I got my haircut this weekend...It was awesome. I cannot tell you the care that I got! Four people worked on my hair! I felt a bit odd because you don't have to tip here, next time I am going to bring a gift. The pic of me in the red jacket is pre-haircut-the giant jacket is the uniform jacket for boys in school. Post haircut are the rest of the photos. They ironed my hair pin straight. We went to a local bar to show off our new cuts!

Monkey!

Our small local park zoo! I go and visit about once a week, after my Japanese lesson.

teaching

Here I am at work! This Monday I taught a special needs class. Was a bit nervous, but it was one of my best classes I've had!

Time is flying

Oh my gosh! It is December already! Turkey day past without much notice. We did have off on that Wednesday for a Labor Thanksgiving. I went with my play mates for some Indian food before we went to practice. There could have been much worse ways to spend it and I was thankful for good friends. They really have no idea what Turkey is here in Japan. I should them a picture and some teachers couldn't even come up with a word for the bird in Japanese. The temp turns ever colder and my house is like a cave. It is so bizarre to come home to a freezing and I mean freezing cold house. I am a little scared of what the bill is going to be... I do try to keep the heater on 65. I can't begin to talk about how stupid I think the kerosene heaters are although I can't stand to be in my kitchen without one. The dishes are piling up I tell you. Needless to say I am very grateful to have all my winter clothes and I've become a big fan of leg warmers! The pressures at school have not eased up. The elementary kids are still wonderful and everyone else drives me nuts! I was very proud that finally my one group of fifth graders mastered 1-100 I didn't think it was going to happen. My English dept. took me out for this awesome meal, finally some Japanese food I can rave about! In some ways I have no idea where November went, but it just went fast. Not making much progress on the Japanese language, but not giving up! There are a bunch of photos bellow so enjoy!

Abe School

These students helped local farmers plant rice and grow pears. They picked 1000lbs of pears which I would like to say I carried about 400lbs of that! The meal was all hand made! The soup was really awesome! They had crushed peanuts/sugar on the rice cakes. The best miso soup I've had. Usually it's cold and bland at lunch.

elementary school

This is why I love Japan. The little kids! Some times I think they are going to have a heart attack when they see me because they get so excited. They bring me so much joy; I often want to cry. I wish my visits with them weren't so rushed, but whenever I am having a bad day or upset with the teachers all I have to do is walk into their classroom or see one of them on the street and their little faces light up and all is at peace in their excitment and innoncence.
Please notice the heaters and how cold they seem to be. NO HEAT in the gym. It does drive me nuts because from time to time a little one will be running around with no socks and shoes on because they forgot their indoor shoes at home. This was a harvest festival I went to at lunch time today. You can see a man grinding rice to make rice cakes. I wouldn't say the Japanese rice cake is bad, it's just not for me, I am not used to it. I actually find it like glue to eat. They made grind the rice and I almost broke the woman's hand because the thing was so heavy!

hallway

Here is the empty school hallway just outside the staff room. It is about 35 degrees in the hallway!

Fall

For all the rain we get the changing leaves aren't bright at all. This is the view from my Middle School.

Cell Phone!

My phone Japanesed out!

daily life

Here's a glimpes into what it looks like when I am sitting in my chair in the staff room. Don't worry I am not addicted to Pringles they have coins that I use for BINGO.

Osaka

Here are some images from Osaka. Look what I found...LL Bean! I didn't go in but I had to laugh because Starbucks is right below it!

kobe

Here are my friends and I in Kobe. Hitomi and Tomomi are our awesome Japanese friends. We went to this small amusement area and they had they large robot animals you could ride. I've never seen anything like it, I guess they are very old here! We attemped to have a race! We took a ride in the ferris wheel and I got a pretty cool shot of a hotel on the wharf.

pumpkins

I hand colored about 400 pumpkins and stuck little treats inside of them for my middle schoolers. I hand colored because it turned out the middle schoolers don't have markers...I learned my lesson when I didn't get a single thank you. (The students added the faces)