Trying to start fresh...

It's April, marking the start of a new school year here in Japan. With this comes new teachers, new styles, new routines and simply put, new beginnings. With all this new-ness, I'm trying to develop a new attitude. I'm been stuck in a negative headspace for a little while - maybe a couple of months. I've been feeling like I don't want to be here anymore and that I'm wasting time. My Chinese sign is Horse so I always feel the need to gallop to greener pastures when the mood strikes. So that's what I'm feeling now. I'm not being challenged enough and feel like I gotta move on in order to find some sense of fullfillment during the approx. 8 hours I spend on the job.
Now, I've been going around and around in my own head on how to make things better on me mentally during my time here. I've thought about not caring at all and just giving the minimum effort each day (it sucks, it's so not me to do things half assed, and when I try, I get realllly cranky). I've thought about running away and joining the circus (not feasible and financially bad as I'll have to pay god knows what to my contracting organization). I've tried to stop and smell the flowers and get joy in the mundane and the everyday. I've stressed, I've thought way too much, I've cried and I've given up. I'm here for another 14 months. There is nothing I can do to change this cold, hard fact.
So I'm going to have to get busy, get occupied and improve my attitude at school. I gotta thank Shiloh for this because she really made me see that I need to get out there, have fun and get active. Since it will be getting warmer, I need to get out more. Either for walks/runs or going to the movies or visiting friends nearby. I also need to develop an interest. It's sad but true, but I'm a grown woman with very few interests. I don't really have some hobbies that I can work on. True, I knit, I love reading and watching movies, but I don't have anything that I could hone some skills on. So over the next little while, I'm going to check out some options that have recently come available to me. I'll update you in the near future.

Anyway, I haven't been updating as much as I should because I've been pretty busy. So I'm going to dazzle you with pictures.


Todd came to Japan with me at the beginning of April and has been all over the place. We didn't actually hang out too much, but we did a couple of things. Last Saturday, Todd, Dave and I drove 3 hours to Takayama for the annual matsuri (festival).

We missed the floats but we caught some processions, made our way around town, had some street food and enjoyed the sights.

Unfortunately, we were unable to enjoy the much hyped Hida beef and had to settle for ramen instead.







My first sakura (cherry blossom) season has come and gone and I must admit that I was a tad underwhelmed (I must be the only person in Japan with such treacherous feelings). It was a sucky season due to the long winter, heavy snowfall and rainy days during viewings. Up close and in clusters they are beautiful and they have definitely livened up the school yards and the views from the river, but I found that autumn was much more spectacular But I welcome it's addition to the already beautiful landscape, no matter how brief it's stay. I've posted some pictures at the beginning of this post, but here are a few more:




Ok, that's all you get for now. I'll be posting a flurry of new pictures againg soon.

Mata ne.