Fun Friday

Well, for some people. Like me, for example. For most others, it was a day of stress and anxiety as it was a Demonstration Day. As I've mentioned before, Japan loves to have its teachers give demonstrations for each other, the principals and the Board of Education. Friday at my LMS was one of these such days.

Dai-chan's foot. Kawaii...

My part in all of this? Take pictures of other teachers' pain and suffering, and then participate in our own demonstration class with my teacher. I'll just say, no stress needed. The lesson went great, the kids were awesome, I think O-sensei got my good side in the video, and mad props were had.




Afterwards was a super-duper nabe party, sponsored by the head teacher. Well, we all had to pay, but he put it together and got the stuff. Good Times were had by all who attended, I tried some interesting culinary items such as:

1.) raw oysters - blecch! - unfortunately referred to as "Sea milk" by Kyoto-sensei just before it went down the hatch. I'll take them cooked, but raw is not for me.
2.) uni, sea urchin, not bad but not good either

and avoided others at all costs, ie, the sea cucumber, presumably raw.

Yes, but it was good. I heartily enjoyed the kimchee nabe, all spicy and stuff!

Oysters awaiting transfer to plates (below)

Clockwise from bottom: shrimp, roe, sea cucumber, three types of sashimi including maguro (tuna), white stuff (something from the sea) with roe and in the middle, sea urchin. I think you can see the theme here.


The spread. Nabe, crab, sea cucumber, other stuff... For this miso nabe we have mushrooms of various sizes, cubes of tofu, the gummy stuff that I like, crab, cabbage, and oysters.

In goes the meat, to the kimchee nabe. Oishiiiii! Oh, and we had duck and chicken meatballs in ours. Mmmmm!

Me and Kouchou-sensei (sorry, Dad, "Kouchou-sensei and I"). Sorry about the blurriness, but I thought it was cute. He's retiring in March, at the end of the school year, which makes me sad, because he's such an integral part of the magic that is my LMS. Hopefully the new principal will be a good fit.

So, Saturday was relatively uneventful except that Melissa and I took advantage of an absolutely dreary day to go get soba and tempura. We didn't get to make it this time, but it was enjoyed heartily.

And yesterday I woke up bright and early with some sort of stomach virus, that, while extremely unpleasant (think multitasking) during the process, was over within 6 or 7 hours. Thank goodness. I would not have wanted to do that all day.

Today was GES, which, and I'll say it again, while the kids are fun and all, they friggin' wipe me out.. as do certain faculty members... but it's all good. Home I am and tomorrow is LMS. Hooray! And the Alps were gorgeous this afternoon. Hooray!