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

I can't believe it's already Wednesday. where has the week gone? moreover, I can't believe it's already June! the year is flying. Anyway, I've been so busy as usual, and I'm super behind on everyone's posts. Plus I've got like two pages of emails and comments sitting waiting for my reply too. Right now, I am procrastinating doing the lesson plan I need to have ready for tomorrow's lessons - I decided that instead, I should go ahead and do a picture post because I never have time, so there's no time like the present.

and I'm tired so I'm not making any sense.

Anyway, here's some pictures. Some of you may have seen some of these on Facebook (the food ones), but there are some here I won't be posting on facebook (for example, pictures of my students or my schools).

So as usual, by category and behind a cut, and in clickable thumbnails. Enjoy!

( Some pictures of my school lunches and the students )

( food, more glorious food )

( random shots )

Well that's it for now. I have some cute pictures of the bunnies at the elementary school, and some more school lunch!! yay! I haven't gotten around to making another blog for Japanese life. So this is where I'm posting it all!! Hope you enjoy it:)

now I need to sleep!

hopefully I can catch up on emails this weekend...and tv shows. I've got three of those to watch on my computer too!

As promised, here's a picture post. Some of these were taken quite awhile ago - a week or so perhaps. But I wanted to post them before I get too far behind. As before, they're clickable thumbnails, to save space.

Enjoy!

( food )

( flowers )

( koinobori )

( other stuff )

the weather's improving, so I hope to get out and take more photos. though I'm not sure what to take pictures of anymore around here. Any suggestions? What would you like to see a picture of?

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!

( Hiromi Koen in April )

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.

( Shiraito and Otodome Falls )

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!

Hi Everyone and Happy 2010! It's already the end of the second day of the year, and I haven't done anything. Nothing at all! I feel so lazy, but really most people have been on holiday, even Masahiko's parents, and some businesses close during this week, so I don't feel too guilty. However, I have been eating way too much - especially snacks and unhealthy foods like potato chips, chocolate, and other yummy cookies and snacks we bought before NY Eve. I think if I make one New Year's resolution every year, it's to stop eating so much junk food. I usually don't stick to that resolution very closely though ^_^

Anyway, I wanted to write a little bit about the food that Japanese people traditionally eat for New Year's. I will put this all behind a cut, since it's lengthy and all of you might not be interested in how mochi is made. but if you're interested, ( read on )

I should probably catch you up on any news that has been going on here. My husband might have a job starting next week - it's not glamorous or anything, but the hours are good, and he'll have weekends off. We will know for sure about it in the next couple days. I'm still waiting for calls and emails about jobs, but I do have an interview scheduled for January 12th in Tokyo. It's with a recruiting (or dispatch) company that places teachers at private schools or universities. They don't have any openings currently in my area, but they said that they want to meet me in person, and maybe have a teaching demonstration. Apparently if they have a good candidate, they actively search for openings, and if I'll registered with them, they can place me right away if something comes up. Otherwise, I've sent my resume to many places, and I'm just waiting - most jobs start in April, so I may be waiting awhile for interviews.

anyway, after my interview in Tokyo, I'm going to travel a bit north of Tokyo to Saitama and stay with my good friends the Yoshinos. They have known our family since I was 15 - Fujiko was good friends with my cousin Byron's wife Keiko, and we invited them to visit us when we lived near Denver back in the '80s. Fujiko and her two daughters stayed with us and we took them sightseeing in Colorado. I visited the Yoshinos several times when I lived in Japan 10 years ago, and Fujiko also came out to Port Angeles for my wedding in 2001. I'll stay with the Yoshinos for a day or two, and then come back and actively search for jobs again. I should also be meeting my former student Narumi, who is back visiting her family for the holiday. She lives in Singapore now and works at an international hotel, where she speaks English, Chinese and Japanese! I also hope to meet my friend Naomi again, and maybe Akiko too. It will be nice to get out and do stuff - I've been spending so much time in this house! Finally, I hope to start studying Japanese with my husband's good friend, this woman named Takai-san. She might come to my house every once in awhile, and converse with me in Japanese, so I can become more fluent and confident.

Well that's it for now. Hope everyone's New Year is going fine so far! stay warm:)

Sorry about my silly little FB rant yesterday. After your comments, and my own pondering on the subject, I realized that Facebook is what it is. Whatever that is for each person who uses it. And if that doesn't make sense, oh well. Anyway, I think what disappoints me most is that the people I really would love to keep in touch with on FB (family and my one or two friends who encouraged me to join), either don't post, or they don't comment or reply to my comments. So it's just frustrating. But one thing I do know is that I appreciate my LJ friends more than ever!!

And speaking of appreciation, thanks are due to deadwillwalk, dove95, bayareajenn and flyingichytho. I received your lovely cards over the last few days, and they have joined all the others under my tree. I'm keeping my x-mas tree up for at least another few days so I can continue to see all of my pretty cards! Heck, maybe I'll just keep it up until spring - LOL!

Anyway... without further adieu (is that the way that's spelled?), I decided I'd do a post about Japanese houses, since I'm sure that most of you are curious what it's like living in this crazy country. Also, I received several questions about what my house looks like on the inside, so I took some pictures.

I'll put this behind a cut to save your pages. If you're interested ( kochira e ikimasu )

So I hope you enjoyed your little tour of my home, and a hopefully accurate and interesting explanation of Japanese homes in general. Of course every home is different. For example, my friends, the Yoshinos, who I'm going to visit in a couple weeks up in Saitama, have a very cozy home with two floors, and with actual beds instead of futons. They also have very western amenities like big sofas and a carpeted room.

and before I go (wait I said that already!), here's some pictures I took of our little outing to Numazu, a nearby town, on Sunday. ( more pictures here )

I have some news, and some other pictures for New Year's (of my mother-in-law making mochi), which I'll post tomorrow or the next day. But this is long enough, so if you're still here, then thanks for reading.

Happy New Year everyone!

Hi... I'm not sure who's out there now in LJ land since we're at the start of Christmas week. But for those of you who are watching, I thought I'd post a few pictures that I've taken in the last few days, just to give you an idea of where I am, and what it looks like here. I still need to get a picture of the little bird that Masahiko's dad caught in a field recently near here. She's so cute! anyway, here's a few pics for you...

( pictures are behind a cut )

I better post these before I get so busy I forget. I've been a bit down in the dumps this weekend, so that's why I am so late...

anyway, most of these pics are of my adorable nephew Cameron - I wish I had more time with him, he's growing so fast, and changing. It was great having a couple days with him though, and also I got to see my mom, dad, brother, aunt, uncle, and even my cousin Lynn who I hardly ever see. that was a big bonus!

Trip details and pictures are ( behind the cut )