Nagoya Day Trip

The time for our trip was moved up from 8am to 7am, so I made sure to set my cpu and clock alarm both for bright and early, and then I proceeded to wake up the next morning at 7:15 and freak out. Somehow my cpu alarm went off but didn't make any sound, something that is bothering me. Also, after changing the alarm time on my clock, I guess I just forgot to turn it on. This resulted in me causing everyone going on the trip to have to wait 15-20 minutes for me. Wow, I felt like a POS.

This was quickly forgotton though, as I was introduced to another unique aspect of japanese culture: it's totally ok to drink in the morning no special event days. So here I am, riding a bus to Nagoya with my co-workers drinking at all of 7:45 am. By the time we arrived in Nagoya, several of my co-workers (and myself to a small extent) were already inebriated. Wow, I think that's a cultural thing I should bring back state-side.

The first place we went was the Kirin Beer Factory/Beer Park. We kinda got blindsided as outta nowhere Iijima's administrative staff showed up and we ended up touring with them.(this included the mayor.) All the teachers kinda had a 'shimatta' moment when they realized it was their bosses that were showing up, and here we were after several hours of drinking. A shame. It was also awkward having to talk to the mayor about things like how I like my bike and stuff. I'm also ready to be done w/ the 'meta-boru' jokes that keep getting cracked at my expense. In Japan, meta-boru is a deriviation of something along the lines of metabolic disorder or something that is used in reference to people who are overweight. Thankfully the alcohol helped take the edge off that and relegated me to just thinking 'you laugh short stuff, I could still put you through this window' instead of actually doing it.

Afterwards, we went to Meijimura, a meiji-era villiage (Meiji era was Japan's westernization period, 1868-1910). The place was very nice, including lots of western and japanese style architecture often side by side or even within the same building. It also included some buildings they had brought in from around the country. Some of the buildings reminded me of Old Main, since they are roughly comparable in age. But before we went to all of this, we had lunch. I sat with five of the male teachers, and apparently lunch was the peak time to try and down beer. Who knew. The meal itself was delicious, sukiyaki, aka meat and veggies cooked in sugar and some sauce. The meat was phenomenal.

Afterwards, lots of the teachers I was with were just going back to the bus to sleep until it was time to go. The rest of the teachers had left earlier to get some wandering in. Luckily, I was able to meet up with Oomori sensei and we made our way around the area. It was lots of fun, relaxing, enjoyable. In fact, we came across a large catholic church: the first I'd been in since coming to Japan. The stained glass was very beautiful and there was someone playing music in there as well, a nice touch. It was fitting too that this week the papacy is beaficating 187 martyrs who were killed in Japan over 300 years ago. Unfortunately we had to high-tail it outta there becuase we were running late. We hopped on one of the old meiji-era trollies, and ended up going the wrong way, which was funny, but we met up with two of our other teachers and the four of us continued on out. We briefly stopped and looked at a house built by Frank Lloyed Wright, and then headed on out.

The last stop was at an outlet mall. This was a nice way to end the day, but I didn't expect to be getting anything. I poked around a sketchers but didn't see anything. I then stopped in an Adidas store and saw that they had many shoes from 22cm - 30cm. I wear 30's or so. Well, I wasn't having any luck seeing any as I was poking around, so thinking they might be in the back, I asked an attendant to help me out. She said they didn't have any for the shoe I was looking at. I asked her if they had any at all in my size, she started looking around, and eventually found one that was a 32cm (14), and I tried it on. It was too big, but not terribly so, but I asked if we could keep looking. She found one more pair, but they were in a color I didn't want. She then went into the back and poked around for about 5 minutes, and came back with just one box. I opened it up, and they were perfect, blue shoes, exactly what I wanted. They were listed as 12's, but fit perfectly, and best of all, it was about 15$ cheaper than the ones I had been looking at earlier! I felt pretty stoked.

Afterwards I went through a few more stores, but didn't see anything in particular that I wanted. Unfortunately, there wasn't an electronics store, so I couldn't get my USB controller. I did end up finding a present for Pete though, and talked with the vendor in both English and Japanese about it. He seemed like a cool guy, and I hope pete likes it!

I had a delicious whip cream, caramel, and nut crepe to end the time at the outlet (after debating buying a pair of pants at a nice store, but I couldn't justify the 60$ tag, even if they were good pants.)

That pretty much rounded out my day, the ride home was uneventful and all.

Here are the pictures: Nagoya Day Trip

here are a few of the highlights:

The Mid-year conference...

...was surprisingly enjoyable. Kasuga picked me up bright and early and we left just after 8 on thursday morning, making it to Shiojiri right around 9:30 when the doors opened. turned out that the event didn't start until 10:30 though, so we just kinda pattered around for an hour to pass the time. The place we were having this conference at though was fantastic. Not only was it really pretty, but it was set up on the side of the mountain with a beautiful view of the valley below. I still just can't get used to how cool it is to see for nearly twenty miles and see everything in between. The events we had for the day were a mixture of enjoyable and not so. The keynote speaker was engaging in the fact that he talked about some of the problems we face as ALT's and how we can try to be creative in our ways to address the innate probelms of the educational system we're a part of. The two afternoon sessions we had weren't fantastic though. One included 'how to team-teach' which was annoying to me, and I've only been here for four months. I just know it was terrible for the people who are in their 2nd or 3rd years, because it is so counter-productive to show demo lessons for 10 minutes as a presentation when 1) lessons are actually 50 minutes and 2) we've all been team-teaching already. If anything, it just showed me that some of the other ALT's are really rude and inconsiderate people, a vibe I could get in just watching them lead a demo lesson for 10 minutes. Yikes.

Afterwards we made our way up to the hotel for the evening. The SHS and JHS ALT's all went to different places, and we had been given a warning not to be too hectic and get too inebriated as apparently had been the issue in the past. Kasuga was one of just 2 or so JTE (Japanese teacher's of english) who was spending the night up at the place, since we are being reimbursed for the cost (and at 90$ a head, I'm very glad of that!) So we followed one fo the buses that was taking students up to the hotel. Kasuga was laughing pretty hard at the nickname Jesse and Matt had given the bus (prison buses) because of the fact we were taken even further up into the mountains with no way to go out and get away and had no access to shopping etc.

The place was pretty nice and we had a fantastic dinner served in the traditional style. Before dinner though, I had kasuga take myself and one of my roommate on what I guess could only be called a 'beer run'. We had no luck finding the Lawson's conbini we were given directions to and dropped into some random guys little liquer shop and stocked up for ourselves and others. I felt deliciously delinquient.

So there was a very nice general mood of revelry at the hotel, as is per the norm whenever a large group of us ALT's get together.

After dinner and lots of chatting with friends I made my way to the onsen. FINALLY I made it to an onsen. It's pretty despicable that I hadn't hit up a japanese public bath yet, but that's fine. It was extremely relaxing to shower off and head into the very hot water. I opten to head outside (considering it was about, oh, 35 degrees) and relax in the water. Also surprising is how quickly your western worries of modesty drop away (also aided by the alcohol, no doubt) and you just enjoy it for what it is.

Afterwards, it was only 9:30 and I felt like I could just call it a night, but I went with one of my roommates to a room that was having a little party of sorts. I spent the next couple hours there, and by the time I left it was getting pretty out of hand but was still just a blast altogether. I ran into Kasuga a couple of times, completely blitzed, and I guess he was pretty popular because he kept running into people out and about in his imparied state. When I saw him, he was in the process of trying to find his coat, but to no avail. (When I asked him about it this morning, he had no recollection. a shame.) This mornings breakfast was a traditional japanese breakfast, which was about the worst thing ever on a morning after stomache. Lol.

The sessions this afternoon were both good and bleh. The sessions on dealing with JTE-ALT communication issues was great because I think we really got to drive home to point to the JTE's how important it is for us to get feedback and talk to us if there are any issues. There was also one on how to internationalize the classroom and I was able to come up with some good ideas for that while I was doing my 'secretary' work for that presentation (aka writing up a 1 page report on it so people could re-create the lesson if need be. :P)

The one on recontracting with JET was little more than an interrogation with veiled threats that we should re-contract, which was lame as hell.

There was also an interesting one to end the day going over information gleaned from a survey given to JTE's and ALT's. One of the most interesting things we discussed was the results of "Should ALT's be expected to use the exact same accent as the speakers in the textbooks?" 25% of JTE's said yes, and 0% of ALT's said no, which was really interesting.

We wrapped it up and then made our way home. Tomorrow at 7am the bus leaves with the teachers for Nagoya. We're going to a meiji-era village, beer factory, and a shopping center. I'm hoping to get a USB video game controller adn green food coloring (so I can make x-mas wreaths for one of my classes! :-D)

Next up: pictures!

I spent two weeks growing a beard for no-shave november, but I had to bail on it due to the fact public servants in japan are discouraged from having a beard.

the room we stayed in last night view from the window this morning, the rain coming down was washing away the snow we got last night.

in one of the presentations today.the view on the way out after we were all done; note kasuga's determined stride/look in the bottom left.

heck of a view! really beautiful the first afternoon, the clouds were just thick enough so you couldn't tell where the clouds ended and the mountains began.

morning game and today

Yes yes, I know it's been forever since I've posted. I'll try and turn that around here. :P

So this morning, Kubota sensei was giving speaking tests to the class I was with, so she had me practice some new dialogue with some of the students for a bit. Well, we finished in like 20 minutes, so we had nothing to do for the next 40. So we played a game called castles. The best part of this though, was that the boys team wanted to be called 'Barak Obama'. So on the top of their castle, I drew an american flag as their flag, and then i drew a little barak obama underneath it.

the game was going pretty well, the students were having a good time with it. Then i drew a cannon on their castle, and before I knew it, we had an 'Oooobama cannon' thing going on. it was pretty lulzy, since every time the boys got a question right, they would 'fire' the obama cannon at the girls castle.

also a bonus was one of the students who the boys called 'boss', as well as a couple of the boys getting really intense when it came to writing on the board.

Next period, I'm going to the bank to make sure I can send money home this week, since I have to start paying off all that debt I've accumulated. :P

Tomorrow I'm going to the mid-year conference in Shiojiri near matsumoto for thursday and friday. we stay in some dorms and go to 5 different presentations. i'm the secretary for one of them, which means i have to take notes on the presentation and turn in a paper talking about the points presented. it looks to be pretty blech, but whatevers, I'll survive.

saturday i'll be going to nagoya with about 15 other teachers for the day. we'll visit a meiji era villiage and have lunch there, and then spend the afternoon in a big mall. i'm hoping to pick up a usb video game controller there so i can play some of the games on my computer i have, particularly ken griffey jr. 's baseball, lul.

i also agreeded to go to the end of the semester party in december the day before i leave for china, so i have a feeling the trip to nagaoya and to seoul that day will be pretty long. haha.

Beautiful fall

I'll snag pics hopefuly tomorrow, because it's just strikingly beautiful here. The mountains are green, brown, orange, red, yellow, white on the tops. There are reds in the leaves here I have never seen before.

Today, I was pump faked and found out that for Kawaii sensei's 1-1 class, I was going to have to teach on my own since she was gone. I was a bit worried because I wasn't sure what we'd cover, but I ended up lucking out that it was the 1-1 class (since they're a big class they're split) that I really like, so that was a good thing! It also turned out that today we have some head honcho's visiting or something, so Kubota sensei was sent to my class as backup for me, which was nice beacuse then we just did basic textbook stuff while the bigwigs were in the class looking on, and then I played the 'typhoon' game with them in the 2nd half.

My next class was with Kasuga sensei, and we did a 'skit' where we talked about similarities between Xmas in america and new years in japan. It was pretty cool and the head honcho's showed up again and the principle talked to me afterwards about how interesting he thought it was, so I think we made a good impression. I also lucked out by wearing a tie today and looking spiffy. whew. The class with kasuga also moved into the next lesson, where we did the new dialogue about 'silent night' etc. We also got to listen to the song, but the boys in this class are so freaking rowdy. Kasuga chewed them out for me, which was nice lawl.

It's also been getting pretty cold here, which has helped outline just how weak my cardboard walls are. I've been getting into the style of making sure to cordon off sections of my apt. so that I'm not stuck leaving the header on constantly, and I need to run to a store and pick up some more socks and maybe wool slippers or something. wahh! It's also brutally cold in the hallways at school, since some parts are open air and they just have heaters in the different rooms.

during cleaning time, I decided to head on outside and help some of the students doing the raking of leaves. BRR! it was so cold! I ended up helping severl different students, but included one of the girls from the super shy 3 girl class, but she's the most extroverted of them. she did a little jump and looked genuinely shocked to see me come out and start helping her. I laughed pretty hard to myself about that.

Today I get to have 'mediterranean sea curry' and i bought the hottest one they have, because japanese curry is so freaking weak. nom nom nom.

Last week...

Wasn't particularly exciting, since it was only a 4 day week and all. I did get caught off guard one day and had to do games with two classes because Kawaii sensei had planned for me to do them over a month ago, but we had moved them because of Bethany's visit etc etc.

High points for the week consisted of getting to do the 6 differences game with Kawaii sensei's 3f class (the lowest 3rd years) and her being shocked by how into it they got as we played. Once again proving i'm worth my weight in gold (pfft lol). I also finally found the stuff to make chinese food too, which turned out to be awesome. :-) Taste was great and it was cheap to make. win win! The weekend itself was uneventful as well, just relaxed and took it easy.

today i got pump faked as I found out kawaii sensei is gone and I have to teach her 1-1 class today, so i'm going to do a little bit of studying and then play a game with them. whee! :-P

rest of the weekend

On Sunday morning, after waking up at noon, chad and I went down to the showers. The next stage in our fun time at the nanner house involved us having to use our t-shirts to dry off after we took our showers. lawl. I also had a weird moment where I didn't realize a person had started using the shower next to mine, so as I was rinsing out my hair, I saw soap go rolling by under my feet and I was trying to figure out how it bounced off the side of the wall or whatever. It was only later that I figured out that someone was in there, whoops!

We then headed on out for Kyoto, as we were going to go to Heian-jingu for the day. The trip takes about two hours if you include the walk from the nanner house, but it was a nice way to just relax and enjoy the day. Chad and I laughed at mistakenly saying 'good morning' to people instead of 'good afternoon' because we had woken up so late. The ride was nice and relaxing on the way there,one of the benefits of starting from the osaka end was that it isn't difficult to snag seats on the express lines.

We got to our stop, and gave alberto a ring and were able to meet up with Haruna and Alberto, which included chad and I getting a hug in the middle of a busy street from Haruna, which was super adorable. I think we'd all forgotten just how awesome she is.

So Chad and I grabbed some lunch (it was nearing 3 lol) from a conbini and then we made our way over to the temple. We caught up with Haruna and also enjoyed the beautiful scenery (as well as the nice weather, lucky ducks down in Osaka) as we made our way to the temple.

Once there, we started snapping photos of pretty much everything, and then chad and I sat down and had our lunch. Afterwards we made our way into and through the temple grounds, laughing like fools and snapping pictures the entire time.

We got some great ones that included the scenery and just us having a great time through and through. It was a good way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.

Afterwards, we made our way to the train station and bid farewell to Haruna, then Alberto, Chad, and I meandered Kyoto for several hours. We started by just wandering around the city to see what was going on and such. Along the way, we had a great time walking along a path down by the river that snakes through the city. while doing this, we found a spot where rocks had been placed through the river so we could hop across. This led to a frenzy of silly pictures and general shenanigens in the middle of kyoto river and us just having a great time. We paused for a rest on the other side next to a group of japanese and french chatting and playing the guitar and violin. It was a good way to pass some time, for sure.

After this, while walking along the banks, we saw a couple standing at the front of a room (their backs to us, as they were back along the windows and we were behind the building walking) who were at what appeared to be their wedding. I decided it would be fun to snap a picture of them from down where we were, and I set up my camera (set to night settings) so i could get a nice exposure. I pressed the button, and then FLASH! which prompted a yell of 'CHEESE IT!" from alberto and us sprinting away like fools. Ahahah.

This led to a ton of laughing by us and then we finally made our way to an okonomiyaki place for dinner. The best part of this dinner was either alberto finally breaking down and throwing his ice cube on the hot stove to watch it melt, and then as it's boiling having the waitress come up with our food and alberto having to look really guilty, or the lady refusing to let us put the sauce on our own food and alberto telling her 'i can do it myself' several times. Also great was that there was a contingent of what we figured must be engineering majors at the store, who all decided to leave at once.

Afterwards we made our way to a conbini and snagged some crepe's as dessert (there was a crepe store in it) They were really delicious!

After that we made our way back to the station and started to head home, since it was about 2 hours to make it all the way back to Osaka. We got back with time to spare and went to bed around midnight since We had to leave the nanner house by 8:30 in order for me to make it to Kyoto in time to catch my bus. Unfortunately, I had a terrible time falling asleep that night, as a combination of a hot bed, and mosquitoes in the room pretty much drove me insane. That, and I had only been awake for 12 hours when i tried to crash. Things were made worse by the fact that my phone, which was going to serve as our alarm, died at 5am.

But then I was finally able to get some sleep, and Japanese technology came to the rescue. The phone turned itself on to set off the alarm, and then shut itself off again since it was so low on battery. awesome.

so we got up and headed on out by 8:30 and made our way to Kyoto station. It ended up actually being a bit of a close call, as we got into kyoto station with just 15 minutes until my bus left, and this station is HUGE. Luckily, Chad's Japanese skills saved the day as we were able to ask and get directions to where we were going, and I got on the bus with time to spare. I bid chad farewell and made my way home. The layover in Nagoya was a bit long, but I was able to pick up some cookies for the staff as a gift, and I also got to ride on buses that were larger this time, so my knees were very thankful that they had some room this time. I got in at just around 6 and started to walk home.

I was surprised by one of the ladies who was on the bus with me stopping and asking me if I wanted a ride home. Turns out she is the wife of one of the teachers (I'm pretty sure that's what she said!:P) and she was kind enough to take me home. Awrw!

All in all, I had an exceptionally great time this weekend haning out with old friends, and I laughed harder than I had in a while. Greatness. :-)

It's Just Culture Bro: Kansai Gaidai Reunion Tour '08

First and Foremost: links to my complete albums on facebook, because I have almost 100 pix posted and I'm not bringing them all over here. do yourself and me a favor and mosey on over there if you like what you see. Just click on the album links below:

Album 1

Album 2

So, I got up bright and early (5:30) on Saturday morn, and quick threw on my clothes and headed on out for my Bus. Along the way (the cold way, brr!) I saw the band leaving for Tokyo for their competition this weekend. I got to the bus stop around 6:30 and caught my bus for Nagoya. Unfortunately, my height doesn't lend itself well to riding in some (not all) of Japanese buses, and this was one of them. I was just too tall to be comfortable (I couldn't sit normally, my knees hit the seat ahead of me.) Luckily I was able to catch some Zzz's here and there along the way (one of the perks of being up too late the night before). Before I knew it, it was 9 and I was at Nagoya Bus Center. I had 45 minutes to get to my next bus, as well as purchase tickets for the way home. It was going to be busy. I was able to find the central ticket area after getting a bit confused (thinking I had to go up to the 3rd floor, although I had been dropped off on the 3rd floor caused a bit of confusion.) I was luckily able to purchase a return ticket to Nagoya and then to Iijima, but the lateness of it, combined with them being individual tickets, ended up costing me a bit more i'm sure. It also added an inconvienance of me having to go from Osaka (where I was staying) all the way up to Kyoto to catch my bus. Whoops.

I then caught my connecting bus to Kyoto, and although there was a decent delay due to all the traffic of people heading to the Keihan (kyoto/osaka, their so big it's basically one huge city now) to see the sights and such since it was a 3 day weekend.

I ended up getting into Kyoto station a bit late (the biggest railroad station in the world I think) and after asking a station attendant, I was able to figure out how to get back on the old Keihan line to take me to Kansai Gaidai. Chad (one of the guys I was meeting up with, who's an ALT not too far from me) and I were texting each other, as he was about 45 minutes ahead of me, and we were getting all excited to be coming back. I got off at Hirakata (after passing Makino, where I always went as Heather's host family lived there and I bowled there alot. If I hadn't been late, I would have gotten off there and walked.) and caught a bus up towards Kansai. by this time I had a huge smile on my face, and made my way up to the school I hadn't been at for two years. Felt like old times!

Turns out we picked a good weekend to swing by, as it was the school festival and so the place was just rocking! I found Chad after a few minutes and then we just meandered around for a few more (as Alberto ended up having work that day, so he couldn't meet us there.) While doing this, I passed someone I thought I recognized, and after staring at him, and passing him a couple more times we both realized we knew each other. It was Sho! :-D I said hi and asked him how things were etc etc. Then Chad and I met up with Miho, another friend from the first time at Kansai.

She joined us as we made our way to the train station and would serve as our guide to get us part of the way to the hostel we were staying at (Banana House!) so we could catch up as well as hang out. We got to the station, had some baskin robbins, and then made off for the Banana House down in Osaka. The ride down there brought back tons of memories as well, and I loved making my way down there.

We met up with Alberto and made our way to the Banana house. we got there and were super surprised by the 'rustic' nature of the place. It was chock full of character, but also was pretty dingy. Chad and I had this idealized version in our heads, sincwe Alberto is a realatively picky guy, so we figured if he had just moved out after living there for two months, it couldn't be that bad!

Well, kinda. Chad and I ended up falling in love with the place, but it is best for short visits. :-P

We dropped off our stuff after signing in, and headed back out. We went to a Nabe place, which also had nomihodai 'all you can drink', so we got o have really well made drinks along with our delicious food. It was worth dropping the extra coin for it. Afterwards we bid farewell to Miho, and Alberto, Chad, and I walked around shinsaibashi as we prepared to do some bar-hopping.

This didn't last long though, as the first place we tried, which was kinda classy but nothing spectacular, decided to devour our wallets. Japan has this awesome deal where they give you a little something with your drinks, which you have no choice on, and charge you an absurd amount for. We paid 15$ for 12 teeny slices of burned fish. On top of 8$ beers. Ouch.
We went to a huge complex that is made up of 40 or so small one room bars, and settled on one called 'el diablo'. Of course the three cute Japanese girls inside cleared out as soon as we arrived, and we proceeded to enjoy our drink, and then had to rush out because it was getting late and we needed to catch our train back.

Chad and I had a bit of a scare as we were going home, as just after midnight, one stop from where we were going, the train stopped and everyone had to get off. We thought we were screwed at first, but since everyone else was sticking around, we realized for some insane reason they were taking the train ahead to the last stop; empty. hurr.

We then got back on a train, got to Nakamuzo and walked on back to Banana house. Alberto had warned us that they might not be toilet paper but we hadn't really paid attention, and it turns out we should ahve. Our bathroom lacked it. :-( Luckily, Chad had some multi-purpose notebook paper with him. I don't think they knew that the secondary purpose would be 'TP'. Hah!

We then went back to the room and I played PSP while chad skyped with his GF and friends back stateside, who all sounded like awesome people. I eventually crashed around 2 and chad at 4, and we slept in until noon.

I'll have to break up the story there, as it's getting late. I'll post more tomorrow!

The week leading up to Halloween

Sorry about the delay in getting anything new put up lately. I've been out of my mind busy lately, and finally have some time to post some info! So, this last week I've been trying to get ready for Halloween and make sure I could put on a great day for the kids! It actually turned out great!

Early on in the week, I asked Kasuga to help me out by seeing if I could get some help ordering bus tickets to Osaka/Kyoto for this 3 day weekend that is just finishing up. It ended up being a bit of a scare as due to the leaves all changing color, and it being a 3 day weekend, tons of people were heading to Kyoto/Osaka for the weekend, and the original bus I wanted to take to get to Osaka was already full. After some tense hours (it was so busy we couldn't even originally get ahold of the bust center in Nagoya) we finally were able to work out a change in Nagoya and getting me into Kyoto.

I also asked if I could do a Halloween lesson on Friday, and got approved. A big shoutout to Bethany who helped me with the lesson plans for it too. :-P

The week continued to slip on by fairly uneventfully, with classes really becoming a set thing and me just being a teacher. I hate to say it, but it's kinda to the point now where the daily grind doesn't really warrant it's own blog post anymore, so that's kinda part of the reason these are becoming more and more spaced out.

I did forget to mention that last weekend I went to Kasuga's again and spend the night after a nice full evening of drinking with him, his wife, their friend, and their son's ALT from Auz. That was also a great time and I shared some halloween candy with them. Just going to randomly throw that in here. :-P

So, Thursday afternoon I made sure to get the decorations up for the halloween stuff we did on Friday. I also bought a ton of apples and brought my 8 bags of candy with me to school (thanks mom!)

Friday ended up being a fantastic day all around. For the lessons, I had the students play halloween hangman (which they loved, even though the words were difficult), watch thriller and monster mash while they drew pictures of what they wanted to be for halloween, go through a halloween presentation with new vocabulary words (for halloween!), and watch a video on trick-or-treating. Then I had them bob for apples as well. The bobbing for apples was probably the best part, just because it was terribly cold outside adn we had them do it on the balcony to avoid getting the LL all wet.

We also got a pumpkin carved as well and the students loved that incredibly too. A few of the students (even some girls!) were willing to take a shot at scooping out the insides, or carving with the knife. I ended up having some extra classes even, as several smaller classes combined so that even more could get an opportunity to see the haloween stuff. I didnt' wear a costume per se, but my sweatshirt had skulls on it, i figured that kinda counted.

The best part though, was the constant battering I got of 'trick or treat!' by students so they could get candy. The dots were a HUGE hit, and I had saved a bag of smarties and students liked those as well. The candy corn wasn't quite a huge hit, but mainly becuase it wasn't individually wrapped I think (i bribed students by offering them two instead of one since they were smaller).

I would have a line 20 people long of kids who wanted candy. some would be shy and would have trouble coming up, but i made sure to visit as many kids as i could so everyone would get some (again, thanks mom!).

I even ended up putting the jack-o-lantern out in the front part of the school w/ a candle so the students could see/admire it.

That afternoon I went over to nanakubo elementary and showed them pictures of washington (to the 3rd and 4th graders) and I had a great time. I really like the 4th and 3rd grade teachers. Really nice, and the 3rd grade teacher gave me a ride back to school afterwards. The kids LOVED the pictures, and I got lots of "that looks so fun!" about the 'new dawn' park.

I came back to the jr. high and took down my decorations (kawai sensei had already done lots of it for me, which was nice!) and then since I had a ladder to take some down, they convinced me to help them change some halogen's in the room.

this led to a funny conversation with me asking if jon ever had to change light bulbs, and kubota sensei saying 'of course not!' and me responding 'oh, so this was a plan then? convince the new guy that it's part of an ALT's job to change light bulbs? I'll never know the difference!" which they got a kick out of.

I came home and had dinner, and packed up for my trip to Kyoto/Osaka for the weekend, which I just got back from. that's next!