Finally an update!

So, I'm back in Japan... actually I've been back since the 10th but I was severely jet-lagged that first weekend (and severely lazy the second) so if I had written anything it would have made even less sense than usual.  Monday the 14th was a holiday (Coming of Age Day) and on the 15th and 16th I was in Sendai for the Miyagi JET Skills Development Conference.  I had to present during a workshop this year so I was kinda stressed out beforehand.  Risa-sensei was slated to present with me but she was even more stressed out than I was so we ended up splitting the work so that she was the one to prepare all the handouts while I did the presenting.  The presentation itself went OK, I mean I was only presenting to around 25 people so it wasn't too nerve-wracking... I felt bad though since this year at the conference the participants didn't get to pick which workshops they attended so I think there were several people in my workshop who wouldn't have chosen to sign up for it.

I may write more about the conference later but for now I wanted to post a few leftover pictures from the fall.

Sam's finally here!  This is from the first time I saw "Froot Loops" in Japan.  Apparently they've changed the name but coincidentally the name they chose is the same as an off-brand variety common in Massachusetts.  Also, why is it "ring" and not "rings"?  Is there only one in there?

I took the following picture quite a while ago when it was still pretty warm out.  Back in the spring people were expecting the summer to be tough due to an energy shortage from the shutdown of most of Japan's nuclear power plants.  Thus in the spring many people bought vine plants to grow over their windows to naturally bring in shade (and cooler air) without using a fan or A/C.  Most of my schools had vines growing on nets outside and one of the most popular types of vine was from the 鉈豆 「なたまめ」or "sword bean" plant.

 

 I put in the red pen for perspective.  Pretty amazing, right?

 One day while I was at school one of the elementary teachers put a small plate of pink stuff in front of me and told me I had to try it since it's a traditional fall specialty of Japan.  It turned out that it was pickled flowers (they weren't very good but I felt obligated to eat them all).

 Here are some pickled flowers on sale at the supermarket (you can see some peppers to the left).

And now, for a special edition of Let's Learn Engrish!

 The small text reads:
"Cherry Cookie [written in cursive that surprisingly does have the letters connected]
It is a cookie baked in brown by using enough fruits that fully bathe in the blessing of the sun.  delicious to you..."

Wow, they tried hard for this one but their attempt to be poetic kind of backfired.  Is it the dried fruit that is supposed to be the "brown"?  Also "delicious" should be capitalized.  I think I would change the first "in" to "until" also there should be an indication of past tense in the part of the sentence about bathing in the sun since the sentence started out by using "baked."  After that it would be better but still kind of odd English.

The picture is a bit blurry but to the bottom left of the label over the "Crispy Gaufrette" section it says, "Pudding-Flavor Cream Sand" this will probably make more sense if I tell you that the Japanese abbreviation for sandwich is サンド "sando" so hopefully this treat is in fact a pudding-flavored cream sandwich and not just some flavored sand.

Finally, what might be my favorite can of food ever... technically it's a can of 「マフィンタイプ」"muffin-type" bread that lasts for many years and can be saved for emergencies.  This is actually the one can of food that fell off the shelf during that earthquake last month.

Can you read the tab?  It says, "Hi, MIDGET"  I had to get Anne to read it to verify that I wasn't just seeing things...  I'm not sure what to say about this one since I have no idea what they were trying to say... haha.

Anyway, have a good week!