A Loose Monkey!!!!!!

I knew living in Japan would be different but nothing tops today.  We were eating lunch when an announcement was made over the intercom in Japanese and one of the students in my room ran to the window and shut it and locked the door.  I was thinking, "What the heck is going on?" Finally they made an announcement in English and they said there was a monkey running loose on school grounds and that we should shut our windows and doors!  Of course, all of the students went to the windows to look to see if they could see it but it never surfaced before I went home.  During duty after school some of the Japanese teachers were holding some big black thing that looked like an oversized flashlight.  I asked someone what it was and they said it shoots out a net to capture the monkey if it charged you.  Boy...I sure felt safe NOT having one.

A loose monkey!

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Best Friend

I had an amazing birthday! And my best friend Adam sent me the best present(s) ever! Beans and tortillas to make burritos, skittles (my favorite candy), Vortex gum (my favorite gum), and a letter from my theater family. I love Adam! He's the best friend I've ever had! :)

Scavenger Hunt

Today, Alex had us go on a Scavenger hunt around the neighborhood.  He gave us directions and we had to ride to the locations.  The tricky part was Alex had imputed three places in my Maps App on my Iphone and it was hard for me to ride the bike and look at my phone at the same time.
Had a little help from Alex and after answering the questions and putting in the final answer, which was "Alex", I came in first!  Januck got lost and Rachel could not answer one of the questions. " Who is Superman's arch rival? "
It was fun and now we are thinking of making a Polikaitis' Scavenger Hunt and inviting coworkers over to play.
Joanna

Alex's Birthday Present

We think Alex liked his birthday present.

Happy Birthday Alex! 15 years old!

We took Alex out to dinner for his birthday There is a place called Yakiniku King, or BBQ King and they have all you can eat so Alex filled himself up. It's really cool because they have a touchscreen menu that you order from and then they bring it to your table.  Oh, I forgot to mention that you have 100 minutes to order food, including desserts!

This was our BBQ pit.

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Typhoon Roke again

Well, when we woke up everything was back to normal.  There was some slight damage around the neighborhood and when we came home last night, there were some metal sheets on our porch with a note in English saying that it was from our house.  I went out today and sure enough, on the corner of the roof there were pieces missing.  We really appreciated our neighbor making an effort to write in English!

This is the shed that moved off its base and was banging against the window.  You can see the decorative bars on the window that helped it from breaking.

This is our neighbor's shed in the waterway behind our house.

This rice field had a lot of rice plants blown over.  We saw some where the whole field was leveled.

The fence at the Toshiba plant that we pass going to and from work was blown over.

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Hello Roke!!!!!!!

Wow!  Roke is here and isn't very happy! There's nothing like seeing rain traveling horizontally.  Luckily our house is equipped sliding shutters that cover most of our windows.  There are a few that don't have covers and we just saw our neighbor putting tape across his windows

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Flash forward a few hours because I was called away from the computer and then we had power problems where the power would go off and then back on.  The computer shut down and I thought it would be best to leave it off.  We then had to close the shutters in the family room because we could see the sliding doors bending inward with each gust of wind.

It has started to settle down and is not as windy but for awhile, we were getting concerned.  We saw a shed from our neighbor's yard that had blown up and over a fence and into a water channel.  All of the stuff in the shed was blowing around their yard.  We have a somewhat large metal shed next to the house and Joanna started to notice it moving.  At one point she said it was blowing over and hitting the decorative bars over the window.  I went out to check and it seemed fine but suddenly a long plastic piece from somewhere in the neighborhood went flying by my head and a gust of wind almost blew me over.  I sure got inside quickly.  I thought Joanna was just imagining it but after awhile, I could see the top of the shed hitting the bars and coming close to the window.  Luckily, it banged around awhile but never did any damage.

We'll see if there was much damage tomorrow when the sun comes up and I'll post our findings.

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Interesting Products

I love how the Japanese use English.

I snapped this one on the train.  Why would you call a drink Pungency?  I want to buy one just to smell and taste it.

The department store had a Happy Pack!

Uh...okay...

Mmm. Yummy treats!

Can't wait to go there!

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The Typhoon Cometh

Well, we found out today that our three day week would be shortened because of the typhoon that is headed our way.  We have had a lot of rain and we know that it will be increasing in the next 12 hours or so.  Bummer that school is canceled but we'll have to go with the flow.

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Field Trip to Tokyo!!!

     Last Monday during class we were told out of the blue that we were going to take a field trip to Tokyo on Friday. Everyone was so excited to go and mainly for one reason... STARBUCKS! I have never seen a group of people so eager to go somewhere just for Starbucks. However, I was very excited to go because I have only been to Tokyo two other times.
     On Friday we took the shinkansen, or bullet train, (which was so cool) to Tokyo. Once we got there we had to switch trains twice and then walk to the science museum, which was the first part of the field trip. The science museum was a very neat place. After that, we went back to the station to eat lunch. When we were free to go where we wanted, there was a mad rush to Starbucks. My group got Starbucks then went somewhere else to eat, but a lot of people just stayed in Starbucks the whole time.
     After lunch was done we headed over to a college fair. The walk there was awful because it was all uphill and it was so hot! Once we got there I went to a couple different college booths. However, there was no air conditioning and we were in our hot uniforms that we all had to sit down and couldn't bear the heat anymore. So, we ended up leaving the college fair early. Of course we had two more opportunities to get Starbucks before we left and many people did. We do not have a Starbucks anywhere close to us so this trip was a real treat.
      Overall, we had a fantastic field trip and I had so much fun! I am really starting to fit in with my class and am enjoying the time I spend with them.

Rachel :)

Another Frog?

I know I know. Why another frog picture? Because they are so COOL and they keep popping (or hopping) up everywhere.  I went out to get the paper this morning and this little guy was on our mailbox.

I forgot to publish this one awhile back. This one was near our door.

It is hard to see this one but it is on the handle to the gate to our house.

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Mt. Fuji

There's nothing like riding home from the store and seeing Mt. Fuji above us.  There is something very beautiful about it.  It is interesting because the Japanese people call it Fuji-san where san is used for a person.  They treat it with great reverence.  I can't wait until it is covered in snow!

CORRECTION! : A friend of ours in Japan corrected me about using san in Fuji-san.  It turns out that san can also mean mountain.  Now I know. Thank you Mika!

 From our bike ride home.

Rachel checking it...I mean him...her?...out.

Alex took this one.  He's quite good at taking pictures.

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Making Words

I played making words with Spelling Lesson 25 with my students. They had 3 vowels and 7 consonants to make words with.  It was fun to watch them try to make words.  First, they used Spelling words and then they started looking around the room.  They asked if they could use the dictionaries and readers in the room.  Then they read their lists in front of the class.  It was fun to see them so excited about finding words in English!

Joanna

Mosquitoes Galore! :O

Yesterday, September 17, was a Saturday and I had to go to school. There are only 3 periods on Saturdays so that's the good part. Whenever my class has a class in Japanese, I do self study. Therefore, I had self study, self study, and P.E. So yesterday was pretty much pointless. My class has been playing a game with the mosquitoes where whenever we catch a mosquito, we write the number of dead mosquitoes on the board. In class, even some of the teachers are participating. haha. In three days, we caught 226 MOSQUITOES!!! There are so many mosquitoes here... ugh! But I like our game, so I'm fine with them. Rachel hates them because her legs look like a porcupine attacked her. All in all, there are Mosquitoes Galore.
-Alex :)

We need to update this soon!

Of course, once you get busy you tend to prioritize things and I guess our blog slipped through the cracks.  Luckily we have a three day weekend so we can update this.  Thanks again for reading our blog.

Bye, Bye Bus!

Today was hysterical! Rachel and I were at the bus stop, ready to get picked up, when we see our bus full of students from our school. Okay, it's going to stop. NOPE! The bus zooms past like we weren't even there. Rachel goes ballistic and immediately call our parents. "Calm down, Rachel. Let's just walk," I say. Rachel refuses and takes off towards my parents' school. My mom, on the phone, tells Rachel to just walk. Great minds think alike. Rachel is nervous and scared and who knows what else but finally, she gives in and we start walking. Up the hill we go for a half an hour with a lot of bickering, in the rain. Rachel tells me, halfway up, that her shoulder hurts so I take her bag for her. We finally get there and we run to our seats just, can I say just, just in time. I'm sweating like crazy, just thankful that we made it.
-Alex

Summer Time is Over!

I, Alex, went to a summer camp two weekends ago with my class and another class. It was the most fun I've had in a while. We had to complete seven activities throughout the four days we were there. No matter if they were role plays, scavenger hunts, or even campfires, I still had fun. It was also exciting to see the Japanese people using English with their presentations and role plays. I know it was tough for some of them, but in the end, it's the thought that counts. Being able to tell scary stories and share different ideas to total strangers that I just met was also very interesting and fun. We had laughs, played different games, and sang many songs. I would definitely do it all over again if I had the chance because it was an amazing experience.
-Alex

The Mall Arcade

This claw machine has ice cream as a prize.  I looked closely and the inside is a freezer. So cool!

There were many machines with candy as a prize.

Rachel spent ¥100 on this game and ended up with one piece of chocolate.

We played Air Hockey too and were watched by some Japanese children.

¥Joanna¥

Nightly Bath

Okay, so I remember as a kid how we used to take a bath at night and how great it was to end the day that way.  For some reason, we started taking showers in the morning to get ready for the day.  In Japan, they all take nightly baths.  When we lived here before, I never really took a bath at night but since we've been back, Joanna and the kids have convinced me to take a bath at night.

In Japan, you fill the bath and the pecking order goes from oldest to youngest (Yay, age pays off) and you all use the same bath water.  So before you bathe, you wash yourself before you go in and then you sit in the water which is very hot.  I can't remember being so relaxed. I am so glad they convinced me to start taking a bath (ofuro) at night!

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My First Day of School!

    Yesterday was my official first day of school. We had to get dressed in our uniforms then walk to the bus stop in the pouring rain. Alex and I got to the bus stop about ten minutes early and had to stand in the rain. Finally our school bus came and I was able to find my friend on the bus. Thankfully I had summer school for four days and Alex had summer camp so we already knew our classmates. First period we had an earthquake drill and it was so hard to get under the small desk. My classmates and I were laughing when thinking about Alex having to get under the tiny desk. Next period we had to go to a school assembly where we had to sit on the gym floor, in a straight line, for forty minutes. I could not understand a word anyone said in the assembly and we did a lot of bowing. When the assembly was done my legs were so sore!

     Then, we had CLEANING! Yes, we had to clean our classroom for an hour. My job was to clean the tops of the lightbulbs and to clean the top windows. After, we had an assembly with all the English immersion classes. We were introduced to everyone and Alex and I had to say a speech. I was so nervous but of course Alex did an awesome job and made everyone laugh the whole time. We had regular classes after that but were told that we don't have school tomorrow because of the typhoon. One day of school and then a three day weekend, that sounded good to me!

     After school we had to take the public bus home and it was totally packed with kids that it seemed like we could not move at all. Then when we had to get off at our stop. We had to push through everyone to get out. Overall it was a great day and I know I am going to love my school and my class. Even though we got stared at the whole entire day I think we will fit in fine! I am really looking forward to this upcoming year.

-Rachel :)

Finally Mt. Fuji

We finally had a break in the rain and were walking to work when we finally saw Mt. Fuji.  It doesn't have any snow on it so it doesn't look as nice as in the winter but it is still really cool.  It is partially blocked by our local mountains but you can't miss it.

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The First Day of School for the Kids!

Of course it rained heavily on the kids' first day of school but they were ready.  They each had to give a two minute speech to the student body and both did great.

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Another Bad Boy Spider

We keep seeing this guy when we go to our local Wal-Mart.  We can't believe that no one has messed with his web.

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