Hello Cats and Kittens!

How are you doing? I am pretty good, myself.

It's been a birthday week for me, even though my birthday was last week! How weird! Meaning, I got all my cards and mail presents this week. No sweat, it just means I get to celebrate my birthday for an entire week instead of just one week! Lucky me.

Anyways, last week for my birthday Chris bought me A History of Japan and The Kwaidan. This weekend, we went to Matsue and he bought me Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie. You see, my we actually decided to do a Birthday/Christmas gift for me since I wanted something rather expensive. Unfortunately, there was a weird problem with the order so I wasn't going to get it in time, so I got these in the interim. Weird. I love them all. The first two are books and the last is a movie (which, if you like Spongebob at all, you should definitely see, funny stuff). So that was pleasant.

I also got a nice gift certificate from Laura B., a magnet and a card from Laura W. (already hanging on my fridge!), a nice card from Nana, and a magazine, note cards, and card from Grandma and Grandpa. Thank you all! All very lovely gifts. All made me happy. Thank you!

Also, this week my big gift came in the mail. Squee! You know what it is? Ok, but you are going to be super jealous. It's the complete Buffy's Special Edition collection. It's season 1-7 all in one compact box. Pretty sweet, huh? Click here and envy me Isn't it great? Man, it's so awesome, I'm jealous of me! ^_^ Before you ask, I used to have the first 5 seasons, but I ended up selling them for a gamecube. Here they are again! Complete and compact so it doesn't take up my entire shelf. NICE!

So that was my birthday week!

I have definitely gotten back into the swing of things with school. Tuesday was, like, the best day I have ever had with these classes. My highschool first graders are always wonderful and make me pleased to teach them. But usually I hate my 3rd graders with a passion. But yesterday, they were wonderful! I think it's because I entranced them by playing a Japanese favorite. Bingo! I don't think they get to play many silly games so I played it with them and they really seemed to like it. We played Hangman (Bob goes to jail version which is less horrifying to them) and they liked that too. Clever monkeys, they got all of them right.

My 6th grade class went well. Like, really well. That was unusual. I am back with the third class (there are four and we have been rotating so I am back to class 3 which I started with). They are awful! Everyone says that Class 2 is so bad, but Class 3 is the worst for me. Unfortunately, there is a severly behavior disordered kid in class. I don't know what his problem is, but it's obvious that he's not...right. He tends to run around class screaming and throwing himself on the ground, hitting the other kids, making messes, killing bugs. Stuff like that. It bothers me because everyone just ignores him and I have to teach by yelling over his screaming. English is an inclusion class for the special kids, but I really wish this kid was taken from my class. However, yesterday he was so good that I didn't even realize that he was in class until 15 minutes after I started. He actually participated and seemed to have a good time The other kids reacted well to that as well and were able to concentrate. We definitely had a really good class and I was pleased. Put me in a fine and dandy mood it did!

Well, one of my kids has come to class in kisuki (gah, she comes 15 minutes early, it's so awkward!) so I need to get off the computer. I hope everyone is having a lovely week as well!

How the time flies...

when you are putting off updating. I don't know why. I did some interesting things and noteworthy things...but I just didn't feel like updating. I guess sometimes I get a little blue around the holidays and don't really feel all that chatty. So anyways!

Things that happened since the first. Mishima-sensei, our tutor, invited us and Titia over to her house for a New Year's dinner. It was so nice. It was all very formal and Mishima-sensei went out of her way to make it very traditional. She wore a beautiful yukata and made the meal really special. Here are some pictures!

We also went to Matsue Castle. It was wonderfully fascinating! I can't believe it took us so long to go! We definitely plan on going back. Chris took lots of pictures, they are in my photobucket account. You can look at them there. I explain them, too! (I haven't explained them yet, really, but I plan on it...I have to go to bed soon).

Let's see, what else? Um...I turned 24. Hooray! My birthday was nice. We didn't really do much. In the afternoon, Chris and I looked through some bookstores and we ended up getting two books for me. The Kwaidan and the History of Japan. Woo! The Kwaidan is a collection of folktales from Japan. This was written a really long time ago, one of the first English collections written. Lots of the stories where written of this area. Cool! The history book is cool in its own way. I'm a nerd for Japan history and stories...what can I say?

Anyways, thats about it! Everything has started back and is becoming busier. Thats kinda nice.

I hope you guys had a lovely set of Holidays too!

First Post of the New Year

Happy New Year!

New Years is always an underwhelming holiday for me. It's really a 'meh' holiday. I've never really done anything for New Years. No parties or anything. Usually I watch some New Year's marathon on a random channel. This year, Chris and I watched a Power Puff Girls marathon on Cartoon Network Japan. They played the best episodes from noon to midnight and chattered a little about the holiday and Japanese traditions during the breaks. We are two wild and crazy kids, aren't we? Heh.

This is actually Japan's biggest holiday. They go to shrines to pray for the upcoming year (usually stuff like "I want to get into Izumo High school" instead of world peace or whatever). They have traditional meals and foods they eat. Lots of decorations are around (lots of ropes and orange things). The grocery stores have been CRAZY with people freaking out to get their holiday foods. Seriously, you know how the malls get during black Friday (day after Thanksgiving Sale day)? That's how the big supermarkets were. Crazy.

We are going to our tutor's house on Wednesday to eat one of the traditional meals and share their New Years. It should be really nice. We may go to a shrine, but I have just been informed that the estimated number of visitors to Taisha shrine is 1.3 million over the next 3 days. For you who have been here, think about the little town near the shrine and the way we got there. Now imagine 1.3 million swarming that area. Insane!

Anyways, so that means we aren't doing much of anything. I think we are going to go out in a little bit and play some pool and darts and just hang out. Just about every other ALT is gone for the season, so we will probably be doing it alone. Good thing we like each other! I suck at pool, so let's hope Chris doesn't get too cranky with me!

So thats that. Aren't I boring? To make up for boring me, I shall give you a fact I learned from the TV last night (Huzzah, Animal Planet! Huzzah!)

Elephant seals are the biggest seals in the world. This I already knew. However, when you watch nature shows, you really only ever see JUST the elephant seals. You never see a good size comparison. So you know, I figure the man elephant seals got to around 8 ft in length and the womens were like 6 ft. Sounds about right, right? Holy crap! The average Male Elephant seal is 18ft in length and weigh about 5000 lbs. The largest seal ever was 30 FT LONG! GAH! I had no idea how huge they were! Last night we were watching this TV show and they showed a man standing next to 2 fighting man seals. Holy cow are they big! Bigger than David's boat! Seriously. Enormous animals. It makes me uncomfortable to even think about. So big...who knew?

The more you now...do do do do...