Update and Holiday Plans

Sorry I have been MIA for 2 weeks. Just recently, I fell down the flight of stairs in the picture above. Thankfully, I only fell from about the 6th step from the bottom, but I fell on my hip and now have a brilliant purple and yellow bruise (not ever to be pictured). I also banged my head on the side paneling and couldn't focus my eyes for a good hour. Thankfully, after this incident, the school has requested the government for funding to install a rail. I knew that the first time I saw these stairs, but I guess an accident has to happen for there to be a perceived "need".

In other news, I have finally settled my holiday plans.
December 22-26: Work at School.
The exceptions are the 23rd (Emperor's Birthday and thus a national holiday) and I will only be working half a day on the 25th as a few staff members want to take me to lunch. Whee!

December 26-29: Hakuba, Nagano-ken with other ALTs.
Think 1998 Winter Olympics. Hakuba is rumored to be THE place to ski/snowboard in Nagano. I have skied before, but with my short legs and thus "displaced" calves that are huge thanks to some genes from the Robertson side of the family, I have trouble closing up the ski boots. So, I fully intend to try snowboarding... for the first time... in JAPAN!

December 30-January 2/3(?): New Years in Hamamatsu
My friend, Sonja, has a cousin in Hamamatsu, a city in the western part of Shizuoka. Said cousin invited Sonja and I to spend our winter vacation with her since she has a newly built house and of course, wants to see Sonja.


So why am I not spending the holidays with my family? Good question. I could be really spiteful and hold onto resentful feelings but Santa is watching... so the short version.
There was a change of plans regarding a friend coming to Japan to see me. So I kinda had to scramble. There was no possible way I could afford a ticket home to the States so I had to look at options of Christmas and New Years in Japan. The Sasahiras had already planned to spend the holidays in Hawaii, my Uncle Nobi recently got offered a teaching position in MALAYSIA so he and Aunt Keiko are spending the holidays there checking out the situation, and that left me with either staying in Shimizu the whole time or traveling around Japan/the Shiz. Staying in Shimizu would've been utterly depressing, as if only getting a week off isn't depressing enough, so I will be out and about, hopefully not breaking my neck on the slopes, and spreading merriment over Japan.

This is the last week of TEACHING for the fall term. After the closing ceremony on Friday, I will have a bonenkai (end of the year drinking party) with my teachers. Hopefully I don't make a fool of myself.

A New Standard of Dress

When I "went out" in the States, I wore nice jeans, a "cute" top, and tennis shoes for my feet's comfort sake. If I was up for the challenge, I wore dressy shoes and hoped I wouldn't get blisters from all the walking during shopping.

In Japan, this is not good enough.

This past weekend, I went to Tokyo to visit the Sasahiras again and my Okaasan took me to some really upscale department stores. Blue ribbed sweater, light tan khakis, and tennis shoes looks good, right? WRONG. I never felt so out of place. And then I was carrying around my navy fleece pullover. Who wears a pull-over in Japan? It looks like it's only me. I had assumed that since it was Saturday, the universal day-off, that people would dress more relaxed. I think their idea of more relaxed is leaving the suit jacket in the car, because I was getting looks saying "Where did you come from? Your frump drawer?" No. My frumpy clothes are sweatpants and a t-shirt. If I were actually in them I might have been barred from entering the complex at all!

So Sunday, we went out to a second department store just for window shopping and lunch. I dressed in black pants, a red ribbed turtleneck sweater (called polo-sweaters here), and my black ballet flats. I didn't get any snarling looks so I think I passed the second time around. However, getting dressed up EVERY TIME just to enjoy a lazy afternoon shopping doesn't make the outing as much fun.

Maybe for those of you who come from cities bigger than Little Rock (and there are A LOT of them), this may seem normal to you. For me, I am longing for the next day I can wear my jeans. I think they are gathering dust in my drawer...