flowers!

 
 
 
 

Night Safari

 
 
In the evening, we went to see the night safari. It was really cool, like a "Jurassic Park" style zoo at night. We rode a tram through the "jungle" to see all kinds of animals, some standard ones like lions, zebras, elephants and giraffes, but also many that are more nocturnal, such as anteaters. I've never seen a giant anteater before. You can also walk through it, and we walked along one part that had many more small animals. There is one cage you can walk through: the flying fox. The sign on the outside door says that the animals inside are harmless, but if you don't like bats, you shouldn't go in. There were double doors that would only open when the one behind was closed, to keep the animals from escaping. The bats weren't easy to see in the dim light, and they blended in with the branches. The biggest one was about the size of a chihuahua with wings. As we were watching one, it suddenly released two streams of fluid, one clear and the other red (#1 and #2?). We narrowly missed being hit by it! Later on, we saw the "creatures of the night" show, and I had my picture taken with a couple of the animals. After hitting the gift shops, we headed back to her place, and had to get up early to catch my flight the next morning. Overall, it was an awesome trip, and definately the most spontaneous thing I've ever done!

Baking party!

 
 
 
Last Saturday I hosted a baking party at my house. Four of my friends came, and we had a really fun time! It was a strictly women-only event, and we made sugar cookies, chocolate crinkles, oatmeal raisin cookies, apple pie, and banana bread. A few things got a little dark, but everything was super yummy! We ordered pizza for dinner after most everything had been baked, and I also made a salad. I had considered a video, but we were content to chat the whole evening. Four other friends I had invited couldn't come, but a few people said I should host another one for Christmas. I think I may! It's so much more fun baking together, and we could sample different kinds this way.

Random

No picture, no point, I just sort of feel like posting. I've finally gotten a little better about checking other people's blogs, so I finally understand how frustrating it is when you check repeatedly and keep finding the same post, with nothing new. It's kind of impractical that way.
Anyhow, it's 4am and it's about time I was asleep!

Genkan

 
 
 
This is my front entry-way, or genkan. The first picture is the view from it, of my stairs and hallway that goes back to the bathroom and the kitchen. To the right is the adult classroom, and to the left is the hallway that leads to the waiting room and children's classroom. The window is really pretty, frosted glass with a Japanese scene decorating it. The flowers were a present from a concert. The final picture is the view of the genkan and front door from the hallway. It's nice and big, and I have lots of room for shoes. The step is also a good height for sitting to take your shoes off, but not so high that I can't do it without sitting, either.

Length of the house

 
This is a picture taken from the kids classroom, down the hallway, into the adult classroom, to show the longest possible length of the house.

Children's classroom

 
 
 
Here are a few angles of the children's classroom, the biggest room in my house. It's essentially twice the size of the waiting room, and it also is tatami covered by carpeting. First there is really old brown carpeting, on top of that there is the blue carpeting you can see, and the yellow is a really soft Winnie the Pooh carpet. I teach two classes in here. Sadly, we don't have so many kid students in Niitsu. Chris has a few more classes here on another day. The rest of the time, this is my favorite room to practice my horn in, partly because of it's size, but also because it's the farthest from any neighbors. The ceilings are quite high with the exception of the divider in the middle. If the room were only tatami, there would probably be sliding doors there, dividing it into two rooms. The closet in the corner would hold a Buddhist altar for the typical Japanese family. Right now it's filled with school supplies :-).