Ikimashou ~ Let's go!

Where to start?

2010-02-26T08:34:00.002+09:00

I plan on making myself available to work in Seattle starting around the 1st of September. I was told I should start looking now, I should emphasize that I'm paying for my relocation, and that I have relatives in Seattle that I'll be staying with.

Ok, now that that's decided, how do I actually start looking for a job? I'm 26 years old and I've never actually done a real job search ... time to start catching up!

Out of hiatus

2010-02-18T10:44:00.002+09:00

What has had the strongest influence on your political ideology (or lack there of for some)? Family, friends, media, physical environment, personal experiences?

The development of one's political ideology is fascinating. It's also a little scary. I read in the news everyday how polarized the US is becoming and every time I read about it I fear more and more whether any real progress can be made. What results in people clinging so strongly to their beliefs that they aren't willing to even listen to the other side? How do we bridge the gap and get back to what really counts? Is the US just too big for its own good?

Or is it even as bad as I think it is?

Living in Japan, the only news I really see or read is coming from an extreme point of view (because that's probably what sells). A part of me is really looking forward to going back to the States and engaging in dialogues with people who have different beliefs and political ideologies because I really want to understand it all. However, another part of me is frightened to go back to a place where people are gathering arms/food/shelter as if in preparation for the worst. It's as if people have already given up on the idea, or perhaps they never believed in the idea, that we could coexist with each other peacefully despite our differences. Why do we dwell on the differences rather than realizing that there are actually more similarities between us all?

withdrawal

2009-04-07T20:15:00.002+09:00

I read over 2,000 pages last week. I forgot how much I liked to read, especially series. They just let you go into a completely different world; an escape from reality for a while, and from TV :P I never thought I would get into them; I'd never even heard that much about them except for a brief article I read last year about some crazy lustful fans obsessed with them and the movie. But my friend Katie handed the first book to me and said give it a try. So, I started reading the Twilight series and couldn't stop until I was done with them all. Despite how much some of the characters, mainly the main character, annoyed me, I really enjoyed reading them and immersing myself in that world for a little while. However, I'm supposed to be preparing for the GRE's eventually, so perhaps I should read books that will aid my shrinking vocabulary. Any suggestions?

only in Japan ...

2009-02-25T09:06:00.002+09:00

Teacher: Uh oh ... sounds like someone has a cold.
Allison: Yeah, a little bit of a cold. But I'll be ok.
Teacher: Do you have a runny nose?
Allison: Yes ...
Teacher: You should go to the hopsital! You don't want that to get out of hand now.
Allison: For a runny nose? But I don't have a fever or anything ...
Teacher: You should still go ...

Apparently a runny nose grants a hospital visit in Japan. But seeing as there is no cure to the common cold, I think I will just stick to lots of liquids, rest, and lovely lotion tissues :P

And again ...

2009-02-13T13:26:00.003+09:00

Maybe I'm addicted to Japan. I always say that I'm going to leave, but then I can never pull myself away. I won't have that option next year though. I'm going back to the States ... for sure!!

It was an extremely difficult decision for me to make this year. Last year, I had decided that I would be finished after four years. I had prepared myself (mentally and emotionally) to leave. I was set on that path. But then the news started pouring in: layoffs in the thousands, unemployment rates highest for my age group, loans becoming difficult to obtain, etc etc. I have dreams, but I don't have anything set in stone. Entering a shaky (at best) economy without anything lined up could end up being financial suicide. Staying in Japan for one more year with a steady income allows for more time to make a smooth transition back.

So I'm staying ... BUT, I have goals:

1) I want to take the GREs
2) I want to take the JLPT, level 1 (once I find out if I passed level 2, if I didn't, then retake it!)
3) I want to visit at least one other country in Japan's vicinity (I still haven't done that!)
4) I want to thoroughly look into my fields of interest: education, physical therapy, Japanese
5) I want to research different graduate programs related to those interests
6) I will make an updated resume (haven't done one in 5 years!)
7) I will save a significant amount of money!
8) I will enjoy the time I have left with the friends I have made here to the fullest extent!

I've made a list, now I can be held accountable! One of the major reasons I wanted to return home was because I felt like I was getting in a rut and I needed to move on. But I don't need to go home to do that. I can do that wherever I am :)

As I said last year, for those who want to visit me while I'm here, you have just about 18 months to do it ... come visit!!!!! heeee

moral dilemma

2009-01-16T09:20:00.002+09:00

I learned something new last night about Japan's health insurance. On top of universal health insurance (meaning everyone is insured ~ including me!), those who have a chronic illness without a cure can qualify for special insurance that covers all medical expenses (doctor visits, medication, hospitalization pertaining to that illness, etc.) with a premium at about $30-40 a month. I thought that was amazing. In the US, most people with a pre-existing condition find it extremely difficult to even find a health insurance company that will cover them and if they do, it's so expensive it's almost unaffordable. Compared to the US, Japan's medical resources are probably more limited, but I wouldn't be surprised if people just knowing they can go to the hospital when they feel sick without getting stuck with outrageous bills contributes to an over-all healthier nation.

It makes me sad when people decide not to go to the hospital or receive treatment because it would just be too expensive for them to pay for it. Is that right? Is that morally right?

Poll of the day:

Should health insurance be a right or a privilege?

I'll try and do more posts this year than last year :P

2009-01-13T16:00:00.006+09:00

Yesterday was a national holiday, but I still went to school. Why? I simply forgot I had the day off :P Usually I'd be bummed about missing an opportunity to sleep in, but seeing as I haven't had much to do at work during the last 2 weeks (besides uploading pictures, revamping my blog, and keeping in touch via gchat), I found it refreshing to wake up before 9 and get an earlier start to the day. I cleaned my apartment. I finally put away my suitcases and reorganized my living area. I uploaded more photos. My computer doesn't seem to like that though. I think it's coming to the end of its life. Four years for a laptop is a long time. I went to the grocery store. And then my friend, Katie, came over for dinner. I made a childhood favorite of mine, sour cream of mushroom and it tasted just like my mom's! Yummmmm ~ We even used the sauce as gravy on the potatoes!

So, despite the free time I've been having recently (that will change very soon though once classes actually start), I have been putting off some major decision making. Decisions are difficult to make, especially the life changing ones. Shoot, it takes me forever to decide on anything just to buy for that matter! But the life changing ones are scarey. It's like watching a movie like "Family Man". One decision leads you down one road, while another decision leads you down a completely different one. Which one do you take? I know I'm an adaptable person, so whatever decision I do make I know I'll be fine, but it's the "before" that's difficult. I need to do some soul searching and chanting to connect with my inner wisdom and make the best decision for my life at this time.

And I have a deadline ... February 6th. That's when the papers are due for whether I say another year or back to the States. Stay tuned ~

p.s. I uploaded pictures from mine and Nori's trip to the US. And mom, I am going to try and upload the video too! Check it out~

Happy New Year!

2009-01-08T18:12:00.001+09:00

One of my new year's resolution is to revamp my blog, so it will be under construction for a bit. Hopefully it will be done soon!

3 more weeks ...

2008-10-17T13:56:00.002+09:00

until election day and I sent my absentee ballot off yesterday!! Woo hoo, now I just want my sticker ;)

I have a proposal for a study. When it comes down to it, I think most people hate taxes. They want to hold on to their money and do with it as they see fit. But we need taxes. Taxes are used to fund schools, hospitals, national programs, interstate highways, national defense, the war in Iraq, and the list goes on and on and on. What if we knew exactly where our taxes were going to be used? What if we could decide how they would be used? Would people be more willing to give more?

For example, you get your W2s and go to fill out your tax report. On your tax report, there are various boxes regarding the different areas where tax money is needed. You have the tax amount you are required to pay. From that amount, you can decide a certain percentage (say 80%) of where that money will be used. And you would have the option to give more than the required amount, which could give you tax credit for subsequent years. Anyways, you get the point right? I wonder how a system like this would work ... or even if it could work~

It just makes me so angry, there is plenty of wealth to share and yet there are so many who live in the lap of luxury, with homes for every season, cars for every day of the week, and clothes closets the size of my childhood home. Money doesn't guarantee happiness, but helping others does. We have to change as a society or we're doomed like all the other great nations that have fallen. And let's start with the kids. Let's ensure that they are healthy and have a good education, or else we are really asking for it!! Alright, my rant for today is done :P

On a lighter note, I'm thoroughly enjoying the fall colors here and the crisp morning and evening air. (sorry, no pictures, lost my camera's sd card and the pictures on it ... so sad!). Fall has to be the best season. It has the best food. It's not longer hot, but not too cold yet. And there is nothing better than cozying up under a blanket (or a friends kotatsu) with a good cup of hot coco and watching a good movie :) Most recently watched movie ~ Penelope! So cute!!!

Attack of the Gas Sniper!!!

2008-09-17T12:49:00.002+09:00

I went into class last Friday, and there is this boy who was laughing uncontrollably. The teacher says a name in Japanese, and I thought I got what it meant, but wasn't quite sure. The kid runs to the door and goes outside for a sec, then comes back. In comes another teacher and says in plain English, "He is gas sniper!" Apparently the kid had a bad case of the farts because he had eaten watermelon earlier. I couldn't stop laughing ... that kid would fit in real well with my family ;)

My new school schedule is proving to be a challenge just because I'm much busier now than I was before. Most of the schools are great. But there is one school that I don't necessarily look forward to going to. Most of the classes are pretty good, but the 6th graders are crazy! They remind me of kids back home! I ran into a few of them last week when I was riding my bike around and the boys decided they would greet me with "Hello Doggy!" and the oh so lovely "F*** you". I didn't bother reacting and just left, but told their homeroom teachers because there is no way I'm going to stand for that. The boys did apologize and our next class together was better, but I think I'm in for a nice little ride with these guys! :P

Luckily, this is balanced out with other good schools. One of which, on my second visit, the 5th and 6th grade girls all gave me little cards or presents for my birthday (3 weeks early!). I was totally surprised and almost cried! heee ... that school only has a total of just over 50 kids!

It took me long enough, but I have finally sent out my form to get my absentee ballot. We are entering a new era and I want to make sure my voice is heard. American politics are fascinating. The entire world is watching because what happens in the States will inevitably effect everyone else. I don't know if Americans truly get this or not, but I think (I hope) that it's becoming more apparent to the American public. During the last elections, I know there were many people who voted according to their moral beliefs because a moral country will be a good country, but I hope people will look beyond that and realize that issues such as abortion, gay marriage, etc. will not help the economy or our relations with other countries. Man, I can go on and on about all of this, but I won't. Let's get informed on the issues and exercise our right to vote! Yeah! hehe, now if I only get my ballot in time!

Summer vacation is over :(

2008-08-22T11:26:00.003+09:00

Being at a new school is interesting. At my old schools, all the kids were used to me and didn't make a big deal when they saw me, but now at my new school, all the kids just start giggling any time I say hi to them or when they come and try to talk to me. It's cute, in a funny kind of way :P

Well, I hope everyone is taking care of their health, because for a while there, I sure wasn't! At the beginning of this month, I participated in Aomori's Nebutas and (for the 3rd time) in Goshogawara's Tachi Nebuta (the best festival in the prefecture). It was loads of fun, as always, but I didn't get much sleep and I ate nothing but festival food (hot dogs, yakisoba, takoyaki, ice cones, etc.). A few days later, I got Chicken Pox pt. 2 (otherwise known as shingles). I was lucky because I noticed it early and got the right medicine, so I didn't have to go through all the pain associated with it, but in Japan they say it's caused by overexerting yourself. So please be careful not to overexert yourself!

After Nebuta was over, I went to go see the host family in Sapporo and it was great seeing all of them. AND they took me to COSTCO!! It was so weird seeing everything in super-bulk in Japan when everything tends to come in such small portions. I wanted to buy everything! heee

In other news, I'll be on Aomori local tv again. This time, it will be about 10 minutes on a program called "Iiideba Eigo Juku" which is a program that teaches English and Tsugaru-ben (the local dialect). It's a really popular show among the locals and it should be fun. Rachel-san (the main character, who is adorably sweet) will come to my school next week and surprise all my kids when she runs into class during one of my lessons. Then we will do a little conversation and quiz and then they'll take me somewhere else to finish the rest of the filming. And it will air next month the day after my birthday. Kind of cool huh?

Watching the olympics in Japan is definately different. I get to see some sports that don't get much coverage in America; judo, ping pong, field hockey, etc. Although, I miss the coverage in the States.

shake shake shake!

2008-07-29T11:23:00.005+09:00

This part of the country has been shaking quite a bit recently (unfortunately my blogging hands have not ... sorry Dad!). We had another big earthquake last week, but all is fine in my neck of the woods.

I've officially started my fourth year on the JET program and everything has changed once again. I had to say good-bye to all (except one) of my schools. I only almost cried once and that was because a girl was crying in the front row when the whole school was singing a song for me. But the kids were sweet and wrote me letters and gave me small gifts.

I've gone around to my new schools, but since it's summer vacation there are no classes. However, I'm now based at a junior high school instead of the BOE and it is absolutely fantastic (so far). One of the first things my supervisor said to me was, "Everyone says I'm a bit abnormal. But I just consider it different. I'm normal, but a little different." I know we are going to get along well! The other English teachers (there are 4) seem really cool too. All women and relatively young (I'm a day older than one of them!), so now we are the English sisters.

There's tons of stuff (much more interesting) I want to blog about, but have seem to encountered a brain freeze, so here are some recent pics:

My last class with one of my 4th grade classes after a game of English Dodgeball

For 3 weeks, all of my schools made marshmallow popcorn balls. The kids loved them but the people at the store must have thought I really liked marshmallows and popcorn because I think I bought nearly 50 bags of marshmallows and 20 bags of popcorn kernels!

Maiko disovers the "joy" of cleaning up the marshmallow goo

Nori and I went hiking up to see the Black Bear Waterfalls ... it was purdy!

me and Nori :)

I'm ok

2008-06-15T23:58:00.002+09:00

I've received a few worried messages because of the earthquake that struck northern Japan on Saturday, but I just wanted to let you know that everything is ok up here in Aomori. The epicenter was located in the prefecture south of me. It was quite a strong earthquake and I could feel it up here. It was really long, 30 seconds, and very wavy, kind of made me feel dizzy actually.

My boyfriend learned a good lesson, try not to be on the toilet when an earthquake hits. Apparently all you can think about is what in the hell are you going to do if the earthquake gets stronger and the toilet breaks, eeek! I couldn't help but laugh at that :P hehe

smells like roses!

2008-06-10T15:40:00.004+09:00

Smells are fascinating. The principal's office at one of my smaller elementary schools smells just like my grandparents' house used to. And no matter what school I go to, the gyms always smell the same. It must be that kid scent I guess :P It's kind of comforting in a strange way.

2 posts ago, I said I would blog about Japanese weddings. I went to my first Japanese wedding on May 3rd. It wasn't actually the wedding ceremony I went to, but just the reception. First off, the MC announces the new couple as they walk into the hall. They are dressed in formal Japanese attire. Then a few speeches are given. Not by the best man or maid of honor or family or friends, but by their bosses! I guess it makes sense, your work does provide you with the money you need to upkeep your livelyhood. Then everyone starts to eat and the bride leaves to go change into another gown (the Western traditional gown) and groom changes as well. During this time everyone drinks and eats and mingles, while the MC goes on about stuff I don't really remember.

The bride comes back after about 20 minutes and they cut the cake. Friends of the bride and groom do some silly stuff (passing a volleyballl from friend to friend until it reaches the bride and groom ~ they play volleyball ... making the groom get on some kind of board while they lift and carry him around ~ he looked quite frightened through his smiles :P). Then the bride leaves again to changed into a 3rd gown (like a very fancy prom dress or something someone might wear to the Academy Awards). Depending on some parties, the bride changes up to 6 or 7 times!

The guests continue to eat and drink. Some slideshows are shown of the bride and groom when they were kids and when they met. The bride and groom come back , the lights are dimmed and they light a unity candle and then go to each table (at this party, there were about 40) and light a candle there. This was really nice!

And then that's it. The party is over. The MC announces to everyone to be careful as they head home and then a group of the guests usually go to a nijikai (after party) with the bride and groom to a local bar or whatnot and get a little crazier. I had a cold that day, so I didn't go.

All in all, it was a nice ceremony, but it just didn't feel like a party without people getting crazy on the dancefloor and speeches from family and friends. No throwing of the bouquet or garder. One thing that I really liked though was the bride and groom each wrote a letter to their parents and read it at the end ... definately tear jerkers!

that's the groom on the board

that's the back of the white dress

aren't they a cute couple? the funny thing is the bride usually doesn't wear any make-up! this was the 3rd dress, but I couldn't really get a good shot.

my YWD friends ... :)

booo

2008-06-03T07:56:00.002+09:00

I just watched the news and saw that gas was up (and over) $4 a gallon back in the States. Gas has also gone up here in Aomori. If I calculated correctly, it's about $6.55 a gallon here :O I don't even know how much it would cost me to fill up a whole tank because I haven't done it in so long!

Looks like I'll be riding my bike around a lot more! Yay for exercise :)

double check before judging

2008-05-29T19:04:00.003+09:00

Yesterday we had fried gyoza (Chinese dumplings), sauteed veggies, wan tan soup, and rice for school lunch. I asked one of the kids if he liked Chinese food and this is what I thought he said:

"I like Chinese food, but I don't like Chinese people"

My jaw dropped and I instantly starting thinking of activties I could do to encourage more international/intercultural understanding. At the same time I felt very sad this a boy of 12 years old would say something like that. Anyways, I talked to the teacher after lunch to try and figure how best to approach it. She told it was actually a big mis-understanding and that what he actually said was:

"I like Chinese food, but I like produce from China"

It still sounds weird, but the reason for this is because a few weeks ago, there were lots of people who experienced food-poisoning from frozen gyoza imported from China. There was a huge recall and now people check the label twice before buying produce and other food products. It reminded me of the Jack-In-The-Box incident. I must have been in elementary school or junior high school when some people got food-poisoning from eating there, and I remember thinking that I didn't like Jack-In-The-Box either, although I don't think I ever ate there.

Anyways, I've been super busy as always. Taiko has started again and apparently I've been appointed a comittee member, which basically means I can interchange with Taiko, flute, or symbols during the festival any time I want. Woo hoo! So now I'm trying to learn the flute.

Aomori has been beautiful these last couple of months ... I'll share a few pics with you all. And for those who haven't come to visit yet, I sure hope these motivate you to get your boodies out here!!!! Because I'm coming to terms with coming home next year, so that gives you a year! hee

Cherry Blossoms in Hirosaki

Rapeseed Blossoms in front of Mt. Iwaki

Oh yeah! I went to a wedding ... I'll blog about that next time. They are definately very different compared to weddings back in the States!

I'm friends with the bride and groom! We play volleyball together, and the bride is a YWD with me in the SGI (man, talk about codes huh? hehe)

it's only been a month!

2008-04-16T22:45:00.009+09:00

I’m alive and all is well :)

I have lived in my new place for over a month now and appreciate everyday of it!

I taught around 500 kids within the course of 4 hours on Thursday at a new elementary school and not only did I survive, but it turned out pretty good!

I have found a new volleyball team and love Ayumi (one of my YWD friends) for it. Volleyball rocks the boat!

I started playing Taiko again and I have introduced one of my friends to it. 2 years ago I couldn’t tell one beat from another, and now I’m teaching my friend how to do it :)

It got up to 70 degrees today and it felt so nice!

I gave a speech in Japanese in front of 500 people on Sunday at an SGI meeting and made everyone laugh.

It drives me crazy how many parents drive around without child seats in Japan, and instead, they let their 3 year old child relax right up near the front window as if they were a cat! Grrrrr! Kids heads are soft yo!

Teaching Japanese kids the difference between B and V is difficult; especially since V doesn’t exist in the Japanese language.

I can’t wait for the cherry blossoms to start blooming within the next week or so!

It’s scary how fast my English level is going down the tube, need to start reading again!

And now some pictures for your entertainment (or if you just want to see what’s been going in the land of apples and abroad):

fun times with the family and great weather!

i had no idea seattle had cherry blossoms too!

best friends getting our nails ready for the wedding (bride is getting hers done too)

it's official! hello to the Rabbitts!

I found my street in seattle ~ i should move there :)

geese on their way home for the summer ... this is right behind one of my schools.

my new apartment!

i love it!!

and u?

2008-03-27T11:02:00.003+09:00

5 days and i will have internet at my house! it's kind of sad how attached i've become to it ... oh well, i guess that's a trademark of the X-generation or whatever we are called :P

which one would u want to stay at?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23745120/

i think i'd like to try the harbour crane or hotel everland (most definately!)

yatta!!!

2008-03-17T15:19:00.002+09:00

so i'm finally in my new apartment and it's seriously heaven compared to my old place. i ended up having a total 13 people help me move over a course of two days and worked out pretty smoothly. unfortunately i haven't been able to unpack everything yet, but the goal is to get that done before the end of the week :) due to silly complications between the phone/internet company, i won't have internet access at my house until april 1st now, which means no new photos uploaded until then :( nor will i have my internet calling plan ... but i can always receive calls :)

japan has the weirdest names for makes of cars: march, cube, fix, that's, etc. but i saw the weirdest (or maybe most inappropriate) name for a car the other day. as i was waiting at a red light, the car in front of me was called a "la puta". now, i'm no expert in spanish, but isn't that ... um ... bad? i should have taken a picture!

Moving Day!!!

2008-03-14T09:06:00.002+09:00

It's officially tomorrow, but the guys from the office are coming to take a bunch of furniture and then friends are coming tomorrow to help with whatever is left over. Moving is biotch, but also refreshing at the same time. You get rid of all the crap you never needed and see things you thought were lost forever. For example, I had given up on an tank top last spring because it had just seemed to vanish. I found it yesterday rolled up in a ball tucked away in an old duvet cover. I think the elves are at work :P

I won't have internet hooked up at my house until the 24th, but once I get hooked up again I'll post all the pics from my trip to Seattle/Spokane a couple of weeks ago, which was amazing by the way! I can't wait to see everyone again!!

Ok, back to cleaning~packing~trashing ...

the winter blues?

2008-02-09T23:24:00.001+09:00

recently i have been soooo tired and just don't feel like doing anything. i was talking about this with my district leader and this is how our conversation went: DL "well maybe it's a seasonal thing ... you know, like the winter blues." A "yeah, but i've never experienced anything like that." DL "then maybe it's your age, it always hits around 25" A "uhhhhh, ok it's a seasonal thing!" i will not submist myself to age! :P

i finally decided on an apartment and it's soooooooooooooooo nice!!! i can't wait to move it. i'll be moving in on the 15th of next month. so much excitement happening in the next month. in 2 weeks i'll be in seattle with my mommy, bro, and sis ... and then soon after, meet up with the best friends from college ~ yay! and then when i come back to japan, i'll be moving to my nice, new, warm apartment where you can't see your breath!!! here are some teaser pictures, but will be followed up next month with furnished pictures :) i think i'm most excited about the bath!

so hard to say goodbye ...

2008-01-31T23:03:00.001+09:00

i had my last class with the 8th graders at one of my JHS. the school year ends in march and so the kids will be doing all their tests for high school in february. i'm going to miss them. they were 6th graders when i first came and they have always been one of my favorite classes. at least i was able to get in one last game before the end of class and it tuned to be a huge success. no matter where you are, wheel of fortune will never let you down! i made a pin-wheel with a bunch of different points on it and then played it like the real game show and the kids loved it! you can kind of see the pin-wheel on the blackboard ...

last weekend i looked at about 7 or 8 different apartments and i'm going to look at another 6 apartments (plus 2 i looked at last weekend) this weekend. i think i'm going to decide this saturday and in two months time i should be in my new apartment! i can't wait!!!

should i go modern (which would be a 180 from my current "traditional" house)? that would be so weird!

but maybe not as weird as this "taco pizza" i had with teri at the okinawan place in goshogawara. who knew taco pizza was from okinawa! it was surprisingly good though! yum ...

happy (very late) new year!

2008-01-22T21:32:00.000+09:00

one of my new years resolutions is to post a blog at least once a week (starting today :P)!

life of recent has been busy with the new school term, shoveling snow (this year is turning out to be more like my first year = lots of snow!), making lots of decisions, and trying to defrost my pipes.

i have finally made the decision to stay one more year (mom, please forgive me!) and then that will be it. i'll be back in the states next year, so for all of those who want to visit while i still live here (i'm really hoping the family comes!! :P), then you have about a year and a half, so start checking those calendars!! ;)

i'm also going to be moving to a new place probably in march or april and i'm sooooo excited about it! i'm hoping for no more frozen pipes and a proper bath tub :) i actually went to go look at a place on sunday and it seemed sooooooo nice. so i'm taking one of my japanese friends, who is well versed in the moving process in this country, with me to check it out this weekend. but it has a nice heater and an A/C, which means comfort during the summer ~ woo hoo! but i have to decide by the 31st if i want that place, so i don't have a lot of time to decide.

in the mean time ... here are some pictures from the last month ~

a guy trying to teach me how to play shamisen ~ note the trying ;)

with the host brother and sister-in-law waiting for ...

soup curry! sooo yummy and a specialty in sapporo.

we had mexican food right before i went back to aomori. it'll do until i go back to america next month :)

at the ski resort

i woke up to this on saturday, good thing i woke up early to shovel!

near one of my schools ... i don't know if you can see it but i thought that cloud looked like tornado kind of ~

Jingle bells, jingle bells ....

2007-12-26T08:40:00.000+09:00

Jingle all the way ~

So what is Christmas like in Japan?

First, you go to work like I did :P After work, everyone goes home and eats fried chicken, usually from KFC. They buy a Christams cake from the local convenient store or supermarket, usually of the strawberry persuade. Some kids get a present from their parents that are left at the foot of their beds because people rarely have Christmas trees, and it's even rarer to have a proper fireplace to hang stockings near. Christmas in Japan also has the romantic image of a lovey-dovey couple walking through a Christmas light display in the park (but only if you live near one). Then you can watch a Christmas special on TV that includes a bunch of boy bands singing Christmas and English Christmas songs while all the girls in the audience go crazy. Then you go to sleep and when you wake up most of the Christmas decorations in the stores are gone and the sales are over. Oh yeah, you might also end up going to a meeting like I did ... heee

I kind of miss Christmas in the States :P Because I'm not Christian, I don't celebrate it in the "traditional" sense, but for me it's always been a time to be with family when we spoil eachother with presents, food, laughter, games, and love! I'm sure there are some people who cringe at the commercialization of the holiday, but it's such a great feeling when you buy a present for someone and they love it!! Then again, there's always the downside that they might do the ... "Oh thanks, yeah this is great!" but in that tone of voice where you know they are just being polite ... thank goodness for gift receits!

I'm wishing you all the best of holidays and a wonderful new year! I miss all of you back home terribly and can't wait to see you! I love you!

huh?

2007-12-12T22:37:00.000+09:00

i looked left and right. the lights were flashing red but there was no train in sight. i looked left again and i saw an old grannie walking with her walker/stroller/portable chair and i thought, "no way!" luckily she wasn't in the way when the actual train did come. but i swear the train was moving as slow as she was!

should i become a physical therapist?

slipping and sliding

2007-12-08T22:44:00.001+09:00

How to drive on ice:

1) drive really slow ~ no faster than 15-30 mph

2) leave lots of space between you and the car in front of you

3) don't put your breaks on suddenly, instead pump your breaks gently and if you start to slide than let off the break and the car should straighten itself out

i learned my lesson with these back in california and have since been very good on the roads here. people i know had to learn their lesson from the next few:

4) don't mess with your cell phone/i-pod/other electronical devices

5) avoid sneezing, sudden jerks of the steering wheel aren't good

6) avoid pedestrians slipping and sliding all over the rode

7) keep all pets in the backseat ... actually best to leave them home

8) forget all of the above and just stay home yourself ... who knows if everyone else knows these tips!

so yeah, usually the tsugaru area is plagued with white-out blizzards but because of the snow, traction on the roads isn't so bad. but recently, it's been one huge ice band out here. i don't often get road rage, but there this one guy who was following my car so closely on the ice, i was about to pull over and ... well do something! it's perfectly acceptable to do that during blizzards because you need to in order to see the lights and have some sort of direction, but on ice ~ come on!! dude!

and it's official ...

2007-12-01T22:20:00.000+09:00

I passed the "Ninyou Shiken" ~ the SGI entrance level in Japanese!! woot woot!!

My house has been winter-proofed. All the outside vents (actually I have no idea what they are called in English or Japanese) have been wind-proofed and covered. My chimney was fixed. And I've moved into my living room in hopes of saving on heating and electricity.

I'm always busy at work now. When I go to one of my schools, the English teacher looks and me and says, "So, what are we going to do today?" Before, my response would be, "Uhhhhh." Luckily I've improved on that answer, but it means spending a lot more time preparing for class ... oh you mean I actually have to work for my money? ;)

Speaking of money, it's been a very expensive month. Japan has this crazy thing called "shaken" ~ car check up. Every two years, you have to take your car in and get it checked out and it always turns out to be somewhere between $1000 - $1500. And the older your car is, the more expensive shaken is. No wonder everyone just buys news cars here, it's too expensive not too! I can't afford a new one though, but with a friend's connection, I was able to get it done for relatively cheap. Also had to buy new snow tires, although thanks to a teacher's connection, I was also able to get them pretty cheap too. It's good to know people who know people :)

At the end of October, I was able to attend an amazing training course south of Tokyo. Met let's of really cool people and got to catch up with some old Soka friends. It was exactly what I needed to get me through the month of November, one of the most challenging months so far. With the test, work, SGI activities, and bad news from Sapporo ~ it was a test of the emotions. But I got through and am feeling really good! Especially since the news from Sapporo has been good recently :)

and now ... if my internet lets me ... I'll leave you with some recent pictures

sunrise from the hotel room during the training course, I'm rarely up that early, but when I am, it sure is pretty.

silly soka students ;)

apparently, the Daishonin was left on that rock you can barely see when he was exiled to Izu.

oh my goodness, the yummiest dessert I let myself indulge in at the Hard Rock Cafe in Tokyo.

hmmm, what was I thinking?

2 in a row! check below for yesterday's blog in case you didn't see it :)

2007-10-19T15:28:00.001+09:00

this blog usually focuses on my adventures in japan, but this entry will branch out just a little.

i can't believe what i just read in the news http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/washington/19health.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin.
what kind of country and what kind of president would ever think of denying children health insurance? it is absolutely preposterous to me; these kids are the country's future and we aren't willing to invest more to ensure their health?! are only rich kids allowed to benefit from America's (insufficient) health system? the president and said veto supporters think it will lead people to draw out of private insurance and depend on the goverment for funds ... who cares?!?!they are kids! all children, no matter what economic situation they are forced into (because you know, kids can't determine how much their parents make nor can they determine their parents' choices about health insurance or anything else for that matter), should have health coverage. this veto directly attacks children and takes advantage of their vulnerabilities. parents from middle class families with sufficient funds for private insurance make bad choices sometimes (drugs, alcohol, gambling, stocks, etc.), and the children should not have to suffer because of those choices. in japan, this would be unheard of; EVERYONE here has insurance, including me ... at the very least, ALL children should have coverage. President Bush, you have one year left and this is how you are going to spend it? You should be ashamed of yourself.

it's getting cold ~ brrrrrrr!

2007-10-18T17:44:00.001+09:00

i wholeheartedly believe in the saying (or whatever it should be called) ...

"learn something new every day!"

this is what i learned today ~ never, ever, ever sautee with vinegar unless it's in very small amounts. i realized i made a mistake when i went to smell my veggies and the hairs in my nose almost singed off.

i actually tried to blog the other day, but i still haven't figured out to fix my internet (i checked for viruses mom and nothing comes up). andy says he things i have a corrupt internet browser, so i'll try and get on that because i do have recent pictures to show you all, hopefully soon.

i taught JHS 1st grade girls how to play MASH (you guys remember that game?) ... they loved it!! i think i've started a new trend school, woo hoo!

i've been studying like crazy for this upcoming ninyou shiken (entrance level exam for SGI in Japanese). i have no idea if i'll be able to pass. it takes me at least an hour just to get through 1 page study of material because i have to look up every single word, but the really cool thing is that i was able to understand a lot of President Ikeda's speech during the last meeting. and even though i get frustrated with it sometimes, i realized i forgot how much i enjoyed studying ... or maybe just realized that i enjoy it.

alright ... i'm going to post this, then edit it to see if i can add pictures ~ stay tuned! i'll try putting in the captions first ...

aren't they cute??!! these are first graders getting ready for the marathon.

with friends at our favorite izakaya (bar/restaurant)

oohhh, sooo cool! haha

something new!

2007-09-26T21:36:00.000+09:00

oye, my internet is annoying. It keeps freezing on me every time I try and do something (like blog or upload pictures), so we'll see how this goes! fingers crossed ...

Isn't it nice to receive food gifts? I don't think it happens a whole lot in the States, but it happens quite frequently here. This week I've received bananas, apples, pears, and akebis. What's an akebi? I had no idea until one of my 5th graders gave me a couple from his weekend trip to the mountains. Take a look ...

they naturally split open when they are ripe.

and they are quite tasty and fun to eat (kind of a like mochi texture or rice cake texture) but you spend most of the time spitting out seeds :P

We've been having really beautiful sunsets recently ...

i'll blog again so ... i have a feeling it's going to shut down on me again ... eek!

and she posts again ...

2007-09-17T17:43:00.000+09:00

it hasn't been too exciting around here since the last post (thus the lack in posting). school has started so i've been busy planning classes. oh, i started a new work out video called "Billy's Boot Camp" but i'm somewhat hesitant in continuing it because everyone it feels more like muscle building rather than slimming, and the last thing i need to do is get more muscles! hee

i finally dowloaded skype, so if any of you have it send me an email and then we can chat for free :)

it's officially starting to get cold again, but i don't mind. it's much easier dealing with the cold than the heat (although we'll see what i'm saying in a few months time when i have to shovel 2 hours every day :P).

sayonara ...

2007-08-26T20:49:00.001+09:00

1st off, the layout of this blog is all weird. i've tried to fix it but it's being stubborn, so try and imagine where all the captions are supposed to go :-P

it's been a busy week! becky came to visit from the states last week and some of us went down to sendai to visit her and another friend.

we saw weird chairs

toured model homes

came across funny signs

ate really small pizza

and visited a really beautiful area called mitsushima (my camera died that day so i'll have to wait and get pictures from my friends before i can post some).

then becky came up to aomori and we had a big get together at one of our favorite izakayas, daihachi. nori finally came and met my friends for the first time and that was a lot of fun!

the next night a few of us went to ajigasawa and that was my last night with becky :( i was so happy she came to visit though. it was great seeing her!

the next day nori and i headed out for a little get away to hakodate. we took the ferry there and spent the night at a beautiful onsen hotel called yunokawa onsen where we soaked ourselves in the onsen and ate really good food! there are no pictures of the onsen because you have to get naked in order to bathe. the boys and girls are separated of course (well sometimes they aren't, but i've never been to those kind of baths). and when you get out you feel soooooooooo relaxed.

after the food we went up to hakodate mountain to see one of the most famous views in japan. the weather was absolutely perfect (lucky us) and it was breath taking!

the next day we walked around the bay area and did some shopping and then headed back to aomori even though we wanted to stay another day.

on saturday, there was a going away bbq for my friends chris and yuki who are leaving for yokohama on monday. they will be sorely missed up here but it'll be fun to go down there to visit them in the big city.

school starts tomorrow which marks the end of summer. it went by fast, but i'm kind of happy that it will no longer be hot :)

i don't understand ...

2007-08-16T11:08:00.000+09:00

how do japanese people eat hot ramen or drink hot tea when it is so hot outside!

on tuesday my house got up to 104 degrees inside! so i've been trying to stay out of the house as much as i can, which has been bad for my bank book because the only air conditioned places are the malls ... doh!

and i have now discovered that finding pajamas in this country is much more difficult than you would expect. i think it's because i can't tell the difference between their regular clothes and pajamas sometimes =P it's kind of like meals, they don't put too much emphasis on the difference between breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

hmm, this is a very random blog ...

yatte mare!

2007-08-08T15:55:00.000+09:00

hey everyone!

i've been busy with the festival (Tachi Nebuta) since friday, thus the lack in blogging. the first day was marked with a great fireworks display. i took the next picture with my cell phone (fireworks and cell phones rock in japan!).

i call this "oppai no hanabi" ~ if you can guess the translation for this, i'll give you a pat on the back ;)

saturday was actually the first day of the festival and i thought it was going to be cancelled because a typhoon came in from the south. but it moved out just in time for us go on with the show! and i've been playing taiko every day since. today is the 5th and last day, and i am tired!!

my new friends, natsu and manami.

this guy is call gun-dan and he follows us while we play taiko. i think he looks like a transformer

this is the float that is in front of us. these things are huge! you can see the electrical lines right?

my taiko buddy, megumi, and i getting pumped up before the start of the parade.

before going out on the street.

out on the town. it really is a sight to see these huge floats walking down the street.

with friends after the parade!

wahhhh!

2007-08-02T12:39:00.001+09:00

it's almost 92 degrees inside of my house even with all my windows open and the fan blowing :( i was so excited when i went to work today because no one was there and i ended up getting the day off, but now i'm just cooking! although i guess it's better cooking at home than at the office :)

hungry mosquitos!

2007-07-31T09:00:00.000+09:00

I woke up this morning with 3 mosquito bites ... on my face! I look like I'm back in high school with bad acne ~ bummer!

The elections are finally over in Japan (well maybe) and there was a huge upset. The Liberal Democratic Party has virtually ruled unchallenged for 50 years, but lost its majority to the Democratic Party this time around. In America, we're used to the majority changing relatively frequently (relative to Japan) and I think that's a good thing, despite how much I dislike the opposing party. If the majority isn't challenged, then it can easily become complacent and lose focus.

So, I have finally finished reading the 7th Harry Potter book and it was very good! For any of you who haven't jumped on the bandwagon, you don't know what you're missing :P For those of you who have read it, what did you think of it?

2 days of home work!

2007-07-26T10:02:00.001+09:00

so when I was leaving work yesterday, the secretary lady said that no one was going to be in the office for the next two days, so I could stay home and do whatever work I needed to do there. woo hoo!!! gotta love Ms. Kobayashi :)

the volleyball league has been cancelled this year due to "over run-down gym that is about to fall apart". so I'm really bummed about that :( I want to stay active, so next month I may start playing tennis with one of my friends from work, but until then I'll continue walking 5-6 kilometers every day and enjoying views like this one ...
There are a ton of rice fields about 10 minutes (walk) from my house.

1 more week until Tachi Nebuta festival! woo hoo :)

Dude, so amazing! I just received a phone call from the Post Office, and the operator was speaking relatively fast speed and I could understand everything she said! Can I get another woo hoo!!

school's out for summer, but i'm in the BOE

2007-07-22T21:39:00.000+09:00

don't you hate it when you have to sneeze while you're driving? it's the worst, and seems awfuly dangerous!

i have finally opened a seperate account so i can start putting away money. i thought i had enough self control to save money in the same account that i withdraw from ... guess i don't! time to start saving!!!

i haven't been abroad anywhere since coming to japan, except for my one trip back home. i'm thinking that should change. places i want to visit in the near future: bali, thailand, korea

feeling very much in the mood to redecorate my place, but that would go against trying to save money.

for those who are worried ...

2007-07-17T14:09:00.000+09:00

i'm ok. i didn't actually feel the earthquake but it caused severe damage in niigata and a few people were killed by collapsed homes. let's include them and those that have lost everything (the area hit was rural and most of the homes were old and built of wood, much like where i live) in our prayers.

ok ... try this ~ stand up and put ur feet together. do your knees touch? the other day at school, the kids were showing me that their knees don't touch, at least not naturally. mine do though and so do many of the japanese girls. apparantly it's an asian male thing. weird huh?

the weather has been freaky here recently! last week my house got up to 90 degrees farenheit. i was sweating just watching TV. but then the last couple of days it's been so cold i've had to sleep with a sweater on. although, i'd rather it be cold than hot.

only a couple more weeks before the tachi nebuta parade! woo hoo! can't wait to dress up in my festival clothing and start banging a drum in front of everyone :)

last weekend i went down to hirosaki and went to a bbq with english club medical students from hirosaki university. it was kind of a nice change being able to speak in fluent english with japanese people. in fact, it was better to speak in english because most of the students are not from aomori, so when i speak in japanese it's difficult for them to understand me because of my countryside accent. doh!! haha

alright, time to get back to work! love you all! let's try and make each day count ~ that's what life is all about!!

any miny miney mo!

2007-07-01T12:04:00.000+09:00

i use that to decided which student will have to start the line of questions in english class and they love it! they always try to repeat after me, but can't get past the mo.

so it's been over a month since i've blogged (sorry about that!) and in that month i:
-participated in a bug and fire festival
-helped with the aomori trivia weekend for the Everest of Apples charity group
-won first prize with my group in the Tsugaru-ben (local dialect) competition
-was on national news for about 20 seconds because of the competition
-was called by Danny Habuki who told me President Ikeda mentioned me in a speech he gave in -front of Soka representatives (talk about being extremely pleasantly surprised) along with other SUA alumni
-gave an experience in Japanese in front about 300 young women's division members in Aomori (talk about being nervous!)
-started playing taiko again
-finished reading The Alchemist and Love in the Time of Cholera ~ both amazing books that I highly recommend
-watched 2 seasons of 24 (that show is addictive!)
-bought a plant :)
and
-have decided that i'm only 23 and don't need to know all of the answers yet, even though i want to, and as long as i keep chanting it will be all good!

so yeah, it was a busy month, but all in all a good month. here are some photo's to highlight and you can see more on my pictures site :)

this is the dialect competition. i played a mother who in america would be considered scary, but in japan, they just say "strong" ... hehe, but i got to whack my "husband" (eric, the other guy in the picture) with a newspaper, so that should give you an idea :-P

this was the cool get-up i got to wear for the bug and fire festival. it was actually quite scary though, our group had to balance this totel pole of dry hay on fire with two horizontal poles and poke it with bamboo poles from the side to help.

me and greg serving up the meet at the charity event. the meet was given to us by AUSSIE meat company, thus the very cool aprons :)

mel, the lady in light blue in the middle is our Prefectural Advisor but will be leaving next month, so erin, lady in dark blue shirt, prepared an album for her and she was very very happy, thus all the smiles :)

and this is just a special treat. schools have sports days here where the kids have to do all sorts of activities, one of which is sticking their face in flour to find candy and this is the result. don't worry, there were no injuries or tears, just extreme laughter :D

old school style!!

2007-05-26T10:48:00.000+09:00

so i just spent an hour cutting my grass. but for those of you who have visited my house, you know i don't have that much grass. so why in the world would it take an hour?

well ... i had to do it by hand! yes folks, i was squatting down, cutting my obscenely overgrown grass (actually most of it is weeds) with a weeding tool that kind of looks like this

except mine is a cheaper version.

so ... i'm definately living it old school style. i hang my clothes to dry (no dryer), i open my windows to cool my house (no central air conditioning), i huddle around my little stove in the winter to keep warm (no central heating), i have my septic tank emptied every few months (no flush toilet), and now i cut my grass by hand. heeee, at least it's buidling character right?? :P

oops!

2007-05-21T12:33:00.000+09:00

most of the time it's easy to distinguish boys from girls just by looking at them. but sometimes it's difficult to tell between a boys name and a girls name. add to that, short hair and a relatively generic wardrobe. and that results in allison thinking 2 girls were actually boys for an entire year. can we say DOH!!! luckily i found out from a teacher instead of making a mistake in front of the kids. but man, an entire year!! how crazy is that!!

last week my car sounded like it was a fancy race car because my muffler decided to detach itself from the car. i would have just kept it that way, but my ears felt like they were going to fall off any time i went above 30 mph because of the noise vibration inside the car. luckily what i thought would be a $500 repair job turned out to only be $50. but if my muffler decides to a-wall on me again, then i will have to cough up the money.

back to normal!

2007-05-12T12:15:00.000+09:00

Finally :)

I feel like I've been running around like crazy the last few months, but I think things are starting to settle down a bit. Although, I think busy will always be a party of my daily vocabulary.

Last weekend was amazing! 143 of the coolest people in the world (aka SUA alumni) got together in Tokyo for a mad crazy whirlwind of a weekend. But it was really great seeing everyone. They need to rent a convention center for like a week, and just throw us in there and let us do our thing.

For the last month or so, I've been having mini (sometimes not so mini) panick attacks about my future. I've been hearing about how other SUA alumni are doing incredible things both at grad school and in the work force. And as much as I am happy for them, I can't help feeling a bit behind. I feel like I need to start making concrete decisions, but like Jess, I'm a little scared of making the "wrong" decision, whatever that means. Do I want to stay in Japan? Do I want to go back to America? Do I want to go somewhere else? Whatever I do, I want to feel like I'm making a difference, that I'm making a positive contribution to society. I want to respond to my mentor's expectations and dreams.

Last weekend really helped ease my anxieties though. President Ikeda (and SUA founder for those who are reading this blog but may not know who he is) said that he wants us to have confidence in our futures. That it may feel like we aren't doing anything grand now, but our time to shine will come without a doubt.

So with that, this is the tentative plan (once again).

*Stay in Japan for 2 more years (so if you want to visit, better do it soon!).

*After 2 years, go to grad school. I'm currently rethinking what area I want to study in, but I think I would really love to work in the international education field and promote international exchange.

*After that, well ... we'll see.

So I've uploaded pictures of Cherry Blossoms and Tokyo so check em out if you want :)

Here are a few teasers ...

Hirosaki Castle lit up at night.

Nori and I (this is a blog exclusive picture :P)

Best buds in Tokyo! Well, minus a few!

it's officiall ...

2007-04-27T15:12:00.002+09:00

spring has come to Aomori!!

Top 10 signs you know spring has come:

1. Smoke is rising from the rice fields as the farmers burn (still not sure what, but I've been told it's all the foilage and junk collected in the fields during winter) stuff all day.

2. People have changed their tires.

3. It's sunny!

4. Hanami is in full swing (hanami = flower viewing = drinking under the cherry blossoms in the parks).

5. Only need to use my heater late at night and early in the morning.

6. No longer need to turn off the water at night for fear of it freezing.

7. The new school year has started.

8. You get stuck driving 5 km/hr behind the grannies/grandaddies on their bicycles.

9. You start seeing all the spring vegetables/fruits/fish on sale (but I'm still not sure what they are!).

10. And just in case you didn't recognize all of the above, there's plenty of commercials on TV telling you it's spring.

Ahhh ... spring in Japan is great! They really celebrate the change in seasons here and spring is probably the best as it signifies a new start for everything.

To be honest, I feel like I too am making a new start. I felt like I was on a high during February and March; I was full of hope and positive energy. But this last month has been a big-time roller coaster with ups, downs, loopy loops, side to side, and everything in between. I won't get into all of the gritty details, but I think I'm finally pulling through with a new found strength, deeper faith, and a better understanding of myself and my environment (thank you mom, Fujiko, ellie and uyen for your advice and support!).

Next week I'll be going to Tokyo and can't wait to see everyone who will be there! On the plate for this weekend: Ben and Aki's birthday/welcome Ben's parents party, SGI meetings, playing taiko at a festival in Kanagi, hanami, and seeing the boy. With all of that, there should be a posting of new pictures soon. Stay tuned ...

w00t w00t (as uyen would say!)

2007-04-06T09:30:00.000+09:00

it's friday and i'm feeling it!! i've been keeping myself busy all week at work despite it being spring break and no classes. but today ... man WHERE is the motivation?? there are only 2 people in the office today, me and ms. sakai. i feel bad cuz she's running around all over the place answering all the phones (i still feel like i don't have the authority to do that) and busy with work and all i want to do is go back to bed :P i haven't had a lazy day of doing nothing for soooooooooooooo long ... i think i'd actually feel guilty if i did!

i picked up my bus tickets for tokyo last night and i didnt realize until after i got home that i had some other lady's tickets and for the wrong days. what's even worse is that travel agent had me look at the tickets and check they were mine! doh!

starting to spring clean cuz my house needs it!!

oh yeah before i forget, i wrote an article about my life in Aomori at Vicki K's request and it is now publised on the internet site Discover Nikkei (why I decided to start using caps, I don't know) ... so if you feel the urge ~ http://www.discovernikkei.org/forum/en/node/1606 (if the link doesn't work, try copying it and posting it directly in the address bar)

finally ... pictures from hawaii!!

2007-04-03T18:23:00.000+09:00

so i got back from hawaii a little over a week ago and i loved it!!!!!!!

this is in moana luna (maybe?) park

mmmm, yummy pineapple soft creme!

went scuba diving for the first time :)

view from the hotel veranda
wedding day! my host family are the one's on the right

just the girls!!

those two towers in the back is where we stayed

being silly on the beach! it's a miracale i didn't burned, well that and lots and lots of sunblock!

the rest of the pictures can be found on my pictures site. the 4 days went by really fast. most of the time was spent with my host family (translating a lot of the time) eating at restaurants, shopping, circus, walking around, etc. and NOW ... i'm considering possibly going to hawaii for grad school :) we'll see!

it's like christmas!

2007-03-16T09:05:00.000+09:00

so i walk into work today (the board of education) and there's a brand new computer on my desk! well not so brand new really. it's one of teacher's old computers, but really no older than a couple of years ... but apparantly whenever he used it too much or ran certain programs (that i will never have to use) it used to make strange noises like it was about to take off or something. so now, i get to have a computer at my desk in the boe with internet access and everything! AND ... there was a new chair too! woo hoo! ahhh, the simple joys of life.

i leave for hawaii tomorrow. i'll be back on the 25th and will hopefully load this thing down with all sorts of pictures.

i'm also upping my daimoku up to 3 hrs a day (was doing 2 before). there are many ways i want to grow but i also want to support nori in his daimoku campaign to overcome this illness. i will have no doubts!

pictures!

2007-03-16T07:56:00.000+09:00

here's me with a couple of the 3rd years who just graduated. the one on the left is the "crazy" kid (he gave himself that nickname) who thought of this pose.

these are my elementary school students who are about to go to junior high school. aren't they cute?!?!

so you know how i my host family's house is really nice? this is what i mean!

the house from the outside. it was featured in a magazine.

this is when i won that raffle/lottery thing!

poor birds

2007-03-12T13:53:00.001+09:00

this year, the weather is just really confused. for the last few weeks it had been like spring, all the snow melted and it was warm enough to not turn my heater on until after sunset.

but i wake up this morning, and all my windows are practically white, my pipes are frozen, and there are 5-10 inch drifts of snow outside. we had quite the blizzard last night (in order for the windows to get like that) and it's not giving up. but it's all good because in a weeks time i'll be in hawaii!!

anyways, no english class today, so i figured i'd blog :)

i went to sapporo the weekend before last to see the host family. it was nice catching up with them. they'll always be my 1st second family in Japan, but i realized that Aomori has really turned into my home here. and there's no denying it considering my host family said my japanese has turned into tsugaru-ben ... eeek!

ooohhhh, while i was in sapporo i won a grand prize in one of those lottery things at the store. i spent enough money (buying an outfit for the wedding in sapporo) to enter those lottery things, well more like the bingo machine where your turn the handle and out pops a ball, and the color of the ball determines your prize. well as the store clerk was explaining the prizes i went for it, and right as she said "and the grand prize is the red (as she said red, out popped the red ball) ... she stopped mid-sentence and looked shocked. i still didnt know what i had won and they started ringing the bell and making an announcement throughout the store. i had won a fancy dinner for two at a really nice hotel in sapporo. but seeing as i wasnt going to be able to use it, i gave it to my host family. but still, i was pretty jazzed!!! i'll post the picture when i get home.

other than that, i've been pretty busy (as usual) with gakkai activities, friends, eikaiwa, volleyball, and have been seeing a lot more of the boy recently. although he hasn't been feeling well so any daimoku (prayers) would be appreciated :)

2007-03-12T13:53:00.000+09:00

another one bites the dust

2007-02-26T08:38:00.000+09:00

so i'm walking to work today and as i cross the street, all of a sudden i find myself flat on my back with one of my shoes six feet away. what in the heck???? apparantly black ice is not only dangerous when you are driving, but also when you are walking to work. luckily no one was injured but my shoes might be traded in for better ones sometime soon.

hey it's my 100th post!

2007-02-23T13:48:00.000+09:00

and guess what? it's a month early (i checked last year's blog) but the birds are back and the snow is pretty much melted. i didnt even need to turn on my heater yesterday when i got home from work!

yesterday i had my last lesson with the 3rd years to one of my junior high schools. this is the school that i pretty much show up, they tell me what they want me to do, and then i go home. at first i didn't like it because i felt they weren't utilizing me as much as they could. but u know what? it's turned into one of my favorite schools! the kids here are great and the teachers do really well them. i conducted interview tests and they have improved soooooo mcuh since the beginning of the year. i was so happy! and then at the end of the class they all gave me letters. i want to share one with you. this kid, at the beginning of the school year didn't do anything during class! he'd either sleep or just to talk to his friends, but never participated in the activities and was just a punk. but the last couple of months, i've been noticing a change and during the last interview test, he actually did pretty good. this was the letter he wrote to me:

Dear Allison,

I remember you always
give me smile
when I nad (supposed to be made) a
mistake you give a
smile to me
I was so glad
to see it

Thank you

I know there's quite a few mistakes, but he tried so hard and you know what he was trying to say. i was really touched by it and all the kids. apparantely a smile goes a long way :)

cough, cough, sniffle, sniffle

2007-02-13T11:11:00.000+09:00

i have the onset of a cold right now ~ runny nose and a slightly scratchy throat.

i've been wearing lots of skirts lately, skirts are fun!

the weather is really weird. last week it was like spring with almost all the snow melted and then the last couple of days its been getting really cold. still not a whole lot of snow, but cold enough to freeze my pipes last night before i had a chance to turn off the water before i went to bed. i have a hunch that winter won't last for much longer though (the spiders are already coming back, a sure sign!), a complete contrast to last year's winter.

i think i'm starting to understand what it means to be the master of my mind rather than letting my mind master me and it's quite empowering, let me tell you! being able to recognize and turn negativity around almost instantly is an amazing feeling (don't be mistaken by my cheery blogs :P i too get negative and down in the dumps frequently).

i haven't been up on the slopes once this year and i have a feeling i won't be going up until next year :(

uyen ~ that 80's email was hilarious! 99% of it was totally me! the most hilarious one being the bon jovi "shot through the heart" part, i totally sang it! haha

andy ~ still working on that response back to you, but i promise ... soon!!

it finally snowed!!!!

2007-01-28T20:14:00.000+09:00

which means i can blog again :P this morning i woke up to about 6-7 inches of (wet, heavy) snow.

but this winter is extremely weird folks! this time last year, my house was already burried, snow practically up to the roof and daily snow shoveling was required just to get my car out of my drive way. this year, i can probably count the number of times i've HAD to shovel snow on both hands, and all of the other times was purely for exercise sake. can't say that i'm complaining though, but still it feels very odd.

today i participated in the goninkan world championships! how many of you can say that, hee :P goninkan is a card game (for my family, how appropriate huh?!) that is particular to aomori, and even more so to goshogawara. it's like any other card game with a bunch of random rules and weird scoring, but it was a lot of fun. there were at least 200-300 people there today, all participating in the championships, but me and the other 3 foreigners who came (for internationalization maybe?) stayed in the practice section in order not to be scolded by the professionals. one thing that was cool though, is that there were at least 4-5 people i saw there that i knew, it always makes me feel like i really am getting imersed in this community when i see random people i know at things like this. oh yeah, i was also on tv (again) for it! but this time i was only waving, no acting like a granny or anything.

i'm starting up taiko again, and learned a new song last night. also starting to go to volleyball practice again. a week ago, the elections in goshogawara happened, and i actually helped out, which was a really cool experience.

i haven't been snowboard at all this season, but hopefully i'll go up soon. all in all, i'm doing really good. as the gosho says, "enjoy what there is to enjoy, suffer what there is suffer" and that's what i'm doing. i am struggling a lot, but it feels good to overcome obstacles when i do, so it's all good!

oh yeah, i almost forgot!!!! huge news guys!! i'm going to hawaii in march ... FOR FREE!! ahhhhh!!! it turns out that my host family sister from sapporo is getting married and they invited me to the ceremony. but it's going to take place in hawaii and they said i just need to get to tokyo and from tokyo they'll take care of my airplane ticket and hotel for FIVE DAYS!! they said it's because i'm like family. awwwwwwww, how sweet is that? i LOVE my host family and feel really touched by their generosity. i can't believe it's been 3 years since i lived with them, and yet they really do feel like my family still.

as much i'm struggling, i really am lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life. thank you, i love you all!!!

and for your enjoyment, here's some pictures from a recent gathering of my friends ...

the guy in the middle is seriouly sleeping, even as the other guy is kissing him! haha, ah dijira!

medi!! welcome home!!

aki and i!

we love our karaoke! especially brian, he gets intense!

Happy New Year!!

2007-01-08T21:29:00.000+09:00

and she blogs again!

well i'm finally back into my regular schedule here in kanagi, and guess what? there is no snow!!!! i can't believe it! well actually there's a bit of a storm going on right now, but so far nothing more than a dusting. completely opposite of last year when i got back from winter vacation trips and my car was absolutely burried!!

anyways, the trip back to the states was great!! short but great (well except for all the travelling anxieties of having to make back to back flights). stayed in orange county for a couple of days and got to see lots of sua people and erin! it was so strange being at sua again. being so familiar with the place and yet realizing that i'm no longer a student there. but the best part was seeing everyon: lisa, uyen, andy, mitzi, phat, connie, diana, jackie, grace, emily and lots of staff. i wish i could have stayed longer, but just happy i got to see people.

after orange county, i headed to las vegas to meet up with the cousins and then headed to bishop. saw dad on the way up and then mom was the first person i saw in bishop and i didnt think she was going to let go of me the entire time! haha. well then all of us were reunited when dad brought jack and angel late that night and the week with the family started. it was loads of fun. all we did was play games and eat! the week went by way to quick though and i realized i should come home more often than once every year and a half. but hopefully people will come visit me instead!! come on guys, you know you want to!!

isn't my cousin the cutest???

anyways, after the very short visit home, came back to aomori. then turned around the next day and went back to tokyo to hang out with nori for a few days. we had a great time, despite being extremely tired!!!! went to tokyo disney sea and disneyland and then did some shopping in shibuya and akihabara. disney sea and disneyland combined is kind of like disneyland in california. it was really crowded, but luckily the weather was really good (i.e. no rain). came back and were both really happy to see no snow in aomori (yet!) which mean i didn't need to catch up on any shoveling. here's some pictures from tokyo ...

(i took that picture with my cell phone!! cell phones here rock!)

it has started!

2006-12-06T13:56:00.000+09:00

i shoveled for the first time of the season on sunday ... twice!!! it took me nearly 2 hours to clear all of the snow, i couldn't believe how much it dumped in one night. awwww, well i guess this means another 3-4 months of winter = shoveling, sucky roads, cold house = boo!!

but in other good news, i'll be going home in 2 weeks and when i get back will be going to tokyo with nori for a little get away. so i'm getting really excited for the upcoming winter holiday!! i cant wait to see everyone, it's going to be soooo weird being back in the states though!

alright, nap time!

what do you want to buy?

2006-11-28T14:04:00.000+09:00

"I want to buy a girlfriend"
huh?
That was one of my students responses on the worksheets I made for them. They had to interview their friends, write down their answers, and then draw a picture of the answer and write a title for it. Apparantly one of my boys is very lonely and wants a cute girl to be his girlfriend :-P

Thanksgiving turned out really good. Actually went to two, was able to sit down and have a proper meal at only one of them though. The pumpkin bread I made turned out to be a hit, I'll have to make that for you guys when I go home. We had a going away party for one of my friends, Midori (she has made appearances in picutres on this site, most recently being in the autumn leaves photo). She is going to Sendai for work because where we live, there just aren't enough jobs for people to find here. So, very sad but will now have a friend in Sendai to visit and eat cow tongue with ... mmm yum!

You want to know something that makes my day? It's when I leave school and the kids say good bye to me. The best ones are when you get one of the really shy kids, or one of the boys that seems totally uninterested in the world around them, and they see you, you say good bye and they give you a great big cheesy smile and return the greeting. It just makes you feel all warm inside, like ... wow, these kids are so great! I really do enjoy working with them. And seeing that I'll be here for another 2 years (probably) that's a good thing.

Hmmm, eventually I really need to start thinking about what I'm going to do after JET ... where am I going to live? where am I going back to school? where am I going to work (pretty sure that's still going to be a school though, or something with education)? oye, it seems as time passes, I only get more questions!

2006-11-23T14:54:00.000+09:00

so last week i made curry and i made mistake when i reading the amount of water to put in (i only wanted to make enough curry for a fews meals at most), and it resulted in me having curry and rice for lunch and dinner for 5 days in a row! i think i'm curried our for a while, but at least curry only gets better as the days go on :)

and of course i didnt learn from my mistake this week. i wanted to make a tomato based pasta and ended up eating that for a few days straight too! this whole cooking for one person is hard, but i guess it saves on money and time making food in bulk, it just limits the meal variety :-P

last week i changed my tires, i think a little early though. no snow on the ground yet, although a few fluries here and there.

my tv broke sunday night :( i was right in the middle of watching "Day After Tomorrow" and it just turned off by itself and wont turn back on! i think my BOE is going to replace it though (thank goodness as i really need to save money) and it makes sense for them to replace as this is not actually my house, but the ALTs house so its for future ALTs as well. i just wonder when they are going to replace it. i dont want to miss the korean drama i've been watching lately :-P

tonight we are having a thanksgiving dinner, i made pumpkin bread and broccoli crab salad ... hopefully it will go down well!

AND i'll be back in America in 4 weeks! holy crap, that's crazy!! how the time flies!!

sorry, i had to do it!

2006-11-12T22:51:00.000+09:00

well, we had our first snow today! it was more like a mix of hail and wannabe snow though, but still, snow forcasted for the upcoming week as well, boo!!! looks like i'm going to have to change my tires tomorrow and start getting out the shovels. dammit, we were supposed to skip winter this year!

surprise!

2006-11-08T14:19:00.000+09:00

guess what everyone? it's cold again! :( so i guess that means that all blogs from here on out will mention cold/snow/crappy house/shoveling in one way or another :-P but for your sake, i'll try and keep it to a limited, and snow wont start for at least another month (keeping my fingers crossed on that one!).

this last month was incredibly busy! of course one of the highlights being jess and ellie coming out to japan. it was great seeing them, even though it was kind of a blur! went down to tokyo to meet up with them and have fun down there, saw kabuki, went sightseeing, enjoyed an onsen (i just love making people take their clothes off, right ellie? hee hee) and then rushing back on a train because i was late for the train i was supposed to be on. then they came up to my house and i showed them how beautifully isolated aomori is ... and we saw foliage (foil-age ... right jess?), made takoyaki, then picked up ann and had salmon and played cards. of course, lots more happened on the trip ... but all in all, it was really nice seeing them. i know we've all changed sinced the last time we saw each other, but there's no doubt (in my mind) that the friendship is still there and always will be ... awwww, i love you guys! hehe, ok, enough mush!

the first night the girls got in, we met up with naoko, suhjin, and yumi ... then snuck into out hotel room

here's us at the imperial palace gardens

i think there was alcohol in the takoyaki that night :-P

while waiting for ann, we had really good rice pudding after yummy curry at akbar's.

i've bought tickets to go home for the winter holiday for first time since i've come to japan! i'm really excited to see everyone, but i bet it's going to be weird to be back in the states again! it's been such a long time ... but aside from getting to see people, i'm looking forward to ... yes ... Mexican food!!! mmmmm, and good Chinese food too! i will be coming back to japan a little early though and going on a get-away with u know who, not exactly sure where yet, but looking forward to that too :-P

other than that, enjoying the last bits of the fall colors, but most of it is gone now after we had that huge storm last night and all the leaves were blown off the tree (for anyone who might have heard about the tornado in northern japan, it wasn't anywhere near me, it was in hokkaido). there were a couple of moments where it was a bit scary here because of the wind, rain, and lightning, but the house still in one piece so that's good.

here's midori and i looking at pretty leaves

oh yeah, i've uploaded new pictures to my picture site so go check them out!

bye bye

2006-10-02T00:13:00.000+09:00

well, i finally evicted the roommate. i saw it in my bathroom (for the first time), i think it was dieing though because it didn't move when i got near it, but i didn't have the heart to kill outright like my friends said, so instead i put it in tuperwear and took it out to the rice fields. say farewell everyone ...
i never get squeely (well rarely) but this made me squeel!

here's me officially 23, out with my girlfriends for a birthday dinner

last weekend i spent most my time out in fukuaura. saturday went hiking in the shirakami with friends and man, i'm freaking sore now! and i have a battlewound on my shin (decided it would be a good idea to overstep and let my shin fall on a rigid rock, who else wouldn't want to break their skin on the way down? oye!). but, none the less, it was a beautiful hike! was even able to see some color changes.

this was maybe only half-way up and i was already super tired! i figured because i say active during the week with volleyball, taiko, and occasionally tennis that i was in shape ... hah! guess not!

so yeah, it was a good weekend spent with friends. and tonight i received my gohonzon! soo yay! really happy about that!

check out my pictures page for more pictures :)

It's official ...

2006-09-29T10:39:00.000+09:00

I'm 23 years old! That's so weird to say! But thank you to everyone who sent birthday messages, cards, and phone calls :) It was a nice chill day. I was able to get off of work early, but it was raining all day so didn't feel like going off on any adventures. Went to dinner with some friends in the evening and then called it a night after some drinks (non-alcoholic :P).

It's also official ... I have a new roommate. I've never actually seen it yet. It's small, furry, likes cucumbers, and running around at night while I'm trying to sleep. Yes, I have ... a mouse ... booo! I've been advised not to set mouse traps that use food because it will only bring other mice, so instead I am to bang on the ceiling with a broom or whatever because it will scare it and hopefully run it out. So for the last few nights, when I start to hear it run around in the attack (apparantly it only comes down when I'm not around) I start hitting the ceiling with my taiko drum sticks. Sounds like fun huh?

It's also officially cold. They have finally started putting warm drinks in the vending machines, a sure sign that it's cold out. Although I'm still holding out on using the heater (even though it gets down to 59 in the morning). I can't admit that it's already that time of year. Can someone say denial? The rice fields are all yellow and have already started to be cut down for harvesting.

And finally, it's official that I am receiving my gohonzon this Sunday! (Many of you may not know what that means, so next time you see me, just ask :P).

So lots of things official going on and lots of things no so official going on, but all in all, it's good!

I have a few new pictures to post as well, but as I'm at work posting this, I'll post them later.

how does it happen?

2006-09-18T17:38:00.000+09:00

seriously people, i really made an effort to stay updated with the blogging and i was doing ok for a few weeks, and then all of a sudden 3 weeks have passed since my last blog, and i have no idea how that happened!

but, just to let you all know, i'm doing fantastic! well aside from the typhoon going on right now (although, it's really not that bad). the seasons are definately changing (or more like changed). it's getting cold at night and you can already see a few leaves changing colors. i've talked to so many people in aomori who hate fall because it's a sign that winter is coming and i never understood it because i love fall, i love the changing colors and temperature and everything. although, to be honest, seeing the color changes is putting this dread in me, like oh shit! winter is coming! my house is going to be freezing again, i'm going to have to wake up at 5 am again to shovel, and well most of you have already heard my winter horror stories. but i keep trying to tell myself that it's a good 2 1/2 - 3 months before snow starts falling (ahhhhhh!!!).

i've been trying to cook a lot lately and it's all been japanese food and hasn't been too bad. just simple stuff, fish, miso soup, veggies, rice, etc. essentially i'm trying to eat healthier. somehow i lost nearly 5 kilos (over 10 pounds) during the summer without even trying and now that i'm conscious of that, i want to try and lose more weight just to be healthy.

oooh, i bought new sheets (finally!) and they are soooo nice. i figured i'm going to be here 2 more years and should have nice sheets (mind u my winter set is lovely). actually i've been a bit bad with shopping this month (as in too much shopping) but i figure my birthday is coming up soon and i can spoil myself every once in a while :-P

i'm thinking about going home for winter vacation this year (although worried about leaving the house for 2 weeks and coming back to a house burried in snow). i can't wait for ellie and jess to come out (a little over 3 weeks!). and yeah, life is just good ... staying busy with japanese class, volleyball, taiko, tennis, english eikaiwa lessons, meetings, friends, kareshii, etc. getting to know the new jets, and they are cool, but still miss the jets from last year :-P anyways, i'll try and update more regularly, i promise!

i know it's late ...

2006-08-31T22:26:00.000+09:00

but a great big happy birthday to jess and cassie!!! i would sing to you, but i know how much jessica hates that ;-) when you come to japan, jess i'll make you a cake or something ... hee, and cassie, since you've let us know plenty in advance about the wedding, then i'll definately bring something super super cool from japan! alright, love you guys, hope u had a good bday!

that was quick!

2006-08-25T15:44:00.000+09:00

well apparantly summer is over now and it only lasted 3 weeks. crazy huh? considering i come from a place where summers last nearly 5 months (if not longer). we had our first dry day yesterday (as in very low humidity) and the wind has a much cooler feel to it, but i can't say that i'm complaining. now if it could only stay this temperature for the rest of the year, it would be great!

this week was pretty chill so not a whole lot to report on. my boss let me go home early today. my friends are telling me i need to buy special pants. we are having a welcome party for the new jets in the area tonight. and tomorrow, i'll be making dinner for someone ... hmm, what to cook?

it's still hot!

2006-08-20T18:56:00.000+09:00

pretty soon, it should start cooling down, but until then it's still hot and humid. it's not actually hot in terms of temperature, it's just the humidity that's torture.

what's happened since i last blogged? i saw mission impossible 3, went down to sendai, met loads of new aomori jets, helped with orientation, met up with a friend who's an english teacher i used to work with in kanagi, visited some friends in hirosaki and was introduced to a really cool cafe with delicious chocolate cake, and also a really cozy blues cafe where there is live music every saturday.

and today i went to aomori city for a meeting and got all natsukashii (nostalgic) talking about SUA and stuff ~ it's crazy that the 6th class has already had it's opening ceremony and like ann said, officially half of the school has never met us. every once in a while i feel disconnected with sua and feel like it was just some dream, but most of the time i steel feel as if not much time has passed and that it still feels like i'll see everyone soon. well at least i know i will see jessica and ellie soon!!!!! i cant wait for u guys to come in october!!!!!!!!

so sendai was a lot of fun, but was very short. we went down on tuesday morning (5 hour drive), went to a zoo, got rained on, checked into a hotel, then went out to walk around town and then had what sendai is famous for, cow tongue, for dinner. and let me tell ya, it's delish!!!! went back to the hotel, then woke up early to go check out an amusement park. it kind of reminded me of a fair ground with lots of spinny rides and a couple of bigger roller coasters. after that we went to a planitarium, which i haven't been to an ages!!! but i loved it ... i love looking at stars, they are sooo purdy!

orientation was kind of surreal. most of the newbies i met were really cool, but it just made me realize what a fleeting program jet is. so many of the people i viewed as "the jets" are now gone, and i've become the 2nd year that people will ask questions to and see as the veteran. it's just kind of weird, but i realize now that i need to cherish my time here even more because it won't last forever, as it is with all things.

i want to learn to live in the moment, and be more spontanious. i tend to think about things way too much and in that i prevent myself from every experiencing anything, well at least one part of my life in particular. it's almost never like the movies, and that has to be ok.

I'd say it's about time for ...

2006-08-11T22:24:00.000+09:00

An update! It's been nearly a month since my last update and man, it was a fun month!! Crazy busy, but fun :) and also a little sad at the same time.

I spent the month saying good bye to friends leaving Aomori, practicing taiko for the festival, playing volleyball, working, going to fuji rock (the largest rock festival in Japan), participating in the best local festival ever, entertaining friends from tokyo, watching fireworks with (hmmm), meeting new JETs and possibly new friends, and just really feeling like a part of the community!

if i gave you all of the details then this blog would be extremely long, but I think you get the idea that I've been living it up here in Japan. It's been disgustingly hot lately (not necessarily temperature wise, but humidity is the killer) and things are just finally start to settle back down to normal, whatever that means.

Two weeks ago, three friends and I took a road trip to go enjoy 3 days of music (including artists like Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, JET, Jason Mraz, The Zutons, Mogwai, Snow Patrol, Flogging Molly, and the list goes on). It took us 14 hours to get there and 12 hours to get back, but the drive was beautiful (Niigata has amazing mountain views) and it was an awesome experience. Made new friends from Tokyo, experienced concerts in pooring rain and mud, slept in a tent so close to other tents you could touch them just by reaching your hand out the front. Here's some pictures

prepared for the rain with $1 plastic ponchos!

neigbors and new friends from tokyo

festival took place at a ski resort. and yup, those are all tents!

the other big thing that has happened was the tachi nebuta festival. aomori is famous for it's nebuta festivals and goshogawara has its own called tachi nebuta. i was really luckly and was able to participate by playing taiko. i got to wear the traditional festival wear, and participated every day (5 days) yelling yate mare and sore, beating the taiko drum, and pushing the float. i've never sweated so much in my life, but man it was awesome! i'm looking forward to doing it again next year, except next year i want to play the flute and other stuff too. here's some pictures from the festival ....

alright, blogger is being funny and not letting me post pictures, but go to my pictures page and you can see lots of new pictures, one including me in a yukata (summer kimono) for the first time :)

alright, enough for now ... i'll try and post soon!

this country needs ac!!!

2006-07-13T22:46:00.000+09:00

you know summer has arrived when ...

- you wake up sweating
- you need to carry a fan with you every where you go (or a sweat rag)
- festivals start popping up all over the place
- everyone around you is saying "atsui ne! (it's hot huh!)"
- you're house starts smelling musty (because of the humidity)

- fireworks are in abundance

- you need to buy humidity absorbers

- you start drinking lots of fluids
- anything you do results in sweating because of all the fluids you just drank
- schools finally clean the pool

and guess what? summer has arrived and it has been freaking hot! temperature wise, it's really not that bad, it's just the humidity that is harsh.

so same as last blog, just been really busy with volleyball, taiko, friends, english lessons, meetings, etc. on tuesday, one of my schools had a sports festival and when i was watching the volleyball games, it reminded me of daria (from MTV). you would see the ball going at a kid, they would have no reaction, and then when the ball dropped on the groud they'd put their hand out like they tried to get it and all i could do was laugh and think of the opening them song of daria. i played with the teachers team, we won one and lost the other ... it was so much fun. the principal was rolling all over the place in his purple track suit!

fuji rock is coming up pretty soon and totally excited about that!! stay tuned, ill be giving updates about that in a couple of weeks!

alright, i know theres was other stuff i wanted to blog about, but my bed is calling me so ill do it later.

gomen gomen (sorry sorry)

2006-07-02T17:18:00.000+09:00

has it really been this long since the last time i've blogged?! sorry everyone ... well at least to those who check into my blog regularly waiting for updates!

anyways, lots and lots has happened and i think the onset of summer has turned me into a very busy girl!

last week i became famous, i'm known all around the ken (Aomori prefecture) as Accha (or granny in Tsugaru-ben) and people come up to me left and right asking for autographs and impersonations of my Accha. well not really ... but this is what happened. 2 weeks ago, the local television crew came to my school and filmed me talking to students during lunch recess, in class, in my car driving after school, in the store shopping talking to students, then at my groups rehearsal. they must have got hours of footage, well at least it seemed like it! then the following saturday was the actual event that brought about this tv crew, the tsugaru-ben taikai. that was loads of fun! there were 4 groups. one did a rendition of a very famous japanese folk tale in tsugaru-ben, another guy did a speech about his father in tsugaru-ben, and another group did a short hilarious skit about the tv guy coming to the house asking for money. my group was last, and probably the shortest ... but it went really well. i was a granny in a restaurant and two foreigners came into my shop and because i only speak tsugaru-ben and they only speak a limited amount of regular japanese, misunderstandings happen and result in me expecting a massage from a customer who only wanted to drink tea. anyways, everyone was laughing and said they really liked it and my group received the "idebashicha" award meaning great job! in tsugaru-ben and it was said our tsugaru-ben was better than actual grannies who grew up here. HAHA! yeah right! but thanks! well the following monday was my big television debut and it turned into 5 minutes focused pretty much on me, a bit embarassing because there was 11 other people who also participated in the taikai, but i guess it didnt turn out too bad ... at least that's what everyone else said. a picture of my group was also in a local newspaper! here's a picture of me in the taikai , i don't have one of my group on my comp yet, but as soon as i do, i'll post one. i got the costume from one of my gakkai friends in kanagi, real authentic granny clothes too!

well after the taikai, i participated in one of the local festivals with quite a few other jets. it was the bug and fire festival that i think is supposed to kick off the start of summer. we all had to get dressed up in festivals clothes and carry around these floats, then watched them burn at the end of the parade, followed by a decent display of fireworks. it was a lot of fun! here's a pic from the festival

this last weekend was spent at a ryokan with a bunch of other jets from aomori and surrouding prefrectures for an everest of apples fundraising event. a bunch of teams competed for prizes by showing off their random knowledge of trivia and i contributed by knowing that J is the only letter not featured on the table of elements (and i was able to prove it too!). it was a lot of fun, got quite roudy as is expected from all jet functions, but we were able to have good food and good fun, just wish it hadn't rained so much! here's a pic from the event as well ... hitomi, nobuko, meredith and i at dinner.

other than that my days have been pretty busy. mondays at japanese class, tuesdays at volleyball (woo hoo, finally started again), wednesday at taiko practice, thursday usually resting although i should go play tennis, and friday and the weekends usually hanging out with friends (as much as i can before a lot of them leave at the end of this month) or at meetings or cleaning like i did today. its now july, but it's still a little chilly (as you can see with the sweater in above picture) ranging from low 70s during the day and low 60s at night. but im not complaining, soon enough it will become miserably hot and humid but it wont last long as im realizing summers in aomori are very very short! unlike summers in cali ... miss all of u guys! hope all is going well wherever u r :)

oh yeah ... i've finally uploaded some new pics on pics site so please enjoy!

recent developments!

2006-06-15T23:14:00.000+09:00

so this week has been busy busy busy!! saturday night, i went out and had a really good time (hmm, possible further developments from that in the making?). sunday i just relaxed at home and went to a friends house for dinner. monday i took my second drivers test and guess what?! i passed!!! but the dude who was giving the test was a bit of a jerk, i think the only reason i passed is because i speak japanese, whereas my other friend who doesn't speak as well didn't pass :( then in the evening i went to japanese class and together with my tutor, we made the skit for the tsugaru ben taikai (a competition that encourages the foreigners to use the local dialect in skits and stuff like that).

tuesday one of my japanese friends came over and we made dinner and hung out. wednesday i went to taiko again (with the same friend). it was a lot more fun this time because i was starting to get the hang of it. its a really good work out too! and it looks as if i will be entering the local festival with the taiko group as well, so thats exciting!

today was crazy busy at school with kids hanging off of me left and right. then i had to do a bunch of running around and almost forgot about a private english lesson i had tonight. doh!

and one of the biggest developments of the week ... i might be on local tv because of the taikai!! they want to highlight some of the groups in the competition and decided they liked the sound of mine (i have no idea why, our skit is super short and simple) and so they are going to come follow me around at school on monday, and when i go to the store and my house and all that! then they will come record my groups rehersal monday night! so theres a good chance some of that footage might end up in the airing of the taikai. crazy huh?? whod have thunk it!! i thought it was supposed to be another group!!

anyways, i think thats about it for now ... ill try and post soon. but it looks as if im going to become crazy busy pretty soon! ahhhhh!! it is nice having a life though! :-P heee

love you all and miss you!

i'm back!!

2006-06-09T17:06:00.000+09:00

man ... i wonder if my life here will ever be not busy cuz it's definately been busy the last couple of weeks!

i, like so many before me, failed my first driving test in japan last monday. i have an international drivers license but that expires in july so i need to get this taken care of now. most of the JETs fail their first time and following in suit, i did too. everything was fine except i didnt look over my shoulder enough when turning (or at least didn't make it obvious enough). oye, next time!! have my next test on monday ... lets hope its more successful!

went to onsen with some friends, bought a tennis racket and hung out with a friend from work, had another eikaiwa lesson, and went to TOKYO!!! last saturday, quite a few of us headed down to tokyo for the recontracting conference and just got back a couple of days ago. i think i appreciated the city a lot more than i have on previous trips. did quite a bit of shopping, got to see some SUA friends (including ann, tim, naoko, naomi, rumiko, suh jin, billy, and hiroshi) which was awesome!), stayed at a five star hotel, saw loads of foreigners (some of which i could have been fine not seeing!), and ate MEXICAN food!!!

the amount of foreigners in tokyo is staggering (although having a conference where at least 800 other JETs are attending doesnt help). every time i went into a store, or talked with someone at the hotel, the employees spoke english really well and automatically speak english which was shocking as no one can speak english here. it was getting me really confused as to what language to speak, especially when we went out to eat foreign food (indian, mexican, etc.). i was so happy to have mexican food, although it was way over priced but the atmosphere was cool with a live mariachi band and all.

being in the city also helps u appreciate the nature in the countryside. in the city (especially one like tokyo) u see nothing but buildings and concret and nothing beyond it! however, in the countryside where i live u can see for miles and miles and see nothing but green. both places have their good points, but im really happy i live in the place that i do.

anyways, have had work the last couple of days and then going out this weekend. i went to one of my favorite elementary schools today. the kids there are so loving and give me hugs all of the time! they are soooooo sweet!

i think there was a bunch of other stuff i wanted to blog as well, but i can't remember it now. hopefully later ... until then, enjoy some pictures from tokyo!

here's me in shubuya ... crazy place. went to outback steakhouse here and felt very american!

with some of the locals in shinjuku. i think the 80s are back in japan!

view from the hotel. endless city. those 2 buildings actually had really cool designs, the picture doesnt really do it justice

it's warm!

2006-05-28T16:47:00.000+09:00

so it's been a busy week for Allison! work every day that was followed by japanese class on monday, eikaiwa (english conversation) lesson on tuesday, taiko drums on wednesday, tsugaru-ben study/translation dinner night on thursday, kaho shimada concert on friday, movie and bbq on saturday, and meeting on sunday! whew!

i also knocked down the bee nest that this lone bee was so busily buiding for the last 2 weeks. had to get it down before it started having babies though, because i hate bees!! and the bees here look like wasps so they are even more intimidating! my house is being taken over by spiders again, but i don't really mind as long as they stay out of my bedroom. i made dinner a few times this week and they were very japanesey ~ rice, fish, and soup. the soup i made is called tonjiru and its a miso-based soup with loads of stuff in it and it surprisingly turned out pretty good! yay :)

one of the highlights of the week was being able to talk to my old SUA buddies on monday (sunday cali time). did a round-robin style conversation in which the phone was passed around to everyone and i got to talk to them for 2 minutes each; i was on my lunch break and couldnt talk long :( but it was sooooooo nice hearing everyone's voice and made me wish i was there! someday!!

another highlight was the taiko drums. if i practice enough and can get the hang of them then i might be in the oh-so-famous tachi nebuta parade in august in goshogawara. taiko was a lot of fun but, man it's hard!!! must practice!!

this next month is going to be really busy too. will be going to tokyo next weekend for the recontracting conference (all renewing jets have to attend), want to go to sapporo so i can visit people, will be in the tsugaru-ben taikai (competition that foreigners enter and have to speak the local dialect), and will probably be in a parade at the end of the month. oh-so-busy but having lots of fun. although, it does make time fly!! here's some pictures from the weekend ... enoy!

bbq fun!

me, nobuko, and hitomi (the strategists) and ben sneaking in the back

ichi ... ni ... san!

2006-05-21T22:07:00.000+09:00

Today, I attended my first sports day event in Japan. All schools in Japan do sports day and they make a pretty big deal of it, preparing for it for a week before it happens. Then during the weekend, all the kids and teachers go to school and do all sorts of physical (as you could guess) activities like relays, cross country, dancing, and human pyramids. The kids divide up into 2 teams (red team and white team, I'm assuming this has to do with the colors of the Japanese flag) and wear hachimaki (head bands) to give them spirit! It was really cool to see and it's always nice to see my kids outside of the English classroom environment. Here's a couple of pictures of my kids ...

Like their makeup? It's flour ... they had to find and eat a marshmallow burried in flour as part of relay. Cute, aren't they?

These kids made this human pyramid fast!

Some of my friends held a beer tasting party last night. Everyone had to bring a 6 pack of beer from a different place and we went through the whole process of tasting, rating, eating, and finally decided on a winner ... actually it was a tie between a micro-brew from Tsugaru (the area I live in) and good ole' Sam Adams. Rated last was Budweiser ... thought that was kind of funny. It was fun, and when you have to taste 9 different beers, you definately get a buzz!

Well, until next time~ bye bye, see you!

sorry!!

2006-05-18T17:39:00.000+09:00

i was reminded to update the blog as ive been neglectful recently (sorry!). so what's new in this part of the world?

the cherry blossoms are pretty much all gone and all the trees are green now. the bees are building nests outside of my house again which means i need to knock em down before they get to big. the rice fields are filled with water and little seedlings making it look almost mossy everywhere you look. i can now sit in my house at night with short sleeves on and not feel cold!

here's a picture of the rice fields ... with Mt. Iwaki in the backround.

the last couple of weeks have been kind of mild i guess. work has been busy. ive been trying to go for walks/jogs every day, but this last week i havent been able to go as much as id like. been going to japanese class and just hanging around doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. went to a friends party last friday then went out on saturday (hopefully there will be more to this later, but as of yet ... :-P).

oh yeah, and ive been trying to study for my upcoming driving test. i finally have to bite the bullet and go for my japanese driver's license test and it's pretty much a given that everyone fails their first time. we'll see if i can avoid this and get it done the first time (keeping my fingers crossed).

to the class of '06 ~ congratulations!!! wish i could be there, but im sending all my love!!!!

Golden week is almost over ~

2006-05-07T10:56:00.000+09:00

Well everyone, it's official ... I live in a beautiful place! Check out some of these pictures ...

This is at my local park, only about a 10-15 minute walk from my house.

Cherry and plum blossoms, about a 10-15 minute drive from my house.

View of Mt. Iwaki from Hirosaki park, about an hour's drive from house.

I'll add some of the other pictures from Golden Week onto my pictures page soon (if they fit within the month's limit). This last week was a lot of fun! Monday and Tuesday I had work, but as soon as work was over it was all play, play, play. Tuesday night, peole came up to Kanagi to check out (a quite impressive) fireworks show. The next day we headed down to Hirosaki park to check out some cherry blossoms, it wasn't quite peak yet, but it was still absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining, there were blue skies, and I even got a little sun burned! Thursday we headed to Fujimiko Park for a barbeque under the sun and then went to Karaoke at night. Friday, people came back up to Kanagi again for a Tsugaru Shamisen (Japanese string instrument that is from the area where I live) competition. Saturday, we went to go see cherry and plum blossoms ... the plum blossoms differ in color from the cherry blossoms, which tend to be white or pink, whereas the plum blossoms are a much more vivid pink or purple color. And today, there will be more cherry blossom viewing in Kanagi again.

Ahhhh ... I love spring!!! Everything is turning green, and it's getting warm, and just all around beautiful! I even have daphodiles growing in my yard! I always used to love fall (still do), but I'm starting to appreciate spring now that I can experience a true spring (southern California just kind of goes from hot to warm to cool to warm to hot so you don't get the extreme seasonal changes that you get here in northern Japan).

All around in a good mood! Feel as if change is in the atmosphere ~ and good change I hope! :-P

Happy May 1st!

2006-05-01T15:29:00.000+09:00

It's May, it's warm, flowers are blooming, and skies are blue! Isn't it great?! Well I have been in Japan a little over 9 months now and sometimes it still feels like I just got here. It's amazing how time flies when you are having a good time!

Last weekend was great ~ Friday night, we all went to Dai hachi for some good food and drink. Then on Saturday we headed down to Hirosaki park to lay out under the (not yet blossiming) cherry trees and soak up some sun, eat festival food, and partake in the oh so celebrated yearly event known as hanami (litterally flower viewing, but usually just means hanging out with a bunch of friends under [hopefully] blooming trees and drinking). There were a few ambulances that went by, most likely due to alcohol poisoning because some just drink far too much at these things, but other than that the atmosphere was festive. We had people come by and play drums and do tradiational dance, or at least what appeared to be traditional dance. After it got dark we all headed back. Sunday I cleaned house (again) and then had dinner and watched "The 40 year old virgin" with Becky. Man that movie is hilarious!

Today I'm heading down to Hirosaki park again and then tomorrow people will be coming up to Kanagi to view a fireworks display. Then Golden Week starts ~ essentially a 5-day weekend that is enjoyed by most people in Japan, except for the poor souls that actually have to work during that time. My plans have not been set in concrete yet, but I imagine they will include hanami and relaxation!

I have uploaded some of the pictures from the weekend onto my photos page, but here are couple of photos from the weekend:

Here's Dan, Yuki, Chris, Me, and Midor in front of Hirosaki Castle and the barely budding Cherry Blossom Trees.

Hanami relaxation with Mandy and Aki, and I think that's Paul off to the left.

busy and happy!

2006-04-25T12:15:00.000+09:00

oye, just as i made the determination to blog more, im still neglecting it for a week at a time! ~ was that even proper english? i think im getting to the point where i don't know what proper english sounds like. im trying to remedy that by reading more, but i just haven't had the time recently. so i apologize for any misusages or difficult to understand language :-P

so school has started and i have been busy!! i didn't think the new schools would really make me that much more busy, because ive kind of gotten the hang of things at school. but im telling you, i was wrong! im realizing that because i wasn't here in the beginning of the school year last year (i came 4 months after it had already started because japan's school year starts in april) theres all these new lessons i have to plan because ive never taught them. also the elementary schools are keeping me busy with the new curriculum and what not. and keeping me tired too! last year, i only went to elementary schools once a week, and id put all my genkiness (energy) into the lessons and just go all out. but now im going 2-3 times a week and its a little more tiring. but im actually having a really good time. the schools are great and i feel much more comfortable with all the changes because of my experience from last august.

oh yeah, remember that desert dirt phenomenon i told you about? well thats over, thank goodness. it actually only lasted that day, and then it's kind of been raining off and on since. although, we did have an absolutely gorgeous day on sunday. blue skies all around! went for a walk in the park with some friends in the morning, then went to a meeting in the afternoon, then went to another friends place for a little barbeque ... an awesome day! friday was spent down in fukaura with loads of gaijin for a friend's brithday party which was lots of fun. here are some pictures ...

birthday boy ben is oh so nicely chiking meredith, birthday girl is up front and center, thats yuki next to me and mari in the back round. see that awesome necklace i'm wearing? that was a gift i received from angel in a care package jack and angel sent me with all sorts of goodies in it! soo nice!

lovely ladies at the karaoke bar. there were about 10-12 japanese customers in there when we arrived and not 5 minutes after, they all left when the gaijin started singing. guess we scared them off!

about to upload a bunch of other new pictures, so check them out on my pictures page!

alright i guess thats about it for now. definately be more updates in the coming weeks with all the cherry blossom festivals, and golden week, and who knows ... maybe a date? ;P hmmm ... love you all!

dirty cars everywhere!!

2006-04-19T20:22:00.000+09:00

so i woke up this morning to find my car absolutely filthy. my neighbor came out and mentioned something about it and the reason why, but i didnt really understand what she was saying. on my way to school, i noticed all the cars were dirty. everyone had that same window shield look, dirty except for where the whipers can reach. finally found out the reason why. apparantly, the gobi desert on the western side of china, received absolutely no rain or snow this last winter (go figure, it's a desert) and every once in a while this phenomenon happens where the winds starts to pick up and actually carries the desert sand/dirt accross east asia and on to japan. the skies were all hazy today and its because of this desert sand thats being blown over from china. crazy huh? and get this, they think it will be like this for at least a few more weeks! yay, hazy skies and dirty cars ... sounds like fun huh?

today i took a walk around town and some of my kids, or old kids i should say (from the 2 schools i no longer go to), came running up to me to say hi and have small talk. its really nice when u go around and u see smiles on kids faces because they see u (or maybe i just look funny and thats why they are smiling :P) instead of tears. yesterday i had my first lesson with the new 1st years at one of my elementary schools. they were really genki (all 8 of them!) except for one student who started crying anytime i tried to get him to talk in front of everyone. :( but he did have fun as long as the activities were group centered. the cutest thing was when all the 2nd years (i teach them together) were being all supportive and helpful towards the new 1st years. kids are soooo cute sometimes!!!

i cant wait for things to turn green and for the cherry blossoms!!! everything is still so brown but hopefully that will all change within a couple of weeks.

also very jealous of everyone who's going to 06's graduation ~ i still cant believe u guys are going to graduate in a month!! its amazing how time flies. wish i could be there, but ill be there in spirit!

it's officially warmer!

2006-04-12T13:03:00.000+09:00

yes people, it is officially warmer!! for the first time in a very very long time, i did not need to turn on my heater last night. isn't that amazing?!? well i think so :P

last weekend i went to a couple of ladies nights and then did a bit of sight seeing (although, it's not at its prettiest right now, we just needed to get out and about). sightseeing was spent with ben, aki, and brian and we walked down the longest wooden bridge in japan at a very nice park with confused cranes. stay tuned for pictures, i'll try and get them posted within a couple of days.

japanese class on mondays has started up again. had my first classes at the new junior high school today. only had 2 classes with the 3rd years and it was actually a lot of fun. ive been hearing horror stories about the school, well not quite horror but i think u can get what i mean, so i was a bit worried. but it turns out that these kids are pretty similar to my other junior high school kids so its not bad at all.

been keeping myself busy at the board of education planning lessons and trying to put together a yearly curriculum for the elementary schools. somehow i was motivated to start being serious about work again instead of just wasting time at the BOE. perhaps the 9 month hiatus from school has finally caught up to me and i miss being productive and feeling useful. so my new goal is to start being productive and feeling useful! :P

one last thing ... you know whats nice? when you go somewhere and you see people you know. ive been trying to take walks/jogs around town and everytime i do i see people i know and we wave and say hi. everytime i go to the store i see people i know. a couple of weeks ago i ran into a random sgi member i know in hirosaki while eating lunch with another teacher. ran into someone else i knew in hachinohe. i think "bumping into people" (and by people i mean not only JETs but japanese friends as well) is a sign that ive been here for a while and slowly but surely making my niche here (not to mention that i live in a relatively small area). its a nice feeling.

i'm sorry!!

2006-04-07T09:17:00.000+09:00

i know, i know ... i've been neglecting my blog recently and i apologize. there's just been so much time and so little to do i tell ya! well actually not really, i've been keeping busy the last couple of weeks so read on for all of the juicy details (well maybe not so juicy :P) ~

so let's see, where to begin. i think the last thing i updated u about was my trip down south and the birds coming back. since then, the snow is continuing to gradually melt and the snow around my house is almost completly melted! although it's still quite chilly, still using my heater in the evenings and the mornings.

last week and this week have been spent at the board (or bored as one of my friends put it) of education because it's spring break but unlike teachers in the states, teachers in japan don't get to bank on the vacation time and still have to go to school. i have been somewhat productive in the office though. i read a 600 page novel (called the historian, wasn't bad either), studied some japanese, organized the worksheets ive made for school, started typing up lesson plans for elementary school and various other little tasks to keep me busy (aka from falling asleep).

last weekend i hung out with some friends, went to a ladies clinic in hirosaki, met up with a teacher, enjoyed a friends birthday party, and went to hachinohe (3 hrs away) for a meeting. all in all a full weekend id say. check my pictures page in a couple of days for some new pictures.

oh for all my sua friends, guess what? i saw danny habuki on tuesday! he came to aomori to give a lecture (which was crazy, he didn't even know that i was living here, and i guess there is someone from aomori who is going to be part of the 6th class) and so i got to meet up with him for a little bit. it was so strange seeing him here, but nice too. it made me miss sua like crazy though and it was kind of sad to think that part of my life is really over. i cant believe the 2nd class is going to graduate next month!!! i wish i could go :(

so there's tons more i can blog about, but ill finish with this last little bit. i never knew i was a flower person, but apparantly i am! in japan, they shuffle around the teachers almost every year and when a teacher leaves a school they usually get going away gifts from teachers and flowers and the whole deal. well because i was leaving kanagi junior high school, they actually treated me like a regular teacher leaving, and i got money and flowers. well when i brought the flowers home and put them in my living room, i realized i really like flowers. they are just so fun and happy and really brighten up a room!!

anyways, i think ill finish with that. ill try and update more frequently ... i promise!! love all of u back home and miss u!!

the birds are back!!!!

2006-03-23T09:07:00.000+09:00

yes everyone, the birds are back!!! and you know what that means? that means that spring is almost here and winter is almost over ~ woooo hoooo!!!!!!!!! yesterday, i saw flocks of migrating birds (i think ducks) flying in v's returning to wherever they go during spring and summer. and today i saw flocks of geese flying in v's overhead and settling down in the rice fields - perhaps for a midflight snack. one of my teachers thinks they are flying to siberia. its just such an amazing feeling to see all of the birds coming back ... we don't really have anything like that in california ... actual signs of seasonal changes (well at least in southern california) with bird migration and such. its amazing to witness and amazing what it does to your inner spirit. right now im just so giddy and happy!

last weekend was a full weekend. friday night, had an enkai with my school although i didnt drink at all and went home kind of early. then saturday night was the big st. paddy's bash in hirosaki and that was a lot of fun. got to see some people i havent seen in a while. wore green, drank yummy malibu with orange juice, and pretended to do irish dancing ~ something i think everyone was doing except for the actual irish people. afterwards, we went to karaoke and as always, crazy jet action and singing occurred. then headed back to kevins place where it seemed like 20 people were sleeping over at, so it was VERY cozy to say the least. well i got about 2 or 3 hours of sleep before meeting my teacher to head down south for our little trip.

so our trip down south was to an area called kanazawa. it has lots of tourist sites and nicely kept-up old buildings and beautiful scenery. we went with a tour group and it was very japanese. we had to go to the same places together, and stay together as a group usually, and spent much time on the bus. i ended up sleeping a lot, but when i wasnt sleeping it was actually a really pleasant trip. got to see a lot of places, mind u not for very long because we could only stay for an hour or so. but it was very beautiful. met up with some friends on the first night and stayed at a really nice hotel. the second night we stayed at an older hotel with a really nice onsen and good food. had a lot of fun with my teacher, we were making fun of each other the whole time and just laughing a lot (well when we werent sleeping that is). i posted all my pictures from the weekend already on my picture site ... so check em out. but here are a couple for ur viewing pleasure ...

here's me with mark (an irish man) at the st. paddy's party

this was an awesome tree in a world heritage park called kenrokuen park.

go check out the rest of pictures :)

oh yeah, one more thing i wanted to blog about. so u remember my pictures of my house in the snow right? there was loads of snow all around my house, but its been melting like crazy. still had a lot towards the back of the house though, along with the wooden panels that protected my windows from all the snow. well my neighbor (the one who used to help me shovel in the mornings) either really misses shoveling snow or feels the need that my snow should be melting faster because he has been shoveling for me again, towards the back of my house. when i went away this weekend, he took care of a large chunck of snow and also put away all of my wood panels (totalling 5, each the size of a large door!). i wasnt gonna bother with it because i figure its going to melt eventually, but i think he missed shoveling snow or the exercise or something, so hes been in the back shoveling for me! such a nice man ... although i wonder if he just thinks im lazy :-P hee.

long weekend!

2006-03-17T15:17:00.000+09:00

it's friday and ahead of me is a long weekend ... woo hoo!!!!

i was pretty busy this week too ... english conversation lesson tuesday night, dinner with a friend wednesday night. meeting on thursday night. and tonight is a school enkai (drinking party to commemorate the end of the school year). then tomorrow is a huge st. paddy's party in hirosaki. and the next day i'm headed off to kanazawa city with one of my JTEs until Tuesday! AND ... it's actually supposed to be kind of warm this weekend, warm meaning high 50s (possibly, possibly low 60s). so exciting ... the snow is melting so quickly - i wonder if most of it will be gone by the time i get back from kanazawa. some how i doubt it, considering the 2 -3 feets of snow in a 4' x 5' area around my house. i can always hope!

next week is last week of school until april, but still have to go to the board of education every day during spring break, oye! No such thing as spring break for teachers here! but it's all good, i'm sure it will be a laid back 2 weeks and then i'll be thrown back into the craziness of lesson planning and an all new schedule. well stay tuned, i imagine i'll be posting pictures of all my adventures this weekend.

oh yeah, remember ... all it takes is a little elbow grease, and u can get almost anything off! at least i can ;-P

u can stop now!

2006-03-14T16:07:00.000+09:00

supposedly the first day of spring is next week and it was starting to feel like that for a while here, but not yesterday or today. it was freezing cold and snowing again! oye, u can stop snowing now! looking out the window right now, ud think it was january again!

at least it was somewhat warm last weekend which means i didnt freeze in my house where i stayed. it was the first weekend in a long time to spend the whole weekend at my house. i did some cleaning, some walking to the store, some movie watching, and some cooking! i made good stuff too ... i think it would be ok for me to start asking people over for dinner knowing that i can cook some decent stuff ... heee.

i had my last visit to kanagi elementary school on monday and the kids were sooooo cute. i had to give a little farewell speech in the morning, and then all of the kids sang a song and thanked me. then i ceremoniously marched out of the gym between all of the kids. hehe. then throughout the day i received notes and littles origami and had little kids hanging all over me. it was really cute. its a little sad to be losing them. the staff said i could come back at any time to play ... :) ahhh ~ and then i had my last lessons with the 2nd years and the special needs class at kanagi junior high school was today. the kids thanked me for the lessons and then that was it. remember how bad i used to say the 2nd years were? man, now they are cool! but alas, i'm leaving. it's all a part of life, change ... and snow! hee.

yummy yummy

2006-03-10T12:00:00.000+09:00

so school is really slow right now. i only had one class today and now that that's done i don't have much else to do. i need to prepare for the elementary school visit on monday, it's going to be my last one at that school :( but i need to wait for some clarification on the schedule before i can do anything. so until then, i'll tell you what i made for dinner last night ...

honey mustard grilled chicken (http://chicken.allrecipes.com/az/HoneyMustardGrilledChicken.asp) --> the sauce was really good!
and a tomato avacado salad (http://salad.allrecipes.com/az/79604.asp)

it turned out really well, if i say so myself. i got the recipes off of allrecipes.com which is my new favorite site. it was a healthy meal and it felt nice to cook at home (not to mention, it probably saves me some money). i think ill spend my weekend relaxing at home (something i haven't done in a very long time!!), trying different recipes and such. i think tonight's dinner will be angel hair chicken pasta (http://chicken.allrecipes.com/az/nglHirPstChickn.asp). :P

Happy Friday everyone!

onsens are great!

2006-03-09T10:15:00.000+09:00

highlights from the week/weekend:

-made snickerdoodles and watched american wereworlf in london with a friend.

-helped sell raffle tickets at a futsal tournament for charity

-saw loads of people i havent seen in a long time in aomori city and we danced and drank the night away (well i didn't drink so much)

-went to an onsen and the pool was full of oranges

-saw that mystery guy who was supposed to go on that blind date way back when, but only briefly ~ he did call me by name though!

-cleaned my house (finally)

-had a japanese lesson, followed by an english lesson in which i got to eat some good homecooked japanese food

-saw more of my driveway than i have seen since november!

-went to another onsen that was really nice and almost walked into the sauna naked thinking it was only woman, but realized it wasnt just in time ~ that's why they gave us those funny robes! :-P

all in all, it's been a pretty mild week i guess. nothing major as of yet to report, but stay tuned ... u never know what could happen! ;)

he's as sneaky as a fox!

2006-03-03T15:58:00.000+09:00

so ... will explain the title later in the post.

got to go snowboarding on wednesday night after nearly a 2 week hiatus and it was great! Thanks to the snow, the slopes are no longer icy. They aren't really fluffy with snow either as the snow that's falling is much more of a heavy and wet snow. But still, had lots of fun.

graduation at the junior high schools was yesterday and man they go all out for junior high school graduation here. decorate the entire school, all the teachers have to dress up really fancy, and then we sit through long speeches and occasional songs sung by the kids. then at the end, there is this ceremonial send off where all the kids stand in lines, bow, thank the teachers for everything they've done, and then they march out of the school and they are done. it turned into quite the emotional event for many of the students and some of the teachers. i definately dont remember them making that big of a deal when i was in junior high school! but it was nice. i'll definately miss the kids next year.

luckily, i have this years kids to look forward too. and man did they provide me with some entertainment today, unintentionally too (at least i hope so). we were covering similes today and how to make comparisons using as ~ as . For example, he's as sneaky as a fox. well, with any language, you make mistakes in the beginning because you don't know all of the rules or cultural meansing behind it. and sometimes, they are just really creative and make up hilarious sentences. here are a few that were intentional ...

Rock music is as noisy as my grandmother. ~ apparently they don't like rock music, maybe.
Utada Hikaru (popular Japanese singer) is as beautiful as a frog. ~ you think that's supposed to be a compliment?
My grandmother is as strong as Godzilla. ~ go grandma!

and then, there were a few mistakes that just resulted in a fit of inside laughter while trying to keep a straight face and explain thats not how we'd use the word in this case. they had to use hard as an adjective (you know, Science is as hard as math and so on), but apparently in japanese you can describe people as hard ... as in a difficult personality and what not. and u can english, but we don't use the verb hard, but when you do ... this is what happens:

Jimmy is as hard as Mark.
My teacher is as hard as my brother.
He is as hard as Suzy. ~ hmmm.

And the last one of the day was one in which the student made a simple mistake with the letter, because the alphabet can still be difficult at this age, mixing up b's and d's and a' and o's and apparantly, j's and p's.

He pumps as well as Jim --> supposed to be ... He jumps as well as Jim.

Anyways, had me laughing!

kanashii ~

2006-03-01T09:10:00.000+09:00

kanashii means sad. the two schools i'm leaving have finally found out that starting april, i will no longer be coming to their schools. one of the teachers that i'm really close to (we are actually going on a trip together towards the end of march to kanazawa city down south, or have i already mentioned this?) said she was shocked. when i came to school yesterday, many of the teachers said they were sad to hear i was leaving and the students pretty much had the same reaction as well. in a way, it's nice to know that i've had a nice enough presence here to warrant such a reaction. i met some of the people i'll be working with in april, but only for a short period of time so i couldn't really gage what it would be like. apparantly, one of the junior high schools i'm going to has some, shall we say ... a little troubled with behavior problem students. so that should be interesting ~ hmmm. actually i'm looking forward to the change in some ways because it will force me to grow, force me to leave what is now my comfort zone and start a new again, well with 4 schools anyways.

other news ... the sun has stopped shining and it's snowing again. but i don't think to the extent that i'll have to shovel. the weather just can't make up it's mind ... it's spring, then winter again, then spring again, then winter. at least that means i might be able to get in some boarding a couple of times before the season is over!

oh yeah, i think i'm not going to drink again for a while. i never really drink when i'm in the states, but in japan, man it's a whole other story! drinking is such a huge part of their culture here. it helps every loosen up and take a break from their over-stressed lives. but it also means spending money and not to mention, harmful for the liver and what not. last week i got to go this sake tasting party and it was really good. had the best sake in the area with the proper foods and it was delicious! then a couple of days later, went out with my friend's student's mom and her friends and that was hilarious. whoever said japanese women are demure need to meet these women after they have a few drinks! they were hilarious! anyways, that was another drunken night (mind you there had been one just a week before as well). so, in the words of one of my friends, i'm starting to feel pickled and thus will take a break. which is fine, because any of you who know me know that i can have a good time and act just as stupid when im sober as when im drunk!

school is really slow right now. graduation for the 3rd years is tomorrow so pretty much all classes have been cancelled to help prepare for the graduation, which means i get to sit in the office doing nothing but pretending like i'm doing something productive of course! i'll fill you in on graduation tomorrow.

the sun is shining!

2006-02-21T11:16:00.000+09:00

Yup, that's right ... there's talk that the worst of the winter is over people. The sun has been shining on and off for the last week, the snow has been melting, and my house was actually 10 degrees celsius (50 farenheit) in my house when i got home from work yesterday. now thats just freaking amazing! i havent had to shovel for over a week now and there's a good chance that i wont have to from now on. this weekend, we had beautiful blue skies and and could see for miles and miles and you know what? this places looks completely different when the sun is shining, you'd think you were in a different place all together. the only downside to all of this fantastic weather is that the snow on the hill is turning to crap and i dont know how many more times im gonna get on the board before the season is over. but im welcoming the blue skies and sunshine with open arms.

other news ... it looks as if my schedule is going to be completely different next year. i'm loosing one of my junior high schools and elementary schools to eric (both of the kanagi ones near my house) and getting 4 new schools (3 elementary and 1 junior high school) that are all at least 15 -20 minutes away. in november i might have been a little relieved to hear this but now im used to the schools and actually really enjoy them. i do get to keep my favorite school but it looks as if that will also be changing significantly with new teachers coming and old ones leaving, including one of my English teachers.

so just as i was getting used my current schedule, ill be getting a new one. but i guess thats the life of teachers in japan. unlike america, most teachers (not of their own choice) are moved from school to school usually every 3 - 5 years and the longest they can stay is 10 years. no one knows the actual reasoning behind it, but a friend made a good point that because of how the working conditions are for teachers here (they all share the same office and have to interact all of the time), being able to move schools is only fair because if u get stuck with a bunch of teachers that u dont get along with, at least u know u wont be there forever and u dont get bitter. so everyone tries their best to get along. everything is transient and thats life! although it does mean that ill have to do a lot more self-introductions and get used to an entirely new schedule again ~ oye!

well thats my two cents for the day (or week). hope you all are doing well! ill be enjoying the blue skies and cool temperatures as much as i can because i know come summer time, im gonna be dieing of the heat again and just "loving" that whole sweating in my house without even doing anything bit

:-P

you must see the snow festival!!!!!!!

2006-02-14T21:41:00.000+09:00

so i had an awesome weekend!!!!! it started out with some good curry at akbar's in aomori on friday night. then kevin, ben, and aki and i got on the night train to sapporo. luckily (or unluckily because it was more expensive) i had a bed instead of a regular seat. there were some really cute kids sleeping in the same cart as well so i talked to them.

arrived saturday morning at around 6:15 and headed to brian and aly's room to crash on their floor for a couple of hours. after we woke up and got ready, went down to odori park to see the festivities! was able to meet up with yuka, a friend from sapporo, and kevin, aki, and ben. the weather was absolutely amazing!!!! it's been a long time since i've seen blue skies and it was definately welcomed. we all walked around the park and checked put the awesome sculptures. then we all met up with becky, meredith, and midori to have soup curry (famous in sapporo) for lunch.

after lunch, we headed down to susukino to check out the ice scultpure road and again, it was absolutely amazing! i dont even know how many ice sculptures there were but they were fantastic ~ dragons, turtles, bailey's bottle, birds, fish, buildings, cars, and many more! after the ice sculpture road, we split up.

me, aki and aly met up with one of my friends, yuriko (from sapporo) and we did some shopping. after that, i met up with daichi (another friend from sapporo) and 2 of his friends who later became my friends :) we headed back to odori park to see all the sculptures lit up with the lights and that was really beautiful. then it was time to meet up with everyone again for dinner. at long last, we finally sat down for a an hour and half tabe and nomihodai (all you can eat and drink ~ but not like buffet style) and that was fun!! we all had to wear bibs to prevent meat juices from getting on our clothes and then stuffed ourselves with beer and meat!

after dinner, we headed to a bar and met up with some other people. then it was time for me to catch a train to go spend the night at my host brother and sister-in-law's place. almost didnt make the train though, had just got on as the doors closed behind me! but finally made it and talked with the sister-in-law for a while and then went to bed. the next day saw my host brother, and met up with my host mom (even saw my host father for a bit) and we did a little shopping and had lunch together. then back to aomori! didn't get home late because the train was late (thats 2 out of 3 times that my train has been late coming back from sapporo! what's up man!).

all in all, it was a very short trip but very nice! got to see the festival, hang out with lots of friends, met up with the host family and the weather was perfect!

check my pictures page for all the pictures from the weekend!

the day the world turned white!

2006-02-10T13:12:00.000+09:00

well at least in this neck of the woods ...

i declare yesterday as the day of the ultimate "jifubuki". fubuki means blizzard, but the kanagi area calls them jifubuki because the blizzard comes from the ground as well as the sky. i have never seen it as bad as it was yesterday. on my way to work, i literally couldn't see anything but white with occasional mild breaks in the storm. i saw 2 accidents (not major, one truck went into a snow bank because it couldnt see and the other missed a turn and ended up on the side). we didnt get our milk for lunch because the milk truck got an accident as well. and it usually take 5 minutes tops to get home from work, but yesterday it took 45 minutes because of traffic and the conditions. at least today is better!

im heading to sapporo tonight, woo hoo! check back for pictures of the snow festival and such in couple of days!!

shape up!

2006-02-05T20:42:00.000+09:00

get ready for another snow (shoveling) post ...

so you know how i said there was a bit of a melt going on? well thats all well and done. This weekend it snowed and snowed and snowed, and just wouldn't stop until it dumped the most in one day during this entire winter. so you can imagine my surprise after waking up this morning and finding my car and house just burried in snow (mind u i had just shoveled the day before). luckily when i was about to start, one of the sgi ladies in town was walking down my street and saw and offered to help. she ended up helping me the entire time and what would have taken me at least 3 hours turned into an hour and half. she said she was happy to do it because it's good for "shape up!" hehe.

let me tell ya though, i thought i got up early this morning (started shoveling around 9) but aparently not early enough. all the nearest dumps were already full so my first dilema was trying to figure where in the heck i was going to put all of the snow. finally figured that out and then i had a brilliant idea for an invention for my town ... so we have to put the snow in the dumps that are on the side of the street and are about 4 or 5 feet deep. well on heavy snow days they fill up pretty fast. so my idea is to have compressors in them so that the snow can be smashed down as much as possible to allow for more snow to put in because most of snow is just air, or at least it seems like it. but alas, i dont think my town would have enough money for that, so we'll just continue shoveling out our houses, filling up the dumps, and shoveling the dumps so we can put more snow in it.

i miss blue skies. when i was in california i used to love it when it rained and was all cloudy. but i think i can count the amount of clear sunny days that we've had here on both of my hands. i never really think about it until i see a patch of blue ski and im like, wow ... it's blue, with this really glazed look on my face. i feel like im the fish in finding nemo when they see the light down at the dark and they just want to touch it. but at least after a good snow fall it is really beautiful out.

what else ... i know there was more i wanted to blog about but i cant remember right now. sorry ... maybe later :-P

got my tickets!

2006-01-31T15:49:00.000+09:00

alright! even though i waited till just about the last minute i was successful in buying tickets to sapporo to see the famous snow festival. if u don't know about it, i suggest looking it up on google because it looks fantastic. essentially they carve massive sculptures out of snow; makes sense to me, what else r u gonna do with it! well i missed this festival by about a month when i studied abroad there, but not this time! although it will be a short visit ... 2 days! and i think just about everyone from aomori ken will be there ~ can't wait!

found out why i can understand my neighbors when they talk to me. i thought they had lived in that house for a long time but it turns out that they've only lived there for 4 years and they are actually from down south near kobe. and i just thought they were one of few older people who can speak regular japanese in kanagi ... nope, it's that they can't speak the tsugaru dialect!

we've been having another melt the last couple of days. it's getting everyone kind of confused about what to expect from the rest of this winter. it started really early and so there's a possibity it might end a little earlier than usual as well. who knows now! at least my pipes aren't freezing anymore :-P

happy last day of january! man how time flies!!

another month ...

2006-01-29T11:42:00.000+09:00

well this last week was actually pretty busy. tuesday i had my private english lesson with the older lady and it went really well. started reading a book about an expidition that goes all wrong on mt. everest due to a severe storm. she really liked it but its a good thing ill be here for at least another year because i think it will take that long at the pace we are going at :-P wednesday night did some studying over at becky's followed by an episode of desperate housewives. thursday drove down to hirosaki for a private japanese lesson. friday, met up with friends in gosh for some food and drinking (minus the drinking for me though). saturday, met up again for more snowboarding followed by good food and karaoke. and today im going to try and buy train tickets to sapporo to see the famous snow festival (yuki matsuri), but theres a chance they may be all sold out :( see how my luck goes.

and my friends, thats about it. of course there was the occasional shoveling. oh yeah about the shoveling ... it appears as if my neighbors think im used to shoveling now and so i dont receive nearly as much help. but thats ok, they have enough to shovel themselves! now its just a bit lonely when i shovel because they come out after im done ... ahhhh! they say the worst of the winter is february and then it starts to let up a bit ... one more month!!!

i miss mexican food and going out for breakfast.

thank goodness!

2006-01-23T14:59:00.000+09:00

to many things! or at least two :-P

i was able to come home early today because i finished early at the elementary school (which was a fantastic visit ~ love the little ones, they are so easy! hee). probably should have gone to the board of education but you know, i was never told that if i finish before my hours on my contract that i had to go to the boe so i figure its ok every once in a while not to go.

last time i blogged i said how bad i sucked on the hill ... well that has changed too! went snowboarding thursday night with some coworkers (ran into some other friends too) and did a lot better that night. then i went on saturday and sunday and was doing a lot better. still very cautious on the hill though :-P

because of recent improvement on the snowboard, my relationship with the snow has become a love hate relationship. u need snow to snowboard right? its also really pretty after a new snow! but if it snows that means i have to shovel it and thats the part that im now so over! (u know this wouldnt be my blog during winter if it didn't mention some sort of snow shoveling!) too bad there isn't a way that it could only snow on the mountain and not here ... ahh, alas this is not california!

i dont think i ever wrote about my blind date either. well technically it was a group blind date and very japanese culture! one of my japanese friends and i saw this guy who was cute and her cousin knows him. so we told him to set up something up so we could meet him. so he said he would set up whats called a gokon, esentially same number of guys and girls go out to see if there is any chemistry. so it was supposed to be me and my friend and the guy we thought was cute and some other guy. well we showed up and her cousin and some other guy was there. the cute one had a cold (supposedly) so essentially there was only one available guy there and lets just say i wasnt feeling it at all. oh well ... maybe next time! should keep my options open :-P

ouch!!

2006-01-16T20:43:00.000+09:00

so i finally bought my own snowboard, boots, and binidngs and the whole get up after years of going maybe once or twice a season. the last time i was on a board was actually 2 years ago and even then i wasnt that great, but i was slowly improving. well i went up on the hill on sunday and you would have sworn id never been on a board before. i sucked ass!! haha ... AND ... the conditions were really bad, it was practically like shaved ice. BUT ... i will not give up! escpecially not after spending that money on my equipment. i am determined to improve and possibly actually get semi-decent on the hill!

it's bitter-sweet though because i want it to snow but i dont. this last week, we've actually had a bit of a melt and hasn't really snowed all that much. i know because i havent had to shovel for nearly a week and that part has been amazing!!! i think it's just that i'm so ready for winter to be over at my house but not on the mountain. can't have it all though!

school has started again, first day back today and it went alright. but it means that i'll have to start going to bed early again so that in the likely chance that ill have to shovel snow i can wake up early. i just wish the sun rose early because i hate waking up when it's still dark. it just feels so wrong!

u need glasses!

2006-01-12T21:16:00.000+09:00

funniest thing that happened today ... i was told by one of my coworkers that i looked like kim basinger. hahahahahhaha! yeah ok, thanks! it's been a long time since i've been compared to anybody famous and at that time it was julia roberts. well, i guess everyone's gotta look like somebody right and i guess i dont mind looking like kim even if it is only one person who thinks so! ha

nothing much else to report. went to work and didnt do much. maybe after saturday night i will have something to report ;) hmmm, maybe!

returned to lots of shoveling!

2006-01-11T17:28:00.000+09:00

well i'm finally back in kanagi. actually came back a couple of days ago, but you know ...

had a great time in tokyo. got to meet up with lots of people including andy!

it was really nice seeing everyone! also enjoyed my last few days in a land without snow. went to "sgi town" in tokyo and ran into some people there. the craziest one was steve mortan and that was in a convenience store!!! of all places to run into somebody ... must have been good timing. anyways he said to say hi to the family and bros! also saw cece and karina from the 2nd class.

well the trip up to kanagi was much more enjoyable than the trip down. got to ride a really nice bus back up. rode 2 trains to get home and when i got to my house my jaw dropped!! this is what i saw ...

see those two little black specks? those are my windshield whipers and they are under nearly 2 feet of snow! i forgot to tell my neighbors that i was going down to tokyo so they didnt shovel for me and when i came back they said they thought i was sick or something because i wasn't coming out. oye ... sorry for now telling you and making you worry! :/ well everyone stood by to see if i could get into my house and after trecking thigh deep i made it to my door and got it. settled down and went to tackle the snow. shoveled for about 20 minutes before my neighbor came out and started helping me. an hour later my landlord's wife came down the street and saw we still had a ways to go so she got her shovel and started helping. then she went and got her husband and he came and helped too. it still took over 3 hours just to clear the area around my car and to my door though! it was crazy!!! thank goodness they helped though otherwise it would have been a really long day.

the last couple of days ive been relaxing at home and cleaning. did some shoveling yesterday for another hour and half. at least i'm getting my exercise! and it's actually not as worse as other areas in japan that are really getting hit hard! finally back to work tomorrow so life should be getting back to its regular schedule of waking up at 5:30 and going to bed at around 9 or 10! heee ... fun, fun fun!

check my pictures page for other pictures! :)

man it's warm!

2006-01-05T22:27:00.000+09:00

well as you could guess from ann's last post, i'm in tokyo and you know what? it's the first time i've been in a place with no snow since november! yup, you read correctly, november! it's crazy but im enjoying it! yesterday, arrived early and waited for ann by drinking cafe mocha in starbucks and reading. then ended up hanging out with ann and had some good ole TGIFridays and it was crazy. i seriously felt like i was back in america because the menu was all in english and there were loads of foreigners in there and it was actually kind of nice :-P

today i was supposed to meet up with ann again, but she got sick :( she's fine now but not without a trip to the hosipital and an iv drip ... so everyone send her cards and stuff! so while ann was sick, i spent the day in shibuya. and for most of you who might not know what shibuya is, it's crazy!!! it's the place with the huge tv on the side of a building (u know from the movie lost in translation and others too im sure) and with more young people in one place than i've ever seen in japan or, anywhere for that matter, before. and so many foreigners too!!! well went to starbucks again and read a while. then headed to tower records and spent like 3 hours in there and ended up buying 6 cds ... something i havent done in i dont know how long. then walked around and discovered that shibuya has a subways - the sandwhich shop, el torito (actually saw that yesterday), claire's accessories, wendy's, hagen daaz, and the body shop!!!! so i did a little shopping :P i wouldnt want to spend a whole lot of time here, but its definately a really cool place to come to every once in a while. you dont really feel like your in japan, but in a way you do, i don't know its weird. but cool! hee

now im back at naomi's listening to one of the cds i bought, Rachael Yamagata - Happenstance. She sings one of the songs from Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants that i really like and the other stuff is pretty good to.

tomorrow, i'm supposed to meet up with andy and then with some other soka peeps for dinner so im excited about that. ann get well soon so u can come join!!

not looking forward to going back home because i hear they are getting loads of snow!!! you know, snow is cool and all but if it stopped snowing now, i wouldn't be too sad. maybe the snow around my house will magically disappear ... hehe ... hey, a girl can hope right! until then, i'll enjoy tokyo and the warmth even though they think its cold here.

awwwww!!!!

2006-01-02T22:23:00.000+09:00

the cutest show ever is on tv right now. its compsed of maybe 5 minute segments of kids doing chores for the parents. but they arent just any typical chores ... these kids are going shopping and taking things to their parents, usually with a sibling but sometimes by themself. essentially one of the parents tells the kids what they need to get or do and then the kids go off and a camera man follows them. luckily i can understand kids and man they say the cutest things ever!! "come on brother, lets do this!" sooooooo cute!!!!!!!!!! i dont know, u just gotta see it :)

so i shoveled for nearly 2 hours today and only got the pathway to my door and around my car done. gonna try and do more tomorrow before i leave for tokyo. the weather was actually somewhat warmer today, making shoveling a bit more easier until i got to the main street where all the snow had melted, making pushing the snow on the sled a bit difficult.

alright, well i guess thats it for now. man, these kids are soooo cute!

Happy New Year!!!

2006-01-01T21:30:00.000+09:00

My first post on the first day of the year of the dog (take that sentence ridden with prepositions Professor Williams ~ hee :P). Well the first day is rapidly coming to a close even though it's just beginning for many of you back home. I wanted to send a big shout out to everyone who sent me stuff in the mail, it was a great homecoming (much better than the snow) after my brief vacation in Sapporo.

Jack and Angel ~ thanks for the video - it's such a cute move, i've actually already watched it twice and the greek boy is soooooo cute - at least i assume it's from you guys. can't wait to read the book as well!

Jessica - thank you for the lovely card, it's now resting on my fridge.

Mom and Dad - your package is still waiting for me at the post office but i'm hoping to be able to pick it up tomorrow.

Lisa K - thanks for the message and post card, wish i could have been there with you guys too!

Aaron and Jenny - thank you for the card, the picture of Austin is also on my fridge.

Paul - thanks for the new years post card! see you soon.

I think that's everyone ... ok, so are you all wondering how i've been in my absence from blog? well i had a great time in sapporo. got to see a lot of my friends from school and spend a lot of quality time with my host family. they recently moved to a fantastic house in which i was never cold and got to take a bath in a tub that i actually fit in (with jets too!!). ate lots of good food, received a couple of small gifts and just had a good time. came home last night and was somewhat relieved to find that my neighbors have been shoveling in front of my car while i've been gone. BUT i still have lots of shoveling to do yet. today was spent cleaning, rearranging my living room, defrosting one of my pipes, and also went to a meeting.

i'll let you in on some of my new years resolutions:
1) stop biting my nails!!! i was so good last year and then on the plane ride over to japan they got all screwed up from the luggage and just havent stopped biting since.
2) shovel more! try and keep up before my house implodes from the weight!
3) lose some weight, but maybe that will go hand in hand with #2
4) read and study more. just cuz im no longer in college doesnt mean i shouldnt stop learning!
5) write more ... i still havent sent any postcards or letters! oye. i promise i will try!!

ok, i think thats enough for now. i hope you all had a great year in 2005 and hope you have an even better one in 2006. may it bring happiness, love, and most importantly of all ... growth!!