前教育長の送る会

Tomorrow is the previous Kyouikucho's farewell party. The BOE just pulled out this long ass banner that they made for the event. I guess I didn't realize just how important this event was... there will be 80 people there. The BOE, I'm sure tons of people from the Shiyakusho, principals and vice principals from all the schools in Aki, and a bunch of different sensei. Why does this have to happen the night I decide to go to Kyoto for the weekend?! I totally wanna get wasted with the kyoikucho and (omgwhatifmountainsenseiwasthere) go to the nijikai!!!! :<<< oh well. Let's see how this thing plays out...

ドラマ to the max

Man, life has been dramatic lately. For once, I'm not creating the drama for myself (although, Saturday night I really didn't help the situation. I just facilitated for silly-ness). Maybe this'll all settle down soon, but who knows. We have an awful dramatic crew of people over here in Kochi-ken.

Finally getting back to some studying of the Japanese. I picked up どもう and have been going over old grammar and vocab, making sentences out of words I don't know and making sentences for the grammar points I'm trying to review. Hopefully this helps some. Getting through the new vocab that I have in the back of each chapter will take a LOONG time to memorize but hopefully there is some useful stuff in there.

Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffin Recipe (adapted)

1 3/4 cups  flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
OPTIONAL: 1 cup finely chopped walnuts (kurumi)

(makes 20 muffins)
200 C, 18 min

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F).
2. Pour the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and spices into a separate bowl.
3. In your main bowl, whisk together the pureed pumpkin, soy milk, oil, and maple syrup.
4. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until smooth. (OPTIONAL: Lastly, add the walnuts.)
5. Pour into muffin papers 3/4 of the way full and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Decided to make some cupcakes for Sea's little birthday party~

Easy Chocolate Cupcakes (adapted)

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt

(Makes a dozen cupcakes)
180 C, 18-20 min

Peanut Butter Frosting

1 cup of peanut butter (I used crunchy type)
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons soy milk (add more for a smoother, thinner frosting)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F).
2. Pour the cup of soy milk and teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in there so it can curdle.
3. Prepare the dry ingredients in another bowl. Pour in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. The sugar will go in separately.
4. Add the oil, vanilla and sugar to the soy milk mix and whisk until foamy and thoroughly mixed.
5. Sift the dry bowl into the wet ingredients bowl and mix well.
6. Fill cupcake papers 3/4 full of batter, and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Slowly mix (with a fork) the sugar into the peanut butter. Add soy milk little by little as you stir.
8. Add vanilla.
9. Carefully frost the cupcakes since the frosting is thick.

The Monday Fundays, "Stawks, Unplugged"

http://www.mediafire.com/?75i43vw787316h3

Joyless

I thought today was going to be dreaded... I didn't have 打ち合わせ with Makoto sensei and the fifth graders are hate faces.... but really, the worst thing that happened today was that my first graders were absolutely joyless. For such small kids, they had no fun with making monster faces. I don't know wtf was going on :( It was really quite sad.

In other news. I have a cute new "fiance" and plays in the band Pall Mall. He came to Matto's b-day party at my house on Friday and it was magical~ haha Well, at least we talked. :)

OH MY PASTA

OH NO! MY COLA!

 

明けましておめでとうございます！

A happy new year and second day of work! The first day back wasn't so bad, but I'm starting to feel the drag of not getting my adequate sleep already. Whatever. Two days and Matto's punk-face party. ;)

Monday Funday, the Tuesday edition was a great way to start off this year. Seriously though. I don't think I could love my friends more than I do. When I got back from Thailand on Friday evening, I'd looked around to see if anything seemed out of place, if they had left a mark of their coming over.. but the signs were subtle and I didn't put them together until last night when De- and Matto presented their AMAZING "slide show" of Polaroids to us. They had made a story out of Polaroids of their "monday funday" alone in my FUCKING COLD apartment. They'd even made curry (with a Matto-sized spoon) and used my rice cooker! Hahaha I love them <3

This last weekend was also amazing. Saturday night, I just couldn't stop smiling. The show was good, I got to go out for drinks with Mall and Hiro and Matto (calling Mall a Thai Bird apparently..... I shouldn't EVER voice the junk that flies around in my head) and even though it was freezing and a complete 180 from Thailand, I was happy~ I don't know how many people have reactions like that to coming back to the cold, depressing, Japan winter... but I'm fucking estatic to be back to routine, back to laughing with my favorite people, and back to life (of course, coming home to a nengajo from mountain sensei wasn't so bad either~)

Bounenkai: Goodbye, 2010! I hardly knew ye!

Bounenkai: a word made of the kanji 忘 to forget, 年 year, and 会 meeting. It literally is a "meeting to forget the year" and is normally celebrated by going out drinking with your co-workers/club members/fellows. Most, if not all office places have these drinking parties, and thus, the city office is not immune to this tradition.

Best quotes from the night:

"you are almighty girl" (in english)

"Old man spit hit me in the eye, and so as not to be rude, I wiped it away as he poured me a drink.... ABUNAI!" (in Japanese)

"you said "there is a pay slip in the museum" instead of "there are dinosaurs in the museum" (in Japanese)

Considering that the beginning of that bounenkai was rather awkward (as most drinking parties usually start out)... it turned out to be pretty fun. Yeah, I had to pay 7000 yen for it, but I got some detergent and some cute gloves from the prize drawing, and I got to talk to Nat-chan and a bunch of other people from the office (once they were drunk) as well as eat AMAZING food and drink disgusting amounts of Asahi beer.

Nat-chan was in charge of the main event of the evening, which was a giant jan-ken match for the top prizes. Enough prizes were bought so that everyone got something, but the top 10 prizes were actually good prizes: a bike, a bread maker, a mixer, and some expensive sports-wear to name a few. Like I said, I lost terribly and got a low-ranked prize that included gloves and some soy joy bars. One of the people who sits near me in the BOE gave me the detergent he won because it was flowery and girly scented. Luckily! It's the kind I usually buy so now I won't have to do detergent-shopping for awhile. Haha~

I also got invited to go karaoke with Ayashi guy from my office, and the temp girl Sano-san, as well as a few other people from the office. It was nice being invited to something for a change. Being one of the only two foreigners in the office, I can't help but feel like everyone somehow dislikes me... but getting invited along lessened that fear at least a little. I'm always the one who sings the most at karaoke, but it was nice to actually be wanted there, hear other people sing, and talk to people I don't usually say a word to while enjoying the songs. I know things like this don't happen often with the people in my office, but I hope little things like this will let them know that I'm not a scary foreign-monster or something. I think the mere fact that I showed up to this bounenkai gave me some serious brownie points. ALT's usually go on winter vacation by this point.

タイ

もうすぐタイに行くぜよ！

I'm very excited about getting onto that plane tomorrow and zooming off to Thailand for 10 days~ I want warm weather, beautiful scenery, and lots of cool ruins that I've NEVER SEEN BEFORE!!! When it comes to Asia, I've only been to Japan (and 4 times at that). I need to take this time to get around this half of the world! I want to go to China, Vietnam, Korea, The Philippines, Singapore... EVERYWHERE! <3

I had a good year over all. It's been the first year in awhile that hasn't left me with a bitter taste at the end. Instead, my year started off awful and slowly got waaayyyy better. :) I'm happy with my decisions this year, and I can't wait to start another year in Japan!!

Tonight is the BOE's 忘年会. I'm excited, because I actually know some of the people in this office now and thus, getting drunk and eating lots of food with them will be fun :) (特に because Nat-chan will be there). All that's left before I leave for Sea's tonight is to send off my packages and nengajo~

Merry Christmas and a Happy Uke!

My new life project, given to me by the lovely Sea at my Christmas party on Saturday night.  I was seriously shocked when I got the gift. I think that was the first time EVER that I've been given a gift that I really want, but never expected to actually receive... which was really awesome. I love my friends. <3

Starting yesterday night, I began learning how to play this lovely little creature. Once I get a little more comfortable with this cheap one (mine is a light blue version of the above pictured ones... which are total crap), I might want to upgrade and buy myself a nice one here. The little blue one will be good to learn on, but if I want to keep playing (and not have to tune every 2 seconds) then I really need a nicer ukulele. I already learned how to play "Hallelujah" and I really want to learn how to play Hoppipolla by Sigur Ross. It's such a gorgeous song, and I downloaded the tabs for it. Now I just have to buckled down and LEARN. :)

The plunger people took shots from.

Other than all that excitement, the party was great! I got to carry on my parent's tradition and play "The Game" with everyone who came to the party, as well as a rousing round of Pass the Parcel. Only in Japan will a plunger be turned into a shot glass... <3

Sawatee Kaa!

Finally getting excited about the Thailand trip next week. I think I was stressed because we didn't have a hostel booked yet, and I have NO IDEA about the country itself. I'm pathetically one-track minded and only care about Japan. haha. But this sad lack of interest in the other countries of Asia has caused me unnecessary stress about this trip.

Luckily!

Stress is over. I'm booking our first hostel tonight for when we arrive, and I have websites, info, maps and addresses for hostels in two other cities we plan on going to. I think I've decided FOR us where we are going.. however, I've left it open so we can also change our minds and stay in a city less/more time.

君が好き

Sleigh Bells Ring, Are You Listening?

 

Saturday and Sunday night at Aki station, there was an adorable candle festival held in the name of Iwasaki Yataro's birthday. The guy turned 176 this year, and as the most famous individual from Aki-shi, of course there was a "birthday party" complete with home-made candles, a candle processions, and lots of food stands (as well as a traveling pizza cart!!). I finally got to try a piece of cake from Cheese-ya, and I am really quite impressed. For once, a Japanese bakery knows how to make REAL New York cheese cake, and not that baked crap they call cheese-cake here. The pizza cart was also really quite good, and I'm going to have to buy some fresh mozzerella next time I make pizzas at my house. :)

Bee and me also had our first Ioki Taiko performace Sunday morning at the closing ceremony for the "Turtle Marathon." We had to wear these weird turtle socks and alien antenna on our head... but the performance went really well! And I didn't forget any part of the song. :) Also! After, we got to go to "A New Moon: Cafe Gallery" which is the little cafe above Mountain sensei's apartment. He wasn't there, but the french toast at this place was fantastic so all-in-all, it was a good venture.

久しぶり日本語！

Oh man. It's been awhile since I've felt willing and SUCCESSFUL at holding a fucking conversation in this language. I think I was seriously just really burnt out from that test and studying things I didn't really want to study for the last 4 months. Before tonight, I'd dread having interactions with the Japanese people I knew, because I felt like I'd stepped into this stupid hole. I couldn't understand anything, and I could hardly get anything intelligible out of my mouth. Today in general, I felt pretty decently confident and really enjoyed talking to everyone I DID interact with. I think I'm finally warming up to my friends and JTE's more... I'm not as nervous around them (coughmoutainsenseicough) and don't mind making mistakes because... DUH. I'm gonna make mistakes and I'm gonna say stupid shit so might as well try to communicate and have fun instead of being shy, learning nothing, and having a disappointing time.

Going out with Nat-chan, Ryoku-chan, Sea and Bee was really nice and I wanted to do that SOOOO much more than Taiko. Me and Nat-chan have kept on trying to make plans to hang out so I'm really glad we were able to. I seriously love that girl. She's really nice and funny and odd, and every time we hang out I feel more and more comfortable and able to make up some sort of thing to talk about. I know it'll be awhile before we can talk like me and other JETs do... but that's only because there is a language barrier I think. I'll slowly get better at Japanese, and they'll keep opening up to me until we can maybe finally talk on the same level. :) I'll keep 頑張る-ing until I can be competent.... maybe getting a かれし would help with that, but I don't see that as something that seems to be coming into my life any time soon...