Happy Fourth of July!

It was Grant's birthday on July 4 so a bunch of us went to shabu shabu to celebrate him and the Fourth of July! Dinner was delicious and then we headed down to the river to light off some fireworks (which are totally legal in Japan- you can buy them in any convenience store). However, this being the middle of rainy season, it was pouring down rain. That, however, did not stop us as we huddled under the bridge and made our own little display.

PS. All of the cool fireworks pictures are from Grant. I am definitely not that skilled as a photographer!

Fireworks!!!

On Sunday night, Grant, Dan, Michael and I headed down to the Sai River to light off fireworks so that Grant could take pictures of them. I think they look really cool :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!

It is Matthew's 25th birthday today (July 2)! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Goodbye Party!

Alex, Me, Jon and Sharon

The Uchinada power team- Fiona and Bart

"The Cool Table"- I felt very popular when I got to sit at the table with the most people (8 people squished around this little table) until I looked over at Zach and Jane's table to see that they had 9 people! Well, that just meant that they got less food.

Me, Amanda, Caroline and Fiona

At one point I sat on this wooden box. Fiona exclaimed, "Be careful when sitting on hat. It is an antique." "Random antique wooden box sitting on the floor???" I thought to myself. I opened it up to find Caroline's various items and realized it was her purse! Only Caroline would have a wooden box with a strap attached to it and call it a purse. Oh jeeze.... the characters that I have met in my year here :)

Saturday night was the JET Goodbye party. I do not leave Japan until August but some people's contracts end in July and in a few weeks people will start to leave Ishikawa and head for home or some other adventure. There was a dinner at a local restaurant and then a party at Apre. Apre is also closing and Saturday was its last night open. As such, it was ridiculously packed so I spent much of the night sitting outside and chatting with people.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!!

It was Alex's birthday on Saturday and we celebrated at Apre. Lots of fun was had by all!

I hate snakes.

June is rainy season in Kanazawa and it has been raining for the last few days and the forecast is for rain for the next week. So, when I saw that it was bright and sunny today, I had to take advantage of the weather! I knew that you could bike on a path next to the Sai River and it would lead to the ocean so I decided to head down there. The bike ride there was lovely. It took maybe an hour and a half(going at my snail's pace and stopping a bit along the way). Finally I got to the sea and there was a park that had trails leading around a bird sanctuary with small observation areas along the way (so explained the map at the entrance). I start walking into the park and what do I see but a huge snake on the the side of the road!!!!!!! I am so afraid of snakes. Really, I hate them. Even looking at pictures of them makes my heart start to flutter. So seeing an enormous snake right there on the trail sent me into a fit of near hysterics as I take my bike and run in the opposite direction (further into the park and what, in my mind, has now become SNAKE LAND). I don't know what to do- I do not want to venture further into Snake Land but the snake is blocking my only exit. So I did what I normally do when faced with a problem in Japan- call a friend, complain about the situation and hope they can tell me what to do. Jane and Zach (my normal problem solvers) are away this weekend so I call my friend, Dan.
A: [insert hysterical explanation of the situation here]
D: So, what do you want me to do about it?
A: *good point* Ummm I don't know.
D: Well, Ganbatte! (means good luck in Japanese)
Fortunately, by the time I get off of the phone, the snake has slithered off and I race out of the park as fast as possible.

I decide to head to the beach another way (a way with roads, no pathes with bushes for snakes to hide in). However, it takes my heart about 30 minutes to stop pounding and literally every branch or bit of drift wood looks like a snake to me. Still, it is a beautiful day and sitting next to the sea makes me feel calmer. After a bit, I decide to head home. I hop on my bike and head down the path next to the River. Not even a minute later I see an EVEN BIGGER snake sprawled across the middle of the path. There is no going around it. I head back in the opposite direction and try to think of another way that I can possibly get home to no avail. So I stand as far away from the snake as possible and watch it until it slithers away to find a new spot to sunbathe. I race down the path to home. The 1.5 hour trip only takes me 30 minutes on the way home.

I HATE SNAKES!


This is the path that runs next to the Sai River and leads from the mountains to the sea.

Fishing

Beach on the Sea of Japan

This, out of the corner of my eye, was a snake on the beach.

A cemetary amongst the rice fields

Happy (almost) Birthday to Jane!

Well, through serendipidous chance my father and stepmother sent me Fourth of July paper goods which arrived in my mailbox today (Thank you, Dad and Cindy!). This was lucky for two reasons. One, I went to an International Day at Fushimi High (Dan and Jess's school) today and I had a prize to give to the girl who won my America quiz. Two, Jane and Zach came over for dinner and since I only own 4 plates, it would have been difficult to serve dinner and eat without the help of the lovely American flag plates. Incidentally, though Jane and Zach are Canadian, they are soon moving to NY so that Zach can go to grad school so I just told them that the plates were to celebrate their move to the US. It is Jane's birthday on Friday so I made her a "cake". However, I have no oven and so instead I made chocolate pancakes and piled them on top of each other. (I also made hamburgers, deviled eggs and salad...... be impressed, people! I am not exactly known for my culinary skills.)

Anyway......... HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANE!!!!!!!

Alexis Smith, so hot right now

I only post non-picture posts when it is something important. Well, this is important.

It is 30 degrees C (86 degrees F) in the staffroom right now. You don't believe me? Well just consult the thermometer that sits right next to my desk staring me right in the face and taunting me all day long. The one fan that is supposed to cool all TWENTY teachers that sit on my side of the office is pointed so as to hit nearly everyone with the exception of Zach and me. No matter, I really do not think it helps anyway.

Seriously, how hot does it need to get before they invest in some more fans or turn on the AC? Their electricity bill may be lower but my waer bill sure isn't because I have to do a load of laundry nearly everyday since I am wearing least 2 changes of clothes per day! And it is not even summer yet! :(

Ikebana and Purikura

This was one of this week's ikebana arrangements.

Also here is an example of Purikura (print club stickers). Kids go wild for them here. You take photos in a booth then decorate the stickers on a computer and have them printed. And you can have the sticker print sent by infrared to your cell phone so that you can share them with your friends. They are a little silly but, I have to admit, it was pretty fun!

Lovely weekend

Cyndi came down from Wajima (about 2 hours north of KZ) on Saturday and we ate Mexican, did some shopping and then went for dinner at Pam and Heath's house. Pam cooked a delicious meal of meat loaf, baked beans and potato salad. And the carrot cake for dessert was fabulous. It was a really nice night.

Roses

There is a beautiful rose garden near my apartment so I headed over there this afternoon to see how the flowers were doing and take a few pictures. They really were gorgeous- most of the bushes were in full bloom and the smell of the roses in the heat was really nice.

Roppongi

On Sunday, Fiona and I headed to the National Art Museum to see a Monet exhibition. Then we walked around, had lunch in Harajuku and then I hoped on a train back to Kanazawa. It was an exhausting weekend but also a ton of fun!!

Out in Tokyo

On Saturday night we decided to go out in Tokyo. Seven girls, two hotel rooms and no one has any idea where they are going.... but it was great fun! Marie lost her subway ticket. We went to a Tokyo club (errr for an hour.....). We took a few cabs. And I only took pictures in the hotel and in the subway.... because we spent most of the night in our own hotel room and in the subway. :)

Tsukiji Fish Market

A bunch of my friends were going to Tokyo for a conference this week so we decided to head to there early to do some sightseeing. Caroline, Amanda and I took the overnight bus from KZ on Friday night and arrived in Tokyo at about 6 AM in the morning. After dropping our stuff in the hotel, it was the perfect time to head over to the famous Tsukiji Fish Market. It is ENORMOUS.... and full of fish. Here are some pictures of the enormous saws that they use to cut up the fish, the fish market and some men calling their restaurants to see what kind of fish they need for the day.

After some fish at 7 AM, we headed over to an around near to Shibuya to do some shopping, hang around and eat some delicious Thai food.

English Festival

The English Speaking Society at my school has been preparing for an English Festival for a number of months now and the competition was held on Friday. We prepared a 10 minute version of Cinderella and 19 schools from around the prefecture came to participate. The top six teams were given awards and my school came in in the top 6! Our girls worked so hard and the play looked great. It was a really fun day.