nipponDAZE

• Payday.
• 8:30-11:40. Supplemental lessons.
• Pick up photos.
• Pizza at Takagawa-sensei’s house.

Notes from 2009

I remember buying this stuff in Beppu. There’s no train fare listed so perhaps I’d gotten a ride into town and back from Murakami-sensei. (We were still doing only morning supplemental lessons; the fall term didn’t start until September 1st.) The teachers frequently left school to run school errands, such as making bank deposits for various club activities and making home visits. They also used this time to run their own errands or just get away from the office. I don’t remember learning the trick until quite late in my stay but one useful excuse was to say you were going downtown to make sure that the students weren’t getting into trouble or hanging out at the video arcade. We, and all the shopkeepers, could recognize our students by their school uniforms.

Mr. Max

Mr. Max was the discount appliance store in Beppu Eki (train station). I needed a calculator for all my accounting. At the last minute I wasn’t able to bring my 512K Mac. Later I bought a beautiful curvaceous calculator at a stationers. I had it for years but it finally stopped working and I threw it out. I’ve never seen anything like it, before or since, and regret that I don’t have a photo of it.

Toaster Oven

Our apartment came with a two-burner gas range. American-style ovens are a rarity in Japan. I don’t believe I ever saw one. Almost all the food is pan-fried, braised, steamed, or boiled. Hardly anything is baked. JQS and I breakfasted on toast and coffee so getting a little electric toaster oven was an early shopping priority. Over Christmas, I borrowed a larger toaster oven from Murakami-sensei so I could bake fruitcakes.

Pizza Dinner

Takagawara-sensei was the head of the PTA or something like that. (Was she also the “mother of twins”? the woman with the high screechy voice?) To welcome us two Americans she fed us a pizza dinner. The pizza was smothered with raw onions. I felt very sick the next day.