Happy Halloween!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

I know it's a day early, but still, YAY!!!! :-) I love Halloween! And I have been having a fabulous weekend to celebrate! :-)

On Tuesday, it was Joanna's birthday, so Friday night she had a dinner at her home stay family's house, and it was absolutely lovely! Her host mom made vegan tempura for me, and it was absolutely delicious, and it made me wish that I were capable of making my own tempura. I made cupcakes, and people seemed to like them, which made me happy. :-) It had been a long time since I'd made cupcakes and let other people eat them. I'm always afraid they won't like them.

After dinner, we went to karaoke, and, as usual, it was super fun. Since I might be leaving Japan in December, I've decided that I need to take advantage of awesome Japanese karaoke while I'm here and go lots and lots!

Joanna, Vickie, and Cesar at karaoke

Then Saturday, after a very hard day at work, during which I had about 30 students between the ages of 9 months and 10 years old for an hour straight in a very small classroom with no room to move - すごく大変だった! - Martin and I went shopping to find me a costume so that I could be a mormon missionary with him. I was originally going to go as a visual kei band singer, but in the end it just seemed too much like my normal clothes. So, a mormon missionary.

Me, Martin, and Miho, the Native American

We went out to dinner and then we went bowling with a bunch of friends.

It was super fun, even if I reverted back to my usual terrible bowling self. I think I must have bowled, like, 72 or something. Still, I managed to do better than Chiko and Miho. :-)

I didn't stay out too late, though, because this morning I had to get up super early to run a relay marathon I was doing with some friends.

Cesar, me, Yumi, Nathaniel

I am NOT a runner, nor have I ever been a runner, and I'm not sure that I'd ever actually run an entire 5 kilometers (= 3.1 miles) in my entire life. At the gym on the treadmill, when I make myself run, I usually go about 3 km, and then it's usually more of a fast walk than a run. Yet, for some reason, I agreed to run 5k in the relay today. I wasn't sure if I could do it, and I was certain it was going to kill me.

Somehow, though, I managed. In 30 minutes and 23 seconds. Which for me was amazing, given that I had told everyone to expect an hour, as I just knew I was going to have to stop and die many times. I only stopped to walk for water. :-)

Me after running - proof that I survived

Notice how red my face is and how slumped my shoulders are. Who knew that 5k could be so long?

I was thinking of going to a concert tonight, but running always gives me a headache, so instead I came home and got immediately into a bath so hot it hurt to touch. Wonderful!

Tomorrow, I might try to wear the visual kei costume to school, since it is actually Halloween.

So that's what I've been up to. Oh, last Saturday, I spent the entire day watching Ouran High School Host Club - I literally watched the entire season in one day. It was super rainy, so I didn't want to go out, and I fell in love after the first episode. Totally my new favorite Japanese drama. I highly recommend it. And, um, Yamamoto Yuusuke - totally hot! How did I only sort-of notice when I saw Paradise Kiss?

And then Sunday I went to one of my old students houses to carve pumpkins. Super fun! I think the last time I carved pumpkins was when I was in Montreal.

Next time, I'll try to write about the rest of my trip to the states - Louisiana and Colorado! :-)

Halloween and the Jazz Fest

So, I haven't written yet about the Hokkaido part of the trip with Guillaume, and I promise that I will, but in the meantime, other things have been going on!

First, there was Halloween. There was a Halloween party at the bar by Yamasa, and I went, but I unfortunately had to go off and have a headache for the day, so I couldn't bring myself to dress up (or even stay after 10 PM). It was fun, though, and there were some amazing costumes, but I unfortunately took no pictures. :-(

Then Sunday, on actual Halloween day, a bunch of us got together for a Halloween karaoke. It was super fun, and I actually dressed up this time!

I was a thug, and Martin was a mime!

Lauren dressed up as sort of deadish Little Red Riding Hood - her costume was absolutely AMAZING! She looked totally awesome. It made me wish I were good at costume making.

Daniel wore a fun Rilakuma hat, and Alexis unfortunately got sick and couldn't go, so she didn't get to see it. :-( She would have loved it, I think.

Vanessa and Stephen also came, though they didn't dress up. Sadness.

Neither did Wooreeh and Tan.

It was super fun. And then last weekend was the Okazaki Jazz Festival (Jazz Street), and I went on Sunday with Sandra and Carla. One of the students with whom Carla and I do French conversation gave us the tickets for free (otherwise 4000 whole yen) - super nice!

Super fun times, even though neither Carla or I are huge fans of jazz. The first concert we went to was actually in a Buddhist temple, which was an interesting experience. The second concert we went to was at the outdoor Noh theatre by the Okazaki Castle.

On our way over to the castle area, we saw a Japanese couple that had just gotten married, and they were in traditional Japanese wedding garb. It was the first time I had seen that, and I was impressed. The bride's little head thing was especially awesome.

Then there were tons of people and lots of things going on over by the castle area as well.

Thiss fun little bear/lion/cute thing was just walking around randomly. I have NO clue what he was doing, but I of course had to get a picture with him.

After the Noh theatre concert (which was actually quite good - the trumpeter reminded me of Guillaume's dad, and he had a fun story for every song they played. They also played more be-boppy tunes than jazz tunes, so I was into it!), we got to take a picture with some dudes dressed up as samurai! One of the dudes let me hold his sword, and I was a little unsure as to what to do with it.

The last concert was in the library, and even though the band was super energetic, we found ourselves falling asleepish. It's crazy how tiring watching jazz concerts can be.

Other than that, well, we had a first test of the term a little while ago, and I did super good, with only two small, slightly idiotic mistakes. Today we had our first talking test, and I have to say, I'm not feeling nearly as confident about that. Then this past Friday I started a new job in Yahagi, and I think it is going to be good. I have the CUTEST little Japanse girl twins in one of the classes.

Times have been good, though because I work Monday to Saturday, I find that I'm not having as much time as I'd like to really explore Japan. Luckily, I'm here for several more months!

And this weekend, I promise, I'll write all about Hokkaido. It was SO BEAUTIFUL there, and I'm therefore having trouble deciding which pictures to post.

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, everyone!!!! And I promise a real entry is coming soon - I have so much to update about! :-)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! / Weekend in Lyon

HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!!!!


I am SO sad that they don't celebrate it here in France. :-( I miss halloween! More than anything, I want to go trick-or-treating, but I guess at this point I am so big that the adults would all look at me funny and not want to give me candy. So I would sort of need a child to go with. But I could at least live in a neighborhood and have an awesome costume and all of the little kiddos would come trick-or-treating at my door and see my awesome costume. And then maybe the day before or something there could be an awesome Halloween festival with a (vegan) cakewalk and a haunted house. But alas, I am in France. So I guess this will have to wait until next year.

Anyhow, last weekend, Guillaume and I went down to Lyon just to see the city and to visit his friends Blondine, Anne-Laure, and Solene. Now, more than anything, my reaction to Lyon was that it was just another big French city with nothing special about it. This could be because I am sort of over big cities. The coolest thing was that there was this huge park that we walked through that had this sort of free zoo right in the middle of it. So we saw lots of cool animals!










I think my favorite thing aside from that must have been the cathedral, which was actually really cool and reminded Guillaume of Notre Dame.


I guess I can see how a little bit, but my favorite thing about it was the astrological clock inside. We just so happened to get there pretty much right on the hour, so we actually got to see all of the action. It actually sort of reminded me of the Glocchienspiel (or however you spell that) in Munich, but in miniature. Still, though, really cool.


On Sunday, a bunch of us went for a hike about an hour outside of Lyon. It was really amazingly beautiful, and I think it was my favorite part of the trip (aside from it being cold and a little bit rainy. I managed to catch a cold, which I am just now starting to get over. The only remnants for today are a sinus headache. UGH!).

But seriously, the view from the first viewpoint was fantastic and reminded me of a less amazing Lake Bled (from Slovenia - pretty much the most gorgeous place on the planet with Plitvice Lakes, Croatia in a close second).




On the hike on the way up, there were these cool caves that some French soldier guys apparently used as refuge during some ridiculous storm (according to Kenny's guidebook). That's a picture of Guillaume and I in the cave.



Then on Monday, our last day in Lyon, Guillaume and I explored by ourselves. We saw a cool fountain. And then we hiked up to this church thing. It was really beautiful and amazing, but it was also REALLY high up! After the hike from the day before, we were both glad when it was over.




After the church, we hiked a little bit more, and we came across some really cool Roman ruins. Because it was raining and a little bit cold, it totally reminded me of Rome, because when I was in Rome looking at ruins very similar to these, it was cold and raining. Also because it was cold and raining and Guillaume didn't have hood, I detached mine from my jacket for him to wear, and I have to say, it was pretty funny. It's funny thinking about how we're walking around these ruins basically just looking at old stones, but back in the day, it was a marketplace and people were there buying their vegetables.


Aside from that, we went to see the movie "Law and Order," which had Donnie Wahlberg (YAY NKOTB!!!!), Al Pacino, and Robert DeNiro in it. I LOVED it, but everyone else just thought that it was okay. We found three restaurants where we could eat. Toutes Les Couleurs, where the food was good, but WAY overpriced, Soline, where there was only one option, which was delicious, and Bar Natural, which had FANTASTIC smoothies and sandwiches. Lyon wasn't very vegan friendly, but we did alright for ourselves.

Okay, and one last thing. I know that this is already long, but my mother reminded me that there was a book I read during that time period that I forgot to write about, and since I LOVED it, and I going to do so here.

Memoir From Antproof Case - Mark Helprin
* * * * * (5)
I LOVED this book. Seriously, the only thing I didn't like about it was that there was no "an" before "case" in the title. The main character was funny and serious and quirky and extremely well-developed, and while most people would have probably thought him crazy, I sort-of fell in love with him. And understood him. And, while I never LIKED coffee, by the end of the book he had me feeling morally opposed to coffee. And now I can't stand the smell of it. This is really a book that I would recommend to anyone.