For the first time in about a month, I feel good again about living here in Nagoya. Last night I did karaoke until the wee hours of the morning. And tonight I went, with a few of my former students, to a “Magic Bar” for the first time. I guess a short description of a “Magic Bar” would be, like a hostess bar, except instead of pretty girls and karaoke, it’s a magician who comes around to your table and does car tricks for a couple of hours. I had forgotten the fun of being amazed by a simple sleight-of-hand card trick up close. The guy wasn’t perfect - there was one trick involving ESP-style cards and having his eyes closed that he had to redo a few times to get it right. But for the most part I was dumbfounded and astonished by stuff like the coins through the sen-yen bill, and all the different variations on the “is this the card you chose?” trick. I would definitely like to go again. Another cool thing is that Taro-san’s little brother, who is an elementary school teacher, also came, and he showed prestidigitations of his own, which I guess he teaches to his students.

Anyway, just feeling good again, and wanted to talk about it. Also, today there was this Pizzicato Five song that I listened to for the hundredth time, and I realized that I understood all of the words. Slowly but surely, I’m getting there, maybe.

I’m very worried about the economy, though. Who knows, I may need to go back to teaching English or something soon if things don’t improve.