No more Mr. Rogers? What sad news. The grace, love, and inspiration Mr. Rogers showed in his life and while working with children made him an awesome role model. I feel lucky to have grown up with programs like his, Sesame Street, Captain Kangaroo, The Muppet Show and 3-2-1 Contact. Mom didn't let us watch much TV... but those shows are warm fuzzies in my memory bank. Thank you Mr. Rogers! (and Mom!)

Tom's back from Asia!! Wait.... um, he's back IN Asia... no wait... ok let me get this straight... he's finally back in Japan!! After being gone for a month, the boyfriend's back and we've got a date!! Woo-hoo! Lord of the Rings tonight, skiing with the gang tomorrow. I'm hoping to spend less time on my butt. TGIF!

I'm not a stellar cook, but I must say my dinner was delicious tonight! I bought some couscous from one of the international stores (more like a pantry, size-wise) on Saturday. I grabbed it along with a jar of pesto and some chick peas because, even though it was a seriously pricey purchase, I needed something new! So tonight was couscous with sun-dried tomatos (another reason I bought it... they were in the box and I don't see them too often around here), plus sauteed eggplant, bok choy and green pepper. YUM! On that note, just wanted to post some factoids here for any of you who aren't aware how much your steak costs. (wink) Just humor me, I am practicing for my future social studies students!!

Livestock consumes 70% of U.S. grain production. Twenty million people die each year as a result of malnutrition and starvation. Americans could feed 100,000,000 people by reducing their intake of meat by just 10%.

One acre of prime land can produce many pounds of edible product. Here are a few examples:
30,000 pounds of apples
40,000 pounds of potatoes
50,000 pounds of tomatoes
250 pounds of beef

Livestock-cattle, poultry, goats, sheep- totaling 15 billion worldwide now outnumber people three to one. Livestock graze on half of the world's land mass. The explosion of livestock poulations has resulted in a parellel explosion of animal wastes that pollute surface and ground water. U.S. livestock produces 230,000 pounds of excrement per second. The amount of waste created by a 10,000-head feed lot is equal to the waste of a city of 110,000 people.

World livestock production is now a significant factor in the emission of two of the four global warming gasses: carbon dioxide and methane. Every steak we eat has the same effect as a 25-mile drive in a typical American car.

Each year, an estimated 125,000 square miles of rain forest are permanently destroyed, bringing about the extinction of approximately 1,000 plant and animal species.

Producing one pound of feedlot steak results in the loss of 35 pounds of topsoil. It takes 200 to 1,000 years to form one inch of topsoil.

It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce 1 edible pound of beef. It takes 49 gallons of water to produce 1 edible pound of apples.

Eighty percent of the meat produced in the United States contains drugs that are passed on to you when you eat meat.

Animal products contain large quantities of saturated fat, cholesterol, and have no dietary fiber. The U.S. Surgeon General has stated that 68% of all diseases are diet related. A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and grains (and free from animal products) can prevent, improve, and sometimes cure breast cancer, impotence, and obesity.

Seventy-five percent of federal poultry inspectors way they would not eat chicken.

Seeing the root cause of our problems is how we can begin to solve them most effectively. Each individual has the opportunity to make a difference in creating a sustainable world for ourselves and future generations. There is no escaping the ecological cost of eating meat, but there are ways to cut the price.
stolen from Student's Vegetarian Cookbook. Raymond, Carole. 1997, Prima Publishing:Rocklin, CA.

Just promise me you'll consider these statistics (and they're a few years old so it could be worse!) before buying your next tray of ground beef or your chicken sandwich at lunch, ok?

It is snowing (predicted: 20cm), I have all my lessons planned for the week, and Mr. Ishizone wants to take me out for expensive sushi! It can't possibly be a Monday.

Mr. Ishizone, the aforementioned old-school, good humored but pain in the butt new teacher on the block, is bugging me more and less each day. We have come to something of a truce in the classroom. It only took him three weeks to realize that he was way too busy with his non-team teaching classes to continue trying to take over ours. One day, after approaching cautiously with lesson plan in hand, he simply sighed and asked me to just "do my thing" (translated & paraphrased) because he didn't want to die of stress. So now I am back off the benches and have returned to the front of the class (to the relief of the students, which in itself is a compliment). He still likes to assert control and his age by interrupting me at any given point during class. Typical: Me, explaining the directions to an acti...Mr.Ishizone: "Wait! One moment, pureeze. (to class in Japanese:) Did you hear that? Did you hear how she said 'a pen'? She said 'ay pen' not 'aaah pen'. She speaks English very, very well. Listen to her say it again' (to me in English:) Sha-man, pureeze again!". After one round of this a couple of weeks ago, I let my sarcastic side take the upper hand and grinned at the class while saying very, very slowly and enunciating very, clearly "I can speak English!". They loved it. Ah yes, the games we play.

Anyhow... outside of class he is just your typical mumbling Japanese grandpa. He doesn't drive so he has to walk to and from the train station every day (on both ends of the commute). He teaches English on the weekends and it seems perhaps the weekday evenings, too so he is ALWAYS exhausted, stressed and running WAY behind schedule. Yet he is always laughing at himself. I think that's why he hasn't driven me completely nuts (that and the fact that I only have to teach with him 5 times a week...). He is always laughing and sighing about how tired, behind, sick, busy, etc. he is. In addition to this, he continuously can be overheard coaching students in math and other subjects. He likes to invite them out to dinner (in groups) for academic extras and practice. I don't know how he does it. The students don't really like him a lot, particularly since he replaced a terrific, user-friendly, young, female teacher who was much easier to understand in both languages. But he keeps puttering through day after day. No one really knows if he will be here again when the new year starts (I bet you can guess how I feel about it), so if he holds to his promise to take me out to sushi, I will definitely go.

I still haven't gotten used to the ease of having wheels. Last night, Jaclyn and I worked out at the pool a town over (to the left... ok yes I am directionally impaired), then picked up Danielle and trekked up to the Holiday You (a play on yu in Japanese, which means hot water) Onsen Resort for some Friday night girls' time in the tubs. We soaked outside surrounded by snow chatting about our parents' upcoming visits and other random topics. Afterwards we subjected ourselves to the bizarre movie, Jumanji before heading back to Misato. Life finally feels normal! We can get anywhere we want to! In the summer, we could probably bike to Danielle's or even to the pool (but I doubt at that point we would actually want to go in), but it is REALLY nice to be free to just pick up and go wherever! I think today we are going to explore a bit more and find another movie theater. Lord of the Rings 2 opens in Japan today, maybe we can squeeze in.

Have you spent any quality time with peanut m&m's recently? I sure haven't. I am eating a nice yellow bag of m&m's (eating the m&m's, not the bag, of course) for the first time in months and months. They are positively, out of this world, delicious!! Really, really good.

Ok, I guess that isn't all I have to report today, but it sure is close. Today the students have tests all day long, so I have no classes. Yesterday, my class (only one!) was canceled for last minute test prep. The day before that, I only had one class because the other one was canceled. I must admit, I am kind of bored (I can hear a friend's voice: "Only boring people get bored."). What makes it more painfully akward is the fact that everyone else is totally stressed out busy. I ask and I ask, but no one can use the help of the foreigner. I wish that they would get over that and realize I am a body with a brain that processes enough Japanese to follow simple instructions (sometimes even complicated ones!) and WORK! Oh well, so far these moments have been the hallmark of both my post-college jobs. I suppose (hope, even) one day I will be moaning about being overloaded. Today, though, I am pretty bored and have given up trying to hide it.

Yesterday I actually spent the day at the elementary school, "helping" Jaclyn with her classes. The sixth graders were learning about Junior High in America, in preparation for their own move up to my school (the school year starts over at the beginning of April in Japan). So it was a good day for me to be there (and I was happy to spend one less day soaking in the Internet). Her kids are just adorable. Many of them were simply stunned to see another foreigner hanging out at their school... and of course it added to the weirdness that we share the same name! I had a great day and even got to go home early, which is always a bonus.

After school we headed to the 100yen store in our town. All I really wanted was a trash can for my bedroom... but somehow managed to spend 1400 yen. You know, a bowl here, a notebook there... it adds up! We finished the day with 2 hours of Shodo (Japanese caligraphy), our Wednesday routine. Most of the others in the class are Junior High Students. They all took the day off to cram for today's tests.. so Jaclyn and I were two/thirds of the class. We got lots of personal attention and laughter at our new 100yen Shodo sets!!

Ok ski report, as promised! On Friday afternoon, Danielle, Ryan and I hit the road for Nozawa Onsen, one of the most famous ski resorts in Japan. If you check out the website, (in English) there are a few photos and info on ski resort and public baths. The map I used to navigate my way from the top to the bottom of the mountain is also there... check it out for a glimpse at why I am so sore.

Anyhow. We arrived at our pension (really relaxed kind of lodge, Japanese style) right in time for a hot Japanese dinner. There were 30-some JETs there for the weekend, most from Nagano but 8 or so from Fukui-ken near Nagoya. In the village of Nozawa Onsen, there are about 30 natural hot springs. There are 13 public onsens in the village that are open all day long and are free of charge. After dinner we grabbed our stuff and headed for the nearest one. After a glance at the map, we just decided to follow the street and smell for sulfur in order to find it. We were freezing as we stripped down, soaped & shampoo-ed (it is against Japanese bath rules to enter the bath without washing oneself... big NO-NO) but once we started lowering ourselves into the bath... it was a totally different story. My feet were instantly on fire. The Japanese women already in the bath were watching our faces and giggling at our reaction to the heat. Of course, they were all bright red, too. Once we were brave enough to sit in the bath up to our shoulders, the water really did feel fabulous... even if our legs felt boiled. We took breaks in order to keep breathing. Turns out that Nozawa is also famous for their HOT baths. Go figure!

On Saturday morning, the pension owners woke us up for breakfast at 7:30am. I woke up a little before that to get dressed and we all wandered downstairs to a Japanese breakfast spread. Miso soup, veggies, fish, mushrooms... nothing even remotely breakfast-like in my mind, but it was expected and it was pretty tasty. After breakfast everyone bundled up, grabbed skis and snowboards and plodded up the hill to the lift. I was a bit nervous but excited to try out the beautiful heaps of snow and my new ski pants. And up we went! The first hill we went down made my confidence soar. It was incredibly flat, in fact in places it was literally difficult to keep the downward momentum going! We scrambled onto the next lift in hopes for something a bit more.... interesting? The next hill we tried was actually an upper extension of the first hill. The top threw me a bit because of all the snow! It felt very different to be turning in deep snow. But still, we decided that it was the world's longest bunny hill.

After reexamining the map, we decided as a group to head for the other, upper side of the mountain via the gondola. Having never really been on a ski trip, much less a gondola to go skiing... I was psyched. It took a long time to get up the hill and we were packed in like sardines with our gear. I was excited to get out at the top.. especially when I saw the view. It was amazing!! You could see mountains for miles. It was a perfectly sunny day and actually rather warm. The first hill we tried was another green run (for beginners). It was pretty long, but again really flat in the middle. I was starting to feel really good about myself. (ha!). Then the group decided to take another lift to the top of the mountain. I didn't really realize until we were already up that the only way down was via red runs. But then again, the green runs had been really easy so I decided that perhaps their red runs would be safe. Safe, I suppose.... but easy they were definitely not. About ten seconds (maybe!) after I started down the first of three options, I was sprawled on my stomach with my skis in the air. Not only was it plenty steep... but there were big piles of snow like moguls all the way down the hill. I was clueless and pretty stuck. My heros, Sara and Nobuko waited for me to pick myself up and watched as I face planted about 20 feet from where I'd re-started. Nobuko instantly turned into my ski coach. She advised me to face the bottom of the mountain more... instead of the top. Huh... well that sounded pretty obvious. Obvious maybe... but it didn't happen right away. On the top part of the run, I wiped out at practically every 20 foot interval. I had snow in my sunglasses and was laughing but feeling incredbily sheepish. Sara and Nobuko would ski to where I was laying, shout some words of encouragement, then watch me ski about 20 feet and wipe out again. It was a challenge, let me tell you. I was exhausted by the time we got to the bottom! The gang just laughed and we headed up again. Again!!?

We actually went up and down several times, and I'm not really sure that I actually got much better. Fortunately, the snow was really soft and I must be really good at falling, because I didn't do any permanent damage. I was also lucky enough to be skiing with some folks who had a ton of patience. At lunch I was concerned I wouldn't be able to keep going, but some Hagen Daz ice cream made everything look a little better! After a couple more attempts at the red runs (I did end up making it down one run one time without falling!), we were tired enough to stick to the green hills lower down. I was truly relieved. In total, we skiied from about 9 am to after 4:30 pm, I think. By dinner time, I just wanted to curl up and sleep.

Ah.... back to the onsen! My legs were greatly thankful for the hot water. The second onsen we tried for the weekend was not as pretty and had a seriously high content of sulfur (which I discovered when my silver ring changed to copper and then to iridescent purple then cobalt blue!). We played a full-group trivia game back at the pension and though many people headed out for karaoke or to the bar, I crashed. The four of us in my room were out cold by 10:30 at night. I didn't sleep all that well due to the fact that every single muscle in my body ached. Oh, and the fact that we were sleeping on futon (in Japan that just refers to the cushion, not a cushion on a frame, btw) on a hard tatami mat floor with the traditional bean-bag pillow. Once it was morning I was still exhausted but just needed to get moving because I was so uncomfortable in bed.

At breakfast the group looked like we had hall fallen OFF the mountain the previous day, instead of having skiied on top of it. It took a lot longer to get dressed and motivated to go back up. Since my skiing buddies from Saturday all left on Sunday, I skiied with Danielle and Ryan, both advanced snowboarders. They humored me though, and we hit the green runs on top right away. It was snowing really hard and during my first run down the snow hitting my face felt like nasty needles and I couldn't see out of my fogged up sunglasses. Not feeling incredibly motivated to start with, Danielle and I looked at each other and quickly decided we needed some coffee. So off came all the equipment and gear and the three of us sat inside a restaurant on the middle of the mountain with cofffee and chatted. They tried to convince me to join them on a black route, telling me it really didn't deserve to be black and that they really thought I could handle it... BUT... my own instincts of self-preservation prevailed. We finally dragged ourselves back outside and took the green routes all the way to the bottom and called it a day. We just were completely out of energy and the snow was really quite difficult to see in. We didn't exactly get our money's worth, but it was time for me to quit...

... and head back to the onsen!! After soaking, we grabbed lunch, beer and hot chocolate, stopped for some snacks and drove home through the snow. It was a blast even though I had a really rough day yesterday... trying to move was sheer pain EVERYWHERE. Today has been a little bit more normal. We're already planning the next trip so stay tuned... I may get even more adventurous!

I'm too sore to type today. Report on the ski trip tomorrow. maybe.

From My Inbox

Two e-mails from two different members of the group I traveled 'round the world with (Global Semester @ Olaf '98) that I found really interesting and inspiring. Not trying to be PC at all here.. just read some stuff that jived... First is from Mr. Johnny K, second one is a forward from Megan.

January 20, 2003


Dear Friends and Family,

I consider myself to be a pretty average American. I grew up playing Nintendo, eating Burger King, and wearing leather shoes. To many, I define the average WASP. Middle class, blonde, and Protestant, I wear khaki shorts and watch a little bit of TV almost every night. I have never considered myself leftist or right wing, communist or anarchist, and many of my family and friends are much like me: they go to bed thinking about their families and they wake up thinking about their jobs.

I am writing to you all, because I believe that there are many more Americans just like us who feel that we are not being represented by our political leadership. When we hear the resolutions of our Congress and our Executive Administration, we feel underrepresented. We care about education, health care, and the economy, and yet our government continues to threaten military action against nation after foreign nation. We wake up every morning as teachers, and students, and civil servants, and we go to bed - to the rest of the world �Eas war- mongers, and aggressors, and tyrants for the policies of our current administration.

On Saturday, January 18, 2003, over one-half-million middle class Americans just like us marched from the Capitol building to the Navy Yard in Washington DC. Although the temperatures dropped into single digits, I witnessed grandparents, families, labor unions, Muslims, Christians, and Jews demonstrate their beliefs and their rights together as Americans�End I was inspired. They weren't anarchists, or vandals, or extremists, but middle-class American families from rural, urban, and suburban communities across America. And yet, when we went home to watch the televised news, there was little or nothing reported on any of the major television networks.

I am asking you all to take a few moments and think about your own beliefs. As Americans, we are a symbol for freedom and democracy throughout the world; and yet, we have become a symbol of fear, avarice, and aggression. As I have traveled throughout the world, I have found that many people love Americans and hate American policies.�EBut, unless we take an active role in the policies of our government, the statement that foreigners hate us�Ewill become true.

There are many ways to get involved. The Internet is the fastest and most comprehensive way to communicate our beliefs over great distances and so I have posted two hyperlinks for you to check. Moreover, an equally important way to get involved is to know your neighbors. We have become a society closed in our living rooms, checking the news for polls and surveys to see what other Americans think. Imagine that, in the nation that “loves freedom�Ewe have closed ourselves in our own homes. I do not even know the neighbors that I have lived near for three years but I believe it is time to introduce myself.

In the future, I will email you more opportunities I find to get involved. Perhaps it has taken me a long time to become active, but I believe in what I saw, and in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one the greatest Americans to have ever lived, the time is always right to do the right thing. Nations are not great; people make nations great by doing great things. I believe that as Americans, we have the greatest potential on earth to do this. It is now time to use our potential.

Best wishes to you all,

John

OPPORTUNITIES TO GET INVOLVED:

http://www.internationalanswer.org/news/update/011903j18rpt.html

http://www.moveon.org



Here's the second:

Subject: The Food of Peace isn't Spam


This amazing idea from the Boulder Mennonite Church:
There is a grassroots campaign underway to protest war in Iraq in a
simple, but potentially powerful way.
Place 1/2 cup uncooked rice in a small plastic bag (a snack-size bag or
sandwich bag work fine). Squeeze out excess air and seal the bag. Wrap it
in a piece of paper on which you have written,"If your enemies are hungry,
feed them...ovecome evil with good. Romans 12:20-21
Please send this rice to the people of Iraq; do not attack them."
Place the paper and bag of rice in an envelope (either a letter-sized or
padded mailing envelope--both are the same cost to mail) and address them
to:

President George Bush White House,
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500

Attach $1.06 in postage. (Three 37-cent stamps equal $1.11.
Drop this in the mail. It is important to act NOW so that President Bush
gets the letters ASAP, preferably before the report from the inspectors
comes out on the 27th.
In order for this protest to be effective, there must be hundreds of
thousands of such rice deliveries to the White House. We can do this if you
each forward this message to your friends and family.

There is a positive history of this protest! In the 1950s, Fellowship of
Reconciliation began a similar protest, which is credited with influencing
President Eisenhower against attacking China. Read on:
"In the mid-1950s, the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, learning of
famine in the Chinese mainland, launched a 'Feed Thine Enemy' campaign.
Members and friends mailed thousands of little bags of rice to the White
House with a tag quoting the Bible, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him." As
far as anyone knew for more than ten years, the campaign was an abject
failure. The President did not acknowledge receipt of the bags publicly
y; certainly, no rice was ever sent to China.
"What nonviolent activists only learned a decade later was that the
campaign played a significant, perhaps even determining role in preventing
nuclear war. Twice while the campaign was on, President Eisenhower met with
the Joint Chiefs of Staff to consider U.S. options in the conflict with
China over two islands, Quemoy and Matsu. The generals twice recommended the
use of nuclear weapons. President Eisenhower each time turned to his aide
and asked how many little bags of rice had come in. When told they numbered
in the tens of thousands, Eisenhower told the generals that as long as so
many Americans were expressing active interest in having the U.S. feed the
Chinese, he certainly wasn't going to consider using nuclear weapons
against them."

Wonder if anyone would notice a bag of rice arriving at the White House from Japan?

Off for the ski hills this weekend! Happy Hallmark...er, I mean Valentine's Day to ya!

After leaving school today I was walking near a few students and they stopped to ask me how to say "ebi" in English (shrimp). They left me and began walking home, satisfied with their seafood vocabulary levels, and I proceeded to unlock my car... from the passeger side door. I still have not figured out which side of the car I am supposed to be driving on. I'm all right with driving on the left side of the road, but its still very uncomfortable to be sitting on the right side of the car as the driver. I'm a bit screwed up about the physical space my car takes up.. add that to the narrow dimensions of the road (and the fact that there is a 2 foot drop off where the road ends...), frankly driving is a little scary. Each time I brave the roads, there are one or two cars (ok, five or six) that seem to be so close that I literally slow down and wince as they pass by. I think Jaclyn is probably really entertained by this (and gritting her teeth).

I may actually be going through school lunch withdrawal. Yesterday the entire lunch looked like it was completely edible and I felt really guilty for not partaking in it with the kids. The students didn't quite understand that I wasn't eating it either. They kept bringing me dishes and by the time I had taken it back to the front of the room to be redistributed, there was more waiting on my desk when I returned. Then today, there was a truly yummy looking pudding for dessert (we never had dessert while I was still eating it!) and they even had extras... it was so hard not to ask for one! The grass is always greener on the other side, or so they say (I still think this is going to be the best bet by a long shot!).

Yesterday, February 11th, was Foundation Day here in Japan. I celebrated by finishing up my long weekend in Tokyo and heading back here to Nagano. Saturday morning, Jaclyn, Heather and I took a bus to Shinjuku (Tokyo) then spent the entire day sightseeing in Yokohama. I had high hopes that Yokohama would be like Hong Kong: big, clean, bright, with lots of Chinese & British influence and cultural things to see and do. Unfortunately, it turns out that Yokohama is just another big Japanese city. To be fair, we only spent about 6 hours walking around the port area... but you know you're bored when you will spend 500 yen for a thirty-second amusement park ride that you could probably find anywhere back home. Oh well. We did have a fabulous dinner in Yokohama's Chinatown. I haven't had any great Chinese food in a while, so it was pretty fun to stroll the sidewalks (where it did actually SMELL a lot like Hong Kong) and peer in the windows at all the yummy food. We also visited the Chinese temple and were in awe of the many dragons and milions of red, blue, and yellow carvings. Or perhaps we were just dazed by the clouds of incense... The highlight of the evening was stumbling on a walking parade of folks accompanying a Chinese dragon dancing from restaurant to restaurant. The dragon was performing a ceremony (or something!) in front of each door- where there was a leaf of cabage hanging for him to jump up and 'eat' and a beer bottle waiting for him to sample and then 'spit' at the crowds. It was highly entertaining and extremely loud! There were drums and cymbols -we timed our exit from our restaurant perfectly so that we were inches from the dragon-- went through a lot of film!

Sunday morning we dragged ourselves out of bed early (for a weekend!) and took several trains south of Tokyo to Kamakura. Kamakura was the seat of power in Japan for awhile way back when (check the website for the actual history plus some pictures) and is chock full of historical sites, shrines, and "National Treasures". We visited two shrines in the morning: Engakuji and Tokeiji. They were both breathtaking (in the case of Engakuji and our trudge up several flights of hillside steps to see 'the biggest bell in Kamakura', literally!).
On Tokeiji:
Back then, wives of upper-class people usually turned into nuns upon their husbands' death. With her family fortune and her son's social status being the Regent, she founded Tokeiji as a convent to pray for the repose of the departed husband, and entered nunhood herself. She also made the Convent serve as a refuge for the oppressed women who were unhappy with their husbands. The first women-lib advocate Japan ever produced. Undergoing ups and downs, Tokeiji remained a convent for over 600 years until 1902, when a male priest finally took over the seat of the chief.

The weather was absolutly perfect for the day- we were shedding layer after layer before noon. Kamakura was not only starting to look very green, but many of the trees were already blossoming. It was truly encouraging to see the flowers- many of the Japanese tourists spent more time enjoying the plantlife then exploring the ancient shrines!

Of course, walking around in the sun with too much clothing and not enough sleep caused our stomachs to start growling before we were ready for lunch. So... we had ice cream. We ran across a streetside ice cream shack with the most interesting array of flavors I've seen outside of Baskin Robins. Heather went with the classic green tea, I got almond-tofu-jelly with fruit (that doesn't quite translate right), and Jaclyn braved soy bean (edamame- our new favorite snack). They were all delicious and gave us the extra energy needed to search for an appropriate stopping & eating spot. We ended up at a tiny, quaint noodle shop for soba.

After lunch we decided to try hiking from where we were (more North Kamakura) to the other side of town and the Daibutsu, a very large Buddha (12 meters tall and 125 tons!). The hike turned out to be much longer than our guide book had described, but it was also much nicer then what we'd expected, and a great change from walking down the side of the street filled with tourist traffic. It was a good compliment to the sightseeing, even if we did end up fairly hot, tired, and muddy! We were not dissappointed by the Great Buddha, either. Not only was he impressive to see from the outside, but they even let climb inside! You can sit inside his lap and look up at the curly nobs on his head. Thinking back on all my other trips to shrines, temples, and museums... I can't say that I've ever been INSIDE Buddha before!

We were pretty much pooped after our Buddha visit, so after purchasing some postcards and sweets for the offices back home we hopped a bus back to Kamakura station. After a detour to Starbucks for a treat, we headed back to Tokyo for some Indian food.

Originally, we planned to go to Nikko on Monday, but after walking all day long on Saturday and Sunday we decided to prevent sight-seeing burnout and make Monday a "sleep-in and shop in Tokyo" day. It was appreciated. We took the monorail around Tokyo Bay (Brook- saw a Japanese Coast Guard Ship) and checked out one of the new malls. Dissappointed at the pathetic movie selection, we headed back into rainy downtown for a bit more shopping in Shibuya, dinner in Shinjuku then finally called it a night.

After an immense breakfast of apple pancakes (WAY too many for the three of us, thank you girls...), we got back on the bus and headed back to Nagano. I could use another day to just rest, but isn't that how it always works? Three days of school and then I head up north for the AJET ski trip! No complaints though, this February is just flying.

This is an article from The Japan Times, the international English version of one of the main national newspapers. It cracked me up, particularly because it was on the second page, along with news about North Korean abductees and Japan being on high missle alert due to current world events.

Express Train Lets Off Girl Late For Entrance Exam

CHIBA: An express train made an unscheduled stop Monday so that a girl who had mistakenly boarded it could get to her high school entrance examination on time, according to railway officials.
The Chiba branch of East Japan Railway Co. said Wednesday that the girl, in her final year of junior high school, boarded the train at Soga Station in Chiba at around 7:45 a.m. Monday. She soon realized, however, that she was on the wrong train.
Other passengers noticed her distress and helped her make her way through the jam-packed train to the conductor's compartment at the back. The conductor then contacted the office and informed the passengers of the situation.
The train made the unscheduled stop at about 8:10 a.m. at Shin-Kiba Station in Koto Ward, Tokyo. The girl emerged onto the platform from the conductor's compartment while the other train doors stayed closed, the office said.
From Shin-Kiba, she was able to take trains to Nishi-Chiba Station and arrived at the exam site in time for the test, a little after 9 a.m., according to the office.
Train officials at Shin-Kiba Station reportedly received a phone call from the girl's parents later in the day, thanking them for their special consideration.

Just gives you a glimpse at just how seriously this country takes both their trains and their tests. My third grade students are under the same pressure right now. I'm actually quite surprised to hear that the train stopped... I wouldn't have been able to guess which would win. The trains are never late here, and as my friend Heather can tell you, it is a major felony to hold up a train. In fact, if you should choose to committ suicide by jumping in front of a train, your family will end up in monetary debt to JR (Japan Railways) for many years due to fines. Just thought you'd like to know.. ;)

I'm one gutsy girl. One gutsy girl who no longer has to suffer through mystery meat cabbage soup lunches any longer (see below). One gutsy girl who also no longer has to PAY for aforementioned lunches. Yes, folks- all this time that I've been forcing myself to just eat, eat for the sake of the kids (trying to be a good example and all) they have been deducting the school lunch & whole milk beverage from my paycheck! Who'dathunk. Ok, so yesterday was the last straw. We had "hamburgers" and potato salad which I won't describe except to say that no, I did not "enjoy". I saw my supervisor, Mr. Sonehara walking down the hall alone, snagged him, and practically begged him if I could be excused from lunch from now on. And, he AGREED! He recommended I tell the secretary so she could stop taking it out of my salary, which totally shocked me as I'd never been asked to pay (but it was totally my bad assumption on that one...), then proceeded to warn me that the students and other teachers might think a lunch of "bread with butter" to be strange but that I should go ahead and eat that if I wanted. "Bread and Butter"!? Not sure where he got that one... but I assured him I was thinking more along the lines of pasta, salad, or sandwiches. Anyway, I spent yesterday afternoon dreaming of my own lunch and yelling "Free! Free!!!!!! No more school lunch!!"

Tonight the girls and I are heading up the mountain for our 2nd Friday Girls's Night at the Onsen (Bath), to be followed by dinner & video. We're up from 3 to 4 ladies... I'm counting the minutes. We all have a long weekend (no school Monday or Tuesday) and after some last minute planning have decided to head by bus to Tokyo on Saturday for daytrips to Yokohama, Nikko, and/or Kamakura (using Tom's vacant apartment instead of a hotel/inn to save cash). I'm looking forward to being a tourist for the weekend and hanging out with the girls!

Oh..... I am SO full. Most of you know me well enough to know that I love food, right? So then when I describe how completely awful our school lunches are... you'll believe me and not think I am just exaggerating? Please, please believe me. If you thought lunch was bad in the States... oh me oh my.

Like most Japanese junior high schools and elementary schools, Misato JHS has no cafeteria. All the students eat at their desks in their classroom (refer to the below description of class organization to read how students are all assigned one homeroom). They move their desks together to create 6 pre-assigned and infrequently changing groups of 6 or 7 desks (which I take advantage of during English class for ease of group-making). Homeroom teachers also eat in their respective classrooms. The rest of us "floaters" rotate from classroom to classroom each month ("real" teachers) or week (me). I'm currently working my way through the 1st grade classes.

Ok, so now that the set-up has been established.. let me describe the food. First of all, we typically have either bread (the size of about 3 cafeteria rolls from your average U.S. school lunch) or rice (about 3-4 ice cream scoops worth, white and starchy in a bowl). Then we also have a couple of main dishes: usually one on a plate and one in soup form. The dish one is almost always meat (I think I can count the times we've had tofu with half the fingers of my left hand and then it was still drenched with meat sauce) and often fried or stuffed (don't ask how to stuff pork.. you don't want to know) and sometimes both. The soup is usually a mix of cabage, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms and one, two, or three types of protein (yesterday we had tofu and pork chunks). Sometimes we have pasta instead of soup: today my pasta had cabage, carrot peices, beef, shrimp, and squid (and that was WITH not INSTEAD OF the loaf of bread). I have never before witnessed such meat mixing, and frankly not only does it render pretty much everything non-vegetarian, it also really disgusts me.

On top of this, we have a lame salad; usually pickled cabage, cucumbers and seawead.. never any fresh veggies. About once a week we get a peice of fruit but then it is literally a peice (i.e. a 1/4 of an apple, etc.). We also each receive a standard issue glass bottle of whole milk. Do you think these kids get enough fat and protein?? I really doubt there is a nutritionist who plans this all out, but if there is he/she needs to go back to school.

Ok.. so now that I've painted the picture that is our miserable food, you are probably dying to ask why I would subject myself to such a menu. Particularly considering the fact that I don't eat meat! Yeah, well I am oh so happy to answer you: everyone in school is required to eat school lunch. That's right... every single student and teacher eats the school lunch every single day... and loves it. So for the first time, I am the lone picky eater... I eat about half- 3/4 of my lunch and then usually pitch the rest. The school secretary, who makes my lunch for me to carry to the classroom of the week, has gotten very good at not giving me any blatantly obvious chunks of meat.. but then I am usually left with the pathetic little salad, a loaf of bread, and the milk. So why am I full, today? Because this week, I am lucky enough to be eating in a classroom that is required to eat ALL of their food. They aren't allowed to throw away anything. In general, I think this is a noble philosophy and try to adhere to it myself.. but when applied to this particular situation: ugh.. let's just say I don't think I will bother with dinner.. I'm getting sick of food!

On a totally different topic: my trip to Wakayama has been canceled. I called the Matsudas (one of my host families) and it turns out they are going through a cycle of a bad cold. It would be a pain for me to be there, so I bowed out. Now Jaclyn and I are scrambling to come up with something else to do. I think we'll probably end up cruising around this area to do some exploring. Maybe we will stay in a inn or two or try some onsens. I'm psyched.. will let you know where we end up.

Dad woke me up yesterday morning to tell me that the space shuttle hadn't made it through its landing. I probably wouldn't have heard until this morning, as my English language newspaper is about 2 days behind and I don't often check the internet on the weekends. I'm glad I heard about it yesterday though or my arrival to my desk to see the front page of the newspaper (a huge picture of the shuttle falling apart next to the picture of the crew) would have ruined my Monday morning. I had been following the reports of this mission since it was getting extra press due to the Israeli astronaut aboard. At the same time, I've been seeing articles regarding restarting the teachers in space program that Christa McAuliffe was a part of. They were planning to make it a more extensive program this time around and the back-up teacher for the Challenger mission, Barbara Morgan, is now a full-time Educator Astronaut preparing to go to the Space Station in November. For the first time since elementary school, I was daydreaming about being an astronaut some day! Anyway, the accident really shocked me and I feel awful for everyone involved. The crew seemed like an amazing bunch of people (a given, I suppose) with really diverse backgrounds. I hope that NASA manages to recover and continue to get dreamy kids like me psyched about space. I had a pretty crappy morning and attempt to run yesterday, but it all felt really insignificant considering everything else happening in the world.