Week 56: Weather is weird

The exciting part of this week was the two days off!

I love my job, really, but I also love days off.

Let's see.  Monday was a day off.  Remember how I didn't do adulting last week?  Well, I decided to do it Monday.  Everything was clean, sparkling even!  I organized and sorted and it was lovely!  Amazing how little time that lasts.

Tuesday, I went into school, but it was raining a little, and there was wind.  So when I showed up, one of the teachers says "there's no school"  I'm like "sorry?!  Holiday was yesterday, wasn't it?"  Find out there's a Typhoon warning on.  They're like "Yeah, if it's still going at 9, school is cancelled completely, but the teachers still have to hang around."  Well. Ok.

So they told me to lesson plan.  I was like "I am planned!  All done!  Really, it's ready before I come in!"  So I read and drew and just kinda hung out.  And watched the wind outside get stronger.  The other teachers did lesson planning and grading and had meetings.  Finally at 1, they let me go home.  This was a little annoying to me because I was, again, watching the wind get worse, before they FINALLY said "Ok, you can go, be careful on your bike".  :P

I made it home without incident, wrote up the office that I had been sent home and they said, "Ok, just...lesson plan or something."

this counts, right?

Everyone was like "What did you think of the typhoon?"  And I was "I've seen worse wind in Washington, worse rain in Arizona, and worse thunderstorms in Quincy."

The way the mountains are arranged here, they just don't get much storming I guess.  In fact, I've attended school in worse weather, and I was not the only ALT (english teacher) that scoffed at it.

And ok, the wind was a bit strong,

I brought Ben inside, just in case

It still wasn't THAT bad.

By the time evening rolled around, it had died out, so I packed up some of my "lesson planning" and went to English class at the church.  Didn't want to miss that!  Last week they mentioned a treat!

ice cream and pizza! :D

We had fun. :)

Wednesday was normal.  Thursday, was another day off!  (so, I mean, TECHNICALLY I guess you could say I had three days off, but I still had to BE at the school until 1, so I don't count Tuesday.)

Anyhow, my Japanese friend invited me out!

We went to Fushimi Inari shrine.  You may have heard of it, it is very famous for its torii arches.

Quick Japan lesson!  Japan's two main religions are Buddhism and Shinto.  There are temples and shrines all over the place.  A Shinto shrine is easy to identify because it has a torii arch.

this is not Fushimi Inari, just an example of a Torii arch.  A really big one

This marks the transition from "profane" to "sacred" and apparently keeps out evil spirits.  (goes with that profane to sacred transition)

Anyhow, the Fushimi Inari shrine has a few of them.

to put it mildly.

Ok, I lie. The darn shrine is...I'd say on the mountain, but the mountain is COVERED in shrines and arches.  So, yeah.

They had big arches

And little ones

my friend got a real kick out of the fact that I and the arches were orange.

And really really small ones.  That I swear I got a picture of, but I can't find.  Oh well.

Inari is symbolized with foxes.  Her shrines are normally protected by foxes

this one has a ball that is a "jewel" that represents the spirit of the gods. 

the cylinder represents the key to the rice storehouse.

And, being Japan, sometimes they are cuter.

AWWW!!

The little one has an Inari mask on its head!

There were little cafes all up the mountain.

rest and enjoy the nature

Which I found very impressive, because I saw NO roads going up to them behind or anything. The only way I found to get up there was walking. And you know what?

so many stairs.

My legs hurt now. We didn't even make it all the way to the top!  We did go pretty far though.

When we made it back down, we heard something going on, so we went to check it out!

dancing!

Some sort of "intercollegiate performance".  Fun to watch!

And then they said "Ok! Exercise! Come dance!"

...ok

Are we surprised?

It was a pretty easy dance, but lots of fun!  Of course my friend was like "good exercise!" and I responded "oh, yes, because I needed it after all those stairs we climbed" :P

Day wasn't over yet, so we went to an aquarium!  Kyoto Aquarium is smaller than Osaka Aquarium, but still nice.

Animals don't like holding still, so I only got a few half decent pictures.

like penguins

angry looking penguin

happy looking fish

I love jellyfish!

COOL?! You could pet them, but they had a line forever long

free me.

Chameleon! Did you know their tongues move so fast, they used to be called "air eaters" because no one could catch them eating?

Of course the best part was the dolphin show!

Oh, and as we were walking in, they gave us these straw things.

?!

And I couldn't figure it out until we go in and see people blowing on them.  It took a LOT of messing around with it, but I finally got it!

Then it was time to go.  We messed around in the gift shop, of course

ITS GOT ME

And ended up in a Disney store?

darth vader should not look this cute

And called it a day.  It was fun!

Friday school was entertaining. They had their sports day this week. (my other schools are having it this coming week)  so they've been really getting ready for it.  Which means I've been teaching very little.  Except one of the 6th grade classes. They've made time for me.  Just one of them though, so they're two weeks ahead of the other classes.  Well, 2 weeks ahead one of the other 6th grade classes.  The OTHER one I didn't have the week prior, so they are a week behind.

Each of the three 6th grade classes are on a DIFFERENT LESSON.  So are the two 5th grade classes.  ::SIGH::  I'm glad I started keeping track.

Saturday, there were no festivals on.  The weather was iffy. So I spent money instead.  I bought GROCERIES.  What's worse, is I indulged myself. I got those groceries you're like "oh, I don't need this one. It's a luxury.  That's right!  I got Bratwurst.  And butter.  Yeesh, expensive. :P

I was going to go to Spa world, which I heard is very nice, but when I checked it out, it was an extra 8$ (800 yen) to go on the weekends, so I went to the movies instead. :)

And that was my week!  Hope yours was good too! (but with less Typhoons)