The cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom

I've just returned from a sunset walk to the gorge to where I ate my dinner and watched the cheery blossoms while celebrating my first full day of school. Everyday I wonder why I'm so lucky to live in such an amazing place. And now I'm eating a ice cream sundae and because it's all in Japanese I don't even know how many calories I'm consuming! In the meantime enjoy my pictures of the sunset and a hawk and the first of the cherry blossoms.

But I'll back up a little bit. When I met with the principal and vice-principal and head english teacher on Tuesday it was a disaster. They were talking only to my translator and almost totally ignored me and were horribly surprised to discover I only poke very little Japanese. They then asked if I had ever taught before... again no. The whole room went silent and you could just tell they didn't want me there one bit. The atmosphere was so harsh I wanted to cry. And then they asked, 'well how do you expect to communicate with the teachers?' I didn't have an answer beyond, 'I'll do my best.' But...

When I went today, they were happy to see me (even though we did struggle with the language barrier) and I had most of the day to do lesson planning and walk about the school. They didn't give me much instruction so at recess I went out to meet the students and they were so excited to see me! They all ran up and started speaking whatever english they knew and before I knew it a group of girls had me playing tag with them! Then at lunch a group of boys got to me first and we played soccer! It was so much fun and I think I made a really good impression on both the students and the teachers because they all came up to ask about me playing with them later. Also, in Japan the schools don't have janitors, so the students are expected to clean the school, so at cleaning time I got included and me and a small group of children swept and mopped one of the halls. It was so cool to be a part of it. The Japanese teachers think it's crazy that the Canadians don't clean their own schools lol. It was a really great start to the year!

Then I got home and took my dinner to the gorge and watched the sunset. This place is amazing. I feel like I'm living a dream. At my school yesterday, I can see Mt. Fuji from my desk! I'm loving it here!

Oh and here are some random pics from my day to day life: A purifying dragon at a little shrine in the woods, the pothole cover of Otsuki (Saruhashi and Mt. Fuji) and berry scented toilet paper!