nothin special

I'm having a nice day today at Miska-sho, the fifth of my four schools and the one in downtown Imabari (if it can be said to have a downtown).  I taught four fun if nearly identical classes on counting and numbers, got to throw balls and magnets and markers at kids (rapidly, and in quantity), and in one class the other sensei even played gunner’s mate with an armful of books, standing next to me so I could here whip them across the room at the pack of frenziedly counting children.  1 book.  2 books.  3 books and a magnet.  4 books, 3 balls, 4 magnets and a marker, fi …you get the idea.  I also had one kid spontaneously "SUP!" me in the hallway, and, although not hardly as loud as it really needed to be, it was a great start.  I will break this country, I swear it.  

Aikido last night was really great too, even though I got the holy hell kicked out of me by a man old enough to be my great-grandfather and tough enough to clear the guerillas out of the Colombian rainforest, who also told me I should start doing pushups with the backs of my hands on the floor to toughen up my wrists (and he demonstrated).  Yeah, whatever.  Thanks, old-timer.  Here, I'll go do that while you go tow this schoolbus through the city with your teeth.  I have to go cry now.At the end of class he started talking to me in his almost completely indecipherable old-japanese-man voice, a long speech the only (terrifying) parts of which I could catch were: "test," "you," "next," and "ganbaru," which is the japanese equivalent of Good Luck, and is dispensed with the intended connotation of "fightfightfight!"  Me? Test? Next? Fightfightfight?  Oooohhhhhhhhhhmygodohmygodohmygod.But there's no sayin' No to a man like that.  He could kill you. 

After class they asked me to come to Namikata, another nearby town, for more training but I had to go record my show at the FM BARI BARI station.  Always fun but a bit different this week, on account of the new radio season starting with the new month.  They’ve moved my time slot and I can’t do the show live anymore, which is poopy, and now it’s at a crappy time, which is even poopier: Friday at 11-11:30 and again at 4, which means that it’s during the workday and no one I know can listen to it.  I’m part of the gaijin block of daily airtime, and I guess it doesn’t get a lot of listeners.  But there’s new schedule come April, so I’ve got a while to change their minds …

Next week I can record the radio show at a different time and be able to go to the after-class class, which means both more training, more high-level partner training, and more flirting time with this girl named Mari, 20 years old and a really good 5kyu, only been in aikido for a while but LOVES it, and is super cute to top things all off.  She has a boyfriend, but I don’t know that, so the flirting’s all all right.  

Otay, gonna go read or something, maybe find somewhere to take a nap.
More soon,