Snow and Soba...

i always feel like we should be having a normal day but it never seems to work out that way. Today we travelled again by shinkansen (bullet train) to a place about 1 1/2 hrs north(?) out of Tokyo to see some snow. There are ski resorts and stuff at this place and some of the students have never touched snow (most had seen it) before so we headed up to the bottom of a ski hill and rented some plastic toboggans. You know the real budget but perfect sleds? We had a great time and almost collided with every other skiier on the hill. It was perfect! One of the runs down the hill resulted in my whole face being covered by snow, sunglasses and all. Then Tomi and I went to a Soba restaurant (while the students continued playing in the snow and making snowmen). The only problem of this whole little escapade was the first time I went down the hill I held my hand out to slow down. My thumb unfortunately went in a hole while the rest of my body continued its forward progression. Not fun. I don:t think it is broken but definitely sprained. Annoying as you use your thumb for almost everything, worst of all chopsticks!!! Which brings me back to the Soba restaurant. We had a feast!
His mothers best friend owns the restaurant so we got more royal treatment and had cold Soba (buckwheat) noodles which are served cold and then dipped in this saucy juice which you concoct yourself with Wasabi and spring onions. So yummy. and that was only one part of the meal. We also had tempura (like deep fried but a little lighter taste) pumpkin, eggplant and shrimp. AND deep fried mochi (rice cake) and some kind of fish AND more japanese pickles and cabbage and stufffff. It was so yummy! Then when you are done the noodles you take hot water and pour it into your soba saucy juice (no other way to describe it!) and make your own kind of soup. I loved it. Then I had some slices of apple. The japanese apples are seriously huge, like half the size of my head. Not kidding!!

Then we headed back to Tokyo and went to the electronics market called Akihabara. A bit crazy and fun for techno heads I;m sure. Not my cup of tea. But some of the students bought ipods and PSP`s and other trinkets so it was worth the trip.

they have a free day tomorrow so they are all desperately making plans and then changing them to try and see all they want to see. They only have tomorrow and Monday left in Tokyo and then they stay in a homestay and go to school. I will not join them every day because....I don:t really want to sit in the back of a japanese classroom. Done it, got the postcard. I would rather see more of Tokyo so I get to have a few more free days ahead of me.
The plans so far tomorrow seem to revolve around ice skating (i keep bragging to the students about how great my mom is at ice skating....which she is, but its a bit foreign to them to try it so theyre really excited). The subway system is pretty complex here and one girl went back this morning to grab something in the hostel she left behind, and got confused and lost and ended up sitting on the side of the road and crying. Anyway, she made her way back to us, but it has reminded me that they are all still really young kids. And not to expect TOO much from them.
We:ll see how many tears are created tomorrow. Oh well, they have to grow up sometime, right?

Great to get some of the extra emails from you guys. I am feeling more in touch now!
Miss you, one more week to go and then SUMMER AGAIN!!