*Sniff Sniff*

Lately, I’ve been going down memory road as I ride my bike to work.
Why?

There’s a row of houses that have many flowers in front of their houses. And these flowers are flowers that are either at my parent’s home or my hometown.

Like…the flowers that I’d always pass when I’d walk to church with my parents. They have a very strong…honey (?) smell and so whenever I smell them, I immediately see the flowers in my head and then I feel like I’m going to church. Haha. (But then I realized I’m not home and am riding my bike and should be careful about the car coming up behind me)

Then I pass a house that has many roses. Since my mom loves roses, she usually has some about the house.
It’s a never-fail effect:
I smell roses -> Mom pops into my head.
(But then a car crossing in front of me quickly bursts that thought-bubble)

What I found surprising was that instead of making me homesick it just made “home” that much more of a special place.
:)

The New School-Year Has Started~

So in Japan, in the interval between the end of the year and the start of the new academic year, there is a special, high-tension day. It is the announcement day of the list of the teachers that will be transferred. Once a teacher has taught at a school for 3 years, s/he can be transferred. But some teachers somehow manage to stay a school for longer (some have been at my school for 13 years!). But it’s not something you apply for so it’s really just a game of chance.

When this happened last year, I was mainly confused by it and then downfallen at the fact that some of the teachers I’ve been trying to build friendships with were leaving!

This year, I knew it was coming but I didn’t expect to have almost half the department transferred out or to have so many teachers in general transferred! So it was quite sad but I was mainly upset about one particular teacher. This one teacher was one of the few I really got along with and whom I would joke around with. I was afraid of this teacher leaving last year (when I first heard about this) but luckily it didn’t happen. But it did this year…*SIGH* What made it a little harder was hearing one of the students who really liked this teacher too say “Being a 3rd year is going to be rough! I can’t do it without that teacher!”

I can still contact this teacher (so we can meet up and have coffee or something) but it’s going to be sad not working together anymore…

Today we had the Opening Ceremony for the new academic year. The new teachers were introduced as well as the new Principal and Vice-principal (both of whom seem to know English! Score!). But it’s crazy to see my first 1st years as 3rd years (seniors) now. I’m in disbelief that they’ll graduate in one year…time sure does fly by!

Tomorrow is the Entrance Ceremony and I’ll meet my new 1st years. Exciting~

Rain and Snow Knocked on my Window…

So Wednesday morning, somewhere around 3 or 4 in the morning to I got woken by crazy rain and snow hitting my window due to the violent winds that were blowing. Not only was it a rude awakening, I continued to be woken up until I actually had to wake up to get ready to go to work. Luckily by the time I left my apartment, it was only lightly snowing and the ferocious winds had stopped.

This totally sucked for my students since Class Match had to be held indoors. So the boys who had signed up for soccer now had to play ping pong. But they all seemed to have fun despite the bitter cold (still amazed some of them were in their shorts…).

But as always, day 2 is vicious. Because the ３年生 have graduated, there are inter-class games. My kids tend to be competitive anyway but once it becomes the ２年生 versus the １先生…not only do they step up their game, the cheering intensifies. I enjoy trying to document this whole event. However, the stray dodgeball balls are something to fear…especially when the softball girls are playing…hehe.

But back to the crazy weather. It’s March and it should be getting warmer and warmer. It was until this week and we suddenly dropped to freezing degrees and then got snow and rain… And although it continued to snow that day it never piled up so we couldn’t even have a snowball fight. Saaaaaaad.

Hmm…because it was getting warmer, we were expected to have the sakura blossoming for the middle-end of this month. But after this random cold front…could it have been pushed back? Hmmm…

Hopefully there’ll be some around for my block’s 花見 event. (Hanami comes from the kanji of “Flower” 花　and “To See”　見． So it’s usually translated as “Flower Viewing.” But in the Japanese culture, “Hanami” implies picnicking underneath a sakura tree and drinking sake.)

Crazy but Awesome Weekend

So Valentine’s day just past by. And yes, I’m behind in sending cards…gomen! ><;;

This past weekend, Lupita and I had one of our Mexican Fiestas. Since it was near Valentine’s, it was a mix of a block-event-Mexi-Nite and a Valentine’s day event for our block (sadly though, not everyone came…). So, of course, this meant that Lupita and I were up to our usual business and work work work for preparing for all the craziness. (Going to at least 3 stores each to find all the right ingredients, doing the baking before hand, which in this case was Thursday, starting the prep work Friday night and then cooking all day Saturday and leaving us only about an hour or so to get ready.) And this time around, I ended up napping before the party started…I was that tired before it even started!
But it seemed to have turned out well. The food was good although it went by really fast this time around. Lesson learned. Our invite list will need to be a max of 20 people. No “ifs,” “ands,” or “buts.” Which really sucks for us because then we feel like we’re being mean but…I don’t want to get Lupita in trouble with her neighbors and I’d like to not be so tired after our parties…But that’s a different topic-

This time around, my Oxy Ohana came!! (They are some of my college buddies that are also doing the JET thing). One of them came Wednesday night so it was really awesome to have some more hanging out time with him. He even came to my school! I think my kids enjoyed talking to a friend of mine. We ended up talking to a group of 3rd years (high school seniors) for about an hour! About movies, sports, bands and whatnot. He was a little blown away since he teaches at elementary schools and junior high schools.

This on Thursday we went to the mall to get last minute ingredients and lunch. After that was baking, talking, baking, laughing, baking, eating take out, baking and more baking. Friday was working, showing my friend around, ESS fun, dinner with my co-hosts and meeting up with another buddy from my Oxy Ohana!

Saturday was mayhem. Cooking, cleaning, frying, mixing, beating, shredding, cutting, dicing, blending since 9:45am. And somehow we always just on the dot with getting ready…ah…but they seemed to have really enjoyed the food. ^^ But I ended up knocking out on the sofa around 3 or 4am…only to randomly wake up around 8am and seeing futons and bodies all around me. Oops…By that time though, the party was swindling down.

Sunday was spent cleaning, making French toast for my buddies, watching a movie and just chilling. Then I took my Oxy Ohana to the station where we sadly said our good-byes. But I should soon be meeting up with them again. :D

And now…I want to sleep…

zzZZzzzZZZZZzzzzzZzzzzZZZzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZzZZZzzZzzzzzzzZzzzZzzz

Valentine's Day

Yesterday I was talking with my co-worker/host mom #2 and I asked her if she was planning something for Valentine’s Day. She said no because she has nobody. I teetered my head to the side and asked, “Well, what about your family? Are you not doing anything with them?”
“No. Valentine’s is a lover’s day.”

Somewhere in my head I always understood this but at the same time I also always viewed Valentine’s Day as a day so eat sweets and share it with your loved ones which includes family and friends. It can also be because at home, we also call it, “Dìa de la Amistad,” or “Friendship Day.” After I explained this to my host-mom, she said that only recently have people been giving chocolates to their friends as well. But not her. She does and gives nothing. (Or so she said.) And since we have a playful relationship I said, “So…I won’t give you any cookies.” Her slightly blank/slightly shocked face was the reaction I was hoping for. Immediately after she says, “No. You should make me a big heart. A big heart just for me.” Hahaha. She’s so awesome.
Actually…she was trying to convince me to make a heart-shaped carrot cake (because so far that’s her favorite of my baking goods). But I feel heart-shaped cookies will work better (since this way I can place some on everyone’s desk.)
v(^_^)v

Trying to update...

Small update from 1/18...

"Hello hello~

Well, it’s quite a while since I’ve written anything and it’s already the new year! Whoa!

I don’t remember what I have and haven’t written about…so I think I’m going to do as I did once before and start from the post recent and move backwards (hopefully re-connecting with where I left off)!


So now I can see my laptop screen again. (Finally!) It’s not because I got it fixed but because I bought a new one. Ugh…so expensive…but so far soooo worth it!

Anyhoo, I’m back in Japan after a 3-week break back at home. Ah, it was so nice to be back in LA, eating my mom’s food, being silly with my family and being able to fully understand everything around (then again…not such a great thing…). And I got to meet up with some buddies! Sadly not all of them…but at least some. ^^ The funny bit how a little more than half of my suit cases were filled with omiyage (souvenirs) on the way home and just about the same spaced was filled with omiyage coming back to Japan. Ahahaha! But so far, everyone has been enjoying (or did enjoy) their gifts. Yay! Yay!

And it was so great to be with my family again. Since my parents and cousin visited me last year, it didn’t feel like it was away from home for so long. But then I noticed that for a while now, I’ve only seen the winter LA. And then once I noticed that I had a lot to be updated on from my family, I fully realized that I have been gone a long time. It was a bit sad but it also makes going home more special. (And there’s that little voice in my head again that sometimes teases me saying, “That’s what it’s going to be like from now on~.”
Hmm… :\

…

I almost can’t believe I’ve already been back in Japan for a week and a half. Not even 24hrs after returning have I been so busy again!!! It feels like I’ve been back for longer! (which now makes me feel better about the fact that I still have my carry on bag in the living room…but then again, it still have things I brought for my students…)

One thing that was a nice surprise was that last week it snowed!!! And not like last year where it’s all pretty as it falls down but full one snow where you could have a decent snowball fight and even make a big snowman! But since it was pretty cold in the morning, I wore my wool stuff to work. Yes it kept me warm, but then I noticed I didn’t consider having a snowball fight with my students! Ah! FAIL. But I enjoyed watching them have a snowball fight. Hehe. I did run around the school taking pictures of the snow. Then I emailed some to my family! That week, they were having rain…but not cold frozen rain like I had.

Another thing that was fun as a play I watched with my students! The funny thing was how surprised the students and teachers were when they saw me. Hahaha. Not many of the teachers knew what day I got back to Japan. But my supervisor did (since I left an itinerary with her) and she called me up Sunday night and invited me to watch this play the next day (Monday the 11th was a national holiday in Japan: coming of age day). So I said I’d go. That morning, I was amazed to see many women wearing kimonos. And even more surprised to see huge crowds of them in the city, Tenjin. Only then did it dawn on me, “Coming of Age Day. Duh.” (It’s like what a quìceñera is to Mexicans and a “sweet 16” is to Americans). Once I found the theatre, I began to look for where the teachers were. As I got closer, I passed 2 teachers and they stopped and said, “Uwa!” hahahaha. They were so surprised. And most of the other teachers did the same once I found them. Hehe. My students seemed really happy to see me (we did the double-handed-super-excited-hand waves to each other ^^).
The play was performed by high school students from Okinawa!!! I never would have guessed they were high school students (well, until I saw them up close and noticed how young they really were). (Okinawa is the southern-most island in all of Japan. It’s kinda like the Hawai’i of Japan).

Those I guess are the main things to update ya’ll on…not sure how much further back I should go…"

Sake Festival

So about a month ago, on Friday evening, when I was just about to leave work, a co-worker handed me a flyer. Since I was literally walking out the door when he gave it to me, I said thanks, put it in my backpack and went home. …and forgot about it…

Then on Saturday evening, I got ready to do hardcore studying for my JLPT exam and in my study book was the flyer. This time I took my time to read it and it was a flyer on a sake festival that would be held in my city (at a place near one of the train stations. In other words, really really close to me). Then I looked at the dates: that weekend!! So I missed the Saturday one and Sunday was the last day. I wanted to take advantage of something going on in my city so I emailed some of my buddies (in Japan, cell-to-cell texting is actually emailing. You even get to create your own cell email address!). After a little while, a plan was made.

The next day, we had lunch at Baby Face. It’s an Italian-Japanese restaurant. Good, but not really Italian… Oh, and some of my students had lunch there around the same time my friends and me had lunch. Hahaha.

After lunch, we met Julie at the train station and then found the festival. There was no entrance fee but we did have to buy our own little sake cup. But it was only 100yen!!! (~$1) And then we got to sample various sake, ume-shu (plum wine) and sho-chu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dch%C5%AB). There was also one sake that was the most expensive to buy and the only one that you had to pay 300yen to taste! And yes, I tried it and yes, it was awesome. That one had to be the smoothest sake that I’ve tried so far. But I didn’t buy a bottle. Although it was really tasty, it’s out of my budget. Maybe if there was some really big thing to celebrated I’d actually buy it. But since there are no/have been no huge things to celebrate here, I don’t need to buy it.

One of the booth was sake from a neighboring restaurant. One that serves bees. And sure enough, there were bees at the bottom of their sake bottle. It reminded me of the tequila with a worm in it…
I didn’t try this sake because I don’t know if I’m allergic to bees. But they’re always around pollen so I’m also afraid I’ll react to the pollen that may be on them…so I just let everyone else describe the flavor to me. Most of them just said, “It tastes like bees.” Yes, very descriptive. But clearly not the group’s favorite.

We also got to go inside the brewery (the festival was held right outside a sake brewery) and there were a few in there to try as well! Most of these were the chilled sake but one of them was a grape one. That one tasted just like juice. It was hard to believe there was any liquor in it.

A funny moment during the festival was when we tried the sho-chu. Apparently Lupita and Julie don’t really like it and so they would makes faces after every little sip they’d take. And I was next to them, trying to suppress my giggles. But it looked like Julie really didn’t want to drink it anymore so I drank her sample. Only then did Lupita turn, noticed Julie’s cup was empty and tried to pour her sho-chu into Julie’s cup! Ahahahaha. But I drank her sample as well. But in their defense, straight sho-chu is pretty strong. When I had it with my host dad over a year ago, he served it with hot water. Speaking of my host dad, I bought a bottle of that sho-chu for him. Hehe.

In the end, we went to McDonalds, bought fries, hung out at my place until dinner and then went to our favorite hamburger spot: Son House. What a day. Never before had I been tipsy at 4 in the afternoon!!! (The festival was 11 – 4) When we tallied up how many samples we had tried, we came to roughly around 13 cups (“roughly” because some servers filled the cup to the top and some servers only gave us half the cup. Which is more than enough for a taste really). 13 cups of sake/ume-shu/sho-chu!!! That’s just madness! But what was more insane was it was only 400yen!!! (~$4)

Oh! And there was a booth selling sake manju as well. (manju is a red-bean pastry with the outing consisting of flour, buckwheat and rice powder). I found it cute and amusing that the woman selling it to me was asking me if I knew there was sake in it and if I’d be ok. Hehe. But I honestly couldn’t taste the sake in it. But doesn’t alcohol lose its alcoholic characteristic when it’s cooked/baked???

Anyhoo~

kampai!

(cheers!)