ramblings . . .

ugh. . . i am a morning person and a night person but not at all an afternoon person. . .especially after teaching and running around with elementary students all morning!!! ah well. . .

recent events. . .

last saturday, sayaka and i attended two dance concerts. . . the first was for the modern ballet studio that offered me free lessons. . . since i love kids, it was cute, but. . . ballet really is not my thing. i suppose i will try the lessons for a bit, but i am not extremely enthusiastic about it. . .

the second dance concert was amazing!!! it was an all female company based in tokyo. . . http://h-art-chaos.com/ . . . yes, there is an english option. . .hmmm. . .i was going to write more about this but wasn’t satisfied with my report. . . if you are really interested in the performance, check out the second half of this review on ‘the rite of spring’ http://inkpot.com/theatre/01reviews/01revgrizritespri.html . . . i miss modern dance so much!!!

moving on. . . sunday was another busy day, as i went whitewater rafting with nineteen other JETs. . . .we had a beautiful day and often ended up in the water . . . i even climbed and jumped off an eight meter rock (what a way to overcome a fear, huh?). . .while the pics on the happy raft website are not of our group, you can at least see where we were and generally what we went through. . . http://happyraft.com/en/ . . . after a full day of rafting, i had my first experience at an おんせん (japanese bathhouse). . . much needed . . . followed by camping. . . when i finally got home on monday, i took a nice long nap, which my body loved me for (don’t worry. . . i didn’t skip out on work. . . it was yet another national holiday. . . ‘health and sports day’). . . anyway, this was my first adventure with a large group of foreigners. . . definitely not the first of many. . . i really just do not enjoy hanging out with the other JETs. . . karaoke was fun because there were only four of us and we were in a little hick town café with a bunch of locals. . . large groups of foreigners are loud and obnoxious . . .

ugh, today is a crappy writing day. . . i tried to explain this as well but for whatever reason do not have the proper words. . . point is, while i learn a lot from my time with the other JETs, i prefer my japanese friends . . .

okay, i need to stop here. . . last week i promised to report on a few other subjects, but . . . i really need a more fluid writing day. . . sorry to disappoint . . .i really do want to tell you about more of my experiences before i forget. . . especially since so many things are starting to seem natural to me (i.e. slurping noodles, narrow roads, bugs, bows, sports festivals, picking grass by hand as opposed to using a lawn mower. . . the general lack of grass in japan pretty much rids the need for a lawn mower. . . oh, waxing the school floors by hand. . . again, why use a machine when you have students? logical enough, huh?) . . . okay, おわります．おつかれさまでした．

kahoku from the river. . .