Tammy, Ikumi (Egawa sensei) and Me trying not to kill ourselves on the frozen tennis courts in Bandai Atami.

Preface: This was actually written yesterday (Friday), but I didn’t have time to send it off until today, so here ya go: Though it’s perfectly logical, I still find it somewhat cruelly ironic that when I have time to write, there is nothing to write about, and when I have volumes to write, no time in which to write them. The latter has been my lot in the last week and a half. I’ve literally had a meeting or a dinner to go to every night this week. All great uses of time, they just use up all of it that would otherwise be spent on things like blogging (not to mention dishes, trash, laundry…) So, not wanting to bore you with even MORE details, here’s a summary of my past week: Friday—planned to go see Memoirs of a Geisha with some friends. Unfortunately, my driver thought it was Thursday and picked me up 45 minutes later than I was expecting, so I missed the train and the three friends I was supposed to meet in Koriyama. Good thing for VCRs, microwave popcorn and cheap movies you bought off Ebay. Together they can save a Friday night. Saturday: Made pizza for Tricia’s birthday bash (and I dare say it was better than any American company’s), then hopped on some trains to Bandai Atami to go ice skating. It was one of our friends’ first time (Ikumi Egawa), so we held her hand the whole time—the most physical contact I’ve ever had with a Japanese person. It was a lot of fun, and we escaped relatively unscathed (although Ikumi had some sort of brace/heating pad thing on her neck on Monday…) Sunday: church then off to a “Welcome to Funehiki, Foreigners!” party. It was supposed to be for ALL of the foreigners in the town, but I was pleasantly surprised that we were not the only foreigners who attended. A Chinese woman who’s lived in Japan for 10 years came, too. = ) My two favorite moments of the afternoon: first, the games. We played “pop the balloons tied around the other team’s ankles.” My team was pitted against the (male) venerated city and district officials. In light of our gentle instructions to “dress up a little,” I had chosen my red, high-heeled boots for the occasion (he, he, he). Well, one minute of chaos and a total disregard of any cultural “respect” rules left us with a few black shoe smudges on the newly polished floor (woops), and our team’s landslide victory. Suffice it to say that I had fun with that one. Second favorite moment: Kano sensei, an adorably cute and sweet Wakakusa teacher expressing her praise of our group’s singing performance: “It was so beautiful! It gave me the chicken pox!” Monday: Back to Segawa, the beginning of Fukushima’s annual torrential winds (torrential might be an understatement), and a wonderful time of prayer with the girls at our weekly evening Bible study. I’m so thankful we can have a time of corporate worship in English! Tuesday: The winds grow stronger, a day at Segawa again, and an evening meeting about our forthcoming high school Bible study. We are hoping to hold this weekly for students who have graduated from our junior high classes After discussing and praying about how to begin such a study with those who have been brought up away from Christian “culture,” mainly surrounded by Buddhist/Shinto religion and culture, we decided to start at the beginning. Our first session: “Who is God?” Needless to say, I’d appreciate any input you may have on this one. Wednesday: My morale getting lower. Reason: lack of sleep from the incessant wind. But! All students were testing at Funehiki, so a day off was expected. Unfortunately, such a pleasure was not to be had. Tammy and I ended up cleaning at Wakakusa in the morning and making 10 door-size charts in the afternoon. I did gain a piece of wisdom from it all, though: leaning over a table for 4 hours is not good for your back. In Tammy’s words (while rubbing her spine), “I’m gonna need some work done after this!” In all seriousness, though, it was nice to have a change of environment, and since we got out earlier than usual, we had time to go see Memoirs of a Geisha in Koriyama. Abridged review: it was a good visual to the book, but the acting and storyline were lacking in parts. If you didn’t know, they cast Chinese actors for some of the main parts, which was even annoying to me, I can’t imagine how it was perceived by the Japanese people in the theater with us. I said it was like watching a Russian movie in America, based on a book that was written by a Russian, trying to portray American pioneer life, with French actors as the leads. Yeah, a little screwed up. Thursday: The winds continue, and by this time I am an all-out grump, completely exhausted. To Funehiki Junior High it was, then back after a full day of grading tests. Redemption finally came, however, when I discovered the noise (ultimately caused by the wind) that had been keeping me up at night. The culprit turned out to be my laundry bar outside—creaking like an old door with every gust. It is no longer hanging there. Evening brought Tricia’s actual birthday celebration. The evening was filled with laughter, tacos, friends, strawberry cake, and a game to see how many adjectives we could think of that started with “V”. No telling what will happen when you get 10 English teachers in one room. I can’t describe the joy on Kate’s face when we pulled out the dictionary… And Friday: A cold day at Segawa, but after a RESTFUL night’s sleep, I’m currently waiting for my dough to rise for our dinner tonight. We’re making dinner for the Makis as sort of a late Christmas present/thank you for all they do for us. Even if the wind IS torrential and indoor heat is something foreigners do on the other side of the world, we have great hosts. Ja, Off I should go To check on my dough So my presents are rolls And not lumps of coal. (Update: So, when the recipe says “let rise at room temperature,” what exactly does that mean?…probably not the 55 degrees that was MY apartment’s “room temperature” at the time. So…suffice it to say that the rolls weren’t quite as light and fluffy as they could have been…)

A few new quotes (as opposed to a "little" new quotes, which I learned today is only used with uncoutable nouns like milk. Do you want many milk or a few milk?): "Patty, are you SURE you don't want the octopus balls?" (Tammy) "Cristy bought me a pineapple and I can't read the directions." (Adriane) "You're as see through-able as Vaseline!" (Patty) And my all-time favorite: Encho sensei (our boss, a nearly 70-year old, VERY respectable and esteemed man) while addressing his wife at our group dinner last week: "Tomoko sensei, give me some more of that Vitamin 'L'! Love! I need Vitamin 'L'!"

For the fourth time today I was told that I had a "takai hana" as a compliment. What do you say when someone tells you that you have a tall (big) nose and expects a pleasant response. "Thanks, it's been the subject of ridicule since 5th grade" didn't seem quite appropriate to the sweet, well-meaning special-needs teacher today.

In retrospect, I now realize my most recent post may have seemed, hmm, a little cynical perhaps? I do, I admit, sometimes meet the description of such an adjective (this blog got its name from my resemblance to the character "Puddleglum," pointed out by one of my fellow ALTs), but I must assure you: most of that was merely sarcasm. When I say "sick, just sick," feel free to interpret it as something to the effect of "wow, this is really ironic." For, this is quite close to my intention. Sometimes my "aggressive" or "abrasive" (did I spell that right?) sense of humor tends to get in the way. Anyway, this was all spurred on by an attitude check that God's been doing in me lately. Even though I complain about it, the cold really isn't THAT bad, and I AM thankful to not be in the region that got three meters of the stuff. In fact, I'm thankful to be in Japan in general. To all who move on a regular basis: if you ever have found a place to stay for more than six months, isn't it a glorious feeling?

These are the cookies - 60 pictured here, kawaii desu, ne? (Aren't they cute?)

So, I don't have school tomorrow. The water isn't working. Reason: the pipes froze. Do I really need to continue this post? I think I've said enough. But I'll keep going anyway. Yes, Tammy was sent home early today (I work at Segawa on Tuesdays, and with her at Funehiki on Wednesdays) because apparently they made the pipe discovery sometime before lunch. When you have about 500 people to "facilitate", no running water is a problem. So, tomorrow I don't have school. I could go on and on about how this wouldn't happen if there was central heating in the schools, I could tell you how much money the school would be saving if they would just insulate the building, I could rant and rave about how they're losing precious keroseine funds (something we've been told the school is short on this year) because now they have to shell out for pipe repairs. But I won't. I'll just enjoy my day off. And then make it up on Saturday. Yes, folks, the "mild winters" that I was supposed to experience in Japan I have yet to see. Everyone keeps walking around, repeating to us over and over, "Wow, it's unusually cold this year." Of course it is. I find it sickeningly ironic that my home town is now experiencing weather in the 40s and 50s. That's about how warm it is INSIDE here. Seriously. I'm not exagerating. Two days ago I looked at my thermometer in my bedroom after the heat had been on for a half an hour (we turn it off at night to save energy), and it said 49 degrees F. The hallway at my school today was -7 degrees Celcius. Some of the rooms were even colder than that. I'm not sure what that converts as...something like 15 degrees Farenheit. Sick. Just sick. Apparently Funehiki is not the only part of Japan that's been cursed with a rough winter. My mother wrote me a concerned email today and asked if I was anywhere near "all the snow that hit Japan." I went online to BBC and discovered that this year, of all years, Japan has had its heaviest snowfall on record. On record. Did I ever mention that I hate winter? Sick. Just sick. Speaking of snow, at least kids can have fun with it. Making things like, you guessed it, snowmen. I did some snowman making of my own this year - the edible kind. It was revealed to me before I went home for Christmas that "Japanese snowmen" (up until this point I was unaware that snowmen had nationalities) have 2 balls, not 3. Some of the teachers were literally shocked when they found out that Americans make snowmen with 3 balls (at this point, I didn't have the heart to tell them that Americans make snowmen with as many balls as we feel like. I stuck with 3). So, since this little cultural difference created such a stir, for my omiage (gifts of food that are brought back as souveniers after a trip away - such as to America for Christmas) I decided to make "American snowmen" cut-out cookies...for 120 people. The first step was making the dough. I got a recipe from Patty that said it made 3 dozen when doubled. Knowing that I'd need at least 10 dozen, I decided to do the recipe times 7. This particular dough is unique in that it requires melted margarine, so I melted two containers of margarine, mixed in the sugar, then added the 2 BAGS OF FLOUR to the concoction. I wondered at its runniness (dripping off the spoon), but figured it just needed to chill, so I stuck it in the (well, Tammy and Lis', mine was too small) refrigerator overnight. The next morning I skipped down to their apartment and pulled out the dough, eager to begin baking. However, my fears were confirmed and the dough was, in fact, still too soft. So, I stuck the whole bowl (about 15 pounds at this point) in the microwave, remelted the margarine, and added another bag of flour. By this time, I could hardly hold the bowl for more than 30 seconds. Heavy would be too mild a word to describe it. But anyway, I put this overweight bowl outside , postponing my baking attempts a few hours so the dough could re-chill. A few hours later I drug the bowl inside, hopeful that I had a good consistency this time. It was, to my dismay, still a bit soft, but this time I pressed on, and just rolled the flour in. So it began. I rolled, and rolled, and cut, and cut, and baked and baked....tray, after tray, after tray, after tray, after tray. I didn't bother to count. That is, until about 3 or 4 hours into my cookie-making adventure. I decided to stop and put a count to the cookies of my arduous labor. And there were a few more than I expected. 160. Not too bad, especially since I was supposed to get 10 dozen. Except for one thing. I still had half my dough left. I stood in my kitchen in bewilderment and confusion, exhausted at the thought of baking the rest of the dough's worth of cookies. So I didn't. I heard once that you could freeze the stuff....Tammy and Lis' freezer now houses about 10 pounds of cookie dough. Valentine's Day is coming up. I wonder if anyone has a heart cookie cutter...

After a 1 hour car ride, a 1 hour plane ride, another 13 hour plane ride, a 4 1/2 hour bus ride, a 1/2 hour train ride, and what felt like a trek across Siberia with all my belongings (it was really only 1/2 mile walk with two suitcases from the train station to the apartment...snow makes a big difference in the difficulty level of luggage mobility), anyway, after all that, 30 or so hours later, I'm back in Japan. I'm exhausted, think I caught a cold, and have a few blisters from that Siberia trek, but I'm not too worse for wear. I am so glad I got to see a lot of you over break. Thanks for your prayers, support, and friendship. They mean everything to me. And now: sleep.

This seems to be a popular survey amongst my kin and comrades, so here goes: Five odd habits that I tend to keep(?) perform(?) entertain(?) I really don't know how to use English anymore.... 1. I have to agree with Kristin Galat on this one (I hope I spelled her name right): I pull at my eyelashes to remove bits and pieces of globbed mascara. Unfortunately, this tends to thin my already meager supply of natural eye area adornment. 2. I play with my lips when I'm thinking or nervous. This probably isn't too sanitary... 3. When I'm eating cereal and milk drips down my lip, I wipe it up with my spoon, kinda like when you're feeding a baby. 4. And continuing with the eating, I always nibble around the outside of my sandwiches, saving the middle (and usually the bite with all of the fillin's in it) for last. 5. I change my shoes when I get to school....oh wait, that's cause I live in Japan. This is a habit I'd probably rather NOT have, but hey, I guess it's odd for Americans at least. Hope you're satisfied, Nathan. I won't have time for things like this when I get back to real life= )