End of the W̶o̶r̶l̶d̶ Year Party

　　Every December schools everywhere have an End of the World  Year party.  A lot of places, including schools are very group minded in Japan. All about the group and not the individual. Which is nice at times, and a burden     sometimes unhealthy     at others. Well the end of the year party isn't too bad, you get together with your coworkers for a party of 'drink away the troubles of the past year'....and some take it to really mean 'drink away the troubles' and get really slammed. Believe it or not, I'm not fond of alcohol....like some drinks well enough, but one drink is plenty and I rarely have a desire to drink more than 2 of anything. So for people like me who don't drink, being around and going to a party where everyone drinks a lot (which is most parties in Japan, alcohol is a big part of socializing, but that's a tangent for another time). Luckily there is one teacher who doesn't drink much so I'm not alone. So I get there, go to the spa for a short bit, then enjoy a really fancy dinner. 

  Don't worry there's a little candle thing under the dish in the top left corner (right too) to cook the meat. Later they brought out clam soup....like soup with little whole clams in it, sounds weird but is good, sashimi, fish, and fruit. I really like the designs of the plates and bowls, but to be honest for expensive food it doesn't taste THAT expensive :/. 

one of the little dishes ->

So we eat and then play a game. Last year I felt bad because I was definitely dead weight on the game since it's like a quiz game entirely in Japanese.....and I was worried about it again this year because my Japanese still isn't high enough to read all the kanji on the questions ( >.< )......but........ I actually brought our team to victory XD!!! First was a question about where one of the newer teachers studied abroad, luckily I have his older sister as my coworker at the elementary schools, so I knew for sure the answer to the question. Using our 'double the points' card our team was the only ones to score and we got 400 points. The next question no one on our team knew and we guessed wrong :P so no points there....there was a slip up on the teacher reading the cards that would have given away to anyone who caught it and one of the other teams did (the form of ''what'' in 'what does the person want' implied clothing and not something less concrete like a trip somewhere....but yeah, didn't catch that slip up, that's for sure.  The next one was our last chance to keep the lead, no one on our team knew it, but I was scouting the other teams and saw one very confidently mouth ''B'', and so by sorta cheating (I can hear my brother now: ''screen watcher!!!'' hahaha) we got another 200 and 1st place :D!!!  For the prize we got to choose which present we each wanted first. And here's where a nice heart warming part comes in. Every teacher brought a gift, a little (more or less) $5.00 sort of thing and some of the presents were in big boxes or fancy paper or fancy bags....but there was one that was in a cheap see-through bag and had a crocheted little flower pot holder inside. I got to go first in our group and it was hard to choose between the mystery of the other boxes or the crocheted one. It wasn't fancy, but being one who has often made homemade gifts I really appreciate them and so that was the one I went for.  As I picked it I saw this look of surprise and relief wash over my vice principal's face. Turns out that that was from him, his wife crocheted the flower pot holder and made a Christmas card from construction paper and magazine pictures and he included a $5.00 book gift card. To be honest I couldn't have asked for more and am very very happy with the gift. The pot holder is cute and I can look at it and figure out how to make my own :D, the card is also really cute and I always love money for books :D!!!!
   After our team all grabbed stuff the vice principal came up to me, to inquire why I chose that one....he was a bit embarrassed at the lack of pomp and circumstance his bag and present had compared to the others and his was the first one chosen from the lot. I'd be surprised too if I were in his shoes. I explained to him that I like to crochet and really like crocheted things and always love money toward books, and that homemade items are more personal and     in my opinion     often better b/c of the time and work that goes into making them. Needless to say he was very touched by my choosing of his gift and explanation. .....Normally when I talk to him at parties the conversations tend to be repeats of earlier ones (how am I?, am I homesick? what is ____ like in America?), but this time we had a more two-sided conversation and we got talking to mountains and pictures and he invited me to go hiking sometime to a mountain that's great for pictures with him and a few other teachers and locals :D!!! Whoot, got into the loop of outdoor activities that aren't parties....or at least got my foot in. Either way :) I look forward to whenever we get to go somewhere and will now have to make sure I continue to exercise so I don't die (x  X). 

  After the food and game show and a bit of karaoke......got roped into singing My Heart Will Go On with some coworkers lol, they really wanted to hear me sing something (>.<), but luckily were willing to send someone to sing with me.....though we thought the song ended before it did so I had to run back up and was laughing b/c of all the jokes about thinking the song was over and a diff teacher ran up to sing with me for the last little bit. So that was interesting.  Next, we split ways, most of the teachers went off to go to a second all-you-can-drink party. I stayed at the hotel and went back to the onsen with the other teacher that doesn't drink. It was very nice and relaxing. Then, I whipped out my Sudoku book and did a few puzzles then tried to go to bed, but it was sooo hot in the room and the only blanket they give you is a giant comforter and the futon was rather stiff (>.0).....so needless to say I just sat there trying to fall asleep.  As to why I didn't turn the heat down, I thought I did but it didn't work so who knows why it was being dumb XP.  The teachers sharing a room with me came back before I fell asleep so I pretended to be alseep that way they wouldn't feel bad for 'waking me'. One of them was clutching the porcelain throne so to speak and all were really quiet. I eventually fell asleep sometime after they all went to bed and had a very restless night XP. But luckily didn't wake up feeling too stiff or horrible. We were free to leave when we wanted so long as it was before check-out time of course.  I left around 10 and headed to the big city just north of us to go to the one temple that I really like. And that is where this post ends and the next will pick up....I had a rather mystically experience at the temple that time around :3, it was all around really awesome and very refreshing!!

(Christmas) Break?

    It is rather strange being in Japan on the holidays and not taking a holiday. Last year I used some of my ''holiday days'' to take off the week of Christmas....b/c well it's Christmas and the students aren't 'in school' so there wasn't a need for me to go to work. Well, due to a shortage of holiday days I am at work....on Christmas.  I figured the students had this week off too but I was wrong. Monday was a holiday (the emperor's birthday) so there was no school and yesterday, Christmas Eve, was a half day. Today it is a half day but only for those in clubs.
      Now, in Japan they know about Christmas, some celebrate Christmas.....though most don't celebrate it the same way due to the majority of them being Buddhist. But they'll buy gifts and the stores are filled with Christmas music and supplies---though wrapping paper comes in very very very small amounts and is rather expensive---and trees and lights. Houses...well very few of them have lights where I am, I've only seen one, and they only have lights on their one small tree in front of their house. Though in that department outdoor Christmas decorations are hard to find and expensive when you do find them. So, Christmas is definitely here, but it's more like Valentine's day in feel, a lot of commercial and little spirit. They do have Christmas Cakes to celebrate the occasion, and most people order KFC---though they have to place their order months and months in advance if they want to make sure they get some chicken. Yup, you read right. KFC.  Kentucky Fried Chicken is the go to, wait in long lines and fight crazy people, holiday meal in Japan.  From what I can tell Xmas morning people might exchange gifts with family, then go to work, then more of a date night at night....or family dinner of KFC....but it really is treated more as a dating scene Xmas night.
     One of my coworkers was recently married and she was telling me how she bought her husband a Christmas gift, but doesn't think he bought her one. So, her hope was that by being 'Santa' this year her husband will be 'Santa' next year and get her something nice. I don't know about you guys, but this wouldn't go over well at my house hahaha. Mom having to go give a gift to dad just so that she has a better chance of getting something next year......yeah, not something that would go over well.
    I had a Xmas/birthday party around the 20th with some of my co-workers. We went to a karaoke place. Karaoke in Japan is a big area with a lot of smaller rooms for groups to do karaoke in private with just their friends, and you can order 'all you can drink' and drink the drinks available.....mostly nonalcoholic at the place we went, they had pops and juices and coffees and teas. You can also order food, appetizer or larger....probably an 'all you can eat' option too, but we stuck with just drinks. That was a lot of fun....I am hopelessly horrible at karaoke. I need either a wingman that I can back up, or my ipod so I can listen to the song and sing with it. If it's just instrumental and the words on the screen it doesn't matter how well I know the song, I bomb it.....granted certain songs, mostly Disney, I do better than others, but overall no ipod or lead to backup no way you're gonna get a decent song out of me. But I luckily had my ipod and even managed to do a song in Japanese (thank you ipod :D!!), and the teachers tried to sing with me on some English songs and we all sang 'A Whole New World' hahaha. After karaoke, we went to the same house I had my Christmas party at last year....let's just call him K, he's married to M now (last time they were just engaged). It was A's birthday the day before our party so that's why it was an Xmas/birthday thing.  We had some great miso soup and little mixed rice and veggie rolled up things, dried fish, pickled radishes and such. And of course Xmas cake!! Xmas cake is delicious, it's a shortcake with really nice whipped cream and strawberries in the middle layers of cream and different fruits (blueberries, kiwi, strawberries to name a few). But it is soo good, way better than fruit cake XP.  Just google images ''japanese christmas cake'' and you'll come across a lot of amazing pictures of Christmas cakes :D.  ( https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=japanese+christmas+cake&safe=active&rlz=1C1CHVN_jaJP525JP525&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=_Sq6Uo6rNImnkQW9r4HoCQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=891&bih=450  a link if you'd rather just click it :) ).
     So that was a lot of fun....a little scary driving there and back....well I was in the passenger seat of A's car.....but K lives on a small mountain in the middle of the mountain, so winding small mountain road along the cliff and covered in snow....definitely a bit of a nervous ride. I can't imagine living there and having to drive along those snow covered, cliff-side roads day in and day out 0_o, I think I'd be a hermit or park my car at the bottom and hike it.....get a reindeer to carry me up or something.
   That aside, that's it for this post, but more stories to come. :)

Samurai Festival Pictures

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.524040017632004.1073741829.100000780301857&type=1&l=e231adf5a5

Short Stories

Ok, Short Stories:

1. I was teaching colors at the elementary school, 2^nd grade. One boy, who was really excited about English class (especially this time b/c he knew most of his colors), eagerly waited for me to ask him “what color is this?” When it was his turn I held up a yellow card and he happily shouted out “STAR!!!...chigao (means ‘not right’ in Japanese)…Ah! Kiellow!! Chigao….*looks to me for help*”.  I say, ‘yellow’. Then he almost face palms himself and says, “Ah! YELLOW!!! Yellow, desu!!” Needles to say, this got the entire class laughing :D.

2. A while ago, I did a Blue’s Clue’s-esque lesson.  But with a Moose (named Hughes) who had a Canadian maple leaf mark on his foot.  I introduced the moose, Hughes. I said that Hughes loves to play hide and seek (kakurenbo). To demonstrate I put Hughes behind my back and said dramatically ''oh no, where is Hughes?'' and started looking around the classroom, the students kept saying ''there, there behind you *in japanese*'' but I played dumb and kept saying ''what, where *turns around*? I can't see him.'' One student then got up and pointed behind me and tried to grab him from behind me. So, I dramatically went ''Oh!! There his is!!'' and the students were very pleased that they finally helped me realize that Hughes was in my hand behind my back lol. 
After that I told them to close their eyes and hid Hughes under the teacher's desk. I told them to open their eyes, and said that Hughes was hiding, but to not look for him. So after getting all of them to stay sitting I said we have to find the Clues and like a puzzle, like detective Conan, we put the clues together to find Hughes.....they didn't fully understand all of this of course since I don’t speak enough Japanese, but they understood enough to know that we weren’t going to search for Hughes yet.  To continue on w/ the lesson I read ''Where's Spot?'' and on the second to last hiding spot in the book (under the rug) I put a clue on the word under. When we got to that spot they all shouted ''clue'' and I said ''where?'' and they said ''here *mostly in Japanese*'' and then went ''oh! it's a clue, right here on the word UNDER.....do you know what 'under' means, it means 'Shita下'....All together now: 'UNDER'. Then I finished the book. 
Then I played a game where the students hide characters in/under their desks/chairs. I had some characters already printed out and there were American ones and Japanese ones (Spiderman, Doraemon, Pikachu, Mickey Mouse, Ultraman, etc). To play this you select less than half the students to be Team 2 and the rest are Team 1. Team 2 closes their eyes and you hand the characters to people on team one....there won't be enough characters for everyone on team 1 and that's the point. Once the characters are hidden team 2 opens their eyes and start searching for the characters by asking ''Is ___ here?'' and team 1 says ''yes/no'' if ''yes'' then they hand the team 2 person the character who then gives it to me. Once all the characters are found, choose new team 2 and 1 players and repeat. During the 3rd or 4th round I gave the teacher a clue to put on his sleeve...the students were distracted by trying to find characters so it took a while for them to notice. Then I placed a clue on one of their desks....it took another round or so of playing the character game before they spotted the clues. 
They saw the clues and shouted 'clue' (well a few said Canada da! lol^^) and brought them too me and I asked ''where was the clue'' and they said ''on the desk/on the teacher *in japanese''. And I said ''very good'' and had them all sit down. Then I asked what Sensei was in English and what つくえ/机 was in English (desk). Then I had them practice saying the three clues ''under, sensei’s/teacher's, desk'' then asked, “So, where is Hughes? Use the clues to help find him'' At first some of them darted toward the sensei lol and he was quick to put up his guard and say ''No, no, no, no, not me, desk, desk''. But most of them put it together and darted for the teacher's desk and found Hughes. Then I had them sit down and asked ''Where was Hughes? Under, teacher's, desk! Very good''. Then there was still time left so I had them close their eyes and hid Hughes in one of their cubbies on top of someone's back pack. Then I put a clue on my bag, the student whose cubby he was in, and on the word 'on' that I wrote on the board. Then I had the students open their eyes and told them to find the Clues, the Canada leaf signs. They found them and sat down and I said ok so the clues are ''on, student's name, bag'' had them repeat it and then asked ''Where's Hughes'' and they all darted to the kid's cubby and found him ^^. And that was the lesson..........In 4th grade I did the same lesson, but they found Hughes in the cubby before they found any of the clues -.-, but that’s ok, they still had a lot of fun ^^.

3. One of the boys at the Junior High….is well a boy at the junior high hahaha, he is one of the rowdy ones and usually speaks bad, but proud, English with me. And in class he really is pretty good at English, and outside of class too when he puts forth the focus and effort; but being a class clown he finds it more fun to loudly speak in bad English because he knows it makes people laugh. Usually, when I pass him in the hallway, it’s just him rambling stuff off “I’m sleepy, and you Oh so great me too!”, and lately it has been gibberish where he makes up words and throws in random English and Japanese words and ends sentences with ‘Oh’ or ‘oh yes, me too’. A while ago he said to me one day, while just passing each other in the hallway “Oh, Mary, I’m happy! Oh no! I’m SEX! Yes, I’m SEX!’’. I shook my head (trying really hard not to laugh) and said “Bad English!” He—being honestly eager to learn—said, “What, why?” So I said, “Cloud…..cloudy….Rain….rainy….sun….sunny.” He quickly caught on and then belted out “I’m SEX….Y. I`m sexy! Oh yeah!!” He tried to keep talking but by that point he was laughing to hard. Granted I shouldn’t probably encourage such things, but I’d rather him learn proper English and have fun with it than be bored and stop trying. Oh, and the other day, while speaking gibberish with me (yes I spoke gibberish back) he randomly said “In the park. Me, and big Tokyo Sky Tree! Oh Yeah” And he motioned to his crotch then burst out laughing and ran off *face palm* —___ —….definitely a rowdy junior high boy. But at least he keeps things interesting ^-^.

4. Ok, so I played ''What time is it Mr. Wolf'' with the kindergartner. Normally when we play I ask them ''夜ご飯、英語で何ですか。(What is ‘dinner time’ in English?)'' to get them to reply ''It's dinner time!!''.....but one time I said ''夜ご飯何ですか。(What’s (for) dinnertime?)''  I left out the 'in English' part. So…. rather than all of the ‘wolves’ saying ''it's dinner time!'' they all started shouting out what they were really going to have for dinner tonight XD.

5. That’s all I can think of right now. So I’ll leave you w/ what the label on my container of dried fruits and nuts says “A heavy and thick taste graceful seasonings is one of the things we have most treasured.” ....It only has salt on it, no seasoning...>.>

Long overdue

It has been way too long since my last post, and a lot has happened since then. So let’s get to the updates and catching up.

To start where we left of (in June?!?!): Well, actually rewind just a tad. In May my parents came over for a visit. It was really nice to see them (sadly the dogs couldn’t come too) and we had a lot of fun. They got to eat all sorts of strange dishes, such as slimy seaweed and stuffed squid that was more rare rather than well done. We hiked a mountain, saw evidence of bears and monkeys but didn’t see any. The hike was tiring but mom did a great job, you can tell that her lungs are getting much better…..I was harassed by bugs the entire time -.- friggin’ bugs I don’t know why they love me so much >w<!!　They came down at the end of May, just in time for my birthday and returned in the middle of June. We also got to see a great Kite Battle festival. The festival has been an annual event ever since the Edo Period and basically two cities decided to hold friendly kite battles rather than brutal death and stabbing battles. I would like to use this chance to say, how great would it be if all of our battles/wars were fought with kites and not guns/swords/what have you. Anyhoo, they meet at the river that separates the two cities and fly giant kites over the river. And I mean GIANT. The smallest ones take about 10 men to lift and the biggest ones easily take 30-40 or more. The festival lasts a week or two and they have kite battles every day. They hoist these behemoth kites into the air by tossing it up then running as fast as they can, pulling on the giant rope that is attached to the kite. They battle by getting the kites to entangle around one another. It has to be a big kite and a big kite or a small kite and a small kite. Once they crash into each other, then fall into the river, they have a giant tug-of-war match, the teams line up at the center of each side of the river bank. Then, when the signal is given they pull until the rope breaks. The side w/ more rope wins the battle.  During the event they have numerous kites in the air at the same time, so the battles happen often and some last longer than others. One battle they had to stop and take 3 breaks during the tug-of-war.  Oh, and it is a big community event where a lot of the community helps build, repair, and battle kites (also run food stands, etc etc), so sometimes, for the more heated tug-of-war matches, the team members pulling may grab a bystander (or several) and drag them over to tug too :D! It is a really fun festival, and I’ll be going to it again next year ^^!!  Also, keep an eye out for a link that will let you see pictures (p.s. I didn’t sort through the pictures so there are a lot of them and not all are good pictures :p).

Ok, fast forward a bit and July was just school and work and not too much going on. Then in August I went home for summer vacation.  I had to use up most of my vacation days, because in Japan the teachers only get a vacation if they use their vacation time. This aspect of their work code really gets to me sometimes. It’s really ridiculous compared to how teachers are given automatic vacation time (school breaks, snow days, etc), but in Japan you are expected to come in even if the students get school canceled. So, for example: there is a really bad typhoon (hurricane) raging outside, and the students get school cancelled because it is too dangerous to go outside and travel to school. Well, the teachers still have to go to school unless they call in and use up their vacation time. And I’m not sure how many days the teachers get but I only have 20 vacation days for the whole year. So, if I were to take vacations for all of the school vacations I would be at negative vacation days. This also means that since I used so many up on August and when my parents visited, I now have to go to work on Christmas because Christmas Day isn’t a national holiday in Japan. -.- It’s really frustrating to still have to go to work during school breaks, especially since I don’t have anything to do but sit at my desk from 8-4….def not great for the waistline to sit all day. Anyway, I went home in August and had a lot of fun seeing people and catching up, but sadly I didn’t get to see everyone on my list and I’m really sorry I couldn’t squeeze everyone in and see people more. Also, I ate soooooo much pizza when I was home lol, the pizza in America tastes better in my opinion and has more variety in flavor and crust styles…..and there is little risk of finding tuna, mayo and corn pizza o_0…..and in case you didn’t know in Japan they have a habit of putting corn and or mayo in/on everything….pizzas, omelets, sandwiches, salads, etc etc. They also like putting really small fish in things….like really tiny anchovy fish that are maybe an inch long, if that. They dry them and serve them as dog and cat treats, put them in soups, stir fry, deep fry, they sneak them into a lot of dishes. And there’s nothing like quickly scarfing down soup only to realize once you drank most of the broth, that you were swallowing tiny whole fish with the veggies in the soup. It’s times like those that make me very glad to have a strong stomach and a tolerance of such surprises. I just see the fish, then shrug and finish the soup. The things you learn about yourself when you travel lol! It really is weird how things like soup full of tiny fish sounds like something you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, but when you are in a country where it’s the norm it doesn’t really bother you when you eat it.

Ok, what else….It’s fall now, and the leaves are changing :D, it’s very very beautiful!!! But anywhere secluded with a lot of trees is bound to be beautiful when the leaves start to change. There are some festivals and stuff coming up too, but also school events so sadly I can’t do both :/.  I was really excited about a local festival that is going on this weekend and was invited to it by a lot of locals (some who never talk to me, but took the time to tell me about the festival) and sadly it is the same day as the Culture Festival (similar to Showcase Southwest where students display artwork and choirs sing and such) and I have to work TT~TT. What’s a little frustrating is that I don’t have anything to do at the school event, except roam the halls trying to keep busy, and could easily got to the rice festival and come back in time for the choir concert, but sadly I can’t leave. -.- Oh well, tis a part of the working world eh. (And I’m actually typing all of this up at work, today is the day to prep for the Culture thing tomorrow, and I had to come into work despite having nothing to do, and so I took the chance to finally write a blog entry. Yay for not wasting time.)

Hmmm…..Oh, I recently bought a keyboard and have been practicing the piano when I have time ^-^.  It’s a really really nice one, the keys are even weighted so it feels like you’re playing a real piano and has all of the keys!!! >w< It’s such a beautiful day out today!! It’s really rough to be sitting inside on such a nice day, esp when I could go out and take pics of all of the tress!!  Anyway….there’s not too much else to update you on, just the same old same old of work. Um, there was a kindergartner running around the other day with his shirt tucked into his underwear lol. Oh, and onetime at the kindergarten, after they got out of the pool and were changing out of their swim suits. One of them changed really quickly, then threw his towel over his head and pretended to be a ghost. So I said “Oh, so scary!!’’, this made him and the others laugh….and the next thing I knew about half of them stopped changing (so they were partly or buck naked) threw towels over their heads and started to act like ghosts and try to scare me….and then the homeroom teacher came in with a really confused look on her face. Needless to say that was an interesting day XD!!

Ok, going to take a short break to stretch my legs, and I’ll try to think up of more fun short stories and then post them.  Here are a  few links to some pictures:
  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.601785343190804.1073741838.100000780301857&type=1&l=c634c53ad9

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.541426672560005.1073741831.100000780301857&type=1&l=78f18644c1

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.553020114733994.1073741832.100000780301857&type=1&l=4717a1bebe

Cherry Blossom Festivals \( ^ 。^ )/ in small towns

  So Sanpoku is my tiny little town and so when the cherry blossoms were out there were two little festival things. One wasn't actually in my town but the one just inside the mountains (Nakagatsugi?). And that was a simpler, there are a few booths of the locals selling stuff (mainly mountain veggies, but not many had come up yet b/c of the colder weather in the mountains, and some other handmade stuff) and an area to eat a box lunch. A lot of the people there—as is true w/ the people closer to my house—are the parents/relatives of my students. So they were happy to see me go to their little town, esp since 5+ years ago they used to have an elementary school so the ALT of the area went to their town on a regular basis; but now the schools are grouped into two bigger ones so no more regular visits from an ALT :p.  But anyhoo, it was really nice seeing them and it was lovely out, though sadly the blossoms were still just buds—these cherry trees are more like weeping willow trees, very beautiful—esp when in full bloom. But I had a nice lunch w/ Sadae-san and then we walked around town a bit. Oh and one of the guys there was really cute ;)…..but as w/ most of them he couldn't speak the best English in the world.

   The second area w/ a festival was literally in my town. There were booths/stalls/stands all up and down this one side street. Some selling food, some candy, some goldfish or turtles (the turtles were sooo cute XD) and a few game stands (ring toss, grab a ticket, and such).  The students were really surprised and in general happy to see me, especially the younger ones and the ones that just graduated. But sadly I couldn't remember all of the names of the ones that had just graduated L. Though, in my defense in class they always covered up their notebooks that had their names on it and they changed seats all the time so the original seating chart quickly loses its use and there are no sheets w/ their names and faces together, it’s always just names—in kanji which I can’t read.  So needless to say they didn't make it easy for me to learn their names xp….but I still feel bad that I couldn't recall all of their names.  I could remember the chair they sat at before they graduated, but not their name -.-….  That aside, it was really fun and I got an interesting finger pointer thing that has proven nice during my lessons^^. Oh, and the students pulled little shrine floats (little shrines set on these things to be carried around the town) through the town as a sort of parade thing and they were really happy to see that I saw them having a blast doing such. 

  Oh, and while walking around I got corralled by some of the older town folk (most of which prob committee members of some sort) to sit under their tent where they offered me all sorts of things. They gave me like 2 cans of ice coffee to drink, snack packets, giant swiss-cake-roll thing, tried to give me beer, and bread and such. They were asking all sorts of questions and taking pictures with me and it was rather nice, though after a while I wanted to go see the festival some more to see some more students that just started to arrive. Luckily one of the older ladies sensed that I wanted to go and swept me away, she said ‘’oh have you seen this little area in town?’’ and dragged me off to go see the little cemetery in town that’s tucked away behind all the buildings so you can’t see if from the main road. It was really pretty up there and I hadn't been there before (always hesitant to walk around the alleyways b/c some are alleys but some are driveways and they look the same xp). She asked me a few questions but mainly talked about the area and then took me back down to the back side of the festival stands and said ‘‘excuse us for taking your time’’—or something to that affect—and ‘‘thanks for chatting with us, please enjoy the festival’’. So, yay for old ladies that whisk you away so you can return to the festivities—not that sitting with them was a lot of fun, but w/ it being a nice day and a festival I didn't exactly want to be sitting around that much :p. And, yeah, that was that for the most part^^ just some nice, quieter but still very enjoyable festivities^^.    

0[]o *gasp*...*erhem* The Tale of the Samurai Battle Festival

To begin w/ I found out about this cool Samurai Festival and that people get to dress in traditional old armor and fight if they sign up on a list before the event. But sadly I didn't make the list of people to be samurai in the battle (they had a long waiting list from last year). Despite that, I decided to be adventurous and drive the 3 hrs to the battle w/ only directions written on some scrap paper. I made it there, with some help from signs and out of luck/good sense of direction b/c some signs said to go one way but then never showed up again to tell you to turn -.-.....and I found a place to park in a parking lot of a store. Normally they frown upon parking there for other events, but they were allowing it since this was such a big event. The old guy who was the volunteer to help people park in spots that were ok seemed a bit worried about me being a gaijin girl by myself and when I asked him if it was ok to park and where the event was at he was very meticulous about giving me details and kept asking if I understood and was very kind. Then I went to the area and I think I saw a greatdane off in the distance, and of course I saw lots of people dressed for the battle. It was really neat to see the foot soldiers, ninjas (yes they had ninjas :D), archers, leaders and such all decked in traditional-styled armor/clothes. 
     While there I found a decent viewing spot (it was already crowded when I arrived).  I also so an older woman that was a little peculiarly dressed and was carrying around a doll....but that's beside the point. Anyhoo, I saw a few other foreigners but they walked passed me and didn't really notice. G ranted I didn't say "hey" and wave like a dork, but I did smile and the one that saw me just looked away and started talking with the others in the group. They gathered a bit of a ways away from where I was but I could still see them from my spot. One time while looking around --crowd watching during a break in the battle-- I saw some of them in the group look at me and I smiled and started to wave but they immediately looked away when they saw that I spotted them. Then after the battle I walked around closer to the battle grounds. I saw some of the other foreigners that were fighting (and mind you a lot of them are ALTs like myself) and went up and said "Hello" and they smiled but didn't say anything. Instead they just went on w/ a conversation w/ the person next to them. I saw an older lady (40s or 50s) who was a foreigner and I smiled and said hello to her. She was nice enough to say hello back and smile, but then she looked to the distance and said to herself (but still aloud) "oh the international group seems to be gathering" and then walked off. 

     So I was a little perturbed that I drove 3 hrs to go to an event that I was told to "by all means come we'd love to have more foreigners at the event, even if it's just spectating. Can’t wait to see you there", and then when I go to said event I couldn't get the time of day from any of the other foreigners. Not that I was expecting the time, but at least a short: ‘’hello, oh you're from ___, I'm from ___,’’ ‘‘glad you made it to this event’’, ‘‘this event is a lot of fun isn't it’’, or a ‘‘oh hey another foreigner that's cool’’....or something. But oh well. I didn't let it dampen my spirits b/c it was a really neat event and after leaving the other foreigners that didn't want to chat with me I passed some junior or senior high school boys who---in their typical rowdy jhs/shs boy manner---said "oh, hello! Nice to meet you. I'm happy/hungry/hot. Goodbye!" So that was a good laugh to have them randomly say stuff in English while walking past me. And the view on the way to the event is absolutely lovely. It's a mountain road that cuts through mountains and over rivers and dams and small mountain towns and small waterfalls (like maybe a foot wide if that, but really tall/long) and whatnot. It was gorgeous. So all in all I’d say that adventure was a victory and it was a nice festival.  Oh, and the guy who "died" and stuck his sword in a way so that it looked like he was stabbed and the other one who died but kept kicking their feet around in boredom where extra amusing to see^^. And a nice---though long-- drive with good music is always nice^^. But yes, that was that festival. Later will be the kite battle festival, my parents stay here and some other festival I think? I think there's another one....oh and the amazing Buddhist Temple and Mountain temple/shrines that I saw just this weekend 

12 o'clock the ghost awakes ( ^ ' ~' )^ and goes to a Cherry Blossom Festival

Once upon a long long long time ago (three or so months ago… to be more precise-ish kinda) there was this chica named Mary and she has been spending quite some time in Japan, fought with some Tsukumogami and had tea with Tengus and such. But this day was special, it was a long journey south to a city she has often heard of but not yet seen.  She was going there to spend some time with the humans she has met, they aren't as fun as the spirits and creatures she has encountered, but some of the people are very enjoyable and fun to be around....unfortunately those said people weren't there. The ones that were there are nice enough and fun to watch, but it seems that Mary is a bit too much of a strange wallflower for their more party hearty-style antics. But, on the way down she gave a ride to someone that can carry on a very nice conversation and so a lovely conversation about this and that was had during the very long car ride south. Despite the lack of gps or knowledge of the area they made it rather easily.

 When they arrived the sky was rather overcast and threatened to bring rain, and after a bit it did. But, before the rain came they met up with the other people.  After sitting awkwardly for a bit just listening to everyone else converse and only getting in a few words here and there, she went and bought a rather tasty doner kebab to eat. Upon getting back and finishing the doner, she was invited to play a game. It is writing and drawing game where one person writes a sentence and the next person draws a picture interpretation of the sentence then the next person writes a sentence based of the picture and so on. It was very fun, but it started to rain just when everyone started on the second round of the first/original sentence....so everyone packed up and moved to a shelter area (they were sitting in a field on a tarp prior to this).

 Once under the shelter some of the group members, including Mary, wanted to continue with the game, but those who weren't in on the game and some of those that were wanted to call the picnic quits-- seeing as it was supposed to be a cherry blossom festival and most of the blossoms were already knocked down from rain the prior week and that it was now kinda rainy and gross and the sky didn't look like it would clear up anytime soon. So most of the people left and went to go to a bar and party, Mary and some of the others decided to stay at the festival just a bit longer and do something before driving all the way back north. After a rather tense/not fun debate of what to do (one person in the group was very bummed that the drawing/writing game stopped and everyone except the small few were leaving) they finally decided to head over to the small castle in the park (very small castle).     

Upon finding out that it costs $2 to look around the castle some people decided to just go get food, one decided to sit and watch stuff that people didn't want to carry around, and some decided to go to the castle. Mary decided to see the castle, and as nice as it was it was also a bit awkward seeing as the only other people who went to go see the castle were two recently-started-to-date love birds that she really hasn't ever talked too. So, Mary with her already purchased ticket in hand decided to have fun at the castle anyway, and overall she did. Then they returned to 'home base' where the person watching the stuff was.....some people had fun putting their faces in the cut out slots of those tourist picture things where your head replaces the would be face of the people...in this case a prince and princess. That was rather amusing to watch and then it was time to split ways and go home. Mary gave a few people a ride to the train station and then drove all the way back home (4-ish hr drive) by herself. It was rather pleasant seeing as she was a bit tired from socializing all day and just wanted to be a dork and sing in the car and such fun things.....being bold and a bit of a penny pincher she decided to try to take the back roads most of the way home b/c the highways are toll roads. She made it quite a distance traveling back routes in a foreign country at night....stopped for gas and possibly had the guy flirt with her-- he offered her a rag to wipe down the inside of the car and a cigarette (didn't accept the cigarette) and kinda hovered a bit and seemed rather happy that she stopped for gas there and he got to talk with her...could've just been b/c she is a foreigner but the flying mint bunny seems to think it was more than that.

Anyhoo, she drove a bit over an hour on the back roads but when she got close to a major city that's two hours south of her house she kept hitting a plethora of stop lights, so she decided to just get on the high way and pay the toll b/c it was late and the amount of gas used at all of the stop lights would probably even out to toll road fees. When she finally made it to the end of the toll road she had about an hour left in her journey home...the toll road guy was also rather nice/smiling and cute....anyhoo she made it back and was glad to have gone back that night rather than stayed at an elementary school near the festival and slept at the school. Now she had all of Sunday to relax and do what she wanted rather than worry about driving all the way home and having that eat up most of the day. And that is the end of the tale of the cherry blossom festival story, an overall good day, tiring, but good ^^. The other festival stories will shortly follow (festival in town with the kids, samurai fest, and maybe another one in there too lol ^^''' )

From where I last left off....snow festival and such

Sorry no pics in this post, I'm typing this up during my break at work.  Ok so let's see...I left off somewhere in February....Sadly there wasn't much going around for the setsubun (bean throwing festival) in my town and I wasn't sure where to go to see things, so maybe next year I can see some festival stuff for that holiday.  Setsuben, btw, is a festival where they throw beans at people dressed as demons to symbolize driving away demons/evil spirits so the new year is free of bad spirits/luck.  The stores around me did carry little paper boxes with beans and a paper demon mask that you could buy, so I got to see some fun/weird cartoon demon masks ^^.  Oh, and in winter here (by the coast of the Sea of Japan) it is very very windy, there are signs warning of strong winds causing waves to come up onto the road, and a lot of Nami no hana (波の花), or “wave flowers,”which is where the sea foam forms en mass and blows around like snow/flowers  :). It's pretty cool, when I post pics I'll try to find a video of it as well for you to see.  And as cool as it is to see, it is freezing out when it happens and the wind is really strong (almost pushed me over a few different days) and if its icy it's especially fun b/c then you get pushed around the ice. 

Ok so snow festival.  There was a local snow festival/wedding in a small town about 10-15 minutes from me. I knew some of the people setting up (Kamimura-sensei, Chika-sensei, Nakagawa-sensei, and some people from the BOE) so I joined and helped set up.  I helped work on the giant snowmen that were at the entrance and stamp down snow to make pathways and so on.  In the bigger spots were we had to stamp down the snow I showed the people there a much more fun way to do it.  They were just marching around and literally stamping it down, I went and grabbed one of the giant snow shovels...they have really big ones like this:

And I sat down in the shovel part and had one of the guys pull me around to flatten the snow that way :).  Everyone was rather impressed and had fun doing the same ^^.  Oh, and people were also very impressed with my Pikachu hat that Donnie sent me for X-mas (thanks Donnie! :) ).
So it was a lot of work and very tiring, but also a lot of fun getting things set up.  After stomping down the fresh layer of snow (a good 1-2ft) we shoved a long pole down to where we think it finally hit bottom and we were standing on top of at least 5-6ft of packed snow 0.o.  The snow in that town (it's at the bottom of a small mountain) was high enough to cover the entire first floor of a house and start going onto the roof of the 1st floor, there were snow banks taller than me along the roads and sidewalks.  I've never seen so much snow before!! Even with us digging out steps and making a giant chapel out of snow I never did see the ground lol.  So, to the day of the festival, I worked as the staff and helped man the drink-booth and helped monitor events. I got to wear an armband that said ''snowman staff'' ^-^.  A decent amount of kids and parents showed up to build snowmen throughout the day. There was a tent full of oba-chans (old ladies) next to the one I was in, they were rather entertaining to watch ^^.  They played American music all day (Lady Ga Ga, Maroon 5, etc.) which I found rather interesting lol.  Oh and it snowed aaaallllllllllll day, big snowflakes that at times were a bit blizzard like....I felt kinda bad for the kids/families that showed up early to build their snowmen for the contest because by the time of the contest their snowmen had a good 1/2+ foot of snow on them if they didn't get a chance to brush them off.  Luckily it wasn't too freezing out, but at the same time with being warm in you coat the snow melted when it hit you and so by the end of the day everyone was drenched, especially your gloves....so next year I might bring a pancho to wear over my coat and definitely more gloves.  Just before it started to get dark we went around and placed tea candles inside little pockets/holes in the snowmen (people dug out the spot where they wanted the candle to go) and we lit them. We also made little snow blocks with a hollow center and put candles inside them to create a lighted pathway for the bride and groom. Once it got dark the bride and groom came and walked down the path (we had spotlights to provide light) and to the chapel's stage. The wedding is a bit different in Japan, rather short, and the bride and groom do a lot of talking rather than repeating after the priest-guy. But it was really cute, they were a bit embarrassed to have that much attention and it took a bit of encouragement to get the groom and bride to do kiss...they just did a really quick peck on the lips and wouldn't really do more than that...they really couldn't do much more b/c  they were laughing/giggling too much over the whole thing lol.  Then they cut a slice from a very small cake, and kids came on the stage and said stuff to them (idk what happened to the cake :P), and then there were fireworks from behind the chapel and that was that. People would get up and take pictures on the chapel's stage and look around at all of the snowmen. The volunteers sat around for a long time, eating and sitting by the small fire pits and taking pictures and goofing around. Then we cleaned up and took everything down and packed up, and some of them were going off to a bar but Kamimura, Chika, Nakagawa-sensei and myself voted to go home and sleep seeing as we got there around 7:30 and it was 10:30-11 by the time we got things stored away. Overall it was a lot of fun and I look forward to going again next year ^-^. 
So that's all for now, lunch time ^^......hmmm, next are pictures and graduation and stuff, and then we'll be all caught up to now ^^. 

ヽ(ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ It's March!?!?!? ｏ( ><)o

(シ_ _)シ I'm soooooooooo sorry. I have been such a bad llama about updating TT^TT.  I hope you aren't too upset, I have absolutely no clue where the time went, I think it just ran past me one night, or I walked through a wormhole or something o.0....but man...March 15th.....

Ok. So there is obviously a lot to update on.  I have been a busy bee, and hopefully I can recall all of it. Let's see....ok so Christmas.... I got some lovely packages from my friends and family so that was a really nice surprise. I also bought myself a few things. I had a Christmas party with some of my co-workers at the Elementary School (Kamimura, Nakagawa, Chika (senseis) and Chika's husband...sadly his name escapes me at the moment...and Kamimura's bf Koji. We went to Koji's house to eat yaku...or grilled...styled foods. Basically there is a giant hot-plate thing that you cook veggies, meat and such on and you pick off what you want when it's done. I got to try piece of pig heart that night...the flavor isn't that bad but it's really chewy. Koji's grandmother is a hoot, I couldn't understand everything she said but she was very funny.  One time she came into the room and opened the side door-- it lead to outside but they had a makeshift plastic mini add-on-closet\room which created like an outside fridge/freezer--and she pulled out a big scotch tape dispenser (like the big metal ones you see on teacher's desks).  When everyone saw that she pulled a scotch tape dispenser from their outdoor freezer everyone cracked up and she did too, and said something about 'it's as good as any place' to keep it (I'm paraphrasing that quite a bit lol).  We watched a Karaoke competition on TV and had fun just talking and what not. We also got to eat some Christmas cake (I'll put up a picture later, I'm not at my own compy right now), which was really good, and sang ''Happy Birthday'' but I really have no clue as to why we sang that....and wonder if other people sing it too....We also had a gift exchange and I got a comfy pillow and everyone wrote a small note in English that way if I got their gift I could read it :) so that was super sweet of everyone.  I also went out to eat w/ Sadae-san.  So it wasn't super crazy, but it was still a very nice Christmas Holiday, skyping with my family was also very nice ^^.

New Year's Eve I went down to see Adele and Natasha in Murakami, what was going to be an evening of movie watching turned into an overnight movie-marathon. We watched the super hero movies that lead up to Avengers, and then woke up early to watch the Avengers. Just before midnight we took a break to go see the shrine at midnight, so that was really cool to see everyone gathered there and making wishes and buy good luck charms and burning special straw wreaths from last year.  I put in some wishes of good-stuffs for everyone ^-^.  So that was a fun outing, but very tiring to stay up until 4 and get up at 10 lol. And the drive back home was really scary because it snowed quite a bit over night (Adele had to leave for a meeting so I couldn't stay there) and I got to drive around 20 kmph (12mph-) back home so a 40 min drive became a 2-3 hr drive. But I made it safe and luckily no one else was speeding or riding my butt so that was a big relief (people here have a bad tendency to ride your butt to try to make you go faster...and if they rear-end you it's your fault too xp). But yes, I was sooo happy to get back home in one piece and to rest up.

I also hung out with my coworkers (Kamimura-sensei and them) and went out to eat and whatnot close to the start of the New Year.  I also tidied up a bit, but not too much b/c it was freezing in the rest of my house (33degrees at times X_x).  In Japan there isn't a whole lot of central heating/cooling, and my house isn' one of the few with it.  So if I want a warm bathroom I need to put a heater in there, a warm kitchen?　same deal....and the floors are always freezing because houses here are built off the ground to help air circulate and prevent mold and such, so there is a lovely space under my whole house which results in very icy floors in the winter.  It's nice in the summer, but not fun in the winter.  I eventually went out and bought fuzzy, hard-sole slippers (they are tan with little brown turtles on them ^^.  And it was a very very worthwhile buy. 

In January and February I had Kids' Night at the community center, it was an evening English class for kids to have more fun and less-textbook oriented English.  So I had fun coming up with lessons and activities for everyone. They were on Tuesday nights, and each Tuesday had a theme.  We had Magic (Science) Night, Cartoon Night, Game Night, and Food Night.  In the middle of planning these events I also had a big Mid-year conference with the JETs in Niigata where we had workshops and such to do. And then once I got back from the conference I got the flu :p.  I started w/ a fever Sunday night, called in sick Monday b/c I still had a slight fever (only about 99.5) and I drove myself to the doctors.  The flu test here sucks...I don't know if it's the same in the states, but here they have a long q-tip thing (like what they rub your tonsils with when you get strep) and they shove it up your nose and swirl it around >.o.....it was very unpleasant. But yeah, so I got my meds and they weren't too expensive, went to the bank and took care of my bills and went shopping to stock up on food ( I wore a mask the whole time so it wasn't that bad of me to go around, but if people had known that I had the flu I doubt they'd want me there mask or not :p) ......and come Tuesday I wasn't running a fever so I went to school................which about gave all of my teachers a heart attack. They were all wide-eyed and told me that I had to stay home all week because I had the flu. So the rest of the week I was rather tired, and ran a cold fever (either that or my thermometer is dumb) but I kept registering at 97.2 or 96.7 and such....but it really wasn't that bad, I just curled up and watched a lot of movies and tried not to get cabin fever lol.  Oh, and it was super sweet, my JHS principal stopped by with fruit and food, Sadae-san brought me a bunch of food and drinks, Chika-sensei also brought me a bunch of stuff and one of the people at my adult community center English classes brought me fruits and stuff too. I definitely felt very loved and had a lot of fruit to last me more than a week. And getting sick was kind of a nice break from all the stuff I was doing, but come the next week I was so ready to get out of the house lol.

Also, around February  the principal at one of my elementary schools asked me to help get more English to the kids. She said that she wishes for them to be able to study more, as in study when I'm not there.....the lessons are pretty much all talking and no reading/writing. Not even the 5th or 6th graders read or write much despite having a book (their book doesn't have much written in it to begin with, Eng or Japanese).  So I have been keeping really busy trying to make more concrete lessons where the kids can have something they can use to review/study when I'm not there.  So I'll make little books that say ''I have____. I have a family of ____.  I have ___ pets.'' and so on, and I'll write katakana English above the English to help them pronounce stuff, and if I can I'll write in the Japanese translation of the sentence....or I leave space so they can do it.  But it's best to have stuff made before you present the idea of what you want to do, especially since there is a language barrier...so I have to make all of the booklets and worksheets and stuff before I can run it by the teachers and then go back and alter it as need be. So it's a bit of work trying to set stuff up this way, especially the younger grades because the only lesson plan skeleton you get it: 'greetings'...say ''How are you'' homeroom teacher ansers ''I'm fine'' (ask kids). 'main lesson'....vegetables, carrot, broccoli, potato, cabbage, onion, green pepper, etc, say ''what's this?'' the homeroom teacher answers ''it's___'' (ask the kids sometimes too).  'game'....have the kids janken and the winner asks ''do you like___'' and the loser answers ''yes I do/no I don't''.  'end'...say ''good-bye, see you'' ~end~......................so yeah not much to work with most the time lol. But as I've been here and watched the other teachers, and researched and experienced it's getting easier to come up with plans from these skimpy lesson plans, or from scratch b/c the lesson plan just flat out stinks.   Also, I'm putting together a picture English/Japanese dictionary (+some phrases) book for the kids, I can base a lot of lessons around what words I want to add to their dictionary that day and by the end of the 6th grade they'll have a complete dictionary that they've been piecing together over the years and they can draw in their own pictures if they want...there will be katakana English to help them and the homeroom teacher pronounce it and Japanese and English in trace-able font and a picture.....so I'm hoping that with the dictionary and the little booklets/worksheets that the teachers can/will help the kids practice English throughout the week and not just when I'm there....and/or the kids will take it home and show their parents/siblings.  Luckily I've gotten a few other people on board who are helping me put the dictionary together and once it's together I really hope it works out. .........ok that's enough for now, more later (snow festival + wedding ^0^, and pictures).  I need to get ready to pack up and go to the post office.  Please forgive any and all spelling errors, I'm on a Japanese computer and their keyboards are squished and some keys are in different spaces (not the letters but the other stuff are moved around a bit) but the letters are more to the right and a bit closer together :P).  Ok well, that's it... I'll post more soon I promise!!!!! And sorry again for the lack of posts the past few months :(. I never was the best at keeping a journal/diary/planbook, even if it was a school assignment.