Tues. Aug. 24- Tues. Aug. 31
Last week at work I had several fun experiences including more driving around adventures with John and Katie and driving to one of my schools for the first time by myself. You will be pleased to hear that no school children were run over, all the obaachan are safe, and I didn't even back into any buildings, statues, or rice patties.
We stopped to see the Shimao monkeys. Their cages were actually kind of depressing but John was kind enough to fan this one.
The beach near the park with the monkeys. Also last week was the JHS speech contest. I thought the kids I had helped did a very good job (not necessarily because of me, just because they had practiced a lot) and the group of my ichinensei (first year students) from Jusan JHS who did a play were selected as one of the top three winners! After the kids went it was time for the esteemed judges (aka the six Himi JETs) to each say a little something about the speeches and then teach the audience an English song. John took the lead and luckily we had a CD that played along with us. I got to be the Vanna White of the day and point to the lyrics on the big printout as we had them repeat back the words. The song we went with was "You've Got A Friend In Me" from Toy Story since the third movie had just come out and the lyrics were simple. Also, we only sang the first two verses to make everyones lives a little easier. Then after that we broke into smaller groups and did free speaking. The topic was summer vacation and trying to get the kids to participate was like pulling teeth at first. Gradually they started opening up though.
Last week was also fun outside of work. On Wednesday we showed up at Manyous and a group of people was there waiting for us! It was great to see Cory and Paula and many of our friends from nearby towns and after dinner we all, even Masa, went to a bar-turned-snack-bar-turned-back-to-normal bar. John and Cory both know the owner and it was a very cool place so I can see us going back there. Paula and I split a bottle of wine and we all just hung out for a while.
The famous Himi dancing clock motif. Hattori-kun is on the far left defeating the evil guy on the far right...or something like that. I'm glad I finally saw it.
This past weekend was also fun because it was Welcome Weekend. Joe, Alex, Cody, and I all went. I had been debating about going because I wasn't really sure if I wanted to ride a train for two hours to go hang out partying in some cabins in the woods but Cory assured us that of all the events that go on this is one not to miss because it is a great chance for everyone to really meet everybody in the prefecture, not just our smaller regional events.
Unsurprisingly to any of you still reading this, I saw a giant slide and immediately had to go down it. Unfortunately, the rollers on it were wet and I started out the night with a soggy bottom ^^;
All in all it was definitely the right choice to go because I had a great time! While some people were really partying there were also plenty of people just sitting around talking and relaxing, which as many of you know, is much more my style. I got to see many of my friends from around the prefecture and also make plenty of new friends. In fact, I actually got a date out of it. His name is David and he is British. I'm not going to post his life story (not that I know it anyways) here so if you want more info you can talk to me in person on Skype.
My date with David was also a lot of fun. We met up in Takaoka, which is more or less midway between us, and explored the area some. We saw the daibutsu, or big buddha, at a nearby shrine. Someone told me it's the third largest in Japan but I have no idea if that's true or not. Also we explored a park and stopped at a noodle shop for dinner. A fun evening peppered with many discussions about his incorrect usage of words such as biscuit. Just for clarification, despite what a British person might tell you, a biscuit is a flaky roll not a cookie eaten with tea.
Street art! I wonder where they were going.
Probably through this door with David.
Good thing the door told us that we are in fact still in Takaoka. With all the walking animals I was starting to think we were in a new and exciting magical world.
Close up of the big Buddha. My Japanese teacher said the statue was handsome...I guess I can see where she was coming from. Except that creepy mustache.
On a less fun note, yesterday was the first day of weekly Japanese classes for Cody, Katie, and I. Katie and I have both studied Japanese in college but Cody has only self-studied and lived in Japan for a year. As long as he puts forth some real solid effort right in the beginning we should be able to get to a point where it's not just review for Katie and I. Lessons are set up on a monthly basis anyways so if it's too much of a waste Katie and I can just call it quits. Our teacher is Yamada-sensei. She seems very nice and she is only going to speak Japanese in the class so at least we will get one-on-one practice with listening and speaking.
After class we finally got to restart the Himi JET Tuesday night badminton. I had actually never played before but I really enjoyed it. It was really fun and surprisingly I wasn't even that bad (also not that good)...though there was a trend that the team I was on was always the losing team.
Tomorrow is my first day at school so I'm making sure to put the finishing touches on my self introduction lesson and prepare a brief speech for the ceremony that is held at the beginning of the year for new teachers. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!
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