Hokkaido!!!

I just got back from my trip to Hokkaido. It was amazing. I love snow!!

I went with my friend Angelina who lives on the other side of the prefecture from me. She was part of the Okinawa crew as well. This time it was just us 2. There were 4 others who also went but because we booked our package after them, we ended up at a different hotel. We tended not to be on the same rhythm so we didn't see them very much.

Angelina and I had a great time. Our first night, we took it easy. The other 4 went for all you can eat and drink. Angelina was getting over the flu and I wasn't really feeling the need to go all out drinking on the first night. It's not really a good move for a vacation, especially a short one with limited time. So we went to our hotel and settled in. There just happened to be a shodo shop right next door. (Oh, yeah, I never did get to those updates I mentioned. Shodo is Japanese calligraphy. Well, I guess it's really Chinese since the characters come from China. But it's a hobby that I picked up after the new year. I go to a class at a shrine in my city with a woman from work. It's a lot of fun.)

So, we made a stop in there and bought some stuff to do shodo with. I had brought my kit of shodo stuff with me since I had forgotten back at the mid-year seminar and I was only able to pick it up on the way out of town to Hokkaido. So, I figured we could do some artsy stuff while in the hotel room. The lady was really nice. We of course were polite and spoke in our best Japanese. At the end, she asked where we were from. Angelina, Canada and me, USA. But we mentioned we lived in Kagawa. Then, she ran off and came back with gifts. For some reason, that happens to us a lot. I guess it's what you get for being nice and talking with people and giving communication a try. She gave us these cool stationary sets. Then we walked through the nearby park where we found some snow sculptures. We started to take pictures at one that had 2009 carved into it. But a man said, "Wait, wait, wait!!!" and ran off into a building. We could see through the window that he was picking up a plastic crate of some sort. We were a bit confused. When he returned, he offered us these oddly shaped things. They were costumes of sorts. The 2009 was carved into the bottom of a snowman. The top was the hat that you wear as you stand behind it so it looks like you are a snowman. They had another hat too. It was too funny. We were the first visitors apparently. So he was really excited. On our way out of the park we of course had to make snow angels. You can't pass up that opportunity when it presents itself.

After, we decided to walk around to find a restaurant. I knew the direction of the train station station, so I figured if we walked in that direction, we would start running into busier sections with restaurant choices. But we kept walking and walking and nothing. We finally started heading back towards the hotel and found a place to eat. The next day when we tried to go to the main park, we kept walking and walking down the same street. I knew it would be a good distance away so we kept walking. Angelina just happened to mention some street signs that had numbers and directions. Like West 13, South 4 or something. It made something click from when I read through the Sapporo (Hokkaido's capital city and host of the snow festival) part of the guidebook. They numbered their streets north/south based on the park and east/west based on a river. The numbers didn't match what I thought they should with how long we were walking. I thought maybe I had mistaken the direction of the station. We walked one more block and it changed to West 14. That meant we had been heading parallel to the park the entire time. 14 was the end of the park, but at 0 North/South. So we just had to head 4 blocks north. A bit silly on my part. But with that, we came into the park where there was this old building and a nice secluded feeling area with trees and lots of snow. So we took some pictures and then decided it was time to make snowmen. We did western style ones - 3 balls. In Japan, the yukidaruma only have 2 balls. But after we spent a few hours walking the 14 blocks of the park where the snow festival is held and back, someone had altered our snowmen. My Herbert had inexplicably gone from 3 to 2. And it wasn't an accident, as if the head had just fallen off. The head was there, but the middle section was gone. And it was nowhere to be found. But it was fine, because he matched Franklin's height.

It was an amazing 4 days. Too short though. But I got to play in the snow which was my biggest goal. We sledded and played snow golf and made snowmen and slid down ice slides and ice skated and threw snowballs and icicles and made snow angels and all that. And though it was clear skies on the first and last days of the trip, which was nice for traveling in and out of Hokkaido, it was all kinds of snowy during the middle two days. I could go into detail about the whole trip, but it would probably just get boring. I suggest going to a snow festival if you ever can.

Pictures to be posted when my camera battery gets recharged. I forgot that it and the spare were both used up.

Happy New Year!

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted. Gomen. It's been quite busy around here. It's a good thing. But it means that I have lots of stuff to write about and less free time to write about it. I think I'll try to do a few updates over the next week or so about all the different things that have been going on. I had a great Christmas and New Year here in Japan. It was really a lot of fun.

To get things back on track, I'll let you know about this past weekend.

On Thursday and Friday we had our mid-year seminar. Generally, we have a day spent in workshops/demos about how to be a better ALT and team-teacher. The second day we spend doing something cultural. The first day went fine, but it's basically the same as last year. Went out to dinner with some friends that night and then home.

In the morning, I packed for an overnight stay with a friend and went to the cultural class. We learned calligraphy with Japanese characters. It's something I've recently been getting interested in, so I was excited to do it. It was a lot of fun. In the afternoon, we heard a presentation from someone in the government ministry about how to get the most out of JET and how to approach the decision to stay or go. This is something I'm still somewhat on the fence about. I'm leaning towards staying, but I've got a couple of weeks to finalize my decision. We'll see.

After the seminar, I went bowling with about 10 others. It was really fun. I didn't do so well, but had a great time. Then I met up with Angelina and Sam to catch the train. I stayed at Angelina's since we had planned to travel together the next day. The 3 of us went to the great izakaya in their town. The next day Sam ended up coming as well. We headed on the 2.5 hour train ride to Brian's town. (Brian is Angelina's friend from university.) He was having a Ukrainian Christmas dinner. Their orthodox Christian calendar is different from the western Christian calendar so Christmas falls in January.

We got there in time to help a bit with the final set up before dinner started. Then it was a lot of fun eating with a variety of Brian's friends, some ALTs and some Japanese friends. The Japanese ladies were really fun. Then it was clean-up time. I went back to Brian's to wait for my train. I almost decided to stay the night. (I had asked if I could earlier, and we were having a nice time talking and just hanging out, and it would have been so easy to just stay and then go home in the morning.) But I went ahead and got my train home. I wanted to get a lot of stuff done today. One of Brian's friends, Akimoto-san, actually drove me to the station. She decided to leave when I did. We had a nice talk on the way.

This morning, I held to my plan for the most part. I got up fairly early and went on a 2 hour run to get ready for the half-marathon. I ate breakfast and called my family. Then I spent a while tidying up and getting a package together I've been meaning to send for weeks. Then I started feeling the fatigue from the run. I really should be finishing my half-done laundry and organizing my desk, but I think I've done pretty well. And blogging was on my list of things to do, but I had prioritized laundry ahead of it.

Well, I'm gonna watch some more J-TV while I "recover". Perhaps, I'll feel up to laundry after that. Then around 7, I'm going to see my friend play a gig at a nearby bar. He's an ALT that plays the trumpet with a Japanese group. He's really good. It should be nice.

PS. I'm going to Hokkaido for the snow festival!!!!!

What a trip!

Back already from the Okinawa adventure. I'm at work. We got in this morning to Kagawa and went our separate ways in Takamatsu. I managed to check my emails and do a load of laundry this morning before work. I'll have to sort through the mess of baggage that I brought home with me. Of course, that will be after 3 classes (more if I decide to help with Sports Day stuff) and speech contest practice. I've got to check on what elementaries I have coming up so I know if I have any planning to do. I've got to figure out who gets what omiyage (souvenirs) because at the end I remembered lots of people, but it was too late to run back and get stuff in the airport stores. Luckily I think I got enough small stuff to last for lots of people and can rearrange other things that I got for me. And I remembered all the big gifts for people I had wanted to get. So no worries.

It's already back into the old routine. (Get to school barely on time, remind the teachers I have class with them, find out what we're doing while we walk to class, etc.) It feels as if I haven't even been gone. But during the trip it felt like time was stopped. In a good way of course. It was one of those trips where our days were just so long and filled that we thought two had passed in one.

Anyway, I'll update again with pictures when I get a chance to breathe.

Whew!

Okinawa

Woohoo for being on vacation. Boo for it raining on vacation.

Already got caught in a downpour. Bought cheesy souvenirs. Ate goya champuru. Drank shiquasa or shiquasur.

Still need to get out and see some sights and eat some other well-known foods and drink some awamori, the lethal okinawan sake.

No ferries out to the island we wanted to get to due to the typhoon. So we're playing it by ear on the main island. Wish us luck!

1 YEAR!!!

I can't believe I let the day pass without posting! It has officially been a year since I came to Japan. (As of July 29th)

Time really flies.

People I run into keep asking if I'll stay another year and I say yes. And then they ask why. It's funny because I don't really know why. JETs who knew that I was wavering on my decision back in January/February ask me if I regret signing on for another year. It's hard to answer. Parts of me wish I was already back in the US but other parts are perfectly happy being here and have plenty of things to do before leaving next year. Sometimes I have pangs of "Why did I decide to stay!!!" But just as often, I think... "Maybe I could stay for 3rd year."

Well, most of you know, but just to set the record straight, I won't be coming home this summer. It would really be a major expense and wipe out all of the savings I have managed to accumulate (since I started saving in December after I realized I had spent more money that I had made in Japan by that point). Not to mention my family and friends are now all over the map and just traveling to Atlanta wouldn't provide me with the opportunity to see everyone. I'd want to go to Arizona, Savannah, Pennsylvania, London, Sweden, etc. and that just can't happen. Plus summer is the easiest time to travel home for an extended period, but it's also the time when I have to say goodbye to the leaving JETs and I get to welcome the new JETs. And if you recall from last year, it's the time when there are summer festivals EVERY weekend. I'm getting to see ones that I didn't get to see last year. And I'm going to travel up to a big music festival in Osaka and possibly Hokkaido!?! Still working on those plans. I'm a little upset because I'll be missing Tokushima's Awa Odori Festival. But I did get to go last year and I don't get to see my Osaka friend Alana very often. She's a blast to travel with.

I'm still working on getting pictures up on the blog and picasa and facebook. My friends here are always mad at me because they see me take lots of pictures, but I never put them up on facebook like everyone else. I just need to start making it a habit. I think I may try to use mainly the picasa albums online and just link to them rather than trying to post on all three sites. I'll let you know when that gets started.

By the way, I just took over the eikaiwa (English Conversation Class) in Takase that Dan used to teach. He's gone home now and so I've got the job. It didn't go how I thought it would last week. They have been doing it a certain way for 2 years and they don't really want it to change much. Every time I try to stretch my teaching wings here, it seems someone is there trying to cage me back up.

Anyway, It may be a while before I post again. I've got a lot of cleaning and packing to do before Friday. That's when I head to Osaka and who knows where, after that. I'll be gone until the 18th or 19th. Then a couple more weeks of summer vacation and then 2nd term starts at the beginning of September.

Good luck to all my teaching buddies back in Cherokee who are starting a new school year!

that's a first

Today, was the first time I made it to school and didn't immediately start sweating necessitating a 20 minute cool down period where I alternate fanning my face and neck and rolling up my pants to fan my legs and feet. This morning it was only 24 degrees (remember it's celsius) inside my apartment with the AC off. I seriously considered a light jacket or cardigan.

In other news, Osaka was fantastic and I will have to write about it when I have a bit more time.

I'm off to the Katsuma Elementary School now for yet another self-introduction plus a lesson on numbers followed by bingo. Let's hope it goes well.

A month left...

Man time is flying. I haven't posted in a while because I've been out seeing friends and getting lots of stuff done around the house and in preparation of the trip. It's really kind of crazy that I'll be gone in about 4 weeks! I'm not sure if it's fully sunk in yet.

I keep trying to imagine what my life might be like over in Japan, but I haven't been very successful. Though I'm asking lots of questions and getting lots of answers from people who are over there now, it just doesn't seem to be enough to give me an idea of how it will be for me and how I will react to it all.

I'm afraid it may be a little while before I post again as I have a friend in town on Friday and Saturday. Alana is my friend from the French dorm at UGA who is also going to be in Japan on the JET Programme. She is coming in to go to the JET Q & A session on Saturday. I might get a post off on Sunday about what we learn, but then I'll be heading out of town on Monday for a week to Pennsylvania to visit my extended family and help out my parents with their new home up there.

Even though I know I've done a lot already to prepare for the trip, I'm afraid it's still going to be a mad dash to get everything squared away those last weeks once I return from Pennsylvania.

Travel Arrangements

Well I got an email last night from the travel company that will arranging our travel agenda. I'm very excited about that. Looking for flights online really isn't fun when you have certain dates of travel and you want it to be cheap. And then the thought of spending so much money just to get to a place. But JET covers the cost of travel to and from Japan and for the flight there at least, they have a travel company take care of everyone's arrangements. All I have to do is fill out a half-sheet form and email it back in with my name and departure city and that's about it.

One more step that makes it seem even closer!

(I'm not looking forward to the hellishly long flight, though.)