I am a nerd

Today, during my lunch break, I went to the Asheville Chamber of Commerce website's demographics section to catch up on the current economic indicators of my old home. (I love Asheville!!)
I'm sitting in Japan, thinking about Asheville...but my way of connecting with Asheville is to check the economic indicators. "oh, hotel sales are only down 1.3%" and "I wonder how much further the Asheville Airports numbers will go, given the economic downturn?" Thus, I must be declared a nerd. =P

On a completely unrelated note, I will be playing "grand golf" this afternoon with the other teachers in my school district. What's "grand golf", and what makes it different from "golf"? I do not yet know....hmmm

If anyone has been wondering how difficult it is to live in a country and not know the language let me tell you....it's WAY too EASY to get by knowing only three Japanese words: "sumimasen- excuse me, sorry, oops" "Arigato- Thank you" and "Wakarimasen- I don't understand".
Because of this, I have really been slacking on my Japanese language study. Good thing my Japanese coressepondence course has arrived...now I might begin learning Japanese. =P I hope!!

I know, I know....blogging has been on the back burner

Hello all!
Sorry its been so long since my last post. Let us see if I can quickly wrap up what has been happening since my birthday. I had my first week of school, where I did the same introduction lesson oh, about 30,000,000,000 times. =P I still have one more school to go to, my second elementary school. So, after next week, I will be officially done introducing myself and my home. Part of my intro has been to explain that I am a vegetarian. I tell them what it means and that "many people in Asheville are Vegetarian" Ha! I thought it was pretty interesting to show these kids that there are people who not only speak a different language but have completely removed, what the kids consider to be, what makes a meal a meal, meat/fish. Ha!
Moving on...the little kids are very cute, 1st and 2nd graders especially. It makes me want to be a elementary school teacher...in Japan at least. BUT these kids have yet to realize that I do not speak Japanese. As I walk the halls I get swarms of children asking me all sorts of questions in their soft spoken, yet quite fast, Japanese. Sigh. I wish I could understand them! That is just more motivation for me to study the language.
Okay...the rest of the blog will be the usual. I will share a picture and a (hopefully) brief explanation....brief because I am using my neighbors internet still.

so on my way to pick up matt in Kofu, I saw Mt. Fuji! I am not sure how well you will be able to see it, but the mountain in the background is Mt. Fuji. I was excited to finally see it. I live on the completely other side of the prefecture, so it is very rare for it the sky to be clear enough to see it.


Matt went into a store to kill some time, when we saw these great "Engrish" slippers. That's right people...it says "where are you doing?"! hee hee!



These are the promised cake pics that I took on my birthday. I was craving a Ingles or Harris Teeter style cake. But, alas, there aren't any of those places near our home here. To get a real birthday cake here, you have to order pretty far in advance from what I understand. These three slices of cake were a nice substitute, but still not the same. =P

Here it is! one of the famous cigarette vending machines. This one requires a certain id to be swiped to get the cigs, but have no fear under aged hooligans, there are plenty of beer vending machines with out any id requirements, just pay your 200 yen and let the drinking commence! (ps. I do not condone underage drinking k? but I do think its pretty funny to see beer and cigarettes being sold like this. I have a friend who lives near a vending machine that sells eggs...eww.)

Key chains are big here. You put them on your cell phone, your Nintendo ds, your keys...etc. You find lots of these key chain machines in Japan. I thought this one was pretty funny. They are selling mos burger key chains. Mos burger is the Japanese Burger King. So if you wanted, you could have a hot dog, or a hamburger attached to your cell phone...sooooo coool! =P

Lastly, Matt and I went to Kofu to experience the "I love Kofu" Festival....really, that is what it was called...in English and everything. We ate festival food (yay pork free Yakisoba!!) and watched Taiko (Japanese drumming) on the main stage. We eventually ended up at a karaoke place. It was...interesting. =P (I can't sing)

I am in Japan!!

This will be a quick post because i am using a shared computer. I am in Japan. The flight was only 12 hours long and it honestly was not that bad. I splet through most of it which i think helped a lot. I got to the Keio Plaza Hotel in downtown Tokyo around 7pm japan time..or 6am eastern US time...keep in mind I left at 4am saturday and got here at 6am the next day crazy!!
Apparently the sun rises at 3am...which I learned the hard way since my roommate and I failed to close the blinds in our 36th floor hotel room. I have been up since 4 and I just know I will pass out due to Jet lag eventually.
Being without my husband and mom during this whole experience really stinks. I miss them both very much, but I love how the internet is able to keep us much more connected.
And now I will show you the pics I have taken since I got here..which is not much since I forgot to take pics for a while.


Other JETs I flew over with. Funny enough there were four or five of us from the Asheville area. apparently, Allie, with the long blonde hair, had calc2 with me a few years ago. Small world!!


One of the many JET helpers at the airport...which was soooooooooo humind..I have never experienced such intense humidity!!!


Traffic going into Tokyo.


Veiw from my hotel room...it looks better in person. =)

well that is all for now. I have workshops and meetings all day today and tomorrow. Then I am off to my new home!!

crazy few days

So much has happened in the past few days. Lots of big changes, that I had hoped I could go into some detail about on this blog. However, time has just been flying by and I haven't really had the time or energy to really get into how I have been feeling or what I have been experiencing. I can tell you this, Thursday was my last day at the Chamber, my first job out of college. I really will miss the people I worked with.
Friday Matt and I ran around doing last minuet errands and just enjoying the last little bit of time we had in Asheville.
I love Asheville. It really is a great place. If Matt could get a good job in the Asheville area in a few years we would definitely move back there...but the biggest hurdle to going back is, sadly, the job market for those in math or science fields. However, we have seriously thought of the possibility of moving back to Asheville at some point.
Friday night we saw the BEST Batman movie. Heath Ledger was amazing as the joker, and two face freaked me out as well... I can honestly say that movie gave me nightmares. =[ but it was soooo great.
Saturday consisted of moving...lots and lots of moving...then lots and lots more of moving...sigh. We were all exhausted by the end of the day.
Sunday and Monday Matt, kitty, and I have been in Morganton getting our cat used to her new home. I AM GOING TO MISS HER!!! Thinking about leaving her makes me want to cry. But she is doing okay and I know Matt's parents will take good care of her.
We are going to Charlotte soon so I can finally PACK!! I know I am crazy to put it off to the last second, but I really haven't had the time or all my stuff in one place to be able to pack.
So that is a quick summary of what is happening, not complete, but the main thing is exhaustion and feeling overwhelmed with so many life changes happening at once.
Sigh... I think after the next three weeks things will be a lot better. For one I will be over the jet lag and my husband will be with me again! My life is always better when I am with my husband.

Can't Sleep

I have too much on my mind. Since, you know, I'm GOING TO JAPAN in about TWO WEEKS!!
To celebrate my insomnia, I will post a cute video of my kitty cat, Smokie.