What's new? What's new?
Well, let's see....

Yesterday in class things were going normally when the students alerted their sensei to someone at the door. So I paused in what I was doing and she went to greet the intruder. Turns out he was a photographer and he was there to take...that's right...pictures.
So as he and the sensei talked and the students listened, I stood there in a bit of confusion. But all was cleared up for me when I was told, "He is photographer."
"Ahha!" I thought, "So that's what the camera is for." Mystery solved.
Anyway, we were then instructed where to stand so that he could take some "action" shots of us teaching out amongst the students. We all were laughing most of the time; the teacher out of nervousness, me out of confusion, and the students at me. Was a fun five minutes.

Last Thursday and Friday the JETs of Yamanashi had a seminar. Was basically the same as last year with one major perk.
"What's the perk?" you ask?
"Were you taught about some great lesson plan that you can use in the classroom?" "Did you learn some great game for your Friday school?" "Or did you come away from the seminar with a renewed interest in teaching?"
No. No. And no, I answer.
"Well then, what is it?"
I'll tell you. The great thing about this seminar is that Amy came out of it with an interest in cooking. That's right. Quite suddenly and unexpectedly Amy seems gungho to do a little cooking. Allow me to explain.
There is a gal here in Yamanashi named Jamie. Jamie is a one of a kind person that exudes energy and happiness and all things wholesome. In fact, upon meeting her and knowing her for a few hours, I told Amy, "She kinda reminds me of those stereotypical 1950s American housewives." And I don't mean this to be negative in any way. Jamie has got a sexiness about her in a kind of Marilyn Monroe way but also reminds me of June Cleaver from the show Leave it to Beaver. Enough with the stereotypes.
Anyway, Jamie is cool. If I wasn't hooked up with Amy I'd ask Jamie to marry me (not that she'd accept). But she's that great. She's got a great sense of humor, is a little bit nervous in a very charming way, and likes a good drink. She really would be a fun character to watch in a movie.
So at the seminar Jamie did about a half hour presentation called Live Well! In it she talked about various things to make life outside of work and in your apartment more fun. Mostly it was cooking stuff, but she did mention where and how to shop for everything from vegetables to seafood to dishes. So anyway she put together a small cookbook and handed one out to all of us and then proceeded to entertain and teach us (in that order).
I think what caught Amy was the enthusiasm with which Jamie presented cooking and living well to us. This is stuff that I knew for the most part, but stuff that I think is good to remind people of. Things like putting on some jazz music and having a drink or two while putting together a good meal seem obvious to me but not everyone knows this. It's the little things and the right attitude that make it fun and Jamie reminded us all of this. And her humor was great. I don't think she tries to be entertaining, she just is.
So anyway, the combination of the cookbook, the presentation and Jamie just being herself seems to have had some affect upon Amy (much to my delight). Sunday evening Amy and I pulled out three receipies from the book, went to the store, came back, put on some music and cooked together. And it turned out pretty well.
But that ain't it. Amy is going to put together a little Thanksgiving get together at her place where she plans to make a few dishes for about 8 of us. I will, of course, help when need be but I must say that Sunday night during our cooking session Amy got after me a few times when I took it upon myself to do something--"I thought I was making that dish"--so I will mostly just step aside and help when asked.
I hope her enthusiasm continues for years to come.
So anyway, the conference was a normal one--good at times, poor at others--but I consider it a success for the above reason.

Tuesday I stopped by the travel agency to make plans for Xmas. Amy decided not to go home this year so we talked about going somewhere. We had talked about New Zealand but after looking into prices, money dictated we do something else. Funny thing about this (my apologies, mother) is that dear ol' mom had the "Oh, you're so close you should just go" mentality with regards to New Zealand. But if you know your world geography you might realize that Japan and New Zealand really aren't all that close. Now if she had said this in regards to South Korea or China she might have made sense but New Zealand?! Go look at map and you tell me. Sure, as the crow flies, Japan and New Zealand might be a little closer to each other than are New Zealand and the USA but calling them close is like saying, while you are standing in Chicago, "Hey, since we're in the neighborhood, let's stop by Rio de Janeiro."
I heard somewhere that when it comes to world geography Americans are sorely lacking. I'm not sure if this is true, but my advice to each of you is to go buy a nice world map and hang it on your wall. Then when you watch the news and you don't know where a bomb when off, or where a man was arrested, or where all that hunger is taking place you can check it out and learn something. Truth is, I think, my mom is pretty good about what countries are where; perhaps she just thought the world was a lot smaller.
Anyway, we decided on Xmas in Hokkaido.
For those of you not familiar with Japan's geography here's a very simple explanation. Japan is about the size, in land mass, of California--making it a small country by American standards, but still quite a large piece of land. There are four islands that make up the bulk of the country: Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido (here's a map http://sunsite.tus.ac.jp/asia/japan/maps/Japan_pol96.jpg). Honshu is the main island (the one I'm on). To the southwest of me is Shikoku and to the west of that is Kyushu. I've never been to these islands but have been on the main island north of them (when I was younger I went to Hiroshima and Kyoto with ma, pa and bro). Then there's Hokkaido. It is far to the north. It lies just north of the northen tip of Honshu. The biggest city on the island is called Sapporo (yes, like the beer) and it sits at about 43 degrees north latitude. For your benifit I've looked up latitues of three cities in the US: Portland, OR is at 45 degrees north, Chicago is at 41 degrees, and New York City is in the 40 degree range. I didn't want you people thinking that I was approaching the Alaska latitudes.
So after about an hour and forty five minutes with a nice young lady who spoke very good English named Sakura our trip will look like this:
December 24th we leave from Haneda airport in Tokyo and fly to Sapporo. We get in rather early in the day and on the top of my list of things to see is the brewery. Then we stay the night (in Sapporo, not at the brewery although I would have gone for that) and get up the next day--Xmas day. After eating and perhaps seeing some more sites we make our way east to a small city called Otaru. The trip is only about 45 minutes by train. Sakura told me that Otaru is a good place for couples, whatever that means, but I have read that it has a kind of Venice, Italy feel to it (I'll be the judge of that--no wait, I've never been to Venice so I won't be able to judge that) and I also noticed that there is brew pub with lots of microbrews (getting better).
We stay the night in Otaru and the next day head back west, then south, then southeast to a place called Norboribetsu. This place apparently has the most famous onsen (hot spring) in all of Hokkaido. I'm not much for sitting in hot water and looking around, but Amy likes it so after two days with beer sites to visit I figure I can do this one for her.
The next day we wake up and make our way to a place called Hakodate which is on the southern coast and from what I understand has a lot of Russian influences. We stay here two nights during which time we will find things to do and places to see and beers to drink and then on the 29th we fly out of the Hakodate airport and back to Tokyo.
Should be fun. I've already got the flights reserved, the four hotels reserved and even managed to get bus tickets to the airport in addition to a 3-day rail pass good only in Hokkaido which worked out perfectly since we'll really be using the major railway on only the 25th, 26th and 27th. All in all, I am ready.
And...we'll back here for New Year's and I'm going to try to drop some hints to Yamashita-sensei to see if we can spend one of the days around then with him and his family. I did it last year on the 2nd and had a great day.

Ok, that's enough for now.