Weekend Ski Trip

So this weekend Ricky, Lulu, Justin and I went to Gala to go skiing. It was a really nice setup when you got off the train the ski rentals and locker rooms were adjoined to the station. Then you took the gondola up to the slopes. Once we got up there we decided to go up and take one of the beginning slopes to warm up. So when we got to the top there was a sign that said easiest slope and had an arrow, so that is the one Ricky and I tried. As it turns out the arrow was pointing to another slope further to the right and we really did an intermediate slope... oops! Well long story short it was really hard and we fell, me more than Ricky. Anyway I have a lot of bruises to show for it. After that we found the beginners slopes and that was way better.

Today was a good day too. We slept in really late! and when we got up we went to lunch at Coco's a fern bar type restaurant. I had a taco salad and chicken quesadillas they were so good!! yea Mexican food! Then we went to Beisie, which is sort of like Wal-Mart. There we found a portable region free DVD player it was perfect and it was on sale.

After we got home the postman came with a package that Ricky's parents had sent us. They sent thermal clothes for Ricky, toothpaste, toothbrushes, gummy worms, gummy bears, deodorant, yellow rice, soup, grape jelly, and some other things too. Very nice and thank you very much Leyva's!

We finally have internet!!

So it has been a really long time since I have been able to update since we haven't had internet for about 6 weeks. Well we had a really nice Christmas here. On Christmas eve we went to the National History museum of Japan which is here in Sakura. It was really nice but very big. It had five different exhibit halls of different time periods in Japan and it took us so long to go through them all! Luckily there was an audio tour that was in English so we knew what we were looking at. Afterward we went back to the house with Jennifer and her sister had had some delicious Christmas cake and played the wii:) After that Ricky and I opened our presents. I got a new duvet cover and pillow cases for the bed, a new kitchen knife, and Japanese style socks. Ricky got a red Swiss army knife and a Japanese T-shirt. On Christmas day we went into Tokyo to see the Christmas lights. We went to the area around Tokyo station first but there were not many lights there. Then we went to Ebisu which is part of Tokyo and they had beautiful lights and next we went to Roppongi. That is an area of Tokyo where a lot of foreigners live and Tokyo tower is there too. Tokyo tower is the Eiffel tower of Tokyo and it was really nice with all the different color lights on it,

For new years we went back to Roppongi with some friends and went to a bar and a club there to countdown the end of the year and ring in the new one. It was a really good night until we were heading home. Usually from Sakura to Tokyo we take an express train. However, since the trains do not usually run past midnight and they were only running because of the new year only a local train was running which stops at least 20 times more than the rapid. Long stoy short it took us 3 1/2 hours to get home!

After the new year I returned to work as normal. All my classes are going really well so far and I like most of my students. The kids classes are fun because we get to play a lot and they learn really quickly, and the adults always have interesting stories and good advice about Japan. Ricky has been doing more PR event and teaches every Thursday in a town Goi because the teacher who was there had a stroke over the vacation. He will begin his real job at the end of February working for the other ALS school in Sakura.

Last weekend was really fun. We went to Tokyo to see Sumo!! It was really exciting and even though some of the wrestlers weighted as much as 500 lbs. they were still so quick and flexible! It was amazing they could all lift their legs higher in the air than I ever could. Afterward we went bowling and to an all-you-can eat shabu-shabu resturant. It was delicious and we all ate far to much.
Well not to much else has happened. We got the internet and payday was this week so it has been a good week so far. Tomorrow we have to wake up really early to go to a PR event so it will be a long day!