Illuminations and SDC

Sorry! I know I'm a few days late with this. I stayed two nights in Fukuoka and didn't bring my computer with me, so I couldn't update until now. Last week was, again, not too exciting. The school days were pretty normal and I didn't do much but relax in the evenings. I did have a nice surprise on my way home Friday after school. I caught the earlier bus home (club activities these two weeks are canceled for students to focus on studying for tests) and got to Kokura station just in time to see something going on by the Christmas tree they had set up earlier that day. There were a few people crowded around, so I decided to check it out. It turned out a small orchestra of about ten people were setting up. They started playing just as I reached them. They played only a few songs before packing up and leaving. It was a really nice end to the week and I was very lucky to arrive just in time to hear them!

Saturday was also a great day. I went out to lunch with Marc, Caol, Megan, and Katsuya. After lunch we went shopping for some warmer clothes since it's gotten a bit colder here and Megan and Marc both didn't bring many warm clothes. We ended up spending almost five hours having lunch and shopping, so Caol and Katsuya had to leave to meet some more friends for dinner. Megan and I had originally planned to watch movies all night, but Marc was still waiting for his wife Tanya to get out of work. Tanya also needed to do some shopping, so Marc was staying out at Riverwalk. We stayed with him until Tanya showed up and got some ice cream and coffee and even planned a trip! I'll go with Megan, Marc, and Tanya on a day trip to Kumamoto next Sunday!

Megan and I went back to my place for dinner and walked through the Riverwalk illuminations (thousands and thousands of Christmas lights) on the way. It was my first time seeing them this year and Megan's first time ever seeing them! After dinner we ended up going back out for a few drinks with Caol and Leah before finally settling back at my place to drink hot chocolate and watch our movies. It was a great day!

On Sunday I met Juha at 大手町 (Otemachi) to catch a bus to Fukuoka. Our bus took us right to Tenjin, where we met our friend Jake. It was only about 1:00, so we found a place for lunch. We ended up at a really small Spanish cafe and their lunch was excellent! We were waiting for a parade to start but we still had a bit of time, so we went to a Finnish coffee chain called Robert's Coffee. Juha was very happy to go, but I think it made him a little homesick. After our coffee and little desserts, we headed back to Tenjin station to catch the parade! It was the first (hopefully annual) pride parade in Fukuoka city! It was very small, they only walked in one lane of the road on one side, but it was fun! There were lots of people dressed up and music was being played, everything from Taylor Swift's Shake it Off to the 妖怪ワォッチ (Youkai Watch) theme song. It was short, but very fun!

After seeing the parade, we went to Yellow Submarine, a big gaming shop. Jake got some more games and dice. He had a punch card and ended up getting ￥2000 off another purchase only usable that day, so he got God's Gambit, a card game he really likes. He already had a copy, so Juha and I played rock, paper, scissors for it. I won and got the game! I'm really excited, it's a lot of fun! Right now it's only in Japanese, but a Kickstarter was funded to make an English version. It's already fully funded and I'm not trying to promote it, but I'll link to it here because it's the best description of them game right now in English. After the game store, we all went back to Jake's to play games. Our friend Greg joined us as well. Juha and I stayed the night at Jake's because in the morning we had a conference in Fukuoka. Jake lives much closer to the conference than Juha and I, so we stayed there and saved about an hour each way on the commute.

Monday and Tuesday every JET in Fukuoka province and many Japanese Teachers of English attended the Skills and Development Conference (SDC). Over two days there were two keynote speeches and five workshops. Although a lot of it was review for and other already certified teachers, I did learn some things I'm excited to implement in my schools. One teacher, Ms. Hori, from Ishimine also attended on Monday and we had all the same workshops. It was really great getting to attend with her and talking about how we can bring some of the things we learned into Ishimine. Last year none of my teachers came to SDC, so it was really nice to have her there and it made me very excited for my next few weeks at Ishimine!

None of my teachers attended on Tuesday, but Ms. Sugiyama, a teacher I taught with last year from Futajima, came. It was great seeing her again! She even gave me, Juha, and Dave a ride back to Kitakyushu. We talked the full ride home and even made plans to go to Beppu together again when Mike is here. Last December she drove my family down to Beppu for the day and last time Mike visited she drove us to some museums. Since I don't teach with her much anymore, I haven't gotten the chance to see her much, I'm really excited!

Now I'm back at school. There are tests for these three days and no classes, so I am just catching up on work. On Friday I'll go to 若松中学 (Wakamatsu Chugakou, Wakamatsu Junior High School) to observe a lesson in the afternoon. Juha and Ms. Sugiyama will be there, too. I'm excited to be on the other side of an observation lesson and I'm really looking forward to it! Saturday will be more board games with Juha, Dan, and maybe Megan and Marc. I'll also hopefully get a little shopping done, too! Sunday I'll meet Megan, Marc, and Tanya and we'll all take the Shinkansen down to Kumamoto for the day. Monday is a public holiday, so I'm going with Kikumi to Costco to do some shopping for Thanksgiving and the rest of that week will be devoted to getting everything ready for Thanksgiving. I might update a day late next week because of the holiday. Sorry again for the lateness of this post! I'm getting very excited for Thanksgiving and everything else I have coming up!