Week 40: It's JUNE!

Well, look at that. Another month gone by.

Isn't it weird, sometimes, how time...passes?  I mean, it always does, but part of you still doesn't expect it.

Been a good week!  Lovely weather!  Which surprised me a little, because everyone has been saying "oooooh, rainy season! It's coming! Be prepared!" And then this last week was just BEAUTIFUL.

Not too hot, cool breeze, nice mix of sunny and cloudy... really nice.

Of course, I DID get sick for about 24 hours. I know it wasn't a 24 hour flu, because I've had those. I felt like death.  It was more like a 24 hour cold.  Unplesent, but livable.  The Tuesday school was having their week long field trip for the 5th graders, (this is a thing they do here!) into Osaka, I didn't teach them on Tuesday. Instead I did short lessons for the 2nd graders, which was good because 1) they're cute and 2) shorter lessons than I would have given the 5th graders.

Thursday was an adventure!  So...Thursday school is the farthest school, a little over 3 miles away.  I could ride the train there, but biking is easy and fun, so I do that.  Only THIS time, about a mile into the trip, the chain came off my bike!

I ride a commuter bike, not a gear bike, so the chain is tight on, and doesn't have the little spring thing gear bikes have to make 1)changing gears possible and 2)putting the chain back on easy.

I couldn't remember how to put the chain back on without tools, so I (first called work to let them know I'd be late) thought I'd drop the bike off at the nearby train station and ride the train into work.  Only this train line didn't go near my work.

So I figured I'd drop into a bike shop. Japan is a biking country.  There are THREE bike shops in a 2 bock radius of my house.  

There are no bike shops in the 2 mile walk to my school.  ::sigh::

So I ended up walking all 2 miles, only being 15 minutes late to work, and the vice principal was nice enough to fix my chain. :)  (I'm gonna make him cookies)

And my first lesson didn't start until 2nd period.

Thursday was ALSO interesting because I got to see an annual tradition at..well, most schools!  The cleaning of the pool!

the empty pool!

All the schools I've been to so far have had a pool.  This one is on top of one of the buildings, obviously to save space.

They keep it full of water through the winter (not sure why) and it gets really gunky.  So cleaning is needed.  And who better to clean the pool than our local slave labor?!

look at them go!

That's right, the students!  Every year, the 5th and 6th graders scrub the pool and its surrounding areas!

They're like little worker ants!

I watched them, they did a very good job.  With...minimal water fights. :)  And it was a perfect day for it, so that was nice too.  They're very excited for swim lessons.

I chatted with my principal about the swimming, she says she has a lot of trouble being calm during swim season, because of course, something might happen.  I can understand.  On the bright side, members of the community can use the pool as well, as long as there is someone keeping an eye on everything.  It's like gym time in Alaska.  You just need some adults there to be in charge. :)

I have to wonder if the 5th graders were camping, because I saw these

How to build a fire

posted up.  I gotta say, I think it's great to show the science of how fire building and heat works! :)

Friday, my chain came off the bike again, but I remembered how to fix it, so I didn't have to walk, and I wasn't late. I need to take it in to get it tightened.  :)

I stopped by a store and saw some interesting things.  For instance, with the change in weather, everyone is BIG on gardening.

very traditional looking.

baby rakes!

And of course, you know it's gonna get warmer, so there are bamboo pillows,

it allows air flow.  I gotta get one.

And the strawberries are still coming out.

they're so tiny!

But as they're still expensive, I don't tend to get those.

Saturday was a grown up day.  I cleaned, I did laundry, I went shopping, I cooked lunches for the next week... in the evening, I was going to go to a Bali dance festival, but it started raining.  So here is a dramatic re-enactment of what I did instead.

The Koala is playing the part of me.

Week 39: It's not green day

Technically, Green day (literal translation) is May 4th, during Golden week.  HOWEVER, as I was biking around this week, I couldn't help but think that green has hit Japan.

This is the ride along the river. Isn't it PRETTY?!

These were taller than me.

I'm sure the rain has something to do with it, but as you can tell from the pictures, we also end up with some really pretty days as well.  Actually, I prefer the partially overcast days, they're much cooler than the just sunny ones. And with the humidity, I can do with the cooler days.

a flower.

Of course, the biggest problem with the rain (and humidity) is that nature is fighting back! (dun-dun-dun!)

that bike will never be free!

Yeah, Ok, I've actually seen that ivy growing around the bike for the last few weeks, but it's still pretty cool. :)

Rainy season is coming, but I'm pretty sure it hasn't actually hit yet. But it's coming.

I skipped stones here on Saturday.

I guess the most entertaining story of the week was how I was teaching the 6th graders "when is your birthday?" and with it the months and ordinal numbers.  We started simple.

"When is your birthday?"  "April!"

Got a little more complicated.

"When is your Birthday?"  "My birthday is in April!"

Then the ultimate goal

"When is your birthday?"  "My birthday is April 22nd!"

When I gave that example, you could hear their brains explode as they realized I was going to make them use both months and numbers.  They went "eeeeeeee!"  and so I looked at them with a sarcastic terror on my face and said "aaaaaaah!" as I flailed my arms.  They all laughed and class progressed well. :)

I'm not THAT terrifying!  I don't think I am!  I help anyone who has problems!  I accept answers I can only half hear!  If you're pretty close, I take it!  But, hey, they like the sarcasm. :)

Oh, and I'm teaching and easy version of "If you're happy and you know it" to the students, so you'll never guess what song is stuck in my head ALL DAY.  What's really fun is how quickly the students recognize it when I sing the first line and half of them unconsciously clap twice just where they should.  :D

After the first time, I let them choose their own emotions for each verse, so we end up with "if you're hot clap your hands" and "If you're hungry stomp your feet" but my FAVORITE is "if you're sleepy, shout hooray".

The kids and I laughed about that one for a while. :D

Anyhow, Friday was pretty awesome.  It said it would rain, but it didn't.  It was overcast until the afternoon, at which point it cleared up, so it was beautifully blue, but since it was past the heat of the day, it didn't get too warm.

I took the chance to go into Osaka, because I heard there was...a Hawaiian Festival! :D

They had cool booths for selling stuffs

I can't wear any of this to school.

And food!

I saw no spam

But, I'll tell you, besides the fantastic smell of flowers, what really makes me think of Hawaii are warm/cool evenings, with a small breeze, and some lovely music.  The dancing is a plus.  And there was some AWESOME dancing!

They had male dancing,

His movement was so mesmerizing!

And some female groups

They did so well!

And there were some female solo-ists.

I'm not sure who she is, but the crowd started screaming when she got up there.

Crowd?  Yeah, I did not know that Hula was THAT popular here!

There were lots of peoples.

And they got the wife of one of the band members up there, and you can tell she had been dancing forever, because... well, it was the most...comfortable hula I had ever seen.  She moved so casually and deliberately and it was just calming and beautiful.

Plus, they were singing a song he had written just for her, about how she's his beautiful flower.

 And that caused a bit of a landslide, because they then talked one of the band members into dancing.

Look at that form!

And he's cute! :D

Then they got some of the volunteers (people who volunteered to help with the festival) up there!

They're all doing different choreography, but it's still very pretty.

Now, the BEST part was where they got they guys AND girls up there together, and you could really see the difference between boys and girls style dancing.  Guy's has more straight lines, more deliberate movements.

So I got to spend a few hours listening to beautiful music and watching beautiful dancing.  What a lovely Friday.

As I was leaving, I saw some lanterns I had heard about to honor a festival they have further up north.

pretty!

It was evening, so I didn't get many good videos, but here's one for you. :)

Some week I'm gonna have to do something besides a festival.  Maybe. :)

Oh! And I made Pad Thai! :D

YUM!

Week 38: The pretty weather month

So I found out that many of the months have designations, or nick names.  Months in Japan (and China, and Korea) are numbered, not names.  For instance, January is called "1 month".  Well, I was teaching the months to the students, and I pointed to June and they said "Oh! Rainy month!" I pointed to August and they said "Oh! Hot month!"

Ah, the anticipation.  

Well, it turns out May is known for being the pretty weather month. And it is. The weather lately has been just stunning!  Get's a bit warm in the afternoon, but the rest of the time, it's perfect weather. Makes for lovely bike rides. :)

I tried to get out more this week, as I have a tendency to be lazy after school. :)  Nothing much to say about it.  I DID find my dream umbrella.

This is a silly story. So some of you might remember that I like umbrellas.  When I was in Korea, I enjoyed the fun colors and designs.  (one of mine said "allow me to explain through interpretive dance")  However here in Japan, they're not as entertaining.  Ah well.

ANYHOW.

So, way back when I came, I saw this stunning umbrella. It had a look of sunset around it, with a fade of orange to yellow.  And around the bottom was silhouettes of safari.  I looked EVERYWHERE. Always kept my eyes open.  I forewent buying many umbrellas because none of them were quite as pretty as this one I had seen.  Finally found it.

isn't it pretty?

I...did not buy it.  Because for some reason, it was going for approximately $108?!  This is not the first expensive umbrella I had seen, but SERIOUSLY?!

The odd thing is, if an umbrella is expensive, it usually is $108.  What an odd number.  (well, even)

This weekend I went to a Thai festival!  It was interesting to compare it to the Cinco de Mayo festival. (Hispanic festival)  It was certainly larger.

and the weather was lovely!

The food was much better

SO GOOD

And I gotta admit, I haven't been tempted to spend all my money on clothes in a while.

great color and patterns!

Sadly, not professional enough for school.

There was some amazing dancing and other shows.

A storytelling.

dancing!

lion...fish?  cool!

YES. shirtless drumming!

And acrobatics!

swordplay!

butterfly!

so colorful!

They also had some awesome kick boxing!

It was obviously just exhibition matches, as they were mostly just having fun.  At one point Challenger 1 hid behind the referee, so challenger 2 playfully aimed some kicks at the referre.  At which point the referee started kicking at challenger 2, and challenger 1 got jealous, stopped them and pushed the referee out of the way. :)

They had some little kids too!  They did not fight, they just did the traditional preparations for it.

so cute!

And they had Sepaktakraw!  It's an awesome (and difficult) sport.  Many people call it "soccer vollyball" or something to describe it, but its really its own sport.  And as Danica knows, I often take pictures of informative signs, so this should answer questions about it.

I'll just leave this here.

It is SO HARD to get a decently timed picture!

So, there's a video of it.  There are actually two ways to play it.  Shown is the more official (and difficult) method, but there is one that does not involve the giant kick to begin service.

That was pretty darn awesome, let me tell you!  I had heard of it previously, but never had the chance to see it in person. :)

It WAS very sunny, so I kept putting on sun screen.  They also had these visor things people were wearing.

Very popular

I looked all over for them, 'cause I wanted one!

Oh! here is the hand out!

so I got one!

I'm so stylish.

Then I figured out what it was an advertisement for.

beer.  Oh well.

It was still nice to have a head shade that allows for breeze.

Random stuff!  The food was good!  I was tempted to get Pad Thai, but figured I'd be more adventurous.

some sort of chicken...thing...

coconut rice pancakes! I gotta learn to make these.

There were some people wandering around in interesting wear.

I'm pretty sure this isn't traditional...

And as the day progressed, it became more crowded.

people chilling out for lunch.

very crowded, but nice

And a little more kick boxing that was more acrobatics than fighting. :)

By the time I left, I was quite tired, probably more from the heat than the exertion, but it was still quite fun. :)  I managed not to get much of a sun burn.  Or spend my entire budget for the week.  :)

And so, as the sun was setting, I staggered home.