keep in touch

I have internet in my apartment now, so for anyone who might like to call me on the phone, lets video chat for free instead! If you don't have skype its easy and free to download and the video and sound quality is good. The only thing you really need is a microphone so I can hear you, but if you have a video camera then I can see you too! It's really great, it's almost like being in the same room. So download it!
www.skype.com

weekend adventure

Hello all,
This weekend was very welcome. Often during the week I get a little frazzled because I feel like I have no time to relax. I usually get up around 5:30 and get ready for work and get home around 5:30 or 6 and after making dinner and taking a shower it's getting close to bed time. I stay fairly busy at school too, I correct tests or worksheets or journal entries when I'm not in class, but sometimes I have a little time.
Anyway, this weekend I had my first flower arranging lesson. The secretary at the high school speaks English and offered to teach me, so she came over to my apartment on Saturday and brought flower and tools. It was fun, she even taught me the customary bow and greeting to start and end the lesson. Afterward we chatted a while, and I learned that she still lives with her parents which surprised me since she seems to be in her late 30's or early 40's. It's actually quite common here, in part because traditionally the first son gets the responsibility of caring for his parents in their old age. In some ways it seems to foster a lack of knowledge about real world things but I'm sure it has plenty of benefits as well, sharing the cost of living, maintaining a close relationship (maybe), and help with kids if you have them. But I digress.
I wanted to make brownies for the occasion of my first official guest. And as some of you know I don't have an oven so I've been experimenting with alternative ways of cooking baked goods. After some initial resistance I have come to appreciate the challenge as inspiration for creativity. Also baker's chocolate is, as far as I know, non-existent here, but I was lucky enough to find some unsweetened cocoa powder, so I was off to a good start. I had all my ingredient minus the flour mixed together and as I switched from whisk to wooden spoon I gave the whisk a lick...
and discoverd to my horror that I had used salt instead of sugar! Heartbreaking. and disgusting. So now I have a giant bag of salt in my cupboard that I probably couldn't use even if I stayed for five years. Why would they sell a bag of salt so big, and in the same section as sugar? Certainly not as some twisted practical joke to play on foreigners. As I thought about Japanese food I concluded that it must be for pickling. You add salt when you pickle things right?
Anyway, I told my flower arranging teacher the story and she not only confirmed my conclusion, but also gave me a good tip: salt comes in paper bags, and sugar comes in clear plastic bags.
so as tragic as it was to waste so much good chocolate, my only consolation is that at least I didn't serve them to her!

Field trip!

Yesterday I went on a field trip with the 8th graders to Kanazawa which is a city about an hour and a half away from Fukui. It's a bigger city and is a popular destination for tourists. Apparently many things in Fukui were burned by bombs in WW2 but in Kanazawa many historic things have survived. I visited one of the three most famous gardens in Japan (according to my vice-principal) and perused an art museum. I saw a national tresure that was made over 1000 years ago, and lots of other incredible pieces of art. There was caligraphy from the 9th century, and sculptures, pottery, paintings and lots more.
The students had a lot more independence than students in the U.S.; they prepared itinteraries beforehand and were only required to visit one of three places in the city where teachers were stationed. Other than that they stayed with their groups and wandered freely.
Another highlight for me was finding a starbucks, it may have been the best latte I've ever had.

Trimming the trees

Many of the roads are lined with trees, and recently there were workers climbing up them and cutting off all the branches. I asked someone about it and the reasoning was that in the winter sometimes it snows so much that the branches break. But still, it was sad to see trees looking like this, turn into this.

Some things don't change

I've been eating school lunch everyday, and somethings are the same no matter where you go. Sure the food is different, but the government is still trying to feed children at as low a cost as possible, which inevitably leads to lower quality food. We get either rice or a huge loaf of white bread on alternating days, then an entree, usually a piece of fish or some kind of mix of vegetables and seafood or meat, and often a bowl of soup and some kind of fruit. Oh yeah, and a jar of milk, which I choke down everyday. (I'm not a big fan of milk) The only thing I haven't had the stomach to eat was this fish, which looks innocent enough besides the head and tail still being intact, but they are actually pregnant mother fish, so the inside is filled with fish eggs.

authentic Japanese food

Bryan and I have gone out to lunch on the weekends a few times and it's always a bit of an adventure. First we ride our bikes around and say that looks like a restaurant, lets try it. Then we look at the menu and point to a random choice and see what they bring us. We've had some delicious food.

A picture is worth a thousand words

I have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to do much of anything, so I have neglected the blog for a week or two. Since I can't remember all that has happened I'm going to just post some entries about photos I have taken. This first one is a chorus competition between the homeroom classes at Asuwa Junior High.

I think it's the glasses

I was recently informed by one of the English teachers I work with that the students at the junior high nicknamed me Angela Aki. She is a popular singer-songwriter in Japan who is fluent in English and Japanese.
So it's official, I'm a teacher. I have a nickname.