Kyoto Fun

I think there could be no better birthday trip then the one I just took. I decided to go to Kyoto for three days and visit friends I had made way back in May. You might recall the story I have often told of the dentist I met on the train to pick up my Dad from the airport when he visited. The dentist was terribly nice and invited my father and I to dinner. Since then we have kept up contact through email and I had been wanting to see them again. This time when I visited I stay at their house and they showed me all the sights in Kyoto.

The best thing I did was go to the Iwatayama Monkey Park! It was soooo cool. There are monkeys just walking around everywhere and you can stand right next to them, they are so close. There are no cages. I did notice signs that warned us not to make eye contact with the monkeys or try to touch their babies (just good common sense really). Then in an enclosed area you could feed the monkeys. Of course I paid my 100yen and got a small bag of bananas to feed the monkeys. They stick their tiny fingers through the bars and ask for the food. It is soooo cool. I highly recommend going there if you are in Kyoto!

Also, I went to Nara and saw the big buddha. It was good fun cause there are deer roaming around and you can feed them too.Overall I had a fantastic time. The dentist's family took great care of me and took me around everywhere so I could relax and enjoy. There is nothing like Japanese hospitality. I just hope I can return it so well if they come to visit me in the states!

Softball Day turned into Cricket Day

After some planning, asking, pleading, hoping my school agreed to let me hold an English (as in the language, not the country) Softball Day. In the end, Roger (an Australian CIR) and I managed to prepare everything and even got the Daito Softball team to come along. Finally, the long awaited day came. But what could ruin a softball day more than no one showing up? Well that is an easy question, Rain!! Not that we were unprepared. Roger had brought a cricket set and we had made sure the gym was available to use, just in case. And it was good we were prepared because it rained all morning and afternoon. On the up side, I got to play cricket for the first time. It was interesting and the watered down version that Roger taught us was alot of fun. In the end it was a good day. I am glad I got to do something international at my school even if it was not exactly what I had planned. A big thank you to everyone who helped out, Janelle, Sara, Hugh, Todd, Nick, Naoko, and Mishima-san!

More Halloween

Just when you thought you had had enough of Halloween pictures I have a few more up my sleeve! These pictures are from my own high school, Daito. Enjoy!

The JET Halloween Party

Here are the pictures from the JET Halloween Party. Jenny, Nick, Todd, and I went as greasers and pink ladies. It was very cute. We participated in the pub crawl where we had to go around to 7 bars. And thanks to Jenny, since we had a drink in each bar, we won the bonus prize, which was a free drink at one of those bars! Good looking out Jenny! This was a really good time. So good even, or maybe cause he was drunk, Todd got up and sang Karaoke!! Isn't he cute.

Halloween Fun

This past week has been filled with Halloween fun. I had a Halloween party for my students at Iinan High. Only five 3rd grade girls showed up but it was alot of fun. Signe also helped out and brought some cool games. We bobbed for apples, played the 'what is the creepy thing in the bag' game, made cookies, and then made halloween shapes out of clay.
The clay picture is a picture of the scariest thing of all, a gaijin (foreigner)!






















Then on Sunday Janelle and Gabi held a Halloween Party for elementary school children. I work at the craft booth. We made Halloween finger puppets (yubiningyou). It was good fun! The kids were real ly cute and into it. They came in great costumes, some of them that their parents obviously made. There were different workshops for the kids to go to. There was a haunted house, a scary story telling workshop, outdoor games, and the craft workshop. As you can see Jen was the mad scientist!

Random Things

So I figured I would post some random keitai photos I have. I will warn you they are mostly of my cat. I know it is sad, but she does lots of cute things. She is always trying to get into the shopping bags after we take the groceries out of them and attacking things in the house. The other night a tiny lizard got into the house and Kitty stalked him until he was close enough to attack. We did rescue the lizard because we couldn't let kitty kill it. She kills enough things already. My drive way is littered with mouse parts. She tore head off of a mouse and just left it there on the ground. She is a killing machine but she is cute while she is doing it!

So this is my life now, talking about my cat. I mean I do 'things', just not exciting things right now. For example, I am spending a third of my time in Japan just within the glorious establishment of Green City. One reason I give it my loyal patronage is because it has 8 slice bread. This is a treasure and should get them some kind of award. Also, my fridge is tiny so I have to go to the store all the time to buy stuff cause it can't hold anything. And recently Todd and I bought a DVD player from Inai. It was only 4000 yen, so being that cheap, it doesn't have any region restrictions on it. Therefore, I can play DVDs from Europe, Japan, and America! Whooooooo! Life is good!

Oh! and more exciting news. Two of my friends from home, Andrea and Dave, just got engaged! Congratulations!! I am thrilled to be able to go to the wedding next September!

Let's Enjoying Japan

Just for the record, this is how Todd spends his time in Japan!