Update for the peeps.
Lets see, what's been going on with me....
Well, last weekend I went to Minami's culture festival out at some convention type place in Morioka. It was a fun time, seeing all the student's artwork, watching a tea ceremony and listening to the brass band play. Afterwards, I went out with one of my JTEs, meeting his wife and daughter, and seeing their new house. This JTE is an... interesting one. He's always very intense about random things, and I have yet to quite get a handle on where he's coming from most days. I agreed to have dinner with him and his family, though, and so they took me home after the festival.
On the way we stopped at their new house, which they're planning on moving in to next weekend. They had some color patterns to pick out or something, so I played with their daughter while they had hushed conversations with other people in business suits. The girl was fun though, and just learning hiragana/katakana, so we played with my flashcards. This experience just reinforces my thinking that working in an elementary school would be a blast. They eventually finished, though and so we went back to their apartment, where I had my first experience making okonomiyaki, a sort of cabbage and meat pancake. It was fun, and they were very filling.
After dinner they asked if it would be okay to take me to one of their Buddhist meetings before driving me home. Not wanting to inconvience them I said it was fine. That too was an interesting experience. It seemed like the Buddhist equivalent of a bibal study/support group, with them talking about random things within the past week and I'm pretty sure they did some sutra referencing as well. There was also chanting. All of this taking place, of course, in one gentleman's living room. It was a taste of Japanese culture that I don't think many people get, actually. Or at least that I hadn't heard of before.
Sunday I went out to see American Gangster with Sarah, Stephanie, and Bryan, all of whom, convienently enough, are going to be in my D&D game, which is finally getting off the ground. The movie wasn't that great, but the company made up for it, and the planning, the planning... Our first session, hopefully, will be next Saturday, and so I've got something to keep me busy at work.
Work itself, though is a puzzle at times, as the students have had their final exams but still have classes until the end of the month. What am I supposed to teach them about if it really doesn't matter in the long run? So I've been using my first years as guinea pigs for when the new class arrives, practicing games and such. I also think next week I'll do some sort of attempt at a story class. Just to see how if flys.
Tomorrow I head up to Hachinohe for Ra's B-Day and Thai food! And that's what's up with me.