Kyoto Colors

Rafting down the Hosu River Canyon

A Traditional Japanese Inn Nestled among the Foliage.

After a nice Thanksgiving meal of roasted chicken, beef chuck roast, and mashed potatoes & gravy with several of the other JETs on Wednesday, it was back to school.  You see, Japanese thanksgiving day is only one day--Nov. 23--and if it's on a weekend, well, too bad.  Nothing like the extended break we enjoy in U.S. schools.  So, the highlight of the week was Saturday's trip to Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, to see the maples turn and the colors of fall explode.  We were not disappointed--it was absolutely beautiful scenery and would have made for a pristine, romantic get-away had we not been accompanied by tens of thousands of Japanese with a few hundred foreigners thrown in. It was like being at an outdoor night club that had been filled to 150% capacity.  If we were careful, we could slip into a spot along the roped off garden and snap a picture of one of us, making it appear as if all were calm and quiet.  Luckily, we decided to skip visiting more temples in exchange for a ride in a vintage train along a private railroad hugging the side of the Hosu River Canyon and to follow that ride up with a two-hour rafting trip back down the river.  I wouldn't recommend taking children to Kyoto in the fall for leaf viewing or in the spring when the cherry blossoms or in bloom, but I certainly hope ours remember more than being packed into subways and shuffled around throngs of people; I hope they remember that they walked among the fiery maples of their mother's homeland awash in the cascade of Kyoto colors.

Skills Development Conference

Well, this past week included the Skills Development Conference, which was thankfully a lot better than the first professional development experiences I had to endure in August.  The presenters were much better and the presentations were infinitely more useful. There's still plenty of room for improvement, though. 

We rented out a large room in the community center for the kids' birthday party, and since it rained all day, we're glad we did. My wife had ordered a cake that used some kind of laser technology to print a picture of the kids right onto the frosting--although I was a bit freaked out at having to carve up my children's faces just to get a sugar fix. 

Sunday's weather was sunny, but windy, and things are definitely cooling down, but it has yet to drop below 40 degrees for the overnight low, so things aren't too bad yet.  Unfortunately, the apartment is encased in uninsulated concrete and we have single pane windows and sliding glass doors on the balcony, so it's colder inside than it should be. 

This week we'll be renting out the same room at the community center to celebrate Thanksgiving with some of the other ex-pats around town.

The Week in Review

Not a bad week, all in all.  School went well.  Even the class with the little "F-You" girl went off without any hitches.  My back is getting better and is at about 90% or so.  Saturday morning was spent on the phone with relatives and a close friend of mine.  Then, it was off to China Town with my kids and a friend of mine so that my wife could do housework in peace and have a few hours to herself.  This wasn't my best idea ever, though, as China Town was packed with tourists, and we ended up walking around Sannomiya for a couple of hours.  The kids drove me nuts--first, by whining, and later, by running around wild.  Who'd of thought a four-year-old and a six-year-old wouldn't enjoy walking around for miles looking at shops! 

Today was much better.  I started off with a trip to the gym, then ran a couple of errands, before taking the kids to the park, where they entertained themselves for over two hours with a group of six or seven Japanese kids.  They played tag and hide-and-go-seek and seemed to have a pretty good time running around until the sun began to go down and things cooled off.  It was good to seem them communicating and interacting comfortably in Japanese.  Now it's time for baths and bed and the week ahead.

Universal Studios Japan

Universal Studios Japan

Jurassic Park

Mechanical Musical Show 

Last week was a busy one: I had my official evaluation on Halloween, which went well, thankfully.  Then we decided to spend two days at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka to celebrate birthdays.  Unfortunately, my back went out on me Friday morning before we left, but I took a couple of muscle relaxers and was feeling pretty good by the time we arrived, so I decided I would go on the rides with my kids.  Bad idea.  After the third ride I was feeling it--of course it was late afternoon by the time we finished the third ride, so we simply took in some of the shows and staked out a spot for the evening light parade, which my daughter absolutely loved.  The next morning brought rain and more back pain, and I'd unfortunately misplaced my muscle relaxers and couldn't find them after lunch (we later discovered them that evening buried in the suitcase), so I took off for home early by train because I could stand the entire way.  I knew if I walked around on a cool damp day and then sat on the bus for the ride home, I'd seize up.  So I spent Saturday night and Sunday morning at the chiropractor before finally scoping out an orthopedic doctor on Monday evening--this was good because HE could actually provide me with drugs.  Natural therapy is great when your healthy, but...  Anyway, here it is on Tuesday, five days later, and I'm finally coming around.  As for our trip to USJ, I think the kids had a pretty good time, but when asked to tell their grandparents what they did, they "couldn't remember"!  Well, I certainly won't forget, I have my back and my wallet to remind me!

School Culture Festival

Today is Monday, but I've got the day off in exchange for working the school's culture festival on Saturday.  My school is unusual in that it actually had three separate days of activities because the 7th, 8th, and 9th graders are kept separated at all times to avoid behavior problems.  On all three days though, there was an opening ceremony, followed by a class chorus competition (Each class sings two songs, one of which is the same for all classes, and one of their choice; they are judged upon their performances--my YouTube channel has a clip of students singing "Country Roads".) In the afternoon, a few students read essays or put on a short play.  Then the teachers perform a comedy skit for the students, after which the bass brand plays and the closing ceremony takes place. Then, we teachers go out in the evening to eat and drink in celebration of having pulled it all off without having had to strangle anyone!

Now that the culture festival is finished and the sports day is a month past, things are supposed to settle into a more routine schedule.  Hopefully, this means I'll have a predictable pattern of classes and will get to know the students a bit better...

A Busy Weekend

This weekend was fairly busy and mostly entertaining. Hiro, a former exchange student came to visit us on Friday evening, and we spent all day Saturday at a small festival celebrating the bloom of thousands of Cosmos flowers on a hillside at a nearby park.  There was a bit of food and entertainment provided--you can see a couple of the Japanese Taiko drumming performances on my YouTube channel--rodgottula.

On Sunday, we went to an Indian festival and ate loads of good curry, nan and tandoori chicken. There was Indian music and dancing, and a huge flea market surrounding the park as well.  Because East Indian culture is not very well known in Montana, it was a great opportunity for the kids to see some stuff they'd never seen.

Finally, Monday was a national holiday here, so we went to a little festival put on by the design university just up the hill located behind our apartment complex.  They, too, had tons of food booths and lots of arts and crafts activities for the kids as well as live music and a Power Rangers skit to entertain the kids.  We spent about three hours there before going to Harborland to meet some relatives, who happened to be in town, for dinner.  So, all in all, a pretty busy weekend.

A Good Sports Festival

Finally--a good sports festival day!  The weather was beautiful: sunny, about 75 degrees with a slight breeze.  My son's elementary school had everything well organized, from reserving sections for parents behind each grade level (so they could easily watch their child interact) to ensuring that no group of kids was sitting for more than about 45 minutes.  They had lots of different activities for the kids, like camel fights, various sorts of silly races, and human pyramids--all designed to maximize cooperation between students within, and across, grade levels.  They also opened up a small gate between the athletic grounds and the park adjacent to them, so that students and their parents could enjoy picnic lunches on the grassy hillside. They even had the parents involved, competing against each other in a tug of war, after lunch.  For me, personally, it was nice to witness and participate in a fun, well organized event that was actually focused more on "enjoyment" than on one's ability to endure extreme weather or long periods of boredom. And, finally, the dog days of summer are over, which makes everything a bit easier to appreciate and enjoy...