Good Morning Saturday Breakfast Surprise...

Hello everyone!

Well... Its another slow Saturday.

Woke up this morning, cleaned the house, was about to hang the laundry till.

 *DING DONG* Someone was at my door...

I rushed over to see what beautiful girl was at the door and was greeted by!!!



The mail man......



And a rather old one at that.

There goes the dream of having a beautiful getting lost and ringing on my door.


Anyways, the package..... (Mail package)

As I haven't really ordered anything... I was very curious!!!

??????  a Morioka make ...

Mini Frying Pan?


Now its all coming back to me....  Sometime back I had attended a friends wedding and I was asked to choose from a list of items as a thank you for attending .....

I chose a frying pan.. but I had no idea it was from Morioka.... (Morioka is rather famous for their cast iron wear... and rather expensive...

As I hadn't eaten breakfast and it has been ages since I've had a cast iron pan my breakfast was set!  

Omelette!!! A real omelette!    All you small minded people think that you put egg on sometime and it makes it an omelette...  


Omelettes are made it an oven!!!!!

Getting ready....

Egg pouring action!!!

Bottom cooking stage!!!!

Checking for oil bubbles stage!!!

Oven time!!!

Go! Go! Go!

 and!!!!

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The perfect omelette

Oh yea!! 

Self Explanatory

--Tom














 

Live Music In Kinshicho and Tokyo Walk

Hi there everyone...

This last weekend I headed down to Kinshicho for the Tokyo Sky Tree Live music event. There isn't as big of a turn out then I originally thought but meh, I enjoyed my self.

There was a bunch of local artists from around the area and Chiba... I got a few names and flyers for up coming events...

I also got an invite to this small Jazz club... I'm gonna try to go there next weekend.








It's a little clip







And some pics





It was nice... I then started to head back to the station to head over to Akihabara but.... I thought to myself... Could I walk there?? I am trying to learn the area a little better as I have been slave to the train for so long... I remember driving pass Akihabara into Kinshicho a few months ago.. It didn't seem far at all...

I did a quick Google map search and I was off!! Walking along beside the JR Sobu Train line I felt at lease I wouldn't get lost.

After getting out of the immediate area of the Station Kinshicho is a really nice area... Very quite... Much quieter then I would have guessed...

I passed over a large river and took a small break on a bridge overlooking some boats.




Anyways... My phone died during the walk so I didn't take anyother photos but.... All in all.. It was a rather peaceful Sunday.

(*^__^*)

Tom

After Grad update 3

I'm back at Ikea again...

Yesterday was so fun that I came back for more coffee.. But i ate some meatball.  $4 for a plate of meat balls and potatoes.

Hey!! I was hungry before I took the picture!

 TODAY was much slower then yesterday, I was able to sit and type out some forms and finish the Midterm test...

AhHHH... I feel alittle more prepared now.. But work never gets boring..  there is always something going wrong or some boy bugging the girls.  

There was one boy that kept poking at a set of girls. I kept telling him to leave then alone . . Finally I told him,  if you like her just tell her... don't keep bugging her... He turned bright red and ran off...

Awwww..  I wanna be 14 years old again. 


Durning cleaning time, (Students clean in Japan) one boy ran off to different room because the girls were there...
I followed behind and when I got inside the classroom I couldn't see ... The girls pointed and I found him inside a cardboard box....

I have to give him credit... he ran into that room and was in the box 15 seconds flat....

I almost left him alone till one of the girls complained.. lol alright bud...
I tipped the box over and he fell out.   Alright buddy.. OUT!

Aaaaaaaa  Surprising,  I get a kick out of the bad kids... It makes my job interesting.

School hallway -  With a long line of water-taps to wash your hands...

After Grad update 2

Hey Everyone!

Main Gate of my School

Today was a pretty busy day. I went from 7:45 straight to 5:00 without sitting down.   It wasn't till at sat down at 5:00 that I realized I haven't yet turned on my computer.. 
Just one busy day.  I left work alittle  earlier then normal and headed back home...  It was/is rainning. I got off the station and just didn't want to head home... So....  I headed to IKEA.   I live about 15min walk to IKEA from my house... Besides selling furniture and what nots,  they offer cheap cake and free coffee.. Who can complain about that？ 

My coffee and cake ... Hmm out of focus...

180 円　=  About $2.00
Of Happiness

Anyways, back to work... The term is slowing crawling along.  I realized that we start mid term tests this Friday.... I didn't even see it coming..  I have to make up a test for the little guys...
This morning I was pretty set on what I wanted to finish..  Write the middle term test, make the CDs readings and talk with the other English teachers on what they wanted to do.
Till I got work... . I have my assigned classes but my schedule isn't set in stone.... I was scheduled to teach 3 class's but I got asked to help out with all the classes from 1-5... So, i'm like, OK whatever... Mid terms are coming up and they need to review and study.
So I go blast though 1-4th period just like that.. Grab my tray of lunch and head to find a quite place to eat... As am walking around I hear "Hey Tom, can you fill-in for Mr.A , He's gone to a meeting in city hall "  All right....

Todays Lunch - Random Veggies, Curry with Rice,
Quarter of Grapefruit, and  200ML of Standard Issue Bottled Milk 

Well I normally eat with the students so meh, whatever. The students where pretty well behaved and didn't give me any problems...

After lunch we had a small break so I wandered back downstairs to the teachers office to get ready for my next class (That I wasn't incharge of,  just asked to assist with) 
Planning to take 5 minutes to rest, I find out that two teachers were out for meeting at cityhall and one of the younger teachers had booked herself in two class period.  She ran up to me and was like... Aahh!! Could to take the Math class?... I was like sure..... Why not, I've had enough English for the day.  I grabbed the text book... I got the gust of the level and did a quick math refresh (Thank God the other teacher had prepared work sheets )BTW this isn't the first time I have subbed....
I had to teach social studies a few weeks ago... but I had a day warning for that.. I made up a small lesson on the first Japanese in Canada coming into Victoria and Vancouver.  BUT this time I had like 5 min  warning.
I get to class and everyone was like aaaa... We have English ? And I was like,  no... you have math.  はい～それじゃ、
お礼をお願いします。(Basiclly, OK everyone. Let's start.... Bow to me!!!） Well that's only roughly translated...  Before every class, students stand up and bow to the teacher. 

One of the older classrooms with wooden desks.  Hey look!! It's 5:45pm!
I finished work like 1 hour 45 minutes ago  (That is for another post)

In my English class, I don't make them.  I have them just greet me with a simple hello or good morning .  I think this was the first time for me to go full on Japanese with this class.  One girI was like.. You speak Japanese? 
Anyways, I started and then passed out the worksheets and said, I'm going to write an example so look at the board.. THEN everyone was like...aaaa this isn't math class we had that first class... We have history now. 

The DEATHLY History Text Book...

PAUSE. *Blink Blink * Wha !?!
I was like aaaa no.. your timetable says math.  And they were like yea but... It was changed this morning because the math teacher had to go to a meeting after lunch...
Oh Shit!! I thought …  I was only given math sheets...   Have you done these worksheets? 
Aaaa no, but we already had math.
Hmm think think think panic...!!


Oh dam...  OK someone lend me your history textbook.  I opened it and I was like...

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WTF!!!!

Just joking... This is the real textbook...

OK...１６世紀 (16 century Japan ).... read read read...understand understand...  OK!!
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Yea no.. this isn't happening. 


I barely know 16 century anything... let alone Japan...

Alright.   LUCKY you guys, we're doing math again!
And!  After you finish the worksheets, you can do any other homework... I can help with English.... and Math.... Maybe.
They seemed to be OK with it.



Randomness!!!!
Tom

Another Good 6AM Morning!

After Grad update 1

Hi there everyone!

It has been quite some time since my last update...  I would say sorry, but hey... this is my blog.

I will try to summarize what has happened the last few months.

First, the biggest thing.  I am now single.  I silently changed my setting in Facebook and I haven make it a big thing... It has taken a lot out of me.  I felt that I didn't have much of a choice and I do believe it was for the best.  I would like to thank all those that have been supportive the last few months.  To be honest, I'm still not sure if it was the best move but I need to move forward.

Second big thing is that I have started my new job as a middle school teacher in Nagareyama located north of Chiba city.  Besides being in charge of assisting with English classes (Grade 6 ,7 8), I've also been asked to help with grade 6 affairs and assistant to one of the grade 6 classes.  The people at the school have been very nice and welcoming.  We had a welcoming party for the new members some weeks ago... It did really help us get acquainted..   

Welcoming Party

My class

I am very happy how I have been accepted into school... I don't feel any different then the other staff members which I have heard can be a problem for some foreigners.



Next on the list, is that I have finished University.. I have graduated!!!  I still have some paperwork to finish and settle some financial problems but I and finished school!!! At least for now hahaha...

Graduation day was a very good day...

Morning Drive

Yea... Mercedes-Benz SL AMG

Having fun at the beach

 
  
Thats all for now... I'll try to post again soon..

Tom