Day 14

It occurred to me while riding the train home from school today, that my school day--that is, from the time I leave to go to school, to the time I at last return--is twelve hours long. Twelve. No joke. We leave the house at 6:30am to catch the bus (and then the train, and then the other train, and then the other bus…) and by the time that school is over and all the traveling home is done, it’s 6:30pm. No wonder Noriko and I are completely exhausted when we get home, and only want to eat, sleep and watch game shows which have “challenges” like How Many Carrots Can You Shove Into a Small Plastic Produce Bag and so forth. (Which, in case you were wondering, was 84. Though of course it depends on the size of the carrots. And possibly the temperature of the room…)

Since the majority of classes in my typical schedule for school are ones in which I don’t understand anything, and therefore don’t have to participate, I have been reading (on average) a 300-page book per day. Today was no exception. Homeroom, Classical Japanese, and math were all spent lurking in the back with my nose buried in my book, while debating whether or not listening to my headphones would be considered rude, seeing as I wasn’t expected to do anything anyway. I did, however, have P.E, which meant I joined the other girls (and only the girls--the boys were elsewhere) in the gym; me in my borrowed pants and bright orange Godzilla T-shirt, and everyone else in the white and blue matching gym clothes. I have decided that Japanese P.E. is much preferable to American gym class, because it has neither sit ups, push ups, or 10-minute runs. Instead, we ran two laps around the gym, did the Japanese Radio Exercise and spent the rest of the fifty minutes of class throwing a volleyball around and basically making fools of ourselves, while the teacher disappeared to her office for the duration of the class. For once, I actually had a good time in gym. It was like some sort of miracle.

But all those fun and games have sapped my willpower, and I am now a slave to the TV. And I really want a carrot.