Well, day 1 back in Misato was nearly perfect. sigh. You really can't beat a mandatory quarantine for relaxation after vacation! That's right: for those of you very, very few people I didn't see while I was in the states.. for the next T minus 6 days (out of ten required) I am to stay at home to make sure I don't develop a case of SARS and infect the students. This may be the only time I am granted a "vacation from my vacation" so I'm going to enjoy every minute of it (while occasionally rolling my eyes at the irrationality of the whole deal... but that's my school's problem- not mine). Actually, I may end up at school again as early as tomorrow if the powers that be decide to back down, but so far I haven't gotten the all clear. I spent the first three days of my quarantine at a conference in Tokyo for JETs who've recontracted (are staying another year).. infecting all of them so they can in turn infect their students. The conference was actually interesting, for the most part, really unique for JET conferences.

Jaclyn and I got back home late yesterday afternoon, and after restocking the fridge, unpacking and doing some laundry, I crashed before 10pm (very before) with the intent of sleeping in or at least sleeping until my school woke me up to ask me to work. Unfortunately, I woke up early.. I'd forgotten how early the sun comes up and how much light gets through my paper screened- windows (like all of it)! Anyhow, the school didn't call but I still was awake and moving before 8am. I bummed around and did some gardening this morning, waiting for the phone to ring. While I was gone, I worried that my garden would die... but the opposite has occured. I now live in the Misato branch of the African jungle. I couldn't even see my two little gardens from my windows! The rose tree has exploded, and the crack grass is beyond out of control. Fortunately, so are my veggies! I have a handful of very green tomatoes of various sizes, several pickle sized cucumbers, and two-foot climbing bean plants. The bean plants are pretty funny.. they have little vines sprouting out the tips and they have wound themselves around the neighboring weeds. Maybe they'll start weeding for me? Everything else is looking really healthy... except my damn herbs! I guess I give up. I will have to plant something else in their place and hope they don't take over when I'm not paying attention.

After Jaclyn got home from school (still no call from mine), we took off for the nearby bike trail to rollerblade. After hauling mine back from Indy (through Mpls and Tokyo) I was anxious to actually enjoy them! I'm still amazed of the existance of this trail. Its a couple miles north of me and extends all the way to Matsumoto. I used it last fall when training for the Misato half-marathon, but since I've been such a delinquent runner, this was my first time on it since then. I've only rarely seen people use it so its perfect for blading. I've also never, ever seen a single person in Japan on rollerblades... so we got some fun looks this afternoon. There really isn't any place safe enough for it, except for trails... but this is also the first trail I've ever seen. I didn't think I'd be rollerblading in Japan! The view was truly spectacular- lots of wildflowers, bright green rice fields, and the mountains (of course, the mountains!). Summer hasn't quite hit yet, so it was also a very pleasant temperature which I made sure to appreciate.

After cooling down by watering my plants and showering, I fixed up some soba for dinner. Soba is one kind of delicious (take note, Brook!) Japanese noodle. Nagano is famous for their soba noodles, though you can eat soba anywhere in Japan. It is a thin buckwheat noodle... which doesn't mean a lot to me, but they are about the size and shape of spagetti, only they're square (the noodles are cut, instead of squirted) and brown. They are typically (though not always) served cold with a cup of cold sauce mixed with green onions to dip into. This makes them a fabulous summer dish... perfectly combined with a bottle of Heineken tonight. Yum. ahh... I miss you all and had a fabulous time, but its good to be home!