Nicole's Adventures in Japan

This weekend was good. Friday instead of having our regular classes, the whole school went down to Sakae to see Kabuki theater. I was told it wasn't traditional Kabuki, but super Kabuki. Traditional Kabuki is like going to see a shakespearean play with out reading the cliff notes first. Some of the students were not excited. I on the other hand having no real idea what it was, was excited to go. Plus the not having to teach on a Friday was a plus.
The Kabuki theater, was very nice about the size of the Schnitzer concert hall back in Portland. The theater was a nice size and as teachers we got good seats and being the international teachers we probably had some of the best seats in the house. When we got there at around 9 am there was a morning meeting like normal, I understood none of it. However I was given a time schedule for the play and a very nice book, probably like the books you can buy when you go to concerts and plays back home. My first thought was how can I take it a part and use it in a scrape book, but I have since re thought that and will probably leave it whole. The costumes were amazing and very elaborate, the story was a bit hard to follow since there was lot of talking scenes and if my students thought it was hard to follow, well then you can imagine how hard it was for me. The play had some amazing scenes. One Fight scene the choreography was amazing, and as the scene went on the practically knocked down the whole set. knocking out back wall, throwing barrels. It was terrific. Then later there was a boat scene where the ocean came up and there was a storm. It was done very well an the ship it self the way it moved around the stage was very realistic. At the end the main character turns into a bird/angel, I am not really sure, but any ways he flies out over the crowd. That got some of the girls out of there seats.

Then on Saturday I went to a Barbeque in Kaiyra park with a friend from church. She invited a bunch of her friends to come and really it was only Theresa and I who spoke English. However it was still a lot of fun to get out of the city. There were some kids at the BBQ, they were really cute, and thought it was great fun when I got out my camera and took pictures. Plus one of the couples who came had a dog named Nana. She was really cute and friendly. I had a great day just hanging out and eating good food!!

Monday:
My Apartment is currently 72 degrees. Very nice and comfortable it was such a nice day after school today, I went for a short bike ride, but got a little lost looking for the river my friend told me about and decided to head home before I got any more lost. And since you are now reading this you know that I have since found my way home. I know I am basking in the beautiful sunshine, however I do worry a little about the humidity that will come later this year.
Tomorrow will be a slow day at work it is called health day and at this point you know just about as much as I do. So needless to say I will fill you in when I know more. With all this nice weather and not so nice weather I am getting better at riding my bike, however my shins still show some evidence of needing to get better. When it does rain all these very talented Japanese people are able to ride their bikes and hold an umbrella all at once. I have not mastered this trick yet so when it rains my new rain jacket does a very nice job for the to half, but I have had some very wet pants two mornings last week. Absolutely drenched. Crystal (other female teacher, teaches at JR. High) and I have agreed that while we might get wet on our bikes we don’t think we would be any better off walking or walking and standing to catch the bus to school. So for now I will stick with riding my bike.
Tuesday:
Well as it turned out they didn’t need me to help so basically I hung out in our English Teachers Office working on lessons for next week and chatting with people. So since I didn’t help I am not sure what all health day includes. I think it is like a health checkup, since they have socialized health coverage in Japan. It is a pretty slow week so far!