Snow Day!

Well, what do you do when you have absurd amounts of snow, boys who hate English, and a (self-proclaimed) damn cool English teacher??? Have a snow day!!! What might that entail, you wonder? Nothing less than snowmen and kamakura (snow houses) Now, Akita is actually famous for it's kamakura's and particularly, the Kamakura Festival held in Yokote City - in the south part of Akita - but everyone in the prefecture makes them so I thought it would actually be a culture swap of sorts, making snowmen and kamakuras. Of course, it was also a lot of fun (^-^) We did run in to a little trouble making the snowmen (the snow was so incredibly powdery! We had a lot of trouble getting it to pack) but all in all, I think we did a good job and had a good time!

Assembling outside... With all the snow we actually weren't sure where to start our efforts, we decided to go down by the bike racks, which I wish I had photographed simply to show insane amounts of snow... maybe later

We see some boys in the background starting out the bodies of the snowmen and to the left are the boys starting the kamakuras. Now, technically, a kamakura is made by first creating a large pile of snow and then hollowing out the insides to build a little shelter. However, seeing as how the snow is so high, we (and by we I mean they) simply started directly with a wall of snow created after plowing the street and just hollowed out a little cubby hole rather then a hut. I wasn't picky though (^-^)

Here we see Kazuya and Abe making good progress on their kamakura

Tatsuya (and Wataru) take a break from working on their kamakura

Tomonari (and Shota) put the final touches on their snowmen

Shota with his creation - I felt horrible because I had meant to bring carrots, buttons and what not to perfect the snowmen and I just completely forgot (_ _)

Hiroki and Ryuta hanging out in a kamakura

Me and Abe stayin out of the wind

Tatsuya and Wataru's kamakura actually caved in... but it allowed for some silly shots and a cute movie that I'll try and post soon.

Our day in the snow has come to an end... Here we see Ryuta giving Seiya a ride back inside. Poor Seiya didn't have a coat or anything... I don't know why these boys have to try and be so tough, at least he has some nice snow boots though (^-^)

Well, our day off from English was a good time enjoyed by all... Of course, my hands took about an hour to regain feeling but, such is the price we pay (^-^)v