Good day everyone! I’m about half a week behind, but I’ve got more than enough time to play catch up! The next two weeks are spring break, but since it’s Japan, I still have to come to school and look busy. I do miss American vacations when you get the WHOLE time off, and work is the last thing on your mind! 
It’s okay, though. I have a whole list of things to get done in the next two weeks, including writing a short story for my writing workshop (@ Will Reed—see, I promise I’m still writing! 
), studying Japanese (blarg!), catching up on this blog, researching about the process of a Japanese driver’s license, researching where to go after our time in Japan finishes, and more.
Last week I said how Japan is DESTROYING my Lenten promise of giving up sweets. It’s darn near impossible. Wednesday when I came to school, I only had one class during the first period. The rest of the morning, I was silently working at my desk like normal, but I was interrupted around 11:45. One of the office ladies came to get me. She took me upstairs to the home ec kitchen room where a couple of students were preparing mini parfaits. They were cutting up fruit, whipping whipped cream, and mashing chocolate for garnish. I helped them construct the little parfaits. I realized that ALL Japanese students are artists. They take even the most basic task of making parfaits and turn it into a work of art. It’s amazing. When I came back to my desk after lunch, there were mini parfaits setting on each teacher’s desk (mine pictured below) and a whole plate of cookies on the communal snack table. How am I supposed to give up sweets when everyone keeps offering me delicious treats and waiting to see if I like them???
On Thursday I went to my elementary school to see the sixth grade graduation. The gym showcased sixth grade artwork. My favorite were the posters that each student drew showing what he/she wants to be when he/she grows up (above, right). There were normal pictures: police officers, baseball players, bakers, doctors, teachers, farmers, etc, but I thought the middle one above took the cake. Apparently he wants to be Spiderman. HA! HA! A friend translated it, and it actually says “action star,” but I still think it’s really funny. It was really cute because all of the boys were dressed up in what looked like their Sunday best—dress pants with sweater vests and ties beneath. The girls looked a little funnier. They were “dressed up”, but they looked a little more like characters from a popular Japanese pop group, AKB48 (below, left). They had on short skirts with knee socks and little dark blazers with gold embellishment. I felt less awkward at this graduation because I actually knew the process of graduation and what was supposed to happen. There were far fewer tears at this graduation, but still there were many tears.
After graduation, I went to the BOE for the rest of the day. I haven’t spent a significant amount of time there since last summer. I don’t have internet there, so I spent the afternoon writing a blog and studying Japanese. I actually got three lessons done! 
That night we had scheduled dentist appointments. It has been a year since we went to the dentist, so we really needed to go. My supervisor showed us where the dentist office was in town and filled out the proper paperwork for us, but after that, we were on our own because she had to go back to work. We first got called to the back for a consultation….. conducted in Japanese. It took us a while to figure out what each question was, but they were things like “Do you have any pain?” “Do you have problems with bad breath?” “Do you have gingivitis or gum disease?” Then we went to take X-rays. It was a pretty cool X-ray machine. I watched Ian’s on the screen as he got it done. The X-ray spun around his head, and automatically the computer generated the full jaw image. The third and longest part of our appointment was sitting in the chair. They told us EACH and EVERY detail about what they were doing. Ian and I both agreed….we wished they would just do it. It was making us more confused when they tried to explain what everything was. The dentist had an English phrase book with Japanese phrases on one side and English on the other, so the dental assistant would point to number twenty on the Japanese side, and I could look at number twenty on the opposite page……”Now I’m going to remove the tartar from your teeth.” The first thing they wanted us to do was swish and spit. I can’t tell you how many times we had to do that. After each thing they did, they wanted us to swish and spit. I never really felt like they cleaned our teeth the way they do in the States, but they did show us how to properly brush and floss our teeth. HAHAHA! As she was making small round stokes over my back teeth, I was thinking that I learned how to brush my teeth in elementary school! My gosh! The dental assistant also did an under-the-gum scraping thing. They did find a cavity in Ian’s teeth, and told me to come back again for more tartar removal. Both of us are going back on Thursday, and hopefully this will be the last visit.
On Friday I woke up to the sound of pouring raining outside. In fact it poured rain ALL. DAY. LONG. It was like a little preview to rainy season. 
I usually ride my bike to school since I can see my schools from my front door, so I put on my rain coat and took off. I got maybe half a block from my house when I realized that there was no way in hell I was going to make it all the way to school in the driving rain. My tights and the front of my skirt were already soaked, so I turned around and got the car. It’s mornings like that when I’m really, really glad that my bike isn’t my only means of transportation.
Friday was the closing ceremony at school. Other than that, I had the rest of the day to sit at my desk and look busy. Ms. Fuchita told me that all of the women were going out to eat lunch that day, but I had already brought my lunch, and it was Friday, so I couldn’t eat meat, and I was a bit concerned that I might accidentally order some. Regardless, I didn’t go. At first, I thought that I was indeed being quite lame, but I actually had a really good conversation with some of the other teachers. It started off with Mr. Fujiwara asking if everyone in America has a pool. I said no, but it’s fairly common in the south. He asked if I did, and I told him that my parents did. I showed him and a few other teachers a picture of the pool, and they couldn’t believe how big it was! They asked me how many months out of the year we get to swim in it. I told them about three or four, depending. They were in shock! In Japan, they can only really swim in August. It’s hot in June, but that’s rainy season, which lasts until mid July. It’s still really hot in September, but the water is already too cool. They asked about rent prices and guns. In Japan not many people have guns. Gun control is VERY strict over here. I told them that I don’t particularly like guns, but my dad, brother, and Ian all have guns and showed them more pictures. They were amazed at the huge deer that my brother, Aaron, killed. Mr. Fujiwara asked if any of my family would come to visit me. I told him that my mother was coming in August. All-in-all, it was a really nice conversation!
I had a couple more students come and ask me what was interesting to see in California. From what I can piece together, the judo team is going to Fresno, California for a judo competition. I’ve never been to California, let alone Fresno, so I had to do some investigation. I researched where would be interesting to go and then used Google to translate it.
That gets me caught up from last week. The next blog will focus on our adventurous weekend….and what an adventure it was!!
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