Kelly in Japan

Furniture and Karaoke

// March 8th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Uncategorized

Sorry if anyone was unable to access the blog this weekend. Apparently my host took a nap on Friday. But it’s awake now, without me doing anything. *Sigh* I’ve had this problem before, but I’m too lazy to transfer hosts … Maybe one day it will go up in flames and then I’ll be forced to make the switch …

Yesterday Ashley took us across town to Jumbo Encho in her car, and we bought a bunch of fabulous stuff we’ve been needing. We got a rug for the living room, a REAL KOTATSU BLANKET!!!!, and two floor chairs to sit in while under the kotatsu. As a result of these purchases, we were able to rearrange the living room today. It looks much more spacious, and Caspian has confirmed his approval of the new kotatsu arrangement. We also bought strawberries and Dr. Pepper, so I’ve been sitting in my comfy new chair drinking Dr. Pepper and watching the internets. Such a nice day!

Karaoke is hugely popular here in Japan. However, instead of performance karaoke like we have in the states, Japanese karaoke consists of small private rooms where people can sing with a small group of friends. Usually people smoke in the little rooms, which can get pretty old pretty fast. So last night I organized a “no-smokey” karaoke. Here is the poem I wrote for the invite:

The weather has been cold and rainy;
Made you grumpy and complainy.
Up until all hours grading,
Now your energy is fading.
Stop your grumbling and your yawning!
Tests are done, and hope is dawning!

Though the week has been severe,
Saturday is finally here.
Forget about the ones employing –
Now it’s time for some enjoying!
Nothing’s more revitalizing
Than some friendly harmonizing!

Just one simple caveat –
Smelly hair is not so hot.
For the loveliest vibrato,
Leave those cigs at your apato.
Join us as we sing no-smokey.
Let’s all playing karaoke!

We gathered a small group of friends go out and sing. Before dinner, Joe and Andrea invited us over for chili and cornbread. Joe is a great cook, and we always enjoy going over there. We’ll be sad when they leave in July. :( Karaoke was a blast, though. We sang everything from Alicia Keys to Disney, from M.I.A. to Elton John, and from Weezer to Celine Dion.

Fabulous.

Grading Frenzy!

// March 4th, 2009 // 4 Comments » // Uncategorized

Yes, I still have a bunch of pictures from Hokkaido to go through. No (Mom), I haven’t done them yet. But I’ve had good reason!

So although February started out well, it soon devolved into a never-ending sickness. Not the bad flu-type illness I blogged about earlier — just a cold that wouldn’t leave. It hasn’t helped that the weather has been rainy and miserable for most of the month. However, with the help of a fortuitous trip to onsen, several days off, and the last of my American vitamins, I’ve managed to finally fight my way back to 85%.

The school year is winding down, and I celebrated by giving my poor ichinensei the hardest OC exam in the history of time. It wasn’t entirely my fault, but I still feel a little bad doling out 30s and 40s on a 70-point exam. However, I am assured that these types of low scores only serve to make the students study harder for the next exam. The ninensei exam went over a little better, though (again, not entirely by my design) it did incude a composition portion which I am now having to grade. My fabulous 3d system for grading multiple choice saved me on the 300+ ichinensei; and I’m using that extra time for ninensei grading. The only downside is that I’ve had the counting song stuck in my head for a week as I tally up the wrong answers.

This week is junior high entrance exams. We have nearly 400 junior high students at school for three days, taking examinations to enter my academically advanced high school. I am to help with the grading of these exams (again, composition). It sounds like a scary task, so they are bribing us with super fabulous bento lunches, snacks and sweets. It’s kind of like an all-night study session at Denny’s, but with rice crackers instead of pancakes.

How about that Ben? Guess he won’t be pulling a Snape.

Keith and Sherry will be visiting us in a couple of weeks. Kory has been planning lots of adventures for them, and we’re looking forward to showing them around our new home!

I changed the blog to a new layout. Not finished, yet, of course, but I decided it was time for a break and a blog. What do you think so far?

Happy New Years!

// January 2nd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

As per my New Years resolution to be a better blogger (don’t we all say that?), I am busy editing and uploading a bunch of videos from the past six months. You can view my videos here on the blog, but they will also be posted to blip.tv, Vimeo (which supports HD), YouTube (if they quit sucking), and iTunes. Supposedly blip also exports to Facebook, but that feature is down right now. It also exports to MySpace, but I don’t ever check my MySpace anymore so I wouldn’t recommend watching or commenting there. And it alerts Twitter when I post a new video.

I’ve also made a couple of new pages here on the site, Photo and Video, where you can thumb through both forms of media. Just in case you’re ever bored (Grandma, I’m talking about you!) … :)

As for New Years itself, we were pretty low-key this year. We had dinner over at Joe & Andrea’s. Joe made queso and we played Bomberman on Wii. I won a respectable amount of games, and even Kory made a good showing! We didn’t visit any temples or shrines, mainly because Joe and Andrea swore the line would not be worth it. In any case, we’re a little vacationed out and it didn’t take much convincing for us to stay home, edit pictures (me) and play iConquer on our laptops.

I got New Years notes from two of my JTEs, which I thought was very sweet of them. We ate sushi today and go back to work on Monday.