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

Date with destiny

Ok, maybe that's being a little over the top, but I took the GRE yesterday. Left Niigata at about 9:30 on a two-hour shinkansen ride to Tokyo, managed to find the appropriate building in the appropriate sector of the city, and did the deed. First of all, I have to say that taking the GRE in a foreign country is kind of bizarre. Secondly, I thought the test was difficult. I seriously felt like I guessed on 3/4 of the math section. Thirdly, I *by far* exceeded my expectations and got 710 verbal, 720 quantitative. That puts me in the right range for the majority of my desired schools and renders it such that they can't disqualify me solely on the basis of the GRE. ;) It's also better than I ever did on any of my practice tests.

I'm so relieved.

Afterward, I met up with Tina, Shelley, and Drew for dinner and dessert out in Harajuku, which was a lot of fun. It was really nice to see some familiar Seattle faces and hear about their adventures in Tokyo. For my part, I was grilled on the application process for the JET Program and had to fill them in on the details of that last painful quarter of Japanese. ;) But yeah, a lot of fun. I'll have to go down there a few more times before they leave in February. And I definitely have to spend some more time in Harajuku in the future; I went there last year to check out the gothic lolita types, but I think it seems like a fun place just to hang out. I also killed about an hour in "Snoopytown", this huge Peanuts store there. Got a couple of things for my classes. :) Managed to hop on the last train back to Niigata--it's nice living in a place that's relatively accessible to/from Tokyo.

Speaking of classes, this is going to be one heck of a week at work. I have to do a full set of self-introductions tomorrow, so I think I'm going to spend some of today revamping my visuals (now that I have my nifty laminator). And I need to finalize the Halloween activities I'm doing with my first-years on Tuesday. We're going to make origami jack-o-lanterns and napkin ghosts. What fun.

School

I've had some really great lessons lately, something I'm always thankful for. It seems like the kids are getting friendlier by the day. Highlights of the week so far? Being told I was really cute by two first-years (the amount of English they struggled with was even more endearing than the sentiment) and having a rather long conversation about what Japanese celebrities I like with another first-year student today (again, I appreciated the epic battle with English). I know that everyone emphasizes using only English in the classroom, but I've gotta say that I think that the Japanese is really helpful. Even though I generally use English, I can help the kids with their questions after they've exhausted their rather limited set of vocab to communicate with me. And I think that tends to make them want to talk to me more--because they don't have to be as afraid that we'll just hit a dead-end and start blinking at one another after a sentence or two. I switch back to English when I can, and I think it makes at least some of them try harder to communicate with me. I've noticed that the students I occasionally help in Japanese are the ones who race to spout their latest English lesson whenever they see me.

Let's see, what else... Oh, I was interviewed about anime and low birthrates in America and ran into Rosalind at a rather scary English teachers' conference at my base school today. Anyway, I'm going to try and do a few more GRE practice sets--they tend to make me want to go to sleep ridiculously early though, so we'll see how far I get.

Kansai and more adventures!

Wow, it's been busy. I need to hurry up and post this before it all gets terribly out of date and/or I forget everything. So, Friday was the fabulous Mexican fiesta at my apartment. Oh my God, the food was so good. We cooked up a tempest of tacos, burritos, chicken/shrimp fajitas, and more, and the JETs really came out in force. Anyway, it was a good time, followed by drinks and karaoke (of course).  I also got some cute presents, including a very Kristi-like Hello Kitty apron--red with pink bows.  ;)


Mexican Fiesta in Kamo
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Saturday, my mom and I made the six hour shinkansen trip out to Osaka and checked into our hotel, immediately after which we passed out, waking up only to eat dinner and pass out again. Sunday, we went to the park out in Nara, which I absolutely *loved*. Seeing so many deer just wandering around kinda blew my mind. They're pretty determined when it comes to their biscuits though, I've gotta say--one ripped a whole stack out of my hand still in the wrapper. :) Anyway, we saw Kofukuji and Todaiji, two shrines that have been declared World Heritage sites. The latter of the two has the largest wooden building in the world, which houses the largest Buddha statue in Japan.


At Nara Park
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.


Daibutsu
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

After doing a little shopping in Nara, we took a train out to Kyoto and hit two more shrines: Sanjusangen-do and Fushimi-Inari Taisha. Sanjusangen-do is famous for containing 1001 statues of Kannon, while Fushimi-Inari involves a *lot* of red tori.


Inside Sanjusangen-do
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.


At Fushimi-Inari Taisha
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

On Monday, we spent the day leisurely strolling around the grounds of Osaka Castle, the city's most famous landmark. We also did a litle bit of shopping around the city before embarking on the long shinkansen ride back to Niigata.


Osaka Castle
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

All in all, a good weekend.  And now?  Now I'm 23.  Time to end a long post and get back to living.  Hope all of you are doing well. Oh, before I forget, taiko concert pictures from the other day are up now:


Tsubame Taiko Concert
Originally uploaded by kristi-san.

Subarashii...

I had my most fun day of teaching yet today! It was my first official visit to Tagami Junior High, so the day started off with the standard bilingual self-introductions to the staff and to all of the students (via school assembly). But then I had four very awesome lessons with two very awesome teachers and two slightly less awesome ones. Great students, too. I sustained casual non-teaching related conversations with teachers for a total of maybe three hours today! And got presents and sightseeing invites! Too bad I don't go back again for another three weeks. :)

After that, I had an amazing hour-long massage at the house of this very nice blind fellow who lives a couple of miles from my apartment. Oh, it was wonderful. I was quite amused by the fact that just about every muscle he touched prompted the comment, "Hm, this probably hurts, huh?" hehe... My neck, my shoulders, my back, my shins, my feet... all of them a mess. (My shins even prompted a "What the..?) By the time he got to my right foot, we both had to laugh at how my bones were cracking all over the place. I swear, I'm held together largely by stress. And maybe gumption. :) Anyway, I may have to make this a semi-regular occurence. A good use of $30, to my mind...

I better get some rest. I have three early lessons at Wakamiya tomorrow, then it's off to Tokyo and Narita Airport to retrieve my mom and bring her back to Kamo. That means 6+ hours on trains and about $200 in fares, roundtrip. But hey, the last thing I want is for her to get lost and end up on the other side of Honshu. ;)

Take care, all. If you happen to be in Japan, I'm having a Mexican food party this Friday at 7:00 pm. It's also nominally to celebrate my 23rd birthday, which is next Wednesday. If you're reading this, you're invited. Comment and I'll send you details.

Taiko

I went to a taiko drum concert today out in Tsubame with the usual suspects. It was quite fun, and since it was free, the price was right. Afterward we grabbed some food at a ramen shop and chatted for a while about everything and nothing... Then I came back to Kamo for another dinner date with some of the folks here. Good stuff. I took a bunch of pictures but don't have the energy to sort/upload them right now.

Anyway, I have a big day of teaching tomorrow--gotta think of stuff to do. Wish me luck. ;)

Major redecorating

What a productive day. I spent almost all of it cleaning house, doing laundry, and shopping for furniture (or moving it, with Rosalind's help), and now my apartment is a much more pleasant place to be. Seriously, I feel *so* much happier. And I think I've spent more time in my living room today than I have in the last two months, so that really says something. Just to think, a sofa, an armchair, and another bookshelf were the key to happiness all along. I still have to do the finishing touches (sofa pillows, colorful things, and perhaps a houseplant), but I think I'll try to pace my spending a bit--anyway, this is a definite improvement. That means we can have a party at my place soon, perhaps with all that Mexican food I've been hoarding from theflyingpig.com. Yum.

I've been burning CDs this evening, trying to recreate a bit of my old collection in Seattle. I have to admit, despite the convenience of mp3s and mp3 players, I find buying/burning/using CDs to be somehow more satisfying at times. Maybe it's cause I just like stuff; I'm such a packrat. Anyway, Modest Mouse, Air, Pinback, and Hot Hot Heat have rejoined the fold so far... More to come, I'm sure.

I think I'm going to shut down the computer for the night, maybe study for the GRE. That would be good. Tomorrow may end up being busy--gotta prep for a big day of teaching on Monday and it looks like I'm going to a taiko drum concert out in Sanjo in the afternoon. That's life in Japan for ya...