hey all,
I had another good couple of days here in Japan. Friday was my last day at my elementary school. I was pretty sad about it. I made a brief good-bye speech to my teachers, and the principal told me to cheer up while I was listening to his speech thanking me for a good year of lessons. They gave me a bouquet of flowers of all things, but I accidentally left it at my desk when I left.
Saturday day was skyping with a friend, talking with Bri, and a yoga lesson with Michi. It is getting to the point where I can follow most of the instructions without looking at the teacher; that is, as long as we've done that exercise several times before. If we do a new one, I still need to look, and sometimes Michi has to translate for me on the fly.
Sunday (today) was even more skyping: this time with Michi and the family back in the US. She was still a bit shy about her English, but I think it went really well. I can only hope that my (as yet unscheduled) meeting with her parents goes as smoothly. The original plan was to go rock climbing, but we were feeling a bit tired, so we thought we might go to a park. However, none really presented themselves: we've gone to a bunch of parks, and sometimes even if there is one we haven't gone to yet, it might require more travel than we feel up to or might just be inconvenient to get to.
So instead we saw The Lovely Bones, directed by Peter Jackson. Although the movie is rated PG-13 in the US, it received a G rating here in Japan, which seems too low somehow, considering that it is about what happens after the narrator (a 14 year old girl) is raped and murdered by a serial killer. But that's Japan for you. Like some of Jackson's previous projects, it is really well structured and paced, with some incredible visuals, but still leaves you feeling a little incomplete or unsatisfied at the end. One item of interest: I have spoken with many people about Lord of the Rings (also directed by Jackson), and come to the conclusion that most people are somehow brain damaged, because they absolutely love Return of the King. In similar vein, I asked Michi which of the three movies she liked best, and she actually likes The Two Towers best, which is also my favorite of the three.
After that, we had some soup at an interesting soup-curry restaurant in Saitama-Shin-Toshin. Cool decor, good prices, and awesome food. One of the irritating things about most of my food experiences in Japan, is that I find it taxing my off-the-top-of-my-head adjective supply: I have to describe the food as tasty, delicious, scrumptious, exquisite, delectable, or some other adjective, but I find myself using nice, good, delicious, etc all the time. As I have noted before, there are many things that I find annoying about Japan, but I love the food. The food was really good in Amsterdam, as well, but I think Japan easily wins that contest. Maybe one of the few negatives is that Japanese chocolate is underwhelming: too sweet, too much milk; but foreign made chocolate (Lindt, Godiva, etc) is readily available at most international food shops.
Cheers,
