So today I recalled good ol' Andrew Carnegie and his famous motto: "My heart is in the work." Lately, my life has been the opposite. It's as if my heart left my body somewhere along the way, and I have been a robot the past few days. Mechanically performing daily tasks, going through the day without feeling. My head is there, but my spirit is not.

Even today, the second year fitness test wasn't as hilarious as I would normally find something like that. (The photo above is actually of opening ceremony, not fitness tests. But that's the gym.) Oh, it was still amusing, but I just seemed more detached than usual. Either way, it brought back a lot of horrifying memories of middle school PE. Imagine kind of a ridiculous mix between military drills and a circus, with the PE teacher barking out instructions on a megaphone. Two hundred kids performed warm up exercises where they jumped over their doubled-over partner back and forth, leap frog style, and bent over backward on their partner's back. It was also funny just seeing the boys, who have such badass haircuts, have no problem with getting "physical" with the other boys. Seriously, there is no such thing as homophobia here. I've seen boys hold hands, sit on each others' laps, and engage in other light-hearted physical contact. I guess it's a beautiful thing.

So yeah, back to the weird daze I've been in. Maybe it's because I'm a little bit sick. I've had a sore throat since Saturday and I'm sure biking in the rain hasn't helped. Or maybe it's because it's been a slow week for once, and I'm bored most of the time at school. Even the anxiety of planning lessons isn't there (I still have to make them though). However, I don't think this one is a case of cabin fever...

Last night I went to ramen again. It's a tradition among JETs in the area, that every Monday night they congregate at a small ramen-ya in Nirayama, a town a few stops down the Izu-Hakone line. The mom-and-pop restaurant not only has great ramen, but it's run by the nicest people in the world, Yumiko and Tomo, who treat JETs as if we were their own children. For instance, last week, Tomo and Yumiko drove me all the way to Mishima where my bike was parked, and then drove me home, b/c they didn't want me biking by myself at night. Tomo drove me home again last night, this time accompanied by daughter Momoko. So there is usually a fairly large group of us crowding up the tiny restaurant, and it gets pretty lively. Still, I don't yet feel like a part of the Fuji/Numazu/Mishima/Izu crew. Don't know why that is.

Today I bought a tripod from a second hand store very close to my house. I had forgotten I was even looking for one until I walked in and spotted a cupboard containing cameras and equipment. Mostly cheap old polaroids and a couple SLRs that looked like they may or may not have been in working condition. But I snagged a brand new Slik travel tripod for ¥1200. Many silly self portraits ensued when I got it home.