HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. CASANOVA!!! 

oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!

last night i went to my futon cupboard and searched through my millions of blankets until i found the one i was looking for: my best friend, my heated blanket (not used since last winter). as we have no heating in our apartments except for kerosene (or electric/gas) heaters, a heated blanket is the most comforting thing in the world.
the temperature has really dropped recently and my teeth were chattering as i set it up and climbed into bed. i basked in the warmth of it with a smile on my face...for about five minutes until it stopped working! oh no!!! my pet! my baby!
i'll have to invest in a new one.
:(

everyday...

(in class)
JTE: hello class!
Students: hello mr/miss ~
Justine: hello everyone!
Students: hello miss justine

(in the hall, i pass 2 students)
Justine: hello!
Students: hello everyone!

update on The Coffee War

so it went well all week. i often felt tired in the afternoon but i got through it. then, during the wee hours of saturday night, i thought f*&k it, it's my birthday so i had one to help keep me going till 5am. then on sunday, i also said f*&k it, it's my birthday and had one in the afternoon. but starting monday i was back on track.

you guys rock

i had a great bday weekend, thanks to my peeps here in niigata. fun night out saturday in the city at the usual gaijin tokoro's: northern lights, immigrant's, shame, hotspot, then royal host for a 4am breakkie...
then a delicious meal at indus on sunday.
thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate my bday this weekendo! sugoi tanoshikatta!

lunch at Indus: kate, kat, luke, glen, me, jenelle, iwan, mari, tomoko, yo, jon, misael, laura, lins, anna 

mari, tomoko and yo 

dancing at shame: lins, misael and keito 

immigrant's 

jon and tomomi 

mayumi and kate 

asleep 

asleep 

an empty train station 

4:30 am at Royal Host 

jon, leif, kat, glen, tomoko 

this picture is hilarious. glen's like a wax mannequin on heroine. 

kate, kat and lins 

lindsay my love 

*smack* 

jon n leif 

iwan 

oh yeah. this funny old man moved up behind us on the train and took out his camera and snapped some pictures, with all of us just staring at him kinda like, 'what the...?'. so then we took out our cameras and started snapping him. 

public holiday...

yesterday (thursday) was a public holiday. because of this, my k-boxing class was cancelled, so i figured i should do something somewhat active instead.
wednesday night i went to my last pottery class to pick up my now-glazed ceramics. since anna had said she wasn't that pleased with how hers turned out, i had prepared myself for the worst. and then i was pleasantly surprised. the one thing i made that was my favourite was a koi-shaped figurine which i had glazed a greeny metalic colour. it came out looking decent, so i was happy with that. misael made a few things, including a pot with a crazy face on it, in which the water can come out it's mouth. his stuff came out pretty nicely too.
after class i stopped by anna's and we watched the rest of the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. and i now agree with all the brits - colin firth is hontou ni kakkoi in that. we also did some crocheting as anna wanted to learn how to make a hat. a very wholesome evening ;).
thursday afternoon i picked up tomoko and we drove just outside of shibata to where there is a dam with a trail that circles the entire thing. the whole loop takes about 2 hours but we walked fast fighting the cold wind and made it in about an hour and a half. the colours of the leaves were just about right and it was a very enjoyable afternoon.
this weekend kate and laura are coming up from tokyo...very tanoshimii!!!
by the way...mj and mum and nico...spoke to the popster last night.. besides raving on about the fate of the Netherlands in the hands of the "right-winged nazi's", and the 'hypocracy of the soft substance laws', we had a decent conversation and a few chuckles.

casanova's pot 

tomoko and me 

view over the outskirts of shibata 

tomoko looking slightly frightened 

the taller mountains are beginning to get some snow on their peaks 

as we make our way around to the end of the loop the sun started to set...perfect timing really, or we would have been left in the dark with the bears