Saturday's Tokyo (Chiba) trip

On Saturday, Nozomi & I had made a plan to meet our friends Mondo & Aiko and go to Umi Hotaru together. A typhoon decided that we should not go to Umi Hotaru, but to LaLa Port and Costco instead...  (I think I've mentioned Umi Hotaru before, but I included a link above, if you're interested in reading more). LaLa Port is one of the biggest shopping malls in the world; it has about 540 stores and many parking structures. We had lunch at a Hawaiian hamburger shop (DELICIOUS!) then looked around the mall for a while. After that, we went to Costco to stock up on some food that's hard to find at other stores including refried beans, salsa and CHEESE CHEESE WONDERFUL CHEESE!!!

Mondo & Aiko, thanks for a fun time!

My last Halloween lesson this year!

After talking about jack-o'-lanterns and trick or treat more than 50 times (to most of my classes) in the last three weeks, I'm ready to say goodbye to Halloween until next year, but the students had a fun culture experience, so it was a success!
These pictures: my entrance into the English room in my Darth Vader costume and the students playing a board game that I made with Halloween vocabulary.
(FYI: one student's face was a little too visible; for privacy concerns there's a blank spot.)

Early Christmas wreath

Last week, some of the second graders that I teach gave me a wreath that they had made in class. I'm not sure why they're making what looks like Christmas wreaths in October, but I was pretty impressed at how well they did.

My Halloween costume for school

I've been teaching many Halloween lessons at all the schools for the past two weeks. I wasn't sure what to wear for a costume, but then I found a cheap cape at the 100 yen shop, and reproductions of paper Star Wars masks from the late 70s. So, say hello to Darth Rob...

Halloween at the mall

Some of you have already heard me mention that Halloween seems to be getting more popular in Japan. This October I've seen the most decorations and store promotions so far. Saturday, Nozomi & I went to the Bell Mall (biggest shopping mall in the area, and closest in style to malls in America). There were jack o' lantern decorations throughout, and even a themed area to take free pictures that provided hats and costumes, so we stopped for a quick photo op...

Star Wars car?

Every time I see this model of car, I hear C3PO in my head: "R2! Where have you been?!"

Wasps and frogs

A couple of experiences with small animals... Yesterday I was teaching at one of the smaller schools I work at a bit out in the countryside. In the morning the JTE (Japanese Teacher of English is what I've always assumed it stands for...) and I were getting ready to go to the 2^nd graders' class. The teacher came into the staff room and asked us to wait a few minutes (I understood that part) and then quickly said something to the principal (I didn't understand that part). The JTE then explained to me that there was a large bee in the classroom where we were going to teach. I asked her if it was THE big bee that is a bit infamous here. She said yes that it was. Suzumebachi. That's usually translated into English as giant Asian wasp, but it literally means “sparrow bee”. Yes, the wasp is so big it's compared to the size of a sparrow. Check on Wikipedia if you're interested; they're amazing, but kind of scary (the biggest wasp in the world). The principal came back into the staff room a few minutes later holding a can of insecticide and said everything was fine, no problem.

Later, right before lunch, I was in the restroom. I reached to take some toilet paper from the dispenser (I was, *ahem*, just blowing my nose). As I pulled on the paper, a small green object brushed against my hand as it plopped out of the dispenser onto the floor. I jumped a bit backwards, and then noticed that it was a small green frog. My startled reaction changed into laughter as the frog seemed to become pretty startled himself and almost hopped into the squatty potty. I picked him up and put him on the outside window ledge, noticing that another small green frog was already sitting there. There was a large rice field right next to the school. The frog had apparently crawled up the wall into the open window. Why he decided to take a nap inside the toilet paper dispenser is a bit more mysterious...

The picture I included is one I took a few weeks ago-I thought the frog looked sad because he was in jail. ("Hey! Let me out!")