Junior High Presentation...

Today, Casey and I gave a presentation about America to a group of 14 year-olds at a local Japanese school. (Most of them were taller than me... ouch!) We had a translator so it was much easier than we had thought it would be, although Casey memorized the introduction in Japanese which was impressive! We included a lot of pictures so they would not get too bored. They had many different types of questions about America, and we found that it was difficult to try and summarize because it is too diverse and hard to explain easily. They wanted us to summarize terrorism and Hurricane Katrina in only a few words, which is nearly impossible! They were very surprised to find out that junk food in America is much bigger than Japan. They were also surprised that we get such a long time off of school for summer vacation. They are envious that we don't have to take entrance exams to enter high school, etc. We told them about Kansas and passed around a "Tornado in a Can" which they seemed to really enjoy (you know, the little plastic cylindar that has bubbles and glitter in it and when you shake it a tornado will form?). We also gave them each a small Kansas lapel pin- they seemed happy to get a gift out of the deal. Many of the students put the pin on their jackets. The 'highlight' of the presentation was when Casey and I taught them the Chicken Dance. I didn't think they would want to dance, but many of them (especially the girls) had a lot of fun with it and kept humming the song and dancing well after it was over. I figured since I had to do it in front of my entire middle school when I was their age, I might as well embarrass myself again and bring the dance to Japan. :) (The picture on the left shows them dancing... I ended up embarrassing the crap out of one of the boys when I tried to dance with him- I think it was the one on the far right. Poor guy!)
In other news, yesterday I went to Kobe to see Natsuki, Mihiro, and Kim (I met them on New Years). Mihiro and Natsuki took me to a nice Chinese restaurant for lunch. Then we met Kim- yesterday was her birthday so we went out for dessert. It was a nice day with them and I'm glad I was able to get out of the apartment. Hopefully I'll get to see them again before I leave in 3 weeks.
When I got back to the train station last night, my bike was gone. We think that the City or police may have taken it because I parked illegally. Oops. We do it all the time (tons of people do) and normally don't think much of it. Now I will probably have to pay a fee to get it back. That's what I get for being a dumb foreigner!
I won't worry much about the bike for now, because I won't need it much this weekend. Tomorrow we are going to Hiroshima was Hara-san and Tanaka-san... I look forward to seeing more of Japan that I would not normally get to see. Hara-san is driving so we will probably see a lot more scenery than we normally would on a train. :)
I guess that's about all for now. I am pretty tired now that I don't have to stress about the presentation anymore. I am glad we did it, and I hope that the students got something out of it as well. :)

-Ashley

The good, the bad, and the reason I need to be 2 people...

First, the good. I am feeling much better. Casey and I were able to celebrate Valentine's day last night by going to Kobe and having some excellent Kobe beef! Wow was it delicious! (And expensive, but well worth it!) We had a lot of fun together and enjoyed a wonderful dinner. (The picture was taken in front of the Steak restaurant we went to last night. Oishi!)

The bad: Work is not going well. Things have taken a turn for the worst and now it appears that all of the efforts to put the applications for the REU program online are no longer going to work. Which leads me to the reason I need to be 2 people... because unfortunately I only have 3 weeks left here, but that means that it will be 3 weeks without being able to adaquately do my job. If nothing is available to me online as originally planned, then I am SOL. I won't be able to touch any of the applications until I get back to the US. I will not get into the frustrations this is causing, but you can imagine how torn I am right now- I would love to go back home and be able to do my job, but I also don't want to leave Japan. Hopefully everything will work out... I'm just pretty useless at the moment. (Sigh).

In other news, I am going to Kobe tomorrow to see Natsuki-san again. Friday we are giving the presentation to the 14 year olds about America. Saturday and Sunday we will be in Hiroshima. Monday I am learned to make Takoyaki. Wednesday I have class, and Thursday I'm going with Tomoko. Busy week! I'm glad to be feeling better finally, so I can enjoy it.
Guess that's all for now. I need to go to the store to get things for dinner tonight, and I'll let off some steam about work on the way there. Nothing like excercise to calm the nerves!

-Ashley