Hey! Mr Kot-tair!

I took a break from the blog but now I’m back. It wasn’t a conscious effort to go on tale telling sabbatical, I just got wrapped up in so many things that writing the blog never felt like a priority.

Last week I

Taught all the sixth graders at once, with help from a JHS Teacher.
We were getting them ready for their transition next year

Found our town's Christmas Tree
Santa rides a pennyfarthing on the top.

Hung out with some sprats

"Wine?"
"Bif"

Went to Ometesando Hills, a mall in Omotesando

Went to Takeshita St. in Harajuku

I had Thanksgiving with some other ALTs!

Cranberry sauce, veggies, and cornbread

Turkey, mashed taters, and stuffing

The Restaurant we went to for dinner

A bridal boutique near the restaurant

Hair Salon

In the floor at the Norman and D. Bar in Roppongi

In the wall at the Bar

The other day I fixed my bike. It had a flat tire.What an undertaking. The bike is put together like a puzzle, with many parts covering other parts; mostly the parts I need to get to.

I found this trash can at the JHS

Then I found this fall scene

Today is “Good Meat Day” here in Japan.
November is written as 11.
1 in Japanese is “ichi” or just “i”, so two of them is “ii” which is the Japanese word for “good”
2 is “ni” and 9 is “ku”. “niku” is meat in Japanese; hence, 1129 can be read as “iiniku” or “Good Meat”

I’ve been traveling to Tokyo, visiting friends, going window shopping, riding trains, working, watching movies (good and bad), and some days just relaxing.



I have not yet been able to purchase my plane ticket home. I have been having trouble finding a ticket I can afford. This is causing me great stress. I miss the ease of banking in America. For one, it has been three months now that I have been here, and I just this weekend got my bank account. That is too long of a period in my opinion. The bank accounts here are different than in America. Here they don’t have checking accounts because they don’t have checks. They don’t really have credit cards because a lot of businesses don’t accept them. This is a cash society. That’s all well and good until I need to buy something on the internet, such as a plane ticket, and I can’t because the card I got from the bank is just an ATM card, not a debit card. I will be receiving a debit card in the mail in 12 days, but that is one more card I have to carry around.
I am not sure as to the best place to exchange money, in the event I would like to send some home or take some home with me when I visit.

The stress is making me want to stay home and watch movies all day on my days off.

I should probably get out more, as long as it doesn’t cost any money…