At the store a while back, I ran into some of my third year JHS students....who proceeded to hide behind the shelf in the row next to the one I was in and pop their heads up to see me then giggle and try to hide again......my only thought "if you're trying to be sneaky it helps if you aren't snickering so much, ya goobers"......so I said hello which made them gasp...guess they thought I didn't notice?....then they said hello back, two of them even peeked out from the end of the aisle so I could see their face and they said hello.....the rest of the time at the store they were giggling and trying not to be in the same aisle as me.......I won't lie it was kinda weird but entertaining nonetheless lol ^^.
All of the numbered things happened in one day ^^
0. got my package from my mom and dad in the mail (didn't think it'd come since it was sunday), and I skyped with my parents (and the dogs) for a bit :).
1. Soba noodle festival with awesome soba noodles in the small village next to mine. There were two news people there one with a camera for a Niigata newspaper and another one w/ a video-recorder....needless to say being the only gaijin there and with Sadea-san (an old English teacher who taught in this area and knew most of the people in the room) I had lots of pics taken of me and was interviewed and Sadae-san kept referring to me as a "star" or "movie star" lol. (a pic of the soba noodles and stuff is in the post about food)
2. after the delicious food and great people that I met, I went to Sadae-san's house where she gave me broccoli, potatoes, dakon radishes, peppers, coffee, creamer, and sugar....and she served me tea, coffee and snacks (all of which were delicious), and showed me her house. She also showed me a photo album of past ALTs of Sanpoku and an album from when she taught at the Jr. High and told me fun stories and pointed out who was married to whom and who had kids and how one of the people is a famous movie director and so on.
3. Went home to get stuff and then went out shopping where I got some neat pics of sea foam, the ocean, and the sunset....felt bad for the seagulls it was sooo windy they weren't going anywhere when they tried to fly toward the ocean.....had someone pull over to offer to take my picture with the sea in the background...at one of the stores I was offered hand cream by the cashier (since I mentioned it was cold and windy, she pulled out some hand cream and offered to give me some), she also gave me an extra coupon thing ^^... then at the door I had a bunch of people hand me free reflector stickers (one guy even put them on the backs of my shoe (guess he wanted to make sure I understood what some of them were for) and a little wallet thing and a reflector sash...in the store I ran into some people I knew which is always fun, and then I ordered some tsukune (chicken on a stick) and told the chef it was oishii (tasty) which made him really happy^^, then got home and ran into one of my neighbors and had a nice, short chat :). Here are some pics of the ocean and the sea-foam stuff, it was blowing around a lot, but it's a bit hard to tell :p.
What else..........I got to practice playing volleyball with a beach ball (indoors) with the teachers at Minami Elementary school and it was a lot of fun, they were joking around a lot and there were a few times when some of the teachers had to sit down b/c they were laughing so hard :D. It was a lot of fun, and then we placed 4th I think in the community tournament (maybe it was 5th....there were only 6 teams, so we weren't too great, but it was a lot of fun and we came close in a few games^^). After the tournament we all met at a restaurant for some good food where I had fried rice in oyster sauce (I think it was oyster sauce, the menu said kakisa-su ) anyway, that was a lot of fun ^^.
I had a nice Thanksgiving dinner, the night before I went to Chika-san's house with Kamimura-san and their husband and boyfriend (chika's husband and kamimura's bf) and we had a really tasty hot-pot meal and cake. The hot-pot is where there is a pot of hot soup-broth/water in the center (with a small burner underneath so you can heat it up) and you put in bits of fish/meat and veggies and let them cook and then fish them out ^^. It was really good and had the carrots cut into tiny hearts^^. But yeah, that was a lot of fun sitting around and chatting with good food. Then on Thanksgiving I had Sadae-san over and I made some chicken/turkey (one turkey leg mixed in w/ chicken), stuffing, spicy carrots and daikon radish slices, tomato soup, mashed potatoes, and chocolate pie ^-^. Everything turned out pretty good and Sadae-san really loved my stuffing, which I gotta admit was very tasty :D, though I made it completely from scratch (boiled the chicken and turkey leg to make stock) and used Thyme, which really made it taste good^^.
I did some listening tests at the JHS. The kids were nervous, so I let them practice/ask questions real quick before they started.....and gave them stickers....and that seemed to help lol :D. Most of them looked really relieved once it was done and were really chipper after class lol........though sadly I didn't move them along at a fast enough pace and so a few of them had to take it after lunch on Friday. :p.....but, oh well, I regret nothing ^^. The tests were rather simple and it really seems to have helped the kids warm up to me more....it's been harder to click with them b/c of how little I do in the classroom and they do their own thing at lunch, where as at the Elementary schools I do a lot of the teaching and get whisked away at recess by the students....but either way^^ things are going more smoothly w/ the JHS students so that's a nice relief. Though sadly, I gave some of them candy from America the other day (b/c it was close to winter break and b/c I wanted to share/give them incentive to speak English)...I also arm-wrestled some for the candy... but one of the teachers heard them talking about it and I was scolded (sorta, not a very stern scolding, but still) for giving them candy and was told that such things do not promote well for learning environments............and while being scolded all I could think was, "I wonder how much worse I would've done if I didn't have candy, it helped me study and remember and gave me incentive to get good grades b/c then I got candy or ice cream or pizza, and so on"....but c'est la vie, though I still can't help but feel bad for the students in Japan, such a strict lifestyle, it's no wonder they have a lot of issues with stress :p.
I felt a tiny earthquake in the beginning of December....At first I thought it was the wind at first (the wind gets pretty strong, I've been almost knocked over by it), but then I realized more than my windows were shaking a bit....nothing major (though it hit harder elsewhere) where I was it just felt like bobbing a bit on a raft in a pool.
The nursery schools had a dance festival where the students did dances, it was really cute, though sadly I could only make it to one of the nursery school's dance festival. But the students dressed up for various themed dances, like samurai, princesses, ninjas and so on^^. The Panda class (the grade just before Kindergarten) had a dance about shrimp, and they had bandannas with a picture of crab attached to it...and one of the boys was very happy to do the dance and when he got off the stage he was walking sideways and crouched down with his hands up (in pincer position, pinching at the air) like a crab with a huge smile on his face lol. Needless to say the dance-thing was super cute. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, though at one point two little girls were crying on stage, but they still said their verse in the song when their time came, but later on they cheered back up more^^.
I had a get-together with some ALTs, and their Japanese friends and their family in Murakami to celebrate Christmas, and that was a lot of fun. I made the delicious spice cake, it was so nice to bake again^^. But we basically had fun talking and catching up and eating and cooking good food, so it was a lot of fun to see everyone and eat good food and bake ^0^. And then, on a different day, I met up with Kamimura, Chika and their husband/boyfriend to have a Yakiniku dinner xmas party where we did a secret santa thing. I got a comfy pillow to sit on. The yakiniku is were there is a giant hot-plate thing in front of you (kind of like the really big ones and you can make a lot of grilled cheeses or pancakes on them) and you cook meat and veggies on it and pick them off when you want to eat them. We had pork (a bit of pig heart too, chewy but not too bad) and mushrooms, onions and peppers, it was pretty tasty ^^. And as always it was a lot of fun hanging out with them and chatting and such ^^.
Lastly, the end of the year party, kinda of amusingly placed on Dec 21st lol. It's the party where the teachers stay at a very fancy hotel/onsen and eat, drink, sing karaoke, and enjoy the onsen and basically party/relax the woes of last year away. During dinner we did a game show thing where we had to guess the highlights of the past year and we got points for out team if we guessed a chosen highlight. My team placed 3rd out of 4 teams. I realized that I am no good at karaoke without a wingman/woman...I need to hear the lyrics as well as the music to do a good job, though granted I wasn't drunk and it was my first time doing Karaoke....idk if being drunk would help, prob not, but it did seem to help the others get into it. I chose YMCA which was a really good choice b/c all of the teachers stood up and did the dance and chanted the YMCA part lol ^^. And then I got to go to the onsen with one of the teachers, the rest went back to the bar or elsewhere, and just sit around, relax and chat, so that was really nice^^. It's nice to have someone who would rather relax and chat than party a bunch. And yeah that's pretty much up to date...........as per usual if you want more details feel free to comment......I'm trying to find a nice place to put up pics since some of you don't have facebook....though you can try to see them there and if it doesn't work just let me know by saying something in the comments https://www.facebook.com/mary.miller.587606/photos_albums.
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