たこ焼き Party

Nothing really exciting to report this week. I had a great time at Asakawa, the students and teachers there are always nice to see. I had a meeting on Wednesday at the Board of Education and Emily, Leah, and I all went out for dinner afterwards. I also had dinner with some friends on Friday. At Asakawa, one of the students' fathers and I have a mutual friend. Last year I was invited to their house for 手巻き寿司 (temaki zushi, handrolled sushi). They invited me again ths year and we had たこ焼き (takoyaki, fried octopus). It was really fun to see them again and the food was delicious! They were surprised I knew how to make the takoyaki and were really happy I could eat it! (Sometimes foreigners don't like eating octopus, they said.) We even used the takoyaki pan for dessert and put pancake batter in to make little pancake balls. We covered them in honey, strawberry syrup, and whipped cream. They were so delicious! I had a great time seeing the family again and I hope I can go see them at least once more before I come home!

Saturday was pretty uneventful. I cleaned during the day and met up with Kikumi and Shinki for dinner. We went to the Turkish restaurant and it was Shinki's first time having Turkish food. He really enjoyed it! We went out for a few drinks after at her friends bar. The bar just had a few couches and a ton of instruments set up. It was still early, so we were the only ones there. The owner, Sasaki, and Shinki played the different instruments while Kikumi and I sang. It was so much fun! They want me to preform again before I leave so hopefully at the end of July I'll get to sing again!

Sunday was another relaxing day. I slept in before meeting Leah and Kyoko at Katsuyama Park. There was a fair going on and we looked at all different stalls and what everyone was selling. Leah got some good stuff! We went to get lunch soon after at an okonoiyaki place and it was nice to have some girl time! Juha met up with us after lunch and we headed back to Leah's place. We all hung out until dinner, when Juha and Kyoko had to go home. Leah ended up walking me home and hanging out at my place all night. We hadn't seen each other much the last few weeks and it was nice to spend so much time with her!

This week will be another quiet one. Kyoko planned an 梅酒 (umeshu, plum wine) picnic party for next Sunday, but other than that I'll probably be laying pretty low. I'm excited to be a completely new school this week, everyone seems really nice and it should be a good week!

浅川

Last week was pretty uneventful. I started and finished at 槻田 (Tsukida) Junior High School. It was a small school about twenty minutes away by bus. There were two English teachers who were both very nice and I had a good time there. Unfortunately I'm still on the visiting school schedule so I had to leave 槻田 for 浅川 (Asakawa) this week. The good news is only two more weeks until I can go back to my base schools! The bad news is that Asakawa is very far away and every time I've visited this school in the past something has gone wrong. It's pretty far from my apartment; I have to commute for over an hour on my bike, then a train, then a bus. I haven't been given a shoe locker in the past, so I would have to carry school shoes back and forth every day and the first time I ever came here they forgot I was coming and all the English teachers had taken the week off. This time, though, I've been giving a shoe locker and they even faxed me a class schedule ahead of time. So even with my previous negative experiences at this school, I have good hopes for the next two weeks here in 浅川!

I also want to say not only a congratulations to my brother for graduating last week, but also to all the students at Hofstra who graduated last Sunday! I also know Hofstra in Japan 2014 is leaving tomorrow. I hope you all have as good of a time as I did and hopefully I can get up to Hiroshima to say hello! (Although HIJ will be there during the school week, so I'm not sure I can.) If not I'll look forward to seeing Kanatsu, the man who makes Hofstra in Japan possible, sometime this summer or fall.

Another exciting thing happening around this time is the new placements for the new JETs. Between now and August the 2014 incoming JETs will be getting their assignments. Usually the first contact we will have with the new JETs is through facebook. People will find their placement and immediately go online to find the corresponding facebook group. So far one new JET has posted in the Fukuoka group, but we're not sure where she will be within Fukuoka province. She won't be in Kitakyushu because it's the only place in Fukuoka that is specified on the placement form. This distinction is because the rest of Fukuoka province is hired by the Fukuoka Board of Education, but Kitakyushu is hired by the Kitakyushu Board of Education. I'm not sure why, but it's certainly much more convenient for me. All that really matters, though, is that we are relentless checking the facebook page with eagerness, excited to meet our newest KitaQ JETs. We've been told that we will get one American and one Australian. They'll both arrive in Kitakyushu on July 31st. I'll be on a flight back to Japan then, but will hopefully meet them the next day!

As you can probably tell by my rambling this week, not much exciting has happened. Over the weekend my friend Caol made sangria and we went to karaoke together, but that's the only excitement I've had this week. I do have a lot to look forward to this week, though! Friends are coming over for dinner both tomorrow (Tuesday) and Thursday. This weekend I'll be going to the symphony practice, I'm swinging by the Board of Education after work today to pick up all the music. I'm sorry this is such a short post, hopefully next week I'll have a bit more to talk about!