Happy Merry Christmas (Jap)

Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Hiroshima and then I'll be on to Kyoto and Osaka. I'm planning on taking a bunch of pictures so I should have plenty to post when I come back a couple weeks from now. Have a Merry Christmas and check out Cake Wrecks if you have a few free minutes. http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Cat check

It's been pretty cloudy these last few days so I haven't gotten any decent shots of anything. I went to Jessica's adult English class today to help out and as a bonus I got to see how the cats are doing. Both Nemo and Misa seem happy and healthy. The pic is for Brittany more than anyone, look how big he is!

As an aside I wanted to tell anyone interested about some strange English-Japanese I learned recently. When a boat or ship goes in for repairs they refer to it as boat dock but in Japanese you can use it with people as well. They say "ningen dokku" meaning human dock to refer to a check up at the doctors. Strange and simple.

Pooh San, as he's called in Japan, and his buddy Piglet. I did this for a student who gave me a nice Christmas gift.

Morning Orange

I took the morning yesterday between classes and got some shots around school while the light was still nice. These are all from around Nagata. It's been a long week, I'm so glad the weekend is finally here so I can take some time to clean up and relax. I took a lot of time this week talking to friends and teachers, trying to get good advice as to whether or not I should stay in Japan. It's gonna be a touch decision, I wish I didn't have to make it so soon (February).

Winter is ... coming

but its not here yet. Strangely it was pretty warm this week.

Today I taught at Nagata Junior High. I got lucky and it happened that my friend Hiromi was at the same school. Hiromi is the island school librarian and she travels around to different schools like I do except that she has the whole island which means she has twice as many schools as I do. I'm rarely at the same school as her but its always fun to hang out in the library with her when shes around.


The Cosmos. I took this while my mom and I were driving in the southern part of the island with a few friends. I few weeks later I passed this field again and there were even more.
My mom spotted this on my screen a few days before she left. It was the biggest one I've ever seen, probably because it was about to lay eggs. We have tons of mantis' on the island, I see them all the time. The cats catch them and eat them.

I took this today from the school in Nagata. Its Nagata peak, one of the tallest peaks on the island and the only one you can see without hiking for hours and hours. I've got Nagata Junior High school again tomorrow. Next week is my last week of work before my trip. I was given a special assignment from one of the history teachers, "take lots of pictures in Kyoto and Osaka so I can use them in class." I'm sure this blog will benefit from that request.

Orange in Apple Orbit

I booked 4 hotels this week for my Xmas holiday trip to Kyoto. I'm meeting my friend Becky and her mom in Hiroshima and from there we're going to Kyoto and then to Osaka. I'm also staying an extra night at the Kitagishi's house. This is the first family I stayed with back when I came to Japan on Semester at Sea. Here is an apple with a small mikan securely locked in its orbit.