Easter Pictures of My Lil' Cousin!

Julia with her mommy (Heather)!


















With her daddy (Bill)!












Tryin' out her legs??















I sure hope my future baby is this cute!















Big smile!!




















"Ahhhhh.. Wait.... what was that again?"

Sakura, Sakura, la la la la...

Unfortunately, I dont know the rest of the words to the song above... Oh well. Anyway, March did not cease to be interesting and in fact, it continued right on into April! The first few days we had a couple of visitors from Ishikawa come and stay with us. I met Shaffer in the Seattle orientation and we became friends there. He brought his friend Scott with him for a few days of spring vacation to enjoy Nara and go sight seeing.

So the first day they got here we went on the "temple tour" of Nara which of course included the Todaiji Temple and the famous (yet quite mangy) deer. Shaffer felt the urge to feed these creatures and then realized why that wasnt such a splendid idea after all! They're like goats in the sense that they'll eat ANYTHING, and I mean that literally. We found one deer chewing methodically on a plastic bag... and then another knawing on the metal chains... It was very sad and evident that something was wrong in the deer community, especially considering how much they get fed by tourists and how fat they are. Strange...



Anyway, we had a lot of fun with them and are now determined to visit them in Kanazawa up on the Ishikawa penninsula. Shaffer will most likely have a house party soon, which should be a lot of fun since he lives pretty much on the beach!!

Classes are starting this week and I'll be starting on Monday! Finally! I have all new JTE's and I think it will be a wonderful year. In Japanese schools teachers can be switched to different schools with no more than a couple days notice. Usually this isnt a huge problem, but sometimes they'll be switched to another city a few hours away. In these cases, I think they have to just pick up and move, they dont really have a choice in the matter. Kind of strange to me. And every year teachers teach a different grade level and are in charge of different activities etc. (always within the same subject of course). However, since the arrangement in the teachers room (staff room) is arranged according to which grade level you teach, they have to switch desks as their assignments are different. One would think that they would jsut pack up their things and switch desks with someone else, but no, thats not how it happens. They actually MOVE THEIR DESKS! It was the craziest thing Ive every seen! A whole half hour of utter chaos as desks were moved into the hall, vacuum cleaners were sucking up dust bunnies left and right, and other desks were scooted from one end of the room to the other. I tried to take a picture with my cell phone camera, but it didnt turn out so great.

So, after all that, I have a new neighbor sitting next to me! He's a big guy with 70's style glasses, and thinning hair. Definitely does not look like a standard math teacher! His English though, is really good which is a nice change, although I kept thinking he sounded exactly like the Godfather when he talked (even kinda looks like a japanese godfather..). This was even funnier when he told me that his favorite English movie was The Godfather! He told me he watches them all the time and practices his English etc. I think hes watched the movies a little too often.

Last weekend we celebrated Hanami which literally translates to "flower viewing" in honor of the cherry blossoms that are now in full bloom! We first went to Yoshino Mountain in southern Nara which is really famous for its Sakura blossoms. But, it was too cold there and they werent in full bloom... darn. That didnt stop us from having a good time though and we rented a little platform overlooking the whole mountain. It was still beautiful and the weather was really nice. We had a huge spread of food and drink. Unfortunately, as the drink was consumed the voices got louder, our laughter more raucous and I think we drove away the couple next to us.....oops! They also have special icecream this time of year. Cheery blossom flavor, mountain vegetable flavor, chestnut flavor, which were all delicious believe it or not! (Yes, I splurged and tried them all.... hey, it was a special gastronimic experience I couldnt pass up!) I forgot my camera that day, though, so I bought a disposable one which I will develop, put on a CD and then transfer to my shutterfly... Ill let you all know when that happens!


But, I did bring my camera on Sunday, our second day of Hanami! This time we went to the Takada River which is lined with Sakura trees! It was gorgeous and Ill put some pics up to show. Aaron went a little nuts with his picture taking, so there are many "artistic" ones of me, and of Adam and I.


Most of them turned out good, and the others just made me feel pale and fat...ugh...oh well! Anyway, the weather was nice and warm and the people-watching was EXCELLENT!! I dont think Ive laughed so hard in months!! There werent as many people there that day, only Adam, Sam, Aaron and I. But whatever! I think it was better that way!




Sam and Aaron looking as cute as always!!









OK, just look at this guy... Adidas jacket with cowboy boots?? We dubbed him Green Sock guy... He had on green striped socks underneath these cowboy boots!







This lady... I dont know... I think she was going for the Cher look with her pants... Ridiculous!








One of the few artistic pictures Aaron took of my and my favorite! Im laying my back under the sakura tree--very happy and at peace!







One of the many trees that look like cotton candy! Breathtaking! Too bad the sky wasnt very blue!







Lit up at night, they had more of a mysterious beauty.