What have I got myself into?

I have one week of work left before we go to Canada!

Next Monday I will be going to Tokyo for a 3 day business trip/conference. I hope to see Shane there. After that I take the long trip back to Chunan-cho, and then off to Canada.

So in my last week of work, what do I go and plan?

A picture of a graham cracker house

Well, that’s what it should look like anyways…

That’s right. Despite the fact that I am horrible when it comes to crafts, and I can’t cook anything, I have to make 259 gingerbread houses with every elementary aged child in my town. I am very excited. Mind you, I brought this upon myself so I can’t complain too much. I have had to order everything, plan everything and starting this Tuesday carry it out. I am freaking out. I will let you know how it goes at the end of the week with pictures etc… wish me luck!

What else have I been up to recently?

Remember how I said I was a terrible cook? That didn’t stop me from organizing banana bread day (Thanks Nikki!) for the “Wives Club” in my town. It actually went pretty well… Take a look:

Banana Bread Picture #1 Banana Bread Picture #2

Banana Bread Picture #3 Banana Bread Picture #4

Japanese Castle Visiting!

Kiko and I recently went to the big city of Marugame. As some of you may know, I think Japanese Castles are super, so we had a chance to visit the Castle that stands in the center of the town.

Marugame Castle #1 Marugame Castle #2

Japanese Chess and Ping Pong

I have been meaning to write an entry about the Japanese game of “shogi” or chess. It is absolutely fantastic. It is similar to Chess but you can capture your opponents pieces and drop them anywhere on the board, and your pieces can also be promoted in enemy territory (kind of like a pawn.) At any rate, I will write more about that soon. The important part of this entry is my good friend Jim. He tries very hard, but he still can’t stop me from destroying him in anything we do. (This includes ping pong and shogi.) I might be exaggerating, but you aren’t here so you will never know. 🙂

Ping Pong Picture Shogi Picture

That’s it for now… don’t get too excited, but I am planning another huge update for the site. Hopefuly I can get it done before I go to Canada, if not, expect it in early 2005 🙂 (And I know you will still be visitng the site daily then… right!?)

What I’ve been up to.

It’s not that I haven’t been doing anything. Actually, I’ve been slowly plodding along at work while trying to make time to roll out the latest changes to the website (coming soon!). I’ve also been doing my best to help Shane settle in (he’s fine). I was side-tracked by a killer fever (39.5!). I went to the hospital and it was exciting. Take a look:

A picture of me dying

See? Well I am feeling a little better now, but I will be off work until I have fully recovered which means hardly any e-mail, no website updates, and me catching up on a lot of movies. I just watched House of Flying Daggers and Ghost in the Shell 2. They were both pretty fantastic.

OK. Back to bed. At any rate, enjoy some pictures from Shodoshima Day (it’s a small island in our prefecture that we went to with some other JET‘s this weekend!). If you want to see more, check the gallery.

A picture from ShodoshimaAnother picture from Shodoshima

A great picture from Shodoshima