Miyakonojo

Today was a rather special day, we had snow. The last time it snowed was 4 years ago. Didn't have my camera with me, sorry.

I woke up this morning and didn't have time to check the weather forecast like I usually do, so I just opened my window... and everything was pure white. My first reaction was "Crap, gonna make getting to school a pain in the ass". It looked to be barely coating the ground, not enough to play in. Seemed like it might melt fast too.

The drive to school was relatively easy, the roads were not icy and had very little traffic. I was surprised to see that the snow was about an inch deep, and didn't seem to be melting immediately. I also saw some kids playing in the snow on the playground when I arrived. After I settled in and greeted all the teachers I had about 10 minutes to kill before class. I figured I would go outside to lob a few snowballs at the kids. I do a survey every winter for my Christmas class, and probably only about half of all the kids in my city have ever played in or seen snow.

I stepped out of the back door to the teachers room, and saw a few boys lobbing snow balls at each other. They obviously had not done this before, because they were just throwing powder at each other. They said "Hello" to me, I ignored them. I was too busy scooping up snow and packing it tight. I let loose at the most energetic kid, who was about 70 feet away. Now, normally when I throw stuff at them I never use full power. But this is snow right? It's not gonna hurt. Much. The thing went flying past his head and hit the brick wall with a loud "THUCK". The look he gave me was the coolest thing I have ever received. It was a mix of the fear of death and profound awe. The dude thought I had the pitching arm of god, and I was trying to smite him with it. While he was still in shock I sent another one flying. His eyes went even wider as this one flew past him with another "THUCK". I was laughing hysterically while packing another one. At this point he said "Hes laughing... this is dangerous!!!"

At this point I realized I could have way more fun. There were only a few kids out the back door to pelt, but if i went through the front entrance and changed into my outdoor shoes, I could run to the playground where I saw dozens of kids playing. Sweet. So off I went. I could barely contain my excitement from the thought of owning these kids. POOOF. HAH, In your FACE, little 10yo boy. OWNED.

I had arrived. I scooped up a handful of ammo and lobbed of a warning shot in between a group of kids as my greeting. I heard a few kids say hello and all the kids were super excited to see me. One kid said "Yay, the cool adult is going to play with us." I picked up a snowball and then launched it at a group of kids.... things get a little blurry after this. Turns out when your the coolest adult these kids know, Everybody wants to have a snowball fight with you. After 30 seconds of being wailed on I had to sprint back to the teachers room in full retreat. There was at least 50 kids chasing me, and if I had stayed I'm sure the whole playground, which had at least 200 kids, would be attacking me.

Back at the teachers room, 1st period was starting soon and 2 6th grade boys came to escort me to class. When I arrived at the classroom I asked the teacher jokingly if we could have a snowball fight instead of class. To my surprise, and elation, he said yes. So for the first hour of my day, instead of teaching English, I ran around having a snowball fight with 30 of the happiest kids ever. I wasn't expecting to do it for 2nd period also, but the teacher thought it would be unfair to the students if they didn't get to have a snowball fight also. I agreed, in theory anyway, so we held 2nd period outside also. The only problem was, most of the snow was melting away. So instead of just snow, it was also a sand, mud, and ice ball fight. And at this point I was extremely exhausted and couldn't escape from these kids. So 2nd period was me trying to escape a group of 10ish girls who would not relent in their efforts to have me covered in dirty snow. Too bad by 3rd and 4th period there wasn't any snow left. It was snowing most of the day actually, but it'd melt the second it hit the ground.

So my 2nd day back will probably be the best working day of the year. I also can't move a muscle and ache all over. Doing no exercise for 3 weeks and doing nothing but eating did not prepare me for this. Or maybe it did, I just weighed myself and have already lost 2 of the 5 pounds I gained while being back home. I've only been in Japan 3 days! I'm going to have to go on an all chocolate diet so I don't loose too much weight this winter like last winter.