free cigarettes?

ill start my entry off with a nice little story.

today, walkking home from the train station, i saw a man walking by me. as he walked by me, he picked up a cigarette butt on the ground (that wasnt his-unless he let it there earlier) and put it in his mouth. this was a guy in a buisness suit carrying a briefcase. i wanted to buy the man a pack of cigarettes. i was pretty grossed out by it. i mean... you reall have no idea where that cigarette has been...and just to pick it up and put it in your mouth... who knows, maybe ill be on one of those tv shows where people film others reactions to weird things...cause i know my eyeballs almost popped out of my head.


this also reminds me of the old man i saw walking (about 100 meters down the street from the cigarette guy in the previous story) who bends over, picks up a cigartte butt and throws it into the river. out of sight out of mind? i dont know. why not throw it away? why not ignore it? why throw it in the river?

somethings ill never know


i had a pretty good weekend. sat night i went out with tomomi to dinner at our usual place. no karaoke... oh well...ill go next weekend. then sat i slept in and went to meet my tutor for 2 hours. then i met my friend valerie and we went to her place then we went to her friends birthday party. fun times. lots of people. then sunday we went to english church and out to lunch with everyone. then valerieand i went to spanish church, then met her friends again at cafe.

in between outings, we watched pride and prejudice. its a great movie. i love love stories. i love romantic movies. actually i think the second time is better becasue you already know they will get togehter then you can anticipate it the whole time.


well im going to do some target.com shopping so my mom can bring it to me when she comes!

in the mail

is it a good thing when you get your mail for the day and receive 3 wedding invitations? i feel old, but loved by my friends who send me invitations knowing that i cant come to the wedding. it makes me happy that people havent forgotten me.

backing up to sunday night, tomomi and i were just sitting around the apt and we decided at about 10 30 to go do karaoke. i was going through withdrawl since i didnt go friday night like usual. and since monday was a holiday (for most people-not for me, but i dont work till 2 anyways) we went. our usual 1st floor sketchy rooms were ful so we splurged for the 2nd floor rooms. and sang our little hearts out for 2 hours.

monday i slept in, then went to work, having a jealous moment since everyone (in a dramatic tone) was off work. but thankfully my boss is nice and let us go an hour early.

recenty every morning when i go to the gym, there are people doing construction or something on the sidewalk. there are at least 2-4 people standing with flags to tell me to walk around the construction. darn it, i really wanted to walk right in the middle of all the construction workers, but since you wont let me, i guess i'll walk around...it leads me to wonder, are there actually people who try to wak through the construction??? i smile, nod and say konichiwa anyways.

ive been eatng grape cornflakes for the past few weeks (they are really good) but when i went to get another box...they were gone. i guess ill have to wait till next september.

well i guess thats all.

3 months!

as of this past thursday, i have been living in japan for 3 months. does time fly or not. looking back and reflecting on the past 3 months, i think ive come a long way. i can do lots of things bymyself now. whether i ask someone a question buy something, read something, get around with my daily life. i dont really notice how much ive improved, but i think when my mom gets here, ill realize how far ive come. seeing how she will not be able to do anything in japanese... today i asked a women where a certain store was- in a complete sentence. then i asked someone if this was the train that takes me to kasugai- and once again in a complete sentence....no pointing and saying words. haha.


ive taken on a tutor. his name is sandro. hes from peru. he teaches me spanish and japanese for 15 dollars an hour. considering it costs about 30 an hour for a japanese tutor, i decided it might as well study two languages for the same price haha.

last night i ate at an okinawa restaurant. it was so good. i had taco rice. its a taco, minus the shell, plus rice. its so good. i also had peanut tofu, bubble seaweed, noodles, fried renkon... i dont know what the last thing is, but anything fried is good so i ate it. i will definatly go back again.

i found this stuff called heaven in a jar. actually its called like milk cream or something. but its amazingly good. its this white cream that you put on bread or something. but if you are me, you eat it with a spoon. haha. i got it bcuase i like to get 1 new thing everytime i go to the grocery store. this way i can try new things.

ok well thats about all thats new for now. im gonna go clean and be productive. what a saturday night huh?

lots of stuff

ok so i had a great weekend. friday, tomomi and i went to karaoke for 1 hour and sang out little hearts out. i was up and full of energy so i cleaned the bath and toilet rooms at 3am. random i know...

saturday morning, i didnt get up and moving too fast.. go figure...i was up cleaning at 3 am. but i did manage to motivate myself to go to the grocery store, drug store and take a shower beofre i went to my friends place. then i went to my friends place and there were 4 of us from church. we had tacos!!! we watched the notebook and the count of monte cristo. both are great great movies. fun was had.

sunday we got up and went to church. it was a really great message about faith and how its like a muscle, it has to be exercised. then after church we went to a french style cafe-my choice haha- and had a good lunch. after we left the place, we one of th people we ate with running in me and the friend i was with, hideki. the girl said this man had just collapsed. so we ran over to the man and we called the emergency number, checked his pulse, fanned him, he wasnt moving or talking or opening his eyes. we didnt know what was wrong. so we stayed with him till the paramedics came and took him away. pretty scary.

we walked a bit aand unraveled. as i was walking to meet up with my other friend who speaks french, it started pouring, and i fell down some steps, was dirty and felt like an idiot. haha fortunatly i still had my clothes from spending the night at my friends th enight before. so i changed, met up with my friend and we hung out for awhile and then met up with 2 of my japanese friends. fun times. then i got home late


today i got up and went to the gym. came home and went to work. heres a fun story for you all. my first class of the day is this clas of like 5 little boys-5 and 6 years old i think- and one little girl. well we are having a good time and dancing around when all of a sudden i feel a poke. not just any poke. this is a kancho poke.

Kancho (カンチョー kanchō?) is a prank often played in Japan by young school-aged children; it is performed by clasping the hands together so the index fingers are pointing out and attempting to insert them into someone's anal region when the victim is not looking. It is similar in spirit to the wedgie or a goosing in North America.


well i wasnt going to take that so i sternly grabbed his wrist and said NO in a mean loud firm voice. he looked scared. lets hope he gets the point.


anyways, tonight tomomi and i had a chicken feast. we had chicken breast with onions and garlic and pepper with a side of chicken wings. yum.


it seems really weird to watch the news and all the covering of the 5 year anniversary of sept. 11 here in japan. its so weird to remember exactly where i was 5 years ago, what i was doing when i found out aboutt he planes hitting. wow. time goes by so fast.

well im off to be productive and then off to bed.

good news

http://www.livescience.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=myths_gumballs_02.jpg&cap=While+it+may+prove+a+bit+more+difficult+to+break+down+than+organic+foodstuffs%2C+chewing+gum+gets+no+special+treatment+from+the+digestive+system.+Doctors+figure+this+old+wives%27+tale+was+invented+to+prevent+kids+from+swallowing+the+rubbery+substance.

so you had a bad day....

well i didnt have a bay day, but i had a bad class. I had one of those classes that made me never want to have children (sorry mom -you wont be a grandma anytime soon). one of those classes that made me thankful that i dont do anyhting that could even lead to having children.

so my first class of the day was the baby class. they are 2 and 3. for the mot part they are ok. i dont really like the class becuase its them and the moms....so i bascally put on a little show and act stupid for them all. plus i dont kno what to do with little kids like that, and i dont know how to control them and i dont like babyiting them. now that thats out of the way, heres the story

the class begins alright. we play ring toss. then we start to sing a song. the 2 girls roll on the ground and dont want to sing. no big deal, i change plans and we "wash the dishes" so for the first 20 min, its alright. i can make it through the class. but no.... we change to learning weather... its sunny, its cloudy, its rainy. lets match and put the cards together. so they each have to say..."its cloudy, etc" to get the card. then they are supposed to put them next to the big picture. well they dont want to. they just want to sit and hold on the cards and do nothing. so i let them...and just show them the big pictures, trying to get them to give up the cards. one of the kids does do what i want, but when they run out of cards, she goes to get the cards from the other girl. shes not happy. she starts screaming/crying and runs to mom. well the other girl sees her cry, so she must think to herself "why dont i start crying too" so i have to screaming and crying 2 year olds and at thiss moment, i decided i have no desire for children. well then the moms cant control them, so they are getting spanked. finally i get out some balls and we play ball for awhile. it helps. but they dnt leave their mothers lap. so finally i get up the nerve to go back to weather and we finish. not a minute to soon.

the worst part is, i feel like the parents think im a bad teacher. but i think their kids are bad... so i guess we call it even. i dont know how preschool and kindergarden teachers do it. i cant control 2, they are in charge of like 30. AHHHHHHH

fortunatly the rest of the day was good. i began to think that children are a possibility....if i adopt them at 5 years old.

dont get me wrong. i really like my job, but when you have approx 25 different classes a week, you like some better than others.


on another note, it is stinkin humid today. its not hot or sunny, but its so darn humid. i miss the cool evenings we had the past couple of days. i think this will be the first year i actually enjoy winter.

on a high note to end the blog...a big yeah and thank you to mom for sending me mike and ikes. and dad for pictures and christy helmer for a puzzle postcard. i like getting mail....hint hint.

so you had a bad day....

well i didnt have a bay day, but i had a bad class. I had one of those classes that made me never want to have children (sorry mom -you wont be a grandma anytime soon). one of those classes that made me thankful that i dont do anyhting that could even lead to having children.

so my first class of the day was the baby class. they are 2 and 3. for the mot part they are ok. i dont really like the class becuase its them and the moms....so i bascally put on a little show and act stupid for them all. plus i dont kno what to do with little kids like that, and i dont know how to control them and i dont like babyiting them. now that thats out of the way, heres the story

the class begins alright. we play ring toss. then we start to sing a song. the 2 girls roll on the ground and dont want to sing. no big deal, i change plans and we "wash the dishes" so for the first 20 min, its alright. i can make it through the class. but no.... we change to learning weather... its sunny, its cloudy, its rainy. lets match and put the cards together. so they each have to say..."its cloudy, etc" to get the card. then they are supposed to put them next to the big picture. well they dont want to. they just want to sit and hold on the cards and do nothing. so i let them...and just show them the big pictures, trying to get them to give up the cards. one of the kids does do what i want, but when they run out of cards, she goes to get the cards from the other girl. shes not happy. she starts screaming/crying and runs to mom. well the other girl sees her cry, so she must think to herself "why dont i start crying too" so i have to screaming and crying 2 year olds and at thiss moment, i decided i have no desire for children. well then the moms cant control them, so they are getting spanked. finally i get out some balls and we play ball for awhile. it helps. but they dnt leave their mothers lap. so finally i get up the nerve to go back to weather and we finish. not a minute to soon.

the worst part is, i feel like the parents think im a bad teacher. but i think their kids are bad... so i guess we call it even. i dont know how preschool and kindergarden teachers do it. i cant control 2, they are in charge of like 30. AHHHHHHH

fortunatly the rest of the day was good. i began to think that children are a possibility....if i adopt them at 5 years old.

dont get me wrong. i really like my job, but when you have approx 25 different classes a week, you like some better than others.


on another note, it is stinkin humid today. its not hot or sunny, but its so darn humid. i miss the cool evenings we had the past couple of days. i think this will be the first year i actually enjoy winter.

on a high note to end the blog...a big yeah and thank you to mom for sending me mike and ikes. and dad for pictures and christy helmer for a puzzle postcard. i like getting mail....hint hint.

whats new whats new whats new?

so its been a week since ive updated. what have i been up to? lots like usual.

this past week i worked all week. i sang a song about a swimming pool and another about washing dishes over and over. my favorite is when you bring in a tub of water to "wash the dishes" and there are 7 or 8 four year old boys... "keep the water in the tub" was the fork, not your neighbor" yeah, i have a newfound respect for teachers of young kids. preschool and kindergarten teachers. it takes a special kind of person. while the kids are groing on me, i only have to teach each class for 40-50 minutes.

thursday i was the popuar girl at the gym. about 3 old women came and sat next to me as i put my shoes on, talking to me, asking me to join the step class and so on. hahaha. people are really starting to come around at the gym. i enjoy going now and im not so hesitant even though ill hae to speak japanese.


friday night did my usual of going out to dinner and karaoke with my roommate and another japanese friend who studied at OU. fun times were had by all.

saturday i woke up at 10, talked to my mom, went back to bed till 1 haha. in my defense my stomach hurt. hah. then i got moving around and met kayla in town and we looked around for a gift for her friends wedding shes going to in a few weeks. then we mt up with this guy who studied in france for a year and we ate with him and then kayla continued shopping and i hung out with him an spoke french. it was great!!! i missed speaking french. then kayla came and met me and we went to hang out with another friend and eat ...i think it was like 8 30 or so, and we just hung out then eventually came back to my place.

sunday we got up and went to church. it was good. i really am liking htis church and the people. then afterwards a couple of us went to eat, and one girl, valerie and i went shopping for an hour or so, then we went to a spanish speaking church near her house. it wa really neat. i understood a lot. like 50 percent at least. but the problem is, i cant say anything and my brain is confused between japanese, spanish and french. so i cant respond even if i understand. frustrating. but people were nice. afterwards we went back to valeries place and looked at pictures and talked. then we went to the convenience store and bought some dinner. rice balls and candy. also we decided to try all thse weird snack foods, like fried pork, sweet potato jelly candy, octopus stick, etc.. obviously they werent all winners. haha. then i went with her to pay her rent and her landlords invited us in and gave us tea an crackers and other foods. they were realy nice and it wa neat to be forced to speak and understand japanese and try to communicate in a confortable environment. then we left them, with lots of rice crackers in hand and went back to valeries place. at this point i decided to spend the night casue it was late and why not.

so we talked a lot and i am so hppy to have her as my new friend. we will def. be seeing a lot of each other. even if we work opposite schedules. i came home this morning, went to the gym, and talked to some of my gym buddies and the AC was not working well. the gym employee told me and i understood everything she said. it was amazing. then i cam back home and ate and did laundry and here i am ready to start another week of work.

the goodnews is that its starting to cool off around here in the nights. i love it!!!
have a good day!