A new playtoy

for me, just what I need to distract myself from the thesis I'm writing (or supposed to writing). the immediate need for purging the junk in my apartment and the art project I've taken on for my theory class. Understand, I have about as much artistic ability as the stick people I'm able to draw but somehow this past week I drew something that actually resembled a face...albeit, one that wasn't quite in proportion but a face nonetheless.

And on that note, I've been trying to find a way to keep track of brother's marathon letters from Japan and this seems perfect...He has the most interesting style and has always seemed old beyond his years...here goes...dated 5/21/04:

Today are the mid term exams and I have already made my 'International understanding' activities for next week so today will be a day for moi. It has been a busy week(by my standards). Yesterday after school four of my 3 nensei girls(ninth graders) asked me to help them study for English. I was really glad that they had the confidence in me to teach them English. I know that is supposed to be my job but sometimes in class students will only ask for help from the Japanese teacher instead of me because my lacking Japanese abilities. And a student's question might simply be, 'Is this sentence correct?' Well, I was glad they trusted me.


Tomorrow I will be tested for my black belt in judo. I am very excited and even quite nervous. My instructors told me I shouldn't be and they are right. I was asked to write about my impressions of practicing Judo over the past year. Maybe they want a foreigners perspective. I was the only foreigner up until last week. It has to be around 400 characters long. I don't know how long that will be. I can write a page or two in Japanese about judo but after that... it might sound like B.S. Last night duing judo practice I threw down a man who outweighed me by 10kgs. I was so very happy. He threw me down to of course. Tonight I have a planning meeting/dinner at a teacher's house regarding an upcoming elementary visit. At last weeks weekly meeting for ALTs in this city my supervisor brought up scheduling for our departures to our home countries. It made me sad. And on Wednesday I! visited an elementary school for the last time. I felt sad. The liason teacher at that school gave me a cup that I think is translated as 'Dreams have deep roots.' People often ask me why Japan? And my answer is, 'It has(had) always been my childhood dream.' I'm sad to leave Japan yet happy to return with wonderful memories.

This past Monday...kana.. I submitted a piece of art work to a museum again. For those of you that know me from college...its the "absract one continuous line hidden messages and pictures thinga majig design." Except it is a bit bigger and I have used different color pens. A friend of mine told me some people want to buy it but I don't think I'll sell it. But I was glad to hear there was interest. I finished it a day before the opening. This year I framed the picture and used thicker and harder paper.... Last years picture looked boro boro.... I can't think of the word in English...wrinkled,crumpled,torn,worn, no kanji...

On Wednsday I had flute practice after a month of delinquency. My teacher and I played a breathing game to warm up. I'm thinking, how do I write this without sounding.... The game was simply who can maintain a note for the longest period of time. She won with 22 seconds flat. My best was 20.4 seconds. She told me she knows someone who can play a note for 1 minute and 20 seconds! I can't even hold my breath for that length of time. That's like the lungs of a horse or an alligator or some large animal! In July my flute teacher will have a concert for all of her students. I'll play a song called 'kawa no nagare no yo u ni.' It is an old but well known song. I first heard it on a commercial sometime last year.

I will be in Los Angeles for about one week in early August. Afterwards I will head out to Des Moines in mid August to see my beautiful sister Tera get married and then head to Wisconsin. I hope to meet up with some of you in L.A.

Oh yeah two of my students were selected to go to Ireland. I am so very excited for them! I helped them prepare for the interview last week. I told them it's o.k. to be different and unique during the interview. You want them to remember you.

sore ja,

see ya later,

Before I go here is a word I learned today: zetsumetsu- It means extinction. Every word has value.

ai,

Joshua
http://jasebase.org/josh/tokyo