~October 30, 2000~

One more day to go and then I have a break.  I have tomorrow off which will be nice as I can finally sleep in and do my laundry.  I am down to almost no clean clothes!!!  But tomorrow I can get most of it done.

Since we don't have school tomorrow on Halloween I am handing out candy today.  I made a little container for my suckers and when my kids came to visit me I made them say "trick or treat" and then I gave them a piece of candy.  It went over pretty good when they figured out what to say. 

I only taught one class today, my 2A class with Nakasato.  She is the too cool teacher and all the kids like and respect her.  It is cool teaching with her because the kids will actually respond.  I handed out a comprehension worksheet that I made and to check the answers I got the kids to volunteer.  If they got the answer right and said "trick or treat" I gave them a sucker.  As soon as they understood this, Shirato, my smart-ass karate guy stuck his hand up and answered the first question.  I gave him a sucker.  When no one wanted to answer the second question, he answered it and I gave him another sucker.  I told the class that I would give him all the candy.  Finally some other kids started answering questions to.  Bribes work with this class!!!!

I spend the rest of the day working on my journal at my desk.  Typing helps to keep my hands warm. :).  November is going to be a long cold month because the heater doesn't come on until December.  But I drink lots of tea to help keep  me warm and I am not afraid of wearing my mitts while I work.

Today was Big Ass Cleaning day.  At the last class, the students had to clean the entire school top to bottom.  The floors got waxed and everything.  I didn't really know what I should be doing so I just hung out with my 1C's and took pictures.

School was finally finished and I headed home.  I had to go to the Hot Spar to pay my Docomo bill.  If I didn't do it by tomorrow my cell phone would get cut off.  I paid my bill (and Morgans to because she couldn't get to a convenience store.  She gave me the money) and then headed next door to buy a electric space heater.  My kerosene heater is okay but I wanted something for some instant heat.  I found a nice little one that had been reduced because it was the floor model.  I know I won't be able to heat my apartment with it but it will work for in the mornings and such.  I hauled it home, set it up and was happy.  I also set up my kotatsu and spent my evening under that.

Winter is going to be cold but I am taking steps to make sure I don't freeze.  I now have a keresene heater and an electric heater.  My kotatsu is wonderful and belts out the heat.  I have an electric carpet that I sleep on top of.  It helps to heat my bed in the evening and in the morning.  I shut up my doors to help keep whatever heat I have in.  I will make it through this winter!!!

~October 31, 2000~

Happy Halloween!

I didn't do anything for Halloween.  I slept in till 9 am and talked to my sister, boyfriend and parents all morning.  It was nice being able to catch up with everyone.  It was sunny and warm out today so I hung up my futon outside to dry it out.  Because you sweat when you sleep, your futon absorbs the moisture.  If you don't dry it every once and a while, it and the tatami can get mouldy. 

I also started to do my laundry.  Since Rick and Della were here I didn't get a chance to do any laundry because we would have had to navigate around the clothes hanging up.  Too much trouble as I knock down everything by myself anyways.  Because of the sunny day my house heated right up.  It was very nice.  I was warm in the day.  Usually I freeze at school and it felt nice to be warm during the day.

I got my house organized again.  I now have all my blankets and stuff upstairs in easy reach.  I also cleaned up some of the mess that I had made.  It is really nice to feel organized again.  I didn't really do a heck of a lot on the interesting front.  I had a relaxing day to myself.

I also watched the last episode of Survivor last night.  I already knew that Richard had won but I was shocked alot.  He didn't really seem that bad.  I think he was right when he said that the media did make him into a bad guy.  Whatever.

Morgan phone me tonight to see how I was doing.  We are going to Hanamaki to visit Peggy on Thursday.  She has a car and we are going to go on a "cultural tour."  We are going to go visit the golden temple and also go to a hotspring.  We also chatted about her seminar at the next conference.  She is giving a seminar titled "Understanding your ALT's needs."  It is for the JTE's and is in japanese.  She is going to break the JTE's into groups and pretend that they are teaching japanese in North American and they can't speak English.  Should be interesting.  One of the problems that they are going to get is going to be my heater situation!  Yay!  I am making my supervisor go to Morgan's talk.  She needs to go and listen.

I went to bed early tonight.  As I was laying in bed I got a phone call.  It was Yuri, one of those ever famous Japanese housewives who can speak English.  Apparently there is a party tomorrow night for the Yamada International Society and she wanted to know if I wanted to go.  I said sure.  Sounds like it could be fun.  Tomorrow I have to go to school but I am taking my computer and discman to help keep me busy.

~November 1, 2000~

I woke up this morning in a semi-cheery Japan I can take ya mood!  I have to go to school today even though the rest of the teachers don't have to.  I got up at my regular time and did all my regular morning type stuff.  I even caught a ride with Mr. Murakami, the accountant/money guy at my school.  It seemed like a regular Wednesday.  However I needed the school handyman to open the staff room for me since no one else was there.  I sat down, broke out the computer and discman and started working.

At about 8:30 or so other teachers started to waltz in.  Even though they didn't have to be at work today, a few popped by to do some things.  I just sat and smiled, typing away on my computer and listening to music.  One teacher even brought in his daughter.  I loaned her my coloured felts so she could draw.  She was pretty cute.

My vice-principal came waltzing into school at about 9:00 or so.  I think he was a little shocked to see me there.  I was doing fine with the heat but when the teachers started showing up they opened the window to the smoking room (which my desk is the closest to) and it started to get cold in the staff room.  I just put on my jacket though and continued beating away at my computer.

Lunch came and went and so did the teachers.  The happy PE teacher came in and asked me if I had a holiday.  I told her no.  When she was leaving she told me to have fun and work hard.  I smiled and sort of cried.  After lunch was over my vice-principal came up to me.  He asked me when I was going home.  I said 4:15.  He said that he was going home at 2:00.  He then took pity on me and said that I could go home at 2:00 also and that he would drive me back to my aprtment.  I just couldn't tell anyone. :) I was sooooo happy!

So I made it home at 2:00 today.  It was great.  I hung out and relaxed for a bit.  I noticed that it is taking a while for my clothes to dry.  It has been rainy today so my clothes aren't drying at all.  Hopefully they will be dry in time for me to leave on my holiday tomorrow.

At 7:00 I met Yuri outside my house and together we walked to the Buddist temple for the international society party.  When we got there and they opened the door I was shocked to see another foreigner sitting down.  It wasn't Blair!  I went in and was introduced.  Apparently this guy from the Netherlands has been in Yamada all month carving statues out of wood.  He asked me if I had heard of him and I said "No."  I then explained that I don't really get alot of the news of what is going on around town.

We ate and drank.  Apparently this dutch guy, Jon, had been in Japan for 14 years or so.  He lives in Tokyo.  He was kind of scary.  Both Morgan and I agree that foreigners who have been in Japan for a long time start to go wiggy.  I had a good evening though, even if I began to feel a cold coming on.

I met Yuri's husband at this party.  He is one of the doctors at Yamada hospital.  He told me that if I was feeling ill he would get me drugs.  :)  We started talking about Canada and eventually the topic got onto salmon and fishing.  I told them that we threw away the salmon eggs and head and didn't eat the skin.  They were so shocked!  Yuri and her husband have half of a plan formed to come to Canada, get the eggs, skin and heads of salmon and start a business.

~November 2, 2000~

I CAN'T BELIEVE I BURNED MY BEST PAIR OF SOCKS!*%?#!!@#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But that comes later in the day.  We should start at the beginning.

I woke up three times today.  I woke up at 6 when I heard the damn loudspeakers outside my house.  I woke up again at 8 when my headache and sore throat (yes I have caught my first cold in Japan) demanded me to take a Tylenol.  I then woke up again at 10 when I decided that I had better get out of bed if I wanted to make it to Miyako in time to meet Morgan. 

Today it is raining again.  My clothes still aren't dry and I need dry clothes for my trip.  Determined to get things dry I turned on my space heater and positioned it underneath some of my clothes.  I went and looked at my socks that were handing near my window and they weren't dry.  Suddenly a great idea popped into my head.  I grabbed two of my socks and slung them over my space heater.  I figured that they would dry and I could wear them. 

You can pretty much guess what happened next. 

When I smelled something burning I quickly took my socks off of the heater.  One was slightly singed but the other had a huge hole burned clear through.  I almost cried.  They were my favorite socks to!  They were the green, woolen ones that my grandma had knit for me!!!  ARGH!!!!!!!

After my sock fiasco I managed to get things cleaned up and I headed to Miyako.  I felt really sick.  My cold is in full swing right now.  I hung around Miyako for a bit and then met up with Morgan.  We took the bus into Morioka to hang out for a bit until we went to Hanamaki to go see Peggy.  We shopped around the department store at the train station and I found polar fleece socks.  I bought myself three pairs to make up for the fact that I ruined my favorite woolen socks.

After getting our traditional Morioka meal (the Big Mac actually made me feel better) we boarded the train for Hanamaki.  Peggy met us at the station in Hanamaki along with her boyfriend.  His name is Hiroki and he is very nice.  He makes fly-fishing rods for a living.  :)  In December I am going to go fly-fishing with him and Peggy at the bosses pond.

We hung out and talked for most of the evening.  Tomorrow we are loading up the car and heading out.  I'm pumped.  Road Trip!!!

~November 3, 2000~

We got up this morning, not so bright and early, but early still.  I am still sick but I keep popping the Tylenols until I feel better.  Peggy took pity on me and gave me a vitamin C tablet that she had.  We loaded up the car and headed out.

Our first stop was in Hiraizumi.  It is this place where there are all these temples,including this one made out of solid gold.  It was nice, even though the climb to the top of the hill sucked along with having to fight your way through the tour groups.  Today is a national holiday so everyone and their dog is out right now.  But we ventured along and took some pictures of the various things around.  Everyone else was taking pictures to.  I have seen professional camera people with less camera equipment then some of these Japanese.  Is everyone in Japan a photographer!?!?!

The temple made out of gold was cool.  It was surrounded by this new building and was behind glass but you could still see it.  You couldn't take any pics of it though, which sucked because I couldn't find a postcard set of it.  After we fought our way off the hill and through the crowds we jumped back in a car and headed to Macudonaado.  :)

After our wonderful meal we started heading towards Hanayama Village in Miyagi-ken.  It is in the mountains and there are a bunch of neat hotsprings around it.  We meandered along the back roads until we got there.  It is so pretty in Japan right now.  The hills look like they are on fire with all the red and yellow leaves.  There are also alot of people out which can be interesting considering Japanese roads.  The roads like to twist and turn and go down to one lane at almost random.  And considering the Japanese all drive like maniacs, it makes for some reall adventures in driving.  We were going to go to a hot spring right away but everything closed at 3:00 and we arrived at 3:30.  Oh well...I guess we will hit it tomorrow.

We met up with the ALT in Hanayama.  She lives in the old post office so her house is enormous.  She also has cats.  We went to dinner at this restaurant by the river but it wasn't that good.  We had to eat somewhere though because Hanayama shuts down as soon as the sun goes down.  And Morgan and I thought we lived in the sticks.  We spent our evening hanging out and watching TV.  It was pretty nice.  Tomorrow we are going to get up early and head out to the onsen.  Should be fun.

~November 4, 2000~

We got up bright and early and headed out.  I slept okay last night since the cat decided to have a soccer game right by my head.  But I am slowly feeling better from my cold so it is okay.

To get to this onsen was quite the adventure.  First we had to turn off the paved road!  Wow!  I felt like I was in Canada again.  We drove along this gravel road, bypassing large vehicles and trucks to get to the onsen.  Then we had to hike through the woods, over a hill, to get to the onsen.  This place doesn't have eletricity (it does have a generator though) and is lit by gas lamps. The outdoor pool is right next to the river. It is really cool.  I hiked right through the woods with no problems (I was so in my element.  I miss being out in the field) but Peggy and Morgan weren't doing so good.  I was like "This isn't hard.  Imagine climbing this hill in the summer, with waders on and 30 pounds of gear!"  I still don't think they appreciated it though. :)

Eventually we made it to the onsen.  It is basically this large house by a river.  As we were walking down we passed by three Japanese guys.  They said hello and then they said in Japanese to themselves "Should we go back?"  It was then that we realized that the outdoor pool was mixed bathing.  They didn't come back though.

We went in, paid our money and got ready.  The guy running the onsen told us to go right in and not wear our bathing suits.  We looked at him like "We know!  We have done this before."  We went to the womens section and started to do the whole bathing thing.  After relaxing in the indoor tub for a while we headed to the outdoor one.  Towels firmly wrapped around ourselves we went outside.

There was only one old man in the pool but we still kept our towels about ourselves.  We managed to get into the pool, without exposing ourselves to the world to see and it was nice.  It was great to watch the leaves fall and the river run by.  The only thing was that there was a very naked old man in the same pool as us.  But we just didn't look at him.

After we got nice and pruned up we headed back to the indoor pool to change back into our clothes and head out.  It was just in time to.  A whole bunch of people arrived as we were leaving.  As we were walking out of the womens section we passed by a couple of guys wearing very small towels and heading to the outdoor pool with their beer.  Ah yes....naked people in a pool and beer.

We hiked back out to the car and drove out.  Our next goal was the coast and we were going to drive up it to Yamada.  The trip back was nice and uneventful.  Since I could read maps I was in charge of navigation.  However in Japan, the roads signs indicating what roads are which are right in front of the road.  We drove past a couple of our turns but I managed to get us back on track again.

Roads in Japan can be interesting.  Japanese love to build tunnels.  "There is a mountain in the way!"  "No problem!  We will go through it!"  We went through one tunnel that was over 2 km long.  And since the tunnels aren't vented they smell really bad of exhaust.  As we were exiting the tunnels Peggy and I were ready at the windows to get them open and let in some fresh air.

Eventually we made it back to Yama-Town (new nickname for Yamada Town.  Isn't it cute!).  We dropped our stuff off and went out for supper.  After gorging ourselves silly, we went back to my house crawled into our pajamas and watched Pride and Prejudice.  Peggy had never seen it before and Morgan and I are addicts (don't ask about the Darcy action figure line).  It was fun but we only got half way through before we shut it off and went to sleep.  Tomorrow we are going to Morioka.

~November 5, 2000~

We got up this morning and headed out.  We did a quick stop in Tsugaruishi so Morgan could drop her stuff off and then we drove to Morioka.  It was nice to drive that road in a car again and not be sitting in a bus.  We got into Morioka around 10, parked the car at the international centre and then headed out to get Peggy a keitai.

When Morgan and I had first met Peggy she was dazzled by out keitais.  So dazzled in fact that she got one just like ours.  As she was getting hers set up and organized, I was browsing the neat little gizmos that you can get for your keitai.  They have this neat little digital camera that you can plug into it and send pictures over the internet.  I am considering getting it.  It is fairly cheap and may be a neat toy.  We will have to see though.

After Peggy got her keitai, we headed over to Kawatoku to get bread.  As we were walking over we passed by a Nissan dealer.  All weekend we were talking about the virtues of getting a car.  We had also decided the car for me was a Nissan March.  The darn car is just too cute.  So we walked by a dealership and there was a cute March sitting there.  We ventured over to look at it and a salesman magically appeared.  He then told us we could sit in it if we wanted to.  I climbed in....

And promptly fell head over heals in love with the car.

Now the March isn't anything special.  It is a total gutless wonder.  But it felt so nice to sit in the drivers seat again.  Before I left Canada I had just fallen in love with driving (2 solo trips out to Blue River will do that to a girl) and I miss it so much!!!  I would love to have a car.  And even though this car is a total gutless wonder it was an automatic with air, a cd player and keitai holders!!!  I climbed out of the car and the next thing we knew the salesguy had us sat down inside and was trying to strike a deal.  If we would have had the money for a down payment we could have driven it off of the lot.  And the scary thing is that between Morgan and myself we could have come up with the money to do it.  The deal we would have give us wasn't too bad either.  With a brand new car you don't have to worry about shaken (horrendously expensive inspection that has to be done on cars over 3 years old).  And when I left I could sell it and probably not do too bad.  But I don't know how long I will be here so I can't really afford to get a car.  It is a shame though.  I would love to have one.  It would make things so much easier!!!!

Eventually we got out of the dealer.  It must be a universal constant that car salemans are tricky to get away from.  As we were leaving we filled out a ballot for a draw for some items.  He then showed us the items and for no apparent reason said that we could pick one and have it.  All three of us got new freezer bowls.  Wierd place.

Man do I want that car!!!!!!

We headed over to Kawatoku, got the brown bread and then hit McCrack for lunch.  After that we said good bye to Peggy.  She had to go back home to meet her boyfriend.  We will be seeing her again at the conference in 2 weeks.  Morgan and I went to the 100 yen shop, got some more things for our houses, hit the Body Shop for some bath supplies and then headed to the station to catch the bus.  Before we went back to Miyako, I did some clothes shopping.  I needed some new shirts and I also bought a pair of fleece pants.  Life is good.

The bus and train ride back to Yamada was pretty uneventful.  I am back home after adventuring and I am acutally looking forward to going back to school.  Next week is the first week in a long time where there isn't anything major happening.  Hopefully it will just be a good quiet week where I can TEACH!
 

On to Week 16......