I am SO SLEEPY this Thursday. Funny how having no classes to teach can tire you out just as much as having 6 classes to teach. So what makes me smile this week?

I hope you’re making a list too.. it’s good for your brain to think positive! (That’s not just me saying so, IT’S SCIENCE!)

• I love A Softer World. It’s little slices of (sometimes horrific) photographic life.
  Believe me, there are worse ones I could have linked to. Some of them make me go “oh… I feel pretty sad now”. Mostly, it’s like reading someone’s thoughts throughout the day. And, the writer had this to say

“I’m going to start setting realistic goals for myself. I’m going to skateboard every day for as long as the weather allows. I’m going to practice picking locks more regularly. I’m going to improve my French. I’m going to improve my Arabic. I’m going to learn to fight. I’m going to live in a decommissioned submarine with my friends. Good morning, Jeff. Ping. Are we out of toast? Ping. We’ll have to send someone into town. Ping. I’m going to start going out at night, dressed all in black, with my hood up. I’m going to stand in the shadows where a lot of people walk past. I’m going to encrypt my hard drive for fun. I’m going to encrypt the words, “You do good work” and I’m going to send it to every intelligence agency I can think of.
….
If they ever make a biopic about me it will be that first dip on the roller-coaster and it will last the whole movie, clutching the bar, screaming and crying and terrified, with a belly full of tiny donuts. Today I feel optimistic about tomorrow.”

You said it!

• I love Counting Down (up?) the Hours
  I’ve been in Tokushima for 2 months, 23 days, and 7 rolls of toilet paper. I’ve sent and received countless letters. I’ve danced to hundreds of songs. I’ve slept for hours and biked for days. There isn’t really a measure for experience, just the swelling of feeling that I get from living.
• I love my Internal Alarm Clock!
  My main JTE, O-sensei, gave me a great old alarm clock. The kind where you wind it up and at 7 every morning, it makes a horrible horrible noise by smashing the a hammer against two bells as fast as it can.
  It’s very classy looking, but very annoying in the morning.
  So now, no matter how late I stay up, or how tired I am, or even if it’s the weekend, I wake up at 6:45 on the nose. This gives me a nice hour to wake up, get dressed, clean, and leave the house. Mmmm.

  I love…

• Student Journals!
  I have two classes doing journal projects. They each turn them in on set days of the week. In theory, I should be getting 20 journals a day to grade and return. In reality, I see maybe 7-12 each day.

  I love it because I love seeing what the kids have to say: sometimes they all just regurgitate the same stuff, but there are always those gems that sneak in: observations about life, school, reports on adventures outside of class, their families, their wishes, and so on.

  For each journal, I write back, and we ask questions of each other. We’re all curious. We all want to know what’s happening in people’s lives.

• On that note, I love my cellphone!Or rather… I love getting messages on my cellphone while I’m at work.
  It’s so lame, I know!
  But it’s nice to look up after grading a heap of papers, and Oh Look, someone sent me a little note!
• Finally, I love the song “Kylie From Connecticut” by Ben Folds Five. You can watch it here on youtube!This is a new song for me… I heard it by chance on KUMM radio streaming on the internet.

  There is always something really great about Ben Folds to me. I’ve sang his songs through heartache and hilarity, every time my heart was bursting from freedom or sadness.

  The poo thing is, his songs are really hard to play on the piano. I’ve tried. I’ve failed. But they’re very good for singing when you feel like making a big noise.

Well, that’s pretty much it for this Thursday. I’m really tired! It’s been a long week, but I have lots to look forward to! This weekend is my deaf school’s bunkasai (Cultural Festival), and that means that I get Tuesday off as a substitute holiday! Yeah! I’m going to use my free time to go get my re-entry permit, so I can come back after I leave the country.

I’m also going out this weekend to buy pumpkins for my English Club’s Halloween Party! Either Tuesday or Thursday, we’re going to gut a couple of pumpkins and give them life. Sweet, sweet candle-powered life!! I’m excited. All next week I’ll be teaching my Halloween lesson at J High School, which is going to be a mix of games, word searches, and the song “This is Halloween”, depending on the energy level of each class.

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius. – Mozart.

Amen!

Love,
Emily

1. Do typewriters dream of poetry?, 2. O-bento, 3. yep

Happy Thursday everyone! Sorry I’m late.

It’s time for… Things I Love Thursday Friday!!! Yay!!!

This week, my toes are curling with happiness over the following things:

• A change in the weather!! Finally, it is becoming cooler (and also, I am adjusting to things). I can sleep under a blanket at night, and I can wear most clothes without soaking them with sweat (gross). I think that this means that typhoon season is coming nearer… Also nice is the fact that I can let my hair down a bit (literally… and figuratively, as well). I’m more relaxed around school and around Japan in general, and that means that I’m not stressing and my body isn’t running at a zillion miles an hour. When I’m not freaking out, I’m not overheating or in a cold sweat, as it were.
  (Truly… when I taught my first few classes, I could feel sweat running down my spine, from the sheer fear and nervousness! It was awful). 

• My Ukulele. I bought a used ukulele at an electronics and music resale shop. At the same shop, I saw a guitar shaped like the character Doraemon, who is a cat-robot from the future. My ukulele is red and excellent – I don’t really know how to play, but I strum away happily none the less. I like making music, and I like making noise in general when things get too quiet around my apartment. Speaking of… 
  
• I love my apartment. It’s clean(ish) and tidy (sort of) and mine mine mine! I don’t spend much time there anymore… just come home to eat and sleep and then I’m off again. I really like being there, and I really enjoy how it is slowly becoming “my” space as I decorate and arrange and place my stamp upon things. At the same time, though, I don’t feel right just sitting around, so I leave.
  But friends are coming to stay this weekend! Hurrah! There will be swing dancing, and merriment.
  
• Letters. Unexpectedly, I got one this week from a student. That made me really happy. I don’t thing I need to expound any more about how much glee I get from letters, only to mention that my new typewriter (!!!!!) is going to put in a debut in my correspondence. Look for that! It makes me feel like a noir film star, and also mkes a huge racket. I am madly in love with it.
   
• Photos. You can now see my photos on flickr!! Hooray! They are not organized in any spiffy fashion, because I have a free account, which means you can only make 3 sets. BOO. But please browse and enjoy. Included are: Awa Odori, various foods I have eaten, Sport Day, School Festival, and Jurakuji (English camp temple).
  
• Being A Mad Teacher. Today, I was told to make up a lesson and give it twice in two hours. I pulled off a neat lesson about volunteering, pimped out Heart Tokushima and the joys of giving away your time to a good cause, and had everyone do a “helping people” activity. I the teacher. I TEACH!!! Or more specifically, I the lesson planner. I PLAN!!

Lastly, I am thrilled as always with the kind words and news from back home. I love hearing about changes, joys, and thoughts in the lives of people I love. Pip pip and cheers for the moment.

xoxo
Emily

It’s that glorious time again… Things I Love Thursday!

This week is sad and rainy here in Tokushima.　I actually like the rain quite a bit. It’s one of my favorite times to curl up in bed with a book and a mug of tea, or maybe a good time to watch a favorite movie. But biking around in the rain is a different story. At school this morning I had to sit and fan myself in order to dry the big wet patches off of my pants. (very cold!) But cold does not keep me from having TiLT! This week, I love:

• Bento Lunches! Oh bento, you are so mysterious. When I am eating, I am constantly wondering, “is this an animal or a vegetable?” Never before have I played 20 Questions with my food. O-Bento, you nourish me and fill me with the major food groups of Japan: crunchy, squishy, stringy, noodly, and fried. Your variety of flavors fill my taste-buds with joy. If only I knew what you were, so that I could replicate you at home for dinner. Thank you, O-Bento.
• Good Deeds! Today, I am anticipating my first visit to the Tokushima animal shelter, Tokushima Heart. Tokushima Heart is run out of the home of a woman who moved here (I believe she is originally from North America) and started picking up strays and trying to rehabilitate them and find homes for them. Now her house is full of animals, but there are so many of them that she can’t always give them the human interaction that they need to stay happy and healthy. Animals get depressed if they are not stimulated enough, so volunteers come and play with the animals and take them for walks and so forth. Hooray for good deeds!
• Teaching! I do not actually love teaching, but I must tell myself that I do. Why? I suppose it is in the pursuit of positive thinking. So far, teaching has been many things: stressful, enjoyable, overwhelming, and fun. And it has only been two days, so I absolutely don’t know the half of it. However, it has not been bad. So I am saying “I love it!” to remind myself that what I am doing is indeed loved by many people. Teaching is enjoyable. It’s a positive thing to do, I can definitely love that fact. 
• My comforter. Have I mentioned that it’s raining? Constantly? On my bed is a big old poofy quilt-type blanket. It’s so very very comfortable, the absolute perfect thing for when I curl up with my book. Mmm!
• Honorable mentions: weekend plans with friends; letters in the mail; clear see-through umbrellas; third year students laughing at my goofiness; finding magnets just when you need them; chalk; corn potage (whatever that is, it’s tasty); my supervisor’s cute ponytail; a sweater that’s not too warm; photos of my family; thinking about friends; yokan.

I miss folks a lot! The biggest thing I wish I had was someone to talk to, who would say things like “let’s have a nice conversation” or “it’s not so bad, have a hug” or “let’s go play in the park!”. Here, between JETs and other JETs, or between JETs and JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) we talk primarily about what we are doing, or what we have done. We don’t talk (yet) about what we think, what we have read, what we’re contemplating. That’s a little frustrating, because I’m so used to the conversation styles that I have with my dad, or with my friends.

Love things this week! Enjoy this week, wherever you are.

1. duol, 2. Step by step… steadily ♫♫

Yes! You know it! Time for

Things I Love Thursday!

This week has seemed a bit ordinary (as in, nothing thrilling happened) but actually, this week included Awa Odori and O-Bon (festival remembering the dead) and some pretty nice times. So, this week I love

• Festivals! You simply cannot go wrong with a good old festival. It makes me miss the fairs back home, though.
  It was a wonderful surprise for me to see O-Bon going on right outside my window. People lined the bridges and the walkway along the river, lit candles in paper lanterns, and set them floating down the river. It was absolutely gorgeous.
• Nicknames! Somehow between last week and this week, I went from being “Emirii-sensei” to being “Emirii-chan” among a few of the english teachers. They are so, so nice. “Chan” is what you call your best girlfriend, or your pet, or your child. So I’m a bit of a mix, I think… the youngest person there, plus a sort of mascot foreigner, plus I don’t have much of a clue so they look after me, and it all boils down to “chan”. It’s nice to have people to talk to, and eat lunch with. Kind of like high school initiation all over again (oh wait….)
• Yukatas!
  It’s so super comfortable to wear a yukata… I didn’t think it would be, but it was actually excellent, much better suited to the weather than my jeans or skirts would be. And the sleeves functioned as giant pockets! All in all, an item of clothing that I want to wear more often.
• Dreams.
  Please take a look at this photo. Now, who wants to live in Italy with me?
  I dream about seeing the world, and I dream about being back home in Minnesota. I think I’m a midwestern girl at the core of it all, and that in the end I won’t be content until I’m back under a Minnesota sky, cooking dinner at dusk and hearing the old accents and familiar voices of my family. But in the in-between times, between my present self and my future, settled life, I’m dreaming big. I’m dreaming the pyramids, and California, and bitter coffee with old loves and mint tea with friends and co-op living and apartments in Greece. Magnificent!
• Honorable Mentions: open-air markets; korean food; matcha smoothies; Moshie-sloshie; temperatures in the 80’s; japanese curry; indian curry; riding the elevator up to the TOPIA office (where the english library is); finishing lame books so I am no longer stuck reading them; watching the olympics in bed; my goofy t-shrits; emails; long fingernails; sunrises; and cool breezes.

Pip, everybody! I hope you all have something special you love this week.
love
Emily

1. fresh matcha chocolate, 2. Tea @ Rikugien, 3. 蕨 (bracken), 4. Lets Biking

It’s time for Things I Love Thursday (Japan Edition)!

• Omiyage, Wagashi, and Matcha! In Japan, it’s tradition to give omiyage, which are gifts. If you go away on a business trip or vacation, you bring back local sweets or snacks for your co-workers or family. It’s like a souvenir, but the sentiment is more “sorry I went off and had fun in Hokkaido while you were chained to a desk. Have a cookie!” You also bring them for the whole office when you’re the new guy in town (I brought cookies, plus coffee and tea for the higher-ups & English teachers)
  While you usually just get biscuits or crackers or something for omiyage, sometimes one of the teachers will bring in wagashi, seemingly just for the heck of it (or maybe some homemade wagashi, which was like green tea jello, ooo). Wagashi are japanese sweets, served at tea ceremony. The fancy ones are pricy, but beautifully made to look like flowers. Wagashi are usually flavored or filled with anko, which is a sweet red bean paste that I absolutely love. I am going to become fat and poor from eating wagashi. You can make anko from adzuki beans, but if you put them in a regular chili, it’s also really delicious!
  Matcha is green tea, which I had tea-ceremony style for the first time today! It’s full of nutrients, so you feel satisfied and invigorated (according to Ma-sensei, my sort of… hum, she’s like my caretaker. She helps me wade through the red tape).
  

• My Bath! Who doesn’t like a nice bath? I actually just use the shower, but I’m always thankful to have a place to get clean after sweating it out on my bicycle. Like everything in Japan, it’s small (if I sit down, I’m a bit wedged in) but it’s quite efficient! I don’t go in the bathing room unless I’m getting clean, because it’s too stuffy in there, but the heat feels good… sort of like a sauna?

• Emails from family and friends! Before or after (or sometimes during) work, I check my email. It’s really nice to hear from people, and it really picks up my day. The other day I was feeling like poo when I came into work, but then I read a short message from a friend, which made me smile and laugh, and it really made things seem not-so-bad. (Also, when is it a week when we DON’T love hearing from family and friends?)

• Helpfulness. Recently, I’ve met a lot of helpful people. All the senseis at work have been helping me jump through the hoops of starting a life here and it’s been amazing. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank them enough (I’ll probably just bake and bake and bake for them until we all die from overeating, haha).
  But also I love the people I meet in shops, and at the post office. When I go there alone, it’s a little scary because I don’t speak Japanese enough to ask for what I want, or to understand instructions. But people have been helping me with endless patience, and it rocks! Soon I won’t be a pest, but a smooth-sailing customer. Thanks, post office ladies and gents!

• I LOVE Every time I can figure out some writing or speaking! Even catching a word or two makes me feel great. It’s even better when I can remember a word or phrase to say in reply. I’m learning! It’s wonderful!!

• Finally, I love SURPRISES. Surprises are SUPREME. It’s like biting into what you thought was just a cookie, but there is strawberry filling. Yum!
  My first surprise this week was yesterday. I had a crappy, boring day at work. Part of it was I just felt blah, and the other part was that there was nothing going on in the office, and nobody to talk to. I read a 2006 issue of TIME magazine cover to cover, I was so bored. Towards the end of the day, I decided to write in a fancy pen color, just for the heck of it, so I started rooting around in my file cabinet. Lo and behold, in a drawer which I thought was just old folders, I found several english-language books, and some dual language Tale of Genji comics! This was absolute treasure, as I am seriously without literature lately.
  My second surprise was today, after Ma-sensei and I walked to the bank to take care of some more boring red-tape, we walked around to another bank and the post office. On our way back through the park to school, we were talking about traditional gardens and tea ceremony, and Ma-sensei says “You know, we haven’t eaten lunch yet, so it is the wrong time for tea… but do you want to do a japanese tea ceremony?”
  Do I want to do a japanese tea ceremony?! Does the pope wear a funny hat?
  We went to what was apparently the most famous tea house in Tokushima EVER. They served us three kinds of tea (salty welcome tea, frothy matcha, and a famous local tea), two kinds of wagashi, and a local citrus juice. It wasn’t the scary formal ceremony, but there was a lot of bowing and we did lots of little rituals, such as turning the bowls three times, thanking the bowls, and eating/drinking everything in a certain order. I love you, tea ceremony!
  Then suddenly, we were back outside in the real world. It was one of those excellent detours from modernity to antiquity that pop up every so often.

• Honorable mentions: My rice cooker; blueberry pocky; the “petite cadeau” line of dishes and kitchen things from the 100 yen store; thunder in the morning; my fan; Kirin milk tea; writing in notebooks at my desk; dreaming up things to do with my students; breaking the rules with a teacher and laughing about it; making my own lunch in a cute little box; and the number of yummy food shops close to school!

Ok, everybody! I’m off for today! Tomorrow I’m giving a speech at the Prefectural Office (Oooo, I am le tres excellent speech-giver) and so off I trot to practice it.

love,
-Emily