Today was the second week of my winter English conversation class. It was a lot of fun! Mostly the class revolved around getting to know each other, and we played my version of a "speed dating" game. I learned a lot about lots of students! It is a great group! I really look forward to getting to know them better!

At the end we asked if anyone had any questions, and one lady stood up. She started talking really fast and excitedly in Japanese. I couldn't understand what she was saying completely, but I thought she said they had all met before, and something about Tokugawa Iyeyasu [Japanese historical figure]... Turns out she told everyone that they'd all met before at a castle in Shizuoka during the Edo period... [All but me and the other teacher [foreigners]. ...Apparently Japanese and foreign souls are reincarnated separately...??] It caused some confusion/ awkwardness, but overall nobody seemed to take it seriously. I am really curious how this dynamic will play out throught the rest of the classes. But anyway, I am glad that the students seemed to have a really nice time talking and interacting, and I look forward to lots of great times ahead.

On a totally unrelated note, someone pointed out my use of unexplained Japanese in a previous post. Sorry!"Niku jaga" is Japanese home-cooking... Potatoes stewed with small slices of meat, carrots, onions and "konyaku" (which I think is made from "mountain potatos" and looks like grey speckled spaghetti-like gummy worms... allegedly 0 calories...), and flavored with soy sauce, sweet cooking rice wine, soy sauce and sugar. Give it a try! Good luck finding the konyaku! (No, you can't substitute gummy worms...)