Where did the weekend go!?! I tried calling a bunch of people, but nobody was home. I did talk to Kayla for a few minutes; she asked if I was still in Japan, and if I had tried Hello Kitty gum. Answers: 'yes' and 'no'. I also talked to Warren for a half hour, and told him a little bit about the Japanese environment. Coming from Canada where there’s pretty well untouched wilderness a couple hours drive north from the major cities, it is a big change to live in a place where almost everywhere has been touched, where there isn’t much wilderness left.

On Friday Nancy had a ‘forget the year’ party, so I listened to music and practiced kanji for a couple hours. I know about five of the over 2000 kanji. It’s a start! When Nancy got home, we watched Ally McBeal. She’s hooked! She rented the entire third season and watched it in two weeks!

On Saturday we did some cleaning and putzed around before heading up the mountain to Nicole’s party. She held a fundraiser for her trip to Thailand, where she will be volunteering for a week at an orphanage. She made an amazing Caribbean feast with three or four different curries, coconut milk rice and fruit salad. There was a guy at the party, Dara, who travels with his bike. He says by the time most people have waved down a cab – or figured out the next bus into town – he’s already got his bike locked up at the hotel and is enjoying his first meal in a new country. Sounds good!

Sunday we went to a culture festival at one of Nancy’s schools. We bought a few strawberry plants and an orange tree, so now we’ll have fresh fruit all the time. After the culture festival we went to this coffee shop a friend from taiko recommended. We were there for three hours, doing Christmas cards and planning our trip to Vietnam, which was fitting since the coffee shop had a southeast Asian flare. We leave in ten days, so it’s getting exciting! We plan to spend two days in Ho Chi Mihn, looking at museums and going to the war tunnels, where you can fire a machine gun. Then it’s up to Na Trang and the beaches before we go to Hoi An to get a new wardrobe made. A day trip to Sun Mai to see the remains of the ancient civilization there (4th – 11th centuries), and then it’s a short flight back to Ho Chi Mihn to connect with our flight back to Japan.

hello everyone! today i stood in 3 english classes, said a few words, cleaned the school for 1.5 hours with the students, studied japanese and went home. i know, it sounds great doesn't it? it was ok. afterwards i met up with jon and we went for supper at our favorite okonomiyaki restuarant with our friend rachel. delicious! immediately after supper we went for a run and then dashed to taiko lessons. that's right folks...taiko practice is now on tuesdays from 6:30 until 10:00 and thursdays from 7:30 until 9:00. hopefully by the time jan. 18 comes we will be completely ready for our concert.

speaking of music, jon's coworker kunisawa-san gave us a great xmas mixed cd. the cover of the cd and the cd case has a picture of jon and i from his jazz concert.

well, i am off to watch some ally mcbeal and then to bed.

mata ne (see you again/later)!

i was told that it was a secret.

after lunch today, Taka-san said that i was going with him that afternoon. Taka-san is my office buddy; he's sort of taken me under his wing. he buys me hot chocolate every once in a while and speaks in really, really fast Japanese all the time. when i don't understand, he says it again just as fast, but with two or three English words sprinkled in. then i understand and we both have a laugh.

i knew it was time to get going from the all the commotion in the office. everyone was talking about sakura, which means cherry blossom, or flower. was Taka-san planning on giving me flowers? did he have a Japanese gardening lesson planned? what was he doing with that white box under his arm?

we walked to his van and started driving. we followed the 317 to Kamibun, the next area over from Susaki, where i teach once every couple of weeks. Taka-san had asked me to help him load garbage before, so maybe he had another job for us to help break up the day. but we kept driving. the 317 turned into a mountain road snaking its way along a small river to the left. such roads are one of my favourite things about Japan; it's off the beaten track that you end up seeing the 'real' Japan, or at least a version that has disappeared from the cities.

over the bridge and up the mountain, we hit a locked gate. 'now what?' i thought to myself when Taka-san jumped out of the van to unlock the gate. we were almost there now; the mono-cultured cedar gave way to a more natural-looking forest cover. we drove past a couple abandoned buildings and eventually came to a stop. still, no word on where we were headed. we got out of the van and walked down a steep path on the side of the mountain. the rush of a fast-moving creek filled the ravine, and then it came into sight: a private rotemburo, or outdoor onsen. Taka-san pulled a couple of fresh towels from the white box and proceeded to strip down to his birthday suite. the middle of a thursday afternoon, and i'm getting naked out in the bush in the middle of nowhere with one of my co-workers. how great is that?

the onsen was built into the stone river bed with cement and rocks. heated to somewhere near boiling with a propane heater and fed by the creek, the onsen was beautiful. we spent fifteen minutes soaking, then jumped into the freezing cold river and back into the van.

back at the office, an hour-and-a-half later, and everyone was talking about our outing - our faces were still red from the hot water!

some secret!

i learned how to add links to the sidebar! now you can look at genki english, which helps me with my job. enjoy!

it was a busy day. i taught three classes at elementary school. i tried to the make the fifth and sixth graders write a letter to santa, but they didn't really know how to write, so that went over like a lead balloon. oh well, live and learn.

after school i went to the office and started this thing up. after work i met nancy at umebara manshon and we left for japanese class in kochi. it was way quicker for her to meet me in susaki, so we're going to do that from now on. class was good. we learned some adjectives like delicious, good, hot and cold and how to conjugate them.

well, i'm pooped. it's time for bed. see you again!

here's a blog about jon and nancy in japan! now, you can read all about our adventures! once we get a digital camera, you can check out the pictures. so let's all enjoy jon and nancy's blog! see you again!