…from my deep deep discontentment. My job is sucks and it’s bloody cold and I don’t have a car.

I bought some “omiyage” (pre-packaged souvenir-y-like cookies/snacks that you are supposed to bring back for your office when you go on vacation) at Disney Sea but was feeling so disenchanted and ungenerous today that I didn’t give them to anyone. Instead, this afternoon when I got a snack attack I discreetly opened the tin in my drawer and ate a couple myself without sharing. I had to be really surepticious about this too because the cookies were all imprinted with giant Mickeys and Minnies. I’m sure no one noticed though.

Also, I was super disappointed with the selection of sweets and baked stuff at Disneyland and DisneySea. Namely, that there were none. Every shop Scott and I popped in to hoping to find some fresh cinnamon rolls or even cute lollipops were instead filled with….omiyage. Shelves and shelves of sterile, pre-packaged, individually wrapped cookies or rice crackers.

There were a lot of great things at the Disneys though and we had a lot of fun. Especially at Disney Sea where there were a lot of cool new rides that aren’t at the other Disneys.  We rode ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ twice and it was well worth the hour and a half wait in line!

We could have probably done without a million calories’ worth of a cinnamon roll anyway. :-\

*unless you are another English teacher who has had the misfortune of experiencing a February in Japan. boo boo

There’s not much news going on here but I thought I would update for the sake of updating. It’s getting pretty cold here. About mid 50s which may not sound like much but try biking in it (freezing wind tearing at your face and hands…) and then showing up to an unheated no-insulation school where it actually seems to be several degrees colder inside than out. boo boo. It seems I mostly complain about things on here but trust me, if anything good was going on I’d be writing about it. Who was it that said “write what you know?”

Here’s something good: Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the other teachers in my apartment are getting together for a big Thanksgiving dinner. But not Scott and me! We’re taking a night bus up to Tokyo on Thursday and going to Tokyo Disneyland on Friday and Disney Sea on Saturday. Then we’ll hop on a plane back home on Sunday. Maybe a little nerdy but I’m excited all the same. I’ll try to post some pictures when we get back.

I have a picture of me with Pluto and Goofy at Disneyland and when I show my students they’re all SO surprised that there’s a Disneyland in America! :p

This was the title of a speech some students had to write for class.  I thought I would share some of the more interesting ones.

Runners up:

–I want to be a baseball player.  Why?  because I believe in filial duty.

–I want to be a trimmer because I won’t have to study medicine.  Also, I can touch a lot of dogs every day.

–I want to be a spiritual counselor (illustration shows a lady with a ghost coming out of her head)

–I want to be an astronaut.  I will meet an alien and play baseball.  Then I will be famous.

First place:

–I want to be an office worker.  Why?  First, I can make a lot of money.  Second, I will be a famous person.

Grand prize:

–I want to be nothing special.  But I would like to eat a lot of food.  (there is a picture of a boy with a thought bubble above his head.  Inside the thought bubble: “no image” haha!)

Scotty and I went to see an art exhibition in Iizuka where his friends had some paintings. The “Master Painter” there surprised us by doing impromptu portraits for us. Here they are!

Do they look like us?

Well, my back was still aching last week so I went to a “real” doctor in the city…one who speaks English.  However, the change of language did not yield any better results and I left five minutes later with a prescription for ibuprofin (a PRESCRIPTION!!) and an appointment at a lab that does MRIs.

Thursday I went to have my MRI.  If at some point my back was going to start feeling better of course it would be right before I had an expensive procedure.  As would happen, after they pulled me out of the clanging tube my back never felt better.  :\

I will call the doctor tomorrow though to find out if they found anything.  I still have a little bit of pain so maybe they’ll have found something that they can fix.  (Doubtful though.  They may find something but I’m nearly certain they won’t be able to fix it. Grr, doctors…grr.)