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