End of a long week

I usually have to go to the BOE on Wednesdays and kind of kick it there for the whole day, but this week I went to 3 elementry schools and spent 2 days at the junior high. A full week. On top of that I have had this killer pain in my left shoulder and part of my neck. It be from sleeping wrong. I have woken up the last 3 mornings in a ton of pain, it is unusual and seems to linger. I'll shake it off eventually.
Today I spent the day at the Kasamatsu Elementry school. A great place. In the morning people asked me how I like their school. I said that I loved it, but maybe not the second grade so much. I don't hat them, they are great kids. It is that there is 12 of them and they can be insane at times, especially the one ADHD kid. He just gets up and walks around in the middle of class and does whatever. He is cool though. I just tell to sit and he does. However the 2nd grade teacher, who doesn't speak English well wrote me a note in English and handed it to me just before class saying, about, "Do me a favor. We, the second grade class, try hard to study English. Please don't hate the 2nd grade." I felt really bad. She seemed mad at me. I didn't mean this. I guess this one outcome when you try speaking a language and don't care to make mistakes. I had to have another teacher translate my real feelings, which just that the class can be difficult at times, but doesn't mean that I hate them. I like them all. Ahh difficult, muzukashi, ne?
I have been just invited to go with my BOE staff to a education reception in a city about an hour away on December 10th. $95 gets me food, hotel, drinks, and travel there. Should be interesting I said that I'd go.
Tomorrow I am thinking of going to Osaka. I say this every weekend. It has been three weeks since I have been there. I should buy an electronic dictionary. The only place that has a suitable electronic dictionary is in Den Den Town in Osaka. There are so many other places to other than Osaka though. Kyoto is just about another hour on the train north of Osaka. Nara is about a 30 minute train ride East of Osaka. Both Nara and Kyoto have been capitols of Japan at one point and thus contain numerous historical sites. I have been to Nara once and saw the biggest attraction, the Todaiji, which contains that largest bronze statue ever housed in the largest wooden structure in the world. The statue is of Buddha. At the Todaiji I crawled through a hole in one of the pillars which is supposedly the same size as the Buddha's nostrail. Anywho I have not been to Kyoto. I also want to go to Ise which is about 3 hours North East of here. In between here and Ise there is also a town where Ninjitsu was born, that is the art of the ninja. So that must be a cool place too. Then west of here there is the longest spanning bridge in the world that connects Honshu to Shikoku. Beyond that there is Hemeji Castle, which is suppose to be the best castle in all of Japan. So there are many places to go in my region. Osaka is the closest. During the war it was bombed back to the stone age so there aren't really any historical sites there anymore. There really was any there to begin with since it has always been a commercial and industrial hub since the Meiji Restoration started in 1868. Kyoto and Nara are the cultural centers. Kyoto is number one. I need someone to travel with too. So come and visit me and we'll go. Ikuzo. Ikimashou.

Oh the laughs

The teachers here at the junior high have a good working relationship. They are always laughing and amusing themselves about what the students do. It is a pretty warm atmoshpere. Too bad I can understand much of anything, except a few words. Someday I will, someday.
Today it is rainy and cold. Seems like Chicago, except when you look out the window and see the mist rising off the near-by mountains surrounding me. I keep forgetting that I am in a far-away land, on a huge island in the Pacific. The Pacific. So far from Chicago. I spent a good hour last night looking through old school, sailing, and party photos on my computer. Photos of good times long ago. I am glad that I am taking a lot of pictures everything while I am here. Everyday here is like the language lab I had to go to once a week back in College when I was taking Level 1 Japanese. Except for being for only 45 minutes it has turned into 24x7, everyone, everything, everyplace. Except when I dream, everything is still in English. Except for one dream where I said something in Japanese at one point. And now when I think to my self sometimes I will think I a few japanese words. For example, 'someday' had now become 'tabun,' and 'alright' has become 'daijoubu.' And today I tried reading some French words; I took French for almost 4 years in high school. I read nearly every word with a Japanese accent.
Tuesday, I was a routine day. I did my two classes at the junior high and hung out there until about 3:00 when I headed to the BOE. There I hung until about 5:00 or so and then went home and made some spagetti, because I didn't want the rest of the sauce to go bad. After dinner I made a card/picture on my computer of the faces and names of my 1st graders from the elementry school that is next door to me. A teacher did this for me at the another elementry school for all the grades there. I now almost have every students first name now, well at least the cool kids.
Wesnesday was spent at Kawaharago Shou. My neck was killing me. I had slept in the wrong position or something and so I was cranky, but by lunch I was making the kids laugh with my half-asses Japanese and having a good time. Before going back to the BOE I went to the Junior High where it happened to be picture day and so I was included in the teacher's picture. Cool. I wonder if this school has a yearbook or anything like that. Then I went back to the BOE where I bought a plane ticket home. Afterwards I went home and made some udon and watched 'The Birdcage.' Ok.
Yes I will be back in Chicago for New Years. So if anyone that is reading this wants to hang out when I get back, please e-mail me or give me a call.

Beautiful village

I must admit that Miyama Village is truly a great place. Right now all the leaves are changing color and so some mountains look as if they are on fire. It is breathtaking when the afternoon sun peers through the mountains into the town. It is a far cry from Chicago. Sometimes I wonder how I got here and why me? How lucky I am.
Friday was great. The kyoto-sensei from the junior high took me to the cosmo-park in Kawabe. It is just that, a simple park with a giant dome housing a really big and expensive telescope. Back in the great finacial days of the early 1990's when it seemed that the Japanese were going to buy everything on the planet they government gave many small communities millions of extra dollars to beautify their towns and villages. Kawabe decided that a good investment would to be to build a giant telescope and star gazing park. Today it is losing money, but it is a darn cool place. I was able to discover for myself a few new costellations and look through the giant telescope. I saw a double ringed nebula, it was cool.
Anywho, Kasamatsu had a two day carnival/flea market/fair and called it a Matsuri. A bunch of cool events and little stands selling food. They had the toddlers do a tricycle race, I think I might have seen some betting going on. The second cullminated in another mochi maki and tossed hundreds of mochi on to an eager crowd. Again people were covered in flour and dirt.
I finally had some real sushi at an authentic sushi restaurant in Gobo. Suppesdly there is not really any great sushi places in Gobo, but I thought this place was great anywho. It costed a ton, but was great. The sea urchin didn't taste so bad either even though it looks like snot.
As for today I helped burn brush at Sougawa Elementry school. It is illegal in Japan to burn brush and just about anything because Japan is so polluted, but the old folk in the mountains and rural areas don't care and do it anyways. I guess they figure that since they've always done it then it is ok. Anyways, we had two piles burning and burned a ton of brush and leaves. I still have some smoke in my lungs. Afterwards we placed in the smoldering fires sweet potatos wrapped in tin foil so they wouldn't burn up. These were sweet potatos that they school had grown themselves too. Then we just sat around and ate some of them. It was really relaxing and great.