Week 47: Summer break! (kinda)

So! This week was the start of summer break!  Kinda.  It was the start of summer break for the kids.  (they will be on break until the first week of September.)  But in fine old tradition, there was first a 3 day weekend!  (I got Monday off) followed by the LAST day of school for the term, THEN break.

Really?!

I mean, we hadn't had a 3 day weekend since the first week of MAY, and they decide to have it RIGHT BEFORE letting the kids out?  Sheesh.

Anyhow! So! No work Monday.  After the busy week I had before (you can go back and read it if you forgot.  I'll wait)

Anyhow! After last week, I kinda wanted to rest, but NO!  I did not rest!  And I'm kinda glad I didn't now.  Because I went to... Himeji!

Ta-dah!

Himeji castle is THE castle to visit in Japan, mostly because it's the most...still there one?  Yeah, the other ones have big histories of "burned down" and while this one might have (I missed that part), they have spent a long time restoring it.  And it looks FABULOUS.

They say it looks like a big white bird on the hill, so it's nicknamed the "egret" castle.

It's an entertaining town!  We had lunch.

Glad she could read the signs for me!

And we saw some cats

They're having a big initiative to get all the strays fixed, so everywhere you can donate to the cause. These are strays that have been fixed and are sporting the "sakura" ear they mark strays with.

look closely at the ear of the one in front.

So! Pretty neat.

There was, of course, the castle.

so far away!

Oh, and my friend kept wanting to take pictures of me!  So, she stopped me for one picture and I noticed a tiny green preying mantis on her head.  I knew she probably wouldn't be happy about it, so I told her to hold still and got it off without telling her.  She caught a glimpse of it anyhow and started running, yelling at me to "get it away!"

So of course I ran after her, with it attached to my hand yelling "look! It's cute! Look at it!"

I'm such a brat.

in my defense, it was cute.

There was lots to see!  Like:

walkways

great views

low doors

cool walls

LITTLE KIDS

arrow windows

Cap stones!

Kids in a boat!

inside the castle!

these were everywhere inside, and I have no idea what they were for. nor did my friend.

and the view from the top!

They had a shrine at the top of the castle!

And even without air conditioning, it was pretty cool.  I mean, shade, and open windows do a lot, let's be honest.

After that we went to a Japanese garden!

hidden waterfall

lovely pond

more waterfall

fish. They kept trying to hide. They were so coy.

stepping stones. (I think she's considering eating the fish...) ;)

bamboo section

I've often said that Japanese gardens tend to present themselves as if to say "nature could look like this if it would only FOCUS".  :)  This one was a little more wild than those, but it was still very pretty. (and sculpted)

So!  Tuesday was the last day of school, and that was interesting in and of itself!  Ok, so the kids only had a half day (which is normal) and of COURSE the kids just want to goof off and play games, right?  (right) SO! What the teachers did was, in the week before hand (when they're losing focus anyhow) is they split the kids into groups and in the class, each GROUP had to think of, and set up, an activity for the rest of the class!  Of course, they had to get everything approved by the teacher first. That's just sense.

their schedule. (I came in to Bingo, they had even made their own cards!)

Presenting a trivia game.

reading scary stories they wrote

first prize for winning bingo. I did not win it, but the winner gave it to me anyhow. :)

Very well organized!  One class was NOT so organized, so when I went in, they stared at me and I was like "OK! Let's play a game!  We played a version of "Mother may I?" and "Fruits basket" (also known as "never have I ever")

Mother may I was changed to "What time is it Mr. Wolf?"

This is after 3 steps. Those boys BOUNDED.

And it was fun.

Then everything was cleared out and we cleaned.  I got to help too!

The desks are all outside.

They decided and then moved the broom closet all on their own!  They wanted to make it CLEAN

And it was a fun day.  That evening, I went to English class and got to see the wonderful looks on the Missionary's faces when I said "Hey, I made some cookies..."  They were no-bake. :)

Wednesday was my first day of...Office days.  See, it's vacation, but in order to make it so we don't just...not get paid for all this time, we have office days.  You might remember me complaining about them around March.  We get dressed in WORK clothes, go into the OFFICE and SIT AROUND all day.  Very boring.  I ended up working on art while listening to cartoons one day.

Well! They changed it!  We now have HOME office days!  Which means we are on call.  And we probably WON'T be called.  So we stay home.  I figure I can probably make it as far as Kobe and still make it IF I get called in.  Either way, I have an excuse to sleep in.  :D

In order to make sure we're doing "office stuff' they have given us homework.  Reading.  A 3 page paper.  And 1 lesson plan relevant to the reading.  This is due every 5 days.  I should probably get started on that at some point. :)

Well, Wednesday, I ran some errands around town, and I finally ended up going into Osaka with friends.  We went to an anime store (they're both mad for them) got HORRIBLY lost, then went out for Yakiniku!  (grilled meat)

boy howdy is that stuff expensive.

Thursday, I decided to go into Kobe to renew my visa. It's a bit of a process, so I had filled out all my paperwork, gotten everything else I needed, and walked all the way to the government building.  I waited in line. And waited, and just as I got up, I realized I had forgotten my passport!  DARNIT.

No choice. I got back ON the train, went ALL the way back to the house. Picked up my passport (and a snack) and went all the way BACK to Kobe.  I mean, it wasn't THAT long a trip, but when you have to do it twice, it suddenly IS.  :P

Friday, I spent the whole day locked up in my room planning my parent's trip.

Yes. The one happening in a week.

No. I never procrastinate.

I'm offended at your insinuation.

Saturday!  I was like "Hey! I've got the trip planned!  It's Saturday, so I don't have to worry about a call, I should go to a beach or check out a festival or something!"

That's when my phone went off.  AH.  Church stuff.  Right.

Well! It wasn't bad, it was just, I was surprised I had forgotten. I had been looking forward to flower arranging!

I call this piece "I have no idea what I'm doing, but it's not bad"

My favorite part was probably these.

They're the best of fronds.

But I learned a bit! Maybe I'll use it in the future! (who knows?!)

After, I went home long enough for lunch and then went BACK because it was summer festival at the church!

more people came later.

They had games!

the fishing game!  Actually easier than I expected.

Pick a string and pull!  Such a good idea.

They also had "throw cards to get them in the hat" and "bowling"

I won a few prizes!

my bounty!

And they had food, which was good!

After more people came, and they played a few other games, they pulled out the watermelon for "smash the watermelon!"

Wait, you've never heard of this?

Sure you have.  It's called "Pinata" only with a watermelon.

See, you take the melon, blindfold a kid, hand them a bat

and laugh.

Then the adults get a turn

kinda adults

And then you realize that the bamboo stick you're using REALLY isn't strong enough for this.

we flipped it around until the OTHER end broke.

And then someone offers to show off by punching it open

our hero!

THEN you take it back, cut it up and eat watermelon. :)

The reason this is going up late is because Sunday was busy too, but I think I'll talk about that next week.  Especially considering how full THIS week was!  Why does it always pick up so much on break?

Well, at least I'm not bored! :)

Week 46: You gotta Yukata!

WHAT a week I have had!  Fun, but oy VEY, busy.
So! Actually started Sunday night, there was a summer party, it was a "takoyaki/watermelon" party.

Takoyaki are little bread balls with, traditionally, bits of tako (octopus) in them.  Then you cover them in takoyaki sauce (it's like bbq sauce) and mayo.  And...Ok, it's not my favorite, mostly because I'm not a big fan of Octopus.  However, I have learned that when you make your own, you can throw in whatever you want.

like bits of hot dog.

My favorite was actually the Kim-chi and cheese ones.  Did NOT expect to like that combo. :)

Monday, I'll admit, nothing really happened.  That was nice.

Tuesday, I went to English class. I help out by being support. We talk about things, I am a second opinion on how to pronounce things and such.

They've been trying to figure out how to get people to hang out and chat afterwards.

Snacks. I think they hit on a winner.

We sat around and chatted for a while before I finally just got too tired and tried to go to bed early.  After which I woke up at 1 am to contemplate life for about 30 minutes....

Wednesday was pretty normal, and after school, there was a small friend gathering for dinner! (of course I showed up late, but the person who arranged it was even later. :P
We made Gyoza and played with the baby.

My practice in China paid off!

That is not the baby's mom. But they are both cute.

Well, I got to torment the baby.  She does NOT like tummy time, and of course her mom is a new mom, so when she starts crying she wants to pick her up.  But there I was "c'mon! you're doing great!  Just one more minute of tummy time and I'll let you up."  :)  And then I confused her by picking her up and singing to her.

Thursday, I got my paycheck, and that's also when things got expensive.  Nothing big, you know, just...lots of medium things.  When you're trying to follow a strict budget, even a couple 10's here and there can throw things off a lot. :P  Gah.

It also rained.  Even through rainy season is "officially" over, it has not stopped raining. In fact, we got this AMAZING thunderstorm roll through Thursday.  It was after I was done teaching, I was standing in the hallway, and suddenly it got WAY darker.  I look out and there's this REALLY ominous cloud covering the sky.  I waited a little, and then all the sudden FSSSSSSSSHHHHH!
Furious pounding of rain just SWEPT in! Torrents of rain, playgound was suddenly a marsh, rumblings of thunder...  And then...GONE.  lasted 30 minutes.  10 minutes after that, I biked home.  What timing! :D

I'll say one thing, the plants love the weather

here's one trying to claim transportation.

Friday is when things got really interesting.  It was pouring in the morning, but by afternoon, it had cleared up, so I figured I'd stay in and do laundry. (It's harder to do when it's raining)  As I was doing this, one of my friends contacts me.  (we'll call her R)  She has lost her key, she is locked out of her apartment, she can't find it anywhere, it's dark, what is she going to do??!! (she also lives in a nearby town, not here)  I proposed a few ideas, but the basics is that she's illegally subletting from a friend who lives in Osaka.  And is currently visiting Singapore.  WELL! Not gonna help.  

So I suggested she bunk down for the night and try to think things through in the morning.  Stressed out in the dark is no way to solve problems.  She decided to come visit me, and I got the sharehouse to rent her a room for the night.  As she's on the way, she kept chatting with me to stay calm.

R: So..hypothetically, do you have any ideas on how to break into an apartment through a second story window?
Me: Well, is the window unlocked?
R: Yes.
Me:  That's easy, all you need is someone light enough to hoist up to it.
R: reeeeally?  Hm....
Me: That person is not me. I am not light enough.
R: Darn
Me: However, I miiiiiight know someone.

Thankfully I did. And she was up for an adventure!  So Saturday morning, we went to break into my friend's apartment!

intimidating

What we did was climb on the lower balcony first.

no one living here thankfully

And I crouched on the balcony, and she stood on my shoulders and used the height to bounce off stuff to climb up!  Less than 5 minutes total!

I was very impressed.

I didn't have time to take pictures during, as I was part of the ladder.

We got some really odd looks from the Post man, and no one called the cops.  We figure that one reason no one called the cops is, as suspicious as we looked, we were not ACTING suspicious.  There was no one keeping lookout, we didn't hide, we just went "huh. Ok, let's do it"

That and "crazy gaijin" IS a thing.

That afternoon, we went to a festival, and we wore Yukata!  That's right, I put on traditional clothes again, and THIS time, I OWN them.

The only problem with that being, of course, putting the darn things ON.  It is much more involved than I thought before I came to Japan.

it's a process

The Obi, or wide belt, is the hard part, and we watched youtube tutorials and spent a good while swearing at the them.

how ELSE you gonna hold it in place?

We finally got them together!

I think the rabbit ears really pull it together.

butt bow! I tied that!

And we gathered with the others

what a conglomerate!

And off we went! To the Gion festival in Kyoto!

wow.

I will say, this was not my favorite festival.  It was very crowded, which means that when they had performances. (really cool ones, too) we couldn't SEE THEM.

You see the problem?

We saw and heard stuff, but it was hard to see, and even more difficult to take pictures of.

the one decent picture I got that night.

There were a few things with smaller crowds, but that's mostly because they were less impressive. :P

 This guy was cool though.

And there was a kitsune guy

just standing around for photos

And we went up to see the shrine

I did mention this is crowded, right?

And got festival food

food booths at EVERY festival.

And saw some sort of story/dance show. Of which I couldn't get a decent picture, or even see that well.  What I COULD see was pretty cool, but...  ::sigh:: it was very frustrating.  

After that, we walked the quieter paths of the festival.

this is someone else's camera. 

mine does not like night shots.

And it was pretty and quiet.

We finally fought our way BACK through the crowds and headed home.

So there it is, my week!  Pretty crazy, right? Thank heavens for the 3 day weekend!

And I never want to wear traditional Japanese sandals again. (geta) because my feet HURT.