Twas the Week Before Christmas

On Thursday, I met with two of my friends. I saw Maiko in the afternoon and we went to Ohori park. I went there the week before, walking from another city and back home, it took about 40 minutes with the detour through the park, but it was so much fun! I love walking, I think maybe I could walk forever . . . I only had my phone then, so I'll upload pictures later. I'm lazy about doing that because it's more difficult to upload them from my phone. I also met Madoka that night and we ate at the same place with the ohm rice which I'd been craving!
Anyway here are some pictures I took last week, I met Yuka last night (Saturday night) after work and it was a lot of fun. It was just me, her and an old friend of hers along with her friend's two adorable little girls! They hardly spoke English (even the mother) so it was interesting, but not so awkward as the takoyaki party since it wasn't a lot of people. Yuka's mother made nabe along with lots of sweets! I really enjoyed it, but Yuka is too giving and her mother gave me a kimono . . .! She also had her friend drive me home, even though her friend had an hour and a half drive back to her city along with her 2 little girls, and it was midnight!! I felt really bad . . . but it was fun nonetheless. When I try on the kimono, I will take pictures, but I don't know how to put it on by myself so I'll have to wait for my friend Masayo to help me!
These pictures are from the Christmas party we had Friday night at work. It was fun, but mostly work because the native English teachers "hosted" it meaning we hardly had time to eat and constantly had to entertain the students while doing all of the events. It was very busy and hectic and we had to stay about 20 mins. past 9 just to clean up! I made miniature versions of my mom's egg rolls but since I had to cook them that morning (and I think they put them in the fridge) they were soggy and not good :(

 

I had to use sweet chili sauce since they didn't have sweet and sour sauce

Yes, they made me wear the stupid reindeer ears . . . because it was a headband and I was a girl

They played a game where they had to answer simple English questions and whichever team won, they got a present, I think.

 

Food! Most of which I didn't even get to try . . . I think I had a slice of pizza and a curry dish, which was amazing.

 

Present exchange, we passed presents around until the music stopped.

 

two of my students, the one on the left is a student and a co-worker, and the one on the right in the kimono made a speech that I helped her with :P  She's also taking me to see kabuki in February! (but that's a secret because my boss doesn't want us hanging out with students, so shhhhh)

 

Two of my students, the girl I teach at the Nishijin school. The one in red is the sister of my student who is wearing green.

My boss and a girl who will be going to the university of her dreams! She was able to pass the exam that only 20 students get into every year! I was so proud of her!!

 

Two of my students, mother and daughter :P

 Here's my student giving her speech!

 

One Japanese Christmas tradition that I want to start in America: Christmas cake!! And not the nasty fruit cake that Americans eat on Christmas!

 

Apparently they make a wish like on birthdays, but the American teachers didn't know that so we kind of looked around the room as everyone was silent for 5 seconds and had their eyes closed. . .

 

My favorite: chocolate with chocolate fudge!!

 

Me and Chiko! ^_^

Mother and daughter again

 

Me and one of my Saturday students. He was the only who came that comes on Saturdays (I'm the only teacher on Saturdays so he didn't know anyone else). he plays cello in an orchestra that I will see in January since my boss bought a bunch of tickets!

 

Chiko and Mrs. Tsurukawa

 

We got goodie bags from the party and I found this cute leftover in there! The American teachers just bought a bunch of desserts and this was one of them. For some reason, these little chicks with red or white bean inside are very popular. I think they're adorable and tasty!

 

Isn't he cute? And yummy! I couldn't eat the head first so I did the opposite . . . too cute!

2-week roundup, and a Merry Christmas!

I had a pleasant surprise this morning when I got a package from my mum with presents! I'm saving them for Christmas, as tempting as it is.

 

On Sunday, Dec. 9th, I went to an International Party with my friend, Yurika. It was a thing where you could meet Japanese people and vice versa. It was in Hakata and I walked there from my house. It took about 35 minutes but I love to walk to it was enjoyable!

 

The place was really rich, it was in Canal City which is like an outdoor mall with really expensive decorations.

 

This is Hakata Station. My camera drops the pictures in out of order, so I walked here after the party, actually.

This is from Thursday, December 6th, the Takoyaki party at Yuka's house! It was fun except that everyone spoke Japanese the entire time (6 hours) so I was very tired, since I could only understand a word or two of what they were saying per sentence and was struggling to understand their hand motions. It was really good food though, I just don't do well around a lot of people that I don't know, especially when I can't speak their language!

 

The makings of takoyaki (fried squid balls)

 

Yuka about to eat

 A strange takoyaki amalgam of corn, fish cake, cheese and other random stuff the guy felt like putting in there.

 

Yuka, her mom, and 2 of Yuka's friends

 

More takoyaki experiments. I think this one had the prank wasabi and horse radish sauce in two of them. Both happened to come to Yuka, unfortunately! They did this several times, but Yuka's strong and can handle spicy things really well!

 

Or not . .. 

 

Poor Yuka! :P

 

I was stuffed but everyone else kept eating! I tried oden for the first time, which is a really tasty, rich soup with things in it that I can't even describe because I don't know what they are. I think most of them were Japanese vegetables. This desert was ice cream with wine-soaked apples that Yuka made, along with kiwi on the side. It was delicious!

 

Masayo made this, it was a kind of mochi with red beans.

I will give more updates later, I've done a lot recently and I am seeing 2 friends today, so I'd better get ready! Thanks for reading!!!

How to tie an obi and the rest of my week

Last Thursday, my friend Masayo came over and showed me how to tie an obi! She showed me on the yukata (summer kimono) first because it's easier since the material is thinner and the obi is also thinner and smaller. In addition to the free lesson, she also brought cream puffs, because it's customary to bring a gift when you come to someone's house! Of course, I also bought her a (late) birthday present  which I'll give to her today when I go to Yuka's takoyaki party! Takoyaki are octopus balls, fried I think, so we are going to make them together! I think you have to have special equipment so I don't think this is something I could make at home, but it's still fun.

 

She did the more difficult bow but taught me the easier one. Hopefully next time she can show me the one that she has, I like it much better!

 

 Cream puffs!! ^_^

 

On Sunday, I was able to meet my friend Yurika again! I hadn't seen her for a very long time and have actually only met her twice! It was really fun and we had giant crepes! 

 

Mine had pear, chocolate, vanilla ice cream, whip cream, and I think almonds

 

Yurika's had chestnut cream, vanilla ice cream, and chestnut spread, I think. I can't remember exactly

 

This is Yurika! :P

 

yumm!! And we had some very fragrant tea, too! It was wonderful ^_^

The rest of my week was ok, besides my boss getting mad at things that weren't my fault. Now I know why the other teachers didn't like her. She wants me to teach a student TOEFL, but of course I know nothing about it. In America, you have to take a training course if you're going to teach the ACT or SAT, but obviously I've had no training so I don't know why she got frustrated at me for reading the book with my student. I thought that's what she told me to do, but her English isn't so good so apparently it was a misunderstanding. She wanted me to study the book, or at least the section I was going to teach, in less than a half hour then she expected me to be able to teach her about it . . . I can't study 40 pages in less than an hour and know how to teach it. I'm really frustrated right now and not sure what to do. I've looked up tips etc, but she doesn't let me take the book home to study it, so that makes it really difficult. If that's what she wants me to do, I hope she's allotted me hours every week to prepare for this one class amongst the other classes I have to prepare for, clippings, and proofreading, which is what we do on our "down time" or non-teaching time. I really don't see what she wants from me. I guess people were right, you really can't get on her good side. . . .