Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you're all enjoying a great holiday!!

Since it's the new year and now that I'm in Japan... Might as well do what they do. I went to the Terukuni Shrine to do Hatsumoude to pray for the new year... (and man oh man, soooo many people! I lined up in front of the shrine for like half an hour just to get to the front and pray for like 30 seconds). I got myself a omikuji and I only got shokichi 小吉 which is like small fortune... basically I'll have some difficulties this year but then If I try hard enough (がんばる） then I'll be able to pull it through. Geez, this is like the 3rd time I've had the similar kuji... maybe they're in fact all the same.. then why do I keep paying money to get them..??

Anyways... after the hatsumoude, I went to Amu for some shopping (half because tenmonkan was not open for new year's day... :p), and look what I found!!! A pair of boots that I actually liked! and the last pair too! I'm sooo happy and after I bought them, I was already mentally planning the outfit to go with them... unfortunately I won't be able to wear them for work, but I guess perhaps I'll just wear them whenever... like when I go shopping at the Daiwa supermarket... :p

This is too important to not post on blog...

To those people who had left Kanoya, but then had not quite left my blog... (that means you guys, Mike and Heather!!) It snowed in Kanoya... yes, it friggin' snowed whole night and I have the photos to prove it! On the morning of December 22nd, Kanoya people woke up to a world that they had never ever seen (well, except for those really old people, because the last time it was so white on the ground, was like 88 years ago)

The photo above was taken from my apartment window... everything was covered with snow... white powdery snow...


And in this keitai pic you can see the Takakuma, completely snowed up...

And on the right, is a pic of the Kanoya city hall... amazing sight.. but then before it reaches noon, the sun came out and melted it all away.. no fun... :p However, I think lots of kids made snowman (and they were terrible at it, none of them could pack the ice well like us Canucks do.) heh. Oh and Minocchi and I had to return the equipment for Film Night event, we couldn't get the car to climb uphill... since it was too slippery and the car's tires were just too shitty. While we were in the car, Nanette voiced her opinion that we should shut the city down since nobody knows how to drive anymore... not in this weather condition anyway.. well... good thing it melted so quickly, eh?

A fun day in Kagoshima Aquarium

Went to the Kagoshima city Aquarium for the day with Yuka and O-tomi (from here, Tomi). It was quite fun, considering how I never quite appreciate Aquariums, well, until today anyways. Because Tomi volunteers at the Aquarium and he knows alot, and I do mean ALOT, about fish and stuff... He gave us a tour and we could basically ask any stupid questions we want.

Here's a pic of the Inuzame (Dog Shark, in Japanese)'s baby. They actually look kinda cute like this when they're babies, but then when they grow up they just turn grey. Since next year will be the Inu toshi (Dog year), the Kag Aquarium people decided to showcase these babies. But then they were all like this, not moving at all. Apparently they were just saving energy... since they only get fed so few times, if possible they would not move unless there's food involved. heh




And we also found Nemo.. hee hee, well clownfish anyways. They're so cute.. I showed the movie "Finding Nemo" at my eikaiwa class just last week and used the film to test their listening. Instead of Japanese subtitles, I put up the English caption, so they could understand it better.









And here's the dolphin show... oh sorry, "Dolphin's Time" The Kag Aquarium people never call it dolphin show, since the reason for the dolphins performing is to teach kids about the dolphins, not exclusively for entertainment. Basically to make people more aware of the aquatic life of dolphins and whales. I guess because the place is kinda small, I felt like it's alot closer than other times when I saw dolphins... well, I saw dolphins numerous times when I worked at West Ed, but only passing by and not once had I ever paid to get in and sit in the audience. In the photo, one of the dolphins did a jump to show how high she can jump to reach the ball by using her tail. Very cute.


Then we went to Yoshino Park to see the supposedly best view of Sakurajima since the day was just gorgeous! The sun was shining and very clear... as you can see there was absolutely no cloud, just beautiful blue sky. That's Otomi sensei, and he has dubbed himself as "Tomi" since it would be easier for everybody to call him.

Over all the day was just awesome and Yuka and Tomi were fun to hang out with. It was a great day. and we all got souvenirs, courtesy of Tomi, the Aquarium's desktop calendar.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

(<= My Christmas present my family sent all the way from Canada ;p)

Exactly a year ago, there was the true Christmas miracle for my whole family... On our way to Whistler, our van slipped on the highway and went circling around the roads in two full circles and then landed on the other side of the road... thankfully we were only just shocked, no injuries or anything... That was the best present I had ever got for Christmas, my family and I were all safe and sound.

Well.. anyways, this Christmas I'm just relaxing in the good ol' Kanoya, can't really go anywhere because of the stupid city merge (gotta work tomorrow.. arrrrgh...) I went to help moving office stuff on last Friday too (and it was the Emperor's birthday!!! I started whining why I had to go when it's the Emperor's birthday, we should all celebrate in his honour! :p) oooh... gotta stop complaining... on a lighter note, I'm enjoying the silly variety shows they have on TV, some Christmas specials. And I played a full afternoon of PS2 game "Kingdom Hearts" hee hee~ People think it's sad that I spent Christmas at home and alone.. but nah, this is EXACTLY what I would do at home in Canada... watching TV and pigging out at home. hee hee

Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays to all who just enjoy the holiday spirit!

'Tis the season to send Nengajo

Just like what I said in my presenation at the midyear conference in Chiba last month, I send out nengajos every year when I'm in Japan. And this year, man oh man, I have twice as many people to send out... After 1 year and a half in Kanoya, I've gotten to know quite alot of people, and then... yes, gotta send them nengajos too.

And I went a bit overboard.. so here is what they look like :p
I love those glittering gels... and the cute stickers... man, maybe next year I'll just get the conbini people to print out nengajos for me... making these takes a looooong time. I just hope that I get as many as I sent out on new years day :p

High Security of Kanoya city

Today the Minister of National Security came to Kanoya city for the affairs about the relocation of American military to Kanoya Self-defense Airbase... and our whole city hall was in full alert since morning. Everyone was to put on their name tags otherwise they will not be allowed to get in third floor area.

And sure enough there were a bunch of protest people who are waiting for the Minister to arrive... and we saw (yeah, yeah, we were waiting by the windows...) the Minister's cars (about 5 nice shiny black cars with 2 huge busses behind them) arrived. It was kinda funny cuz the main parking lot was saved for those cars, but then some of the regular people (i think more on purpose) would drive in and had the security people chased after them.. hee hee

They got off in like 5 seconds and just got in, and that's when the protest chants began... It was not so annoying, but rather interesting, and we were mostly amused by the content. Boueichoukan Kaere-- (Minister, go back!), Kanoya shicho no hanashi kike (Listen to the Kanoya Mayor!) And the whole thing went on and on until the minister came out around noon.

He came quickly as well, and as I was saying that ooh I only saw his hair, as his car passed by, he friggin' rolled down the blackened window and waved like a president at us on 2nd floor... I was more than shocked...

And then today I had to get home to get my iron so I could make the zekken for futsal on Wednesday..(sigh.. another long story..), I got stopped by the NHK people in front of the city hall, and they asked me what my opinion about the relocation of American base... I pretty much just rambled on saying that I think it's important for the government to listen to Kanoya people, but I suppose it's difficult to change what the big people had decided... and then I half-laughingly said:"actually, I'm not Japanese... just a Canadian, working at the city hall." And I could see that the interviewer smiled, (quite nicely actually) and slowly pulled his microphone away. hee hee.

Lots of people said I should've just let it all out, but oh well... I wasn't looking my best anyways.. :p

Can you imagine?

Nanette, Joe and I went to Joyfull for some ice cream and drink bar earlier tonight, and as soon as we sat down, we did the regular "is there any SHS students in there from their schools" thing.. and interestingly, there's none.. but 4 kids from Kanoya High school were sitting in the corner and apparently discussing whether they should talk to Joe or not...

But then somehow Joe started this conversation with them asking them if they know David who's the ALT at Kanoya SHS. They all said yes and that they like him alot. So we started chatting, like right across from the walkway... while most the other people were watching us amusingly.

Their English was AMAZING!!! I never thought they would be that good, but hey, you never know... They're so much better than most of my adult English conversation class students! They all know which university they wanna go, and what they want to do in the universities.

Finally one boy (Miyawaki-kun) pulled out a camera and hesitantly asked if he can take a picture with us. So we did... but this is the day I chose not to have my camera with me... so this keitai pic would have to do.

Good boys. Heather would've been proud!

The Fantastic Japanese TV News

So right before I went to the Tuesday weekly Eikaiwa, I was watching TV news... A couple of big news: US President George W. Bush arrived in Kyoto for the official visit, the wedding of Princess Nori, and... this daikon (radish) that grew on the sidewalk that apparently captured so many people's heart that the city hall felt the need to take care of it!

This is just one of those things I didn't understand about Japanese news... So, the daikon is apparently as important as the arrival of Bush and the wedding of Princess Nori of Japanese royal family. Interesting...

And Japanese local government would issue Juminhyo (certificate of residence) to Tamachan (a seal)... and become obsessed with this red panda Futa-kun when he stood up (which is normal for this kind of animal anyways...)

Is it because this society is so safe that there's just not much other news to report or just that they would rather look at news such as these to tell everyone that there's nothing going on?

Frankly, I'm confused...

Went to the Nuclear Power Plant in Satsuma Sendai with the Kinroseishonen Home English conversation class... and it was... interesting, and I supposed I learned more about the nuclear power plant... better than what I learned from the Simpsons.

Here's a pic of a model of the power plant energy machine thing... quite impressive, especially with the blue colour, hee hee and the guy had this tiny little black cap thingie (smaller than the tip of my pinkie finger) that can power a regular household for up to half a year! Interesting~

Then after lunch, we went to the shochu factory Kaido in Kushikino, and we had some really nice tasting of interesting shochu. Kaori said that she wanted to try this one that got many awards for quite many years... and I thought, well what the hey. But then... it was so very strong... that I almost choked.. :p

It was quite nice to hang out with Shoko, Kaori and Aki outside of class~ a change of environment kinda changes everything... and today I wasn't a teacher, just enjoying the bus tour with everyone~ hee hee

P.S: I hope Natasha won't get mad at me for posting this...

OMG, they're even cuter!

I did the same Halloween Lesson with Keishin Daycare kids, and they're just sooo cute!! check out the photos!

As you can see from the photos, I had hawaiian lei, bunny ears, shrek ears (from USJ), princess tiara (from USJ), baby bib, panda mask (very popular one among kids), and the cute winnie the pooh ears I got when went to Disneyland with Noriko before my B-day.



And here's Yuka-chan, wearing the fairy wings and the fairy wreath that I made... She looks so adorable!!

My Halloween Lesson

Because of the sudden request of Erina sensei from Oaira elementary school (when we ran into each other at the dragon boat race), I promised to do a Halloween Lesson the next Tuesday.

It was just hilarious! Who would've thought that some small props bought at 100 yen stores would create such a buzz!! I got some stupid party props, like round spectacles (harry potter), bunny ears (rabbit), and my fairy wings (fairy) that I made for last Halloween, etc... I got them to play the costume karuta in which I will say a character, like fairy, and then 2 kids will get to the table with props spread out and get the correct prop, like the fairy wings, and then put it on for a point. They just love it.

I also printed off some pumpkin crafts for them to make their own pumpkin faces. I think it's the craft part that they just love so much. As soon as I handed out the papers, they were all ready to just start cutting it up and paste the eyes, nose and mouth to the pumpkin.

I think maybe I'll try again at another school or something.. hee hee Can't let this great chance to see kids dressed up in stupid outfits go to waste (well... isn't it how Halloween has always been like..? kids dressed up in stupid costumes..?)

Finally I can catch my breath...

After that last posting about my birthday flower... everything went up and down, and then down even more, then up a bit... and then down to the newest low that I didn't think it could possibly be any lower... finally now up a bit.

The homestay event was quite good. The cooking part seemed like a success because everybody told me that it was quite nice to have the cooking lesson as an icebreaker. The food that we made was too much... We made chirashi zushi, chawan mushi, goma ae, and buri teriyaki. We had too many things to cover, and I had to get in this group that only has 2 people (well... if people would have shown up...) However, the chawan mushi (the egg custard thing that I thought everybody's gonna mess up) turned out REALLY good. I was very impressed.

I was worried if the homestay people were alright or not.. but it seems like everything was fine. So, both my supervisor and I were relieved. Especially this event was done entirely on my own. My sup had to go to this seminar for a week (which all the JETs know that the 研修 (kenshu) seminars in Japan are never about learning... it's the drinking afterwards...), so I had to just do it. It turned out alright.

Then after a week of dreading, the Italians finally arrived. The Italian chapter of Rotary club sent 5 people to Southern Kyushu for a friendly visit. As usual, they would come to the city hall for a courtesy visit (NO idea why...), and I would do the usual interpreting in the short meeting of 30 minutes. It was all good, and I was glad that there was also the Italian priest of a Catholic Church in Kanoya there, and he interpreted a few too.

Here comes the best part.

I was told that they wished me to attend the welcome banquet on Friday night and be seated at the table with the host family that doesn't have anybody who can speak English. Just to get the communication going and make the guest feel welcome. Okay, that I can do. Small talks, right, no problem.

NO. NOT THE CASE.

After the first speech (which was translated by the priest, from Japanese in Italian, for the guests), the team leader of the Italian group started this powerpoint presentation thing, and the MC just looked at me and went:"Sandy-san, please interpret."

I don't know why, but I stood up. And numbly walked to the stage, as I was telling myself:"WTF...?" This was NOT what I thought it would be. Okay, Sandy, you can do it. I fumbled through some slides, and it wasn't as bad. Then as it progressed to introducing very specific things about Italy and the Rotary clubs there, etc. My brain stopped working.

It was like one of those times when you accidentally slipped in the pool and tried to get above the water, and then realized that you can't reach it. I couldn't breathe, and my stupid suit was too tight. As I felt the sweat dripping through my spine, I was still trying. And then it got worse and worse... Finally I kinda gave up and turned around to look at the priest. He kindly took over and did the rest of the interpretation. The whole PP presentation lasted, oh I don't know, like 30-45 minutes.

I had never been so ashamed before in my life. I felt like breaking down and just cried. But I couldn't. About 70 people were staring at me. I had to be strong.

After that my sup and I went to this other place and meet up with other office guys. They tried their best to say nice things to me, lamely saying that it was not fair for those people to just spring it on me. It was really silly to hear them trying to make me feel better, but somehow it worked. We went to Hemmings, and then about 15 ALTs and others showed up. I got to vent to Nanette and Rina. I got free drinks, so it was quite nice.

Then the next day I had to go the Kirishimagaoka Park and the Kanoya Sports U with them... It was actually not that bad at all. I got to translate most of it, and didn't look stupid at all. There was one thing though... At one point, we got to see this small pool room in the Kanoya Sports U where they would train athletes to swim in extreme condition, like high altitude. Kinda like a simulator thing. And then this guy who was showing us around said that, "oh and this is also used as an experiment room where they have animal testing, about 100 rabbit died in here." I just about flipped. I asked him if he was joking. He laughed, and said no. I had to tell the Italians what he said. And this lady just made this face like she smelled something really bad...

Well, then yesterday I went to the Dragon Boat racing in Nejime (now Minami Osumi-cho). It was a great day, and I had a fantastic time. But most importantly, we didn't suck!! Our team, Tiger Ladies, managed to squeeze into 6th place, past the pink ladies who were stretching all over the place, 1 hour before our Tiger ladies even got together to decide who's gonna do the drumming and who's gonna steer.

Whew... tomorrow gonna do a Halloween Lesson at Oaira elementary. Gotta be Genki Genki!!

OH BIG NEWS!!!! Jeni gave birth to a healthy baby boy Ethan Robert Coster!! CONGRATULATIONS to Jeni and Chris! Baby Ethan's birthday is the same as Daniela's too!! hee hee October 18th! Just 3 days after Chris's and 5 days after mine! Another autumn baby :)

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm one of those people that just don't wait until people notice that it's their birthdays... I tell people about it. But I don't expect anything... then that's when this flower happened... Toriken san came to my desk after 5 pm bell chimed... and he poked my head and said: "sandy, happy birthday" I was just about to cry... The people in my office bought me flowers for my birthday!!!

Then the party that Nanette organized for me was just awesome!! I am so glad that I have so many good friends. This is the time when I just thank virtually everything.

I am a lucky girl.

Please don't use Japanese gestures in an English speech contest...

Went to judge the Tarumizu Jr. high English Speech Contest yesterday... and seriously, I think the kids did alot better than what I saw last year. Last year alot of them fumbled through their lines and couldn't even speak up so we could hear them.

This year quite impressive, and a pair of the 1st years stood out. The fact that the girl had crutches didn't have anything to do with it...(well, maybe a bit...), but she was just so cute when she stressed in pronunciation at just the right time and their script was just alot more interesting the other ones (except with this other pair that the girl totally was over-gesturing and over-acting...). However, I did have problem with them saying "kanransha" instead of "ferris wheel" in English. I mean, hey, maybe it's just me, but I thought this is an English speech contest..?

But... okay, what's the deal with using Japanese gestures in an English speech contest...? frankly, they should just "ban" the whole gesturing thing. It's just plain stupid. Have you ever seen a regular English native speaker gesturing "I look out the window" with his/her hand on his/her eyebrow and looking out..unless! they're talking to toddlers... ;p seriously!!!

Well overall I enjoyed it alot better than last year... I think... but if I wasn't so hungry, I would've enjoyed it alot more... I didn't have lunch before that because the stupid area around that school had NO restaurants!!!!! I walked around that place for about 30 minutes, and then another 30, finally gave up and sat at the bus stop bench to wait until it's time to go in... while the sky was getting grey every minute. Just about 5 minutes after I got into that school.. it started pouring... whew~ Now, THAT would've been ugly... (being completely drenched from head to toe is probably not the best way to look when you're judging a speech contest and then later having to do the model reading...)

Then I rushed back to Kanoya to attend the staff meeting for our International Exchange Assoc.... so.. no supper... was so hungry I thought I was spinning in circle...when in fact only sitting in a chair. I gotta start packing one of those "calorie mate" stuff in my bag...

but me no likie 'em... :p

World Music Festival!! Yay!!

And I am SOOOO glad that it was over... I spent the last 2 weeks preparing for the event and I was just exhausted after that. But hey everybody had a good time and it all turned quite well. I'm just gonna load the pics and let them tell how fun it was!

Okay, so the first batter is the two Kim sans from the Kanoya National Institute of Fitness and Sports... They're REALLY good! And, it was really cool to see a person playing violin live! It's just too cool! I just hoped that they could've been up the stage, instead of being on the same level with the audience.

And now, here's the Los Ponchos who are from JICA, a volunteer organization that goes around the world to do teaching or volunteering in places like Africa, South America, and South Asia. They were actually a bit nervous, I think, but they did a good job and the music was nice and upbeat. Muy Bien!

Then Son san who owns a Kimchi shop down in Oaira came up and performed the Korean Chango drum with some of her vocal! Very impressive especially her music was solely her drumming's rhythm and her singing. Some people were like... "oh is this like North Korea..??" Give me a break, N. Korea South Korea...they're all Koreans... :p Of course the traditional Korean songs are the same... silly people...

And here are Sameshima sisters who performed Niko (the Chinese string instrument) and piano. The older sister Yumi works at KTS Kanoya Studio and she was extremely nervous. But honestly, she was AWESOME!!! I wish I could play niko like her! Hmm... maybe it's time to start thinking about picking up a hobby, eh?

Okay, maybe it's weird for me to say this since it's a "world music festival" afterall... but the Samisen trio was just brilliant!! I had operate on the laptop for the projector so I sat right at the corner of the stage. And the Samisen sound was blaring... wow!! Amazing performance. And they didn't even make it to our programme list because they told us one day before the event and everything was already printed. Nonetheless, GREAT performance!

And here's our lovely Daniela, doing her Indian dance in the Sari and Gunguru ankle bells. It was too bad that the stereo couldn't play the CD... so she had to do the dance without it. Well, not without any music at all because she still had the bells on her ankles... ah whom am I kidding... just not the same. However she did do her routine and even taught people some of her moves.



And here's a little cutie boy trying to imitate Daniela's dance move. Awwww, simply TOO adorable!

The Kagoshima Latin Dance Club in Kagoshima University from the city came all the way here and here they are doing some nice salsa move. The music was awesome (albeit skipped a couple of times... stupid stereo...), and the salsa moves were more than impressive! As we were all itching to get off our seats and dance... they stepped down and we all formed a long train... but then the stereo quit on us again. Then Son san just started beating her drum... everybody danced to the rhythm, and the Samisen trio's Ritsuko san (while wearing her kimono) danced as well... in the long long train. V. interesting sight to see. Heck this is the whole world music festival is all about!! Then we finally got a CD that works... so dance dance dance!!

Aaaaand... here's a picture of me hopping happily with a silly grin...and there's Satoko san and her daughter Kozue-chan behind me... hee hee we had fun, oh yeah~


Well, we had a good day, we had estimated 150 people showing up at the fest and everybody raved about the event... except for about the music for Indian dance and the Salsa... yeah yeah.. but that wasn't exactly our fault... Who would've thought that stereo was so temperamental.

Oh... so tired... but it was all worth it when everybody came up to me and told me how much they had fun :)

No cat left behind!!

Today went to the self-defense navy english conversation class...and as the two officers who came pick me up pulled out of the city hall parking lot, we were right at this intersection...and they saw this tiny little kitty cat right by the side of the road. It was quite scary, almost any moment that any car could just run over that little cat. The two officers were debating whether they should save that cat or not...and 5 seconds later, the officer who was driving pulled over by the side and then both of them went over to pick up that cat, and then contemplated whether they should put it in the garden of the house nearby or they should leave it in the bushes... and after about 10 min, they came back and we resumed to the navy base.. that's about the silliest, but the coolest thing! Yeah huh! they're the military men~~

Daniela brought me some macoroni and cheese from U.S. of A, and I finally cooked it the other day. Man, doesn't it look awesome?! I actually couldn't finish it all, so had to put half of it in the freezer... so I can eat it whenever ;)

It's funny how one bite of the mac n' cheese can trigger all the memory of 1st year in UofA, 3rd floor of MacKenze Hall... ah~ the good ol' days. The smell of margarine and cheese, all remind me of the crazy time I spent with the 3rd Mac people in 1998 and 99. Good times~

Was watching "Wonder Boys" (with Michael Douglas, Robert Downey Jr--when he was off the drugs, temperarily, Tobey Mcguire and Katie Holmes)... hee hee it was hilarious! I love the scene that when Michael Douglas's character started making up stories with Robert Downey Jr. when they saw a guy with interesting haircut and other things... I gotta try it at least one time. hee hee~~

Ah... have been working a little too much lately... today after the self-defense navy english conversation class, I got back to the city hall around 7:30pm so I could continue making signs for the world music festival this Saturday. I've been working frantically on the programme, posters, signs, stuffing envelopes and stuff... just so we could get the event rolling. My supervisor is too busy working on other things, so I am the only person who can do all these stuff. Worked until 9pm and my stomach was just growling terribly...then I remembered that I hadn't had supper :p I just had to leave... and there was my sup Kawahara san, working alone on that floor. Poor guy... But, good news! Next year when we do the merger, I won't go outside of the city hall as previous rumours suggested. Apparently they are gonna make an office for the International Exchange section on the 6th floor next to the Board of Education. So, that'll make all the "I need to go see Sandy for something" for the ALTs a bit easier~ hee hee. Oh, and probably less people in that room too, less pressure from people watching you while you work :)

So I suppose now I gotta do census in Japan too?!

Okay... now... I never liked it when I had to answer all these questions for Statistics Canada, and I thought doing it the same for the Japanese census would be just as annoying... hmm actually quite surprised that it was painlessly short. hee hee... however it includes questions like how big is your house... and they want like the exact square metres... I only gave them the approximate figure. How am I supposed to know...? Not like I was ever gonna measure it... ;p Anyway~ The people who are supposed to distribute the census papers are mostly from the city hall. I thought it would be somebody I know, but then hey, there are more than 600 people employed in the city hall, guess I wouldn't know them all ;)

Have been watching "Lost" season 1 these days and am, again, seriously addicted. I think sit com is out... and drama is so very in right now hee hee~ However, so many shows are just not the same anymore. Like "Gilmore Girls"... Seriously, I am SO not liking the show. If they don't fix it I might just stop watching it all together... but let's hope that it won't come to that.

The new season of "The Apprentice" is just so strange... everybody's so beautiful and apparently very successful in their own ways. And the people have gotten so fake that I can barely see the "reality" in the show anymore...

This time I got it right!

SO, last night marks my second appearance on the Osumi Flash for KTS TV Station... 4 other volunteer staff in the KIEA and I were on TV last night to promote our event coming up next Saturday 10/1, the World Music Festival (starting from 2pm to 5pm... in case any of you are wondering *wink*).

I taped it but didn't remember to watch it when it was aired... Higashi san sent me an e-mail and said that she watched it,... then I remembered to rewind my tape and watch it. Hmmm actually turned out quite good and my voice sounded alot happier than last time when we did the Ajisai Matsuri.

Yume-chan couldn't hold any of the boards (too little) so she just stood next to me and look cute while I was reading off the script. She's so cute... and if you talk to her she would just say whatever it is that she wants to say, doesn't matter if it's related to what you were talking to her about or not. hee hee~

Speaking of kids... on Thursday morning, I went to this other daycare centre... and I got LICKED!! by a girl. At first she was grabbing my hand and kept saying:"Sandy sensei," and I was distracted at the time... and then sure enough, I felt this wet streak from my wrist all the way to my elbow... ewwww... Seriously, I'm NOT a lollipop! And when I quickly pulled my left arm back, she was gonna go for the right arm too! geez... I just got away as soon as I could.

Oi, kids...

Addicted to reading recaps?? Who would've thought?!

Yes, so these days I've been reading what the glorious recappers have been writing in the "TWoP (Television Without Pity)" about shows that I'm watching. It's almost sinful to read about the sarcastic comments that they wrote in the recaps... hee hee but it's just too funny to pass. Since Mike is gone, I need someone to give me that dose of American sarcasm with class. My favourite recapper is Miss Alli who handles the three most popular shows, "The Apprentice," "The Amazing Race," and the "Survivor." She was also the same person who wrote that great blog entry that Medea had linked on her page... Oh what the hey, I might as well linked it here. It was a blog entry about the lack of humanity shown by President Bush when confronted with the Hurricane Katrina. Miss Alli ain't one to take no s**t.

Went to school visit in Oaira Elementary school and I can honestly say that I'm just spent. So tired that as soon as I came home I took a shower just to feel a bit less tired. I started sweating as soon as I arrived the school and began to change into my "indoor shoes" (I never understand that idea of indoor shoes in schools because frankly it's just as dirty inside the classrooms as out in the school ground. But hey I'm just a foreigner, who am I to judge, eh?).

Anyways today's school lunch was packed with carbohydrates that I am gonna regret eating at all. It was a huge roll of bread (white, I might add), some warm spaghetti with random veggies and bacon pieces (all steamed), and some of that black veggie hijiki with some other veggie salad. Other than the hijiki salad, I didn't quite enjoy the bread or the spaghetti at all. It was too much. I think so far the best kyushoku (school lunch) would have to be either that Haraigawa Elementary when they had the Tanabata Cake for July 7th, or that nice curry (very sweet) I had at the City Daycare Centre. hmmm can't decide which one...

I played soccer (actually, just watched or rather coached) with the 3rd graders. They listened to my advice and scored 2 goals. It was quite good except I was sweating furiously and feeling a bit dizzy because of the sun. Man it was scorching hot today! Seriously, it's almost October, and there's just no cooling down!

Taught the kids how to say father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, brother, sister...etc. It was all good and the kids recognized the Simpsons pictures (idea courtesy of Daniela!) from the CC Lemon labels (Don't ask me why the CC lemon drinks company used the simpsons... maybe because they're both yellowy..??) And they could almost all say how many brother or sister that they have. Most of the kids have more than 1 siblings, and I'm intrigued that most of them have brothers... quite alot in fact. So does that mean Kagoshima, or just Kanoya people have more boys than girls?? wow, that's quite impressive.

Now I have a headache and simply falling asleep at the keyboard. What's wrong with me?

Maybe it's the weather... or maybe it's my body telling me that it's time to get out of Kanoya again..?

When the weather outside is frightful...

... you drink some shochu at town hall~~

hee hee that's exactly what happened in Fukuoka on the 6th when typhoon #14 hit Kyushu, two kacho (division director) were drinking shochu in the town hall, and then the vice director joined in as well... when they were supposed to be manning the phone and make sure that they're ready to respond to any emergency. After that the superintendant of the BOE saw the fun and just had joined in. Then the town mayor walked by, saw the otsumami (snack to go with alcoholic drinks) and nibbled a bit too. The town mayor claimed that he didn't know they were drinking shochu (Just how do you NOT know that they were drinking shochu?? the smell can't be ignored!) SO all of them are punished... (no idea how they were gonna do that) and the town mayor will have his salary deducted.

(if you can read Japanese, here's the link.)

Rumour has it that "some oyaji" in my city hall did the same thing... hmmm... interesting...

Anyways, am really glad that hockey season is gonna start AGAIN soon!! I know that I can't watch the games here, but it's good to know that NHL will be back. GO OILERS GO!!!