Warning: Pictures Ahead

I've been thinking about goals. I considered a goal to turn this into a picture-a-day journal, since my Flickr account is reserved for the best pictures (and for preserving my monthly upload limit) but, as you can see, it hasn't happened yet. I might not have the diligence to post one picture a day. The purpose of this goal was for me to recognize the small daily wonders of my world, and to photograph them. Unfortunately, most of my time is at school, and I can't carry around a camera at school. I did get the chance to be in one of my elementary school's class photo shoots Monday. They are a small school with maybe 80 kids total. They took a general school photo of all the kids and staff, then the special sky photo. All my schools around here hire an airplane photographer every year to take a picture from the sky of the kids writing out the school's name. It's pretty cool, and beats the boring areal shot of the school property that I remember being on the wall of my high school. I received the chance to stand in also! I'll point to a dot in the photo and say, "that's my head." I can't wait to see these pictures. Until then, how about some of the unlucky photos that didn't make it to my flickr:

One of these cars is mine, one is its evil twin.

I took a lot of pictures at Miyajima (see top bar of my journal) and I loved the wild deer wandering around close.

Oh those crazy Tanukis. They love their sake.

Went to a theme park during my visit to Beppu and I was the only one man enough to go on the Japanese Cedar Point equivalent of the Power Tower.

At Beppu, we ate eggs that were boiled in the natural hot springs.

Here's one of the hot springs. The pole on the right holds a basket with the eggs that boil in the water.

Here's a mud spring at Beppu.

I did an Easter egg dying RS activity. Try that with no white vinegar and no color tablets.

One of the many Miyajima trips. This one with (L to R) Celestia, Me, Kaori, and Seiko.


I'm mesmerized by the mountains. It's the rainy season, and I love the mysteriousness of the rainclouds hanging around.

Here's the same mountains after snow. It quickly melted but I captured the moment.

Here's outside my apartment window after a snow.

On my goal list, I have other things. They sound like New Year's resolutions, but they also are future ideas. I love the comic called Life After the B.O.E (Board of Education) because it illustrates all the curious phenomenon English teachers deal with here. One, for example, is how many teachers tend to stay here, for one reason or another (a big reason I think: marriage, as this comic slightly infers to):

This thought personally scares me. I don't want to be a "lifer," and I don't see myself going through the cultural and language boundaries to meet a Japanese guy and stay here. I've never seen this job as a lifelong career, either. My thoughts have always been like this comic:

(By the way, JET stands for Japan Education and Teaching, which is a program through the government to come teach English in Japan. Members refer to themselves as "JETs") Although I don't plan on managing a hedge fund, I hope my experiences here can be a springboard to better things. Maybe graduate school?