New developments!

So after the enormous excitement that was Thailand, we're now back to the same old hum drum that is a normal working person's life. However, there are a couple interesting tidbits worthy of a blog post!

The weekend after we got back some friends and us all got together to go celebrate my bday in Osaka for the night. There was nothing especially spectacular but it was a great time anyway!

This weekend a friend from college who lives and works in Tokyo, Kotaro, came down to the Kansai area with a friend of his! We havent seen him since last August so we decided to take a trip to Kyoto and see him. They'd just arrived on the overnight bus, which Ive heard is a total nightmare, and so were sleeping the day away and would meet us for dinner. Well Sunday was a gorgeous day -- blue sky, sunny and upper 70s (I think) so we didnt want to miss it and decided to go see the Fushimi-inari Temple. In English I think it would be Temple of 1000 Gates (??). Anyway, its a couple stops out of the city so its kinda secluded. The most famous thing about it is the fact that there are trails all through the forrest all covered in torii gates (the red gates that are always at the entrances to shinto shrines). Its also the temple featured in the movie of Memoirs of a Geisha when Sayuri is running down through all those arches. Anyway, it was by far my favorite temple to date. There were a lot of tourists there but we kept climbing up the mountain and took trails that not many others were taking so at times we were the only ones around! It was so peaceful, serene and, in a sense, spiritual to be in the forrest and just hear the birds chirping and the river gurgling. It really made me long for a place of my own, or our own -- somewhere ideally in the forrest but near the water as well. Who knows if thatll happen, but its my dream! It would be the perfect place. I actually just wanted to cop a squat somewhere and lay back, relax and meditate.... but I dont think Adam would have wanted to wait around.... oh well. I took loads of pics which I will try and get up ASAP. Another unique thing about these temple grounds was that people had tiny little restaurants and shops along the way. There were also shrines where you could light candles and be blessed. The restaurants sound like theyd be tacky, but they werent. People actually lived along these trails and just set up shop there to provide refreshments for the visitors.... which, I might add, was very nice! These trails weren't flat. In fact, they were up hill/stairs most of the time, so refreshments were very much needed! It was such a pleasant experience I didnt notice how much we were climbing.... however, my calves have been letting me know each day since!

After the temple, we decided to go back to Gion and see if we could see any geisha since this time I had my real camera with me. We saw a few, and snapped a couple pics, but then had to leave to meet up with Kotaro. It was really nice to see him again and meet his friend (whose name I cant remember for the life of me. shes chinese-australian, like Liv, and very nice). We went out for falafel and then to our favorite bar in Kyoto, A-Bar. Its teeny tiny, looks like a log cabin inside with just a bunch of big tables. They place you next to anybody and its a great place to get to know people. Its really cheap and has great food, two big plusses in our book!

Anyway, tonight we're meeting up with Kotaro and his friend again, and then tomorrow we're heading to Kobe for the Re-contracting Conference being held from Weds through Fri. It should be a lot of fun.... at least thats what we're told. Although, since most of our friends are leaving this year, we wont know many people. I guess this is a chance to make some new friends! (I hope!)

We also were accepted for the Tokyo Orientation Assistant positions which is really exciting! It means we're in charge of all the Group A Nara JETs coming in in July. We tell them how great Nara is, how wonderful the JET Program is (Ill have to embellish a bit...) and then take them out drinking one night. Besides that, though, we're required to give presentations on certain subjects and help them get to and from the airport and then back to Nara. So.... its a free trip to Tokyo and will be loads of fun!!! We also get to go up in mid-June for a planning meeting and then again in July so Im super happy about that!

This year, since all the current AJET managers are leaving Adam and I have decided to take over with a couple other people. AJET is the Association of JET and there's a group in each prefecture who plan events and activities for JET members in that prefecture. It should be a lot of fun but also a ton of work. Ill probably end up being the Nara AJET Prefectural Representative who is in charge of getting all the emails from the national AJET and distributing them and then visa versa. Also... I dont know... Im not entirely sure what I will be doing, but it should give my life here an extra kick so maybe I wont be as bored as I was before. It will also keep us connected and in tune with everything going on. Who knows? It might even look good on a resume! And no, its not a paid but a voluntary position :)

I think thats about it... Ill try and get some pics up soon!