Saturday, February 09, 2008

5 o'clock in Takayama




Every day at 5 o'clock, the residents of Takayama get to hear Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, in E minor. Last winter it was the Japanese nursery/folk song 'Furusato'. The song changes yet again in the spring and summer, and the time is changed to ... 6 o'clock? 6:30? I'll let you know in the spring!

Friday, February 08, 2008

Lately in Takayama ...



1. I had my very first Shuji lesson (see picture to the left). It says "New Year". Despite my happy grin, I am aware that it is pretty terrible. I love my Japanese teacher for taking the time to teach me though.

2. The students at my small elementary school went tobogganing for their Phys. ed class.

3. A feisty pomeranian bit me on my knuckle.

4. One of my 5th year students cried because she didn't want to eat her pickle at lunch time. (I would have offered to eat it for her - I LOVE tsukemono, i.e. Japanese pickles - but that wouldn't have been proper. She apparently needs to learn to eat pickles without crying.)


5. I have fallen asleep under my kotatsu basically every single day since returning from winter vacation.

6. I received a fax from my supervisor asking if I'd partake in a discussion Meeting about cakes. That's exactly how it was worded, and I decided that if I ever start a band, I'm going to call it "a discussion Meeting about cakes".

7. I finally got to teach some Jr. High classes on my own! Last week I "taught" 3 of the 3rd year classes solo. Taught is in quotation marks because what we really did was play games; but everyone had a great time! Including me! *Hint* 15 year old boys love drawing 'underwear' on the blackboard.






It's a snow-Totoro!!


















This is a picture of Mt.Fuji that I took on my flight from SanFrancisco to Nagoya. I can't believe I've stood (nearly) on the top of that thing. Wait, have I mentioned that?