i'm so excited

!

i just cant wait to see everyone. so sooooon!

pic

http://obusemarathon.jp/album/img/2007/obumini2007_149.jpg

official results

wow. i am so stinkin amazed at the results from obuse marathon!

I was 14 out of 277 people in my age group. and 100 out or 1163. wow maybe i should start running more half marathons!

weekend

i love the weekend i love the weekend i love the weekend la la la la la la.

ok its saturday. i got up at 6. went running. now in a few minutes i am leaving to go to the beach and body board. so excited!!!! its so hot out. i wanted to run more, but i decided 7 was enough and if i were to go more, (with no water) i would be pushing it and maybe not have as much energy to swim and play today.

then tonight we are goign to see fireworks at the park! YEAH! so fun!

ok well i am getting ready to leave. have a great weekend!


ill be in ohio in 13 days!

2 more weeks!

in 2 weeks ill be headed to the great state of ohio!!!! i am sooo excited! i really cant wait! I hope these last 2 weeks dont drag on!

a list of what i am looking forward to:

seeing my family
seeing friends
eating mexican food
shopping
dentist appt
going to a book store
caras wedding
not working
being able to read everything!


yesterday was a rough day at the english school. heres a summary

in my first class, 3 year old class, one girl came crying. she wouldnt stop crying. (she wanted to play with her sister and go to her sisters class) the first 20 min she wouldnt cheer up. so we busted out the watermelon and the class loved me. its so cute to see 4 little girls eating watermelon and making a mess! by the end of the class, she was happy happy happy

in my second class, 2nd and 3rd grade, i asked a boy to help me set up chairs. he ignored me at first, so i asked him again. he looked me in the eye and said (in japanese) "you can do it. i asked him again and he said , "why? you can do it!" If i ever have a child and he talks back to a teacher or anyone line that, hes going to get in big trouble.

3rd class, no problem

the last 2 classes i had were jr. high school and high school. they dont talk a lot. i spend my time trying to be a clown to at least get some sort of reation out of them. the first one is all girls. they try for the most part, they re just not that good at english. usually after about 10 minutes they warm up and are ok.

but the last class, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH they dont try. they dont line anything. one kid answers and they all repeat the same answer. i try to do fun things... they dont like it. they lead boring lives. nothing interesting happening

from what ive seen (i could be wrong, maybe kids dont tell me everyting) but japanese kids and teenagers do NOTHING. if i was a kid here, i'd hate my life. everytime i ask them about whats new. always the same. "i went to school. I went to club activity. I studied." wow. fun.

thinking back, i think i had a pretty fun time growing up. school, clubs, friends, going places, movies, roller skating and then in high school even more so.

well im off to yoga and aerobics class. its friday!!!!!!! whooohoooooo!

ready or not, here comes summer!

3....2.....1..... and its hot hot hot! lets see.... last saturday was rainy, but i went on a 7 miles run nonetheless. nice and cool! then i got ready, and went with my roommate and met up with yuki for a cup of coffee and a chat, then headed to one of my favorite families in japans house. it was good to see sayuri and her family again. (i may have explained how i knw them before, but here it is again. sayuri's yonger brother studied abroad at OU and i was friends with him and when i came to japan, he introduced me to his sis and then i met the whole fam.) we had a good time eating and talking. sunday morning we got up and went to get morning set (breakfast and coffee for 380). on the way we stopped and saw some sumo wrestlers practicing (there was a sumo tourney in nagoya) and so i got to see some real live sumo wrestlers. then we ate. then they dropped me off at church. church was nice. then lunch at my favorite restaurant in japan (u should know by now) and then i hung out with some friends at starbucks for a few hours.

then i went back to kasugai and went to tomokos house for dinner. it was so nice. i really like her and her family too. so much fun. we had do-it-yourself sushi! yum!! so i got to speak a lot of japanese this weekend!!!!

monday was good. uneventful. work work work. this morning i got up early and went to get morning set with some of my old people friends. i like them. its been awhile since ive hung out with them. im really getting good at practicing for retirement. then i went to the gym. i am trying to push it this last week, i have to run 25 more miles to make it to 100 this month... i should make it, but its going to be close!

i leave in 17 days for the US! i am so stinkin excited! i cant wait to hang out with people, see everyone and eat mexican food. and shop. and read everything,

well i need to go get ready for work.

i want summer vacation!

pictures from my day att he beach with friends!

good morning

please click on the link to kaylas blog and read her blog entitled, kissing babies. then read what i write below.



this is the single most annoying thing about living in japan. these darn political cars. all i hear is (in japanese, but for my english speaking friends its translated) Good morning...blah blah blah yoroshiku onegaitashimasu. blah blah blah. (keep in mind this must be said by a woman with a high pitched annoying voice.)

ugh

the best weekend ever!

so to sum it up, i had a terrific weekend. heres my story


saturday it was pouring all day. I met with my friends who were driving me to the marathon, and we drove the 4 hours to nagano city, then we checked in the hotel and hopped on the train to get our race packets. we ate dinner and i was in bed by 8:30. it was still pouring. there was a typhoon.

3:45 sunday morning, i was up to stretch and get myself woken up before the big race. got on the train at 5:08. no rain. got to the race area at 5:50. no rain. looking nice. stretched, got nervous and waited till 7:20 when the race start was. there were about 5000 people who ran this race. still no rain and it was shaping up to be a beautiful morning! the race started and i zoomed along. feeling good. i was running with my friends husband who i rode up with. we were feeling good. finished halfway in 59 minutes. YES its possible to finish in uner 2 hours if i push myself. around km 12, my friends husband went up ahead and i stayed consistent. keept running. ate and orange. no problem. ate a cucumber around km14. almost vomited that cucumber at km 15. the last part of the race was long and short. a little of a mental challenge. you can do it jen! keep going. and i did. got to the 2 last loops an saw my friend and her baby there cheering me on! looked at my watch on the last loop. kicked into super speed and finished with an official time of 1:59:02 (however, due to the delay for crossing the start i really finished in 1:59:??) got a towel some free fruit and wandered around feeling like a rock star.

but just wait, it gets better... i got my certificate and i was 100th place out of women, and 14th in my age group. now im not sure how many were in each group, but i saw so many women and i am guestimating around 1000 at least. so i rocked. i love the half marathon. its such a fun race!

next we got in the car and drove back to our area. got to nagoya and headed down to yokkaichi to meet a friend at starbucks, then continued down to stay at another friends place. and use her shower.

monday (sea day) 4:30 wake up, got on the train with renelda, stephen, paul, tomomi and kumiko. we headed 2 hours south of mie prefecture to catch a ferry and go to the beach! perfect weather. we played and played. so much fun. we all got sunburnt, except for the japanese representators. we played frisbee, swam to a floating dock thing in the water, jumped in the waves. then got back on the ferry at 5ish and headed back to reneldas where we ate dinner and talked till it was time to make the treck back to kasugai. it was such a fantastic weekend.

oh and get this. that earthquake was around the area that i had my race in. good thing we left right after the race! wow. this means that everytime i have run a running race in japan, there has been and earthquake within 24 hours. maybe i should stop rnning races!

now its monday and i skipped the gym due to sunburn and tired muscles and not wanting the old women at the gym to comment on my sunburntness in the shower. so thats that. ill post a picture of the beach. there will be more to come.

typhoon weekend!

so we are in for a typhoon weekend. yeah for running and going to the beach.... hopefully it doesnt happen.

but its the weekend!!! whoohooo..


i just watched beverly hills 90210 and it made my night. seriously. i love that show.

i need to go clean and pack. no motivation.

wish me luck for my typhoon half marathon.

my ballerina friend

funtastic weekend

i had a great weekend. heres the summary

friday- i went to the onsen with my friend and relaxed. so nice

sat- got up to run, felt like crap, but sucked it up and went anyway. ended up meeting an older man who saw me at the kanazawa marathon and turns out there is a running club in kasugai and a lot of people carpool to the races. so we have been emailing about racing info. looks like ill be doing another 2 full marathons and probably a half by the time the year finishes! whoohooo
then i went to hang out with one of my favorite families in japan. we played with playdoh and then i went to watch sakinos ballet rehersal. so cute.

sunday-got up went to church, went to lunch, went to willie and mimis house with renelda. then i went back to kasugai to hang out with one of my japanese friends that i met when she was studying abroad in ohio. the last time i saw here was 2 years ago when i stayed at her house for 2 days when i was on my japan trip. last time, i couldnt say anything. it was so fun to talk to the family and be able to really know them (granted, there is still a language barrier, however, it is much smaller than the one we had 2 years ago)

now its monday again.... ugh. this week is an easy week training wise. i wont be lifting or taking step class this week. and only doing some easy runs. this sunday is the obuse half marathon. i am really looking forward to it! ive never done a half before.

plus this next weekend is a 3 day weekend!!!! yes!!!!! monday is sea day. so i am going to go to the sea with my friends. so it will be a busy weekend! saturday monring i will go up to nagano prefecture and stay over night there and then sunday after the marathon, ill go to mie prefecture and then monday morning, head off to the beach. now i must decide. to buy a snorkleing set or not.

true american hero?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKqaX9HmQgw

so... on this clip of the hotdog eating competition, it comes down between the US and japan. Some comments were made during this video that just made me laugh.

Joey chestnut (after he is announced the winner) is a true american hero. WHAT????? for eating 60-some hotdogs? this is heroic???? this is one of those times when people say something and it takes away from what the word really means. i mean how can one claim that a hotdog eating champion is a true american hero, along with the soldiers that are ad have fought for the US? or people that save lives and protect lives? am i a true american hero becuase i ate 70 strawberries and out ate my japanese friends?


another thing they mentioned was this being a sport. it was on ESPN. but i hesitate to call this a sport. id classify it more as a talent or a skill rather than a sport. what do you think?

also you will see the japanese guy puke and hold it and push it back in his mouth. now i understand that its probably just hotdogs, but i would never ever ever ever eat something that i have just vomited up. thats beyond nasty.

do you think there is a link between competitive eaters and bulimia? becasue they arent huge overweight guys, but with the "training" they must do, plus the competitions, one would think they would be much larger.

one more day

one more day of work! yeah! but its boys day tomorrow.. who knows what interesting things will happen.

only a week and 2 days till i run my half marathon.... its my first one. i am excited!

tomorrow ill be going to the onsen to get my "naked bathing with takusan japanese people" time in for the week. lets hope its not too hot so i dont cook.

today i had a class of wild 5th grade boys who wouldnt stop speaking japanese. so i put a chair right next to me, touching my chair. and made them all shake on it that if they speak japanese, they have to come sit by me for 1 minute. the first 20 minutes of class, i had someone sitting next to me.. they kind of sit on the far end of the seat, as far away as they can possibly get from me, and so i put my arm around them and scoot them closer. hahahah i love my punishments. but it worked, they stopped speaking japanese and noone had to sit by me. i think thursday's students are pretty jolly. it makes for a fun day of laughing.

today one of my adult students brought us cucumbers and eggplant fresh from her garden! yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

did i mention that tomorrow is friday!? whooohooooo

malcolm in the middle

i love this show. it cracks me up. i love dewey. ive been watching it online for a few days now, and it makes me laugh a lot.

so if you are in need of a little jolly-ness, i reccommend malcolm in the middle reruns.

now im off to work........................................