Pic-Spam

My first week of teaching is over. I survived, the kids survived, the school came away with minimal damage. Totally not my fault though. On Thursday the typhoon landed in Gunma. Around eleven at night the winds picked up. Small tree branches were stripped from some of the trees at the school, and the tar paper on the roof was blown off. The damage to the roof was the worst since it caused a series of small leaks in the building, and some of the debris hit the school clock, breaking it.



Overall, the storm was no worse than a severe thunderstorm. By Friday morning the wind was gone, and the rain was slight. I spent most of the evening of my first typhoon in downtown Ota at a cooking class. Odelia, another JET, and I have signed up for a weekly lesson. It was a lot of fun. The class is about 10-12 people. Last week we made this:



The thing on the left is my favorite. It is thinly sliced chicken with a layer of seaweed spooned on top, covered in yellow, red, and green peppers, hot green pepper, and cheese. I think I might even be able to reproduce this one. The small bowl at top has pickled vegetables. I won't be making that at home since it takes three days to pickle. The soup in the other bowl was delicious, but requires equipment I don't have.





You might think this post has a lot of images in it. You'd be right, but we are no where close to being done. Today's activity was a walk through my neighborhood with my camera. The walk was delightful. A full two hours of discovering unseen gardens, houses, temples, and staircases. A walking guide to my neighborhood: