Osokute gomen, but here it is!

Hey guys. Sorry for the late update but things have been getting crazy busy and hectic lately that I`ve not had the time to do much blogging. And when I do have time, I just want to lie around and do nothing as I recently seldom have the time to relax. I`ve been planning lessons and having meetings often lately that it seems as if I`m no longer the ALT but the official English teacher at the nursery, elementary and high school. Luckily, I get breaks at the middle school where I`m just the assistant and I do no planning. It`s been a little stressful with all the planning and stuff as well as keeping up appearances as the foreign "interesting" English teacher. You`re expected to always be genki and into English and bring a "foreign" flair about with you which can actually be kind of tiring and draining. The job has alot of perks though. It`s fun, no doubt, and I quite enjoy spending my time with the students. But being in the inaka(countryside) with no other English speakers around is affecting my outgoing personality. I have many Japanese friends here, don`t get me wrong. I just seem to have been withdrawing more into myself and spend much of my time at home and on my own. I need to get into the big cities more often...lol Anyways......

June 6th Sunday

Today was the middle school sports festival! The kids have been practicing for this thing for 2 weeks straight! Everyday! Classes will only go for 5 periods, sometimes 4, and then the rest of the day is cancelled and everyone practices for it. The teachers are assigned to 1 of 4 teams to help the students. The students participate in a variety of sports activities raking in points for their team. And let me tell ya, the kids are super serious about this. They get frustrated if their teammates don`t do well and stay after school long after their own club activities are finished to practice. I was very impressed by the kids determination and attitude towards the festival. Now if only that can also be applid to their English classes...lol

So there were four teams: red, blue, yellow, white. Each team consists of a mixture of 1st-3rd years with two 3rd year students as the captain and co-captain. The captains, from what I`ve observed, are typical (and interestingly) drama/anime-like amazing boys. I really couldn`t help but notice it as these boys are some of the best students in my class. And it was no surprise that they were the captains. So the red team`s captain was the hilarious most outgoing sporty boy in the entire 3rd year class. Oh! And he`s president of the baseball club. He`s one of my favs as he`s always so willing to speak and volunteer in English even if he makes mistakes. Not to mention he`s incredibly funny. The blue team`s captain (president of the ping-pong club) was the quiet mysteriuos deep thinker who doesn`t talk much and leaves most of the directing and speaking to his co-captain (who is also very vocal and outgoing). I observed that he only steps in and voices things when needed. The yellow team`s is my taiko instructor`s son and all around ace of the school. He`s the smartest boy in the school and excels at everything, including sports (president of the tennis club and Hokkaido youth tennis champion). One of the mot sincere, honest, kindest boys ever and he has the respect of every student and teachers in this school. He`s also the president of the student body. Talk about being the best. And the last captain, the white team`s, is the best looking playboy of the 3rd years. He`s very outgoing and constantly always assumes I`ve got a boyfriend whenever I say I`m happy. lol The girls love him because he`s got a great personality and is kind of a playboy and looks good. haha. And there you have it, the team captains. Just like your imagination, no? =P

Anyways, on this day everyone was all abuzz about the festival. They have trained hard for it and finally it has come. All the students wore tshirts representing their team`s color. And marched out onto the field. There was the opening ceremony and then the start of the activities. There was a 100meter run, 500meter run, and 800meter run that timed the students individually as well as that one sport where they run and then jump to see who can get the farthest. Then there was the group jump roping, tug-of-war, and 12-15 legged race. That last one was amazing. The kids practiced so hard for it and were able to synch with each other well. Although there were a few injuries, but nothing serious.

At the end of the day the white team won. All of the kids did great! I was so proud of all of them. ^^ After that, the teachers all went for an enkai and drank and were merry. Especially Iwata-sensei. I`ve never seen her so drunk before and it was quite hilarious. I wish she was like that more often. lol I love her though. The principal then invited us over to his apartment for some more drinking and eating. Awesome.

June 12th Saturday

Yosakoi Soran festival in Sapporo!! Today I took a day trip to Sapporo to meet up with my girls Steph, Erika, and Nikki. It was wonderful seeing them again and a good refresher. I`ve been becoming more and more recluse-like in my town and at schools that when I finally saw my friends that recluse bubble popped for a day and I was able to be myself again. (Unfortunately,it only lasted for that one day and when I came back into my town I became the quiet reserved ALT again, except for when I`m teaching, of course). I think I also started getting sick on this day.

I almost didn`t make it on the train to get to Sapporo. I had woken up late and didn`t leave at the time I wanted to. It takes me an hour to drive to Asahikawa station (because I didn`t want to pay 900yen for the train from my town to Asahikawa) and since today was a special festival day the parking lot was crowded! Not to mention it was a little ways away from the station. I parked, ran like crazy to the train and got on just as the doors closed. I was fortunate enough to get a seat, as crowded as it was.

Upon getting to Sapporo and seeing the girls I leapt for joy and ran to hug them. I was so glad to see them!! =) So after a few minutes of staring at gyarus we went outside the station and immediately saw some awesome yosakoi dancers. We spent half an hour in the blazing sun (it went above 27degrees celsius!!!) watching the dancers do their thing. It was pretty awesome. I loved the makeup and the costumes and MEN WITH REAL MUSCLES!! OMG YES! lol I missed seeing that. Actually, I`m a sucker for Rain/Bi`s muscles. I think more men need to have muscles like that in Japan. lol So actually seeing ripped guys was a surprise for all of us girls. =P I now really want to join a team. We then wandered over for lunch at Rakuden. A beautifully decorated restaurant with no real particular theme to it`s menu. Pasta there was good though. Afterwards we headed over to odori koen and watched more soran dancers dance along the road. Then we went shopping! Hurrah! After entering "Cosmo" and seeing all the hot gyarus there I was determined to lose weight more than ever to be able to wear all the cute clothes they had in there. I really like gyaru style. It`s second to my gothic lolita passion. (Although, I don`t wear gothic lolita out normally. I think I`ll save that for special days and gyaru for everyday.)

I bought a set outfit for 5000yen. (5000YEN!!! RIDICULOUS! But I couldn`t not buy it after trying it on 3 times...that`s how I knew I wanted it.) I now just need to make my hair and makeup match it. It`s very sweet gyaru style, the outit. Afterwards we got hungry and wandered along for a restaurant and found this place that served pots of veggies and hamburg steak with rice. It was AMAZING! Erika, Nikki, and Steph all got the red wine sauce wines while I alone tackled the spicy schezuan sauce. And man, it was damn spicy! Like my tongue was on fire within the first lick of it. lol I kept sweating and blowing my nose...lol

We then wandered back over to odorikoen and watched more soran before walking back to the station and heading back to our respective homes. Awesomely fun day.

June 19th Saturday

Today was my nursery`s little sports festival. It was soooo cute!! My elementary`s vice principal was there too and he was so excited; it was cute. He loves seeing little kids and since he`s a grandfather I can understand that excitement. lol I love grandparents as most of them love children. And seeing all the grandparents there so happy looking made me feel happy. haha. I loved watching all the kids waddling to the finish line. It was the cutest thing. Then the parents all joined in and played some random games. I then joined in for the giant baton race. Oh man, on a sidenote majority of the parents there were all really young and gorgeous looking. The guy I was racing against looked so young and fashionable that I thought he was a high school student or fresh college boy. And he was not afraid to have a good grip on my hands when we joined hands for an exercise. I was just wondering whose brother he was when one of my little girls was like "Go DADDY!" And I was like "...Daddy?!!...Oh no...oh man....." Way too many parents there look too way too young to have kids. I did remember many of my babies sayin that their mothers and fathers were like in their early or late 20s and I kept thinking "oh man, they`re aound my age and they already have a child who is 5 years old." It was just hard to fathom the amount of parents in my town who are around my age. I like kids, but I think I`m still too young to be tied down to one. I`ll just play with them.

All the kids did so well and were absolutely adorable. Many of them came over to me and tackled me afterwards. lol I love the feeling of being tackled by little babies. hehe.

June 20th Sunday

This afternoon I went to Noso-sensei`s house to visit her family as well as go with them to visit the American family in Shibetsu city. I didn`t even know there was a family like that here until she mentioned it. I was also surprised to see the amount of children she had. I thought she only had 2 young children but was surprised to see a middle school kid and a 2 year old baby as well. They all came out one by one at different intervals so I kept getting surprised each time. lol We then all piled into the car and drove over to the Minks family`s home. The first thing I noticed was an attached church to the left of the multifloored house and was like "oh, they`re missionaries" and was right on the dot. The family consisted of 6 children ranging from ages 1-12!! They were in the middle of reforming their newly bought home, so the place wasn`t completely finished. The father, Alan, built majority of the interior himself, which was quite impressive. I went in and was like "wow, this is a very American Christian home." The colors and decor really reflected the Oklahoma feeling which is where this family is from. But aside from their first 2 children, the other 4 were born in Japan. They`re a very warm and unique family.

I took a liking to their children immediately as well as the mother, Alan`s wife. They were talkative and very willing to make friends with Noso-sensei`s family of kids. The father was a little jimi but not hard to talk to. The kids also immediately took a liking to me and kept talking nonstop to me. It`s been a long while since I`ve seen Caucasian children and hearing them speak English that I was at first a little unsure of what to do. But my experience with the Japanese elementary kids kicked in and I was back to having fun playing with the kids. I love children, I just don`t want one at the moment. lol

Actually, I think I was just shocked to see a family of Caucasians because here in Japan, the families are usually hybrids. But I was definitely glad to have met them because it reminds me of home a little. I`m pretty sure that when I go back to the states I`m going to be quite culture shocked in seeing different races. lol They invited me over for dinner for the thursday after next. And welcomed me to come over to their home whenever I wanted. I was definitely glad to hear that as I think I will need an American family company on my few years that I`m here. I just hope they don`t bring up religion too much as the father did start talking about how he ended up here. I don`t mind the fact that they`re very religious, in fact I think it`s great that they have something they so strongly believe in. As long as they don`t press it upon me, I will be more than happy to go over to their home to visit.

So we hung around there until 5pm and then left to go back to Noso-sensei`s home. I then bid them farewell and left to go back to my home and chilled for the rest of the evening.

Otsukare for reading and thanks for keeping up with me. lol I`ll try to be more timely in posting next time. Pictures are up btw.