Oh Yeah, The Baseball Thing ... Drinking Under A Cherry Tree ... Octopus Balls, on a Sunday?

Perhaps you guessed based on my lack of a follow-up post on Koshien, but we lost the second game, 2-1 in extra innings, after a hard-fought contest that featured the same starting pitcher from Yamasho's previous outing going the distance. But all that is over now. Perhaps we can win the prefectural tourney this summer and return to the big stage.

But now, as I noted in previous posts, it's all about change. For me, that means a slightly more complicated schedule. Once a week (Fridays), instead of cycling to Yamasho, I'll cycle to Ise-shi station, park the bike, and ride a bus for half an hour to tiny little cove of a town called Watarai. I'll spend the day there team-teaching in four lessons before catching the bus home to start my weekend.

This is part of a mini-shake-up of Ise area ALTs. Previously, one ALT went to Watarai twice a week. Now, that ALT will be at Yamasho four days a week. A third ALT, who like me previously spent all his time at one school, will also pick up a day at Watarai.

So now the ALT line-up at Yamasho includes me, Sam and Nick, of Australia, who like us has been here since summer.

For now, the students are still on spring break, but the teachers (not so much the ALTs) are busily preparing for the start of a new school year next week.

I do have a few things to do, but since it amounts to only a couple hours worth of work, I do not plan to start it until, you know, I have a couple hours left.

Outside of school (in this case literally), it's cherry blossom time. Tomorrow I will embark on my first "hanami," or cherry-blossom-viewing party. Here, the tradition dictates that you go near some cheery blossoms (called "sakura") and drink a bunch of sake. Not sure if tomorrow's thing, which includes a couple ALTs and a teacher with his wife, will include drinking. On Sunday, the Nanaimo crowd is doing another hanami on a river-front park. That one will certainly involve drinking. Then, to keep the festive spirit alive, we will fall back on Nanaimo and eat octopus balls.

Don't fear. I do not mean octopus testicles, I mean taco-yaki. These are batter-based fried balls with octopus meat and other ingredients inside. Trust me. They're tasty.