Spring is sprung!

Posted on March 28, 2008 by Kate

The temperature has been hanging out in the upper 60′s and low 70′s. Although at the moment it’s chilly and clouds are moving out after the night rain, I have a feeling it’ll be another beautiful day. And I took some photos as I walked to the train station the other day, so I feel I must share.

I love the orange trees growing right next to the stained glass window.

oranges and a stained glass window

But, my first sight of that day was the daisy. Perky and bright.

daisy

These little red flowers were sitting next to the path that leads down into the woods. The one that gets me to the train station.

red flowers

These trees are new to me. I’ve never seen anything like them.

Strange tree

I liked this picture of the fence that I follow down the mountain.

bamboo fence

And lastly, these trees are gorgeous and smell amazing. I felt like I was back in Hawaii for a moment as I walked past. <sigh>

White flowers

Murder in Yokosuka

Posted on March 24, 2008 by Kate

Now that it’s finally in the news, I figured I’d blog quickly about this. A cab driver was murdered near Shiori station (across the street from the Daiei, which is right in front of the military base). So, this 22 year old guy went AWOL two weeks ago from the Cowpens and we can only hope that he’s not involved, although it seems unlikely. I’m glad NCIS tracked him down. Security on the base has been crazy. DJ and I came on base together Thursday and I had to get out and open the trunk of the Mini (what trunk?) for them to search. Then leaving we had to show our ID’s, which totally made me think of living in Rota, Spain. We always had to show our ID’s to get on and off base. If you didn’t show your ID, you couldn’t leave.

I came back on base on Friday for my dentist appt. and one woman scanned my ID, while another searched my purse and a guy wanded me down and asked whether I had anything to declare. I didn’t. This was still going on Saturday even after they’d caught the guy in Tokyo, so we’ll see what happens. The article says that he’s not a suspect and the officials made it clear that he was only a “person of interest,” but it sounded like they only didn’t have enough evidence to charge him.

It’s depressing to have it happen here. And I truly hope that this guy is not involved. We’ve barely recovered from the murder that happened three years ago. All of us that are associated with the military are seen as guilty by association. Like we don’t have enough people calling for us to leave Japan. I’m really afraid that they will enforce a curfew like they did in Okinawa after the alleged rape. Basically they restricted everyone on base to their homes. People who lived off base could go to work and then back home and that was it. I don’t know if they allowed dependents who worked off base to continue to work. Not being allowed to work scares me to death. It’s what keeps me sane and I know it would totally screw the school I work for. I don’t know if this is even in consideration, but I suppose anything can happen at this point.

This makes me want to go back to the states even more. Not because I’m afraid of anything. It just makes me so tired. I feel like I spend a ton of time with my students and Japanese friends being the “perfect American” that when something like this happens, I feel like I’m back to square one.

Bear convicted of stealing honey

Posted on March 21, 2008 by Kate

I saw this article on the BBC news and just had to post it. As if coming across a bear in a darkened alley wasn’t frightening enough…now we’ve got one with a rap sheet.

Hawaii

Posted on March 19, 2008 by Kate

The first day we stayed at the Hale Koa before the made us move back on base. So here is the view from the hotel in Hale Koa.

view from hotel right view at night from first hotel room - right

view from hotel left view at night from first hotel room - left

And then the view from on base.

view from second hotel room

A bit different, yea?

So the second day I dropped DJ off at work and drove all along the southeast coast to diamond head and back. It was really beautiful.

diamond head

windy road

blue hawaii

two lonely swimmers

The third day I went to Foster’s botanical garden and saw some gorgeous plants.

orchid

purple flower

white flower

I loved the cannonball tree. Weird!

watch for falling cannonballs

canonball tree

We had dinner in Hale’wa and saw random chickens wandering about.

randow chicken wandering about

hale-wa area

And here is DJ and I enjoying an umbrella drink!

kate and dj enjoying a a drink

We had a good time and are glad to be home with our kitties. I’m still a little jet lagged, but I’m sure that won’t last too long!

Before Hawaii there was a recital

Posted on March 19, 2008 by Kate

Before I go into the trip, I just wanted to share some picture from the recital!

Singing doe-ray-me

big group

I love my Kosuke’s face in this one (back row and far right). There are more pictures like this on Flickr with more of my students. I have a ton!

more students

Singing and dancing to “Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” I was the mother goat and forced to wear a very unflattering skirt and goat ears. I’m partial to the ears though.

the big bad wolf

I was also a tree spirit. The wind spirit forgot most of his lines so I spent a lot of time whispering them to him.

flower, tree and wind spirits

And a shot of all of us teachers…and DJ who showed up at the very end.

English teachers

Hawaii Day 1

Posted on March 12, 2008 by Kate

We left Sunday night at about 8:30pm and settled in for the six hour flight. It was uneventful and quiet. We arrived on Sunday at 8:30am. I love that, not only do we arrive before we even left Tokyo, but that we get to experience Sunday twice. That’s ok though, because we’ll lose a day when we return.

When we arrived, it was early so we rented a car and drove around Ohau. We got lunch at Kau’aina, which originated here, but is hugely popular in Japan (a great burger joint). DJ and I go to one in Kamakura all the time.

Later, we called the BOQ and asked if they had any rooms. They told us that they didn’t and we got really excitited and got a place out in town. If they don’t have room at the Q, then they have to pay for our stay in town. So we got a hotel and got settled in and then headed over to get our certificate that states that they have no room. “Oh,” they say. “You have orders, we have plenty of room.” So, now we’re out $200 and we have to check out the next day from our hotel with an ocean view to a dingy, dirty room on base. It’s about 15-20 minutes from the ocean and our view is now of a parking lot under construction. Luckily later the next day they took care of it, but we were pretty upset for awhile.

But we tried to make the best of the rest of the next. Exhausted, we bought a six pack of beer at the store and a pizza from Pizza Hut. I haven’t had it in over a year and I was pretty excited, but it didn’t taste as good as I remembered. Oh well. Stay tuned, there’s more to come. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait for pictures. I can’t upload them here, but just you wait. They are stunning.

Recital

Posted on March 9, 2008 by Kate

Yesterday the kids at the school I work at had a recital. The thing went all day long and was broken into two halves. Some classes had their part in the first half and some in the second. I had most of my classes in the second half so I hung around for most of the first half and worked hard during the second half. I had two parts in the play. I was the mother goat in “The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids” and the wind spirit in “Little Red Riding Hood.” I was hoping not to be too embarrassed, but no such luck. I tried to walk off the stage during the middle of one section when I still had a couple more lines to give (oops) and then at the end of the show…two of the kids who should have been on stage to give their lines were off playing so I stood up and said their lines for them. It was pretty funny and afterward I went out with one of the other American teachers for dinner and drinks. I am just sooo glad that it’s over. Now I can look forward to Hawaii!

I leave in a couple of hours for the airport and I’m very excited. Yea! We’re staying near Honolulu for a week. I will try give updates while I’m gone, but I don’t know how feasible that’ll be. I guess I’ll find out when I get there. Be back soon!

Recruit & Freshers

Posted on March 5, 2008 by Kate

What is this supposed to mean? It’s a sign posted amongst many briefcases at a store in the mall. Recruit, I get. Get a new job and you’ll need a new briefcase. But freshers? What are those? I just don’t get the Japanese sometimes.

Recruit & Freshers

New Camera and Kamakura

Posted on March 3, 2008 by Kate

I’m very excited because I finally got my camera! I ordered it around Christmas, but it first had to go to my father-in-law due to shipping restrictions and then he sent it to us. And it took the slow boat over so it took awhile. But it’s here! Yea! I got a Nikon D40x and it’s super fun. The camera is awesome, although the photographer leaves a little to be desired.

I went to a lunch at Kayo’s house for girls day on Saturday. Her daughter is one of my seven year old students and we had a very nice time. Although, they did get me pretty drunk. We started with beer at noon and I probably had six beers. That along with the two bottles of white wine and I was feeling pretty good. I left around six in the evening and walked back uphill to my house. Apparently I called Shara and we talked for a little while. I told her that I needed her vacuum back (I borrow it often because mine sucks and she has a Dyson and she’s gone for months on end). So I guess I made the case that my rugs were very dirty and she needed to bring over the vacuum. She called Sunday evening wondering just how badly I needed the vacuum and I had NO IDEA what was talking about. I was all, “why do you ask?” And she then explained about our conversation and said that I was laughing pretty much the whole twenty minutes we talked. I crashed around 8:30pm that night and awoke at 11:30pm feeling very sick. But once I threw up, I felt much better and other than getting sick, I was completely fine after that.

I didn’t sleep very well (I usually don’t after a lot of drinking) and I got up at 5:00am, but I still went to Kamakura with Michelle and her boys. She’s the wife of the guy the DJ is sponsoring. We were lucky and got to see three different tradition Japanese wedding parties and even got a picture with one couple. The ume and cherry blossoms are out and gorgeous. Enjoy!

Wedding pic