Thought I'd take a few minutes to write in here cause next the few days are gonna be busy. In fact, today was busy, but what the hell? It is just about 9pm and I have a drink next to me and there is nothing on tv. Is there ever?

I can't remember if I mentioned that our mid-year conference is coming up. Think I did though, in reference to Amy having to give a presentation. Anyway, I was ok with the damn thing coming up but today I found out that I, and everybody else, will have to share a room with four other guys. This does not make me happy. I was told that they are separating us by sex and putting five of us in a room together. Now, I know it is only for one night, but damn, I am past the fraternity years. In fact, I never went through them. I like my space and I like to sleep alone. Anyway, not happy. But hell, if I expect the worst, I'll probably be pleasantly surprised. All the guys are cool, mind you. It's just a completely different thing to have a drinking buddy than it is to live with that drinking buddy. I know, I know....one night. But c'mon! FIVE of us!?

Besides that though, life moves along quite nicely. Went up to Shizen Gakuen today (10 students, up in the hills). Had arts and crafts day. The teacher had mentioned last time that she wanted to do some sort of special thing for Halloween. So today I came prepared to give a little history lesson on the holiday, had Poe's The Raven all ready to read and, thanks to Amy, had a couple little handouts based on Halloween (a wordsearch and a Jack-o-lantern thing). But all my preparation was for naught, or nearly all of it. Turns out that in the first class we made Halloween cards and spoke zero English. And in the second class we made more cards (I just continued mine as I suck at such things) and then had a discussion on Halloween. Second class was much more fun in that last half hour (classes here are 1.5 hours) when I actually got to put the scissors and glue down and talk to the students. So basically I rode out there for just under two hours to spend three hours making a card and then rode back two hours (I know you can't see me, so yes, I am rolling my eyes). Now, don't get me wrong. I am happy to do whatever the Japanese teachers want me to do, but all arts and crafts and nearly no English whatsoever is a bit strange to me. But hell, this is definitely my lowest level school as far as English capabilities are concerned and I just need to tweak my expectations of my days out there. They are all nice people and all, but I think the teacher I work with would be better suited to teaching preschool. Or possibly just running a daycare. You should have seen the way she clapped for me when she'd come over to see how my card was coming. "Oh, that's very good! You are very skilled!" in that high and excited voice. If she was American I would have said something sarcastic (as a joke, of course), but I thought my humor might be lost on her or worse, offend her. So I just smiled and kept cutting and pasting. Think I'll send the card to Amy's niece as she's three and is probably the only one (besides my teacher today) who'll think I did a good job (rolling eyes again).
So that was class. Now, the drive up there and back was something to behold. The trees are changing and damn damn damn! What a sight. Have to post some pictures somewhere as I did remember my camera and shot some stuff outside the bus. I have never, in my adult life, seen such a thing. I have lived in California since I was fifteen, and most of that in southern Cali, so you know that there we don't have four seasons and trees changing color. At least not like this. Perhaps you see a few trees in the neighborhood changing, but this is entire hillsides in flux. And there was still alot of green today. I imagine in two weeks it will be even better. Only problem with today was that it was raining a bit and up there was like being in a cloud. So some of my pictures might look a bit misty and the trees might not come through too well. But it was cool to see it all. I might wait to send the pics though, because I took some two weeks ago and today and will in two more weeks, so it might be better to send them all at once so that you can really see what's going on up there.

Yesterday I went down to Minobu (Buddhist school). I got off the train and was waiting in front of the station for the bus to come pick me when I heard a slight yell from across the street. Not really a scream, but a slight, painful yell. So I look over and there is this elderly lady finishing a fall to the pavement (sidewalk) and she just lies there. Now, it was only about three seconds till someone came running out of the store/restaurant (?) to help her, but it was a long three seconds. And in that time I thought, "Shit. What happened? Is she ok?" then "Why isn't anyone running to help her?" then "Should I go help her?" then "But I don't speak Japanese. What the hell can I do?" And then just as I started walking towards her, still unsure of what my roll should be here (had I been in America, I would have been there in a second), just then, a woman and then another come out of the two shops over there, see her, and then run to her. I really wasn't sure what happened. "Either she tripped, was backed into by that car, or had a joint or something give," I thought. So I watched from across the street as about ten people rushed to help her. They got her cushions, took her bags from her, propped her up slightly, talked to her, and eventually one of them got on the phone. About this time my bus shows up and the driver (I see him every Monday I'm down there, nice guy) asks me about the scene he just came upon (he speaks no English but it was obvious what he was getting at). I indicate that I don't know so he goes across the street to investigate. Turns out that that car was a taxi (didn't notice that at first), she had just gotten out and then he promptly backed into her (hell, man, maybe she refused to pay). What I imagine happened is that she got out on the store side (passenger side) of the car, as that is the side with the automatic door opener and closer, and he must of thought she would simply walk on up to the building, but she came around behind the car and he obviously didn't see her. Anyway, about 20 minutes after all this happened an ambulance came and took her away with the taxi following. And then we left for school.

So there you are. Arts and crafts, changing leaves, and old ladies getting hit by cars. Always something here in the land of the rising sun.