No stickers today, but a visit to the home ec class

So I got to visit the home ec class today since the teacher is one of my English teachers. I first had some prepartations for a listening test before I could learn the art of apple jam. This is what I walked into.

I don't know if you can see, but all of the students have aprons and scarfs on. Even the boys. They were busy have a contest to see who could peel the apple the fastest with the largest knife they could find. I was worried they were going to cut off their fingers. I did get to "shuffle" the apples (stir)





NO, She was worried that I was going to cut off my fingers in the contest. The kids thought it was great that I was really getting into it. My time wasn't very good, but I secretly was concentrating on not cutting my fingers with the biggest chopping knife. (Yes, she is the teacher and not a student.... we are the same age)




Later I snuck out of cleaning again. I was chatting with some of the girls that were holding toilet paper. I asked if they were taking it to the bathroom to fill it up. Bathroom, they heard birthday. So I rephrased it, restroom, they heard restaurant. I gave up. It was a rhetorical question anyway.

Thanksgiving time

Thanksgiving love, Some wafting

Some whipping, Some fire making













Some talking of wine, Some Japanese dance from kids tv









Fuzzy duck or ducky fuzz. Better not mix that up.


When people from different countries come together to eat some Thanksgiving grub, unusual things happen. This game of fuzzy duck where we sit around the table with our only our heads above it, only from Australia. Crazy Frenchman dancing like a 5 year old on chocolate and coffee. Also that crazy Frenchman playing twister by himself. Little did he know those weren't the rules. He was occupied for a good 15 minutes. We were entertained as well. The little international villa scored big with our vote. It said it was like a mountain chalet. For Japan, it was as close as you are going to get.

Before we all arrived, Amy, Bethany, and Richard toodled in my car, couldn't find our turn and came across the best bridge that was connecting two mountains with the steepest views. We took advantage of the great scenary and turned around at the bottom. Just a side note on how steep it was, my breaks smelled strongly of burnt rubber or what ever brake pads are made of. Don't worry it's a rental.

Back at the villa, we organized all of the food with our micorwaves that double as ovens. We heated everything up again while getting the table set. While prepping everything, most of us indulged in real cheese. The price you pay for proper cheese. Good wine also came with many Chu-hi's. Chu-hi's are the girly drinks of Japan that are in a can with different flavors of peach, grape, apple, and pretty much anything you can think of.

Grace and the thankfulness of the Japanese things you love like Skype, internet, onsens, Jupiter for Dr Pepper, friends and the family we were missing. Since this was the first Thanksgiving I was missing, it really didn't feel like it. Just a dinner with a turkey. I didn't have any nieces or nephews running around or my mom telling me what to do next. Secretly I missed that.

Next was this little Japanese dance that a few of us meticulously learned. Richard started it off while Amy sang the little ditty, next Brian and then me the newcomer. Everyone had seen this before on TV. I got Amy's tape the night before and rewinded the tape many times to get the moves down perfectly. Don't worry I will show all who want to experience really cheesey Japanese TV.

Twister, some passing out on the twister board, waking up to Jon without a shirt on. Not that unusual, jumbling my thoughts together, this didn't seem right. I had to ask what the deal was. Jon was the dealer in strip Black Jack. Seems to me he was the only one that was losing.
Off to bed rooming with Bernie and Bethany.

Mornings of pancakes and leftovers. I was the ultimate designer of pancakes, while Bernie perfected the flipping. I gave her some tough ones to flip, too. I made a pancake that looked like Africa, Italy, Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, a steak, a bazooka, Chile, South America, a donut, and a saxophone. Gosh I am good. It was tough. I will secretly practice at home in the morning to make pancake art the new craze.

Beautiful beautiful leaves

Leaves around Kibichuo.

The options on my camera that make the red leaves really stand out. The before and after.

Retard on the bus

A little surprise on my camera. I think she wants to kiss me.


So I finally figured out just today after all these days riding a bus, I pick the handicapped seat every morning. Little did I know. It just occurred to me that there was yellow on seat screaming at me "sit here if you're special". I didn't know how I could have missed this yellow sign for 3 months.

A fart for lunch?

So today I smelled a giant fart. I first thought, "was that me?" Nope, it was the food they were serving up for lunch. Just a big fat yummy fart.

Mexicans can make Burritos

So the last few days: I have been in Okayama City for a JET conference from Thursday on. And of course I am going to stay for the company on Friday and Saturday. Just to describe my eating habits. I now get discounts at the famous Racco's Burger. I bring in people or they bring me and I get discounts. Maybe because I ate there 3 days in a row.

I was at the conference with my cool teacher and we didn't really have anything to iron out, but I know more of my expectations which she told me to keep what I was doing with talking to the janitor, nurse and secretary all day while surfing on the internet for at least 4 hours. GREAT!
Then out to eat with some new faces and the classics. That is the French man trying to kill someone with the chopsticks. Okay a little background on this picture. We all met up for Friday night karaoke. Before we could even sit down and order the drinks, Brian found his song of Sweet Child O Mine and started to belt it out with a little dance, too. (Mainly because he had a drinking party with his school and might have been the only one that was a little tipsy) As you can see no one really even paid attention to him singing, but I caught it all while peeing my pants laughing. You can see the love of Karaoke in his eyes.
Some of the fall foilage I found while toodling on a one lane road.
This is a perfect picture driving, until you get out and walk to take photos.......
And see that it is the spot to dump all of your old cars.....



On Tuesday I had a Mexican night with my neighbors. Kyoto sensei who has been fighting mice with me, Sone sensei who is a first grade teacher at one of my elementary schools, Hiromi the secretary at my cool school Yamato, the janitor Namba-san. Those are the people I am supposed to talk to during my free time. They loved the tacos and told me I was a great cook. Little did they know that I just used a packet seasoning. But I did make my own guacamole. My Kyoto sensei wanted to test out my camera and all of its functions. He is quite hilarious with his broken but understandable Engrish.

I had my neighbor girl Hiromi over for leftovers. She loved that. All in all, my weekend was great and maybe while I try to go to bed, I will come up with other stories I know I missed.

I am the Vana White of English class

Today I was a very good sticker hander-outer. That's pretty much what I did all day. Boy was I good at that. It was a good thing I have a few cool stickers up my sleeve.
I think I actually got hot at a Japanese person's house. Yes heater galore. Yes I was checking all of the possibilities out there. Man there are lots of different heaters.

philosophy on winter

My philosophy on Japanese heating. I have figured out why they do not believe in insulation. Consumerism. If they did believe in it all of these following makers would be out of business:

Heaters: airconditioning heaters, kotatsu tables, kerosene, oil, electric, and electric blankets.
Blankets: we have blankets for our kotatsu tables on the floor and the tables. They have to be matching and up on the new winter colors. For the bed, you need at least 12.
Curtains: everyone needs winter curtains to keep the drafts out. Also you have to keep up with the latest colors and must by at least ever 2 years I would think.
Pajamas: You will need the warmest, and new ones every year
Socks, gloves, leggings, leg warmers, and hats. more the better.
Toilet seats: yeah they have heaters on them too
Toilet seat covers: for those who opt out on the heater. I will be investing in one of these this winter. I cannot imagine the toilet seat temp in the February if it is this cold now. I just have ot buy the right one first. A hot pink one is in the trash. Thought it would go good with my bay green color rug. (Don't get me started on some of the colors they decorate with)

You think with all of these heaters, they would be warm. Nope.

I asked my teacher why they didn't have any insulation in the houses. She said because the houses are made for the summer. I thought the insulation would keep the heat in in the winter, and keep the heat out in the summer. DID THEY FORGET ABOUT THE MOST IMPORTANT SEASON? I asked her what she did to get out of bed on a cold morning. She said her husband turns on the heater. Well I told her I needed a husband then. We all know that won't happen anytime soon, so I will have to invest in a timer to start up my heaters.

This weekend I gorged myself with Pizza King amongst great company.

Ceiling full of mice

So I had a bet going today at school on how many mice I have in my ceiling. Some said 2 some said 3. I heard them all last night. Want to know how many? NONE. yeah they got right up off that sticky paper and scurried away. So now I have 17 mouses sticky glue paper catchers around my house. Most in my ceiling with mouse food. Oh and the guy won't be back for another week and a half to check on it. If the mouse screams, then I will know I have caught it. Until then.........

I've got mice

That's what I am going to call my house now. "I've got mice". So I hear one right now getting his life stuck to a board of glue and eventually he will lay down and stay there until my mouse man comes tomorrow to get him. I told the Kyoto sensei next door, I would give it to him so he could have yakiniku. He thought it was funny. Everyone and their dog knows I have a mouse. I had my English teacher yesterday translate to 2 members of the BOE. Then my neighbors came over too. In my little house I had 7 total talking about mice. The mouse man thought he found poo but it was just wool. ahhh. Off to another episode of "This is the last day of this mouse's life".

The weekend of jellyfish hunting in the desert

Tottori Dunes and Uradome Beach with the crazy Hiroshima JETs.
First Jon and I rode the train up to Tottori and waitied for the crazy group of Amy, Alex (the guy who wrecked his car on the way to Miyajima-Idiot), Gen, Dave, Roo. So Jon and I wondered around the street when we came upon this line. We didnt: know what it was for. Then cruised some more and waited for the troop to arrive. Once they did we took another train to some city about an hour away. Long story short, we took a 700 yen train to get to a station and take a 1500 yen taxi to our hostel that was no where close to anything fun. Then a bus ride back to the train station and get to Tottori to get to the dunes. I guess Tottori was booked and we couldn't find A SINGLE PLACE TO STAY.


What is this line? I don't know, I hopped in the front. The line went across the bridge and we investigated it for a good 15 minutes on what they are doing. This is my pondering face.


I am gianormous on this sand dune.

Rough day of jellyfish hunting.


Jon and Gen eventually pulled one up to the shore. We disected as usual. We thought it was alright after a disscussion on whether or not it has nerves. we decided it didn:t and it was alright to toture the day lights out of it. It feels really cool. Oh and it was really heavy. No I didn:t touch it!
Paragliding on the dunes.
Only in Japan will you find a man in a suit climbing the dunes.

So the dunes were pretty fun. We saw a man in a suit on a camel, too. We walked along the beach and all of the jellyfish were being washed up on shore. So we found big sticks and then with the help of a 8 year old we buried the sticks in the sand. Random I know. So Jon and I figured out it was one day travelling for the troop and one day sightseeing then another day travelling back home. Luckily we werent that unorganized and could do more on Sunday. I think the quote we liked best is "Man this weekend is great, I really needed this". I can:t imagine what other weekends were like for her. I thought it was semi disatarous.

That night we went to yakiniku again, but this time it was way way expensive. So we called that horeas de vours. If I can spell. Then we went for pizza later. I got to use this great toilet. So in Japan you either have a heated seat with all kinds of electronics with music and a bidet to wash your bum. Or you have a pee covered floor that you have to hike your ankles up so the pants don:t touch the floor and have the risk of no toilet paper. No time for relaxing on that one.
A little DVD watching while on the toilet in an Italian restaurant that served me pizza on a crossant crust. Oh and the toilet seat lifted automatically and flushed automatically. even a hairdryer in case you wanted to shower I guess. Oh and the boys didn:t even have a sink.

We stayed in a hotel that was cheaper than the hostel with futons, no shower, out in the middle of nowhere. I got a hot shower and could have taken a toothbrush, shampoo and anything else taht was individually wrapped. So Sunday morning we saw the group off as Jon and I got the bus for the boat ride to Uradome beach.
I found black icecream. It was actually quite interesting. Just a snack before we get on the boat.
The lone tree on top of the rock formation on the boat ride.
Jon and I on the Uradome beach waters. Oh those glasses he found on the dunes. They fit him and make him look like a graphic designer Amy says.
I want to rent this beach for the rest of my life, kick the Japanese off and live like a hermet here. Too bad I HATE FISH.
In order to ride on this senior citizen bus, you have to wear a bucket cap like all of these ladies. We were the youngest after 65 year olds.


This is what I want to be when I grow old. Little ladies just chatting about drug deals or importing kidneys from little kids they steal in Africa. We make up stories for everyone we see. They are actually taking coke to Agnes up on the dunes. Then have some tea. Their heads don't make it above the seat like Jon's.

Jon got up to Tottori and back for about 1000 yen. I got back on 500. I paid full fair up. Idiot again. There is more that I am probably missing. Oh I will post a picture later of my gloves I got.
Or if you want a good story, read Wake Jon a link on the side.

crazy messed up school

So I am at my junior high today with my sunflower. I didn't have anything planned out because I don't know really the ability of his English. So I did some MadLibs about a car wreck. Yeah after we filled it all out, he wanted to change it to better nouns and not have me die in the car wreck. Cute but you couldn't keep his attention for anything. So that was a failure.
Another class of misfits. While I am learning about parts of speech, I notice the trouble maker who doesn't know anything. He has been making paper cranes in every paper color possible. This is pretty good because he is quiet for once and not throwing baseballs at anyone. Then another boy IN THE FRONT ROW is sharpening his knife. 2 of my best students are rock paper scissoring to see who doesn't get hit in the forehead. I just sat back and laughed.
Lunch we discussed what cut class and leave class was. Oh all of it was charades and dictionaries because the 15 year olds can't understand a thing.
I hurried to volleyball where the team was in a circle getting directions although one girl was up against the wall doing a handstand, another was hanging upside down on the net, and another girl had a volleyball up her shirt, another tripped over her own feet, and all I could do was sit and laugh. I learned some stuff tonight and already forgot it. Maybe if I hear it 30 more times I will remember.
When I got home there was a note on the door from my Kyoto sensei neighbor saying he is going to take care of my mouse problem. Signed with a heart. How can I take him seriously when I can smell everytime he craps. So with thin walls you also get smells. Oh the next house over, I HEARD HER TELEPHONE RING. So no privacy at all. Good thing I talk really fast on the phone and they can't understand English very well.