soccer at yowara

so I'm at Yowara Junior High and only the 1st and 2nd years are left. We played an epic Jeopardy game where I brought in the hayashi pin pon bu bu( just a fancy quiz buzzer with a great name). Teams lost others prevailed, but afterwards I remembered the promise I made last month. That I would play soccer with them. Of course I currently have a cold and can't breathe but whatever a promise is a promise. So I change into my soccer stuff a plain t-shirt with soccer zip-up, under shorts and even longer shorts on top, and tennis shoes. When I walk out one of the teachers sees me and yells Beautiful! I'm immediately stop and give a look of skepticism. Uh what? The teacher repeatedly says beautiful foot! Which leads me to more fake smiling and laughing. The word for foot and leg is the same in Japanese. So beautiful foot basically can mean leg of foot in Japanese. I was being complimented on my legs and how white they were...This is the only country this would happen. In America I might blind someone with how white I am now. Another teacher looks at me and bluntly says, "Maybe the will not play soccer"... I was like, "What?? I just got all dressed", Then she responds with, "Maybe they will just look at your legs." I laughed for a good ten minutes then went and played the strangest game of soccer ever. The goals were on the side of the field and we played in a kind of rainbow arching shape. It was hilarious.

Juku finish

Juku is finished and all the students have graduated so that means......I'M BORED. I now have tuesday and thursday evenings to myself and I don't know what to do. I am also finished at all of my schools for two weeks. So I have to sit in the office for two weeks with nothing but the internet and my imagination to console me. I'm gonna study Japanese, pretend like I'm being productive, possibly join a gym, create a list of stuff I want from America, and plan for next semester's juku. On white day I got lots of snacks and chocolates which I promptly devoured. Then on the 19th I went to Hyuga got lost and walked back to the main street which took 40 minutes. I scared the crap out of a random guy at a book store when I turned a corner to sharply and he smacked into the book shelf and spilled books everywhere. Then on Sunday I went to my students ballet recital and celebrated my supervisors birthday. I ate more food than I would have thought possible setting my stomach up for pain and agony. I have been tearing apart my house in an effort to clean it and reorganize it. I might destroy the wedge chair seeing as no one will sit in it. It's almost like its cursed. I'm gonna be here for another year so I want to be comfortable. A new couch should be a good option as well. This week is cherry blossom viewing and I'm going to go to the biggest bunch of them I can find and drink and eat. There are also lights for night time viewing and perhaps まつり foodstuffs. Yes, I am slowly but surely learning Japanese at a painfully low level. I know about as much Japanese as my 1st grade students know in English...sad day. But oh well I will keep plotting along. And yes this is my geeking out photo at bigbang 3-d

take a deep breath

Okay people here's a list for you.
1. earthquake(miyagi/sendai)
2. Tsunami
3. More earthquakes
4. Evacuations
5. Nuclear Reactor blows 1 time
6. Volcano Eruptions(this has been going on for months)
7. Reactor explosions two more times, 30k radius of contamination and evacuations.


Here in Nichinan there was only a 2 meter waves, and the sirens went off. The good news is that I now know my evacuation point and set up my emergency kit. First there were the news reports that just showed the facts here in Japan, but now America has gotten ahold of the reports and is sensationalizing them beyond all reason. It's bad, I don't want to belittle what I have never seen or experienced, but after 22 years in America I know what they can do to news. They go about reporting completely incorrectly. While Japan keeps saying everything is okay with the Nuclear reactors, I will use the words of a reporter here, It's like their babysitting the plants until they go, rather than actually containing anything. There's radiation all over this planet, in planes, x-rays, just living, I'm far enough away that I'm not too worried. It's business as usual here.

Busy

hallelujah Sweet jebus, I got the tickets, yes BIGBANG tickets. Sad that my life has been reduced to this? Oh well, I applied to 5 separate concerts and read all the reply emails one by one and each one rejected me until!!!!! Tokyo on the 15th of May in Chiba Tokyo. WOO!! I got my plane ticket, my hotel, and finally we have a full group of six to annoy Japanese fans with. Many of us are tall, or foreign enough that we will be the strangest group speaking half Japanese, and random English. My tallness will be an amazing asset to make sure I can see the best! I've been busy non-stop with school and planning because the Japanese school year ends in March. I'm pretty much on the last leg of visiting my schools for the last time this school year. Several of my schools are merging so I will be teaching at the new and improved Udo chu-gako.
On another note there have been many small earthquakes and the volcano ash has made a reappearance. Its pitch black this time and is great fun while playing jump rope on a windy open area. My journaling is making slow and steady progress and Ive managed to fill two big notebooks. I was scared that my art is declining so I have been drawing two large pics a day for 2 months and my contour drawing have gotten pretty badass. My woodcuts are slow progress. The wood is very expensive but amazing so I'm being very careful carving it for fear I ruin a $100 piece of cedar. I managed to make a comb and 2 small prints but it was un-preped wood and was hell to carve.
Golden week plans are complete!
Kyushu round about trip. Its the Holy grail of kyushu traveling.
1. Nichian leave
2. Beppu and Yuifuin- hot spring town have a sweet ryokan and all the hot water and sand baths we want.
3. Mt. Aso- Biggest volcano is the world. Gonna climb nearby and take the cable car to the top if its not spewing toxic gas
4. Nagasaki- Just hang out super historic and plenty of temples to hit up.
5. Shimabara- old town mostly going here for the car ferry. Giant buddah statue
6. Kumamoto- castel and a perfect mixture of historic and upscale.

Then drag our selves back to Nichinan. I'm driving the whole time which brings to information about my car.
Shakken!! the dreaded word was do this month on the 1st. First estimate of the cost \190000 almost died of a heart attack. Literally fell over. After panicking and getting two more appraisals got it for \70000 about $700. It needed alot of repairs but now its good for two years its basically my insurance. Google shakken for more info cause I hates it. Also with cars I can mention I am taking the driving test at the end of the month. I have about two weeks off because of school break so I'm gonna drag my American ass to the test from hell and try my damndest to not make a fool of myself. Knock on wood.
And just as I type this mayhem breaks out in my office because in Tokyo there was a 6meter tsunami after a 6.5 earthquake. Shit, all my schools are on the coast so the workers are all calling my schools because theres an alert out here.