Revel in the ups.

It's been a really good day.  I haven't been training at E.P. this week so Mariko has been taking me home.  Today when she came into where I was making crafts to tell me it's time to go she giggled and said "Why do you look so happy?"  I didn't even realize I was smiling until she said it... "It's just been a really good day."  "hehe I'm glad Elise!  Time to go."  I have my days.  But these last two have been great.  I always try to soak them in especially since Tuesday and my last Friday at work were pretty "eh".  I was wondering if I'm up to acting so peppy ALL the time at work when kids can be rude and annoying sometimes.  It's tough honestly.... and I'm a pretty peppy person.  But after leaving today I can happily say I've won over most there little hearts.  When I was saying goodbye to Kizuna today: "BYE Kizu-chan!  See you tomorrow! ::Big hug and kiss::"  "Noo Elisei (Eli-say... she can't quite pronounce my name)  Come home with me!!"  "Ohhh I'd love to, but I have to stay and work!  I'll see you tomorrow though?"  "Ohhhh kayyy."  It's awesome.  I love them so much.  But there are a couple that hate me for some reason.  Maybe its because when they're telling me to go away or I'm yucky haha I just leave.  I want to say "shut up you brat"  But I think that leaving the room or just ignoring them completely is a better idea. You know... so I have a job the next day.  I guess I should be trying harder with these kids but its harder than you think to keep trying when they're shouting at you "NO THANK YOU."  or  "EWWWW YOU'RE GROSSS GO AWAY"  I just stand there like "huh.. you are extremely unpleasant to be around so I'm going to choose to not be near you."  Buttttt back to the good days right? 

Yesterday at play time there was a little boy Eiia (EEE-AYY) who's name tag didn't say Eiia it said ninja.  I saw this and started laughing.  "Ninja?! I had no idea we had a ninja!"  Nalette starts laughing too"Yeah,  his mom says that some days he shouts that he doesn't want to go to school, so to get him to come she says 'you can go as a ninja' and he decides to go."  HEllll yeah I'd go to work everyday super excited if I was a ninja.  So I decided to be a ninja with him.  Mirei gave me a scarf and I tied it around my nose and mouth ninja style and crept around the kindergarten doing ninja kicks and tucks.   Mirei, who's DEFINITELY one of my biggest fans there was following me and explaining to all the other kids that I was a ninja... in case explanation was necessary.  I thought not.  With my moves anyone could tell, yup she's most definitely a ninja.  I decided yesterday to break out the little kids hula hoops.  The play room was pretty empty except for some of the little kids and becky playing Restaurant.  So I bring out like 3 little hoops and this one weird hoop thats slightly bigger than the others but still really small with these like hand grips all over it?  Well the little kid hoops are impossible for me to keep up.  I can like do basic hand tricks with them but thats it.  The weird hand grip one I can keep up on my waist and vortex and jump through.  But its too small and light to move down my legs or do around my chest.  So I start hooping and vortexing and all of a sudden I have all the teachers and little kids in the playrom staring at me.  haha I feel pretty stupid actually because its a little hoop and I can't do too much with it, but considering I'm the only one there that can even keep a hoop up on their waist everyone's pretty impressed. I do a little 5 minute show and all the little kids want to hoop so I go back into the closet and bring them all out.  Theres like 10 kids trying to keep it up on their waists.  They're trying sooooo hard. haha I keep just encouraging them "Good job Sora!  You almost did it!" So all in all we did this for like 10 min and I feel stupid for even bringing them out though Becky was like "We should have just left all the restaurant stuff put away and you could have just hooped with them to make them happy!"  I decide to wait till I know some more tricks and then I'll bring my hoop in and really blow them away : )  But I was wrong.  Today halfway through playtime/recess Mami came running up to me "Elise sensei!!  Hoop again please!!"  hehe I should have just brought my hoops in today... but I'm going to tomorrow.  I tried again with that awkward one.  I can vortex really good with it now considering how strange it's shape is.   But I can't wait to bring my light up one for them to see.  They're going to love it.... I can do way more with my hoop than the school's. But yeah I had a group of like 10 kids trying their hardest to keep it up.  Two are really close, Mami and Sora (pronounced like Soda)  So I'm hoping that when I bring in this little taped one I made while I was here that they'll be able to keep it up, because its a little heavier and sometimes just a little weight will make all the difference. 

Today and Yesterday were my first tries at teaching at the kindergarten too.  Up till yesterday I'd just been watching Rachael and Becky.  I was super nervous because I was pretty awkward teaching at E.P.  But I was surprised how good I did.  I picked it up really fast!  I was super energetic and animated and I had all of their attention the whole time! (Again it sounds easier than it is..  These kids have attention spans like flies, so you have to pretend EVERY LITTLE THING you do is the coolest most interesting thing in the world.  LOOK AT ME I'M PICKING UP THIS PEN AHHHH SO COOOOOL!")  hehe but yeah Yoko and Rachael both told me I did an awesome job for my first time.  Eeeek  I was nervous for nothing. ; )

Monday we had off because it was a Holiday.  A japanese Holiday celebrating the coming of Spring.  Its also a day where the Japanese go to temples and mourn/pray for the dead.  (Kind of like the Mexican day of the dead?)  Yoko invited me to dinner at her families house.  I was really excited to accept her invitation, not knowing what to expect.  A japanese feast?  Is it going to be her entire extended family?  How big is this holiday in their culture?  I had no idea but wanted to find out.  Well Yoko picked me up and Nalette was in the car.  Awesome!  It's nice to have another foreigner because there is a huge language gap.  Yoko knows a lot of English after living in New Zealand but still has to ask me to rephrase a lot because she doesn't understand.  Well the meal wasn't a huge feast or anything.  It was just her immediate family (Mom, dad, and sister... who's my age.  Yoko is 26 and so is Nalette) and we had this meal called Okonamiyaki. SOOO good.  I'm going to describe it... and probably not do the description justice but here it goes.  Its a cabbage, pork, egg, pancake dish?  hahah  Its topped with this sauce that I'm not sure exactly what it is and Japanese mayo (which is a million times better than american mayo if you've had spicy mayo at a Japanese restaurant you know what I'm talking about.)  They made four different versions of it.  All with the initial ingredients I just listed but then some additional ones.  One had some noodles added to it, another had kimchee, and one had squid.  I think the fourth had noodles again.  I'm going to try to make this soon because they told me how.  I'll let you know how it goes.  But Yoko's family is really really nice.  They have an adorable dog too.  It was a dachshund but it had the hair of a golden retriever.  And its face looked like a little narrow golden retrievers.  So sweet.  hehe her name was Hime (he-may) which is a japanese princess.   Her dad knew the most english after Yoko because he lived in Nebraska for 6 years.  So he knew a good amount.  Yoko's sister was stunning, really really stunning.  They call her a city girl since she lives in Tokyo and is really fashionable.  Nalette says that I need to go to Tokyo soon (I know... really) because i'm going to be shocked with their fashion. "I felt underdressed when I went... these women know how to dress."  Yoko's sister started dancing at one point when music came on t.v. and was awesome!  haha she really broke it down, this one move where she touched the floor and did this hip sway thing was like a dance I'd never seen before!  haha really really funny/great stuff. Nalette said "I'm going to have to tell Becky I saw a Japanese girl with moves, because she's convinced the Japanese have no rhythm."  Her mom was really quiet but an awesome host.  She made the dinner and served us such good coffee and dessert after.  Nice night really.

This post is going to be jumping all over the place.  But I was getting bored of typing out every single day and then that routine.  So I'm just going to write about what was most memorable.

Tuesday Melony took me downtown to get my foreigners card.  It was a nice break in the day.  We were talking about how I like japan so far.  Maybe its because its all so new, but I LOVE a lot of their culture over ours.  I kind of feel like a traitor to America haha but I would love it if we adopted some of their ways.  ((Really all of this stuff is MY opinion I apologize in advance if you find it offensive... but I'm really open minded and my thoughts do change... so I'm going to write freely about this stuff now. I'm not going to pretend that in a couple months my opinions might be different, I've only lived here for about a month.))  But
I was telling her how I really enjoy how communal this country feels.  It's seriously on the other spectrum of America.  In America it feels like everyone is very self centered.  ESPECIALLY coming from a college town.... WOW what a difference it is going from college kids who are all into their own looks, their own plans for the weekend, their own jobs, me me me me me.  To a country that's focused on the bigger picture.  Their role in society as apposed to their singular life.  Their job isn't just a job in order to gain money to gain objects for themselves,  their job is an important function for their country.  I really enjoy this probably because it's so new, I might get sick of it... but I might not who knows.  Really what would be best is a happy medium.  I wonder if that's how Europe is.  I want to live there and find out.  But for now I think this lifestyle is really nice for me.  It's helping me think about the bigger picture.  I came out here to get my head focused.  To find out what is most important to me and to find out if this dream I'm about to work my ass off for is a dream that I really want.  I really hadn't anticipated making myself less self centered along the way.... but I'm definitely going to embrace it.  It's funny because I think the religions of these country's reflect what the country stands for too.  Catholicism and Christianity have the idea that if YOU believe YOU yourself is saved.  It brings it back to the individual.  Where as Buddhism is about living in harmony with everyone around you.  I'm not going to talk about religion anymore... Especially since I've only taken religion classes on western religion and don't know enough about Buddhism to hold any kind of argument or anything.  While I'm out here I would like to learn more about it though.  I find religion extremely interesting.  But I like to learn about it as an observer almost.... not as a participant, because i don't know which one is right.  I've kind of formed my own beliefs through studying some religion classes in college.  I like Taoism the most but label myself as agnostic.

In the car ride with Melony she acted surprised I jumped to these opinions in sucha short stay.  (I really couldnt tell if it was a "wow thats awesome" surprised or a  "hey kid- slow your roll" surprised) But she put her own input "Aaron's Mom (aaron's her husband) never understood why in all place's we chose Japan.  She's never even come out to visit, so of course she wouldn't understand.  Japan's beautiful and we found a company that's given us security we wouldn't have in America. Japan's such a nice place to raise your kids too, in a lot of ways it's such an innocent country.  The crime just isn't there.  I just read about kids in America that are soaking tampons in Vodka and then inserting them in to get drunk and pass breathelizer tests.  Even the boys are putting them in their butts!" (This really disgusted me.) "haha yeah thats absurd.  But don't think that's youth these days in America... that's not common teenagers doing that. Really I've never heard of anyone getting drunk that way"  She must have such a skewed veiw of America now-a-days from reading little tid bits about it here and there.  Just like I had a skewed view of Japan before I came out here and saw it for myself.  "But kids in america are seeming to grow up faster than they should.  You're right.  Have you heard about Bratz dolls?" hahah I told her about bratz because I remember how disgusting I found them.  I still don't understand why parents got those things for their kids.  "But don't get me wrong, Japan's not perfect.  I was walking in a bookstore the other day and there was a big animated school girl moving her underwear to the side showing everything boobs hanging out and water squirting everywhere.  And Japanese business men.... I've only heard stories but it's custom for Japanese business men to go to these places with co-workers or host them to future clients and practically cheat on their wives."  "Like strip clubs?"  "Yeah but worse, I don't want to go into detail but tricks with beer bottles....And all of it is really expensive"  This conversation led to only curiosity.  It definitely made me feel bad for Japanese women... to just be expected to let their husbands go out and "practically cheat"  I don't know what that is.  Somewhere in between a strip club and actually cheating I guess.  Soooooo yeah all countries have there flaws. hahah

So since I haven't had to go to E.P. and train my afternoons have been spent making crafts for my new students.  I'm so excited, my classroom is going to look awesome!  I hope I have the sky class because I'd much rather make hot air balloons and kites and swirly clouds than boats and crabs... though a big octopus might be cool, or a mermaid.  But right now I'm making these feather name tags.  They're turning out soo pretty.  hehe I love just being able to sit back and listen to my Ipod (ughh Today I've been listening to emancipator and I just think how happy I'd be to get married to him and have him play beautiful melodies and put me to sleep everynight.  I've seen him play twice now and he's soooooooo CUTE and dreamy.  hehe I have a big monster crush on him.) and craft.  AND get paid for it all.  I'm able to design and hoop and play all day.  What have I lucked into?

Tooth aches, head aches, dragons, and earth quakes.

Well last week started off to snow and being lost downtown in a new city.  Let me catch you up on the rest of the week:

On Tuesday I went on another field trip, this time with the youngins; Sky and ocean classes.  This was their first big field trip 45 minutes away.  They’re finally old enough at four to all hold their bladders for that long and take a bus ride without being too rowdy. In Japan schools all have their children uniformly topped with the same color hats so you can easily identify which little ones belong where.  All the hats come with little flaps to protect their tiny necks from the sun.  And the parents of these kids all put patches and sew on some of the childrens interests into the hats so the kids are all capped the same but differently.  In our school a lot of the kids have their names in English on the hats.  The Sky and Ocean kids all where little blue hats.  Last Friday when I went with the Forest kids on their field trip they were all in Green hats. (Green-forest, star- yellow, sky and ocean-blue)  Any way Jimmy cho (that’s the schools maintenance guy/bus driver) drove Becky, Rachel, Yoko, Mariko, the kids and I into the mountains far aways away from B.B.K.  The bus ride there consisted of the teachers all leading the kids in songs and reading them books to keep them happily entertained so they wouldn’t get antsy and cause trouble.  Most of this was lead by Becky being EXTREMELY animated to the point where Mariko once asked if she wanted to calm down and have another teacher take over so she’d have energy for the park.  Becky replied with a “Nope, I’m good” And continued reading “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly” complete with different voices for each animal she swallowed.  All in sing song.  She’s crazy haha but the kids don’t let their attention stray.

            When we get to the park way up in the mountains I’m excited along with the little ones to see what this park has in store.  The last park I went to on Friday was pretty crazy with like 5 different elaborate jungle gyms.  We park the bus and climb up the mountain, the kids in pairs holding hands with their buddies or teachers.  The playground was massive.  All built into the mountain having jungle gyms everywhere.  One all metal bars in the shape of a rocket.  4 different types of see saws.  A giant roller slide like the one I encountered and loved at the other park.  A HUGE bar tunnel creeping up the mountain 40 or 50 ft long.  Letting the kids creep through tunnels then guiding them on top of bars above the ground.  Then down below again.  And a metal hedge maze.  Another bar obstacle course looking thing but the bars are bigger for larger kids or even us teachers (our 4 year olds weren’t allowed to go on this because the gaps were too big and they could slip right through) And then on the top where we let the kids put their book bags and jackets there was a large wooden jungle gym with even more different kinds of bridges and gaps and logs for the kids to try to hop across.  Oh lets not forget the space ship up here and two zip lines.  Hahaha These Japanese are intense with their playgrounds.  Haha We let the kids all go off and do their things.  I started at the bottom on the 40-50 ft tunnel structure to go to the top.  I had three kids ahead of me all calculating their steps on the bars very carefully.  Aoba (Ah-oh-ba) turned into my little buddy.  Looking back at me a little scared I asked if she wanted help.  This is a quite little girl with large brown eyes and perfectly parted pig tails.  She looks back at me with her big eyes and nods her head.  So I grab her little hands and hop her along the course.  Letting go at times to encourage her to do it alone just to have her grab my leg for support.  Halfway through I ran into Rachel who’s kind of sliding her but down the whole thing with two little girls and a boy riding on her stomach.  Haha aoba and I go around her finally making it to the top.  I pick her up real high and then place her down asking if that was fun.  Silently she nods her head with a smile.  I start to walk off toward these big giant drum looking things where you can jump on them at different heights and hear different thuds.  I feel a tugging on my shirt.  Little Aoba wants more help.  Haha ok little buddy.  I jump her onto the first one and then let her go to do it herself.  And I’m jumping all around them making rib bit noises pretending to catch these two little boys as my flies.  Aoba isn’t asking for help but just following my exact path.  Well this day was good.  Nothing really happened that’s worth reciting.  We all played and had a good time in this forest/mountain playground where you could peer through the trees and see our cities plus another.  At one point on the log obstacle course I was trying to hop on these wobbly logs because Reina (ray-na) really wanted to see it done.  These things were hard.  They were literally one foot log blocks stringed through a rope.  Where you had to try to balance on one and then hop to another but the logs would wobble all over the place as soon as you placed one foot down.  I end up swinging my shin into one of the blocks really hard.  Fighting back the initial surge of tears in my eyes and a large curse word I want to belt, I instead smile at reina and tell her I cant do it.  Only to go off and ten minutes later see her still trying and succeed.  So she asks me to watch her and try it again.  I watch her and realize its all upper body strength.  You have to latch your hands around the rope holding your body up long enough to place both feet down on the block without swaying.  I do it successfully… though my shin still hurts.  This was a fun day.   Rachel told me in the morning her goal was to tire the kids out at the park so the bus ride back they’d all sleep.  Well we succeeded.  And I passed out too.

Wednesday:

Melony is home sick so Mayumi comes up to me and informs me that I’ll be going on a field trip with the forest kids.  Ok.  Two in a row, cool.  She hands me a paper that tells me my schedule that day.  9-10: Recess 10-11: Forest kids start the three mile walk to E.P. 11-12: We stop in a park to eat lunch. 12-12:30:  We finnish the walk to E.P. and all get icecream at the tea store that’s right next door to E.P. 12:30-1:  The forest kids and teachers all play with the 0-2 year old class at E.P. then Jimi Cho will drive us back to the kindergarten.  At the end of this note it says Elise please take pictures of the kids on their walk. I read this and tell her I didn’t bring my SLR like I did on Friday.  And Meyumi says I could use her Nikon D50.  I think its the Nikon two steps below mine.  Ok.  I guess they’re slowly going to turn me into the schools photographer. Haha I kinda wish I was getting a bonus for my artistic eye but whatevs.  I’m more annoyed with the fact that this field trip is basically wrangling up 23 six year olds and walking three miles on a road.   Umm the other two field trips were way more entertaining for all of us.  I’m not looking forward to this walk and I don’t think any of the little kids would really lose sleep with excitement over this trek either. 

I go outside with Becky and Rachel for recess.  A lot of the kids are playing freeze tag.  And they’re strict on not coming in mid game.  If you didn’t start out in the game then you’re not in it.  Haha its also funny because they don’t use real freeze tag rules.  They play where one kid runs around freezing people while other kids unfreeze them until they say they’re tired and another kid will jump up to be “IT”.  I remember how badly we would avoid being “it” when I was younger.  It was the worst thing in the world trying to tag someone three times before they were finally the one to be the alleged “IT”.  But I don’t try to tell them the real rules because this is one of their favorite games and they seem happy playing it wrong. Haha. Theres always a volunteer to pick up the “it” spot when the previous one is too tired too.  Funny kids.  I decide to play soccer with this giant kick ball instead.  They LOVE soccer here.  Each prefecture has its own soccer team and the kids all are really into them.  Theres a stadium in Showa where Yamanashi will have their home games and some of the kids will go with their parents to watch.  Anyway soccer was the only sport I ever felt good at and after my 3 year run I was a little better than mediocre.  That should tell you something about my athletic abilities.  (Well that’s kind of selling myself short.  I love to run and skateboard and rollerblade and bike… but as far as team sports go I’m pretty lousy.)  As soon as I start dribbling the ball through kids and to the net and kick it in and scream “goal”.  I get like four little ones interested in playing with me.  One of them stays in front of the net as goalie while the other two are chasing after me for the ball.  I feel like a soccer superstar.  Kicking the ball in and out of frozen kids.  Letting the ball stay stationary long enough for one of my opponents to think they can kick the ball away and then I roll it out of their reach again and back into my possession.  I’ve never felt like such an atheletic champ.  I continue my little superstar game for a minute or two before I decide to switch into the  “Oh-no-you got-it-im-going-to-run-after-you-in-slow-motion” gig.  Chasing the two little ones like a big clumsy oaf who woud pretend to be about to kick it from them just to fall back again. “Ah you’re too fast”.  Recess is about to end and I leave my soccer friends behind to get ready for this stupid walk haha.

All the forest kids are already waiting by the door when I run in to grab my Bambi jacket and bookbag with my lunch in it.  We start the walk.  I have the D50 and start walking alongside the kids running ahead to snatch some pictures whenever we’re in front of something cool.  Ahhh I don’t think I’ve mentioned Sohta yet.  Haha I think this little boy has a giant crush on me.  Its pretty cute.  My second day at BBK when really only one or two kids acknowledged my existence and showed interest in me he came right up to me after lunch and stood in front of me smiling.  I looked down at him and asked him something in English when he kind of swayed and just continued to look at me smiling really big. Haha I picked him up and tickled him and put him down.  This is the kid who said I was a forest.  He’s also the first kid who remembered my name and uses it all the time.  Anyway I’m running alongside the kids when him and these two other little boys keep calling me over to them to try to get me to hold their hands on the walk.  HAHA Its really funny how they’re fighting over it.  I tell them I’ll switch and hold all their hands.  Feeling kind of funny that none of the little girls want or care about where I am.  So I’m walking with them singing “The ants go marching one by one harrah harrah”  A song that none of them have heard before but all really like watching me perform it.  This starts to get the little girls interested in me.  I finally break free from the little boys grasp and tell them I need to have both hands to take pictures.  This stops their constant asking for their turn.  By the time we get to the park for lunch I’m really tired from all the running around I’v been doing for pictures and the little sing song skits I’m performing.  UGhhh I cant wait for my stamina to build up so I can do all this without feeling like I need to crash for a nap mid day.  We eat lunch in the park I’m sitting next to two little girls.  The little hello kitty sandwhich girl has another one and she shows all her friends excitedly again.  Hehe I thought this was a one time deal last time the way she reacts but no…  its like groundhog day with each day still being just as surprised as the last.  I eat my lunch which I got at the convenient store (Melonys advice… they have good little lunches)  IT consists of rice and like three different meats that I’m still not 100% sure what they were, shrimp tempura, a little taste of asain flan (which is sooo good…  I didn’t even know asains made flan until this past thanksgiving when I hosted a work potluck at my house in Tallahassee and our company asain hehe butch brought in some that his mom made.  He left all the leftovers for me and I was so stoked about it because its SOOO good.) And a weird seaweed looking salad.  Seaweed looking but its not seaweed.  I’m really lucky I’m not a picky eater and will happily try anything in front of me because I’d be pretty miserable here if I were.  All the meats were really good.  One I’m 95% sure was a fish sausage which sounds gross but was quite tasty.  The only thing that threw me for a loop in this lunch was a sour plum they put in the center of my bed of rice.  I wasn’t expecting sucha  sour bitter taste.  I’m not the biggest fan and I LOVE sour/bitter.  Can eat a lemon happily and chug some ruby read grapefruit juice.  This little sour plum though gave me a contorted face I couldn’t control.  Kind of like the faces I make after doing a shot of liquor.  Mmm Attractive.

            After lunch the boys are running around crazy.  The little girls all kind of taking their time, talking.  I watch the boys exhausted.  Fighting with my eyes to stay open.  I look at Meyumi, Sensei B (shes melony’s co-teacher and the one teacher who hasn’t really tried to talk to me.  We talk little bits but not long enough for me to remember her name… I’m also meeting a lot of kids… well I’m making excuses really I should know her name by now. Ill get on it) and Jimicho.  The two women are eating their lunch talking with the kids while Jimi cho is running around with the boys.  He’s stolen this one kid Tristen’s hat and is wearing it running away from a little Tristan who is dying of laughter demanding his hat back.  Ummm they look like they can handle it on their own.  I think I might just rest my head on my bookbag for a sec…. out like a light.

            I wake up to giggling girls poking me “Elise Sensei WAKE UP”  haha I get up with a start almost forgetting where I was.  I laugh off my sleepy eyes so the girls don’t see zombie-wake-up-elise.

Woah… its Sunday night here.  9:30 pm and I hear someone outside talking in Japanese on a giant megaphone.  : (  I’m scared.  I can’t understand what they’re warning.  And everythings been kind of weird here since the tsunamis and earthquakes.  Ughhh fuck I wish I could understand what they’re saying.  I’m going to miss the warning. : (  I’m calling Melony now.  Ok it was just reexplaining something I already knew.  Because of the power plant disaster the cities that need power most right now are out of power.  So tomorrow and probably all week they’ll be taking power from various Japanese cities at different times each day.  Melony whos in Minami said they’ll be without power tomorrow from 10am-1pm and then 7pm-1am.  I don’t know what Showa’s is because I couldn’t understand the message.  Hopefully not when I usually skype.  Skype has really been saving me from feeling THAT homesick so…

Anyway.  We start walking again.  I go to the back this time.  I gave Mayumi the camera.  Its heavy with my bookbag and everything.  She can handle the rest of the pictures.  I’m walking with this little boy and girl who both want to hold my hand.  They tug at my jacket and ask why I’m wearing it. “Aren’t you warm Elise Sensei?”  HAHHA No you 40 pound freaks.  Sure the sun is warm but theres these icy winds that chill me to the bone.  You can literally feel the struggle between the sun and wind.  One trying to warm while the other swoops in with cool.  I’m shocked all these little ones are basking in these cold cold breezes.  The little girl Noa (yeah like the ark builder) whos to the left of me is biting the breeze smacking her teeth down into it saying “Yummy yummy”  I join in “Nom nom nom nom nom.  This is the best.  Just like the icecream we’re about to have huh Noa?”  “Haha yeah!  Mmm vanilla!”  She’s doing this for a long time.  Cracking herself up.  But this last 30 min bit she keeps turning to me saying “I’m so tired.”  “I know little one… hahah me too.”  Still not understanding the motivations for this “field trip”  Traffic safetly?   I pick her up over the staired bridge we use to cross the street.  Supermanning her up and down the stairs because she’s clearly struggling.  In my arms still biting the brisk winds.

We make it to the tea shop and all the little kids pick out icecream.  They get to choose from four different soft serves.  Vanilla, green tea, green tea vanilla swirl, or shoot. I cant remember the last one but it’s a flavor that just started getting popular back in the states.

We all eat our icecream at E.P.s play area.  There’s cornflakes at the bottom which is a nice surprise.  Then we play with infant class.  THIS was adorable.  Watching all the six year olds coddle the babies.  Play with trucks with them.  This one little six year old boy was hugging a little toddler so tight.  You can tell the toddlers LOVED this.  The toddlers all got a kick out of me being the only foreigner in the room.  Some of them running up to me and then when I turn their way they would run off screaming.  I was playing trains with two toddlers that ran after me when I had to go. <3

I get back to the kindergarten about to get ready for my last three hours at E.P. when Encho comes up to me and tells me to skip E.P. training today.  She said she heard I was really tired at lunch and I should just go get some rest and come back really genkei (gein-key) tomorrow.  This word is a Japanese word I really love.  It means happy and energetic.  She’s not saying any of this in a mad or pissed off way.  All teachers starting out are like exhausted the first month-month and a half because these little kids are all nonstop.  I get super excited.  I needed to go to the supermarket anyway.  I’m planning out the rest of my day super happily on the bus ride back over to E.P.

I go to the supermarket.  This isn’t the one I’ve been writing about, the one I met Andy and his family at.  This is a different one that Diana and Carolina took me too before our arcade adventure.  They always go to this one because the prices are lower here.  It still has a lot more than just food but its not as massive as the one I went to.  When I came to Trial (the new supermarket) with Diana and Carolina, Diana was kind of giving me a tutorial on whats good, what to get, what a lot of these foreign foods are.  Diana can read and speak in Japanese, English, and Spanish.  So awesome.  On that trip I basically grabbed a lot of what she was telling me about.  And I’ve been turning into quite a little asain cook.  I love it.  I’m more adventurous with cooking here than I ever was back home.  I’m making miso soup and fish and beef dishes nightly.  Mixing sauces. Most of the dishes pretty simple but they’ll get more and more advanced as I get better.  I’ve been eating so much edamame too.  Mmmm its just so perfect that vegetable.  Other than that first bad soup and eggs… I haven’t had any other bad food experiences.  Ohhh that sour plum!  Ughhh. Unpleasant surprise that was.  I get an area rug so I can practice hooping again.  I was progressing so fast back in the U.S and its kind of been on halt here.  I look at the bikes a little bit.  I’m going to need to buy my own bike soon since I’m borrowing Enchos right now.  The bikes here are awesome.  They come with built in baskets, lights, and locks.  You don’t need to buy all these separate things, its just one big package.  There are some really cool looking ones but I don’t really know what I’m looking for.  I don’t know how to gage bike quality or anything.

I go home that night and relax (Enchos wishes)  I take a bubble bath, hoop for the first time in a while.  Watch t and pass out.  Ahh the simple joys in life.  I’m going to stop here and post this at work tomorrow.  My internet isn’t working again just skype for some weird reason .  And I’m really sick. : (  I’ll write about my adventures Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday tomorrow.

Thursday:

I eat my breakfast and halfway through it feels like my tooth is cracked or something it really hurt.  I had to eat the rest of my breakfast on the other side of my mouth because it was so tender. : (  I end up going to school and forgetting about it.

The kindergarten is surrounded by a grape vineyard.  Which is pretty awesome looking, I’ve never seen one before.  I was picturing thin fleshy vines like the ones I see grow on fences and houses.  But no these are full on TRUNKY vines.  They have a horizontal lead for them to grow on.  So its like a massive tree growing sideways.  I love it.  Its still winter so theres no leaves or grapes to distract you from the really pretty river-like paths these thick thick wooden vines make.  I need to bring my SLR to take pictures of them. But April 1^st I’ll be living right amongst them so theres no rush.  Well Thursday all the kids go outside for recess when the owner of the grape vineyard is burning a lot of brush.  The smokes flying right onto the hill where Haru is standing taking no notice.  This little boy is so funny.  He’s 4 in the Sky class and he’s so quiet and dreamy looking.  When you talk to him and he’s looking at you it kind of looks like he might be looking through you.  Haru-kun (In japan they add kun ((coon)) onto the ends of boys names and chan on the end of girls names as a kind of pet name.  Meaning little loved one.  I love doing this.  You need to make it two syllables though so for example there’s a little girl named kizuna ((ki-zoo-nah))  and for her name you would drop the na and just say kizuchan.  Kind of chiming it as you say it.  This comforts the kids when we’re asking them not to do something or if we just want to call them over or whatever.)  Anyway “Harukun what are you doing standing in that smoke? Come on little one move out of the way.”   Rachel, Becky and I are looking around at the smoke and playing kids and decide it has to be an indoor recess day.

I go into the star classroom where Ryhu and Raimu and two other kids have brought out babies and a little kitchen are and blocked out a house with chairs.  I grab one of the naked babies in the bin and look for clothes.  I find a shirt and socks.  No pants.  I start rocking the baby and say “I’ll be mom” when Ryhu says “Noo I’m the mom!”  “Ok… I guess I’ll be dad”  “No I’m dad!” Raimu chimes in.  “You can be grandmother!”  “Ohhh ok.”  So I rock the baby and talk in my best old womans voice.  Eating my daughter and son in laws “fruit punch”  which just looks like a bunch of the fake fruit we have at the kindergarten put into a soup bowl.   I get bored of this really fast.  Haha Not going to lie the first week was way easier to get excited about all this stuff because I forgot all these little kid games.  Now I remember why we all grow out of these games… because really they’re only a blast everyday if you are 3-6.  But its not like I hate it now or anything.  I just have to work at liking it a little more than these little kids.

I end up going over to the legos with Emma and Mami.  Emma’s gathering all the lego animals and is making a kind of zoo with them.  Mami… I’m not sure what she’s making an aircraft?  I ask her and she looks at me slyly and doesn’t say.  I decide to make a house.  I don’t know what age you start to color coordinate well but when these kids build legos color really isn’t a concern.  They look like abstract art pieces almost.  Just throw up of whatever color is nearest them.  I build my house with perfect stripes and a door and windows.  I look over at mami’s craft thing again.  “what are you making mami?”  She laughs.  Then Nalette says “probably a gun… this girl is always making guns.”  “Is it a gun?”  “Yeah hehehehe”  This makes me laugh.  Mami reminds me of myself at her age.  I was always making aircrafts and cars and trucks with Mikey.  I really had no want for any type of girl toys.  This one birthday party a girl gave me a barbi and I went right up to her and told her I really don’t like barbis.  I’m pretty sure my mom made me apologize.  Boy toys were way more interesting then brushing hair and accessorizing.  Mario I remember always had the best action figures.  All the ninja turtles.  All the characters from aladin and Lion King and Little Mermaid.  Nintindo characters.  And mikey had matchbox cars with tracks and everything.  You could make loopdi-loops with the tracks and watch the cars do little flips.  Anyways I finnish my house and start gathering the lego people to bring to life with mami having them go in and out of the house and such.  I try bringing some Animals in but zoo keeper emma just doesn’t agree to this.  Mami’s gun turns into a dragon and the rest of playtime I have to try to shelter all the people and zoo animals from the dragons wrath.

This playtime I see one of the Ocean kids has a runny nose.  Whenever the other teachers see this they just tell them to go grab a tissue.  I decide to try like I’v been witnessing the last two weeks.  “Kyoske, go wipe your nose please!”  “No.”  Well that was a fail.  I go up to Rachel and ask what to do next since I’ve never seen the kids straight up refuse.  She then explains that this kids a BIG baby and hates wiping his nose. “Kioske did Elise Sensei just ask you to wipe your nose and you didn’t?  Here’s a tissue please wipe your nose”  Blatent ignoring. “Ok” she wipes it for him.  And then he starts crying.  Just sitting on the floor completely defeated as if someone just smacked him or something.  Rachel and I both just leave him… I don’t want to encourage this behavior and neither does she.  Yoko comes up with tissues and is wiping his tears off his face and now the floor since he’s creating a little river.  Shes talking to him in Japanese.  Rachel tells me later that she basically was like “you know that didn’t hurt… you’re being a baby.”  Hash but true.  In april I’m going to be dealing with three year olds a lot of whom have never been socialized before or used to leaving their moms.  Rachel warns me theres going to be A LOT of crying.

At lunch my toothache gets worse.  By the end of lunch it feels like whenever I even drink water I can feel it seep into my tooth. : /  makes me wince just thinking about it.  I go to Encho and tell her because that’s what all the girls say I need to do.  Melony is still out sick.  She tells me that I don’t have insurance until my visa is in effect (which is like a week or two)  and I can go to the dentist but it will be kind of expensive.  I tell her I want to wait another day and see if it gets better or worse.  (Glad I did because it ends up going away completely.  Phew dodged that bullet.)

At E.P.  Tuerre lets me try to do a bit of the lesson on my own.  I wasn’t AWFUL but I was very timid and not used to having a little class watching me.  Well kind of, they watch and fidget and look around a lot.  Tuerre and Becky and Rachel all make it look REALLY easy an I was surprised at how… well not easy it was.  Tuerre tells me I didn’t do bad and I just need another try or so and I’ll have it fine.  She says not to get discouraged.  Sometimes it doesn’t seem like they’re paying attention or even retaining any English but they are.  She says when she started she thought the kids weren’t learning anything, but the parents would all come in and be excited that they were singing songs in English or just pointing out things and saying what they were in English.

Friday:

Each month the school has a “Birthday celebration” for all kids born that day.  So Friday we had marches.  It was really cute.  I sat in on Becky’s class because the Sky kids had two birthdays in it.  Before all the classes get together and celebrate, individual classes do their own thing.  The two birthday kids stand infront of their classmates.There was a little girl and a little boy in it. Becky puts the crown on this little girl Yuka and says “oh princess yuka so beautiful”  This little girl is dressed so cute in a black and white fluffy dress.  Its her special day.  Then Becky puts the crown on the little boy. “Oh and a prince!” I say  And then Becky smiles and says “No it’s a girl, TWO PRINCESSES”  eek I look around but none of the kids seemed to notice or care about my mistake.  They’re still too young and don’t know English well enough to get the prince princess thing maybe?  None of them wanted to tease Shiori or anything and Shiori didn’t look the slightest offended.  Becky told me later that everyone does that with her.  She said “The parents have talked to us concerned saying that everyone mistakes her for a boy all the time.”  And I’m like “Well maybe if they didn’t dress her like a little boy?”  “Haha exactly. And cut her hair like one! But we can’t really say that to them… so we always just go, Ohh I don’t know….”  Haha They’re monks so they think maybe that has something to do with it.

Well the birthday kids get to hear messages from their parents.  And its pretty sentimental to the kids.  Rachel says a lot of them get really choked up hearing how proud their parents are of them. <3

Skipping through the celebration… recess that Friday was pretty obnoxious.  I was getting rejected by a lot of the older kids… none of them wanted anything to do with me.  I really wanted to just be like “Fine play by yourselves I’ll just watch..”  But that’s not really what I’m getting paid for. Hehe.  At one point I find a puppet and I go under a table to put on a puppet show hoping that will attract some kids when a little boy tries to take it out of my hand.  “I’m using it right now I’ll give it to you when I’m done ok?” Nope not listening to anything I’m saying. Grab grab grab. “No that’s not how we share?  I’ll give it to you in a minute.” Grab grab grab.  Then Sohta comes out of nowhere and pushes the boy and says “She’s using it right now. You can use it after.”  Haha I want to praise Sohta for rescuing me but I know I can’t because he pushed him.  I actually just pretend I didn’t see the push and continue my puppet show half heartedly.  Eh I don’t really want it anymore anyway.  I go find the kid that ran off and give it to him.

After recess I’m sitting in Rachels class and we have a halfhour extra to play with the kids.  I teach a lot of them how to make paper airplanes and we decorate them and sore them around the room.  I play superman with suzenne and Reina.  Then they just sit on my stomach and I just slide around the room on my back. Making broom broom noises.  They’rs bouncing on my stomach giggling.  Then suzenne starts grabbing my boobs.  Melony warned me about this.  She said there are different ways to deal with this… I can do what Melony does and just ignore it, if the kids see it doesn’t get a rise out of me they’ll get bored and stop.  Or I can do what Rachel does and just explain to them it makes her sad and uncomfortable.  Or I can do what becky does and just do it back and say “Do you like it?” In which they ALWAYS respond “NOoo” and stop immediately.  So shes grabbing away and thinks its really funny.  I think its really weird and try Melonys tactic… but when she sees I’m not telling her to stop she gets more forceful.  Haha So I try my own tactic.  “ok Suzenne you have to get off the plane I don’t like that.”  “no no no I’ll stop!  I’ll stop.”  Hehe problem solved.

OK so this was the earthquake day.  I took my nap up in the loft like usual.  And I wake up to the floor shaking.  It feels like someone beneath me is just pushing the walls.    It gets more intense.  I realize its not someone pushing the walls “Hey you guys feel that?”  I shout down to Becky and Rachel who are taking their breaks beneath in the teacher area. “Yeah Elise!  Make sure you aren’t under anything.”  And then they both bolt out of the room.  I sit there not knowing what to do.  Well I know I’m not under anything and I can’t walk down the narrow stairs so I just have to wait it out.  It continues for a couple minutes and then stops.  But it was kind of intense I think we felt a level 4?  Looking out the window I could see BBKs bus teetering like mad.  It didn’t take long at all before we were gathered around a computer watching the tsunami sweep that city away.  It was really sad.  Becky tried making jokes to lighten the mood.  Nobody wanted to hear them.  Nobody acknowledged them. “Too soon eh?  I just really don’t like thinking about it.” “Yeah too soon Becky….” I reply.  I know she doesn’t mean it but its pretty disrespectful.  Ugh I’m watching thinking how insanely lucky we are.  How I’m fighting back tears thinking what a nightmare this has just made so many peoples lives.  How its just destroyed so many peoples lives.  Rachels crying because she just found out her boyfriend is ok.  She thought he was close to it.  Yoko leaves immediately because her grandma doesn’t have a phone and lives north of Tokyo.  She ended up being ok.  After that half hour around the computer though everyone went on the rest of the afternoon like normal.  Every once and a while someone would bring it up “wow I can’t believe that just happened”  And it would be somber for a second.  Or we would feel one of the two aftershocks and get a little scared.

Soo after work I ride my bike to this thrift store because I want to get some play clothes for work.  OH MY GOSh.  BEST EXPERIENCE EVER.  I posted pictures on Facebook.  But all of the clothes fit me perfectly and were super stylish ad cheap.  I couldn’t have been more excited to flick through the thousands of clothing items they had.  Thrifting in America is not like this at all.  I’d have to sift through a bunch of crap most of it would never fit me or even come back into style.  All of this stuff was awesome.  It was either chic vintage or fashions of today.  Cute little Asians thank you.  I only went on the first floor because I was so hungry and I was already there for 2 and half hours but it was amazing and had anything you could think of.  I can’t wait to go back.

Saturday I decided to stay in and rest.  And I was going to leave Sunday to go explore.  Wrong.  I wake up Sunday with really bad body aches and a high fever.  I write a lot of this blog but I can’t do anything.  I was sooo bummed a weekend wasted on rest. : (  No exploring.  This past week I’ve been so sick with the flu. They took me to the dr. on Wed.  When they tested me and confirmed that I had Influenza.  Admittedly I didn’t know this was just a fancy name for the flu.  I didn’t find this out till later when a friend on skype pointed it out to me.  Hehe I felt kind of silly. Its kind of been a blur of sleeping and fevers and waking up in sweats.  Cleaning the sheets and baths.  Thinking I’m better and then relapsing.  Hearing a lot of Japanese loud speaker announcements of expected blackouts (I ended up pretty lucky being one of the very few little square blocks who don’t get any blackouts?  I have candles and flashlights though.  I need to figure out what to do with them.)  But yeah these speaker things along with my sisters trying to talk me into coming home to deciding I am coming home to finding out I am safe and don’t need to come home.  Well this week hasn’t been the best.  I felt an even more intense earthquake on Wed night.  It felt like I was on a boat.  I could feel waves in the floor.  It really freaked me out.

Then I finally was fully healed and ready to party on Saturday.  Encho and Jimi Cho (Jimi cho is Enchos husband)  Threw a welcome party for Nalette and I and a goodbye part for Rachel.  It was awesome.  Really amazing Japanese tappas.  And Never ending drinks that Rachel and kept giving me.  Rachel ordered me two at one point and was like “well its not like you cant have two at a time”  And Mariko said  at another point in the night “Alcohol is used to disinfect and heal, so drink up girl you need this alcohol the most!”  This was an awesome night.  We all were so drunk and laughing constantly.  Japanese and English intertwined.  We went to Karaoke afterwards. I woke up this morning not with a fever… but a HUGE hangover.  A happy trade.

Alright Im caught up.  I’m going to go read and go to sleep. Haha sorry I kind of rushed the last bits but I need to get better at deciding what I can leave out.  I get too detail happy : )

An unexpected visit to the Kofu police station....

Wow.  My day has been STRANGE to say the least.  At Christmas Lindsey and Ryan gave me a journal to record all my experiences I have in Japan.  In the back of the journal both of them each wrote a note of love and encouragement to me.  In Ryan's note he wrote at one point "I can't wait to hear about all the amazing, disgusting, fun, and STUPID things you end up doing.  Those are always the best memories."  haha well brother brown, listen to this.

I wake up and hear rain outside. Not drizzling but rain.  So I prepare myself accordingly... I have to ride my bike 3 and a half miles to work at the kindergarten Mondays and Fridays till I move into my apartment thats right next door.  Last Friday was the first time riding back home from the kindergarten.  It was a nice bike ride except I wasn't prepared and my nose was freezing the whole time.  Today I'm wiser and wrap one of the scarfs my mom knitted for me really tightly around my head.  I wear two knit hats.  Wear two jackets and zip up my rain resistant jacket to my nose and put on my rain resistant pants over my jeans and long underwear.  I'm going to be good this time.  I look in the mirror and I'm completely covered except for my green eyes shining through.  Perfect.  I open my door to go outside and don't even really register what I'm seeing at first.  Its not rain... its white. ITS SNOW.  AHHHHH I look around and everything's white and snow covered.  I'm shining I'm so happy. I've never seen it.  I've wanted to experience it for so long and now I am.  I run back inside and grab my outdoorsy gloves and get ready to hop on my bike.

I'm so enamered by the snow. I'm watching it land on my hands and the bike and melt.  I like the way it slowly flakes down to the ground.  I'm riding my bike for a little while and notice I haven't passes E.P. yet.  Huh..... I really should have passed E.P. by now and hit the main road I take to get to the kindergarten.  I stop and look around.  Everythings snow covered but I don't recognize any of it.  UGHhhhh so like me.  I was watching the snow with my head in the clouds when I should have paid attention to the stupid route.  ughh.  I don't really know what to do at this point.  Turn back?  But I'm going in the general direction of the main road... I'm bound to hit it.  Should I call Melony?  No no no I don't want to bother her and can definitely figure this out.  I continue going the way I'm going.  The snows awesome but I'm getting pretty frustrated with it flying into my eyes every two seconds.  It hurts.  It freezes my eyes and blinds me.  I guess I should have taken my umbrella but I didn't want to hold it.  I wanted to have both hands on the bike because I've never rode my bike in snow before.  Well I can't have two hand on the bike and see so I have to keep alternating which hand I use to shield my poor freezing eyes.  I layered way too well too.  My whole body is SUPER hot.  I hardly sweat but I feel like I might be.  I unwrap the scarf off my nose and mouth a little to let the cool air and snow in.  This helps a little.  Shoot.  Maybe I should turn back i still don't see the main road.  Well lets go around this bend and if I still don't see it I'll turn back.   Peeking around the bend I don't see more houses I see shops and a stop light.  I also see this walkway that goes over the busy road for pedestrians to just walk up stairs and go across instead of waiting for a light.  I remember this walkway on the busy road and on my route to the kindergarten.  Clever girl, you did it.

I'm a little happier now, riding to get to work on time.  I need to be there at nine and its like a half hour- forty five min ride.  Its SUPER annoying switching hands back and forth to shield my eyes.  I wish I had goggles. : ( My mom and I bought the rain gear to prepare me for these types of situations.  Neither of us thought of goggles though.  Oh well. Next time. One arm gets tired, switch.  The other, switch.  I'm trying not to focus on how much this really blows, but instead the snow that's continually building on any object in its way.  New car lots with birghtly colored prices selling mounds of snow.  I'm surprised at how my tires grip the sidewalk like normal. I was terrified I'd fishtail all over the place.  A boy is riding his bike toward me, I instinctively go to my right. I immediately remember that this is wrong.  But its too late he's skid to a stop.  It wasn't a close call or anything but still, I feel really bad.  I want to apologize but he's gone.  I couldn't really if he was still there anyway... it would sound like gibberish to him.  I continue riding when I see the road start to elevate. YES. I made it to the bridge.  The beautiful bridge that tells me I'm almost to work.

I start to go up when I look down at the quaint little stream I love.  What?  Its a full on river.  I stop and look down searching for it to thin out.  It didn't rain hard enough for it to get this big over the weekend.  Infact... other than this morning it was clear as crystal all weekend.  I tear my eyes away from the river and look all around me.  Ummmm this bridge is ugly.  This is small and plain looking.  I don't see the huge Pachinko casino thats right after the bridge either.  Where am I?  I squint through the snow and mist to my left and right to see if I can make out other bridges.  I do faintly see them in both directions.  Neither of them really look like MY bridge but... huh if this isn't the road Im supposed to be on I must be on the next big road just to the left of the one I'm supposed to be on.  I should just have to go right and travel a little farther and I'll hit the Kindergarten.

I get back on my bike and decide to ride on.  I can't decide if I should take the first right or the second right after the bridge.  I was going to know off landmarks if I was on the actual route but since I'm not... I don't remember.  I think its the second.  I keep going.  I look like I'm downtown.  This must be downtown Minami.  Pretty.  But I'm not here to sight see.  Shoot I don't want to turn the second right and be wrong and get even more lost.  I better call Melony. I look down at my phone and its 8:50. I would have been on time if I went the right way. : (  I call Melony and she doesnt answer.  I stand there noticing that my hat is covered in snow.  Ugh I really hope it doesnt start to melt while I'm still wearing it.  I'm at a loss I don't really know what to do from here.  I try her again... no answer.  She's probably about to start the Forest kids lesson.  I have E.P.s number but I don't really know that staff that well. I don't know if the ladies in the office know Minami or if they just know Showa.  I don't really feel like having a very confusing conversation with them right now.  I really have to be like a street over.  Should I just turn right right now and see?  I see that theres a police car stopped at the stop light like two feet behind me.  I turn around and peer inside.  Theres two men police officers looking back at me.  The passenger on the left side rolls the window down to see what I need.  I know he's probably not going to understand English but I must be close to the school and he's probably heard of it.  "Do you know where Bambi Bilingual Kindergarten is?"  He looks back at me blankly.  None of those words meant anything to him.  Oh no.  He steps out of the car and the light turns green.  The driver pulls the car into the parking lot right next to me.  I don't really know where to go from here.  Why haven't I put my pocket dictionary in my book bag yet? (I have now after this whole mess... I'm not going to let this happen again.)  I ask him again.  Nothing.  Ummm ohhh I decide to struggle with my jacket to try to point to my Bambi sweater underneath it.  He'll know how to read it in Japanese.  Oh no my Bambi ID tag will be better.  I scrummage through my bag and find it.  Show it to him.  Most of the card is in Japanese except for the logo that says Bambi Bilingual Kindergarten.  He's looking at that.  And he says "Bambi Bilingual Kindergarten?"  "YES!"  I say thinking its finally hit him.  Just point me the way. He doesn't.  He just repeats it.  "uhh yes!  Thats where I need to go." I point to my bike.  He repeats it.  ohhh you have no idea what that is?  "yes?"  He repeats it.  Seriously?  Stop fixating on the english and maybe read the Japanese?  Maybe that'll help us out?  He does.  And then I notice with him a little phone number at the bottom.  Ohhh I should have just called that.  I wish I had known it was there before...  He gets his phone out and calls the number.  By now the other cop had parked and got out of the car.  He was standing there with us.  He's REALLY young.  He's looking back and fourth between the two of us smiling at me.  First japanese guy to not flinch away.  haha I guess they need to feel some sort of authority?  The cop is talking to someone at the school.  I'm kind of relieved that he's called actually.  Because if it was Encho (I found out today I was saying the word for principal wrong. : (  Not Etch-oh but more like inch-oh) who answered I didn't want a language barrier to get in the way of this misunderstanding.   Hes talking to whoever it is for a minute or two.  The one cop is still looking back and fourth between the two of us.  I'm so grateful they're helping me. I don't really know what I was going to do without them.  He hands the phone to me.

It's Melony.  She tells me that they're going to take me to the nearest police station and Encho is going to pick me up there.  She says that they're going to take me in the cop car but that I'm obviously not in trouble.  I ask her about my bike. She doesn't really seem phased by any of this.  Like it happens everyday or something. She tells me they'll get the bike there, or maybe we'll walk. I hand the phone back to the police officer and he talks for another couple seconds then hangs up.  The older cop walks back to the cop car and the younger one starts to escort me to the station.  We walk in silence since we dont understand each other.  I walk in back of him because the sidewalks narrow and I have my bike.  I start smiling really big at this ludicrous situation I've managed to get myself into.  I'm thinking to myself  Well at least I find it funny now and i'm not in an awful mood because of it.  I'm actually pretty surprised I find it so funny.  I'M IN JAPAN.  ITS SNOWING.  IM LOST.  IM GETTING ESCORTED BY A POLICE MAN TO A JAPANESE POLICE STATION.  I just would never have imagined myself here in this situation six months ago.  We keep walking.  I'm noticing that my toes are starting to get really cold.  I'm wondering if my combat boots have let melted snow in.  You're supposed to protect me from combat.... and you can't fight out the snow?  My fingers are starting to get really cold too.  We keep walking.  Everytime the cop looks back at me he has this look of satisfaction on his face.  Like "Look at me, being a cop.  Protecting citizens."  He has to be new to this because he's so young.  I bet he really enjoys it.  He looks like he does.  I wonder what type of crime he sees in this oh-so-safe city.  He finally points up to a building thats the station.  We walk to it and I lock my bike outside.  He shows me to this closed off little waiting area where he wants me to sit.  I wanted to sit outside and just wait for Encho but he seems pretty firm on me waiting here.

I take a seat and wait.  I look around.  Theres a poster of whats either a Japanese most wanted list or a missing persons list.  Then below it are these pictures of car accidents.  One of their little japanese boxed cars completely flipped over.  I don't know what possibly could have caused it because its on a straight road with no type of obstacles around it. I wonder if the Japanese beneath it says what happened.  Another car driving in snow slammed into the back of the truck.  Next to these posters is a poster about biking safety.  Its telling me to always ride on the left side of the road.  But this picture confused me at first because it has a red circle around the way you're supposed to go and a blue X on the bottom of the way you're not supposed to go.  In America red means wrong and blue would probably be the right.  I'm trying to think if I've been doing that.... I don't think I have.  Well I'll start now.  Theres a picture of a guy swerving and a lot of liquor bottles.  haha ok I won't ride my bike wasted.  Definitely wasn't planning on that anyway.  I sit down still pretty amused by this whole situation except I'm kind of worried about getting in the car with Encho and going back to the school.   I really don't want them to get frustrated with me.  I don't want their patience to wear thin when they've all seemed to really like me.

The older cop comes into the waiting area and asks to see my foreigner ID or passport.  Well since my foreigner ID wont be ready for another week or so I reach for my bookbag to grab my passport.  Oh no. My heart drops.  FFFF*#@  Ughhh.  I forgot to switch the passport from my purse to my bookbag after the arcade.  I've been keeping it on me nonstop and OF COURSE the one day I forget.  This situation is immediately no longer funny and I'm kind of pissed off at myself.  I tell him its at my house.  He's going to fine me or something.. I'm going to get a ticket.  I'm supposed to have that on me at all times.  He looks at me and leaves the waiting area.  I feel so stupid.  I hate this morning.  He comes back with a notebook for me to write down my name.  He asks me more information to write down but theres a huge language gap that we keep having to awkwardly try to ask each other things neither of us understand.  Finally he gets what he wants and leaves.  Its like 9:45 at this point.  I walk out of the waiting area a couple times to look in the parking lot to see if I see Encho. I go back in picking up one of the pamphlets saying "HELP STOP ##$^#%"  A bunch of japanese characters.  There's a simple silhouette of a woman crossing her arms in front of her chest.  I open the pamphlet to find out what I should help them fight.  But the same thing is written on the inside.  First part English then Japanese.  I look through the whole pamphlet but its all in Japanese except for the website.  Its gender.something.something.jp.  I guess I'll never know what I'm supposed to help stop.  I look at the woman icon and the website.  I wonder if its rape.  But how are they explaining to us to help stop it?  Cary mase with you?  Look out for screaming women?  Don't know.  I put the pamphlet back and take out this book on guidance I borrowed from the school.  I'm most worried about the kids not wanting to listen to me.  I voiced this to Rachel and she told me to read this book.

Encho finally picks me up at 10:30 apologizing for being so late.  I tell her its fine. I'm relieved she doesn't seem the least bit annoyed.  She talks to the cops for a minute asking me to wait in the waiting area.  She comes back and says they need to follow us to my apartment to see my passport.  They're going to take my bike back. : /  I feel like a fool.  I thank her so much as we're driving and apologize.  She says that its really not a big deal and that mistakes are bound to happen in a new country.  She says she has the worst sense of direction too.  I end up being 30 minutes away from the kindergarten in the next town over.  haha I don't even know how that happened.  That main road I took must have been going diagonally away from minami... not towards it.

After all of this happens my day was normal.  I'm still training at the school but all the kids have warmed up to me even the shy ones.  Yeahhhh.

Once the school days over I still have three hours left of the day. I dont go to work at E.P Mondays and Fridays that's why I ride my bike.  I have an English teachers meeting with Melony, Rachel, Becky, and Nalette.  We discuss next years curriculum.

I hangout with Becky and Rachel after, cutting out stuff for the Sky and Ocean classes.  We pretty much do this until we have to go.

Marioko Becky's bilingual teacher takes me home.   Marioko is a REALLY pretty asain girl.  One of the japanese girls that make me want to stare at her beauty.  She has straight bangs and light brown hair.  I don't know exactly how old she is.... I want to say 26?  25?  She tells me she heard about my crazy morning.  I laugh with her and tell her I felt so bad.  I don't want Melony and Encho's patience to run out with me... though they seem to have an unending supply of it.  She laughs and says "You're a young pretty girl, you can do no wrong."  I don't know why I resent this.  Maybe I should want to just bat my eyelashes and get away with whatever.  But thats not me, I want to be more than a pretty face.  I'm not always going to have a pretty face.  Humph.  "It shouldn't be that way though."  "Well, we all kind of feel like you're our little sister, we want to look out for you."  I like this statement a little more.  Ok.... I am the youngest one there... I'll take it.  She asks me if I like to drink.  "Oh yeah!  I'm always down to party!"  She laughs and tells me theres not that much party life in Minami but that we'll have to go to Tokyo together.  This is what I've been anxiously awaiting anyway.... TOKYO.  oh boy.  I can't wait.