Mood:  flirty
Wed. Nov. 24th
Baking Frenzy

Well, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and it must be in my genetic structure to cook and bake for the holidays. I found myself baking 5 pumpkin pies today as well as chocolate chip cookies and a tamale pie. Gosh, there's no way to stick a turkey in my microwave so it's going to be a non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. My friend Michelle and her son, Justice, will arrive tonight on the shinkansen from Tokyo and then we will spend Thanksgiving Day exploring Nishinomiya. They will have to entertain themselves without me on Friday because i have to work that day. I want them to be familiar with the layout of the town so they can have some fun exploring on their own. Michelle is a fellow teacher from Spokane. She landed a teaching job at a military base just outside Tokyo just about the same time that i got this job here. It has been fun to share our trials and tribulations adapting to the Japanese culture. It's also interesting to see the contrasts in our teaching experiences here. She is teaching on a military base with a real international group of high school kids while i am in the traditional Japanese public school junior high system. Very different situations.

Tuesday, November 23rd
Hikingu and Onsen

Today is a Japanese National Holiday. School is out. Actually, we are in the middle of testing at Yamaguchi and i don't have any classes this week except on Friday. I decided to take a bit of a vacation so i took Monday off and will take Wed. and Thursday off too, yahoo. I met Didik, Masa, Zain and Shinobu at the Ashiyagawa train station this morning. We set out hiking around 9:30am and hiked up and up to the top of Rokko Mountain. What a great group of friends to hike with! We reached the summit before 1pm. The sun was out and the air was cool. It was a perfect day for hiking. The trail is well used and it wasn't a difficult hike with only a couple of parts that were a bit rocky and steep with ropes in place to help us. We ate lunch at the top and then headed down into a valley on the other side into the city of Arima. This is the site of one of the three most popular hot springs in Japan, i've been told. We ended the hike with a relaxing bath in one of the traditional onsens there. Then we hopped on the train and headed back to Kobe for a delicious Indian dinner. What a way to spend a vacation day. I'm so very lucky.


Monday, Nov. 22nd
Lost Key Day or
Just Call My Ms. Klutz!

So let me tell you the story about losing my apartment key.