School is sweet

I've been working at my school for about a month now. Slowly I can see that the kids are warming up to me and vice versa. There are so many students at this school that I can't remember all their names. I want to still be able to interact with all of them.

I finally finished (almost) my English Board before June :). This month my theme is music. I share with everyone what kind of music I listen to and they share with me what kind of music they listen to. I made this board just do I can learn about jpop :p. After a week I choose a name and they get a cd of my favorite songs. Now I just gotta get the students to look at the board because it's so small.

Today I also got invited to be a part of the teachers Olympic team. Our school has our sports day on Sunday and the teachers will be competing against the students in a relay. I'm excited to be participating :)

On a side note, I haven't hit anything or anyone since I started driving here :)

Chanoyu

I've been interested in Japanese tea ceremonies since watching Karate Kid II (I think). I've wanted to take the tea ceremony class while in college but just couldn't fit it in my schedule. Now that I'm in Japan, I thought I'd check it out.
Today I went to a tea ceremony class with one of my friend's JTEs. Sensei bought a house just for chanoyu (chado). The house was beautiful with tatami covering the floors. I was lucky enough to observe the ceremony, learn how to drink the tea, try making some tea and eating the sweets that accompany the tea. I didn't know that this ceremony had so many intricate steps. When done by sensei, it was so fluid and looked so simple. But...looks can be deceiving. For example, if the bowl was placed an inch to the right or left, it was considered incorrect placement.
After the ceremony, I felt really Japanese :p There's something special when being part of and actively participating in a traditional cultural art form. Anywho, I'm really interested in learning more about chanoyu so I borrowed a book from the library :). I thought this picture was a nice segway from the last post (^ ^)

Books

I was so happy to have received a school library card a few weeks ago. It wasn't the fact that I could borrow library books that made me happy but the feeling I had when it was given to me. It felt like they were telling me, 'you are part of the school'. The week after, I ventured into the tiny library in search of some English books. The school has only about a couple handfuls of English books. The real find was my school's librarian. I told her that I wanted to try to read easy Japanese books to better my Japanese. Unfortunately the easiest junior high school books were too difficult but I borrowed some anyways. I tried to translate them but my Japanese skills are less than par. My librarian must have sensed my struggle and brought kindergarten/elementary books from home for me. She is so sweet. She explained each book to me too.

I also got my Yurihonjo public library card. The city library has a decent sized English book section. I borrowed a bento cookbook. This is a money saver because I was going to buy one of these and it would have been in Japanese. Yay for libraries ^•^

Kpop reference for the day....
태양 ♪(´ε｀ ) Is it just me or do his fingers look stubby in this pic?

I bought a car....almost :p

One of the top things that I was worried about when I got placed in the inaka was transportation. When I was in Korea I had the subway/train a few blocks away and the bus stopped right outside my apartment. In Japan, it's a different story. My pred told me that almost all the teachers in Honjo have cars. Since that moment I've been mentally preparing myself to drive in a foreign country. A little more than a month in, I'm dying to get a car. Today with the help of my supervisor and my senpais, I hanko-ed myself into owning a car. Now I just need to pay for it :p. If all goes by plan then I should have the keys on Monday.

Extra picture of the cute elementary kiddies at the nearby elementary school. I love their uniform backpacks and yellow hats :)

Lovely spring

It's finally starting to warm up (for me). Sometimes it's not raining. I got to witness a partial solar eclipse. I'm getting busier at school. We got a new gaijin teacher in Honjo. I'm slowly accumulating more membership cards. I'm cycling more but am so ready for a car. Tried badminton, karate and aikido. Will try tea ceremony. That's about what's been happening in a nutshell. But...this post is about spring flowers. It seems that as soon as it gets relatively warm out, Japanese people start planting flowers. It's a nice welcome for spring. It makes me happy that nature is becoming more colorful (*^o^*)

Kpop reference for the day: Big Bang on the front cover of the Lawson's magazine :)

Window shopping

It feels like I've been spending money every day. Nothing wrong with that except that I haven't gotten paid yet. I found myself at the big Daiso tonight. This Daiso had everything from gardening tools to underwear. It was awesome. I think we spent close to three hours browsing. It's difficult to walk into Daiso without buying something. I stayed under my twenty item limit that I imposed upon myself before entering.

It has become a posting trend for me to mention money. It's just hard to pass up on good food and drink. Here are some of the things I want to buy after I get paid :)

Oh yes and my kpop reference: kpop trading cards. I might buy it later in hopes of getting 창민 of 2AM ㅋㅋ

Golden Week

I apologize in advance about not posting everyday. Like I mentioned before, I'm training myself to be more responsible. It's a work in progress. I would also like to blame it on my lack of Internet at my apartment and the rain :p

Here's my Golden Week update:

Thursday the 3rd-
The Honjo newbies plus one traveled in 3 cars to Omagari. Picked up last newbie and traveled to Kakunodate in 2 cars. So this confusing math problem made things much more interesting since we tried to fit 5 people's bags and futon in Lee's car. But we made it work. Arrived to Kakunodate to find the Sakura were gone :( The heavy rain and strong gusts blew the fragile flowers away. But...despite the rain, the festival continued and the tour buses kept rolling in. I drank some Sakura beer and various sake, ate misotanpo and dango, visited the oldest house in Kakunodate. All in company of course.
We headed to Ota where we spent the night at Alex's beautiful house. We also drove all the way to Omagari to eat cheap eats for dinner. I got a ginormous chicken katsu set for only 500 yen.

Friday the 4th-
Late start to Gusto's for brunch. I had their version of kimchi jjigae. It was so so. Headed to lake Tazawa. Tazawako is the deepest lake in Japan. On our way be stopped by the honey store and ate some delicious honey topped berry ice cream. Tazawa was beautiful that day. It was a bit cloudy and there was fog skimming the lakes surface. It added a bit of a calm eeriness. The fish were few that day as well. The awe of such a large lake was breathtaking. There was a small shrine there which meant omamori time :) I bought a Sakura kenkou omamori so I won't get sick as often. Next stop was a beer brewery. This was also the spot the restaurant scene in Iris (Kdrama) was shot. I enjoyed a locally grown meal and locally made dark beer. Back to Alex's to watch a movie with some yummy beverages.

Saturday the 5th-
Happy Children's (boy's) day :) Left Ota to drop off Lei. Lou traveled back in his car. The three Honjo-ans headed to Lee's second home, the mall. We did the normal: eat, browse, basketball. Headed to the electronics store where we bought our big ticket items. Lyn-toaster oven, Lee-air purifier, me-water filter. Learned that iPhone users need a Japanese apple ID to use Japanese apps. Headed to Honjo to eat dinner at mcdonalds because we all felt broke after purchasing our big ticket items. But later bought me new indoor badminton shoes :p We found out that Lee left his lights on and therefore couldn't start his car. Luckily, Japan is awesome so the worker at Homac (Japanese Home Depot) jump started our car...for free. We felt somewhat indebted to Homac so Lee bought jumper cables from the store.

Summary of Golden Week: lots of people, food, drink, fun and money. Yes, I really need to budget my money so I can buy a car.

Who turned on the heater?

Today was my first day of school that I was not cold. Actually it was quite warm! I've noticed that these past two days have been unusually warm. It's like mother nature decided to turn on the heater and make me happy in the process. But...if its this warm and it's only spring...I'm really dreading the summer.

I'm going to enjoy my first day and night where I'm able to leave the window open without freezing. Have me some delicious oochazuke and mochi ^_^

Oh yes, there's Mt. Chokai! He was smiling at me today while I was walking home. I'm thankful that the warm weather will slowly melt the snow so I'll be able to climb to the top. Until then I can enjoy his snow capped beauty.