am-hayes

[am-hayes]

It has been a new adventure that is for sure.

I am working at a new company called Orca Kidz. Yes, it is supposed to be a Z not an S. Cute right? Haha!

Anyway, as I have said in an older post I am working with 0 to 2 year olds. But there have been a few older kids that have been around that I have also been working with. But my main kids are the small youngsters.

It has been a totally new experience for me. It feels like a fall on day care center, but is leaning more toward education than just basic child care. With a big influence of English/western influences. Such as English speaking staff and lessons given in English.

But nothing has been 100% decided. So I am creating lessons and well a whole curriculum. I feel like I am not the most experienced teacher for this type of opportunity but I am working my hardest to make it all work out for the best. As always I am putting the education of my students first, but also trying to keep it fun and educate through natural learning from playful activities and music. Yes, my outgoing energetic self helps keep the kids entertained as well.

I will continue to do my utmost as I always do. I know I give a little too much of myself to the job, but I would rather keep the kids happy and healthy than to just float though it all. Their bright little smiles are what keep me going day in and day out.

It keeps me thinking about the future. Do I look into something in early childhood like I had wanted to from the very start? I really don’t want to go back to university though… Students loans are a total bitch!

  Orca Homepage

Orca Instagram

The New Job It has been a new adventure that is for sure. I am working at a new company called Orca Kidz.

[am-hayes]

Another Chapter Ending

My contract ended on the 9th of this month with the company called MLS (Model Language Studio). For personal and not so personal reasons I decided not to renew my contract for another year.

Now I have found a new home with a brand new company called Orca Kidz. No that is not a spelling error but a trendy move, or so my boss says. It’s an international daycare center that is for children 0-2 years…

[am-hayes]

Feeling Empowered

March has been a big month of lots of firsts and changes. One being that Keisuke and I finally had our wedding ceremony. There was also the first time in Hawaii and the use of UBER!

The wedding was big, but for now lets talk about something a little less exciting and something more self empowering.

I wore a two piece swimsuit and it didn’t effect anything.

Now it wasn’t a bikini or anything but…

[am-hayes]

Wedding date is just around the corner; March 15th is coming faster with each passing day. I am not sure if I am fully ready but I know that it is all bought and paid for with our hotel in Hawaii. Yes, you read that correctly HAWAII!

I have never been there but it is like a middle ground for both families. I am hoping that everyone can enjoy the vacation like setting and the exiting event that is to come, the wedding!

My dress and shoes are ready, hair and make up appointment booked, and our dinner luau event is all set up! Just have to make sure that Keisuke’s outfit is perfect and ready to go. He might need a trim, he got it cut a while back for his cousins wedding but I want him all snazzy for ours too.

I have some simple picture decorations I pasted together for chairs or maybe just on a table or something. I am not sure what’s best, haha! I will get a feeling for it when I am there I think but unfortunately I can’t set it up but I trust our wedding coordinator Nicole. I just need to finish them up a bit.

I also had made hand made cards as reminders/invitations for the family. I am not sure they they are the greatest, but it was made with love. They are not as clean cut as something that was ordered and printed from Shutterfly, but isn’t the hand crafted quality fun?? Who knows.

There still feels like there is so much to do and yet I am not sure what I am supposed to be doing. I am excited for everything but I am worried at the same time. It all feels as if it is still just in planning stages yet. But I know things are more solid and finalized. Hotels have been booked, plane tickets are ready to go. I am not sure why I feel like I am missing something.

One thing I know I need to is find a wonderful picture of my mother. I have already asked for two extra chairs to be set out for my mother and Keisuke’s grandpa. I plan to put out pictures of them. I don’t know how else to honor them at our wedding. We all wish they could both be there, but I know they will be there in spirt.

My biggest worry right now is that my wedding dress doesn’t get lost on rout to Hawaii.

Let the countdown begin!

      Coming down to the wire! Wedding date is just around the corner; March 15th is coming faster with each passing day. I am not sure if I am fully ready but I know that it is all bought and paid for with our hotel in Hawaii.

[am-hayes]

Feeling Good

It is a new year and so much has happened. Families have finally met face to face, Keisuke and I are soon to hold our wedding ceremony, and visas are a changing. So much still to do and I am feeling rather good.

I am not sure if it is the winter break or what that has my spirits high because I am feeling more active than I have in a while. Cleaning up and changing up the house has been my latest…

[am-hayes]

A mess with no simple answers.

A mess with no simple answers.

Wedding dress has been bought but will it fit? That is another question all together. I have been struggling with working out and my eating habits are not so great but not so bad. I feel like I have gained weight. I see it in my face and feel it in my toes.

I no longer have a sit down job, no desk sitting for me these days, but I have had little to no energy to want to do more than I have to.…

[am-hayes]

Okay, where do I start. Well to sum it all up, I am married and now living in Chiba! AND I live right next to Tokyo Disney Land! WOOHOO!

Oh, yep. I am hitched!

How did it all happen? Well, so much has changed. I decided to leave my job with JET early. It was a very tough and hard choice to make but in the end I decided that it was the best choice for me, at the time. Though it has caused some issues and troubles that most would not have to deal with coming off of JET normally, but I have my wonderful husband to help me figure out how fix the messes that have come up. And issues that keep coming up, THEY JUST NEVER WANT TO GO AWAY. Let’s just say that the song “bitch better have my money” plays often in my head because of these troubles. Sadly I am the “bitch” that the song is speaking of…

ANYWAY!

My husband! Keisuke popped the question back in May on his birthday. We had been visiting my family to celebrate the new addition of the little new born, Emory. Keisuke asked “will you marry me” while we had been celebrating his birthday with a nice dinner and we had not been alone! He was so brave and handsome as he got down on one knee IN FRONT OF MY WHOLE FAMILY! Oh and not to forget everyone else that had been at the restaurant we had been at. Regardless, I said “YES!”

Now don’t forget I am currently living in Japan. Yes, INTERNATIONAL life living as an international couple. WOOHOO! So we decided to follow more of the Japanese way of getting married. AKA signing your marriage certificate before you have the marriage ceremony; the “engagement” period. We also got married on paper because we have so much immigration stuff to take care of. More details on that at a later time.

I have also changed my last name, at least more so here in Japan. Say hello to AMANDA MARIE TANAKA! I have updated my passport to reflect the name change but most of the ways I need to update my name in the united states I need to go to the offices in person. For example changing my name on my social security card. It going to be hard overseas because they need 100% proof that I am me and my name has changed. They mostly want me to go in person or MAIL my passport and original documents to them.  No thank you.

That is just a quick sum up of changes and whats been going on. Nothing too detailed but that is for posts to come. Like the stresses of planning a wedding while knowing nothing about what the hell you are supposed to be doing! Luck for me my sister is a wedding planner! WOO!

Questions? Feel free to message me!

WTF – Where have you been??? Okay, where do I start. Well to sum it all up, I am married and now living in Chiba!

[am-hayes]

#Matsuyama #familytrip #dogoonsen #silly #exciting #fun #joy #love #together #travel #ehime #somuchfood #delicious #tillnexttime (at Matsuyama, Ehime)

[am-hayes]

March 18th was little old Yanai’s spring festival, “Let’s play with flowers and scents!” This festival has become more popular and successful as of late due to how active the city has been promoting it. But sadly the truth of the matter is that fewer foreigners know about the event due to the lack of English used for promotions. But luckily I already had knowledge of the event from my first year here. This year they even stepped up their game.

The festival is always geared towards women wearing kimonos while they walk along the historical white walled street. The festival wants women and girls to feel like a princess from years long past as they walk down the traditional styled streets. I know I sure did with all the compliments I was getting about my kimono and how well it suited me and my adorable face.

This was the second year I got to participate in the festival and invited my good friend Becca to take part in the event as well. She looked lovely in her sakura kimono and matching pink hair clip! My handsome boyfriend Keisuke and my wonderfully fantastic JTE Morihara-sensei joined us for the festivities as well. They ended up becoming our camera crew and assistants if we dropped anything. Bending down to pick up anything is terribly difficult when you have corset like layers of fabric wrapped around your waist.

Together the four of us enjoyed the sights and sounds that was the small festival on the white walled street.

Children laughed and ran about with family in toe, women walked in kimonos while smiling and complimenting one another, and men brave enough to dress up in traditional dress had festival treats in hand; all moving among the busy street full of vendors selling goods and festival foods. It was a wonderful mixture of attractions and people to make this year’s festival great.

I also had a few proud mama moments at the festival I stumbled upon my students working hard as volunteers. It made me so happy that they would volunteer for such an event and that they would do so under the name of our school. It made me even happier to say I am a teacher at Yanai High School and these are my fantastic students. They made my smile shine even brighter that day.

By the end of the event Becca and I were ready to take off our kimonos. While kimonos are beautiful and fun to try on for a day, they are tiring to wear. I was struggling a bit since it was a day of straight back training for me.  Becca said her feet got a beating from the workout they got in the geita she was wearing. After we changed back into our street clothes we chatted with the kind ladies we borrowed our kimonos from. They had been all too excited to work with us and talk to us during a “tea break” because we all shared a drink and snacks together.

Since this was the last time I could enjoy the festival while living in Yanai I am ever so grateful to everyone that I had got to meet and enjoy the day with. There were so many surprise meetings of family and friends, along with new faces. It was really a very special day for me and I know I will remember it for a long time.

Then again… next year there is to be a kimono wearing contest. All the ladies were all trying to get me to say I’ll come back to Yanai for, Morihara sensei too. So you hear that Keisuke? Guess we need to take Mom and Dad and come back! Let’s win the award for best couple Kimonos!

“Let’s play with flowers and scents!” March 18th was little old Yanai’s spring festival, "Let's play with flowers and scents!" This festival has become more popular and successful as of late due to how active the city has been promoting it.

[am-hayes]

Um... I call an Offside???

Um… I call an Offside???

Yesterday was an exciting day in the wonderful world that is my life. It was Class Match at Yanai High School for the 1st and 2nd years, since 3rd years have already graduated. For those of you who don’t remember or have no clue, class match is a day where each grade and class fights against one another to win the title of overall champion. They battle it out by winning different sports events.…

[am-hayes]

Yep... That just happened.

Yep… That just happened.

Yanai is a rather chill little town. It only gets a little loud when its festival season but everything is silent by 8:30 pm. It really is a ma and pop kind of setting. That was until this morning. I swear I was back in University watching a scene that I had stumbled upon all too often. Like any other morning I was walking to school headed to the Family Mart near school to buy some bread for my…

[am-hayes]

What is next? #japan #jet #jobfair #teaching #love #future #friends #baeandi #nextsteps #inittogether #support #everydaywithyou (at Tokyo, Japan)

[am-hayes]

Sometimes I forget I’m not in MN anymore when I stumble on sweet moments like these. #homesweethome #japan #nostalgic #heartwarmingmoments #human #life (at Yanai)

[am-hayes]

Can I just say, WE ARE DOOMED!

I just got over my cold. It was a rather nasty one. Runny/stuffy nose, with a sore throat, and a horrid cough to match. It was partially my fault that it got as bad as it had, not wearing proper winter wear when running around Hiroshima one day, but damn it I wanted to look cute and well… I paid for it. But that isn’t why the teachers of Yanai Koko are doomed. Far from it actually. The kids have…

[am-hayes]

Hiroshima is always full of adventure! ♥️ #food #haircuts #Laff #hiroshima #bae&me #coffee #Starbucks #chocolate #travel #love #cold #snow

[am-hayes]

Keisuke’s Grandma is the sweetest lady ever! Slowly her letters are gaining more and more English. What a cutie, right?! She is 81 years old but still putting her brain to work. Totally proves you are never too old to try new things! #insperation #love #family #friends #cutestthingever #baeandi (at Yanai)

[am-hayes]

They all have been working so hard. I’m so proud of them no matter what! Go, fight, WIN! #growingup #teaching #altlife #japan #goingtocollege (at Yanai)