Monday, monday... It's Monday again.

I had a fun weekend: Saturday morning the ground was still soggy enough (from 2 days of rain) that I pulled a ton of weeds in my yard. I'm getting ready to plant tulips... as soon as I can choose colors and places. Maybe I'll wait until it rains again, because it was so much easier working with the ground soft! My yard is still a jungle, but it helps to have a few things that are supposed to be there so that it doesn't look completely neglected. My tomatos are actually still growing and I have loads of carrots waiting to be harvested. My one canteloupe officially has a big bug hole, so I guess maybe I'll skip the fruit next year (hypothetical next year, that is...). The eggplants never really did their thing, either. Lots of flowers are still blooming, though... just takes some searching through the grass and weeds to see them!

On Saturday afternoon, Jaclyn and I packed up the car and headed for the JET camping party. It was a really nice camp site on top of some hills edging Matsumoto. It was too bad it was cloudy, but even with the clouds the view was incredible: we could see the entire city of Matsumoto, plus all of Misato, Horigane, and Toyoshina out to the mountains on the other side of town. It was a relatively fun, diverse group of about 25 of us. Jaclyn and I shared a tent and Keisha, Danielle and Angie snagged the site across from us. We hung out most of the night and got to know a few of the newest JETs better (and determined that there is a pretty pathetic selection of guys this year... poor Danielle!). Before we were too tipsy from the beer we all returned to our tents and collapsed. It was just the right temperature- I slept really well... until Danielle unzipped our tent and barged in at 7am!!! She swears we were awake.. but that's a silly thing to say after you've already broken into someone's tent out in the woods... of course we were awake at that point! Anyway, it was a good time.

After hitting Royal Host for breakfast after we rolled back down off the hill, we each went our separate ways. I decided to take advantage of the be-au-tiful weather to take some rice harvest photos. This weekend the harvest was in full swing... I think it looks really, really cool. Many of the fields around here are really small, so the farmers choose to let the rice hang to dry in the fields- which requires them to harvest it by hand. The beams of wood with the rice hanging from them, in the stepped rice fields... ahhh... its a picture that will always remind me of Nagano.

And, speaking of Nagano- its almost apple time again! We are signing up for the Apple Marathon again: Jaclyn will run the 5k, Danielle and I will run the 10k, and Tom will suck it up and do the half again. I wish I were in better shape... but at least this gives me a reason to start being more consistent. I need my box of apples!!

Fall has roared in like a ...windy typhoon. I kid you not, last Friday afternoon it was 27 degrees (about 80F) and I was sweating. Then, Tom got on a train to come over so we could go hike up a mountain and camp and ... WHAM... a typhoon suddenly hit. How does that happen?? It got really chilly Saturday, then started to rain mid-day and Sunday it pretty much poured all day. Needless to say, we canceled attempt-to-camp #5 or 6. Gah!! Monday was of course beautiful and sunny. However, on the way through town I just happened to glance at a digital thermometer: 10 degrees!!! (that would be 50 F). Ouch, I guess summer is over. Wait, did summer even come this year?

So, yeah.. in case you haven't checked the photo page recently, I failed my driver's test. Actually, I didn't even get to take the test. I didn't have the right form so they turned me down after an hour or two of debating. I got a new Indiana driver's lisence when I was home in May, and the DMV folks here want proof that I had a lisence before that since to get one here you need to have had one in your home country for more than three months. I only had a copy of my previous one since they don't let you keep them anymore... and that wasn't good enough. I wanted to scream. Who knows when I'll actually get the right paperwork now. It was a major bummer.

To cheer myself up... we went shopping with the rest of our day off and I bought ski boots!! I just need to get my bindings adjusted now and I'll be ready for winter (which will be here anyday, it seems).

In other news, I have officially purchased tickets to fly home for the holidays. It was a major debate (not quite as big as the "to stay or not to stay" debate but close), but I did buy them so I'm all set. I'll be back in the States from December 20th to January 4th. Now that its official, I'm already getting excited about Christmas. On top of that, I think Tom and I will be heading to Thailand the last week of November, so I'll be getting around. ;) Should be great.

Otherwise, there isn't a whole lot going on here. Yesterday we had a holiday because it was the autumnal equinox, and today the teachers from different academic departments headed to separate schools in the areas to observe a class and then discuss. Danielle and I drove up to the English demonstration class in Omachi (almost to the ski hills in Hakuba). Fortunately, as AETs we get to cut out for the afternoon session of boring discussions. Now I'm sitting back in school watching it pour. If its cold again tonight I'm going to be so tempted to pull out a heater!!

Yes, I realize I have been out of touch. This week has been suPREmely busy and with not much that was worth reporting. Must say though, that the speech contest is over and I'm pretty happy NOT to be moving on into the next round. I think I got plenty of speech fun last year with going to the nationals and all (3 months of practicing the same speech), so the fact that the two students for this year were not quite as polished... well- no regrets.

Otherwise, I'm heading to the Shiojiri Driving Safety Center tomorrow to make my first shot at getting my Japanese Driver's Liscence. For those of you who haven't heard the story yet: in Japan, you are permitted to drive for a year with an International Liscence, then you have to get a Japanese one. In Japan, you can only go on a business day, you take the test with their car on a closed course, and everyone we've talked to has failed it up to five times. Five failures=a week's worth of vacation time, since the red tape of the procedure takes a full day. I'm more than a bit worried, since I'm already driving illegally. Wish me luck. I'm have practically no hope of passing on my first shot, so I'm more curious than nervous at this point.

Yesterday, I promised Chie, one of the girls participating in the Speech Contest this year, that I would meet her at school at 7:15 am to practice. So when I went to bed I set my alarm so I could wake up around 6:30am. It was really rough getting up and I was surprised to see that it has begun to get light later these days. It was barely daylight out. Took my shower and wandered back up to my room to dress. I looked at my cellphone to check if there were any messages (cancelations) from Chie. Ack!!! Clearly across the front of my phone: 5:40am. Stupid me.. set my alarm an hour early on a day I was already getting up early!!! ouch. I crawled back into bed and slept for another 40 min. That's how my day started.

Besides the fact that I'm tired and its muggy hot outside, the rest of my Friday is going well. I'm teaching classes for Mr. Matsuo today, since he is absent.. and I'm teaching them alone, on my own. The two I've had so far have been really cool: laid back and interesting for all (I think). The kids have participated and I've really enjoyed being in the classroom. I totally enjoy being on my own sometimes. Of course, I have first graders next, so that will be a little more crazy, I think.

Strange new flavor combo for today: Cranberry-aloe yogurt (tried and tasted, results: better than expected!).

The third grade students wrote some poetry today. Here are some of my favorites:

EAT
That is life.
An all-you-can-eat restaurant.
Sit around shooting the breeeze.
Eating is fun.
Eating is glad.
-Takahara Yuuki

Moon
The moon has
been looking
many many people and
the stream of a
long time.
And then looking
to us now...
-Tagashi Aya

Greeting
Good morning, Good afternoon,
Good evening,
There greeting a important
because, the day starts with
this words.
I want it to be important.
-Asano

Curry and rice
Wow, we have curry and rice!
This feel.
I feel like throwing up.
People eat to live.
I enjoyed the dinner very much.
-Takahara Yuuki

I didn't notice until now that two of the poems are by Mr. Takahara... what a funny (hungry) guy. They are such goofballs!

Ok, before I launch into a re-cap of my fabulous (sunny!) mountain field trip, let me post this e-mail from Sara... who is currently winding her way through Asia on her post JET "I don't want to go home and get a job" journey to see the world. The card she mentions is a birthday card from Jaclyn made of sponge material that was in the shape/form of a sandwich. It was funny.

Hi Jaclyn
How's it going? I'm having a good time. Right now I'm in the Western part of
China. I took a long bus ride yesterday and ended up showing the woman next to
me some of my pictures to amuse her during the ride. I got three rolls
developed while I was in Beijing and the beginning of one of the rolls was from
your birthday. The pictures ended up being passed around a number of people and
a guy sitting in the row behind me offered to pay ten yuan for a picture of you
pretending to eat your sandwich card. that's how much i payed for a hotel room
last night! so you're a popular girl out here. I told him no. It was fun to
show them the pictures and they seemed particularly interested in the pictures
from Japan.

Ah... I'm obviously living in the wrong country. I'm actually destined to be a star in China!

So- the mountain climbing rocked! (pun?) Thursday was rather cloudy, but it never rained. When we hit the open area where the lodge was, the clouds cleared and our 6 hours of hiking were rewarded with a most spectacular view of the Northern Alps. It was breathtaking (see my cell-photo page for the view in miniature). The hike itself really wasn't tough, especially since we took group breaks every twenty minutes... for almost twenty minutes. As all the students were in their blue gym uniforms with their white "outside" baseball hats on... I felt like I was hiking with the smurfs!! We hiked in a long continuous snake of students and teachers all the way up and down the mountain. I don't think I ever need to hike with 160 people ever again. The other hikers were certainly not thrilled, though they were patient about it.

After we reached the lodge, we dropped most of our stuff and hiked to the very top of Jonen, 2875m. From there we could see further into the Alps... although it was a bit too cloudy to see Mt. Fuji. It was a small area, so we rotated all the classes through and decsended. By the time we turned around to hike down the sky around the peak had really cleared so we were all a bit nervous watching the area arond the lodge about 1000m below us as we tried to stay on the path. If there is one thing I've learned its that 13 year old boys have NOT quite realized their own mortality! One student in front of me kept jumping from one spot to the next, even though the rocks were all lose and several times he "over-jumped" leaving him teetering over the edge with arms flailing for balance! Ahhh! It was nervewracking.

The sunset was beautiful, as was the gigantic half-moon that gracefully floated right behind Jonen's peak while I sat outside watching. Mars appeared early and very, very bright right above the clouds in the valley. It was so peaceful being so far above the rest of civilization. Looking back behind the lodge to the Alps at night was breathtaking... you could just feel their massive prescence... and there was only a single light in the far distance, marking the spot of another mountain lodge.

We woke up again at 4:30am for the sunrise... beautiful and cold! I took a zillion pictures with my new camera. After breakfast, we assembled to sing the school song for the lodge staff and then started back down to the bottom. It was totally clear and sunny (though cloudy further below) and it was painful to start down instead of head towards another mountain. I wanted them to leave me up there... but unfortunately I didn't even have the gear to stay as an escapee... so I had no choice. It was nice to be hiking with only a day pack, though. Without my huge pack and with all the breaks, I was barely sore at all. My kids were rather impressed. ;)

It was a fantastic trip and got me really psyched to go up again as soon as possible. I'm relieved after talking with a teacher who assured me I can continue hiking through October and start as early as May. Of course, this is a teacher who climbed Jonen this spring, in the snow, with skis strapped to his back and then skiied off the top. I'm not going to be joining him anytime soon. But I am very thankful that the season isn't over and Tom and I still have a chance to get out with our tent, yet.

Whoo... I need to be at school at 4:45 AM! I will be (holding my breath for good weather) ahem.. climbing Mt. Jonen with the 7th grade class. We climb from about 6am tomorrow until about 4pm, then will be spending the night in a big hut near the top. The plan is then to wake up at 4am again on Friday so that we can see the sunrise. Then we climb all the way down. And go to a big drinking party afterwards at the onsen. (ok that would be for the teachers, not the students) Oof! Pictures later, hopefully. Think good weather thoughts for me!

I didn't get a chance to write again yesterday, but I am excited to say that yesterday was Disaster Day! Oh yes, we have such things here. This area is waiting for a massive earthquake in the next few years, so the government talked everyone into pretending one hit yesterday afternoon. They take such drills much, much more seriously here. It was identical to the drill from last year, so let me just use that descrption and add some more detail to the end.

First we had a minute of earthquake drill where students had to get under their desks. Then, when the bells sounded (in the entire village), everyone rushed outside.. all teachers wearing white Misato Junior High helmets. Teachers counted students (who were lined up perfectly by class) and then we sent most of the teachers running back into the "burning" school to retrieve things that we'd forgotten. Then the firetruck and ambulance raced onto the field and "rescued" someone from inside the school. After that, we all gathered around a huge metal tray filled with kerosene which the firefighters lit on fire. One girl and one boy from each class and two teachers got the chance to put it out using the fire extinguishers. (Meanwhile, there were people next door at the Village Hall and Board of Education practicing using the fire hoses, and I could hear the separate PAs of the elementary school and other offices going through similar drills). After we were done setting out fires, the kids had to get back in lines and we had speeches from the Vice Principal, a Board of Ed guy (I think) and the Fire Chief. Finally, we got to go back.. but not before we cleaned off our shoes (because it was a fire drill..we had to exit without changing from our indoor shoes to our outdoor shoes!). The entire drill took over 45 min and we all sat outside in the bright hot sun the whole time. It was pretty darn impressive, let me tell you (I wish I could have taken photos!).

Yep, now that I've re-read I can tell you for sure that we did practically the same thing this year. This year was much hotter though. The only positive change was that from where I was standing I could watch people over at the Village Hall jumping into a huge "sock" that was hanging from a 3rd floor window. It was the most bizarre, fun-looking escape idea I've seen yet. They would literally fall the three floors and then be caught by the closed end of the shoot. Probably didn't feel great, but I suppose its better than hitting the pavement.

Yesterday evening Jaclyn served up the first batch of some fish-burgers we scored at the grocery store. They were delicious and I'm just devestated because we bought them from a traveling salesman who was only in town for a week. This country hasn't really discovered soy or any other non-meat burger, so I would LOVE it if they would sell them regularly. They were delicious!!

After practically falling asleep in front of a bizarre Japanese game show, I actually went for about a half hour run. It was dark out so for once I wasn't melting as I ran, and it had cooled off considerably. Jaclyn came with on her bike and we chatted about next year and this weekend (a good mix, don't you think?). When it comes down to it, I'm not sure I know too many people who do know exactly what they're doing next year. That makes me feel a lot better.