This is what happens in winter.

Ok, ok, so I was going to make you wait until next week or so for a post about Korea, but I thought this could be fun to share.  Mostly I want everyone to feel bad for me in this ridiculously snowy area.

Friday...it sorta blizzards on and off all day.  I drove to Iiyama station because we were going to Tokyo.  Parked at the station and went to warm and wonderful Tokyo.
 
Sunday... came back.  TO THIS:

I know, it does not look like much in the sorta of crappy cell-phone-camera-with-no-flash-in-the-dark picture, but trust me, this was a disaster.  It took about 20 minutes to clear it, and this was some dense snow.

Thankfully I was able to park on the paved side of the station that has the "magic water" as I like to call it.  Mainly, the ground has like sprinklers of sorts built in and when it snows, they spray water and melt the snow.  I had to drive Crystal home once to get a shovel, and then we came back and dug out her car which was parked on the other side of the station.  No magic water.

Teachers go on trip

So a few weeks ago (in November...) I went with my teachers to Yamanashi Prefecture.  Deciding whether or not to go was really hard because the AJET thanksgiving dinner (WITH TURKEY) was the same day.  I missed the Thanksgiving last year, too for the same reason, so this year I waited until the very last minute to decide and I went with the logic that I will have many many many years to eat turkey in America, but this was my only chance to go on a trip with this particular group of teachers, thus, I went with the teachers.  long sentence!!!

Our day started at 7:30 when the bus came and picked us up.  Actually, we could request where we wanted to be picked up, so it picked some teachers up at school, then came to where I live and picked three of us up, and proceeded from there.  We had some slight delays getting on the highway (freeway? expressway?  there is a toll...so call it what you will.) because of an accident but then we were finally on our way to Yamanashi.  Yamanashi is the prefecture next to Nagano and it is full of mountains!!  The kanji for Yamanashi are 山 (mountain) and 梨 (pear) so...  I did not see any pears.

I DID SEE MOUNT FUJI though!  Finally.  Reason number one I am glad I went.  Two years and this was my first proper sighting of Mount Fuji.  Though I am sure after I climb it next year, I will never want to see it again.

When we got there, we first went on a bit of a walk so we could admire the "changing fall colors"  Japanese actually has a special word for that, whereas English does not.  Seeing the fall colors is reason two I am glad I went.  Every year, Iiyama goes from green to brown in a week.  It's not beautiful at all!  I don't know why people here brag about fall...they got nothing.  However, the place we went, we were a little late but even so, it was really pretty!  There was a nice path and a river and mountains and lots of colors.  I was happy.

Our walk led us to a restaurant where we first took a group picture and then went in to eat.  It was good.  Japanese food is good.  All of it (almost).

After lunch, we went to a winery.  Due to some planning difficulties (read: stupid teachers who don't know how to plan...), we only had about 30 minutes at the winery, but it was enough to taste a few, buy some souvenirs and get back on the bus.

And last, we went up up up a mountain to an amazing onsen (that's natural hot spring...yeah the kind where you go in naked.)  I am so used to onsen now that it is just fun and relaxing.  You would think going with coworkers would be awkward like whoa, but it's not at all.  It was nice and we had an amazing view of the valley from the bath.  Again, planning issues meant only 40 minutes total, which was a challenge since I can spend 40 minutes in the shower...er....

Anyway, some pictures for you to enjoy.

Next update...KOREA!

Japanese maple.  SO pretty.

Pretty,

Me and three teachers I work with.  I know, I will say it since I know you are all thinking it.  I look like a cow.  Can't help it. 

A river runs through it.

All the teachers who went.  My Principal is next to me with the wig/hat on. 

fresh fish.  delicious.  But  had to remove the head because I can't eat fish when it is staring at me...

View from the onsen, though the actual baths don't have the roof in the way.  You could see FOREVER!

beautiful even on a rainy day!

Hi everyone!  No, I am not talking about myself in the title.  oh ho ho!  Just wanted to get you in a good mood before I apologize for the month between posts.  Greetings from Japan where it is pretty cold and Christmas music is already a-playing in stores because there is no Thanksgiving buffer here between Halloween and Christmas.  Japanese people and their ability to grasp onto certain western traditions and take them to extremes.  *sigh!*

Anyway, as my mom was kind enough to remind me this morning, it has indeed been over a month since I last posted.  sorry, sorry, but as I think I mentioned before, my life here is just not as interesting as it was in my first year or even in my second year.  But, I did have some fun adventures yesterday, so I thought I would at least share some pictures and a bit of narrative.

So as you may or may not know, Kim and I lead a weekly English conversation class.  One member of our class is a really outdoorsy kind of person, so he offered to take us hiking, which we gladly accepted.  He is actually a trained hiking guide so he really knows his trails.  Unfortunately it was raining yesterday, but we went anyway, just on a different route than he planned.  He drove us to Togakushi, which is a mountain in Nagano.  It has a huge ski park and it's pretty well known for the awesome ninja house, but it also has some gorgeous shrines, one of which we went to see.  I should mention that in my rain-logged stupidity, I did not take any pictures of the actual shrine!  But it's ok because mostly the walk to the shrine was amazing and the shrine itself was pretty usual. 

tree hugging.  mostly to show how big the tree was.

Apparently these are 400-year-old cedars.

The snow up here is powerful.  It piles up and is heavy enough to cause the trees to bend like this,

Part of the shrine area, but not the shrine itself.  Sorry.

 Ok, then we got back in the car and went to a new place.  We were not sure what to expect, but we ended up at a waterfall!  It was really pretty.

Waterfall! 

sorta scary bridge.

 Then back in the car again.  Little further north into Niigata Prefecture and we ended up at Mt. Myoko.  Really pretty and also awesome for skiing/snowboarding.  We went once last winter and we will go again this winter.

This is Imori Pond with Mt. Myoko in the background.  You can see the parts that become the ski areas,  Imori means newt and the pond was named for the many many newts that live there.

Ducks!!

Imori!!

Taxidermy...  hmm.

I dream about creating a company that would prevent the printing of such signs.  But, then what would foreigners have to chuckle about when they visit Japan?!

This is on the way back to Iiyama.  We are above the clouds!

HOMG SNOW!!

And so ends our hiking adventures.

already dreading the big move...and it is not for another 9 months!

As I sit in my apartment and look around, I seriously wonder how on EARTH I am going to move everything back to America.  The clothes I can deal with...I can leave them behind if necessary.  I am talking about the things I have collected in the past 2 years and 2 months.  We are talking about things I am not willing to leave behind.  They HAVE to come back to America so that someday my grandkids can be cleaning out all my crap going "What the Hell is this, anyway?"  And then they will throw it away, completely ignorant of the fact that I carried it around the world with me.  Let's face it...I like to collect things.  I always have and I always will.  There is nothing I can do about it.    Just a list here for starters, then pictures.  Some things I have collected:

Manga (Japanese comics).  I have at least 75 to move back.  They are not your normal American comic books, either.  They are maybe 6x8 (I have no idea) and are on average, an inch thick.  That means I have 75 inches of manga to bring home.


Kamen Rider...It is a TV series that has been on in Japan since the 70s.  America gave it a try once, but I do not think it was the most successful show ever, so it stopped.  Anyway, I got REALLY into Kamen Rider, though the current series is NOT good, thank God (less things I will want to collect!) and as a result, I have a decently sized collection of random things: cups, figures, towels, McDonald's happy meal toys (don't ask), and one very large Kamen Rider head.  Yes, a head.  (see picture)

My toy shelf, though this barely touches on the toys.  The top has the Kamen Rider mask.  It is about a foot tall, if that helps to put things in perspective.

Stuffed animals.  Ah, I have always loved stuffed animals, and apparently, allergies and all, I still do.  They are really fun to win out of claw machines and I have quite a few.  My most recent addition is this guy,  Haro, a robot character from the Gundam series.

Haro!  Yeah, same size as my head.  Bigger, even!

Keychains/cell phone straps.  These are legit, because I have been collecting key chains FOREVER.  So, in keeping with tradition, I have been buying a key chain every time I go somewhere new.  I have a grand plan for these key chains, do not worry.  Now, cell phone straps...sometimes it is hard to find a keychain, so I have resorted to buying cell phone straps instead to represent certain places I visited.  But, once I started doing that, it opened the door to general cell phone strap collecting.  The result:  I have a small Christmas tree in my room that has the straps hanging on it like ornaments.  At this point, the tree is no longer visible...

Kanji (this is sort of a stretch as far as "collecting" but.. well, just read on)  As you may know, I have gotten really into kanji since coming to Japan.  I love studying kanji!!  LOVE IT!  As a result, I have accumulated quite a few study books which I would like to have back in America so I can constantly review the kanji I learned.  In addition, I want to continue learning new kanji, so I want to bring books full of kanji I have yet to study.  We are talking 10-15 books here...not too big or anything, just heavy.

Along with kanji study are the kanji notebooks.  They are all pretty and gridded with little spaces to write readings.  And then they have extra boxes to practice writing kanji.  I am not sure if I can get these in America.  I plan to research that, but if it seems to be a no, then I will need to bring a few of these pretties home with me.  Or I could figure out a way to get creative with excel, I guess and print my own paper, but it is just not the same as the beautiful notebooks with cute pictures of baby animals on the cover.

Movies.  Another legit collection (have you seen my DVDs in America?)  I love movies.  I have gotten quite a few over here, too, most of them Japanese movies that I will not be able to get in America.  The problem with that?  I need a region 2 (or region free) DVD player.  A problem to deal with later.  For now, I have to get all the movies back to America without breaking any cases or disks.

Ok...are you seeing the problem here?  Moral of the story...next summer, I am going to be stressed about this.  I think I will start sending boxes home now, but even so...it is going to be a challenge to get everything I want moved back to America.  *sigh*  There is a lesson in all this...from now on, I will not be such a collector of random things.  The keychains can stay, but everything else has to stop!!!!

Osaka and Kyoto~2011 style

Well, well...It has been about a month.  Sorry about that, but there is nothing exciting in my life worth posting about.  Until now.

Last weekend, Kim and I took advantage of some national holidays and went to Osaka!!  Yay.  This is the second time I have been to Osaka, and it was just as fabulous as the first time, except there was no Sarah to visit :( .  We found some new things to do and also went back to a few of the places from last time. One such place that deserves more repeats in the future, Yogurtland!! 

YOGURTLAND!  Or...as it is now called, PartyLand.  Either way, the best frozen yogurt. 

 One new and really fun thing we did was go to the Instant Ramen Museum!  It is not too big and clearly all the information is in Japanese, BUT you can pay 300 yen and make your own cup noodle!  You get to decorate the cup and then choose flavors and toppings.  Very fun.  I am excited to eat mine, which I should make sure I actually do because I am prone to forgetting and then food goes bad.  Anyway, it was fun.

my cup!

of course I drew a giraffe!

We stayed in Osaka for 4 days, so one day we took a trip to Kyoto.  Only 30 minutes by train, so it is quite convneient.  I finally got to see a few more of the famous temples and things in Kyoto.  I want to take this moment to congratulate whoever designed the bus system in Kyoto.  It is amazing. AND they have this wonderfully designed easy to read map.  It is brilliant.  Of course, there is traffic and the busses take time, but it is cheap and convenient and definitely my recommended way to travel around Kyoto.  We went to see Kinkakuji which is a golden temple and Kiyomizudera which is up higher in the hills and looks over Kyoto.  Walking up to Kiyomizudera, we went through Gion, one of the more famous Geisha areas of Kyoto, so there were lots of women in Kimono and we did even see a few geisha. 

Me and Kinkakuji

Kinkakuji without me.  It's so glorious

Gion...and geisha!

Kiyomizudera

 Back in Osaka.... We also went to an observation tower called Tsutenkaku.  It is in a cute area with lots of shops and such.  You go up the tower and the views are pretty good (the tower is not exactly tall, but it's tall enough) but what is more important is the statue of Billiken.  If you rub his feet, he brings you good luck!  So, one foot rub and cheesy tourist shot later, we were ready to face the world with all our good luck. 

There is the tower!

Rubbing his feet!! 

What else did we do?  Purikura (those photo booths where you get small stickers) and UFO catchers (aka claw machines).  I got a few awesome things from claw machines but also had some moments of extreme frustration at the complete unfairness of certain set-ups in the machines. Some of them are impossible!!!  Like these ones where if you knock a box down you get to pick a prize.  However, the boxes are weighted and the claws are just not strong enough to move the box.  grrrrrrrr.  lots of money and 20 minutes of frustration for absolutely nothing.  The good news is, at this one game center, one of the guys working there was really nice and he gave me a prize because I was trying so hard.  I had gotten a few from the machine already (it was one where you have to line up a pole perfectly so it goes through a slot and pushes a box down), but there are 40 varieties and I wanted a specific one and could not get it.  So he gave it to me!  how nice!!!!!!

 Once, in a train station we came across some awesome trick art!

Oh, yeah, we went to a concert, too.  Tackey and Tsubasa, if you are wondering or care.  It was fun.

Alright, that is all.  We did not do anything so amazingly fantastic that it merits more than this much writing.  But anyone reading, you got a few pictures out of the deal, so no complaining.

5-minute story

Quick one from today...typed in less than 5 minutes!

So today with my first years, we played jeopardy.  Well, more like a quiz game because I do not make them say the answers in question form.  That would just be ridiculous, plus it would be harder for me to make questions.  I am not paid that much, though I am sure the Jeopardy question makers make quite a bit.

Anyway, we got to the final round and I explained about betting points, so most groups bet everything they had.  I guess it makes sense, but I have always been a fan of being safe and coming in second rather than risking it all for first place.

The question:  Write down in English 5 things in this classroom.

ready go!

after a minute, I called time and was walking around checking answers.  The first group I checked had: notebook, window, pen, desk, bug.  So I ask them about bug, knowing full well that they wanted to write bag and that English spelling is hard from a Japanese point of view.  So I tell that group that bug is "mushi,"  quite different from bag and that odds are there is a bug in the classroom and if they can find it they have points. 

I walked away, laughing to myself, and went to check the next group.  Well...I asked for it because I had just moved to check the third group when a kid from group one comes up to me and shows me the bug he has caught.  Yeah...itty bitty thing between his thumb and pointer finger...in my face.  well...ok, then.  Points to that team!

the end!

summer vacation in America

Here it is, the more detailed post about being in America.  Besides minor family drama and remembering the fact that people in Fairfax County VA are frustrating, I had a nice vacation. 

One of my co-workers came with me for the first week of my trip, so we made sure she had a good (exhausting) time in America.  Jet lag?  Who cares!  We did not have a chance to succumb to the heavy desire to nap.  There was no time.  We did get to shop a lot and play with my puppies.  Let me introduce them!!!

This is Jake!  He is beautiful and loves everyone.  He likes to lick stuffed animals, sit on your head and help you pack by laying in the middle of the things you want to take.

This is Starr!  she is shy and likes to lay by your feet.  she likes to lick things more than Jake does.  it took her a few days to get used to my being there, but then we were best friends.  Her ears are funny.

Other things we did: we went to Wolftrap to see Marvin Hamlisch (fantastic, by the way!!), we went to NYC to see the Yankees and shop, we went into DC one day to see the sights, saw a show at the Kennedy Center, and in between, we shopped more!  Doi-sensei seemed to enjoy going into typically American places like Target, shopping malls, restaurants, etc.  I have to admit, and I am not sure how much I convey this with pictures and blog entries, but where I live in Japan and where I live in America are completely different...like 100%.  Even just the way things look is different (architecture, mountains and rice fields, size of cars), and then we go from there (population differences, attitude differences, etc etc etc).  New York City is a bit more familiar to those who spend a lot of time in Tokyo, but even so, you can sort of sense a difference in attitude and life-style, but that is what makes New York New York!  It has personality!!

Let's see... a notable thing from New York...the Yankees scored 12 runs in the first inning!  Never again will I think, "meh, it is OK to miss the first inning or two of the game...nothing will happen anyway."  We would have missed the entire game with that thought.  Anyway, the first inning took about an hour and was just run after run after run.  It was unbelievable!

check the score!!!

Also in NY, we went to the  "Top of the Rock" (Rockefeller building) so Doi-sensei could see the size of the city, the size of Central Park, and catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty in the distance since we couldn't go see it up close.

Oh yeah!  We also went to the Harry Potter exhibition!  It was awesome! They had a whole display of actual props and costumes from the first 6 movies.  It is cool to see the size of things, especially how tiny they all were in the first movie.  The costumes are also incredibly detailed and fabulous, which makes the moves that much more awesome, in my opinion.  No pictures allowed inside, but... 

Then back to VA where we saw Wicked!  I adore Wicked, and I hope Doi-sensei enjoyed it.  She has never seen the Wizard of Oz, so there are some gaping holes in plot for those lacking that basis, but I encouraged her to watch it once she got back to Japan.  Who knows if she has or ever will, but if she does, a lot of things from the show will click into place.  A funny moment, we were telling her about the Wizard of Oz and her reaction, "Oh, isn't Michael Jackson in it!!!"  I about died, and then corrected her that while there is a Michael Jackson version, it is not the groundbreaking one from 1939.  It is so interesting sometimes to see what bits of American culture have spanned the world and what bits have not.  I find a lot of things go very much against my expectations.  I guess I expect Michael Jackson to be famous, but I would also think that people, at least in developed countries would know well of the Wizard of Oz.  Oh well.  This is why everyone on the planet should have to live in a foreign country for at least a year.

We also took Doi-sensei to Skyline Caverns which was pretty cool.  I had never been there before, either, so it was nice to see something different from the usual Luray Caverns.

moving on...Doi-sensei went back to Japan August 5 and I stayed for another week and a few days in which we went to Ohio and then just finally relaxed a little bit back in VA.

Ohio... relatively uneventful, but I got to see my twin cousins (last time I saw them they were newborn, still in the hospital, now they are one, and walking!)  and I got to eat lots of delicious foods.  Saw grandma, too, which was the main reason for the trip to Ohio, but we will not go into detail about those visits.

In order for us to go to Ohio, we had to pack the car and take the puppies to the kennel.  Jake was happy to drive himself to the kennel

Back in VA, I spent some quality time with my puppies, went to doctor appointments, went shopping and packed.  Another thing I did a lot in America?  bake!  It was so nice to have a huge kitchen with lots of counter space and a real oven!  (two ovens, in fact!)

One of my many creations:  cream puffs!!

I feel like my time in America went by entirely too quickly, but that seems to happen anywhere I go.  Along those lines, this next year in Japan will also go very quickly, I imagine, though right now it seems to be dragging.  345 days until my contract ends next August.  Not that I counted or anything.  And at this point, you are probably wondering if I am staying another year or not.  The honest answer is I do not know.  Most likely, no, I am not.  I will come home next year, do the grad school thing, and do the real adult thing where I have a job and a live in a country where I am fluent in the language.  Then again, I never thought I would stay in Japan past 1 year, and here I am, going on a third.  Right now I am still stuck in that rut that happens when you fly across the world and vividly remember the things you miss about home because you just had them.  What I need at this point is to get my routine back.  English conversation classes on Mondays, short days on Wednesdays, studying Kanji with Crystal on Thursdays, fun weekends with the gang, and periodic traveling to fun places.  As I mentioned, I do have a lot of concerts to look forward to.  I am not going to hold back with my paid vacation, so I plan to make the most of this year, and if I stay another one, then I will make the most of it like it is my last, too.
 
Ok.  This should satisfy those who are genuinely interested in reading about my life and also those who just like to check up on my blog every once in a while to make sure I am still alive.

and I'm back!

Hi there!  It has been almost a month since my last blog post, so here is a short one to hold everyone over until I can get America pictures (mostly of my dogs) upload and a proper post written.  So, I was in America from July 27 to August 15.  It was nice, though I was busy the entire time and did not really get to relax until I got back to Japan.  Of course, relaxing here is hard because it is soooooo hot.  I got used to (read: spoiled by) air conditioning in America so now I sit at home or at school and just feel miserable all the time, even with fans blowing in my face.  It is just not enough.  Driving around in my car is the only solution.

Lots of things planned for this year, so perhaps there will be blog posts to go with.  Though mostly I plan on going to lots of concerts.  The logic: when I come back to Japan to visit, it will be almost impossible to get to go to see the groups I like, so I have to do it now while I can.  Going to concerts does mean traveling, so I will get to go to a few new places in the process.  Plus, next year in July I am going to climb Mt. Fuji (even though my knees will probably regret it for the rest of my life).

On that note, this is most likely going to be my last year in Japan.  I suppose that could change, but I think I have hit the point where I am ready to move back to the US and go to grad school and actually start my life as an adult. 

Ok...that is all for now.

Arashi, Arashi, for dream!

Hi again!  Look, ma!  Another post!

This one is about Arashi, the J-Pop group that I absolutely adore.  Arashi means storm, in case you were curious.  Arashi is a 5-member group from the talent agency Johnny's.  A sidenote about Johnny's: it is a talent agency that sort of mass-produces Japanese "boy bands."  They recruit kids when they are in middle school (or younger!) teach them to dance, act, sing, whatever and then try them out in various groups.  They also do a lot of back dancing for the official groups at concerts.  At this point in their life, they are called Johnny's Juniors.  Depending on how good they are, groups then get to "debut" and are officially a Johnny's group.  Most of the boys in the agency will never debut with a group.

Arashi debuted 11 years ago.  Other groups I like are more recent, but Arashi has been around for a while and is extremely popular at this particular point in time.  I think they will be popular for at least another 5 years (I said at least...I bet on more), or until the world ends, whichever comes first.

Ok, so...in April, I took the plunge and joined the official Arashi Fan club.  50bucks, but well spent, and I will tell you why in a few paragraphs.  But first, by joining the fan club, I get a few benefits:  I get beautiful pamphlets once every 2 months with excellent pictures of the group members, I get daily texts with updates and useful information, and, most importantly, I can ballot for tickets for Arashi performances.

Let me explain that whole ballot thing.  Johnny's concert tickets are not something you can just call and get nor are they something you can stand in line to buy.  You have to be in the fan club, and even so, you are not guaranteed to get tickets.  You have to "ballot" meaning send in a form and say that you are interested in going to the concert.  Before the balloting begins, a postcard is sent out with concert codes and details of what to do.  I have heard that who gets tickets is totally random, but I have also heard that the longer you are in the fan club, the better chance you have of getting tickets.

So.......it just so happens that Arashi is touring starting this July!  They just released a new album and the concert tour will have the same name, Beautiful World.  yes.  Well, I figured, why not, I am going to ballot!  So I sent in the form (it was by email) and waited and waited and waited.  And I was getting discouraged, especially as I considered all the things I had heard about how people don"t hit for tickets if they just joined the fan club (which I had) and blah blah blah.

BUT THEN...Last Friday...I got an email and I GOT TICKETS!!!!  I am so excited  (thus the $50 membership fee was well worth it!)  I do not know yet how good the seats will be, but either way, I am going and I could not be happier.  The concert is not until January, but that is fine by me.

On a side note...in case you are curious about just how popular Arashi is, last month, we were in Tokyo for a play and there happened to be a pre-sale of concert goods for the concert tour I got tickets for.  Kim and I decided to go wait in line for goods.  The goods stand opened at 7, so Kim and I thought if we got there between 6 and 6:30, we would be fine.  How many crazy people could there possibly be?  We could wait in line for an hour or so and then be on our merry way.

Well.....

How wrong we were!!!!  This was when we just got to Tokyo Dome City.  It was about 6:15.  It took us 20 minutes to find the end of the line!  Then we had to wait there until 7 when the goods stand actually opened.

PEOPLE!!

And a different view, as we moved forward in line.

Moving on forward.  The good news is that we moved almost constantly for the entire time.

yeah.... I think we had already done all of these loops at this point.

Look carefully, there are lines everywhere.

And finally, close to the finish line.  This is where the line stopped moving.  We were stuck in a nice crowd here for about an hour.  This is where I was reminded that Japanese people do not know how to form lines after all.

Success!!!

A little peek...

The treasures.

All in all, we waited in line for 3 hours.  Yeah, I am nuts.  As I said, the line was almost always moving, at least until the very end.  Also nothing in Japan opens until at least 10am, so it is not like we were missing other things by standing in line from 7am to 10am.  I have no regrets.  Also, as we were leaving the Tokyo Dome staff were announcing that the line had been cut off.  Anyone in line was ok, but no one else could get in line.  I think that means that people waited 5-6 hours to buy goods.  And this was just a pre-sale!  The concert had not even started yet and no one knew at the time if they would get to go to the concert or not.  If you are curious, Kim did her best to remember the route we walked and mapped it out here.  Zoom out if necessary to get the full effect.

One last thing, for your enjoyment.  Look what you can get from UFO catchers!! (claw machines!)

From top left and moving around counter-clockwise, we have a cat driver driving a cat car, a Jack Sparrow, a Michael Jackson bear, a Dragon Ball bear, a Harry Potter bear and a bunch of cat key chains.  They were so easy to get.  I chose to display mine as a bar graph.