So, I have about 20 minutes to kill, so I figured I`d do some
e-mailing. since I e-mailed not too long ago, not much has really
changed at all.  Work is busy, I have to go to some school in the
middle of nowhere tomorrow.  I`m not sure how long it takes to get
there, so I`m just gonna leave early.  Every once in a while riding
the train can be confusing.  I have to transfer to some line I`ve
never been on before, so I could screw things up.  Also, I`m not sure
which service stops in this town.  Can I take the express, the local,
the limited express, the super rapid.  i don`t know, so I pretty much
have to ride the local train, which could take forever.  Also, at some
places transfering can be really weird.  When I went to Nara, we had
to buy another ticket and put both through the machine at the same
time to walk through, but no one could tell us that in English and we
couldn`t understand it in Japanese, so on the way their, the help
staff, just took enough money for new tickets and gave them to us.
Very strange.  So I am a little worried.  Last night I went to one of
my favorite bars and it was completely dead, so me and the bartender
did all this pronunciation practice.  He wrote down just combinations
of letters that are hard to pronounce in Japanese, like strings of
vowels, aieou, ieaou, and tsutatetochi.  Things like that and I wrote
down stuff like:  That things that thinks that the thinker thaws the
thing.  Or Very Vivacious vicky villifies the villian.  So then he
started writing down Japanese tongue twisters, it was rough.  So I
had, tokyou to kyouto tokyo kyokakyoku.  Which means tokyo and kyoto
licence something.  Then he added today to the front, which is kyou.
It was rough.  They also have one thats hashi no hashi ohashi no hashi
something.  Which means on the edge of the bridge at the edge of the
chopsticks I hold.  Edge, bridge, and chopsticks are all hashi, but
slightly different pronunciation.  And this differs in Kansai and
Kanto area.  The vowells are really hard though, but can be good to
learn, because today I was doing verb conjugations and their is a verb
au, which means to meet, so let`s meet, informal is aou.  I can`t
explain how to pronounce this, but ao is blue, so you have to
pronounce it correctly or people will have no idea what you are
saying.  Today I finished my verb conjugations, which means that I am
starting to learn noun and verb based ending to provide meaning, so I
can say not just I eat, I don`t eat, Lets eat, if I eat, but also I am
eating, Eat please, and I want to eat.  So hopefully I will get a lot
better soon, but I have a huge list of verbs to study, maybe like 50
or 60 and all I can ever remember is the stupid verbs that I don`t
need to learn, like to swim, to pray, etc.  My other teacher went over
fine tuning of time, so now I can say things like I woke up early in
the morning or went to bed late or its 2 till six, but this involved
learning a lot of words also and this week I learned a bunch of
adjectives/adverbs so I have a lot of vocab to study and all my
flashcards are full, so it looks like I have to buy more.  Today I`m
going to a tofu restaurant, so all the dishes are made out of tofu.
I`m not sure what I`m going to get yet, because I don`t know what they
have, but a few of my students recommended it.  If they have this one
dish I`m definately getting it.  This dish is made by putting tofu in
a hot pan and throwing a small live fish in the pan.  The fish,
because the pan is so hot, squirms into the tofu and is cooked inside
it.  It sounds like something from a crazy dream.  I have to try that
dish.  Then another student who knows I`m going there, said that I
have to go to her cake shop which is in the basement of the same
building, so I will go there and get some kind of chestnut cake that
yet more of my students said I had to buy.  God, my students know
everything about me.  But when I tell them I will do something, I have
to do it, because unlike me, they have only a few teachers, so they
remember and always ask, whereas I forget, but when they ask me, I
remember which student it is and all about them.  So it helps a lot.
Of course my favorite students I always remember, but that doesn`t
mean I remember exactly what was going on with them last time.  A few
of my favorite students are quitting too right now, which sucks.  But
it`s too expensive for them.  Which I can understand.  Each class is
40 minutes and over 30 bucks.  maybe more.  Well I got to go.

Dan