Before Hawaii there was a recital

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

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

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

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

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

Cherry blossom

Plum blossom

And she was wandering around the shrine and just looked so adorable.  I had to get a shot of her.

Little girl

Presents

I just love presents. I had a student today who told me last week that she was going to bring a purse for me to send to my mother as a get well gift. At the time I was hoping that the purse wasn’t too nice because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to part with it. No fear though, she brought one for me too. Yea!! And she brought other presents too! She brought little juggly things and a beautiful traditional Japanese bowl. I had told her that I wanted traditional Japanese goods to take home with me. Fun!

My purse:

My bag

And Mom’s:

presents-012-240-x-180.jpg

Mom’s small bag front:

Small bag front

and back:

Small bag back

Little juggly things:

Juggling

And the gorgeous bowl:

Bowl

Kindergarten Bus

Japanese children start kindergarten at age 3 and end at age 5 or 6.  But, their school buses totally rock.  I wish I had gotten to ride to school in one of these as a kid.  How fun would that be?!

Kindergarten bus 2

Boy Toys

Yesterday, D.J. and I drove up to the Yokota air base (about 2 1/2 hours away) to pick up a co-worker that’s brand new to Japan.  He arrived with his family and we brought them back to the Lodge on base.  We are sponsoring them, which just means that we’re helping them get settled in Japan and help them figure out what all they need to do.  But, anyway, when we arrived we found out that it was going to take about an hour to get all the passengers off the plane, so D.J. and I went over and got some lunch at the Burger King on base.  Which is where we discovered that they didn’t have any more boy toys.  Well…I just wanted to leave straight away after finding that out.  What use is it when you can’t get a good boy toy?  You have to get an alternative one?  Is that one that sits around listening to Green Day or something?  Sad.

Boy Toys

Far from home

I think I’ve said it before here, but I’ll say it again.  I love Japan, but I’m done.  I’m good and I’m ready to move back home to the states.  My mom has cancer and just went through surgery on Monday.  So, I’ve been calling my Dad and my sister religiously trying to get updates and see how everything is going.  Things were a little rough for awhile, but now she seems to finally be getting a little better and hopefully she’ll be released from the hospital soon.  It’s really painful to be stuck in Japan when I really want to be home.  I hate being this far away.  It’ll be nice when regardless of where we’re stationed, I can get home in a day and a few hundred dollars (as opposed to a couple thousand).

Yesterday I was at Shara’s house to meet some workers who came to fix her tub while she was at work.  I was looking at a book on Japanese decorating and afterward I went and bought it at the NEX.  I’ll spend the next couple of months collecting items that I’ll want to take back with me.  I can fill the house with traditional Japanese items that will remind me of all the good times I’ve had over here.  I’ll miss Japan and the people and I’m sure I’ll think back with longing, but I’m ready to go home.