Week 28: Vacation starts!

I only had two office days today, and no teaching!  Monday and Thursday.  Remember how I said I'd take teaching over office days?  Still true.

However, I did find a way around the utter boredom.  This time, I wasn't the only teacher stuck in office, so we were shuffled into another room.  Since we were separated from the hard working office employees, we felt no shame in: sitting around and talking, playing computer games, reading, drawing, messaging friends, knitting (mostly me, I'll admit), napping, and watching netflix on the laptops.  It was much better than my other office day.  We were so professional.  But to be honest, when they looked in to check on us, they just seemed relieved we were all there.

Noticeable things throughout the week.

I cleaned.  (yes, that's noticeable for me)

I came upon some peoples making onigiri (rice balls) in the sharehouse kitchen.  Near the end, they started making cute ones!

it has ears!

little panda!

One of them was like, "it's too cute! I can't eat that!"

It went around the table "Oh! it's adorable! No, I couldn't eat that!"  Until it got to me, at the end of the line.

it was very tasty.

There are some new girls at the share house, and I showed them some of the basics of stuff in the area, how to read the instructions on boxes if you can't read Japanese.

Let's see, went to see the Martian.  The area was all decorated for spring.

Even though it was cold.

Very tall vases, with silk flowers.

I'm a little sad you couldn't swing on it.

And there was a little truly Japanese  fashion.

yes, those bow ties are connected to the long tie.

and the pants are lacy. and then..the word ALL on front...ok

And saw some truly ugly dogs on sale for white day.

really ugly

Oh! you don't know what white day is!  Ok, so the western world sold the idea of Valentine's day to Japan, but they got the advertising wrong.  When they said that guys buy chocolate, it ended up saying that guys GET chocolate, so for Valentines day, the girls all buy chocolate for the boys.  Then, a month later, (March 14) the boys buy something (usually a white something) for the girls in return.

Later the younger generation introduced black day (April 14) which is when the single people get together and don't do anything couple-ish and eat black foods (like black soba noodles)

Friday, I went to Kyoto with my Japanese friend.  Even though it was chilly, it's a very popular destination this time of year.  (gonna be even more packed once the cherry blossoms start up)

And of course, it's very popular to dress up in Kimono and wander around the historical Kyoto.  I loved walking around and seeing the colorful clothes.

Spring kimono

MANY shops rent out Kimono

you can do this too, but it costs more.

they have boy options too.

Every time we saw one, my friend's eyes lit up and...

surprisingly warm.

She was like a proud mom, "stand over there! Hang on, I need a picture here!" It was nice to see her so happy.

Yes, I'm wearing orange.  It was the only orange kimono in the store, and I pulled it out and my friend and the store person were like "eeeeeeeh" but I knew that I look FABULOUS in orange, and they were surprised to find out I was RIGHT.

In fact, I matched the temple we visited.

Kiyomizu temple.

This is Kiyomizu temple, one of the most (if not the) most famous temple in Japan. And it's pretty darn cool.

she took LOTS of pictures of me

temple

also part of the temple. it was leveled.

famous balcony on temple.

Japanese friend in front of temple.

before you go into a temple you cleanse yourself at the spring.  Look at the length of the handles on those things!

the pillars holding up the balcony were literally just tree trunks.

Surprisingly only had one group ask me to join them.  still fun. :)

Oh! You haven't seen my butt bow yet!

there it is!

they stuffed little rolled up towels in it to make it stand up more.

the obi (belt) even had cool folding action!

I gotta say, I have never been dressed so efficiently as when they put that Kimono on me.  Of course, I don't have much to compare it to, but still.

I just stuck out my arms and next thing I knew I was in three layers of Kimono, several towels and shaping bands and dressed.  It was so cool!

You'll notice I'm showing a lot of wrist though. Long as that kimono was, I am STILL much longer than most Japanese. :) and the geta (sandals) were all a little small.

the sandals made it a little hard to walk around though. :)

Eventually we returned the Kimono and my lungs were relieved to remember what full breaths felt like.  We went on a very popular walk along a river. 

even more popular when the trees are in bloom.

And when it was late, we went back home, exhausted. :)

Saturday, for some reason, I was feeling a little down in the morning, so I called up my Festival friend, who is moving. "I don't want to sit here, and you don't want to pack to move, how about we go check out the Hina Doll displays?"

"....sure."

So!  We arrived at our location, and the first thing she said was "Hey, there's this giant tower over there I can see from my school and I've been wondering what it is for ages, can we go check it out?"

LOOK HOW BIG THIS IS.

Right, let's go check it out!

We didn't get lost, because with THAT for a landmark, how COULD you?  But we went the wrong way.  It only had one entrance, and we walked ALL the way around the block before we found it.  (ain't that the way?)  The thing is, that was a BIG block!  It included a golf course!  In fact, we kinda thought it was part of the golf course for a while, but when we went to walk through it, we were stopped. And a patron of the course kindly offered to drive us the rest of the way.  (so nice!)  We had, of course, walked almost all the way around the block, but that last leg was in a car, so that helped a bit.

Then it got a little weird.  There was a single guard in front of the gate.  There was no one else there.
 

for some reason this reminded me of those pictures of North Korea?

in front of the large steps to get up to it.

podium doesn't help the whole "this looks like a 'peoples monument' in North Korea or China thing"

there were people cleaning the windows.

We went in, but didn't take pictures of the inside.  It turns out it was a monument to world peace, dreamed up by the "second supreme patriarch of the church of perfect liberty".  Nicole and I were very polite and followed the guide around (again, only people there) and then escaped as fast as we could.  The whole thing REALLY felt like a cult place.  Sorry, just did.

Here's more info on it if you want. 

Then we walked back into town and checked out the Hina doll display.

The Hina dolls are a thing that are displayed for Girl's holiday. No, I don't know why.  The most basic display has just the Emperor and the Empress.

And that comes in many styles

her kimono's orange too!

easier storage

SO CUTE

I did not pick them up to see if they were bells

More complex displays involve members of the court.

7 stages, they usually are in odd numbers.

the "go big or go home variety"

 Starting from the top (after the royalty), members of the court usually include: court ladies, entertainers, warriors, and servants. The layers without people on them show the belongings of the Emperor and Empress The even LARGER displays (this was the biggest we could find) sometimes includes shopkeepers along with all their stuff.  It was really cool seeing the different varieties.

For instance, you had the ones that were big on detail

look at how many layers of kimono she is wearing!

And the ones that focused on simplicity

I think a kid made this, but still, awesome

The animal ones

I'm not sure what animal these are.

And the REALLY OLD ones

I am in LOVE with her headdress!

Oh! here's the best thing about them!

look at that smile!

That's right, they have TEETH.

I realize that having teeth was a mark of beauty and health, but I wonder if they tried to find a NON creepy way of showing them off, because this AIN'T IT.

Anyhow, it was a lot of fun, even with getting lost and finding an odd cult-type building. :)

So, with school over, I've been feeling a little useless, sometimes a bit depressed.  Looking back on the week, I realized I DID something EVERY DAY.  I'm pretty sure my real problem is lack of exercise, since when I'm working I walk so much every day.  Goal for next week is to get out walking every day.

Week 27: Sleeping in is wonderful.

Last week was the beginning of the end of my contract.

Next week is the end of my contract.

That means this week is the middle of the end of my contract?

Either way, here's this week.

SO! Monday was my last day at my Monday school.  We mostly did review, starting at the beginning of the book and showing the kids that they knew it all.  They seemed to really like that.  They made me poster things saying they'll miss me, with a short English message from each of the kids.  (you could tell they had copied the message, but still, cute!)

Tuesday, I got to SLEEP IN!!  YAY!

What? It was awesome.

Anyhow!  I still had work, they just asked that I participate in an English village in the afternoon, so I didn't have to go into the office in the morning.

The English village was interesting!  So, they were holding a bunch at different schools, but us Interac people (there were 5 of us) all went to the same school, and since we were the only ones who really had teaching experience, we were basically in charge of the other helpers.  (volunteers from the nearby college.  Many exchange students from the U.S. too)

Us Interac people got there about 10 minutes before the others, where they filled us in on what our different groups were doing (I was playing a board game, I had read the summary before I came) and the school representative was chatting with our interpreter, I wasn't really listening.  Until they all were staring at me.

"Wait, what?"

"One of the Interac people needs to be an MC.  Will you do it?"

I look at the others, and I'm the only one that doesn't have a big look of "NO WAY" stamped on my face.  Shrug.

"Sure, why not?"

So they told me what we were doing for opening (it was all laid out already, so that was nice) and the rest of the college students came in. At which point the lady in charge says "ok, tell them what we're doing".

I thought to myself 'ok, time to put on your best "I know what's going on" act...'

It went pretty well!  The others seemed pretty calm because I seemed to know what I was doing, and thankfully they didn't expect me to do anything huge.  After all, we were all only teaching a single grade level. :)

Groups of us were in different classrooms, like board game (me), ordering pizza, treasure hunt, dance room (where I wanted to be) and the kids rotated.   After a while of that, it was time to go, we gathered, the lady turned to me and said "Ok, now do a farewell"

.....Thanks. It's REALLY comfy under this bus.

Again, it went pretty well.  I don't think I did FANTASTIC, but then they weren't paying for that. They were paying for pretty good. (if they were paying for fantastic, they woulda had one of my supervisors up there)

And I wasn't allowed to bring my camera, sorry.

Wednesday and Thursday were very nice.  I mostly stayed in and rested.

I mean...I worked hard!  I cleaned and organized my whole room! And I cooked...and I went shopping!  and...yeah, mostly I sat around and enjoyed not having to do anything. :)

My room is small, so cleaning it usually only takes a half hour, but this time I REALLY cleaned it, and re-organized it and put my futons out to air, and so it did take a lot longer than usual, and it really looks nicer now!  Mostly.  The only downside of having a place that doesn't take long to clean, is that it doesn't take long to mess up either.

I went to the movies, saw BBC's Sherlock: the Abominable Bride.  Went shopping and got to see the usual "wait, WHAT?! you find around here."

Like a hugging banana

They also had pigs and stuff

 Or a hat for your cat.

He looks so happy!

Or a new CD!

?!

Or Star wars themed flatware!

I'll admit, these were really tempting.

I didn't get any of it because I've been poor lately, and what with my contract dropping for a month, I'm gonna be REALLY poor NEXT month, if I don't reign it in a bit.

 Friday school was great!  I got to see the sixth graders show their parents their musical prowess!  (remember, Monday school did this a couple weeks ago)  I still wanna know where they find sheet music for "Take Me Home, Country Roads" with accordion accompaniment.

They did so well!

And some of the kids displayed their other music talents, like one kid who could play the shamisen!

the white paddle in their left hand is how they strum.

and they gave me "goodbye" posters too, but they're all in Japanese, so I gotta find someone to translate. :)

Saturday, no festivals were on, so I went to "Harvest Hill" with a friend.  I first found out about it because it said they had "all you can pick strawberries" but when I checked it out, it said you had to have a reservation...and that all reservations were taken for the month of March.  Still, sometimes they accepted walk-on's, and they had other stuff to do there, so we went anyhow.

It was an interesting place.  You know how there's an entire horror section based around little amusement parks that have broken down and are now haunted by the clowns of the past?  Well, it was one of those amusement parks, but it wasn't broken down. :)

Wait, are we in Japan or Germany?

They had archery

But I wasn't too impressed with their arrows.  The fletchings were ALL to pieces.  Still, it was nice to be able to draw a bow again.

They had sledding

wee!

 And big grassy areas for the kids to run around screaming in.

and pony rides

there was a sign that said "80 k" but considering that's 176 lb, I'm not sure it was talking weight limit.

And a sheep based talent show!

there were hoops and steps and stuff on the stage, but it was too dark to take a picture.

That we didn't see, because it turns out my friend is REALLY scared of sheep.  (don't laugh, she has every right)

We did, however enjoy watching the kids react to the dinosaurs moving and roaring.

some screamed, most laughed, many wanted to pet them..

And, hey! Best part!  BUNNIES! (and a llama, for some reason)

They're distant cousins?

And then we PET THEM!

SO SOFT

And the llama. 

Who's a good llama that's trying to eat his post in a bid for freedom?

And we rode a go-cart!

this isn't me.

That I barely fit into.  My friend had to do all the driving as my knees were all tucked up.  Still, it was a LOVELY drive.  But I think it will be even prettier in the spring.

And we almost crashed.

They also had a place where you could stay inside and make crafts!  Like candle things, and paint mugs and stained glass stuff...

And music boxes you could choose the music for and then the things you put on top of it!  You bought each part, so it could quickly become a bit pricey...

I really liked the leather tooling though. :)

You could tool all sorts of different leather pieces.

But by then we were about done.  We hoofed it back to the train station...

But we couldn't find the bus stop for returning.  Well, it was a nice day, so we figured we'd walk. After all, I had the map up on my phone, so we wouldn't get too lost.

Turns out the station was 3 miles away. Still made it with no real problem.  When I got home, I calculated that, with our periodic little rests, we had walked approximately, 5 hours yesterday.

My legs hurt so much.