One weekend, I went out with one of my friends, and we were supposed to go visit this zoo where apparently you can touch a lot of the animals (including a white tiger!!). Wahh!!! I want to pet a tiger. Unfortunately as my friend came to pick me up a little late and then we had to make some stops along the way, we didn't get there until just after 5. And it turns out that it closed at 5. Awww....disappointing. But we did get to see a peacock, some bunnies, dogs, goats and a sheep that were just kind of in the entrance area. She promised me that we'd try to come back another day. So maybe! Anyway, after that she went out a different way than she had come in and somehow we ended up on this really narrow, snaking road that went up a mountain. There were some really pretty views of the ocean from up there. I enjoyed it --- it was fun, but my friend didn't like that road at all. She kept saying how scared she was (especially because she couldn't turn around), and then we got to one point where the very edge of the road had broken off due to erosion or some such thing. Of course, I found it interesting, and her reaction was to freak out even more. hehehe. Anyway, eventually, she found her way back to the main road that runs along the train ride, and you have no idea how relieved she was. As for me, I just considered it all a good adventure. But that's just me. After that adventure we took a couple more detours (including driving past her old university because she was feeling nostalgic. We followed that up by finding somewhere to have dinner (which always takes us a rather long time because neither of us wants to make the decision of what we should eat). But, that night we ended up at this restaurant that did tempura and kushiage, and we had a really yummy dinner. We got a variety of tempura vegetables and kushiage meats. Actually it was my first time eating kushiage. So let me explain a little --- imagine tempura but with a finer breading more like on the outside of chicken nuggets (but better) and then the pieces of meat are put on sticks so that you can dip them into the sauce (NO double dipping!!). It was really yummy! And interestingly enough, one of the meats that we had that I liked kind of the best was duck. It's not my first time having duck, but each time I have it, I've enjoyed it.
The following weekend, I took the Friday off of work for various reasons, but needless to say, I really needed it and I think it was good for me to get that time off (plus I was able to get some things done) Also that Saturday, ヨシダヒロキ came back to Takamatsu to do a live -- this time just him (well and his friend who does percussion things) so lots of fun for me. That night there were only a few people at the livehouse -- they only filled one side of it, so there were maybe 6 or 7 people there, so maybe a little disappointing for him, but still. I ended up having to sit between two gentlemen who were both smoking, which made it a little bit less than ideal for me, but of course I was happy to get to listen to his music. Actually interestingly enough, after the live was finished, one of them got out his phone, and pulled up his translator app because he wanted to apologize for blowing smoke on me all night long. Who does that??? Only in Japan! Anyway, after the live, they had a takoyaki party and talked for a while. Of course, I talked together with ヨシダさん for a while, and it was interesting as always. This particular night though they lefts a little bit early as he had to head out to catch a plane the next day for his next live which was in Kumamoto of all places. That's ok though...I had to walk home anyway and it was a rainy night, so...
This month has been the rainy season here in Japan, so it's been raining quite a lot...and you all know how I feel about rain. So those days with sunshine are really precious for me, and if I can catch one of those days, I've been heading to the beach. Well, actually even cloudy weekends too...as long as it's not raining, I really need those opportunities so that I can get out of my apartment.
Speaking of which -- this weekend it was really nice weather, and I really, really, really wanted to get out of my apartment and go to the beach, but after a long and extended argument with myself -- I had to stay at home. Why you may ask? Well, because it was probably a good idea. Why again? Well, you see, I had a rather high fever. I felt perfectly fine mind you, but my temperature was really high...
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| Yep, hot... |
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| Day one! |
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| After a week |
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| Extreme carbonation!! |
Lately a lot of my old rainbow class students have been telling me how they miss me, they love me and they miss rainbow class! Awww!! I miss them too! Also they always want to know if I'm going to stay in Sun and Sky class for snack and story time, and always act so disappointed on the days that I have to go to Moon and Star class. Wow...I'm touched, but maybe they don't realize that saying things like that might make the other teacher feel kind of sad?
And here's a quick cute story...one day during snack time one of the older girls comes up to me and has her hand on her throat/chest, and says to me...."Amanda, I don't know, but something's wrong. Something keeps moving here and it won't stop. What should I do?" Umm...well...it was only hiccups, so I told her to go drink some tea and not worry about it as they'll go away eventually. She was so worried about it though! But she's 5 years old...was it really her first time???
Most recently, one of my students from my Rainbow class last year told me that she really wanted to come to my house. When I asked her why, and said there would be nothing for her to do there, she told me that she wanted to come because I would be there, and she loves me and just wants to play together with me. Wow! Talk about having the ability to just rip out my heart and grab it.
