A long time ago

A long time ago is when I last posted. For all of my three readers I am sorry. But has been a crazy last few weeks.
My fun started the weekend before I came back to the States. I went on a trip with teachers from Junior HIgh. We went to Kobe and Himeji Castle. The trip was a blast. Of all the grand castles to see in Japan the one in Himeji is the best. It is huge and was not rebuilt like many of the other castles that are around in Japan today. It was fun to see some of the other teachers let loose and drink a bit and have fun.
As a memorial to the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, the city set up a series of holiday lights in the heart of the city. The lights are arranged on wire frames that stretch down a street and in to a courtyard. At night it looks like a long corridor in a cathredal. THe facade is arranged like an Itlian cathedral and the play church like music as you walk through the spectical. It is somewhat impressive. Impressive enough to the Japanese though, so much that they turn out in the thousands every evening during the holidays and jam the streets downtown and wait for an hour and half to get a look at these lights. It was nuts, just a sea of people shoulder to shoulder clogging the streets. The event is called Luminati and is uber famous.
The following Tuesday I was headed back to Chicago. I was so looking forward to it. But after having a great time in Kobe over the weekend I was feeling like exploring Japan more, but I had already bought a ticket for home, so awa I went. Before I left though, on Monday I had to dress as Santa Claus at Sougawa Elementry school and had on presents to the 11 students there. They had a cool fun little Christmas party. I won the bingo game and got some sort of cardboard baseball pitching aid thing. It has drawn on it a batter and 'X' marking the strike zone.
Before I left on Tuesday I had to teach a couple classes at the junior high. Some of the kids said goodbye to me before I left for break, which was cool.
So then I took a few trains to Kansai airport. The airport that is a man-made island that is slowly sinking a few milimeters a year in Osaka bay. It is a cool airport though. Fifeteen hours later I was home. Well back at my apartment in Winnetka, IL with my roomate. It took about a week to adjust to the new time zone, and it was hard to do. The whole break was a one big blurr of fun. I spent a ton of time playing Star Wars Battlefront for X-Box. Playing online against other people was so addictive. Pegging Clonetroopers with a shieled-up Droideka was a blast. I also got out hung out with friends and went to cool New Year's party downtown where I hung out with a ton of old college friends. We all lit sparklers at the stroke of mid-night. Going into the city during a snowstorm was a blast too. I didn't indulge myself on American food though. I did whatever though. The night before I left, and the day before my birthday we ate a Japanese restaurant downtown called Sai. I had the usual, Unagi-don(fresh-water eel over rice). I still haven't had a great Unagi-don here in Japan.
Then I came back here. It almost felt like I never left. After another 13 hour flight I didn't give myself time to adjust to the jet-lag. The next day back I headed into Osaka for some shopping and bought a new hoody/jacket. On the following day, Monday(yesterday), I headed to Wakayama's Marina City with my Japanese friend Tetsuji. He had a couple of free tickets to this European themed theme park. The place was designed like a city in Italy and they had many rides and a bunch of restaurants. One ride was ridiculous for this time of year. It was a water ride where in ride this big boat down a huge ramp into the water with a big splash. It was freezing out and people were riding it. We opted for a roller-coaster with spinning cars and similated movie ride. Not a bad little place.
On the way there though I saw several optimist sailboats out on the water. I was pretty excited to see them out there. Optimists are small sailboats for children to learn to sail in or race. I taught kids how to sail in thise boats for 3 years and to see a bunch of Japanese kids out racing in them in strong winds was a cool. I was able to get a closer look. I will go back at somet point and see if I can find out yacht club or whomever is doing the dinghy(small sailboat) sailing and perhaps I can get out on a sailboat or participate somehow.