Berry Pocky and Old People

My tantosha was smiling and inquisitive today. With her, this always makes me suspicious. Nick seems to have relegated me to the periphery of his concern. Most things I say to him are neither met with eye contact nor comprehension. A second or two after I finish speaking, he'll usually look at me and say "Sorry. What did you say?". But then when he thinks of something to say, he'll tell it to me with genuine interest in his face. I think our mode of dialogue developed after I became disenchanted with his and Goi sensei's perpetual drone of despair about the school and started to ignore it. Now he's returning the favour.

Hell, at least the school custodian is a mensch. He loaned me a spanner for the weekend to make adjustments to my bike seat during my 16 hour Biwako bicycle trip. Just when I'm ready to dismiss the entire junior high school, someone shows me kindness. Interesting that it always seems to come from people with nothing to lose... the older woman whose an art teacher and whose career is fixed, the older male gym teacher reject (who may well have been coming on to me), and the older grungy custodian. All work physically. All are old and dismissive of the petty politics of Nagahama Nishi Chu.

I just ate a pack of strawberry Pocky. I'm on an eating kick today. I listened to the speeches of 35 junior high school students in the "Lute Plaza" in Biwa-cho today. Mostly I read my book. But the point is the food. We had to bring our lunches and I brought a huge pile of leftover curried vegetables and rice from the dinner I cooked with Veronica last night. It was too much, but after sharing some with Arica I consumed the entire contents of my generous tupperware container (except for one piece of tofu that had turned green. I ate the other green one though). And now I'm eating Pocky. Must be nerves.

berry pocky wrapper