This was the weekend of all my plans being derailed for much better ones! It began on Friday when I got to my school to discover they were having a school festival the next day. I was supposed to be going on a hike with a pack of my fellow English teachers but how could I miss a festival at one of my favourite schools!
After a week of miserable rain and cold Saturday arose sunny and warm again, which was a big relief for my ego as all year I have been saying that Canada is cold and I’m just not used to the heat but then on Friday I shivered away at my desk as the teachers all tried to figure out why I didn’t like the cold either. I’m just a whiner k! lol. Anyways, back on topic… a little disappointed that I was missing the hike on such a glorious day I dragged Nikki out of bed early and we went to see Saruhashi which is most famed in Autumn for its fall leaves of course. But it appears that Autumn only has one foot in the door still, even though it’s mid November now, and not all the leaves were changed. Because, the sky was so blue and gorgeous I snapped a few pics anyways. We also went to the temple because there was a really pretty maple tree there that was almost all red. The maple trees are the prettiest!
It was actually the case that two of my schools were holding events. So first we went to a flea market being held by my smallest school and I ate what suspiciously looked like takoyaki but turned out to be chocolate balls, made by my first years, sipped tea, hand poured by my sixth years and played around with the rest of them! Then at last we made our way to the festival on the exact opposite side of town where my students dragged me from room to room to show off what they had been working on. The first years had a game room where all the games were made from pine cones and Autumn nuts. The second years had a games room set up like a little festival with cars made of cups that had to be propelled by a little fan, and whack-a-mole constructed from a cardboard box and a patient student popping up moles and xs, and a ball toss game and a sling shot game where you had to hit pointed with an elastic band and a folded straw. It was great fun but the best part was a tunnel they had made from desks and cardboard which was far too small for me but at Sera, one of my fifth years, encouragement I made it through! The third to fourth years had been working on various projects like silk worms, at one point in the year they had nearly a hundred of them living in the classroom, rice, the fifth years are responsible for their own rice field, and various attractions around Otsuki. I was really proud of them and it was so much fun to play around with them and I love how warm they are with me, dragging me about and whatnot even though we don’t share a language.
At lunch the second of my big plans for the weekend took a pleasant turn when Hiroko sensei, this lovely sixth year teacher, invited Nikki, Laura ad me for dinner at her house the following day. I had planned to go hiking that day but couldn’t pass up that opportunity so we headed to Kofu after the festival to take some fall pictures of the river I was going to hike along lest I don’t make it before Autumn is over. We finished the day with dinner and coffee and cakes in Kofu, did a bit of shopping and headed home.
Sunday was a bit of a lazy day and we watched movies and took our time getting up and didn’t leave until about noon for Fujiyoshida. Mt. Fuji was being difficult and despite peaking in and out of the clouds, he never peaked out long enough for me to get any good shots. Although I’m so happy to report he has snow back! Instead we went for the infamous parfait and then to my favourite shrine for it was a special day. Shichi-go-san is a sort of festival where parents take their 7, 5 and 3 year-olds to their local shrine to be blessed and the best part is they dress them up in full traditional kimono so they were extra cute! So I stalked the kids for a bit and the leaves before setting off. We stopped at Kawaguchiko lake and I took some shots there before went to the station to meet Hiroko sensei.
Dinner was an absolutely lovely affair and she had the most beautiful house with a gorgeous view of mount Fuji which came out from behind the clouds just as the sun set. We had tea and adorable sweets and it didn’t matter that we couldn’t speak the same language we were able to convey exactly what we met and it was so nice. She gave us the biggest dinner ever of tomato and cheese salad, sashimi, houtou, special red bean rice, chicken, some foods which I can’t name and don’t enjoy… and then coffee after dinner as we watched TV. It was so comfortable and I really felt like I belonged. It was such a privilege and I’m so lucky as always!
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