I went to visit the Demise's in Kanazawa for Thanksgiving (my old host family). Noone here understands Thanksgiving, so it was a bit of a disappointment (and no turkey to boot), but at least I was able to spend the day with family. I had a great time in Kanazawa. My host father took a few days off work and we ran around to art museums and viewing the koyou (changing colors of the leaves). It was awesome. We also went to an amazing temple called Natadera. They carved cave temples into the rocks and we had to climb around steep stairs also carved into the rocks.

If anyone is interested in experiments on growing mold, Japan is the place to come. After only 3 days away I returned to find at least 5 different kinds of mold growing in my refridgerator. ewwwww.

The Japanese also don't believe in public trash cans, which is very upsetting when one is sneaking around in the middle of the night in the rain trying to find somewhere to put one's moldy food. After 10 minutes I found a trashcan in a park. Ha ha ha.

Sometimes I think I might go crazy because although I am teaching all day, I don't really have many conversations (in English) that don't involve It's a book/It's a tree/It's a kite. I watch a decent amount of Cnn, Columbo and Night Rider though. Ha ha ha. That substitues for speaking English right? Cheesy sitcoms. I guess I just miss intellectual conversation.

Fukui is an interesting city. It is fairly small, around 250,000 people, but because it is more condensed than say Reno, for example, it feels bigger. There are buses and trains and the strangest cable cars that are entirely unlike San Francisco cable cars. I'm a little scared of them. Also the rail tracks in the middle of the roads are not terribly pleasant on a bicycle (or in heels for that matter). The city has a river running through the middle, with bridges every half mile or so (sometimes less than that). There are beautiful cranes and herons that stand peacefully in the river, making it very picturesque. There are also 2 bike paths along the river, one at the river level and one a bit higher on the bank. Fukui has random little pieces of art hidden in the most obscure places. There are bronze people sitting on random benches-- one is playing a flute, another reading a paper, and one pair stares stoically at a building (although if they turned around they would have a much better view of the river). The sidewalks are wide and well kept (which helps with all of the bikes and pedestrians that clog them). The town was obviously well planned and thought out, which makes it a very pleasant place to live.

This morning I was watching London cnn and it showed a live clip of Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi being re-elected in Parliament. So I flipped to channel 15 and watched it live. I love that I can do that. Every evening I watch American Morning before I go to bed, and in the morning I watch the evening news in America. I love cnn.

Sometimes in a movie you will see a character in a scene that is perfect, and wish that you could be in a scene like that. But it occured to me yesterday that perhaps those characters don't realize they are in a perfect scene. Yesterday I was riding my bike around, and as I zipped around a mini coupe then narrowly avoided a toyota and sped off down the sidewalk it occured to me that I was in one of those perfect scenes that you see on TV. Surrounded by signs in a foreign language and the only foreigner in sight, it really felt like I was in a movie for a minute.

Several complaints:
1) My office failed to mention that a new student was added until I received a call at home during my lunch break telling me that Saki was waiting for her lesson. I arrived 10 minutes late and had no lesson prepared. I suppose it is my fault though for not checking th3e schedule, but it was only my second day and I am still getting use to things.
2) The Japanese have the most ridiculous recycling system ever. I am not making this up: Every Mon and Thur is burnable trash (of course the Japanese and I define what is burnable as very different- I think everything is burnable if you burn it for long enough). The 2nd and 4th Friday of every month is non-burnable trash. The 1st, 3rd and 5th Friday of every month is plastics (I'm not sure how they differ from non-burnable yet). The 1st Wed of every month is for batteries and glass bottles. The 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month is for cans. The 4th Wed. of every month is for paper boxes, the 3rd Wed of every month is for plastic bottles. I'm going insane trying to remember all of this. You also have to put the trash into special bags that you buy at the store and you must write your name and apartment number on the bags, and place them on a street corner between the hours of 7-9am. If there is anything wrong with the bags (you put plastic in a non-burnable bag, or paper boxes in a burnable bag) they will return it to your front door and you are out of luck. I believe in recycling, but this is going overboard.

OK, now that my complaints are out of the way-- I am having a wonderful time! I love my classes. The teaching methods they taught us seem very effective, and are a lot of fun. We reinforce everything with games, so in a 50 minute lesson we will play at least 6 games (more for the younger kids). I also sing a lot of songs with the younger kids (Here we go arond the mulberry bush again for the 50th time today).

Sunday I rode my bicycle home in the rain. I was trying to carry my umbrella and steer a bicycle while it was raining, in the dark. I managed to not hit anyone, but only because there was noone to hit that late at night. I imagine that I looked a bit like a circus clown the way I was veering around. Honestly though, it was a lot of fun. Monday night I decided to just get wet and forget about the umbrella. I also found the 100 yen store (which is similar to dollar stores in the US) but I must say that the amount of stuff and the quality really puts American dollar stores to shame.

I have talked to both of my host families on my new cell phone, and will be going to visit them soon. I am excited to see them again. I am excited that I got to talk to them. I'm excited just to have my phone ring (hint hint). =)

The last week has been crazy. Wed/Thur/Fri I was miserably sick. But my faith in Japanese medicine has been restored because I am feeling better and not in a Dayquil-just-covering-the-symptoms way, but actually healthy. They added an additional class for me at the last minute, I am teaching one of the other teachers because she has an English oral interview coming up. It is really fun, because her English is already so good. Today I had to critique a prospective teacher on her model lesson. It is really hard being so new myself, to offer a lot of criticism. The kids are a lot of fun though, and I'm starting to be more comfortable. Although 10 hour work days are a killer in the beginning.

I am learning how to cook Japanese food! Last night I made miso soup from scratch and used tofu and it was actually edible. Of course the teachers at my school had to tell me 3 times what to add, but it worked.

I love my bike so much! I don't know why I didn't ride bikes all the time in DC. Of course here you can ride on the sidewalk, but it is wonderful. The bike path to my apartment is on the river and is lined with old knarled cherry blossom trees that make it feel very private and secretive almost. I think on my days off I am just going to ride up and down that path for hours.

My new goal is to meet other foreigners in the area, so I have been walking up to anyone who doesn't look Japanese and introducing myself. I met Katie from Australia in Seattle's Best Coffee Shop and two other women from Sydney in Blue Light Cafe. Noone wants to be the first person to approach a stranger, but I will never get to know people around here otherwise. That is part of what I like about moving, I can start over, even in my mind. So while in DC I would never walk up to strangers and say Hi I'm Carissa. Here I can do that because it's part of the new me.

I got a new cell phone! It has a camera and e-mail and everthing else you can think of! The number (for those of you who want to call me) is: 090-1394-2544.

Sunday we said good-bye to eachother and got on trains taking us to various parts of Japan. It was sad leaving training, but we were all too excited about seeing where we were going to live and work for the next year to be too upset. I had to change trains in Kyoto and someone was supposed to meet me on the platform, but there never showed up. So there I was, trying to figure out the payphone, with only one telephone contact number. I finally got ahold of someone, and 3 hours later someone else showed up to get me. It could have been worse, I could have not spoken any Japanese. As it was I made friends with some little old ladies sitting next tome and have a great time. My assistant manager, Miyuki, was supposed to pick me up, but she had been waiting outside the station and I was given specific directions not to move from the platform. We waited an additional hour for a train to Fukui (standing the whole time-- why don't the Japanese believe in sitting on thr ground I ask you!), then we had to stand on the train for an hour and a half on the train to Fukui. At the station my manager, Yuki, and the teacher I am replacing, Melanie, met me. They took my to my apartment, which might possibly be the definition of shoebox, and then to a restaurant named Salut (great pasta and a pottery shop) then grocery shopping and back home. The apartment has one room, which serves as bedroom/living room/dining room. My futon takes up most of the free space when I put it out. The front hall serves as a foyer, pantry, laundry room and kitchen. (forget counter space, if I need to chop food I do it on the washing machine). The kitchen consists of a half-fridge, a tiny microwave that doubles as an oven and toaster, a rice cooker, a sink and one burner. I have a balcony to dry my clothes that would fit maybe 2 people. It sounds bad, and the first night I was shocked that it was so small, but I'm starting to get use to it. I don't have any friends to invite over anyways. Everything in the apartment is new and very clean, so it shouldn't be too bad.

Monday I watched Melanie teach and tried teaching a class myself. The class I taught didn't go very well, which made me evern more nervous. The office is also very small. I am going to work 10 hour days 4 days a week, then have 3 days off. I'm not use to the 10 hours a day though, so I am still exhausted. I will be working with a British guy named John, but he is at follow-up training so I haven't met him yet. Melanie and I went to an adorable little coffee shop around the corner from the office called Moji. It is very simple and modern, but incredibly peaceful. I can picture myself going there regularly for lunch or coffee.

Tuesday went better than Monday. I taught a class that went very well. I stuck to the lesson plan, didn't run over time and the kids seemed to have a good time. I don't know why I am so nervous and scared. I love all of the kids (mostly), and love talking and playing with them outside of class. I think that I am mostly concerned about sticking to the lesson plan and making sure that they are learning enough. Tuesday night Melanie and I cooked some spaghetti in the apartment and sat around talking. I think that we would be very good friends if she were staying. Unfortunately she can't stay because I am taking her job. She has been so nice so far though, organizing things for me, introducing me to her friends, and explaining everything to me. After dinner we met a co-worker Yuki (not the manager, I actually work with 2 yukis) at a bar around the corner from the apartment called Bear's Bar. It reminds me of an English Pub (other than the Japanese people and the Karaoke machine in the corner).

Today I re-learned how to ride a bicycle, and I am proud to say that I didn't crash into anyone (although there were some close calls, I haven't ridden a bike in 6 years). There is a beautiful bike path along the river near the apartment. Tomorrow I am going to ride the other direction and see where it goes.

Funny news from home- The FBLA club I started at McQueen apparently still exists (I'm not sure why though) and they sold sushii at the craft faire. Seems like an appropriate choice.

I am having a fabulous time at training. We were able to watch a real class on Wed., teach real students on Thursday, and we are going to have more real students today. Last night a bunch of us made a wonderful spaghetti dinner complete with garlic bread and cheap red french wine. I'm sad to leave all of the other trainees tomorrow when we go to our schools. It has been so much fun to be around a lot of people, who I think I have a decent amount in common with. They are people who want to teach children, moved to a foreign country, and Japan specifically. Starting tomorrow there won't be anyone sitting in the kitchen at 6am to keep me company when I wake up from jet lag. Tonight I think that we are going to dinner and then Karaoke for a big last night!