November 21

It is wicked cold at my schools. Even in the teacher rooms and the classrooms, where they use kerosene heaters, I often cant get warm, though wearing long underwear, two pairs of socks, and a wool sweater. This morning we had an assembly in the gymnasium, and the air temp was the same as outside, a little below freezing. I stood with my hands in my pockets, shivering, not listening to whatever they were going on about, and cursing.

Later in the day I discovered the library, up on the second floor with its own heater and bathed in sunlight. There I stayed for the afternoon hours (happily sweating beneath my layers), studying, giving interview tests to students, and chatting with the librarian.

After school, I finally found the famed site of Shitomae (the kanji for this place means literally " In front of urine"??!!). The Master haiku poet Matsuo Basho once passed through on his journey to northern Japan and spent the night, carving the following poem on a rock, which still exists at the site (The translation is not mine, and doesnt follow haiku form, but I think is fairly literal):

Bitten by fleas and lice,
I slept in a bed
A horse urinating all the time
Close to my pillow

I walked in the woods, took a few photos of Basho's statue, and composed the following while staring at the rock:

Amongst the cedars
Over Basho's words I pass
Grinning ignorance.