It's a gorgeous Saturday - gorgeous because I don't have to go to work today. It's a little overcast and grey outside, so I think I'll just be a hermit and stay in to catch up on my tv shows, and tidy up my apartment.

It's spring, it's traditionally a time for rejuvenation, new life, and all that jazz. You'll see from my previous pictures that cherry blossoms are, with good reason, quite famous in Japan. It signals the time when people can go some evenings without their electric heaters or kotatsus turned on all night. Here, the school year starts in April, and so it's a new time for me too in that regard. I have a new crop of 282 students.

In a way, I want to stick with my old kids! Here in Japan, teachers stick with the same kids and move up in grades with them. I guess it's good if you like your teachers, but if you don't, you're certainly stuck with them! Unfortunately, because the Oral Communication class I teach is only offered to 1st year students, I stay behind. Most of the students I had last year were shocked to find out they no longer had OC class, and were kinda sad. I guess that's a compliment - they liked my class. I've even had one come up to me and ask if they would still get to read the Suzette Gazette! Wow, and to think that I thought none of them read it!! Apparently I have a decent readership! In any case, I've spent my past 8 months getting to know these kids and it sucks that I have to start all over with a new batch. It took me all year to get those kids to open up and not be so annoyingly shy and quiet. Now I gotta break in some new ones - all 14 classes worth!

Each week seems to fly by now. Only another couple of months before my time here is up and I get to go home to take back what's rightfully mine - my friends that John has stolen in my absence! I gave some of the boys an ultimatum and asked whose friend they were. Peter audaciously asked me, "and how many times have YOU fixed my car?"

Yah. My friends. I sure do miss 'em. What I'm really missing right now is HOCKEY PLAYOFFS. As I've told a number of people, I'm going to look mighty stupid riding my bike down the main street, madly ringing my bell. GO SENS GO!

So right after coming back from Korea, I had just a couple of days to tidy up before my sister and brother-in-law came to visit. They arrived on Friday night, and on Saturday we took a walk through the Bikan area. On Sunday, we went to Korakuen Garden to look at sakura, cherry blossoms.

In the garden, there's a lovely structure that has a stream flowing through it! It was meant to be a rest area, and it's awesome! It's got a roof to shade from the sun, and the stream is quite cooling and relaxing. When I retire at a lakeside cottage, I am going to have John build me one of these babies!!Here is me and my sister, pretending like we like each other or something.
This picture is going to be classic. They were standing on this funky bridge and Chris started bouncing up and down on it. My sister is obviously displeased. This is her infamous pout.
A pretty shot of pinkness.
They were here for about a week, taking a trip up north to a ryokan for some delightful onsen-ing. They also went to Himeji for a day to see the castle and even more sakura. My sister made it until Tuesday, when I got home from work and found that she couldn't resist her urges anymore - she cleaned my apartment. I'd forced her into a "no complaining" agreement, where she wasn't allowed to complain about my messiness or housekeeping. I was like, "what happened to no complaining?" She replied, "I didn't complain, I just DID it!" It was nice to have company for a while, and to have dinner ready for me when I got home!

The end.