Monday, November 28, 2005

Happy Holidays!!


Happy holidays everyone. Not much to say except that we hope your year is wrapping up on a high note. Above is a picture of Vicky in our newly decorated living room. (of course it was decorated exclusively from the Hyaku Yen Shop or what you might call the dollar store, even the tree)

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Our Weekend with Friends


This past weekend we had a great time with friends. On Friday, one of our JET friends came from her city to visit for the weekend. Her name is Melanie and we met her in Tokyo and have kept in touch since, but this was her first trip to Kure. So we went out to dinner on Friday and showed her around Kure. She really loved it and is planning on spending Christmas with us here. :)
On Saturday, Bernard came (our friend from Evanston who is a JET). And as usual Scott and Bernard wasted no time and got right to playing Madden football on Playstation. Melanie and I went shopping and got some tea at the local cafe. That night we went over to our friend, Austin's apartment for Curry dinner. One of our friends in Kure is from Canada, but she is Indian, so she made everyone home cooked Curry. It was wonderful and we had a great time.
Then Sunday, we relaxed and Melanie and Bernard went back. Scott and I went to Japanese lesson that night. We were really lucky to have been able to spend this past weekend with the friends we have made here!

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Kagura weekend (a little late)



Sorry to be writing this a few days after the fact, but better late than never i guess. Last weekend we went to see Kagura in Hiroshima City. One of Vicky's coworkers knew about this and asked if we wanted to go. Of course we didn't know what Kagura was, but we said yes, as we often do. As it turns out Kagura is a form of theatre/dance that is performed by groups from all over Japan. It is very traditional. Two groups from different parts of Hiroshima were scheduled to perform Saturday night on the Hiroshima Castle grounds. It was even a free show, which was nice. As you can see from the picture, the costumes they were are very elaborate, and the dancing was great too. If we could have understood the words they were speaking and singing it really would have been amazing, but a good time was still had anyways. The only downfall of the evening was the rate at which the temperature dropped after the sun went down, but we headed to warmer areas for dinner and drinks after the show was over. The warmer area ended up being The Shack, a very popular place to eat or drink or just hang out in Hiroshima. Overall the night ended up being very fun. Sunday was low key, but on one exciting note, we purchased a small dish that fits inside our microwave/oven and cooked a pot roast for dinner, (very american) well anyways, we have another fun weekend coming up, with a few friends coming to visit so check back again soon. thanks for the comments and take care!
oh ya, and the other picture on here is of the huge koi fish in the moat (spelling??) around Hiroshima Castle. (and seriously, they were huge, like 20 inches long!!)

Sunday, November 06, 2005

November underway



Well, our November has started! The first Thursday we had a holiday, but I agreed to go in and judge a speech contest held at my school. So Scott and I took it easy that day. This past weekend was a lot more fun. We went with some friends to Hiroshima City. We walked around Peace Park, did some shopping, and went out to eat. It was a lot of fun. Then on Sunday, Kure was have a huge food festival. We walked around and looked at all the stands. There was many different foods, including some ethnic middle eastern foods. I had some great corn and I bought a snow crab for 500 yen (about $4)! Scott had a really unique sandwhich (I think it was middle eastern) It was a bread pocket filled with seasoned meat and some salsa. On Sunday we both had Japanese lessons. Japanese is a really difficult language! I feel like I am just beginning to be able to make sentences on my own.
This week we will teach as normal. Scott is tutoring some Japanese people he met on Tuesday night. They work for Japanese civil service and want Scott to talk to them about poverty, racism, culture, etc in America. It should be fun for him to do and maybe he will learn more about Japan's culture as well.
Well, thank you for your comments. We really appreciate hearing from everyone. Thank you for taking the time to read our blog as well!