I can snowboard yo!

Jan. 13 Wednesday

So today at lunch time I went back to the town hall/BOE for a special mochi lunch. Today was some kind of special holiday that I don`t really remember the name of where they eat mochi. The mochi is made by the people in town hall and everyone comes to eat it at lunch. It`s grilled mochi (so it`s a little crunchy on the outside and mo-chiri on the inside) in a broth and there was also karaage. And for dessert mochi and red bean paste, yummers.

In the evening was the young peoples` Shinnenkai to welcome in the new year. I was actually a little late getting in so I waited outside until the speeches were over, but the speeches went on for so long that I thought it better to just go in. I tried to go in all quietly, but the door was soooo creaky and rough that it just made so much noise that someone actually opened the inner door and looked out to see who it was. He just beckoned me inside, so I was like F-it and made a huge lot of noise walkin in because the floors and doors were just so creaky. I ended up being able to sit next to Tama-chan and we had a wonderful talk and became much more friendlier. And then Sugisawa-kun even joined in and we had a pretty hilarious conversation i have to say. It was so much fun thta I was totally looking forward to going to the nijikai. At the nijikai we sat around and talked about stuff and then I mentioned that I was going to go buy my snowboard this weekend and both Tama-chan and Sugisawa-kun said they wanted to come along too and go boarding. So that was that. And then Uno-san also said she wanted to tag along. Awesome.

January 14 Thursday

My high school started today. As usual, the kids were still uninterested in English. And showed no want to learn. And when I taught my 1st graders I had to motivate them with candy. lol Ah well. After this I went back to the middle school to have lunch with all the teachers again. So much funner there.

January 16 Saturday

At around 2pm Sugisawa-kun came to pick me and Tama-chan up to go to Asahikawa to look at boards and buy my board, and Uno-san followed in her car. I swear I have so much fun with these two. They`re so funny. It was basically a snowstorm that we were driving in and everything was just pure white that it was sooo hard to see the road. But luckily we got everywhere just fine. We first went to Xebio Sports, then Arpen Sports, and finally to Sports Authority in AEON where I bought by beautiful board. The board`s description was called "Nature" and it was a black board with lime green edges and bubbles of brilliant up close pictures or radiant flowers. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. The black and the radiant colors were so eye catching and plus I really like nature stuff. So there we go. It was a set. I get the boots, bindings, and board all for around $318 bucks! Awesome! I was thinking that I could only get $500 ones. But thank god for the nature board at sports authority. Ibought my snowboarding outfit there too because it`s cheaper. So then we all went to take purikura together and it was pretty cute! Uno-san then had to leave and so the three of us went to go eat okonomiyaki together. And it was soooo good! It was a set menu of delux okonomiyaki which is seafood and pork, and then there was monjya (my first time eating monjya, it`s a Tokyo thing) which had mentaiko, cheese, and pork in it, and then last was a yakisoba with other meats and veggies you can grill. Amazing! After being so freakin full we decided to go home. And sleep and wait for the next day`s snowboardin fun.

Jan. 17 Sunday

At around 1pm Tama-chan came to pick me and Sugisawa-kun up to head to Pippu to board. They`re both renting and I`m bringin my new board. Wooo! So the ski hill in Pippu is huge! It`s got snowboard, snowear, and ski rentals! And there`s 3 lifts! Whoa! So Tama-chan, Sugisawa-kun and I decided to head over to the lil kiddies slope area which turned out to be pretty high level area. And there we learned. I can now finally stand up properly, slide forward, stop, and turn left, but turning right is still a danger zone. I tend to hurt myself alot when I try that. lol So we spent 3 hours on the slopes and then around 6pm we headed back home for dinner at Ibushiya and sat there talking for a long ass time and then went home. Good day it was.

Jan. 18 Monday

Sashiburi going back to the nursery today! I love my nursery babies, so I was very much looking forward to seeing them. I was able to stay the whole day at the nursery today because there was no class at the elementary. My kids were sooo funny today. I love listening to hte lil things talk because they say such funny things! And they`re sooo cute! My students kept climbing all over me and huggin me and stuff today. I loved it. One of my girls was like "I wanna marry Theresa-sensei!" And I was like "I wanna marry you too!" ANd my other lil kids were like "You can`t do that Theresa-sensei. Two women can`t marry each other" lol Oh children, if you only knew the world out there. lol I was being reprimanded by my children. I felt small. lol So there was a fire drill today at the nursery. And my teachers asked me how to say drill in English and (here`s an example of my English just dying on me) I couldn`t think of the word at all so I said practice. Fire Practice. Yes..... Anyways at the drill it was right before waking up the children from their afternoonnap. lol So they were all soo disoriented and just woken up so there hair is all over the place with bedhead. It was soo cute! The lil kids weren`t panicking or anything at all. Just confused cuz they just woke up. haha.

Anyways, I stayed at the preschool longer than my job needed me too because I love playing with the babies. And then at around 6pm I went over to my Shinnenkai with my Taiko group. There alot of my nursery babies were there because of hteir parents also being in taiko so it was really fun. The parents and people are so fun and easy to talk to. The kids, when they saw me all ran over to me and were like I wanna sit next to Theresa-sensei!!! And when their parents came to sit next to them, the kids were like "Mom, you don`t need to sit next to me I`m fine! I like Theresa-sensei better than you!" I quickly covered their mouth and was like "You can`t say that to you parents!" lol I felt happy, but at the same time very apologetic to the parents. I played with lil Toshinori the whole time because he`s so cute and chubby. He`s only 2 years old so WAAH!

When one of the dad`s asked me if I had a boyfirned and if I wanted a Japanese guy I said "maybe" and the men around thoought I said "baby". So they thought I meant that I wanted a baby...lol. THey totally jumped several steps there. They looked at me incredulously and then their wives had to explain to them what I said. lol haha. I love these people. Anyways, good fun night with my taiko group and the cutie children. But my eye has been twitching alot lately and I think I need more sleep. lol

Otsukare for reading and love you all!