Oooh.. Thanks for the hugs. I'm assuming you esp-ed them, because I definitely felt better by yesterday. Damn those Mondays!!

Well, its still muggy, but the weather gods have been treating me to the fabulous summer thunder storms I've been holding my breath for all summer. There wasn't a single one the entire "rainy season"- but now that its over, we've had two days of lightening and pouring rain. huh. Guess I'll know next year (next year?). Anyway, I love thunder, so I've been ignoring the horrible hot stickiness and enjoying the thunder.

Today was my other day of "summer vacation work". I took the train towards the mountains this morning to meet one of my fellow Misato teachers and the other poor schmucks whose turn it was to be invited to attend this particular training (apparently they have to go once every five years). There were a handful of JETs there too, including two of the newest recruits. The morning consisted of two lectures- one from an Indonesian student studying Economics here at Shinshu Univ., and the other from a respected Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the same University. Both spoke on their experience with English education and critiqued and commented about the Japanese system. Then, of course, we got to give our opinions and write up comments. In the afternoon, the JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) and I (the only JET in our group out of three), were handed a copy of some pages out of a text book. We discussed ideas for planning a Team Teaching lesson (using foreigners like myself in class) for the text pages. Then the JTEs were required to briefly plan out a lesson and two lucky guys were asked to demonstrate in front of the class. Being the only AET in the group, I had the priveledge of being the "dummy" JET in their lessons. It went fine, but then the moderator ripped all the teachers' heads off for not being more creative and (like usual) not incorporating me into more of the lesson. The worst was when he asked me if I had any ideas about the lesson (and I did) and whether any of the teachers had asked me about them (they hadn't). I wasn't surprised, but he was appalled. Welcome to the sad but true life of a team teacher. Oh, I could go on, but realistically I'm not likely to change a single thing... so I try to focus on the positive most of the time and take what I get with a grain of salt. (and like to give the teachers a lot of slack because I'm starting to understand more clearly where they're coming from). Not very interesting,... but that's how I spent my day and another glimpse into my "work" here.

This evening I am packing, yet again. Tomorrow I'm heading south to Kansai for almost a week. I'll spend over half of my waking time tomorrow on assorted trains, since the bus was booked. My goal is Koya-san (Mt. Koya), one of my favorite spots in the entire country. Its a secluded Mountain Buddhist temple complex that practically defines the word "ancient". I was able to go several times when I lived in the area, but this will be my first time there on my own. I've also arranged to spend the night on the mountain, for the first time. I made a reservation at Eiko-in, a temple where you can spend the night, eat two monk-safe vegetarian meals (score!), and participate in morning prayer/meditation time (6:30 am but from past experiences, I'm betting even I will be able to sleep through it). I'm really looking forward to the experience, its something I've been wanting to do all year.

Friday morning I plan to spend time wandering around the different temples and cemetaries, enjoying the mountain-top cool weather. In the afternoon, I'll head back down into the heart of ugly metropolitan Osaka, to meet Machiko and Hiroko, two of my other really close friends from exchange student days. We're spending the evening together and Hiroko and I plan to bum around in Osaka on Saturday. Finally, that evening I'll be heading over to Wakayama to stay with my host families until I head back here on Wednesday morning.

I'm excited for the bit of traveling on my own, which I haven't done in a while. I'm also pretty anxious to try out my new camera. I'm taking the manual and hope to test it out on the trip. As I doubt I'll have internet access, you'll have to watch the photo page for updates until I get home on Wednesday. Ciao! (ps. feel free to comment on this page or the photo page... it really motivates me to write when I actually feel like folks are reading this stuff!... if you're not... just comment so I can pretend!)