Week 78: Mighta bought a lot...

It's been a busy week!  Let's see.  My big accomplishment this week was I made some mini flan.

WOOOOOO!

And it tastes good!

(still possible to eat an entire one yourself, but less shame involved)

The recipe I has calls for sweetened condensed milk and water, so I tried replacing the water with coconut milk, and it's really nice!  Very creamy.

But back to the week!

The weather has perked up, so I biked to school twice this week.  And realized how out of shape I seem to be.  WOW.

Tuesday I taught English class in the evening at church for the second week.  The students say they enjoy it because I always add such random stuff to it.  "Astronaut means space sailor!" "THIS is a tuxedo cat!"  :D

The students had "parent's day" at the various schools.  Monday school's was last week, but it was on a Wednesday, so I didn't have to worry about it.   Wednesday's school was...on Wednesday this week, so I got to teach a class with a bunch of parents watching.  One of the other teachers asked if I was nervous and I said "No. They're not here to see me. If anything goes wrong, they're going to be watching you, not me."  (I'm so mean)

And it went well!  There was a MOMENT of the teacher looking at me and thinking "I didn't think the students would get through their presentations so quickly what do we do?!" And I fluffed the lesson a bit.

At least that's what I THINK he was trying to convey. I'm still not psychic.

For the parent's day, the students get to show of a lot of what they're learning, and it's always fun to see the other students getting excited over it too!

Look at these cool pictures!

Anyhow, it was a good day.

Wednesday was also a Relief society get together.  One of the other Foreign sisters taught how to make Flautas!

they were yummy

Her Grandma's Mexican.

Since tortillas cost so much over here, she showed them how to make some!

They really enjoyed it.

It's a lot easier than I thought.

And then they put them together.

They really enjoyed this!

And the whole thing turned out well.

Let's see, what else.....I decided to filter out my soy sauce, because it's time.  It's been time for a while now.

ewwww

I've changed how I 'm doing it a few times now, and I think I finally found something that works, but the first night, I had this open soy sauce draining all night.  And it smells...fermenty.  Kinda yeasty.  And for some reason that meant I dreamed about PANCAKES.

ALL NIGHT.

Now I have it covered so I do not have dreams that make me want to eat my pillow.

I guess it kinda hit that I'm going home soon, because on Friday, I hopped over to a second hand store I heard was going out of business (so everything is half off) and bought a bunch of Kimono and Obi.  (I have PLANS for that silk).  Later, I was feeling cold, so I went to the bath house, but first, I stopped by the mall to look for a bag mom had picked up here and then lost.

I never DID make it too the bath house.

By the time I staggered out, I figured 1) I had already spent enough, 2) I was finally warm and 3) the bath house doesn't have lockers for all the bags I was now hauling.  :P

I try to watch my spending so very carefully, so Saturday, I figured I'd go somewhere that I wouldn't be tempted at all.

A temple market.

I'm bad at self control. :P

Apparently it was a BIG and FAMOUS one.  Because it was huge!  And SO CROWDED.

so crowded.

We got to see more plum blossoms!

artistic.

Flowers!

ART.

And there was the temple, of course.

very noisy with all the bells, but awesome

And there was a HUGE flippin line for tea ceremony stuff, but we were ok with not going in.  We'd both tea ceremonied before and were not interested in waiting in a long line again.

Then we went to the market part!

tiny bottles with paintings inside

beautiful flowers I would hate to kill...

I like the little moss ball at the bottom.

tiny furniture!

There was food too.  For those who have seen my comic on festival food...

in case you don't remember.

I got a picture of the flavor options at the fry stand.  (they call french fries "potato")

salt, curry, soy sauce and butter, roast soy sauce, corn syrup, garlic, consomme

BBQ, pickled plum, Takoyaki, and cheese

I BET YOU THOUGHT I WAS EXAGGERATING.

This particular temple market seemed to have a lot of kimono stuff.

like a lot

There were lots of stands that were selling them pretty cheaply.  The less organized, the cheaper it was.  These go for 10-15$ each.

Some we found were even less.  There were two stands that were "$20 gets you everything you can stuff into this bag".  One of the two like that even had a $50 bag option!  (sucker was big)  We ended up splitting a $20 bag. :)

though, seriously,

how much for this guy's coat?

Of course, buying them inexpensive means we didn't get any of the REALLY amazing ones.

like this one

But those cost a lot for a REASON, and we're ok accepting our level of poverty.

Oh! And I played a festival game!

spin the roulette

get a candy!

I have no idea what it was, but I THINK it was semi-solid corn syrup with flavoring.

Oh well!

Fun week! Hope you're all doing well!

Week 77: Is that spring around the corner?

Hm...Happy Valentine's day!  Not...that I really noticed it.  I got chocolate! And I gave some, but past that, nothing really.

Have a picture of a well dressed seal instead!

Saw this at the Pharmacy

I got a few chocolates, most of which I re-gifted I"m afraid. They like white chocolate SO MUCH around here.

with rose petals no less!

On the bright side, the candy was enjoyed by someone, so I feel no guilt. :)

I didn't teach a Valentine's lesson, though I did take 5 minutes to let them know the big difference between Japan Valentine's day and American.  To remind you, in Japan, Girls give the boys chocolate on Valentine's day.  One month later, on March 14, the boys give the girls chocolate on White day.

So I explained that in America, on Valentine's day, boys give girls chocolate (and other gifts) and one month later...White day doesn't exist.  This, of course, shocked the boys "When do WE get chocolate?!"  And I was like 'you buy it yourself".

THOUGH it wouldn't be a bad thought would it?  White day, the day the girls get the boys a chocolate to pay them back for Valentine's day?

In other news, the 3rd graders are learning about Japanese history!  So this week 3rd graders in all my schools are getting to have some hands on time with old Japanese things!

Hat and rain coat, both made out of rice straw!

water wheel!

victrola!

rice pot!

...ok, I guess I"m old now.

Abacus! I wanna learn how they used these

lunch boxes!

And it was really neat!  They also are playing some of the games and such and they really are enjoying it.

Let's see, it's slowly getting warmer.  Today was downright pleasant!  Still chilly, but sun and I went down a layer. :)

I've been craving sweets lately, so I finally broke down and made myself frosting cookies

there's even some frosting left, so I'm very proud of my self control.

Everyone asked, so, I got the Gram crackers from the parents when they visited.

Saturday there were NO festivals.  I CHECKED.  So instead I wandered around Osaka with a friend.

Pokemon center

ice skating is still there. Still didn't do it.

It is the season for Plum Blossoms, so we went to the Plum blossom grove!

attempt at a selfie

flowers!

so many colors!

contrast

they're so fluttery!

Of course, the grove was right next to the castle so...

is this how you selfie?

still so pretty

I had heard about a dog cafe, so I wanted to check that out.

PET THE DOGGIES

And while we FOUND it, it was so crowded, there was a wait line and we knew that there wouldn't be space for us to play when we got in there, so we went to a bakery instead.

And we found a bagel shop!  (bagels are rare in Japan.) and guess what they slipped into my bag!

so helpful!

It's how to cook the bagels! It even has times and wattage so you don't burn them! :D  So helpful!

It might not seem that exciting, but I had a lot of fun.

Oh! And I gave a talk in Church today!  It was only supposed to be 10 minutes, but ended up closer to 15, what with translating and all.  And I wrote it on SATURDAY, so look at me preparing ahead of time like an adult!  And it went well.

Love you all and hope you're doing well!

Week 76: My Toes are COLD

It's still cold here.

In case you were wondering.

I mean, OK, it's above freezing, so I'm one up on the parents.

And I have pretty good heating.

But those schools are kept COLD.

I mean, not actually KEPT cold, but fresh air is considered healthy.  So yes, they will have open windows in the winter.  They'll close them while teaching is going on, but open them again between classes, so of course all the warm air flees.

Let's see, things to talk about.

Hina-matsuri (princess festival, also known as "doll festival" in English) isn't TECHNICALLY until March, but displays are going up already.

Friday school is showing this one off.

This will likely be up until the actual festival day.

Two of our missionaries left!  An Elder and a Sister.  The Elder finished his mission and is going home (so now someone else has to translate for me)  And the sister is moving to Sakai.  I wish her luck.

There was a going-away party!

WITH FOOD

and singing!

I had been craving pizza.

And we'll miss the missionaries, of course.

I've been feeling much better this week, all well now.  Still not riding my bike. I've decided I"m not going to until it's above 40* more often.  Doesn't even have to be CONSISTENTLY, just more often.  Right now it is 32* with a wind chill factor of 5*-10* WAY too much.

Tuesday was fun, because that's the 6th graders doing Lego fairy tales?  And they got to match their story telling to the pictures, so after each class, I sat down and re-named files to make it easier for the teacher in charge to click through them.  She was very grateful (and surprised) and I was like "Ok, this isn't that hard, but I appreciate that you appreciate me."

I think, when they do it next year, they will be much more prepared for it.  :)  This year was a lot of "will this work? No." and "you know what we SHOULD have done..."

Friday was very interesting because I don't remember it.

The entire day I was like "wait, did I teach this class?"  "Is it lunch already?" etc.  I mean, if I REALLY focus, I can remember my classes.  And I remember they went well.  I just...have to really TRY to remember.

Saturday, I was informed by a friend that we were going to Toei Kyoto Studio Park.

Well ok!

Toei is a theme park and filming studio for shows from the Edo period.  Sometimes there is filming done there, but not when we went.  It was fun!

the entrance!

They had a section of town that was just a re-creation of the "Nagaya town houses."  They were basically budget apartments.

They were one room houses

with REALLY thin futon

And a communal well and bathing area.

the well.

Might be part of where the popularity of "public baths" started up.  Who knows?

They also had a school.

I'm in charge.

And some merchants houses

FRESH FISH, we catch 'em, you buy 'em!

And a HORSE

and pony.

And I got to feed the horse carrots!

they think it's cold too.

There was a God of Fortune!

he popped up and talked to everyone. Kinda freaky actually.

And a "sea monster"

what's Japanese for "Nessie"?

And some wanted posters!

I want the guy on the right.

There were shows to see, where, thanks to my friend, I got a little translation.

this is a "snake oil salesman"

though apparently in Japan it's "frog ointment"

And there were sword fighting demonstrations!

He was talking a lot about how to do "TV sword fighting"

OOOOOh

He dies.

And there was audience participation of course!

for kids. I TRIED but they wouldn't let me.

There was an English kid up there, his name was Jack, so of course the first thing that popped into my head was "Samurai Jack!"  :D  It was really cute and fun, and of course I didn't think to get video or pictures.  SORRY!

There was also a "maze" full of optical illusions!

like the tilted room.

Though, let's be honest, A room tilted at 11*, and me in socks?

I spent most of my time sliding down it.

Anyhow! I'd suggest it if any of you make it to Japan, it's lots of fun, but don't go in February, it SNOWED.

Hope you're all doing well!