Nara with Marla

After Kyoto Marla and I went to Nara, which is a really small city next to Osaka that has a whole bunch of temples and deer wandering around. The temples were really nice looking, and the deer were much better behaved than I expected, considering how many warnings I got about them. Inside one of the temples was a giant wooden Buddha, and a big wooden pillar that had a whole in the bottom that was the same size as the Buddha’s nostril. Marla and I both managed to squeeze through, so now I think we have some luck or something. Nara was a pretty nice day trip, and we found a restaurant that made Marla really happy, so it was a pretty good end to the weekend. Here are the pictures:

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Kyoto with Marla

This last weekend was a holiday weekend, so Marla and I went to Kyoto and then to Nara. This was my third time to Kyoto, but I like that city so I will probably go back many more times. Even though the weather was pretty miserable the first day, the weekend was good overall. One the first day we did some shopping and saw Kiyomizu Dera. Going to the temple was a little less fun than it could have been because of the rain, but shopping was still good. Luckily it stopped raining the next day and we were able to go to Inari and Arashiyama, which are outside Kyoto itself. In Inari we saw a temple with a 4km path of torii. Then at Arashiyama we saw the bamboo forest and the monkey park. Marla was pretty scared of the monkeys, but I don’t really see why. After that we headed to Nara, which I will write about next. Here are the pictures:

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Christmas Parties

I know it’s been a long time, but I’ve been busy with Marla being here. So this is the first in a few posts that cover a couple weeks of her being here. Anyway, last week Marla came to my Special Needs Christmas party, and we made gingerbread houses. The kids were all really happy to have Marla there, and after we finished with the houses we gave them some presents. One girl was so happy about her present that she came to the staff room a couple days later with a pair of scarves for Marla and I and said “Merry Christmas”. The next night we went to a Christmas party for Meghan’s conversation class. It was a potluck, so we got to eat a lot of good stuff that other people brought. Marla and I made the gingerbread house that Andrea sent, and brought that, which everyone else seemed to enjoy. Anyway, there are more thing to write about, so here are some pictures:

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Kobe Luminarie

On Saturday night Marla and I went to see the Luminarie in Kobe. In 1996 (I think), there was a huge earthquake in the Hanshin area, and most of Kobe was damaged along with lots of people being killed. The Luminarie is a way of celebrating the rebuilding of the city. It looked pretty nice, but I don’t know if it was actually supposed to represent something, or just be lights. Also, we had to wait in line for about 2 hours, which really took away from the lights when we finally did see them. At one point Marla laughed so hard that she tipped her head back and bumped it on the head of a little old lady. After we saw the lights we had some food at the festival type place just behind them (I had steak on a stick, and Marla had candy covered grapes). Then we stopped at the foreign food just before it closed so I could buy some stuff for class, and then caught the train back to my car in Himeji.

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Marla at Okuganaya

On Friday Marla came with me to Okuganaya and got to participate in my classes there. Unfortunately, I only had two classes for the whole day, but they were both still a lot of fun. In the grade 1, 2 and 3 class we made paper Christmas trees, so while the kids were coming up to the Japanese teacher and I and saying “three stars please”, or whatever else they wanted, Marla was wandering around helping them put together their trees. Then in the grade 4, 5 and 6 class we sang Jingle Bells about a hundred times, then sang Jingle Bells with a little dance/gesture thing, then practiced Christmas words. After the classes were done Marla made friends with the tea lady, who taught her how to fold and origami crane, as well as how to make onigiri from the left over lunch rice. Then we had lunch with the grade 4 class, where Marla caused one girl to ask “Why does she keep looking at me?” After lunch Marla got to experience a very common part of being an ALT: we sat in the staffroom with nothing to do until it was time to go home. Tomorrow she is going to come to my Special Need’s class and help us make gingerbread houses. Here are the pictures:

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And a video: