Snow snow snow

During the three-day weekend at the end of winter break, I ventured over to Toyama (west of Nagano) to visit my host family. It was soooooooooooo fun, I hadn’t seen them in a year, and I hadn’t been to Toyama in five years. It was great to catch up with them. Anyway, I wrote this on the first day back to real-ish school.

It is the first real-ish day back, and it is going fine so far. The first day is always easy as it is a half-day. We had a very quick opening ceremony (in which I wore my suit for a total of 20 minutes....good thing, as I have needed to get it cleaned for approximately five months. I will finally do that today!), and we only have two periods of classes today. I only have to teach one of those, and it's only going to be games, so it is an easy day! So, I am getting all kinds of stuff done. I have to plan my elementary school lessons for tomorrow, plan my lessons for this week, go through a ton of papers in my desk, etc. I also just had a rather big "moment," as I just signed my re-contracting papers and sent them off to the BOE! They are due in February, but I figured I might as well send them out now. It doesn't mean that I am for sure re-contracting, because the school could for some reason not agree to keep me, but I don't think that will happen. That would be sad if it did!!!! Hehehe. So, yes, that is my big news of the day ;)

Anyway, I will tell you about my weekend! I had a GREAT time....it was so fun! Very good, as it was complete HELL to get to freaking Toyama!!!!!! It was a 3-day weekend (I don't even know what holiday Monday was, but it was something!), so there were more people traveling anyway, and of course Jeff picks the snowiest day of the year to travel to snow country! I woke up at 4:40 with a whole plan of the six trains I needed to take and where I needed to transfer. It was literally so cold in the morning that every part of my body hurt. It was awful! Anyway, I get to Minakami (northern Gunma) where everything is COVERED in snow, and I ask a station worker where to transfer to the 8:19 train, when I am informed that due to snow that train isn't running today!!!! Ack!!! So, I have to take a GHETTO bus in the snow (based on the strange noises it was making and the occassional sliding on the snow, I regretted not bringing paper and pen to write out my will on board) to another station, take a bullet train to another station, take another bullet train from that station, and then run to the train that leads to Toyama. Actually, that makes it sound too easy. To give you an idea of how crazy it was, I caught the 7:50 bullet train at 9:40. This is in a country where trains are never even a minute late! The snow was CRAZY. Also, because a bunch of trains were cancelled, the trains were so crowded that you could barely even stand. Anyway, I finally got onto the train towards Toyama, and then FINALLY reached there...only two hours late, but it took eight hours in all!

Toyama was soooooooo pretty, as there was TONS of snow! 77 cm! That is...I dunno...about three feet-ish? A little less than 3 feet. Of course, when I told my host family that it was pretty, they quickly said "no, it is not, the snow sucks!" hehehe. I guess it is only cool to tourists ;) Anyway, because of the snow, we pretty much just relaxed all weekend, which was fine with me, as I was still tired from Thailand and everything and didn't have the energy to run all over Toyama! We did go bowling, which was completely awful as I am already horrible at bowling, let alone after a five-year break from playing it at all! It was fun, tho. We also had a nabe party (a style of cooking) and Mayo invited Mami, who stayed at Stephanie's house in Oregon/hosted Stephanie when we came in 2000, as well as her friend Manami. It was fun! We also went to a shrine, which was cool, as it was covered in snow, and I also hadn't been to a shrine for the New Year, which everyone does in Japan.

And I also gained about 300 freaking pounds in the course of two days! I feel so gross! I was force-fed like every minute I was there! hehehe. We had AMAZING sushi...Gunma sushi is good, but I didn't realize how much better it is when you're by the ocean! Anyway, yes, I ate so much during the weekend that I'm like not even hungry anymore. I think I can live off my fat for a few days!

Yesterday I ended up flying from Toyama to Tokyo, then training from Tokyo to Gunma, as it was easier, faster, and somehow just as much money (thanks to a discount coupon from my host sister, Mayo!). There was still tons of snow in Niigata (on the way home), and I didn't trust that the trains would be running. As much as I didn't want to work today, I didn't want to get stuck in god knows where!

Anyway, it was a ton of fun! Also very good Japanese practice, as I spoke it straight for two days (and watched more Japanese TV than I have since arriving here!).