Golden Week and the Zoo.

Hello friends and family!

I haven't posted in awhile, as I have just been living life and enjoying my job here in Japan. 

So I will give you a quick update on life here during the month of May!

Golden Week was just three weeks ago, and since it fell in the middle of the week this year (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) and I am planning for a BIG trip in August over summer break, I wanted to save some money and not go to Tokyo.

My friend Amanda and I decided to go climb Yamadera- here is a link below if you want to read more specifics. Yamadera literally means "mountain temple", and is pretty much directly west of Sendai near Yamagata City, where they apparently have amazing cherries this time of year.

Japan Times Article

The train ride to get there was only about an hour and 1,000 yen, so not bad at all. The view were GORGEOUS at the top, and we went on a perfect day with a nice wind so we didn't get too hot. However, I am not gonna lie, I was a bit disappointed that the 1,000 steps went to fast...it only took about twenty minutes even though it was super crowded so we couldn't walk incredibly fast or anything.

 Here is a view from the top of the mountain!

 A view from the train right before we left for Sendai.

Made it to the top!

I may go back sometime when it isn't as busy. I have found some hikes that are near Sendai on someone's website who came to Japan with the JET program, and am very excited to go do some hiking in June before it gets too incredibly hot. 

Things at work have been going well. Unit 1 finishes up in another week, which is GREAT because I am ready for some new curriculum. There is only so much you can do with the same five stories over and over again...which is great for natural English immersion, but not great for my sanity. 

Of course, teaching kindergarten is tons of crafts, special events, and color days. Here is a picture of my class from Red Day, where we walked around with red tinted sunglasses on and the kids brought in red things for show and tell:

We went to the zoo the week after Golden Week, and the kids had a blast. It was almost perfect weather, but got a little bit too warm around lunch time. The funniest part was dragging the kids up this monster hill right before lunch. They had rings to hold on to, similar to a leash, and did a great job staying together, but their little feet could only carry them so far. 

I have talked to family and friends about my job. This is the first time that my job doesn't feel like a job, because it is just so much fun. The kids (for the most part) are obedient, listen, and just want to have fun at school. Most of them also love learning English, and are doing a great job of trying to speak in English as much as they can. I feel like the years of my life lost from stress teaching in the states are melting away here in Japan, like God is giving me back time that was stolen from me. 

What a blessing and responsibility it is to teach these children and show them the love of Christ daily through my words and actions.