3rd Grade Mangas - Ryoukawa JHS

Good-bye Ryoukawa, Kamiyama, & Ikarashi JHS

My last school meal and eating in the Teacher's room.




My students at Ryoukawa working hard on my 4th of July word-search!

My name tags on my desks!
Some of my favorite female students at Ikarashi.

Farewell Kaetsu BoE

Our final meeting for the Kaetsu BoE was held in July. We had 7 ALTs under the same Prefectural Board and we all had to clear out our apartment - some that have been lived in for 18 years.

This is a picture of what Cam called "the Shake-Down" where we had to give 500 yen a month for apartment repairs. One of the many joy-ish things of working on our Board.
For our ending party we started with Nomihodai on the south side of the station.
Then on to karaoke.




Ben and Polly eventually called it quits and we all got home around midnight. It was a very interesting night.

DisneySea Part 2

Mermaid Lagoon was a nice escape from the rain since it was mostly underground "in the sea"!
Walking into Aeriel's Grotto made us want to bust out "I wanna be where the people are..." since it was all so detailed. This was one of my favorite places in the park!
This was the Arabian Coast.
They had lots of markets to shop around which was very fun.
This is Simone doing her belly moves during the Sinbad's 7 Voyages ride.
Mysterious Island.
The tram to and from DisneySea. Cute!



Entrance/Exit to DisneySea. The Mediterranean Harbor was up front, so everything here looked like Venice!

DisneySea Part 1

Simone got to drive the vehicle for the Indian Jones ride.
The various popcorn flavors throughout the whole park. We tried Strawberry and Coconut, but they even had curry and chocolate ones too. Quite interesting!
This mountain on Mysterious Island erupted every hour and it was LOUD. Where ever you were in the park, you'd start feeling little trembles and loud cracking sounds and when you saw the mountain - fire was being shot out of the top. Kinda cool!
Mermaid Lagoon.
Raging Spirits - The only roller-coaster in both Disney Parks that has a 360 loop.
Our favorite ride - Journey to the Center of the Earth. Awesome!

花より男子」パート2 2007年1月から放送決定！！

http://www.tbs.co.jp/hanayoridango/news.html

So, I have used my trusty online Japanese to English translator (which I have used quite often with my new BoE) to figure out the true meaning behind the new post and here ya are. After working in Japan for one year - this actually makes some sense to me. Enjoy!

"It was broadcasted to last December and the continuation of the boy decided from the flower being broadcast again from 2007 January ! ! Performance, Sho Jun Inoue Makoto middle Matsumoto Oguri decade Matsuda thickly Abe power, returns with the same cast as other part 1. The exhausting and Domyoji which with the rust of part 1 become scattered doing, how meeting again returning? ? Little bit there is a time to broadcast, but please in the pleasure ! !"

hehehehe....
In other words
It's official: Hana Yori Dango part 2 will be filmed! The first HYD aired in October - December 2005; the sequel will be broadcasted in January 2007. The cast from HYD 1 will return, ie. Inoue Mao, Matsumoto Jun, Oguri Shun, Matsuda Shota, and Abe Tsuyoshi. HYD 1 ended with the separation of Tsukushi and Domyouji; how will they meet again in the sequel? Please look forward to it!

Yayy!!! Can't wait. Something exciting for those cold winter months. :)

In case you didn't know...

Who is Hello Kitty?

Hello Kitty was born in London, England where she lives with her parents and her twin sister, Mimi. Both Hello Kitty and Mimi are in the third grade. They have many friends at school and share many adventures. When school's out, Hello Kitty travels the world making friends. Her generosity and kindness endear her to everyone she meets. Her hobbies include music, reading, and eating the sweets she and her sister bake, and best of all, making new friends.


The character herself:

Hello Kitty was originally created by Sanrio designer Ikuko Shimizu in 1974. Shimizu left the company about a year later. The second designer, Setsuko Yonekubo, took over for five years until 1980 when the task was given to Yuko Yamaguchi, who still holds the position. The character originally appeared on small novelties for young girls, such as coin purses.
Hello Kitty was given an English name because British culture was popular with Japanese girls at the time of her creation. Kitty's name came from one of the cats that Alice kept in the book Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. When Hello Kitty's boyfriend "Dear Daniel" was created in 1999, designers took his name from the 1971 film, Melody, which starred Mark Lester as a character called Daniel, and features songs by the Bee Gees.
Hello Kitty's fictional world includes a whole array of friends and family members. Since 2004 she has even had a pet cat of her own called Charmmy Kitty, and a pet hamster called Sugar. Charmmy resembles Hello Kitty but has more cat-like features. Charmmy Kitty was given to Hello Kitty by her father, George White, and Sugar by her boyfriend Dear Daniel.

Official profile of Kitty:
Name: Kitty White
Birthday: November 1, 1974
Blood type: A (Negative)
Place of birth: Suburban London
Height: That of five apples
Weight: That of three shiny apples
Good at: Baking cookies
Favorite food: Apple pie made by Mama (A.K.A. mum or Mary)
Favorite word: "Friendship"
Collects: Small cute things like sweets, stars, goldfish, etc.
Best school subjects: English, music, visual arts, and pie eating
Description: A bright and kind-hearted kitten. Very close to her twin sister Mimmy.

As far as my collection goes:
Okay...it is an obsession! I will happily admit it!

But I have come to the point where I refuse to count my little kitties. I'm still collecting like crazy wherever I travel and will have to buy a bigger kitty bag soon since they all don't fit anymore.

Hello Hello Hello!

well...

I'm not fully back to normal just yet, last week was a whirlwind!

I moved apartments, my parents came to visit, I started my new job, I went to handle paperwork for my Japanese license and have my driving test THIS THURSDAY (yicks!), went to Fuji Rock and camped out for 4 nights, and now my friend Shaady is here for two weeks. So much, but OH so much fun!!!

I'm getting my internet transferred - so it shouldn't be too much longer till things are back online at my new place and I can do some major updating!!!

now, on top of Disney Sea and Osaka/Sumo Weekend updates. I have family pics, crazy karaoke pics, and FUJI ROCK - yayy!!! I'm still slowly getting the mud off me from the weekend but what an amazing time! We saw celebrities, some really really awesome and really crappy bands, danced till we were too exhausted to even stand, and ate way too much food (like 4 to maybe 5 meals a day).

Any-who. Today I am visiting my base school -Katahigashi JHS- for the first time and giving my little Japanese teachers speech - fun stuff. Other than that, I am preparing for Group B orientation.

To all you newbies coming in WELCOME TO NIIGATA
Esp. my Group B gang: James S., Christopher, Luke, Jenny, James H., Pearl, Richard, Melissa, Katherine, Moreen, Evgeny, and Anna. Can't wait to meet you all. C'ya soon in Tokyo!!!

LATER

p.s. I'm off to Nagaoka Wednesday for the Grand Hanabi display - can't wait!!!

Back up and working!!!! Yayy!!!

Hey Everyone!
Got my computer back up and working, but I am moving in 2 two days - so - my internet won't be following until a few days later. Gomen,ne! :) I'll be posting back to normal ASAP - promise!

Updates to come:
DisneySea!


Osaka Weekend -
Sumo and the City!

Cicadas are out!

Hey all-

So, it has happened again!!!

I think I'm just cursed or at least I download like crazy...hehe....so what I mean is -
my computer crashed again.
So......no updates for a while.

This time it's a hard drive problem, meaning yes...I more than likely lost pictures and video and lots of paper work that I've created for class at school...BUT I have so much on my mind as it is (moving apartments, JP DL, Group B orientation, Japanese farewell speeches, family and friends coming to visit, Osaka/Nagoya-sumo/Kobe wknd, Fuji Rock) that it really doesn't seem to bother me!

Is that strange?

I think maybe I'm just still numb from last time (yes, only a few months ago!) when it crashed and I just can't be bothered. Who knows!?! It will be a week or so till I get me a new hard drive. And then I'll be BACK with revenge!!!

Until then you just got to imagine the great photos I have yet to show: DisneySea, Simone's Farewell Sing-dig, Kaitsu BoE Enkai, Last day at Ryoukawa JHS and their manga projects. Oh - I can't wait! It'll be good!!!