Josh, Bruce and John outside the fish market in Shimonoseki 

Sushi at the fish market in Shimonoseki 

Go Tribe! Need I say more? 

Bridge from Shimonoseki (Honshu) to Kyushu 

Happy jacks at the "American Food" party in Shimonoseki 

I think this group looks like trouble. 

Jeremy and Crystal posing for the prom. 

Eleanor and I....haha, I just can't help but laugh! 

Jocelyn and I looking good in the hats. 

For some reason that night we decided to try to do as many HOT poses as possible. John, Jess, Eleanor, Paul and Osamu looking hot like the sun! 

A few ladies in my town had a welcome party for me.  

What is the difference between a pumpkin and a Jack-o-Lantern?

Currently celebrating Halloween in my elementary schools. Why not my Jr high you ask? Well here is why. I made about 20 Halloween flashcards for the kids so they can learn words such as ghost, witch, skeleton and of course Death. I presented these flashcards to my teacher at the Jr high and she told me this is too difficult and the students wouldn't understand. I took this criticism in stride (like I do most of the time) and printed off yet another word search. Wouldn't you know that I brought these same flashcards to the elementary schools and the students learned the words easily. Somehow I can teach 1st and 2nd graders this vocabulary but 7th and 8th graders would find it too difficult. I swear that woman is messed up in the head. She is probably the worst English teacher in Japan. She speaks Japanese in her classroom 95 percent of the time and English 5 percent. I really wish these students luck when they have to take exams for high school.

Last weekend I went to Shimonoseki for an American Food party. It was tons of fun. I really felt like I was back in college (or even high school) hanging out at someone's apartment. The cops even showed up later on in the night. People were kind of freaking out and shushing everyone, but we weren't doing anything illegal, we were just being a little loud. I was cracking up. It was great to have some delicious American food. (Thanks to Jo and Jocelyn). We had subs, pizza, salsa and chips, guacamole, SOUR CREAM!!, and jello shots. There was dancing and talking, taking silly pictures while posing, all the good party stuff. The next day John, Bruce, Josh and I went to the fish market in Shimonoseki. I have never had such delicious and fresh sushi. The atmosphere is alive the minute you walk in the door. You hear vendors yelling "Irashiaimase" and trying to lure you their stands. Colorful arrays of sushi and sashimi are sold individually for your instant eating pleasure. I was able to eat fugu which is blowfish and can be poisonous if not prepared correctly. The chefs have to be approved by the government in order to prepare this dangerous delicacy. After the market we hopped on a ferry to Kyushu (the southern most island in Japan-excluding Okinawa and all that). We went to a city called Kokura to do some shopping. It felt weird to be in an urban environment amongst all those people. We went to Tower Records and I purchased a whopping 3 cds. I am craving media entertainment, especially for long car rides. After a sandwich at the mall we headed back to Shimonoseki. John and I raced Bruce and Josh back to the car. We took the ferry and they took the train, of course, John and I won (and had a more pleasant ride, in my opinion). That'll do it for this week.

Ah free labor. These students are the school lunch ladies! They also have the job as the school janitor at 3:30, when they all clean the school. 

1st graders eating lunch in their classroom. 

Finally, a picture of school lunch. Notice the bowl of soup (I swear those veggies in it have been simmering for about a week, yuck!) 

My little flamenco girls. The girl on the left (Mi-chan) is my absolute favorite student. She tells me how cute I am and gives me hugs and kisses.  

A halloween word game. They have to swat the pictures when I say the word. 

1st graders playing backwards sumo wrestling 

5th graders at our halloween party (I was a lady bug), I have no clue what half of the students were! 

Dinner at the ryokan 

team photo 

Yamaguchi Team A against a Japanese high school. Those boys can run for ages! 

The mighty cheerleaders of "Da Guch" soccer team 

Soccer Tournament

This past weekend I took part in the Western JET Soccer Tournament held on Awajishima (Island). This large event involves many JETs from the western part of Japan that come together to battle it out on the soccer pitch. There is also a tournament for eastern Japan. The winner of the two tournaments meet in Tokyo (or Saitama) to play for the title "Champion of Champions". About 350 people and 20 teams were able to come to this island, Yamaguchi-ken supplying 2 teams. We may be a small ken but we were able to bring 2 teams, how impressive! Upon arriving I realize this is a Men's tournament, which plays a large part in the result of our weekend (we had the only 2 teams with girls!).

I will start from the beginning of the story and try not to spare you any details (other than all the good gossip dirt due to possible readers of this blog). Friday night we left Yamaguchi City and headed for Tokuyama in our 4 rental vans to pick up the rest of the troupes. In total we had 32 people come from Yamaguchi-ken, 4 of the people being supporters. After a late start we were finally on the road to Awaji. We left at 8:30pm only to arrive at 2am. I had the last leg of the driving shift so needless to say, I was exhausted. We all pretty much went to bed after arriving. The next day we woke up and had a Japanese breakfast of rice, miso soup, pickles and a hard boiled egg. I think I would have rather had pancakes (Rosie/Christine style). We headed down to the grounds which just happen to be the practice grounds for the 2002 England team when they were playing here in the World Cup. Yes, I played on the same pitch as David Beckham and many other soccer greats. As I mentioned above we were just about the only team with girls so our statistics are nothing to brag about. We played Kagawa first who have a new team but somehow managed to beat us pretty good. I think I was on the worse of the 2 Yamaguchi teams, minus a few all-star players: Jeremy (our marine addition), Jimmy (such a great coach!), John (our big bad goal scorer- I think we had about 2 or 3 all weekend), Dan (super keeper), and Crystal (the fearless). I tried to make friends with whoever I was defending because really, I am a joke compared the them. I would try to defend them by jumping in front of them or talking to them while they were trying to score a goal. The next team we played was Mie who had just beaten last years "Champion of Champions". Right, we had a chance! They were so serious at first, I was amazed. It actually made me mad how serious they were while playing us. I started to develop an animosity towards the team and when one of them ran me over I was really mad. A few seconds later he profusely apologized for running me down, so the hatred went away and I was actually rooting for them to win the tournament. Finally we played Osaka who is another really good team and we were all tiring out. This is when the supporters played a crucial role. We were the only team with supporters as well, so Yamaguchi definitely brought the party. They were equipped with homemade T-shirts, pompoms and music (some selections being MC Hammers "You can't touch this", "Livin on a Prayer" and ironically " We are the Champions". Whenever the other team would score a goal they would scream louder and louder for us, it pumped us up so much. I was truly happy these girls made the journey.

After the games we headed back to our ryokan (hotel) for the evenings festivities. We grabbed a beer and a shower and went to dinner. Japanese usual cuisine, sashimi, egg custard soup, tempura, soup, rice etc. Afterwards we did a little pregaming and played a drinking game. Gotta love the kind of games that reveal all about people you are just beginning to know. Then off to the bar we went. There was drinking, and dancing and many other things going on. I was happy to see a familiar face from my Chicago orientation and flight to Japan. Many stories, many inappropriate stories, so if you feel you are entitled to know, please email me.

Ok, so Sunday, our final day of footballing. There were definitely a few very hungover people running around on the field (this girl included). I can't remember who we played but I defended an aussie named Andrew and I talked his ear off the whole game. Then the minute I got off the field I found myself some shade and took a nap. Our other team was lucky enough to win their final match! They would have moved on in the tournament but we were raring to get home so we ate our curry rice and left. We stopped at an onsen (spa) before we went home so that was quite refreshing. We left at about 2pm and I arrived at my house at 10pm, so it was a long day, to say the least. If you would like to read the news article written about us (yes the losingest team and Fukuoka the winningest team, are the only two teams featured) here is the website: http://http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/specials/0410/1018alt.html

The 5 story pagoda and I, in Yamaguchi City 

Graves of babies that have died in Yamaguchi City. They line a trail that goes up a mountain 

Friends in front of the 5 story pagoda in Yamaguchi City.