Past Week

June is rainy season, and while it hasn't been too rainy man-oh-man has the humidity hit. This is when I know I'm a Colorado girl through and through--my lungs need air! Cool, crisp, thin, dry air, not the water that is air here. When Brad and I first landed at the airport in February I was almost gasping for breath as I got used to the thick, humid air here. Now it is a million times worse and its only supposed to get worse.

I have to ride my bike to school everyday, there is absolutely no other option. It takes about 20 minutes give or take to ride to school. I start by our apartment, cross the train tracks, wrestle with the morning traffic of main street and then finish in the countryside by my school, but not before I have to make it up 1 big hill. It really isn't that bad and honestly I like that I have no other option because it feels so good to have actually done something at the end of the day. However, because of the humidity I can't even get to school without being soaked in sweat. So now I change into my work clothes once I get to school. I also "love" when its raining out and I get to wear my nice plastic pants and rain coat and then bike to work. It's illegal to ride your bike with an umbrella here but everyone still does it. It makes biking in the rain a fun game, let's see how many people we have to dodge with umbrellas today... Oh the pluses and minuses...

Last week the students had  club tournaments, therefore they had no classes on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday and were out throughout the city playing against other Junior High Schools in the area. To be sure, it was incredibly boring for me since there wasn't anything for me to do but I did get the chance to be personally escorted by the principal to watch tennis matches, a baseball game, a soccer game, and a volleyball game on Thursday. And I got paid to do it which is a definite plus. The students put so much time into their club activities that is was a fun chance to see them do their best!

Today at the morning staff meeting I noticed a spider on the blackboard directly behind me. It was huge and gigantic and probably one of the most active spider's I've ever seen! It was going up and down the blackboard and then started making its way across the bulletin board and onto the wall and it was all I could to to stay still and silent during the meeting as it slowly made its way closer and closer to me. (Although I did scoot my chair around to the other side of my desk. After the meeting I briefly reflected on what would happen if I didn't kill it, but then I came to the conclusion that I would not be able to work if I didn't know where the spider went. For all I know it could be in my bag by the end of the day just waiting to ambush me later on. I also briefly thought about Buddha and his teaching but then I figured that a lot of Japanese people aren't strict followers. But just to be sure I called my principal's name and had a wad of kleenex in one hand and my shoe in the other. I pointed to the spider and was about to kill it when the principal stopped me, grabbed the kleenex from me and carried the spider outside by its thread. Then in broken English and Japanese sentences he said something about Buddha and I went on with my day. Later in the afternoon he handed me a sheet of paper and told me to have one of my English teachers translate it. They weren't able to translate it very well but did say it had something to do with a spider and Buddha. I just did the research and I'm pretty sure this is the story he wanted me to read.

http://www.edogawa-u.ac.jp/~tmkelly/research_spider.html

Now I feel bad. But what can I do? I hate spiders, and I don't want to kill them, but I also don't want them to bite me or crawl on me when I'm not looking. It is also spider infestation season now too. To be truthful, I've had to get over my fear of spiders a little bit because otherwise I wouldn't be able to go outside at all. But my bike has to be stored in spider city at our apartment so I have to brave the webs and potential spiders hiding in my bike. (One time there was one hiding in the bell on my bike and decided to crawl onto my had as I was riding down the road...nearly lost control!!) Also I try to ride on the street rather than the little pathways to the side because the spiders like to make webs across there too. (But I also don't like riding there because it's narrow and I have to balance my bike between the drain and the road which takes a lot of concentration and if I lost control I would likely bang up my knee pretty bad on the guardrail. Yeah, Japan needs to learn how to make side walks like the US.) So anyway I guess I'll just have to hope that not too many spiders come my way so I don't have to debate the moral dilemma of me getting work done or me going to hell. Who knew I'd be getting life lessons at school?

One more thing...Brad and I take our clothes to the dry cleaners every once in a while and in the process have met a really cute girl named Ringo who goes to the all girls high school right down the street. She is a Junior and loves speaking English with us. We have now become pen pals and are writing letters back and forth. She invited us to her school's open house this last weekend so we went and had a look around. Their open house is like after prom at high schools at home. They go all out with decorations and have food, crafts, and games for sale to benefit all the different clubs. Each room had a different theme and was dedicated to one club activity. There were the regular clubs like sports, but they also had an ikebana club (flower arranging),  history club, English club, photography club, calligraphy club (they had a cool video of a calligraphy performance too-the students would dance and write at the same time, very cool!) and many other clubs. I also saw cursive hiragana for the first time. Ringo couldn't even read it!


Just watch this video from about 0:45 to 3:00.

We had a pretty relaxing weekend, no big plans but I did finally sign up to take my GRE test. (August 10th--yikes!) We also solidified plans to travel to Nikko during our month off in August. Nikko has many famous temples but is probably most know for the monkeys that "hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil". We will hopefully be staying in a cool traditional Japanese style inn that serves traditional meals and has a hot springs pool. Very excited!