I feel a bit lame to have taken until today to update this but what can you do?? We had a busy weekend and the last few days have not slowed down at all! The bummer of it is that when I write so many days at once I end up writing a novel! Sorry in advance!
On Saturday we ventured to Sapporo for the day to do some shopping. It was snowing when we started off but it turned to rain before we got to Sapporo. We (read Ian and Phaedra) sang Christmas songs the whole way there. It got to be a challenge to come up with new ones that we hadn't sung yet! We found oatmeal and a few other treats and managed to get Joisan a pair of boots. We broke down and had McDonalds for lunch as it was convenient and both kids were happy with it. The McDonalds here has an ebi-burger which Joisan very much enjoyed. It was totally crazy though - we don't do McDonalds at home and here we are going to "Mickey-D's" in Japan! Brutal! Ian and I have just gotten really tired of the kids fighting about stuff ("I'm not going to eat here!" "They don't have anything I'll eat!") that it seemed like heaven to find somewhere we could sit down and eat together. Before leaving Sapporo we hit an amazing 100 yen shop where the kids racked up some serious debt.
We headed home where we unpacked and got organized before being picked up for dinner. We went to the home of one of the women in my adult conversation class. She (Mitsuko) and her daughter and son-in-law (Michiko and Satoshi) come regularly to the Wednesday beginner class and they are very nice. Michiko and Satoshi came up from Date City for the evening and made takoyaki for us. We also had cabbage rolls and yummy bread and there was a vegetable soup for Joisan. We played some card games after dinner and Mitsuko showed us the temple that is attached to her house. She works as a kind of spiritual helper to followers of her particular flavour of religion (still not sure what it is) and she has quite a beautiful temple. I took a few photos so I'll try and get them up on a photoshare this evening. We had a lovely evening - they are very nice people and we will play with them again.
Sunday we had Chinami (the school nurse) and her boys up from Date City for lunch. When they showed up the boys were in costume... the older boy (Yuhei) with reindeer antlers and the younger boy (Naoki) in a full Santa costume! They brought Taran and Joisan each a bag of candy and Chinami had brought some vegetarian sauces and things for Joisan! They also brought their Wii and all their games so the kids would have something to do. Ian made chicken nuggets and fries and we had a few ebi for Joisan as well. We made honey-mustard and a veggie tray with a garlic dip. It was a great lunch - we just kept eating and eating - and we thoroughly enjoyed the company. At one point we pulled the kids off the video games to play Pit and they really enjoyed that too! I am going to pick up a bunch of games when we're home to bring back - everyone really seems to enjoy playing games. Chinami told us that she is teaching the puberty classes this week so Joisan had hers yesterday and Taran will have his on Monday. I haven't heard yet whether they talk about the same type of stuff yet but Chinami was making her displays and asked me for the English words for a couple of things so I'm guessing they do much the same.
Monday I went to Tatsunan as usual. I have opted out of the lunches at Tatsunan because they are not very good. I definately feel spoiled with the food at Otaki Chu. It is amazing! Tatsunan not so much though so since Ian and I need some alone time anyway I've convinced him to come with me and go shopping while I teach and then the two of us will go out for lunch. So, last week we went to this little greasy spoon ramen (noodle) place and the food was AWFUL! We were both really disappointed in it. So, this we we picked up a bunch of sushi and nigiri and headed down to a lookout where we could see the ocean. It was sugoi (great) and we paid less than we had for the raman the week before!
As of Tuesday I began counting down my "last" classes before our holiday. I can hardly believe that we are already there! Disney World is coming fast!! Ian has been baking cookies for me to give out to the after school program kids and I've been doing a stained glass colouring craft with them. I decided that the Warashibe this week would be easier if I showed a movie so I showed them How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Some of them enjoyed it - but others just fell asleep.
Last night was the Christmas potluck dinner for the adult conversation class. There was an amazing array of food there, everything from KFC (yep - I couldn't believe it myself and Taran was THRILLED!) to Ian's Japanese Curry Rice. We over-ate and then played a few games. We did this really fun game where they all had to follow my (English) instructions to draw a picture - the catch being that the paper they were drawing on was on top of a book on their heads! It was totally fun!
Today was the Christmas lunch at school. Yuki (the dietitian) came to our house several weeks ago to cook a Christmas dinner with us and get some ideas for a Canadian Christmas dinner. She did an admirable job - today we had roast chicken, broccoli with cheese sauce and a sweet potato salad. There was also a corn chowder and special desserts which the students got to pick. It was Christmas dinner with a Japanese flair!
I have now finished all the stuff I have to plan and organize so all I have left is a couple of afterschool programs (game playing mostly) and Tatsunan on Monday. I feel almost free! We are having a bit of a shindig on Saturday - a potluck supper with any of the teachers / office workers and their families who are available. It's end of term here now so people are getting really busy and I'm not sure how many will actually show up.
I'll try to update a bit more often so that I don't have to write such a novel!
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