fight...

my students are hilarious. mom has gotten to experience some of their funny engrish as she answered a million questions from them the past couple days. one student made the following colorful additions to his worksheet...
wait, he wants to put grandmom vs. grandad?! and allen and i should Fight?! at least he gets the love between mom & dad... hahaha!

another gem <3:
this whole time still feels surreal... i taught a class with my mom? in japan?

before she heads home we have a day of exploring himi by bike, easter celebrations, and another train ride to osaka for 2/3 a day of adventure.

and speaking of surreal, in a week i'll be lounging on a tropical beach. unbelievable.

"MAMA!!!!"

[yay!! golden temple & my momma!!!]
[*sob* i'm gonna miss these beauties]
[my fav tourist spot in kyoto]
[saki!!! on my very first day she wrote "i love kelly"]

well, no surprise, but practically the entire school went crazy over mom today!!! as we walked around during cleaning time, the kids were 10 times more genki than normal. some said "who is she?" [a question i asked the 1nensei students in their oral exam last week-- score!] one girl [saki, see pic directly above] even wanted to pose for a photo with mom. without me. haha. <3 it.

a fair amount of teachers personally introduced themselves, complete with some handshakes and traditional japanese name mumbling. we spent over an hour in the principal's office... he wanted to ask mom a million questions and we had coffee together.

[backtrack:] after a delayed rendezvous on friday night, we met at kansai airport and spent a delightfully full 2 days of travel. highlights include awesome conversations on the trains, seeing some of my fav spots [ie fushimi inari: orange gate photo], okonomiyaki and a warm bed thanks to cassie, and maneuvering our way around without any major mishaps.

i'm SO looking forward to sharing my himi life with mom! tonight she hung up my clean laundry to dry on the balcony and kindly ate some of my homemade yakisoba. wow, it's grand!

for old time's sake, please enjoy the cuteness of the following incredible face. oh how i miss this little tyke... heart&soul still has my heart. fan, are you alright?! ;)

signs of spring

mandy's birthday wish was for spring to come & i'm so happy it's coming true. spring is on the horizon. seriously. here are some signs i've noticed lately.

*obaachans sitting around outside on their little walker seats. grinning their gums at passersby and gossiping about their husbands, children, grandchildren, and their city's foreigners. at least thats what i imagine they discuss as i ride by on my bike and say konnichiwa. *さようならbus! i can get up at 7:10 EVERY morning now, without having to bother checking the weather for possible snow!! *daddies and their little tykes learning how to ride bikes, scooters, and the like. *i'm so happy!! *two weeks and counting before i depart for OKINAWA spring break 08 *sometimes outside is warmer than my apartment in the late afternoon when the sun's on the non-windows side of the building.

spring fever: "A feeling of restlessness, excitement, or laziness brought on by the coming of spring." [yep, definitely got it!]

this has been a bittersweet week. bitter because apparently, monday was my last class with the 6th grade elementary kids. they graduate next week before i go to teach one final day. SAD NEWS!! but it was so so sweet since they gave me some special goodbye presents... i can read some of this. basically it says, "kelly-san, thank you very much for what you've done. it's always fun with you!" and you can see the picture of yukiho speaking english with me. that needs no translation :)

another bittersweet situation. i taught the special ed class by myself on monday. the same girl i've written about in the past [maeda] was sort of in a bad mood and got frustrated bc she couldn't find the cards she started to make last english class. she sat there most of the class playing with this spiky ball i brought for the warm up activity. when it was time to go, i asked for the ball back and she had hidden it in her desk. i persistently but kindly reached in and took it out before i left the room. after the next period, there was a note on my desk from maeda. i could read most of it and my friend mikako helped clarify. basically, she apoligized for breaking the ball. she drew a mini picture of it and apologized "junto ni gomennasai". i almost cried. when i saw her in the hall after school today i basically said [the ball is ok. thanks for the note] in incredibly broken japanese. she smiled. a tiny bit.

classic toyama style

some of my fav girls after our final class-- cooking american snacks :)
we've come a long way from boston children's museum <3

friday was my friend mandy's 22nd birthday. the night turned out to be one of the best i've had here... totally classic toyama. 1st: absolutely amazing indian dinner at santoshi. it was nine courses, unlimited, and took us about 3 hours to finish. the mix of people was fantastic and i loved seeing the ones i rarely get to hang with. 2nd: giant karaoke room and delicious homemade cake
3rd: take the 11:30 train home [and by home, i mean to takaoka. which is my second home after himi]. always an adventure with old men getting up the courage to try their english... ann and mandy's faces say it all, i think :)

4th: one of my fav spots in takaoka where we met other JETs and the girls ate more food... apparently they didn't eat 4 pieces of naan bread bc they still had room! 4th: thanks to ann's scheming, our friend hiro came to meet us. we went to the bar where he's a chef and gave us our own private karaoke room. almost three straight hours of singing songs from middle school life. my friends are way talented. going to bed at 5am was killer the next day but it felt great to have celebrated mandy's special day to the max <3

yesterday was good for my soul. there was a spanish festival we ventured to... i really needed to hear something familiar & cultural, that wasn't japanese. i could read the posters and pamphlets. and they played spanish music while a dance troupe did flamenco. mmmm... beautiful.
after watching flamenco we went out for the first REAL pizza i've had in 7 months. last week i decided i wasn't going to eat any more japanese "pizza" because it makes me frustrated and long for pizza at home. however, pizza jamboree in kurobe seriously knows how it goes. they served absolutely incredibly, american style pizza in a million different varieties. mmmmm... also beautiful.

breathtaking

this is what i woke up to this morning. absolutely stunning.

except for lunch and 3 bathroom breaks, i spent the entire day checking 2nensei workbooks. in case you don't understand the magnitude of this statement, let me break it down. 8 hours of work. minus 1 hour for lunch. minus 15 minutes total for the bathroom stops. that's precisely 6 hours and 45 minutes of checking the SAME exercises. over and over and over. i might throw up.

fortunately, there was a gem among the craziness of checking this week: "i'm kento. i can play baseball. i can't eat sushi. i'm very clever" [and humble, too, apparently :)]

i spent most of those checking hours in a grouchy mood. i was sick of hearing japanese. sick of using my red pen. sick of the notebook pile that never seemed to shrink. and sick of the teacher who puts me through all these shenanigans, simply because that's who she is. i can't wait to switch schools. AFTER school, however, i was reminded why i sometimes love my job. i was riding my bike away from school amidst the shouts of "kelly, sheee you"... after stopping at a local store to get a birthday gift, 2 of my girls were walking along the road. one said "kelly, YAY!" & they waited for me to catch up so they could show off their terribly broken umbrella <3

countdown to mom's arrival: nine days**
countdown to spring break departure: exactly 3 weeks*

who's ms. high high?

okay, not everything about japan is bad. i feel a little guilty not posting recently, since the last one was so negative. of course i started feeling more optimistic the very next day. however, i'm still totally in the season of homesickness, frustration with cold dreary skies, and dissatisfaction with my job. i think it's just a season. if not, the next 5 months are gonna be way too long...

weekends are always phenomenal* friday night the gals came to himi and we had a rip roarin time. linda is freaking amazing at guitar and we sang songs from our jr high years. think carpenters, alanis, eagles, & wallflowers. whoo, my friends are so musically inclined. sleeping in on saturdays is a special treat, which i've enjoyed 2 weekends in a row :)

i continue to LOVE going to the onsen. last night i went with a bunch of friends & it was snowing/ raining. the feeling of being covered in steaming hot water while the cold air envelopes my face is incredible. i ended the night so relaxed, refreshed, and appreciative of this aspect of japanese culture. who would have thought being surrounded by tons of unknown naked women wouldn't be uncomfortable and unpleasant?! i know, it sounds wild. people here are often surprised that i, a foreigner, like it. but believe me, you'd like it too if you tried. be jealous, america, be jealous.

i absolutely can't believe i've been here for 7 months already!! it sort of seems like just yesterday i was arriving in himi, clueless and semi-mute. since then i've learned so much, traveled a ton, and hopefully taught something of value to a few great kids. speaking of great kids, here are a few: