Sapporo Beer Garden - Hokkaido

The word beer has become synonymous with Sapporo, and a trip to the Sapporo Beer Museum plus a tour of the brewery gives an insight into the history of brewing in Sapporo since it began in 1876. The adjoining brick buildings of the former brewery now house a beer hall where the local brew is complemented by a variety of Hokkaido delicacies including the popular lamb barbeques named after the Mongolian warrior Genghis Khan.

Digging out our cars

Small Parties, Krazy Karaoke, and the Morning After

After our Murakami play last weekend, many of us crashed there. Well, before sleeping we lived it up (and learned a little jig) at Pam and Deccy's place. Don't ya just love small places and lots of people...keeps us nice and toasty of those cold snowy nights. Around 2 in the morning we trudged through the snow to Karaoke and sang the night away, making it back to our sleeping headquarters are 5:30'ish. The next morning was quite fun!

Happy Birthday Dawn!

Today’s one of my BEST friends BIRTHDAYS from back home in Texas! I’ve known this girl since I was 5 years old and can proudly say we remained the dorkiest of friends!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAWN!!!!! HAPPY 24!!!!!


















Oh….how could I forget all those crazy nights downtown. 5th street YAYY!!! I mean who will understand me when I laugh thinking about gingerbread or refer to Iron cactus as the nursing home. Hehe Somehow it became a ritual to go out 2 – 3 times a month, mostly on Fridays since that was when Damesviolet (our favorite local Austin band) played. But we ALWAYS had fun! (I miss those beers from Logans!)























Wow…be it from graduation parties, being band groupies, volunteering with celebrities, always begging Amy to join our crazy nights, my farewell party in Shiner, eating and drinking good at Trudy’s or the Hula Hut, and all those crazy things in between…..I LAUGH and SMILE when I remember it all. Hopefully you do too – SO HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAWN! Enjoy it and have a great one!!!

Much luv from Niigata – Jo
p.s. “Umm…yeah, I’d like to order the Gingerbread!”

BREAKING NEWS!!!

So, I found out this morning from one of my ALT friends on my BoE that the funding for Prefectural ALTs will be cut in Aug. - meaning we can no longer re-contract with the Prefecture -Niigata ken. Let's all keep our fingers crossed we can become Municipal ALTs and find a city who wants us! It's scary thinking I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to recontract and that i might not be able to b/c a job couldn't be found. So stressful!!!! This info. is pretty much the truth- I've already had a friend down south mention how TODAY her Principal had a meeting with her letting her know she already couldn't re-contract with them and another one of my friends said Ian (Our PA) will be calling all Prefectural ALTs within the week talking about out own personal positions. SCARY!!!

Here's a part of the email...

"I just came in to the office an hour ago or so, and Mr. Abe told me about the ALT budget situation. The prefectural office's FINAL decision won't be until February 20th, but they are saying that the prefectural ALT budget for August 2006 and onwards is basically axed. That is, there will be no more prefectural ALTs. This is a move that we knew they were moving towards, but it is a little surprising that they did it in one fell swoop.
As things stand now, Rachel and I cannot continue JET, and several of our other Kaetsu ALTs are planning to return to their home countries. If you would like to re-contract (and a few of our Kaetsu ALTs do), then the prefectural office will contact various city/municipal offices (local boards of education, such as Niigata city, Nagaoka, etc) and try to find new positions for you. If that position is in Niigata city, you would be able to stay at your aparment, but if the new schools were in a different part of Niigata, you would have to move.
I'm sorry to send this somewhat bleak information to you, and I do wish I could tell you more concrete information, like when they would let you know about a new job, where it might be, the chances of them finding something... but that's all that Mr. Abe told me this morning. The only thing I can personally think of to do would be to talk to your JTEs and maybe the vice-principal or principal of your schools, so that they might call friends they have in high places and perhaps swing the balance for you. Word of mouth is the most powerful weapon in Japan, and I know several ALTs who finished prefectural positions and transfered into city/municipal positions without changing schools.
My advice would be this; think about if you'd like to stay on in Niigata-ken, even if your schools/house might change, and have a chat with some teachers you have a good relationship with at your schools, and see if they have any suggestions."

Warm-up Game Surprise!!!

So, I was playing the classic Drawing word Warm-up Game last week some some 1st years at Ikarashi JHS. It's easy, I put them in groups and one student from each group at a time runs up to see the word I show. They run back and draw that word without speaking, the next student runs up and yada yada yada...so basically it's a RACE. Well, the students LOVE it.
Afterwards, I usually collect the paper they were drawing on since it's enjoyable to see what they actually drew (I love when my students get to draw...if you don't know that already) BUT, when i got to the end of this sheet...i was CRACKING UP.....Let me show you...

1. Pen

2. Cat

3. Table Tennis

4. Breakfast

5. America
6. Weather




7. Music

...lots of other innocent words in the middle...

12. Milk
13. FRIEND

WHAT THE HECK!?! hehehehehehe
An 11 year old kid has a FRIEND who looks like this???

He looks a bit dodgy to me. When I got to this one I was like "WHAT word did I give them?" and when I found out.....i was LAUGHING SO HARD! I swear...all the innocent and cute pictures before and then to see this one last!

Oh, I love my students!