Bento - my lunch today

Images from Tokyo

International Thanksgiving at Tanayama Land-o

How'sTHIS for turkey!?!?


Come and get it!!!



Ohhhh, the pain

Speaking of Lists....

It's been on my mind. What to do for my next tattoo?
A few questions that must be answered are:

WHY - Why do I want another one?
what - What do I want?
who - Who will design it, who will tattoo me?
when - While in Japan, when I'm home next?
where - twofold -where on my body and where to find a good tattoo artist?

Mara's tattoo - she got this after our road trip to Vancouver this summer...


Brad's tattoos - very cool.




Johnny's tattoo

Procrastinating

That's probably what you're doing if you're reading this blog.

I just spent a good 30 minutes studying...that's about all I can muster in terms of an attention span these days.

Now I'm back at my computer -zipping through forums and checking my e-mail -the next 30 minutes will go by much faster than the last.

I'll finish off this litte bout of procrastination by posting some pics from the last week.
Kirsten -post swim meet smile!
Here's Kirsten and Amy enjoying the fall colors in Unazuki.

Cool things that happen on the way to the gym.

I took this photo of the moon last night on the way to the gym (yes, it's that dark at 6:00 p.m. here!).

Lists

I think I get list making from my father...I'm not sure if he'd admit to it, but we always had lists in our house (disguised as charts for many years -with shiny stars to lick and stick beside our names when we finished washing the dishes or raking the yard -I can still taste the paste...)


Currently I have a fancy electronic hand-held device to input and categorize data for me. It can prioritize my to do lists, and even beep when something is due but y'know what? I never use it. I always fall back to pen and paper, there's something about physically striking a line through an objective that makes it feel completed.

I think lists keep me sane - I only say that because recently I've been feeling like I'm going a bit crazy, and I've also stopped making lists...Coincidence? I think not.


Here's a list of essential lists for me:

to do lists - for school, for my car, for cleaning, for family (b-days, e-mails, blogging etc) -OK, so now I have a list of 'to do' lists....

shopping lists - this one is usually made as I'm walking down the aisles as one item will indubitably remind me of something else I need to buy

packing lists - be it camping, a weekend trip to Tokyo or a month in Thailand (I wish). I should have a template for this one...I always forget the same things (tweezers come to mind - everyone needs tweezers)

Christmas card lists - arranged first by association: family, friends, co-workers etc., then by likelihood of it being delivered/mailed (i.e. if I have the correct address), and then by actual Christmas card: fancy and glittery for Mother and Godmother, witty and bizarre for the brothers....

mailing lists - e-mail and snail mail - if people would just stay in one spot, this one would be easy to manage!!


and last but not least:

THE list - you know what I mean, we all have one: Drive an F1 car, spend a year backpacking around the globe, sky dive in the Grand Canyon, get a Masters degree, marry a sugar daddy....this is the ultimate list that gets shorter or longer depending on my current state of mind, it changes, sometimes year to year, sometimes day to day. It's an unwritten list for me, but it exists nonetheless, and of course, it's my favorite list -especially when I get to cross something off of it!


What have you crossed off YOUR list lately?

More Congratulations

One of my dearest friends got married last month and this weekend was her wedding reception in our home town of Grande Prairie. I wish I could have been there to celebrate with her.
Laurie and I have known each other since pre-school....so about 28 years!
We attended the same schools from pre-school to high school and were almost always in the same home room. We've shared a lot of memories over the years, and it only takes a word or name (i.e. Jeremy Kinsley) to send us reminiscing for hours. She's a wonderful friend, and a beautiful mother to Jocelyn (and hopefully more children in the future -hint hint)

Congratulations Laurie and Glenn!

Rememberance Day

I doesn't really matter where you are, I think it's important to pause and remember.

I dedicate this short blog entry to my Grandfather, and my Great Uncles.

Tokyo Motor Show

It was a whirl wind 4 hours - when I could have spent a whole weekend there. Here's what I got, it's not much....

My Thip

Well, after being sworn to secrecy for the last 6 weeks,
I'm finally allowed to let it out....

THIP'S PREGNANT!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!

BIG HUGS TO YOU AND LAMBERT!

Japan's Addiction

Ok, I can't stand it any longer. It's time to rant about my number one pet peeve, frustration...hazard in this country.

SMOKING

This will be a multi-entry blog topic as there is just too much to put down here.

Let's start with some statistics, shall we...


These were taken from the World Health Organization:

• About a third of the male adult global population smokes.

• Smoking related-diseases kill one in 10 adults globally, or cause four million deaths. By 2030, if current trends continue, smoking will kill one in six people.

• Every eight seconds, someone dies from tobacco use.

• Smoking is on the rise in the developing world but falling in developed nations. Among Americans, smoking rates shrunk by nearly half in three decades (from the mid-1960s to mid-1990s), falling to 23% of adults by 1997. In the developing world, tobacco consumption is rising by 3.4% per year.

• About 15 billion cigarettes are sold daily - or 10 million every minute.

• About 12 times more British people have died from smoking than from World War II.

• Cigarettes cause more than one in five American deaths.

• Among WHO Regions, the Western Pacific Region* - which covers East Asia and the Pacific - has the highest smoking rate, with nearly two-thirds of men smoking.

• About one in three cigarettes are consumed in the Western Pacific Region.

• The tobacco market is controlled by just a few corporations - namely American, British and Japanese multinational conglomerates.

Complaining

I've just gotten over a slight bout of food poisoning which I think came from some chicken that I ate last week. It started on Thursday with that all-over achy flu-like feeling. You know, the one where all your joints feel like they've rusted and your head could explode at any moment. That was my Thursday. By Friday I had graduated from 'achy' to 'flattened by a semi'. As I hovered over my toilet at 8:00 a.m. I debated the merits of using a sick day. Unfortunately, in this country the beauracracy tends to overwhelm me and I thought that it would be easier to prop myself up against a desk for 8 hours than deal with a sick day request. Besides, I wanted to go to Tokyo the next day and I thought it would look a little suspicious if I took a day off the day before -even though I was TRULY ill.

I made it through the work day - barely - in the last class of the day my JTE finally commented that I looked quite pale... - at least she noticed, right? I went home, went to bed and dreaded the 4:00 a.m. alarm I had set. Now some of you are thinking - 4:00 alarm? What the? -Here's where Tokyo fits in.

My friend Kaz and I had planned a trip to Tokyo to see the Tokyo Motor Show together. I was to get up bright and early (usually not a big deal for me) and drive to his place, then hop in his beetle and drive to the event - yahoo! Well, everything happened as planned, minus the yahoo.
I thought I was feeling better when I woke up. In fact, I did feel better, but I had only gone from 0% to 50% -not even close to where one should be when embarking on such an adventure.
Food poisioning is not fun! Sheesh!

After getting home at 7:00 a.m. Sunday morning (I had spent a few hours huddled in my sleeping bag, in my car, in an expressway parking lot that night), I got in the door, shut off every electrical device in my apartment, covered every inch of window and literaly crawled into bed and SLEPT. I woke up at 5:00 p.m. - attempted a few menial tasks, ate a bit of food, slipped back under the covers and had another full night's sleep. By Monday I was at about 75%, Tuesday, 85% and yesterday was as close to 100% as I ever feel.

I am fully aware that I put this wretched weekend upon myself - it could have been avoided by a simple phone call to Kaz, threaded with explanations and apologies. I could have slept all day Saturday, rested Sunday and avoided the miserable day I had simultaneously fighting crowds and my urge to run to a toilet...

But then what would I have had to complain about this week?

More Tsurugi Pics From Josh's Camera

Behind again....

I can honestly say I've been busy....busy having fun. Ok, work's been pretty jamb packed too. In fact, I'm at work on my day off today (yes, writing on my blog, but also catching up on marking, planning and prepping....ahem, real work).

So here's a summary of the last couple of weeks:

Two weeks ago Kathleen came to visit me. She just happened to be in the neighborhood so she stopped in Tokyo for a few days. I caught the Shinkansen (bullet train) and we met in Ikebukuro (a district of Tokyo) for a couple of days of girl time.

I took her to some of my favorite places: the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Harajuku and the Oriental Bazzar, the Starbucks across from Shibuya station, 7th floor bookstore in Tower Records, just down the street...we were ONLY in there for 3 hours....that could be a record.

We intended to hop over to Shinjuku to see the lights and catch some night action but instead we sat on the balcony of a bar overlooking a Shibuya street, watching people go by - enjoying wine, sake and the unreality of Kathy being in Tokyo with me. We were both reminded of the time we spent in Havana, doing much the same thing (only it was rum, not sake). We philosophised, as usual, ranted, raved, laughed, flirted and missed our third partner in crime...Dacia.

How much things have changed in a year... Who would have thought it would be me sitting back, watching my friends create homes, families...(stability??), while I spontaneously get in my car and drive 2 hours for a starbucks fix, plan my next trip abroad, or sit in my apartment and read a whole book uninterupted. I'm not envious of them anymore.

I returned to Toyama Saturday night, in time to meet up with some ex-Nova students that I hadn't seen for about 2 years. I was treated to a very nice Japanese style dinner and great conversation. I wish I had more time to spend with everyone I've become friends with here. Sometimes I only have a chance to get together with people once or twice a year!

That Sunday I headed to Kanazawa with Kaz and Ai - more friends I've made through Nova. We went and watched an exhibition Sumo tournament much like the one I went to a few years ago in Uozu. We were seven rows back from the doyho (sumo ring) and got to see the big guys in a much more relaxed atmosphere than is usual for a 'grand' sumo tournament. They had demos with some elementary school boys, put on a couple of performances of what NOT to do in a sumo ring, they explained and demonstrated how the hair is tied, and then went to work throwing each other out of the ring. This was my 4th time to watch Sumo live, and I've learned quite a bit watching it on TV because I get English comentary....so my friends were more than a little surprised by my knowledge of the sport. I just kept telling them it was because I'm a PE teacher...

This past weekend was the anual JET Halloween party...I almost didn't go, but was pursuaded at the last minute to get my costume on and join the craziness. I didn't think last year's shinanigans could be topped, but, in a nutshell - they were. I spent Saturday in my apartment with a book before heading to the gym in the evening, and Sunday was another day in Kamiichi teaching elementary school kids - of course we had a Halloween theme and they enjoyed making witches hats out of chocolate cookies and Hershey's Kisses.

This weekend I'm heading back to Tokyo for the motor show -just a one day road trip in a '67 Beetle...giddy-up!

On my way home from work there was a brilliant sunset -unfortunately it was behind me. Then, I spotted this shiney tanker and decided to catch up to him and enjoy the veiw in his reflection. I tail-gated him all the way home...

Sumo In Kanazawa

photos from the past