This Month in Pictures: 5/13/17

Hello all!

It’s been a while since I’ve just posted daily life. I stopped posting for a while because it’s been a stressful month, and to be honest, I’ve been feeling pretty blue lately. Last April was the start of a new school year, and I went from teaching at 1sho and 8sho to teaching at 3sho and 5sho. Even though I’d taught at 3sho and 5sho two and three years ago respectively, the transition was harder than I’d expected.

On a more positive note, I started going to kindergarten this week! Twice a month I spend a morning at a different kindergarten. I was really nervous, because our first lesson was teaching 4-5 year olds “My name is…” It’s pretty difficult teaching little kids phrases, but they picked it up really fast. Even better, my boss came by to see how things were going just as the kids were really getting into the game!

I don’t have any pictures of school because (and this is another reason why I haven’t put up weekly posts) I was told that I am not allowed to post any pictures from school at all. 

…I’ll spare you my rant.

So…there goes a big chunk of my weekly content! Here’s what’s been going on outside of school for the past month:

After a beautiful week, the sakura trees in the park across from our apartment dropped all their blossoms in a gorgeous carpet of pink:

Right on the heels of the sakura were the azaleas:

The wisteria and pink dogwoods were also in full bloom:

Paul went to an enkai (a work party), and apparently sneezed-upon-squid was on the menu:

We went to a fantastic show at Carter’s Bar and listened to music by Memphis Bell (check out their soundcloud!) :

Paul’s middle school band put on an after-school garden concert. They are FANTASTIC!

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I made an American part of the English board at 5sho:

Paul got himself a tailored suit for a wedding we’re going to in Australia in a few weeks:

We went to a restaurant in the mall called Pom’s Farm and had some amazing omurice (an omelet wrapped around rice) and chicken doria (a layer of chicken and cheese over rice).

Last week was Golden Week, a Japanese holiday that is basically three holidays three days in a row. I took the first picture, and Paul took the second picture two hours later. I finally know what these cats do every day when we’re at school – absolutely nothing!

I’ve started knitting again! Aster was very keen on getting pets while I tried to take pictures.

The next big festival will be the Tatebayashi Iris Festival in June! These are some early bloomers. I have a beautiful route home from school:

Last Saturday our wonderful friend Yusuke had us over for a barbecue at his house! His dad also showed us how to make homemade soba noodles, which I will post next week as my next Washoku Wednesday!

And finally, we found a kitten! It was crying in a little alleyway beside our apartment. In our haste to comfort it, we didn’t think to do research beforehand. After said research, we figured the mother must have been moving it and dropped it on accident. Sure enough, a few hours after we put it back, it was gone!

Also, Olive (our black cat) is a baby enough for me, I don’t need another creature to cry at me at 4:30 in the morning.

And that’s this month! Hopefully I’ll get back into the rhythm of things and feel better soon. Fingers crossed!

またね！