I`ve been a bit MIA lately so I`ll update with my recent events which is really just a hodgepodge of anecdotes. I found I was a bit burnt out after the last adventure and in need of some rest and then it was back to school. The students had mixed feelings to my return. Some were like `oh, you are still here to force your English on us,` while others mauled my legs and shouted `Sara sensei!!!` Obviously my preferred reaction was the screaming but after I got back into genki mode and played some fun games with the students they all came around again and realized how much they love me. And I love them! I really did miss them over summer!
Then the weather turned lousy and stayed lousy for about two weeks. Regardless, we went to a fire festival as the rain fell around us and somehow failed to douse the giant burning piles scattered around Fujiyoshida to keep Mt. Fuji`s goddess at bay. Every year, at the end of the hiking season, Fujiyoshida sets their town alight to appeal to the goddess of the valcano to not blow the thing up. So far so good! And despite the rain, it was a pretty awesome night!
And then a typhoon blew in and overwhelmed us. It was crazy. I`ve never seen constant rain like that for so many days. It rained in solid curtains of water for over four days and flooded the river to over three times its normal size. Kevin and I hiked down to it one day and could hardly hear one another over the swelling of water and the rain that had soaked through our clothes in minutes.
But the bad weather was partially good because for the most part it kept me inside. Why was this a good thing? Because somehow a major language misunderstanding took place and one of my schools, knowing I liked the violin, invited me to play a duet with the music teacher. I don`t really remember now but maybe there was a moment when I could have said no, but it didn`t seem possible. Even after constantly trying to convince them that I really was not good they thought I was just modest and assigned `A Whole New World,` for me to play in a week`s time. I wanted to throw up. I wasn`t being modest... I really am no good... so all weekend Kevin painstakingly listened as I whined away on the violin and somehow made the song recgonizable. In the end the performance was not horrible...
Finally the rain cleared and the sun returned in full impossibly hot force to drive me indoors to the AC again. I almost thought summer was over... nope! It was time for the junior high school festivals so I went with Kevin andmelted in the sun all weekend well we watched sports, listened to singing and endured all the students swooning over our assumed love for one another. Middle school students don`t quite understand why two gaijin would hang out without dating nor do they understand `just friends,` XD! On our way back from the Saruhashi school festival we crossed the bridge and discovered that our local community friends were setting up for a lantern festival. On request I went home and changed into my yukata and returned to dance once the sun had set and lights were lit.
The weather has stayed nice enough for a while now and I hope it stays good for this weekend as three of my schools are holding their undoukai! Undoukai is Japanese Sports Day, if Sports Day was an extreme sport! They had been practicing for days, and I`ve got to watch which was really fun, as they do everything form marching around with flags to rolling around balls twice as tall as them and fighting over polls and making human pyramids of over thirty kids! It`s super fun! And the main event is Saturday! If the weather holds Saturday and Monday will be spent at the beach! Some travelling after an almost month long hiatus is just what I need so fingers crossed for the weather!!! Typhoon: thanks anyways!
Random views of September: a strange bumpy cucumber that was given to me by a teacher. They grow out on the ivy outside of class. It was sitting in my warm house and it exploded. A nearly full moon viewed from my window. And the lantern festival in Saruhashi!
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