More to do with music, etc.

This week's update a little late this week. Of course, I haven't "officially" announced that updates are to come here on either Sunday or Monday of each week, but that's kind of what I was thinking I'd aim for.

Sort of continuing on the topic last time- last week the brass band from Kamimura Gakuen (Aya's old high school) came to one of my elementary schools. One of the songs that they played was the Atsuhime theme song that I talked about in my last blog. It sounded very awesome in person.

I am really starting to feel like I am enjoying working at the schools. Regardless of whether I am talking to a teacher who knows English or not, I've been having good conversations with them. And the students are getting more familiar with me, so they're a little less shy.

At one of my junior high schools, a new building opened up. This building is really nice and kind of fun to wander through during the afternoon break. Yesterday, I found the music room and the music teacher let me try to play the "koto". I think I might want to take lessons in that instrument now. That is pretty amazing for me, I think, because I hadn't really thought about taking up an instrument (except maybe taiko) since I was in elementary school.

Moving onto the next topic, I feel a little weird bringing it up, but I think it's kind of a unique cultural thing, so I will anyway. Sometime during the weekend, my supervisor's father passed away. Unlike in the US where a person would think it would be weird to go to a memorial for someone that they don't really know, in Japan it's commonplace to do so if you knew (worked with) someone in their immediate family. So, me and the other ALTs who I had a meeting with on Monday were told that we should either go that evening or we should send money for the grieving family with someone who was going. I agreed with our decision not to go because we don't really know what to do at the Japanese memorial service and it's not really the right situation to be fumbling around as we would other occasions that are new to us.

The next day, as we were told beforehand, the guy from my office brought back thank you gifts from my supervisor's family. It was a handkerchief and a box of packets of sugar. To me it still feels strange to have received a gift for that and I am not sure what to do with these things because of that.

I have the other ALTs bags still. They are in another office, so they weren't there to get theirs.

So basically I left work yesterday with three bags of... ummm thank-you-for-your-sympathy-and-donation gifts, my regular two bags I carry to work, and a pretty good sized package of instant ramen that was given one to each person in the office randomly right before I left.

Anyway, I suppose that's it.