After Party Joetsu IV

Crazy group shots!
Joel getting in the way - thanks!
Sarah, Grace, Lopaka, and I acting suave!

This one goes out to those wacky Kamo, Tsubame, and Sanjo girls! Love y'all!!!
Better shot W/O Joel's big face in the way. :)

After Party Joetsu III

And the clothes starts coming off, literally Mary took her shirt off!

Aren't the Japanese just CUTE when they drink...hehe
Grace falling under the table, seriously she did. ;P
Yeah!

Ros saying "I heart you!"

After Party Joetsu II

This is Grace being drunk & friendly saying "get away from our drinks!" Isn't she nice! (HA - Grace..that's for saying your pics are better than mine) :P nice cleavage by the way!
Group craziness!
Russ, Ros, and Joyce...yeah!
Hording our "Umeshu" for the last 30 mins. of Nomihodai since they FINALLY brought out what we've been trying to order for the last 2 hours!!

Joel and the ladies!

After Party in Joetsu I

The gang across the table!
Russel and his sake, the pair are always together @ parties.
Joel stripping for the ladies.

Ros, Joyce, Jo, and Grace lounging around. (waiting for our drinks more likely)
The whole gang - well....our table at least!










After play practice, we party hard: no matter where, no matter what time. Here's all of us at Nomihodi for 1500 yen...YEAH!!!! Can't you just feel the craziness growing!

Random Memories of Joetsu

The cool Shrine with snow across from Ash's apt.

Homeless Grace. :)

5th Play Practice!!!

Tech got lots of new props done and dried them by the heaters :)

Cast played around a lot while freezing, but wolves got lots done. "Thriller's" coming along great and our outfits are coming together as well. :)

Only one for practice left 5 weeks from now and it's the Costume Rehearsal...yea! The weekend after that we start. 1st play here in Niigata-shi on January 28th.

My new friends...

When it`s cold outside and Christmas is right around the corner...

I find myself turning to my two new friends: my kerosine heater and little humidifier. BOTH WONDERFUL! `cept the heater can be scary if it`s on too long, fumes get to you...so I crack the window/door. But other than that, they keep me happy at home and WARM. We`ll see how our friendship grows this winter when it`s only gonna get colder.

Grocery Treat of the Week!!!

Peach tea, yum! I love bringing tea bags with me to school to drink in between class periods. Quite good on these cold winter days!

Pizza, well...more like thick Texas toast with tomato sauce, cheese, and some lunch meat. It fits perfectly into my grill cooker though and makes a great snack after school.
My favorite Japanese pickled food - Pickled Eggplants. This is a very acquired taste since not many people like this, but I find it good! I eat them every now and then with rice and some other hot Japanese concoction.

What to DRINK in Japan

Good Beer, Kirin Co. winter brew...ummm-Beer!
Chu-hi, the ladies drink. Kind of like a wine cooler, but well...COOLer. The peach is yummy!
Good wine, a tasty blush made here in Japan.

on those cold winter morning going to school, this tea hits the spot!!!

My Car

Here`s what I drive in Japan!

It`s called a Diahatsu MOVE and it`s really boxy and small. Get this though, I have Japanese friends who comment "WOW, that`s a big car!" hehehe Ohh, Japan! It`s great though, cool CD player, 4 WD for the snow, enough room for 6-7 people....OH yeah, might have to shove someone in the back or have someone lay on top of people, but it works! Check out my Hello Kitty Niigata-Ken hanging from the rear-view mirror, kawaii!!!

My Home

I just LOVE this picture!

I remember seeing this truck around town when I first arrived here. Luck was on my side when I saw it again on the drive to work last week and we had a red light and I was able to find my camera quickly in my purse (which rarely happens with the huge sucker).

Yeah....Niigata Japan

Out and About

Shanna and I made our usual outing for dinner last Tuesday here in Niigata shi. We always pass this one Hamburger joint called Donkey Something...hehe...my bad, can`t remember the name off hand. It was a fun place though...LOTS of hamburger steaks- yummy -and GREAT drinks!!! We just freaked out about the size of the menu. Imagine being seated at a small table for two and finding this HUGE-ASS menu on your table....you`d be laughing as well. (It`s still funny for me!) By the time we ordered we had about 6 menus on our table, talk about service!!! :)

First day of Snow - Niigata shi

Here`s pics from last Monday and the first day of real snow fall here in Niigata. Before that we got a few flurries here and there, but this came down all day and left us with a nice slush of grey goop by the end of the day.
Isn't magical!?!?

English Day - Saturday December 3, 2005

Many female ALTs around northern Niigata got invited for English day at a local English Community College. 10am to 3pm talking all day sounds easy but is rather exhausting, but over all it was a fun event. Plus, the 10000 YEN helped out as well! :)

Kimi wa Petto and "AHHHHHHHH....."

Kimi wa Petto
This is "kimi wa petto" - Your my pet. Like almost EVERYTHING here in Japan, once a manga becomes popular it'll be made into EVERYTHING else. Thus, "kimi wa petto" came out last year on TV - live action as they call it. Anyways, it stars my man Jun (Cutie-pie) so I wanted to give it a shout out!!!

AHHHHHHHHHH.....

I really need a vacation NOW and not 13 days from now. My schools are driving me WACKO. All last week I kept getting pressure from my teachers to make a full 50 min. activity Christmas lesson....no prob....i worked on all these different/fun things to do -Good! SO I come to work this week expecting to do Christmas lessons and the teachers practically ignore me. Honestly, one teacher TOTALLY FORGOT we had a class this morning- never came to get me and never said anthing else about it. Nice! Yesterday, one teacher was upset b/c she wanted me to have a fun game to play in her class over "I think". I haven't done a lesson over that yet and didn't have anything prepared at the moment she asked, but I told her I could get something together and get back with her soon. She obviously wasn't happy with that b/c she commented how in the winter people get lazy (yes, that's what she said!). Can you believe it? She told me then that they were way behind and needed to move faster in class, so don't bother going. I guess I'm more of a bother than anything else! Nice! Ohh.....there's SO much more....AHHHHHH......