Week 23: OWL get you!

This week was actually pretty normal.

The school year (which ends in March) is wrapping up, my contract ends at the same time.  We're most of the way through the lessons, (which is a good thing, considering) and sometimes it is hard to still keep the students' interest. I'll be giving a pretty good lesson (I feel) and I'll catch them talking or obviously goofing off, and I'll just stare at them like...

I've been wanting to use this for AGES

One student in particular got the full brunt of my "WHAT do you think you're DOING?!" reaction during one of the free activities.  It seems to be even more efficient since they don't fully understand what I'm saying, so they get to IMAGINE what I'm chewing them out for. :)

People are also fairly tired lately.  Just that time of year, I guess.

It was the beginning of February, which means Setsubun festival.  The annual eschewing of evil spirits.  Usually people go to temple (or stay home) They throw beans (dried ones) either 1)out the door or 2) at someone wearing an Oni mask.  They say "evil/demons leave, good enter"  :)  They also consume entire un-cut sushi rolls.  This, of course, means there are oni (and bean) things sold EVERYWHERE.

Oh, and in honor, one teacher got me little bean-paste cakes!

spring is coming, so they're spring themed

aren't they PURTY?

And mine was actually pretty good!  (she gave me two so I would share with a friend.) :)

it had LAYERS

Thursday, I got to teach a WHOLE group of 1st graders!  They were SO CUTE.  And enthusiastic!  And, honestly, I was really surprised, because they knew their colors!  I mean, FIRST GRADERS!  They knew orange, and red, and yellow, and blue and black, and white and green and blue and PURPLE.  (They knew PURPLE)  And they could count up to 10 really easy!  It's fun because they think I'm the greatest thing ever.  It's really easy to entertain them with a silly face. :)

Friday school was interesting, you know how sometimes they'll just say "hey, you don't have to teach __ grade this week!" and I get to sit bored?  Well, I finally learned how to entertain myself so I don't get REALLY bored.  Anyhow, so I've started having to keep track of which classes have had which lessons, because sometimes I'll just teach SOME of the classes from a grade.  I still don't know what I'm going to do about the ONE class that is two weeks ahead. ::sigh::

Still, I got to teach the 6th graders, and we're doing maps and directions, so I made some little minions for them to "walk" around their map and follow directions.

QUIVER in FEAR

It's amazing the silly activities they'll let me get away with if I give them something cute.

I mentioned this on Facebook, but one of my favorite classes, well, they show their enthusiasm by being REALLY LOUD.  I mean, loud enough that you could probably hear then in the other classrooms. On the other floors.  So there's one kid in particular that just...YELLS every response at the top of his lungs. When I have them repeat a few times, you begin noticing the attempts to get LOUDER every single time.  So we were doing "giving directions" and all I could think of was some poor tourist coming up do him one day "Where's the park?"  "GO STRAIGHT ONE STREET, TURN RIGHT!!"  :D

Friday, after school, my Japanese friend from church decided to take me to Star Wars! :)  So I got to experience a Japanese movie theater.  It's different, by the way.  First of all, you buy your tickets at a kiosk.  There's no human option. (at least at this particular one)  There are no ratings, of course, because that's an American thing.  They tell you if the movie is in English or Japanese (if it's in English, there are subtitles.)  And you chose your seats when you buy your tickets.  Now, this works out nicely, because you don't get people fighting over seats, and since you know where you're going to sit, they don't let you in until 10 minutes before the movie starts.

You don't get too bored, because in the Foyer, they have a selling area where they sell merchandise to the different movies showing.

shirts, books, posters, keychains, toys, food, etc.

They sell caramel popcorn as well as buttered popcorn.  (they love the stuff. so do I, so that works out.) When they sell it to you, they give you a little tray to carry it in, and this is the best part, it fits in the cup holder!

This is great, we should have these in the US.

Other than that, the only really odd thing is that when the movie is over, they play the credits. And the lights don't come on. And no one moves a muscle and we just wait until ALL the credits are over, including that little clip for the production company at the end.  I kept looking around like "wait, we're just going to... ok, we'll just sit here. and enjoy the music. I guess..."

After, she took me to dinner for Okinomiyaki, Japanese pancake/pizza, that Osaka is very famous for.  I had an interesting one with noodles in

nummy

And SHE had an even MORE interesting one that had mochi and cheese.  Yup.  Actually really tasty, I was surprised.

Saturday, I was feeling lazy. I sat around and tried to decide how many of my chores to do.  I finally settled on being happy with cleaning my room. :)

Then I went to Kobe!

My festival friend had a VERY hard week, so I figured she just needed some wandering and distraction.  So we wandered around Kobe. Saw the tower. Didn't go up.

someone asked me "are you afraid of heights?" "No, I'm afraid of spending money"

Took the semi-obligitory "Japanese photo op"

We now call the tower the "giant ketchup bottle"

Saw a LOVELY wedding dress

I mean...LOOK at that butt bow.

And finally found our main objective, the owl cafe!

 
You remember the cat cafe from August? In Osaka? Well, this is the same. But with owls.

 
I GOT TO PET OWLS

THEY WERE SO SOFT

Some of them were BIG

And some weren't very happy

or maybe they just looked that way.

We weren't allowed to pet all of them.

The red tag means "don't touch"

And some of them really LOOKED like a little puff of rage

This one just looks fed up.

The workers were constantly cleaning up after them, which is a good thing, of course.  One of the owls wasn't very fond of this though.

We weren't allowed to take videos, or I'd show you the barn owls dancing. :)  We stayed for our paid hour and left a little after they started feeding them because it wasn't nearly as interesting to watch as we thought it would be.

so majestic

We wandered more after that, just browsing shops. It's interesting because Valentines day is coming up, and here in Japan, it is just for the girls to get chocolate for the guys, so ALL the chocolate was basically guy themed.

Yes, You can excavate your dino bones. Even the dirt is chocolate shavings.

These are chocolate wafers painted like Karuta cards (traditional Japanese game)

Get a chocolate tool for the tool in your life! :P

Sake flavored Kit-kats. Admittedly gender neutral.

One thing that confused me was that we kept seeing Spider man hanging around.

Just hanging out

There he is again!

Never did find out why.

Around 6, we went our separate ways, mainly because it was Stake Conference this weekend, and I had to renew my temple recommend.  That's right, I now have one in Japanese! :) 

Have a great week!

you don't want him to be SAD do you?