Yesterday evening I had an interesting conversation with Otousan. Otousan is a teacher, and he teaches biology at an all-boys high school in Osaka, which is about twenty minutes away from Kobe by train. I told Otousan and Okaasan that in the U.S., there is a day called "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" during which fathers occasionally bring their daughters with them to the fathers' work places. I asked my host parents if such a day existed in Japan, and they said no. I asked if I could accompany Otousan to work to view a biology lesson, and he said definitely not. I asked why, and Otousan replied that I would create a disturbance. I told him I had not attracted the attention of a single Japanese boy thus far during my stay in Japan, and Otousan said that this is not true, but I simply don't know that I'm attracting the attention of Japanese boys because they are shy and because it is not polite to simply tell a woman that she is beautiful. Otousan said that according to most Japanese boys, I fit into the biijin, or beautiful person, category. I told Otousan that in the United States I am just average looking, but Otousan said that here in Japan I would be considered a beautiful person by most Japanese boys, so if I went to Otousan's work to view a biology lesson, no lesson would take place because all the boys would be distracted by my presence since I am a foreigner. I exclaimed that this is the students' fault for considering me good-looking, and Otousan responded that it is my fault for being good-looking. What an interesting conversation...

Today I took my second Japanese language test within my language class. This test was harder than the last, and it took me a long time to complete compared to the previous test. I think that this class is too hard for me. I've been studying a lot, and I'm still not receiving the grades I desire. But I want to be in this high-level class, so as long as the studying doesn't kill me, I should stick with it and devote as much time as possible to studying while still maintaing a social life. After all, I did come to Japan to learn Japanese.

Also, my Japanese teacher told our class today about a recent undertaking of hers. She and another Japanese teacher, who lives in Osaka, are creating a website for learning advanced Japanese. This use of this website does not include tuition fees, and thus my teacher hopes it will gain popularity. She is hoping that this website will be useful for people in African and Asian countries where citizens may have had an opportunity to study basic Japanese, but they cannot afford a study abroad trip in Japan and must continue their language studies in some other way. My teacher hopes that this website will also be useful for students who wish to study Japanese but are too busy with other primary majors in school. My teacher created a website with Japanese stories, and the stories are accompanied by furigana, the written hiragana, or Japanese alphabet, translations for kanji, as well as the English meaning for kanji. This will help students improve their Japanese comprehension without studying in a classroom setting. I feel proud to have a teacher who is involved in such a project. I hope her website will be a success.