it's not life that matters but the journey...

I can't believe I made it through more than half of my busiest week ever. It's Thursday night and I still have a day of teaching tomorrow, plus my full day follow up training in Nagoya on Saturday. I've been so exhausted this week, having to teach a full five classes a day for three days in a row! it doesn't sound like much, but it's just hard getting used to standing for so long, and having to be "on" for such a long time.

But on the positive side, I've been having a lot of fun with the kids! yesterday at the elementary school, I had a chance to teach the special needs class (kids who are mentally disabled), and it was so much fun! there were two kids with down's syndrome, and I'm not sure about the others - perhaps autistic or other illnesses. But they were so cheerful and so attentive to my introduction, and they had so much fun with the games! They just put me in a good mood for the whole day! I have so much respect for people who teach special education - that's such a hard, but rewarding group of students.

The junior high classes are turning out to be a little more challenging, mostly because the four teachers I work with are all so different in terms of their expectations (of me) and their styles of teaching. One of them is kind of intimidating. Her English is good, and she's a good teacher, but she is kind of too serious. She came to me after our class today and started telling me all the things I had done wrong. I didn't get upset though because I know it's just the Japanese way - and she's trying to improve our classes for the students, so it's probably a good thing overall. I just listened to her, nodded and made mental notes of what to change when I teach her classes. *sigh*

Anyway, enough about work for now - once I get more settled in and I'm more a part of the scene so to speak, I'll start taking my camera to the schools and try to get pics of the kids and the lunches and other stuff.

For now, I do have some pictures to post, from the last couple weekend's excursions. Masahiko and I went out to Hiromi Koen (a big park near our house) a couple weeks ago and saw the cherry blossoms before they went away. I got some more pics of blossoms, plus some pictures of the old-style houses and buildings they have on display there. the park also has a museum, and lots of history. I'll put all pictures in clickable thumbnails below a cut. Enjoy!








These are pictures of the outside and inside (recreated of course) of an older-style home so that people can see how life used to be over a hundred years ago.













This is what a kitchen used to look like. Aren't we lucky now?:


This is the entrance to an old-style house, with Masahiko standing inside. I tried going in, but some young kids beat me to it!:


Here's a couple more pics of the same house, taken four years ago:









Last weekend, I had a chance to meet my friend jojobruin since he's been in Japan for his medical studies. We took him out to Asagiri, where the weather was horribly cold, but it cleared up a bit in the afternoon so we went out to Shiraito and Otodome waterfalls, which are quite close to Fuji-san.








Alex and Me in front of Shiraito Falls:


History behind Otodome Falls:








This is food you can buy to feed the huge fish that live in the water. I couldn't get a good picture with my camera, but they're so big and bright yellow:






This looks like it used to be a little footpath somewhere. now it just looks so pretty:


This is the guy who was selling squid and octopus and other "delights". He posed for some pics with me, but I didn't get those pictures with my camera. When Alex uploads those, I'll post some here. This guy was awesome! We ate some shiitake mushrooms that he put on the grill - yummy!:


Mmmm octopus:





see that yellow streak in the water? that's a huge fish! The water is so clean and clear you could drink it!








Fresh spring water:


Fresh Wasabi:


Fuji-san poked her head out from the clouds for about 20 minutes so we could get photos:


a little shrine and an orange building:







Hope you enjoyed my pics! I have even more pics of cherry blossoms that I took last weekend, the last of the cherry blossoms for this year. I'm not sure if I'll post more than one or two of those though.

anyway, I'm off to shower, watch a show, and revise a lesson plan. Sorry I've been so terribly absent lately from LJ. I miss everyone and hope to catch up soon! Please don't defriend me - I promise I'm still around, just busy and a bit overwhelmed by my job and my life at the moment.

hope everyone is happy and healthy and having fun in your lives. Pop by and say hi if you can!