One of Many Cold Weekends to Come...

This weekend was both busy and uneventful at the same time...Friday night three of us went to the yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant around the corner. My neighbor who's been here for a while is friends with the owner and manager so we got the hook up...Well some free meat anyway. Saturday was spent under my electric blanket (THANKS MOM AND DAD!!!)...With the exception of about 45 minutes that it took me to throw on some clothes, bike to the store, buy a few things, bike back, put my PJs back on, and get back under the electric blanket! Sunday we had another taiko performance at an elementary school fall festival...At least that's what I think it was. This is our second performance so I decided to try out the harder part of the easier of our two pieces. SUCCESS! I'm assuming that's how they want us to learn since no one has separated we newcomers to show us how to play the songs. Up until the last practice, I had be playing the most basic rhythm while committing the other part to memory. Every now and again someone would come over and play something then look at me like "Repeat it"...Then they get all giggly when I do. After the performance they fed us udon (noodles) and onigiri (rice balls) YAY! We also got to pound mochi (glutinous rice dumplings of sorts)...What a work out! Thanks to taiko, I had a hard time buttoning my 3/4 length sleeves this morning. My arms really are going to look like Popeye's! That night the taiko group had a Bonenkai (end of the year party) at a restaurant. I had fried wings for the first time since I've been here. Wait, let me rephrase that. It's the first time a I had good fried wings since I've been here. I was doing to much when I made them at home and they turned out yucky...But I ate them anyway cuz I made them. You know how that goes. I like the idea of having an end of the year party and then a beginning of the year party after New Year's. Mo' partays!!!

Yesterday, my supervisor came over to tell us that the office's end of the year party was cancelled due to the fact that a lot of student's have committed suicide recently. WHAT! It makes sense to cancel the festivities out of respect now that I've had time to think about it, but when he first came over and told us I thought to myself, "And what do the two have to do with one another???" This place is bizarre. They blame it on bullying in schools. It's so sad that folks can't just admit that the society is too high strung, uptight (when not under the influence of course), kids have extraordinary amounts of pressure placed on them in school, and parents think it's the teachers' responsibility to raise their kids. It's hard to see any solutions to the problem being made anytime soon. What can ya' do when it's been this way for so long? Whatever it is, I hope it gets done fast.