A trip to Ikea and the first day back

This weekend was the last of my spring break. I went back to work today, which was kind of a bummer. It's not like work was bad or anything- just not as good as not work, right? This school year I have 3 schools instead of 6, so I'll spend a lot more time at each school. Also, all my schools are within 30 minutes of home, so no more crazy long commutes that wear me out! Two of my schools are from last year so I'm familiar with most of the students and teachers. I will go to my new school next week, so that means I'll be doing a ton of self introductions.

The weather here is finally starting to warm up, though its still been rainy. I can never understand the weather changes that happen here- the day will start sunny and clear then end rainy. A week can start out freezing cold and stormy and, in a matter of days, go up ten degrees and turn out nice. And the weather forecasts are always always off- they're of a general guess than even the forecasts at home were. But today, even after raining, its nice and warm out so we have out livingroom sliding glass door open. Oh- its still quiet for now too, meaning the crickets and cicadas haven't woken up from the cold. In peak bug season, when they're all out at night creaking and screaming, it gets frickin LOUD. So loud that you practically need to yell to have a conversation outside at night. As annoying as that can be, I still kind of miss the cicada noises. They remind me of our first weeks spent in Japan- and of course any anime or Ghibli film set in the summer. I'm a bit excited for their return- though I'm not excited for the humidity that will come at the same time. Last night we were walking to Family Mart and I'm pretty sure we heard the first cicada of the season buzzing away nearby. Won't be long now.

And finally, its April, so everyone knows that means only one thing- Kris' Birthday Month! The monthly celebration of Kris' life has started and, as you've seen, we've celebrated by spending time with friends, drinking under sakura blossoms, and eating some great food. Most recently we went to Ikea to finally get Kris a desk that suits his needs. We tried to find a used desk first but none of them were cheap enough! I'm guessing all the reasonably priced desks get bought up pretty quick around all these schools. So Ikea was the best option for us. We got Kris a desk with a monitor stand and a new chair for his first official b-day gift, and boy does he love it. If you've seen the orange desk he used to have its basically an INSANELY better version of that. We also moved the livingroom around a bit. Instead of couch cushions on the ground (for snuggling under the kotatsu) we have them back on the couch frame in the same corner. The old desk (my new desk!) is right next to Kris'. Our laundry drying rack got pushed to a distant corner, and now the kotatsu is kind of just in the middle of the room, a little bit in the way, but oh well.

For now we'll go back to the daily grind- me getting up early and going to work, Kris sleeping in late but then cooking dinner for us. Luckily Golden Week is coming up soon, so I'll have time off again in only two weeks.

K+K