Ladies and Gentlemen, we will soon be making a brief stop at...

It's Halloween week at Amity. I've used this as an excuse to dress up my little ones and throw parties with my older ones.





Tomorrow, after another Halloween party, I'm leaving right from work for Hiroshima with my friend Mika. I know what you're thinking and, don't worry, I'll take lots and lots of pictures. ;)

Ow.

Taiko drumming in the mountains may have been surreal...but the pain in my arms today is all too real. Ow.

*Yawn* Just another day

It was another average Sunday afternoon, here in Japan.
After two hours of language lessons at the international center, Dawn and I got onto a bus with 20 other people and headed...somewhere into the mountains, to spend the afternoon learning how to play the Taiko Drums.

Ok. When I say average, I mean...surreal.
My arms and legs are exhausted but I'm never, ever going to forget this day.

I've uploaded a bunch of pictures from the day so please go check them out (that would be the link "photo album" on the right hand side)

...and also, I have some videos from the day.

Click here to watch real Taiko Drumming

Click here to watch...foreigners try to do it.

The sound quality is awful and the video quality is a bit low, but...hey thanks to Google, it's free hosting. Also, I don't mind that you can't see me because I have a stupid look on my face. (I was concentrating!)

Moments like these...

I've been teaching for...three months now. A long time? Hardly any time at all? I keep flipping back and forth.

I teach one adult student...and since I started working, I got the sense that he wasn't particularly invested in his lessons. My predecessor would spend 15 minutes playing games that involved speaking English and then go right into working through the Textbook. When I came in, I simply continued to the tradition.

But a few weeks ago, I decided to ask him what it was he was looking for in his English lessons. His answer should have been obvious...as a business man, he was looking to learn English that could be used in "situations" as he said. At the bank, at the post office, at the airport. Our current textbook dealt with none of those things...

So, I started to do a little research and I found a book that was all about situations you will encounter when you're travelling in English speaking countries. The first chapter starts on an Airplane, then the next is at immigration, next is exchanging money, making hotel reservations etc...

So today, I pulled the book out and announced we were going to try something different. I was nervous - what if he thought it was too easy? What if he already knew these things? Would he think the role-playing exercises were stupid? I'm 23, he's...late...40-something, does he really want me standing up at the white board, telling him what to do?

We made it through the lesson, but I was a bit relieved when class was over.
As he walked out the door, he stopped and turned to me and said (in Japanese)
"Thank you. I really enjoyed the lesson today."

Honestly, you would have thought I discovered world peace, the way I felt after hearing that.

My last class of the day is a group of four teenagers. After we finished the lesson, I apologized for keeping them over a few minutes and hurried to open the door. But instead of rushing out, they just sat...and talked to me for several minutes.
Sometimes my little kids will stay and play in my room after class, but the teens and pre-teens always watch the clock and then bolt for the door. Having them stay behind of their own volition...was...well...it was another one of those world peace moments.

It's not that I'm a great teacher, by any stretch of the imagination. Yesterday, I was so tired I ended up playing games with one my classes because I was too exhausted to teach a lesson. But...every once in a while, when I get it right....it's...it's indescribable.

Sometimes, it's good to be girly

Today, I was exploring the Japanese countryside with a new friend. As I was walking down a small dirt road, rice paddies on my left and green tea fields on my right, I looked down and saw a small snake.
It looked like the little garden snakes that sometimes make an appearance in Chicago gardens. Trying to impress my new friend, I thought I would not act like a girl and start screaming. Instead, I braced myself and said non-chalantly "Hmm, a snake..." while bravely stepping over it.

As I walked on, commending myself on handling that situation well, my friend looked back and said "Oh! That snake is very dangerous. Deadly poison. It can kill you!"

At which point...I started screaming.

Wake up!

I find it strange to come home and realize that while I was working all day, my friends and family back home were...sleeping. Today was a really...really...really long day. A busy weekend, followed by all day training in Gifu yesterday (Gifu is about 1.5 hours from my city), and all the while fighting a nasty cold...well, it makes for one tired teacher.

A few of my favorite junior high students came early to class today, so we were all doodling on the board. They collectively drew this for me...

Success!

I have made it to the weekend!! Today I attended Japanese lessons, enjoyed the beautiful weather by frolicking at Okazaki castle with Dawn, went shopping, cleaned my apartment, updated my blog, uploaded my pictures and sent off a stack of e-mails.

I think I can take the rest off of the evening off, guilt free. But tomorrow, Dawn and I are heading out with some new Japanese friends to go GRAPE PICKING.

I love it here....

Can it be?

More than two months after my arrival in Japan, I finally...finally...FINALLY have internet in my apartment.
For a country that is so technologically advanced, they have made the whole 'getting internet in your apartment' thing, an incredibly difficult process.

Massive, massive updates on the way. I've already begun uploading pictures (sorting through nearly 500 pictures is time consuming) so please, check them out.

I'm also working through my inbox...I've made it through about 10 of the 150 unopened messages. Oy oy. But if you've written me an e-mail, I'll be writing back soon. And if you haven't written me....helloooo, why not? ;)