"Pancakes in the Clouds"

In the middle of the night,

the ocean crept up the beaches

and flooded Kakogawa.

We woke up in an Atlantis,

known, locally, as 濃霧.

We were swimming in clouds,

the buildings around us hidden in white,

the air in our mouths thick as cotton candy.

When I finally paddled my way into school,

the halls were ghostly,

eerily blue from the 濃霧,

eerily silent from the testing.

{It's test week for the lucky children.}

Because of the testing,

I had no classes to teach.

So, I sat my tush in the Teacher's Room

FOR-EV-ER. <--{Thank you, Liz.}

But after a few hours,

the door slid open...

and a little angel in an apron skipped inside

and gave me a hotcake with syrup and chocolate chips.

{The Kobetsu students are my hush-hush-don't-tell #1 favorites.}

For the rest of the day,

I tried to behave like an adult.

I prepared for my lessons

and stuffed my brain with kanji facts,

using Google Translate to help me with the tough ones.

This brought me immense joy,

{and a stomachache from concealed, hysterical laughter}

for when I typed in certain words,

I got Engrish.

I typed, "how are you doing" {調子はどう}

and got this.

And then, I heard the vice-principal say

"kochi koso"

which is typically said,

"kochira koso"

{meaning, "it was my pleasure"}.

So I typed it in

and got this. <--{Added the ?! for effect.}

But after a while of that,

my brain got bored again...

...so, I scribbled some pictures.

{I like 'em poofy.}

I began to doodle cartoon versions of all the ALTs,

starting with Liz.

I penciled in her hair,

then decided to give her extensions.

"That's kinda neat,"

I said to myself,

so I tried her new hairstyle on an anime character.

Congratulations, Liz,

you've been anime-fied.

Welcome to our L337 club. {:D}

This is my Chinese guardian, Chin.

He's a long-necked lion.

Please love him.

{I was Wiki-ing minorities in Japan,

read about the dog-lions in Okinawa,

and stumbled over to Chinese lions.

Pretty fantastic stuff.}

And this is my Totoro friend.

♥

Phew, what a day it's been!

PS: I gotta take a break from the bakery shopping,

else I'll begin to look like this handsome devil.

Hot diggity.

{Fog via Astronautka}

{Pancakes via Avs-Avs}