Home again, home again, jiggity-jig.

We have returned! Returned to our cozy apartment in Japan. It is nice to come 'home.'

Here's our travel route:
Thailand: Bangkok - Phuket - Bangkok
Taiwan: Taipei - Chaiyi

We were gone a total of 18 days, used two currencies, passed through immigration 6 times, and used every form of transportation known to man!

Here are some pictures from our vacation. It was so amazing! We were so relaxed we didn't even know what day it was, and really didn't care.

Bangkok highlights:

Riding in a Tuk Tuk (an open air taxi)



Famous temple: Wat Pho. All the structures are elaborately decorated with mosiac tiles...it's crazy.







Largest buddha lying down and putting small coins in these cool buckets.






Riding in a longtail boat. Similar to Venice, the choice form of transportation in certain areas of Bangkok.








Seeing a 'floating market'



Chinatown. There were so many people we couldn't move. I got burned by a motorcycle tailpipe on my leg. Not exactly the souvenir I was looking for...



Watching hundreds of people come to the park to do step aerobics. Free!



Shawn flipping mud onto his back with his flip flops.





Phuket Highlights:

the BEACH!!! and all that comes with it:















Riding and feeding an elephant!









Spending New Year's on the beach. We drank wine, ate M&Ms and smoked a cuban cigar.







Seeing traditional lanterns flying in the sky. These are rectangular tissue paper hot-air-balloon-type-things. You light the flames and wait for the hot air to fill the tissue paper..soon after it's flying away! There were hundreds all over the sky. Beautiful. Fuzzy picture, but you get the idea.



We could have stayed in Phuket forever. Alas, we figured out what day it was and moved on to Taiwan. We spent the first two nights in Taipei.

Taipei 101: Tallest building in the world and fastest elevator in the world. Nice views of the city.









National Palace Museum in Taipei. When the communists took over China the nationalists fled to Taiwan and took all the valuable historical artifacts with them. It's all in this museum. It's said that if you want to see traditional Chinese culture, Taiwan is the place to do it, not China. Weird, aye?



Then, we went to Chaiyi in Taiwan. Our friend from school, Jen, teaches English there and she showed us around. First we 'scooted' up to the Purple Cloud Temple on top of some mountains. Yes, that is right, we rented a scooter! I rode on the back of Jen's while Shawn got used to navigating. This may have been my favorite part of the trip, going through the mountains on a scooter. It was gorgeous!











We hiked down to the "1000 Step Waterfall." Seemed like there were more than 1000 steps! I wanted to count but forgot, and I probably can't count that high anyway. Shawn and Jen took a refreshing dip in the waterfall.





And that concludes our pictures, for now! I think tomorrow at school I may write down some more details about how the people/countries are, but now you know what we've been doing for the past three weeks!

A fabulous vacation! Happy New Year!

Becoming fat and watching fat guys wrestle

Hello! It was a nice four-day weekend for Shawn and I. Coincidentally, last Thursday was also Thanksgiving in Japan, Labour Thanksgiving, that is. In any case it was a day off work and we took Friday off so it turned into a mini-vacation. Here's a run down of what we did.

Thursday: Ate an enormous amount of food as only Americans can on Thanksgiving Day. I think I gained at least 2 kilos. Our British friend, Tom, hosted a fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy. All the essentials. Shawn and I were suprised that when we showed up at his place we were the ONLY Americans out of 8 people. More came later in fashionably-late American style, but I guess that goes to show that the little part in my job description that says "promote internationalization" really is true. We celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with people from Mexico, Ireland, the UK, Portugal, Canada and Japan. Good times and good food, but don't worry family - I missed ya'll immensly. Thanksgiving is never the same without you.

Shawn and I at Thanksgiving:



Friday-Saturday: We headed to the largest city in Kyushu - Fukuoka. A city of about 2 million people, it was a major step up from Oita (half a million people).

Our mission in Fukuoka: eat the famous ramen by the river in booths, watch a sumo match, explore the extensive shopping district, purchase boots.

Ramen booths in Fukuoka. They are set up everynight and taken down every morning. Choose one and cozy on up to the bar:



~~We did everything we set out to do and even stumbled upon an amazing Christmas light display (which, by the way, are extremely expensive in Japan - we just bought some today, a string of 30 lights cost about $8.00! Needless to say we are rethinking putting lights in our windows...).




~~I bought some fabulous boots I am going to wear - my first step into the endless possibilities that make up Japanese Fashion.

~~We saw some very very large, yet very very strong, fat guys push each other around a ring. Ok, that's a crude description. It was actually very exciting and awe-inspiring.







~~Spent hours wandering through a maze of an undergound mall that spans the length of about 4 city blocks, and innumerable department stores with 7 floors each. Department stores in Japan are unlike anything you've ever seen.

~~Saw a famous Japanese singer give a free concert in the middle of a giant mall.

~~Saw a not-so-famous boy-band wannabe group perform on the sidewalk.

~~Spent lots of time in Canal City - a major mall/entertainment/dining/theatre complex. You could probably live there and never have to leave. Canal City from one angle (sorry for the crappy quality of this picture). You can see there is an actual 'canal' that runs through it:



~~Saw a water show inside Canal City (think Las Vegas)

~~Shawn made a new friend with the robot information system at Canal City.



~~Saw "War of the Worlds" in dubbed Japanese on the bus ride there. Looked pretty cheesy, I'm almost glad I didn't see it in English. On the way back we saw an anime also in Japanese.

All this in less than two days! Fabuloso. If anyone EVER comes to visit me I'm taking them to Fukuoka. It's amazin' fruit.

In other news. I FOUND AN ADULT SPANISH CONVERSATION CLASS! I am so lucky to have found it! At first, when I enter I have to sit there for a minute and mentally switch my brain from Japanese to Spanish. It's really weird being in a room with people where our common language is neither of our native languages. Our teacher is a doctor here on research from the Dominican Republic. Everyone has pretty much lived in a foreign country, so its right at my level. We do some grammar stuff which is always a nice review. I'm just happy to get the opportunity to speak Spanish, I have been afraid I'm losing it.

I finally read the Da Vinci Code! It took me all of two days. Crazy, huh. I can't remember the last time I read a book that fast. I chalk it up to the fact that lots of my classes at school have been canceled due to tests, vacations, etc. So I've had all day at work to read. It was fun.

Speaking of work - it's freezing! They don't turn on the heaters until December 1. A very strict rule. No matter if teachers are running around with down coats on (as I was all day today), Dec. 1 is the magic day. If I haven't said this before...buildings aren't centrally heated or air conditioned in Japan. The ACs have been installed and of course work well if you sit right next to them.... each classroom has them as does the teachers room. The halls, however, don't. The heaters are sort of like space heaters, but more powerful kerosene heaters. They drug them out yesterday as if to tease me. The possibility of heat is there...just can't use it yet! It's comical to walk through the teachers room and see what people are doing to cope - lots of women teachers have mini fleece blankets they keep at their desks and wrap around their legs while they are sitting there, some have gloves, jackets, and everyone has cup after cup of hot tea or coffee. It's hilarious. Yesterday I bought a pair of nylons and was actually EXCITED to wear them because I knew they would keep me warmer. That has never happened, that I enjoyed wearing nylons!

I'll leave you with some pictures of Shawn and I enjoying our complimentary pajamas at the hotel we stayed at this weekend.

And the winner is...

Well, no one guessed correctly why the girl at my school was suspended. Actually, only one person even guessed! :) It's ok, I'm sure you all wondered quietly. To ease your anxiety I'll just tell you. She was suspended for working at her part time job. One of the teachers at my school saw her working and that was that. Apparently in Japan, if an academic high-school student wants to work part-time they must first clear it with the school. A fellow teacher assured me that Tsurusaki High School rarely grants such priveleges. This was the second time she had been caught working, and so her punishment is 3 weeks suspension.

Harsh. I guess that would explain why students have time to spend 3 hours a day, 7 days a week at their club activities.

In other education news around Japan... the Minister of Education in Tokyo has recently been receiving letters from anonymous students threatening to commit suicide because they have been bullied. Bullying in Japan has been a major problem in schools for years. The Ministry of Education reports there have been no reports of bullying for the last seven years, but apparently this is not the case. School officials and parents turn a blind eye to it and tell the students to 'endure, endure.'

This was the advice given to one poor student who wrote such a letter to the Ministry of Education last week. Ministry officials were able to trace this letter to one of 21 or so prefectures from around Japan because, although the kanji on the postmark was unreadable, they were able to deduce it partially. It may have come from Oita and so in one of our meetings last week, the principal alerted the staff and asked them to be on guard and try to figure out if it was one of our students. As far as we know, it wasn't any of our students...but it makes me wonder if any of this goes on in my classes? I often miss a lot of the side chatter because it's in Japanese, and I don't spend much time in the classrooms. It makes me sick to think someone could be treated so horribly in school.

Here are some links to newspaper articles in the last few days about this subject. It looks as though that one letter may have been from Kyushu after all, the girl that jumped to her death was just in the neighboring prefecture.

Suicide threats boosts school patrols and Girl jumps to death

Five more kids threaten suicide; minister says don't write

Classmates shake down girl for 100,000 yen

Perhaps the most quoted metaphor when describing Japanese culture is "The nail that sticks up gets pounded down." Bullying is the perfect example of this. I intend to do more research on this.

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Today I went to the soccer game and Tsurusaki High School won in overtime! They will now travel to Tokyo to Nationals. I'm really proud of them. It was a beautiful day for soccer and they got to play in the World Cup Stadium. I took some photos.










Another week begins. じゃあ、またね。