Ok, I admit..I'm a slacker...

Yessss, yes yes, I'm back after a two month hiatus, I am finally blogging again. There is sooo much to tell that I will just stick to the important changes. I AM STILL IN JAPAN!!! I know I was supposed to leave in August, but I decided to extend my contract for another month and half until the school finds another teacher. SO, now instead of teaching 4 year olds (who are now 5) I am teaching 3 year olds (who are actually 2) and I have to change poopie diapers. They are soooo cute but sooooo little and don't speak a word of English. Here is the cutest picture of them-EVER:

The past three months have been extremely busy to the point of absolute exhaustion. School ended in July, so June was filled with writing reports, teacher-parent conferences and getting the year wrapped up. You may think then I had the summer off....but NOOOO, I'm in Japan and in Japan vacation is non-existent. The next month was focused on summer school. So I spend a week preparing for summer school, then taught 3 weeks of summer school.

Some major changes that have occurred, both Naomi and Lizzie left. Naomi is in Honduras teaching 3rd graders and Lizzie went back to London to sub. And there are 2 new male teachers, and boy (pardon the pun) have the dynamics changed-but not in a bad way.

BUT..it has not been all work, I have been able to find time to do a bit of play also. In the past 3 months I have been to Hiroshima, Kyoto (yes..again :) Tokyo, and Kamakura. Before Naomi left all the KIS teachers went up to Saori's cabin in the mountain and had a nice weekend chillin out in the mountains eating yummy food, doing some fireworks and enjoying nature.

Saori's Cabin

In July, Lizzie, Charrissa, Saori and I went down to Hiroshima. We decided to have the school try to make 1000 cranes so we can hang them up at Peace Park, and we actually... achieved it! So the 4 of us Shinked it down to Hiroshima with 2 massive bags full of paper cranes. Hiroshima was amazing.

KIS peace cranes

The history is shocking but the way they have rebuilt the city is absolutely amazing. We spent a while walking around Peace Park and then went into the Museum and spend a good 3 hours walking through reading everything. The museum was so well down. And afterwards Saori said to me "It was nice going through there with an American."

A-Bomb Dome-the the left (the atomic bomb exploded right above, the only building left standing within a few miles)

We also spent a day in Miyajima-one of the three most scenic places in Japan.

After summer school ended we had a week of vacation (our first week since Golden Week), so I decided as my last hurrah in Japan I would go on a trek across Japan solo. First headed down to Kyoto then WAY up to Tokyo since I had not been there yet. I spent three days in Kyoto and went to Himeji and Arayashima.

Himeji Castle-One of only a handful of original castles in Japan-beautiful castle, you can smell the oldness :)

Sorry, I will finish up this epic story soon (possible tomorrow...) but its midnight and I have to change diapers tomorrow sooo, I'm off to bed.