It's Snowing!
Mood:  surprised
It's Saturday afternoon and I'm baking Christmas bread and it's snowing! Granted it's not sticking to the ground but the snowflakes drifting by my window are real and they are so wonderful. I'm definitely in the Christmas mood. I'm leaving on Dec. 26th for CA. It will be good to visit my family and see if I can handle the reverse culture shock of going home. It will be really weird to be able to read street signs again.
Have a very Merry Christmas.

On a much sadder note....I attended a funeral this morning for one of our 8th grade boys who committed suicide this week. The impact is indescribable. It has affected staff and students so much. I am so very sad.

Welcome, Ildiko and Wayne
Mood:  celebratory
Ildiko and Wayne just arrived on Wed. evening from Spokane. They are my first guests from the states to stay at my apartment. This gave me a real reason to do some serious cleaning. It looked so nice that I finally took some pictures of my living room and dining room. My guests seem cozy as bugs in a rug with futons and comforters in my tatami room. Ildiko is an artist and is working with an agent to try to sell some of her work in Japan. Her art is very good and I'm sure she will be successful here.
Friend's Photos

Post Office Story
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: Ain't it amazing?
Here's a great little story to illustrate some of the dramatic differences between our two cultures. I got a phone call at 7pm at night last evening from the post office. Q: "Did you purchase a money order from the post office two weeks ago?" A: "Why, yes, I did." (nervous pause, oh no, did I do something wrong?) More questions about the money order....very vague and I just don't understand what he's getting at but he wants to know if I'll be home this evening for a visit. (Oh, my dear, have I done something really wrong?) Then finally, "Well, we over charged you 500 yen and we need to return the money to you tonight." (That's about $5 and a sigh of relief from me, whew, I didn't do something dumb for a change!) Me: "Oh, that's ok. Just forget it."
He: "Oh, no, we must return your money. We are so sorry for our mistake." Me: "Oh, please just donate it to some worthy cause." He: "Oh, no, we can not possibly do that. Will you be home this evening so that I can deliver it to you?" Me: "Please just put it in an envelope and mail it to me." He: "Oh, no, it is illegal to send coins through the mail. Please, I can be there in 20 minutes.) Me: giving in - "Well, ok."

Twenty minutes later my doorbell rings. It is the little Japanese postman right across the street. (I am very surprised because I thought that I had bought the money order downtown and was expecting someone to drive up in a taxi. He just walked across the street!) He: "Sumimasen. So sorry for the inconvenience. Here is your 500 yen and a little plastic fire hydrant piggy bank as a gift. Oh, and by the way, will you sign this form that you have received your refund?" Me: "Why, of course." He: "Oh, and by the way, on this form here that you filled out when you purchased your money order you stated that you needed this money to pay bills in the U.S. I am so sorry, but that is not an acceptable reason. Could you please write a more specific reason for your needing this money?" Me: (Oh, my gosh, am I really in Japan? This is so weird.) "Why, of course, I own a house and have to make my house payment." He: "Ah so, desu ne." I give him a little Christmas gift of mikan (tangarines) and some cookies and after a lot of bowing we complete this incredible exchange. He encourages me to use his post office again in the future. Welcome to a little part of Japan.

Hiking and Gondolas
Mood:  lucky
Now Playing: Oh, what a wonderful day!
Wow, wait till you see these photos, folks!
We had a fantastic hike up a mountain in Shin Kobe today. Didik-san lives in Kobe and has been eager to take me on this hike for weeks. I called Miwa at the last minute and she and her two friends also joined us. Siddique from Bangladesh came too. The park is called Nunobiki Herb Park. There were gorgeous views on the way up including a "Fragrance Garden," as well as edible herbs and vegetables. Waterfalls made for a few "Kodak moments." Also the view of the bay and Rokko and Port Island helped me get even more oriented with this area. Rokko is a man-made island. They just chopped off the top of a mountain and now they have a flat little city-island. It's a very international place but very flat.

The weather for the last few days has been rainy and cold so I bundled up in long underwear, sweater and turtleneck. I was a bit uncomfortable but very happy to peel off layer after layer in the wonderful sunlight that prevailed.
We discovered a glass-house (conservatory) with papaya, banana and coffee beans growing inside. Way too hot to stay in too long and our cameras steamed up so bad that we couldn't take picutures inside. We had lunch in a meadow towards the top followed by an exciting ride down in a gondola (a first for a couple of my Japanese friends). Then a quaint tea house with Bangladeshi music for our friend, Siddique-san.

We decided to stay till sunset to view the luminaria. These are well known and attract large crowds each night in December. The theme is a "Celebration of Hope" and first began almost a year after the last devastating earthquake, I think in 1995. Huge structures of elaborate lights are stretched out on a few blocks of the city. They are probably 30 feet tall and reminded me of stain glass windows in their intricacy. Classical music is played which adds to the atmosphere and cameras and cell phones were clicking madly everywhere. What a way to end a perfect day.

Lost my Kasa
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: Singin' in the rain
Well, I lost my umbrella today.
It was a cold, downpour and someone must have needed it worse than me.
Luckily, I was near a 100 yen store. So I bought another for only a dollar.
This was a sad day for me, because I knew that some student had taken it. I've had that umbrella on the bike ever since September. Noone has ever touched anything on my bicycle. I mentioned it to a teacher the next day and he told me not to leave anything on my bike. Sad to think that it's changing in Japan too.

Another Beautiful Day in Paradise
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: Oh, what a beautiful morning.....
Saturday, Dec. 6th

So every once in awhile, my batteries start to run down and I need a recharge. Beginning a new teaching assignment at a school where the kids are definitely "NOT SHY AND VERY LOUD" did me in this last week. I have a sore throat and am feeling really, really drained, so here's what works for me: I go to bed fairly early on a Friday night. Well, actually, last night I fixed myself a "medicinal brandy" (Mom's recipe - hot tea, honey, lemon juice and, oh yeah, brandy). Then I don't get out of bed until I just can't sleep anymore on Saturday. I do my daily 1/2 hour meditation and throw on my running clothes and go for a run. So this morning that's exactly what I did. Except I forgot to look outside first and, when I hit the pavement, it was pouring rain. Well, I didn't want to end up feeling worse so I went back upstairs, threw on my "Nanook of the North" cozy, comfy warm night gown and made myself buckwheat pancakes with home-made applesauce. Then I made a couple of phone calls to the states, that always makes me feel wonderful.

I felt so good that I went for a bike ride to a store and bought a few last minute Xmas presents and then the rain stopped. So, of course, I get back into my running clothes and out the door for an hour plus run. (I've been working my way up to an hour). I ran from my apartment to the Shukugawa River and followed it down to the ocean. This is the first time that I've made it all the way to the ocean and the sun was setting as I ran to the beach. Wow, what a view. By the time I got home it was dark and the full moon had come out so I ran under trees along the river by moonlight.

Ended the day all bundled up in my comforter with a cup of tea and the newest Harry Potter book.

Now that's the way to recharge!

Table Tennis
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: Oh, I'm happy, oh so happy.
My bicycle odometer rolled over 800 miles today!
I am so enjoying my new school. The kids are so enthusiastic. I've already committed two faux pas (sic?) this week. First, during lunch, the kids were asking me lots of questions and I automatically stuck my chopsticks in my rice when I turned around to answer a question. I HAD BEEN WARNED TO NEVER EVER STICK MY CHOPSTICKS IN MY RICE. oops. I was corrected immediately. What I didn't know is that it's a tradition to put a bowl of rice with chopsticks sticking out of it in front of your home shrine when someone has died. sumimasen! Next mistake was walking into class sucking on a throat lozenge. Again, I know that candy is not allowed in school but my throat was sore and I forgot to get rid of the thing when I walked into class. I was immediately noticed by the students. again....sumimasen. These kids are very observant. They don't let anything pass them by. I've been amazed when someone noticed something small that I was wearing or the color of some earrings that I wore the day before. Seems that they really are aware of details. I know that this is a generalization but in general....
I had a free period this morning and some of the 3rd grade girls asked me to play table tennis with them in P.E. today.

Campaigning
Campaiging goes on for a couple of weeks. Every day at lunch time the students come in and do a little campaign speech for a few classes. They take turns so that everyone in the school has heard every speech. The candidates always take a friend with him/her. The friend also gives a little testamonial about his/her friend. This is all very serious. They wear banners across their chest and stand at the entrance of the school in the morning saying "vote for me" for a few days before elections. There are posters on the walls. I asked some of the students who they were going to vote for or who they thought would win and got some blank looks. Little did I know that everyone who ran for office got elected! surprise, surprise.

My First Day at Masago Chugako
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: Twenty-four days till Xmas
A new school, new teachers, new students. Masago is only about 3 miles from my apartment so I get to sleep in a few extra minutes in the morning. I take the same route that I have been using but just turn off sooner. Our office looks out onto the bay and there is a gorgeous curved bridge that has the sun shining on it most afternoons. Gorgeous. This is a newer school than Hamako but still no heating in the classrooms and, I'm sure, no air conditioning either. It's hard to beleive that I was wearing as little as possible just a few months ago. Now I'm wearing almost everything I own at once. A neck scarf and gloves are a must during chilly bike rides to work in the morning. I have found that a t-shirt under my turtleneck and then a sweater vest over that and a jacket is pretty cozy for now. I know it's going to get colder and I have my little handwarmers sitting in my desk drawer for when my fingers start freezing. These hand warmers are made of some chemical that when it hits the air it heats up. There are sticky ones to stick to your back under your jacket. These are supposed to be very effective at keeping your core temperature up there.

Masago is a little bigger than Hamako. I have 4 classes of 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders. That's 12 different groups of 35-40 kids each that I get to work with. Change is always stressful and my first challenge is to memorize all the new teachers names and begin memorizing some of the kid's names. What fun.

Pumpkin Pie Party
Mood:  party time!
Now Playing: Happy Thanksgiving
Sunday, Nov. 30th

Well, I got brave and had my first get-together this weekend. Since the turning of Halloween and then Thanksgiving in the states I was definitely getting the urge to cook and more specifically to bake. When I discovered that most of my Japanese friends had heard of pumpkin pie but had never tried it, that gave me the courage to try to get a gathering together.

First task was finding pumpkin. I haven't seen anything that looks exactly like a pumpkin in the markets here so my first attempt was with some baked yams. I tried "pumpkin" bread at first. That was successful after figuring out how to use the microwave/oven/toaster. The first loaf was a bit burned on top then I discovered that I had the oven rack in upside down. sumimasen. Next, Connie and David brought a couple of cans of pumpkin home. So the next pumpkin bread was authentic and very yummy. Then I discovered that a friend from Bangladesh had never even heard of pumpkin! Oh, my gosh, I gotta have friends over and introduce them to a taste sensation.

So, the next step is finding more pumpkin. I found all I needed in Sannomiya (which is in Kobe). I invited about 20 folks thinking that I would get about 10 people to show up. Well, Didik invited his girlfriend and she invited her sister. Didik also invited Troy, our Australian friend who came along for birthday dinner at the beginning of the month. It seems like a lot of folks decided to bring friends to try the pie. Luckily, I got the idea early on that this may be a popular party so I baked 5 pies and 4 mini's on Saturday. David actually had to go out and buy another Pyrex pan. I baked one at a time in two ovens (David's downstairs) and mine. It took about 4-5 hours but, boy, was it worth it.

Didik and his friends arrived early on Sunday. He whipped the whip cream for me. (I actually found powdered whip cream, just add milk and whip!) Didik also set up my computer to the boombox and played DJ for the entire time. Everyone chipped in making coffee and cutting pie. Miwa brought a present (a Japanese card game) Some of us English speakers got to test our knowledge of hiragana with the cards. Yuko and Yoshiki brought their two little girls so we had a coloring activity in one room. My teacher friends enjoyed working with these two cuties.

All and all a very fun Sunday afternoon.
I think I will do this again!