after being here a little over 2 years i didnt think id see anything more to shock or surprise me here... until i saw my first japanese field mouse! actually, i dont know if i should be calling it a field mouse or a door mouse or lab rat or whatever. it was out next to the river chilling around a storm drain. it was pretty tiny - about the size of those small, retractable USB laptop mice haha. anyway i got all excited, but i was on my bicycle so what i ended up doing was skidding to a stop right in front of the drain which of course freaked out the little mouse dude and it ran away into the drain. it was kind of cool too, cause its body went through first, and then its tail went through looking like someone slurping a single spaghetti noodle into their mouth, lol.

today was open school day for spicy chicken school. i helped run a lesson for the eng department. best group of middle school kids ever! they were so relaxed, talkative, creative and... young! lol. we didnt even do one of my more exciting lessons either (no murder mystery activity, complete with physical evidence and pinky street figurines lol). i call it 'scrap paper writing.' basically kids get a sticky tab, write any vocabulary word they feel like on it, get thrown into a random group, and are told they have to use all the words to write a comprehensive story together - one sentence per word. final task: write their story on the board with an illustration, then whole class votes on the best composition. anyway, it was really nice to see the kids smiling and giggling and talking with one another teamwork style. good times for them. good times for us.

it's alarming to think that in less than a year i'll be back home. im not so sure what that exactly means for me, but i know that ive at least a plan with a handful of backup plans. 2 things i can do in the bay area, and 1 thing i might be able to do in southern CA. it wouldnt really do much good for anyone to write all the boring details here, so moving right along...

oh yeah. at open school today english club carved jack o lanterns! they looked so freaking awesome. they looked so good i took a picture of them! my kids are great. most of the girls are exceptional artists as well, so i expected nothing less from them. hehehe.


jack o lantern excellence.

the fall season in japan means teachers start giving me buckets and buckets of fruit. literally. and they know im only one person here... golly. persimmons are the worst fall present ever. dont get me wrong, though. theyre magical fruit! i just dont need to be given three dozen a week haha. maybe i should try making perssimon pie or something.

oh, have i mentioned im going to Green Day's 21 Century Breakdown Tour in Nagoya, 1/25/10?!?!?! cause i am lol. my buddy who teaches at another school had a frantic student run up to him saying he accidentally bought two pairs (4 tix total) of these green day tickets (8500yen per). anyway this kid had been asking all his buddies, but none of them were into green day or had the money, time, permission, etc. to go. so when the kid asked my buddy he was like --/think for 2 seconds "aight."-- when i heard the story there was still that last ticket up for grabs and i was like, "i wanna go~" and that was that. post birffday treat for me, hoho.

i like odin sphere a lot. i feel like it plays out like an opera. very fitting for its theme i think! i started playing star ocean the first departure recently too. it had been sitting idly since i got it mailed to me and one day before i went to school i was like, "hmm, im doing a whole lot of nothing today..."

gaming in the closet is most triumphant.

i randomly picked up one of the many hand-me-down books in the "for international students" box this past mondy - Lady of the Forest, by Jennifer Roberson. it's a Robin Hood-ish book and ohhh man is it phenominal. im going to be super sad when im done with it cause its just so badass. it's been a long time since ive experienced this style of writing (of the super descriptive, artful type - the phrasing and structure is just so beautiful). im going to try to track down her other works!

in other book news, i finished a different hand-me-down book (got lots at my apt too) called The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. i'll be honest... i judged the book by its cover! there's a grim reaper looking dude dacing with a little girl in pigtails and the jacket background is like one of those old, effed up trasure maps. the writing style reminded me of the way i blog kind of haha. anyway it was a book about nazi germany.

anyway here i go. supper is on the range. oden time, then odin time.