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Rest Assured

Don’t worry Mom.  In case you die while I’m in Japan (please don’t), I won’t have an excuse to miss your funeral, because I joined the JET Fund.  It helps us hapless JETs get back home, short notice, in case of a death in the family or other emergency.

Just wanted you to know! :)

大阪, Here I Come!…Again!

There’s a long weekend coming up (Oct. 6th to 8th), and I think it would be a great time for doing a little sightseeing…in Osaka!!!

Which means that, well, as you know…I’ve already been there, done that, buuuut!!!  This time I’ll be able to better figure out a plan for more tourist-y things now that I’m so knowledgable of the place (hah), as well as going (once more!) to Universal Studios Japan (Spiderman ride!!!).

I want to go to Himeji Castle too (in Himeji, also on the shinkansen line, before Osaka).

I hear it’s the bestest in Japan.  And one of the few remaining original castles still standing (many are reconstructions of originals destroyed by feudal political shifts, natural disasters *aka fire*, and WWII fire bombings).

Isn’t it pretty?

And made of wood!  The walls are all of plaster (thus the white), because it’s fireproof.  This is the same reasoning behind my town’s tourist attraction-ish 白壁　*shira-kabe ->white walls* (please don’t correct me on the pronounciation…it’s “shira”, not “shiro”), in a criss-cross pattern on many of the buildings.

And Himeji Castle is still a castle on the inside (since they didn’t have the pleasure of re-designing it with a re-build), unlike the Osaka Castle *what’s the name again…*, which is really just a super-glorified museum now. Just a castle’s husk…and I weep.

On a more upbeat note, the Nijo castle in Kyoto that boasts nightingale floors (which were to keep assassins from sneaking up on people…and awesome to walk on!) still retains its castle-ness, so check it out if you’re ever in the area (don’t just do the temple route like I did the first time…add this place to your itinerary!)

I really hope I can swing by Himeji Castle, since I have yet to go.

Pants That Fit!

Yeah, so I finally found pants that fit me all lovely here.  And I’m happy!

Like, all happy, “wee!”.

So anyways, I went to Uniqlo (where they have the elusive XL size…not that I need it all the time) to buy a shirt for the monthly meeting we were to have the next day (’cause I didn’t really feel up to doing laundry).  I knew that there was no way the women’s jeans would fit me, so I chose the largest size of regular boot-cut jeans they had in the men’s section (36, if your curious).  After forcing my way into them, I marveled how they looked really good! …so long as I didn’t need them buttoned…or ever turned around to let people see my now squashed and bizarro backside.  I would have to invest in a looong jacket to pull that off…and never sit down, of course. Giving up on that little bit of horror, I put up the pants, only to size up the relaxed fit jeans.  Grabbing a pair of 36s, I tried them on, only to realize in my NOT horror that they were far too big on me!  Woo!  I had to go down several sizes before I finally found one that fit me like the jeans I already owned (though perhaps just a tad bit higher on the waist).  I dare say they are even more comfortable!

Then again, perhaps the “comfort” is really from the fact that they weren’t literally coming apart at the seams like my favorite pair are now. 

And Uniqlo is cheap compared to where I would buy my pants in the US, so arright!

…hey, it’s a big deal to me!

New Tab *Games*

I have a new tab.

It’s called “Games”.

I hope to add the games that worked well for me at my different schools and 英会話 *eikaiwa* on here.

Right now, though, there’s only one game (but lots of pics!).

I’m trying to figure out how to hyper link on the page (forgot the html), so until then, I’m not going to bog it down with much.

It’s still under construction.

Where Loyalties Lie

A student just came up to a teacher and asked what block he was in  (for the upcoming sports day…the school is divided into four blocks, each named after a color.  I’m Red Block, by the way).  He said he was in Yellow Block, which was apparently not her block, because she promptly punched him in the arm and walked off.

Hah!

I am not immune to block loyalty ties.  I have been known to wander the halls asking which block different students belong to, and then either snubbing them or giving them a thumbs up and a “yeah!” if they were in the proper group (my group, of course).  Only the cool kids are in my group…though the song they chose is that one Dj. Ozma song where you feel compelled to wave a white hanky over your head in circles…what’s the name…

Anyways, yeah.  Punched in the arm.  Hahhah!  *wipes tear from eye*

The Teachers Have Found Me!

While at one of my elementary schools on Wednesday, as I was sitting around in the teachers’ room during one of the school’s breaks (absentmindedly petting my hair…I need to be more careful where I do that), a teacher approached me and mentioned something in Japanese that sounded like, “blahyourblahblahsiteblahblahblah”.  I smiled as my brain tried putting this sentence together in some other way than “I saw that you have your own personal site on the internet!”.  Asking for her to repeat herself, she said it again, and it…kinda still sounded like what I thought she might have said.  My smile melted away as my eyes narrowed just a tad.  “You found my site?  My *pointing to me* site *pointing to the computer*?”  “Yes!” she said smiling.  She told me that another teacher showed it to her.  My face fell.  “You’re on a diet!”, she said.  *mental scream*.  Another teacher came into the room and she pointed, “Oh hey!  He’s the one who showed me your site!”.  It was the teacher I had already had class with.  He was all, “yeah, I found it by searching for these keywords…”, as he hovered over a computer near us and put in the town and city name into Yahoo Japan’s search bar.  I’m all “やば~い” *a worried “oh my god”*. They pull up the site as other teachers are seeing what we’re doing, also commenting on me being on a diet (have they ALL read my site?!?).

So anyways, he pulls up the site and immediately recoils while saying, “so much English!”. I feel better knowing that my language is a barrier in times like these. Then he’s all, “oops!”, and clicks back to the Yahoo Japan listing of it and clicks…the translation button…

And as I do a quick mental check of what I’ve blogged about, I think to myself, “thank goodness I’ve only mildly trash-talked my middle school boss man!”. Nonetheless, I once again repeat “やばい！” as it opens up and displays my site in its now badly translated self! And in such a cool way, too! It’s not just a totally translated site, but the Japanese, broken up in segments determined by the English paragraphs (determined by the html which I can’t display here lest it eff up my post), next to the original English text! So lovely!!! I do kinda wonder how it translates out, since I type mainly in colloquial good times.

So, he starts talking about Infatuated Boy (at least that’s what I took from it, unless there was someone else with the name…not that I’d know). He’s all, “I saw him here!”. The link they had found for the site happened to be for the graduation post. I started scrolling down. I had quite a few pics of teachers and students on there, and all the people crowding around the computer (ok, perhaps three or four, but still…felt like a lot to me!) kept calling out the different people they recognised. I scrolled to the pic of My Gang, and they were picking out faces that they recognized. I was all, “bad students!”. They laughed. “But good kids”, I finished with. They all nodded their heads in agreement.

I need to watch out now!

Oh wait, that’s right. It was a terribly good decision to make this blog safe for kids, ex-boyfriends, political rivals, some religious types, my parents (*sigh* why I don’t talk about my drunken escapades like I used to…), people from my town, and most importantly, teachers. Wow. You know, you’d think that with that type of restraint, I’d be hard-pressed to type anything at all! And yet I still manage…somehow!

I’ll just keep up what I’m doing, and potentially add a few more nicknames to obscure things from even those who know…

Aren’t I sneaky ;)

P.S. did I ever blog about getting the glasses slapped off my face at an enkai? Wow! Speaking of good times that should never be blogged about! And good thing that “what happens at an enkai, stays at an enkai”…unless I blogged about it…which I don’t think I did. Can’t remember any crazy comments that would have followed that now rather infamous story amongst the other Fukuoka ALTs.

There are no secrets amongst ALTs…though I’d like to think we follow a code of not repeating things outside of our circle.

And just in case any of my teachers are reading this, “Hi teachers! Please leave a comment!”. 先生たち、こんにちは！コメントして下さい!