Been a while since my last update. Not much has been going on. I have been practicing with the band for their performance this Sunday. I have been making gifts for my friend for her birthday. Then the weather has been gloomy and very rainy last night. I walked home in the heavy rain and one of my pairs of shoes is still wet. I am getting more and more excited for my London trip and i think i have planned pretty much everything that i am going to do.

had a pretty nice weekend with friends. We had okay Korean food on Friday night. Then i spent Saturday getting ready for my friends birthday party next week. Then on Saturday there was a goodbye party for an Italian guy that my friends knew. It was an okay weekend, but there was just so much food. I feel a little sick. Then Baskin Robbins had some pretty good ice cream so we had to go there.

Today is the Autumnal Equinox, and as such, we in Japan are entitled to a National Holiday. I went to play and practice with the band this morning and that was fun. Before i left for the school, i was able to call my grandmother, and she seems okay. She had a cough, but i just hope that she is doing okay otherwise with the loss of my grandfather. I am very worried about her.

Other than that i am doing fine, and i should be getting an iphone in the future, that will hopefully lessen my expenses. My last month's phone bill was 150 dollars, and i was like "wow." Kyoto had roaming charges i guess, because despite using the internet a lot, the phone calls were like 30 yen a minute, or more.

The Mona Lisa, for some odd reason i just really enjoyed this wall painting

Rainbow colored Sapporo TV Tower

Halloween Decorations. Very Comforting to see them.

Dinner tonight: dal and onions on top of quinoa with chingen and pork. Very healthy i guess.

Not too much going on today, just some classes, and then the elementary school. I am very annoyed at the disrespect and sexual harassment given to me and the teacher (the sexual harassment is only happening to me) by one class- the constant butt gropings are beyond insulting- that i do not move in the class out of fear of causing the slightest disturbance because these kids are seriously under-stimulated. Other than that i am doing fine. 

I got my monkey that i ordered last week and it was nice to see that(monkey is British for 500 pounds sterling). I am getting more and more excited every day about London.

Had a nice long weekend in Sapporo with a bunch of good friends. On Saturday night we had drinks with people from the company and that was good. Then me and Amber went to the rainbow march pre-party dance thing. It was okay i guess, but i am still almost nauseated by the combination of cigarettes and small spaces in clubs like that. Then on Sunday, there was the rainbow march parade, and afterward Amber and I went to a coffee shop to have some drinks with some of her friends, and i made friends with this awesome English person. It is always a pleasure to meet English people and to find another Doctor Who geek. Then Monday we went to Sapporo Factory for a movie and dinner. Overall a nice weekend. I have pics and i will post them later. I am also planning on getting a new phone, so it is possible that my phone number will change.

Just a nice easy day. The middle school had its school wide marathon run around the town and the local environs. I went to the other elementary schools while they were doing that. Then i went to the board of education after that for a meeting. At least i have a long weekend with Respect for the Aged Day on Monday.

The rice has been harvested and the farmers have been razing the fields all this week, so there is a nice good smoky smell in the air around here.

I transferred some money to my American bank account and it was another post office ordeal. I really dislike the difficulties i have when i need to do something at the bank here.

     The people from the Hokkaido Board of Education came today to observe a class, and it went okay i think.. I tried not to use any Japanese for the first year class that i taught, and thankfully the very loud child in the class was very conservative today at the prodding of the teacher before class. Not too stressful, but then they are talking about me in a meeting right now, because they came to see how exactly i was being used in the classroom. Then earlier this morning the English teacher and principal were talking about how it would be easier to directly hire me from the town, and i think that could be a welcomed change. Though i would feel like i would have to work harder if that happened, though maybe they would use me more. Though i would feel bad because i only want to stay for one more year after this, and to be directly hired and then quit would be sort of bad for me i think. Oh well, they probably won't change it anyway.

      I spoke to a really good friend of mine for two hours last night and it was nice to talk to them again, because it has been about 5 months since i had talked to them last. Then after peering at the journal file that i have been writing in periodically for the past years or so, i have seen how much happier and how much i have grown. Even in the past few months i noticed a physical change in the way that my writing looks. When i started it would be just text with no separation between paragraphs or anything; it would be very hard to see any type of flow from it. But now, i have paragraphs and indentations and i am trying to use much more complex sentence structures, so i guess i have matured a little since college.


     I have begun revamping my own writing system to make it a little more better put together. I have come up with two modes, a more block style one and a cursive style. I am pleased with how the cursive style turned out. My interest in tweaking it was piqued again after looking and surfing on omniglot.com. I love the site and it has loads of information on the writing systems of the world. I have included some examples below.

Had a pretty good weekend in Sapporo. Went to a friends house warming party and went canoeing on the lake in Nakajima Park. Then we had a Wii session with a bunch of people in his little room. Then we went out for karaoke. Then on Sunday i went to Otaru on the way home and went clothes shopping. I got shorts for 10 bucks, some new shoes-that i will have to wear in because the heels gave me blisters, i think i am going to make those my indoor shoes- a pair of pants, and a light jacket.

This weekend coming up should be fun with all the stuff going on in Sapporo. There is the Rainbow March and some stuff going on and then we get Monday off for respect for the aged day.

I have gotten into Jasmine Tea lately and i have found it to be very calming. I have also started Star Trek Voyager, and i am almost done with the first season. Hands down, i would go for Star Trek over Star Wars any day. I liked the next generation a whole lot more than the original series. I also am fond of some of the fan productions that have been made. Then, Captain Janeway is one kick-awesome captain that knows how to get things done.

Not much is going on for me at the schools this week. Just a couple of classes and such.

Delicious fajitas, too bad i didn't have any tortillas.

Pics from playing with the band at the carnival at the old folks' home in town. It was fun.

Matsuri pics from this week's Matsuri. This was the rowdiest that they got. Not too overdone like the naked festivals in other parts of Japan. Very tame.

Pumpkins near the Roadside Station in Niseko-aka the best farmer's market i have ever been to. Basically a buck per pound or less for most vegetables. 

Yo-yo's and Mount Yotei.

Not much has been going on at the schools this week with field trips for the second and third years and the town festival going on. I put up pictures from the band thing that i played at last weekend. It was fun.

I think i got rejected from the credit card that i applied for that would basically have been my visa debit card linked to my bank account, as per how Japanese band cards work. I will check on it when i go to the post office next time since there was multiple meanings for the one thing they had in the letter they sent me, either that they will wait on it or that they had passed on issuing me a card. I will have to just transfer money to my bank account in the US and deal with all the fees and rate exchanges so i can pay for my hotel and musical tickets for New Years in London. It is so difficult sometimes with money and all this stuff and getting rejected because i am a foreigner, most likely, for a card.