Sorry it's been so long...

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I know, I know. I have been way to slack in updating my blog. I've either been extremely busy or extremely exhausted. So, here's what has been going on. Weekend before last, I went to Osaka with about 20 other JETs. Osaka is the 2nd biggest city in Japan, so I was really excited to go there. When you get 20 people together, things can sometimes get messy. Luckily for me, I was with a great group of people. Since we were all coming from different areas and leaving at different times, Kristine and I made the 2 hour train ride alone. I know it doesn't sound like much, but navigating the trains and subways through Osaka on our own was a huge accomplishment. We had the name of the hotel and the subway stop it was closest to, but that was it on directions. I'm feeling much more confident about traveling around Japan now. Our first day there, Kristine and I were on a mission....to find a McDonalds. So we wandered around the city until we found one. It's the little things that make me so happy.

That night one of the girls had made reservations for us at this place called Cafe Absinthe. The food was incredible and they had this Japanese singer performing this soulful kind of music. It was a great atmosphere. Since we were at Cafe Absinthe, we of course had to try the Absinthe. For those who don't know what it is, it's a type of alcohol that originated in Europe. You poor the alcohol over a sugar cube letting it drip down into a glass. You then light the sugar cube on fire and wait for it all to melt. You then poor a little water over the top and it's done. It's a really cool little ritual and although VERY strong, it was actually really sweet and tasted good. After dinner, we had reserved the balcony at a really popular club. The balcony overlooked the entire club, had it's own bathroom, and it's own security guard. We spent the night in style.

The next day we went to the Danjiri Matsuri. It's a really famous festival in Japan. Groups of over around a hundred or so men pull these huge....well, I'll call them floats, down the street by ropes. There are men hanging all over the float and one man standing on top doing dances and hopping around as the float is pulled through the streets in a parade. Every few minutes, the men stop, and then run full force. This is when many accidents happen. Sometimes the floats flip over on the crowd, sometimes the person dancing on top flies off, and sometimes one of the pullers falls and gets trampled. Many people have died during this festival. That said, the festival was alot of fun!! That night, we went to eat Mexican. This was the best food I've had in months. There is no Mexican food in my city. We have Italian, but really it's Japan's take on Italian and not that great. This, however, was real Mexican food. We then went to an English sports pub, another thing I've been craving. There are NO sports bars in my city and I miss sports so much. We watched soccer and then went out to an American Rock and Roll club. This night was so wonderful because I got a taste of home (mexican food, sports bar, and rock music). We ended up leaving the club a little before dawn and playing an impromptu game of limbo with some random Japanese people that were walking down the street.
On our last day there, we went to a Buddist Temple, but I can't remember the name. I've been to several Shinto shrines, but this was my first temple. The statues and ornate carvings were amazing. Before heading home, we decided we had to have one more Mexican meal and went back to the same place as before!

Last weekend I traveled to Matsusaka for the Mie JETs pubquiz. My team lost, but it was alot of fun. On Sunday we had soccer practice and it reminded me how much I miss playing sports. Since then, I've been busy with teaching and the various classes I am taking (Taiko drums, hip hop dance, Japanese). My students continue to amaze me. I've got several pen pals now that right me letters and I've even received gifts from 2 of my Elementary school students. Today I had 4 of my 9th grade boys tell me they loved me (in 2 different classes). Each time I just stood there and blushed. I've been doing my self introduction lesson and the kids get to ask questions. They love to ask personal questions about my love life. One boy today even asked me if I liked any of the male teachers at the school. I told him I was not answering his question and laughed. There was no right answer to that question.

This weekend I'm going to Nagano (where the Olympics were held a few years ago) for the soccer tournament. I am so excited to get out there and play again. I'm kind of disappointed that most of our team has never played before, but Kristine and I are going to try not to go insane when they mess up. There were other things I wanted to write about, but I waited so long that now I can't remember what they were, haha. Guess I need to be better about posting when something happens. I just figured out how to get on this site at school, so now I can post in my free time. It's in Japanese, so kind of hard to navigate. Take care everyone and I promise to write again Monday or Tuesday after the soccer tournament....unless I break my arms! I hope I didn't just jynx myself.

It was bound to happen

Well, it finally happened. I was riding to school this morning in a light rain. There is an area in between two parking lots where there are these metal plates lining both sides of the road. I had already realized that these metal plates (which are all over my city) get extremely slick when wet. I tried to ride as close as possible without riding on it. A car that was driving by got really close, closer than they ever needed to, so I had no choice but to ride up on the metal. As I was trying to get back on the road, my bike slipped right out from under me and I came crashing down on my right side and my head ended up bouncing off the road. I have cuts, brusies, scrapes, and bumps from my head down to my toes. When I finally made it to school, I quickly found the nurse who took care of me for the next hour. I decided not to go to the hospital. I feel ok now, but am really sore! I have huge bandages everywhere and a giant bump on my head that really hurts. Hopefully, this will be my one and only wreck!

Last night I went to my first Taiko class. The class has many children in it who spent the entire night using every bit of English they have talking to me and having my friend Miri translate the rest of what they wanted to say. In the class, students take turns playing the group of Taiko drums. So, most only actually get to play the drum for about 15 minutes. Since it was my first class, Miri and the teacher spent my time just trying to teach me how to hit the drum properly. It is much more complex than it sounds. There is a very precise way to do everything. Since the drums are so large and expensive, people don't have their own. They just have their own sticks. So, since I loved the class, I ordered mine and will have my own Taiko drum sticks next week!!! I'm sure there will be many more Taiko updates to come.

Sports Day and my first Enkai

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For the past 2 weeks, my school has only been having class for half a day. The other half has been practice for sports day. It's kind of like field day on steroids. Not only do they have lots of races and silly events, they also have this thing called mass games. They have this whole show where they build pyramids and make formations that look incredible from above, kind of like at the superbowl. At the morning meeting on Thursday, I was doing as I usually do and staring into space because I can't understand a thing they are saying. Then I heard my name and all the teachers stared at me and started laughing. I heard my name several more times and the teachers kept looking at me. I just shrugged my shoulders. After the meeting, one of the English teachers came to me and told me I was "volunteered" to be one of the teacher representatives in the Mukade race and in a relay race. Luckily for me, I was thrilled to do it!

Sports day was on Sunday and it was so much fun. Lots of parents and city officials were there to watch. It's a big deal in Japan. I had a great time watching and talking with the kids throughout the day. My races were at the end of the day. The first was the Mukade. It's like the three legged race but with more people and you are tied front to back. Everyone stands in a straight line front to back. Your right leg is tied to the person in front of you and your left to the person behind. The kids do it in groups of around 10 and frequently fall into a huge pile up, hilarious. My group of teachers competed against the 6 PTA groups and won, yah!!! The other race was against the boys relay team. We were passing the baton off every 50 yards and they were only doing it every 200. This caused us to get way behind, but it was a great time.

After Sports day, I went to my first Enkai. This is a work eating/drinking party that is very popular in Japan. It was great to see all the teachers in a different light. They sat me near a few young teachers who spoke a little English. I could tell something was going on when the English teacher started shouting at the others in Japanese. I could tell he was telling them I was "off limits." I laughed and pretended not to notice. This particular English teacher is very protective over me which I really like. I really like everyone at my school, kids and teachers. I am really happy in Japan. I miss my friends and family, of course, but things are still going so well here. I don't know if I could ask for anything more. That said, I can't wait to come home for Christmas!!! I miss you all back home so much.

This weekend, I'm going to Osaka. It's the 2nd biggest city in Japan, next to Tokyo. There's this big festival that is suppose to be extremely wild, whatever that means. I'll be sure to update my blog on Monday/Tuesday!! I have Monday off for a three day weekend. I'm not even sure what the holiday is, haha.

First week of school, Baseball game, and Hip Hop class

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I haven't written for awhile because I've been so busy. I finally started working. The first thing I had to do at both my elementary and middle school was to give a speech in front of the entire school. I started out with a short intro in Japanesse and then gave the rest of my speech in Engish and had it translated. Since then, I've been working at my junior high (my first day at my elementary school is Friday). I love my junior high students. They are so sweet and love talking to me with the sometimes extremely limited English they have. Some of the first years (7th graders) can only say "hello, goodbye, thanks, and my name is." Even so, they can't wait to talk to me. On my 2nd day, a girl came into the teacher's room and walked over and said hello. After talking for a few seconds, I realized she was the same girl I had had a brief conversation with the previous day in the hall. She began to walk away and then slowly walked back over and handed me a letter from her pocket. The letter had a picture of the two of us on it. She wrote how she was surprised when she met me because my eyes were green like a dolls. She told me all about herself including that she loved seeing people smile. She said she wanted to travel the world doing volunteer work so she could see all the different smiles of the world. The entire letter was in English. It must have taken her forever! It made me so happy I almost cried. I went home that night and wrote her a letter. I tied it into a scroll and attached candy with ribbons. I gave it to her the next day and I'm so excited to get to know her better. Today I walked around to all the various clubs. All the kids get so excited when I watch their club. A large group of kids from the basketball club came over when I walked into the gym. I told them that I would bring my shoes the next day and play basketball with them. The entire group cheered, then they repeated what I said to make sure they heard me right. When I said yes, they cheered again. I can't wait until tomorrow!

Last Friday I went to a community Hip-hop dance class with Kristine and Taylor. There were people of all ages there, about 60 people. We are going to start going to the class every Friday night. It seems so strange to be taking a hip-hop class in Japan, but they are very popular here. It's a great way for us to meet Japanese people of all ages. It's so much fun, even though we can't understand a word the instructor is saying! Tonight I got a phone call from Miri. She's a Japanese teacher at another school. She was friends with the girl who lived here and had my job before me. I guess I kind of inherited her as a friend. She knows a fair amount of English and is extremely sweet. She invited me to start going to a Taiko drum class with her on Wednesdays. I had been looking everywhere for a Taiko class, but everyone said it would be too hard without knowing Japanese. With Miri to translate, it should be ok though. I'm so excited and I'm sure I'll be writing lots about it next week!

This past weekend I went to Nagoya to see a baseball game. We spent the day exploring the city. It's a really big city, so we pretty much just walked around all day. When we finally made our way towards the dome, we had no problem finding it. It reminded me of being at Yankee stadium because everyone was wearing Dragon's shirts and hats. I bought a Dragon's shirts as soon as we walked in. It went great with my Yankees visor! The game was incredible to watch. Everyone had either two bats or this large clapper thing that they used throughout the game. The entire stadium tapped in unison. There were chants that everyone in the stadium seemed to know. There were no people screaming like at games back home, but the chants and clapping made the game extremely loud. It was strange to see people buying sushi at a baseball game though. They did have hotdogs, but I was too scared to try a hotdog in Japan. Even simple things are very different in Japan. Since I don't drink beer, I bought a cup of Sake at the game! The Dragons won which made it even better.