If anybody is reading this, sorry for taking so long to post anything new. I am still mentally recovering from my visit to Seoul and Okinawa and have been relaxing every weekend- reading a lot but obviously not writing so much. A short version of what happened from then until now: my brother bought a plane ticket to come visit for the end of March. He will fly into Miyazaki city, spend one day here, we will go to Kagoshima, catch a plane to Osaka, take a train to Kyoto, maybe Nara, and end up in Tokyo. He will bring a suitcase full of goods not available in Japan and I may die of happiness, we will eat sushi, and inevitably karaoke. This is definitely something for me to look forward to because it is my last week off until August, my brother is a lot of fun, and I STILL haven't been to Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka. in other breaking news, my bike was stolen this weekend, but the thief was kind enough to hang up my umbrella that was in the basket. In other words, they had a lot of integrity to only steal a little bit from me, they didn't get greedy and take it all. I was a bit surprised this happened, but well.... it gave me the excuse I needed to buy my new bike I bought today. There are some really nice parks and waterfalls around the area that will be good to bike to when it warms up a bit.
My new bikes has six speeds so that I can take it up in the mountains. Last week the school I work at took our kids to go pick strawberries. 
I ate a lot of them because they are normally too expensive for to afford. We have a lot of events like this that occur frequently and sometimes on the weekend. This weekend I have to go be the MC to this English speaking contest, the week after that there is some international game day I have to attend on a Saturday, and the weekend after that is our goodbye picnic for our graduating students. Sometimes I get the following Monday off. This weekend my coworker and I went to Beppu, check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ the hotspring capital of the world and took a mud bath, a sand bath, and toured the Jinkoku or "Hells" Beppu has to offer. These are really cool geothermal hotsprings that are the most incredible colors and are too hot to get into. They made each one a theme, one even has alligators in it, one had an elephant, one cooked eggs, you name it....This picture is at a Jingoku onsen as well.
Beppu is a city worth going back to because hotsprings are always nice-and the ones here are really extensive. I finally made it to the one a few blocks away from my house and that one is worth the four dollars as well. In Beppu they even have hikes out in the mountains where you can find hidden hotsprings, AND they have a Hello Kitty Land I didn't have a chance to go to yet, they have a cable car that takes you into the mountains so you can get a view of the whole steamy city, a park full of wild monkeys, and a lot of nice people. I think the people are so relaxed because there is a hotspring on every corner for when the Japanese way of life proves to be too stressful. The highlight of the trip may have been getting into the mens only hotspring on accident and getting yelled at by the attendent, or it could have been going to Hit Parade, a sixties style club where you can request whatever songs you want with all you can eat and drink, which- turns out to be alot. 
Other news since the last post, my coworkers Sarah has put in her notice to quit so it looks like I may be a little more alone in Miyakonojo for the duration of my contract, however, I went to a gathering of most English teachers in the area and met some other really cool girls that live only a few blocks away. This weekend, my coworker Kerry, Sarah, and I are going to Nagasaki for Chinese New Year. I'm not really sure what to expect but we are stopping by Costco in Fukuoka on the way back so that will be about the most American thing that will have happened to me since my departure. What else what else, or as they say in Japanese, etto.....etto..........Sarah and I tried out Sushi Tora, a rotating sushi restaurant in Miyakonojo. 
Picture c/o Sarah. It was excellent and it helps alleviate the task of figuring out how to read the menu which can be painstaking and often doesn't happen. We also found this all you can eat pizza and pasta place for about 13 dollars that is pretty good, without too many weird varieties of pizza. Japanese pizza can get really weird, there is almost always corn and mayonnaise on it and sometimes mochi.
What else...Oh yeah. They have this holiday here called Setsubun where a monster scares the bejeezus out of the kids and they retaliate by throwing peanuts at him.My coworker dressed up like a monster to scare the kids and they freaked. It was hilarious. Here are some pictures.
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