Happy Birthday Paul

This is an advert for an English conversation teaching service. I definitely want to get a job in Japan, and the most obviously lucrative option seems to be teaching English. I could work as a private tutor, but I haven't got a clue how to teach people or stick to a curriculum. Another option would be to try to find work at one of these teaching services, because presumably I'd be taught what to do even if the pay is likely to be lower.


Here's wishing a very happy birthday for Maya's da! Happy birthday.

So I'm eating my words, every one of them, about practicing hard for the mandolin club. I attended the 1st Mandolin practice on Thursday evening, and they were sight-reading challenging new music better than I could have played it with two weeks of earnest practice. It was embarrassing to recognize just how inferior my skills were. I spent most of the meeting pretending to play- clicking my pick on the string to the rhythm and moving my left hand roughly in concert with the other players. I just couldn't keep up.

At any rate, I won't be able to drop my Monday classes after all (the period during which schedule changes are possible has come and gone), and there are other clubs I want to check out, so I don't think I could really afford the time to practice. I would have been inclined to try switching to the 2nd mandolins, but for the fact that 1) It's still roughly a ten-hour commitment, and more importantly 2) I've misplaced my mandolin.

Misplaced? More like I lost it at some point in the middle of Ikebukuro after drinking too much too quickly with Maya and her friends on Thursday, directly after the practice. The irony is, a major factor leading me to seek drink and companionship was a desire to get over my dismal mandolin-related situation, which is now for obvious reasons very much worse.

Aggh! Maya was kind enough to go back and look for it, because she lives near Ikebukuro, but no luck so far. I'll head back on my own later this week and see if it's turned up at a police box. I probably just left it on the sidewalk when I went dashing after an old man and his furnace-cart full of baked yams that happened to be passing by. If you ask me, it was nearly worth it- those yams were mighty tasty.

Anyway, assuming the worst, it's not a crushing loss. By any measure it's a poor-quality mandolin and I'd have wanted to get a better one later anyway. But it's my mandolin and miss it.

On a more positive note, I had my first experience with real restaurant-style okonomiyaki last night! I can't say it was worlds better than some of the home-cooked stuff I've had, but it was undeniably delicious. I can't think of a better meal to have had on a rainy, cold night- and we got to sit at the counter beside a nice, warm cook-top. They even threw in an appetizer of takoyaki, and a desert of ice-cream. And I learned some technique by observing the chefs at work...

Alright, apologies for the very rushed post, but I must put forth a tremendous burst of academic effort now so that I can slack off in good conscience later : )