It is a bright Spring day here in Japan. With the sunshine it brings hope that I can free my poor feet from the confines of shoes and socks and once again go around in sandals. I anticipate that if it gets 3 degrees warmer, if it hits at least 15 degrees I am going to break out the sandals. I think my happiness is inversely proportional to how coverd my feet are. I am optimistically saying sayonara to my winter coat, toque, boots, and gloves until next year. Thankfully, I will not have to endure another cold Toyama winter without central heating huddled under my electric blanket, which unfortunately also means no snowboarding in Nagano.




Seeing how it is Japan and they are mad about Cherry Blossoms, I am glad to report most of the Cherry Blossom trees that I have encountered are in bloom. I have just come back from Tokyo and Yokohama where droves and droves of people spread out their blue tarps and had Cherry Blossom viewing parties, hanami parties as they are called. Essentially, people picnicing in the park and drinking at 9:30 in the morning. Afterall it is Japan, and any reason to drink is a good reason to drink.
I have not yet had my Hanami party this spring, but I am sure that sooner or later I will be invited to one. It is Japanese tradition afterall.




I have just returned back to my humble little apartment after spending some time travelling around Japan with my friend Barney, who came to visit from Canada. It was nice to have a visitor from home, not only cause he brought books, magazines, candy, chocolate, popcorn, and falafel with him (that helped a little) but because it was nice to share what I think of as "my Japan" with someone. We were able to travel around Japan a bit, even with my supervisor being irksome. We saw Hiroshima, Miyajim, Kyoto, Tokyo, and Yokohama. It was nice to have a travel campanion. Surprisingly after 3 weeks and almost 24 hours a day he left in one piece and on speaking terms, we did not end up killing each other along the way. However, I did threaten to leave him in some remote small Japanese village somewhere, where no one spoke English and they did not have internet. This was after we had walked umpteenth kilometers to see a stupid statue of a dog....(okay I exagerated, it was not that far, but he did drag me to see the statue of this dog, which by the way was not interesting). With all due credit, Barney did an amazing job of putting up with me afterall the GAP's and starbucks I dragged him to. Imagine coming to Japan, only to be dragged to every starbucks and GAP stores I could find. (in my defense, if you have been living in a small town with very few English speakers and only one starbucks, and nothing but teeny tiny Japanese size clothing for over a year and a half, you would seek out every GAP in the Greater Tokyo Region too) Barney deserves a huge round of applause for not killing me. He is a far stronger man than me.





Anyways, it was nice to be out of my rice paddy and in the big city, where you do not know every non-Japanese person and what they do. There were people speaking French, Chinese, German, and Spanish....languages other than rapid fire Japanese. It was lovely to hear multi-cultralism.





Now I am back to work and back to thinking that I am going to reach these kids come hell or high water, dammit. With a new school year starting and fresh new faces, I am looking forward to teaching a whole new batch of kiddies. I am eagerly anticipating making English fun and having a great time teaching them, that is until they start falling asleep and talking incessantly. Wish me good luck.