Poor Mama-san

All in all I guess this past week wasn't the best for the Oshiro women. As I mentioned in my previous post I was under the weather this past week. However, I think my Mom takes the cake as I just got this bit of sad news this morning. As you all may know, we Oshiro women are known for our gracefulness..NOT! Well apparently my beautiful mother slipped down our stairs and broke her ankle! She also sprained her other ankle! My brother called me at 2:30am to inform me of this unfortunate news. I just got off the phone with my Dad and he has informed me that my Mom had to also undergo surgery in order to place her ankle back in position and to insert pins into her bones! Not her favorite way to start off her weekend let me tell you. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!

Lil Tokyo girl comes to visit Kyoto

Sorry it has been a while since my last post. This past week was a blur, mainly due to the nauseated feeling every time I opened my eyes. Yes, the wonderful effects of the flu! This was probably one of the worst cases of the flu that I have ever had (I had to take 4 days off of work!). But, a couple visits to your friendly hospital and your non-English speaking doctor, a couple days on medication and all is well...almost. I think that this flu was punishment for all the fun I had the previous weekend when my wonderful friend Miyuki visited from Tokyo!

I would like to begin by describing Miyuki to all of you who have not been fortunate enough to meet this girl. We met each other my last year at UCSB and had a blast together then and we were lucky enough to be able to continue our fun shananagins out here in Japan! She is just a little ball of energy, translating and teaching the most outrageous Japanese all over the place! So as you can guess her visit was nothing but fun!

It has been 4 years since her last visit to the cultural capital of Japan, so my friends and I wanted to make sure we left a good impression of this city on her! So her first night here (Thursday), we took her out to karaoke (not usually my cup of tea but while in japan....) and my goodness! Girlfriend can sing! I mean whoever starts off a night of karaoke with Celine Dion deserves some major praise! On Friday, Miyuki was lucky enough (I guess lucky would be the right word) to meet my guy friends here in Kyoto. Well, they just thought she was a Tokyo cutie, and she is! It was just a nice night out with the boys, as it always is when we go out with them. Saturaday was the night that did it in for me in the long run I think, but it was so worth it! As it was Hinamatsuri (girls day) we did a little sight seeing of the city and went to kinkakuji (the golden pavilion). After we just wandered the city until it was time for us to meet up with my friends for a lovely yaki niku dinner! yummmmmmmmmmmm. However, it was after when all the fun began! After dinner, once us gals had gotten all changed into our clubbing best, we went out to get our dance on! We went to one fo the newest, biggest clubs here in Kyoto and had such a good time. We were there until 5:30am! But when it came to actually being productive the next day, well, let's just say we didnt move until 3:30pm. All in all it was a whirlwind of a weekend with Miyuki but so much fun too! And now everyone in Kyoto says "Miyuchan, DAISUKI!" (We love Miyuki!)

My Last Day at Ohara

Today was my last day to teach at Ohara Elementary school, for this school year. The school year in Japan is April to March, odd I know but I dont mind the break that is approaching that is for sure! Well once again I am going to brag about how great these kids are. Today we played "Harry Potter Tag" all day for english class. What is 'Harry Potter Tag" you may ask? Well essentially it goes like this...

The target language is verbs and the sentence is "What are you doing?" and "I'm _____ing" (dancing, singing, eating, etc.). So I picked three kids to be "it" or "Voldemort" (the bad guy in Harry Potter, keep up folks!) and they in turn must try to tag everyone (a.k.a Harry Potter). When they do tag someone they shout an instruction at them (e.g. "DANCE!") and they must perform that specific action until one of the other Harry Potters comes along and saves them by asking "What are you doing?" and they answer "I'm dancing!" and are now free to go forth and rejoin the game. It was really fun to play with them because the kids really got into it. But boy, oh, boy are those kids fast! I was dying! But after my favorite class asked me to eat lunch with them (like I do every time I am there) and all in all it was a very good day! Each class gave me a good bye/thank you card (I will upload pictures tomorrow if I have time) which was very nice.

Anyways I will definitely miss the energy from those kids, until next year of course, but tomorrow I return to the large schools which sadly have their far share of cheeky little monsters. Nonetheless I love my job and am enjoying everyday!

P.S. Some of these pictures posted were taken by the kids, they loved the camera!

Dreamgirls

I finally got to see a couple American movies for the first time in japan (aside from the ones I watch on my computer of course)! Last week I saw the Pursuit of Happyness and yesterday I saw Dreamgirls. Both great movies but I have to say I was very impressed with Dreamgirls and all the performances of the actors! And wow Beyonce looked hot! She is my new inspiration to get into shape! Cayenne pepper and maple syrup drink diet...ok! Just kidding....

I love Ohara Junior High

Though I teach at 6 different schools and enjoy them all (and I am proud to say that I am a rare case as not everyone enjoys all their schools!), however my schools in Ohara (the mountains of Kyoto) hold a very special place in my heart. The elementary and junior high schools are very, VERY small. My elementary school has maybe 60 students total from grades 1-6. And my junior high has 25 students TOTAL! But I love this because I get to know each student and also I get the opportunity to do more fun things in the english lessons because I can go through things much faster. Anyway, that is besides the point of this post, the whole reason I am here proclaiming my love for these schools is because last week they gave me an end of the year, thank you party. My rotation is almost over at this school (only 2 more days at the elementary school!) and I will not be returning for a couple months, so, for that reason we had a takoyaki (octopus fried ball goodness! sounds gross but its really yummy!) party! My junior high teachers brought in this huge iron takoyaki maker and then we all make takoyaki for everyone in the school! In addition my jr. high 3rd years(all 8 of them) made me various pastas and strawberry tarts! And at the end of the lunch period my teacher announced over the loud speaker, "Traci sensei has to catch the 1:20 bus to go to a meeting so everyone please meet out on the field so that we can take a school picture with her!". All in all I was so overwhelmed by this extravagant display of kindness I almost started to cry when I was thanking my principal for such a wonderful visit. The students and teachers at these schools are just such wonderful people I only wish that these pictures actually did them any justice.

Welcome to Japan

Just a few oldies from the summer time when I first arrived to this wonderful country....
(scenes from our first arrival in Tokyo, trips to Fushimi Inari (all the tori gates), Nara, Osaka Ginkakuji (silver pavilion) during the fall, and Arashiyama Boat Festival)