3 Week Countdown

I don't look at calendars much. Well, I looked at one on Thursday and realized I only have 3 weeks left in this gorgeously wonderful country. Needless to say, it hit me like a ton of bricks, and I didn't get much sleep that night. I've known I'd be leaving for a bit now, but I haven't been counting down the days. Actually I'd say I've been doing the opposite, I've been trying to ignore the fact that I'm leaving. The thought of leaving is very sad, I have loved living here so MUCH! I've already started planning on when I can come back and visit (I'm hoping in the Fall, so I can go to C.I.P.'s sports day). I also hope to visit in 2017, so I can see my Penguins graduate from C.I.P. Gosh I am so attached to those kids, they are amazing geniuses with non-stop sarcasm. I might have something to do with the sarcastic stuff they've picked up ha ha ha. I feel very guilty about leaving, especially when it comes to 2 students in particular, and they're not even in my class. They're 2 bear students. One of them cries a lot, unless I come in the room and ask him to stop. He does, because he loves me. The other student is at the school from 8-5 Monday-Saturday, so he and I have spent a LOT of time together. I taught him to how to identify his bones, and unleash a few snarky replies to his Bear teacher. He's my printer assistant, and has assisted me in making countless pieces of sample art for my Penguin classes. Anyway, his English has gotten so good, and he's just barely 3. Anyways, I've heard that whenever they refuse to do something in Bear class, their teacher will say, "Do you want to be a Penguin? If you want to be in Penguin class with Ms. Alyssa, you need to color nicely. You need to use the toilet when you need to go pee-pee. No more diapers in Penguin class." I've been telling the Bear teacher not to use my name when she's telling them about going into Penguin class, but even then I still feel so bad cause they are so excited at the thought of me being their teacher soon. I would have loved to teach their class, the Penguin age is when they grow up so much…I can't think about this for long or I get bummed. 

Changing the subject. I've made a checklist of things I need to do before I go. Today I went exploring on my bike. I found lots of love hotels nearby that I hadn't known about previously, notably Hotel Valentine, which had me saying, "whoa…." when it popped into view.

Usually these kinds of places have strange colors and architecture. This looked really nice when I got closer.

The rice paddies have looked like this for a few months now, but today I saw a few of them getting mulched or scorched.  Here's a before shot.

…and after. This little tiny one was burned, and the other 2 were mulched. While biking, I found myself riding through a few small clouds of smoke from this kind of thing. There were lots of farmers outside doing this today.

By jingo, I found a row of cotton .Why would a garden have 1 row of cotton I wonder.

I went to the store and bought a few things I hadn't tried yet. Found some frozen grapes, peaches, and kiwis. I've done this myself in America, but I figured I'd buy some and see if there's any big taste difference.

I bought the top two because of their names. I bought the bottom two because they seemed strange. Pan de Pancake looked like a super poofy pancake…which turned out to have some honey butter in the middle. And the burger….well that was something I'd been wondering about for almost a year now. In the bakery section, I've seen these wrapped up burgers sitting there, unrefridgerated, who knows how long. I decided to buy one and try it.

 Alrighty, here are some pictures from the past few weeks. I've got a new student, he doesn't know any English, but he's been a fast learner. He's got this cute speech thing where he can't make the K sound, so he makes the T sound instead. I was teaching the penguins about jobs, and when I got to cooks, he could only say toot. ha ha ha ha! Anyway, he's got a mom who goes all out making his bentos every day. 

Anpanman makes yet another appearance. 

Here's one of the school lunches (anpanman is on the side of that tofu piece). Lets see there's rice, chicken, egg, pumpkin squash, and a carrot/seaweed mix under the chicken. The kids always eat everything. If they don't like the taste of something, they'll mix it with rice, but never complain. wow.

Another masterpiece by my new student's mom. We had to fix the 2nd Totoro's eyes before the student would eat ha ha.

I've been talking with Minori about Japanese foods I really like, and I couldn't remember what this was called. I love it, and I need Minori to help me find a good recipe for it before I leave. 

Setsubun art. I had the students color ogre masks.

Ok…so we have show and tell every friday. The parents get newsletters that announce what each friday's show & tell theme is (although I don't know the themes until the students show up with their stuff). Last week, everyone was bringing in monster stuff. For the most part, they were cute pictures and little action figures. One of my more theatrical students brought in a book about the horrors of school. It was terrifying!!

…TERRIFYING. She wanted to show all of it to the kids, but I was like "Nooooo! Too scary!!!" 

I don't know how they are terrified of those plastic ogre masks, and yet this kind of stuff doesn't phase them. SHEESH.

A parent gave the school a gift of some very special mochi. The amount of mochi was pretty large, it came in brick sizes. There was so much of it, Minori thought we should make a different mochi dish everyday until we ran out. 

The first one we tried was very strange. It was toasted (or over toasted) mochi with a sweet soy sauce you could dip it in. It was like a flavorless marshmallow, so I wasn't a huge fan. 

The second mochi dish I tried was mochi chunks in a sweet bean soup. Now when I hear the word "soup", I assume it's more of a meal, and not a dessert. It was definitely a dessert. But the fact that it was in soup form, and that the mochi was slowly dissolving into glop, was too much for me. After that, I got a little sick of mochi. I still love the store bought kinds though, those are good. 

Anyways, I have 3 weeks left. I'm starting to finish the projects I constantly have on my plate, so I'm finding lots of spare time at school. I'm trying to fill that time with making awards for completing Penguin class. 

My weekends will be filled with going into Nagoya, deep cleaning my apartment, and finding good ways to say good-bye and thank you to my co-workers. That last one is proving to be very difficult. I'm very picky.

Oh I forgot, Ms Mihoko found out that a Takarazuka show was happening in Nagoya right now, so she got me a ticket. I'm half excited, half…..ready to laugh a bit. The show is one that isn't necessarily one of my favorites, it's a bit cheesy. It's Gone with the Wind. In musical form. Who the heck thought THAT would be a good idea?? Well I'm guessing it's popular here because of the gigantic poofy dresses or something. But it's the last one I'll get to go to while I'm here, so I'm going.  Thank you for the heads up Ms Mihoko!