"It's the time for leaves to change their colours", Daniel said.

I go between feeling like I want to live in Honjo and Ine for the rest of my life and wishing I were living somewhere else right now. It's hard not to feel at peace when every day is beautiful despite the weather conditions and all the people are familiar and kind. Then I hear about other JETs "spontaneously getting together for dinner" and I feel that pinprick of jealousy that people live so close to each other that spontaneous get-togethers are an option. This has officially not been an option for me for the past year and 2 months. I don't think I'll ever get that used to it, even though I've learned to deal with things alone.

I am however REALLY good at being on my own now. I don't know if that's a "JET Programme life lesson" or something I just happened to be in the right place and right time for. For instance yesterday I finished the Ganbatte Times and I was so pleased with the issue that I jumped up and danced around my house. Self-satisfaction is one of the few things nobody can take away from me -- and I don't have it as much as I used to (like when I was in school).

Anyway onto proper blogging;

This week was interesting. I was expecting it to be dull due to standardized testing, but it turned out that only one of my schools had it so I only had a half-day of no classes. Which... come to think of it is like any ordinary day I'm at school! At Honjo JHS I joined the 1st year girls (of which there are 5) for some pinning and tumbling as they learned the basics of judo. It was really funny and there was a LOT of young Japanese girl shrieking. The highlight of that day was watching the 60 year old gym teacher tackle Minami, a 60 pound 12 year old girl.
I spent most of my days at Ine JHS this week staying until 6:30. On one day it made me forget completely about going to my calligraphy class... and I wasn't reminded of it until some 3rd year boys asked me the next day in English "did you go to shuji yesterday?" and I turned red and said "Ah!!! Wasurechatta!" Which means "Oh CRAP I completley forgot." They had a good laugh about that, and I made up for it on Thursday! In fact on the way to shuji that night I saw my very first tanuki! I guess before I had thought I'd seen a tanuki and even took a picture of it... but on second glance it was only a badger and I had gotten carried away with excitement. However I now know that Honjo also has badgers living in its forests. Neat!

Anyway the tanuki. I was driving up the hill in the dark to Kamitsuji-sensei's home and saw the neighbour cat sitting in the road like it does. But it was not the neighbor cat, it was way too fat and not orange. Then I realized it was too large in general to be any sort of cat. About the size of a small Labrador retriever, perhaps. It looked up at me and I found myself looking into the beady eyes of a very fat, fuzzy, adorable tanuki. Hot damn! And it was only 4 feet away! I didn't bother fishing for my camera, I just wanted to look at it as long as possible because it was SO cute. But it then sense that my car would have the ability to squish it, and decided to run away. But... it's hard for fat squishy creatures to flee at a rapid pace. So instead, tanuki-chan decided to squeeze into a rain gutter. A cat would have no trouble with this... but a pooh-bear shaped cat might. Tanuki-chan had to squeeeeze itself into the rain gutter, finding the most trouble doing so with its rotund behind. Instantly images of "Winnie the Pooh" danced throughout my head as I began to laugh. Finally, it managed to squeeze into the rain gutter and I continued on my way.

I made sure to check that it wasn't stuck in there on my way back. What an amazing little animal...

Other than that, Kirby and I are enjoying the fall weather. It's warm enough to feel happy and energized in the day and cold enough in the mornings to snuggle. Kirby even sleeps on my lap like he used to when he was littler. Yay!

I also taught my students an important expression in English during recitation contest practice this week, "I am like a proud mama." Because Ikumi can pronounce the "ou" sound (sound, found, round etc) and ... well... I am like a proud mama.

My laundry enjoys the warm sunny autumn day...

Over and out.

meetings, I hate japanese, illegal questions

There was a meeting that Aimi-sensei and I had been planning for all week today. We had to give a regular 50 minute English class for our first years (7th graders), who are our favourites and they freakin' love English.

I made a plan with her and we put it in English and in Japanese. We prepared all of the work sheets and stapled everything together neatly.

When it came to teach the class, we were both nervous. Aimi-sensei was visably nervous while I spoke more in English than I usually do with teh first years (although I doubt any of the Japaenese people there really could tell). Oh yeah, so all of the teachers from our school AND all of the teachers from Honjo JHS came to see us teach class.

AS USUAL, I was never specifically told why we had to do this. I just went with the flow.

The class went very well, the first years were rock stars because they answered all the questions correctly (even though they were visably nervous doing so). We made skits, they did beautifully, and class ended perfectly on time. It was a really good class, actually!

But then we had to go to a meeting upstairs for an hour and ten minutes. All of it in Japanese, which I guess is good practice, but it wasn't interesting (even if it had been in a language I understood perfectly). The definite worst part was when they asked me MY opinion of how the class had gone... I stood up and attempted to say this:

"I believe that the first years did really well today! They answered all of our questions, and they memorised their original skits very skillfully, I thought. I know they were quiet during the Bingo game, but on their comment sheets they all wrote "Bingo was fun!" "I understood everything" "I did well on the skit!", so I don't understand it, but I think it's good".

Who knows what ACTUALLY came out of my mouth. Probably something like, "Hey everyone, I am a big dumb gaijin and I like goats! I never wash my hands, I wear shoes to bed and I never brush my teeth! I hate children!!!! Blagh lbagh!!!!!"

I don't really remember. I do know that I have been made to stay way passed my general 4:15pm every day this week, which I resent only a little... I honestly have nothing better to do when I get home anyway!!!!!

Also Kirby has been spending afternoons curled up on my lap napping. It's passing the winter!

Also I recontracted for another year with Ine.

Also I found out that downloading movies in Japan is perfectly legal. But then why does it still feel so unethical? Oh, because it IS.

Rachel