Spring in Shimonoseki

I've really been enjoying my first spring in Japan, especially when I heard all the stories about April snow from home. The symbol of spring in Japan is the cherry blossom, and this year I attended my first hanami (cherry blossom viewing party) at Senjoghara Park near my apartment.
















I keep hearing the word atarashi(new). There are lots of new things happening right now. Spring here is the start of a new school year. We have school year-round from April through mid-March. I'm really enjoying my new classes this year. The first year English majors at the high school are super energetic. Ruthie and I each have two extra classes this term. We're also tutoring students after school and coaching the English speech contestants, so we're staying pretty busy.


I've joined a yosakoi team at Baiko University, and we practice twice a week. It's great exercise and quite fun! It's interesting to try and use Japanese. The Japanese they use at yosakoi is really different from the Japanese we learn in class. In class we learn mostly formal Japanese. Speaking of Japanese class, we have a new teacher, Nakamuro-sensei. We were sad to see Ishi-sensei retire. She was very good at balancing the energy of our class. Our class (the "Japanese for Dummies" level) has 3 American women, one guy from Canada, one guy from New Zealand, and one guy from Hong Kong. Class is getting much harder, and I can no longer slide without studying. I've been here for 7 months, so I suppose it's time for me to move on from "I don't know." "Where is ...?" and "Let's go!" to actual conversations.