deer like bums

So, I found out that the confusion on the volleyball court was actually a bit different than I had told you. I said "tabbimasen" which actually means "I DONT eat!", so here I was telling her I dont eat, in a way that she must have thought "I don:t eat volleyballs". Even weirder.
I have been playing TONS of volleyball though. Every day the students play their one sport that they choose and play all year, 5 days a week (so they get pretty good at it). So i have been joining in every practise and it has been like joining an in-depth japanese volleyball seminar all week. I have learned awesome drills and even words in japanese like "sabu" for serve, although I thought they were just saying serve in their own japanese english. funny how it kind of sounds the same. One of the girls lent me her shoes to wear for the practice which I tried to refuse and just wear barefeet, but that seemed to not go over well, so I wore the shoes but got embarrassed because i had to give them back to her all hot afterwards (atsui=hot), so the next day I was prepared to say i didn:t want to wear them again, and she insisted again and started showing me the grip on the bottom and I tried to say I am embarrassed to give them to her atsui and it just was not communicated. Fine, give me the damn shoes. Anyway, the girl then plays for 1/2 the practice and then slips over and sprains her ankle....in my mind, because she has crap shoes on because the foreigner has taken HER shoes!!! And i thought i wouldn:t have any stress on this trip.

Yesterday we went to a town by train with our students called Nara, which has lots of buddhist temples and we went to one that had a 16mhigh buddha. It was big..... and there were lots of deer roaming the streets, looking for people to feed them deer crackers which are sold everywhere. my better judgement told me to just let the students feed them and i am glad i did. the deer went crazy if you had the food. some butting heads against each other if a cracker fell on the ground. Others bit at students bums and backpacks. Little did i know i had lots of them following me because hogan (the japanese kids call him HORGAN) had put a cracker in the mesh pocket of my backpack.
I did get the nerve to put a cracker in my mouth and hold it out so a deer came and ate it from me. stinky breath though....

Went out for japanese at a real authentic restaurant (treated again by tomi:s uncle)...its kind of the equivalent to going to the Hilton hotel for dinner. Really neat food, lots of sashimi (raw fish), and a little sake (which was much nicer than i have tried in NZ before).

I could write for ages, and tell you lots more, but I have ramen to get too (udon noodle breakfast with tofu that Tomi has just made). I am having a really fun time and learning tons!

Very ka kooi! (cool)