Birthday?!

I was informed by B this weekend that on Sunday the 19th we had been in Japan officially for 50 days. That makes today 53. Today I am sitting in the teacher`s room of Tateishi (the standing rock) elementary school and waiting for 10:30 to roll around. Two of the teachers just told me I look sad/not happy so I guess I need to genki it up. It is hot today which is strange because last week a cold front came through and brought the most delightful relief from the heat and humidity. The front only lasted the week and with a typhoon coming through China a bought of heat has returned to my sleepy town. Amazingly I know about these weather events from the principal of my middle school who between a combination of hand signals and Japanese explains the weekly weather events to me every Tuesday morning.

Sunset over Mt. Inasa in Nagasaki

This weekend is Nagasaki should be my big conversation piece I suppose but when I was asked to explain my trip to my class of second year students at the middle school yesterday I realized the trip wasn`t as fun explaining as it was experiencing. I will try again though. Friday night was an enkai with some of my favorite people in Japan. They are the four other second year teachers at my middle school and between the five of us we had an awesome time drinking and enjoying local cuisine. I don`t think I will ever get used to Izakaya style eating (it is like a series of tapas which are continuously brought out while your drink is refilled) since I can`t take down all that food but it is always entertaining watching everyone try! Mr. M and Mr. B are the gym teachers and Mr. B is also the youngest person on the staff besides myself. He also teaches social studies. Ms. T is the English teacher I always work with and Mrs. Toshi is the Japanese teacher. I don`t even remember half of what we talked about because as I am beginning to realize, Japanese liquor affects my memory more so than American liquor (or maybe I am just drinking more?). Nevertheless, everyone was laughing all night and they spent the majority of yesterday going on about how strong I am at holding my alcohol and making jokes about the hilarious Japanese mistakes I made (they don`t seem to realize about halfway through the night I switched to water :-P). The biggest and most entertaining of which is when I was trying to explain how I am trying to be frugal in Japan but the only word that came to mind was the Japanese word for cheap which, had I been in my right mind, I would have realized has negative connotations even in English but it fell from my lips regardless. They spent the next 20 mins laughing, Mr. M even falling over, and then quietly explained I can`t say that in Japanese because I sound like a streetwalker. Oh well, guess some things can`t be translated directly. :-P

Nagasaki bay from above

I of course passed out when I got home and woke up early to head over to Bungotakada to meet B for our trip to Nagasaki. After four hours on a train (one of them standing because there were no seats!) we arrived in Nagasaki no worse for the wear and proceeded to meet J (my friend from UF) and go sightseeing. The main points we hit on Saturday were some famous cathedral and the Glover house (spelling?) which belonged to some random Dutch guy who came over in the 19th century, took over a bunch of Japanese industries and sold guns to local trouble makers. Still not quite sure why they celebrate him but his house was nice. We also did some shopping/mall walking and then, as has become habit, went out drinking. The results of which led to a terrible hangover all the next day and the details of which are vague. In so far as I remember I tried desperately (too desperately) to help my buddy J hook up with every young Japanese woman I came across. At least my intentions were good!

Statue of Sadako (the paper crane girl)

Despite my hangover B, my new friend M and myself spent Sunday doing the regular sightseeing bit. We went to the hypo center from the nuclear bomb, the museum, some churches and then up the rope way to the top of a mountain. It was cloudy but I took a ton of pictures nonetheless and then me and B went home and passed out, much to J`s dismay since he had had to work all day and had been unable to hang out. Sucks to be a CIR since they have to work on weekends. ;-(

Monday was a holiday so we stayed for the afternoon and J and I woke up early (10) and went for a run together. B and M saw some awesome shrines while J and I ran through the city. We did 10.3Km which is a new record for me and I am still a little sore but I can`t believe I ran the whole thing. Got home around 7 where I subsequently met K for dinner. The train was packed on the way home and I felt kind of bad since me and B had seats whereas most of the car was filled with people standing and leaning on their luggage. Holiday weekend I guess.

The Hypo center

Yesterday was middle school and I had a nice, relaxing day since most of my classes were cancelled on account of last minute sports day practice. Tomorrow is sports day so hopefully this madness will end then! I like teaching these kids most of the time but when they are pooped out or completely distracted with sports day stuff then teaching them is terrible. Elementary today was nice (I been spending free time studying Japanese and writing this entry) and I am a little surprised by my finding this afternoon. In this school I have two kids who are my predecessor `s niece and nephew who both speak (I assume) fluent English. I thought this would change the dynamic of the class negatively but I was pleasantly surprised to find that since the children pretended to be terrible at English the other kids felt more confident and subsequently spoke out more. Interesting.

I don't remember the name of this guy
but when I pose like him people know what I am talking about.

Well, I will spending a lot of time on the computer at home today since my birthday is on Friday and I want to give everyone a call and tell them I love them so I think I will say bye-bye for now!

Love.