the life of a wild woman

Goodbye Japan.... Hello world

2007-08-06T12:46:00.000+09:00

Here comes Britt! My friend Amy and I are off on the trans mongolian railroad. So I left on a boat from Osaka to go to Shanghai and walked for an hour and 45 minutes to the train station. We found it but didn't have our tickets. Another adventure. Got on the train and are now in the internet cafe of the hostel in Beijing. Tomorrow early morning we are off to Mongolia. We will try to stay there as long as possible. So that is about it right now. The humidity is still the same and i can't escape it!

Hot and moldy

2007-07-23T01:54:00.000+09:00

Just to let you know that the humidity is awful and so is the mold in my tatami mats. I tried everything to curtail it, but it is sure a sneaky thing.

Kyoto in a whirlwind

2007-07-19T09:15:00.000+09:00

Kyoto for the last time! Trying to fit everything in before I get back home! Ginkakuji, Kinkakuji, Arashiyama, Sagano bamboo forest, torii gates, and Kodai-ji. whoa

Ginkakuji the silver temple. Even though it is not silver. They had hopes for putting some silver on it.

Don't wear white pants on a rainy day. Idiot Britt!

Packed train to Kyoto. We secretly got there on 540 yen and got back on 120 yen. Score for us!

Rainy rainy day!

At Kodai-ji

Train station with the ladies!

Drinking some beers!

My artistic photo of the bamboo forest!

More bamboo

taking a break

Torii gates 4km of them I think.

a farewell

2007-07-13T12:48:00.000+09:00

At my main school, they had a ceremony for me with lots of flowers and gifts which surprised the hell outta me. I really didn't do much there except type away on the internet. The Kocho sensei even spoke in English for me. I was floored. The students gave a speech about how tall I was and how cool I was. I don't think there will ever be a girl as tall as me in this school. I secretly hope all of my students will compare the next teachers with me and say I was way cooler.

Last night at my final adult English class, we had sushi and drinks and talked about what we wanted to do in the next 6 to 12 months. A guy that looks like a Japanese Yoda hoped that he would not die. I secretly let out a chuckle. Many talked about speaking English more. They were curious what Rachel and I would be doing when we got back. They still can't believe how much we travel. I guess that is what you get if you don't take your holiday. (I took more than I was given but someone can't add.)

The typhoon is around the Japan area and is pouring on me. My clothes will never get dry and mold is setting in everywhere. AHHHHHH good thing I am not allergic to it.

steamy hot

2007-07-09T14:53:00.001+09:00

That is the definition of humid in Japan: steamy hot. Well now that is so humid in my house and everywhere I go, I have developed a case of mold on my tatami mats. I would just like to clarify that it was under my bed that doesn't touch the floor. So tonight, I am going to have to move everything around and clean the green stuff up.

I went to a beach party in Tottori (north of Okayama on the ocean). I managed to stay up later than 10PM. I got some sun and swam in the water. It was a lovely time, but I really didn't pay attention to the music. I lit ONE firework (singular) for the pyro side of me. It was small but was pretty in the sky. It was definately hard to keep the sand from somehow becoming your new make-up.

I have said some of my goodbyes to my schools and each grade has made me a book or something so I can remember them by. I got totally decked out in paper jewellry by my 2nd graders. I had 15 bracelets, a crown, belt, and necklace. (they told me that they knew I liked jewellry) The belt even had rubberbands on it to make it different sizes, but what they didn:t know what my bum is quite larger than normal Japanese bums. I broke the belt but nothing that tape can't fix. Now I am just figuring out if I can skip my other days when I am not teaching.

avoiding confrontations

2007-07-02T12:05:00.000+09:00

I think my one school avoids all confrontations with me at all cost. I will walk from the bus stop and they will cross the street so they don't have to say "HI" to me and risk having a conversation with me. They sit in their car longer so they don't have to run into me while we change our shoes. Today I witnessed another. No one even comes into the "kitchen area" while I am in there. They should know now that I am not going to talk to them and make them look like a fool. I don't know their names because they avoid me like the plague. So I am just going to try to sneak out and see if they notice me. I think they will because they will have free range of the teachers room, the parking lot, the shoe lockers, and their town.

I think they forget that I am not a vampire and I don't bite. The kids at this school still jump when they see me. Yes, I HAVE been here all school year and no my height hasn't changed.

Kobe on 500 round trip!

2007-06-18T18:01:00.001+09:00

I folded myself inside this dinosaur thingy.

Some of the random things I saw in the mall. I was quite intrigued by this and so will you, Mom. It is made of buttons and mirrors. Inspiration- I think so.

Sarah and I riding a camel. It went negative 2 on the scale of fastness.

Yabadabado

2007-06-11T14:31:00.000+09:00

So a little catch up..... I met up with some teachers for some happy hour drinks that turned into a full meal that turned into getting home around 11PM. I loved it. I was only planning for a few beers, but got some great conversation with some of my neighbor teachers. Well the conversation was very broken English and a toddlers level of Japanese. I then cruised to Bernie's Bday bash and had great tasting steaks. I could have eaten all of them. We all hung out in the sun having a few beers and chatting with friends. Very good weekend if we remember to pack a futon to sleep on (rocks aren't that comfortable) and beer stealers aren't cool.

As for the next weekend, I made it over to Ana and Rene's for some deliciousness. Rene cooked us up some great thai food. I was so stuffed, then we went for a little bowl. Who came in 2nd? Yeah that was me, and almost beat the semi-pro bowler Lash. It's okay that the Japanese bowl-o-rama is a little different than England. Then Rene cooked us up some more Thai food after we finished and then played some cards until I was sooo sleepy that I aparently was talking to myself. And for breakfast...... more Thai. What a great night. Then on Saturday night we all headed over to Vasco's for a little okonomiyaki (pancake veggie delight) and then a little singing until 3 PM. We got to stay at Kevin's and he made us breakfast too. Later that Sunday afternoon Pirates of the Carribean 3. Another great weekend!!!

I have been a busy bee with some of my teachers. I went to a friend's house (student from my adult English class) and had a lovely dinner with pizza, spicey weiners, chicken wings, and lots of good fruit. We managed to chat and eat until around 10PM.

This weekend I had an enkai with one of my schools. This was the best because most of the teachers talked to me and I had soo much yakiniku I was stuffed. I sat with the art teacher, science teacher, Japanese teacher and home ec teacher. The science teacher told me he had a crush on me. My English teacher came over to me and said she was proud of me talking with the other teachers. Later that night we went for a little karaoke and it was there that the science teacher told me he had a crush on me. I will watch out next time when I am at his school.
And on Saturday we went to our Sayonara Party in Kumenan. It was a huge, I mean HUGE, samarai house full of tatami rooms and places to sleep and all night drinks.

Oh in the meantime I have been an all-star baseball player with my elementary schools and persuaded my lunch table to eat the kiwi whole with the peel and all. They did and then everyone followed suit. Haha look at what I am doing to the small town. No I don't wear panty hose or ever will.

Maybe I will get some pictures put up if I have enough time on the internet.

Shikoku travels

2007-05-21T14:34:00.000+09:00

The last few weeks. During Golden Week, Shikoku called my name again. I traveled with Lash all over the eastern part of Shikoku. We visited some temples along the way and even got escorted to 2 camping sites. Japanese people are way too nice. If I was walking on the street alone at night and a car pulled me over, firstly, I would not go up to the car, secondly if I did, I wouldn't offer to drive them to the camp site. Yes, we followed a lady who drove us to the campsite herself after she asked for directions (she didn't even know where it was).

We saw some awesome whirlpools, but I couldn't wait for 3 hours to see them form, so we only saw them form a little and then we were off to our next campsite. We saw it on the map and tried to follow it around. Some of these places are soo far off the beaten path, that grocery shopping would be a monthly feat. We found it after the help and escort of another family. We then moved on to some of the mightiest waves I have ever seen. (that isn't much since I really started seeing the ocean about 2 years ago.) One minute it was splash crash and the next was BRITT RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. I looked up and saw this wave going to come crashing down if i didn't move fast. We laugh now, but my heart was in my throat.

I am in love with waterfalls. I can say this was the best hike for waterfalls. I hike 20 minutes and see twin waterfalls, hike 5 minutes see another 15 minutes and see another. Total of 7 in an hours hike. Not bad at all. The water was too cold to go swimming in this one.

Off to Iya valley where it is one of three hidden treasures of Japan. Everything is one of three over here. Looking at a map, we thought we could be there by the afternoon or even beat our friends to the camp ground. We thought 130 km would take us about 3 or so hours. Nope not even close. 6 hours later we arrive at the campsite. maybe 7 hours. i don't remember. I only had to reverse 4 times and thankfully I have the smallest car in Japan. Oh and we weren't lost either. Averaging about 20 km/h was spectacular (in the most sarcastic tone ever). We did see a cool vine bridge along the way that wasn't packed with Japanese. Once we got in the town of our campground (only popular because of another vine bridge), we set up camp. The admission cost to the bridge was 500 yen. Considering that we could see it from the road and Japanese people packed in like sardines turned us off from walking acrossed it.

I have come to find out in the traveling world, if there are Japanese tourists there, you didn't travel far enough. Travel off the beaten path and you can see some amazing sites (waterfalls and the other vine bridge both with limited number of people).

Formula 1 practice

2007-04-27T12:33:00.000+09:00

So today the bus driver must have watched a rerun of the Formula 1 last night. He was rounding corners on 2 wheels with 17 kids, a grandma, and me on board. But I think I need to teach him how to shift smoothly. He turns up the heat everytime I'm on so he can see me take my layers off.

Do I dress for the arctic cold school (yes it is still cold in April) or the beach party on the bus?

Since I am the first stop and a foreigner, the bus drivers think they can leave the hat out of the uniform but when he sees a Japanese then he quickly fumbles for it. I thought maybe they all forget everyday, but NO when I am going home and am the last stop, after the last Japanese gets off so does the hat.

Should I grab it or should I leave it?

2007-04-24T18:07:00.000+09:00

Since I have been pretty bad about this blogging thing, I am going to make up for it this week. The story goes like this. I went to a rugby tourney last weekend. I was going to be the team mom and got roped into playing. My endurance is not good at all anymore so I managed about a minute and then subbed out. It is pretty fast paced and lots of starts and stops. That is my defense. We got 2nd in the middle bracket. So that meant some towels. yippeeee.

This weekend I didn't do much but lay in the sun with Bernie and Jon on Friday afternoon. Then off to Sarah and Boone's for some Pizza King and movies. Always good when you can "borrow" Anchorman. I am secretly not going to give it back. Got up the next morning to go to calligraphy. My hand was not steady and should have been put back on the lesson of straight lines. For the life of me I could not do anything right. Maybe I was concentrating too hard. Sometimes that happens.

Saturday afternoon I met up with Sarah, Boone, and Bernie again for some dessert and then met up with Crazy Amy from Indonesia and we shopped at the 100 yen store and back to my place for some Yakiniku (bbq). My house still smells of the smoke on TUESDAY! Note to self, don't cook portions for 8 people on a mini grill for 2.

On Sunday I dropped Amy off at the train station in the pouring rain and decided to get some groceries. I went to use the toilet. I stepped in the bathroom and analyzed the situation. 2 squatty toilets. hmmmm Is the floor wet from the rain or did a lady miss the target. I rolled my pants up and set my wallet down on the ledge. As I get up and grab my wallet, money falls to the floor. I look down and see 2 coins. Should I grab them? Should I grab the one that is worth more? Should I leave it?

That toilet experience cost me 60 yen. If it was a 100 yen I might have grabbed it. I called Amy to tell her. She said, "Britt I know we are trying to save money but that was the best decision. I am proud of you for walking away from it."

where the muscles are

2007-04-23T18:46:00.000+09:00

So I found where all of the muscles have been hiding. In mens aerobic competitions. I turned on my TV trying to get to the station where my DVD player works and halted when I became terribly fascinated with the international aerobic competition. Mens competition I might add. I did not see a bulge in anyone's pants and there were too many jazz hands and spirit to be men. I think all of them were born girls. Even an Aussie man with a little extra around the middle was way too jazzy in sporting his cheesy smile. As I write this, I am still on the same channel in awe.

A few words.......

2007-04-16T19:25:00.000+09:00

A little more beach before I had to go home--- not home, back to Japan to the two pairs of pants and heaters and no smiles.

If you pay 2000 then EVERYONE will know what you just did in the the toilet.

A temple that I forgot the name of, but was pretty neat.

If you need to wash your clothes, call this lady.

Some superb views.

Our bird houses I mean bungalow.

This was our bungalow that we stayed in for a night. We were too scared to do anything by ourselves. So Amy brought a bucket upstairs in case she felt the need to "go" in the middle of the night.

Swimming in the waterfall in Lombok. Our driver is around there somewhere in his yellow undies. Am I naked?? you will never know.

Was I scared of potential snakes. Yes.

Amy and I on a trek through the rice fields.

Some random rice fields.

I got suckered into some cooking utensils by these little women hording our car.
Day 5

Eating some fruit with our driver Nyoman. I will say NO to durians, Yes to snake fruit and this other kind of fruit that is red on the outside and white deliciousness on the inside.

I found the longest bench on the ferry.

Some snorkeling after some dolphin watching and my stomach is red because of....
Me hurling myself back onto the boat.

Relaxing after eating delicious dessert. Yes we did pass out there for about 2 hours.

My wonderful rice dinner inside of a mini pineapple.

Just some kids playing as the sun goes down.

A hard days work on the beach selling his loot to me and me refusing with all of my might.

This only took 15 minutes to perfect.

Indonesia

2007-04-09T10:14:00.000+09:00

Day One: Survived a flight and Amy touched an arm
Summary: Amy and I got a room at Rita's House with a nice little set up, cold water, and an alright location to some restaurants and shops. That night after some Mexican in our bellies we fell asleep. First our beds were apart until in the middle of the night Amy woke up hysterically screaming that she touched someones arm. She jumped on top of me in the pitch black. And we all know that I am scared of the dark and wasn't going to allllllll the way to the door to turn it on. Come to find out, her arm was asleep and she touched it. She moved the beds and this is how it ended up. The rest of the trip we slept either in the same bed or pushed them together.

Day 2: A tourist ripped of on a ferry ride and supported a poor boys education with $3.
Summary: Got up early and went to Pandangbai to catch a ferry to the island next to Bali called Lombok. The driver took us straight to the "ticket office". We paid 200,000 for a ticket and a ride to our first city (equivalent to $20). The ticket is 27,000 ($2.70). Our first mistake. I read in the book something close to that price, but was off a zero. A big zero. Whoops. The ferry was packed full of trucks, motorbikes, and only one safety boat for all of the passengers. I blew up my inflatable pillow just in case because we all know if they didn't have boats, they weren't going to have life jackets for all of us. We did get to the city of Sengigi and bought an overpriced boat from a boy off the street. All of that money was put to good use I hope. This was used for his schooling he told me in perfect English from a 10 year old, poor Indonesian. Unlike my Japanese students who have the education and can't answer, how are you.... The boy asked where I was from, I said the United States. So I asked him where he was from..... He said his mother.

The overloaded trucks packing into our old ferry.

Another ferry waiting to dock.

The view from the ferry of Lombok

Day 3: First River Crossing and witnessed extreme fishing
Summary: We woke up to see a temple. We walked along the beach and climbed over some rocks and decided to keep walking until we found this temple that actually couldn't be reached by the beach. It was soo close only a dirty river. We were assisted by some of the workers who tromped right through the river over to grab our hands and lead us back. Once inside the temple we witnessed some extreme fishing. Then we passed out at Cafe Alberto's in the sun. Ended up walking through town and watched the sun set while trying not to buy anything from the beach hagglers. That night we played dominos with boys who sold us the boat. We shared Oreos and stories of the politics of Indonesia.

The beach stalls full of food and souvenirs.

Our domino playing boys

Day 4: Markets, mountains, monkeys, and Amy uses a bucket to pee.
Summary: We started the day early with our driver named Dingdong. I loved it but then I couldn't call Amy a ding dong. We climbed a mountain for a temple and got a lovely view. Checked out some markets that sell everything. It was definitely a locals market because the rip off name brands weren't there. They were sure persistent on me buying meat from them. Let me whip out my portable grill and cook some up for all of you. Dingdong took us to some pottery place that i wanted to go to. Yes I bought some heavy stuff and had to lug it around the rest of the trip. They used egg shells to decorate it. Then off to a weaving community. Some of the things they were weaving took a month to make working full-time-job-hours. I bought it for about $35 dollars. We found our way to the south and walked along the beach and witnessed some extreme fishing. (Don't worry mom he wore a helmet just in case he slipped.) We trekked back up to the mountains to a town called Tetebatu. We got a nice little bungalow and slept in the top of it. The bungalow made of thatch had holes in it for the thatch to breath. Amy covered them up so bugs wouldn't eat her. But she was terrified that the toilet was soo far away that she brought a bucket up next to her side of the bed for the midnight run.

The temple view. On the hike up, we encountered monkeys in every direction.

The markets of everything

Extreme fishing

I got attacked by the boys and Amy got attacked by the girls.

A cute little lady from the weaving village. She told us we were beautiful.

That's what you get for tonight because it took me too long and i am out of creative juices.

I forgot this was on my camera

2007-03-22T23:03:00.000+09:00

what is up with this weather

2007-03-15T21:50:00.000+09:00

this weather is awful (i am back to my hat at night) and so does getting up at 630 everyday this week because the schedule falls on all the schools that require me to go by bus. i made a quiche this week, joined a cooking class, and found out i am really good at laminating.

from the japanese ladies

2007-03-12T20:36:00.000+09:00

So this weekend I visited a teacher for lunch and then drove on the expressway for the first time. I hightailed it to Bernies to make some pottery with some of her ladies from English class. I first arrived to find this lady telling us a story of how the gallery got robbed and her husband was not happy. Not happy because it wasn't his things that were stolen. The husband said that the thief was not smart. She continued to talk in English phrases that were putting me in awe. She knew what they meant and how to use them appropriately along with a little humour. I haven't met a Japanese person that knew how to joke properly.

I continued to make my dish and then we were off to eat with her (Midori which means green), her friend, husband, Bernie, Amy, and I. She was so funny throughout the dinner. She had such a dry sense of humour. She once was saying in Japanese - How do I say this in English. Her husband who hasn't spoken a word of English yet because she said he doesn't know it. He came up with "resistance" of all the words he knew, he knows resistance.

She even used the term woopsy daisy, tipsy, drunk, some other puns. I asked her if she wanted more wine, and she said yes, "I am not tipsy." and then she cheers'ed me and said "lets get drunk" She got off on talking about a sparetire. And again she used it correctly in the terms of having a thick waist. She said hers was a sparetire from a dump truck and her friends is a spare tire from a bicycle.

This morning I got an email Bernie forwarded to me from Midori saying that "I hid the chocolate that you brought so the gangsters next door wouldn't eat it." The gangsters are her grandchildren.
What ever will she come up with next. We taught her "you crack me up", "you rule", "you're my hero", and muffin top (just like sparetire).
I can't wait to have dinner with her again. My stomach will get another work out. Oh and next time she says we are staying at her house so we can drink.

I have become a slacker

2007-03-09T22:18:00.000+09:00

Well not really a slacker, just a lack of interesting things. The other day I broke up a fight at school. I won. Little did you know it was between munchkin 7 year olds. I couldn't understand them, but they were so mad at one another. I learned how to play a backwards game of dodgeball at recess.

I also found out that some of my junior high kids have the English ability of my 7 year olds.
Britt: How are you?
Student: how are you?
Britt: How are you? (slower)
Student: (whispering to themself how are you) Yes
Britt: No, How are you...... I'm.........

Do I care? It makes me think of why I am here. But then again not everyone has to enjoy English, but should at least know how to say How are you..... I am fine, if they don't know anything else.

Oh, another elementary girl asked me a question about my big rings, and I couldn't understand anything, but I knew it was a yes or no question. I said yes and got a big giggle and all of the girls know now. Oh wait this happens everyday. I probably have all of these rumors started that I can't defend.

It got cold again this week and I saw snowflakes in the sky and kids marathon running in tshirts and shorts. Marathon running is just running- not practicing for any marathon.

Hives

2007-03-04T19:43:00.000+09:00

So I might not be allergic to running. What I did catch was a case of running around like a fool. I tried to play some touch rugby and got a little sun. Beautiful day to be out and about. On Saturday went into the city for a birthday party and stayed at Bernies place. I am really good at sleeping and if she didn't wake me up, I would have been in a prefecture or two over. I was out like a light. Proof that the party was a success and the beers were plentiful for me. And that was my weekend.

osaka

2007-02-27T19:27:00.000+09:00

This weekend I ventured over to Sarah and Boone's and had dinner with Amy, Richard, and Bernie as well. Great food and Sarah, I need that recipe. Sarah, Boone, and I woke up to catch the train, only to find out it would be awhile. So we drove to the Wake and got the train to Osaka all for a really nice price. I used that savings to buy myself some delicious Mexican food and some margaritas as well. Then checking into our hostel, which was inside the stadium. Then off to get more beer. Some delicious beer I might add. We tried a couple of places that didn't want to be open on a Saturday night. Two beers later and a delicious taste in my mouth. Off to another restaurant to be greeter by the best margaritas in Japan. Might I add they were fresh fruit kiwi and the next one was mixed berry. After that everything was a blur (not really but I was so stunned at the deliciousness of the margaritas that I couldn't think of anything else).

Delicious+ delicious Osaka+ fun company+ cheap trains= DELICIOUSNESS

I am a pro at office equipment

2007-02-22T21:47:00.000+09:00

Not really, but I mastered the copy machine in another language (I can double face them and resize them), I have mastered microsoft word (thank goodness for the same symbols), and I thought I mastered the laminater (I told the office lady how to run it, she just showed me where it was) until I tried to laminate a magnet with it. That did not work at all. It made a gurgling noise and it didn't get the rest of the paper hot enough. Oh did I mention the secretary wanted to make the temperature 120 C (that would be boiling the plastic 100C = 212 F).

Oh and I forgot I got a video on caligraphy still in the wrapper. Tonight was my adult English class and I got some coffee and chocolate from Tokyo. I scored HUGE this week. And a dinner date with another student who is a teacher at the kindergarten next door.

My 6th grade student watch drawing a giraffe and the students were yelling "kirin, kirin, kirin". The girl who was drawing turns to the class and says "English Please". I had a kick ass day! My Kocho sensei was playing a concentration game with animals and they have to close their eyes and remember 4 animals. When I say go, they have to pick up the animal cards that I said. The Kocho sensei says, "ooooo four is tough, I can do three"

I am kind of scatter brained so I hope this all makes sense.

All piled into one day

2007-02-21T20:27:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I had a wonderful day. I hung out with the librarian all day. We chatted about songs and what was going to happen this week. What I really got was:

1. The librarian is going to buy me a book on cool origami (I am paying for it- she is doing the hard work of shopping for it)
2. An English book from the Kyoto sensei (maybe because she couldn't read it and thought I could)
3. A dinner invite from the first grade teacher I interact with the most. (dinner and meeting her daughter who speaks English, too)
4. Candy from the taxi driver. It was only 2 pieces but it was better than nothing.
5. Sweets from a student in my English conversation class (Saw her in the parking lot and she came running with a bag full of goodies)

Great day and I got to sleep into today

taxi drivers

2007-02-15T21:20:00.000+09:00

Why do all of the taxi drivers fart when I am in the car?

I mean if my friends farted, I would open a window. If I ripped one, I would open the window. But how does a paying customer deal with a fart from the driver? Do I open the window? That would embarrass them, or stick through the stench and hide your face in your sweater? I can't stand the putrid smell.

Just a few pictures of the weekend in Shikoku

2007-02-13T20:26:00.000+09:00

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple. I shall sit on the beach all covered up and eat sushi.

And when you go to the market you can buy anything and even used dog.

The castle at Matsuyama with the pretty flower.

Random photo opportunity in Matsuyama. For those of you that don't zoom, I am the second from the right.

The sex museum shrine for fertility. I rubbed it, but no babies until I finish being a vagabond.

In the shrine everything seemed to have a phallic shape, even this guy with his little ribbed hat.

2007-02-13T20:09:00.000+09:00

Walking for hours to get to this mountain top view. I was sweating and then I had to climb these set of stairs with that face.

Sapporo classic beer only found in Hokkaido. Loving every bit of it.

Hokkaido Yuki Matsuri for the cheap folks

2007-02-05T19:32:00.000+09:00

Pictures first, words later. Sorry about that.

Some of the humungus snow sculptures. This one is my favorite.

One all lit up from the inside. I waited and waited for the guy to move, but he was working on something more important than me taking a picture.

The year of the boar. Around the big sculptures, are these little ones. They aren't that tiny though.

A cool tiger. So much detail, they got the hangy ball thing in the back.

A cool sculpture that I don't know the meaning of.

Working on a shark or just a big fish. You decide. They work around the clock to get them done before the big day in three days.

Stitch and scaffolding. We will just have to wait and see.

The before picture of some ice sculptures before the rain comes.

The rain made this guy glisten to make a cool looking picture. No alterations here.

In the process of melting from the rain.

Climbing up to the top of the mountain (in a gondola) and going into the Bar The Ice. Yes that is the name of the bar and this is me in it.

The snowcats bringing us to the gondola with a sleigh in the back. Watch out this one bucks.

Top of Mt Moiwa. Sapparo froom above.

The TV tower in Sapparo. We went to the top and had a great view. But what is the difference in views from city to city. They are all starting to look the same. Got this marked off the list.

I mingled my cake

2007-02-01T19:30:00.000+09:00

1 chiffon cake comin atchya. I successfully mingled my egg whites and then mingled it all together. My neighbor girl helped me. She told me that chiffon cakes weren't supposed to be in square pans. Well ladies and gentlemen, we have a square chiffon cake and it is DELICIOUS.

As for everything else, I took the smoothest ride to my school today. I guess that's all he does and he better be good at it. I looked out my window today to see who the driver is..... Mr. Dopey. Quite frankly maybe one of the ugliest guys I have seen. He doesn't make conversation and his hands have never seen a day of real work.

When I got home, I thought I would shower myself why my house wasn't freezing. When I was a kid, I always had a belly button that was even, not in, and heaven for bid i have an outie. Maybe because I was skinnin bones and could eat a horse. As you grow older I think everyone gets and innie. Today I got my first belly button lint.

my pizza party

2007-01-29T21:04:00.000+09:00

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?

2007-01-29T20:53:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-24T21:03:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-22T20:00:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-18T22:26:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-17T19:46:00.000+09:00

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!

2007-01-14T16:49:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-10T20:24:00.000+09:00

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

2007-01-09T21:40:00.000+09:00

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.

for those faithful readers

2006-12-29T21:40:00.000+09:00

My mom and dad have been here so I will have to write later. Tomorrow we are off to Kyoto for New years and my birthday. After that I am off to Nagano to do a little snowboarding. So I won't be on here until after the 8th of January, unless I find internet at my hostel.

Hope you had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

random thoughts

2006-12-24T19:30:00.000+09:00

After some contemplating on what to do with my life. The only one that would be up at this time was Maree. She wasn't even up at first. Don't think I didn't try more people, they were smart and were sleeping. So I told Maree my thoughts on what I might want to do. It was really only 2. She said "No Britt how are you going to save the world". That just reentered my mind a second ago and thought I would write that. I am going to save the world, but I have too many possibilities and could do it in many different ways. The question is, will some company hire a girl who can't work all year around to save a world for a full time job? If anyone knows of employing a motivated girl to save the planet from environmental problems, please tell them I am a good candidate, but if I work my brain to the bone, I could loose sight of what I am working for.
Don't worry mom and dad, this job will pay. (I hope)

I will tell you about my weekend when I get pictures. Idiot Britt forgot her camera. It is a good one!

Cooking with the 7th graders

2006-12-20T18:55:00.000+09:00

What is there something in my beard? No Santa try your moustache.... The kids came in screaming wonderho. Hmmm could that mean wonderful! They were so proud. As I walked out the door to take my recycling to its place, the taxi was already waiting. So what did I do? I brought it with me along with all of my baking supplies, shoes, school bag, purse, and bag of bowls and pans. I was a mess. Then at school I figured out that I forgot the list of who won the semester contest with the most points. Idiot Britt.

I first see my desk as Milton does in Officespace. More and more stuff on it, and I thought I was going to get moved into the copy room. I have a computer sitting there, books and librarian stuff. I just slide it out of the way. Come to find out about 20 minutes later that I can use the computer. Maybe they are being really nice so I don't have to use the smoking room for my computing or they want to monitor what I am looking up.

I have cooking with the 7th graders at 2nd period. I go to the cooking room and put everything in bowls before they arrive and find the Japanese words on them. I was trying to encourage as much English as I could. They were not to speak Japanese today. Instead I got lots of grunts and ehhhHHHhhhhh. We tried to make pecan sandies. The class of only 9 was great and meant more cookies for me. I put the dough in the fridge to cool.

Off to 9th grade class where they are working on travel guides. I find one of my favorite students, Yousuke, had written "Because I am delicious, the Yuubari melon is famous." I cracked up out loud.

Back to the cooking class. Takata sensei and I went to go and preheat the ovens. We tried with the main one- found out it didn't work. So she starts pulling these boxes down from ontop of a cupboard. Okay I thought, she knows what she is doing. They were portable oldstyle ovens that go ontop of a gas burner. I went with it because she is the teacher and knows what her school has. The kids walk in and look at the other ovens sitting on top of a counter. We had totally missed those. (The ovens are the size of a big microwave). Okay off to baking. Hurry hurry hurry. We got them done and they smelled delicious. The bell rings and the kids hurry to PE. So all of the cookies are sitting on the tables "cooling". Little did they know- I ate about 4 from each group to taste test. They were good. They came back later to put the finishing touches on them. I asked for more cookies to give to the teachers. Yes I am a suck up. Just getting in good with the right people.

Christmas lights around town! Yay for the spirit.

Slash my new addition. You can call me billy bad ass.

2006-12-17T17:29:00.000+09:00

Riding around town causing some ruckess. Watch out for the SLASH (name of my foldy bike). Gears, folds, lucky.

The giant Christmas tree outside of the Cred building. There's a bigger one in front of the train station, but the lady who took our picture was incompetent. We had to keep trying until we got it semi-right.

The elementary Christmas lesson. Make them run a little to make the next class hell for the teachers. Energy energy energy. So I bought 2 santa suits for the kids to put on and race down the other end of the room and take it off.

Is that santa? No it is one of my first grade students.

The santa suit is meant for a man. You can see here how large the pants are. He is also one of my troublemakers in the class. According to the teacher behind him. He just is a boy with lots of energy.

Some have to be restrained while playing games.

My first grade classroom. They are brushing their teeth after lunch to a video. All kids in school do this now. It is a great idea because I see many black teeth among smiling faces.

Some more of my first graders. The sea of black hair. The uniforms are their PE outfits. They wear little suits and skirts to school, change out of that and right before they go home, change back into their dressy uniforms.

This week was just a plain week. Toodled around in my car and visited a new bar that is owned by a white person. He named the new bar Club Bob Dance Cafe. WHAT? No he is not Japanese. There is NO excuse for a retarded name if you are an English speaker. AHHH. I give it til the summer until a new owner takes over.

I have watched ELF to get into the spirit. Plus I love Will Ferrell. Now I am on Anchorman while making paper dolls today. Gosh I am an exciting soul. I will try harder next week to get a better story. I might have to make it up.

No more school lunch

2006-12-12T20:52:00.000+09:00

I cancelled my school lunch at my junior high school because I sit at my desk with no children interaction. I thought it would be okay to bring in my own or buy it from the bakery next door. Yes more pizza with corn and mayo on it. Yuck. I went to the microwave to heat up my food. I pushed a few. Beep, beep-beep. Nope, try again. Beep, beep, beep. Maybe a different combo. Beep...... beep.. beep. Still no. I turn around to ask the secretary. She had set her chopsticks on her tray with a big smile "need some help?" Ohhh my mistake- red means start not stop. Most countries you want to stay away from red. This time it means hot. Okay I will remember that next time. What is the color to stay away from then? Still got me some learnin to do.

bundled up for the cold

2006-12-11T19:51:00.000+09:00

Not really, but I did have my vest on and a scarf. I went to the taxi man's house/office to get a ride home like I usually do. I banged on the door for the first five minutes and knocked on the window hard when I can see the kids playing video games and 2 dogs going crazy at me knocking. I would have opened the door, but I didn't want my leg bit off. I kept banging away. The lady saw me FINALLY and insisted that I sit inside because it is cold out. No I am warm because I am bundled up. YOU should be inside with your short sleeves. Saying I am fine over 8 times, I had to go inside and cook myself while I wait another 15 minutes for the taxi to come back. So why can't I drive myself like a grown adult? Well they think I will get in an accident. The benefits of me driving: I can sleep in longer and I don't have to wait for a dang taxi to never show up. I could stop along the way and run errands before I go home at a grocery store that is just a smidgen bigger than good ole Party's (the size of my apartment). Neither of them have juice for sale if that tells you how big it is.

I was asking in the office today of someone who does caligraphy around the area. They came up with no one that does it to make a living or as a side job. Who did they find? My Kocho of the elementary. So I am going to pay him in sake. I have seven things for him to make and for him to come up with some kind of Japanese proverb that will be good for a gift. It is going to be a surprise on what I get.

I am going to be the styling kid on the block with a new coat on the way! Now Britt is going to wear pink. Yes I said pink a girls color. I am broadening my horizons. Actually the other colors were even worse than pink.

I spent my weekend playing with little orphans in the city. It was quite fun watching them go crazy. I caught up with lots of different people and chatted with new ones I hadn't before. My 6 year old little girl wanted some red lipstick. What did I get my little hooker in the making? Everything the job needs to look good. Fingernail polish, red lipstick and I didn't hold back on the red, makeup bag, chapstick, and stickers. She is going to rock the town. Everyone will see her coming a mile away with the reddness.

Sorry haven:t written in a while

2006-12-08T11:04:00.000+09:00

So I have found the reason that everyone is sick over here. They don:t have hot water to wash their hands, they don:t blow their noses so they pick them for long extended periods of time and then use the keyboard WHICH I AM USING RIGHT NOW. Don:t worry, I disinfected it. I am normally a healthy person only getting a slight cold when the seasons change. But I will have to work extra hard over here because the booger picking teachers are everywhere. I witnessed my Kyoto sensei pick is nose for a good 15 seconds and then SWITCH fingers.

So my little neighbor girl helps me out and I have named her my own personal secretary. She helped me last night with my kerosene pump. I ran out of kerosene last Sunday. I looked around the house didn:t find a funnel or anything to fill it with. so i cut apart a plastic bottle- didn:t fit, used some paper after consulting my pyrotechnic friends on what i should do about spilt kerosene. The paper leaked out and now I have a gas spill outside my house. SHHHH. I wiped down my kerosene heater and started it up with me and the fire extinguisher right next to it like idiots. There behold the kerosene pump. I found it. After struggling all afternoon.

So I didn:t know it needed batteries good thing my flashlight batteries were the same. (I am deathly scared of the dark). Waaa la. Heat ladies and gentleman.

Oh I have my paper tree up with garland and Christmas balls hanging from my ceiling. Now it is home and I feel alright in it sitting in my 3 shirts and a vest and 2 pants and 2 socks.

so the teacher right next to me has been picking his nose constantly the whole time i have written this. the kicker is he just ATE it. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. This country. Just blow it, will ya?

With the Hiroshima clan

2006-12-04T19:14:00.000+09:00

So this last Friday I made my way over to Fuchu to hang out with Amy, a crazy girl from Miami, NYC, and Spain. She shares my love for yakiniku. We ate 6 plates of meat and one of veggies. Man was it good. We made paper geisha dolls til the wee hours of the morning. Gotta love that for a Friday night.
Saturday we had a mission. We picked up Roo at the train station for a full day of randomness and shopping. You never know with Roo if he is going to slobber on your face or just give you a hello peck on the cheek. I always make sure my cheek is the only thing he can hit. We hit up the 100 yen store. We each went through our shopping to make sure to put back anything we didn't need. Roo got some ear muffs, a neck warmer, some chopsticks, notebooks, a tray he is going to use as a frisbee, a statue of a Miss Porky Pig with her boobs uncovered, all approved by me. But I didn't watch him after that and he snuck up to the register with 6 other statues. No porky pig, but black naked lady, wizard, knights, skeletons, maybe a buddha, and another one I said NO to right away. I approved the lady, the knights because he was soo soo insistant on it. So he told the lady that he didn't need the other ones so she put them behind the counter. I am hanging out by the door ready to go when he tells her he NEEDS the wizard. Why? I don't know. Now he was wearing he earmuffs everywhere.
Next stop, UNIQLO. The Old Navy of Japan but possibly cheaper and way cooler. Once again we spent over an hour in this store approving all purchases. Roo found a coat that made him look like Kenny off of South Park. Amy found some good fleece for China. I got a wool sweater, pajama pants, and more fleece tops. All approved by them.
We shopped until about 8 then made our way to Fukuyama's downtown. First we got changed in the Lawson's bathroom into warmer new clothes. I met some more of their crazy friends and drank at a little pub called Charlies.
As I was buying some spaghetti at the combini, I told some guys that there hair was really bad and looked like the 80s. I mean Nelson brothers are now in Japan, but they turned Japanese, too. Oh well. You win some you lose some. If I did that in the states, they would have pummeled me, but since Japan will do anything not to fight, I thought I could go ahead with it.

Since I am tall

2006-12-01T09:56:00.000+09:00

My favorite part of elementary school days is when the first and second year students finish before the rest. The put their uniforms back on, and run down the hall telling everyone sayonara. Sayonara, sayonara, the door opens to the teachers room, sayonara, oooo burrito sensei- see you, good bye, sayonara. The all come with a little wave too. A little first grader even made her way to my desk and grabbed my hand and said "sank you vedy much" (thank you very much).
The kids usually run off their energy while the rest finish up learning. Yesterday just happens to be the best frisbee weather with a slight wind that can easily provoke that frisbee to the roof. All of the kids come running to the teachers room telling the secretary that the frisbee just happens to be on the roof. They tell the whole story like 7 year olds do. Then I heard my name Burrito sensei blah blah blah takai (tall). They thought I could just reach right up there and get it down for them. I know I am a giant over here but not THAT tall.

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

2006-11-27T20:09:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-26T19:07:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-26T18:43:00.000+09:00

Leaves around Kibichuo.

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

Retard on the bus

2006-11-21T17:33:00.000+09:00

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?

2006-11-20T15:33:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-19T22:25:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-13T21:45:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-12T21:10:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-08T20:32:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-07T21:45:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-05T20:59:00.000+09:00

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

2006-11-01T23:04:00.000+09:00

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.

Volleyball Sundays

2006-10-31T13:20:00.000+09:00

After getting up early to drive to a volleyball tournament in Takahashi, I first had to stop off at one of my junior high schools to check in. That check in that was required of me, let me take the Monday off. Great I worked for a total of 30 seconds, here take the next day off. I watched some of my little girls at Yoshikawa play some volleyball. I walked around with the other parents there cheering on the girls. Come to find out I was quite popular once again by having 2 schools in the tournament. I heard Burrito Sensei coming from everywhere, I was confused because I don:t know these kids, or do I? I do because their shirt says Yamato. Good things for jerseys or I would be so confused.

So Monday of nothing planned, which was great. I caught up on sleeping, washing, talking with friends, onsens with old old naked ladies, and a yakiniku grillout with myself. I was desperate to grill something. Oh I did too, my whole house was smokey too. Get that fan a pumping.

There is something living in my ceiling. They aren:t little fairies that help me sleep. I have noticed it more the past few days because it is gettig cold. It runs all over my ceiling in my tatami room. I am too scared to get up in the ceiling to set a trap. I should write my supervisor to tell her and like all of her other emails, I might not get a reply.

Halloween in the city

2006-10-30T15:12:00.000+09:00

So my Friday started off with Thriller in all of my junior high classes who seemed to be dead but when I asked if they were asleep I got a few giggles. The taxi driver and I bond pretty well on Fridays when I always say I am drinking. He sure does enjoy that. So off to the city really quick to do some shopping and get these cowboy boots I desperately want. They were on hold for me and I wore them out of the store. I found this great little restaurant that serves burgers. So how do you tell a starving country that you have appetizers. Well it is the meal you eat before the meal. Yeah that day I had like 3 appetizers and a meal. I was stuffed. Then it was off to the Halloween party dressed like a pizza. The line for the toilet was super long so Vicky and I ran around town looking for a dark alley way that didn:t have party and didn:t have people waiting sneakily in their cars just as I hiked up my skirt. We got out of there. The party was a success and I still don:t know what the French guy was. I was told he wears that normally travelling about the city. Ohh poor Ludo, but we still love him. Oh and some puking happened but not by me thankfully. But it also happened in a moving car we will call a taxi. Good thing the costume came with a hat doubling as a vomit receptacle.

Halloween in the city. Pirates, cats, Van Gogh, fairy princess, pizza, and what is that in the back.
This is what was in the back. Ludo, the French guy, who wears this normally and brought it over from France. Strange kid, but very likable.
Pizza, more pirates, Monopoly, and gold diggers to add to the scene. And Ludo in there again.

Marilu the boxer and Danielle as Momotaro the peach boy
That's all I got right now, I am in the process to put more up and email more out. Bernie I will get you Kyoto photos soon, and Bob I will get the only picture I have of your halloween costume.

No classes what?

2006-10-25T20:55:00.000+09:00

So I was at my elementary yesterday having a Halloween party. I usually receive a fax of my lessons for the next day. Called the school and they said no classes but I still have to show up.

So I show up today with a bag full of goodies to work on. I brought my Lonely Planet to plan out my mom and dads trip over Christmas. -check. Postcards written- check. tax stuff - check. browsing the internet -check. checking my email every 10 minutes- check. getting pictures of famous people -check.

so my famous people aren't famous in Japan. I would have thought that Pirates of the Carribean would have made Johnny Depp famous, but when I asked the nurse if she knew any of the pictures. She pointed to Johnny Depp and said Michael Jackson. What do you say to that. OOOOO close. Then another teacher thought it was Bob Marley. Another close one. So I am rethinking the famous people, oh good thing I put in some Japanese people.

The taxi ride home was a good one, too. He tries to speak English with me, which is great and comical. So he says "present 1 for you, and apple. present 2 for you orangi" yes apples and oranges. You have to say it orangi though. Then he just gave me the whole bag of oranges and another apple. So if I am poisoned, I got them from the Kayo taxi driver and it was the apples and oranges. love you! On the other hand some of this overly kindness is going to end up being poison in your apple someday. I just hope it won't be towards me, but I can understand if it is from the post office.

Saturday in the willage Sundays festival of not so much

2006-10-23T18:26:00.000+09:00

So I got to sleep in a bit, then got a call telling me to get my butt down to the city. So I toodled in my car and met up with Sarah. We looked at second hand shops that were fabulous. My wardrobe could make me millions over here. Too bad it is in IOWA. I found my cowboy boots that would look perfect on me. I resisted. If they are there next time, watch out. Then some Indian food that was also delish. I didn't make it to Takahashi like I planned because I barely made it through the tunnels driving home. Just kidding, but I was tired.

Sunday
I was told by many that Tobansai is one of the top three festivals in Okayama. I think not. I was up and ready to go on Sunday waiting for the noise of people and drums. (I heard more on Saturday from the little kindergarteners) I checked out the shrine and met up with the poor souls also witnessing this day. I think the mummy hid all of the spectators.

This time I was a celebrity because most of my elementary was there and I heard "Burrito sensei" everywhere I turned. This festival was supposed to have archery- nope, a kid that was chosen to be the Golden Child was supposed to ride on a horse- nope. (He fell off the day before and hit his head and broke his leg. Hence all of the sirens and noise from the day before). So no boy riding a horse- bummer.
Kamotaisai Tobansai
Shrines made of gold just crappy looking
# of Shrines 8 3 but only enough people to carry 2
People Lots nil
Shaking of the shrines Yes yes -drunkards almost dropping them.
Horses 0 3
Running boys 0 2
Thugs 0 1

All in all it was an alright day, but doesn't compare to Kamotasai. You probably won't see me at another Tobansai.

Some of my little volleyball girls playing the flute. And the boys under the dragon doing the dance for the shrine. I don't know the meaning behind it all, but the boys were sweaty when they were done.

The horse The shrine and the tipsy men trying to get it under the gate?

Enkai with my junior high

2006-10-23T18:02:00.000+09:00

So it started out with my Kocho picking me up at my house. I thought it was just Kocho until I opened the door to see the Kyoto stuffed in the back seat. They thought I was taller so I needed the front. I had my dictionary in hand so I could make really bad sentences. We finally got to the restaurant. They lead me over to the table where I would be sitting because I don't eat fish. I don't know who had it better me or them. First, everyone picks a number to see who they are sitting by. I had my seat and Kocho and Kyoto pick theres and they get the seats by mine. Too bad the Kyoto didn't want to sit by me and changed to have the English teacher translate for the Kocho.
I had a 9 course meal with steak, pork, chicken, and some soup, more soup, and then some tofu, asparagus wrapped in bacon. All delish. I didn't even touch 3 dishes because I was about ready to bust.
The table for 3.
So I rode back home with Kocho and they dropped me off on the street, not even in the driveway. I guess they had to go to a strip club somewhere in Kibichuo.

another post office

2006-10-20T17:27:00.000+09:00

So I finally got some money sent home. Is it the right amount NO. But I am going to send it through the internet after persuading my BOE that I was okay with that. Tonight my Kocho is picking me up to go out and drink with the school staff. YAY. we will see how the night goes. I brought my dictionary with and the seating chart so I can remember everyones names. Just today I learned the secretary who has been the best at helping these past few weeks.

boogers

2006-10-19T22:58:00.000+09:00

So I have just realized in the last few days that I despise boogers. Yes I hate kids that pick them and then play with them for three minutes. They look up and see that you are watching and eat it all while you are looking at them. Gross. So today I got tackled by a sunflower in the hallway. This hallway is normal size and I was up against one side and he tackled me with wet hands and arms. Why was he wet? I don't know. That was another gross thing.

But on the flip side, I watched my Kocho and Kyoto have a pumpkin coloring contest. We talked about cows and farms in Iowa and how they are different to ranches in other states. I taught them the word "stinky". They gave me a ginkgo nut? or whatever it is. I looked at it and then I smelled it. It smelled like a stinky sock from winter when I didn't do laundry that often. So I taught them stinky. They loved it.

Oh I also got a grill for inside, YAY YAKINIKU here we come. Grilling meat and veg inside. I am sooo sooo excited. Now I can have parties.

Let the Halloween begin

2006-10-17T19:06:00.000+09:00

So today was another sweaty day under my pizza costume. They don't quite understand the concept of Halloween if you are not a witch, pumpkin, or ghost. Oh well. The teachers liked it and thought I put lots of time into it. For me it was an arts and crafts day.... my favorite. We attempted to make bats, spiders, mummys, and skeletons. Oh and a pumpking coloring contest.

I made a background paper with a tree, fench, moon, and clouds using my nonexistant artistic skills. I found out from a 6th grader that I am artistic by the way i cross my fingers and arms. If the left is under the right then you are artistic. If the right is under the left, then you are into science and math. (I bet all of you are trying that right now)

Today at cleaning time we had a tough man contest seeing who had the biggest biceps. Sorry the picture is dark. Who do you think is the winner?

The last period runs until 3:30 and I still had to hang their pumpkins and bats. Oh and I had to be on the bus at 4:05 with a 7 minute walk. Boy did I stink by the time I got to the bus. Was all the workout worth it for this tiny masterpiece I call Halloween. Oh I also spelled Halloween first time Halloon. I quickly got in there to change that. Hence the large W to cover up.

He is covering up my wonderful tree with hanging spiders.

Kamotaisai Festival

2006-10-16T16:23:00.000+09:00

My day at the Kamotaisai Festival

It starts off with these gianormous shrines carried by lots of men. Some one said they weighed about 800 Kg. I don't know how true that is. But first you have to.......Shake and shake it hard. Tipping is also good, but dropping is wrong. I can see it now. Small Japanese man killed by a portable shrine.Oh and you have to wear these shoes.
This is one of Rachel's students that performed that day. She warned me that he didn't have an ear. No head and shoulders for him. Maybe a revision can be made... Eyes and ear and mouth and nose.
Also this little girl all ready for the day at the festival.
My favorite, the dragon thingys that scare little kids until they scream bloody murder.
This is also one of Rachel's kids that performed and had been practicing everyday after school. I think he is about 6 or 7 years old.
Probably more of Rachels kids. They could be mine, but I forget what they look like. So I just smiled and said hello to all of them. If they knew my name then I knew it was one of my students. Burrrrriiiiiiito sensei. Festival all-in-all was good fun. I even got front row from a guy who insisted I get trampled by the drums. We were celebrities getting on camera and witnessed a few sneaky shots from others.

oh my post about the school is below the geisha i don't know why.

Geisha Hunting

2006-10-15T19:18:00.000+09:00

the fast week

2006-10-15T18:38:00.000+09:00

So Friday I left school and took a nap. So Friday I finished another book and found out that I bought number 4 and needed number 3 first. I will have to wait another 3 weeks to get it shipped. OOOOOO. Thats about it for Friday. Oh and my sunflower supervisor took my pottery that I made home with her and didn't leave it at the office like her email said. Probably because she wants to admire it in hopes of becoming me.

Saturday was my culture fest at school. So they told me to bring my own lunch because it was going to be fish. How considerate I thought. Then I actually was told that I needed to dress up for a school picture. How considerate. I have heard some people not know and arrive in unappropriate school wear. So I was semi dressed up but more dressy than some who wore a dingy navy blazer with black pants. I thought navy and black don't mix. That you can't pull off even on this outfit. (usually anything goes even track pants and dressy turtlenecks with these shoes. No these shoes go with a suit)So this is how my day went. I found out why a teacher wanted to know my favorite book. I told her that I liked Where the Wild Things Live. I just thought she was going to read it in English to the kids. NOPE. So there was a book fest with a list of books that each teacher likes. So mine being the only kids book. Man I looked like a total idiot I think.
I sat by the nurse and dosed in and out of sleep. I couldn't understand a thing and it wasn't even FUNNY. So then they decided to shut all the windows and doors to make it really dark in the gym. I then felt like I was going to pass out. Then my teacher says it is 3:30 you can go home. And she says shhhhhh. So I snuck out of there really stealthly. I gorged myself with pizza that Rachel made. Man was it delicious. Oh we cook our pizzas in the microwave because they don't believe in proper ovens, just like only the rich own dishwashers.

Last nights English class

2006-10-13T10:35:00.000+09:00

So this older guy in my class found my pictures and article in the monthly news. The one that had scribbles and such that my supervisor photocopied (I thought she would at least re-type it).
He brought it out and found that I liked things on the environment and brought Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in Japanese. So that possessed him to find his copy in English and read more of it. Yes I have inspired yet another person.

Oh and in the class of about 8, I asked if you would eat a live cricket for 500$. One guy said yes for 100$. Interesting.
I am going to deck myself out in cool socks, leggings, and umbrellas. So as I put on my new socks that I got in Kyoto, I found my calves were huge and stretched out the elastic in them. Sidenote..... in the States, I couldn't find high boots because the calves were all to big and thought maybe they would be similar to Japanese boots. Well if we judge by the socks, I can't do anymore calf raises in my non-exsistent workout. Good thing I think about these things laying horizontal on my bed watching season 2 Desperate Housewives. Yes only one episode on TV. Each week is different. ER, Desperate Housewives, Greys Anatomy. Just one though. I cant even tune it to see rerun episodes.

Oh as for my pictures of the geisha.... my computer was being an idiot last night and didnt get anything done. So maybe later this afternoon while I work on my Halloween costume of a PIZZA. Yes creative I know, and yes I miss pizza like crazy. I could eat it everyday in the States and now it is on my mind more Dr. Pepper.

Some pictures to go along with my stories

2006-10-11T21:54:00.000+09:00

The beggar Buddhist monk. Check out his shoes.

Bernie and I on the Koyimizu Temple.

Cafe Independent with other ALTs from Kyoto area. They serve bad coffees. Go elsewhere and the desserts are a mouth full for 450 yen.

My attempt at a pretty picture from the bridge in Kyoto. Is it alright Maree?

Monday in Kyoto

2006-10-11T13:53:00.000+09:00

So we woke up late with every intention of doing some sight seeing. We asked everyone along the way if they knew of this store where my skirt was. Yes this way, yes this way. Found it and my skirt was still there. Got it and now I can wear cool socks all winter long. Dont't worry it will go nice with my thermal pink polka dotted pants I bought yesterday. So we tried hard to get to Kyoto Station. After a bus and a long line we boarded the train. I fell right to sleep on it. One minute I looked up to see about 25 people staring right at me as my head bobbed up and down. I got off the train and no one even took my ticket. We could have ridden for free. My luck would have gotten me a trip to jail. Yes mom and dad, I paid. Then off to home to clean and pass out. Big weekend!

Oh and today the comment I always get from this one trouble maker boy is Nice Hair. So I tell him he looks pretty. The English teacher translated it to him and he shut up. So now the food was ready to eat and I can see he is mocking every move I make. So what do I do. I crossed my legs and ate like a girl with the pinky in the air and playing with my hair. He did the same, but the whole class was laughing at him. So there was one bite left of my sandwich and I shoved it in my mouth. He had about half his sandwich left and wanted to be manly. So he did too and the insides fell on his pants. The whole class laughed. I did too and about choked.

Yesterday I had the dvd from keystone at my elementary. It didn't work on any of the computers and soon Kyoto said play it on mine. So now I am in front of all of the teachers with loud music and watching snowboarding. How appropriate is that. I found it quite hilarious because Kyoto was very interested along with Kocho.

Sunday in Kyoto

2006-10-11T13:40:00.000+09:00

So Bernie and I were a little more ambitious today. We biked it to the Golden Pavillion. That was 45 minutes there and back. Oh it was up hill on the way there and I was on a single speed. I died and was huffing and puffing like an out of shape old ninny. Got there and had to get some pictures taken- good thing I was wearing the BOTOX tshirt. Love it Jami. So we cruised around more on our bikes and loved the ride home because it was all down hill. Next off to town to do some geishea hunting. We ventured into this shrine and kept walking towards the temple we wanted. Did we get there, no. We were so engrossed in the geishea on the street, snapping photos like the paparazzi. Yes we got lots of pictures and missed the entrance to the temple. We made it to the next one name Koyimizu Temple or something like that. We cruised around there and I had some laughs at my shirt. I think they were foreign and understood it. Sometimes I forgot I was wearing BOTOX written in silver rhinestones. Then off to the city to find this skirt that I looked at last night and convinced myself to buy it. We couldn't find it after hours of looking and only knew it started with a C and had 2 entry ways. We passed it along the way without knowing. Idiot Britt. So off to the Pig and Whistle. We met some other ALTs from I don't remember and followed an Englishman out still carrying his glass of beer right on the street. I secretly had a bet going in my head that it was going to drop before the intersection seeing that he knocked into everyone along the way. It didn't and I lost a buck, to myself. So on the train home, I watched heads bop up and down and almost fall out of the seat from the sleepy people. Oh and the fashion is great. I got some socks so I could compete in the underground competition. Most of the time I don't win. I am trying though. Soon will be those short shorts with high heels. Can you imagine me being about 6ft 4. That is how tall my dad is. Then I really will be the giant.
I really wanted to smush my coins on the train tracks as I got off. I talked it over with Bernie and she was alright with it. I laid out my 5 yen coin because i thought the hole in the middle will turn out cool, and 3 one yen coins. So I stepped back waiting for the train. A man with an important hat started walking our way. Bernie took off running and that made me take off running all the way back to the apartment. So I dropped off my things and I had to go back to see if he took them. The train in the meantime had gone by. So I walked slowly and as I come around the corner, I saw him again. I was scared and almost peed my pants again, but this time I took off in a dead sprint home. He might know where I am staying. So I still don't know if he took my coins or not. I was too scared. The next day they were gone. But then again if I saw a coin on the street I would pick it up, too.

Saturday in Kyoto

2006-10-11T13:31:00.000+09:00

So the day was pretty much rain and then it stopped. Bernie and I discussed that we were in for a chill day of shopping and cruising around the city. We had coffees and found cute little shops. I was in a shop and told myself I didn't need this skirt. So I left it and told myself to at least wait over night and we can find it tomorrow. We then met up with Nicole and Harrison and walked through Gion looking for geisheas. We found some and Harrison wasn't impressed as we were. Then we went for some yakiniku (grill your own meat and veggies on a little gas grill in the table). This was the first time that Harrison and Nicole had it. The wait for our table was over an hour (there were open tables the whole time- how do I know this- they were empty when we used their toilets while waiting). So I wanted a large water- Yes a huge I mean huge mug of water. Not the dixie cups I usually get and they have to refill them every gulp. Harrison ordered a coke and the mug was about the same size as his head. Another lovely dinner. We topped the night off to the Africa bar. Don't ever go there. The atmosphere delightful, the staff way under par. So as we were leaving a glass got knocked over and the whole waitstaff came to roll their eyes at us. That was the last time I will go there. We stayed out for more drinks at the A Bar. That was crazy because some random Japanese guys wanted to improve their English. We asked how they were and we got the 'I'm fine and you?' NO NO NO. So we told them how to use excellent, fantastic, and great. Oh and also bad, and shitty. They didn't know the word shit, so we explained it meaning poo. So after that lesson was over we worked on not adding vowels to the ends of words. andu, lefto, righto. NO NO NO. They aced that test, too. So the guy sitting next to me got up and said "Excuse me I have to poo". I cracked up and almost peed myself there. He did use the word right and I give him props for that. At that note, we were out of there.
More pictures when I get home.

Friday off to Kyoto

2006-10-11T13:23:00.000+09:00

So after the post office ordeal, my little secretary printed off the map of which way is the best way to get to Bernie's house. That map turned into the size of my small car with every little detail. How could I get lost with my Kocho telling me of every turn and every Circle K and 7 Eleven on the way. So I was toodling off in my car and thought I was on the wrong road, and I looked at the map and thought 'did I pass my intersection that was so clear on my huge map that had to be folded to fit in my front seat?' I pulled off at the vendies where a business man was getting some soda. He said I was on the right track. So I made it there in a little over an hour and fifteen minutes. Kocho said it would take me 2 hours. I'm speedy. Met Bernie and got on the train for Kyoto. Very nice ride with tons and tons of people that boarded after us. Good thing we got on in the middle of nowhere. From Kobe to Osaka to Kyoto is just really a big blob of a town. I couldn't tell where one started and one ended. So we got to Kyoto and was met by a 12 year old Aussie boy with the blondest curliest long hair named Harrison who is the son of Nicole who is an ALT in Kyoto.
So we got back to their house and then went out for drinks in the city and met other ALTs. We visited Cafe Independent which was decorated AWESOMELY and loved it down there. I will go back more. Had only one drink (still recovering from picking pears). Back to Nicoles where she made our beds and tucked us in like a good mom.

I HATE THE POST OFFICE

2006-10-06T09:59:00.000+09:00

So in my mailbox the other day I see that I have a package from my dad and mom. Great. So yesterday I was pumped that I was going to get what I already packed at home. Not much of a surprise but maybe my mom and dad slipped something else I didn:t know in there. So i go and pick up my package from the postoffice. Oh wait it is at the OTHER post office WHY? I don:t know. So today I asked my JTE at my junior high school why it wasn:t at MY post office. She couldn:t give me an answer. OKay i was fine with that. She was also telling me why they couldn:t leave it on my door step. It would be illegal to give it to anyone else. Okay I understand.

So I asked my Kocho if I could run to the PO really quick. I didn:t want to go because this is the one that I yelled at a week ago. That turned into a half hour. Oh and my package was not there. They brought out a little book tied with a piece of yarn with my name inside. All they could say was Miyai (my sunflower supervisor). Out of no where my supervisor comes in with my package. I THOUGHT IT WAS ILLEGAL TO GIVE ANYONE ELSE MY PACKAGE! So I told them that I understood the paper that was in my mailbox. OBVIOUSLY IT WAS A PACKAGE BECAUSE IT HAD MY DADS NAME ON IT. So I told them to send it to MY post office from now on. Will they understand that NO!
In the meantime, my office lady is researching on how to get to Wake from here. She says it is going to take an hour and half. Bernie asked her office lady and they told her 30 -60 minutes. (It takes me 40 minutes to get to Takebe which is about half way). They are color coding the map as we speak so I don:t get lost.

I will make it to Kyoto this weekend. SOBER.

My little monkeys

2006-10-05T20:57:00.000+09:00

My little monkeys. My picture is the purple and green one. My kyoto sensei fell asleep through my whole class. Quite amusing.
The typical office of an elementary school. The janitor in the corner working on gosh knows what. I usually hang out with the secretary, nurse, and janitor. Maybe minus one.

My weekend pictures of the Kibi Bike trail

2006-10-05T20:45:00.000+09:00

A bike jam on the way to the train station
Just like the amusement park
This is about how wide some of my "highways" are
I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride my bike
Bicycle Bicycle.
Cool picture leading to a shrine under construction

what a long tunnel

Just another day on the block

2006-10-04T14:47:00.000+09:00

So I rule at teaching numbers to little kids. Yesterday I had my second graders learning magic. I was successful. I had a little guy just crawl into my lap while I was doing the criss cross magic. I had the best one go and teach the Kyoto sensei. He couldn't believe he was getting tricked by an 8 year old. Soon a crowd of teachers came to see what this little boy was teaching. He had them all stumped and only him and I knew the answer. Boy did he feel pretty proud.
So I worked up a sweat again doing the 10 little monkeys jumping on the bed. I had them act it out with the trouble maker always being the doctor. They like to make the mean sounding voice.
Oh I am proud to say I have my Halloween costume picked out and ready to sew. I cant tell you what I am going to be. I did leak it out to a few. I will just show you pictures when I am done. I will say this though. I will be the talk of the town at my elementaries. Hey it is a good excuse to not dress up.
Today for my sunflower class- the definitions of the some of the words to Bridge of Troubled Waters by Simon and Garfunkel. Next week Sounds of Silence.

a disgrace to my mother and father

2006-10-02T14:20:00.000+09:00

So first mom and dad, I didn't tell you the whole story. So here it is.

My weekend: Friday after the hellish day at the post office, I went to pick up a fellow Colorado JET living on the Shikoku island. She toodled around with me in the city until I went to eat with Rachel and her sister Annabelle, Bob, Amy, Danielle, some other girl, Richard, and Ashley (shikoku). We ate some great food and then went to the Aussie bar. I drove home that night so it was definately a sober night due to the no tolerance alcohol limit in Japan.

Saturday Ashley and I drove to Takahashi to get on a train to Soja. In Soja we met more JETs about 20 of us and rented bikes to do the Kibi bike trail. This will tell you how hard the ride is: a single speed cruiser. My kind of ride. So we were off and sightseeing along the way. We got to the end and got kind of lost when we needed to return the bikes. Found it after some really talented riding done by me. A sidewalk with oncoming traffic and one of those cement ditches that would hurt like hell when you fall in. Those bikes are hard to steer when they have a basket full of stuff in the front. I am a weeble wobble on them sometimes when the pressure gets to me.

We went to eat in the city and I had a drink. Man that tasted so good that I had another. Then to the Aussie Bar again for more drinks. Then to Red Moon for some more. I stayed the night in the city and took a train early in the morning.
This is the part that mom and dad aren:t going to be proud of.
I got sick on the train and only had my lovely Botox makeup bag. (Jami works for a medspa and sent me over 2 Botox makeup bags, a headband, mirror, shirt, and ball.) So I just happened to have the waterproof one with me thankfully. Dumped that out at the next stop. I met up with Dimple's adopted grandma and grandpa who took me, Dimple, and Jen to pick pears. I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS GOING TO BE A THREE HOUR DRIVE UP. So it started out pulling over at a roadside toilet before we got on the expressway. Stopping again when we got off the expressway. Don't turn around in a car or you will get dizzy. Pulled over 6 more times like that all day. Picked some pears and ate 2 of them. Starting to feel sick again. The grandma and grandpa bought us each a bag full. All in all they spent about 180 dollars on pears that day.
I didn't get home til 7. That is when I started to feel better. Oh only puking 2 times on the side of the road on the way home. These roads are not straight and the braking accelerating is not good for a hangover.
Lesson learned. I am not a heavy weight anymore.

More pictures to put up tonight. (at school writing this and being ever so productive)

the constant nose sniffling

2006-09-29T16:56:00.000+09:00

It was more like the throat clear you use when you hock a big lugee. This boy did that every 10 seconds for about 20 minutes until he got off the bus. Thank goodness. It was one of those days. It started when the change machine on the bus ripped me off. How do I say that to the bus driver. So I just ripped it off by paying my fare 100 yen short. I might never get to ride the bus again.
So at school I was asking questions to the kids. Why is it that the teachers always defend the students. "oh he was tired today" "oh he studied hard last night and doesn't know the easy question to 'what are you doing after school'" that was one of their target sentence ALL FREAKING MONTH. So on to bingo. I said the word three times and still get the puzzled look but when the teacher says it, they understand. Maybe because she babies them so much and even points to the answers that they are all going to pass.
I said "imagine, imagine, imagine" i get the puzzled look and the teacher says it the same way and a light bulb turns on. So I ask myself why am I even here, when they don't pay attention to me? I think I am a novelty sometimes that the community can laugh at.

That sure was the case today when the bank wanted to charge me 1 man to send money home. About 100 dollars. I asked if he was sure. Good thing I didn't send money home. Then I went to the post office that could do it for about 25 dollars. Yes, but they didn't understand my banking situation. I was there for 2 hours and left crying after I even got on the computer to translate. They would not send it to my bank. Just a bad day. Come to find out when I called home to my bank, they might not be able to understand where it goes and could be sent back to Japan. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET MONEY HOME. I am tempted to send 1000 dollars or more home in yen so that my bank can change it for me.

Feeling very frazzled today. Enough venting. I WILL HAVE A BETTER NIGHT. maybe dye my hair and be someone new.

done with introductions

2006-09-28T14:47:00.000+09:00

So today I can say I am done with introductions. A long time coming, but a pro now. I had a class of 6 today so we just sat on the floor and asked questions. They were so interested in everything I had. They looked at my pictures and looked some more. They really got into it and asked some great questions.
I feel like Milton off of Office Space. You know where his desk gets piled up with other things and then they soon move him into the basement. Yeah so I started with a little on the desk when I came. Now you should see it. I have about a 1/4 of space for me now, and the only reason for that is my books are taking up that space. Oh well, I did get a ride from my Kyoto Sensei neighbor this morning on the way to my bus stop. Before that I ran into a lady I knew who also stopped to talk with me. So I had a traffic jam on my only intersection in my village.
Hey mom and dad, remember how Steffi said village -willage. Yeah I call my village a willage.

Sorry no pictures of today. (yet, the teachers are sure camera happy though)

sunflower day

2006-09-27T15:54:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was the first day I worked up a sweat teaching numbers. I did the 10 little monkeys jumping on the bed. Yeah that was a hot one because I really got in the spirit. So today I have only one class of 7th graders, which is alright. She was not at school. I think she feared for my well-being if I was in the 8th and 9th graders. They have no respect and would have eaten me alive. GOOD thing I didn't teach. But I did have my first sunflower class. I had an absolute blast. He was soo funny. We practiced fruits and veggies. I introduced some new ones he didn't know and then played a game where he had to remember the order of the items I said. I got up to 5 with him. I made him close his eyes and put his hands on his head so he couldn't cheat. He was pretty darn good at that. I found out that he likes Simon and Garfunkel. Next week we are going to sing Song of Silence and translate some of the harder words. He likes to sing and I happen to like Simon and G.

I taught the nurse and janitor today of the fruits and veggies. They knew most of the but forgot eggplant. I am cool with hanging out in the teachers room and chatting with the secretary who is my age, nurse, and janitor. I looked over today to see what the nurse and janitor do all day. They fold origami. Man what is worse, being on the internet emailing and posting blogs or origami. Both are pretty fun in my book.

what a difference stickers make

2006-09-25T14:45:00.000+09:00

So I was at my junior high today. I thought I would bring along stickers. The students would get stickers if they asked questions. Man, I should have done this at all of my schools. When there are stickers involved, boys jump at the chance for them. I forgot to bring them to my 2nd grade class, but remembered them for both of my first grade classes and the results
2nd grade= no questions
1st grade= What would you do if today was your last day?
What would you do if you had a million yen?

Oh and the ahhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh from the children was that I could drive at 14. Oh and I had my very own car, too.

Takayama, Accident, Hiroshima, Miyajima and the long ride home

2006-09-25T09:01:00.000+09:00

So after I posted the last entry, I was off on my way to Hiroshima prefecture. This was the plan: drive to Alex's place, he drives to pick up everyone along the way. Stop off at Amy's place for the night and then drive to Miyajima on Saturday and hangout. Come home on Sunday after we wake up. Be home to do some laundry.

This is what really happened. I took off at 3 to drive to his place which was the most beautiful drive. I loved the little town Takayama. Means tall mountains. I could see for miles in each direction. I was going to take this highway 9 over to Yuki so I didn:t have to back track. Great idea until I hit the border of Hiroshima and Okayama. It turned into a bike path with no signs. I CAN'T READ KANJI. So I guessed and kept driving. I didn't want to turn around because I was in a dense forest, one lane with mirrors to see if anyone is coming in the other direction. Yes they call this a highway. Britt calls this a bike path. I could tell it wasn't travelled much because there was lots of debris on the road and with my little wheel barrow tires, I just blazed through all of that. To my luck, I was on highway 9 the whole time. I ended up in Yuki, but I didnt know how to get to Alex's house. I stopped on the road and saw some high school boys. I was on the phone with Alex who was 10 minutes away. No place to park a car and wait. The boys led me to the high school to wait. The actually ran me to the high school as I raced next to them in my go-cart of a car. I pulled in and started to look at my map. I could feel eyes looking at me. Of course I had 7 girls just staring at me in a line. Next the Kocho sensei (head) of the school came out and I was telling them I was waiting for the other ALT. I am going to be news at that school. A girl was in their town. A small town, not as bad as Yoshikawa.

So we were off to Fukayama which is a big city to the south to meet a girl on the train. Oh my ride down was white knuckled because the roads are curvy and Alex is the speediest driver and scared the living day lights out of me. Made it with time to spare. Checked out the castle- good. Picked up a Canadian Gen. Off to meet another girl Amy. Got there and had Yakiniku. Great grilling of raw meat done to your own likings. Yum. Stayed at Amy's place and listened to her crazy stories of Spain.

Up early to drive to Hiroshima City. On the way (about 10 mintues into the drive) Alex attempted to kill us by almost running off the road into a side rail. I screamed and he slammed on his breaks. Phew. So back on the road and next just a HUGE slam on the brakes and he hits a Japanese family. Great. So I sat outside by some vending machines for about 2 hours. He didn:t have his license on him. He had to go back to Yuki to get it before he could do anything. Amy drove him there and Gen and I went on to the city. Got to Hiroshima City about 4. Amy calls and says she is coming and will be there in an hour. Sweet. Met up with some more people for dinner. Call from Alex. He is going to take the bus too. He got there at 830. Random. We hit up a karoake bar with a newlywed couple from Manchester England. They had never experienced that before, so we took them under our wing and showed them how to sing awfully to some really limited English songs.
We had to catch the last train to another girls house Natasha. Stayed the night there. I passed out on a small small couch. Nice though. After I got addicted to the prize machine with rubberband bracelets. I got an orange one first. I didn:t like the color. I was hoping for pink. I got a bright electric green next. Still not good enough. Next was white. Now I didn:t have anymore coins. So on them is written: Germanium, Love, Hope. They came with rings too. Why Germanium?

We woke up and decided to still go to Miyajima. We did. I said I couldn:t stay the whole day because it was going to take me 6 hours to get home since we didn:t have a car anymore to take direct routes.
Miyajima was great beautiful and all of that. Gate, pagodas, and deer. (pictures to come on my new camera!)

Modes of transport that day: Ferry, train, tram, bus, car. Too bad I didn't have to go to the post office so I could ride my bike. Oh wait, the post office isn't open at 11 AT NIGHT ON A SUNDAY. Yeah that's what time I got home. We left Miyajima at 4 when I was told we would leave by noon. Just a little off. Oh and Alex got lost on the way to his house too. That set us back 20 minutes and the tightest road ever. I mean tight as in a building on each side with 2 inches to spare even with the side mirrors folded in. All I can say is Idiot. Good thing I wasn't driving. Maybe I should have because we wouldn't have gotten lost in the first place.
oh and I found this along the way. Random

Today is coffee coffee coffee. Super tired. Oh and made some new friends. LONG WEEKEND but good.
The group photo. Me, Alex, Greg, Amy, Natasha, Genn
Again in front of the Tori Gate.
I can't explain this random one.
And this is what my camera can do.

hiroshima maybe?

2006-09-22T14:31:00.000+09:00

So at the last minute I got an email from a friend in Hiroshima that wants to go to Miyajima. Supposedly a famous place. I thought "maybe I could get there cheap and stay with some other JETs and have an alright weekend" Yes I think I might. Random, no planning, just riding in a car with people I really don't know. Maybe some cool new friends will come of this.

questions from the kids

2006-09-21T20:09:00.000+09:00

So I start today with a picture of my first day in Kibichuo in the newsletter. My supervisor asked me to write something for it. Of course I said. I wrote out and added some things thinking she was going to type it up all nice and neat for me. Oh no. She just photocopied it with all of the little additions in it that really don't make sense until you write it nicely. Japanese people are never going to get it. Once again- sunflower.

So my questions today were from my elementary school
-Why is your hair brown?
-Why are you tall?
-What is your favorite insect?
-What is your favorite word?
-Why are you teaching in Japan if you don't speak Japanese? I asked myself that same question.
-What is my favorite mode of transportation?
-What are the famous buildings in the US? I had to make sure I was telling them the right geographic location for each of them. My brain was cranking.
-Do you make lots of money?
-Why do you wear all of those rings?
-How much do those rings cost?
-The not so common, favorite fruit, animal, Japanese food, country. Those don't even count.

So at lunchtime today the only thing was fish. I HATE FISH. My lovely Kyoto sensei bought me a bento (box lunch) with one piece of chicken and the rest fish. I tried really hard to eat most of it. I couldn't do the humungus bits of fish on top of my rice. So my analogy is this: Do you ask a fisherman if he eats beef. My dad raises cattle so we had beef almost every meal or chicken or pork. Fish really isn't a big option in Iowa. You won't find an ocean close to Iowa.

To my surprise later in the day I had an earthquake drill. This is the closest thing I have been to an earthquake. The kids lined up out side and a big truck or a miniature semi unfolded its side and had a dining room set up. The kids sit in the chair and when the alarm goes off they quickly get under the table and get shaken around in this earthquake simulation. Did I do it? OF COURSE I DID. I hopped right in there with the children and tried my best to fold myself under the table without taking out the kids. Everything in Japan is small and so was this table. I just hope the helmet I wore will appear out of no where when there is a real earthquake.

Learning from a 7 year old

2006-09-20T12:19:00.000+09:00

I went to school yesterday to do introductions. I met a little girl with great English and even better charades. I could completely have a conversation with her as long as you can act it out. She asked me if I wanted to play with her at recess on the swings with the rocking back and forth motion. Yes I said, before I even knew what I was doing. Mainly "yes" because I understood her and was proud.

So I sat with her at lunch and we practiced my Japanese vegetables. I was doing good until I took a bite of my rice. I heard a tiny little voice say "sensei" I looked over to see her motioning that I should put my bowl up to my face and shovel. Good thing I have a 7 year old looking after me.
As I left school that day all I heard was "see you Burrito sensei". Yeah that would be me.

out of commission

2006-09-20T11:59:00.000+09:00

As I am writing this entry, I am watching a man play the harp on TV. How does one come to play a harp with so much useless energy of hair waving, arms flailing, and the back bending in all sorts of ways. So to catch you up on the last few days. The adventure starts last Friday taking a bus to the city to meet up with Bernie for grocery store food and a picnic with other homeless people. We fit in quite well with all of our bags too. A group of around 40 JETs made our way on an overnight bus to Mt Fuji. The bus was uncomfortable as always. I haven't been on one yet that screams "comfort". I wake up in the middle of the night looking over to see Sarah in a cat like reverse position on her chair. I don't think I can bend that way. I soon crawled under the seats to stretch out. Not a good idea as the floor was boiling hot like lava. Back into the seat to curl up again to Bernie.
The next stop a rest stop at 5:30AM. It felt like 11. Then off to a museum that I didn't see. Instead a pirate ship occupied my extra 30 minutes and a ball puzzle thing that I shouldn't have even attempted. (it still isn't put together) Next to a gingantic mall of useless shopping. Oh what it would be like to have lots of money to get what ever you wanted. I just had a BLT instead. It was a chance for those to get the last minute essentials for the hike. I got my Dr. Pepper.
Who was the idiot that said she would do the night hike. Yeah that was me. I hadn't had any sleep really and then all my energy was spent cruising around a mall and then the start of a hike at 8:30 at night. Real smart Britt, Real smart. So I started the climb freezing cold. I would like to thank my Ski and Ride School for sponsoring me some pants to climb in. (more like a 5 finger discount). but we will keep that one quiet. I made some friends along the way with a group of Japanese hikers. I chatted with the guide and we gave me a snickers. Now that is nice! I passed out in a hut for about 3 hours to catch up on some much needed sleep. Back down the mountain with the Amazing Racers on Mt Fuji. They were troopers. Blisters on the heels and all.
When I got down I passed out on a picnic table for a few hours. What I didn't notice was my pink stomach. When did I lift my shirt? That must have been a sight to see. Idiot Britt.

Oh but I did enjoy my Dr. Pepper at the bottom. But not the bus ride home.
We stopped at an onsen (public bath). This was a very large one with tons more naked bodies around with all of the foreigners, too. It still felt good, but I couldn't relax without little kids hands tripping over me.

I want to thank Marilu, Jen, and Dimple for making my first train ride great. Yes up until then I was virgin to riding the train. Very unusual in a country like this. I think I am the only one who didn't ride a train in the first week. Yeah let alone almost 2 months.
I didn't have a camera at this hike, and hopefully people will be sending me photos to post.

trading food at lunch

2006-09-14T13:13:00.000+09:00

I remember trading food at lunch when I was a kid. Elementary brings me back to those days. I have never seen so many boys fight for my chunk of fish and natto (a gross fermented soybean thing). Rock paper scissors. As I had extra rice, I watched on 12 year old boy down 2 bowls of rice, 3 things of natto, a dish of fruit, fish, and cooked veggies. He is a growing boy. Who said there were fat kids in Japan. They are all over, you just have to look hard sometimes.
I learned a new word dango. In the dictionary it says dumpling. Hell if it was a dumpling, it was in with my fruit. I ate it because I was curious. At first it was like a marshmallow. Then the taste got worse and so did the texture. It stuck to the side of my mouth. I had to have another just to confirm it wasn:t that great. Yup, not going to eat that again.
I forgot to add at the school party, I found out the proper way to eat soybeans. NOT THE WHOLE THING OUTSIDE AND ALL. Britt just eat the inside soybeans, not the shell. No wonder I was having troubles chewing. I thought it was a pea at first. I have a feeling I will be wrong a lot.

unusually small shorts

2006-09-14T10:56:00.000+09:00

So as I witnessed another sports day practice, I have come to realize that all little boys pull their shorts up way past theirbelly buttons. Most of the boys' boxers are blue with some gree. Today I also witnessed something new: the visible crease. The wrinkle wear your bum meets the leg. When you see shorts in the US above this crease, you know the shorts are short. The girls here don:t mind having their bums hangout in their PE shorts, but wear their school uniforms skirts as long as they can. We need the fashion police to make an announcement about properly wearing shorts. Oh and tappered legs too me will never be appropriate. The seamstress need to take notice and make the crotch shorter and the legs longer to avoid tit over hang in the chubby kids. Some of the teachers need this memo, too.
I am now accustomed to their one size fits all hats that are reversible to distinguish teams for sports day. Red vs. White. Bonsai

I think I am losing my mind. First forgetting my umbrella when leaving school. Second forgetting my inside shoes at home when going to school. Third, leaving my pictures for my introduction at home. ( I even had them by the door... idiot Britt) Now what I am I going to do. That was 20 minutes of information- I will have to wing it now.

as i ride in the taxi

2006-09-13T13:50:00.000+09:00

Why do taxi drivers always seem to fart when I get in the car. The only customer they will have all day and they go and fart. As their only customer, they come to work with a perfectly pressed shirt.
I have never seen a big man wear toe socks either. That one I laugh everytime I see one of my teachers with toe socks. Something about it screams wrong. Only in Japan.
So I have weighed the pros and cons of working at 7 schools rather than 1 or 2

Pros of many schools
-if you don:t like the teacher then you don:t have to see them everyday
-less lesson plans you have to make
-even more popularity when you cruise the town
-lots of review time and less thinking for me
-not learning at least 250 kids's names
-I am a movie star everytime I go to elementary schools
-all of the free parties with good food and beer.....so far.
-not really being a part of the cleaning duties...i can just hide at each school until they find me. I will play dumb.

Cons
-lugging your inside shoes to every school. (I don:t want to buy 7 pairs)
-leaving your shoes at home and wearing their tacky inside shoes - which I did today
-kids forgetting everything they learn
-leaving an umbrella at a school and not getting it for 2 and half weeks (which I did also)
-never really learning their name
-have to lug chopsticks around or forget them
-having to buy snacks when I go places for 7 schools... only cheap snacks for all
-all of the self introductions - yes I am 182 cm tall.
-I look like the bag lady on the bus with my bag, books, and shoe bag

all in all I am having a good time. This is the only situation that I know so it needs to be a good one. One thing I don:t like is having the computer room in the smoking room. I am not a fan of that.

Enkai full of great food and beer

2006-09-11T18:30:00.001+09:00

At the teachers party after the sports day. My head principal is on the left with the first grade teacher, 5th grade teacher, 3rd grade teacher, secretary, 6th grade teacher and Rachel. I might have that completely messed up but oh well.

The next is the dietician who only serves me chicken, beef, or pork on the days I am teaching there. She wants to be me.

This is my shoe locker at one of my main schools. I think I might have to change that one.

Some pretty scenary. Oh this is another road of death. This is a one lane with many switchbacks. I only had to reverse for cars 3 times. Pretty good for a 10 kilometer stretch. Oh it takes about an hour to drive 35 kms. Do the math. That is less than a 30 mile drive. Most of the roads are 50 km/hr and if it is a 2 lane then it could get up to 60 km/hr.

Rain Rain RAIN

2006-09-11T13:26:00.000+09:00

As I sat yesterday at school, yes a Sunday, I come to find out at 9AM the famous sports day is postponed. Yet I had to wait till 11:30 to go home. They ordered lunch so we had to sit and wait for that to arrive. Great another bento (box lunch with 30 different types of food in it). All I had in there was fish. I HATE FISH. So rice it was until the little nurse came over to trade food. I traded her my shrimp for her chicken. What I had chicken in there. Where was that hiding. So I traded my sashimi for some egg tofu which was delicious. Now I had a lunch. Right after that I toodled home in my little car in the rain. I have a futon now. What most people call a futon. Ahhh my very own cocoon. I love it. I ordered a dvd player so I wouldn't go stir crazy in the winter. Well the motor in it sounds like it is going to take off and fly around the room. I got that sorted out though. Oh to top things off my camera charger took a poo on me. My camera is fine, but the darn thing won't charge my batteries. What am I to do when Fuji is this weekend. My magic 8 ball says I will be alright.

they let this drive on the road

2006-09-08T13:37:00.000+09:00

As I was riding in my taxi home, I spotted a lady driving her motorized cart on the highway with her little yellow flag whipping in the wind. I think she was going mock 2. I sure hope she had her seatbelt on. I shouldn't be making fun of her becasue I secretly want to be her when I am old and can't walk. I will also use the handicapped spot for my scooter, too. Can they tow that? Would they want to? I just laugh saying "Only in Japan".

radioactive green drink

2006-09-08T10:14:00.000+09:00

So I am no longer a virgin to the famous Joyful. The equivalent to a Denny's. I got to mix all of my own drinks. I had money, imagination, and balance. Money is Mt. Dew with Sprite. Then Balance is Pepsi with "white water", and Imagination with melon soda and lemon soda. That was the electric green color you won't find anywhere else. We will see how that is later. I now have a saying "only in Japan". It works for lots of things like selling IPods in the 7 11. The girls from Nimii came down Tara, Marilu, and Vicky. Along with Aaron, Danielle, and Rachel. All a good night for cheap food and good talk.

the lone piece of rice

2006-09-07T15:24:00.000+09:00

I ate with the first graders today. It doesn:t even phase them that i completely ignore anything they say. They haven:t figured out I don:t speak Japanese. I like it right now because they come up to me with such eagerness. They will soon find out they are just wasting their time and I won:t get any students talking to me besides "hello, how are you?" oh well. I did watch one piece of rice hold on to a kids face the whole lunch. He didn:t know and no one told him to wipe his face. How cute. I then got asked to play at recess. That was a lesson for me to never be repeated. I was the human jungle gym and got by ass slapped by 7 little boys. I got aggressive with them and whipped them off. I yelled NO, but it still went on until they didn:t found out they were going to be late for class. I walked slowly and no one waited for me. That was a good thing. I had sweating little hands all over me. YUCK. not that I am a germ freak but I like semi-clean hands. Not nose-picked hands. Oh i forgot to add that the office lady came to deliver me a note by straddling my legs. That was the definition up close and personal.

2006-09-06T20:41:00.000+09:00

Who are those hot girls partying it up in the city. I think I might know 2 or 3.

But I don't know this one. Just kidding Bernie

The famous Aussie Bar. Unlike Skippers that serves a margarita in a martini glass. I could swallow the tequila and glass whole it was so small. 800 Yen - note to self never again.

You always end the night with a quick karaoke. We rocked it in our room. I don't know about the slackers in the other. My room was a dance party. Boone did play the Star Spangled Banner for those Americans, but on the mics were an Aussie Bernie and Canadian Mr. Jones. They were the only ones watching the screen for the words. I don't know if we sang good or we just don't care. I think a little of both because we all know I can't sing to save my life.

Kawakami Manga Festival

2006-09-06T20:19:00.000+09:00

My first mullet sighting. Well there are numerous mullets. But this one screamed "Britt take my picture" so on that note, I had to. Stay classy.

Dimple and I at the Kawakami Manga Festival. This is a ginormous lantern made of wax paper with lights under it.

My flower arrangement class: $50. Well worth it because I didn't pay for it.

More of the Manga Festival. I don't even know which is Lilo and which one is stich.

first some pictures

2006-09-06T20:07:00.000+09:00

My little Suzuki Alto. Alto means tall in Spanish. I don't think it is anywhere close to being tall. Those gutters on the side of the road fit my little wheel barrow tires in it just great. I haven't done it yet, but there probably will be a time when I am getting run off the road and have to hit the gutters.

My house, in the middle of the street. My house. You know like the song. That road may seem wide. Let me tell you, IT'S NOT. More like a single track.

This is my little kitchen in my house.

My duplex is the third set of windows in.

The infamous room known as the tatami room. It is like a straw mat and makes anything I lay on it stink. Not a bad smell, but not a pretty one either. That's where I sleep and hang out.