So, I guess it goes without saying that I have had a busy week. Actually, it hasn't been that busy. I am mostly occupying all my free time studying for the kanji kentei, a test of kanji ability designed for Japanese school kids. I am signed up for level 7, which is designed for 4th graders, but I am really thinking that I should have started with level 8, for 3rd graders, because there is a lot of shit that I am studying that I don't know. However, the main reason I am taking the test is to make myself study, so I don't know what the point would be if I already knew all the stuff on the test. Anyway, I am studying for that a few hours a day. I tend to think that it's hopeless, but we'll see. I need to get 70% to pass, but I've already given up on a few parts of the test, like the one where they ask you the names of the radicals in some kanji, because no one gives a rat's ass about shit like that and I can't bring myself to waste time studying it.

Anyway, I have been studying a lot. The only thing interesting that happened recently was the fall city sports tournaments, where all the schools send their sports teams to compete and go on to the prefectural and nationwide tournaments. I am at Koyo again, so I had a chance to properly root for my team for once. I have been kinda working with the girl's basketball team for the past 2 years or so, so I am always rooting for them. But this time, they were actually my team. However, they still lost, albeit less badly than previously. They had the misfortune of coming up against my former supervisor's team. He's a big (although short) basketball freak, the coach and vice principal, and his daughter is on the team. So my team lost.

The big story was my girl's volleyball team, who I have been playing a lot with this semester. They only have three returning second graders and 6 freshman, all of whom are short. OUt of the 2nd graders, only one of them is really any good. The first graders just don't have much skill yet, and have a hard time coordinating with each other or being the right place at the right time. But they have to play because you need 6 people. As such, they had no expectations of winning even one match, because it was the first actually competitive match any of them had ever been in. But against all odds, they won their first match. They lost the first match and weren't doing too well in the second one (the team captain was crying on the court) but eventually they got their rhythm and came back to win. The team captain, the only one who is genuinely good at volleyball, always tries to do everything herself, which is really ineffective. But I guess once she gave up on that, they were able to play more as a team and win. I could not believe how much crying they did after they won! I guess that's what happens with 13 year old girls. They lost their second match, and of course they were crying after that too. So I guess they will cry for anything. It was pretty emotional though. And the best part for me was, the school they beat was the same school where my former supervisor is the basketball coach.