Thank goodness for that!

Two weekends ago I was walking down the main street of Takayama when I spotted two women - western women and obviously tourists - holding a map and looking lost. I stopped and asked if I could help them out and we started chatting. Suddenly one of the women turned to me and said,

"By the way, your English is excellent!"

I paused and then replied "Why thank-you! I am Canadian..."

She looked a bit flustered for a second and then said something about how she would have known if only I'd said 'aboot', hahaha. And I explained about teaching English with the JET Programme etc.

They eventually went on their way. I was relieved to hear that my English speaking abilities haven't diminished after 4.5 months of living in Japan.

Wheels, Weddings and Winter Vegetables !!!

The Wheels:

So, I've bought my first car. It's small, red, and zippy, and it has a turbo engine. This helps immensely on the steep, twisty mountain roads here in the Hida region. A few days after I got it I took it on a road trip down to Lake Kawaguchi (at the base of Mt. Fuji - it was breathtaking) and it handled things beautifully. My first car! It's already starting to accumulate a small amount of junk, although so-far there are no plates of toast on the floor (does anyone remember Morello's car?)

I'm already embarrassed about the dorky spoiler so SHUSH!

The Wedding:

Last weekend a fellow ALT married his Japanese girlfriend, and everyone attended. It was a Buddhist ceremony held in the local temple of a nearby village, and it was quite beautiful and dignified, but also seemed quite personal and heartfelt; although they rented traditional Japanese wedding costumes, it was for tradition and not for show. Everyone who showed up for the ceremony was there to support the bride and grooom, and the ceremony itself was fascinating - in short, it was a happy occasion!

The Bride and Groom

Group shot

Exchanging prayer beads with the priest

Yes, they were adorable. And played a very important part in the ceremony! (they poured the sake, several times in fact)

The wedding party

The Winter Vegetables !!!:

My landlords - who I've never met - dropped off a box of home-grown vegetables for me. I was quite suprised and touched! They left me cabbage, leeks, daikon, potatoes, rice and some leafy-thing rather like parsley, all of it grown by themselves. I called to thank them, but since they don't speak English and my Japanese is still pretty rudimentary, the call went something like this:

Me: Hello! This is Erin, the ALT! Thank-you so very much for the vegetables and rice!

Them: something something something - winter vegetable!

Me: Yes! Thank-you so very much for the vegetables!

Them: Ahh, something something something vegetables!

Me: umm.... yes! vegetables! thank you! i like vegetables!

And so on. But they did seem quite tickled that I'd called. I think I'll send them a Christmas card. Anyways, here's a picture of my vegetables!