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Today at the evening school it was the last lesson before Christmas which meant party time. I basically acted as an MC of the children`s party which I couldn`t really imagine beforehand particularly as most of them semi-hate me. In each lesson I got a piece of cake which not quite satisfying the deep urging I have for marzipan and iced rum-soaked fruitcake was better than acting as a tape recorder.

Being an MC in the first two lessons came down to calling out random numbers between 1-75 for the bingo game as well as being surreptitious numbers practice. I have a bad history with Bingo in Japan. In the third lesson I taught the Junior High School/Secondary school students the mighty game of Shithead which I had cunningly renamed Loser so that I wouldn`t be sacked from my job the next day. 　It fascinates me how I`ve passed this game on to kids in Japan studying at various different schools in Osaka who may likewise pass it on like a mother bear who teaches her child how to catch fish at a a particular spot in a river - See Meme. I was the shithead the first time. I cried.

After that I had a private lesson with a middle aged woman which I usually hate. I have very little in common with middle aged women and it`s always a struggle to make a conversation last for an hour. This time however she brought in a brochure about flower arranging and I had a really fascinating chat about Japanese flower arranging - How they are balanced and set up, the different styles and approaches. I wish every evening were like that.

Tags: Japan, Osaka, Asia, Quaisi, Kansai, Expat, English