The Melon Bread is in the Water Heater

Since coming back to Japan there are subtle differences I've noticed here and there. Yes, there are obvious ones like different people and different weather, but there's also things like the front door of our dorm being broken. I say broken, it's just that one now has to close it behind oneself or else it slams hard and stays open. Also, due to the brief break in the CJS calendar and coming back near to the end of the Japanese term, things feel a bit different around campus. Buzzers supposedly marking the end of classes elsewhere go off in the middle of ours, causing a bit of confusion now and then. My local supermarket also went through a brief phase of trying to cut down on packaging, resulting in various different experiments but ultimately reverting back to how it was before. It's remarkable, though, how easy it is to get used to these slight changes, as well as just being back in the country, almost as if I'd never left.

Moving on, the first proper Monday back was quite easy going. The opening lesson was much the same as last term, involving little tests and listening practice and so on. Also, a breif history of AUM (http://tinyurl.com/69shfr), their brainwashing, and their poison gas incidents. This theme was later continued in a lesson on Tuesday in which a summary of major events in post-war Japanese history was given. No theme is ever absolute, though, for on Tuesday we also read a story about chickens and discussed the role of fathers in various societies on Wednesday. In each of these lessons I didn't do the reading beforehand, started off in a daze, suddenly got the gist of things and answered and discussed questions lots to bluff a kind of understanding. Went fairly well, I think.

Let me tell you of my adventures on Wednesday! In the early afternoon students staying in dorms were required to attend a first aid training session, which included how to use an AED (beepy shock machine). I now feel remotely more prepared for the remote contingency of needing to help a collapsed person. The session itself was quite amusing, the only English the instructor used was "Hey, you!", and toward the end people threw themselves into acting out scenarios. I can't quite explain why it's funny in text, but in future if anyone says "Motte kita bakari desu" to me I am likely to crack up regardless of context.

Following this spectacle some thirteen of us toddled off to a place called the Cat's Café. No actual felines were employed there, but they were a central motif in the decor, and the place looked very luxurious. Of course, we went there not to admire wallpaper, but to eat ice cream! How shall I describe what we ate? The selections in question were called "Never Give Up" and "Unbelievable," and if I add that these two were enough for everyone I'm sure you can get some idea of their size. They were filled with whipped cream, ice cream, fruit, cornflakes and all kinds of other sweet things! We also ate them with long spoons which had bells attached to the end. This all made me very happy.

Unbelievable