saturday 

creme de la creme:

POTATO: is flesh coloured
wants to visit america so he can see idaho
has many a wound

potato...again

i know i keep adding these...but they're just to hilarious not to post. my students today wrote (about their potato):
name:
bob
apple boy
hammer
joel
chip
physical characteristic:
she has red eye
beautiful hands
she is delicious
acne
rough
radish foot (???)
monkey face
moon face
fat as a pig
looks yellow because feels sick
favourite (non japanese) food:
nuitricious soil
diet food
eat a camel (wierdo!)
calorie mate
country potato wants to visit and why:
hell because he wants to die
america because to use drugs (uh oh...should i be worried?)
australia to become pork
heaven to go sightseeing
and...this is my favourite:
he wants to go to a japanese potato farm to "act as a spy". (where do they come up with this stuff? it's classic!)

switzerland...in japan

just got back from a lovely mini holiday to 'zao', one of japan's ski resort's up north in the prefecture of yamagata. the town itself is nestled at the base of the mountain, with old buildings, windy streets, and steam coming up in every direction from the natural hot springs. we arrived about mid-day on saturday and checked into a quaint chalet only a 4 minute walk from base of the slopes. this weekend i tried lindsay's mini-skis, and have discovered it's a bit like skating down the mountain. i had far more control and thus had a fantastic time! the resort is huge, and the snow is far better for skiing than the wet slush you find in niigata. after the skiing on saturday, we walked (around the corner) to the nearest onsen, stripped down and took a dip in the boiling, steamy water. it was heaven on earth.
that night we spent curled up on cushions by the fire in the chalet, drinking wine and singing to guitar that our japanese neighbours had brought down to the restaurant. it was the perfect ending to the perfect day.
zao is famous for it's 'snow monstors' - trees at the very top of the mountain that withstand the wind from the north japan sea, but in the process are covered in several feet of snow and ice and look as though they should have eyes and fingers and should treck the top of the mountain on their own. sunday we took lifts almost all the way to the top to see these 'creatures' and saw several at the base of the cable car. we then climbed in a ginormous cable car to make the final stretch up to the top - but upon arriving it was so blizzardy (sp?) that we couldn't see our hand in front of our face let alone the snow monsters. skiing down from the very top was exciting and frightening. you could barely see a thing, the wind and the snow was so strong. as we gradually made it down the runs the weather got warmer and warmer, until we reached the bottom and it was again a comfortable -2.
it was quite a long way to go for only a day and a half, but it was well worth it, and the perfect 'mini' holiday. good company, good food, good fun.

zao 

my sister, marijke and her friend marcus. mj is obviously very surprised.  

view of my street in guelph, ontario (behind red brick house). my brother's wife sent me this pic today, she took it last week. i miss it! 

potato game, part 2

i think this entry will be well worth the read...funny stuff man.
ok so i played the potato game again with two 3rd year classes (15 year olds) but this time at toyoura (my good school). just when i had lost all hope that these kids were the least bit creative, i'm sitting at my desk correcting their papers and tears are coming out of my eyes i'm laughing so hard. (teacher's must think i'm insane). here are some of then answers they put:
1) Potato's name:
-bus
-pancake
-cindy (huh? where do they get these from???)
-potato-chan
-jim
2) Potato's physical characteristic(s):
- very cool and cute
-slender face
-his health isn't very good
-he has strong power
-he is very hard (i'm too immature to pass this one off...)
-he is quick
-beaver skin(??)
-slender and crazy
-strongest of all potatoes
-ribbon on her head
-he is very hot man (!!!!!)
-he is black
3)Potato's favourite food:
- likes to eat love very much (?????)
-mud
-cake. "everyday she eats much cake"
4)Country Potato wants to visit and why:
- italy to look for many boyfriends
-south korea to see mr. peyonmyu (korean male actor the girls are crazy about)
-france because he wants to be a cool guy
-jamaica to see reggae

and one boy (one of my fav's) introduced his potato as his very pretty fiance, kazume.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

ODE TO THE ROCK

Stealth-like, secretive, crafty and anonymous,
This occasional commenter makes blogging luminous.
A comment just once a month Mr., just won't do...
He who plays a dissapearing act, not unlike the polkaroo.
I'm blog-obsessed not because i'm lazy,
But the time I spend at my desk makes me crazy.
If you find it at all entertaining or legitimate,
I ask of you one small thing...PARTICIPATE!

 

shibata castle, at night. 

i'm thinking about starting kyudo. i really want to do it and it really fascinates me but it is 3 nights a week, 2 hours a night. so a HUGE time commitment. i already feel as though i'm so busy. what to do? have to decide soon to register. 

stormy

are you niigata folks feeling this? yesterday my teacher told me today would be the worst winter storm of the season. so far i would have to agree. it sounds as though the school is just going to blow away! i swear, it's swaying back and forth with the wind! and it's soooo loud!
last night when my apartment was rocking i thought there was another earthquake! geez louise.

apaato 2 

apaato 1 

the potato game

so today was the first time i tested out the (apparently 'tried and true') potato game for my third year JHS students (grade 9). my wonderful, intelligent and dashing friend hiten gave us the idea while speaking at our ALT seminar last month.
potato game:
give each student a potato
write numbers 1-5 on the chalkboard, each with a sentence beside it. basically the idea is that the potato is your friend, and you are responsible for introducing your friend to the class, including:
1. friend's name (namae)
2. friend's favourite singer/actor/sports hero
3. friend's physical characteristics (tokochya)
4. friend's favourite food
5. country friend wants to visit and why (poteto ga hoshinshiyutai kuni)
obviously u can change these 5 things if you want. so, "my friend's name is..., she/he likes..."
i did this lesson period 2 and 3 today. the 2nd period's class got all excited when i passed out the potatoes, but when i told them what they'd have to do with them the smiles quickly faded and they stared at me with a mixture of disbelief, hatred, and fear. half the kids didn't fill in their information and the teacher didn't make those who didn't, stand up. which pissed me off because basically it rewarded the slackers and punished those who actually did their work.
my second class went much better, probably because that class has the 'fan club' (a group of girls who absolutely adore me). almost every student introduced their friend and had a fun time doing it. fifth period i have one more potato class.
three time's a charm, ne?

:)

:)

"happy fruits is very delicious. i will eat this and will become fortunate all together!"

this is the quote written on my pencil box, also comically named 'puti-fresh'. really?
so, i know all of you are so shocked with the lack of emails, and blog posts over the past few days. being the internet-obsessed person that i am, i'm sure most of you were like, "is justine alive? is she ok?" yes folks, she's fine. it's just that there has been a recent trend of cutting off the internet by Yahoo BB due to the unpaying of bills. hmmm. and we thought it was direct-deposit.
anywhoo. we musical peeps headed down to joetsu this weekend after an exhausting but fabulous party at, ahem, "the hotspot". a memorable musical moment during Peter ja Pan includes yours truly (the friendly giant) slipping on her tribal leg-attachments during the only actual spoken line i have in the entire play 'eeeeee? ... eway ontday oknay! Tigerlilly?????" and almost going head-first off the stage. luckily mr. king kong kong (tribe leader) was standing next to me and as i almost went down i grabbed his arm.
i also slammed my finger in the car door saturday morning. i'll be ok.
sunday i drove to tokamachi where they were having a snow festival. i woke up late, missed most (well, all of it) but got to act like a snob and say, "well. it's not like we don't have the same thing only 10x BETTER in ottawa anyway". AND with less snow.
oh, this is hilarious (compliments of emma W): http://www.savetoby.com/

kyusyoku no jikan (lunch time)

i often find myself curiously noting my teacher's strange habits during lunch time. we all sit around this low, long table and chow down in absolute silence. no one talks. sometimes i feel as though a lot of the time here, there is usually one way to do something, and it's not done any other way. today for instance, we each had a bun with our lunch with came in a sealed plastic bag. every single teacher (there were about 9 or 10 today) didn't take their bun out of the bag, but rather just pulled it out a bit so that they could take bites out of their bun but not take the bun out of the bag. another curious addition to our lunch today was a frozen lemon. at first i thought this was very strange until i realized that each lemon had been scooped out and the frozen peels (still in the shape of a lemon) were filled with frozen lemony-sherbet. which of course i couldn't eat due to lent although i massively cheated the other night by having an ice cream sunday at our girls' night at wara-wara. then the top of the lemon was replaced (only a quarter-sized hole was cut out of the top to dig out the lemon) we were were given a small plastic spoon to dig out the sugary yumminess.

feeling sick

8:14am, feeling nautious and achy, goosebumpy and drowsy.

sooooo dutch. compliments of aaron. 

radiation

for some unknown reason i had to have a chest examination today (aka chest xray). my head english teacher (who speaks english and usually tells me what to do) was absent from school today so i had no idea where i was supposed to go, only that i had an appointment at 11am. so i managed to ask the secretary in very broken japanese where i was supposed to go, and she told me to go to the board of education (around the corner). so i went there, and went upstairs to see my supervisor, who looked at me with a puzzled look upon his face. again, thru japenglish and gestures, i managed to convey to him why i was there. finally, recognition flashed across his face and he said, "ah! wakarimasu!" (i understand) and he led me to the window and pointed outside. i looked down to see a large van parked in the parking lot. my supervisor then pointed to another man, ogawa-san, who led me downstairs and to the van. there were curtains drawn across the space between the rear open doors, and ogawa-san pointed at them and motioned for me to go inside. so, cautiously i krept up the steps to the van and slinked behind the curtains. there i saw a man doing up his pants. the doctor quickly rushed over and drew more curtains around the pant-less guy. i said a quick "gomenasai!" and tried to make sense of the sitation. the man finally immerged from the curtains, and left through the back of the van. then the doctor approached me and motioned for me to go behind the curtain. i did, but had no idea what i was supposed to do, so i simply removed my sweater and came out still wearing my t-shirt, which the doctor THANKFULLY said was 'daijobu'. i then went into this other 'room' in the van, where there was a large machine. i was told to crouch in this very awkward position placing my chin on this wierd strap thing. no large, magnetic coat was placed around me to avoid unessessary cancer-causing radiation. the doctor briefly left the 'room' then came back a few moments later, after this strange machine made a couple of noises around my chest area. he then motioned for me to go into that strange curtain-drawn area to replace my sweater. i did so, and in the process walked into an old woman getting undressed. should i be concerned...?

b.monk2 

b.monk1 

cat 

speed walkers: 'osaka-jin'

"japanese people are famous for being the fastest walkers in the world, especially those from osaka. it could be said that people in osaka are the most impatient people in japan.
there are many traffic lights for pedestrians in osaka which displays how many seconds you must wait until the light turns green. even still, many people start walking when the display shows "10 more seconds." [justine input: shocking in japan!] during the morning rush hour at train stations, for example, you can see the difference between people in tokyo and osaka. people in tokyo stand on the left side of the escalators, and walk up or down the right side. however, everyone walks up and down both sides of the escalators in osaka. it's almost as if there is a rule that says you must. when you visit osaka, you might walk faster than usual without even noticing it, but please be careful in traffic"
hilarious. maybe i should move to osaka.

elevator 

still taxi in shibuya 

wow did i ever luck out

things are good today. besides the absolute meloncholy i feel towards the news that lindsay will be leaving japan, all other matters are good. after meeting with my employers yesterday to sign another year of my life away here, i also found out that i get more holiday in april than i had origionally anticipated. now the only question is where to go???
i've decided i'm now NOT going to holland in may, it's not necessarily the best time. so i'm going to visit a friend in kyushu, and we might go to korea together.
and tonight is girls' night. the girls around our area meet for a weekly chat/dinner/drinks in niigata or shibata or wherever we end up. it's a lot of fun and ensures that the lot of us see each other on a regular basis.
yuck just had lunch. natto was on the menu AGAIN! luckily, as soon as the teacher's opened the pot and saw this disgusting substance, they said, "justine sensei, natto wa daijobu desu ka?" (is natto ok?). i must have made a face or something because they didn't put any on my plate, and gave me an extra piece of fish instead. aw they're nice.

signs

the sun was shining all weekend in tokyo. i took the strange trip back on the day-bus. i went from the bright sunshine of tokyo through the mountain ranges. bit by bit the patches of snow would get more and more numerous, but the sun just kept on shining. until we passed the WELCOME TO NIIGATA sign. it's kind of movie-like, actually. the bus is driving along until it comes to a valley and huge mountains are gaping all around you. this is where the WELCOME TO NIIGATA sign is, and i swear that from the moment you cross over the shadow of the sign, the landscape goes from being flat-ish, sunny and green to MOUNTAINOUS, RUGGED, CLOUDY, AND SNOWY. i think the sign-place was posted perfectly. it's almost like a warning: WELCOME TO NIIGATA. (mountains looming in the distance, snow 3 metres high). the sign seems to say: WELCOME TO NIIGATA. THIS IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT. [SEE BEHIND]. apparently niigata was supposed to be one of the targets of the A-bomb. but, due to the cloudiness of the day, they scratched that plan and dropped it on hiroshima.
hmmm...happy valentine's day everyone. here, the girls are supposed to give chocolates to the boys that they like. the boys get about a month of 'thinking it over time' and if they decide they like the girl then i guess they let that be known. is it wrong to send out about two dozen packages to maximize my chances???

mmmmm... 

tokyo from sunshine 60 building 

ah you should see my apartment

i think the next picture i will post will be one of my gorgeous apartment. made even more gorgeous recently by the purchase of three things: deep, rich burguny pillow cases, a standing lamp, and a bulb for the lantern i bought in thailand. it's all about the lighting FOLKS. i covered those hideous light blue and green pillows and have arranged them nicely on my japanese (mini) couch. they compliment my thai silks and pleather sofa well. ADDITIONALLY, adding to my collection of heaters, heated toilet, and heated blanket, i have discovered a heated carpet. so my apartment is cozy, cozy and gorgeous, gorgeous. if only my neighbour would share the snow shovelling load...
feeling very happy with my kids this week. leaving saruhashi jhs on tuesday each group of punks i passed waved and shouted "goodbye ms. justine!". even mr. "i'm too cool for school and everything else in this world" (one of my students who is obviously mr. popularity) passed me in the hallway yesterday and said, "hello!" i turned and smiled and said, "hi! how are you?" to which he responded "how are you?" then his cheeks turned red and all his friends laughed and immitated him and he stumbled and then said, "i am fine thank you, and you?"
my next class we have 5 teachers from my primary schools coming to watch the class to see what team-teaching is like at junior high. my jte is all stressing, wanting the lesson to be perfect, and he's even wearing a suit today. glad i picked my black suit today.
wish me luck...

answer the &*#$ phone!

* yesterday i was sipping some tea in the teacher's room when the phone started ringing. there were six men in the room, and one woman. the woman was busy vacuuming, and did not hear the phone. it rang, and rang, and rang (although most of the men had phones right beside them). they just sat looking at each other and then at the woman. when she finally heard the ring through the drone of the vacuum, she threw it down, TORE it across the room, and picked up the phone. because of course men do not answer the phone, cook, or make tea in this country.*
on a different note, there's an international film festival coming up in niigata city. it's showing a random mixture of films, including canada's 'les invasions barbares', 'the united states of leland' (american), eruo pudding (spanish), the flying classroom (german), song of the stork (vietnamese), ratcatcher (scottish), spring, summer, fall, winter...and spring (german), the return (russian), my life as mcmug (hong kong), and several other chinese and japanese films i can't read the title of because they're in kanji. i know one of the guys who's helping out organizing it so i'm going to be volunteering, selling tickets etc. should be neat.

why can't i

...make a decision? it's true what nathalie says about me. i freak when i have to make even the slightest 'relatively' important decision. i'm sitting here, biting my nails, wondering what to do. i woke up this morning and lay in bed for 20 minutes, pondering my situation and stressing out about it.
the decision?
whether to go to tokyo this weekend or stay shibata-bound. why am i about to have a hernia over it?
i also have to do tsunami lessons in my next 2 classes which i'm completely sick of! between my two jhs's i've had to teach about 15 tsunami lessons, and i'm just fed up with it.
and i'm trying to study the [verb] + 'tai' - "to want to do something case" of japanese and it's stressing me out too. i'm on the first page of this new grammar book and it has to be completed and arrive in tokyo by the 28th.
watashi wa kangaeritai denwa arimasen. i'm assuming this is in fact complete jibberish and doesn't mean at all what i think it does.
but i did feel good the other day when i went to a furniture store to buy a lamp. in complete japanese, i asked the cashier if it was indeed white, and not blue as it showed on the box, and that was what i wanted, so that was ok. wow. and i've been here six months...
nathalie had suggested i write something in my blog today...but for the life of me i can't remember what it was.

i love this one 

my hotel restaurant after tsunami in thailand 

missing this... 

red white and blue 

Peter Ja Pan 

happy, but still jumpy

i am incredibly buzzing today after finding out i was granted volunteer leave for my trip to papua new guinea. i am so lucky to be blessed with such a great employer (the shibata BOE) who understands how important this trip is. to be fair, the students are out of school during this time anyway (spring break), so if i were to stay in japan i wouldn't have had to come to school anyway. so now, with more days left of nenkyu (payed holiday), i am able to have more flexibility with regards to where i spend golden week (in may). but at the moment i am torn between holland (really want to go, might get to see mj, long overdue for a visit) and kyushu (will get to see my friend tasha, will be much cheaper). is it really realistic for me to go to thailand, papua new guinea, and holland within 5 months?
on a different note, it turns out that none of us are really completely over the earthquake. the other night there was a small group of us sitting in immigrant's cafe (a restaurant in niigata city) and there was a sudden rumbling. the five of us jumped out of our seats, i yelled 'holy f$ck' as i felt my heart thumping in my chest. it was only someone falling down the stairs, but the guy beside me said, "you thought it was an earthquake, didn't you?" and we all chimed yes in agreement. it's something i'd never experienced before, and although the last of the major ones was over three months ago (not including the smaller one the other day), every time there is any kind of a loud noise or shaking, it's an automatic reaction to freeze, and my heart just goes wild. everyone i know has been going through the same thing. i wonder if it's partly because so often we were jolted awake during deep slumber to our apartments shaking. being 10 seconds before in a deep dream, we would sit up straight, and grip the blankets, wondering if we should stay inside or go outside. fight or flight. feeling it start with a low intensity and either become stronger and last for what seemed like eternity, or automatically stop after only several seconds. absolute adrenaline pumping through your veins. the same feeling after running from the waves. every muscle and joint throbbing, feeling the blood pumping, pumping. being on the verge of tears, red faced, deep breathing, every inch of you tingling and charged. not knowing what's going on or what's about to happen.

natto:

foul
smelly
bitter
rotting
fermented
healthy
snotty
sticky
salty
brown
disgusting
japanese
old
elastic-like
stinky
revolting
makes me vomit
fingers crossed it's not on today's menu.
if you're interested, do a google image search and check out the second pic

today i love my students

in class today i did an activity with the students where they had to guess at different celebrities i had displayed on a projector. after, i assigned each group 1 celebrity and they had to write a list of things that described that person. to be cheeky i put myself as one, and this is what the group wrote:
-teacher
-cute
-pretty
-tall
-gold hair
-kind
-big eye
-beautiful
-interesting
-canadian
-small face
-long foot
-loved by Daichi (group member)
-loved by Takechan
-loved by Azuma
-loved by Miyamura
-loved by Mariami
-loved by Kaori
-loved by Chihiro
-loved by everyone
ISN'T THAT WONDERFUL??????