⑦-２-０９

Today was most excellent. The gods saw it favorable to grant me Sekinaisho today, easily my favorite of all of the schools. The teachers taught me how to make an origami インコ – parrot. We practiced tongue twisters and I read the brunt of １００万回往ったねこ, a very lovely children’s book. They gave me some bread and candy before I left, as well as the うびわfan I left last time, my parrot, and a darling origami rabbit made by Nanae (nana-chan). Even rather mundane things, such as asking how the teacher’s meeting went, was a pleasure- the response was `It passed safely. There was no violence’. I played soccer with the children after the lunch break, and even though they were all tired from swimming they still had more energy than me. I was feeling so lousy the last few days, but today refreshed me, and once again I am thinking of the beauties of Japan (I’m especially looking forward to going to one of the zoos here) and am full of optimism. Riding home on the bus, the thought crossed my mind that when I am an adult, I should live in Sekinai.

Tonight I’ll be cooking and youtubing it up with Yuki, so things are sure to be fun. I’m so grateful that I am getting to do all of my favorite things at once to help counter the slouch earlier in this week. It makes sense, though. After going from being a superhero who barely had to work at all and getting dropped right in the most demanding and strict workplace in my repertoire, it’s no wonder I was feeling deflated. I just have to be careful not to let that feeling stick.
Yesterday evening I ate by myself at Ruby’s and read the table of contents to a book about Helen Keller. I’ve never really known anything about her after the WATER, HELEN, WATER thing, so learning even a little bit more about the course of her life was interesting and made me somewhat sad. I admit that the experience of tenuously figuring out her teachers name in the context of aforementioned water breakthrough, then seeing that name followed by なくなりました (passed away) was somewhat jarring. I once again realized that all these beautiful and adorable children I am interacting with are going to grow up, dry out, and eventually cease to be. It makes me very sad. But it’s the kind of sad that tells me I’m alive and human, so I’m ok with that.
I meant to go clothes shopping, too, but instead I went home, played some games, and went straight to bed. I slept in late, too. If I go to bed at a decent time tonight and don’t stay up late this weekend, maybe I can restore my healthy energy again.