Don't worry, I'm not dead. I've just been extremely lazy about updating.

Today was an extremely busy day. Mr.Muramatsu, the first year English teacher, came to work extremely sick and had to go the doctor's office soon after arriving at school. He was out for the rest of the day, and may be out tomorrow as well. Before he left, he told me he was worried that it might be tonsillitis. Apparently, Japanese people don't usually get their tonsils out as children, and he also said he'd heard the operation was extremely bloody, so he hasn't had it yet. I wonder how true that is. I don't remember much about getting my tonsils out, but it wasn't a particularly traumatic experience. Anyway, Mr.Muramatsu was scheduled to go observe an English class at a high school this morning, so the second year English teacher had to go in his place. This meant that I had to teach her two morning classes by myself then teach Mr.Muramatsu's two afternoon English classes by myself. I was actually very happy to be given that much responsibility, but it was a lot of work. Luckily, I didn't have to do much prep work since they both left decent lesson plans to follow, but being the only teacher in the classroom was demanding. What's more, today was the third year conversation club after lunch, which meant I had to entertain a classroom full of third year girls. I ended up showing them pictures I took on my Christmas vacation and asking them about Disney, which got a good response. At the risk of reinforcing gender roles, male students generally like to talk about sports and music, while female students like Disney. As I was leaving school, one of them showed me one of those face masks sick Japanese wear, only it had a warty nose and beard printed on it. She said she'd bought it at the new Aeon shopping mall.

I've been reading Naoki Urasawa's manga 20th Century Boys recently, and it's possibly the best manga I've ever read. The scope and complexity of the story he's telling is very impressive, and his art is amazing. It's also great kanji practice, since it's written for adults and there's no furigana. I'll write a more comprehensive description of it later on.