Weekends

As my time here whittles down, I am trying to burn the images of this place in my mind. I want the beauty of the Japanese countryside burned into the back of my eyelids. I've heard that it's painful and that you can't really see anything on the back of your eyelids anyway. Maybe I'll just take pictures.

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Chris and I went fishing after school and he caught this monster. We are such anglers, Poseidon's knuckles are whitening as he clinches his trident in jealousy.


I brought my camera to school one day during the week because I only had a few classes. I love these flowers.


LSU flowers!


This lizard dared me with his over-the-shoulder stare. He looked to be a rough customer.


This past weekend we ventured to Miyazaki. We stopped in a town called Nobeoka, which felt smaller than it was. After a night of karaoke, we woke up early to go scuba diving. Miyazaki was incredibly beautiful but the weather was rainy so I didn't get many pictures.


A mountain road in Miyazaki.


Tim and Eric laid on the beach to "untan". That's when you lay out on the beach when its completely overcast and the possibility of a storm paces around the edge of the sky and your skin becomes whiter. The beach was still really beautiful.


This weird cave thing was on the other side of the beach. I think it'd be cool to camp inside, but its roped off. No fun allowed.


On the side, Tim models for Nutella.


So at the one of the elementary schools I go to, the school with 16 kids, the teachers photograph everything. I brought my laptop this time so I could steal some of the pictures. This is what I look like teaching.


And how about my hot pants?! They are track pants which for some reason pass for acceptable work clothes. We were playing the card slap game. I say "strawberry" and the kids have to slap the card with the picture of the strawberry. The 1st graders need a little help, so I hold up the picture. Gaijin-monkey!


The PRINCIPAL of the school helped me with the game. He's a ham and the kids love him.


After lunch the ENTIRE school had an 'assembly' to learn how to properly brush their little crooked teeth.


Kochosensei hovers over a 4th grader. I love this guy, he's one of the happiest Japanese men I've met.


The 6th graders scrub away. Everyone asked me if they did this in America. It's almost exactly the same thing I did in elementary school.


This is Ririka-chan. She is now my favorite student. She just looks at me and laughs, but I somehow know it's not bad. She's entertained by me, or maybe the idea of me.


That elementary school is my favorite school. It's so small but every student is extremely well behaved. They've all got bright personalities that I think would seem duller in a big school. All the teachers are great, too. I feel bad that they won't get an ALT next year.