I have written this entry over several days. Upon reviewing it I have noticed the content is a bit depressing so I apologize in advance. Good and happy things have also been happening but also this stuff. Some of this may be a little *gasp* controversial.

I don’t know if it is the change in the weather or what but there were two fights this morning. The first one involved one kid seriously kicking another one. The kid’s bruises were an exact imprint of the tread of the other kid’s shoes. They must have been new shoes for them to leave such a clear impression. I feel bad for both of these kids really because the one kid has no friends and the other one has a rough home life. They are in the same homeroom so they have to spend the whole day together. I didn’t see the other fight but it sent one kid to hospital. That was a bit of a shock. They said it was just precautionary though. The other kid who stayed behind spent the whole morning crying in the staffroom because they told him his Dad was coming after school. He told the teachers he was going to get beaten by his Dad which I am sure he probably is. It made me somewhat sick to think of it though. He shouldn’t have done what he did, but kids this age don’t have a great deal of cause and effect in their brains yet. I believe they have brought in the school psychologist for the meeting tonight to try and keep everything under control. I hope it is ok for that boy. He is only 12 years old. It is hard to believe that he could inflict so much damage on another kid.

There was a third fight, this time in my class, at elementary school. A boy got into a fight with a girl and started kicking her in the head while standing on his desk. This happened at my bad school which I was just recently starting to think wasn’t so bad after all. I shouldn’t let this one thing effect what I think of the school though. They have made some major changes this year.
This fighting is very unusual. It happens quite rarely here in comparison with back home. It’s easy to start believing that I am in an alternate universe of teaching where kids will never carry weapons, get pregnant or sell drugs but alas it is not so. It is at a much lower level than home but some teachers here that I work with would like to believe those are “American problems”. Sorry, it happens everywhere. I think they have different ways of dealing with these problems though so they are less visible. For example, if a kid gets pregnant in high school, they have to leave. A Japanese friend told me she had never seen a girl who was pregnant in high school until she did a home stay in America. There isn’t the moral opposition to abortion here either. It is considered returning the child to the gods. There is a ceremony (can't remember the name) that many couples or women perform to honour the child that was considered a part of their family although never lived. The people I asked about it said that it is supposed to be a form of apology to the child for not being about to bring it up in their family. It is also for children lost in miscarriage. This ceremony also acknowledges that the child is in some kind of waiting period from that time before it will be born again to another family or to the same family. I find it interesting to see a completely different take on this than in North America. Especially in the states. I really thought about it when I was home because I drove out into the country and saw those rode signs that say things like “My parents chose life!” or that kind of thing. I find all of this interesting because the argument against abortion in the west is that it is ending a human life. Here, they are essentially agreeing that this is true but no one is against doing it. It is called the “necessary sadness”. Isn’t that strange? It is indicative of how accepted it is here that I was able to ask people these questions in the first place.

On a happier note, I am getting more exercise these days and actually rode my bike to school for a change. I also joined the Nagano AET women’s’ soccer team. I am pretty terrible at soccer but they don’t take it too seriously. It’s time to finally establish what off-sides means. Tomorrow I am going to attend some kind of four hour English teachers meeting that will be held entirely in Japanese. That should be a yawn. I think I’ll bring a book or try to escape while the lights are off for some long and boring power point display.

Ok, So I typed all of this last Wednesday and it is still raining today. I think we are in for more flooding. All of this rain has made the melons in my garden rot. Curses! At any rate, an update on the rest of the week is now in order. The international work camp people have returned to Europe and not without incident. This is somewhat of an interesting story. Apparently the three French guys got up and left during school lunch because they were so offended that they were asked to speak and answer questions during the lunch hour. They said it was so rude to think that they would speak the entire time while eating. The teachers at the elementary school were very shocked and the kids were worried too. They asked me what went wrong. I said I thought it was a major over reaction on the part of the French guys to get up and leave the classroom at lunch. I think it is good manners for kids to be quiet at the dinner table but that is not the case in Japan. Maybe this isn’t the case in Canada either. I don’t know really outside of my own experience. Is this cultural differences? Someone let me know!
That was not the strangest case though by far. There was one man from Kyoto who was there to study the education system by joining the work camp as a translator. It was very much like an episode of Big Brother as everyone started to get on each others nerves. Eventually the guy from Kyoto had a big freak out because he everyone was talking in the common room while he was trying to read. He told them all to go back to their home country and stay out of Japan. They had to kick him off the camp. I was telling all of this to gossip to Gisela on the phone when she was in 7/11. As I was speaking to her, the guy walked into the 7/11! He told everyone that he had gone immediately back to Kyoto but instead he was lurking around in the immediate area. Scary stuff!
I have started taking Japanese prep lessons to get ready for the proficiency exam in December. I have only 81 days to get it all crammed into my head and I hope I can do it. I enjoy the lessons because it has directed my studying a little better. Every night this week I have had at least two activities after school so I am feeling a little run down. There is a long weekend coming up though so it will all make up for it. I will take a day trip to a big city and then spend the rest of the time hanging out with friends and generally enjoying myself. I am also now officially ferret free. It’s good to be alive!
Today's pictures are unfortunatly still old stock. It's a review of the flowers of summer. They are from the lily pond at Matsumoto Caslte and generally around my area.