once again i am pooped. dunno why i'm so overworked lately but i am. i had four morning classes at nakajo junior high which were fairly successful and a great class at hakka elementary, with all 12 students in the school. did old mcdonald, and read a japanese children's story in english out of a book that i had when i was growing up. had a hoot with the teachers at that school...funny that the most rural school with the fewest students has at least 3 teachers who are fluent in English, but no English teachers.

it was a strange weekend...friday night was sally's leaving enkai at tanto, then yamanne, then kumakichi. it was strange dragging all my teachers to these places that i usually frequent and never see them in, but was nice to get them out of the office and having fun with young kids. saturday was a down day, but went to muikamachi saturday night for a bit of a goodbye to the folks leaving from that side of the mountain...then came back and ended up staying in a bar called airk past 4 a.m. cuz i met a load of new people, mostly just cuz everyone wouldn't stop staring at me and i just started staring back and talking. hung with ken the owner, who told me multiple times now that i'm his best friend, and had a fun time with satomi, hisae, and a few other people...some other guy kept sheepishly approaching me, staring at me for a while, fumbling something out in english that his friend taught him, then running away. he would come up to me and then kneel down and beg to buy me more scotch, but cuz i wasn't really drinking i couldn't accept and he was really sad about that.

sunday morning i got a phone call from setsuko, one of my private students. i had set up her daughter kanako with the american high school girl who's staying in town so they could make friends...now they are buddies and krista will go to kanako's high school for a day with her! anyway, Dr. Takahashi is hosting krista and he wanted me over for lunch, so we all went over there...he is the biggest surgeon in town so he had a really nice, big house...obviously a high member of the local community becuase both of his daughters had been 'Ms. Tokamachi' during past snow festivals. So I felt pretty speciall eating lunch with the big doctor and a Ms. Tokamachi...and they were happy to have another American in their house.

tonight, teaching kanako and miyu...tomorrow a very busy day at mizusawa, then maybe off to joetsu for star wars! my first movie theater experience in japan. should be fun!