Jello Legs

Saturday night, Aaron, Oli and I decided to get together on Sunday and go hiking in Sannomiya. Aaron, Oli and I are all new teachers, we met at training in Osaka two weeks ago. Aaron is Canadian, and Oli is British.

So we met up in Sannomiya, and just started walking uphill. We stopped by a shrine, and saw a wedding! It was beautiful! Here's a few pics of Aaron (in the baseball hat), Oli (in the blue jacket) and myself (with hilariously witty captions, written by me, of course):

Aaron and Oli, ringing a bell.

Aaron talking with a woman.

Oliver ringing the main bell, right behind the wedding. Don't worry, everyone else was too. Apparently, a wedding isn't as awesome if there aren't random people ringing a bell loudly right behind you.

Main enterance.

The wedding ceremony.

Aaron and Oli ringing the bell.

Oliver and I are such tourists...

And of course it wouldn't be complete without me throwing a thumbs up!

After the shrine, we just started walking towards the mountains. Aaron was leading the way like he knew where he was going. We found a dog park, and a set of stairs leading into the woods with this sign:

So of course we started walking up the trail.

I am sooooo out of shape. I thought my legs were going to fall apart! But I made it all the way to the summit, and yelled "YATTA! (I did it!)" to some Japanese hikers haha. They laughed.











If I doubted that hiking would be fun, it was so worth it. This was the view we had of Kobe once we reached the top:
Beautiful!!!! If you can see it, in the valley at the bottom center of the photo is a graveyard. We walked through it on the way back down.

Budda's wearing a scarf and hat because it gets chilly in the mountains.

After all the hiking, we were tired and thirsty. So we went to a pub, and had a pint! I know Aaron looks really angry in this photo, but I just love the light and the bar background :)










And here is the beer I got. Hoegaarden. Delicious! Oli said I looked like a hobbit because it was so big! hahaha.

So that was my adventure yesterday. This morning, I woke up at 6 and watched Carolina kick the crap out of Oklahoma and advance to the Final Four for an unpresidented 19th time. I thought my legs would be sore and stiff and I would be unable to walk today.... but I am fine. It's really surprising. I'm not sore or achy at all! Hooray!

Today, I'm doing laundry, and cleaning up a bit. I walked down to the market, and talked to a lady about fish for a minute haha. I hope we were talking about fish....

Bought some salmon, and veggies, and am making rice right now! Going to eat lunch, and hang out the wet clothes on the balcony to dry!

XOXO Mom & Dad

Damn ethernet cable...

The ethernet cable I have is SHIT! It doesn't stay plugged into my computer, so if I sneeze, I lose connection. Not cool.

Random something I just thought of:

My Canadian coworker got a big kick out of my pronunciation of "equator". I saw "E-quator", and he says "equ-a-tor". Also, I say "kaht-in" (cotton), whereas he says the more proper "cot-ton". Freakin cannucks... kidding.

Trash Conundrum

Japan is very particular about their trash and the disposal thereof. You must separate trash into burnable, non burnable, cans and PET bottles (but no with the caps), etc. There are special bags you buy for each, in varying size and many more categories than I remember.

I have so much trash in this apartment right now because I am terrified of offending my neighbors or the garbage collectors. Also you can only put your trash in the designated spot on Fridays and Tuesdays between 5am and 8am.

Problems:
1. My crippling fear of being yelled at for being a stupid foreigner who can't separate trash.
2. I can't carry all the trash at once, but I should take some out each week, so it will quit accumulating.
3. I have no idea where I'm supposed to take it. I don't want to wander down the neighborhood with bags of trash at 6am (although that would be pretty funny to see... maybe I'll stage a photo op).

In lighter news, had three classes today, all end of term classes. SPEECHES! It was fantastic, these students work so hard. My highest level class is such a breeze, it's mostly just conversation with them and among each other. They're so smart!*

Last night, Jen came up from Tarumi, and brough GYOZA! MMMMM Chinese dumplings, but they're fried instead of steamed, so that makes them Japanese? I dunno, they're just effin delishious. That and fried rice, I was set. We were going to watch "Kung Fu Panda", but we ended up just talking for two hours. She went to Tokyo this weekend to visit a friend, so I might just watch it tonight.

Sooooooooo happy Carolina beat Gonzaga!!! Hell yea Elite Eight! I hope to watch the UNC - Oklahoma game tomorrow.

Bought what I thought was a grilled cheese tonight, turns out it was egg salad and cheese on french toast? Super awesome anyways.


* Smart in Japan means slender, so I keep telling students "You are so slim!"

Teaching kids is a hoot

I am so tired.... Kids classes are exhausting! But I really enjoyed it! My second class was just two kids, super smart, SO CUTE, and very full of personality. They kept making fun of me not knowing how to spell Japanese elementary school names.

Walked back from the subway through the market, which stays well lit, with pretty decent traffic. It's better than walking by the main street in the dark. Plus, it's a shorter distance. Tonight a woman was walking her cute blonde curly haired dog, and he kept running up to me and following me. Still, didn't bark. Strange.

My whole town is very quiet... all the time... unsettling sometimes.

I thought Jennifer was going to come over with Kung Fu Panda, but so far, no word. Damn not having a cell phone...

Slackerizing

I spend a lot of my down time at school wandering around. I feel like a slacker sometimes. I usually end up trying to stay out of the way, because everyone else is busy. I sit in my room and daydream sometimes :)

Today I have two kids classes! EEKKK!!! Fridays are my busiest days, 5 classes. At least I've already taught two of them this week, so that's no problem.

The head teacher that's leaving and my coworker go spearfishing together sometimes. They're going again in April, and invited me! I doubt I'll get in the water with a gun, but you can be sure I'll be there taking photos of the whole event. Maybe I'll dip my toes in the ocean too...

The front desk staff lady asked me to write a little blip about myself and to take two photos to be put on our school's website! Here's the link, it's not been changed yet:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://www.aeonet.co.jp/school/school.php%3Fsno%3D2840&prev=hp

But now you can see some of the people I work with.

Last night I made salted salmon. I brought the leftovers into work for lunch, and everyone was asking what I had. They were almost shocked that I liked fish! "I thought Americans hated the smell of fish?". Well, it's not my FAVORITE smell, but it tastes so damn good I don't mind. I wonder if they think I've only eaten hot dogs and hamburgers my whole life hahaha.

The other foreign teacher at my school is from Canada. He had never heard of Dudley Do-Right, which if you're unfamiliar, is an American cartoon about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It was kinda in the same vein as Rocky and Bullwinkle (the villain was Snydley Whiplash). I found a clip on Youtube, and sent it to him.

This weekend I think I'm going to explore Minatogawakoen, and photograph. There's a shrine here.... somewhere.... I better take my dictionary so I can ask directions :)

Going to work!

Tuna sashimi

I've realized how food focused this blog is. Sorry. It's very important to me :)

Went to the grocery store after work with Vince again tonight. He coached me on fish. I bought some tuna sashimi (thinly sliced to be eaten raw), salted salmon, and saba. I just wolfed down the sashimi, and have my eyes set on the salmon.

OHMYGOD this salmon is the best thing I've ever tasted. Hellooooo new favorite food!

Ok ok ok... non food news:

We have a new Japanese teacher at our school! She's super nice, and spent a year in England. So, after being in Japan for two weeks, and teaching for two days, I am no longer the newest teacher at my school. Wow.

The toilet in my apartment is the first western style toilet I've seen in all of Japan. Not really sure how I feel about this, because Japanese toilets have a heated seat. It's fantastic. Now I know the meaning of "freezing your ass off". My apartment gets cold, and the bathroom is like a meat locker.