Made-To-Order

 Friday night we went out to eat with Toru, Kana and Kaede (their little girl).  Toru took us to a little pizza place in Izushi, a town about 40 minutes from here.  Bryn had been there with Toru once before, but it was my first time.  The restaurant, called Sakai, is really cute. 

However, unless you have been living on Mars or something, you should know that I hate cheese and Bryn despises tomato...so pizza isn't really an ideal food for us...we usually make our own separate ones at home - mine with no cheese and his with no sauce. 

Toru let the chef know about our...issues...and left him to make us something spectacular.  And that he did!  We had 2 pizzas come out - each cut into sections...one with no cheese, one with no tomato, then one as is for non-picky Toru and Kana!

After the two appetizers, 2 pizzas and 2 pastas (I was completely stuffed!) we had assorted homemade ice creams.  The chef brought them out to us and we each had 4 little scoops, so he told us to figure out the flavors...sweet potato, matcha (green tea), black tea, and grape!!

The food was nice, and the company a lot of fun.  It was a good night and really nice to get out!! 

Pizza #1

Not the most flattering picture of Toru and baby, but none of the pictures turned out!!!

Pizza #2

The restaurant...you can sort of see the cool pizza oven in the background.

Kyoto & Kimonos

Well, I think the weather has finally decided that it is fall, or autumn, whichever word you prefer.  I for one am not terribly thrilled about it...Yeah, at first fall is sort of nice because the air is clear and crisp.  Then, it gets cold, and it becomes apparent that it is only going to get colder from here on out since winter is right around the corner.  I am SO not excited about that.  Not excited is a bit of an understatement actually...

Today, for example, the sun never really came out and it was a brief taste of what it is like all winter long.  It certainly wasn't freezing, but it was cold.  I do realize that I am the only person in the world who feels this way though, and heard the students cursing me in Japanese as I went around shutting windows where the cold wind was coming in!!

Oh well.  I suppose I will just dig my sweaters out a bit earlier and see if I can't put off wearing long underwear for another couple weeks.  I am doing my best to prepare myself clothing wise for another frigid winter.  Tonight, the cozy long sweater and imitation Ugg boots I ordered came in!  Our apartment has (fake) wood floors, so there is no question of ruining them by wearing slippers indoors.  I also am fairly certain that this apartment will stay a bit warmer than my old rickety one!!

Anyways...enough of that, I will just think warm thoughts...

So last weekend Bryn and I caught a train on Friday night to the city.  Clodagh, another AET in the area was on the same train, so we had a good time chatting away with her and really pissing off the guy across from us!!  We stayed at one of our usual hotels in Kyoto and started the next morning with Starbucks by the river (which frankly is how I think every Saturday, or better yet every DAY should start!!)

After coffee, we did some window shopping before grabbing lunch at TGI Fridays.  I can't remember if we have mentioned it on here yet or not, but Kyoto has a Fridays that is EXACTLY like one in the states!!  We discovered it a few weeks ago and are determined to eat everything on the menu that doesn't include cheese or tomato.  Since it was only lunch time and we had a long day of wandering around ahead of us, we decided to split a full rack of ribs (yuuuuum) and some onion rings (yummm).  It was a very satisfying meal, which Bryn washed down with a Budweiser, and me a cranberry juice (don't judge me...you can't get cranberry juice anywhere near where I live!)

We stocked up on some English books before catching a train to Osaka to check into our hotel for Saturday night.  Once that was done, we set off for the next stop on the train line, Nishinomiya Gardens.  It is a huge, western style shopping mall.  We wandered around there for a while and ran into our friend Katie who lives in Kobe (Bryn went to university with her).  We had dinner with her and her boyfriend which was a lot of fun.  After that we decided to head back to the hotel and call it an early night since we were getting up bright and early the next morning...

We hadn't planned to get up bright and early on Sunday morning, however Shinobu had called me the day before to tell me that she had an extra pass to the Amanohashidate Kimono Festival on Sunday.  I have gone to the festival every year and really enjoy it, but had no idea when it was this year.  I didn't want to miss the chance so we rushed back.

Once we made it home, I quickly tried to remember how to put on a kimono.  The obi was a bit tricky since I hadn't done it in about a year, but I managed.  It was a gorgeous day, and I had a nice time with Shinobu and her friends.

Our group (Shinobu is standing next to me in the gold kimono - she dyed it and sewed it herself!!)

Toru and Kana were there with their little girl Kaede selling their chirimen things

Me and my frined Ai

This week has been busy, busy.  There is a recitation contest coming up that Bryn and I both have students participating in, so we are busy helping them learn how to pronounce words like "efficient reutilization".  I tell you...whoever the idiot was who picked out the scripts...I'd like to kick him.  I will be VERY glad when that is over.  I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend for sure!

Internationalization

It was a 3 day weekend here in Japan.  Bryn and I spent our Saturday doing load after load of laundry in order to switch over to "autumn wardrobes".  Last week the students and teachers changed into their autumn attire (students have to wear their uniform jackets, male teachers have to wear ties, female teachers dress like it's freezing out).  It's still not quite cold enough to warrant too many layers, but mornings and evenings require long sleeves.

Since we did so much laundry, we found ourselves needing to replenish our laundry detergent and fabric softener.  Just to mix things up, we decided to shop in a supermarket we don't go to very often in Mipple (a biggish shopping center down the road).  It was in Mipple that we came across this...

That's right! Trip to Dubai fabric softener (with the snuggle bear and everything!).   How can you NOT buy it?!?  I've never been to Dubai, so I can't tell you what it smells like, but the bag describes it as a "desert oasis" scent.  Talk about internationalization!  Now everytime we wash clothes it will be like we are magically transported to the UAE.  

I am sure all of the teachers will be asking me if I visited Dubai recently when they smell me ;)

In other news...guess who doesn't have to eat school lunch anymore...ME!!! YAY!!!  No more asking for my plate without that, begging a teacher or student to eat this, sneaking inedible bits into my rice box, forcing down fish heads, etc.  Words cannot describe how happy this makes me.  Yay, yay, yay :)

We are off to Kyoto or Osaka or Kobe this weekend.  We aren't quite sure of the final destination, but I need coffee (ie Starbucks) and shampoo (I have become obsessed with Lush) so off we go.  Hopefully we'll come across something blog worthy for y'all ;) 

Elementary School Excursion!!

Friday was the Yoza Elementary School walking excursion. Usually the school treks up to the top of Mt Oe and some surrounding mountain peaks, but this year the Mt Oe plans were canceled due to the high number of bear sightings and attacks so far this autumn.
Instead, this year we took the little blue local train to Amanohashidate and did our walking there!
This may not sound terribly exciting, but this particular school is right up at the far end of the valley, in the foothills of Mt Oe, and as such, many of the younger kids had hardly ever (if ever at all) been to the sea! Many of them had never ridden on a train before either, so it was very exciting for them. I was in charge of "group 2", which consisted of eight children, most good, but two of the boys had a tendency to walk off... yikes! I was responsible for them, so I had to have one eye on the rest of the group and one eye on these two boys the whole time. I only lost one of them ONCE!... but I found him, so everything was ok! haha

First we took the bus from school to Nodagawa Station, and then the train to Amanohashidate. Once at our destination, we walked to the famous Chionji Temple there. This temple dates way back to 808AD. The current structures are from the 15th~18th centuries. There's an iron tub/pot in the garden which was made in the 13th century. It's a very special place, and it was great to be able to walk around with the children and teach them about their heritage.

After the temple, we played some games on the grassy lawn nearby and then set out in our small groups walking across the pine-studded sandbar. It was really fun actually.

 These were my kids...well, the ones ahead to the right were a different group. In the time that I was getting out the camera and taking this picture, the two wandering boys wandered off... I managed to get them back before they disappeared though! 

As we reached the end of the sand bar, we went over to the water's edge and threw stones into the sea. The kids found it HUGELY fun.

Then onwards we went up the mountain to Kasamatsu Park viewing deck to get an aerial view of the sandbar (Amanohashidate). Most visitors take the chair lift up the mountain, but we walked up the old steps... steep steps... seemingly never-ending steps... it was hard going! haha

 The view from the top was wonderful as always, only it seemed so much more well-earned after the long-haul trek up those stairs!! This was incidentally when I lost that boy! 

I was so relieved to find him alive!

Then we walked on... and on... and on... until we reached the Tango Ancient History Museum. It was EXTREMELY interesting to see the exhibition of treasures excavated from the ancient burial tombs in the area (dating from about 250~500AD or so). They also had exhibits of Jomon Era (10000~300BC) pottery, artifacts and jewelry discovered in the area. After that we were given a guided tour of the ruins of the great Kokubunji Temple (built well over 1000 years ago, but destroyed in the fires of civil war in the 16th Century), and a tour of an old Edo Period house (170 years ago).

The house was really interesting and was filled with tools and things from the old days.

All in all, it was a great day out (and anything historical is a huge plus for me)... but I won't lie - my muscles were SORE the next day! VERY sore! haha