The new school year is in full swing. Two months will do that. In fact, end of term exams start the week after next thought the term doesn’t end until mid-July. They’re early because of the festival in July. The weather has been beautiful, classes are good, etc. My Japanese is slowly improving. It’s one of those things where the more you learn the more you realize that you don’t know.
I found an aikido group and am going to join. I’m really pumped about that. I anticipate the sore wrists and joints, but am more than willing to make the trade. At home I’ve been practicing with kamas a lot and that’s fun because they’re sharp and you swing them around. I cut myself, but not during practice. I was trying to use them like scissors and it didn’t work. Anyway, I still have all my digits so it’s all good.
There are days you just can’t help remembering the world is so messed up.
I had a rather scary thought the other day. What if, five or ten years from now I’m still the same person I am now. Still stumbling over the same things, still struggling with the same weaknesses. I don’t want to be the same person. I want to grow. I want to be changed.
One of the most difficult things for me at school is still students names. My goal of memorizing all the students names is not progressing well. Maybe if I saw them more than once a week? The names are written out in Roman letters, so that I can read them, but even though I see that sometimes my tongue just won’t cooperate. the other day I was calling on a student and I read the name Junichi “ju-ni-chi” when it was supposed to be “ju-n-i-chi” and all the students laughed.
Which I guess is fair, because sometimes we all laugh together at their English.
