How many strawberries could you eat?

 I ate 52:

It's that time of year again!

You guessed it!  Cherry blossom season!!  Oh, was that not your guess?!  Well, the correct answer is cherry blossom season.  aka one of the prettiest times to be in Japan.  There are cherry blossom trees EVERYWHERE.  People have them in their yards, schools have them, they line the streets, and then, there are the parks full of cherry blossom trees.  This weekend, we road-tripped to one such park.  It is in Ina, which is a city in the south of Nagano Prefecture.  It took us about 2 and a half hours to get there, but it was lovely.  We went to Takato Park, which is actually listed as one of "the places to see cherry blossoms in Japan."  Read about Takato!  Unfortunately, the trees were not in full bloom, but the park was nice and there were a few early bloomer trees that were quite lovely.  Let's just let the pictures tell the story, ok?

Cute mini gate and temple of sorts with a cherry blossom tree!

ooOOOOOOooooo

That is cherry blossom flavored ice cream.  yum.

Food. 

The tarp of foreigners.  We attracted quite an audience.  At least 3 times that I saw (and who knows how many times I didn't see)  people took pictures of us without asking.  Like at a zoo.

As you can see... not quite full bloom, but still quite nice.

The park itself was really pretty.  Bridges and ponds and things.

More half-bloomed blossoms.

yay!

They're so pretty.

awww.

close up!!

The park from below.

These one were fully bloomed.  And oh so pretty!

The path to the park (or one of them, I guess)

Like, I said, there are cherry blossom trees everywhere.  This one is in someone's yard.

And more by the river.

A call for recipes!

Hi friends! 

As I think I mentioned, I am going to be baking cookies for my students once a month.  But I am not sure what kind of cookies to make.  I would like to make different ones each time and avoid chocolate chip if I can since they have already eaten my chocolate chip cookies. 

One thing I definitely want to try is shortbread, so if you have a recipe that you have used and know is delicious, send it my way. 

Also, send any other favorite recipes! 

As far as ingredients, I can get pretty much everything here.  If you would consider something "rare" by US standards, then that I can probably not find, but most cookie things I can get.

Ok...let the recipe sending begin!

whats this new blog address, anyway

So... I thought I should explain my new blog address.  As you may or may not know, I have been really studying kanji.  Like, really studying.  I want to be at the same level as a 6th grader before I leave...I have about 600 more to learn before that point.  ugh.  I have also already learned about 600, which is cool.  Anyway, I study with fellow ALT, Crystal.  She is awesome.

Let's talk about kanji a bit... so kanji are the Chinese characters used in Japanese.  Kanji are often made up of radicals.  For example, the kanji meaning "to wear" or used in words about wearing (also words about arriving or...well, you get the idea) is  着. And the radical is 目which is eye. See it on the bottom, all squashed together?  Alright, so when Crystal and I study, we often find ourselves asking each other questions that, when taken out of context, are absolutely ridiculous.  Like, "Hey, is it a day or or an eye in this one?"  To clarify that,  day is 日 and eye is 目, and if you look, well, yes, they are quite similar.  So sometimes we get confused when writing kanji and are not sure if we need to draw that extra horizontal line or not!

And that, dear readers, is where the new address came from.  It is a question that often plagues my life and studies and therefore I decided to make it my new blog address.

Aren't you glad I told you?

Want to know what I learned to do today?

Brush my teeth and speak Japanese!  That's right!

So in Japan, at least at schools, there is this habit (rule, maybe?) where people brush their teeth after lunch.  I believe the students have to and the teachers all do as well. Ok, so anyway, up until now, I have not brushed my teeth after lunch, not really sure why.  I guess just because it is not something I ever did?  Anyway, I decided no harm could possibly come from me brushing my teeth after lunch every day so I bought a toothbrush and toothpaste set for my drawer (just a travel sized toothpaste and it all comes in a nice case!).  I have actually had it sitting in my drawer for about a week but I could just not muster up the courage to do it.  Don't ask me why.  I just felt that since I had not done it up to now, that people would think its weird or something for me to start all of a sudden.  Ok, so I have confidence issues.  Trust me when I say I have come a loooooooooong way in a year and a half in that department, but I clearly still have a ways to go.

Ok...so I start brushing my teeth and all is well, but then...students come in to talk to me!  Really, they came in to get stamps, but either way, there was talking.  Let me remind you that students rarely come in to see me.  Rarely.  Now, have you ever spoken while brushing your teeth?  Have you ever talked in Japanese?!?!  Cause I had not!!  As if I needed more things causing problems with my pronunciation.  Anyway, it was funny. I hope that from now on I can brush my teeth in peace.

Alright...not the most interesting post after all.  It seemed a good idea when I started writing, and I did end up posting it anyway.  It does give a bit of culture, though, and, well...it is not about earthquakes.  Though speaking of...we had one heck of an aftershock today!  several, in fact, but for the first time I was standing up for one, and talk about disorienting!

Ji endo!!

new new new

New address!  new title!  new fonts!  new colors!  new background!  yay.

It is still me, Elissa, just changing things around and enjoying all the wonders that blogger has to offer now.  nice work, blogger.

so, check back, see what updates are to come.  Maybe I will think of a new title soon, too.