my pizza party

I showed up to this retired Navy man, anal retentive students house (older than 50 years). The sign outside said Welcome Home Pizza Party. He told us it took him a half a day to make. I thought "cute". He had an itinerary in English for our day. He had us write down our names, phone, address, where we were born, birthday. I think he is going to stalk us and get our secret information from us later. Hide your credit cards and change your passwords. He knows where you live. (it is a small town everyone knows where everyone lives, except me) Next, he was going to show us how to make pizzas. (he had 7 videos on how to cook) Then he was going to show us his house. A western style house that was designed by him. We saw his 4 baby puppies. I couldn't go into that room because the odor had paralyzed me and my senses. I stayed in the hallway until I could breath regular air. The puppies were cute, but lets get back to the pizza.

This man is a jack of all trades: paragliding, woodworking, pizza making, bookmarking the important parts in every book he has, alphabetizing his video tapes. When he handed me the remote to use if I needed to turn up the volume on his paragliding, it was wrapped in plastic wrap. Creepy. The pizzas were delish and I ate 75% of the strawberries.

All in all a good day and to top it off an onsen!

recognize these pants?

This is the view from Daisen. Yes that is the ocen in the back. I am ontop of a volcano. I ventured up to Daisen with Rachel for the three hour drive and stay there for 2 days. Just a little small, but better than nothing. We saw many people pulling out the steeze. They could throw down in park. Just to let you know that in order to get a job as a lift operator, you have to be at least 50 or have a really annoying voice saying Dozo (please go). That night I got conned into drinking sake with a school trips leaders. We chatted about nothing really, but I am sure Rachel got an ear full since she knows the language.

The next morning after shots and shots of sake, I thought someone's alarm was going off and no one was going to push snooze. 7:15 in the morning. I woke up a little and realized that we were so close to the lifts, that the buzzer allowing people to go forward was making me lose precious sleep. So I rolled out of bed and wen to use the co-ed toilet. I knew it was co-ed because there was pee all over the seat only from a boy or man. (Oh wait I did pee on the seat because my butt cheeks got such a shock at the schools cold toilet) We had the traditional Japanese breakfast with fish and other stuff and egg with runny stuff from it that wasn't egg. I ate lots of plain rice. Out to the hill to do a bit of riding. Little icy since it is way above freezing during the day and the brown spots start showing up at 10AM. Three hours back down to the Yosh and off to sleep like a princess.

Not recontracting

So, I handed in my letter to my supervisor saying that I would not be coming back. I asked her how she was doing....... she gave me the dog, head-tilt. I knew this was exactly part of the reason why I am not staying. I remember the first thing I learned in Spanish was Como estas? Bien, gracias. Y tu. Come on, if are a supervisor for and English speaking person, wouldn't you think she should be able to say "I am good/fine, thank you and you?" I gave up and tried to work through sign language. I am better at that.

So what I teach the elementary students everytime is "How are you?" Hopefully it will become routine and they will remember that. Probably not because they are Japanese. It is just frustrating when they can't do the simpliest of conversation. In the one month I was here, that is what I learned. They have had English since they were 12 plus the infrequent visits to the elementary. Enough venting, but then I get to my sunflower class today and everything is good. Good morning Naohito. Good morning Mrs. Takata. Good morning Naohito. Good morning ms. BRRRRRITT. That just makes you smile. Also I am having one of my classes ask me questions on worksheets. This is a first. They have confidence to talk to me and use English. Since I play dumb in class and act like I can't speak Japanese. Which I can't, but I can understand a little.
I love it when some teachers make all of the time in the world for you and others when you ask how their weekends were, they look at the clock like I am taking up their precious 10 seconds.
Oh and now I can say I HATE POSTOFFICES. I have not made enemies anymore, but I just don't understand anything they give me and neither do my teachers of ENGLISH.
Just to give you a visual. If the postoffice were to have a spark, all of their documents would be gone. Same with the bank. I have never seen so many little books tied together with yarn holding the most insignificant stamp or piece of information possible. In my bank at home, everything is on computers and makes for an asthetically pleasing sight.
Thanks to my office girl who is my personal secretary and checking all possible companies for flights. Once again my little workers. The only thing you need to do is stay on their good side.

Nagano finally up, but to lazy to write about it

The view from the top of Shiga Kogen in Nagano.


Recognize these pants?

Do I have my make-up on straight?

The Jigokudani Monkey Park.

I think he found a friend.

My summary of Nagano. I hate riding by myself. The place I stayed at had a young puppy tied up all day and didn't let it out to go to the bathroom. It smelled of urine. No one worked on snowboards. No place to get a beer afterwards. If there was, I didn't find it. I was trying hard.

It just isn't fun when you ride for 3 days by yourself. It was better than staying at home though, but I won't be back.

Mingle Mingle MIN-GLE

Tonight I went to my English conversation class. I have secret little workers everywhere. I bought these already made packets of cake mix at the dollar store. So one of my teachers at my elementary was my little worker. She translated all of my cake mix directions. Explained to me saying "mingle" the sugar, egg, and cake mix. Then "mingle" the oil and water together. "mingle" it good.

Yes there is cake to be made.

the coolest taxi driver

I have postponed updating on Nagano and the monkey park. First is the coolest taxi driver. This guy bought an English conversation book and asks me everytime he picks me up if I slept well, and if I had a Japanese or American breakfast. This is the same guy that hummed the Star Spangled Banner to me. Today he asked me what my favorite food was. I said pizza and I asked him what HIS favorite food was. He starts giggling and wouldn't stop. So I tried again. He ignores me. I don't think he retained anything in the book. I asked him in Japanese and didn't miss a minute and answers sushi. I know he heard me. This afternoon he picked me up (I am on a rotation of drivers and never have the same one), we sang the whole Star Spangled Banner, chatted about how the Japanese alphabet and normal alphabet differ. I taught him to slur the L M N O together like little kids. He caught on real quick, but we had to stop at P because it was difficult for him. I will keep practicing with him. Practice makes perfect. We speak in broken languages with my dictionary in hand. "menu tonight" I say rice, beef, carrots. We established that I was going to fry them up to fried rice. Also thanks, thank you, thank you very much. Good-bye and see you. Man what an English lesson for a short ride. Packed full of Britt goodness. Just like him, I forgot what I looked up in the dictionary.

The parents from OKC to Kyoto!

Dec 29th on.... We woke up to snow outside. We got ready and went down to Okayama to visit the gardens, castle and do a little shopping. We first went to the gardens only after mom warmed up in every hut along the way. It was chilly outside, and I think she had more clothes on than me. Look at these two love birds in one of the top three gardens in Japan. There were still flowers blooming in the cold. I wish I could read to know the name and see if they exist in Iowa.

A cool like bridge in the gardens.
We found out that mom cannot keep her eyes open in any of the pictures. We tried to get her to look the other way and it still didn't work.
Mom with the Okayama castle. Pretty tall from this angle.

I introduced them to the 100 yen store. I thought mom would have gone crazy, but she was tame.

My snowmand, me and my dad outside my house. Yes, I did a recylcing project and made him one of my many free nights before Christmas.

We got home that night and had yakiniku on my little grill. We packed up all of the good and mom and dad passed out like good little travellers.
Dec 30th. We woke up to have coffee with Naomi at her house and her friend Setsuko. We got lunch included. They drove us down to the train station. I don't know who liked riding the shinkansen more, them or me. I think it was ME! We arrived at the station under an hour. We hopped one the sightseeing bus to get to the hotel. That was a mistake since it was sooo sooo full, but to our luck most got off 3 bus stops before ours. Thank goodness or we would have had to take out some Japanese with all of the luggage. I can see it now. "Three tourists crush patrons trying to get off a sightseeing bus with too much luggage." We checked in and had a few hours before the sun was to go down. We were off to see Nanzen-ji. The best thing about that was the aquaduct. By the time we got done awing that, the temple was closed. That was alright because we walked around the grounds which were free.

Mom and dad under the enterance I think. A tall enterance.

Dec 31st we woke up to a sicky dad. We left him rest since he didn't get much sleep. Mom and I ventured out and found that things were closed at 9AM in the morning. So we went for really expensive filter coffee, chatted, and warmed up a bit. Unfortunately we didn't have our coffee here at the white lover. But you can find that smiling white lover in Iowa.

We found this little shrine thing when we took a "detour" to the shopping street. We paid to write our wish on a piece of paper and glue it to this mushroom thing. We saw some people before us crawl through the hole, so what did my mom do, she crawled through it, too.

We ventured into the shopping district and got my mom some material so she can sew some Japanese things with it. We checked out Nishiki fish market, which was packed with people from all angles. We went back to check on Dad. He told us to keep on shopping and sightseeing. So we went to Sanjusangendo. It was the coolest sightseeing place I have seen so far. It was amazing to see the 1001 Buddha diety statues. We couldn't take pictures in the building, so I got these off the internet. The pictures don't do it justice. You have to see it for yourself. I don't know why it is my favorite spot for temples and shrines and such.

For the New Years Eve celebration, it was told to us by our waiter to go to the Chioin-in at 8:40 to get in line to see the biggest bell in Japan. They start ringing it at 10:40. They ring it 108 times for all of the sins you accumulate over the year. We met up with some other English teachers that were very loud and could tell they were American from along ways away. We chatted and decided we were cold and tried to go back down to the warming hut and was told we had to use the exit and could not get back in even though we were only 20 feet from the bell. So climbing our way down the hill we thought we could sneak back into the area where the warming hut was and was told again we had to exit, as if there were an admission taken. We trodded our way down like little kids getting their hands slapped in the candy dish. We warmed up in a souveneir shop and by the time we got back out there to try and climb up the steep steep stairs to the bell again, the wind and air was sooo cold we scooted back to the hotel for an onsen. (scooted, not a walk and not a run, a japanese scoot). My mom is addicted to onsen. Too bad they aren't in the US. Oh we were in bed by 11:30 on New Years Eve.

The giant bell!

Jan 1st! Happy Birthday to me. I woke up with a migraine, maybe the gods from above were punishing me for being older. We got around to the Silver temple, (Ginkakuji) and then the Golden Temple (Kinkakuji). The silver temple does not have any silver on it, but it did make up with wonderful gardens. I don't know if I would have enough patience to rake the sand into the perfection.

Not a very picturesque temple, but it will do.

I wonder if hellions break in at night and tromp through it. I would laugh to see the monks faces when they see footsteps in their gardens.

Jan 2nd, We woke up to hurry down to Kiomizudera to see the last of the the sights of Kyoto. We didn't have anymore time.

We hurried back to our taxis we ordered. I got in my taxi and mom and dad got in theirs. We had too much stuff. My snowboard bag and all of their bags. We started off early just incase we got into traffic, which we did. Mom was freaking out and it was a good things I planned for it. We took the express train to the airport. We arrived at Kansai Airport with time to spare. We said our goodbyes, cried a few tears, and said we will see each other in August. But if they want to come back, they can. And if anyone else wants to venture over this way, do so!

The arrival of the parents

I recall a few months before my mom and dad saying they could find their way to Okayama, and I would pick them up there. HAHA. I picked them up at the airport since this was my mom's first time out of the country properly besides Canada. We lugged the bags to the shinkansen, but dad had to use the toilet. He didn't feel like aiming into a hole in the ground so he held it.

We took the unreserved seats and all sat apart from each other for the 45 minute ride to the OKC. It felt like we were the only ones with bags.

Once arriving in Okayama, we strategically placed the luggage into my tiny tiny car and put my mom underneath it in the back seat. She fell asleep on the way home.

The house was mighty cold and a welcoming experience for them. I got the heat on in my tatami room so we all could sleep nice and warm.

The next morning was like Christmas. I got great goodies from everyone along with some warm clothes and a blanket my mom had sewn.

The only thing I had planned for them that day was to make soba. They learned a few words like arrigato. I think i gave them 5 words to practice and it was 4 too many. After that we toodled around my area and walked to a waterfall. It is a little creepy since the sun doesn't get back there, so what did I do, I brought my parents. They enjoyed it I think.
Mom and Dad comparing noodle sizes.

Mom and Dad at the waterfall.

That night my neighbors invited us over for suki yaki.

The next day we went to a couple of my schools and had a tea ceremony, learned caligraphy, and my dad found out how much of a giant he was. Mom got to see what kindergarten classes look like over here.

Working hard

Kindergarten room and tea ceremony goers.

Giants!

The nurses room for the sickies. The Kyoto got a kick out of us.

a little catch up

The last time I wrote I was lazy. I went to my first mixed onsen in the northern part of Okayama. I ventured up there with Barbie and Jon. It was a good thing we brought a boy along because the changing room was just out in the open. I mean open as the men in the onsen can watch you undress walk all the way in too. A little uncomfortable until you wave and their heads turn. We were ready to get out when Barbie overheard some punks were leaving too but saw our leaving and said "wait, this is going to be good. lets just wait here until they get out" Of course it was all in Japanese. We got out and they had the nerve to stand up to so they could watch our very moves. It was a cold one. They came back to my house for a sleepover and some movies.

So the 24th was spent doing a little last minutes shopping after I dropped Jon and Barbie off. Back home I was Santa's little helper finishing up wrapping and making my paper doll mobile for my niece.
The 25th Merry Christmas to me. I now officially wore my coat today. I spent Christmas dinner with some friends at Suzette's house. She cooked a lovely meal and I tried my first piece of real fish. It was sashimi salmon. I did it! Wasn't too bad. It will be a while before I try it again. I played some UNO with Bethany, her sister, Suzette, her boyfriend, Marshall, and another one of Suzette's friend. It was nice to not spend Christmas alone. The best conversation of the night was how Marshall is going to name his kids "Fight me in the park" and another name I forget. Just like I am going to name my Great Dane Princess and my Chihuahua with wheels for legs Chainsaw.
Until tomorrow when I don't have class and I will slowly put up more about my mom and dad's adventures of Japan.