kyoto sensei

so, I haven:t written much on this blog, but for a quick update--kyoto sensei at Nagai kongyo is awesome. I love him. And the teachers here are really great too. thats not to say they aren:t great at my other school, but its just 2 completely different atmospheres. Anyways, I had asked a while ago about going skiing with the students. The answer was a tentative, indirect no. Fueled by by the thought that I would have no classes at this school for the next month, which meant endless hours of desk sitting, I asked again today. Kyoto sensei asked me about my other school (Arato koko) and what their opinion on the matter was. I told them what the other kyoto sensei (Kenshyu) said. My JTE and the cool kyoto sensei responded with a lot of grumbling and Japanese that I didn:t understand. I asked what it meant...and my JTE said "ehh, uhh...goddam Kenshyu". hahaha, it was hilarious. I couldn:t manage to hold back all of my laughter. My JTE is so cute. Anyways, the ski answer was better this time. I still couldn:t go with the students because it meant the school would be liable for me, but kyoto sensei would ask the "young teachers" to take nenkyu (vacation days) to take me skiing during the week. I feel really bad about this because I don:t want the other teachers to have to take nenkyu on my account. But thats kind of how it works here. The Japanese teachers take nenkyu instead of sick days and their vacations are really short. I've decided not to tell them about next weekend's trip to the Hokkaido snow festival because I feel like every weekend I go somewhere and do things and they are probably tired of hearing about it. Today at lunch a teacher was asking me where I had not been in Japan. I don:t know how I would feel if someone came in doing a similar job as me with the same pay but with loads less work...not to mention less hours. This job sometimes feels like a joke because my JTE does all the difficult work. And thats why Im staying a second year.