I'm sitting in my apartment with a "from scratch" cup of hot cocoa (Swiss Miss is a bit hard to find here) trying desperately to warm up my little toesies. It is officially Fall, folks, and with it has come the "chill that penetrates the bones" (see earlier post) and the rain that penetrates the clothes. As you can tell, I'm not a huge fan of colder weather, especially when my sweaters have not arrived yet. Well, I think I'm going to try to post on this thing once a week, because any intentions more ambitious than that will never come to pass. The weeks are just too busy, and the reason I didn't post this weekend was because it, too, was too busy. Last week's classes went very well, and I'm starting to get the hang of things a bit. Tuesday and Wednesday were "Sports Day" for all of the junior highs in town, so I got to watch the kids do kendo (a Japanese traditional martial art), judo (ground fighting, again, a traditional martial art), table tennis (not a traditional martial art...) and soccer. It was a lot of fun, and I think because we went to see them, the kids are starting to warm up to us a bit more. (Not to mention, we're beginning to remember their names. Maybe that helps...) Last week was actually pretty uneventful unless I back up a bit to last weekend...September 24 I believe. Since we had the day off (Saturday), Lis, Tammy and I decided to go running. This has become a favorite passtime of Tammy's and mine because not only do we get the endorphins from the exercise, we also get to see the beautiful countryside of Japan. Well, we convinced Lis that she, too, could see this countryside if she ran with us, and I assured her that our "route along the tracks" would be pleasantly surprising. So, we were off. The run itself is about 3 1/2 miles long--1 3/4 there and 1 3/4 back, and it goes along a quaint country road next to the train tracks--absolutely breathtaking when you get out into the rice fields. However, this was the first time Lis has gone running in Japan, so she decided to turn back a bit earlier. We were huffing and puffing up a hill at the moment she made this decision, so we mumbled something about turning right and just running along the tracks the whole way back, and then continued on our way. Well, Tammy and I reached our end point and turned around, and began a pretty serious conversation about our beliefs when we saw Lis down by (when I say "by," I mean pretty close to "on") the tracks. At first this didn't phase either of us, because Lis is an explorer, and it is not out of her character to wander off to look at something curious. Reality began to set in, however, when she exclaimed, "There you are! I thought you'd be along the tracks." I still couldn't believe what I was beginning to think, though, so I just came out and asked her, "Were you actually running ON the tracks?!" Her reply was, "Well, you said run along the tracks...you said I'd be pleasantly surprised! I was kinda wondering about them, because I kept having to jump over rails....and then there was the tunnel, but I thought since you guys did it it would be ok..." We just stood there with our mouths drooping. Yes, she had done it. She had been running on the train tracks. This may not have been so bad if we were in the United States, where trains maybe come through once or twice a day. In Japan, however, the trains are probably the primary mode of transportation...hence they come about every half hour. Needless to say, running through the tunnel was probably not the best idea....we spent the rest of the day praising God she was alive...laughing while doing it, but still praising God she was alive. As I said, the rest of the week, thankfully, was pretty uneventful until Saturday. Saturday was the music concert for Funehiki Junior High School, and my second experience with culture shock (my first being at Mc Donald's). Everything was perfect. Perfect and completely serioius. Everything. This was no American junior high music concert, it was like a highly technical professional production. The icing on the cake, however, was the final number, when the band began playing The Village People's "YMCA" and dozens of Japanese junior high children hopped onto the stage in line, dancing a highly coreographed routine in perfect time. I sat there feeling like I was witnessing a crime against humanity. Never should that song be taken so seriously...one thing that doesn't really click here is the whole concept of satire.... And then there were kindergardeners. Hundreds of them. On Sunday we got to experience the adventure that is the Wakakusa Kindergarden Sports Day Production. It started at nine o'clock in the morning and went on until around four. Seven hours of visual candy. I have never seen so many cute kids perform so many difficult routines and stunts in my life. The five-year-olds made pyramids, a human domino chain that the teacher knocked down and they all fell on each other, and tumbled in ways that I could only dream of doing myself. The pictures up top are just some examples of these escapades (and the race for which we got "volunteered" to do). The highlight, for me, though, was toward the beginning, when all of us English teachers got up in front of the whole audience (maybe 1000 or so people, including the mayor), and danced with the kindergardeners....an animal dance....with motions for each animal, while we were facing the city officials and trying our best to a) remember the moves and b) not die laughing. I was successful at the first one, but not the second. I just kept thinking to myself "I never pictured myself in this position a year ago..." I truly cannot even be sarcastic enough to explain the humor of the situation, so I'll leave it to your imaginations... Well, that's all for now. I'll try to remember some good quotes for the ends of these things, because there have been some good ones. I apologize there's none for today. But, until later, enjoy whatever culture you're in!