Typical school day…

On several separate occasions, students stare at my face in wonder and make the comment “hana takai! hana takai!” (big nose) to me in the hall and/or class

Students ask me in class if my hair color/eye color is natural (“Katie-san, colored-o contacto?”)

Student repeatedly asks me in class if I know someone named “Maka-san” and also how to say concabu paipu, senso, and hikoki in English (corncob pipe, war, and airplane respectively). I told the student I had no idea who “Maka-san” was…the student then proceed to try and explain who this person was by drawing a series of pictures and showing me portions of his history book. Still confused, I asked one of the Japanese teachers…turns out the student was talking about General Douglas MacArthur. Apparently MacArthur was in charge of the allied occupation of Japan after WWII…did we learn this in history class at Monroe City R-1?

Student asks me if Americans are really as big as they look on TV

Student asks me who my favorite character is (by “character”, student was referring to animated character). Most normal adults back home don’t really have a favorite animated character…however in the past, this response has proved to be unacceptable by my students. My now standard response is “SpongeBob Squarepants”.

Was blown literally off my feet and into a rice paddy while waiting for the bus in front of the school…luckily the rice paddy was empty, so only thing damaged was my pride (it’s very windy in this part of the country…)

General MacArthur with "concabu paipu"

Where the hell have I been??

For the last month or so, I have been dedicating myself to snowboarding every weekend. My location in Japan makes this a prime spot for winter sports due to the fact that it's very close to the best ski resorts in Japan. I live near the "Japanese Alps" (while some may scoff at the idea of "Japanese Alps", I think it's a pretty appropriate description). There are a few ski resorts here in Ishikawa and there are also some great places in Niigata and Nagano, which are about 2 hours north. We just hop on a bus (usually at some ungodly hour...last weekend we had to be on the bus at 6 a.m.!) and go snowboarding for the day, then unwind after a hard day of boarding at a hot spring.

Since my snowboarding career started only very recently, I am still quite the novice. Usually I just try to stay standing and plow down the mountain any way I can. The more times I go, though, the more I notice that my technique isn't quite as pretty as everyone else's on the mountain. So last weekend, with the help from my friend Alice, I started to work on my skills. I spent most of the day on my ass and I am almost certain that I broke my tailbone (or at least severely bruised it). I also was unable to turn my head or bend my neck for several days afterward...I was doing my own abbreviated version of "the robot" all week in class...

I am sure people are highly entertained watching me and my friends snowboard. As with most activities in Japan, whenever a large group of us go out together it enevitably brings looks of confusion, astonishment, and intense curiosity. Last weekend, as I was falling face first into a huge bank of snow, a kid flew past on his snowboard and screamed "I love sex!" as he passed me. His friend flew by and yelled "me too!" And people say all the money Japan invests into English language education isn't paying off....