Action shots!!

How about some action shots of Melissa at work?

The kid hiding his face is um, ACTIVE but this past week, we had a GREAT CLASS. So, hoping the good behavior continues.

Naomi loves yelling at me to stand up straight. I was explaining this phrase to my students and I posed as a joke -- and she somehow managed to capture it on film. PS- my shirt is tucked into my skirt so I've got a funky granny pantie going on.... but it's my T-SHIRT.

Today, I traveled and bought a PS3! It's white. White must be THE IT color this year in Japan. I mean, the guy didn't even offer the black one.... only the white. I had to bike it home and that was a challenge. Then I set it up and configured the internet (oh I am such a genius, I love me). And then it was time to vacuum and other things. Tomorrow's entry, I will share with you the joys of ham. Yes, ham that you eat on a sandwich.

Typhoon Roke has landed

The things I do for my dad....

It's so windy and this does not give you the full effect. Plus it's blurry because well, it's raining. Really bad. I think I ruined my shoes walking home from the train station. And my apartment building has a leak in the hallway... but thankfully no rainal leakage in Melissa's apartment!!!! ..... yet. My dad just wanted to hear the typhoon.... nothing too exciting to hear, sorry Dad :/

I'm prepared for emergency!

First, I was going to write about how this woman came in with 3 little boys for a level check with the new teacher, and how I managed to keep them calm and quiet, and had the baby telling me all about Pikachu and the noises he makes which was SO CUTE.
And then I was going to tell you that my boss made me ... angry because she didn't like the lesson plans I spent an hour working on.
But finally, I thought I should share with you this:

This is Typhoon Roke, currently a Category 4. Yeah, that's a big one!! Bigger than Talas. This one WILL hit Aomori, and we have an advisory up, but EVERYONE else below has a warning. Now, I would be happy and excited and all of that -- and I am, but this is also going to directly hit Fukushima. I don't know what will happen. I can't imagine it will tear open the reactors and stuff will start pouring into the air. But the prefecture's warning contains lots of disheartening terms including: gale, storm surge, high waves, and heavy rain. Actually stopping to think of this right now makes my stomach hurt, so I'm not going to.
It'll be fine. They have it under control, it's just leakage they are struggling with right now, yeah?
I'll keep you updated as long as the power is on. Apparently the north tends to lose power because our lines are wimpy. Don't worry Mom, I have my flashlights and canned foods, water and blankets. And I can probably still call you tomorrow night on Skype on my way home from work (it's my travel night)!!
Plus, knowing my luck, NOTHING will happen and we won't even get the typhoon!

Davy Jones, Giant Squid!

Believe me, I definitely don't miss summer here.
But it sure left in a hurry.
Today, and for the NEXT WEEK AT LEAST, it will rain. Every day. This evening was the first time it stopped raining in 2 days. Our temperatures have been low - today got up to like, 60. And I tried so hard to be a tough girl, but after waking up from my mid-morning nap, I pulled out the baby heaters and cranked them. Tonight they're both set on automatic and I am sleeping in sweats. WITH SOCKS. Can't imagine how I'll be in the middle of January with a few feet of snow on the ground!
My dad finally decided to get Direct TV once I moved out (I forgot to thank you for that, Dad) and I'm trying to get a feel for the remote thousands of miles away. I HAPPILY woke up at 5:15 AM to watch the Broncos BEAT the bungles today!
YES. YEAAAAAH!!! Whoa... 'bungles' is apparently a real word. Blogger recognizes it... that's funny. Anyway, I was whooping it up at an incredibly early hour and was getting angry, but in the end, my team won and I'm happy. Bragging rights until the next time they face each other.
That's it. Japan's holiday happy this week, today was a holiday and so is Friday. That is great because it's my 3 hour business class. So, GOOD NEWS! NO WORK!!!! :)
Next post I will try to use some pictures.

Japan's rockin' itself out!!

It's been quite some time since we've had our last earthquake here in Aomori (I'm talking a few weeks, people) and the earth valiantly made up for our shake-free society earrrly this morning:
4:26am  Magnitude 6.3
6:08am  Magnitude 5.9
6:36am  Magnitude 5.7
7:41am  Magnitude 5.7
And for just FOR THE FUN OF IT, we had another one today at 4:34pm that was a Magnitude 5.6.
I am completely exhausted. Even the people of Japan, who are used to this kind of thing, all woke up multiple times early this morning. It doesn't help that most of us have our cell phones set to alert us to larger scale earthquakes - they make such a lovely, NOISY chime. This kind of occurrence is not normal. Literally, the earth just kept moving and moving. They weren't super violent, but I could hear the crap in the metal closets outside my door banging around. Only when they stopped did I know the shaking was over. Doesn't mean my body thought that way ... nearly slammed into the door on my way to the potty during/after? the first earthquake.
Please, earth.... no more tonight. I wanna sleep!!!

No life anymore.

I wish I could say I've been so busy doing great things and that I have an interesting update for you all...
but I don't.
Just work and work and more work and I'M REALLY TIRED OF WORKING ALL THE TIME. Can't wait until my parents come and I can have a nice break. Especially from my company classes... todays was actually kind of -dare I say- fun. FINALLY I'm seeing personalities and I'm loving that some of the students throw their voices when they role play conversations. Normally I'm the only one and so that makes it more fun. Plus there was one girl today who busted out her Nintendo games and we had a talk in English/Japanese. New Mario Kart December 1st (here in Japan)!!
I have also learned my days of the week:
getsuyobi, kayobi, suiyobi, mokuyobi, kin'yobi, doyobi, nichiyobi. Hah! Did that WITHOUT LOOKING!!
Nothing else is new, just been hanging out with the new guy, Jonathan.
This was kind of cool, nice sunset tonight outside of our building:

Took that with my iPhone! Pretty nifty huh?!

massive update... sorry everyone!

Time for an update isn't it?!
My business classes were pretty great. Wednesday's classes were super fun and the advanced group has some extremely well spoken individuals. Plus, a few of the guys love soccer - like me! Thursday was okay, I won't be teaching that class, and all of the men were busy, so it ended up being a private lesson with me and some pretty important guy in the company. And Friday was painful for the first hour, but it got a bit better and I even made the students laugh when we looked at a role playing exersize about how to re-act over birthday presents. Going around Japan this past week... it's indescribably beautiful. On one side of the train, I look out over a small (REALLY) small town and on the other is such a dense forest. It's really like something out of a movie.
Funny, on Wednesday, I was so terrified. And I was sitting on my train, trying not to get motion sick, when Hirosaki's stop came up... and out of the window was a massive rainbow. Just, possibly the biggest one I've ever seen. And I know WHY they appear, but I like to think it was a message from The Big Man telling me it's going to be alright. THANKS.
Our new teacher is here and he's great. He has nothing, just like me. So Friday night I took him out to dinner and today we (plus our schools secretaries) went shopping at the home improvement store... I BOUGHT A REALLY SWEET CHAIR!! It's like one of those 'on the ground' chairs for playing video games - but it also completely fits in with the Japanese lifestyle so now maybe my neck won't hurt after staring at my computer for so long. It's coming tomorrow.
I ALSO BOUGHT AN AIR PUMP FOR MY BIKE! HOORAY!! THIS SPONGE IS STILL MOBILE!!!!
PS- I also also watched the 9/11 coverage. I said I wasn't, because I watched it all like, 2 years ago and bawled my eyes out. But I felt like I had to because I'm not home this year. It was beautiful and I cried again. A LOT. I even wore black today in the memory... wishin' I was home :/