because i do play favorites

My ichinensei students are the best. really.



Ichi kumi (class 1)



Manami, adorable class 2 girl



Ni kumi (class 2) probably my favorites



san kumi (class 3)

ao-i

Ao means blue in Japanese. I recently learned that in Japan, people say the light is blue, not green, when your driver is dawdling with the accelerator. Lucky for me i learned it just in time to pull it out copious times today as i drove around with Shannon in her new car!!! Thats right. This development is so sweet that it deserves a post in my blog, which i'm sure will just be the first of many.

The real winter wonderland - Hokkaido

I feel like a real, 100%, all-japanese, native - I just had my first long weekend 'up north' which coincided with my attendence of the most famous festival in Japan. So i here i am, a bonafide citizen of the island nation. And now i see what i've been missing all this time - Hokkaido is the gem of Japan. An island complete with the only real winter season in Japan, the fifth biggest city in the country, the finest and most popular breweries in all of Southeast Asia (at least according to the Japanese), a host of seafood delicacies, the mecca of Japanese dairy (we're talking milk, cheese, chocolate [if that's dairy], ice cream, and CHEESECAKE!!!), and so much more.

So i headed to Hokkaido with 6 friends to explore the island, the city of Sapporo, and experience the Yuki Matsuri. We spent the first day aweing at the snow and ice sculptures of everything from cartoon characters like Doraemon and Sponge-bob to the Hikone Castle and Imperial Palace. There was even a whole section of sculptures either made by or in honor of other countries (i'm not so sure). Then there were the brewery tours, the ferris wheel ride, the hokkaido specialty cuisine (Ghenkis Khan, grilled lamb stuff; crab; shrimp; and more), the good coffee, the CENTRAL HEATING, the falling snow, the beautiful town of Otaru, the snowball fights, the train rides, the nomihodais and tabehodais, the free samples in the airport, the shopping, and the fun time with friends.

Let's see if these picture things work...

Why i might consider a career change (if i had a career to begin with)

So Friday was just a typical day - cancelled classes, nothing to do, yada yada. And then Keiko invited me to Echigawa to see the Aisho-cho area schools special needs show. Students from special needs classes in elementary and middle schools in Aisho performed taiko, musicals, the japanese harp, gymnastics tricks, and more for teachers, principals and family. It was a fabulous morning! What a way to save me from another ridiculously boring day.


Our ichinensei deaf student, Akina and Her adorable little brother



My fabulous class 10 students (L to R): Shouya, Hitomi, Kaho, Asuka, Chiharu, Sumiyo, and Masaki. All dressed up as sheep and a wolf for their musical.

Winter nihon style

So friday i finally saw the first signs of real winter in Japan. After months of listening to the locals both complain about the cold and remark at the mildness of the winter, it seems the peak of winter has already come and gone in the space of a day or two.

I awoke Friday to a splendid sight - a town covered in 3 inches of snow. Thanks to my great friend Keiko i didn't have to worry about getting to school in the difficult conditions, but instead ventured out to capture the beauty.

Planning - sharing one of my greatest joys with the rest of the world

So as some of you know, i'm a bit of a planner. List-maker, note-jotter, outline-creater, email-writer, mini-notebook-and-pen-carrier, journal-writer, bullet-pointer, post-it-user extraordinaire. and i've been lucky throughout my 22 years to encounter a plethora of folks patient enough not to smack me when i race to grab a pen and mini-notebook (or white board) as soon as weekend plans, events, or pro/con lists are discussed. What i didn't know before i came to Japan that i was enterring into a society of the severly anal, and would be welcomed, pen, paper, and all, with open arms.

Tonight when i discussed (for probably the 12th time) my parents upcoming visit to Japan with my japanese-granparents and keiko the three of them immediately whipped out planners and cell phones to check the date and free their schedules. Then they got out a pad of paper to jot down any culinary dislikes or allergies my parents may suffer from and start planning the ridiculous feast that we'll be gourging on in 2 months. Honestly, it sounds completely ludicrous, but at the time i couldn't stop grinning and thinking how lucky i was - to be surrounded by people who cared enough about me, my family, and list-making, to plan one dinner over 7 weeks in advance.