A Look Back at January

This past month was full of a ton of stuff, but instead of dedicating one post to each one, I am providing a summary of all of them together. First off, after going to hatsumoude with the closest thing to a Japanese host family I've had, it was time to start the school year again. And oh how I missed school, which sounds weird saying. I loved vacation, but my kids are even more entertaining. My first day back at one of my schools saw me getting some New Year's cards, nengajou, from my first graders, reaffirming why they are one of my favorite classes. Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu - customary greeting after January 1st, wishing you a new year

Most cards had pokemon of some sort

I guess I have blonde hair in my Green Lantern form

 Occasionally, there are special events hosted at the local train station. Nothing that stellar, but Japanese people love mochi, and on this day, in addition to the usual food stalls, there was a mochi stand. I was amazed to see how long the line was for the mochi. Also, the time I made mochi back in the fall, we fortunately used a machine to mush the rice together into the mochi consistency. The traditional way is to just beat on it with hammers. I'm glad we used a machine.

Another cool event was at my Friday school. All the kids were required to make kites and fly them for the afternoon. Encouraging some good ol' fashion fun. Parents came to fly the kites with their children. Many of the kites featured horses since it just became the year of the horse in the Chinese calendar. However, some were creative, like this kite with an octopus. Taco is the word for "octopus" as well as "kite.

Decent height on many kites

There were some lows to all of the highs. I had to decide what I will be doing in my second year with Princeton in Asia. I've decided to continue with the theme of this blog and picked a post that will send me to a small town in another country to share a new culture with all of you. Also, one of my favorite teachers went on maternity leave which was very sad. As a support teacher we would teach together whenever I had 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade classes at one school, and I thought we had great chemistry working together.

The month of February should be very exciting. This coming weekend I am going to Sapporo for the snow festival and the following week will be the most famous festival in Okayama prefecture, Naked Man.