IrishOboe

Today was less stressful at school, but I still have lots of random papers and things to sort through and organize before school starts. Everyone’s busy so it’s hard to ask all the questions I need to for the next year. I don’t have trouble getting answers, but I’m worried that I’m not asking all the right questions and something will come up suddenly and catch me off guard, like “you have to give a speech” or “oh, you have half the class sessions you thought you did because of random ear, heart and other health checks” (that one is true! Well, not half the classes . . .)Naito sensei took me out to lunch because “I’m asking a lot of favors from you in April.” Seems to me that’s my job, but I couldn’t refuse the offer. We ate at an Italian place that has a lunch special of a spaghetti plate and a salad and BREAD bar! The bread is not the greatest, but it’s quite good for Japan. I stuffed myself like nobody’s business. The salad bar was great, too. It’s too bad it’s a bit expensive, otherwise I’d eat there every time I went to the new park to exercise (it opens April 25^th!)!

We also stopped at the home center so we could buy shelves for the English Free Zone I’m setting up at school. I invision a comfortable corner where students and teachers can come read English books, relax, talk to me, play games, etc. It looks like it might actually happen! Hurray for Naito sensei who’s latched on to the idea!

After that we went on a hanami trip. There’s a famous strip in Minami Alps city of cherry trees along an old irrigation stream. There were so many and they were so old! The smell was wonderful and we had a nice walk along the stream. Pictures just can’t do it justice, but I supposed I should post them soon anyway . . .

On our walk we met a group of locals sitting under the sakura (cheery trees – the pretty flowered but non fruit bearing kind) and having a picnic, I think that is technically hanami (flower viewing). Anyway, they insisted on feeding us even though we were quite full. The interesting part for me was the slices of lemon that we ate whole – rind and all. They were marinade in honey or something sweet, but it was still an interesting flavor! I understand stood the beginning of the conversation and was able to answer questions, but then I got lost. Ah well! They gave me okashi for the road (sweets) and we went back to school. I still had plenty of stuff to do so I stayed late again, but was home by 6pm. I then returned Naito sensei’s bike then ran home via a new path in an attempted to find a shopping area that I’ve been unsuccessful at finding all year. Now, to be fair I never really tried that hard, but it’s amazing to me how many of my explorations got so close, but not quite. It turns out that there is a big Ogino (grocery store) with a clothing store attached, a number of really great looking restaurants, and TWO 100 yen stores! What’s even better news is that it’s just about the same distance as the Ogino I usually shop at and it’s bigger and better and the ride there is less scary (I think, though I haven’t biked it yet – this time I was running). They only down side is that it’s on top of the hill (near Dragon Park) so I have a steep climb to get there, but that’s good because I need to build up my biking legs anyway! It’ll be downhill all the way with the groceries . . . It’s great that I’ve been here eight months, have discovered a lot and am still discovering more. That makes life exciting!