Plans for Okinawa never made it off the ground so I ended up going camping with my friends, Nicole, Jackie, and Rachael during the last half of Golden Week. I had to work the Saturday before Golden Week so I got Tuesday off work. That means I had to go to work on Wednesday kind of randomly and then the next day left for the islands. Golden Week by the way is just a week of national holidays that I don't really understand because well, I'm not from here, I don't celebrate their holidays! I just know it's marked in [View Full Entry]

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I went to Busan over the weekend and really, Korea is a great place. I didn't have much time there, but for those of you who know that I love Korean dramas, this place is like my Mecca, I had to go there! We (Janet from Tottori and I) took the high speed ferry from Fukuoka to Busan and it took about 3 hours to get there. The cost was about the same as a flight to Seoul, but had to take the ferry just for the experience. It was a lot like riding a plane though because the procedures [View Full Entry]

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This week, I'm in Fukuoka! It's haru yasumi (spring vacation) at school so I took the chance to get out of Tottori and go to a new place. I'm taking Japanese conversation and beginner classes at Genki Japanese and Culture School (Genki JACs for short). This city is great, I think it may be my favorite city in Japan. The weather right now is sooo nice, it reminds me of the Bay Area actually so if feels familiar to me. The city itself isn't that big, but there's a lot to see and it's also pretty easy to navigate. I'm doing [View Full Entry]

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Had a fantabulous weekend and got my first real taste of SUMO! The tournament is in Osaka now and of course we had to go! At first we were going for the cheapest seats at 3,000 or so yen, but those ended up being sold out so we shelled out the extra money just so we could go. For a lot of people this would be their last chance to go to sumo because they aren't re-contracting next year so I said why not and just went with it. The lovely Rachel, went out to Osaka early Saturday morning to get [View Full Entry]

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Today was graduation and I managed to work it out so I went to Konan's graduation instead of Koto's. You all saw how much I love those 17 kids who are graduating, I HAD to see them one last time before the all went off to high school. The ceremony itself was pretty dry and a little hard to get through because it was all in Japanese. Good thing I knew when to stand and bow though. Also, at least it wasn't too cold today because otherwise the gym is just unbearable. There were speeches by the principal, a guest speaker, [View Full Entry]

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I am sitting here at work on a Saturday...why?? Today is PTA day so　parents will watch classes in the afternoon. The good news is that there is no school on Monday to make up for us being here today. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but in Japan, kids go to school on weekends as well as the teachers. They do bukatsu (club activities) and don't go to classes. So really, they are in school ALL THE TIME. I don't know how they do it. I can't see American kids going to school just so they can practice football [View Full Entry]

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Last weekend I went to Okayama (prefecture South of Tottori) to watch a bunch of men in fundoshi run around fight to get these sacred sticks. It was raining the whole time and AJET (the organization of JETs who plan things in their prefectures) misunderstood the rules for the section we were going to be at and they told us we couldn't bring umbrellas! Of course, after the festival was over, we were soaked to the core. I managed to hide under some other people's umbrellas, but I was still cold and wet. Definitely helped that I wore my boots and [View Full Entry]

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I am switching to the big school next week. Of course there are pros and cons to this situation. I will definitely miss the school where I am now because I've gotten closer to the students and the teachers here. I'm not as lost in the mix as I am at the bigger school. I can actually joke with the teachers and they are even more willing to speak to me in English. Overall it's just a more laid back atmosphere. At the bigger school I am a lot more shy...if you can imagine that, mostly because I don't feel comfortable [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday, we had our dress rehearsal for the English play, Wyrd Sisters, we are putting on here in our city. Needless to say it was a loooong day, but it is exciting to see things coming together finally! Lately I have been pretty burned out from play practice especially last week because we had three practices instead of just two. It's amazing how one extra night can put a damper on free time. I just felt like all I did was go to work, go to play practice and then go to sleep and the pattern would repeat the next day. [View Full Entry]

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Philippines!! Well, more specifically, Pagbilao!!! Nothing too exciting has been going on here...most days I chill at home with my Lola (Grandma to you English speaking folk). Christmas was aiight...had to get up super early to get ready for church. The mass was gonna start at 8:30am, but of course you gotta get up early to shower and eat breakfast. I brought clothes that were a little more dressed up, but it turns out that I didn't even really need to dress up that much! I could have gotten away with just jeans and the red top I brought... I was [View Full Entry]

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