snow monsters

on saturday i went to mount zao in yamagata prefecture (the prefecture west of miyagi prefecture where i live) to see the snow monsters. it's hard to describe, but basically its trees that get covered with snow and look like monsters with the way they're covered with the snow. really neat looking. the photos below will give you a better idea of what i'm talking about. it was cool playing in the snow, despite the freezing cold temperatures.

and as usual, more photos on my flickr site HERE


above, from left to right: laura, chris, andy, jenny (in front), julianna, casey




above, from left to right: jenny, julianna, tanya, chris, andy, laura







above: Chris




above: tanya and julianna




above: tanya


above: tanya and laura



above, from left to right: tanya, laura, jenny, julianna (the guys told us to sit on this snow monster tree for a photo....but the snow collapsed and laura and i fell off! no worries, no one got hurt!)


so instead we took a photo standing behind it. from left to right: jenny, tanya, julianna, laura

photography stuff

A few weekends ago I went to a photography event. One of the high school photography club teachers in the area organized this event and invited photo club students from other high schools. So since I pretty much run the photo club at my school, I went. A professional Japanese photographer was there and gave a lecture. Then students had a 2 or 3 hours to shoot 2 rolls of film around the city, and then got them developed and then the photographer gave feed back on the photos. Each student picked 3 of their favorite photos, and then about a $10 gift certificate was given to the top 5 winners for one of the electronic and photo stores here. It was a tiring day, but I enjoyed it because I went with this teacher at my school, Minako Tanaka. MinakoTanaka is an English teacher and I will be teaching with her in April, when the new school year starts. She is also the assigned photography club teacher. She was on leave for 3 years because she had twins. So if you're pregnant and have kids, you can take up to 3 years off, but I don't think you get paid all 3 years, but you're guaranteed your job when you come back. So she started back in September. Anyway her and I have become good friends. My job situation is like 10 times better because of her. She has 4 daughters, the twins who are 3 years old, a 9 year old, and a 12 year old. Her husband is also a teacher at a different high school; he teaches Japanese literature.

Anyway, when the students went around the city taking photos, we split into groups, so Minako and I went with some of the students to help them. I managed to take a few photos myself, but nothing spectacular since I was busy trying to help the students. And so thought I would post a few.

and speaking of photography, I'll be submitting my photos for 2 different photo exhibitions that are coming up soon. One is for the Miyagi Prefecture JET Association art show the 3rd weekend in April, and then the other one I don't know all the details yet, but another JET photographer was looking for a 3rd person to join him and his friend who are entering an exhibition, and I showed him some of my photos and I guess he liked my stuff (or maybe couldn't find anyone else!) and asked me to join their group and submit photos for the exhibition.