Summer Onions

Yesterday I saw some turtles had scored themselves a lifetime supply of onions.

I'm really sick of the summer heat this year. It's making me sluggish and unmotivated. I went to the mall yesterday to enjoy free air conditioning with everyone. I read Thomas Carlyle at Starbucks for a while. I had a nice big tuna rice bowl, magurodonburi, for lunch because it was fairly cool. It also turned out to be delicious.

Here's a spider I saw yesterday. I hope she's writing, "Autumn is coming".

X Sonnet #1730

A flower dream was small and known to bloom.
But later years revoked a thought for dreams.
Reversed, we woke the end and slept the doom.
So where's the sense to sew the sloppy seams?
It starts at See's with suckers sold for cash.
A broken pumpkin butterscotch contends.
The featherweight's above the grave with trash.
Of hasty kills a foolish plot portends.
A glowing salad praised the fire dressing.
Triangle bread could change the stomach mind.
But hearts were sugar notes of candy blessing.
At least, that's what the power people find.
The mound of oats arose to greet the day.
We trust the sun of yarns will find a way.

The Best Summer Friends

It's getting hot around here and humid. That means lots of bugs so I'm trying to court friends like this:

I never got a decent photo of this hefty huntsman spider who was bigger than my fist though I had plenty of up close and personal encounters with it. I was watching a movie a few nights ago and paused it to get up to pee. Turning to my right, I found this fellow sitting beside me, facing the screen as though enjoying Dream Lover right along with me. Maybe I should've said, "His name's James Spader, not James Spider."

I spotted him a couple more times before I finally trapped him in my bathroom. I left my bathroom window open and the next day he was gone. I hope he's patrolling the perimeter outside my apartment. Here's a smaller spider I saw on a tree in the park by my building:

Summer Sunlight

Heading into summer, which around here means bugs, flowers, and rain.

Students have been carrying big thermoses of water or barley tea ("mugicha") to school. Practicing "are you/Yes, I am/No, I'm not" sentences with first year students, I asked one girl, "Are you a cat?" and she didn't hesitate to reply, "Yes, I am."

(Not a photo of the student).

I've been visiting two after school clubs in my current school--the handmaking club and the computer club. The handmaking club is for various crafts. Mostly the students are making origami, baking little resin charms, or knitting scarves. These kids are so productive.

Many of the students are also drawing in the handmaking club since this school has no art club. Mostly they draw characters from Kimetsu no Yaiba or Jujutsu Kaisen. I'm about seven episodes into the latter and it continues to be pretty good. It features a main character who strategically allows a demon to take over his body at times. The advantages being that the demon can slaughter his enemies and heal his severed limbs, the disadvantage being the demon wants to kill his friends. I continue to be fascinated by how brutal these two massively popular shows are, despite attempts by some authority figures here to regulate the moral content of the media kids take in.

I'm also thankful the animation is so good after so many years of cheap looking, cookie cutter anime.

Life in a Land of Heat and Rain

I'm coming to the end of my first week working as an assistant language teacher at a Japanese junior high school. It's mainly been a very nice experience, the students are very sincere and well behaved, though it's a little difficult to tell them apart when they all wear masks and uniforms. Aside from the masks, the only sign of Corona virus is the new set of social distancing rules requiring no two students to sit beside each other, a little pointless considering there seems to be plenty of physical contact outside of the classroom. For a culture about which I've constantly been told physical contact is frowned upon, I see a lot more hugging than at American schools. This might be a new trend. Fortunately, Corona seems down to pretty low levels though there's been an increase in cases in Tokyo.

One of the teachers seemed to expect me to be missing America, based on the questions she was asking me. I told her I'm happy to be in a country where there are currently no riots and I went on to tell her that the riots in the U.S. seem to have pushed Corona off the front page in every major publication. I'm working in a rural area so most people don't seem to know anything about George Floyd or the riots. I generally have the impression that people here are more focused on here than on the world. There's more of a sense of a connexion to the town and community than I'm used to.

It sure is hot. I'm told the rainy season is off to a late start which has been a worry for the farmers. Supposedly constant rain will begin next week--it will be rainy and hot. I wish I had more summer clothes.