Sunny Day

   Looks like the storm is holding off, so there's some great, sunny weather. I biked home and enjoyed the coolness of the summer wind at my back. As soon as I got home, I grabbed my camera and headed down the street to take some pictures while the weather is great. I gripe a lot about this being the country, but the scenery and colors really are great.

   Read on!

The Gathering Storm

   It's been generally hot and unpleasant for a while, but that's something that comes with summer. The humidity's been really high and I thought we'd get some relief since it rained last night, but apparently it didn't rain hard enough.

   The sky today is gorgeous, though.

Making a Home (Theater!)

    I've never really had a home in Japan, for whatever reason. I've had apartments, but they were generally just places to dump my stuff and sleep. My last apartment was really big, but I only ever really used the corner of it -- that's where I put my futon. I always sat/laid there while I used my computer and that was all I needed.

    Sure, I got a sofa bed and put it in the other room of my old apartment, but that was more of a concession to impending visitors from America and Britain than anything else -- just like the table I bought. When I wasn't expecting visitors, my apartment turned into a giant dump.

    Literally.

    I'm not kidding. I would just dump my stuff on an empty space on the floor, lacking the furniture or some other more organized place to store it. As far as I was concerned, the apartment was just a giant storage shed because I never did anything else that warranted... well, anything else.

    That changed this year.

   Read on!

In The Gutter

   One of the most commonplace features of Japan that I take for granted is the road gutter. Sure, there are chopsticks, weird square cars, and power lines everywhere, but the ubiquitous gutter is something I've gotten so used to that I sometimes forget that it doesn't exist in America.

   Whereas roads in America have grass, dirt, or gravel along the shoulders, Japanese roads tend to have a gutter along one side, if not both sides. I don't know if this difference is due to different road building techniques or simply an adaptation to the monstrous rainy season in Japan, but whatever the case, gutters are everywhere.

   Read on!

Stormy Mountain Clouds

   One of the reasons I really love living in this area is the scenery. Not only are there tons of nicely-sculpted mountains all over the place, but there are also tons of great cloudscapes. Every once in a while, the two come together to make a really, really neat mountain cloudscape.

   Like this one from yesterday afternoon.

   Unfortunately, I didn't have my good camera on hand to take a picture and I had to make do with my cell phone camera. Too bad.

   All of the dark and brooding clouds seemed to predict rain, and sure enough, it's drizzling a bit today.

   I'm really annoyed at that, since I have to go down into the city for a farewell party from my old school for all of the teachers who left this year (including me) -- that means a bit of biking in the city, in a suit. I also was going to bike back after the party thanks to my replacement screwing me over... but I really don't want to go through that again.

   Maybe this time I'll "sleep" in the 24-hour McDonald's near the bus stop.

Morning Mountain Mist

   I thought about titling this post "Misty Mountain Hop," but there was no hopping involved.

   On Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, I walk to school. The school is so close that I'd barely save any time at all by riding a bike and the brisk walk is probably better exercise, too. Another thing that makes me prefer walking is the road; it's steep and covered in loose gravel, with very small shoulders, which would make me incredibly nervous on a bike with cars flying by.

   If I go by foot, though, I'm only very nervous.

   Read on!

Junior High Scenery

   Today's my first day of classes at the junior high and, appropriately enough, the scenery is changing. Since it's spring and finally starting to warm up a bit, flowers are blooming, the cherry blossoms are finally all coming out, and of course, my allergies are acting up.

   The scenery inside the school is changing too; students are a lot more active now that they're out of the seemingly endless tedium of orientation. Hand-drawn posters are going up around the school, advertising various club activities -- all of the clubs want to attract new first-year members to replace the third-year members that will retire, come August.

   Some of these posters are really good!

   Read on!

First Elementary School Day

   I was a bit nervous today because it was my first day at the new school. I woke up around 8, which was fine, since my elementary days start at 10 for some strange reason. It means I miss the first two class periods of the day, which is inconvenient since it makes my schedule less flexible -- there are only six periods in a day and I'm only there for four of them.

   Since I have five classes to teach, that means that one class gets left out and the schedule gets lopsided as I skip between the two.

   Not much I can do about it, though.

   I left the apartment at 9:30 since I didn't know how long it would take me to get to the school. Since it wasn't cloudy, aside from some general light cover, I took my camera with me to get some pictures on the way down the mountainside. Yes, pictures for you, faithful reader.

   Read on!

The Picture Extravaganza

   First, I'd like to point out that I made two backdated posts that I wrote at home, before I had internet access here at school. You can read about my first night in Fujimi and the disaster that was my school introduction.

   Someone asked me to take more pictures, so I did, last Friday. It was dark and I was using my cell phone, so the pictures are less than stellar, but here they are.

   Read on!

Worlds, New and Old

   When I first started working in Japan, I lived in a neighboring city called Takasaki. My apartment there was an old, somewhat run-down place that wasn't improved in the slightest by the fact that the previous tenant had left it incredibly filthy. Incredibly. Filthy.

   The least of his filth was a pile of old wine and beer bottles on a sticky floor in the corner of the kitchen.

   Incredibly. Filthy.

   I hated that place, even though it was in a relatively good location life-wise -- a grocery store, 100 yen store, electronics store, used book store, everything was within a 10-minute bike ride. The schools were around 20-30 minutes away, but it was good exercise and helped me slim down a lot when I first got here.

   Read on!

Day of Clubs

   Yesterday afternoon was the most eventful part of the day; I can't even remember what happened in the morning, other than a staff picture.

   I also took a picture from the teachers' room. You can see the whole city spread out beneath the mountain from up here... well, at least on clear days.

   Read on!