But they’re the standard text for 5th and 6th grade, so you do what you gotta do.

Well some ALTs took out their frustration on Eigo Note by turning it into something completely twisted in wonderful, in the “How To Use Eigo Note to Pick Up Women.” All of these conversations come from the CDs that accompany our textbook. I’ll never forget the time one of my teachers sprung the “Green Cap” song on me in class, and now I’ll never be able to do it with a straight face.

Let’s enjoying our English teacher humor everyone!

I can’t believe it’s been a year already. I start working again tomorrow and have the opening ceremony for 2nd term. It will be so much better this year now that I don’t have those pesky introduction lessons. It’s just been so weird thinking that I actually kind of know what I’m sort of supposed to be doing now (maybe?).

We had Christy’s birthday party today. A group of girls went out to all-you-can-eat pizza and karaoke. I ate so much that I’m still full 8 hours later. At karaoke a partial list of what we all rocked out to included:

• Lady Gaga
• Backstreet Boys
• Bonnie Taylor
• Disney
• Arashi
• Asian Kung Fu Generation
• Olivia Newton-John
• Lily Allen
• Journey
• Queen

If I were a Backstreet Boy, I’d totally be Brian.

Once we got inside the vineyard we were told we could cut any grapes we like, except for the very expensive Ruby Romans, which sell for about $1,000-$2,000 a bunch. One Ruby Roman can cost as much as $80 dollars. One grape.

So instead we decided to enjoy the grape picking and eat any of the other varieties out in the field. In the end we went home with a single bunch of grapes. The ladies back at the packing house gave us two bonus bunches to take home for free. Thank you!

They also let us taste the mythical beast that is Ruby Roman. It was very sweet and juicy. It would probably be good after chilling in the refrigerator on a very hot day, but a little out of my price range at the moment.

Ruby Romans ripening on the vine in the vineyard.

Joanna holding the Ruby Roman grapes after grape-picking.

As a way to stave off boredom throughout the day I’ve decided to make haiku about my day. The one above was about my day yesterday. Here’s today’s:

Chu-hi on the bus
Seemed like such a good idea
My headache dissents

It’s times like this that make me want to go on crazy crash diets.

Oh and by the way, BMI measure, I’ve already lost 8 kgs since coming here. I’ll take my fat-ass normal weight, thank you.

勝ってうれしい花いちもんめ               katte ureshii hana ichi monme
負けてくやしい花いちもんめ               makete kuyashii hana ichi monme
あの子が欲しい                                        ano ko ga hoshii
あの子が分からん                                    ano ko ga wakaran
相談しましょう                                        sodan shimasho
そうしましょ！                                        so shimasho

決まった!　　　　　　　　　　　　 kimatta!
(A Team) Luckyちゃんが欲しい          Lucky-chan ga hoshii
(B Team)Coolちゃんが欲しい　　      Cool-chan ga hoshii

We’re happy we won, hana ichi monme
We’re sad we lost, hana ichi monme
We want that kid
We don’t know “that kid”
Let’s talk about it
Yes, lets!

We’ve decided
We want Lucky!
We want Cool!

It’s not much of a song, but it’s cute to watch. After they sing they huddle in their respective group and pick a member of the opposite team to challenge. The two challengers go out and either play Rock, Paper, Scissors or a game of chicken. The loser is then made to join the winning team.

In case you don’t believe me, here’s a video of the game in action:

Now enjoy … Snakes on a Playground

And for good measure, here’s the snake with its mole. After the snake ran away, the mole quietly escaped in the madness. I was pissed.

WARNING: this is a gross picture.

Photo courtesy cefn.com!

As some of you may know I am going paragliding this weekend to raise money for a wonderful charity that aids orphans in Cambodia. The charity is called CamKids and many of the JETs in Japan volunteer their services with this charity during school vacations. If you have it in your heart to give, you can donate and cheer me on @ http://www.justgiving.com/Ishikawa-Volunteers. No amount is too small. You’ll have to donate in British pounds (our charity coordinator is a Scot), but £10 = about $15. REMEMBER YOU ARE NOT PAYING FOR ME TO PARAGLIDE. You are donating to help children in need.

Thank you in advance for your wonderful donations.

I’ve been experimenting a lot with my cell phone a Softbank 930SH. Since it’s all fancy and pretty I’m disappointed in myself with not using it to it’s fullest. The other day I decided I’m going to use my cel phone to it’s fullest extent. Apparently the fullest extent might even mean giving me internet access where I need it the most.

It started playing with my phone and computer connection using bluetooth, finally able to transfer photos off of my phone and onto my computer with ease makes my life a lot more enjoyable. I also bought a 8 gb memory card so I could fit a lot more software on my cell. But perhaps my favorite thing  that my cell phone can act as a wireless modem for my computer, meaning I can finally use the internet at work. Which means a lot more time to surf the internet (and my poster rate is going to increase dramatically).

Follow this tutorial to learn how to surf the internet with your Mac and Softbank phone. (NOTE: you will need Snow Leopard.)