So summer break has ended and school is already back in session...and I managed to go through the whole summer without updating! Ooops!
I didn't mean to do that....I was just all over the place all the time and never had access to my blog to update easily or readily. I'll just highlight some of the major things that happened throughout my summer break in this catchup entry!
Well, the first day of official break was 7/21 (Thursday). Tomoe and I took a road trip up to Nagano which was a lot of fun. We visited many places around Nagano such as the famous Zenkoji Temple, around Nagano city, and Togakushi Temple (with beautiful trees and forests). We also made a stop by a famous soba restaurant and ate delicious soba and even indulged in some soba soft cream!
Then the next week I went into school here or there to prepare for speech contest practice. But the main event was on 7/29 when we took off for Thailand! We visited Bangkok first, arriving that Friday night. We met with my friend, Pete who I went to college with. It was fun and we stayed out all night. Then until 8/2, Pete showed us around Bangkok.
On the morning of 8/2 we flew to Phuket...where the white sandy beaches are! That day we got in and had time to explore since we arrived in the morning. We hung out at the hotel and took some time to relax. The next day, we moved in to the main part of town and visited a beach. We were able to take it easy on Phatong Beach and enjoy the scenery and some bodyboarding action. Then the next day we went on an island hopping tour to Phi Phi Island! One of the stops (Maya Bay) was where the movie, "The Beach" was filmed...and it was beautiful!!!! We even got to feed some monkeys on an island and do some snorkeling with beautiful fish.
Then on Friday we flew back to Bangkok where we had one final night and then flew out on Saturday, 8/6.
Thailand was an amazing country with awesome food and fun people. The people there are really nice and laid back. And so many people speak English! It's so convenient! Only 1 person there spoke some Japanese...but I guess it didn't matter because English is better for me anyway!
And the rest of the summer consisted of taking it easy and relaxing. My mother came into Japan around 8/6 and stayed until 8/20. During this time, I helped her with moving my grandmother to another nursing home nearby Yokohama. It's quite a change for her since she had lived in the other nursing home for the past 12 or so years....but my mother and other relatives were all there to support her and help her settle in to her new place. While my mother was in town we got to visit some places around Tokyo that my mother had never been to! We made a day trip out to Odaiba which was fun. We even went to a trick art museum where they had very real looking paintings and when you take pictures with them, it looks like you are part of the action. We also came back to my town where I live and did a little shopping and ate at kaitenzushi! We love going to the sushi place and eating some good sushi.
Then school started back up on 9/1 and since then I've been getting back into the grind slowly but surely. Summer was really nice because it's such a long break....and I don't really have any real responsibilities except for speech contest practice for my junior high school students. The speech contest is on 9/27 so I hope that this year at least one student will place or win! Today, I had elementary school and just finished....but from 5:00 we have one speech contest practice and then I will be finished for today.
This summer has been pretty hot...but compared to last year it is a loooot more bearable! There have definitely been days when it was unbearably hot, but recently there have been a couple cool days which helps a lot! I hope that it keeps getting cooler and things will settle down as I get back into the grind of work here.
Now that I'm back to a regular routine schedule, I'll hopefully be updating more regularly again. The summer vacation broke up my routine and I was all over the place...but now that school is back in session things will go back to normal. That's all for now and will update more regularly!
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