Toasted

So I had my 21 kilometer (13 miles) walk yesterday. I had a choice between hiking Mt. Hakkaisan (a big pretty mountain here), or doing a half marathon walk for KJ. The 3rd year students hike the mountain, the 1st and 2nd year students do the half marathon walk. Teachers are supposed to do it with the grades they teach and since I'm technically a 2nd year teacher (even though I teach all levels) I decided I'd do the half marathon walk. I figured it'd be good bonding with my fellow teachers that don't really seem to give me the time of day. They actually seemed happy when I said I was going to do it with them so that was really nice. I finally felt I was going to get "IN" at school.

A teacher picked me up at 7:40 am on monday. We parked and walked. There was a big opening ceremony thing then 500 people, including all of KJs first and second year students started a walk. I wasn't sure WHERE we were walking to, but I knew we'd end up where we started. Then I realized that all of the teachers weren't doing it with me. They were just standing on the sides watching and cheering. Why the hell did I have to do this? The vice principal told me I had to... but WHY? Along the way I found one other teacher, my supervisor, and he didn't really want to walk with me. So I walked with a bunch of first year students and came across a few second years along the way. We walked up and down a mountain a few times. It wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. The weather was great for it. Unfortunately I didn't put on any sunscreen and below you will see the results. The best tan I've ever gotten in my whole life. Did I say tan? I mean burn.

After the walk I asked one of the teachers what I was supposed to do, there was word of a free lunch. He said "there's a free lunch over where we started." so I wandered around looking for it for about fifteen minutes and never found it. I also couldn't find my ride there so I walked home. It wasn't that far, about a 30 minute walk. But after 21km a half hour walk isn't particularly appealing. I got home and ate lunch and stretched and watched a whole lot of 30 Rock. Then Hilary and I decided for dinner we'd like to make some mexican food. We drove to JUSCO, the big grocery store a town over, they have tortillas. We drove and parked, ran in, got some veggies and tortillas. Hopped back in the car and... and... and... and... it didn't start. This isn't the FIRST time this happened. Less than a week ago I was driving and stopped for a second the CD player died and then the car died. Luckily I was stopped at a gas station. I bought a new battery for the car and it was fine. I drove home. This time was more problematic because I wasn't anywhere near a train station and the bus that runs to the train station stopped running. I would have walked it... but my legs were a bit sore and the thought of walking for 45 minutes to a train station wasn't really appealing. I called Yoko and talked to her about it and she came and picked me up and drove me home. On the drive home she asked if why I hadn't gone to the enkai (the teachers only food and drink party) after the half marathon walk and why I didn't partake in the free lunch and free onsen (bath house) deal. I realized now, more than ever, that my school is really pretty bogus. They didn't tell me about any of these things at all. Well, the Mexican food was tasty, at least.


The photos came out looking actually more tan than burned but trust me... it's a burn...

The arm, not TOO bad...



Yikes...