately.

PTA Volleyball

Last Sunday I had my PTA volleyball tournament! The tournament was set up so that, even if you lost once you still had a chance to redeem yourself. This was probably to balance out the overpowered teams in each block. So the first stage of the tournament was split into 4 blocks, with 4 teams per block. Each team played each other and the top two teams from each block moved onto the quarter finals. My team came in second in our block! And then we lost in the quarter finals against the top team from the neighboring block.

Honestly, I had so much fun with this experience, and am so glad that I did it! I got to become closer with the parents of some of my kids, and get some exercise in the process! While we didn’t win, my school has strong players and we had a good time together!

After the tournament on Sunday, we had a drinking party. Unfortunately that means we all had responsibilities the next day, but everyone took it pretty easy.

At the end of the night, they said they’d see us Thursday for practice. I honestly thought they were joking until I got a text message today saying that they couldn’t book the gym for tonight but that they should be able to from next week… Who knows, maybe I’m not actually done with volleyball yet.

Ultimate Frisbee

Speaking of tournaments, I have a frisbee tournament this weekend in Kobe! It’s the 15th annual Tajima tournament. I’m so excited to go! We’ll leave Friday after work and stay the night, then the games start on Saturday and run through Sunday. According to some of my friends on the frisbee team, Tajima is the most fun, can’t-miss tournament of the year. I hope it doesn’t rain (at least not too much).

In this tournament, 24 teams will compete for the top prize! I honestly don’t see us coming close to winning, but I can’t imagine we’d come in last, either!

Frisbee is such a great community here that I just can’t wait to see some of my friends from other teams and have a good time competing. Our team this year has a lot of women, so in terms of speed and height we may have troubles keeping up with other teams. We won’t let that stop us, though! It’ll be a good time whether we come in first or last place. I just hope that we actually get the chance to play, because games where you’re absolutely annihilated aren’t very fun.

Sorry for the long delay in updates!

 

Until next time!! xx

Borrowed Words in Japanese

You may know that Japanese has 3 different alphabets. These alphabets are called hiragana, kanji, and katakana. Rather than alphabets, they should actually be called divisions of characters. While hiragana and katakana both sit at decently low numbers (46) there are slightly over 2,000 which are used regularly.

Of these three character subsets, katakana is used to denote a word which was borrowed from another language. This applies to names as well! Originally, when I began learning Japanese, I assumed that these words, in general, were English words. Apparently Japanese people do, too! You can’t imagine how many things people end up saying which don’t make sense because of this assumption…

Anyway, as a weird habit, I now attempt to learn the origin of katakana words that I come across so that I can tell my friends and students where those words originated from if they ask! I guess it’s not really my responsibility to have that information memorized…but it’s interesting to me! Let me give you a few words which are not English which are used often as borrowed words – as well as their origins.

コンクール(konkuuru): concours – origin: French, meaning: contest, competition

ピーマン(piiman): piment – origin: French, meaning: bell pepper
pimiento – origin: Spanish

アルバイト(arubaito): arbeit – origin: German, meaning: part-time job

Though, it’s important to note that you can also refer to a part time job as a パート(paato) or “part.”

These, among many others, are mistaken as English words. Imagine how confused you’d be if someone came to the grocery store in America and asked if there were any piiman.

Anyway, the reason I wrote this post is because I keep seeing the word コンクールin the hallways of my school and couldn’t stop thinking about how close, but how far it is from the word contest.

 

Until next time!! xx

Osaka Earthquake

Today I want to talk about something bad that’s happened in Japan.

As many people know, Japan is well known for earthquakes. Small earthquakes hit daily and generally don’t impact daily life more than someone saying “hey, did you feel that?” or maybe the lights flickering if it’s slightly stronger. Today, however, a magnitude 6 (on the shindo scale) earthquake hit Osaka. It was devastating.

 

At least 3 people were reported dead, one of which was a 9 year old girl who was killed as a school wall fell on her, and another of which was an 80 year old man. The news was showing something about a swimming pool, which is where it seems the final victim of the quake may have lost their life. Reports also are saying that hundreds have been injured by this earthquake.

While the epicenter (at magnitude 6) was in Osaka, the earthquake could be felt all the way down here in Kochi at around a magnitude 1 or 2.

According to news reports, this is the strongest quake Osaka has experienced on record (which dates back to 1923). If you want to learn more, you can google “Osaka earthquake” or check out this news story, here. Sorry for posting such a downer!

 

Until next time!! xx

Update

So, yesterday was a busy day. Let me tell you a bit about it.

I got up and called my supervisor, asking if it’d be okay to take my personal car into town since I had quite a few errands (or at least some important time restricted errands) and it’d be easier if I could just keep on my way after work. I had a half day, so it was perfect for running errands, but having to take the company car back to town just to return in the same direction seemed a bit excessive.

She said it was cool, so I went to school and taught my 4 classes in the morning.

Then I went to town – first to get a new pair of glasses since mine recently broke. Well, they’re bent really badly and slide off of my face or sit lopsided. Not entirely destroyed like you might be thinking, but not exactly usable beyond the necessary use of driving (while constantly pushing them back onto my face).

While my glasses were being prepared, I ate something for lunch. I just walked next door to Coco’s Western restaurant and ordered a large meal…I was hungry! I ate, and went back to pick up my glasses.

After I got my glasses, I went to the driver’s license center to set an appointment for a driving test. I showed that I had all of the documents so that they would set a date. I only had options on Mondays and Tuesdays which is quite frustrating since I have Wednesday half days, but I had to settle for a Monday time slot. My test is scheduled for June 25th, Monday. The process consists of 3 main parts, (1) an interview to get insight on my driving in the states (2) a written test and (3) a practical (driving) test. I am not sure if I need to do my interview and written test on a separate day, so I’ll have to look into that later.

Anyway, ever since last week, my car has been overheating. I was trying to figure out the issue, and every time I would have an opportunity to call my mechanic, it was after hours. So I finally call him yesterday and tell him what’s going on. I’d been paying attention to the signs and could tell him exactly what was happening, as well as when and (to the best of my knowledge) why. So he checks it out. The pressure cap on the coolant was busted. But why? Well, that’s because the motor on the fan died, so it wasn’t moving. Which means everything was getting insanely hot…and the broken pressure cap resulted in my coolant literally boiling…and now the engine may be damaged. So my car is in shop and I’m waiting for the prognosis. This kinda sucks…

In brighter news, I received plums from a friend! She gave me a whole bag of them! I’m not sure I can eat them all on my own…

Also, I have volleyball practice tonight! We have a practice match with another school. I recently bought proper gym shoes and knee pads. I was sick of getting bruises and other injuries from diving so… I guess this means I’m getting serious about a PTA sport. Oops. I can’t help it! If I’m going to do something, it’s hard for me to hold back.

Oh, and tomorrow I have a nomikai (drinking party), but no car to get there…so that’s awesome. I’m gonna ask a coworker to take me to the city. It’s seriously inconvenient not having a car…I have to think so much more about things before doing them.

Sorry for not posting for a week! And I’m also sorry that my post after a week is just a rant on my life. Japan is an awesome place and I love living here, but I think it’s important to recognize that life still happens no matter where you are. I’d like to show some mundane life as well. I hope you don’t mind!

 

Until next time!! xx