The Amazing Disappearing English...

Not mine, of course. Thanks to a steady supply of books, Internet access and the maintenance of this blog, my English is A-Ok. The disappering English I'm referring to is that of my JTE. Her last day here is Friday and I think she is under the strong impression that she will not be a JTE again. She now almost exclusively speaks to me in rapid fire Japanese, her spelling and grammatical skills have gone the way of the cuckoo bird and she's making embarassing errors in class (which I've decided to correct on the spot - fuck la politesse). Today she was helping one of the ninenseis, who are currently preparing their self intros for when they go to Canada, and she threw in the towel (actually, she literally threw in the pen) and told me to work on it. Ayyyy. (Sharp intake of breath) Chotto... It's a good thing I'm in a fabulous mood due to the fact that I will be on beautiful Canadian soil in about 60 hours (give our take the time difference). Ants. Pants. Excited. Discuss.

In other news, I had a fab weekend. On Friday night, in our quest to see the cherry tree in my village (not in bloom yet), Dave in I set off in his car for the 2km odyssey. However, we missed the bridge and ending up driving to town. On our way, we passed by the Neo damn and caught some serious vertigo as we watched the brown and white rapids rush by. We then made our way to Mos Burger for a classy dinner of burgers, fries and salad. We were feeling so ravenous/gluttonous, we had two burgers each. I'm not ashamed; I was on the PMS train.

Saturday morning we had to get up early so that we could finish the business end of me owning THE CAR. A usually complicated affair took approximately 10 minutes and 2500 yen to complete thanks to the original dealer of the car. After working out some details, Dave and I set off to hang out in the city centre of Ogaki. We parked at the mall and walked about 20 minutes to Landy's, a Brazillian speciality shop that sells AMAZING sanwiches, as well as other delectable things. We gorged on heavenly meat sandwiches and fries, and again, I'm not ashamed; the PMS train had officially pulled into the station.

After finishing our meal and using tissues to wipe away any evidence of orgy of meat, we walked back to the shopping centre and hung out like a couple of mallrats. We stalked the arcade and played my personal fave: House of the Dead (4). I jumped. I screamed. I killed zombies. I died. We also played the taiko drumming game which is always fun. There was also a movie theatre, but alas, we were not lucky enough to get find an interesting movie. We had made plans to eat dinner with Shiloh and her friend Andre (always eating, je sais), and we decided to head back to town. It was during this journey that I re-learned something that I tend to forget now and then: me, a man, a heavy vehicle and no sense of direction DOES NOT WORK WELL together. Add fuel, strike a match and watch the fireworks. I have to admit it; I get really impatient when I don't know where I'm going. It's irritating when I'm with my girlfriends, but for some reason, when I'm with a guy in a car, my temper is like hemorrhoids; it flares up. I go from a perfectly respectful, gracious, charming, beautiful person into a demon with a rash. I get short, I gnash my teeth, my hair goes gray. It ain't pretty. But somehow, Dave and I perservered and survived with the new knowledge that perhaps we shouldn't take any road trips alone in the future.

We had my oishii yaki niku and had a good time frying up meats on the grill in the middle of the table. I promise I'll post photos of this soon. The company was great, my belly was full and I was all smiles.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day and thoughts of Okinawa in 2 months time are on my mind. It's Monday today, 3:50 and it's a holiday tomorrow. Though the past little while has been particularly rough, it's getting better. It's April next week, the new school year will begin, I'm going home to recharge, I'm at my fighting weight and look fab and I'm really blessed. The cliched sunshine after the rain is beginning to peek through the rain. All will be well in Kaki land.