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.
Test
Originally uploaded by Brian Wasik
Hey,
I just got an iPhone, so I am running a test to see if I able to make a blog post from it with pictures and video.
Edit: ok, looks like I can post fine, just no pictures or videos. I'll have to add those later via my PC.
Ok.. so who really believed me when I said an update every day? Been lazy/tired/busy :)
I went on a trip this golden week (a week in Japan where many holidays come back to back). I ended up going to Mt. Aso, which is an active volcano. There was a hippie festival there that we camped at for 2 nights, and then went into town to do some sight seeing and bathing at some outdoor hot springs. Was pretty fun, but tiring.
Here are some pics: 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianwasik/sets/72157617769339520/
Ok, so you have not seen any pictures for ages right? My bad. I'm going through some photos now. It's going to take a while, cause I have not actually looked at any of my own pictures for the past 6 months.
But I'm now going to try to catch you up all at once. I will be trying to update my blog every day with a new set of pictures. I will post a teaser pic or two on the blog post, with a link to my photo album so you can check out the rest of the photos.
So to start off the party, here is a picture I took today of the main road (notice all the cars and the old lady making a dash to the other side!) from where I work, City Hall, when I am not teaching at school. 
Next up, my new(used) Car!! It's a Van! It has a GPS system, which is so awesome. I can now drive out of my city and not have to worry about getting lost trying to find my way back. Seriously, roads here are not laid out in the grid system like back home. It's got a decent stereo system also, the interior is like new, and it can hold 7 people.
To check out the rest of the pics follow this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianwasik/sets/72157617031364679/
Click on a picture, then click on the button above the picture that says "all sizes" to see a larger image.
So about 20 minutes ago, I was sitting in front of my computer when I got to experience something new for the first time since being in Japan.
I suddenly heard my apartment make creaking noises, much like a house settling. I thought "That's odd, since when does my apartment make creaking noises..hold on now... I'm movi..n..g...EARTHQUAKKEEEEEEEEEE"
I'm in a 13 story apartment, with my apartment on the 2nd floor. I'm glad my neighbors didn't come crashing on down.
Also, in other news. I bought a car. Another one anyway, and sold my current car. Got me a 2002 Mazda MPV. Check out this link to see what it looks like: http://stb1.blog64.fc2.com/blog-entry-130.html
It's got a GPS system, decent stereo system. Should be taking a lot of road trips soon. Gonna be fun fun fun.
Sorry for the long period of silence. I got a little homesick/depressed. It was nothing major, I was just missing home a little bit. And the easiest way to deal with that, is to pretend home does not exist. Thus I didn't want to talk to anybody from home, send emails to people back home. Out of sight out of mind.
The reason I became like that is because of the weather. Winter sucks here. Hard. Don't get me wrong, I like winter as long as there is snow. But there is no snow anywhere remotely close to this area. But we are in a valley, and cold winds come down from this one specific mountain. They warned me and I thought they were lying to me, but sure enough it gets freeeeeaking cold but yet no snow. Fast forward a few months, and it still stays really cold. For the past month its been about as cold as Tucson in the coldest part of winter. Spring time my ass. But the cold isn't my biggest downer, its the overcast rainy days. I. Miss. Sunshine. It rains here for 6 days in a row, gets cloudy on the 7th day, and then rains again another 6 days. I didn't even know that was friggin possible.
Next winter, I'm not staying in Japan. I will be coming home and traveling to warm countries.
Good news is that its going to warm up a little bit from here on out. The last few days have been warm and sunny. Im coming out of my stupor. I will try to get my computer fixed so I can start processing photos and upload them. My kinda kicked my computer in the balls a few months ago accidentally, and it does not seem to do a lot of what its supposed to do. Among other things, it doesn't recognize files from my camera. I'm also thinking of getting rid of my camera, and getting a video camera. Maybe videos of Japan will be more interesting than photos. What do ya think?
Currently I am looking for a car. Its a long story so I wont bore you. But even though there is nothing wrong with my current car, its old and thus expensive. Newer cars are cheaper. I'm probably going to spend a decent amount on a stereo and a GPS unit, so I can take some decent road trips.
SAKURA and HANAMI (Cherry trees and flower viewing)
Right now the cherry tree blossoms are coming to an end. They are super pretty, but super short lived. It would have been nice, if perhaps it wasn't cold and rainy the entire time. It would have been awesome if it wasn't for the craptastic weather in Japan. I did manage to go out to a park one afternoon for my lunch break. The one day it was semi-sunny(but not warm). There was a group of old ladies having a picnic, singing old traditional Japanese songs and dancing. It was totally awesome. After I was done eating I went over to say hi, and they quickly made me sit down and kept offering me food. Old ladies in Japan are Awesome. Normal Japanese adults are boooring. In public everybody has to behave, not stick out, not have fun. They always are worried about what other people think about them. Except old ladies. These old birds were the most care free people I had met in a while. For example, typical Japanese adult who greets me for the first time says something like "Its a pleasure to meet you Mr. Brian. I hope we can have favorable relations in the future". Seriously, its always that polite. These ladies said something like this "Sup dawg. Where u come from? America? Damnnnn dats tight". Totally. Awesome. But then I had to go back to work. LAME. But it was cold anyway.
I kept waiting for nice weather to go cherry blossom viewing, but it never came. I did end up going out at night for a BBQ. It was overcast, and rained for a small bit. Everybody was freezing. I a shirt, two sweaters, and my warmest winter jacket on.
So cherry trees really are beautiful, but highly overrated because of the freaking weather.
I finally ordered a memory card for my camera online. I've been doing a lot of shopping online tonight. Looking for Christmas stuff to purchase also. I missed last Christmas cause I was in Japan on vacation, now I'm gonna miss it this year also. I feel the need to surround myself with shiny lights and familiar Christmas thingys.
Tomorrow I teach 1st graders at an elementary school. I am normally relegated to 3rd though 6th grade, as they have a tendency to actually learn. Whereas 1st and 2nd graders are like ... I'm at a loss to describe children here....
I wish I had videos to send back home, cause I'm sure all of my family members will have a hard time picturing my typical day with 1st and 2nd graders. Outside of their classroom, I am protected by the older students. There is a ranking system here in Japan, and they start them way young. The younger kids are not allowed to play with the bigger kids, which works to my advantage outside on the playground. However once I enter their classroom, their domain if you will, I am left to defend for myself. I'm fine for the first few minutes as all the kids are thinking "HELP A HUGE MONSTER JUST ENTERED THE CLASS ROOM" I try to work it to my advantage for as long as I can, I hold up my hand to theirs, casually stretch up and touch the ever so short door frame, and generally just go along with their idea of me being a Tall Monster.
It never lasts long. There are always a few kids who can tell I am one of those so called "gentle giants". Those few kids run up to me and clasp on like a leech that has not fed for a whole year. This is when things go sour. Being the cute devils that they are I can't help but give them attention. And as soon as I toss one in the air, or play with one, all the other kids realize that I am suddenly not a "giant monster" but instead "the coolest guy ever to set foot in their class room". There's a calm before the storm. A split second of absolute silence before the gates of hell are torn down in a deafening roar. That's when every other kid in the class decides they want to play with me also. And a split instant after that, I LITERALLY have half of the class hanging off of me. Kids will go to the other side of the room, line me up, and then run at full speed and try to jump as high as they can and cling to me. They will use their classmates as stepping ladders if they are there. They will climb their desks if they are near it, and then jump for my head. In a matter of moments I am unable to move an inch. The teachers... they do nothing. They think its all fun and games. Eventually I try to move. I then pretty much fall to the ground, luckily there a dozen kids to cushion my descent. But I always have to push kids out of the way with my hands and then catch myself so I don't kill children. This puts me at even easier climbing height. Eventually you can no longer see me, just a gaggle of children where my general location should be.
This is what my entire day will be like tomorrow. I'm freaking pumped. Its so fun. (never ever did I think I would say that)
Except for when they attempt to stick their fingers up my but, or grab....places. But thats for another conversation.
