I noticed a deaf couple in the library talking to each other, evidently in a heated argument. The wife was getting more upset, using large signs, her husband could see that she was upset. Finally, he took both her hands in his, and signed, "Honey, you don't have to yell, I am not blind!"
Check below in the Christmas entry for our Christmas video!
Admit it, the last thirty seconds of the video are the best thirty seconds of your life so far.
See below for my actual Christmas Post!!
Merry Christmas! Or Christmas Eve to you folks back home who don't have the privilege of being in the future. But Anyway.
Feliz Navidad - Joyeux Noël - Fröhliche Weihnachten - 圣诞快乐 - Nollaig shona - buon Natale -
メリクリスマス - Wesołych Świąt - Nollaig chridheil
That's all Merry Christmas to you! (Spanish/Mexican, French, German, Chinese, Irish Gaelic, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Scottish Gaelic) It's good to know that only the Japanese version is really just the English Merry Christmas spoken with a Japanese accent (meri kurisumasu) rather than a version in Japanese. No クリスマスおめでとう (kurisumasu omedetou - Cheers for Christmas) for the Japanese D=
Technically it would be more advantageous to spend Christmas in the States though... as Bob and I had to go into work today. But we carried out with the Christmas cheer and the noble tradition of making a scene (people are already staring at us, right?) and wore our Christmas hats to work. =D
Insert cute picture here whenever Bob has a chance to send it to me.
Nyaoooo.
And I know it's short but I'll probably write a little later because Bob and I are opening our presents after work and I fully intend to put up the video of the two of us opening presents on the blog as well as e-mailing everyone a copy if we have your e-mails.
Cheers!
And because I can (stolen from Youtube with RealPlayer):
Kate Bush : Christmas will be magic again
Just in case: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfD7FzcjVyQ
The Hallelujah Chorus: a perennial favorite from when I was in high school in the choir and it can still bring tears to my eyes.
Mariah Carey: All I Want For Christmas Is You
You're Welcome.
Okay, so this happened last weekend but it's taken me this long to get the pictures on my computer. My girls, as you know, qualified to go to the National Debate Contest in Nagoya. We had to leave separately as Bob and I get out of school much later than the rest of the people (and Fridays are my out of town days). Bob and I took the train no problem and arrived in Nagoya. I was disappointed to find that it was not going to be Bob's first Shinkansen ride but hey, we can work on that. Trains are super fast in Japan =D. We got a little lost because I'd never been to that part of the city where the hotel was but Aoki-sensei rescued us after I concluded that directions are not a good thing to have a language miscommunication about ("so I go south? or north? I've not gone east enough? I need to go west? WHERE IS WEST?!"). We had a grind session with the girls at the hotel to practice their speeches and make last minute adjustments and then it was time for bed. Leaving the hotel we set out for Nagoya Daigakuin campus where the tournament was being held. To be honest, the judging seminar was a joke - less training and more lecturing but I didn't have any doubts that Bob would do a fine job. It actually ended up that I didn't get to see any of the girls perform but maybe that's a good thing. They lost all of their matches on the first day =/
We went to a welcome party afterwards which was a little fun. Ikumi got teased for stealing Bob's cake and Kanako did a surprise performance of Wham's "Last Christmas." The next day went a little better, they ended up winning their last match, but of course only the strongest teams, those who won all of their matches or 3/4 could go one to the quarter finals and so on. There were some strong teams but I really feel like the competition was centered on high English speaking ability rather than actual strong arguments. There was one team who made it to the quarter finals that puzzled the hell out of me. Yeah their English was phenomenal but their argument had no strength!! Anyway, enough of me talking and more videos and pictures.
So here's a picture extravaganza to follow!
But before we go on to the Debate Contest (jumping right into the Welcome party since I didn't take any pictures before then) here's a Zen picture. This is actually right outside of our apartment. Usually there are buildings and stuff to look at but the morning fog can be so exhilarating. This very scene is what made me fall in love with Japan in the first place.
Insert the video of Kanako singing! It's pretty freaking awesome. This girl is so involved in EVERYTHING. She's part of Student Council, the choir club, and she's the president of International club. Kind of makes you wish you applied yourself in High School >>;
These are the girls and Aoki-sensei! From far left: Aoki-sensei, Ikumi, Kanako, and Akane. We got to the party late so we ended up just mooching a lot of our food from other people's tables.
This is the school where we did the debate. Despite my epic picture-taking abilities we did not do so hot, as I explained above. But we are pretty freaking awesome walking up into the building like this. And actually, I took this picture on the second day. Maybe if I had only taken this the first day we might have done better. Personally, I just feel bad for Kanako who reminds me so much of myself and ended up beating herself up most of the time.
Bob ended up judging a contest too - the contest that ended up letting the runner-up finalist get to the semi finals.
These are the finalists for the Nagoya Debate Contest: On the left, for the Affirmative side, is Keio Shonan High school, on the right, for the Negative side, is an international girls' school.
Check out the winner video below! Their reaction is so classic. The video is much too long for what it shows but you might as well get the honest experience, right? Life isn't about good editing! And Ashley is lazy?
It's the middle of the day and I still haven't done anything that I would consider worthwhile. Part of my stress I think comes from this. I thought I would be getting paid to actually teach but most of my week is spent desperately trying to find something to fill my time with. Today's no different though I should be glad that I'm at least feeling positively about it. I've been searching Japanese but my heart's just not in it today. I was looking for language partner stuff before too - just to give myself something to do but that fell flat after awhile.
I need to remember why I want to learn Japanese. My three-year rotation cycle is at its highest this year and it shows. For those who don't know I tend to change my life goals and dreams every three years (convenient how we go to school for four...). Freshman year I wanted to be a teacher but changed my mind. Now I've graduated and I've all of a sudden taken a liking to French again! Ugh. Too many excuses is my problem.
According to my mother I am not making fake lemonade over here because I'm using real lemons so it's going to be sweeter.. or wait, nevermind the analogy is tripping.
Basically, I'm homesick and I needed a pick me up to remind me why I deal with the stiffs in my prefecture. So here are some:
And yes they get cuter.
Alright, so in the midst of looking up Miss Manners and Dear Abby letters to use for a lesson on giving and receiving advice (kindly stolen from Bob) I came across this letter.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/09/
AR2007100902200.html
Now, let me give you the gist if you're not inclined to read the actual letter. Guy is asked in a coffee shop to watch a laptop so no one steals it. He declines because the computer is behind him and he would have to swivel around and wait around until the person came back. The woman called him a no good dirtbag who would surely invite the wrath of Khan. Apparently he gets this response a lot when he declines to watch other people's stuff.
I have to wholeheartedly agree with Miss Manners - where's the logic in leaving your stuff with a stranger to protect it from strangers? Just me but I'd probably laugh in their face, pull a Josh and look them seriously in the eye and say, "Alright, but as soon as you leave I'm stealing it." But that's my bitchy self. I'd then snarkily turn around and continue reading. Then again, I've never been approached by this request ever so I could be blowing smoke.
Let's start off this post with a chuckle. Not too long ago but at least two months ago I had to create a listening test for the first years. Part of the unit that we had studied before included health and they learned the phrase "Have loose bowels" which seemed rather a stiff thing to say to anyone so I also taught them "Have diarrhea" and "Have an upset stomach" and suggested that they use the second option in most cases. I even put it as a bonus point (what are two additional ways to say "Have loose bowels"?) and joy ensued. In case you can't read it I have another picture just below with the text a little nicer.
Student A: 1= You buy another bowels. 2=Don't worry, let's find the bowels.
Student B: 1= Yakisoba (fried noodles) 2= fish
These next few pictures were taken on two separate occasions as I was walking home from my visit school.
And these are the reasons I laugh most of the day away. The first is a sign in America obviously but the second is actually two girls who I followed out of the train station on my way home. Kerori + Pikachu = hilarious.
This picture below looks unappetizing but to Bob at first it was a sweet nectar.. until we found out that it was actually some sort of fried fish product. What's even more ironic is that I had just bought an electronic dictionary to lesson our chances of having communication problems when we're out running around.
And this last one is at the Suwa fireworls festival that I hope to go to again - just as exciting as Red, White, and Boom!
Kind of small but I took this picture just as we were about to get on the highway from my house to the airport to head to Detroit to head for Tokyo to ultimately head to Matsumoto.
What can I say? Seeing the place where you started your humble beginnings (the hospital I was born) strikes me in some weird way and I felt the need to share. Not an exciting picture but it has a lot of meaning for me in its own way.
Next picture is actually the backs of Dad and Mom's heads as we're heading out. Again something that I didn't think would strike me but I'm glad that I can have this picture.
This picture isn't too clear but it was at a party at Steve and Matt's before we left and I was attempting to get a bottle cap in Bob's goatee. Good times.
My favorite Lost in Translation-esque picture.
This is a video of a famous temple, maybe sort of, that me and Bob came across as we were checking out Nagano city one of our first weeks in Japan. I really feel like the truee essence and atmosphere of Japan can't really be captured in any medium except the deeply personal but I'm hoping you guys will at least get a sneak peek into what it could be like to just be in Japan: the future-past hodge-podge that I love.
This picture you can see on my picture website so I won't bother to go into much detail except that I absolutely loved this wall to death. It was on the wall that lead to the cafeteria area of our hotel in Tokyo so maybe that's why I have such positive images and feelings about it =p
In any case, we could all do with more beautiful things like this in our lives so here, a gift for you.
Speaking of photo websites I'm not even sure I've posted it: www.flickr.com/whenshelaughs
EDIT: According to my current slightly messed up timeline I should have pictures of the debate contest here but I've decided to waste time and actually go to the post on the debate contest to insert the pictures there.
Next post: Weird things and Internet things and very tiny pictures.
Okay, according to my last blog post I'm supposed to talk about:
Next episode:
1. My salon experience
2. International Club
3. Recent School Happenings
4. Anything else I forgot to tell you.
Well, to be honest I completely forgot about any legitimate points I had to make about 2. and 3. but I will say a little about the salon.
THEY GIVE YOU BACK, NECK, AND HEAD MASSAGES. Period. Standard Procedure. And that's all I have to say really. But, you know me. We ended up going to a place close to our house after I was shocked into the reality of there being two distinct places for the sexes to get their hair cut and to my shock the girl actually recognized me. Apparently she's from the neighborhood and we're always walking by when she's out playing with her kids. There's not much of a way to explain it, and maybe it's the bitter suspicious "lives among those who will never accept her" foreigner paranoia sneaking through but I was actually surprised at how friendly she was with me. Her whole family was in on the business. Her husband and brother in law and father all ran the barber shop below and an elevator ride to the second floor showed her and her sister and her mother chilling with the chick side of the business. So, I have to think, was she friendly because I'm a customer and she can't help herself? I don't really think so because she was friendly also in introducing her family, a few of whom spoke English (and by that I mean could say hello with a shy smile). Heart-warming really. I'll try to put up a picture of her shop sometime but in the meantime let's end this charade, go on to the next post and I can make it a delicious photo extravaganza.
Okay, coming a bit late but I've realized that I've left a lot of story gaps so I'm going to try my best in this post to make up for that.
Next post or the post after that I'll be putting up all the pictures I promised I would put up with other posts - because that's just nicer than going through individually to each post and inserting the pictures.
First, let's talk about the friendship problem here in Japan. You can read all about it on Bob's posts too (http://richiebob.livejournal.com) but Bob and I have been wondering whether or not a second year is really for us or not. It comes from a lot of different reasons but mostly from the fact that we've been having trouble finding people our own age to chill out with or even finding people to chill out with at all. There's Ohara-sensei, the vice-principal of my school, and he's a pretty awesome guy, but we don't get to hang out that often. I've been trying to find out clubs for us to join so we can get out a bit more (not that we don't get out, we just don't get out with a group of people ya know?). While the experience of being with Bob and having him as my travel and adventure buddy will no doubt help us in becoming a closer and more passionate couple, there's something to be said for outside friendships too that we feel is rather lacking in Japan. It has to do with language and exposure. We're not on a college campus anymore with people our own age doing activities to find people with the same interests so it's hard for us to find true friendships. The JETs in the area aren't bad people either, just not the kind of people we'd normally hang out with. So what to do? If everything about the place you're at is awesome: the scenery, the co-workers, the job working with kids which has its own ups and downs... but then the social scene sucks? Yeah that's going to wear ya down even if you're the kind of person that likes feeling aloof and away from other people.
It helps that we have means to stay in contact with people at home - I call my parents every week and I've been sending letters - but those people who are so important to us are far away.
It's not a matter of wasting our time here but what would we be doing in America? I know that Jocelyn and Hall (the ALTs who were here before us) had wished that they had stayed on for another year and I know I'd be the same way if Bob and I decided to leave. Erg, it's frustrating to think about. Anyway, the situation isn't resolved and you guys are probably like WTF, mate just tell us what you guys are doing. We're looking right now at definitely staying for another year at least. We have to make the most of this ^_^v.
Second topic under discussion: people we have met
OKay, so first I'm complaining about not meeting people and now I'm going to tell you all about the people I've met? Kind of. The thing is that we don't find a lack of people who are friendly with us but a lack of people we can build relationships with. For example, about a month ago Bob and I were wondering around the city at random when we saw this old-fashioned shop that appeared to sell wooden and porcelain and lacquer cups, spoons, plates, and the like. We were gazing about the store when a woman came out from the back. She spoke to us a little uncertainly in Japanese at first, asking us if we liked the items (I was holding a bunny paper weight) and then if we could understand and speak Japanese. Immediately we all got into a nice conversation and between Bob and me trying out Japanese and her trying to use simple Japanese and her dictionary we had a nice conversation at that. We even talked long enough that she politely mentioned that they were closing and off we went into the night. It's places like that that really touch my heart and make me believe that being in Japan can be a social thing if we seem open enough to it. Speaking more of that night (getting off topic) we got a little lost coming back home as we decided to keep walking randomly. Among our nighttime adventures included walking by a restaurant that seemed heavily monitored by the yakuza (Japanese gangsters). I say this only because the stereotypical yakuza type bows to random, black tinted windowed cars and looks menacingly around as they speak into their ear phones. They dress like James Bond too. Anyway, the point is that we should go for more nighttime walks because we always seem to discover something awesome when we're just walking along and not really thinking about it.
The next sort of person I'd like to talk about is the guy who works at the bar across from Big UP which has a huge Betty Boop doll in front of it. This guy is one of those weird cases where we're all friendly when we're there but he's just a weird guy. First thing he tends to stare at me. To be fair he may just be staring at Bob's beard, that's what most people seem to be doing, but Bob has the suspicion that he's looking me over and I'll leave it to Bob to figure that kind of stuff out. So we're going to be under the assumption that he is in fact looking at me. Second, he picks his nose in public. Ew. I've seen this in a couple places too. And I know it's pretty much weird no matter what country you're in but maybe Americans are actually more discreet than the Japanese at something because I never saw this many people pick their noses in public before. It's not like 1:10 men or something but it is considerably more frequent. WEIRD. And again with the friendship thing: can we actually become friends with the kind of people who we see often when we go out to eat?
Third Topic: Haircuts
I completely forgot to inform everyone that Bob and I both got haircuts. I wasn't expect y'all to cry or anything about that in particular, hair is hair and unless Bob gets a Mohawk sometime this will never be an interesting topic. However, it was the way that we got our hair done that's interesting. First we went to go get Bob's hair done. Actually we were both supposed to get our hair done but the place that I had scoped out at first, in which I saw women waiting, assumably for a haircut, actually only catered to the business men types and the women were simply waiting there to escort their husbands and children around. So I ended up sitting down but that turned out to be a good thing as I was able to check everything out.
When you first go into this place you get the impression of a factory line. There are numbered stations and when you first come in, as a dude, you're escorted to one of the stations to wait until your turn comes around. There appeared to be two people working at the shampoo and hair dry station and an assortment of people doing jobs as cutters, beard attendants, and make you smell nice people. Bob ended up waiting for a while as everyone seemed to be busy pruning. At places like this you can get a shave and get your eyebrows cleaned up and even just come in here for a cheap shampoo if for some reason you like your hair clean more than your body. Bob artfully dealt with his cutter but at first I was mortified when I saw how much hair was coming off. Bob's hair looked kind of like a minstrel's before we went in so to see the buzz cut was a little unnerving. Then they performed a ritual with a hot towel and actually used an old-fashioned razor blade to trim up around the edges. Pretty nifty.
Next episode:
1. My salon experience
2. International Club
3. Recent School Happenings
4. Anything else I forgot to tell you.
For those who are like wtf, mate here's the translation:
せんきんのきゅうはいっこのえきにあらず
An expensive fur coat will not be made by a single fox alone.
= To rule a country requires many great people.
This is fantastic. I'd love to think of different American expressions for the same thing but I'm currently too involved in adoration of the Japanese. I think I'm becoming a fan of learning them via Jim Breen's site (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html)
and Wikiquote. Now, before you go after me for looking at Wikipedia which is notoriously without shame in its usage of improperly referenced material let me defend myself. I study Japanese. I may not know what all of them say exactly but with an electronic dictionary in hand and a lot of humility and stubbornness you can decipher pretty much anything. Education over shortcuts - that's my way. Anyway. Expect to see a lot of these because I just love them that much. And go one: allow yourself a romp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_proverbs
More later.
Akane - Ikumi - Kanako =D
First of all...
MY TEAM WON THE PREFECTURAL CHAMPIONSHIP FOR ENGLISH DEBATE!!!!!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
That having been said it wasn't without some good ole fashioned hard work and of course the obligatory pansy-ass whining from other teams and other unnecessary drama. But without this kind of problem our victory would not have been as sweet.
For the past three weeks we've been busting our balls for the competition which is partly the reason I think I got a wicked cold. We've been staying long hours after school (sometimes even until 7pm!!) just practicing and getting our notes and data together for a good debate. The debate topic was : Japan should have a six day school week for all elementary and secondary schools. For the debate you have to argue for both sides so it's a matter of making a convincing argument no matter your personal opinion on the matter.
For the first debate in the morning we had the misfortune of facing a team who had one member that was not so responsible. Meaning: they were a three member team but only two actually made it to the competition. So we had an automatic win for the first round and actually, no, I'm not happy about that. I hate it when people don't get to really prove themselves and earn the win. Now, granted, we did have a "practice" debate with them since both me and the other ALT loudly protested each team not having the chance to at least go through the motions of the debate which they had worked really hard for, and we did beat the socks off of them (cause I think the other two guys kind of gave up on it actually...) but still.
Anyway, they rocked it regardless and I was really proud of them. The next debate they did I could already tell that there was going to be drama. For one, even though the Japanese don't do the handshake thing you can tell when somene is being sincere even if their handshake sucks bottom. And these girls had the most insincere air about them as they shook hands with my girls. As the debate went on I had trouble understanding what the other team was trying to say in some points and I figured we'd have an easy win - this time more than well deserved. However, what the other team had noticed was that one of my girls made a mistake and did a part that she shouldn't have. They made the same mistake a week ago for a practice debate and I didn't even notice it at all. Anyway, there was much confusion about what the problem actually was that they were calling for our disqualification but when we finally figured it out I said I'd run down to the judges' box to get an official ruling. So I run all the way there and the judge is like "oh well, it's the judges responsibility to make sure that there are no mistakes."
You should have SEEN the looks on the faces of the other girls when I came back and said this. So, not only did they keep giving me dirty looks but they kept questioning the decision which pretty much means they were calling me a liar.
Anyway, I was like whateva ya stank hos (cause I can say stuff like that in my head) and then went about my business. I met their coach in the hallway and LO AND BEHOLD it's the same guy who complained at the judges' seminar that there was bad judging and that his students had been unfairly treated last year. So, oh brother, I went over and apologized on behalf of my girls explaining that they had made the same mistake during a practice run and said that I hoped he didn't think that there was any purposeful cheating or unfairness on the part of my girls against his. To which he replied "Well, I don't know the results either way so I cannot say if there was unfairness or not."
Listen.
LISTEN TO WHAT CAME OUT OF HIS MOUTH.
I was completely floored by the thought that he was only going to pull the unfairness card if his girls didn't win the match. FLOORED I TELL YOU. This is an English teacher and he should know that the basic definition of unfairness is that it is a state which comes about regardless of victory or defeat. If I trip you in a race and you still win, that's still an unfair race. If half of the students are told something that they're going to be tested on and half of them don't hear it and those kids who don't hear it still somehow get the question right, it was still an unfair test. Am I the only one that sees that?
Anyway, didn't want to reveal him for a raving martyr right in front of his kids (not to mention an idiot and a sore competitor like his disrespectful kids) I just was like "uh... okay." and left. I should have destroyed him though. My Amazon blood boils.
But anyway, after all the drama and pissiness and tears WE CAME OUT ON TOP!!
We'll be going to Nagoya to compete in the national champoinships and I think we'll have a pretty good run there though I don't know what our competition is like. This will be the first time in about 13 years that Arigasaki HIgh School gets to go to the national championships so I'm really excited that I got to be there to help them get there. Anyway, cheers!!
Pictures coming soon. Pictures Arrived!
At the after-party!
Aoki-sensei's camera can "sense" smiling so Ikumi took advantage ^_^v
Okay, actually, I'd love to talk about this.. but Bob has the pictures and videos! Never fear, we're going again tonight so we will fully cover all possible angles of the beauty that is Matsumoto castle at night =D
Please read the posts however you like! However, if you're a stickler for chronological order you should go to Carpe Diem first.
To really get the full feeling for the blog you should start down a little bit. Sorry for such long posts!
So mountains:
For the past few weeks we've had days off on Monday so the long weekend has bred wanderlust. Thankfully our Vice Principal is awesome and decided that since we both like hiking (and we certainly know how crazy Bob is about mountains and the climbing or mountains) that he would take the two of us out hiking. Now, I'm not ashamed to say that I'm pretty good at climbing. I may not have as much stamina as the next little person but I don't mind climbing. Per se.
See, these mountains are basically the steroided version of regular mountains in America. You know when you're going along the mountain roads in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and you feel like you're going to die because the paths are just so narrow?
So there's what's awaiting you on the other side of the path, one misstep away.
I can't even attempt to tell you how scary it was for me (or how beautiful) but I'll try.
I've been getting better with my fear of heights (when did I get that anyway? ::shrug::) but it certainly helps that there's just such a beautiful mountain to get over it on. The trip up was a pretty steady climb of almost straight up which pretty much looked like this:
And that kind of foggy atmosphere in the bottom two pictures? THOSE ARE CLOUDS. That's right, we climbed so high on this mountain that we were in the clouds. FRIGGIN'SWEET.
Want further proof? It's all in the pictures:
Now that last part was the final climb up to the top of the mountain where we were greeted by a little shrine (and some seeded grapes from Ohara-sensei). The thing I love about these shrines is that while being sacred they're also kind of a part of your everyday life so you can sit right up next to them and not have that same wonder and awe and standoffishness of other religious emblems and statues.
And of course that's our wet selves at the top of the mountain because it actually started raining on us a little bit.
In fact, because the weather started to change on us a little bit we decided to head off our travels and head down the mountain early.
Where we've been (the King's Nose) and where we're going (back down of course - does that ever have a name besides base of the mountain?).
On the way down, besides marvelous views and me crying from the sheer beauty of everything we found something very curious. First a beautiful view and then a curious thing.
It's some sort of memorial, but what's curious isn't the memorial itself but the hat that was cosied on a post near the memorial. Ohara-sensei turned to us and simply said "It's waiting." And THAT is enough to crack anyone up to see a oldish Japanese man very calmly state that the hat is waiting for its owner to come back and then burst full wrinkled into a full-faced smile. Ohara is awesome.
Some videos to entice your interest. This first one is a video of the surroundings on the almost halfway up the top of the mountain.
Next we have a rather interesting video (and not because it almost seemed to be about Bob's feet before I figured out not everyone is attracted to his legs like I am) but because of the music in the background. It's important when you're on the mountain to have some sort of noise, like music or bells to make sure the bears aren't surprised by your sudden appearance (and vice versa). Most of the people wore bells which just reminded me of sheep being herded on the mountain but we were graced with a language teaching program which happened to be teaching phrases from a Chinese opera. Awesome!
The next thing I'd like to share is a video of something curious. We didn't see many animals (the radio made sure of that) but we did see what looked curiously like deer.
It's actually called a Japanese Serow and looks a bit like this if you can get up close:
This one that we saw on the mountain
happened to have a baby with it. At first
you weren't really sure what you were
looking at because it wasn't moving at all
and was just kind of staring.
Once we got close though they sprang into
action and left us in the dust.
That's pretty much all for me. We actually went up two mountains but the pictures and videos from this blog entry are all about Utsukushiigahara Yama(美ヶ原山) which translates roughly into The Fields of Beauty Mountain. Not next time (I have to continue the Carpe Diem series!) but relatively soon I'd like to write an entry about this past weekend when we went mountain climbing for four hours (Utsukushiigahara only took us three hours lol) up Eboshi Dake and Yuunomaru Yama: two very famous mountains in Nagano and especially famous for me because they might have personally caused the decrease in my thigh diameter.
On to the final entry~!
