Signs of the season

Work has been really hectic lately; classes have been fun but *draining*. We did Halloween lessons today. The kids listened to me talk about Halloween for a while, then made origami pumpkins and napkin ghosts. I collected the origami afterward and made poster decorations for the class:


Halloween Origami
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Cute, huh? It has gotten noticeably colder in the last few days. I can already tell that this "no centralized heating" business is going to be interesting. I'm so glad that I have an electric heater now. Most people here seem to use kerosene, but you have to leave the window open because of the fumes... seems kinda questionable to me, although it seems to work just fine for the majority of the Japanese population.

Btw, Niigata made the front page of the Japan Times today, though not for a happy reason:
Niigata marks one year since big quake