1st day at school, momma!

I thought it was, anyway.
Thought I had lessons, so I was a little worried because I hadn't prepared any.
Got to school early (without a bicycle) and got to the task of planning my lessons.
I designed some lessons based around talking and writing about the school holidays.
Turns out there are no lesson today.
Tomorrow there are exams, so no classes then, either.
First calssses Wednesday.
Yesssssss!!!

Pressure off, I relaxed a little and enjoyed the constant flow of 'omiyage' - a veritable tradition here in Japan. Omiyage is more or less a souvineer from some place. The person who travels is pretty much pressured into bringing something back for those that didn't. Usually it's something small and edible, especially made or designed for this huge 'omiyage' industry. Every hotel in every town in Japan will have their omiyage section. People buy all sorts of meaningless crap, just so that they've bought 'something' for their bosses, coworkers, friends, etc.
It's big business here. I try not to do that, as I only have so much room in my bags and so much money in my pocket.
Sometimes, though, the omiyage is nice.

Here's a selection of some I'm having with my cup of tea, right now:


The cow cookie from Fukushima was very nice. For soemr eason, this area fo Japan is famous for a paper mache dancing head cow (I have one).

Next, this is some kind of cheese cracker.
It's not bad.

This a manju. from someplace.
It was pretty good.

This was a sembei cracker. a rice cracker. A traditional snack in Japan. This one is wrapped in nori (seaweed). Very nice. Crunchy and savoury.

Very nice.
Now, I'm off to get my bike back (they took it - again).