Our Saturday was pretty full. There is a private after school English school in Asagiri, and several ALTs are friends with the women who run it. Therefore, we were invited to the Christmas party. It wasn’t so much of a party as an interactive talent show. We went last year, and while it was cute to watch the kids sing songs and recite English speeches, (They were amazing!! Half of my JHS kids can’t speak as well as those ES kids!!) the entire thing was 3.5 hours long……..which was a little too long in my opinion. One of my students goes to this English school, and I had no idea! I knew that she was a really good student and is always excited to see me and have English class, but I had no idea that she also goes to an after school English school. Last year we were able to passively watch, but this year we had to participate. We had to go to the stage and introduce ourselves in both English and Japanese. The kids were surprised that there were two Melissas. It was as if the concept of two foreigners having the same name was impossible! 
I know for a fact that I have a couple of kids with the same names in my classes, so I’m not sure why it came as such a surprise that two foreigners have the same name. I know that if I were in the kids’ situation, I would be thinking SWEET! That’s one less foreign name for me to remember!
Then the kids did a song and dance number, we watched a slide show, and then we were back on the stage to explain what Christmas meant to us as Americans. There was a brief break, and then the kids preformed a play. Last year the play was about Christmas things—the Nativity, a Christmas tree got thrown in there, and it ended with Christmas songs being sung. However, this year the play was about traveling the world. A few students “traveled” to different countries: Spain, Brazil, France, Tanzania, India, and England. Each time the kids traveled to these countries, the representative of the countries (another student) spoke in the native language. I tried to pick up on the Spanish, but it was thickly accented. After the play, the winner of the speech contest was announced. It was no surprise to me. The kids who won were fantastic! The boy I found especially funny. The kid had SWAG. As he got off the stage and walked back to his seat, he had such confidence and showed it. It was funny! One of the final things we did was break into groups and make a human knot. For those who aren’t familiar with this, everyone gathers in a circle, puts their right hands in, and grabs someone’s hand from across the way. The same thing is done with the left hand. Then everyone has to work together to unknot themselves. I remember playing this game in girl scouts, but I highly doubt that it would work in today’s school system. All members have to get close and personal, and with today’s sexual harassment policies, stuff like that just wouldn’t fly! When we played this game on Saturday, I’m pretty sure that I (unconsciously) sexually harassed a few kids and was sexually harassed in turn.
The program had a snow machine and was turned on during a couple of the song and dance routines. At the end of the program, the snow machine was turned on full blast, and all of the ALTs rushed forward to play in it. I’ve never played in snow machine snow before. I’m not exactly sure what the snow was made from—some said foam, some said soap. All I know is that sticking my tongue out to catch a few flakes was a bad idea. 
All of the ALTs may all be twenty-something, but we’re still kiddies at heart! I’m actually not sure who enjoyed playing in it more….us, the kids that joined us, or the respected Japanese adults taking pictures and videos of the crazy foreigners dancing and playing in the fake snow. When it was turned off, everyone gave a collective sound of disappointment, so they turned it on again for us to play in. HA! HA! Yes, we are a big bunch of fools!
That night Ian and I had a date night. We decided to take time for ourselves. Usually if we go out to dinner or do anything, we invite others to join us. Unless we are at home together, rarely to we do something with just the two of us. Originally the plan was to drive into Hitoyoshi and get dinner. However, Ian said that he didn’t really feel like it. I suggested that we go home and cook the steaks that were in the freezer. (I ordered Ian a bunch of hard-to-find-in-Japan meats for Christmas, including two filets. We were saving them for a special occasion.) Ian cooked those, and I made mashed potatoes with a box of shells and cheese that we got in one of our packages last week. Even though it was a stay-at-home dinner, we made it special. I placed a few Christmas decorations on our table, and Ian lit a couple of candles. 
Awwwwww…..
Sunday was a bright and beautiful day. Even though it was mid-December, the high that day was in the 60s. After we finished out Skype calls, we settled in for another lazy day. However, the day was too nice to waste! I told Ian that we HAD to get outside and do something. I asked if he wanted to go for a walk, but he suggested going to the park in Mizukami. We pass by it all the time and have always said that we want to go there but never have. Then I suggested the waterfalls that we always see the sign for but have never seen. Before we knew it, we had a day of adventure planned!
Our first stop was at the park. Mizukami is seriously in the middle of nowhere, yet that park was pretty cool. There were rolling man made hills that Ian and I agreed if it ever snowed a decent amount we would go sledding on. I don’t know why, but we laughed hysterically and had the best time running from hill to hill with each other. Then we discovered a trail leading into the bamboo forest. Since it was a warmer day, I was terrified that a snake might find its way to us, but luckily it didn’t. That didn’t stop Ian from making “sssssssssss” sounds and scaring me half to death a couple of times. 
The trail was a dead end, so we continued to wander through the park until we found a giant slide built into the mountainside. AMAZING!!! I knew IMMEDIATELY that I had to go on that slide. There were three landings: a short slide (maybe 100 feet), a longer slide (maybe 250 feet), and the longest slide (probably darn near 500 feet). I started off with the longer slide. Like the child that I am, I pushed myself away from the landing and whizzed down the hillside. 
So. Much. Fun!!! However, I should have thought things through. Slides in Japan are built with rollers……like what you see in an assembly line. The force of that friction against my bum wasn’t pleasant….to say the least. The next time around I took off my hoodie and rode down on that. MUCH BETTER! When I climbed the hill to slide down the longest slide, I noticed several torii, which indicate the entrance to a shrine. Once I slid down to the bottom where Ian was waiting, I suggested that we explore the shrine.
The shrine was actually rather old and broke-down, but the same pathway lead to an awesome lookout spot. We could see across our mountain valley and could pinpoint landmarks in Yunomae—Yurari onsen, the JHS, the yellow BOE, the 219, etc. It gave us a different and very interesting perspective of our mountain valley. Our final thing to do was play on the jungle gym. Of course it was made for kids….but did that stop us? NOPE!
We then drove to the waterfalls. For the past year every time we passed by the sign pointing at the road leading to the waterfalls, I thought we should go there sometime. The road took us to a very, VERY remote area of our gun. I could probably count the number of houses that we passed on one hand. We finally found the waterfalls and after a short walk to them were a bit disappointed. They were man made waterfalls—dismal to say the least. After all of that lead-up and thoughts that it was going to be wonderful, it was just water falling down a concrete wall…..dismal indeed. 
Ian said that he wanted to continue adventure time and push onward toward Hitoyoshi. He wanted to stop at the Itsuki shrine and take pictures. He went there back in June to help David and a few others film a movie but didn’t have his camera with him at the time and never went back to take pictures. I had never been there, and it was a pretty cool shrine. It’s on the top of this hill in the middle of a rice field. There are concrete stairs up, but they are STRAIGHT up…..an excellent leg workout. We stayed there until it got dark, and from there we drove the short distance to Hitoyoshi for dinner. For the second night in a row, we had a date night. Usually if we go to dinner ANYWHERE, we try to call up and invite friends, but that night it was just Ian, me, and delicious Indian food.
Alright. That’s all for now. Since today is Wednesday, that means that my work week is officially halfway over! Hurray! I’m on the downhill slope heading right for Friday, that beautiful three day weekend, and then a Christmas/New Year’s vacation to Australia. CANNOT CONTAIN EXCITEMENT!!!
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