誕生日おめでとう！Happy Birthday!

Hurray! Something interesting and wonderful to discuss! Not that my normal day isn't wonderful and interesting it just may not be interesting for you guys. But just in case you were wondering what it is I do every day I'll give you a little run down and use the birthday topic as a tantalizing finisher.

Ashley's typical day:
Mondays and Fridays I work at Tagawa high school which is a little ways out of Matsumoto city in a city called Murai. This high school is a pretty new high school being only 25 years old and while the kids are excitable and eager to learn it's not exactly a top-notch super important spend millions of dollars to go here school. Nevertheless I like it because the kids make it easy to have fun in class and not be so stuffy and worried about rules and lesson flubs. On those days I generally have to wake up at 6:45 because I have to leave the house before 7:30 if I want to get the right train. So at 8:00 I'm off and rolling on a train headed three stations down to Murai station. No one seems particularly interested in heading that way so it's usually not hard to just find a seat and nod off until the stop. One things I can never be sure whether or not I like is the attention I'll receive on the train. Most people are friendly but they're friendly/curious to look at you not friendly/idle chatter kind of people so it's a little surreal just sitting on the train knowing that there's a discussion across the way about American hair or American eyes (has anyone noticed that I have particularly big eyes? hmmmm). After I get off the station I have to walk down this narrow "main street" and head across a bridge before getting to my school which is gently nestled between several rice fields.
I work with two teachers there: Shimodaira-sensei and Nakamura-sensei. So far I haven't done anything here but introduce myself for about 15 minutes and then leave so I don't have a clear idea of what it's like to teach with them. I teach first years only so most of my English has to be really simple. Also, imagine my surprise to learn that there are foreign exchange students! There's this Australian boy in one of my classes that I was a little startled to see but, like most high school kids, he's as shy as the rest of them about asking me questions so I didn't get much of an impression of him either >>;. I'll be going there tomorrow for my first lesson so here's to hoping I do a pretty okay job and my cold doesn't get any worse!

Tuesday-Thursday I work at Arigasaki High School which is the school that technically hired me anyway. I work with Fujisawa-sensei and Higuchi-sensei (first year teachers) and Hayashi-sensei (a third year teacher). I'd have to say that out of all of my classes though the third years are the most exciting to work with. I think it's because in order to get into third level English you have to sign up for it. In Japanese junior and senior high schools English is mandatory until their senior year in senior high school. If they want they can choose a science track which has less English and more science (like if they want to get into a medical school or something) but they still have to take an English class of some sort. So anyway, long story short, they actually LOVE speaking English so even if they don't know what to say they're not shy about making mistakes.
Interesting story about third years.. we were doing a group project so me and the teacher were talking while they were brainstorming and we got on the topic of the most interesting Japanese food I'd ever eaten. I'm not sure if any of you are aware, but it's considered auspicious for Japanese food to come as natured intended IE with the heads, tails, whiskers (of shrimp =P), eyes, etc. that they were born with. Now, I'm not against this in any sort of religious way but doesn't it seem a little wrong to you that your food is staring at you while you're eating it? Anyway, Hayashi-sensei thought it was hilarious and couldn't stop laughing.
Anyway. The good thing about this school is that while they're not exactly ....



Okay, so Arigasaki students are more polite and a little quiet but they're very eager to learn.
At both schools I end up pretty much twiddling my thumbs all day. I can't lie to you. They're paying me a ridiculous salary but I don't necessarily have a lot to do during the day because unlike a regular teacher I don't have to go to all the classes. With the third years at Arigasaki I'll be going every day but the first year curriculum is a lot of learning grammar rules and not necessarily learning all that much about oral speaking. The last few days at Arigasaki I've been helping out getting papers graded but the lesson-planning part has mostly been on the part of the teachers. When I asked about it they explained that in January and February we'll be able to do more interesting things but pretty much the entire nation has to go by the same basic lessons to make certain progress reports in December.



AND NOW FOR THE MOST INTERESTING PART


9/28 menu for Ashley and Bob

Breaded and Fried Ostrich 駝鳥一口カツ
Breaded and Fried Crocodile　ワニ一口カツ
Soup Stock and Vegetables/Tofu　鍋物
Raw Horse Sashimi (like sushi)　馬刺し
Fried Chicken Kabobs　焼き鳥
Karubi Steak Kabobs　カルビ焼き
Smoked Fish　魚
Warm Sake　暖かい酒

The day started out pretty normally - we both had school that day so it was a bummer to be away. But once we got home and relaxed a little bit we decided that eating out was that thing to do. After wandering aimlessly Bob managed to take charge and we settled for a restaurant with a giant cat in front of it:
This restaurant had such a cool atmosphere. It seemed kind of like a salaryman paradise though since there were a bunch of guys in there but the food was pretty cheap and soooooooooooo delicious. If you have a chance to try horse meat, do it. It's so delicious that I can't wait to try it again sometime! I liked Ostrich (which tasted kind of like turkey and chicken combined) and Bob liked the Crocodile which I wasn't in to just for the texture which was kind of like eating very hard chicken.

After the delicious dinner that we spent lounging in the ecstasy that is food and life we went out for cake and crepes.
Bob said his crepe wasn't good - and I'll believe him because the cream I thought was a little tasteless and had a bad aftertaste to boot but the most amazing thing about this place wasn't the bad crepes it was the TINY FORKS,



Here our adventures took us to a Big Echo - a karaoke place where we busted out some hits for only 10 bucks for an hour for the both of us. Sweet. And then we stumbled home.
Ha. The night seems a little anticlimactic after dinner but that's only because I'm tired and I want to stop typing. <3

嬉しい I'm happy

It's weird to suddenly come upon a moment where you know without a doubt that you're happy. I was outside on the balcony, struggling with the laundry that refuses to stay on the line when I looked out beyond my apartment and to the mountains and buildings far in the distance... funny how a little bit of scenery can change the way you're feeling so drastically. I guess the equation goes peaceful atmosphere + sounds of cicadas and the strong breeze + laundry flapping all around you = Ashley's version of happiness.

Wish me luck, I start school tomorrow!!

You've got a lot of explaining to do, young lady

Okay, I haven't been around much, it's a fact. But, can you blame me? I'm in Japan! Living, breathing, sleeping in, eating, and drinking in Japan. Not much has really been going on lately though although this week school will start to get interesting since I'll actually start going to school. So the Tokyo orientation was mildly talked about before - I think the only thing I'd like to add is that Tokyo is gorgeous at night. Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures up soon of the city since we wandered around the last night we were there. We were only there three nights and had to leave very early on Wednesday morning for our respective areas.
So wednesday we got on the bus and headed off to greet our supervisors (in my case my supervisor is still on her honeymoon so I met a different English teacher at my school). It was weird to be greeted in English as soon as we got off the bus too because we had been told to do our introductions in Japanese but it's cool - nice to know that I'll have someone I can really converse with and be understood by.
So wednesday I spent running around with my supervisor/notreallysupervisor making sure that I registered as a foreign worker and the next day we got our bank stuff. Of course I got the ridiculously cute bank card with all these weird animated animals on it. I had to. IT WAS MEANT TO BE. Then after that Bob and I have been more or less just getting used to our homes. We realized soon enough that we desperately needed a few items.. like bath towels... since there were none... and we didn't realize it until Bob got out of his shower and needed to use the kitchen hand towels. Oops!
Anyway, literally that has been our lives lately. We've been running around to various coffee shops and electronics shops (we both have cell phones now and I also have an electronic dictionary so I don't have to tell Bob that the sign is for some sort of fried food..... would have been nice to know that that fried food was fried fish paste Gross!!!).
Hope to give a better (and far more interesting) update later this week.

Yokoso! Japan He (Welcome to Japan!)

Good morning everyone and welcome to our first morning in Japan!

First off, the plane flight wasn't too bad diregarding the whole heavy unexplained turbulence kind of towards the end (the part where we're actually flying over ocean rather than Canada and the Bering Strait). I was frightened but with Bob's help I was able to stock down a few Solitaire games and distract myself by trying to learn how to bridge.

Getting off the plane the first sensation was like getting into a car that's been out in the sun all day and then blasting the still hot A/C. Japan is fantastically hot! But beautiful. Actually getting around and following the line of blue shirted Orientation Assistants made the whole thing like a sort of dream. Get to one group of blue shirts and be directed to the next just in sight.

Next was getting in the bus and that feeling of nostalgia. I didn't have the feeling, like Bob had, that I had never really left. Rather I had a sense that I had known a lot of what I would be seeing but it still looked way different than I had expected. This sense of things being familiar but also new made me that much more excited to get out into the city for our free night. Although Tokyo and I have never been close, one thing I can recommend about it are the lights. The pure sound and energy of a city bustling with all sorts of creatures and experiences waiting to be discovered.

After we got into our hotel room Bob and I scooted to our showers and ran out into the night. We didn't get too far from the hotel while scrounging for food and eventually found a chain restaurant of noodles, curry, and 'don' plates (dishes usually with meat, egg, and cheese over rice). After that we wandered arond looking at the Japan scene feeling like we had both somehow been here before together.

Anyway, I know it's been rambly but I must be getting off to breakfast. It's 6:37 am Japan time!!