A great Saturday and a busy week ahead

I finally went to Kelly's favorite onsen yesterday after a year of hearing her talk about it. It was pretty amazing indeed and I can't believe it took me this long to go. I sat in every bath they had on the men's side which included: regular hot bath, herb tea, green tea, two other herb baths, sulphur, grape, salt, and carbonation. My favorites were the salt (because I floated), carbonation (because I was covered in bubbles), and the yellow herb (because it smelled good.) I also sat in an extremely hot sauna for a few minutes and then immediately went and sat in an ice cold bath. Why? I don't know. But it was invigorating!

Before the onsen we had gone white water rafting with a big group of people down the Fuji River. It was pretty fun and brought me back to my youth group days and our canoe trips. The rapids were few and far between but it was still fun. We also jumped off a cliff into the water at one point. This was the highest point from which I had jumped into water since I jumped off the high dive at our local pool when I was a kid and had extreme pain in one of my ears. I was nervous that it would happen again which is why I hadn't done it in so long, but there was no pain. It was pretty nervewracking though. Standing on a cliff waiting to jump off with 30 people watching you is quite intimidating. I'm glad I did it though.

School is in full swing right now. I spent a lot of time last week getting some 3rd year girls ready for their university entrance interviews. They were on Saturday so I hope they did well. I've got a busy week ahead of me this week because I have two tests to write as well as the listening dialogue that goes along with them. Then we have to record the listening part and get it to the teachers by Thursday. In the meantime, I have a lesson to plan and a presentation for our Mid-Year Seminar to put together. I haven't started on any of these tasks so I guess you know what I'll be up to in my free time this week.

I signed up this week to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test - Level 4. That's the beginner level and I think I should do well as long as I study enough. The test is in December, so I have time but I know it'll sneak up on me if I'm not careful.

Finally, for anyone who is curious: awhile back I wrote about 51 yen that was sitting in the teacher's kitchen at school. Well, it is still there just waiting for someone to claim it. Here is a picture of the infamous coins, looking lonely and forgotten:



Maybe everyone is scared to take it because that guy on the fan is watching. Probably.