Right.
Monday I was sick of sitting around. I did very little last week, so I was getting a little antsy. I went on a hike! There are a few mountains near here, so I went for Mount Kabuto. Kabuto is Japanese for helmet.
There are two reigning theories on why it is called "Helmet". The first reason is that some Japanese Empress buried her helmet on it before heading off to subjugate part of Korea.
The other story is that it looks like a helmet.
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| best shot I could get of it. |
Of course, being helmet shaped, means that the edges were a little steep in places. Meaning...
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| stairs. so many stairs. |
It was a lovely hike.
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| with a river |
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| and a natural path! |
And I got lost.
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| this is not a path. this is a dry stream bed. |
But I found my way again!
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| "This bridge has lasted for a thousand years!" |
There was a big park in a section of it.
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| "hiking not exhaust your kids enough? let them run around screaming!" |
And there was a lovely shrine/temple...thingy.
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| and more stairs. |
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| the main building. |
And I gotta say, it's going to be weird hiking back in the states again. I'm so used to the random temple bells going off, because every mountain has SOME sort of shrine on it. It's a lovely mellow tone to listen to when you're hiking.
Wasn't done yet though! I still had to go up!
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| the SWITCHBACKS on this path! |
The top was a big flat space, for resting.
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| I was not the only one up there. |
And I just sat back and overlooked the city a little.
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| because I was TIRED. |
When I finally started down (had cooled off by then) I faced MORE stairs.
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| went down these. Still difficult. |
There are, admittedly, very few slopes without something like stairs here, mostly because of the rain I figure. And if you don't have stairs, erosion really wears at the path quickly.
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| I took the OTHER fork down. |
and of course, I got lost...again. I think I got lost a total of 3 times on this trip. Oh well. I DID get to see the park's statues.
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| gauntlet of modern art. |
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| THE ALL SEEING EYE. |
And a lovely little pond.
And a GUY WALKING HIS CAT.
Hang on, I got a better picture on snapchat.
That cat was TOTALLY chill with being on a harness. Wonder how long he got trained...
Hm...Tuesday, I had the sisters and a few other people over to kinda fellowship them. I made pie!
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| Using Japanese pumpkin. Turned out...different. Not bad though. |
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| LOOK I was SOCIAL |
And I ran a bunch of errands that took way longer than they should and was ready for School!
School was a little hard to get back into the swing of, I'll admit. Though Wednesday did help ease me into it! First of all, it was a half day.
Ok, have you noticed how, as soon as one event the students are preparing for finishes, they start preparing for another? (and then I tell you about it.) When they got back from Summer, they prepared for sports day. After sports day was art day. After art day was the marathon. Well! Now they're going to be preparing for an inter-area basketball game thingy! So, in order to make sure the teachers remember the rules for Elementary level basketball. (that they taught last year also) they play a game! (I did not get pictures)
It looked like a lot of fun, and they invited me to play, but I brought the WRONG shoes for that. I hope to play at a different time. If given a chance. Anyhow, because of that, they let me go an hour early, and on the way back, I ran into a surprise festival!
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| ooooo! |
It was at Nishinomya shrine, and it took up several streets. That's right. Several streets of fair food! I only got one Taiyaki, sorry, I"m a spoil sport. ANYHOW!
So I checked out the shrine, and it was apparently about the god Ebisu, the god of fortune, fishing, and fair dealing. When you went in, you got...I'm gonna guess it's a purifying thing.
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| they would shake those white paper things on sticks over the heads. |
I did not end up going in, because you would NOT believe the line. You could buy good luck talismans from Shrine maidens. (Miko)
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| greenery! |
And they had a lot of other good luck talisman stuff. Lots of...rakes? and brooms?
And they had a monkey show! I only caught the tail end, but it was cute.
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| gotta stay warm! |
Thursday I taught 3rd grade, because the 6th graders have high school entrance exam soon and are stressing out, so a lot of parents are keeping their kids home so they can study? At least I"m pretty sure that's what was going on.
Friday was entertaining, mainly because of the classes. First, I go into school, and get ready to sort my materials out, and there's a note saying I'm teaching a 3rd grade class. I'm like "Ok, fine" BUT I've taught 3rd grade before, so I can't just teach my basic introduction lesson, I gotta throw together something else. I have time.
Not 5 minutes later, the teacher comes by "So what are you teaching the 3rd graders?"
I look up from the apparent chaos of getting together everything for my 5th and 6th grade classes and after a long pause say "I don't know. We'll see."
They left me alone after that. :P We ended up doing "Do you like_____" and the class went very well.
The other was one of my 6th grade classes. I refer to it as "the morgue." Because, while they are not noisy and disruptive, they just SIT THERE. Getting them to even react to anything is hard.
So, for this lesson (on travel) on the tv, we have "Let's go to_____, you can see_____, you can eat_____" and they're supposed to listen to the computer and look at the pictures and write down what they computer is saying. Then I review it with them.
So I say "Let's go to?"
"mutter mutter china"
(close enough) "YOU CAN SEE?"
one student pipes up "the great wall"
"You can EAT?"
There's a long pause and a student looks at the picture I'm pointing to "Pandas"
At this point, I clasp my chest dramatically and say in a shocked voice "MONSTER!"
AND THE CLASS REACTED
I got them to wake up! FOR A WHOLE MINUTE! I almost got to do the same thing for "Koalas" but they were more aware after that. :)
For some reason, that sixth grade group is just very muted. All the other grades have a pretty good energy level, but that group, nothing. And I've walked by them during normal school and they're...well they're very loud. (probably why I got warned about them.) But you put me in the room and SILENCE. Or muted muttering.
Saturday, I did adult stuff. I cleaned my room, I went grocery shopping and prepared food, (I made beef stew!) and I went to church to help make mochi!
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| it was fun. |
And today, it snowed! At church they kept saying "Thank you for coming to church in spite of the snow"
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| pfft. |
Stay safe everyone!
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