UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am going to Estonia! I will be leaving soon to serve a mission for my church in the Baltic States. I will be learning Estonian in the training center. Here is a map of the area that my mission includes. I think that a good part of my mission will be spent in Estonia since Estonian is only spoken there and not in Latvia and Lithuania. But I may get the great assignment to learn other languages while I am there. We will see.

I am excited.

i'm moving out.

So it is late. And I am packing and cleaning. I thought I was ready to go, but it turns out that I have more stuff than I originally thought I did. It has been almost a year, and now I don't have room for everything. My biggest suitcase has my books in it and it is heavy. Right now I am mostly just waiting for my laundry to dry and then I will pack that away and be, I think, ready to go. We'll see.

More pictures. Because that is my favorite thing to do these days.
Teaching is now officially over. I had my primary class today, which wrapped up my teaching era here in Japan. I am excited to have no work or obligations for a few days.

I am rereading two of my favorite books right now. It is delightful.

Dinner with friends

I went to dinner with some friends a few days ago. It was so nice. We had been trying to get together for a while, but nothing ever seemed to work for all of us. And then finally one day it did. It was so fun, I had such a good time talking with them. It was so comfortable and the food was delicious. We got to talking about English literature because both Akira and I majored in it in college. It was terrific, books are definitely my favorite topic. I recommended a couple of books and then they recommended some Japanese authors for me. I will look for translations when I get back to America. Meme's husband Khan, Meme, Me, Akira
Khan, Me, Shino, Akira
Such a good time.

I said goodbye to my Tuesday classes yesterday. It was difficult. Sad to think of not seeing them anytime soon. Here are some pictures of me and my students -Good classes. I will miss them a lot.

So I have been slowly packing. It is a very difficult task, very dependent on timing. I have to plan out everything I am doing for the next few days to make sure I don't pack the things that I might need at some point. It will be nice when it's all done and my suitcases are on their way to Narita Airport. Too bad I'm the one that has to get it done.

Well, that is all for today. Two posts in two days? Whoa.

It's been a while

Well, time goes quickly. I haven't written in a long time. But changes in my living circumstance make it important for me to start up again. I have been living in Japan for the past year and I am now moving back to America. So I am going to become a regular blogger so that I can keep in touch and keep people updated on things going on in my life.

It has been an incredible year. I have enjoyed myself so much and I have learned so many things. I know this sounds a little sentimental, which is something that I don't usually feel comfortable expressing, but I am a bit short in my vocabulary right now, so sentiment it is. My last days in Japan are going to be hard, lots of sad days. But I am glad to have built a little life for myself here despite not speaking the language.

Here are some pictures that I took recently. I will write more in the next few days. I have much more to say, but I am off to work.

What is?

And now for some pictures of a few of my students. These are from right before the Christmas break.

This is Daisy and Monica. These girls are fantastic. They are 3 years old and every time I pull out my camera they do all sorts of poses for me. It's wonderful. They are too cute.


These are my 9-12 year old boys that are a little hard to handle at times. Things have gotten better, and I think that we might have an understanding worked out between us. But I don't expect too much, it's still just week to week. This was a very good day for us.


This is a short post. But I am not feeling all that well, so I don't feel like writing anything else right now. So that's all for today.

I have been thinking about my writing style lately and trying to gauge exactly how I come across. I think that writing about emotion for me sounds whiny - I'm not very good at it. I am too quick to turn to overused phrases rather than trying to figure out what exactly it is that I'm feeling. Am I disconnected from myself? How do you make yourself more observant not only of the things around you but of yourself? I need to spend some time learning how to do that and then figure out a vocabulary that sufficiently expresses the way that I am feeling in a way that is true and good. I change without knowing it or knowing why. Oh the continual process of shifts and adjustments of this life.

tokyo

Well, Tokyo is cool.
This picture is of Shibuya crossing. Lots of people, lots of movement. Exciting.

This is in Harajuku. The street is called Takeshita Dori. Lots of very fashion conscious Tokyoans frequent this spot. Saw some interesting things. That's Sarah, Ikumi and me in the picture.
















This is Nakamise-dori, the market place leading up to Senso-ji, a Buddhist temple. Lots of fun souvenirs for sale.
This is at Senso-ji. These are fortune papers. What you do is you rattle around this big metal cylinder and then pull out a stick with a number on it. Then you open up the drawer that has the corresponding number on it and take out one of the fortune papers and tie it onto this rack. I did it. My fortune was unfortunate. Bad news. I have a lot to look forward to this year.

















This is the Japanese knock-off of the Eiffel Tower. It's a radio tower, or something. It has an observation deck that lets you see all of Tokyo. Very cool. We came here on Christmas Eve and it was busy. So we didn't go to the top on that day. But...














...we came back a few days later. This is a picture facing Northwest. Roppongi, Shinjuku are included. I wish I could point it out for you, but that is beyond me. I took pictures from every angle, so maybe one day I will organize it and will have a panoramic view of Tokyo. I would really enjoy that, I think. So maybe it will be coming soon.

Well, that's all for now. I hope the one person who reads this enjoys this post.