brrrrr

I realize that some of you who are reading this live in much colder places than I do, however I believe you have better insulated walls, I would just like to rant a bit about how cold it is. I am eternally cold and have not yet found the key to staying warm. Last night I was sitting IN my apartment wearing a tank top, long sleeved shirt, fleece shirt, and a wool sweater. I know it sounds bit excessive (because really its not that cold, only 48 degrees in the apt), but when you have been chilled all day (school is cold too) its hard to get rid of the feeling.

But the epitome of this cold situation is seen through the process I have to go through to take a shower.
1. Turn on the shower 10 minutes ahead to try and steam up the shower room.
2. put towels in dryer
3. Turn heater on in my room on super high
4. Turn electric blanket on (just in case)
5. Take shower
6. Run into my bedroom through the freezing kitchen.

I hope that you all are very appreciative of your warm showers!

But anyway enough of that, I think I'm going to become numb soon and not feel it anymore (I hope).


Oh and yesterday I was awoke to quite a surprise, snow! everything was covered with about 3 inches of snow. It's not a ton of snow, but I had been told that we might get a few days with flurries but that it rarely ever sticks. All of the kids loved it! Lots of snowballs were being made and thrown around school. It was actually quite beautiful.

alcatraz, church and an ER??

Well its back to work, blah. But actually things have been better already this week than last. No school Monday, yay! And then I had 5 classes both yesterday and today, so the week seems to be moving along at a nice rate.

This weekend, some fellow JETs and myself, braved the artic temperatures that had blasted into Japan on Saturday and headed into Tokyo. We decided that we needed to have a much-needed get together after the holidays, and spend some time in the city. We decided that we were going to visit a few themed restaurants/bars that could only be found in Japan.

First, it had been decided that we would go to Christon Café (CHRISTon, incase you were unclear of the theme). None of us knew what to expect, but after walking around for about 40 minutes in the cold looking for the place we were happy to be indoors, and to our surprise the place was gorgeous. It was a huge place, with incredibly high vaulted ceilings (a bit unexpected considering we were on the 8th floor of a 12 story building. There were gorgeous chandeliers, stained glass, and candles everywhere. It really should have been more characterized as gothic than religious, except for the huge alter and organ that were at one end of the place (oh and the religious music playing in the background). Food wasn’t all that amazing but the setting was quite nice.

Next we moved onto Alcatraz+ER. A prison and hospital themed restaurant, don’t exactly know how the two fit together, but like I said only in Japan. After one member of our group was handcuffed we were all led off to our cell (table). We were in the ‘brain surgery’ cell. We were put in and they closed the gates on us, to order we had to bang on the metal bars and a nurse would come and take our order. We ordered various drinks, and when they appeared we were quite surprised as some were in lab kits that you had to mix yourself, one was in a baby bottle, and one even came inside of a woman’s head. There was also a show. During which the lights went out and some masked man appeared in our cell and decided to scare me when the lights came back on! And eventually they found an unsuspecting customer who they put on a stretcher and carried around and performed some sort of ‘surgery’ on. It was all very odd, and uniquely Japanese.

I think that's most of the weird events of the night but more about the weekend to come, have to run to class….

Well I am officially back in Japan, and officially back at work (with no classes today). I hope that everyone enjoyed their holidays! I enjoyed mine quite a bit. It was great to be able to spend the holidays with my family and enjoy the indulgences such as warmer weather, shopping, and hot running water!

I headed back to the USA on December 21st and was there through this past weekend. Fox flew out to Phoenix and spent Christmas with me and my family. It was really great to see him. While in Phoenix I got to spend time with all the family, head up to Sedona with Fox, and even trekked down to Tuscon to visit Fox's brother and show Dev around the University of Arizona. Also spent probably too much time shopping, but i needed more work clothes and winter clothes to layer up with!! I had an excuse.

Here are a few pictures from Christmas:

























next on to sedona:















hiking the south mountains near my parents house in phoenix:





New Years eve we went to a nice restaurant for dinner then headed home, took a few pictures, and then my dad fell asleep and dev finished packing then headed out to a party. so my mom and I were the only ones still awake in the house as midnight approached, so we decided to pack up a bottle of wine and hike up to a look out point (near the house, where we could see most of the valley) to toast the New Year and see a few fireworks.

i leave in a day?

life has been busy the last week or two and have been neglecting my blog a bit. had a visitor over the weekend, seena came and stayed with me for a few days on her way home to guam. it was really great to see her! got to show her around my area and we also headed into tokyo for a day.







now for todays activities...

as i am officially an employee of the board of education, part of my duties include visiting elementary schools occasionally (well basically whenever they ask). so today i had my first elementary school visit. and it was great. i went to tokashima shogakko, a very small school, i mean only 28 students in the school!!

the visit was a whirlwind of activity in a short period of time. had two classes (all students divided between them). did my self intro, they introduced themselves (hi my name is..., nice to meet you. my favorite food is...), then we talked about what they want for christmas, and finally played pin the nose of rudolph. then i ate lunch with the 3rd and 4th graders. and after lunch we went to the gym and i played basketball with ALL of the students and some of the teachers. it was great!! it is days like this that i really enjoy working here, and i actually feel like i serve a purpose.

eventually headed back to my regular school, but not before a few of the little kids gave me some flowers they picked, a bunch of photos that one of the teachers had printed, and of course about 5 cups of tea! (oh and all of the kids and teachers came out and waved goodbye as i was leaving).

aren't they adorable...
















then got back to school and one of my classes was making mushiyaki, so i got to go and help/watch.





it was an exhausting day! but lots of fun.

and now i would just like to wish everyone reading this a wonderful christmas and happy new year!! i am headed back to the good old us of a on friday morning (only one more day of school, time is flying!).

sweet potatoes, apples and carrots

so to my knowledge in japan there is no such thing as an ice cream truck that drives around dishing out ice cream to kids. but they do have the yaki imo man! the yaki imo is a sweet potato that is roasted on hot stones and charcoal. so apparently starting in mid November the yaki imo man begins driving through neighborhoods peddling these cherished seasonal japanese food and will continue throughout the winter. the truck is set up so that the imo (sweet potatoes) are roasting on a fire in the back of the truck

haven't been able to snap a picture of the yaki imo man in my area but found this picture


but there is more to this whole thing, the man drives around chanting the yaki imo call. and the first time i heard it, i was very confused. if you check out this link you can hear it: http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/sounds/ishiyakiimo.html

in other news, today when i was just having a lazy day in my apartment there was a knock on my door (not all that common, haha). when i opened the door, my elderly neighbor couple were standing at my door with a bag for me. they brought me 3 apples and 2 carrots. the best part was that there was a note attached, written in english!! so we discussed (in japanese) a bit who had written it, and it turns out that the man speaks some english, who would have thought?!

the note read:

to foreign teacher,
please help yourself to apple and a carrot.
perhaps, this apple is the most delicious in japan.
because this apple was cultivated by a new type of fertilizer.
it's producted only japan.
and this carrot is too!
in memory of japanese tastes.
from neighbor.

how adorable is that!

anyway i was caught off guard by this, as most of my neighbors are pretty quite and just give a little bow when they see me. oh, except the other day, i noticed that one of my other neighbors (a family with 2 little kids that go to the elementary school across from my house) had left the inside light of their car on. i decided that i should let them know, so i went and ended up having to communicate this through an intercom in japanese. yikes! but somehow she understood what i was saying. so now whenever i see her or her kids they all greet me. looks like my neighbors are starting to acknowledge my presence, only took 4 months :)

It is December so I moved back to Itako 2nd today. And unfortunately, today classes were dedicated to returning and reviewing tests that students took last week, which meant no classes for me. Even though I had no classes today I still interacted with the students quite a bit throughout the day. All of the students seem excited when they saw me around and would seek me out in their free time to speak with me. Much like the students reaction, when I walked into the teacher’s room this morning I felt that the teachers were genuinely happy to see me (can’t say I really get the same feeling at Hinode). Already had my English teachers working with me to make plans for the week/month, which is good, it means I’ll actually know what is going on in the classroom and at school, yay! So, I’m fairly confident in saying, in terms of teaching, this month is going to be much better than the last! I’m a little sad that I am only going to be here for three weeks before I head back to the states (which is unbelievably only 17 days away!). December is going to fly by!

its a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

today was a beautiful fall day, a welcome break from the cold of the past few weeks, so i decided to go for a run around the neighborhood, went a different way than normal and discovered 2 different parks! they are both so close to my house, how did i never know they were here. ran into a few groups of my students out enjoying the weather as well, and they all actually stopped me and wanted to talk to me(mostly in English too!!). my students are great, i just wish there wasn't so much bureaucracy in the school system and i could have more 'fun' with them, and that they actually had time to act like kids!

also made carrot bread in my rice cooker this afternoon. this is my second attempt making bread in my rice cooker (made banana bread a few weeks ago), and both have turned out well! i think i have made less rice in my rice cooker than other various foods (applesauce is by far the best discovery so far). how does anyone live without a rice cooker?