1st Quarter Review:

It’s amazing to me to think that I have been here for an entire quarter. It seems like just yesterday I was still in Colorado watching the snow fall, packing my apartment, and thinking of where I would be come June…

Now, I look over the last three months and realize some of the more amazing things I have done:

I have seen Tokyo from the observation deck of Tokyo Tower (I have pictures, I’ll post them).

I have walked the grounds of several beautiful Japanese temples.

I have listened to Buddhist monks chant.

I have heard a Buddhist Gong ring.

I have watched the Sakura bloom, and seen folks participate in the Sakura Matsuri.

I have walked in a snowstorm of Sakura petals.

I went to a fun party with a whole bunch of people from around the world on Children’s Day

I have had my picture in a Japanese newspaper while wearing yet another newspaper on my head… (Yeah... I’ll post about that too…)

I have survived 9 earthquakes… most not even really worthy of reporting, but a couple bad enough to make things fall over.

I have walked in the Japanese Space Station module (Well, a mockup therein, but who’s counting?).

I have been the lesson and have heard 40 Japanese children proclaim, in unison, that they are me.

I have observed two girls walk into the teachers room and ask for something... in perfect unison.

I have performed the “Introduction ceremony” with all the proper Japanese actions.

I have had an lovely old lady offer me a rice cracker.

I have been to restaurants where the food still has eyes… And in some cases was still alive less than a few seconds before it was on our table.

I have walked along roads that may be thousands of years old.

I have walked along a beautiful river and listened to a saxophone being played in a drainage gully.

I have driven on the wrong side of the road… a couple of times… and survived.

I have eaten at places called “Tabehodai”, “Nomihodai”, “Kaiten-Zushi” and “McDonalds”.

I have talked to a Policeman about busses and failed to get my point across, then I talked to my teachers about mathematics and mostly got my point across, then I talked to a banker about opening a bank account and we talked about the primary exports of my state and city and T-shirts with funny slogans… in Japanese.

I have talked to Brazilians in Japanese, because they don’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish.

I have friends from all over the world, and a lot of them have never so much as stepped foot in the United States, nor have I in their country.

I have taught 100 9th graders to nod and smile when foreigners start talking too fast for them instead of looking thunderstruck and freaking out.

I have drawn pictures of animals with the art club, and never once said anything more complex than “Do you like cats?”, and found that we are really no different at all.

I have eaten things with spots… I have eaten things with suckers, I have eaten things with scales, I have eaten things that looked like it came from a blowout on the freeway…

I have eaten corn on my Pizza… and mayonnaise…

I have an ID card that I cannot read.

I have a sink on the tank of my toilet, and a sink inside my shower.

I have a washer, but no dryer. And my washer looks like R2-D2…And sounds like him too…

I have eaten soy beans raw, cooked, boiled, fried and rotten… and I’m sure I have not found the end of the ways that Soy beans are served.

I have been swept about in a tide of humanity in a train station that is far more crowded than Grand Central Station has ever been… and I never worried about my wallet.

I have drawn Totoro characters on the chalkboard during a lesson and had my students all demand that it not be erased.

Now let’s see what happens in the second quarter…

---Me.