too much to think about

train crash near osaka. i feel like a marvel comic hero sometimes, the one who hurts everyone she touches. or, in my case, bring disaster to every place i visit.

those were some great flowers last night

well, the hanami didn't exactly turn out as planned last night. the original idea was for us to go and sit on the banks of the shinano river, under the cherry blossom trees, chu-hi in hand, amidst all the other drunken salary men and 'appreciate the sakura'. somehow i ended up at a party in a swanky swank japanese condo near the toki mesu. granted, i still had a chu-hi in my hand, but there were no cherry blossoms in sight.
but, well worth it, ne?
what a cool apartment! i especially loved the indoor and outdoor marble jacuzzis, and the beautiful sliding doors. a tad nicer than our apartments. lindsay suggested we take pictures of it and show them to our board of ed as a little hint. "this is the kind of apartment the ALTs should be living in...it's not too much to ask?"

no sleep

this malaria medication is making me sick. last night i tossed and turned all night, crippled over with cramps and feeling sore all over. i think i was literally awake for about 6 hours. not the best night's sleep when you go to bed at midnight and need to wake up at 7. i pressed snooze for 35 minutes until the last possible second of being able to lie in bed and not be late for work. it's a bit ironic that the medication protects you from malaria but makes you sick for the whole 42 days that you have to take it. (are any other PNGers having stomach aches and nausia?)
...3 classes today, which will hopefully mean the day won't drag...
7 more days till i'm on a plane to malaysia...

i love jellyfish 

Nara 

back...again

all week i was dreading my return to teaching. today is april 18th. i left for PNG march 18th. I HAVE HAD A WHOLE MONTH OFF SCHOOL. the dread to return was worse than the return itself. i came back to saruhashi to find i have a new supervisor there, who i can actually TALK TO. we bonded when she told me how nervous and horrified she feels about teaching here (she's new...) i consoled her, saying "don't worry, it's not just you. they are evil. EVIL". we taught an ichi-nensei class together today which actually was very successful, and the kids were even cute. there's hope afterall!
lindsay and i had an excellent time on our road trip. stopping in nagoya on the way there was the perfect thing to do. wednesday morning we drove to nara which is worth some raving. imagine all the amazingly beautiful things about kyoto (the temples, shrines, parks...) minus the big, modern & ugly buildings and 'big city feel' and you've got nara. without even realizing it we ended up bop in the middle of the cherry blossom season, and we saw them in full vigor. speaking of vigor, if there's any of you who don't know about the text Pimp Daddy sent lindsay then ask her. you'll be on the floor laughing for ages (although endearing as hell). the only thing funnier is that website jeff 'found'. should i post the link on my blog or do you think that's too dangerous? (comments, please).
as for osaka - fun city with crazy night-life but not for those who are a little bit short on coin. we did, however manage to run into a couple of interesting people who had a couple of interesting things to offer...
the drive back was loooooooooooong (10 hours) but the part between toyama and takayama is breathtaking and well worth it.

i miss it but it's good to be back

the past few days since my return have been a bit bumpy. a few ups and downs. missing the warm weather, the people, the experience. but seeing everyone back here has been wonderful. i'm so lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life here in japan.
taking advantage of a few days we have off from school, lindsay and i are going to take a little 5 day road trip down south to osaka. we wanted to go as far as hiroshima but realistically that's quite a bit farther from osaka - so maybe we'll just check out some other cities on the way instead.
it's strange to have time off now - not even sure what i'm going to do with myself over the next few days. but yes, everyone: i know we are the luckiest JETS in japan.
...feeling rather great though missing a certain someone like crazy...spero di vederlo presto...xxx

words cannot describe...