aww

November has arrived. It's getting cold again. I've turned my kotatsu on (a heated table with a blanket that you can keep the lower half of your body under. It's almost time to get some gas for my touyuu heater, a portable gas heater used as a primary heat source in many places throughout the whole country. When I first told this to my father, he asked how the gas was ventilated. And of course the answer, in most cases, is that they aren't ventilated. The classrooms through much of December, January, and February smell faintly of gasoline. But this winter I have a carbon monoxide detector, courtesy of dad, which can hopefully let me know just when I'm inhaling too many dangerous fumes.

But back to the subject of this post. Last week was Halloween, remember. As you maybe maybe know something else coincides with that day... me burthday!
So now I'm 23. The actual day fell on a Wednesday, not really the ideal time to party. But at least it was "volleyball day" at my school, so I didn't have to do any teaching. Just practicing some volleyball and taking pictures:

Here is the class that won the boys tournament. They're lifting up the student who made the last, winning shot. Its actually one of the few kids that I actually know, Honda-kun. He is a pretty terrible student but funny and has some sort of fondness for me. We even have our own handshake. I told him it was American style.

Amber also bought me a nice jacket that she said seemed sort of Aaron style: a little gay, but not TOO gay. Of course mens fashion in Japan lately is incredibly flamboyant, with many colors, layers, frills, and buckles. Not quite my thing...

But what Amber really wants me to talk about is Friday night. She told me the Jamaican restaurant across the street from me was having a sort of live reggae guitar show that night, and that we should show up at about 830. I didn't think too much about it, as they've had similar shows in the past. But we showed up and there was no guitar show. Amber had purposefully lied to me!

If I look funny in these pictures, it's not my fault. Amber had a surprise birthday party for me, my very first one! I can't believe she managed to coordinate all that and get 13 or 14 people to come to out of the way Gunma-machi. However that little Aussie did it, it made me quite happy. I never had a surprise party before! After the dinner party a few closer friends I've made here came back to my place where we talked/drank/slept/etc..
Some of my presents at this party include an inflatable swan..."thing."
the description on the box it came in was pretty priceless as well.
And here's Amber sporting another present: a pair of inflatable breasts. The natural look on her face makes this a pretty good photo.

Anyway, later in the weekend me and Amber headed down to Tokyo for the day so I could indulge in another present: tickets to the Ghibli museum! Ghibli is the production studio for Miyazaki's films. Some of you have probably heard of or seen them: My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and a handful of others I forget off the top of my head. I'm a pretty big fan myself, and everyone in my family is a devoted totoro fan.

Here's us in front of the castle in the sky robot. I guess we are kind of little, huh.
I wasn't supposed to take a picture of the little children playing on the cat bus, but I couldn't resist.

A view of the outside part of the museum.

Quirky little water drain. And my shoes.

It was a great weekend. I'm sorry to write about a whole week after it happened, but I did go back to elementary school this past week, which makes me pretty tired. The kids are adorable, but consume my energy. Lucky they're so cute.

That's all for now, sorry if I've been leaving too long gaps between posts... I'll try to be better. 頑張ります！