I was sick for the weekend so I didn’t really get out of bed all that much. Thus I did not blog. Also I missed a very important blogging event earlier this past week. Happy Late Birthday Mom! Don’t worry; I spoke to her on both her Japanese birthday and her Canadian one. It was a two birthday system. Also a belated birthday shout out to my Uncle Ron who celebrated the big 5-0! And Grandad, who recently had a birthday also. This was always the time of year when me family got together to celebrate all birthday’s in the approximate area of November and December. For some reason many people in my family fall into that range. I shouldn’t have listed the people I remembered because that very obviously means I have failed to list a few people who’s birthday’s I am unsure of. At any rate, if you are in some way related to me and it was or will be your birthday, my best wishes to you! Well, as it is my way, I will use the blog to tell you all that I am staying on for a third year in Japan. My apologies to those I haven’t personally told yet. What can I say, I like my job and my life here. Why not do it for just one more year? I’m in a good location, I am meeting loads of new people and I have lots of opportunities to development myself. I have applied to change my job for the coming school year but I will remain in Shiojiri. I hope I get it but I probably won’t find out for a while. I hope to work only in Elementary school. Junior high is good and all but Elementary is a lot more rewarding. Anyways, don’t think that I don’t miss you all cos I do. This is just an added incentive for you all to come and visit me in Japan. Or meet me in another country. Anywhere is fine. Ok so recent happenings, let’s see. I haven’t spent a weekend at home for a long time where I did absolutely nothing. I didn't even put a movie on. It is very weird to have nothing to report for the whole weekend. Basically I think I have been staying up too late and doing too much after work. I prescribe myself more sleep, less drink, more nights in the house, vitamins, all of that. I don’t know if I will take my own advice but at least I don’t need anyone else to tell me that either. I guess the last thing before I was sick was the Seba Carnival. We set a big fire and danced around it at about 10 in the morning. Then we spent the rest of the day playing educational carnival games. The whole thing was run by the grade 6 students. They are an efficient working team. I feel like those kids could probably run a company in a fairly satisfactory way within the next year or so. They were stamping documents, organising the younger kids and maintaining the rules of the events. The games were about sorting out garbage properly, making a very tall tower with beer cans, and sorting foods into their nutritional groupings. I also made several crafts with the younger kids. I later thrilled my friends by presenting them with the laminated bookmarks I had made for each one of them. By about two in the afternoon I had a high temperature and they let me go home. Thanks school nurse! After that my cold took its course and I was super ill. Gisela was sick on the weekend also so we didn't see much of each other. Many thanks to my excellent friends who checked up on me. The gifts of lemons, honey and sympathy were much appreciated. I am so whiny when I’m sick. All the teachers at school seem to have it too. Everyone is coughing and snorting. It is gross. My work place isn’t so firm about wearing a mask when you are sick which I am glad about. To me that just feels a bit too weird. That will go on the long list of reasons why I can’t stay here forever. I will just never fit in. I’m not really disappointed by that, it’s just how it is. So what’s on the table for this weekend? I'm going on a mission with Luke and Dec to the ocean, having American Thanksgiving at Reah’s and then hopefully Sunday will remain empty. There is a trip to Fuji Q Highlands planned. It is a super scary rollercoaster park. I am kind of a wimp about things like that so I don’t know if I’ll go. People say it’s great though. I learned some excellent new Japanese words recently. My current favourite is はりこむ （harikomu）. It means stakeout. I have been performing harikomu for several weeks now to monitor the goings on of the woman who stole my bike. I don’t think I am really interested in getting my bike back at this point. I have just become interested in watching the woman who is using it. Unfortunately I can’t get the original paperwork on it from the place where I bought it because they don’t archive stuff like that. I wish I had it because the police are very intense about retrieving stolen bikes here. They recently used a helicopter to chase a bike thief in our prefecture! If I tore my house apart I could probably find the papers somewhere. But if I am at home and have that kind of time, I had better be cleaning the house, not making it worse for myself. The sink is full of dishes and I need to wash the floors and vacuum and everything else that I neglect on a day to day basis. Tonight will not be a time to make it any better either. I have to take the car in to get something fixed, teach a class, have a Japanese lesson and then hit the laundry mat. Boooo. Luckily, today I have almost no class for some weird reason. I feel like Wednesday are the days I might as well stay at home. I can get all the same stuff done. My classes always get cancelled on a Wednesday so I usually sit and study or prep for lessons. I love how my schedule works here in that respect. It is very laid back. If I get into Elementary school, it won’t be like that but there are other trade off that make it worthwhile.
Today's pictures are of the festival and the fall colours around my schools. This last photo was in the late day sun and I stopped my car to take it. I live in such a beautiful place! The cabbage has come off the fields and so has everything else. I love this late and long lasting fall. It's my favourite season.