And we're back!

Well it's certainly been a long time since I posted. Apparently Blogger decided it didn't like my background template anymore and changed it. So I've got this one up for now until I feel like taking the time to change it.

Some people (aka: my mom) have asked if I'm going to keep updating this blog now that we've moved back from Japan. The answer is, of course! I planned well when I started it a few years back and didn't put anything about Japan in the title, so I can keep going with it.

The past month has been a crazy one. Yesterday was the one month mark of being back in America, and things have been crazy to say the least. When we got back we spent about 5 days in the Houston area seeing my family and our friends down there. Then we headed up to Abilene for a week. It took me a little over a week to recover from jet lag and get back into this time schedule. While in Abilene we bought a car, a white Pontiac Vibe, and got our new iPhones. We are loving the iPhone 4. We also ate at a lot of the places we had been missing, most notably Taco Bueno. More on the food and what it's done to us later.

After our time in Abilene, we went to Dallas for a few days to spend time with Kelly's grandparents. We had a nice visit. While we were in Dallas we also got to see Joe and Andrea and their baby, and we had dinner with Beau and Alex. This was the first time I had seen those guys since Beau's wedding back in July of '04, so that was a great visit.

After Dallas we drove back to my parents house, dropped off Caspian, and then got back in the car and drove down to Corpus Christi for the weekend to see James' place down there and hang out for mine and James' birthdays. We did some swimming and some grilling and had a lot of fun.

We then went back to Houston where we stayed for the rest of that week. We caught an Astros game, saw some more friends, and spent some more time with my family. My 30th birthday was on the 12th. I spent the entire day loading up our Budget truck for the move. Not the most enjoyable birthday ever, but I was turning 30 after all. We did however, go out to Pappadeaux for some cajun food that night where I sufficiently stuffed myself. Very nice.

Now back to the food. With all of the restaurants that we missed for so long coupled with the southern hospitality and everyone constantly feeding us, our bodies have been in a bit of disarray. I've already put on some of those pounds I worked so hard to burn off. But it was a good few weeks of food. Now, it's time to get back to business.

Anyway, we left on the 13th and started our trek to Orlando. We took our time, not wanting to drive for long, long hours or drive at night on unfamiliar roads in unfamiliar states. We stayed a night in Baton Rouge and a night in Tallahassee. The drive was my first time to ever be in Mississippi or Alabama. Of course, we were only in Mississippi for a little over an hour and Alabama for about two (only because we stopped and ate lunch there.) But I'd say that counts. Finally we got to Orlando around 1pm on Sunday, checked in with the apartment complex and started unloading. Unloading was quite an adventure. Our apartment is on the 3rd floor, so needless to say, my legs were feeling it. But we got it done.

You can see some pictures of the drive, the apartment, and the last month on our Flickr.

So now we're here. Still a little light on furniture and desire to unpack boxes, but we're here. Caspian's having trouble getting used to the noises that come with living in an apartment complex. After all, in Japan we only ever had one other person living in our building and he was hardly ever there. He barks at the neighbors, dogs outside, cars doors, the air conditioner, the ice maker, etc. But hopefully he'll get used to it. Kelly starts school tomorrow after a crazy weekend of auditioning for the season. I'm starting to get a feel for what it's like to be married to an MFA student. I start my next class tomorrow which will give me a little more to do besides applying for jobs all day. It's slowly all getting rolling again.

We've been so busy the past month that we haven't had a lot of time to sit back and reflect on our time in Japan. That's maybe a good thing considering how sad we were before leaving. It really all seems like it was a big dream now that we're back. Like a completely different life. But I've been in contact with some of my students, and they've been telling me about their study abroad trips and English camps so that's been a nice reminder.

Finally, while we were driving last weekend, I passed the time in the truck by seeing how many different states' license plates I saw. I had only AM/FM radio in the Budget truck, so there wasn't much else to do. I was driving pretty slow and it was a bit difficult to read the plates as they sped past me. I'm sure there were more, but here is what I got:

Texas
Louisiana
Florida
Mississippi
Alabama
Colorado
Arizona
California
Arkansas
Georgia
Delaware
New York
West Virginia
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Pennsylvania
Nebraska
Tennessee
Wisconsin
Michigan
Illinois
Ottowa

Last Day at Yoshiko

Friday was my last day at Yoshiwara High School. I didn't have any classes that day, so my main mission was to finish cleaning out my desk, clean my desk, and then do my final wrap-up procedures.

It was a really great day. I received so many wonderful gifts from teachers. Many students brought me cards, cookies, and other things they had made for me. Between every class, I would hear students calling my name to go meet them by the door so they could give me something or take a picture with me or just tell me goodbye. The love and kindness I received was really overwhelming.

The 26 homeroom students (the ones in whose class I was crying last week) invited me to eat lunch with them. I had never been invited by students to eat lunch with them so it was really special. We all sat around in the room eating and talking about various things. It was a lot of fun. I had some leftover omiyage from when we first came to Japan that I had never given to anyone, so I put it in the middle of the room for the students to janken over. (Janken is the extremely sophisticated and complicated Japanese version of rock, paper, scissors.) When lunch was coming to a close, the students all stood up and gathered around. One girl named Mayu, a very smart and sweet girl, read me a letter she had written in English. It was so sweet. Here is an excerpt:

"You are the only ALT who has been teaching us English since we entered this school. So your existence was very great for us. I was surprised and felt very lonely to hear that you were going to go back to America. I wish many times it was a lie...I can't believe you will not be here when we come back from Australia...Lastly what I have been thinking of for a year and a half is that we are really happy to have you as an ALT at Yoshiwara High School. The fact that you were our ALT will never change..."

As you can imagine, this was very hard for me and for her. But we made it through. After she read that, Izumo pulled out his guitar and asked me to sing one verse and chorus of "Change the World" with him one last time. That was fun! I'm glad I remembered the words. Finally I told them to do their best in Australia and left before I turned into a weeping mess again. Many students were waiting to greet me in the hall outside of the classroom. They gave me cards, letters, presents. I gave them each a hug, and then they went on to class and that was the last I saw of any Yoshiwara High School students.

I spent the next hour or so packing up all of the things I had gotten that day and then left school for the last time around 2:00. I did my last rounds in the teachers' room and the school office and Emily walked me out. I got my bike and walked off campus rather than ride. I didn't want to get away too fast. As soon as I started walking down the drive that leads off of the school grounds, I lost it. I'm glad I was alone. Two years of great memories came rushing back, and I knew that even if I return to Japan someday, I will very likely never enter Yoshiwara High School again, and with a few possible exceptions, I will very likely never see those students again. Walking away was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

I turned and took this picture when I got to the street. You can't see much of the school, but I'll never forget this view.


So it's farewell to Yoshiko. But as I said to the students in my farewell speech and they have really taken to, I don't like to say goodbye. So I say "See you later!"

See you later Yoshiko! また合いましょう！

Muscular ALT

Chikako from 36 homeroom drew this very accurate picture of me for my farewell party in their class. Looks just like me doesn't it?



This was also on the board:


Another day another tough goodbye. This is hard.

A Moving Day

In Japan, many people say that they are moved by things, referring to an emotional (or moving) experience. This is of course a normal English expression, but it's not one that I have ever used very often.

Today, though, I had what can only be described as a couple of moving experiences.

First, during third period, a couple of very good students from 25 homeroom came to get me from my desk. I didn't have a class so I was free to go with them. This is a class of students that I taught every other week in the first year but only about once a month since April. They are incredible students though, some of the nicest and smartest in the school.

When we walked up to their classroom, I heard cheering start inside. I turned the corner to find a big circle of students all clapping for me with an empty chair for me. They were throwing me a surprise farewell party! This was what was on the board:



Along with this t-shirt:


We sat in the circle. One girl named Yuki made an opening speech in English. Then one at a time, each student came to me and presented me with a card that they had made themselves with their thoughts about me written on it (in English of course.) They were so sweet! The third girl to come up finally got the nerve to ask me for a hug. I gave her a hug and after that, I gave almost every student, including a few of the boys, hugs. Later, the first two girls who had missed out on the hugging, asked me for one anyway. It was a very special experience.

Here are some of the cards:

Mai


Haruna


Koji


Haruka


Saki (nice Mt. Fuji!)


This one is from another girl named Yuki who has always been a big Kory fan (as you can maybe tell from the shape of the card.) When she handed it to me she said, "This is my smell. Smell it please." I did and it smelled like perfume. She had sprayed her perfume on it. Very nice perfume might I add.



After the cards were handed out, we took some pictures together:



I talked to them for a few minutes and told them what I would do next. I gave them some final words of encouragement. Finally, a boy named Tomomi gave a farewell speech to me that literally left me in tears. Then they made an arch to lead me out of the room (a common practice at Japanese farewell parties.) I told them thank you again, and I was escorted back to the teachers' room by two of the girls. It was an incredible, moving experience. I was in shock and felt so honored to be cared for that much.

And that was just the beginning. Later in the day, I had my final class with 26 homeroom. These are the 2nd-year International course students who I have had in class at least twice a week since they started at Yoshiwara High School last April. I have gotten to know these students better than any others at the school. They have always been my favorite class ever since they first came. They are leaving on their three-week study abroad trip to Australia on Sunday. So for this class we decided to do an all-out, Jeopardy style Australia review game. I had some leftover $2 coins from our Australia trip this past December, so I offered those as the prize to the winning group.

The game went well. They remembered most of the answers. Then, after the game I gave my Australia pep speech, but I was having a hard time not getting choked up because I knew that when they come back, I'll be gone. They knew too of course, which was making it even more difficult. Emily gave a short pep talk after that, and then it was time for me to close out the class for the last time. This is where I lost it. I told them how proud I am of them and that I've always loved teaching them and how much I would miss them. I was having a horrible time getting through it, and when they started to cry, oh my goodness. It was a mess. I had written individual notes to each of them and handed them out and gave each student a hug. By the time we were done, I was crying, almost all of the girls were crying, some of the boys, even Natsuga-sensei.

I hated to finish the class on such a sad note, but at the same time, I think it was good to get it out. I had to let them know how I feel about them, and it was good for me to see that they feel the same way. That group of students is very special to me and I'll never forget them. I gave them all my e-mail address too, so I'm sure I'll be hearing from some of them. :) I hope so at least.

Before I left the class, they gave me a big card that they made for me with short notes from everyone. Here it is:


So yeah, it was a moving day to say the least.

Three more days of work, 2 more classes for me. And less than 8 days left in Japan. It's hard to believe. It's moving a bit too fast for me.

Final Dinner at Namaskar

One of our favorites places to eat during our two years in Fuji has been a small Indian restaurant near Fuji Station called Namaskar. We've taken quite a few people there including my parents, Kelly's family, and Kerry.

Namaskar has a total of two people who work there. There's the Japanese owner who also doubles as the waiter and the chef who is an Indian man that speaks very little Japanese and a little bit of English. Before we ever went there, we had heard stories about how the owner/waiter was a very grumpy man and not very nice. Our first few times there, we kind of felt the same way, but eventually he started to recognize us and we started to see through his hard exterior. Then last summer when the Haseltines were here, Jeff spoke to him as we were leaving and told him we really love the place. He said we went there a lot and then gave Jeff some keychains to give to Melanie and Claire. That's also when we found out that the chef speaks a little English.

Fast-forward to last Friday night. We decided to make it our last trip to Namaskar and ordered our favorite things. We had a great meal. Kelly had always joked about taking a picture with the owner on our last visit, but she was getting cold feet. So when we left, after we paid, I told him that in a few weeks we would be returning to America so this would be our last time to eat there. He seemed shocked and disappointed and then gave Kelly a really pretty Indian bracelet and me a cool Indian keychain. Then we got him and the chef to take a picture with Kelly. Here it is:

He's even smiling a little! Then after that, he offered to take a picture with me in it. I taught him how to use the iPhone camera and here it is:

It was a great last visit to Namaskar. Before we left I told him, "Oishii tabemono o arigatou gozaimashita." (That you very much for the delicious food.) We'll never forget that place.

The Bicycle

Anyone who's been reading mine and Kelly's blogs the past few weeks has probably been noticing a bit of a depressing tone. So here's a lighthearted story for you all.

As most of you know, I ride my bicycle every day to work. It's about a twenty-five minute ride which I do twice a day, once there and once back. The road I ride on is not in the greatest of shape which has taken a severe toll on my tires, brakes, and the overall quality of the ride. When we first got here, I bought a light blue bike. I rode it for a year and the brakes had really deterioriated, almost to the point where they didn't really work anymore. Then one day last August, that bike was parked at Tatebori train station and I lost my bike key. I walked around for a few days without it, but that wouldn't last long because I needed to go to work. So I had two options. The first was to take the bike somewhere and get the lock removed and then buy a new lock. The second was to buy a new bike. The brakes were so bad on that bike that I decided to go with option 2.

After buying a new bike (a much better one might I add) I left the old one at Tatebori for a few weeks until once when I went to the station, I noticed a sticker saying that the bike needed to be removed. Apparently they keep track of which bikes never go anywhere. So I walked it home, not an easy task since the lock keeps the back wheel from turning thereby forcing you to carry the back of the bike. But I got it there. A few weeks later, I decided to go take the lock off of the bike just in case we ever had a guest and needed an extra bike. I got it off and left it outside our apartment by our storage bin. There it sat for three months until...

The day we left to go to Australia for Christmas I was waiting for the cab that would take us to the station and noticed the bike was gone. Someone had stolen it. Oh well. It was of no use to me. If they needed it, then so be it. Good luck stopping.

So that was that. Until today when I got to work one of the English teachers told me that the police had called and said they had recovered my stolen bicycle. (Note: When you purchase a bicycle in Japan, you have to register it with your name, address, phone number and workplace.) At first I was like, "What are you talking about? I rode my bike to school this morning." Then I realized what it was. So the police came to visit me at my school to have my verify if it was my bike. It was.

The main police officer, who spoke decent English, asked me a few questions about the bike including but not limited to: "What day was the bicycle stolen? What time was it stolen? What was the exact date that you last saw the bicycle? What time did you see it?" I obviously didn't know the answer to any of the questions so I just made up some answers that seemed logical. Then I had to go to class, but they needed me to fill out a report. So these two police officers waited for me the entire 50 minutes I was in class. It's kind of comforting to know that Fuji City is so safe that two patrol officers can sit in the conference room of a school for 50 minutes waiting on a foreigner to come write a report about a bike that was stolen 7 months ago.

So I go to the conference room and as soon as I walk in the main guy asks me if I can speak Japanese. I gave the answer I always give to that question. "Sukoshi." (A little bit.) So we sit there for 30 minutes talking in mixed Japanese and English all about this stolen bicycle and the details of where I had it parked and what direction it was facing and how I hadn't put it in our storage room because I had a table in there. Finally we get the details all worked out and I stamp the paper with my hanko to confirm its accuracy. Then the officer gives me a little lecture about how when something is stolen in Japan, it should be reported immediately so they can catch the person. "Sumimasen." I say.

Finally they get up to leave...and here's the best part...they gave me the bicycle back! Seriously?! What do I want with that bicycle? I'm leaving Japan in 20 days and now all of a sudden I have an extra bicycle to deal with. And I can't ride it anywhere because the brakes are broken. So now it's sitting at my school still with no lock. The plan is to take it to a recycle shop where hopefully I can get some money for it. But I can't help but thinking, if the guy who stole it really wanted the bike so bad, why not let him keep it? It's been his for 7 months after all.

Anyway, that's a great example of the crazy things that can happen any day here in Japan.

Winding down

Well we officially have 24 days left until we leave. It's amazing how quickly the time is going by right now. We've got so much to do to get ready to go it's hard to imagine getting it all done. We have a long to-do list and we're slowly knocking things out one at a time. Somehow it'll all get done. I hope.

I started telling my classes in the past couple of weeks that I'm leaving. The reactions have been about what I expected. A large group "Ehhhh??" (which basically is Japanese for "you're kidding, right?) and then a few students who throw in some individual exclamations. In one class, a group of girls who are pretty big fans of mine said "No!!!" and then "I need you!" "I want you!" "I love you!" One boy brought his worksheet up to me after class and asked me to sign it. His reaction when I said I was leaving was, "Unbelievable." It's going to get harder and harder over these next few weeks, but I'm going to do my best to maintain my composure as long as I can.

This upcoming week will be my last week with a full slate of classes. The week after will be final exam week and then my last week I'll have just about 5 classes. My last class will be on July 15 with my last day at work being July 16. It's hard to believe there's only 3 weeks of school left.

Farewell party season has officially gotten underway. A bunch of us got together at Ashley's last night for a farewell party for our usual group. We had a Mexican themed party with lots of great Mexican food. Most of us aren't leaving for a few weeks of course, but the next few weeks will be so busy for all of us that it was most convenient to have the party this weekend. It's kind of crazy to think that in less than a month we'll split apart from all of these people that we've gotten to know and go our separate ways. It's very likely that we will never see most of them again. We'll stay in contact of course through Facebook and other random things, but over the years I'm sure the contact will be less and less, and then eventually we may never talk at all. It's funny how life works that way. But it's been great getting to know people from all different walks of life and backgrounds and parts of the world. It's been an interesting two years, and I'm glad that we could spend it with a good group of friends.

As Kelly mentioned on her blog, rainy season has been going full steam for the past couple of weeks. It's been pretty unpleasant outside for the most part. The worst is the morning rain. One of the worst ways to start your day is to put on a hot rain suit, hop on a bike, and ride 25 minutes to work. Then go inside and take off the rain suit only to find that you're soaking wet anyway from sweat. I've spent the majority of the last two weeks sweaty. You kind of just always sweat. It doesn't really stop. The school is still refusing to turn on the air conditioners in the classrooms because it's not July yet. It makes for really uncomfortable classes. None of the students want to do anything because everybody is so hot, and I've even found that I'm having a hard time focusing when I'm teaching. I lose my train of thought mid sentence or forget what part of the lesson I'm in. Rainy season is a strange animal. I'm used to hot and humid weather of course being from Houston, but the weather during this time of year in Japan is so different. It's much worse. It's hard to really describe it. I think you almost have to experience it for yourself to really understand.

So anyway, I was remarking earlier this week that though I'm still sad to leave my job and my students, rainy season is making it a little less painful. All I know is that in three and a half weeks, I will never have to ride my bike to work in the rain again. And that is a very happy thing.

Finally, here are some gems from the student classwork archives. There was a lesson in a book about Turkish cuisine and how it's a fusion of Asian and European culture. So I had them create a new food that was a fusion of foods from different cultures and then draw it on the board. Here are the two best:


An onigiri dog. This is a combination of Japan (onigiri) and America (hot dog). I think the ketchup and mustard is also a nice touch.


Sushi gelato. This one is Japan and Italy (gelato.) Tasty I'm sure. 36HR is always good for a laugh.

Happy anniversary...to us!

Today is our 4 year anniversary! We're celebrating by taking an anniversary weekend trip to Tokyo Disneyland! We're leaving in about an hour to go to Tokyo. We'll wake up tomorrow morning and head to Disneyland for the day. We both have off Friday because of our school festivals last weekend. We'll go to Disney Sea on Saturday which is Japan's extra Disney theme park. Orlando has Epcot Center and Tokyo has Disney Sea. I don't know much about it, so I'll have to let everyone know more about it after we get back. We're excited though. This is one of the things we've been looking forward to since we got here. I haven't been to a Disney theme park since we went to Disney World for Spring Break when I was 9. I'm not trying to hide my excitement.

I told some girls today that it was our anniversary. They didn't know the word anniversary, so I wrote June 10, 2010 on the chalkboard. Under that I wrote June 10, 2006. Then next to that I wrote Kory and Kelly and drew two lines connecting our names. Finally I drew a heart. That's when they finally understood and said "Happy Birthday!" I quickly informed them it was "Happy Anniversary." Then I told them that we're going to Tokyo Disneyland and one girl, Yuka said in perfect English, "Bring me a present please!" I couldn't resist this effort so I said "Okay what do you want?" "Candy." "OK what kind of candy." "The chocolate crunch candy that tastes like strawberry." So apparently Yuka knows her Disneyland candy. I told her I'd do my best. I love my students!

Here we go! Off to a Disney adventure!

The beginning of the end

Do you ever have one of those days where you just wake up feeling low? Well I'm having one today. Here's why: Sometime late last night or when I woke up this morning, it finally hit me that we're leaving Japan in a month and a half.

The past three days were great. We had our school festival this weekend, so I spent all day Saturday and Sunday at school. It was a great time. There were performances by a lot of the clubs and all of the culture clubs had rooms set up all over school displaying things and selling things. The sports clubs sold food and there were big crowds of people from all over - parents, friends, former students, random people from the community. It was a big festival and a lot of fun. I walked around school going into the various rooms and talking to and taking pictures with students. I bought some things and made donations to some of the charity fundraisers. I spent a lot of time in the English club room where we were doing a fundraiser to raise money for Oxfam. We had a student doing a magic show and we gave away some bags with treats for everyone who donated at least 100 yen. In total, English club raised 20,747 yen (roughly $200) for my Oxfam Trailwalker team. I was very proud of them. They worked really hard this year and did a great job.

So the festival was a lot of fun. All of the students and teachers were happy and having a great time. There was just a positive feel in the air.

Yesterday was the annual sports festival that falls on the last day of the school festival. On this day, all of the homerooms compete in various athletic competitions. There are 100 meter sprints. There is a homeroom relay where every member of the homeroom runs 100 meters of a relay. There are about 40 students in each homeroom, so as you can imagine, it's a long relay. They have class jump rope competitions where all of the students in each homeroom jump rope with a giant long jump rope. There's tug-of-war, 5 people/six legs races, a girl's dance, human pyramid building, and all kinds of other crazy events. It was so much fun! We did a teacher relay as well where a bunch of the teachers compete with a bunch of students in a relay. I ran 1oo meters in that. Just like the festival, everyone had a great time. It's really neat to see how much pride the students take in their homerooms. They all tried their best to succeed.

After the sports day, there was a talent show to close out the three-day festival. Most of the performances were just ok, but they had fun and the students watching enjoyed all of them. One group of about 12-15 girls did a 10-15 minute dance routine. They closed out the show and they were amazing. It really looked like they had been practicing for a long time. I actually did a secret performance in the show as well. Secret as in very few people knew I was doing it until the curtain came up. I have a student who plays guitar, and I approached him a while back and asked if he'd like to do a song with me in the talent show. He agreed and we decided to do "Change the World" by Eric Clapton. He played and I sang. It went really well and the students all loved it. I've been wanting to sing for them for a long time, so I'm glad I got the chance to do it. I was happy to be able to perform with him. I think it meant a lot to both of us. I'll try to post a video of it on here soon.

So, after all of that, I woke up this morning feeling the post-festival let down. It's like the feeling you get after a vacation. You've been looking forward to it for so long and you have so much fun, and then it ends and you go through a few days of feeling a little glum.

But in this case I kind of view this as the beginning of the end. There are no more big events left at school. Just a few weeks of classes and then finals and that's it. It'll be over before I know it. I'll be up on the stage giving my farewell speech to the students in no time. It's going to be a hard month and a half. I decided a while back that I would start telling the students that I'm leaving after the school festival. Well, now school festival is over, and that time has come. I'll probably start letting them know next week. Not looking forward to it. Cue the tears.

So anyway, that's what I'm feeling today. Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow to go to work I'll be feeling better. I know that it's probably the best thing for us to go home now, but right now the thought of leaving Japan is not a happy one for either of us. It's going to be tough.

My take on the Jim Joyce call

I'm sure most if not all of you that read my blog are at least vaguely aware of the Jim Joyce incident. If you aren't let me lay it out for you.



In Wednesday night's Detroit Tigers vs. Cleveland Indians game, pitcher Armando Galarraga was one out away from completing a perfect game. (For those unfamiliar with what a perfect game is, check out the Wikipedia page.) On what should have been the final out of the game, first base umpire Jim Joyce blew a call and called the runner safe when he was clearly out, thereby costing Galarraga the perfect game. It would have been the 21st perfect game in major league baseball history, the third this year, and the second this week. But now because of that call, it stands in the books as a one-hit shutout. Galarraga faced 28 batters and retired 27(+1) of them.



You can watch the play here.



I read about what happened before I saw it because I was at work when it happened. I watched the replay during my lunch break and couldn't believe it. I thought that it would at least be a close call -- a "bang-bang" play. But it wasn't. I can't imagine what Jim Joyce was looking at. The only thing I can imagine is that he was looking at Galarraga catching the ball rather than the base. I don't see how else he could have missed the fact that Galarraga clearly beat the runner to the base. It wasn't even close. And in that situation, with that much on the line, it needs to be a lot closer than that to even consider calling him safe.



As a lifelong baseball fan, every time I watch the play, it makes me want to cry. Though many people I know don't quite get it, I see baseball as an absolutely beautiful game. The design and the uniqueness of the game is amazing to me. I see beauty in a close call at first. The fact that the field is designed in a way that a slow grounder, if fielded properly will almost always result in an exciting close play at first base is just one of the things that I find to be wonderful about baseball. And a perfect game is one of the most amazing accomplishments that a baseball player can achieve. It's a once in a lifetime performance by a pitcher with amazing teamwork all around to preserve the perfection. To see it end on a mistake like that is heartbreaking.



I feel so bad for everyone involved in the situation. I feel bad for Galarraga. I feel bad for Jim Joyce. I feel bad for the batter Jason Donald, who knows that he was out, but will go down as the one who broke up the perfect game. It's a situation that is just so unfortunate. I have a great deal of respect, however, for Jim Joyce who, after watching the replay after the game, went and found Galarraga and tearfully apologized to him. He's been a big league umpire for 21 years and he openly admits that he just blew the biggest call of his career and cost Galarraga a perfect game. Umpires know they're human and that they make mistakes, so you won't hear one say something like that very often. You have to respect him for that.

Bud Selig won't reverse the call and give the perfect game to Galarraga. I don't like that decision, but I can understand it. If you go and start reversing calls the day after games that could open up a big can of worms for situations like that in the past and future. Although if there was ever a time to do it, this would be it. What I don't understand is why baseball is so reluctant to use instant replay. This is 2010. We have amazing technology at our disposal. To waste it is ridiculous. People say, "Oh baseball is a sport with so much tradition. We can't ruin the purity of the game and of the human nature of the game by resorting to technology." I find that argument pointless. We can't fight against the progression of our society and the tools at our disposal. Football and basketball use instant replay with great success. Calls are reversed that should be reversed and stand that should stand. Baseball needs desperately to join its counterparts in the 21st century and start using instant replay.

Armando Galaragga should have had a perfect game on Wednesday night because Jim Joyce should have been able to use technology to reverse his mistake, his human error. It's just such an unfortunate circumstance.

The Ends Have Come

After spending most of my Sunday writing a paper, I am now officially halfway finished with my first course for my Master's Degree in Education from ACU. This paper I wrote today was a challenge as my brain just wasn't having it, but I worked my way through it and produced what I would consider to be an acceptable essay.

The course has been quite a beast up to this point. For the degree program I'm basically taking one course at a time. There are 10 altogether. The one I'm taking now is called Negotiation and Mediation. It's been interesting. There was always a stigma in my mind about online degree programs. I think that's the same with most people. When I tell people I'm earning my Masters online the response is usually something like, "So...like Devry?" I can't speak for some of the online Bachelors degree programs like Devry and what not, but I can say this - judging from the first 4 weeks of this class, this ACU online degree is legit. I've worked extremely hard. Kelly can attest to that. I spend several hours reading and writing each night, and my Saturdays and Sundays are almost completely devoted to doing school work. I don't know what this will bring for me in the future, but I now know that once I get my M. Ed. degree it will be just as legit and hard-earned as one I could have gotten by going to school on campus. Maybe even more so because I have to balance a day job in the meantime. I'm feeling really good about it at this point.

One of the interesting things about it is that since we're not in a classroom, the professor has to be creative about how he teaches. There has been a lot of group work and a lot of videos. This past week, there was a podcast featuring a mediation simulation. I thought the voices of the actors sounded familiar. After a few minutes of trying to place them, I realized that it was Adam Hester and Gary Varner from ACU theatre. After all these years, those two are still contributing to my education.

Well it's series finale season in the world of TV. This year is going to be especially tough as my two all-time favorite shows will be having their series finales on back-to-back nights. Lost, as everyone in the world knows, has its finale Sunday night. We'll be cutting off all communication wih the outside world starting tomorrow morning so as not to be spoiled. We're going over to Dion's tomorrow night to watch the finale with a small group of devoted fans. I've been a dedicated follower of Lost ever since the very beginning. I remember being at the lakehouse and seeing a commercial for Lost and thinking, "That looks kind of interesting. And it's got the hobbit from The Lord of the Rings, so I guess I'll watch it." I watched the premiere with my mom a few weeks later, and I remember getting to the end of the Pilot episode and thinking, "Wow. That was awesome. And what the heck killed the pilot?" I can't believe it's coming to an end. It's going to be crazy.

In addition to that, 24 will have its finale on Monday night. Though I feel 24 has declined in quality drastically over the past few seasons, I've been a devoted fan for a long time. I didn't see the first season when it aired because I was still at ACU and a theatre major has no time for watching TV. But when I was living with Andy the next year, he recommended that I watch an episode of season 2. I did and I was hooked. After season 2 ended, Andy and I went back and watched all of season 1 on DVD that summer. I believe that season 1 of 24 remains to date one of the best all around seasons of television ever. They've jumped the shark a bit since then, but I'll watch the finale this week and bid farewell to a great series and an awesome character.

I've been having a lot of dreams about Lost and 24 lately because of these finales. There's going to be a big void when the Jacks in my life (Bauer and Shephard) are no longer around. I'm going to have to find some new TV to watch. Any recommendations?

In honor of the 24 finale, here is an example of how it is popular even here in Japan. You ever wondered what Jack Bauer eats during his 24-hour days? The answer: Calorie Mate.

Food and drinks

In my final few months in Japan I want to start posting some pictures of random things that I eat, drink, see, etc. regularly. Here are a few for this week:

First, here is a coffee drink that I bought from a machine at work. In Japan, you can buy all sorts of drinks from vending machines. It's not just cokes and sports drinks, but coffee, chocolate drinks, orange juice, tea, flavored tea, etc. This is Kilimanjaro Blend Coffee, or キリマンジャロブレンド. It's a sweet coffee that I get every once in a while when I'm feeling extra tired in the morning. During the winter, it came out of the machine hot.


This is one of my favorite items from the bread stand at work. It's a cheese bread puff thingy. When I get it I just point at it and say, "Kore." (This) It's pretty delicious and most definitely bad for you.


This is a new dessert they've started selling at the bread stand. I didn't know much about it, but I saw the strawberry icing and I was sold. It's a pastry and it had some type of cream cheese type substance inside. Very nice, but only a once a week indulgence.


This is one of my favorite drinks to get from the machine. It's mikan juice. Not 100% but still very good. Mikan is mandarine orange. This is what I buy when I want to be refreshed but need more sugar than water or tea can provide.


That's all the food and drink pics for this week.

Here's a funny picture though. I've been reading my textbooks for my first course in ACU's Higher Ed. Master's Degree program. Caspian decided one night that he might like to get his Master's degree too.


Happy weekend!

Spring has arrived! (finally)

Kelly has posted a bunch of Trailwalker pics on Flickr. Check 'em out if you haven't yet, and if you have, check 'em out again!

Almost two weeks removed from the Trailwalker I can look back on it as a really good experience. It almost kind of seems like the whole thing never happened. Like it was all one big dream. On of the most amazing things about the whole experience is how I never really felt tired the whole time. I was tired physically of course, but never sleepy. And my mind was completely alert the whole time. It wasn't until we crossed the finish line and went into the cabin and sat down that it really hit me. I was asleep shortly thereafter.

Physically I'm mostly recovered. There's still one spot on the back of my left heel, the achilles really, that hurts. But other than that, it's like it never happened. I've even gotten back into my regular running and working out routine. And it's very nice to have my weekends free from hiking and things like that. I feel like a normal person again.

We just finished up Golden Week. The weather was absolutely beautiful. By far the best weather we've had since probably October. No rain the whole time and warm. I even busted out my shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops. It's funny because many people in Japan believe that you shouldn't start wearing short sleeve shirts until June, no matter how hot it is. It can be 80 degrees on a beautiful May day and if you're wearing short sleeves, they'll ask you, "Aren't you cold?" But we gaijin don't always adhere to these "rules," so on Sunday I was on the train going to Dion's house for a barbecue wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Everybody was sitting around in their long pants and light jackets and sun hats staring at me like I was crazy. And I just stared right back. It's springtime people! Enjoy it!

I didn't do much during Golden Week. As I said we had a barbecue at Dion's. Kelly and I rode around town one day taking advantage of the nice weather. We went to a really good sushi place on the other side of Fuji called にこにこ (Niko Niko.) And on Tuesday, John and I went to Tokyo for a Giants game. That was fun as always. The Giants won 5-1 over the visiting Swallows. Heroes of the game included 阿部 (Abe) the 1st baseman, ラ三レス (Ramirez) the left fielder and ゴンザレス (Gonzales) the starting pitcher. As you can see, the Giants are very multicultural.

Back at work now for a short 2-day post-Golden Week work week. It would be nice if they could make up another holiday and actually turn Golden Week into a week instead of a 5-day weekend. But it's Friday now, so we're almost finished. No major plans for this weekend. I think we're going to some sort of classical concert in Shizuoka tomorrow. Should be fun.

Well, back to grading diaries!

Brief Oxfam Trailwalker wrap-up

We did it! This will not be a very long blog post. I'll post more details about the hike later when I'm feeling a little less groggy, but I'll give the basic details now.

We started the hike Friday morning. The starter pistol went off at 9:05 (uncharacteristically late for Japan.) We finished the hike at 11:44pm on Saturday night. Altogether our time was 38 hours and 39 minutes. We came in 55th place overall out of about 160 teams. The first 20 to finish were trail runners. This means they basically run every part of the trail they can. So basically of the teams that didn't run the course, we came in 35th place. All four of finished, which we were really happy about. Many teams lost members along the way due to injury or exhaustion. Of the teams made up of people we know (ALTs from our prefecture) we were the 3rd team to finish and the 2nd to finish with all 4 members.

So that's the basic info. I want to write all about the hike, but just can't find the energy to do it right now. I can say this: I don't think words can give an accurate account of how difficult this was. It was, without a doubt, the most difficult thing I have ever done. There was a time in the middle of the night Friday night when I questioned if I could finish. We all did. The rain turned parts of the trail into a complete mess. One stretch that took us a little over 4 hours on our practice hikes took us over 7 hours because every step we took was into ankle deep mud. I laid down at checkpoint 5 for about 45 minutes but never went to sleep. So I ended up doing the whole hike without sleep. It was extremely challenging. But we made it. So, like I said, I'll write in more detail about all of it in the next few days.

What I can tell you now is that my body survived amazingly well. I actually made it through the hike without a single blister on my feet. I'm hurting all over, but the worst looking part of my body is my fingernails and the skin surrounding them. That's an accomplishment all on its own.

So anyway, the Fuji Crew did it! Thanks everybody for your support! It was a great accomplishment and we're very happy about our results.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...

The big day is almost upon us. We've been training and fundraising and preparing for about 6 months now for the next two days of complete torture. Reading various thoughts and posts on Facebook from the many ALTs around the prefecture that are doing this hike, I find that most of us have the same feelings right about now. What were we thinking?

But at the same time I know everybody is also excited and full of nervous energy leading up to the start tomorrow morning. The weather forecast is calling for a good deal of rain and some pretty cold temperatures. Weather forecasts are notoriously bad in Japan, but I have a feeling this one is going to be accurate. It's pouring outside right now, at least. What I'm hoping for is to at least get started and get the first few hours under our belt before the rain kicks in. It'll be a lot easier to stay positive if we're not already soaked when the event begins. But, no matter what, we're all going to gambatte! We have no other choice. We can do it!

So for my last post before the hike, I'll give some final details so all of you back home can be thinking about us.

• Fuji Crew fundraising total (to date): 143,033yen (Thank you very much!)
• Start time: 9:00am (I was wrong in my last post.) 7pm CDT Thursday.
• Arrival at Checkpoint 4 (estimated): 7:00pm, 5am CDT Friday. This is the first place we will see our support crews made up of friends and family (including Kelly!) They'll have some positive energy, food, and changes of clothes for us.
• Arrival at Checkpoint 7 (estimated): 8:30am Saturday, 6:30pm CDT Friday. This is where we will take our longest break and possibly try to get a little bit of sleep.
• Finish (estimated): 8:00pm Saturday, 6am CDT Saturday This is where we pass out.

As you can see, we're shooting for a little less than 36 hours. It's going to be tough, but we feel like we can do it.

Well, keep us in your thoughts as we go and I can't wait to report back on how it went with pictures, stories, etc. Let the Oxfam Trailwalker Japan begin!

Kyoto, School, and Hiking - Busy Times!

A lot has happened since my last post, as usual. We had a great time in Kyoto. It was really nice the first few days we were there. The weather was nice and it was relatively warm. We were able to take lots of pictures and see some cool places. We went to a big market on the first day we were there and bought some household decoration type things. We also saw many temples like Kinkakuji and Kiyomizudera, and a really cool place called Fushimi shrine where there is a long, long pathway lined with thousands of torii gates. Kelly recorded a short video of it. It started to rain a few days into the trip which put a damper on the rest of our activities. Most of what you do when you are in Kyoto involves being outside, so we had to deal with it. Living in Japan, we have gotten very used to keeping an umbrella with us most of the time. I always used to prefer small, collapsible umbrellas, but now I like to use the bigger kind. They're more tedious to carry around, but when you spend a lot of time walking around outside in the rain, they're definitely more effective. We actually got into a good routine when we were sight-seeing and Kelly wanted to take a picture. I would go over to her and hold her umbrella over her while she took the picture. It worked out pretty well.

We ate a lot of really good food while we were there including what we both proclaimed to be the best sushi we have ever had at a place called Tomizushi. It was a very small restaurant, and we sat at the counter and just told the chef what we wanted when we were ready for something else, and he would make it right in front of us. It was so good and fresh and a great way to start our trip. Other interesting restaurants we ate at include a tofu restaurant where almost everything we ate was made from tofu and a delicious tempura restaurant where the tempura was cooked right in front of us. It was pretty amazing.

We put some pictures up on Flickr that we took with our iPhones during the trip and the rest will be up on Flickr eventually. I'm glad we got to go down there finally. It's one of the must-see places in Japan.

The new school year got rolling this past week. We had a big turnover of teachers, especially in the English department. We had 5 English teachers leave and 4 new ones come in plus one who returned from maternity leave (which can last years in Japan.) All of the new teachers seem very nice, so I'm looking forward to getting to teach with them. One of the teachers who left was Morita-sensei who was by far the most helpful person to the ALTs at our school. She was always willing to drop everything to help us even if she was in the middle of something. She even helped out Jeff and Gwynn when there was an unfortunate key incident during their visit. She will be missed greatly.

The new ichi-nensei are cute and small and nervous as usual. As well as extremely excited to be in high school. I'll have my first class with new students on Tuesday. Really looking forward to that. They are sure to make my last four months fun and exciting.

We had our last practice hike last night before the real deal in two weeks. Last night we did Checkpoint 7 to the Finish. Altogether it was only 20km, but it's a very difficult stretch. The people who designed this course decided it would be a good idea to put the most difficult sections right at the end. Why? I don't know. To be cruel, I guess. In the last 20 km there are three mountains that you have to climb up and then down. Basically it works like this. You start off from CP7 and walk along a gravel road for a while until you come to a mountain. You climb the mountain a long way. It's very steep in places and just an altogether long ascent. When you get to the top, you go back down the other side, as would be expected. A long, steep decline. At the bottom of the mountain is CP8. From CP8 you almost immediately start climbing another mountain. This mountain it extremely steep. There's even a section where there is a rope along the trail to hold on to to prevent falling backward. This was actually a nice change because it gives you a chance to use your arms for a bit rather than solely relying on your legs. You finally get to the top of the mountain and of course, you immediately go straight down. When you get to the bottom of the mountain, you cross a road and on the other side of the road? You guessed it! You start climbing another mountain. By the time we got to this mountain the sun had come up which made climbing it much easier. When we got to the top, there was a nice view of Mt. Fuji very nearby.

We made the descent to Lake Yamanaka where the finish is and then slowly made our way bus by bus, train by train back home. Altogether the hike took us about 7 hours which isn't bad. But it was definitely taxing on the old legs. My left knee started tightening up on this hike and the hike last weekend. I think my legs will definitely be happy when this is over.

This was our first hike to do with all 4 of us together since back in January, so it was good to get together and check on our pacing and strategy. I think we've got a good system worked out, and I have full confidence that we'll complete the hike. We've now all done every part of the course. We're taking next weekend off from practice hiking to give all our wounds a chance to heal. Then we do the real hike on April 23-25. Our starting time is 8:00am. That's 6pm CDT on April 22 for anybody back home who wants to know exactly when we're starting. I'm getting really excited about it. We've reached our fundraising goal, and now all we have to do is do it.

Here are some pictures from the hike:


This is from before obviously. These pictures (on my desk at work) are the step by step pictures of the trail that we use to make sure we don't get lost. They come from the Oxfam website on full pages but we decided to cut them out and put these booklets together to make them easier to carry around during the hike. It worked out well last night.


John and Ashley at the top of the third mountain of last night's hike. It was about 5:30 in the morning here. John, as you can see, is a self-proclaimed non-morning person.


Me at the same place. The shining area you see in the far right is Yamanaka-ko. It's one of the Fuji Five Lakes. You can also kind of see the base of Mt. Fuji in the background.


Fuji-san starting to peek out from behind the clouds with Yamanaka-ko in the foreground. This side of Mt. Fuji (the northern side in Yamanashi Prefecture) gets much more snow than the side we see all of the time.


John, Linton, and Ashley coming down the final mountain.

Spring Yasumi!

Today at school was the closing ceremony for the school year. The school year here goes from April to March as I've mentioned before so when everybody returns in April, the students will have moved up a grade and a new batch of students will be coming in.

The next two weeks are officially "Spring Vacation." This doesn't mean that everybody gets to stay home for two weeks and enjoy a free vacation. Many students will likely be coming to school everyday for sports practices and other club activities. Some others will probably come up for extra tutoring and studying if their grades were not up to par this past year. But there won't be any classes or any official things going on. That is until March 30, a random Tuesday, where despite the fact that it's "Spring Vacation," all students and teachers have to be here for the teacher farewell ceremony. In Japan, many teachers get tranferred from school to school at the end of the year and they have very little say in when they go or where they go. The joys of being a government employee. So on March 30 everybody comes up and they have a big ceremony where the leaving teachers give speeches and then everybody who is staying packs up their things and moves to their new desk for the next year. It's quite a sight.

Anyway, we teachers have very little duties during this break so many people take time off. You have to take your paid leave days, you don't just get to go free. So next week, Kelly and I are both taking the whole week off and going to Kyoto for a few days. Kyoto is one of the most historic cities in Japan, and we have yet to make our way down there, so this week is when we're going to go check it out. We're looking forward to getting out for a while and spending a relaxing time sightseeing, taking pictures, and as always, eating some good food. I'll tell you all about it when we get back.

Well, I hope everyone has had good spring breaks and what not back home. The weather here has been going back and forth between warm and sunny, cold and rainy, warm and rainy, cold and sunny. Today is cold and sunny. I think tomorrow is supposed to be warm and rainy. I'm ready for spring to get here for good. We're maybe about a week away from cherry blossom time. I can't wait!

First Night Hike Recap

We had our first night hike on Friday night. We were doing Checkpoint 4 to Checkpoint 7 minus a stretch of about 6km of open road at the beginning. Altogether the hike was 38km.

We met up at Gotemba Station at around 7pm and took a bus for about 20 minutes to the place where we were going to start. After stretching a bit and getting our headlamps on, we began the hike. Other than the Mt. Fuji climb, none of us had ever gone hiking at night before. So this was sure to be an interesting evening. We walked down a road for a few minutes and then got to the point where we were supposed to turn onto the trail. We turned right and immediately we all stopped, clearly taken aback by how incredibly dark the trail was. After kind of getting over our brief moment of alarm, we started up the trail. I was in the lead at the beginning and my alarm returned when I turned the first corner and in the light from my headlamp I saw a pair of glowing green eyes. A black cat was standing in the middle of the trail. I was like, "Are you serious?" The cat quickly ran away though and we returned to our hiking.

The first stretch was a pretty long one, about 12 kilometers I believe. We basically climbed up a mountain and then back down the other side. There were some pretty interesting moments.

At one point we came across a point where a tree had fallen over right in the middle of the trail. We couldn't really see a good way to get around it, so we ended up just having to climb over it. Only a few minor scrapes occured. There was also a point where we came into this stretch of trail with tall, thick bamboo on either side. It was flat at that point and I got a strange sensation like the scene in "The Fellowship of the Ring" where the Hobbits are in that clearing and Frodo senses that the Ringwraiths are coming and the camera does that crazy zoom down the road. It was a bit creepy. The coolest part of that stretch however was when we got to the top of the mountain and took a short break. We looked out in the distance, and though it was extremely dark and a little cloudy, we could see the snow on the top of Mt. Fuji in the distance. I would have loved to get a picture of it, but it was way too dark so it'll just have to be a picture in my mind.

We finally got to Checkpoint 5, a really nice temple, and stopped to apply some bandaids and eat some onigiri. At least I ate onigiri. Linton had a homemade bacon sandwich which I decided was a great idea for the future. We stayed a little longer than intended at CP5 and then finally I downed a Red Bull and we got going. We got a bit lost trying to get started on the next part, but once we figured out where to go, we made great time. CP5-CP6 has a lot of open road so once we got on the road we got set on a nice, brisk pace and went for it. There's not much to note about that section, really. It'll be a welcome easy part when the actual hike comes.

When we got to CP6 around 2:45am, we realized that we had not seen a single person, car, or anything since we left the bus stop when we started the hike. In fact, the only other living thing we saw besides each other was that black cat. It gave us a sense of really being alone out there. Kind of cool and creepy at the same time.

We left CP6 at about 3am and headed out for the last stretch. This is where things got interesting. By this time, as you can imagine, we were quite tired. We were starting to slow down drastically. We got to a point around 4:00 where we had to go straight up a very steep trail to get up a mountain. It was no gradual incline. It was tough, but it got even worse about 15 minutes up the trail when it started to rain. We managed to get to the top before the big rain started. We quickly threw on our rain gear, wrapped up all of our stuff in plastic, bags, and set out again. The rain was really picking up and fog started to set in. It got to the point where the leader would literally have to stop every 30 seconds or so to see if we were still on the trail because it was so hard to see. We couldn't see more than about 5 meters in front of us. There was a point where we knew we had 2km until our next landmark on our map and we just kept walking and walking and walking. We were sure we were lost. We stopped and had about a 5 minute meeting to decide whether we should go back or keep moving. We decided to keep moving and we're glad we did. It turns out we were still on the trail, it was just taking us a long time because we couldn't see.

We still had quite a long way to go. We were pretty exhausted and started getting delirious. Ashley was asking random questions to keep from going to sleep while walking. I think Linton started whistling. I just walked in complete silence. We were being put to the test. Once the sun came up it got much easier for us to see. That definitely helped our pace. We got to the final stretch of open road and by this time it was really pouring. We walked along the open road for about 4km until we finally made it to town, saw a person for the first time, and made it to the train station just before CP7. We got to the station at 8:15. Altogether the hike took us 12.5 hours. Not too bad!

We learned some things from this hike. We definitely know we're going to be tired at these points, but we learned that positive thinking is the way to go. And we have to continually support each other. We each had a funk during the night at different points, so we have to remember that that's going to happen and not get frustrated if somebody is slowing down or getting edgy. We have to fight through the tests.

We have a few weeks off and then we're going to get back on it after the spring vacation. Sorry no pictures from this last hike. It was pretty dark. The next hike will be a day hike so I'll try to get some up from that.

Thank to everybody who has donated so far. We're getting so much more support than we imagined and getting close to our goal. I think we'll have no trouble reaching it and going beyond. It's really great so thanks a lot!

Oxfam Trailwalker Japan - Fuji crew!

Well as I mentioned a month or so back, on April 23-25 I am participating in a team-challenge to raise money for Oxfam International. The event is a 100 kilometer hike that takes place over 48 hours through the forests, hills, and mountains of Japan. It is called Oxfam Trailwalker.

Oxfam Trailwalker takes place in 12 countries around the world, and it is said that the Japan Trailwalker is the most challenging of all. Take a look at the site to read all about the trail and information on the hike.

So you may be thinking, "What does a 100km hike have to do with rasing money for charity?" I'm glad you asked. Each team of four that competes in the challenge is responsible for raising a minimum of 120,000 yen which is roughly equivalent to $1,346. The money that is raised goes to help people in need in places like Congo, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, India, Mogambique, and South Africa. To read more about how the money is used, look here. Last year, Oxfam Trailwalker Japan raised 49,246,830 yen.

My team is made up of Ashley Janssen from Minnesota, John Land from Alabama, Linton Rathgen from Christchurch, New Zealand and myself. We are called Fuji Crew.

So how can you help? You can go to our Just Giving site where you will find more information about our team as well as some pictures and information about how to make a donation. The donation on the site will be in Euros so your money will be transferred from Dollars to Euros to Yen. But no matter what, it'll go straight to Oxfam and help us to reach our goal of 120,000 yen by April 9. Anything above that amount would be great too.

If you have any questions about the event or anything else, let me know. As we do more practice hikes, I'll start to post some pictures on here and we'll continue to update pictures on the Just Giving site. You can see some of Ashley's below.

Thanks for reading and please help us out.

よし！

Well I did it! I successfully completed the 10K. I came in 125th place out of around 190 boys. Or at least the boy who I raced the final 50 meters or so to the finish line came in 125th place. I wasn't given an actual number. I don't know my exact time yet. I'll find that out tomorrow at school when we get a packet with everybody's times. I'll look up #125 and count that as my time since we finished at almost exactly the same time. But I added up the minutes and seconds of the songs I listened to while I ran and came up with something around 45 minutes! Which is unbelievable! I guess my natural pace is much faster than the 11kph I run on the treadmill at the gym.

So needless to say I was very pleased. And I'm very tired. The unexpected hills really took it out of me. I took the rest of the day off and came home (making a stop to eat a huge lunch at Katsu-ya on the way.) One very bad thing about having this postponed from Friday to today is we have school tomorrow. I even have a 1st period class. So I'm going to rest up for the rest of the day.

Emily took some pictures of me while I ran that I'll post as soon as she sends them to me.

おつかれさまです！

Let's try this again

So as of now, everything is a go for tomorrow. We're going to try this one again, drier but much colder. Here is a picture from my Accuweather app to show you exactly what the weather might be like when I'm running tomorrow.



Or for those metrically challenged...



I've come to like Celsius because it makes things look more exciting. So I'll probably be running sometime around 11. I'll be wearing shorts although Kelly keeps telling me I shouldn't, but I always run in shorts so that's what I'm comfortable in. I probably will forgo a t-shirt however for something with long sleeves. We'll see.

iPod is charged and ready. Here's hoping this thing happens this time!

Another chapter in a long book of February blah

Well Marathon Day got cancelled today. I was just getting up to get ready when I got a phone call saying that it was cancelled because of rain and that I should come to school because we would be having a regular class day today. So after weeks of looking forward to and preparing for this day, I'm feeling pretty let down and unhappy. It hasn't been cancelled completely, only postponed until next Wednesday. Next Wednesday will be the last chance to do it. Unfortunately the weather report I looked at this morning predicts rain on Wednesday too, so it's likely that it'll be cancelled altogether. I guess I have to keep my hopes up though.

Have I mentioned lately how much I despise the month of February? It seems like February is always full of bad things. There have been a few decent ones mixed in, but for the most part, I have been having bad Februarys for as long as I can remember. And this day and this weather just add to the long list of things I can't stand about this month. Sometimes I wish I was a bear so I could hibernate through February. Just go to sleep on the night of January 31 and wake up on the morning of March 1. Oh well.

Sorry to be a downer this morning. I'm just going to have to go to the gym after school today and run another 9K and keep my preparation going. Hopefully that'll make me feel better.

The clock is ticking...

Well tomorrow is the day. It's currently pouring down rain in Fuji and has been all day, but if the rain stops during the night as it's supposed to, 200 high school boys and I will be running a 10K tomorrow. I know it seems silly to be getting all worked up about 10K. It's not like it's a real marathon or anything. But considering that I have never done anything like this before, it'll be a big accomplishment if I complete it. And if I start, believe me, I will complete it.

I'll also be making good on the promise I made to some students last year.

Well today was a holiday, National Foundation Day. No idea what it celebrates. We spent the entire day indoors, Kelly reading her book, me playing Playstation, while it rained outside. You can't do much more with a Thursday holiday anyway.

Wish me luck tomorrow! If I survive, I'll tell you all about it!

Thinking about the old days...

Exciting day here at school today. Today was the last day of exams for our third year students, so they officially have the time from now until graduation (March 1) off. The time in between is used for students to make up classes or tests that they need to graduate. So today there were about 250 giddy third year students cleaning out their homerooms for the last time and packing up their stuff. They were very excited.

It reminded me of when I graduated from high school coming up on 12 years ago. I remember the day pretty clearly. It was a Friday. I had been exempt from all of my exams except one which I requested to take on that day during 7th period so I wouldn't have to come back the next week and take it. I took the exam, which I bombed (don't tell my dad,) and when I finished, my teacher let me leave. I remember walking down almost every hallway relishing the fact that I was finished. I knew I would likely never see those hallways again (which would have been true no matter what since the school has been completely remodeled.) Then I made the way out to my car and headed home. It's hard to believe that I have not entered the main part of that school building, old or remodeled, since that day. I think the last time I went on campus at all was about 8 years ago right after I graduated from college when I went up to give Mrs. Childress her Tommy Act II score back. She was retiring and had just left for the last time so I missed her. A bit anticlimactic I guess.

Well enough reminiscing. I had my last classes with the few third year students that I teach last week. I handled myself pretty well although I think if I had said any more I might have choked up a bit. I don't think I'll handle myself quite as well when I'm leaving in July. These students that are graduating have been a great class, but I don't have quite as strong a connection with them as with many of the students who I will be leaving behind when I go. It's going to be tough. But no thinking about that now.

Well as you may have heard, Kelly and I both passed our JLPT. For those who are unaware, that's the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. There are currently 4 levels and we passed level 4 which is the beginner level. But that by no means takes away from the accomplishment. It was tough. Surprisingly, I had my highest percentage on the listening section which is what I was most worried about going in. My lowest was grammar - no surprise. I plan to keep studying even after we leave, and depending on where we end up I may consider trying for level 3 next year. We'll see.

Well, one week until the 10K. I'm getting nervous, but I'm ready to get it overwith. I'm shooting for a time somewhere from 56 minutes to 1 hour. The pace I usually run at puts me in that range, but I usually run on a treadmill that sets the pace for me. It's going to be much different running on my own. I'm hoping the gameday adrenaline kicks in though. I've said from the very beginning that I absolutely do not want to finish last. Last year, the last student finished at about 1 hour and 5 minutes, so I think shooting for 56-60 minutes should be okay. I saw some students doing running practice in P.E. today and I think I can take 'em. Today after school I'm going to the gym to do my last long distance practice run. I'll do a couple of shorter ones next week. Today I plan to run 9km. So by the time most of you read this, my legs will be jello.

Kelly just put up some pictures on Flickr. Some old, some new. Go check 'em out!

First blog of the new year...my bad

Well I got fussed at by my mother this morning about my lack of blogging. We can't have that, right? So here we go.

I'm at work now killing time until my next class. Right now I'm teaching a lesson to my ichi-nensei on "How to Do Things." I'm not actually teaching them how to do things. The lesson is on how to tell someone how to do things. So I'm teaching use of things like first, second, then, next, after that, finally, etc. I have an activity at the end where each student has one step of a task and they have to find the other three classmates who have the other three steps to that task and then put them in the correct order. When they're finished they read the steps out loud for the class using those sequence words. I've taught it once and it went well. Hoping it goes well for my classes today.

This is the third week back from the break and I'm finally starting to feel normal again. The first week and a half I was still in post-vacation mode and had no motivation to do anything. I wasn't looking forward to my classes and didn't want to plan lessons. But now that things are back into a real routine, I'm feeling good. The weekend comes much faster the busier you keep yourself. That's a lesson I wish I had learned a long time ago.

I've started a new workout routine these past few weeks. It's not a New Year's resolution thing because I was going regularly before. I've just started working out harder and longer. No more taking it easy on myself. I'm really enjoying it so far. I'm trainging for two major things. I'm planning to do my school's 10km marathon next month. I'm nervous about it, but I think it'll be really good for me to do. Also I'm taking part in a 100km hike in April for charity. It's the Oxfam Trailwalker where you work in teams of four and together complete a 100km hike in 48 hours or less. I'll write more about that later. It's a very big deal and I'm really excited about it.

Finally, as many may have seen on my Twitter or Facebook, we have officially told our schools that we will not be recontracting for a third year. So what this means is that we will be heading back to the States at the end of July. It's bittersweet because we really like living in Japan, but we think it's time to move on. As of now, we're not sure exactly where we'll end up, but we know we'll be flying into Houston sometime at the end of July.

Well, gotta go to class!