a bit of a hiatus

I'm proud of myself for sticking to my goal of posting every day. I've worked through a lot of the things that have been on my mind this month, and it's felt good to get my thoughts written down. It's helped. I'm still a long way from "feeling better," but it has helped me come to accept what has happened. Most importantly, I've been able to share Lauren and her story with so many people, and that's wonderful. It's the best thing that I could do - for myself and for her.

November is almost here, and soon, I'll be working on that 50,000 word goal. To make things a little easier for myself, I'm going to cut back on my blog posting. I'm aiming for 2-3 posts a week. I don't know if what I write for Nanowrimo will ever end up on this blog. For one thing, I'm taking a creative non-fiction approach and thus it will be more story-like than loosely-organized-journal-entry-like. I won't be editing it until after November (and considering how busy I'll be in December, I probably won't get around to editing before the new year), and I certainly don't want to publicly display any of it until I've edited it. So, the blog is going to have to take a backseat to the 1667 words I need to get out each day in November. I don't know when (or if) I'll start posting daily again. As I said, I'll be busy in December, and there might be some periods of time when internet access isn't even a concern for me. But I'll still be writing about Lauren, and I'll still be trying to post some of it.

Also, a brief hiatus will be starting as of the end of this post. Today, we're flying back to Florida, and I'm going to take a few days to recover from jetlag and see some of my family for the first time in almost two years. Also, I'm going to be meeting my in-laws, which I'm very excited about. I want to spend a couple days just grounding myself within my very loving family and sharing Lauren personally with them. I intend to be posting regularly again by next Friday. I don't want to leave this blog in the dark for too long.

So, have a good weekend, all! I'll be back again in no time.

bring on the Golden goodness

Tomorrow begins Golden Week, which is a string of various holidays ranging from Consitution Day to Childrens' Day to a substitute holiday that some people (like GEOS employees) get because extra holidays are cool. I don't understand all of it, the important thing is that I get eight days in a row off, and that makes me happy.

It also makes me have to plan things to entertain myself. I have discovered that I can't sit around at home all day. I'm beginning to believe that this is why I wasn't so happy in the States - I spent a lot of time wanting to escape from my apartment and not being able to. Here, I don't have such worries. Venturing out of the apartment is always worthwhile and never too expensive (unless I choose for it to be expensive, but at least that's my decision). There is no reason for me to be bored, and for this, I am glad. Furthermore, I have eight days to find new ways to entertain myself.

Tomorrow, I absolutely must finish unpacking all of my crap and make some attempt to organize things. I'll probably do that in the evening; I want to go out and do something in the afternoon. Not sure what, probably going to Kashiwa and window-shopping. There's a shopping mall at one of the TX stops that has a Uniqlo, so I'll probably end up there. I can usually find something I want to buy there.

Thursday, I may be stuck in my apartment all day (or most of the day) as I wait for people to show up and get my internet set up. If I can actually get this done, a boring day at home will be worth it.

Friday, I'm going to Narita with Benni-sensei to visit the temple there, as well as a botanical garden. Should be entertaining, as traveling with Benni-sensei always is.

Saturday and Sunday have become a bit more complicated. Benni-sensei and I had planned on going up to Gunma on Saturday to hang out with Hitomi-san, but now Benni-sensei has family plans. Gunma may have to wait until Sunday. BUT one of my gaming buddies invited me to an English-language conference in Harajuku that I really want to go to, so I guess I need to decide what I want to do. If I go to Gunma, I'll probably have to stay in a motel, so I won't get home until Monday. This isn't a bad thing, it's just a little troublesome. I'd like to see Hitomi-san again, but that means spending more money and traveling a lot longer. Still thinking about that.

Also on Sunday is the Kentucky Derby, which I will get up incredibly early to watch if I have my internet running. That may affect my decision on going to the conference.

Monday through Wednesday, I'm still not sure of. I have some things in Tokyo that I want to do (such as go to Meiji Jingu, visit a botanical garden or two on Greenery Day), it's just a matter of figuring out what day I want to do them.

So, it looks like I've got no shortage of plans. I'm looking forward to having the time off to just relax and have some fun. And with any luck, after it's over, I'll have the ability to post my April pictures and adventures!

my Japanese Valentine

Is there any point to St. Valentine's Day other than to coerce people into spending money?

(Alrighty, that's my anti-Valentine's Day statement for the year. I have nothing personal against the "holiday," I just don't see much of a reason for it. It is properly placed on the calendar, I will say that, considering the approach of spring and all.)

I got a little bit of chocolate from my girls today, and that's all (probably a good thing, considering the amount of peanut butter balls that's occupying my apartment), but there's also a good reason for it. Simply put, on Valentine's Day, guys are the ones who get the chocolate. The ladies do the buying and the giving and very little of the receiving. They give chocolates and a personal gift to their special someone, as well as small treats for the other men in their lives (friends, co-workers, family, etc.), so it can get a bit expensive sometimes. From my observation, it seems to be more of a holiday for the younger generations - the vast majority of candy purchasers at the mall on Wednesday were teenagers and twenty-somethings.

My contribution to this Valentine's week was peanut butter balls. I've been meaning to make them for a couple of months now, and I decided that it was about time I made them. They went over quite well, especially with the adults. Handmade treats always seem to please them, and they were amused by the idea of American peanut butter being so different from Japanese peanut butter (which is sweet and thin and not quite as flavorful). Also, most of them were impressed that it was an old family recipe, something that's well appreciated. Actually, the kids were the most reluctant to try it; several of them said they didn't like peanut butter. For the most part, they liked them after trying them. A couple of the boys even asked to take a couple home to their mothers. That's always nice. I'm planning on making them some cookies soon, this time with the shortening my parents sent me.

Returning to the topic of Valentine's Day. The gift-giving is reciprocated on March 14th - White Day. Having received candy, the guys are fairly obligated to return the favor. Interestingly enough, the candies and presents given on White Day are supposed to be more expensive than what one received on Valentine's Day. Say what you will, but Japanese vendors know how to get people to spend more money.

And if you're Korean, you can celebrate Black Day on April 14th if you received nothing on Valentine's Day or White Day. The custom is for these singletons to gather together at restaurants and eat noodles in a black bean sauce to confirm their single status.

ice pack . . . of the GODS!

Overall, my knees are healing pretty well. I'm going to have a wonderful scar on my left knee, and some bruising still remains. Over the weekend and into Wednesday, I was suffering from water on the knee, which was both kinda gross (and squishy) and fairly painful. I spent most of Wednesday walking around the mall in Maebashi with Kozue-sensei.

This is itself was enjoyable - as enjoyable as walking around a mall can be. Kozue-sensei needed to do some Valentine's Day shopping, but apparently so did every other woman in the mall. The Valentine's Day kiosks had definitely seen better days. The highlight of my time at the mall was the discovery that Japan has Baskin Robbins. And they sell crepes. This made me thankful that the mall is far enough away that I can't go there every day.

After all this, though, my knee was not in the best condition. It especially hurt when I was sitting down, so I decided it was time to get a wrap or a real ice pack for it, since I was going to be on my feet in the evening making peanut butter balls. Kozue-sensei took me to a drugstore and helped me pick out an ice wrap, which I put on as soon as I got home.

Instant relief. I hadn't realized how much heat was coming off my knee, and putting on the ice pack made a profound difference. I kept it elevated and still for about an hour and when I got up, I expected some stiffness or at least a little pain. Nope, it was quite painless and moved easily. Color me shocked. And completely appreciative.

Even when I woke up on Thursday, my knee still felt good. I iced it again last night, and I've noticed that there's much less swelling and fluid around the knee this morning. Since I'll be on my feet most of today, I'm thinking about wearing one to work. The important thing is that the achiness is finally going away, and maybe it won't be long before I can get back to working out - which is not exactly a positive incentive, but I need to stick to my schedule.

My head, by the way, is completely okay. Only a small lump and a little tenderness remains. There wasn't even a bruise or anything. Head wounds are so melodramatic, with their blood and severe immediate swelling.

Oh, and hey, today is Friday the 13th. Can't wait to find out what horrors await me today!

(and there's another one in March - 2009 must be one lucky year)

Japanese Travel Journal: Takayama

So . . . about Takayama.

A lot of people I talked to were a little surprised that I wanted to visit Takayama. Maybe it's because it's a good distance away (total traveling time: 6-7 hours, I'm not sure). Maybe it's because it's winter and rather cold and snowy here in the Japanese Alps. Maybe it's because I went by myself. Maybe it's all of the above. Benni-sensei and Hitomi-san were very supportive though (after Benni-sensei got over her "it'll be freezing" tirade). They were both a bit shocked when they offered to help me make reservations and arrangements and I told them that I'd already taken care of it.

Not that it was difficult to do. I got the trains figured out, and the hostel I chose - the Zenkoji Temple Hostel - is cared for by an American and an old Japanese guy who speaks very good English, so that was no problem at all.

Let's start with the trains. I enjoy riding on trains. This again may simply because it's a new experience for me and is therefore easy for me to enjoy, but I like to think it's because it's fun and entertaining. The important to remember while traveling is not to hurry. Hurrying just makes you worry, and worrying is no fun at all no matter what you're doing. This is true even when you miss one of your train transfers. The nice thing about traveling during the day in Japan is that another train will be along eventually; you might have to wait a little while, but that generally doesn't bother me. It gave me the chance to use the restroom and grab some lunch.

The downside was that I didn't get into Takayama until late. Here is my first glimpse at Takayama:

Not exactly thrilling, is it? Oh, well, that's life. Still, there's something nice about a snowy evening. And I got to take the same train back two mornings later, so I was able to see the absolutely gorgeous views of our trip through the Japanese Alps. (More on that in a future post about trains.)

I had no trouble locating the hostel (it's a freaking Buddhist temple, after all), and quickly checked in, ate dinner, and retired to my semi-private room for the evening. Even though I was put into a private room, because I had originally asked for the dormitory, they only charged me the dorm rate. There weren't any other single women staying in the female dorm, so Woody (the American caretaker) decided to make that change. No complaints from me.

The Italians arrived soon after I did and almost immediately left again to have dinner at an izakaya. They came back around 11, in time to party like it was 2009 in the kitchen. They actually weren't that loud. Fireworks went off at midnight, and afterwards, I crawled into my futon bed and fell asleep. I've never been one to celebrate New Year's Eve with a party.

On a side note, around 10pm, I heard sticks clanking together, followed by the call of the hi no youjin. It sounded like there was just one guy doing the work, so it was definitely not as frightening as Nick's encounter. It seemed more like a necessary (and rather unpleasant, considering the weather) public duty.

(nota bene: I found this website explaining a bit about the hi no youjin thing, in case you didn't read Nick's blog - http://kappanohe.blogspot.com/2007/11/beware-of-firehi-no-youjin.html)

The next morning, I got up around 9am and went downstairs for breakfast, which I had with Angelo, the Italian head honcho, and a German guy passing through Takayama in the midst of his three-week journey around Japan. We had an interesting discussion about which Asian countries to visit (the Italian - who has done much traveling - suggested western China, India, and the Himalayas). This was followed by a discussion on American politics; I'm always amused when people ask my opinion on Obama, mostly because I don't have much of one at the moment. I usually don't care to make predictions on how well a person will do as a president; only time will tell that.

Besides, I was inifintely more interested in the atmosphere of the room. Even with the heater on, it was a bit chilly in the room, and the only light came from natural sunlight through the windows. The German had hard-boiled eggs that he was peeling and eating, and everytime he started a new one, great puffs of steam would rise up from it, seen clearly in the golden morning light. The Italian's tea had the same effect, steam rising up from it in rolling whorls and spirals. It was mesmerizing.

I knew I didn't have a lot of daylight to spare, so by 10am, I was setting out to explore Takayama, armed with a map I had taken from the hostel's common room. I decided to head first toward the Hida Folk Village, but I took my time getting there, mainly so I could snap some pictures of the snowy landscape.

Because there are a couple of ways to climb the LARGE hill up to Hida no Sato, I decided to take a more meandering path through some backstreets and up to a Shinto shrine, which I'm glad I did. I like Buddhist temples just fine, but overall, I prefer the simplicity of a Shinto shrine. They feel more connected and grounded in nature - sometimes, temples feel a bit overcrowded to me, and I don't mean with people. Shrines feel more open to me, perhaps because they aren't as enclosed. They're exposed to the elements, with fewer buildings and covering a larger expanse of land, sometimes going up instead of just spreading out.

This shrine is the Tosyogu shrine, and there seemed to be some New Year's Day ceremonies going on (which didn't stop a family with FIVE obnoxious children from running amok and screeching at the top of their lungs). When I arrived, something was going on in the main hall involving drums and flutes and singing. As I was washing at the purification trough, a firetruck drove up to the shrine, followed by what was probably the entire brigade, and they all assembled under a canopy to receive a New Year's blessing from a priest. I had a good vantage point of it from further up the mountainside, but I decided it would be incredibly rude to take pictures of it. It was nice to watch, though, especially when they first arrived, because the firefighters were all in good spirits and laughing amongst themselves. Snow kept falling from the trees, and when it landed on one of them, the others found this incredibly amusing, and even he couldn't help but laugh. It was a very nice visit.





After finishing at Tosyogu, I continued on my way to Hida no Sato. I passed a number of other things I'd like to see on my next trip to Takayama: the Hida Takayama Museum of Art, Matsukura Castle Ruins and Walking Course, and the Forest of the Seven Lucky Gods. If I'd had a decent pair of winter boots and if it hadn't looked like it was about to start snowing, I probably would have explored the Forest. Instead, I walked on up to Hida no Sato.

The Hida Folk Village is what most people mentioned when I told them I was going to Takayama. It's a World Heritage site and is apparently very important in preserving certain aspects of Japanese history. Much of the information at the site is about the architectural importance of the houses, most of which were built between the 1600's and the 1700's. Many of the houses could be walked through and were filled with interesting items from the village's history. I'd like to come back in warmer weather, because many different tours and demonstrations are given when the weather permits. Also, visitors can make their own crafts and such at each demonstration. Still, despite the relative quietness of the village (there were no demonstrations or additional tours that day), it was a rather active place and quite beautiful to see. Very peaceful.

As I left Hida no Sato, it began to snow a bit heavily, so I stopped at the Little Bear Cafe & Shop to warm myself and have some lunch. A nice, cozy place, and not too cute for my taste, though it was a bit cloying at times. I had some fairly greasy pizza (but with lots of yummy tomatoes) and a delicious green tea latte that did a wonderful job of warming me. I browsed the gift shop a while, bought a little bear and some sweet nuts for Kozue-sensei, and headed back down to Takayama.

Unfortunately, it was still snowing steadily, but this bothered me less than I expected. Maybe because it was such a novelty to me. I stopped in a Circle K to buy some soba noodles for dinner (and to look at the Kit Kat selection, but nothing new there), and when I came back out, the snow had slowed down considerably and it was quite pleasant out. So, instead of going back to the hostel, I decided I had plenty of daylight left to explore some of downtown Takayama.

To the north of Takayama is a longish trail with a number of shrines and temples, but I knew I wouldn't have time to do all that (another thing to save for later!), so I settled on just staying close to the JR station. I visited another Buddhist temple, which had a stone sarubobo figure to rub for good luck.

For more information on sarubobo figures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarubobo

Then I went off to try to find the Kusakabe Folk Museum, but I never did find it. Instead, I found some neat Edo-period houses, and more importantly, food! I had a sweet potato manju (steamed bun) that was delicious, as well as a a stick of grilled mochi. Mmm, yummy. I also found a glass-encased steer, which I at first thought had something to do with the New Year (2009 being the Year of the Ox and all). Then, I realized I was standing in front of a steak restaurant. Apparently, Hida beef is purported to be REALLY GOOD beef, and there are lots of steak restaurants in that area of the city. Another thing to do the next time I visit!

By this time, it was starting to get dark and snowing harder again, and I decided it was time to head back to the hostel. Plus, my feet were tired and cold and more than a little bit wet. I took my stuff up to my room and decided not to turn the heater on yet to save on the gas, so I went back downstairs to the kitchen for a snack. There I met Angelo, and he told me a little more about his travels. He's been traveling for a long time - the last time he came to Japan was 35 years ago! A bunch of his traveling companions came in to use the computers, and I hung around a while drinking tea and just listening to them talk. Then they left to have dinner.

I decided to bring my Kindle down to the kitchen and read some, which I'm glad I did, because I got to meet some new arrivals to the hostel, including a mother and daughter from Australia. The daughter is a university student, double-majoring in Japanese and Ancient History. While we had dinner (they had Cup of Noodles, while I had my soba), we talked about what it was like to live and travel in Japan - they'd already been to Kyoto and Nara and were heading to Tokyo after their stay in Takayama. Finally, they went off to bed, and I read a little while more before heading up to my room to turn on the heater and get ready for bed.

The next morning, I heard the Italians leaving as I packed my things. I had breakfast with a Swiss couple and got to have a short conversation with Tommy, the hostel's Japanese owner as he did laundry. I asked him and Woody when the best time to visit Takayama would be, and they both suggested coming during the summer. There are festivals in spring and autumn that are really great to see, but the city is more crowded. And Woody said the summer weather was still nice enough to explore in. So, I'm thinking about maybe going back sometime in late spring/early summer or in late summer/early autumn. I'm not entirely sure yet, but I'm definitely going back.

I had a great time in Takayama, and though I think it's more fun to travel with friends, it's also nice to have some alone time and do things by myself. Especially around the New Year, when I like to take time to just sit and think about all the stuff that's happened the previous year and what new wonders await me in the new one. I got the chance to do that at Hida no Sato, sitting by one of the gas heaters and watching the steady snow. I'm very glad I decided to take the trip, and I'm looking forward to going again.

And, I've already stuck to one of my New Year's resolutions: to do more traveling! And also to improve my Japanese, but I think that's true any day of the week.

I've got more traveling to do before my vacation is over. Tomorrow, I'm going with Benni-sensei and Ayuka-chan's family to Nikko, and who knows what we'll end up doing there! I'm sure I'll come back with still more pictures.

Which reminds me. I took about 140 pictures in Takayama, so I have way more than I posted here. To see them all:

Album 1: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=9344&id=1515469097
Album 2: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=9425&id=1515469097
Album 3: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=9429&id=1515469097

あけましておめでとうございます!

Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! Happy New Year!

Greetings from Takayama!

I arrived here last night, and I have one more night to go of my stay. The hostel I'm at has several computers to use, so I'm here in the common room with the mad mob of Italians who are also staying here for the holiday.

Today was my day for sight-seeing, and I am wholly and completely impressed with Takayama. There is so much to see and do here, and there's no way I could fit it all in to one brief day (considering I didn't leave the hostel until 10am and the sun sets around 4:30pm). Guess that just means I'll have to come back again later! I'm already trying to decide when I want to come back - maybe in the spring or autumn. I'm sure it'll be pretty crowded during those times of the year, considering that Takayama has seasonal festivals, but it'd be worth it. Maybe I'll come back at the end of the year again too.

I was warned that it would be cold, and it is. I was warned that there would be snow, and there is. This concerned me very little. I know I've made it clear to my students that I'm not used to the cold weather (and I'm not, not really), but I also realize that surviving any type of weather merely requires a certain amount of preparation. So, I prepared myself. I still don't have an appropriate pair of winter-weather boots, but the ones I do have are faring much better than my tennis shoes would. From Uni-Qlo (easily my most favorite store in Japan, even outdoing any grocery store I've been to), I have the HeatTech under-shirts, my down waterproof hooded jacket, and two pairs of men's ski pants. Doesn't matter to me that they're men's pants; they keep me warm, and that's all I care about. They also fit me, which is why I bought them and not the women's pants. Even Uni-Qlo couldn't help me there (though maybe if I could have found a pair of LL size . . .)

Anyway, I'm not only surviving, I'm really enjoying the winter weather. So far, it's snowed nearly continuously here in Takayama, and I'm fairly mesmerized by it. Of course, it's been 9 years since I last saw snow, but I'm not sure that makes much of a difference. I guess we'll find out over the next few months.

I took plenty of pictures today, and I'll be posting them as soon as I get home. I'll have the 3rd to rest and maybe work on cleaning my classroom and finishing up my lesson plans. Then I'm off on a day-trip to Nikko with Benni-sensei and the family of two of our students. Nikko is full of temples and shrines, and there's one in particular I'm interested in seeing, but I'm also under the impression that there will be skiing. Considering that my last attempt at skiing didn't go all that wonderfully, this should definitely be entertaining.

And off I go to relax a little. I wondered around Takayama for seven hours today, and I'm pretty tuckered out. I bought some soba to eat tonight, and I'll probably hang out in the common room and watch tv or read or something. Tomorrow, it's up early to find some omiyage for my students (already got Benni-sensei and Hitomi-san their gifts) and catch my train for home.

So, that's the start of my new year! If I wasn't already in love with Japan, I certainly am now. The more I see of it, the more I love it. I can't think of a better way to start off 2009.

"so this is Christmas . . ."

Here's the thing about holidays: it doesn't matter where you are or who you're with, you have to decide to make something of the holiday. You can be far away from home and still be happy, or you can be with friends/family and still be depressed. It's all in how you deal.

This is the first Christmas I've spent thoroughly and completely away from my family. I keep waiting for some melancholic wave or something to hit me and dampen my spirits, but the fact is that I'm happy. And I have no reason not to be happy. I enjoy my job, I like where I live, I like the people I work with (students AND co-workers), and every day is a little adventure unto itself. Every day, I'm happy to wake up and be where I am.

Homesickness has never been something I've understood anyway. Maybe it's because I can easily let go of attachments, or maybe it's because I believe that everything in life is fleeting. Maybe it's because I've never felt an attachment to any one place before. When I think about where home is, I think of where I am right now. I am home, both in the verb and noun sense. I've never needed anything outside of myself to represent home. I miss my family and my friends, but not so much that I'm suffering from being so far from them. So long as I remember them and all the years past, I carry them with me, and therefore, they are never too far from me.

Even though it's Christmas and I'm working and far away from the people I've always spent Christmas with, I'm happy. Not just happy - also pleased. Where I'm at, what I'm doing, it all feels good to me. Maybe in a month or two, I'll actually be hit with some sort of melancholia, but for now, I'll just enjoy being happy.

Happy holidays, folks. Winter has come; it has always seemed the quietest part of the year to me. I'm looking forward to going to Takayama next week to do a little bit of solitary travel. I've always thought of the end of the year as a time to reflect on what's past and meditate on what may be waiting in the future. I have a lot to think about.

Merry Christmas!

(oh, and I'll post about the Kamakura/Tokyo trip soon too, probably in two or three posts)

three more Christmas party pics

And look! I'm in them!

I tried to avoid getting sucked into too many pics in front of the Christmas tree, mainly because I was the one making sure that everyone was staying out of trouble while Benni-sensei and Hitomi-san took the picture-taking. But even I couldn't avoid it all the time.

With Nene-chan.

With Rio-chan. Yes, she's dressed as Snow White. Her mother just shrugged and said she insisted. The girl loves her Disney.


For a brief while, we had the younger kids coloring quietly in my room. From left to right: Yoshiki-kun, his sister Saki-chan, and Yuzuki-chan.

Christmas parties are not for wimps.

Especially Christmas parties geared toward children.

In the end, I decided not to put too much effort into my plans for the kids' Christmas party for three reasons: 1. only 14 kids signed up and showed up; 2. they wouldn't have understood much anyway; and 3. Benni-sensei is a piss-poor planner and doesn't tell me anything when she does make a plan.

I like Benni-sensei, I really do. We just do things a little differently. When planning, I need some kind of direction. It's okay if I have to be flexible and divert and make up stuff as I go, but I need to start with something other than, "Okay, let's do this!" I have no problems putting things into action, but I need to have an idea of what the end result is supposed to be. I realize that not everyone works that way, but I do, and ignoring that fact would be kind of stupid because why would I purposefully work against my own nature?

I thought it was a Japanese thing at first (in that everybody is on the same wavelength and comes to a mutual decision together), but now I'm not so sure. Most of the time, it seems like Benni-sensei is running the show and nobody else has any idea what the hell she's doing.

But this isn't about Benni-sensei, this is about our Christmas party! It actually wasn't so bad, possibly because the 3 Jyukou boys weren't there - they typically spend most of their time beating each other up and having to be separated. As it was, the kids were pretty riled up anyway (I blame the full moon), and it was enough work trying to keep them all occupied.

Benni-sensei played "Jingle Bells" on the guitar, and the kids mostly sang along when asked (we'd even made little song books for them to read along). Then we had them write little notes to Santa Claus and put them in a little mailbox that Hitomi-san made. After that, we had them color paper ornaments for the tree we put on the wall in the lobby. This was followed by feeding time, and man, can those kids put away the food. Benni-sensei wanted me to give them a little Christmas lesson, but we decided that they weren't going to calm down enough to do that, so we played a vocabulary game in which they had to race to hit the correct picture. That entertained them well enough. We finished with the present exchange, and off they went. Not bad for two hours.

But, here's another thing I've noticed about Hitomi-san and Benni-sensei: they have no idea what these kids are up to most of the time. And like all children everywhere, the one thing they are consistently good at is making trouble. I noticed that Nene was messing around in the back storage room (which is crammed full of junk that's probably been back there for years), and then she ran off to do something else. So, I went and closed the door and turned around in time to see her leading six other kids down the hall. And I took her by the shoulders and turned her around and glared sternly at the rest of them until they all went back to the lobby. I do a lot of this kind of thing, even on regular class days - making sure that the kids are where they're supposed to be and doing what they're supposed to do. Benni-sensei can keep them entertained, I make sure they stay still for it. Not that Benni-sensei didn't make an effort, but it's one thing to ask them to stop running and another thing to cut them off and herd them back to the main group. I know what a complaint sounds like no matter what language it's in, but they also know that I'm not playing around.

I don't mind being the one who makes sure that nobody's getting into trouble. It gives me something to do other than stand around and wonder what everyone's talking about. And it reinforces to the kids the idea that I'm not some kind of pushover just because of a language barrier.

All in all, though, it was a good party. Everybody seemed to have a good time, and I certainly can't complaing about that.

They make a good picture, don't they? On the far left is Hitomi-san and her daughter (whose name is either Kokora or Kokona, I'm still not sure), and on the far right is Benni-sensei. Most of these students are mine.

One thing's certain, these kids can eat!

Ayuka-chan (my student) and Raito-chan (who will be Benni-sensei's student as of Monday).

Playing a vocabulary game with the kids. Rio won. Yeah, the 4 y/o beat a bunch of older kids, without hardly any help at all. I swear, she's like some kind of little genius.

Our Christmas tree on the wall. The kids helped decorate it.

a busy busy . . . BUSY week

I've been meaning to post all week, but December proves to be just as crazy in Japan as it is in the States. I had a pile of Challenge Kids tests to grade, contracts to check up on, baking to do, Intensive Week lessons to plan, coloring to do, and general all-around work stuff. Maybe it's because of the end of the year, and everything is wanting to be done before the new year arrives. I've noticed that a lot of my students have also been way busier than usual.

Surprisingly, I have had relatively few homesick moments. There have been a few, mostly when I think about all the baking that's done around Christmas (how I miss peanut butter balls and red velvet cake!), but these moments are usually fleeting and pass quickly. Just thinking about the happy memories is enough for me, keeping them in mind and not letting go of them. I've also been doing some thinking about all that's happened this past year, and it's amazing what changes a person can go through. Most of it was for the better.

On the plus side, I had the most excellent Friday ever. It was crazy busy (as usual), but everyone was in a really awesome mood. The kids were great, and most of them were really happy with their Challenge Kids test scores (which is only right, because all of them did fantastically well, and there were even a couple perfect scores). Plans for the kids' party are going well, even if we are going to have about half the number of students we had last time. But all of my favorite students are coming, so yay! (Yes, I have kid students that I like to have around - did I mention I'm becoming a pod person?) I have a new student in one of my Sprint classes, and he fit in well with the other students and seemed to enjoy himself. And now I am home baking cookies for the kids' Christmas party and considering making persimmon bread for tomorrow's nabe party.

Life? It's totally good.

Oh, and to all of the awesome people who work with my Mom: thank you for the Christmas card! I love it! And I'm very happy that you're enjoying my little piece of the internet here! I'll try to keep up with eevrything that's going on here! Thank you!

In closing, here's something that one of my students brought for me from her trip to Tokyo Disney. (sorry about the formatting, but I'm in a hurry and fixing it would require me to go and figure out how to do it) It's for the New Year, and it was filled with green tea truffles! Yummy! I'm now using the tin at home to hold my jewelry, wallet, and keys, to keep them a little organized. So nice!

Christmas comes to GEOS Isesaki

The lobby - that little window looks into the office.

Another shot of the lobby, looking out onto the street.

Our library (ha ha).

Our Christmas tree. A little Charlie Brown-esque, isn't it? Well, it's what we could find in the back storage room, so it's what we've got.

My Christmas wall.

Decorations for Christmas have been put up and enjoyed by all. They're hardly spectacular, but they're ours and we're proud of them. I actually really like my wall, and it was nice to put on some Christmas music and decorate it. I don't have a tree this year, so that kind of made up for it. Every time the kids color a new Christmas picture, I put it up on the wall for everyone to see. I let the kids pick where they want it to go - they seem to like that.

Our Christmas party for the kids is this coming weekend, and Benni-sensei asked me to come up with a mini-lesson idea to give to the kids. Putting a historical-purist like me in charge of Christmas is not a stupendous idea. I get hung up on details. Like the origins of the holiday. And the symbolism of it. And why we do the things we do when it comes to decorating. I have to remind myself to keep things simple because Christmas is really a rather vague concept to the Japanese, especially if they've never been exposed to an American Christmas.

(Which is why we have a menorah mixed in with all of those other Christmas coloring pictures, because it was easier to leave it in than to try to explain to Hitomi-san what Hanukkah is and why it's different from Christmas. I have nothing against Hanukkah, in fact I think it's disrespectful to it to lump it in with Christmas when it is most decidedly NOT Christmas. I'd like to include it, but I have only limited knowledge of it, and nobody's all that interested anyway.)

The problem is not avoiding talking about religion. You can talk about Christmas all you want without really touching upon the Christian aspect of it, which is what I plan on doing. These kids aren't Christian, and they don't care and aren't interested, and I'm not here to convert them. Nor am I trying to belittle the holiday, because I like it, and I have my own interpretations of it. My main goal is to be fair all around and make sure that the kids enjoy themselves and aren't overwhelmed with information.

So, my focus is on Santa Claus - he's a figure they all recognize and like, so that's a good start. I'm thinking I will create a template for them to write letters to him, and then next week, I will give them each a little something in their stockings (which I'm having them work on this week). Benni-sensei also wants me to do something having to do with Christmas trees, and I'm working on that. Maybe I'll make a big paper tree for the lobby and have them make ornaments. Or maybe I'll have them make their own individual trees. I like the big tree idea, but the problem is making the tree. Makes me wish I had some sort of artistic talent.

Halloween is over.

Yeah, for me it is. This week was the week to give kids their "special lesson" on Halloween, and then, on Sunday, we had our school Halloween party. This was highly entertaining, since it was my first official work party, and it was all for the children. I believe a total of twenty-nine kids showed up, and I was pretty much put in charge of the ones ages 7+, of which there were about eighteen. Now, my room is pretty small, and I consider it somewhat miraculous that I got all eighteen of them in there without much damage done. Half of them were my students, the other half belonged to Benni-sensei, who had all the younger kids. She had them in the bigger activity room, but they made way more noise and a bigger mess than my group did.




Obviously, the school couldn't afford to give pumpkins to every single kid, so we had little oranges (mikans) to give to them. The ones that got to the party early were put to work drawing faces on them. They turned out pretty cute. The two boys in the picture are my students; the girls are Benni-sensei's.



Some of the kids came in costume. The first pic is Rio (not to be confused with Ryo, who is sitting next to her), my 4-year old private lesson student. As you can guess, she LOVES Disney Princesses and is absolutely adorable - sounds like someone else I know, hmm? (yeah, I'm talking about Cyra, except Rio is cute in Japanese AND English, ha ha). She's a very bright little girl, and her mother wants her to learn to read English so she can get into an international school next year. The bottom picture shows Nene and Ayuka, also my students.



The lady with the guitar is Benni-sensei. She is very talented when it comes to music, and she wanted to teach the kids a Halloween song, and it took me a while to convince her that there really wasn't a song that would be easy for non-native kids to learn. She finally settled on "You Are My Sunshine."



I was instructed to give a Halloween lesson for about twenty minutes, and I had no idea what to do with 18 kids in that time span, so I settled on having them draw. I got them to do both pumpkins and ghosts, and then I had them do a word find that was too difficult for some of them, but they seemed to enjoy it. They all stayed on task, and they cleaned up the whole mess afterward (it was astounding, I blinked, and the next thing I knew, the table was clear and the kids were gone).

The girl in the last picture is Arisa, one of my shyer students. She's a very good artist, so I wanted to make sure I got her ghost in a picture. Behind her, hunched over his ghost (who has hands and is wearing a suit and glasses) is Yuudai, who is easily one of my best students and is quite fun besides.



After the "lesson," Benni-sensei led the whole group to two of our neighboring businesses for pre-arranged trick-or-treating. The first was a flower shop (Floralies), the second a drug store (Marue, which we go to frequently anyway, sometimes once a day). This attracted quite a few stares and kept us adults on our toes because some of the younger kids don't have full awareness of their surroundings yet. Plus, pedestrians don't appear to have automatic right-of-way in Japan, even if they're a pack of thirty or so kids.


The kids were all brought back safe and sound, fortunately, and they were promptly fed sandwiches. That went rather smoothly, considering we had a total of about forty people crammed into the activity room and stuffing their faces. Then, everyone was brought back out to the lobby area and there was a gift exchange. I'm told that Japanese people love to give gifts, which is the only explanation I can come up with as to why a gift exchange was planned into a Halloween party. But it made everyone happy, and who can argue with something that makes people happy?

Finally, costume prizes were handed out (all three to young kids, I noticed; Hitomi-san looked a little wide-eyed when Benni-sensei asked her to judge), pictures were taken, and then the children were released to their rapidly-arriving parents.

All in all, it was quite fun. We made it through without incident, which I consider a pretty good success. The only fit thrown was by one of the student's year-old brother, who by the end of the night was sick and tired of being held by anyone who get could their hands on him. He was dressed as a little bunny and was pretty darn cute all right, but even he was done with by the end of the night. Can't say I blame him.

So, the next party will probably be a Christmas party in December. Japanese people don't celebrate Christmas, but this is an English-speaking school, so it follows English-speaking holidays (Easter is also on the calendar). That, I'm thinking, should also be a fairly entertaining evening.