and so it begins

so this year's golden week won't find me spending my days lying on the beach, scuba diving, or puking from prawn curry-induced food poisoning, but i will be going on a road trip in japan with tam and her parents. we leave tomorrow morning.
itinerary includes a few days in nara and kyoto, a few days in the kiso valley of nagano-ken, a few days of hiking in gifu's chubu national park, and possibly a stop in matsumoto. tanashimii!

all of my teacher's are sick and the background music of the staffroom this morning is heavy, fluid-filled breathing, horking and snorking, hacking, spitting, coughing and sneazing. it's absolutely sickatating. and it's time to get out of here.

T-T-T-TOKYO!

dave 

harajuku 

laura and dave 

odaiba, the bay 

'body moving machine', toyota showcase centre 

 

ueno market 

wedding 

shinto priest, yoyougi park 

the last five minutes

always drag.
today was sunny, but the air was cold.
that is all.

sakura in niigata

in shibata

"let's enjoy" fitting 16 people into my apartment for dinner

some lovin for mr. mistry

yay NIIGATA!

ok...so who's going to fuji-rock this year?
im thinking it's the year to bite the bullet, and the line up looks good. and, after all, its in our own prefecture! yay NIIGATA!
line-up...so far:

ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION
THE AUTOMATIC
THE BENEVENTO/RUSSO DUO
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH
THE CRIBS
DONAVON FRANKENREITER
FIELDS
FLOGGING MOLLY
FRANZ FERDINAND
THE HIVES
JASON MRAZ
JET
JOHNNY A
KEN YOKOYAMA
KILLING JOKE
KT TUNSTALL
KULA SHAKER
THE LIKE
MOGWAI
MO'SOME TONEBENDER
MUMM-RA
MYSTERY JETS
NATSUMEN
NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS
大江慎也
小野リサ
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
THE REFUGEE ALL STARS OF SIERRA LEONE
ROGER JOSEPH MANNING JR.
SCISSOR SISTERS
SNOW PATROL
SONIC YOUTH
THE SPINTO BAND
STRAIGHTENER
THE STRING CHEESE INCIDENT
SUPER FURRY ANIMALS
THE TERRY ADAMS & STEVE FERGUSON QUARTET
TOBY FOYEH AND ORCHESTRA AFRICA
TRASHCAN SINATRAS
TRISTAN PRETTYMAN
UA x 菊地成孔
WOLFMOTHER
矢野顕子
YEAH YEAH YEAHS
THE ZUTONS

i feel like Sayuuri

after lunch today my little elementary kids asked if i would play with them outside during their lunch break. i followed out the fifth-graders and we played tag, then junken for a bit. slowly some little first-graders started shyly approaching me, touching me and running off (this became a game). after a few minutes, as i crouched down, i had about ten or twelve of these little sprites gathered around me, touching my hair, trying to grab my hands, and, every single one of them, staring into my eyes and shrieking. me ga aoi! blue eyes! it is quite possible, however, that these little new first graders have just never seen blue eyes before.

just back from a weekend in tokyo. sugoi tanoshikatta! really fun weekend! met up with friends, ate some good food, took some nice walks, refrained from shopping...

hopefully getting my new computer today! i..cant...wait...

i feel like Sayuuri

after lunch today my little elementary kids asked if i would play with them outside during their lunch break. i followed out the fifth-graders and we played tag, then junken for a bit. slowly some little first-graders started shyly approaching me, touching me and running off (this became a game). after a few minutes, as i crouched down, i had about ten or twelve of these little sprites gathered around me, touching my hair, trying to grab my hands, and, every single one of them, staring into my eyes and shrieking. me ga aoi! blue eyes! it is quite possible, however, that these little new first graders have just never seen blue eyes before.

just back from a weekend in tokyo. sugoi tanoshikatta! really fun weekend! met up with friends, ate some good food, took some nice walks, refrained from shopping...

hopefully getting my new computer today! i..cant...wait...

ok so suddenly i'm loving my bad school. there are all these new teacher's who are actually interested in talking to me. the other old teachers who see me genkily laughing and being social must think i've totally changed or something. there's also a new english teacher here who's young and who i can actually chat with normally. he's pretty relaxed and quite friendly. sugoi!!!!!

new beginnings

i've got a new english teacher at my junior high school, h-sensei. i think he's just what these kids need. he's really genki and is always praising the students, no matter how crappy their pronunciation is. he told me today that he thinks it's very important that the students become more confident in speaking, and he feels as though the ends to this are through constant praising. it seemed to work with this class anyway.
this week's been alright though i haven't really gotten up to anything that exciting. monday night kat invited lins and i over for some yummy chilli. wednesday night i met miho, jon, tomoko and hiten at the shibata castle. we sat under the cherry blossom trees on our blanket, with our chu-hi and red wine. loads of people were there including some of my kids. at first the other shibata-ites were rather quiet though after a few beers they got pretty roudy and started calling out hello! how are you? i am fine thank you! to us. it always makes me smile when this happens because sober they are much too shy to every approach a foreigner. them give them a bit of booze and they can all speak english.
last night i skipped out on nihongo class to pack for this weekend's trip to tokyo, and to straighten out my apartment a bit. i also went out for sushi with hiten and jon to this yummy (non-Y100) place on route 7.
i'm looking forward to tokyo...it's been a long time since i've been there to just have fun. usually i'm just there on my way to/back from narita.
was going up to celebrate a certain-someone's birthday, though these plans seem to have fallen into the gutter, as he has become prey to a jealous japanese girlfriend. ok yes, i'm a little bitter.
alright, got to sort out train times now. has anyone ever bought an echigo pass?

i really hope that thing turned into a prince

hanami

lins, tomoks and i celebrated hanami in hakusan park on sunday. i was really convinced that there wouldn't be anyone there since it was so cold out. but, lo and behold, practically the entire population of niigata was there, spread out on their blue tarps, swigging back their chu-hi, and acting rowdily. the only time you see this behaviour is during hanami or at an enkai, and it's always fun to watch. the cherry blossom trees at hakusan park are white, not pink. i think i like this even better. when they are lit up at night they look like they are snow covered leaves instead of flowers. it's very beautiful.
there were vendors galore selling the usual festival foods. candied cherries and foot long hotdogs, takoyaki, yakitori, okonomiyaki and yakisoba. everyone was very lively and cheerful, and lindsay even got a marriage proposal from a short, bald yakuza member.
true to niigata-form, the heavens opened up in the early evening and we began to get wet. we hopped on a bus and headed to an izakaya near the eki. a nomihodi and several cassis-orengies later, we were red-cheeked, giggly, and ready to tackle the train back to shib. a very nice end to a very nice weekend.

shinkansen

誕生日おめでとう TOMOKS!!!!!!!!!!!
TANJYOUBI OMEDETOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my blogger is in japanese

since the untimely death of my laptop, i:m forced to use the school computer for all of my internet needs. so it now says "タイトル" instead of title. who knew blogger came japanese?
i think i:m going to have to start creating a guest list for my bi-monthly dinners at my apartment. every time the numbers rise. last night i had 16 people over! i:ll grant certain people VIP access based on 1) the quality of the food in which they bring, 2) their overall physical attraction and 3) how well they can do the 'carlton dance'. actually, it was wonderful and i was happy everyone could make it. and all of that food! wow! i think top on my list were iwan:s burritos and katie:s chocolate-dipped strawberries. oishikatta! (oh, and not to forget ryan:s apple/pumpkin/raisin salad). you three are all invited next time.
omg i am absolutely going to ring yosuke:s neck. he started at about 5am with his freakin squaking and didnt shut up until i left for work this morning. one after the other for two and a half hours. at one point i angrily got up, and shoved his cage into the bathroom and shut the door. it didn:t help at all.
next dinner menu: roasted quail and garlic potatoes.

stole this one from debs. me and baloo 

spicy market, kinou no yoru. lins, debs, kate, martin and tomoks.  

SHIZUKANI!!!

i've got a new kocho-sensei at my bad school. we just had a little outburst in the teachers room involving 2 boys. i can hear him chuckling behind me. he gets a real kick out of it! i guess that's a good way to be...
we had maabudon for lunch today. that's that gooey beef, quail egg, bamboo, pea and carrot stuff over rice. my JTE told me it must be difficult for me to only have chopsticks and no spoon, and she promptly stood up from her chair, ran into the kitchen area and returned with a spoon for me. i guess i should clench my teeth, grin and bare it.

kato-san and keito-san, diligant hikers meanering through the inaka 

keito-san and kato-san, english tourists, walking by the samurai bunkers of shimizu-en. 

keito-san and kato-san, respected shinto priests. 

kato-san and keito-san, masters of aikido 

keito-san and kato-san, rice farmers of the northern japanese prefecture of niigata, known for it's delicious rice, sake, and great snowfall 

Let’s enjoy starting work on a Thursday

So I’m back. Ottawa to Chicago, Chicago to Tokyo, Tokyo to Niigata and Niigata to Shibata. And 27 hours later.
I think I could probably describe my time at home as almost perfect. It was exactly what I needed at the time. To get out of Japan for a bit and rejuvenate myself. Things were getting a bit much for me before I left and I think I was close to going crazy if I were to have stayed. Time away allowed me to distance myself from everything here. This temporary escape has permitted me to feel happy about being back again. To be excited about living in Japan again, and about the upcoming year ahead.
My first few days home were a bit strange. It took almost a week for me to readjust to being back. Every person I saw I would expect to be Japanese, and when they weren’t I would expect to recognize them. English signs and conversation everywhere. Driving on the right side of the road again. Mostly it was being around my friends and feeling as though they had all moved on so much and were no longer doing what they had been doing when I last saw them. Or they were no longer in the same sphere of life. My Decision About Next Year was constantly on my mind and I agonized over it for hours every day. I felt that if I stayed here I would just continue to miss so much about everything at home. Not miss as in long for but miss as in life was moving on without me. Especially holding little Natalie and imagining her being two or three times the size the next time I saw her.
But then slowly I started to relax. I spoke at lengths to all of my friends over and over again about how they were feeling about this point in their lives. Slowly it became more clear to me that they hadn’t really changed that much at all. And, most importantly, I saw how lucky I am to have this opportunity to be here, with all that entails. I’m not committed to anything at home at the moment. I have no strings and that is what I realize is to be the most underrated thing I’ve got at the moment.
I enjoyed the novelty of being home to the fullest. The incredible blue skies and warming sun. the wide open spaces and driving in the car along the highway with nothing but trees for hundreds of kilometres. The diner breakfasts and ethnic food. Having dinner with my mum and chatting with friends. The ease of conversations with strangers and the familiarity of culture.
And now I’m ready to face Japan again.

...what i left in niigata 

 

and of course some pics of natalie!

this was at a dinner that tam's parents had for their and my family:

loralie, nico & natalie