fun in the sun

Some happy things that happened in the past few days:

• My 2nd graders at elementary school got so into a game of color basket this week that they started looking down their pants to check the color of their underwear. One of them also gave me a note that said, roughly translated "everyone in our class loves you". Could there be anything better than love letters from 8 year-olds written on origami?


• Had another great skiing/onsen day on Monday, my comp day for graduation. It was sunny, warm, and there was plenty of non-melted super-fast snow on the slopes of Tazawa ski-jo, with once a again a beautiful view of the lake. I had a scary fall, but the sulphurous waters of the local onsen made everything OK again. Looking forward to more late-season skiing this weekend at Appi, the area's biggest and best resort. (thanks Mike for the pics!)

• It's springtime! Most of the snow in Honjo has melted, and my bedtime routine no longer includes boiling a kettleful of water for my hot water bottle! Hurrah! Yesterday I went to the beach after work, and the sun wasn't even close to setting, it was lovely.


• I started another course of ikebana classes, and this week's lesson included the use of bracken, probably the coolest plant I've ever seen, as well as tulips, my favorite (except they were pink)!

Upadte: my new fishies are temporarily named Pumpkin (the all-orange one) and Oishiiso (meaning "looks delicious" for the white-faced one), until any better suggestions come along. Thanks, mom, for yours, but I didn't really feel Redneck fit the orange one's character.

And one not so happy thing - today in school lunch I was munching on pickled vegetable salad but noticed the sauce tasted more fishy than the usual sesamey and upon a closer look I discovered the salad was full of tiny tiny fish - head, eyes, tails, and all! Ahhh!