fishies and fatties

oh, and graduation.

Today was my junior high school's graduation ceremony. It was quite emotional, the tears began when the 7th and 8th graders sang a "Sayonara" song to the graduates, and lasted until they formed a pathway outside the school clapping for the 9th graders as they left Higashi for the last time. Even I shed a couple when the uber-friendly school president stumbled through his goodbye speech, getting very emotional and dropping his notes. My JTE who is also a 9th grade homeroom teacher wore a full kimono for the ceremony, and notably got way more gifts from her students (inc. a kawaii scrapbook) than any of the other 3rd-year homeroom teachers. Yeah, she's pretty great. When we were doing a conversation activity with her class, I asked each student who their role model was and most said she was, to which I had to agree. Anyway, after plenty of yearbook signatures and picture-posing, I am now left with a dull Saturday afternoon in the teachers' room at school, awaiting the movement from school to the teachers' graduation party.

Yesterday I helped the 1st years decorate the 3rd years' classrooms. When I heard about this activity, I was like "Great, sign me up," envisioning homemade posters, writing messages in the fun color chalk on their blackboards, balloons, etc. Boy, was I mistaken. The 1st years had been given photo print-outs with diagrams of the classroom to dictate exactly what the decorations should look like, using only the prescribed red and white paper flowers, and one computer-generated uniform sign "Omedetou gozaimasu!" (congrats) in each classroom. Disappointed, I kind of tricked a few of the kids into letting me write messages on the dry erase boards ("Good luck!" etc.) graffiti-style. They loved it, I just hope they didn't get in trouble for letting me do it!

Last night I went with some friends to a place in akita city I believe is best described as a 'fun palace'. For a fairly inexpensive admittance fee, you could get unlimited access to the complex's range of recreational activities, including batting cages, mini-bowling, karaoke, taiko drumming video games, indoor fishing, mini golf, badminton, curling (!), roller skating, darts, pool, massage chairs, kickboxing simulation games, etc. etc. etc. It was ridiculously fun. Anyone who comes to visit will be brought there by me post haste.

Also, I have recently started using google reader and it has seriously changed my life, mostly because a significant part of my workday is spent reading information on the internet. I highly recommend it and am available to give an infomercial-style presentation on it to anyone interested. Anyway, one of the feeds recommended to me by reader was called "WaiWai", and it seemed like another interesing Japan-interest newsfeed so I subscribed immediately and one of the first articles to come up was this. Weird, to say the least. It sounds fake-satirical, but sadly I'm pretty sure this is a real news article, the main subject of which is 3 Osaka-area female criminals' not-thinness. The lady crime team certainly have an interesting story, all 3 being single mothers with severe pachinko addictions, but the article strangely concentrates on the women's impossibility of comparison to a manga female criminal trio because of their weight. What?!
PS, I predict more article links on my blog thanks to google reader.

Lastly, yesterday after finally getting an aquarium set up in my apartment after a series of follies that included the aquarium water boiling, I bought 2 new fancy goldfish with which to share my cabin fever! And now is your chance to name them!


PS - It's hard to get fish to pose for pics - the one hiding behind the one in front has a white face, if that helps in your naming suggestions.