Strawberry Fields Forever

I met up with some former co-workers (I-sensei, A-sensei and Y-chan) to go on another bus tour. They are really fun!





We went to Lake Hamamatsu, which is in Shizuoka prefecture (East of Aichi). We had a lovely lunch at the lake touristy center and then drove on to a Flower Park. The purpose of the trip was to look at sakura, but it's been unseasonably cold this year so only a few trees had them peeking out. We did get to act like total lunatics in the hot houses though and that is always fun. The Yatter-man dance was performed at one point. That's all I'll say.





We then got back on the bus and went to the other objective of the tour: All you can eat strawberry picking. We filed into a hothouse where we were given a plastic tray and a strawberry dipping sauce and then told to have at it. We frolicked among the plants for about forty minutes and ate so much we got tummy aches. The strawberries were delicious! Especially with the sauce. Y-chan was very systematic with it. Her mother and her had figured out how many strawberries she'd have to eat to make the tour price a bargain. She did it!

Pics of our misadventures can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=232434&id=783800566&l=3d8bf08762

Once we got back to Nagoya station we had dinner together and then parted ways. I really miss working with them and I really miss working at a place where there are outings like that. I got really quiet towards the end (some of it was the three hours of sleep finally catching up with me) and the other part was having to go back to my "world".

I promptly went jogging when I got home and that helped put my head back in place.

And I need to realize I can speak Japanese. I did nothing but from 8:30am until 9pm! I am sure my wording wasn't the most immaculate of grammatical concoctions, but there was mutual understanding!

I think I'll have to lodge my own complaint to my friend's Ministry of Weather. We had several days of pure spring loveliness and then we got another cold snap >_<>_< I really hate not having a dryer!

And this isn't just a little on the chilly side. This is "I can see my breath and am shivering because I have to use my thinner coat because my warmer coat is damp 'CAUSE I WASHED IT 'CAUSE THE WEATHER WAS BEAUTIFUL!!!" cold.

Step One

::Gulp:: I just sent in an application to the really famous Japanese language school in Aichi for private lessons. I really need to get my Japanese up to snuff if I ever want to get a some what grownup job in it. I will also be starting the rather daunting look at grad schools soon. Blah.

The Poor Thing

One of my favorite boys broke a chair today >_< The classes are at a kindergarten so all the chairs are the little tiny toddler sized ones. This boy is a bit on the hefty side. All he did was sit in the chair for about five minutes and it broke on him. It wasn't even like he was rocking it back and forth or anything. He was so embarrassed. After that we played a board game where the students had to answer English questions. All the answers he'd give were along the lines of "I wish I could lose weight", "I'd go on a diet". He's normally such a vibrant, enthusiastic little guy. I just wanted to hug him and tell him it was the flimsy little chair's fault but I think that would have been worse for him. I hope he bounces back and this doesn't traumatize him.

Lovely Sunday

Had a lovely day out today! I went to visit a friend OUTSIDE of Gifu. I finally left the prefecture, yay! I never thought I'd say this, but I really miss riding on trains. I forgot how relaxing it is to read while someone else worries about getting you to where you need to go. And I got to wear my new gothy dress!

We had lunch at a delicious gyoza place. We amused the other patrons by talking in a language that was distinctively not Japanese ^__^ It was wonderful.

We then did two hours of karaoke. I need to get the name of one of the songs she sang. The video was awesome. It was about a woman confessing her love to a rather frightened man and then being really creepy with him and appearing out of nowhere in his apartment.

I had a wonderful time and realized that it was the first time I had laughed in a very long while.

When I started the train ride back my stomach started knotting up again. I guess I can't go through a whole day without my stupid worrying. But I called my mother and she made everything all better again, which is what moms should do ^_^

Weird Dream

I dreamed last night that I was leading a group of friends through Tokyo. Yet again!(I seem to do it once a year) I was having my normal being-the-hostess-in-a-strange-country anxieties, making sure everyone didn't wander off and get lost, ect. And then I woke up.

And I was completely devastated. My first thought was "Oh my god, I woke up and left them alone in Tokyo! They're going to hate me!" I actually had to spend five minutes combating hysterics by telling myself that it was only a dream and I hadn't really abandoned my friends in a big, scary, foreign city >_<

Just Thinking

I wonder if hot milk with a bit of whiskey will fix a sore throat and fever? Let's find out!

...

Well, it's not as vile as I thought it would be.

I've realized that Neil Gaiman and Tori Amos will always be the constant loves of my life. They've been with me for 15 years now and sometimes I go long stretches of time without thinking of them, but then I turn a corner and there they are again and it's like no time has ever passed between us. They've gotten me through really rough patches (High school! Yikes!). I remember going through a really dark time a few years ago. I was walking to catch the train with my headphones in and Tori Amos's "A Sorta Fairytale" came on. It was a really perfect spring day (rare in Japan) and I thought, for the first time in a long time, I'm so happy to be alive, walking in the sunshine, listening to her lovely voice.

I will also have an everlasting love for Nick Cave, but he's sort of like a scary uncle that you love, but don't remember why, who calls you up for long, psychotic, rambling conversations that last into the wee hours of the morning and give you nightmares...

A Greeting

Hello all! I've decided to start up a public blog. As such I won't delve too much into the sordid details of life, but can give updates now and then to those who are interested.

For those who don't know me, I live in Japan. I have lived here almost five years now as an English teacher. I spent four years of that five working in High Schools and now work for a private foreign language school.