I woke up on time this morning, but as usual, I advanced my alarm clock (the old mechanical type) by about 30 minutes, and tried to fall back asleep. It was difficult, as I was thinking of only two things: the mosquito that we had seen last night but were unable to kill; and the buggy 4 and 5 years olds I was soon to teach... but would be unable to kill.

After the alarm rang a second time, I switched it off, and lay there, contemplating my next move. Would I get up? Or, would I sleep in late and miss my class? I opted for the latter, but alas, not 3 minutes later, my girlfriend's arm swung around and gave me a stiff hit, perhaps a not-so-unconscious message that I should get up and get ready.

So I did. I had a cold-water shave (no hot water in our bedroom washroom) and realized that I had been bitten by the mosquito near the right corner of my mouth. Or maybe it was only a shaving welt. I fed the incessantly-meowing cat and hopped into the shower (fortunately, there IS hot water in the downstairs shower; not in the sink though.) I dressed, kissed her cheek, and left the house.

I was running a bit late, but decided not to forgo my weekly ritual of stopping at one of the many, many Lawson's for a cold can of coffee and a rice triangle (onigiri in Japanese.) I consumed these quickly and arrived at the B___ nursery with 0 seconds to spare. (Arrival time: 9:30am.)

To enter the nursery, I must enter a 4-digit passcode to breach the gate, and cross a sandy playground teaming with children. Today, the passcode had been changed, and there were no children. Was I in luck? Had the entire nursery school population been whisked away in some Twilight-Zonesque incident? No, unfortunately, it hadn't. One of the female staff noticed I was having problems with the lock, and quickly came over to show me the new code. Upon closer inspection, I saw many children indeed inside the school, and began to hear cries of "S____ Sensei!" amongst more general cries and crying.

Removing my shoes just inside the entrance, I wearily (wearily on the inside, but wide-eyed and genki on the outside) entered the first classroom. This is a 30-minute lesson with just as many 4 year olds. Although it's the younger of my two classes, it's also the better behaved. Because the class is structured around many songs, and many repetitive drills, there isn't much time for misbehaving. However, depending on which Japanese helper has been scheduled, the childrens' behaviour can sometimes get out of hand. There's a lot of crotch- or bum-poking (that's pretty normal stuff for Japanese kids to do to foreign teachers, I'm told) as well as hair-pulling and punching amongst the children. Today went quite well, and there were no incidents.

Stay tuned for a description of the second class. Right now, I'm going to meet my girlfriend downtown and grab some lunch.