Imagination > Knowledge

Adult growing pains

2010-07-19T09:01:00.002-04:00

I'm experiencing some adult growing pains. The kind where you have to finally step out of the limbo between childhood and adulthood, and choose a path. Nothing is set in stone, that's not the way life works, but you have to choose a beginning. For me this beginning means such an abundance happiness, but with a side order of pain with a sense of longing dipping sauce. It's only at random, inopportune times that I feel sad for some of the choices I have made.

In choosing my beginning, I cut out some people, friends, that were pretty important in helping to shape who I have become. The path I have chosen no longer includes those people, but there was a time in my life when I thought I would spend the rest of my life with those people. It is a very difficult decision for me to deal with, and I do question if my extreme decision to sever ties was really warranted.

I think it all comes down to the fact that I feel everything as though my emotions were tangible. I experience my feelings in such an intense and passionate way that I can't pick and choose parts of a friendship I want to keep. I do not have the strength and will power to be friends with a skin deep relationship after so many years of turmoil and bonding and confidence and love. I am a logical and rational person until it comes to my relationships; my emotions and passion take over and sabotage the stability in my life.

To you I have asked to journey on without me next to you, I cannot say I am unaffected and always happy about this choice. You will never read this, but I hope my eloquence has displayed itself a little better here and that you know in your heart how important you were to me and how important your happiness still is to me.

A very very Merry Merry

2009-12-24T23:39:00.002-05:00

The most Merry Christmas to everyone out there! I really hope that love and happiness finds everyone this season. Because of all the snow last weekend, we have a truly white Christmas so everything feels very festive for tomorrow. I am so happy to be home with my family for the evening. I am always reminded how important family is when I finally get to see mine after so many months of "real life."

As the year draws to a close, I have been considering the past months and how my life has changed since the beginning of 2009. There have been so many important events and transformations over the year that I hope I can take this momentum into 2010 and create a good life for myself.

Enjoy your family time, and I will be doing a brain dump in the next few days.

Baby steps

2009-12-21T21:49:00.002-05:00

Today the sun was shining, so that's a good sign. My heart is still heavy, and my eyes fill with tears at random moments - the sound of a familiar song, an old memory pops into my head - but these feelings will help me to grow and continue on a forward moving path through life.

I'm not at all ready for Christmas, but I am VERY ready to be with my family. After being half way around the world during the holidays last year, I am very thankful to spend this time with my family and to tell them I love them whenever possible. I am fortunate in that I will always have a home with wonderful parents where I know I am welcome any time.

I think we all need a safe haven. For some that is a physical place, for others that is a person - for everyone it is a necessary part of hurting and healing from which none of us are exempt. Perhaps it is cliche, but the truth remains; the holidays are a perfect time for nostalgia, memories, and feeling every emotion of which you are capable. I'm thankful for the life I am living and my ability to remember so many wonderful things. I have learned a lot about change and transition, but I still feel deeply and cling dearly to the memories I have made with those whom I love.

For as sad as I have felt over the past week, and the sadness I am sure to experience in the coming weeks, I am eternally thankful for the abounding love and support in my life. Sadness is an emotion like any other that needs to be felt and shouldn't be ignored, but I am looking forward to the near future when my inclination is to laugh instead of cry.

And to end on a happy note, even through my foggy tears, I have a wonderful network of friends and family that all made me feel really special today.

2009-12-20T13:53:00.002-05:00

Today is awful. My tears just won't stop. My heart hurts and I don't know that it will ever feel whole again. It's hard to breathe and I just can't stop my head from spinning. I don't like when life doesn't make sense. I need to find God again, I need to learn to rely upon myself again. I have to figure out how to push through life while the debris is falling around me. I know I am not the only person that feels so desperate and in pain. I know that you are hurting too. I don't know what else to say. My words are all gone and my happiness with it for the time being. I still believe in love, and I believe in the future, but the present feels like a burning house from which I cannot escape.

Thundersnow of '09

2009-12-19T14:15:00.002-05:00

Sitting by the window and staring at the snow is really all I have been doing all day. Quick update and recap: I am now living with my grandparents and doing temp work at the Japanese Embassy in DC. I really like working. I wish this were permanent and I didn't have to continuously think about finding a permanent job, but for now things are going pretty well on the job front.

But as for right this minute, we are being pelted with snow and it is not afraid to accumulate! So far we have about 14 inches and down it continues to pour. I haven't seen snow like this since I was a kid! Of course the snow puts a total wrench in my weekend and I have to miss some events that I was really looking forward to, but I guess safety should be a priority. Secretly though, I think it is pretty cool. I know I have this reputation for hating winter and snow and cold - but I still have a romanticized idea of a White Christmas and a Winter Wonderland.

Can you picture it? Bundled with scarves and hats, snow boots and mittens. Walking hand in hand through snow covered woods. Pink cheeks and noses, cold ears, soft kisses and bright laughter. Evening setting with the moon gleaming off the stark white snow. A warm fire inside with cookies baking and muled cider in over-sized Christmas mugs. Sweaters and turtle necks, thick socks and blankets. Jazzy Christmas music playing and more laughter and kisses. This has got to be the happiest thought in the whole world!

I am deciding today to just be happy. I don't feel so purely happy much these days, so I am taking today and sticking in my pocket so it can't escape from me. I wish happiness to anyone still checking up on my blog. Thank you to my readers - even through all the months of no new thoughts.

There's no in between

2009-09-16T10:48:00.002-04:00

I'm either crazy busy and running around or I am sitting on the couch all day trying to look for a job. My first few weeks home was a whirlwind of traveling and driving and theme parks and reconnecting with friends and family. It was busy and happy and I had no time to sit and think about, "What next?" I kind of liked it that way - I like being busy. Lately it's only been about, "What next?" I've been thinking about this question a lot - and about how to make my savings stretch until that next piece falls into place. Everything is a double-edged sword right now, and with that brings a lot of ups and downs. I'm walking a tightrope with myself to try and figure out what the next big step in my life should be, where it should be, and how I should make it happen. It's a nice thought to think that I am the only one to consider in this decision - but wholly unrealistic.

I think I need a bit of focus - but it's really difficult for me to cut out any options when I am so desperate for a job. Again, double-edged. It's great to talk to my Mom all the time and to so many other people that care about me, but sometimes I just don't want to talk about the job search any more. I don't want the valuable advice I'm being given or the magazines I am being told to read. This is immaturity and stubbornness talking - but it's the truth. Everyone has an opinion about how I should do this and everything thinks I am so capable and qualified, but no one is in the position to just GIVE me the job. Heck, all I really want is to get an interview - I can handle the rest.

I vow to continue applying and taking the suggestions and advice from those around me. I vow to follow-up with the applications I have already submitted and express to these employers that I am for real. I vow to keep trying until something pans out. Mom and Dad, I vow to keep paying all my bills and begin applying for retail and service positions if my savings wears too thin.

Just keep writing, just keep writing, writing, writing

2009-09-04T02:36:00.002-04:00

It has been a month since I moved back to my West Virginia home. It has been a hectic month traveling and having wonderful reunions with friends and family. Some of the highlights have been vacationing on the beach, parties up in Boston, quality sister time in New York, and the happiest visit with Chika and Jason in DC. There are so many things to be happy about and thankful for being home.

Sometimes though, I do lose sight of these things. Being home is only hard because Japan is far away - really the same reason being in Japan was hard. **If anyone could invent a working teleportation device, I would give up my first born.**

So what am I doing now? It's a natural question, but comes with a certain amount of stress. Now, I am doing the job search thing - but not as productive with this task as I could be. I have no excuse and I don't intend to think one up. Simply, I am trying my hardest to feel comfortable in my own skin again and comfortable living in the room in which I grew up. I am taking all parts of growing up and being an adult at my own pace. Ultimately, I trust myself and my abilities to find a job and continue on with my life.

In this transition lives many emotions. This is something I was expecting, and not something that I can explain; so I won't try. I will continue to write this blog and share my thoughts and experiences and as much of my emotion as I can with you. Writing has a great healing power in my life, and something that I need to do in order to remain clear-headed.

Have patience with me or don't. Keep reading or don't. Don't expect me to live up to your expectations - I am struggling with my own right now.

I can see the end

2009-08-02T10:41:00.005-04:00

So here I am. Facing my last two days in Japan. Living here has given me a whole new perspective on the length of a year. What is supposed to have been 365 days living in Japan, can now be counted in blog posts and pictures and laughs and visits to my favorite restaurants and fireworks.

Standing at Reagan National with my Mom one year ago, I was desperate not to come to Japan. I was afraid of leaving my family and leaving my usual, everyday life in America. This year has been anything but usual and everyday - but in that, my definition of usual and everyday has changed. Living here is comfortable now. I understand how to live on my own, how to make my own money and show up for work on time everyday.

I am afraid to leave this life I have created for myself behind. Perhaps not afraid so much as uncomfortable. But again, jumping out of my comfort zone is my new thing, so that's what I am going to do. I am confident that I will be welcomed home with open arms and more love than I can anticipate. And everything I learned with come with me and help me to build a good and successful life for myself. This transition will be another one for the books, but my experiences in Japan will continue to live and enrich my life as long as I remember how real this past year has been.

No time to chill

2009-07-22T21:08:00.003-04:00

The fact that my time here is limited is annoying. The way people anticipate the ending of a phase causes nothing but stress! It would be so much easier if everything were normal and then all of a sudden, POOF, I just wasn't here any more. As it is right now I am scheduling myself until I have only a few hours sleep every night between dinner dates, and packing, and cleaning...

I always feel guilty for over scheduling or having to say goodbye before my friends are ready, so that I can move on to the next goodbye. I am afraid that my overly packed schedule comes across as aloof and nonchalant to these friends of whom I will miss so dearly. I don't have time to make everyone happy.

In addition to trying to see everyone here in Japan, I don't have time to talk to anyone from home any more either. There is no time to Skype, barely any time to talk through instant messages and getting to the point where I don't get online much at all! And realistically speaking, nothing will calm down once I get home either. I just have to wait out the next few months until my leaving and my arriving is less exciting.

I know that all of this stress just means that people love me - and I truly love all of you as well. And if that is the case, then I will take the stress if it means having good friends that care so much for me. I will miss everyone.

I'm not counting...

2009-07-08T22:50:00.006-04:00

...but if I were, today marks the 2 week mark until I am back Stateside. For some of you that is really excellent news, and for others it is really sad. I can feel both sides of this, believe me. First, I am SOOO sorry that I have fallen so behind on my blogging; I can't believe it has been a month. If some of you have stopped checking altogether, I don't blame you. There has been so much going on in the way of parties and last hurrahs in Tokyo and spending as much time as I can with my friends here that I have barely had time to sleep, let alone blog about it all. Luckily I have pictures to document my last few weeks here, and I will try to put those up soon - but it may not happen until I am back in the States.

I really hope to keep up my blogging when I get back home. Writing and documenting this year has given me a really effective outlet to think about what I am experiencing and how these things are impacting my life. When I get home, I will be back in very familiar territory, but I do think that I will still need to put my thoughts somewhere. I cannot wait to be home with my family, but in a way, I am afraid of regressing. I want to keep my independence and my ability to take care of myself. All this worrying is probably in vain (I hope) but at least I am keeping the possibility in mind so as to be extra aware not to let it happen.

Gah, my mind is in a thousand directions right now and I am finding it hard to make a coherent post. Bear with me and I will try to clarify my thoughts throughout the week.

Bar たくや

2009-06-23T21:15:00.002-04:00

Last Saturday, my good friend Jason made the trek out to Koga so we could hang out. Ibaraki is a pretty large prefecture, but its infrastructure is pretty conducive to easy travel. However, my little spot of Ibaraki, in Koga, is about as disconnected from the rest of the prefecture as you can get. My trains don't go into Ibaraki, but into the surrounding prefectures and the roads from Koga are rather indirect to get to the capital or other cities. This makes it hard to hang out with Ibaraki JETs very often because it is quite the undertaking to travel 2+ hours by train or car.

Anyway, Jason decided to make the journey, and we had a nice time. I guess this is where I should mention that Jason is dating my good friend Chika, but she had a huge table tennis tournament on Saturday, so she couldn't hang out with us - but we saw her on Sunday. :) Anyway, on Saturday night, after dinner we went to this new bar near my apartment. This bar just appeared out of nowhere, but I am glad it did. It is called Bar Takuya and has a tiki/Hawaiian theme. It is a small place, but well decorated. On the outside the door is bright blue and due to the grand opening, there are fresh flowers everywhere - lilies, orchids, carnations, etc.

Jason and I stayed for two hours or so and had a really great conversation. We hit on all kinds of topics, it is really nice to have a friend like him. The drinks were good and pretty well-priced, compared to what I have paid for drinks in and around Tokyo. After we were finished and paid the bill, I asked the bartender if I could take a flower home, in Japanese. He spoke back to me in his best English and said, "Sure, take this one!" He gave me a huge, beautiful orchid plant that his mother had given to him upon the opening of his bar! I will post a picture, but they are really gorgeous and brighten my apartment in such a big way!

Surprises and experiences like this are what I am going to miss about my life in Japan the most.

When in Rome, do as the Japanese do

2009-06-21T20:19:00.003-04:00

Or was that supposed to be something else...? Anyway, I have been terribly remiss in my blogging, so now I am playing catch-up. A couple weeks ago (June 13-14th) I took the long train/bus ride to Itako to see my favorite gal, Lauren. Her little hamlet of Itako hosts one of the largest and longest festivals in all of Japan. It is called the Ayame Matsuri (Iris Festival) and it lasts for six weeks each year. For this festival, they ask many of the young women of the community to be the hostesses or "daughters" of the festival. This means they have to wear traditional yukata every weekend and welcome the thousands upon thousands of guests to view the beautiful irises and take part in the many other events sponsored by the festival. For Lauren, this is a huge undertaking and time commitment. For her friends (i.e. me) it is a really great opportunity to see a huge, traditional festival and lounge around for a weekend. :-D

When I came to Japan many years ago for a short homestay, my host family gave me my own yukata as a gift. Since then, I have held onto this beautiful garb for such occasions as an Ayame Matsuri. The morning of the festival, Lauren and I each were dressed in yukata by a fantastic older woman named Osaki-san. She is one key volunteers of the festival and helps Lauren to get properly dressed every weekend. And this particular weekend, she was kind enough to help me as well. Lauren's yukata is identical to that of the other "daughters" of the festival. They are a day navy blue with pretty irises printed on the fabric. They have gold obis (thick belt tied into a bow) and matching geta (traditional wooden sandals). My yukata is red (naturally...haha) with white rabbits and fireworks. It is an unusual pattern, but I really love the white rabbits.

Because I was a foreigner and such good friends with Lauren, the festival organizers and the other "daughters" were extremely welcoming to me and even allowed me to be an Ayame Musume for the day with everyone else. I helped to welcome the guests to the festival and handed out maps of the festival grounds. As an unwritten part of my non-existent contract, I also had to pose for about seven hundred pictures. Honestly, it made me feel like a celebrity and I don't mind the fact that there are a ton of pictures of me floating around Japan; that can be my little mark on the world. Later that day, there was a parade for the festival and I was even asked to dance with the other daughters in the parade. The dance was really easy, and I had a blast. I went around the loop with the dancers 1.5 times, but I think in total, they did 4 rotations.

After all the dancing and festivities, Lauren, invited all the JETs back to her place for a party. She is quite the hostess and the food was delicious and the presentation immaculate. I always enjoy a good party, and this definitely was one. I am going to miss all my JET friends and the atmosphere of living in Japan. I almost feel like I am graduating and moving on from college again - so this is a good thing.

The next morning all of us who spent the night at Lauren's place woke up and ventured out for a breakfast of chocolate croissants and omelets with rice. I headed home that afternoon to an evening of karaoke and then sleep. Sleep is something rather evasive lately, but I rather have it that way than sleep through my last 6 weeks in Japan!

On days when the job is good...

2009-06-17T22:14:00.003-04:00

...it's really good! Now, at the end of my time here, I am starting to have more successful classes and the feeling at the end of the day is great. Last Thursday, I taught by myself for the first time at Koga Second. The class was a group of second grade (11th grade) students, whom I have known and taught for the whole year I have been here. They are good students, but the prospect of teaching them alone was a bit nerve racking. The lesson I was to teach was in their reading textbook and discussed a little girl named Sally who had Down's Syndrome. Their regular teacher asked me to discuss the article and check for comprehension and also to relay some of my own experiences knowing people with Down's Syndrome. In Japan, they have special schools for all children with handicaps, so most students have never been in a classroom with anyone different than themselves. This is just one sheltering technique Japan tries to use to pretend everyone is all the same.

We discussed Sally's story and then I spoke to them about going to school with students with Down's Syndrome. They could not imagine how it was possible for different students to all be in the same school, but I explained it the best I could. Sally is quite an exceptional girl and very high functioning. She had a talent for painting and would sell her work in order to send the money to care for children in Africa. The whole article was a feel-good inspiration, so at the end I asked the students to each complete the sentence, "My dream is _______." They had to write three reasons for their dream. At the end of class I had each student read their dream aloud to the rest of the class. It was so much fun to hear their aspirations and see the reaction of their classmates - everyone was impressed by their peers and it left the class on a really high note.

At the end of the day, as I was leaving school, one girl from this class came to me to talk. She wanted to tell me that she really enjoy my English class today and that I was a good teacher. I was really touched that she thought so much of the class that she wanted to seek me out and let me know. That kind of forwardness is almost unheard of in Japan, so it really means a lot to me.

Then on Friday, I was at Koga Third. I was nervous to be at this school because I was trying out a new lesson. I had three classes total and the first two were okay, but nothing spectacular. I was starting to get pretty down about my new lesson, so for the last class of the day, I decided to change it up a bit. I always had the intention in previous classes to teach the students how to listen and dance to the Cha-Cha Slide, but I had never quite had the time so it hadn't happened. Since I was a bit discouraged and wanted to end the day/week on a good note, I scrapped my plan as it was and spent the class teaching/coaxing the students to dance the Cha-Cha Slide with me! It was so much fun. By the end of the class we had moved the tables and chairs out of the way and everyone was in the middle of the room dancing! I justify it by telling myself they had to listen to and understand the instructions being said in order to do the dance properly. Ultimately I just wanted them to have fun - and I needed to have a bit of fun as well.

There are definitely secrets to this job that I wish I had known from the beginning. In my position, I am not here to teach hard and fast concrete English. I am here to talk about America, have blond hair, dress differently, and make them laugh. These are things I can do.

Angry chick music is my favorite!

2009-06-08T00:48:00.002-04:00

It is by far the most fun thing to sing and often the lyrics are not only pointed, but hilarious!! Some of my favorites (the anger levels are all relative) Kate Nash, Ingrid Michaelson, Regina Spektor, KT Tunstall, Alanis Morissette, Meredith Brooks, Duffy, Adele, Joan Jett, Jewel, Janis Joplin, and Lily Allen!!! Which brings me to my wonderful weekend with my fantastic girl, Lauren (you knew it).

On Friday afternoon, Lauren and I both braved the rain and the traffic to venture into our favorite city for a concert we have been talking about for months!! Lily Allen graced Tokyo with her presence and her tunes to lighten up an otherwise dreary Friday night. The venue was small and intimate in Shibuya called O East. The drinks were good, and the music was better. Her lyrics are snappy and I think they can be very clever sometimes - I will say that her language can be a bit vulgar, so that might be a big turn off for some. She has a wonderful energy on stage and a really great way of performing her music in a live setting.

I learned about Lily merely by chance a few years ago when I was in GB 301 (the subject matter of the class isn't really important for the story). My first day of class, at 8:30am, I walk into the cold room to be greeted with Lily Allen blasting from the speakers and videos being projected onto the screen at the front of the room. My professor wanted to jump right in and discuss with us her innovative and exciting marketing techniques and the career he was certain then (3 years ago) was going to explode - Professor Cross, you were right. Since that morning, I have been hooked on Lily Allen and I have started to seek out these cheeky girls for my listening enjoyment - I find that most of them come from the UK - what does that say? ;)

As is every adventure spent with Lauren, it was a very happy and exciting evening. The music was fantastic and now I have to curb my envy for this 23 year-old singing sensation traveling all over the world just to sing!

Japanese Field Day

2009-06-08T00:14:00.003-04:00

Last week, I was able to experience what Japanese schools call a class match. For two days they have athletic competitions between each homeroom class in each grade. Sanwa had a variety of sports for both boys and girls (they like to keep the genders separated in all things). The boys played softball, soccer, and table tennis; while the girls played kickball, volley ball, badminton, and table tennis too.

The basic run down for the day is that the students meet up in homeroom for a roll call and a pep talk from their homeroom teacher, after which they all don the same class shirt and head out to the field for stretches and formalities. Because Sanwa is not my only school, I could only attend the first day of the class match. In the morning I watched the girls badminton matches. They are really good, especially the girl here that is ranked number one in our region! The force with which they zoom the birdie over the net is really impressive, seeing as when I play at home I can only manage to pop it up into a high arc. I was a little jealous and wanted to play, but these activities are for the kids, so I just watched and cheered on my favorite classes.

In the afternoon, I headed outside to watch the softball games. Again, all I wanted to do was play. At least this time I played catch with one of the kids to help them warm up a bit before the game started. I miss playing softball and it would be fun to find a community team when I get back. I know every time I write a blog it seems I want to find some other club or activity or something to keep myself busy when I get home. I don't really want to bury myself in an overwhelming schedule, but there are just so many things that I miss from home and the ease in which I can do things and find things.

It was a really great day, and while it was a bit dark, the weather cooperated and stayed cool, but held off on the rain! Days like this are the most confusing for me because I so desperately want to stay and experience this kind of camaraderie and happiness with my students, but I really am ready to come home and do some of these things for myself.

Fluffr Nutter - with xtra nutz

2009-05-28T20:35:00.002-04:00

I have nothing to write about, but I am happy. I am embracing everything that is me and just really enjoying smiling. I am happy and giddy and excited about the weeks ahead. My friends are incredible and that makes me happy. I feel so proud to know the people in my life for their numerous inspiring accomplishments and goals for the future. And these spectacular people embrace me - exactly as I am - even when I can't find the energy.

But not today. Today I am beside myself with smiles, despite the rain. Happiness is incredible because it makes all my senses come alive. Colors are brighter and food tastes better. I can hear crickets and frogs and birds chirping through the pounding of the rain. The textures of every day objects (my keyboard, keys, book, pillow...) feel sharper and softer, and warmer. I can smell the fresh miso soup being made from the home economics room across the school and the light aroma of rice steaming.

When I try to think today and nail down my happiness to find its source, I can only think in smiles and all-consuming warmth. I can hardly sing for smiling so much, but the sound of music catapults me even further. Everything is bliss.

Just a thought from nowhere

2009-05-23T21:26:00.010-04:00

So often we refuse to take responsibility for the things in our lives, the good or the bad. We wander though the day thinking that life HAPPENS to us, that we have no control. The reality of life is that in every decision we make, we push our life in a new direction. We have control over the path in which our life takes, and all too often people relinquish that control to pity themselves instead. The odd thing about control...you have it until you give it to someone or something else by allowing their words and actions to affect your mood absolutely. And while you're still in control, you often feel like life is whizzing by and you can't keep up.

After a while, when you've given up control, you see so clearly that it was yours to give up and you did so willingly. Clamping back down on control lost can be such a painful and tedious process because it means taking responsibility for your emotions again. You can no longer blame anyone or anything else for your sadness or misfortune. There are so many reasons we relinquish control......love, laziness, LUST, desperation, self pity. None of these reasons are particularly good - especially not love. Maybe you can argue that in love everything is worth it - every step you take. Sadly, that just isn't true. When true love exists you should never feel any desire to give up your control to appease "love." Love is one of those amazing occurrences in life that should mold to you. Good love is like papier-mache. It shapes to the priorities and goals of your life, but the delicacy of it makes it special and a thing to be revered and respected. A good love will never ask you to change course or lose sight of your ambition. It will never require that you sleep less or cry more.

Time is running out

2009-05-19T19:41:00.003-04:00

I posted the video that Lauren took of me singing in Shanghai. It is at the bottom of my blog page, so check it out if you haven't already seen it on Facebook!

Since returning from China life has quickly gotten back to normal. I've been working and teaching some, having dinner with Chika and Mari and Hideki, etc. I had a meeting in Mito last Friday for JET to discuss the procedures for finishing up my contract here and leaving Japan. I guess the finality of it all is starting to settle in. I have read through and highlighted all the information packets they have given me and now I need to schedule some time with my crazy busy supervisor to tie up loose ends. Turns out, I may not have internet for the last month in my apartment - but I will keep you updated on the reality of that when I find out for sure.

I have so much to do before I leave, not only in terms of packing and stopping my bills, but saying my goodbyes. So many people here have touched my life in such a kind way that I am afraid of losing them in my life. When it comes to my other JET friends, I have confidence that we will stay in touch and probably even meet up again somewhere in the world. When it comes to my Japanese friends, I am a little more worried. I could not have gotten through this year without the selfless friendship of so many teachers and friends in the community. Of course there is Chika - I will feel like a little piece of me will always be here in Japan with her. There is never a time when I am not happy to see her or want to make a plan to spend time with her. And then Heartful and Pela Pela - I look forward to seeing them each week. Even when I am tired and don't feel like leaving the house, seeing them is always worth it. I learn so much from the members of these groups and I feel like I have a family here. They share their lives and special events with me, and are always interested in what I have to say.

It is safe to say that I have learned without a doubt that I am not cut-out to be a teacher, but my co-workers make my time at school happy and fun. Sanwa has been such a security blanket for me. If I have a question about travel, my apartment, trash pick up, mail, culture points of Japanese life - I can ask someone at school. The teachers who don't speak much English, help me to practice my Japanese. They want to speak to me and they want to make me part of their school life. And most significantly, Aritoshi, Maya and Hiromi...they are my life-savers. Aritoshi is like Superman, he can tackle any question and always gives special consideration to my feelings and my preferences. Hiromi helped teach me and got me through my JET Japanese Language Course. Not only was she a great English teacher for her students, she was a great Japanese teacher for me. I miss her terribly since she has moved to a new school, but thankfully, I can call her whenever I want to have dinner or just chat. And Maya has taught me so much about the importance of travel and family. She is so intelligent and driven and she acts on those feelings, something that is kind of rare in Japanese women. She has patience with me and is always incredibly accommodating. I respect all of my teachers in a huge way.

I am ready to move on to the next step and I am ready for changes to happen. My heart is going to ache as I prepare to leave Japan, but I will use that heartache as motivation to make sure the friendships I have forged here and the experience I have gained are not in vain. It is thanks to these people that my life here has been so special and will continue to shape me in the months and years to come.

All things Beijing

2009-05-13T21:55:00.007-04:00

The afternoon of May 5th, Lauren and I touched down in Beijing for the final and longest leg of our journey. We were greeted at the airport by my Uncle Tim and Mr. Gao. Uncle Tim had arranged for a car to pick us up and take us to the apartment where we would be staying. Because Lauren has fabulous friends all over the world, we didn't have to shell out for a hotel in Beijing. Instead we stayed with her friend Jimmy at his three bedroom place in Wudaokou, near Beijing University (BEIDA). There are 18 million people in Beijing, so traffic while getting from one place to another is a given. It was a nice ride from the airport, but once we got to Wudaokou, Lauren and I were beat. I made plans with Uncle Tim to have dinner that Friday and then said our goodbyes.

It also happens that the day we arrived was Jimmy's Birthday/Cinco de Mayo. Lauren and I rested up that afternoon and in the evening we went with Jimmy to celebrate the big day. Naturally we went to a Mexican restaurant called La Bamba - and I must say that the Chinese do Mexican so much better than the Japanese, but no one does it like they do at home. Anyway...At La Bamba Lauren and I were introduced to some of Jimmy's wonderful friends from all over the world. First I should mention that Jimmy is French. We met Carlos from Chile, Marie from France, Ehe from Turkey, Helaine from Holland, and Jamie from the USofA. After being in Japan for so long, the diversity at our dinner table was so refreshing! The food and drinks were overflowing (literally, the waitress proceeded to spill tequila shots all over me!) and the party was just beginning. After our meal, we moved to a "beer garden" that is a seasonal fixture across from Jimmy's apartment. Every summer they set up this beer garden with tables and chairs and it turns into a huge out door party. After some more drinks and discussion there, we again moved to a pizzeria/bar/club called Pyro. The music was great and the place was celebrating Cinco de Mayo in full swing, so the margaritas were a plenty. There was even a little slide show of famous Mexicans looping! We were at Pyro for about an hour and then decided to call it a night.

The next day Jimmy had to go to class (he is doing intensive study of Chinese), so Lauren and I set out with our map and an big agenda for the day. First thing is first, and we grabbed some breakfast at a little diner called Lush. It is a great little place with cheap food that is delicious! After a veggie bagel, we caught a taxi to Jingshan Park. It is almost in the center of Beijing and lies on the Dragon Line. This is an imaginary line that stretches all the way through Beijing in which all the most historical points are located including the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Jingshan Park is the site where the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty hung himself. The best part is that from the top of the highest hill, you can look out over the whole Forbidden city (and if it weren't for the smog you could see all the way to the Olympic Stadium along the Dragon Line).

After our hike through the park, we kept walking south to the Forbidden City. This place is a total maze. Jimmy had given us some advice to enter the city and just walk due south. However Lauren and I were easily distracted by the architecture and a mini art show, so we got lost inside the city for a bit. Once we found the correct path again, we marched along through temple after temple and watched each grow larger than the last. The Forbidden City is so named because until 1925, no one aside from royalty and their servants could enter the walls of the city. Since then it has been open to the public for tourism. Just to the south of the Forbidden City is a gate whose literal translation means Gate of Heavenly Peace. This is the thresh hold into Tiananmen Square. We were able to get a good look at the portrait of Mao Tse-tung and walk down the length of the square. Surprisingly it wasn't very crowded. However to get into the square, each person much go through security and metal detectors.

After the square (and a very long day of walking) we hopped in a cab to a section of Beijing called Hou Hai. This is a place situated nicely on a river jam-packed with restaurants and bars. Lauren and I stopped off at a jewelry store to check out their jade items and then we sat on an out door patio and enjoyed some pumpkin soup. The restaurant with the soup was a little sketch, so we finished and then quickly moved to another restaurant with a perfect menu and perfect atmosphere called Buffalo. In the Hou Hai area there were three restaurants all called Buffalo right in a row - each served a different type of cuisine (Chinese, Western, Asian fusion). We chose the Chinese section and had a fantastic open window seat overlooking the river. We ended up sitting in our window perch for nearly 3 hours enjoying course after course of delicious food including some more Peking Duck.

Tangent story: At the airport in Shanghai trying to get to Beijing, we were in line in front of a couple from Canada also on their way to Beijing. We spoke to them for a few minutes while waiting to check-in and then did the obligatory, "Well, maybe we'll see you in Beijing." *laugh, laugh* So funny story, while Lauren and I are enjoying our Peking Duck sitting in Hou Hai, we spot the Canadian couple walking down the little road! Since we are sitting there in the open, we call out to them and strike up a nice conversation! Of 18 million people in Beijing, we in fact do happen to run into the random couple we met at the airport in a different city! I like stories like that.

We did a little more exploring down the streets of Hou Hai after our dinner and discovered that every bar up and down the road had live music and bad karaoke! Each new place was competing for the sound waves and Lauren and I just wished the singing would find the right key! After a short saunter, we grabbed a cab and went back to Jimmy's apartment to call it a night.

The next morning we woke up to quite a surprise. Jimmy had already headed off to school for an exam, but Lauren and I had no running water of any kind. The faucets wouldn't work, no toilet, no shower. This is the day we decided to pull back our hair and rough it a bit. Leaving early than expected, not having to take the time to shower, we went to the northern part of the city to check out the Olympic sports center. We started by walking through the Water Cube. The architecture of this thing is really cool and you feel like you're in a bubble when you're inside the building. From the outside I think it looks like a drop of water ready to burst. It was really neat to go inside and take pictures of the pool where Phelps made history. Afterward we went over to the Bird's Nest and looked around a bit. It is a much more exciting and impressive building from the outside because of the unique architecture; on the inside it is like any other wide open stadium. One day I would really like to be in attendance for an Olympic event.

Once again we were on the move and we went across town to the Summer Palace and gardens. This is a very wide open expanse of gardens right on a small lake. Since we hadn't eaten yet, the first thing we did was each grab a bowl of real Chinese ramen; during lunch we even had a show! Just outside the little restaurant there was an incredible Chinese man painting kanji on the sidewalk with long sponge brushes. They had long handles so he could stand up while he was painting on the sidewalk, and at the bottom very absorbent sponges to hold all the water he was using. The most impressive part of what he was doing was that he would paint with both hands at the same time! Sometimes he would write the same kanji with each hand, but mirror them; and other times he would write two completely different kanji at the same time!!! Once we were finished eating, Lauren and I went to get a closer look at what he was doing. He noticed us admiring his work and started to draw some for us. In English he explained what he was drawing - China, America, People, Friendship, Happiness, Power. Afterward he gave us each a small souvenir of the same kanji written on delicate tissue paper for us to keep.

We continued walking through the Summer Palace searching for a boat ride through the lake. After walking forever, we finally found a dock and a big boat to tour people around the lake. The boat was shaped like a dragon, and it was packed with Chinese tourists. After the boat ride we decided to call it a day and we went back to Jimmy's to hang out with him a bit and take it easy.

By our third day in Beijing, all the traveling was catching up with us and we made it a point to sleep in late! We lounged around in the morning, wrote postcards, checked email and bank accounts, and around lunch time we finally headed out into the big wide world with Jimmy and his friend Carlos for lunch. Jimmy loves fancy places and to call the Lan Club fancy would be an understatement. It was the most intricately decorated restaurant to which I have ever been. It was designed by a man named Philippe Starck and is beyond decorated. The whole place is practically a museum! The paintings are on the ceilings and the banquet rooms are blocked off with burlap. Lauren and I walked around (as though we were in a museum) and took some pictures. I don't know if my words can paint the most accurate picture of how COOL this place really was. The food was good too and thank goodness we went there for lunch because it is crazy expensive for dinner! After lunch Lauren and I got back on the tourist wagon and rode it all the way over to the Hutongs. Hutongs are traditional Chinese villages that have been largely destroyed in Beijing. Of the 10,000 that used to exist, there are only 3,000 left and the Chinese government has finally decided that it is important to protect these wonderful historical buildings. Hutong literally means narrow road, so the best way to tour through them is on foot or by rickshaw - we did both. We didn't have a lot of time to spend, so we hired (waaaay cheap) a private tour guide for a one hour over view of the Hutongs. We even got to meet a local woman who lived in the Hutongs and speak with her about daily life there.

After our tour, we ran back (and by ran back, I mean we were in a slow cab during rush hour) to Jimmy's place so that I could change clothes and Lauren could take a nap. I had dinner plans with Uncle Tim for the night and I had to meet him on the other side of town in less than an hour. I quickly changed clothes and did a quick primp in the mirror before I decided to jump on the Beijing subway instead of endure a long and slow taxi ride. I got to the hotel where Uncle Tim was staying and found him in the hotel lounge. We enjoyed a drink together and started to plan our excursion to the Great Wall for the next day. After our drink we walked over to the tour reservations desk and booked a private car and English speaking tour guide for the next day to take us to the Great Wall and back to the Hutongs for a real, in-depth tour.

Once the plans had been made (mostly in Chinese which was cool because I had never heard Uncle Tim speak Chinese before), we went to dinner at a Korean bbq place that he really enjoyed. Now there are a lot of reasons, but in my life I had never spent any real, quality time with my uncle getting to know him. I discovered quickly that there was so much I didn't know, but really wanted to. There were overwhelming amounts of food, but the best part of the meal was the conversation he and I were able to have. I learned about his past jobs, more about his education, and a lot more about the direction he wants for his life in the future. This dinner was so special for me because for the first time we were able to see and acknowledge one another as so much more than extended family members. I feel a closeness to him now that I feel I can count on for the rest of my life and embarked upon the beginning of a relationship that I am hoping will grown and evolve through the years. I am such a believer in the closeness of family and in taking the time to understand learn about all the amazing experiences that someone else has had. Dinner ended with a great hug and a, "see you tomorrow" and then back to Jimmy's I went.

Once there I was greeted with one heck of a wild party happening. To continue celebrating his birthday, Jimmy was throwing a party for 50 of his closest friends in Beijing at his apartment. I had already had plenty to drink that night, so I hung around the screaming people throwing back the beer for about 15 minutes before I went back to my room and fell asleep.

Bright and early the next morning, I woke up to take a shower and get ready for a full day with Lauren and Uncle Tim! Upon walking out into the hallway, I was greeted with the stickiest floor I have ever felt on my feet and the debris of one crazy party. I'm really glad I slept through it. Around 8:25am, Uncle Tim and the private car he hired pulled up outside Jimmy's building and the three of us were on our way to Mutianyu - an historical section of the Great Wall complete with a cable car ride. The car ride took about an hour and a half, so after the tour guide introduced herself and gave us some background about the Wall, Lauren and I were zonked out!

The first thing we did was hike up a hill lined with vendors all selling the same Chinese trinkets. At the top of the hill was a cable car that gave a nice view of the wall on the way up to where tourists can climb it. Just so happened that we got into car #58. The significance of car #58 is that former President Bill Clinton rode in that exact car when he visited China in June of 1998 - boy did I feel lucky - *cough* At the point where the cable car drops you off, you can begin climbing up the wall to either the left or the right. MeiMei (the tour guide) informed us that the right section was much more level and easier to climb (called the parents' trail) and the left side was more rigorous and challenging (called the heroes' trail). We were guilted into the heroes' trail. Uncle Tim had already climbed the wall, so he hung back and waited for Lauren and I to get to the end and back again. You may think that this is just like walking on a straight path....NO! This is like serious climbing in certain parts and the smoggy air isn't really helpful for a fully oxygenated climb. But in about 45 minutes Lauren and I made it to the end of the Mutianyu section and took a few minutes to take in the scenery. The view of the wall from way up there is really wonderful. It is so hard to believe that ancient Chinese people began building this wall nearly 2000 years ago! MeiMei told us a story about how when the laborers were building the wall, they would often die of fatigue and malnutrition and their bodies were buried inside the layers of the wall because there was no time to dig a proper burial.

We took a ton of pictures and then started making our way down the wall, back to Uncle Tim. We met up with him at the bottom and grabbed the cable car back down. You'd never believe, but the cable car we got was none other than #58 - the Bill Clinton car - again! We met MeiMei back at the bottom and got in the car and made our way back to the hotel where Uncle Tim was staying to grab a quick lunch before our excursion that afternoon. We had a quick Italian meal with salad and real pizza and then took off down the road for the Hutongs! The tour with MeiMei was a three-hour in-depth tour that included the bell tower (on the Dragon Line) and Prince Gong's Mansion. Prince Gong's Mansion was really impressive because of how large it was in addition to the wonderful tea house we were able to visit. Inside the tea house, Lauren and I sampled four different kinds of Chinese tea - Oolong, Jasmine, a modern fruit tea, and a cherry tea with rosebuds. The woman inside the tea house taught us how to do a traditional Chinese tea ceremony (which is much less involved than the Japanese one) and also showed up some magic. I am always a sucker for magic, so all her porcelain tea ware that would change colors when heated made me oooh and aaah. I even ended up getting a couple "magic" mugs as souvenirs!! After our tour through the Hutongs, the car took us back to Wudaokou and Uncle Tim and I parted ways. I am so thankful he was there and I was able to spend such a nice time with him. I am really looking forward to being home and visiting with him some more!

Once inside, Lauren and I watched a movie to avoid packing. We grabbed a Japanese dinner with Jimmy and his friends to finish out our incredible Chinese vacation and then packed and went to bed. The next morning was an early one and little did we know what was in store for us and our long day of travel. But that is for another post.

How hai? Shanghai!

2009-05-12T20:45:00.007-04:00

On May 2nd, Lauren and I woke up in Hong Kong, grabbed a great dim sum breakfast with Becky, and then hopped on a couple planes for Shanghai. The currency between Hong Kong and mainland China is different, so Lauren and I decided to change money once we got to the airport in Guangzhou for our layover before Shanghai. However, because of the Swine Flu scare, our three hour layover proved to be just long enough to go through the quarantine rigmarole and get to our gate. New plan, Lauren and I are going to change money once we get to Shanghai. Given our long day of traveling and complete forgetfulness, we got into a cab at the Shanghai airport without any cash. Luckily we had a really great cab driver and he had no problem letting us change money once we got to our hotel.

Once at our hotel, we collapsed under fatigue. We took a nap from 7pm-9:30pm, and then woke up pretty hungry. Our hotel was in an excellent location right on Nanjing Road - a popular street for shopping and night life. Lauren and I ventured out and realized that there was a Haagen Dazs right next to our hotel. We had ice cream for dinner, just like real adults....hahaha. Afterwards, we took a short walk down our fantastic little street and made the wise decision to get a sandwich from Subway to supplement our ice cream dinner.

This is also the night we were introduced to the pushiness of mainland peddlers and vendors. Just walking down Nanjing Road we were approached by no fewer than ten people trying to sell watches, purses, shoes, toys, all kind of fake stuff for "good price." We quickly discovered that the best way to get them to stop following you all the way down the street is to ignore them completely.

The next morning, we got up and with Lauren's good research headed over to Fuxing Road. This is a really quaint part of Shanghai that's not too crowded and is part of what they call the French Concession. It was such a fun street to walk down and the trees lining the road were very pretty. As we walked, we came across a nail salon. Lauren had been dying to get her nails done, and I was no opposed, so we walked in and discovered that the prices were phenomenal. And by phenomenal I mean that in Japan to get a full manicure is upwards of $70 (the same thing at home I can find for $25 or $30) and in Shanghai at this salon we could get it done for about $35. We relaxed and left after a couple hours with beautiful manicures and a hungry appetite.

While walking down the street, we found a wonderfully decorated Thai restaurant with outdoor seating. After months of craving Panang curry, I finally got some and it totally hit the spot. We got some nice pictures of the outdoor scenery and flowers and then after lunch we were on our way to explore more of Fuxing Road.

Before I left for Shanghai, I was told by one of my teachers at Koga First to see the acrobatic show in Shanghai. As you all know, I just saw my first Cirque show at the beginning of April, but that experience did not dwarf the spectacle of the Shanghai acrobats at all! This performance was in a regular theatre space and the technical aspect was not the most impressive part of the show. At first they started slow to ease the audience in with some basic tumbling and flipping. But they progressed quickly into an incredible contortionist act. This woman was more flexible than the actual Gumby! She balanced mini plastic chandeliers on her hands and feet and proceeded to roll all over the floor without dropping anything. It's as though the directionality of her joints were merely a suggestion to which she was in no way bound. There were high fliers and awesome feats of strength. I got a couple blurry pictures, but I will try to get some up here soon.

Lauren loves the night life, so after the awesomeness that was the acrobatic show, we went to the Park Hyatt to check out a bar Lauren had read good reviews about. Sadly the bar we wanted to go to on the 93rd floor of the World Financial Center was closed on a Sunday night so we went to the bar on the 91st floor instead. This would have been incredible except that it was on the verge of rain and way overcast, so up on the 91st floor all we saw was fog! The drinks were great though, and I ended up having something with gin (of course) and also egg whites. Strange. We also met a Japanese man who had just moved to Shanghai to be the manager of the bar at which we were drinking. We spoke to him for a while and he asked where our next destination was, "House of Blues and Jazz," we said. Since he had only been in Shanghai for a few days, he didn't know where it was, but he immediately went over to a computer and looked it up online for us. This turned out to be incredibly helpful because the Jazz club had moved from its original location and while driving around in a taxi, we had to use the driver's cell phone to call the club and get the new address.

The Jazz club, once we finally found it, was great! There was a band there on a three month booking from The States with a guest trumpeter from Tokyo! After a few songs, Lauren got the idea for me to sing with the band! I told her this then, but she reminded me so much of my mother at that moment, "How cool would it be if you could sing with the band! You should really do it! I will go talk to them for you!" That was paraphrasing, but you get where I'm coming from. It was fun and encouraging, but I am shy as all get out when it comes to my singing, so I let Lauren go talk to the band leader. After just a couple minutes, she comes back to me and asks what songs I know. I throw out some titles, Gershwin and Over the Rainbow. She plays the mediator and before I know it, I am up on the stage singing Over the Rainbow in a real jazz club with a real jazz band in a foreign country!! It was such a crazy thrill, I was on top of the world! And Lauren got a video of it on her camera, so I will try to post that as soon as I can.

My song with the band was the last song of the night, so after that Lauren and I hung around to chat it up with Igmar (the band leader) and Nori (Japanese trumpeter). In fact, Nori had another show he is playing in Tochigi (the next prefecture over from Ibaraki) at the end of May and I really hope to go. Not much later Lauren and I went outside to find a cab to take us back to our hotel for the night.

The next morning we got up to do some serious temple scouting. We began at the Longhua Temple and Pagoda. The temples in Shanghai were all yellow with brown roofs. And while walking through Longhua we saw a huge open pile of trash just strewn in a corner. I thought it was a pretty interesting social commentary to have such an ugly display in a place for reverence and prayer. Next we moved to the Jade Buddha temple. Again each building was yellow with very similar decorations and gardens. The Jade Buddha was rather impressive however. We were unable to take pictures given that white jade is prone to easy deterioration. Outside of that particular statue however, there were more Buddhas that we could capture on film. One of which is called the reclining Buddha for the relaxed position in which the statue is carved. The whole time through this temple, Lauren and I had been following a German tour group. Lauren knows German, so any time she has a chance to practice listening or speaking she really enjoys that. But while we were trying to get our pictures of the reclining Buddha, a German man behind us did not approve of us trying to snap a good shot and quite purposely said, "Shit Americans." Lauren was livid and we were both ready turn around and show him how ugly we could be, but good sense got the best of us and we just moved on and fumed to ourselves.

Next we moved to a section of Shanghai called Old Town. It is a location with very traditional architecture and wonderful shops and food everywhere. We had typical Chinese lunch of dumplings and rice and then started looking around the shops. This proved to be quiet and enjoyable experience and a real chance for Lauren to keep working on her haggling skills! I purchased a few souvenirs for some friends and I got a small journal for myself with a silk outer cover. There was one woman in particular that was just so much fun for me to watch as she and Lauren went back and forth on the price of six little Buddha statues. At the end of it all, we got a picture with she and Lauren!

Lauren and I were pretty beat after this, so we went back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner reservation at New Heights - a chic place in a section of Shanghai called The Bund. The Bund is the banking and financial district of Shanghai with classy restaurants and bars. The night view is wonderful and New Heights is the best place to go for the atmosphere but not the exorbitant prices. Our view from the roof terrace was wonderful as it looked out over the Huangpu River. We were able to sit there for a couple hours just chatting and eating slowly enjoying the scenery and taking it all in. After dinner we ventured over to yet another bar Lauren had researched called Glamour Bar. We each enjoyed a drink - I a Long Island peach tea and Lauren a glass of wine. The music was great, so we got up and danced in an open area next to the bar. We were the only ones dancing, but we didn't mind! And just after that we went to Rouge Bar. The decor was cool, but the place was pretty dead, so we decided to call it a night. Lauren probably could have kept going, but I was so beat - I just don't have that kind of stamina! The next morning we hopped on a plane for Beijing and my adventure will continue there...

And my story begins on an island

2009-05-11T22:42:00.003-04:00

The name of this island is Hong Kong. After a long day of travel - six hours on a plan that was supposed to be a 4 hour flight - Lauren and I arrived and I made my first new friend. In Hong Kong we stayed with a friend of Lauren's from college named Becky. Becky has been living in Hong Kong since January as a temporary transfer for the law firm she works for in Chicago. In short, I really loved Becky. She is funny and easy going and really generous to have let us crash in her place for a few days.

April 30th was our first day of touring, so Lauren and I got up pretty early and set out on what proved to be a really great adventure and vacation. Becky had to work that first day, so Lauren and I were on our own. Luckily Lauren is the queen of research for new hot spots and great places to see when traveling, so she had everything all mapped out. First we went for breakfast at a great place that Becky recommended called The Flying Pan. We had been warned that the portions were large, so we split one eggs Benedict meal that was incredible. It was served Greek-style with feta cheese and spinach.

After breakfast we walked around the streets of the Wan Chai district where Becky lived. There are so many luxury shops and incredible malls here that Lauren and I got lost a bit and just let the time slip by. Once we realized that the afternoon was fast approaching, we got a move on and found the ferry boat that takes people to Kowloon. Once off the ferry we grabbed a taxi to the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas. The temple itself is on the top of a huge hill and leading up the hill is a path lined with larger than life Buddha statues. According to the Hong Kong image of Buddha, he was a fun guy! All the statues are hilarious, but when you get to the top, you realize where the 10,000 Buddhas come into play. There are different buildings at the top built very close together that each have one large statue in the center of the room, but along the walls are very small Buddha statues packed into little cubby holes covering all the walls. The sheer enormity of it all is overwhelming. And I did wonder whose job it was to dust the top shelves!

After our Buddha adventure, Lauren and I hurried back over to the Hong Kong via the ferry and met up with Becky and some of her coworkers for dinner. They had chosen quite a nice Chinese restaurant. We all ended up getting a 10 course meal with Peking Duck and a Beggar's Chicken. Now, Beggar's Chicken has a cool little story to go along with it. In ancient China, a beggar stole a chicken from the Emperor's estate and quickly took it away to be cooked in the nearby village. So as to keep the chicken from emitting a savory aroma as it cooked and giving him away, he first plucked the chicken and wrapped the meat in lotus leaves for flavoring. Next he slathered the lotus leaves in a thick layer of mud to seal in the flavors and smells. Once the chicken had been cooked, he had to use a hammer to beat his way through the hardened mud case to unwrap the lotus leaves and finally eat the cooked chicken. In this particular restaurant, they let the customers use a hammer and crack the outer shell and then they give you a little souvenir hammer. They took our picture and put it in a nice little frame with the story printed on it as well.

After our decadent dinner, we ventured on to a wine bar that was owned by friends of Becky's coworkers. Did you follow that? The wine bar has a simple loungy atmosphere and was a really nice place to hang out and chat with our little group. Lauren and I also met the owners of the bar and spoke to them a bit. Shortly after that, Lauren and I crashed back at Becky's.

The next day was a holiday in Hong Kong, so Becky was able to go with us touring! The first thing we did was to buy some fresh egg tarts at the bakery below Becky's apartment building. They were hot and really delicious! After that we went for a real breakfast at the Flying Pan again! Once we really got on the road we headed over to the cable car station to take a car up to the top of Victoria's Peak. It was a really great view of Hong Kong, the surrounding islands, and all the wide open mountainous land that Hong Kong has. Also at the top of Victoria's Peak, there is a Madam Tussuad's Wax Museum!! After my excursion last July at the new Madam Tussuad's in D.C., I really wanted to go to the one in Hong Kong! Turns out Becky had never been to one and Lauren had gone many years ago to the one in New York. We had such a blast there, and I am forever amazed by the incredible likeness they are able to achieve to the actual subject. We dressed up in certain areas and Lauren decided to wear a pink tutu around the whole museum!

Victoria's Peak and the museum were a bit tiring so we cooled off a bit with some quality ice cream and homemade waffle cones. Afterwards, we took the cable car back down the mountain and caught a bus for Stanley - another town down by the ocean. There was a market in Stanley and a crazy number of restaurants lining the street. After walking through the market a bit, it began to close, but Lauren and I were on a mission. Lauren really wanted a silk robe and I wanted a Chinese dress and in the end we both came away happy. We found one little shop that was still open with two very nice women working inside, they helped us with styles and colors and sizes and at the end Lauren tried her hand at bargaining and got us a nice discount on our respective souvenirs. Through the trip Lauren turned into a master haggler and we walked away with some great deals and nice keepsakes. After our shopping adventure, we got a table at an Asian/Western fusion restaurant and all enjoyed some curry.

After the bus ride home from Stanley, the three of us got all dressed up again and went out to a bar that Lauren had been dying to try called Felix bar. As I said, Lauren loves her research and found great reviews and good word of mouth feedback about this particular bar. Once we got there, we all decided that it was a nice place, but all the hype was a bit much. One thing however was incredibly confusing....the bathroom situation. When you got off the elevator for this bar, to the left looked like double doors into another hallway and to the right was the large seating area and wine room. After being showed to our seats and chatting a while, I got up to use the restroom. I asked one of the hostesses where the restroom was and she pointed me down the hall to the double doors I mentioned. I walked down and instinctively took the door on the right into what I thought was another hallway. Turns out, I just about walked into the mens' bathroom! I then shifted to the left door and was in the right place. The bathroom was beautifully decorated and very chic. When I came out again, I looked at the doors to see where the markings were to signify men and women. Looking very closely, I saw that there was a small bronze disk on either door and a light shining from the ceiling at an angle reflecting on the disk a small M or F. It kind of made me laugh out loud how minimalistic this place was to make the bathrooms so inconspicuous!

The next day we got up early and headed out to the airport to fly our way onto mainland China and Shanghai.

Off to a faraway land

2009-04-27T18:37:00.003-04:00

Well China isn't so far from Japan, but that's where I'm headed! My trusty pal Lauren (the ultimate travel buddy!) and I are grabbing a plane tomorrow afternoon to Hong Kong. We will be traveling from Hong Kong to Shanghai to Beijing and back to Tokyo for two weeks. And while I know that I have been doing a lame job of updating lately, I definitely won't be updating for another two weeks. HOWEVER, when I do return from China I will have more stories than I can type. So be on the lookout for lots of new exciting stories and pictures after May 10th!!!

Also, I am not taking my laptop, nor do I anticipate being able to check email, but I will respond to all comments and emails as soon as I get back to Japan.

AHHHH I only have three months left!!!

Magic tricks and bedtime stories

2009-04-21T08:52:00.002-04:00

Tonight's English lesson with Heartful was really fantastic! This is a prime example of the things that mean the most to me here in Japan that I will miss terribly. Heartful is actually in a bit of a transition now because one of our teachers moved away. James (the guy from Kenya), decided to move to a more exciting place than Koga and take a new ALT job. It was a bit of a sudden decision, so Heartful is still trying to find a replacement teacher. This is good news for me though because until they find a replacement, I get to take over James' classes and see them more often!

Tonight was especially fun because Boom Chan told us about a class that she teaches on Tuesdays at a university in Tokyo. Boom Chan is a bit of an expert at entertaining children. She writes children's books, and knows magic tricks and does puppetry, etc. So the class she teaches is an early education class for people who want to own and teach at day cares and kindergartens. Today she taught her class a magic lesson they can use for wow-ing large groups of kids. So we coaxed her to show us some of her tricks tonight for fun.

The tricks she showed us tonight were mostly things with rope and knots. She even taught us all how to do a couple of them! The first was to make a mosquito, Cat's Cradle style, and then clap our hands and all the knots would fall out. Next we made a Bunny Foo Foo with our hand and went through a hide and seek sequence until all the knots we made fell out. It was so much fun to watch everyone in the group try to learn the trick and then practice until it was perfected! Boom Chan has written a book about magic tricks and a few different children's stories.

Hiromi has two grandchildren and she bought one of Boom Chan's books for them. She pulled it out to show me and it turned into story time. Each person would translate one page of the book into English for me and then pass the book on to the next person. When it got around to me, I would read the Japanese out loud and then translate it myself. The story was about a little ninja whose father asked him to deliver a letter to his grandpa. The little ninja was afraid to go alone, so he used his ninjitsu magic to help him multiply into three little ninjas. So the ninja starts on his journey. Along the road there is a big snake, so the little ninja multiplies to 6 ninjas and then 100 ninjas. All the ninjas run very quickly around the snake to make him very dizzy. And then the snake falls down. The little ninja finally makes it to his grandfather's house to deliver the letter!

Boom Chan reminds me so much of a really great teacher of mine from middle school. She has a ton of energy, great sense of humor, and works so well with kids. In fact, I think I will go write Lauren a letter right now! So many wonderful Lauren's in my life!!!! :)

Busy week, no more time to be sick

2009-04-20T01:25:00.002-04:00

I am slowly starting to kick this sickness, which is good because I have a pretty busy week coming up. I have both English clubs this week on Monday and Tuesday, dinner plans on Wednesday, and my own Japanese class on Friday. This weekend I am going shopping with Chika (mostly just to hang out and enjoy looking at summer clothes) and then next week is only a two day week before I am off to CHINA for two weeks! But my To Do list needs to be complete before next Wednesday, so I gotta get in gear.

With all the excitement and bustling that has been happening, the days have been moving right along in their warp-speed kind of way and only when I actually look at a calendar, do I realize how little time I have left. Recently I have been talking to my Mom about eventually leaving Japan and what a huge transition that is going to be for me. Now legit, I am doing so much better with the idea/occurrence of change. That doesn't mean that my life here is unimportant. I have learned that being able to deal with change and being sad to see a chapter in your life close are two different things. I will be very sad to see this year of my life come to an end, but I am ready to move back home. Some advice I got from Mom (modified to be universal), "Write down all the reasons why you made the decision to transition, now. Then when you are in the thick of sadness and emotional time of moving onto the next thing, you can look at your list and be reassured you made the right decision for you, even if it is hard."

I will be starting to reflect a lot more as the weeks slip by. I cannot be more thankful for this year and the people who encouraged me and threw me on that airplane to get here in the first place.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

2009-04-17T07:54:00.003-04:00

I would like to begin this post by letting you know that I also finished Love As A Foreign Language Vol. 3, but I have decided to stop reporting on the series. Suffice it to say, I really love the series and it really hits home with me. Thanks, DC for bringing it into my life.

Now, as for Wicked - I finally read the whole thing!!! If people think Baum's OZ book was political, wait until you read Maguire's take on the fateful country! He is an incredibly intricate writer with a strong voice and intense characters. I will say that for those of you who have seen the musical, they are hardly similar. In my opinion, the musical is very pointed and cohesive, the book is more realistic - as realistic as a magical land with witches and dragons can be. He speaks in a very real tone of political turmoil and misguided leaders turned dictators.

The story is of the life of Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West. Maguire delves into the reason as to why she is green-skinned, but also her aversion to water, and her aptitude toward "evil." I found it quite interesting actually that Maguire explores the definition of the word evil and the role it plays in society - this bit of the novel can be extrapolated and set against modern society and the behavior of those considered "good" versus those considered "evil." One opinion of the debate I found extremely thought-provoking was the statement, "Evil is an act, not an appetite." It goes on to discuss how evil can only be seen, and that our private thoughts or appetites, no matter how dark, cannot be considered evil because no one knows to judge them. It is only when an appetite is acted upon that evil exists because of the real consequences of physical action. What do you think?

"What is the difference between science and sorcery?"
My thought is that what is considered sorcery (or magic) tends to become science. Instances of nature that at one time were inexplicable, were considered of the Gods or magic. Eventually all of those mystic events were to be explained by science. Without detailed examination of sorcery, science would cease to exist.

"It is not for a girl, or a student, or a citizen to assess what is wrong. This is the job of leaders, and why we exist."
This statement is rather nerve racking and I fear speaks of the tyranny of big government. In my opinion, it should always be for the common person to contemplate and have an opinion on how he is governed. When the population grows to significant numbers, it is unrealistic for each person to have a clear vote on every national issue. However, I think sometimes governments are elected to office and then have quite a lot of free reign until the next public vote - which is never soon enough to stop the mess from being made.

I think this book is really phenomenal and is worth reading. It took me a while to get through because of the intricate language and so many created words. I surely recommend it though.

Tired and Sick

2009-04-17T07:48:00.002-04:00

I would have titled this post the other way around, but that phrase has such a negative and unsatisfied connotation. Anyway, I have been sick for about a week now. Nothing that keeps me from working, it just makes work that much more tiring. I just started teaching again for the first time in a month, and I am happy to report that my schools have been keeping me busy. I really love being in the classroom with the new kids, but this head cold has GOT TO GO!!!

Each day is different and sometimes I think I am feeling better, but then after a full day of classes, I'm back to where I started. Needless to say, I have been dead tired and just can't seem to get enough sleep. So this week I have been doing a lot of reading and lesson planning in the evenings, so nothing terribly exciting to report. I was hoping to be feeling better this weekend, so that I could go see Lauren in Tokyo (my favorite girl and my favorite spot) but I just don't think that will happen. However, if better judgment does not prevail and I end up spending Saturday in the big city, I will be sure to report my escapades when I return home! ;)

Turn, Turn, Turn

2009-04-12T19:48:00.004-04:00

It has been two weeks since all of the new teachers came to Sanwa - all 12 of them! and one week since classes have begun and the new students have been in school. I started teaching again this week.

Of course as a recovering Metathesiophobe (fear of changes), I was a little apprehensive about the flurry of activity around me as the new school year approached. Sanwa underwent some pretty big changes including 12 new teachers (3 of which are English), a new Vice Principle, of course new freshman students, and a new layout to the teacher's room. But I am happy to report that not only have I endured the changes, but I am enjoying my new view of the teachers room and I am excited to meet my new students. The new English teachers are really great too and it helped that I knew two of the three of them before they got here! One teacher is from my old school, Sakai Nishi, and the other is from the school where I was a substitute ALT, Yachiyo High School. They are such nice women and oddly, I am helping them learn the culture of Sanwa a bit since I have been here longer. Imagine that, me with some experience! haha

The story with our new Vice Principle is a little strange to me, and I am sure I am missing some of the details in translation, but... The Vice Principal that was here until March had no clue he was leaving until about three days before the new school year was to begin! I kind of think about it like a sports team; our Principal knew he would be trading the VP, but he didn't tell the VP until the last minute so that nothing could be done about it. It came as a shock to everyone, and as with so many other situations I have encountered here, no one seems to understand what is going on or have details about a situation. I will never cease to be surprised by the amount of blind faith the Japanese have in the group and the higher-ups to make decisions. They aren't really concerned with details or the reason why - a way of going through life that is completely foreign to me.

Last week was rather uneventful for me at work, but on Thursday I had my rock concert debut! Every year there is a welcome assembly for all the new students. They listen to speeches and most importantly, every club at school does a small presentation for them to try and entice them to join. I thought it was cool to watch all of the different clubs (mostly sports) give little demonstrations. At the end of this segment, the "rock band" club sang two songs for the school. I have been practicing with Kohei and Kensaku for about 5 weeks now and watching these guys play is just fun. Kohei was one of my students that went to Australia way back in November and he always makes it a point to come and speak to me when I am working at Sanwa.

Sadly I have not been spending as much time outdoors since school started because of being a little busier (thank goodness) and of having a yucky head cold. I have been reading like a fiend of course and still riding my bike when I do go out. Hopefully this head gunk will pass quickly. I have more travel plans in the works and I will be sure to keep everyone updated. :)

Love as a Foreign Language - Vol. 2 by J. Torres and Eric Kim

2009-04-08T19:51:00.002-04:00

I just finished the second installment of this comic series and I am really enjoying it. The character is struggling with his desire to be back home and his new found energy and motivation to stay in Korea and keep teaching English. The job is frustrating, but he wonders if that is reason enough to leave his new life and go back to the old one. I really like the mirror effect this series has for me. In the dialogue I can see my own situation somewhat and it helps to have that reflected back. There was an unexpected twist at the end of this book, and now I am on the edge of my seat for the third!

Spring is upon us

2009-04-06T02:03:00.002-04:00

In Japan, spring brings many new beginnings. The beginning of a new season, new school year, new wardrobe, new energy and excitement after a long, cold winter. The Japanese school year begins in April and ends in March, and Sanwa has been buzzing to get ready for the new year and new students. The weather has been beautiful and so enticing that I have spent a lot of time outside while at school. I am lucky that I have such freedom that I can take a walk outside during school hours. I have been getting a lot of bike riding in lately as well. Just on Friday, I was able to check out of school a couple hours early and head over to the Koga Peach Blossom Festival again.

I am so happy to have been introduced to this park because the atmosphere is beautiful and it will be a nice place to spend time this summer. Luckily I got to the festival early enough in the day to visit some of the vendors and get a chocolate banana. While I was shopping through some different kinds of tea leaves for sale, one vendor offered me a sample of green tea and we struck up a nice conversation. I am always so happy to speak to people in the community in Japanese. It gives me some great practice and I like that they try to talk to me. This woman did a fantastic job by using easy vocabulary and speaking to me slowly. She asked me where I was from and why I was living in Japan. When I told her that I was an English teacher, she gave me a big smile and said, "Good luck! Work hard!" I thanked her and moved on. It was great to find a nice place to sit down and read my book for a bit too. The peach blossoms were still out and gorgeous and a nice atmosphere to begin the weekend.

And to end the weekend, Chika, Jason and I went to another park of which I cannot remember the name to see some cherry blossoms. This is a park covered in sakura trees. They have a nice open field where you can sit and observe the blossoms and enjoy the company of those around you. In the spring it is a popular Japanese past time to sit, drink sake, and watch sakura trees in bloom. And as always, I was able to get some great festival food and enjoy the chocolate bananas! Festival season is just beginning and I hope to report back from many more as the spring turns into summer.

The circus is in town!

2009-04-06T01:33:00.002-04:00

I love when my friends have birthdays because it means that I get to join in their fun as well!! This weekend was my friend Jason's birthday and his girlfriend, Chika, and I bought tickets for the three of us to go to a Cirque du Soleil show! I have known a bit about Cirque, but I had never seen a show. Before we went, I did a bit of research and learned that Cirque du Soleil has been around for over 20 years! It began in Canada and now can be seen in many locations all around the world. Unlike Broadway or traditional theatre, Cirque shows are in two separate categories - shows that travel and shows that do not. The shows that do not travel are only in one location, so the show here in Japan cannot be seen anywhere else in the world.

The whole idea behind Cirque du Soleil is to be a new-age circus for a modern audience. The spectacle of the show is completely amazing. The acrobatic feats and amazing strength of the performers is nothing short of awesome. There were two singers that narrated each act. They were very talented and had voices so clear and controlled. We could not quite make out the language in which they were singing, but it sounded like a romance language; Spanish perhaps.

At the beginning of the show there were traditional clowns drawing in the crowd and connecting the story. The story of this particular show (titled ZED) was of a man who was drawn into a story book and then became part of the story. The performers were from all over the world. My favorite part was the strength demonstration. There were two people who were lifted up from the floor. The man was standing up with his head bent down and there was a woman on his back, upside down. her head was bent and she was balanced on his shoulders. They moved completely in slow motion and the physical strength was mind boggling. I felt like a kid watching with eyes wide and mouth agape. I am on a mission to see as many different Cirque shows that I can!

Bring on the changes; but for today, I'll play

2009-03-31T05:18:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is April 1st, and that marks the beginning of the new school year here in Japan. The students don't start tomorrow, but all the personnel changes happen tomorrow with new teachers coming in and old teachers changing schools. We will rearrange the teacher's room, I will get a new desk and new neighbors. But for today I ignored the changes and formality that tomorrow will bring and just played all day!

First thing I did today was map out a new lesson on music for Koga 3rd. After I got that underway, a couple students came to ask me if I would play basketball with them. I told them that I had never played, but sure, I would come to their practice. Turns out they asked me because it was a faculty vs. student pick-up game! I have no clue what the rules of basketball are nor anything resembling strategy or knowledge of the game other than aiming for the hoop. Needless to say I was pretty useless to the faculty team, but I tried. And because I didn't know this game was going to happen, I didn't have any active or sports clothes prepared - oh well. I had fun and gave everyone a good laugh, that was for sure.

After the basketball madness (the students won!), I ran down to practice with Kohei for the welcome ceremony for the first grade students next week. Kohei is a great musician and I will be singing "All the Small Things," by Blink-182. I tried to explain to Kohei that singing a song for a man was hard for me, but he didn't seem to care. I am having so much fun with it though and I love just watching these kids practice and fool around during rehearsal. After that rehearsal was over I grabbed some lunch with some of the teachers.

After lunch, Mika (a Japanese teacher at Sanwa) asked me if I wanted to play catch with her and her friend that was visiting. She remembered that I used to play softball and wanted to play with me. Of course I said sure (anything to get me out of the teacher's room!). We had a really great time and it makes me want to play again quite a bit. I never had the passion to play in high school, but playing Little League was great! Maybe I can find a team when I get home (along with all the other stuff I want to do when I get home!).

So it was a great day today and I wish that more days were like this. Starting tomorrow real work will begin again and the playing will have to end. Today was great.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

2009-03-30T06:12:00.003-04:00

Many of you may recognize this title as being a recent movie. Well it is pretty recent in Japan - I actually don't know when it was out at home. I saw this movie with Lauren over Valentine's Day weekend and albeit depressing, the movie is very well done. And the movie is alarmingly, wonderfully, very close to the book in it's portrayal - much of the dialogue for the film is actually taken directly from the pages of the novel. As with any 460 page book, it is hard to turn that into a two hour film and not leave out some details. They did a great job with hitting all the major points and showing the deep insecurities of the couple and the destructive relationship they had created, but I wanted to know WHY?!?! So that afternoon, Lauren and I went to a book store and I picked up the book. The book definitely tells you why.

I found that it was very well written and easy to fly through the pages. The story flowed nicely and gave so much background information on Frank and April Wheeler that just doesn't fit into a movie. Their neuroses and poor communication come from an extraordinarily dysfunctional childhood for April. Frank's childhood was much more conventional, except that his parents never planned to have him and he knew it from the start. Frank always felt like he was playing catch up and never quite became an adult in the eyes of his parents, which stunted his self-esteem and caused him to become a pathological liar and story teller.

The book is just as depressing, if not more so than the film, but such a dark look into the dysfunctionality of relationships that I was hooked. Anything that delves into the question of human nature and how we communicate with one another is fascinating to me on a level I cannot quite articulate. I feel like the more I know about all the ways people go wrong, the better I can be at foraging close friendships and more honest relationships.

"Our ability to measure and apportion time affords an almost endless source of comfort." I have been chewing on this sentence for a while. It's all about control; and I really wish it wasn't.

Just the weekend

2009-03-29T17:51:00.002-04:00

The weekend was on the whole rather uneventful, but sometimes that kind of recuperation is exactly what I need. Plus I have been needing to save some money to get me through to the end of April. I sent a lot of money home from my March paycheck and what I had saved from February, so now I am walking a bit of a tightrope, but I don't mind. Sending money home feels like a real accomplishment for me - I like when I do it because it means that my loans are being paid each month (thank you, Mom!) and I enjoy paying bills. Granted that is mostly because right now my expenses are minimal and I can pay them easily; I am sure I will not always enjoy paying bills seeing as unexpected life can be. So I made a conscious decision on Friday NOT to go to the bank for the weekend and to just work with the 5000 yen (~$50) I had in my wallet and keep my weekend low key.

Appropriately (hah) after my saving money spiel, I want to share that I bought a bicycle while Michael was here. He gave me the push I needed (thank you) to make that impulse purchase and I am so happy that I did! It's not fancy, it's a cruising bike and doesn't even have gears, but the price was right and the setup is perfect for how I will be using it. It came with a basket, a peddle-generated light, a built-in bike lock and a nice little bell. So this weekend I used to it go to the park for the Peach Blossom Festival. I"ll be sure to post the pictures soon, but the pink blossoms are so pretty. The park is really great too - I had never been there.

My ride to the festival should have taken about 20 minutes, but I knew from driving in that direction, that there were some exceptionally narrow roads and I don't like riding my bike where there is no side walk. So I spent about an hour or so riding around trying to find an alternate route to the festival - turns out, there isn't one. So when I rode about half hour out of my way, I had to ride a half hour back so that I could just take the route I knew. The narrow roads weren't too bad, so all is well there. Honestly, I don't mind riding my bike around aimlessly either. I am so happy I bought the bike and since the weather is getting warmer, there will actually be quite a bit of use for it. My town feels so much more accessible now and there will never be a worry with parking again!

Other than my random bike rides, I stayed in. I finished a puzzle I had been working on - I still have another sitting on my table half-finished, but I didn't have it in me to finish both of them. And I have almost finished the current book I am reading, so be on the look out for a new review soon. The book is great, but I am starving to get started on a new book. My stack is a little intimidating right now and I really want to finish before I come home in a few months. I think I can as long as I stay diligent and get off my current Picross obsession! **Picross is a DS game that Michael got me hooked on. I love puzzle games, but I have a one track mind when it comes to a new game on my DS.**

Wow, more to report than I thought. I am excited that the weather is getting warmer and that I have four months left to wrap up my life here and prepare to go home.

Here's to the ladies who lunch, everybody laugh!

2009-03-26T08:05:00.002-04:00

Name that show!!!

On Monday, the female teachers at Sanwa had a bit of a going away luncheon for the teachers who will be moving on to new schools in a couple weeks. We went out to a Chinese restaurant and the food was delicious! But aside from the food, the conversation was hilarious and non-stop laughs. First, a couple of the girls were late to the restaurant, so the teachers made this elaborate plan that I would get very upset that they were late and tell them how mad I was in Japanese and then the gym teacher would tell them in English how mad she was and start to walk out, but I had to stop her in a very dramatic way. The whole plan happened with glitches, but was completely hilarious and set the happy tone for the lunch.

During the meal the ladies were discussing where they would be moving and how far their commute was going to be. They talked about how sad they were to leave Sanwa, but that of course they would all still be friends. They talked about some recent vacations they had taken and how they all think that the male teachers are either crazy or funny or both. Gossip central!

At the end of the meal, we ordered dessert (naturally) and while we were waiting the gym teacher devised a game for us all to play. I think I have described the shiri-tori game on here before, but the gist is that each person says a word and the person after them has to say a word that begins with the last letter of the previous word. Well the catch to this game was that we had to play in Japanese, but we had to translate our words into English before we said it. For example, I would say Apple (ringo in Japanese) and the next person would say rice (gohan in Japanese) and so on. It was so much fun and all the ladies tried so hard and pulled out some really great words like scarecrow (kakashi in Japanese). I always have so much fun with the teachers from Sanwa and I am so lucky that they always try to invite me and include me in all their outings!

A wonderful visit

2009-03-26T07:30:00.014-04:00

I need to finish up the story about Michael's visit. Okay, so let's start with food. While here I wanted him to try a lot of different Japanese foods, some of which he already had of course. I took him to my favorite sushi place. Now, sushi isn't his favorite, but he did enjoy himself and I think the whole idea of conveyor belt sushi just fascinated him. Here in Japan this type of sushi restaurant is quite popular. Essentially there are small conveyor belts that wind their way throughout the entire restaurant; if you see something you like, you take it off the conveyor and eat it. Most of the sushi at this place (Kappa Zushi) is actually nigiri style, there are some rolls too if you want them. At this particular place I really enjoy the touch screen menus where you can order anything you want! The next food adventure we had was okonomiyaki. This is one of my favorite Japanese foods because it is so tasty and interactive! They describe okonomiyaki as a Japanese pancake, except that it is not sweet at all and it has a ton of other ingredients. The staples in okonomiyaki are cabbage, egg, and pancake batter. Beyond that you can add anything else you want; often there is meat or seafood added. We went to this particular place on a Friday, since it is Lent I got the seafood medley and Michael got the I Love Meat (on the menu they even print a little heart in lieu of the word Love). They bring you the okonomiyaki in bowls and you have to mix it and cook it on your stove top table all by yourself. The beginning is the easy part, but the flipping is always a bit tricky. I have been practicing, so mine was pretty excellent I must say. Michael on the other hand experienced epic failure and his split in half. I, who am so far from being domestic it's not funny, saved the day and his okonomiyaki and put it back together. I think he really enjoyed this meal, but it is so filling that we just went home and napped a bit after that lunch time! haha

The perfect place to buy all kinds of Japanese souvenirs in my little town of Koga is the Hyaku-en shop (the dollar store). I have said this before, but the hyaku-en shops here are soooo much better than the dollar stores at home - Michael thought so too. We hung out there for a while and picked up all kinds of snacks and gifts for his friends. Though to be honest, I don't think I have gone through every single isle of the hyaku-en shop until Michael got here. The fascination with all the different items to buy was like watching a kid with a new toy! We also popped into the department store, Saty, to pick up some other items. At the Saty there are some really great Engrish tshirts, so we jumped on that action too. Also, the Saty department store has their own jingle that they play over the PA system at the store. Michael repeatedly asked me if there was any way to get the song on a CD - he was a big fan! It's always the little things where he finds the most joy - I like that about him - it's also good for a laugh when he starts singing the Saty song in other stores because he likes it so much.

On Thursday morning I had to go into work because I didn't want to take any more personal time, so I left Michael at home to sleep in and headed to school. I was there for the morning and then I got to sneak away unnoticed for the afternoon! That afternoon the weather was so gorgeous and we donned the tshirts to go back into Tokyo and enjoy the city some more. First we went to Asakusa - one of my favorite and most comfortable places in Tokyo. Asakusa has an incredible outdoor marketplace leading up to Senso-ji Temple. The market is always bustling with people and just a really exciting place. I think I have been to this particular market about 7 times and I really know where things are. After some shopping around for souvenirs, we walked up to the temple and saw the elaborate decorations and ceiling paintings. The ceilings of this temple are some of my favorite in all of Japan.

After our shopping trip, we went back into Akihabara because Michael had to get his geek on. There were two spots he desperately wanted to hit to, "improve his gamer cred." One was Yodobashi Camera and the other was Super Potato. Yodobashi is a huge electronics department store that is literally connected to Akihabara train station. The place has 8 floors and is completely filled to the brim with any kind of electronic anything you can think of. Michael said if he wanted to build a computer, he could go to Yodobashi and find every part he would need all in one place! We painstakingly went through nearly every floor checking out all the merchandise and now I even want to go back and buy a couple more things - like the external hard drive that is one terabyte and looks like a giant Lego block!!! Also, apparently in Japan the brand Logitech is known as Logicool!!! I just want to buy something from them to have the awesome different name! After the exhausting Yodobashi tour, we left in search of the great Super Potato. Now this is a retro game store that is three tiny floors, but stocked so densely it reminded me of an old antique shop. We looked through all the floors of this place and Michael revered it as more of a museum than anything else. It was so much fun for me to see his passion about video games come out. I know when I start talking about the Wizard of Oz - I get excited and confident about what I am saying because my knowledge is so great. His knowledge of the history of video games and different trivia and fun facts was vast and just a joy for me to listen. We even found a king's throne made completely of old video games glued together!

After a very busy and wonderfully enjoyable - albeit much too short - week, I had to bid Michael goodbye at the airport on Sunday. We ventured to the airport and got him checked in with about 2.5 hours to spare. We got some lunch (tempura!) at the airport and then just walked around together until he absolutely had to go through security and get to his gate. The time we spent together was very needed and really great for me. When I had to tell him goodbye at the security check, I did start to cry. It's funny almost, I think I have cried every time we have to be separated for any length of time since we each went off to separate colleges; after every winter break and summer vacation - I always miss the silly time we share together because it is so comfortable and not strained. Soon after that, I made my way down to the trains and headed back home a little sad, but so thankful for the week I just had.

Do we get to keep our memories?

2009-03-24T20:10:00.003-04:00

When we go, do you think God lets us keep our memories?

This is not an original pondering of mine, but of my late Uncle Thorn. However I think the idea is well worth thinking about - he was a smart man. Just before I moved to Japan, my uncle was diagnosed with cancer. Since that time he began writing his own blog with thoughts about life and updates on his condition. For the first time, I was able to learn a bit about him, and I must say he was a wonderful writer. I was so deeply impressed and inspired by his strength of heart and of character in such a grim and painful situation. I appreciate very much that he kept a blog and allowed the rest of us to see his private thoughts - I believe everyone who read what he had to say surely came away inspired and a little more optimistic.

Being as far away from home as I am only sinks in at certain times - when there are big family events. Right now my family has each other to console and comfort and celebrate the wonderful life that my uncle lived. But I am alone, half a world away with email updates as my only connection to the love and emotion and healing they are experiencing.

And yes Uncle Thorn, I do sincerely believe that God lets us keep our memories. God allows our withering bodies to keep all the love and incredible life each of us experiences. Our common memories with those we love allow us to communicate through prayer and in the silence of our minds, when meeting up in this life is no longer possible.

Wednesday was good despite the morning

2009-03-23T02:00:00.002-04:00

I took the day off work on Wednesday and we decided to go to Kamakura to see the Daibutsu and take advantage of the nice weather. However before heading out to Kamakura, I wanted to run an errand of my own. So, in about a month I will be heading to China for two weeks with my wonderful travel buddy, Lauren. In order to go to China, nearly everyone needs a visa. This is a huge pain in the butt and I will think seriously before I decide to visit another country with a visa requirement. First, the office is only open on weekdays from 9am to noon; that means I have to use my personal days to head into Tokyo and take care of this mess. So Wednesday morning was day one.

The embassy is in Roppongi - about and hour and a half from my house. The application form asks you to type the answers, I don't have a printer at home, so I was running around Roppongi with poor Michael in tow trying to find a convenience store that could print my document. That turned out to be an impossibility. So I got pretty frustrated and Michael kept his usual calm and just ran around with me. Finally I say heck with it and we just go to the embassy without my application. Turns out that despite the instructions to TYPE the form, they have them there for you to complete by hand. The whole place was set up like the DMV with numbers and automated voices telling you whose turn it was. Luckily the line went really fast and we were out of there in about 30 minutes. And I have to go back tomorrow (Tuesday) to pick up my passport again - taking more personal time - LAME!

So after the whole embassy adventure, we grabbed a quick lunch and then made our way to the original destination of Kamakura to see the Daibutsu. Again the Daibutsu was completely huge and overwhelming. Michael really enjoyed seeing it and was also impressed by its imposing size. We even got to walk inside the Buddha this time and Michael rubbed his belly from the inside for good luck. I followed suit because who doesn't need a little extra luck on their side?

After spending a little time gazing at the Buddha, we did some souvenir shopping (this time no gifts were left on the train!) and caught the bus for the station. We grabbed a snack and took the train back into Tokyo. This week we spent a ton of time on the train and a lot of that time was spent standing because we were never quite fast enough to get the seats! Once back in Tokyo, I took Michael to see the temple where I spent New Year's Eve. We walked into the Temple and there were some people doing Zen meditation with a monk.

Zojo-ji Temple is right in front of Tokyo Tower; so after our Zen watching, we hoofed it up to the Tower and went all out for the Tokyo Tower experience. We bought the Amusement Pack tickets which include admittance to four museums and the observation deck of the tower. We bought our ticket and headed up to the first observation deck of two. On that level there was a cafe and some live music so we enjoyed taking in the sights of Tokyo and killed some time until it was dark and we could see all the city lights. When the sun set, we made our way up to the second observation deck and the scene was wonderful. I had been to Tokyo Tower 3 times before, but had never gone at night, so it was a new view of Tokyo and really incredible. Tokyo is so huge that it seems to stretch forever in all directions.

After the view from the top, we went to the museums to check it out. You should check out the pictures I will post because some of them are really great! First we went to the wax museum, and let me tell you - they got nothin' on Madam Tussaud! They do mention her as being the one to perfect the art of wax figures, but clearly none of her work was in this little museum. I did take some pictures though and I tried to include the name tags so you could see who the wax figure is supposed to be.

They have a Guinness World Records museum and tons of fun facts about the insane things people do. The tallest man puts me to absolute shame; I mean normal people make me look tiny, but this guy - I am the ant under his foot. We decided that we need to buy a book, but then decided not to buy one because the records change too often to keep properly updated.

Next we went to a short anime about some kind of super villains trying to ruin a movie about super heroes....I think. Honestly, I think Michael understood it better than I did, haha. It was fun and 3-D so that was a huge plus! After that we went to the Trick Art museum though. I have some really great Engrish pictures from that gallery and the whole thing was so much fun. The museum is interactive and all the paintings are even one step more real than trompel'oile! I hope you oooh and aaah at our pictures.

Then to end this night, we took the train back home and made TACOS!!! Mom sent Michael with a taco kit for me because I miss Mexican food so much. It was delicious and here is my formal request for another taco kit please, Mom! It was fun to cook actually. I really don't mind it when I am cooking with/for someone else. More stories to follow.

Welcome to my job

2009-03-18T21:51:00.002-04:00

On Monday and Tuesday Michael and I went to school. I had three classes to teach each day and it was so much fun for the kids to meet him! Of course he was nervous as anything, but he performed well and the kids loved him.

On Monday we were at Sanwa and did two lessons of the Shiri-Tori game. It is a Japanese title, but we have this game at home too. Basically the kids get a starting words and have to use the last letter from that word as the first letter of the following word. The object is for the team to write a list of as many words as they can. Of course they have to spell the words correctly, but the kids really enjoy this game. Before any games could begin of course, Michael introduced himself to the class and told them about his hobbies and his favorite food (spaghetti). For our third class at Sanwa, we did a psychology test and these kids had a ton of questions for Michael. They wanted to know who his favorite Dragonball character was and if he intended to see the movie. He was even challenged to a game of basketball, which sadly wasn't able to happen because of school schedulings and whatnot. The kids in this class really worked hard and used the English they knew and helped each other to form good questions for him. I was really proud! After class, they even ran out into the hallway to talk to him some more. It was a really nice day.

On Tuesday we went to Koga First. We had three classes again and the kids here were really great as well. The first two classes, we had some warm-ups with jumbled words. I was impressed that the kids could understand enough that they aced these word scrambles - Michael and I had a hard time. The kids were a little shy, but they really like Michael too. After the warm-up, we played a board game that I made. There were groups of 4 students and each group had a game board. They had to move around the board and ask each other questions and then write down in complete sentences the answers to the questions. It is a bit of speaking and writing practice. I even put some questions on the game board so they would have to ask Michael and I some questions. It was so much fun running around the room and some of the groups would even come up with follow-up questions if they wanted more details! They were really great classes. Our third class we played Jeopardy with some random trivia. This class though had a ton of questions for Michael - they even asked him why he loved me. That was flattering, if not a little embarrassing, but the kids just giggled. At the end of class - as per special request, we played the Shiri-Tori game! These kids were pulling out all kinds of words and the competition was intense. I love that when you strike the right nerve, the kids can be really fantastic! The right nerve must be visitors!

No jet lag

2009-03-18T20:26:00.002-04:00

Finally, not another book review! I have been too busy to read lately - I am happy to report! Last Saturday I ventured, in the awful rainy and windy weather, to Narita airport to pick-up my wonderful visitor! After two domestic connections and one international flight, Michael arrived here in my little Japan. It was a good thing he arrived later in the evening because that way we could grab some dinner and head home.

On Sunday the weather was completely gorgeous and we went back into Tokyo just to look around. First we went to Meguro to have lunch at an English style pub. They have an all-you-can-eat carvery on Sundays with all the mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts you can handle. The food is always wonderful and the atmosphere is nice.

After lunch we caught the train and went to Harajuku. We walked out of the intensely crowded station and passed by all of the most trendy people of Harajuku - the goths, the maid girls, the cos-players and even the kids giving away free hugs. Right around the corner is one of the big gates to Meiji-jingu. This is one of the most famous temples in Tokyo. I have never been but the day was perfect for it. From the entrance gate to the gate of the actual temple is a huge, beautiful canopy of trees lining a gravel walkway. It was just like spring with birds singing and people chatting with one another. The gates to the temple were absolutely immense and Michael immediately wanted one to take home. I think we may have to have one for the driveway or something now...

When we got to the temple itself, there was a traditional Japanese wedding! The woman and man were in intricate kimono and looked perfect! Of course all of the tourists (myself included) were taking pictures of them posing and smiling. After this little photo-op, there was a processional of the bride and groom and their immediate families, along with the priest performing the ceremony. It was incredible that these people were having a wedding right out in the middle of a bunch of strangers!

After the impromptu wedding, we went to Yoyogi Park to walk around. Again the beautiful weather was really on our side and the walk was so much fun. Right before the entrance to the park, there were three or four groups of Japanese dancers almost competing for attention. All these Japanese people were decked out in 50s poodle skirts and saddle shoes or tight leather pants and leather jackets with the name of their gang on the back - it was totally Grease style! Each group had their own boom-box and was rockin' the tunes with some pretty crazy dance moves. The girls were all sticking with the twist, but the guys looked a little spastic almost!

The walk through the park was nice. All the usual suspects were there - guys with a Frisbee, kite flyers, dog walkers, a group doing tai chi, children's laughter, jump rope, picnicking, and bike riders. It was exciting to be in a park with so many happy people! We decided that we would really like to live close to a big park to enjoy nice spring days like this too!

After spending some time in the park, we went into Akihabara's Electronic Town. Akihabara is the geeky nerd's paradise! So many electronics, and video games and trinkets and anime, manga stuff! We explored a couple video game stores, but we are planning to go back for a second trip to actually purchase something, what, I don't know yet. More to come!

Knit Two by Kate Jacobs

2009-03-11T05:11:00.002-04:00

Yes, another book report. My life should pick up and be more exciting next week.

This book is a sequel to one I read early during my stay here in Japan. I am delighted to report that I am very happy with the direction the story moved in this book. Of course there is a somewhat troubled, but happy ending none the less.

Knit Two is set five years after Friday Night Knitting Club. Since that time these women have grown, but have not yet learned how to deal with their sadness and loss. I especially like the character of Dakota because I can identify a bit with her. She is a young girl, still in college but going through some rough debates with herself and with her father about her life's plan. Dakota is trying to really figure out where she fits between gutsy adventurer and stable working woman. I can commiserate with this struggle a bit. I think by the end she, with the help of everyone around her, has come up with a solid plan for incorporating dreams and reality.

Reading this kind of book makes me hope to find this kind of friendship and female companions some day. It is such a story of truth and friendship that I can understand, but have never experienced the way it is portrayed in this book.

How ya'll doin'?

2009-03-10T01:44:00.002-04:00

I just spent the best 40 minutes I have ever spent in school. I was teaching Hiromi how to make an origami Christmas tree. (Yes, I made one during the holidays and she saw it today and wanted to learn.) And in the process, taught her some very bad English. I put on a horribly fake southern accent and taught her how to drop her Gs and twang it up. Listening to her try and speak with the same twangy accent was more than hilarious. We just laughed as hard as we could and kept making Christmas trees. Hiromi's first attempt was a little...special, so I made a huge piece of origami and we went at it again. Her second attempt was much better.

Sadly Hiromi, along with many other teachers, will be leaving Sanwa in April. As of right now, I cannot imagine Sanwa without these wonderful people in my life. I hope we can still see each other.

EPL - Indonesia

2009-03-08T06:06:00.002-04:00

By far, my favorite part of the book (Lauren's too!) and perfect for getting me out of my weekend funk. The life that Elizabeth Gilbert has chosen to live and her year-long journey described in this book is unbelievable. I admire her gumption and will power, but I would never choose such a life for myself. I think Indonesia is a beautiful culmination of her hardship and struggles the rest of the year and her ability to commit herself so deeply to God. I am inspired by her spiritual journey and her power to love - herself.

I think more often than not we don't regard ourselves at all. Most of us are not self-loathing, but I would bet that most of us are not self-loving either. I want to be self-loving because at that point it is so much easier to love others and to focus your attention on thinking of someone else first. Good book. Read it. India is tough to get through.

EPL - India

2009-03-08T05:45:00.005-04:00

I gave this book to my dear friend Amy for her birthday in December. I had heard wonderful things about the book and thought that it was just the type of story to help any woman with a bit of introspection and self-assessment. Well, for my birthday, my lovely friend Amy returned the favor and sent me this book. How intuitive she is to know that I needed to read this and really evaluate the way it made me feel. Her one caveat upon giving it to me was, "India was tough to get through." Amy, I couldn't agree more.

So, here I find myself in India and all I can think about Elizabeth Gilbert is how intensely whiny she is and how I cannot stand to hear her obsess any more about the same thing over and over. And then I get hit with a stick and the stark realization that obsession and over thinking is my most loathed and loyal companion.

"the problem is the emotional attachment that goes along with the thinking."
Story of my life. I attach an emotional value to every aspect of my life. Emotional capital is something I have in abundance and I would share, but frankly I don't think the people around me want that kind of gift. I dwell on things and just the thoughts are not so dangerous - however my unnatural attachment to my emotions is what causes me to sometimes spin into a dark and sad place for absolutely no reason. Because I think with my heart, my heart assumes everyone else does as well. This is a problem because the things I most often obsess over are issues that don't actually matter to anyone else nearly as much as they matter to me and I NEED to realize that. I never let myself off the hook - I need to work on that.

"You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be."
Self explanatory? Yes.

"In your service to your nephew, you are serving God."
This is a sentiment I have believed deeply since I was in high school. When I was younger, I found myself always in a big fight with religion and God. I had a hard time with the concept of a vengeful God and fire and brimstone. I was convinced that the only support and love I needed in this life was the incredibly deep and unconditional love my family had for me and I for them. They are the only thing I need to get through this life - and love is so much more powerful than fear. Since I began college, I have recanted a bit and I have a new respect for my religious upbringing - especially the Priest in my Parish that has never made me feel like an awful sinner. I still have much disdain for the idea that God should be feared, and I think God might too. I know now that by counting on the love and support of my family and giving all my love and support to my family I am depending upon and living through God. "God dwells within you as you yourself, exactly the way you are." What a beautiful and incredibly easy to believe thought.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - Italy

2009-03-08T05:19:00.003-04:00

Okay, so I have joined the masses of women who have read this book and now I wish to comment. As I zoomed through the pages, I made many notes and underlined words I found to be significant. There is far too much emotion and thought in this book to put it all into one blog post. I have decided to split it as the author did into three sections and give my commentary. Not quite a normal book review seeing how thought provoking this book was.

"as Lily Tomlin once said - 'things were going to get a whole lot worse before they got worse.'"
I have huge admiration for Lily Tomlin and her immense talent. And that talent, I sincerely believe, comes from a place of such sound observation of life and human interaction with the world around us. What I think many of us fail to remember sometimes is that just because things are bad doesn't mean there is a light quickly around the corner. Wallowing is good for no one, but blind optimism for an end that is not so near will eventually kill that optimism. Optimism should be used wisely so as to preserve it and keep it for our whole lives. We need to be open to the fact that realism is not pessimism in a pretty dress and that sometimes optimism needs a break to be a little depressed sometimes.

Something not for my own comment, but for you to ponder as I have. "'To find the balance you want, 'Ketut spoke through his translator, 'this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God.'"

"not to get too attached to any obsolete ideas about who I am."
This is something I struggle with from time to time. As a young person, I am changing even more than I can realize right now while I am living in the thick of it. I find though, that when I do notice something different about myself I tend to latch onto that new aspect of my personality and grip as tightly as I can. I take on this one aspect as my whole personality and before I know it, I have changed again and all I am gripping is air where my personality fad used to be. I am trying to teach myself - as I have been ever since I watched our home videos for the first time - to be less controlling. And to a large extent I have succeeded in this endeavor when it comes to others or group situations that I cannot possibly control. However, I still have some major control issues with myself and what I deem to be my world. I am trying to learn that not even I want to be controlled by me. This is a work in progress.

griefquake - a staggering amount of emotions colliding along a fault line causing mass emotional casualties and potential physical injuries to anyone standing too close to the epicenter of the disaster.

Love as a Foreign Language - Vol. 1 by J. Torres and Eric Kim

2009-03-08T05:10:00.002-04:00

My first ever comic book. I found it to be really entertaining for the ten minutes it took me to read this first volume. My dear friend DC sent this to me because it reminded him of me and boy did he ever hit the nail on the head! I am excited to read more in this series when I get back home and can pick some up.

Essentially this comic is set in Korea with a guy from Canada who lives there to teach English. This first installment is about his struggles with life in Korea, even after ten months and how much he cannot stand being there any more. Everyone around him seems to be in a perpetual "honeymoon" phase and he cannot get out of this grand master funk. Please laugh at that. Please.

His students are complacent, he is a crappy teacher to boot and he doesn't the like Korean food. I find this such an interesting read because the impression they give of the Korean people is my impression of the Japanese. However, I don't have so much disdain for my life here that this character does. I enjoy my life here a huge amount, so even though I am not recontacting, I am not rushing to break my contract and go home early either. I want to read more of, "Love as a Foreign Language."

Low key

2009-03-08T05:05:00.001-04:00

This past week was pretty calm, not much to report. Since my birthday - which was a really wonderful day - I have been laying low, reading until my eyes fall out. This means you should expect a few book reports to follow. I ducked into Tokyo again this weekend, but I wasn't in the best frame of mind for being social, so I didn't end up staying long or making many new friends. My dear Lauren - always the social butterfly went to a party and met up with a few friends after I left, so I am looking forward to hearing about her fun! I'm not quite ready to talk about my bummy mood this weekend, but when I am - you will be my audience! Exciting things should be happening in my life shortly, so bear with me and the book reports and I will have traveling adventures and fun introspections back up again soon.

Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

2009-03-04T00:44:00.003-05:00

Another one to add to the fantasy collection. Quite a nice book and really appeals to my theatrical side. I don't know much about Pratchett because this is the first of his books I have read, but he has a quippy writing style that makes the reader think they are in on a huge inside joke. It always feels great to be in the in-crowd.

This book is about murders in an opera house, but it really mocks the whole idea of theatre in general and the supreme diva-ness of performers. I found it to be a perfect example of the concept of, "it's funny because it's true!" In one section of the book he outlines some of the silly superstitions of theatre. He even goes so far as to explain some of them. Silly things that cause bad luck in theatre...giving live flowers, real jewelry worn on stage, real mirrors on stage, whistling, peaking through the curtains at the audience, using a brand new pallet of cake make-up on opening night, knitting on stage, and stopping a performance prematurely. All of these are unlucky for good reason, but rarely do people actually know the reasons. For example whistling in the theatre is bad luck because before headsets, grips and stage hands used to use whistling cues to know when to raise and lower drops and different fly-ins as well as change whole scenes. If you whistle, you might just find a heavy drop bar on your head!

"I don't feel down. I felt fine until you told me I was down,"
I think this speaks to quite a phenomenon of the human psyche. People are very susceptible to the opinions of those around them. When one person projects they create a self-fulfilling prophecy because the person being projected upon is going to wear whatever emotion is being thrown at them and not know what hit them.

Just a quick example of how funny Pratchett can be and how well-informed he is about his subject matter.... The Ghost in the story is writing new, modern "operas" and has titled them the following - Guys and Trolls, Hubwards Side Story, and (my personal favorite) Miserable Les. I really get a kick out of witty and topical humor!

Quite a nice read, and definitely caters to the artist in me. Yes, I probably can be a bit of a Diva, just like everyone else. ;)

お誕生日おめでとうございます。

2009-03-03T19:22:00.003-05:00

I want to begin by saying thank you to everyone for making my birthday so special! I received so many phone calls, messages, and emails that it really made my day. It was such a relaxed day here at school and I couldn't have been happier than to spend it with the great teachers at Sanwa.

Amid the messages and, "oh, yeah it's already your birthday over in Japan!" I was able to reflect on this past year of my life. As any college graduate knows, this has been quite the transition year from protected, but BUSY school life, to a life with some real responsibility and no homework! And it doesn't take moving to a foreign country to feel a little out of your element and uneasy in your new adult skin. I have been so happy with the direction my life has taken and I know I have worked hard to make it this way. But, my life is not entirely my own and I really cannot find the appropriate words to thank everyone that has given me so much support in my learning and growing and transitioning. And the reason I am so lucky is because people in my life remind me that they love me everyday of the year; they don't need an excuse (like my birthday) to remember me.

Aaand jump back to yesterday, I was sitting around at my desk and some of the teachers were showing each other card tricks. They were having so much fun. I love the audible surprise and shock the Japanese have about almost everything. When I come home and I am still doing it, you will know exactly what I mean - and you'll laugh at me. So, they ask me if I know any card tricks. I know exactly one card trick, and I think nearly everyone else on the planet knows it too, but I don't care and I break out my skills. First, whenever I have cards in my hands I shuffle them - just habit. Well I shuffled like I was taught when I was a kid and the whole bridge motion at the end of the shuffling routine baffled them. So before my trick I took some time to teach them how to shuffle.

Then I launch into my card trick and as soon as it is over, the oooos and aaaaahs commence. Then, they want to know how I do my trick. I was a bit confused because I was always told it was a dire sin to teach those you were trying to "wow" with your secrets! The music teacher saw the glimmer of confusion on my face and in Japanese says, "Hey! In America they don't tell how to do the trick. It's not fun, you know!" I just smiled, but they persisted so I broke down and told them how. Yes, the magic community will now excommunicate me, but I can deal.

Around 3:30pm, I am sitting and reading at my desk and I notice that the lights in the teachers room are being turned off. Now, the teachers have been going in and out of the room all day busy with meetings and things. But I did not expect them to forget about me and completely turn off the lights! Then Otsuka-sensei comes over to me and asks me to come with him. I guess I am used to being kind of clueless at this point, so I follow him. Turns out, all the teachers bought me a cake and sang to me!!! It was such a great surprise and really made me feel like someone they cared about and wanted to celebrate. I love spending my time at Sanwa and I will be a little sad when things change in April.

A little bit of Pomp and a whole lot of Circumstance

2009-03-01T22:47:00.002-05:00

Today was graduation at Sanwa Senior High School. I watched the rehearsal for Koga third's graduation, but this morning I sat through the whole thing and I must say the differences are astounding. First, the whole ceremony only lasted an hour and 20 minutes. Now, I know that probably sounds pretty great, but I think that graduations in America are much more special. For starters, there were not even as many parents present as children graduating. That to me is such a sad situation. Here in Japan, parents are not nearly as involved as they are back home. (A) Here graduation is held in the morning of a weekday. (B) All students have to be in attendance, so the first years and the second years are seated in the auditorium the whole time, falling asleep. (C) There is very little music and NO clapping. I will say that there was more standin' and sittin' than a Catholic Mass! Of course a lot of bowing too.

The students are all dressed in their uniforms, same as any other day. The third years' only distinguishing feature is a small, fake flower attached to their lapel. There is almost nothing to make the third year students stand out or feel special. Each students' name is called by their homeroom teacher, but then only one student is designated to go up on stage and receive every ones diplomas from the Principal. One student from the whole third grade class spoke and it was short congratulatory speech with an incredibly formal tone. There was no celebrating and no excitement. Seeing this ceremony made me very thankful for my high school graduation and the fact that my whole family was there; special visitors from Texas included!!! And that at our graduations there is clapping and singing and music played. The students stand out and the night is separate and special. There is a level of formality, but in the end there is excitement and emotion that is so tangible. Luckily, these kids don't know what they're missing.

Lounging around Tokyo

2009-03-01T21:37:00.002-05:00

This past weekend (as has become habit) I met Lauren in Tokyo. Since she and I live so far away, she wanted to celebrate my birthday with me and we really had a nice time. She and I really only need a little coffee, a little food, and a cocktail or two; but when you're in Tokyo, you end up getting so much more!

First we met up in Roppongi Hills to watch Benjamin Button. I had heard wonderful things about this movie, and I must say that I found it to be very well done. I now would very much like to read the book and get some more background information about Benjamin and what goes on in his head. I am not going to spoil the movie, but I suggest you see it; the three hour run time is a breeze to get through.

After the movie, we walked around with no real purpose, but found ourselves in the Rigoletto Bar & Grill. We split a nice salad and each had some soup. I sincerely think Lauren and I could just sit and talk all day long! After a delicious lunch, we went to Coldstone! I got a coconut cream pie and because Lauren let it slip that it was my birthday weekend, the guy gave me white chocolate chips for free! Again we chilled outside and talked up a storm. She is one of those people that you instantly feel comfortable talking to about intimate things.

We took a quick subway ride to Ginza because Lauren made reservations at the Alice in Wonderland Cafe! It was a really cute little place with mirrors everywhere and the waitresses were all dressed in Alice's signature blue dress! We had some appetizers there and I had a Charlie Chaplin to drink. I am sticking with my gin drinks, but this time I went for Sloe gin instead of the normal pine tree stuff. Mom, I think you would love a Charlie Chaplin because it is sour and refreshing! After we got our fill of the Disney happiness (creepiness) we left and decided to go shopping. I have been looking for a lighter spring jacket, so we went across the street to H&M and I picked up a wicked cool jacket! It is a blood orange color and so vibrant, you'd think it sparkles. Okay, that is totally just my description, but I really love my new jacket!

Lauren always comes through with the posh bar or lounge, and next we found ourselves in Dazzle. It is a cute little bar that Lauren has been to a couple times and already seems to know everyone who works there! We each got a drink and sat there while she introduced some of her friends to me. I met Toshi, bartender extraordinaire, and Bruce; the Australian manager of the Japanese bar! After a while, sipping our cocktails, Toshi asks us if we want dessert. He describes this amazing flan type dessert with ice cream and fresh berries that we immediately want. Lauren, again, lets it slip that it is my birthday weekend and Toshi wishes me a happy birthday.

After we place our dessert order, another waiter at the bar comes over to say hello to Lauren. He asks me my name and where I am from. I tell him West Virginia, and he says, "I have never been, but I have heard!" I just laugh and appreciate his enthusiasm. He continues on into the kitchen. When he comes out, he passes by us again and says, "John Denver!" and then sings, "Almost heaven, West Virginia!" He was so proud of himself and I was incredibly surprised and flattered. Then he told me that song was the first English song he ever learned in Junior high school. It was a really nice moment to make me feel special and make me proud to be a West Virginian.

When Toshi brought out our dessert, there were three long and very thin candles stuck into a piece of kiwi and the words, "Happy Birthday" written beautifully in chocolate sauce! It was a nice surprise and then Lauren and Toshi sang to me. I had a really nice weekend with Lauren, as always, and It makes celebrating my birthday a total blast!

The jury is in

2009-02-28T18:36:00.003-05:00

It has been three weeks since starting to teach at my new school, Koga third; and I could not love it more! It has been such a short time, so my camaraderie with the other teachers isn't so strong, but the responsibilities of my job more than make up for that; and those friendships will come too! This is the highest level school in Koga, so the students are really studious and actually understand almost everything I say! Of course I am conscious to keep my vocabulary at a lower level, but students at my other schools still don't get much of what I say.

The biggest perk of this school is that I teach alone!! I can teach the students anything I want and I am not bound by a set curriculum or textbook! They only give me 20 students at a time, but that is a great number for me and I have such a blast every Friday! I have my own classroom - they have just given me the audio-visual room in case I ever want to use PowerPoint. And the librarian at this school is fantastic! When I have free time on Fridays, I go down to the library to speak with her and just hang out. She wants to learn more English, but I am able to speak to her a lot in Japanese, which is great practice for me.

My situation at this school could not be better. If my whole job was this way, I would have stayed a second year - no question. I had such a great class on Friday with a group of students from homeroom 5. From the moment they walked in, they were laughing and ready to meet me. I went through my self introduction and they were so enthusiastic and had some great questions for me. I was able to play back and forth with them and we all just had a really great time. It is fun to teach kids with dreams and aspirations. Almost all the kids at Koga third go to college - and really great colleges at that. I met a girl who was accepted to Meiji University. That is one of the best schools in Tokyo!

I walked around and took some pictures of the school last Friday and stumbled upon a display of student artwork that I found to be really impressive. The students at this school have enthusiasm and talent that I remember from my high school days. To me this school should not be out of the ordinary, this should be the norm.

I was able to watch some graduation rehearsal at this school too and it was actually kind of exciting! They have their own brass band (which most schools don't really have "arts" clubs) and they were conducted by a student. Before they began rehearsal, all the students got a lecture in the proper way to bow for such a formal occasion. There was discussion about how to sing the school song in a very loud voice - oh, and if you forget the words they are printed on the wall to the right of the stage!

It has been and will continue to be a refreshing place to work. I was really nervous in the beginning, but after a few weeks I have some nice warm and fuzzy feelings. Check out my new pictures of Koga third.

Blows my mind

2009-02-25T09:32:00.002-05:00

On Wednesdays I have only one class to teach and it is the last period of the day. So generally I will catch up on writing letters or emails on Wednesday mornings and just bide my time until lunch. After lunch I have my aerobics class fifth period and then I teach during sixth. After aerobics today, I get back to the teachers' room, change back into my normal clothes and wait at my desk to go to class with Otsuka-sensei. So the bell rings for the class to start, and Otsuka is no where to be seen. I walk around a look for him a bit, but again, no where. So I just wait patiently at my desk, read some news online and keep an eye out. I ended up waiting the whole class period, and he never shows until after the bell has rung for class to be over.

Turns out, during fifth period a student and a teacher got into a bit of a verbal fight. The student had a question and the teacher proceeded to ignore his raised hand, so the student lashed out. He became unruly in the class and was very disruptive. Otsuka had to run interference during sixth period between the teacher and the student. The most surprising part of this whole scenario however, is that while Otsuka is taking care of this issue, our sixth period English class is just sitting down in their classroom completely alone and hanging out. They got a free period today. Now, would that EVER happen in an American classroom? Is one teacher going to completely ignore a class they should be teaching to moderate a situation of which they had no part???? I think not! Educational priorities are pretty screwy in the Japanese system to be sure.

Ingenuity

2009-02-25T08:18:00.003-05:00

I planned a lesson for my classes yesterday that involved a board game and asking each other questions in English. Now, usually an important component of a board game is a device that determines how players progress down the game board. I think the most natural selections are either dice or spinners. My plan was to buy dice at the hyaku en shop (dollar store) and bring them to school. When I arrived at school yesterday morning, I was reviewing the plan with Endo-sensei and I realized that I had completely forgotten about dice! In her very Japanese way, Endo-sensei apologizes to me for me forgetting the dice. I tell her, no I am the one who is very sorry it is my fault that I forgot dice. In response she says, "Thank you for saying that!" I tell her that I will walk across the street and purchase dice during second period before our third period class. She looks hesitant but says okay.

Now, I feel like a dope and I start trying to rack my brain thinking of ways to solve this problem without going across the street. It hits me, and I run over to the one internet computer this school has and bogart it for about 30 seconds as I do a Google images search for "make-your-own dice." The first image that pops up is perfect, so I click on the image, do a copy and then paste it into a word document. I resize the image to make it just a tad bigger and then I copy and paste six images to a page - I wanted to play the game with 10 groups, so I needed a lot of dice. I print my page, make a second copy and grab some different color highlighters, and some small paper fasteners that have a bit of weight to them. Back at my desk I sit there contemplating for a moment. I have no scissors nor glue and most of the teachers are not in the room for me to ask. So I just wait for the first person I see and ask to borrow their scissors and glue. I start my little arts and crafts project. I color the dice with highlighters, cut out the pattern. The adorable little adjunct science teacher that sits next to me, sees what I am doing and offers to help me!! He cuts out all my dice and then has to rush to class. I continue working on my little project; folding on every line, applying glue where necessary and dropping a fastener inside of each die before sealing it completely. I knew that little paper die were going to be too light to work well, so I thought that something inside would give them a little weight; it totally worked! Another teacher sees what I am doing and again offers to help me! We made twelve dice in less than an hour and they all worked!

Endo-sensei saw what I had done and asked the teacher helping me, "Was that your idea?" And the teacher said, "No, it was all Annelyse." I was pretty happy about being able to trouble shoot so quickly and really thankful for the help and supplies that the other teachers gave me! And just to show that students are wholly unaware of what their teachers go through for them...

...Once I got to class and the students started playing the game, one of the students completely destroyed one of my dice and then refused to play the game and left his team without a means to play either. Brat!

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

2009-02-24T03:26:00.002-05:00

Crazy quick read - it only took about an hour. However, it was still fun and a nice little throw back to the Harry Potter series. I think J.K. Rowling is incredibly creative and has created a world much akin to The Wizard of Oz in my mind. Now, I love the Harry Potters books, but they will never replace the Wizard of Oz for me. However, the world of Harry Potter is so rich that anything written on the subject (by J.K. Rowling, of course) immediately sucks me in. If you're a Harry Potter fan, it is worth an hour of your time. If not, that's cool, but let me have my fantasy!

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster by Dana Thomas

2009-02-24T03:05:00.004-05:00

I took a dive into non-fiction with this incredibly informative and witty book. If you don't buy into the whole luxury industry and their exorbitant pricing, this book will help to further justify your disdain for $2000+ handbags. If you happen to be into the whole luxury thing, this book will hopefully steer you in the direction of luxury companies that are worth your money as opposed to Louis Vuitton and the crap they try to sell you.

Thomas delves into a world of obscene wealth (consumers) and an industry born of true craftsmanship and elegance and mutated into greed and sweatshops. There are very few true luxury brands left that adhere to the principles of ultimate quality and integrity, such as Hermes. For me, this book was fascinating to discover how the industry is divided among conglomerates and which companies own certain brand names; my business nerd was in heaven.

Another fascinating point of the book was how societies of people buy-in to the image brand names provide - the shallowness of it all was astounding. There were many sections of the book dedicated solely to the Japanese and their buying habits. Often these brands will open stores in locations specifically targeted to the Japanese. For example, Hawaii has exploded with luxury shopping strips in the past 10 years due entirely to the high volume of Japanese tourism on the US islands. Japanese travel agencies have taken their cue and now offer travel primarily for shopping. There are weekend excursions to Hawaii from Japan that are two or three days long, have a shuttle from the airport in Hawaii to the luxury one-stop shopping, and back on the shuttle to catch your plane back home.

This book was a great lesson in marketing and the ability of something shiny to woo the masses and get them to dump all their money into a big vat of greed.

Broadway in Tokyo and singing all the way back to Koga

2009-02-23T06:13:00.006-05:00

This weekend, I went with my partners in crime, Lauren and Chika (and other friends), to see Wicked in Tokyo. Now, I am sad to report that Wicked is the only Broadway show I have ever actually seen, but now I have seen it in two languages; so that basically rocks! We met up on Saturday afternoon in Tokyo and ventured to our hotel to drop our bags before lunch. Now Lauren is our travel coordinator extraordinaire, and she booked us a fabulous hotel that was fun and a little luxurious. The lobby smelled of fresh flowers and had marble floors and a rich wooden staircase.

Next we headed out to lunch and hit up a little Italian cafe with a great lunch special! It was great fun to sit and gab with a bunch of girls about nothing and everything at the same time. Even all the way over here in Japan, the little things are still the most important. We spent an hour and a half at lunch lounging and making new friends with our waiter. He was a fun Japanese guy who liked to try his hand at English while we were ordering in Japanese. He was showing us the display case full of dessert at the end of our meal and we couldn't see, so he said, "chotto sorry," which means, "little sorry." It was so funny that even the Japanese woman sitting at the table next to ours started laughing at the new Japanese/English expression.

We don't have many occasions to dress up here in Japan, so we decided to break out the fancy clothes to go to the theatre. After lunch we went back to the hotel to change and get ready for the show. The theatre was a little odd - it was a theatre tucked into a shopping mall - only in Japan. Our seats were up in the balcony, but as I suspected the theatre was the perfect size and our view was really incredible! I was so excited by how much of the show I actually understood (not just remembered from the last time)! I knew I was understanding because at certain times I really thought the translations could have been better at getting the true feeling of the scene across. The actors were quite good, but to be frank after seeing the original cast in New York - nothing will top Joel Grey and Leo Norbert Butz (and Kristen and Idina). As with every time I see a show (professional or just little community productions) I cannot wait to be back on stage performing for an audience of my own!

After the play, we discussed the content and I let my geekiness fly when I was explaining in painful detail the story and how it intertwined with the original Oz story. I embrace my obsessions. We went to a little British Pub and got some good dark beer, fish and chips, and Shepherd's pie. We talked more about our families, taxes, and cynicism vs. love (love wins every time - depending on who you ask). Naturally we did an hour of karaoke and went back to the hotel singing down the streets of Tokyo!

The next day, we all had to wake up and get back to our respective cities for other meetings and dates. I was meeting up with some people to do even more karaoke (big surprise at this point, I know). Notice the picture above of the billboard for the karaoke place. It's really an awful name, but they have pretty good machines. We ended up doing 5 and a half hours of karaoke and I was all sung out. No seriously, I was; but I got over it quickly...haha.

Now I am just back to my normal routine, teaching, reading, lounging. Hopefully more fun adventures to come soon! And thank you to everyone for playing Malarky with me! Maybe I throw in other trivia from time to time. If you have anything you want to post, do it! We all like playing!

If Malarky taught me anything...

2009-02-17T07:25:00.002-05:00

...it would be that you can know everything, as long as you have a good enough imagination. Now Malarky is a really great board game that teaches you how to use the world around you to infer knowledge about things of an uncommon nature. I guess the bottom line is that it teaches you (a) how to BS really well or (b) how to sift through the BS others are trying to feed you. But from a less cynical perspective it really helps to expand your mind to figure out certain things without being taught first. For example, one of the questions in the game is, "On the instructions of the shampoo, it tells you to wash your hair and then repeat. When you repeat, why is it that the second time you wash your hair the lather has more volume?" (okay, so it might not be verbatim, but you get the idea) What do you think the answer is? If you think you know, answer in the comment section. Try to answer without looking it up online or running upstairs to the game box to read the answer on the card, Dad!

Trying to conjecture and figure out the reasons "why" for happenings in the world around us is a valuable skill that more people should acknowledge and practice. Having the ability to research is a skill, don't get me wrong, but being able to think and reason is an even greater skill in my opinion. The best way to practice is to be observant of everything around you. Simple day to day things can be extremely telling of a culture or a society's norms. Thinking through all the pieces of a problem in order to uncover the best solution takes patience but also prior knowledge or understanding of common things or basic science. For example, soap clings to dirt to wash it away. That's the only hint I'm giving.

PS, when I get home everyone who knows me better run and hide because I am going to subject all of those people who are not fast enough to endless board games and family time! Malarky, here I come.

PPS, my Dad is one of the best Malarky players I have ever seen. Does that mean he knows a lot of things, or has a good imagination or that he's just old? Thoughts?

My drug of choice

2009-02-15T08:13:00.002-05:00

So I just bought 7 new books in the last week. I read everything in sight and I have an impulse to buy new books at every opportunity. I am hoping that my ever growing queue of literature will keep me busy for a while, but one can only hope. I feel as excited and invigorated by reading as I did when I was a kid! I am thrilled to be back in this place and I am always happy to take suggestions. I think my safe guard should be to just put the new books I want up on my Amazon wish list and wait until a special occasion or gift certificate comes along. Goodness knows there are already enough books in my world to keep me busy for quite some time. I just thought I would share about how incredible reading is. It is the best way to learn new things - even non-fiction and novels can be intensely researched and have loads of solid, factual information in them. And of course reading leads to me doing some of my own research to learn more about the subject matter of which I am reading or research about the author. I love this upward spiral into the stars!

If I were a bell

2009-02-15T07:55:00.004-05:00

Hand bells are not exclusively Japanese, but it is in Japan that I experienced my first hand bell concert. I have told you about Akemi before - she is one of the women in the Heartful English Club - she invited me to her Alma Mater's hand bell concert. It was such a fun time, especially because I recognized most of the songs they played! I have always been in awe of people who have had the skill and talent to play a musical instrument and these hand bell players were incredible! I like to sing and I am decently talented, but I think it takes so much more coordination and skill to actually play an instrument! I am going to be one of those awful mothers that require her children know how to play the piano or some other instrument of their choosing (hopefully something that can be in a jazz band!)

Okay now, tunnel vision (that one is for you Theresa), each girl had about 6 or 7 bells for which she was responsible. And often I noticed that girls would share bells within the same song. I can only imagine the rehearsal that goes into choreographing a hand bell concert! They are able to move their hands with such precision and at lightening speeds. If you have never been to a hand bell concert, I would surely recommend that you find one! The music they make is so complete and beautiful.

The Bro Code by Barney Stinson

2009-02-15T07:36:00.002-05:00

I know what you're thinking, "Barney Stinson, he's not a real person. He's just an egotistical, womanizing character on TV." Well I've got news for you, you're perfectly correct. But this book is merely the mantra of womanizing men everywhere. Thanks to Michael, I got hooked on "How I Met Your Mother" and humor in this book is every bit as witty and ridiculous. Uber quick read - I read it in an hour on the train to Tokyo yesterday! And just good for a short chuckle; they even have some interactive puzzles you can do like logic puzzles and word search. However, there is some math involved, so you might want to bring a calculator. And FYI, I would make an excellent wingwoman - keep that in mind. ;)

I think I like change now

2009-02-11T21:14:00.004-05:00

I need to revitalize my blog. I am getting bored, so I am hoping that a face lift will give it a boost. As much as I enjoy all the color that I had going on, I have to be honest, I am more of a classic, sharp lines, clean-look kind of blogger. So the look and feel of my blog may be changing over the next few days, so please be patient with me.

In six months, I have gone from hating and dreading change to feeling bored and restless without it. I really like when things are a little bit difficult and the answers don't come easily. Of course I am worried about moving back to The States with no job, but I am kind of looking forward to putting myself out there and looking for a job in full force. In such a short time I have made a lot of personal changes already. I don't know if that is part of just being an adult or if it is moving abroad and living alone. I think it is probably a combination of both, but I am excited about the person I am becoming and proud of the person from who I am growing.

Somethings I have realized about my personality that I know to be different from when I was younger: I am a very flexible person. I don't mind changing plans or going a bit out of my way to accommodate someone else. I am not judgemental. That is a bold statement, but it is one that I sincerely believe to be true. I can and will accept anyone and the decisions they make for their own life. Of course I have guiding morals and values for my own life, however those do not always align with others and if I expect them to accept my ideas, I have to accept theirs. Through this I have become more open and inviting to all people. Not a lot gets me stressed or upset. Generally speaking, I am easy-going and able to adapt to new situations. Sometimes however, I do have trouble integrating all aspects of my life into one reality - I like to compartmentalize; I'm still working on that. I am incredibly intuitive when it comes to people, their words and their actions. I believe this makes me a good friend. I admired those people who are more skilled and more talented than me. There is no one that can be the best and worst at everything, so that gives me hope that I can always learn something new and often have the opportunity to teach someone else.

Really understanding what change means in my life has brought me to this current state of mind. I can now close my eyes and jump with the confidence that even if no one is around, I can catch myself.

I love visiting snow

2009-02-11T06:21:00.013-05:00

I have never liked snow. Even when I was a kid I hated snow because it meant that school would be canceled and I hated missing school. And then I had the bright idea to move to Boston for college and the snow and winters only got worse. Living here in Koga, I have been so thrilled that there is no snow to accompany the cold. Generally snow is just inconvenient and dangerous. But I am thrilled to say that this weekend has helped to make me more open to the pure joy and fun of snow. Living in Japan has helped me to embrace change and be more open to whatever life has to throw my way.

Every year on the northern-most island of Japan, Hokkaido, in the city of Sapporo (yes, like the beer) there is a Yuki Matsuri - Snow Festival. So Chika and I decided way back in November to make a weekend of it and catch a plane up to Sapporo. The festival includes incredibly intricate and gigantic ice sculptures created by professional sculptors. Essentially it is just a week long event that displays all the wonderment and joy of what winter has to offer. It turns the inconvenience of snow into something so beautiful and childlike that you cannot help but ignore and dismiss the cold!

We began our weekend by stopping by the hotel, dropping our stuff and then heading out into the city and checking out all the sights. I was able to get so many awesome pictures, so please check those out! Everyday we were there is snowed and after the first day, I just gave up on my hair and trying to keep it dry! I always love hanging out with Chika because her sense of humor is fantastic and I can learn so much from her about Japanese culture. But during this trip I discovered that she is an awesome little tour guide too!

She suggested that we take a ropeway up to the top of a nearby mountain in order to get a good look at the night view of Sapporo. The ropeway was fun and reminded me of a similar one in Hakone. Once we got to the top, we stopped to check out some of the brochures of the attractions at the festival. One of the magazines I saw was named Ho-ShiHit. Now I don't know what that looks like to you upon first glance, but it struck my funny bone and I have kept the magazine as a little souvenir. At the top of the mountain it was snowing like crazy, but we decided to take a tractor ride as far up the mountain as we could go. We found a nice look out point, but all we could see was snow and fog. It has been a long time since I have been outside in a snowstorm and not minded it one bit - I had a blast!

We ventured back down the mountain and ended up on the main strip to grab a bit of dinner and have a couple drinks. We stopped into St. John's Wood - an English style tavern/pub. It became very clear to me that I like sour/bitter/old man alcohol. All of my drinks have a strong gin base and sometimes a little tequila. I guess I just like liquid pine tree. haha. Shortly after we settled into our pub, we got a call from some other JETs who happened to also be in Sapporo enjoying the Yuki Matsuri. After a bit of convincing, we joined them at a nearby bar called Rad Brothers. When we arrived, they had already taken the place over with the help of some Navy boys they picked up! Now, Navy guys are confident and not afraid to make new friends ;) I found out they were only in Sapporo for a week doing some snow training, but are actually stationed at a Naval base near Tokyo. The party didn't stop at Rad Brothers, but continued on to a club named Booty; Chika and I decided however to call it a night and head back to our hotel. We did stop and grab a coffee on the way back and got a nice little surprise jazz band playing just inside Starbucks.

The next day we got up bright and early to do some sightseeing and check out some of the more historical places in Sapporo. We went to the old Prefectural building and toured a bit. After that we decided to go up to TV Tower and look at the City from above. This time we weren't quite as high up as the mountain, so the view was much better. It was from there that Chika noticed a skating rink, so we made plans to go the next day.

Aside from the Snow Festival, Sapporo is famous for being the home of the first brewery in Japan. They don't give tours of the facility, but they have a pretty popular restaurant on the premises that sells lamb and of course plenty of beer. We enjoyed an all you can eat lamb dinner and then made our way out into the cold again. No vacation of mine (no week really) is complete without karaoke, so of course we rented a room for an hour and sang our hearts out!

The last day reminded me the most of being at home when I was a kid. First, we went through an ice maze. We were in line with about 100 elementary school students on a school trip. We were so out of place in the middle of the young herd, but the maze was soooo cool, and we were not going to miss out on that! Afterwards, we went ice skating! I have been ice skating only once before and I don't remember liking it, so I was worried. BUT, ice skating is soooo much fun. I'm not very good, but I could get around - Chika and I even raced and I totally beat her! Chika and I wanted to check out the nearby park. When we got there, we discovered there wasn't much there that gave evidence of the festival, but there was no shortage of snow! We followed along in a path that had already been patted down by many visitors before us. The park was beautiful in it's untouched whiteness stretching as far as I could see in all directions. At one point, I just stood and took pictures in a circle just to show the completeness of the snowfall. Chika soon grew bored of walking on the nicely made path, so she suggested we create a path of our own! It was so much fun walking along, our feet sinking two feet into powdered snow. We were walking single file and Chika mentioned that she was having an easy time of it, because I was going first and she was just stepping in the footprints I had already made. I immediately thought of when I was little and would play outside in the snow with my Dad. I would walk along in his footsteps (as best I could with my tiny strides) through the deep snow. This thought made me relish my time in the snow and set my mind to enjoying the cold and wet and wind.

I am so happy to have spent my vacation with Chika really enjoying the fun parts of what winter has to offer. The longer I am here, the more I open up and am more laid back about things. Don't you worry Mom, I may have hurried through my childhood, but I am finally learning and remembering how to have fun with silly kid things!

Stop talking, this is supposed to be a song!!!!!!!!

2009-02-04T23:18:00.003-05:00

So I am sitting at school listening to my favorite online radio station - accuradio.com Listening Post channel - and stupid Sheryl Crow comes on! In the past few months I have noticed something infuriating about her; she is a "singer" who never sings in her songs! She just speaks, she tells a story. She is probably only famous because she knows how to play the guitar, but oh man she drives me nuts. Her voice is not nice to listen to when it is speaking through all the music. Her tunes are catchy, but that is probably only to distract from the fact that she isn't singing. Why do people like her make huge boo coo bucks for only having half the talent for which everyone gives them credit!???!

I must be crazy

2009-02-04T22:05:00.002-05:00

I have been trying to keep it a secret, but let's face it - I suck at keeping my own secrets. (For my friends out there, never fear I am only loose with my own secrets, I am a champ at keeping yours, promise.) So I started a running regiment and it is totally kicking my big ol' butt. I was running really sporadically before February, but since last Sunday I have kept myself to running every other day. I am incredibly out of shape, so running is hard. And to say hard is a huge understatement.

I can run for about 15 minutes without stopping, and then I just want to die. So, I walk for 10 minutes or so and then I run some more. My body is sore, but I was expecting that. I was afraid my crappy ankles would start hurting, but I have been lucky so far. Here is where my lousy secret keeping comes into play. I mentioned to some teachers at Sanwa that I had started running because I wanted to exercise. This news caused them to invite me to run with them yesterday after school. It was Wednesday, so I was supposed to have the day off, but I figured it is a good idea to take them up on their offer. I warned them that I would be exceptionally slow and they assured me it was okay.

Hiromi kept paced with me - which was extremely kind of her. I lagged way behind the group, but at least it gives me something to work for. I doubt I will ever be "fast" but my goal right now is just endurance. I want to be able to run for 30 or 45 minutes without stopping. I am quite a way off that goal for now, but it is something to work toward. And since Hiromi went slowly with me, we were able to work on the speech I have to give to Koga Third teachers tomorrow. I have included it below with a translation!

おはようございます。　私の名前はアネリス　ヘイスリップです。　アメリカから来ました。　今まで日本に四かい来ました。　だから五かいめです。　日本の食べ物はぜんぶ好きです。　でもなっとうが大きらいです。　私はしゅうじにきょうみがあります。　私はみんなと勉強することが楽しみです。　よろしくお願いします。

Good morning. My name is Annelyse Haislip. I am from the United States of America. I have been to Japan four times before and this is my fifth time. I love all Japanese food, except natto. I am really interested in Japanese calligraphy. I am really looking forward to teaching the students. Pleased to meet you all.

So, I hope you all are cheering me on in my efforts to get healthy!

Nostalgia makes me sad

2009-02-02T01:49:00.002-05:00

Lately, I have not been my usual, happy, optimistic, sickeningly positive self. I am feeling a little defeated, a little lonely; having some self-worth issues, etc. Even though I am deciding now to wallow in sadness and self pity a bit, I don't want you to think this is a cry for attention. I just want to be sad. I want to cry and I want to feel a bit melancholy. I can blame this on anything I want - the weather, dislike of my job, desire to be home close to my family, relationships and friendships.

Sitting in school, knowing how little a difference I am making and beyond that how wasted my time is just makes me long for when I had part time jobs with friends I liked. I miss the Majestic! I want to be back in that box office making $9/hour talking to distraught customers and making their day better. I want to open the MajBo at 10am on Saturday mornings and talk (listen about) video games and new movies with Craig. I want to go back and make more time to hang out with Annie and Christina and Erin. I want to be back in college volunteering with children and playing memory games with colors and shapes. I want to teach them manners and how to be polite and share. I want to color and watch my kids make pictures with their incredible creativity. I want to tutor kids who secretly want to learn and have a huge capacity for knowledge. I want to be able to communicate complex ideas with the people around me and to feel like I am being useful and giving back to my community. I think it would be great to be sitting in class again listening to lectures about management theory and learning accounting and finance theory and application. I want to be able to call a friend up and go to dinner any day of the week, any time of night.

It would be great to go back to high school and be in 3, 4, 5 plays each year. I want to perform on stage for a big audience. I want to sing and have people hear me. I want to learn lines and blocking and help to brainstorm the best way for the scene to be choreographed. I want to put on stage make-up and dye my hair for a show. I want to see my friends from community theatre again and be friends with adults. I want to sit in Japanese class with Mr. DiNicola and be challenged again and actually learn something.

I want to stop complicating my life and my emotions with thoughts of, "what if." I want to have a life that is not compartmentalized between home and college and living in Japan. I want one unified life that doesn't have any secrets. It has been a long time since I have cried and I need to cry and release everything that I am feeling. I need to feel my sadness completely and then let it go completely.

South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

2009-01-29T01:32:00.003-05:00

This is a very special story to my heart, and I think the author houses some of my very deepest secrets in his soul. The beautifully complicated struggle of the character in the book both clarifies and clouds my thoughts in a profound way. I very much want to read more by this author because of his enticing prose with a depth to his story telling that is indicative of someone who has actively complicated his own life, yet would not change a thing just for the sake of simplicity.

In this story, we follow the character from his young life all the way through his adult married life. We encounter his very real struggles with certain personal morality and business ethics. The story shows the very real scenario of a person so morally conflicted, yet extremely ethically sound. This story speaks not only to the plight of this one man, but is also a commentary on Japanese social practices that many parts of the western world would find appalling. I feel special sympathy for this character, and am not ashamed to say so despite his behavior. In addition I have great respect and true admiration for his wife in the story. She is a woman with strength to be recognized and understood as nothing but maturity and true love.

I would suggest this book to anyone. With a story like this, it is easy to be judgmental, my challenge to you is to see the characters with an open heart and a mind that seeks to understand the reality and devastation of the heart versus the mind.

Fare-thee-well Sakai Nishi

2009-01-28T03:22:00.002-05:00

Today was my last visit to Sakai Nishi koko. I cannot lie; being there for the past few months has been a struggle. The students had absolutely no interest in my being there, nor in my having interest in them. However I learned so much about patience and just not letting this job get to me. For those of you that have known me all my life, believe it or not, I am not so uptight any more. Frankly this is something I have been working on ever since I started watching home videos of my six year old self and realized what a brat I was. But seriously, since I have been in Japan I have learned to let go of my own personal control and trust others completely. Really in most cases I have to because of language barriers and whatnot, but in addition to giving over some of my power, I have learned that mistakes are inevitable no matter how much thought and effort I put into planning a lesson, it will never be perfect. Learning how to let go of my micromanaging tendencies has helped me to enjoy most of my classes more and take this experience at face value instead of always trying to instill some life-changing, earth-shattering lesson to be learned. Even ordinary days are exciting and the less I actively try to make each day extraordinary, the more extraordinary it actually becomes. Wow, I feel like I could go teach a class in organizational behavior!

However, before I left school today, I was bombarded with some handmade gifts created with incredible care and many warm wishes for luck in the future. I hope the students at Sakai Nishi realize how kind-hearted and dedicated their teachers are to them. I hope they realize this and begin to appreciate it sooner rather than later.

So this means starting next week I will begin teaching at Koga san-ko. This school has the reputation for being the top school in Koga City and I am pretty excited to meet the students and teachers with whom I will be working. I trust that this will be a completely different environment from Sakai Nishi and that my responsibilities will sky rocket. I have been begging and pleading for more responsibility, so I am looking forward to having the opportunity to extend a bit more of my creativity and willingness to really own this job.

Wish me luck. I will let you know how my first day goes.

Archeology Dig - 9th century is pretty recent, right?!

2009-01-26T08:46:00.002-05:00

Normally when I am sitting at my desk during the day, a number of fliers, newsletters, pamphlets, announcements (all in Japanese) are placed upon my desk. And normally I put them aside and throw out the accumulation at the end of the day as I am leaving. However, today an interesting piece of paper was put on my desk by the Vice Principal himself, so I was inclined to check it out. Again it was in Japanese, but I could make out dates and times, so I thought it had something to do with a schedule for a school event. At my next opportunity, I leaned over to the English teacher who sits next to me and I asked him what the paper was all about. He turned the paper over and showed me a kind of map on the back. Then he asked if I had noticed how right across the street from school people had been digging for many weeks. Of course I had noticed and when Gabby was here, she even asked me about it. At that time, and up until today, I thought they were rice farmers across the street doing some overhaul on their rice field. However, he told me that the paper said that it was an archaeological dig site and that most of the artifacts were from the 9th century.

After speaking with this teacher, I talked to a history teacher at the school. I was a bit surprised when she balked at 9th century artifacts. "I don't know why they are wasting their time over there, it is just the 9th century. That's not so old." I guess when you have a history as long and rich as the Japanese, it can be easier to balk at the past. Being from America, and our history being so young; ancient artifacts are just freakin' cool!!! I hope to be able to find out more about what they are doing in the coming weeks.

This whole archeology dig got me thinking a bit about my own history and the idea of a time capsule. Cheesy? Of course! But I think a time capsule would be a really cool thing for me to begin now. I am a pretty sentimental person, and I really like the idea of being able to pass along some tangible stories or history or something along to my children and grandchildren some day. So far my life has been really exciting and I have had the good fortune to experience a lot in my young life. I want my kids to feel encouraged by that - they should know that they too can do anything with enough motivation and perseverance to succeed. I really like wallowing in nostalgia too, and I want to make a pseudo time capsule for me too. It is so easy for each of us to forget how cool our lives have been when the going-gets-tough. I never want to forget the good times and the grand adventures because I refuse to let the hard times push out my good memories!

I'm the student again

2009-01-21T23:35:00.003-05:00

I could go into a whole philosophical rant about how we should all be students of life and learn everything we can each day. Every experience is a gift, even the bad ones and we should take something away from living each day. But, this time I mean literally, I am the student in a new Japanese class I just started last Friday.

So way back during the international festival in Koga, I met a man who is very involved in the Koga community. He invited me to join in the Japanese class the community center offers for foreigners. I told him that I would really love to be in a class again and decided to join. Our first class after the New Year's holiday was just last Friday evening. The class, as it turns out, was completely different than what I was expecting. In this class there are people from all over Asia (China, Vietnam, Philippines). And because we all have different native languages, we are split into four groups for more personalized study with a volunteer teacher that speaks our language. The woman that is helping me is named Yasuko and she is actually one of my students from the Heartful conversation club I teach!

The way they run the class is probably different for each teacher, but she likes for me to read from the text book. So there are no written examples or exercises, but I do a lot of reading and creation of new sentences based upon example situations and vocabulary. I think the class will be very helpful in giving me practice speaking Japanese in common and colloquial situations. Hearing myself use Japanese, and being conscious of what I am saying has already really helped my confidence in using Japanese. I have noticed a difference in the frequency with which I use Japanese and the wider range of my conversations. Granted these are small changes so far, but I am confident it will get better.

This same community center also had a New Year's party the Sunday after my first class. I went to this party and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We did Japanese calligraphy (which rocks!) and played bingo (I won some picture frames). After the festivities at the community center, we all went to karaoke. I will never turn down a karaoke invite and we ended up having a group of about 15 people there! Given that we were all from different countries, I heard a lot of Chinese songs and Korean songs. I was the token white girl singing in English. :) It was so much fun to hear everyone singing in their native language, and then when I got my chance to sing (You Were Meant for Me by Jewel). It was really fun because they heard me sing and then they started to treat me a little bit like a celebrity. It was fun and made me feel really special. They started choosing songs for me to sing and just clapping and cheering every time. It's a little silly, but they make me want to be famous.

Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger

2009-01-14T23:31:00.001-05:00

And on the coat tails of a 150 page book that took me weeks, I read a 300 page book in 4 days. This was just a fun, mindless read. Three friends living in New York City make a pact to change their lives. Lauren Weisberger is the same woman who wrote The Devil Wears Prada. Essentially it is a flitty romantic comedy written to make you feel excited and sexy.

Every little girl wishes for friends as they are portrayed in this book - successful, rich, independent, living in the big city, honest, and with plenty of boyfriends and love to go around. This is one of the greatest reasons I read books, because I want to (just for a moment) lose myself in someone else's story of perfect romance and love or big city living and spending. A quick read, lots of fun, pretty witty if you just need to free your mind.

The Old Man and the Sea By Ernest Hemingway

2009-01-14T23:30:00.002-05:00

As tiny as this book is, it definitely took me a while to get through. I was not so driven to read it as I have been with other books in the past. Hemingway has a way of writing that is so unimaginative. The whole story was supremely mundane and felt as though it was repeating itself over and over. If I had to guess however (since Hemingway is famous, and his work is award-winning) I would say he wrote this book in that fashion on purpose. My theory:

Perhaps he wanted his audience to understand and experience this struggle through the eye of the old man. The story kept repeating itself, because the man's mind was stuck repeating itself as well. The plight of this old man was to be lonely and even through a glimmer of hope be ultimately unsuccessful. By the end when the story has finished, your heart really extends to the old man and his life of bitter misfortune. However, you have to respect the character of the old man for continuing to have not only the will, but the optimism to continue fishing and living his life in utter poverty.

I would like to read more by Hemingway, hopefully with more exciting characters next time in the hope that my theory is correct and Hemingway writes through the eyes and plight of his characters rather than in a narrative sense.

I hear they're famous for gyoza

2009-01-11T09:03:00.007-05:00

Last weekend as Lauren and I each bid farewell to our guests, we decided to soften the blow of being all alone by hanging out with each other for the weekend. Lauren and I always have fun with one another and we generally like to play it by ear when it comes to our adventures. For this particular weekend we chose to go to Utsunomiya for their acclaimed gyoza. Now it seems that every single small town in Japan is "famous" for something and Utsunomiya just happens to be good at making fried dumplings. In addition to its gyoza fame, it is also the capital of the Tochigi prefecture just west of Ibaraki.

It is only about a 40 minute train ride from Koga, so it was a nice little day trip. When we first arrived we spoke to the very nice information lady who gave us maps and suggestions for the best gyoza and let us in on the little secret that Utsunomiya also has some pretty decent jazz clubs! We headed out of the station and to the most famous gyoza restaurant in all of Utsunomiya; it is called Minmin. We didn't want to stand in line for a seat, so we just quickly went up to the take-out window and got a dozen for $4. I think what makes this gyoza better than most other gyoza are the ingredients they use. I noticed that there is much less meat than in normal gyoza. There was a lot of cabbage and garlic stuffed into those little dumplings and I think less meat really does make all the difference.

After our gyoza we kept walking down the main street of town and ended up happening upon a street festival! As always, festival food is the best and naturally we each had our own choco-banana. As we walked through, the Japanese food vendors noticed that we were the only two non-Japanese people walking down the lane. It was exciting because everyone was speaking to us and giving us little samples of whatever they were selling. We tried some lamb meat, small raw prawns; we even bartered for our own Daruma dolls.

A Daruma doll is a Japanese wish doll that is mostly used around the New Year's holiday for making wishes and resolutions. As you can see from the picture, the doll comes with two white eyes. It is customary for the owner of the doll to paint in the left eye with black paint while thinking of a wish. The right eye should remain blank until the wish has come true. The most common color for a Daruma is red, but never losing our American touch, Lauren and I got green ones in an attempt to be different. While we were shopping around for the best doll, one of the ladies selling the Daruma came up to us and started speaking English. As we spoke back to her, she was so excited and thankful, that she offered to give us a discount on the price of our humble Daruma. She was a lot of fun and just kept saying in English, "I give you discount, it's our secret, yeah?" We laughed and bid her goodbye, and when Lauren and I got home that night, we made our wishes.

After the street fair, Lauren and I continued walking through the city searching for food and excitement. We happened upon a cute Indian restaurant that we later went back to for a scrumptious dinner. And just beyond that was a huge shopping mall. Being female, we walked in for just a minute, a tiny look around and came out having done some heavy window shopping and some Starbucks. That night we searched around for a decent (inexpensive) jazz club to patronize, however the music charges at each were rather steep. We ended up having a really great day even without the jazz music. We each decided that having guests can be sooooo much fun, but also crazy expensive, so we decided just to hold out until payday and then we can maybe hit up the club with the $20 cover!

This isn't the wave pool

2009-01-07T00:35:00.001-05:00

One tradition in Japan that I thoroughly enjoy is the onsen. I have mentioned it before, but the onsen is a natural hot spring and public bath house. I am lucky enough for my apartment building to be right in front of an onsen, so I can take advantage of it all the time. The whole ritual of communal bathing is so un-American in its public nakedness and vulnerability, but I find it relaxing. Of course the onsens are divided by gender, but even then being naked in front of other women can be a daunting experience the first time. During Gabby's visit, I took her to the onsen. Honestly, I never thought it would fly, but I was really impressed with how she just jumped right in and actually enjoyed the experience. The coolest part for me was watching her surprise with herself. The onsen is not an experience necessary for life, but even the tiniest things allow people room to expand their outlook and grow in some way. The bigger lesson from all this is that she did something she never expected of herself - she succeeded where she didn't think possible and that is something that can transcend this one event and possibly make her more confident in life.

Kabuki, creme brulee, and singing the night away

2009-01-07T00:33:00.004-05:00

In all the times I have visited Japan, I had never before seen a Kabuki theatre performance. Sadly, as with most live performances and really any kind of art, no one is allowed to take pictures, so I have only my arsenal of words to paint the picture of my Kabuki experience. As always, Lauren has the best ideas for a random something to do and she suggested that while Gabby and her sister were visiting we should hit up a Kabuki show.

Now, if you know nothing about Kabuki there are some special things you should know. #1 Kabuki theatre performances are an all day event usually lasting the better part of 6 hours with as many acts. #2 Professional theatre in all its forms all over the world is expensive - but there is ALWAYS a student discount :) #3 You can choose to wake up very early and trek in to Tokyo to stand in line and wait for the half-day tickets. These tickets have a significant price reduction, there is no assigned seating, just first come first served and you can only stay for half of the acts (3). This is the option we chose and I think it was more than sufficient to get a feel for what kabuki really is.

Each act of a Kabuki performance seems relatively disconnected. In each act there is a clear beginning, middle, and end of the story. In my acting classes in high school and college, I was always taught to draw upon true emotions and actual life experiences in order to develop my character and make my plight as believable as possible. In Kabuki, the name of the game is shtick and over-acting. Kabuki is extremely physical and elaborate; everything from the costumes to the language to the physical movements is something seeming almost animated and not of this world. To watch Kabuki is a treat for the eyes with all the color and grandiose stage props.

After our theatre excursion, we headed off for some lunch at a lovely French restaurant called Henri Charpentier's. When you walk in, you think you are in an upscale jewelry boutique; but upon a closer look you realize that there are cakes and desserts in the glass jewelry cases, not ruby and diamond rings! The restaurant is actually down a lovely spiral staircase tucked in against a two story bookshelf. Kathryn (Lauren's sister) nailed it when she said it reminded her of The Great Gatsby!

Lunch was delectable and naturally, four girls, had to order dessert after. We were not disappointed in the least by our four flavored creme brulees, lemon tarts, strawberry shortcake, or caramel flan. We felt like fancy princesses while in the over-stuffed, larger than life pink chairs and love-seats. Even the bathroom doors were hidden behind faux black-lacquered bookshelves with pink and white and purple books.

Shortly after lunch, Gabby and I had to hit the road and get back to Koga in time for her Welcome Party. My conversation club, Heartful, decided that Gabby should have a proper welcome with Karaoke hot chocolate and all. The group of us ended up having a really fantastic time that night. The only downside is that Gabby sang her little heart out and that along with the chilly weather caused her to lose her voice a bit. She will be more than fine, but I think her parents thought I had poisoned her. I swear, lead a girl to karaoke and you can't rip the mic away!

Big Buddha in, "Love and Loss in Chinatown"

2009-01-04T23:58:00.009-05:00

It has been eons since I have written, but now I am back in my apartment all alone and a bit lonely. That means I have plenty of time to catch you all up-to-date on my adventures with Gabby and everything during winter vacation!

Kamakura and Yokohama are two pretty interesting cities just outside Tokyo with some incredible history and some exciting places to see. First Gabby, Chika, Jason and I went to Kamakura to see the Daibutsu (the Big Buddha). The pictures I have taken do not do justice to the immense size of this grand statue. It is incredible to think that something so large was built without modern technology nearly 800 years ago. I think I would feel an even greater sense of wonderment and awe at the Pyramids in Egypt, but as for now, this Buddha blows my mind.

For a mere 20 cents one can climb inside the Buddha and peer through his great eyes to see the world from his perspective. This Buddha is rather ironic, as are all Buddha statues, shrines and places of worship, because Buddha never intended to be a Deity. In his teachings, Buddha wanted all people to respect one another and all of the natural world equally where no one person or thing was higher or revered more than anything else. The teachings of Buddha embody the true root of the Japanese culture of togetherness and group mentality; but as with all "religions" this one has been a bit distorted as well.

After indulging the Buddha, we naturally went through the gift shop. I purchased a lovely bell for Mom's birthday (early yes, but it was really pretty) and a frog phone charm for Kaitlin's safe travels through Africa. Gabby got some chopsticks and Jason bought some omiyage for the teachers at his school. Chika just got a lollipop and we all should have just followed her lead and saved our money!

After our stop off at the Buddha, we ventured on to Yokohama. This is a lovely little harbor city a 30 minute train ride from Kamakura. Even though the air was brisk, we drove right into the busy streets of Yokohama's Chinatown. The smells from the Chinese restaurants were so tempting and every few steps there were people giving away Japanese roasted chestnuts to entice you to buy a whole bag. Aside from an incredible amount of restaurants, there were little souvenir shops with Chinese print dresses and jewelry with semi-precious stones. In one of the jewelry shops, the four of us looked for about an hour. Finally both Gabby and I decided upon pieces we really liked. I bought a small sterling silver ring with a small garnet stone. It was dainty and I really thought it was pretty.

We left the jewelry store and continued with our travels through the streets of Chinatown. After another couple stores and browsing, I suddenly realized that the bag I had been carrying with the bell, phone charm and Gabby's chopsticks was no longer with me. I panicked because I had lost all our souvenirs and we retraced our steps back through Chinatown. Sadly, our lovely presents never turned up, so we wrote it off as a loss and luckily it wasn't too expensive.

The four of us were hungry and we decided to scour for a place to eat. We went into a beautiful old brick building that was probably a factory of some sort, but had been renovated into an interesting shopping mall. On the bottom floor of the building was the food court, and the moment we walked in to see the Hawaiian burger joint, it hit me! I had totally been in this exact place before! The second time I was in Japan, I was lucky enough to have a homestay experience for a few days. Because it was the summer time, my host sister wanted to take me to a fireworks festival. At that time I was 17 and in awe of Japan and quite the following little sheep. I wasn't really conscious of the fact that we were in Yokohama and I just took the experience as it came. When I saw the Hawaiian burger place again, all the memories of standing in the crowded food court in my yukata and geta and then finding a place to sit along the brick patio outside came flooding back. I was so excited to be in that exact place again, that I took pictures. I wish when I was younger I would have really understood how important it is to keep contacts and remain friends with people even very far away. I have not spoken or emailed with my host sister in many years, and for that I am sorry.

Finally, late at night, we took the train back to Koga talking and teaching Chika all kinds of wonderful American slang and -isms. When we finally got back to our car to drive home, Jason looked down and realized he no longer had his bag of omiyage either. We had successfully managed to lose everything we purchased while in Kamakura. Maybe the Buddha cursed us.

Learning to cook a New Year's dinner

2009-01-01T23:13:00.008-05:00

Gabby and I were invited to Maya's house to celebrate the New Year with she and her family. Maya is one of the teachers from Sanwa high school and she is a wonderful cook. She is always bringing new and wonderful creations to school to share with the teachers here. I am very happy I was able to accept her invitation because it was a wonderfully fun night with so much food and my very own cooking lesson.

When we arrived, Gabby and I met Maya's family and enjoyed some Japanese rice crackers and fresh oranges and apples. I have always been impressed by Maya's English and I was just as impressed with her family and how well they new English and tried to speak to Gabby and I. We saw pictures from Switzerland and Guam (Maya's family loves to travel the world!).

After our snack, Gabby and I went to help Maya prepare the New Year's meal. Because Maya is such a worldly person, our New Year's meal consisted of Spanish Paella, Japanese gyoza, Italian pizza, and an American cake recipe. There were some other traditional Japanese appetizer foods of which I cannot remember the name, but they each represented a different thing for the new year. There were fish eggs and radishes, coagulated egg and black beans, among other things.

There is visual proof that I was cooking, so I would like to encourage everyone to take a look at those pictures because otherwise I doubt you will believe me! I was even wearing an apron! In the beginning Maya had me chopping everything from ginger to garlic to onions to boiled cabbage. I have never really been too great at chopping, so this was good practice. Maya's daughter Mayu helped out so much too and I can just tell she is going to inherit Maya's gift of cooking. After all the chopping, we had to make the gyoza by putting the mixture of vegetables and meat into a small round dumpling to be folded and then fried later. I have discovered that I really enjoy cooking as long as I am not alone in the kitchen and I have a recipe or directions to follow. It is kind of fun thinking that the food people are eating is a creation by you!

After the meal was prepared we sat around the heated table and just laughed and joked with Maya's family. Gabby and I looked at so many photo albums of Maya's travels over the years. She has been all over the world to Barcelona, Turkey, Brussels, Australia, Hong Kong, Guam, Greece - just to name a very few. I asked her what made her want to travel the world so much, and she said that because she is a world history teacher, she thinks it is her duty to see the world to make her a better teacher. The way Maya is a wonderful teacher and has such a happy and beautiful family who love to travel the world together, she is truly an inspiration to me! It was such a lovely family experience, and I am very happy to have gotten once since spending Christmas without my own parents and siblings.

Let your wish fly

2009-01-01T23:13:00.007-05:00

My New Year's Eve proved to be an experience of which I could not have asked for anything more moving and traditionally Japanese. Gabby and I were invited with some of my friends (Mari and Yumi) into Tokyo to count down the new year like real Japanese. We made the long commute and met up with my friends in Tokyo at Zojoji Temple. This spot in Tokyo is especially acclaimed because of the incredible melding of rich culture and modern technology. Just beyond the temple is the overwhelming Tokyo Tower; with an uncanny resemblance to the great tower of Eiffel in Paris, however this tower reaches higher and serves a much more modern purpose. The Tokyo Tower was built to serve as a communications tower in order to coordinate all the radio and television waves rushing around Tokyo.

When we first arrived at Zojoji, we stood in line to receive a piece of paper on which we could write any wish we wanted. I made a wish sincerely from my heart, but I won't tell, so you can guess for yourself ;) Once we had our tickets, we ventured out into Tokyo a bit to grab some dinner and sit in a warm restaurant for a while. We had some Korean food and some fruit sours to wash it down. It was so much fun sitting in the restaurant introducing Gabby to Japanese culture and helping her to make some new friends!

After some time in the restaurant, we headed back to the temple to collect our balloons and attach our wishes to the string. I would say there were hundreds of thousands of people crowded at this huge temple. We were ushered out with a flowing wave of people right in front of the temple to wait until the clock struck midnight. With about 5 minutes left of 2008, all the lights in and around the temple were turned off, there was some light floating in from other parts of Tokyo, but it was really dark. The countdown for the last ten seconds of the New Year is a universal behavior, and as soon as the new year hit, all the lights came on and lighted signs had been changed to read 2009 and there were 3000 balloons released into the air. Balloons released into the world with sincere wishes and prayers to heard by someone more powerful and loving.

Once the balloons were released the crowd charged forward to enter the temple, offer their small monetary sacrifice and pray. I cannot explain how many people there were, maybe the pictures will give some indication, but the crowd was so forceful, we would not have had the option of standing still if we wanted to. We were being carried forward. When we finally reached the temple, the decorations and adornments were an incredible sight. Everything was golden and brilliant. Just after praying, we walked back to the station and made the long commute home. It was a really fantastic way to spend the New Year and I feel so fortunate to have been able to experience something so Japanese and yet it be so personal to me at the same time.

She comes from the West

2008-12-30T19:12:00.002-05:00

Happy wonderful joy, Gabby just arrived on Tuesday! My commute to the airport was easy enough, but definitely long. After she walked through the doors to where I could meet her it was almost surreal. The time has absolutely flown since I have been here, but now that someone from home has shown up in my East Asian life I can see how much time really has passed and how much time really is left. It's not sad, just a bit of a reality check I think.

I have a jam-packed couple weeks planned for us. She is going to be in shock and have a heavy dose of sensory overload, but I want to show her what my life is here. I am proud of what I am doing and proud of the life I have built here, and it is fun to show someone first hand. Not to mention I tend to have a lot of fun with Gabby, so we could probably be anywhere in the world and enjoy each others company. I am truly thankful she is here, for many reasons.

I will be posting pictures of her visit, so check it out!!!!

Wait, did you see what just whizzed by?

2008-12-25T20:25:00.003-05:00

Yeah, it was Christmas. It ended up being a lovely day. There was very little evidence of the holiday around me, but the only thing I needed, I got. I was allowed to leave work early, so I went home, got a nap in and cleaned up my apartment a bit. I went to dinner with a couple friends from Koga and had some nice conversation. We are all from different countries, so we all celebrate the holidays differently. I always love hearing about cultural differences and comparing lifestyles of different people.

After dinner I came home, and did some really nice Skyping with my family. I got to be with them while they were opening Christmas gifts. It looked like a normal family Christmas and it made me really happy to be with them. I liked to see and hear their reactions as they were opening the gifts I got them and the gifts they got for one another. My parents are really great at the whole Christmas thing and I know I have always felt so lucky and really spoiled since I was a kid. And the highlight about being away from home this Christmas is that next Christmas is going to be completely wonderful sharing it with my family in person again.

There are a lot of things that I could have been depressed about, but I hold true that life brings only happiness and positive opportunities. Even when the situation looks bleakest, there is always happiness to be had. And the biggest mistake someone can make is to miss the happiness that abound in life because they are too busy complaining and dwelling on the silly things. I cannot, will not, let life pass me by while I am dwelling in a silly depression of my own making.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

2008-12-23T20:06:00.002-05:00

Over the past week I have reread this classic book. I found a fun little website run by the University of Pennsylvania and they put transcripts of classic books online for some easy reading. As with watching movies over and over again, every time I read this book it speaks to me in a different way. That is the joy of reading; because our lives are constantly changing, the stories we read change with us because we need them to.

If you have never read this book, please, please, pick it up. It is an easy read and I think you will find some surprises along the way as well - especially if you have only ever seen the movie. The premise is the same and Dorothy is simply trying to find her way back home to Kansas and in order to do so, she must venture through the land of Oz, meeting new friends and facing new obstacles along the way.

The friends she makes are sincere and loyal companions. She encounters people who do not like her, she encounters people who expect great things of her and she must find within herself the will to complete her journey. The story tells that great goals have great paths to follow and actions have consequences. It speaks of perseverance and dedication to a goal. Failure is part of life, but in the end success is the finish line. It also assures us that while we are away people will miss us, but life must always go on because we all have responsibilities. It is a beautiful marriage of a story of an individual struggle, but the effort of many in order to achieve big goals. And in the end we all must realize that not only can we always go back home, but there is no place like home in all the world (both real and imaginary).

End of the year = Partaaaay!

2008-12-23T19:55:00.002-05:00

This week marks the beginning of the winter break for students here in Japan. That means that the teachers can let loose!! Every school has a party near the end of the calendar year called a Bon enkai; this just means end of the year party. Sanwa just had theirs on Monday night and there was great fun had by all.

As I have come to expect with these parties, there is always fantastic food of many varieties. I had some sashimi, sushi, cooked fish, beef, pork, pickled vegetables, onabe, and oranges for dessert. There was a nice array of non-alcoholic drinks there as well, so I spent the night sipping on some fizzy orange juice.

The most fun part was that every teacher at the school was there. It was great to see everyone out of the teacher's room, talking, laughing, having a good time. We played bingo with fun little Disney cards and I got some cool towels out of the grab bag. Everyone ended up winning something, so it was nice and communal and fair - very Japanese. After the bingo, people started breaking out the karaoke, and I was prompted to sing. I sang my go-to Japanese song (Ue o muite, aruko) and then at the end of the evening I sang The Christmas Song. I am a social person, and I enjoy being at a party with friends. I also like people watching, and this party provided for some prime entertainment!

Getting International in Koga

2008-12-23T19:26:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday, I was invited to a Winter Festival in Koga. This is a rather low key event just honoring all the international residents of our little city. There were booths there from the most represented foreigners such as China, Korea, Brazil, Peru, and the Philippines. Each booth had fun foods and juices or coffees from their respective countries. Many people were dressed in traditional garb. In addition to the booths there were people there from many different places; I saw Kenya (my friend James), Australia (my friend Thomas), Indonesia, Mongolia, Thailand, and Russia.

Through the course of the afternoon, there was a Japanese speech contest in which foreigners can participate. Each person must prepare a three minute speech on their home country and experience in moving to Japan. It is so interesting to me to listen to these speeches because I can understand a lot of what is said and I can also tell how different the accent is! After this there were some cultural performances such as songs and dances from each of the different countries. I was especially excited about the performance from the Philippines because they did Tinikling!! I was sad because I was missing the annual Filipino-American holiday party at home, and being able to watch some Tinikling helped a lot!!

I was able to talk to so many nice people and I even got some information about a new Japanese language course I can start taking after the new year! I am glad James told me about this festival, because it would have been quite a shame to miss it!

What Christmas means to me

2008-12-23T18:33:00.002-05:00

In my life, Christmas is not about the presents, but the thought that goes into them. I always feel so loved that the people in my life take the time to write me letters and send me presents. I will say though that when it comes to buying me anything, my Mom has got the game all figured out. She puts so much thought into her purchases, not only around the holidays, but anytime she is buying something for someone else. She loves the feeling and joy of gift giving and it shows in her purchases.

Christmas has become so commercialized (especially here in Japan), but the act of buying presents for someone else is not about the brand name or the price tag. It is about making the gift of love tangible. Love is a beautiful gift all its own, but sometimes seeing the physical embodiment of that love makes us see how special we all are and how much the people around us really care. I didn't get anything from Tiffany's or Burberry, but what has been sent to me is so much more tender to my heart. I have taken pictures, so you can check it out if you want. I got a lacquered box that was beautifully painted with West Virginia and our motto. She sent me something to hang on the wall, "Family is Forever"; my favorite flavors of tea and scents of candles.

Being away from home during this time of year is strange for me. I am not depressed or crying myself to sleep, but that is in large part because of the thoughtfulness and love of not only my wonderful family, but my dear, dear friends as well. I cannot send out enough warm wishes and thanks to everyone who has brightened my holiday season. I hope that you all are able to be surrounded by old friends, new friends, family or someone that can just say, "I'm glad you're here with me."

Teaching in a foreign, foreign land

2008-12-18T19:37:00.006-05:00

I was invited to participate in a team-teaching seminar at Yachiyo Senior High School. If you have never heard me mention this school before, that is because it is not one of my schools, but that of a fellow ALT. However this ALT currently has visitors from The States, and I was invited to fill his position for this day.

I had to teach at my normal Thursday school in the morning (Koga 2nd) and then I got to leave early for my business trip. Because of my paranoia about getting lost while I am driving here, I gave myself plenty of time to get to Yachiyo. Turns out the drive is only about 40 minutes from Koga, but I gave myself and hour and a half...haha. I always rather be early than apologizing for being late.

When I arrived I was greeted warmly by the Principal (an ex-English teacher) and we had a delightful conversation. We discussed his past travels around the world and his love of golf. He told me about his nephew who works for Bearing Point here in Japan, but studied for his MBA in Ireland. As has become the norm when I meet new Japanese people, he asked about my politics and thoughts about the recent election. The secretary served us green tea and a small cookie.

When my teaching partner, Bob, arrived we launched into the lesson plan and some preparation. Bob is an American and has been living in Japan for about 20 years now. He is a professor at a prestigious teacher's college here in Ibaraki. He created the plan for the class and was just filling me in on the details of my role. Since neither Bob nor myself were familiar with the students at Yachiyo, we had no clue what their level or even their interest in English would be. The Japanese teachers who actually knew the students only said that their level was very low.

The first activity Bob planned was for us to play a board game in which the students would have to roll a die, move their pieces and when they landed on a space, they had to ask a question of someone to seek information. We split the 31 students class into 11 groups to make for faster game play. On the board there were questions they could ask each other, questions for the principal, Bob and myself. It was a lot of fun for me, because as they were playing, a student would shout my name from across the room to get my attention to ask me a question. They were all so eager to play and ask the questions; I was very impressed by them. After this game was over, we asked the students to write sentences about the facts they learned about one another during the game. They had to write these sentences from memory and had to write as many as they could to get a prize (homemade chocolate chip cookies!). Again, even with the more difficult task, the students excelled and jumped at the chance to try!

It was a really fun class and I would consider it to have been an extremely successful exhibition. After the class was finished the 7 English teachers in the school, Bob and myself had a debriefing session. Bob discussed his different techniques for teaching and practicing grammar with the students. I even got to discuss a newspaper activity I did at Koga 1st. It was neat that my opinions and lesson ideas were being considered by seasoned teachers. I was also happy to relay my successful experience with a lesson that I was trepidacious about doing with the students in the first place.

I am learning more and more that teaching is not the profession for me. But along the way I am having a lot of fun and really trying to connect with some of the students. I will figure out some way to work with kids in the future; probably through volunteer work. :)

Rockin' around the Christmas tree - and politics to boot

2008-12-18T18:53:00.002-05:00

My dear friend Lauren had a lovely little Christmas party last week at her humble, yet beautifully decorated abode in Itako. She carries every domestic and female gene there is; she loves decorating and wrapping presents and cooking and playing hostess and dressing up and wearing make-up - the whole girlie game! It is fun to be part of her world a bit because I can help her out with her preparation and pretend I am uber domestic too!

I got to Itako about 4pm and one of our other friends, Erin, was already there cooking and decorating away. So I jumped right in the mix and started helping with food preparation. I helped to make some failed guacamole, but I refuse to take credit for the failure because the avocados were too green and not soft enough to mash up. Next I helped out with some cheese and crackers with a slice of pear on each. Let me tell you, all the little food creations Lauren thought up were delicious! Aside from the pears and cheese, we had prosciutto wrapped around asparagus and cheese, prosciutto wrapped around pears and cheese, pasta salad, bruschetta, salsa and chips, chicken and steak and then the guests helped out a bunch by bringing some awesome desserts too!

There was some lovely Christmas music, and we even got a little dressed up for the event. It was fun to put on a nice dress and do my hair a bit. Since I have been here, I haven't had a reason to really get dressed up, so when I was looking at the pictures of APOs Pinning I was a bit jealous. (Probably just because I miss APO and the people in Boston.)

It was so wonderful for me to be around friends and western traditions for a bit of the Christmas season. As we were all sitting around, eating food, drinking good wine, the intelligent people we are begin to discuss politics. Specifically because we were an international crowd, the Americans were trying to explain how the State system at home is not only a good idea, but necessary for America to function properly. I can understand that it is difficult for foreigners to understand that laws and regulations can vary wildly from state to state. Again because we are all intelligent people there are about 10 different opinions flying about, but we were able to discuss this (even a little passionately) and still remain in good spirits. We ended up learning a lot about one another and accepting each other's point of view.

We ended the night happy and friendly and the party was a great way to kick off the holidays!

Lures by Sue Goyette

2008-12-10T21:59:00.002-05:00

This book hit hard and fast and before I knew it, the story was over. The only problem is that I felt like it ended horribly with about a thousand questions and with none of the problems being resolved. She spends a ton of time at the beginning of the book giving insignificant details and concentrating on events that disappear later. For example, she gives the main character a part time job in the beginning and she has to start learning French, after the introduction of that job, it disappears and she never mentions the job or learning French again.

There were some exciting parts of the story, but right at the peak of the event, she leaves you hanging and then doesn't resolve the conflict later. Some parts are disturbing and some characters are infuriating and disgusting. There is a slight love story underlying the whole thing, but again you don't know what happens to the characters.

I did some research on the author, and found out she is a Canadian poet. I think this is where some of the continuity problems come in. Poems have subtext and vague meanings and never quite get to the point. This book began as a series of poems and my guess is she never figured out how to effectively change mediums. Interesting book, but if you read it be prepared to make up your own ending. Mine was happy - because I like happy in my life.

Stalkerbook? I beg to differ!

2008-12-07T22:02:00.004-05:00

Maybe it makes me a stalker, maybe it just makes me an interested and invested friend, but I think Facebook is brilliant. I must tell you that I have not always been a fan, but I am one of the converted. This social networking tool, as they call it, brings every person I have ever met, and their incredibly interesting lives right to my computer screen! Of course many of my "friends" on Facebook are people I have met only once, or people whose names I vaguely knew in high school or college. On the flip side of that, there are many people who were close to me at different stages in my life, but for one reason or another we have grown apart and now lead very different lives.

I often receive requests from people who are not altogether familiar to me. Somethings that might help to cause this to happen are the many tools Facebook provides for its users to uncover all the people from their lives. Facebook will personally sift through your email address book and AIM buddies to help connect you to long lost friends. One tool I find particularly interesting is the "People You Might Know" application. Every time I sign onto my Facebook page, there is a box on the side suggesting three new people I may or may not know. I can even click a link to see another 20 or so suggestions for new friends.

That is where I think things start to get interesting. As of this moment, I have 724 friends on Facebook. I can sift through all of my friends and recognize every name; and given my nature and curiosity I sincerely want to know what path their individual lives have taken. I want to know about college and jobs and relationships and kids if they apply. As a society, we have a difficult time reviving friendships that have fallen by the wayside. There is an immense amount of discomfort in the reconnecting conversation that comes with seeing an old friend; however with a catalyst such as Facebook, those in-person meetings need never take place. You can catch up with one another consensually online and never speak a word.

Now to combat the creepiness that accompanies internet stalking, Facebook has gone to great lengths to protect its members and set up securities that can be turned on and off at each person's discretion. I enjoy Facebook more than most other social networking tools because of the structure, the intuitiveness of the site and the ease with which to find people by name.

Essentially what I am trying to say, is that I love to hear from random friends and people in my life. I wish you well in your life's endeavors and I thank you for letting me into your little world.

Playing with fire

2008-12-07T08:47:00.003-05:00

This weekend I attended a lantern festival in Koga. It was great because this is the first festival Koga has had since I have lived here and it was so much fun. First, let me explain the main event of this festival and why it is so exciting. The fine citizens of Koga create their own six-man community teams and prepare for this festival for a few months prior. Each team makes their own paper lantern and practices maneuvering it back and forth in a straight line, while it is hoisted 35 meters above the ground on a large bamboo tripod of sorts. If it sounds complicated, that is because it is. I tried to get some good pictures, so check those out for a visual.

They create a huge corridor outside made of bamboo to serve as a track of sorts for the teams to travel up and down. There must have been about 30 teams or more participating, so they split all the teams into 3 rounds and then the top 3 winners from each round competed in the finals. So there are ten teams competing at once and the object is to walk from one end of the corridor to the other without letting your lantern be destroyed by another team. All of these are traditional lanterns mind you, so they are lighted by candles - with fire. If you saw the way those tripods worked, they are extremely wide, so that corridor starts off very crowded and it is insane watching those teams try and shuffle their way forward with a mass of people and bamboo in front of them. The most enjoyable part for the spectators however is watching the lanterns way up in the air. As the teams crash their poles into one another, lanterns are knocked from their stable positions, and it is common to see a lantern spontaneously burst into flames because the candle has been knocked off kilter. The whole crowd gets really excited and everyone is cheering for victory of their respective teams and hoping to see some fire!

While all the lantern excitement is happening, there are booths set up all along the street selling copious amounts of food. Everything is made right there before your eyes and you have your choice of okonomiyaki to freshly cooked whole squid on a stick! They have candied apples, and strawberries, plums and apricots. Also there are many street performers playing traditional Japanese drums and dancing in kimonos.

While walking through the festival I ran into many of my students from all my different schools. They all recognized me, and stopped to talk to me and see how I was enjoying my first festival. It was pretty cool, because they clearly didn't expect me to show up at their festival, but seemed pretty happy that I was there enjoying their culture so much. I also rand into Mr. and Mrs. Ishiki and Mio. They were also having a great time as a family and Mio was happy to see me.

The weather was freezing cold compounded about 100 times because the wind was so strong to boot. At one point I thought my hands were going to fall off, but I am happy to report that all is well and all my phalanges are intact. I am really happy to have gone to my first festival in my little Koga town and I am excited for the next one - but I have no clue when that will be.

Parallelism

2008-12-05T18:53:00.002-05:00

What do you think of the existence of parallel universes? I think the cool thing about them is that they hold all the alternative outcomes to the events in our lives. For example, in a parallel universe, I did not move to Japan and I have a completely different life. Every choice and decision in our lives rips space and creates other parallel universes to take on every possible choice and live out the subsequent outcomes. Of course this is all science fiction and completely improbable, but to think about it is really cool - and sometimes it gives me piece of mind.

It is comforting to know that when things are disappointing in this string of time, that parallel to me it is all turned around, completely opposite, and not so disappointing. It is the same as the concept of, "there is always someone less fortunate than you." But the key difference is that is wipes out the envy and pity pieces, because in parallel universes the person that is better or worse off than you, is you! It makes decision making easier and takes the seriousness out of life sometimes which makes everything more bearable.

A hodge-podge

2008-12-04T00:01:00.003-05:00

When I write in school I tend to leave some things out of my blog. I think it is the fact that my mind is going in 10 different directions and that there is so much to see around the teacher's room. But anyway, this is going to be a bit of a hodge-podge blog summing up some of the details I have left out of previous entries.

Firstly, I just received the good news today that Yuka passed her examination and can move ahead in her English study. If you don't remember, Yuka was the student with whom I was studying for the Eiken exam. She had tried to take the test three times before and failed and this was her final chance to pass in order to advance in her English studies. During lunch today, she came to see me and tell me the good news. She was so excited to tell me and thank me for her help. Really it was a joy to work with Yuka and help her prepare. I have said many times, but working with the students in small groups or one on one is the joy of my job.

Now, some more details about the wedding. It is customary that the bride and groom receive money from the guests attending the reception. Usually there are no toasters or blenders given at Japanese weddings. Seeing as I was invited to the third round of wedding festivities, I don't know first hand how the actual ceremony and first reception work. But, from what I have heard those two ceremonies are incredibly formal and a bit dry. The reception I went to was pretty enjoyable, but still there was no dancing, only some light background music (mostly Christmas). The majority of the time was filled with friends taking pictures with the bride and groom and listening to speeches. There was a light buffet and drinks. It was worlds different than any wedding reception in The States.

I was invited to go to the next outing of the first grade teachers at Sanwa. Whenever teachers invite me to their after hours social gatherings it always makes me feel special. I love talking to them and knowing what their thoughts are on America or English or anything at all. And earlier today I was invited to be in the photo shoot for the female English teachers at Koga Ni-ko. For Their Christmas party, they are taking pictures of all the teachers for a slide show to be played. The four English teachers posed like Sex and the City, and they thought to include me in this picture.

I have been gifted so much fruit lately, that I had to finally cut it all up yesterday and stick it in freezer bags in order to keep it so it wouldn't go bad. Now I have a freezer full of persimmons, kiwis and apples. I am pretty excited about this; maybe I'll bust out the blender and there will be smoothies in my future!

Hope you like the hodge-podge of my latent thoughts realized.

The art of the 3-part wedding

2008-12-03T18:51:00.003-05:00

As with every new day here in Japan, (and should be the case with every new day anywhere) I get to experience something new. These things help me to examine the world in which I have created for myself and how the person I have become fits into the world in which I inhabit. On Sunday, I was invited to a Japanese wedding reception for one of my English teachers at Koga Ichi-ko. I have learned a lot about Japanese weddings since then, but there is still so much I will never fully understand because of the way they are structured.

First, there is the wedding ceremony. From what I have been told, the bride and groom usually wear traditional Japanese kimonos and the ceremony is performed in a shrine. I would imagine that a monk performs the ceremony, but I am not certain. At the wedding ceremony, only immediate family of the bride and groom are invited; there are no bridesmaids or groomsmen. Following the wedding ceremony is the first reception. This portion is for very close friends and extended family only. There is a meal and speeches are given; the whole event is very carefully planned and the schedule of events is followed to a T. Then comes the second reception for all of the bride and grooms extended friend network; I was invited to the second reception. Generally, there is no family invited to this last portion and it is just about friends and good times. There are some speeches and a bit of formality, but then what is a Japanese anything without formality and and speeches?

When I got there, all the guests were lined up at the door of the restaurant the couple had rented for the occasion. At a Japanese reception, all the guests pay for themselves, so there is always an admission fee. Shortly after 6:30pm, the bride and groom arrived and everyone cheered them in. Once they got there, things really got started and the two emcees kept everyone happy and laughing the whole night. I don't know what relation, if any, these emcees had to the couple, but it felt like I was watching some kind of performance or game show. There were door prizes complete with a raffle drawing and everything, there were formal speeches given by the bride and groom and a lot of bowing. The wedding planner even made a video to show all the guests about the planning of the wedding. After two hours of a show in which every detail was pre-planned, the whole thing ended as quickly as it had begun. There was no lingering, the place just cleared and everyone went their separate ways.

During the reception I did meet some very nice people (I always love meeting new people) and had some nice conversation. They asked about me, where I was from, why I was at the reception. They let me in on little jokes and secrets about the newlyweds (they had all gone to college together). As with most scenarios here, I felt immediately welcomed and thankful I wasn't standing awkwardly in a corner all by myself because. One of the guys I met had wonderful English, and the other girls let me practice my broken Japanese with them. One of the women is moving to New York later this month for her husbands' job and she is pretty nervous. When the reception ended, they bid me adieu and maybe I won't see them again, but I was so happy to have them that night!

In Japan, everything has its allotted time. Everything is planned to the point of exhaustion, and the Japanese can compartmentalize like champs! I like being a spectator in this world and using it to examine against my own.

Finally welcomed to Japan

2008-11-29T03:53:00.003-05:00

Just last night I had my welcome party from Sanwa High School. They are my base school, my favorite place to be. I had high hopes for this party, and they did not disappoint. We first had dinner at a seafood restaurant with an incredible spread. I have come to anticipate the huge amount of food these welcome parties have, but it is always a surprise to see it all in front of me!

We began with some sashimi, tofu, and tempura. Then we moved on to onabe, which is a kind of Japanese comfort food. They serve it mainly during the colder fall and winter months and it is a "family dish." Essentially it is a big pot of soup cooking in the middle of the table. The restaurant gives you all the ingredients - vegetables, tofu, oysters, crab, shrimp, chicken - and you put all the fixins' in the pot and watch it cook. It is delicious and just nice and warm and oh so easy to make at home too. After the onabe we had crab legs and a huge fish that had been cut open and cooked. We had kamameshi, and this was a nomihodai as well. Nomihodai means "all you can drink."

Now I know my Mother is cringing a bit, but don't worry, the six drinks I had last night were spread over six hours. These parties tend to last well into the night. So as we are eating, they periodically stop and give speeches. They thank me for being there and ask me if I like it. I thank them for helping me so much with my transition to Japanese life and for always thinking of me and looking out for me. After our feast, we go for some impromptu karaoke! Always a fan of karaoke, I thought this was a great idea.

We sang our little hearts out for a couple hours. I was able to pull out the two Japanese songs I know and sing them! I wish I knew more Japanese music because it is fun for me to sing in their language. But we sang a lot of Beatles and they sang a lot of Japanese. I had explained to them earlier in the night, when they were talking about American television shows they like (Lost, 24, Heroes, The O.C.) that I tend to not like anything popular. This presents a problem only when I am trying to relate to the Japanese on a point of entertainment. I don't like the popular singers, or TV shows, or movies. So instead of singing the Macy Grey and Cake that I usually enjoy, I took requests. They asked me to sing the Titanic song (My Heart Will Go On), All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey, Beatles, Backstreet Boys. And I had a blast!

I think when I get back and strike it rich, I am going to have my own Japanese style Izekaiya restaurant and a Karaoke box. How can they not be popular!??!!

Give thanks, life is beautiful

2008-11-29T03:22:00.003-05:00

In my family, the holidays are important. Growing up, my parents encouraged my siblings and I to be very involved. They never told us we couldn't join a new team or be in a new club. Transportation was always a puzzle and a series of carefully planned drop-offs and pick-ups, but they were champs! Essentially this meant that our family time was at a premium; we'd see each other in passing, but when the holidays came it was the perfect excuse to tell everything else, "No, this is family time."

So now, we find ourselves with the weather getting cooler and the beginning of this holiday season approaching. This will be the first time in my 22 years that I will, in fact, not be home for Christmas; or Thanksgiving, or New Year's or any of these beautiful and significant holidays. As I have said before, I have been struggling a bit with how to cope and handle my emotions during these times. I love my life here in Japan, so that helps more than anything else could. Initially I thought ignoring the days would be my best solution. Thanksgiving and Christmas are both working days for me, so I figured as long as I wasn't too conscious of the date, the holidays would pass right by and I would be okay. I should have known, that is just a silly idea. There is no way I can ignore such holidays with having to teach culture lessons about them and talking to family and friends often about vacations and plans.

So I decided to embrace Thanksgiving - and while I don't cook - I invited some friends and we celebrated by going to dinner and just enjoying one another's company. So Emily, Anna, Jason, Chika and I piled into my awesome van, and ventured out to my favorite restaurant here for some laughs and story telling. It was a lot of fun to hear about the traditions of everyone else's family. That is truly the coolest thing about America; not that we all have the right to be different, but that we actually are. We represented so many different parts of the country (Kansas, California, South Dakota, West Virginia), but we are all different ages and have different life experiences and histories we bring to our friendships. I am always a sucker for storytelling. Sit me down, tell me a story, and I will listen for hours.

So we sat at Tori Den, eating sashimi salad, kamameshi, drinking banana milk and mango juice for about three hours. In my inherent corniness, I asked everyone to name something for which they were thankful. It was very reassuring to hear how happy everyone was to be in Japan. In the absence of family, I couldn't have asked for a happier or more enjoyable Thanksgiving.

Since Thanksgiving is my favorite meal, and has been since I was a kid, that is probably the first meal I will ask for when I get home. I am so excited to share with my wonderful family my stories and experiences and hear theirs in return.

A tightrope walk I intend to perfect

2008-11-25T22:03:00.003-05:00

In this time of crisp weather and holidays beating down the door, it lays the perfect groundwork for nostalgia to walk right in and make himself comfortable in the warmest parts of our hearts. My family lives in the warmest part of my heart, and nostalgia is always a welcomed and often an entertaining visitor. The cool thing about having nice memories, they have this strange way of transforming reflections of the past into goals for the future.

This all came about because I was thinking about my grandfather and the fact that it has been over two years since I last held his hand. Just after he passed, I was so sad I couldn't see through the hurricane of my tears to a time when thoughts of him would bring warmth and smiles rather than emptiness and cold. Now I think of him and his laugh at the dinner table, or the way damn was his favorite expletive. I never wanted to interfere when I was younger, but thinking of how my Mom and Grandpa would sit in the kitchen for hours after dinner while Mom did the dishes and Grandpa talked about family stories always made me happy. That time was theirs to talk and bond, share some laughs and frustrations.

But I digress. This is really about how people live their lives. I think it takes the reality of someone close to us passing in order for some of us to really assess the manner in which we live our lives. I think there is a fine line between taking life for granted and not living for fear of dying. Living recklessly is not the definition of taking advantage of the life you've been given. And on the flip side, living like a hermit so as to stay safe and healthy is not the definition of respecting the life you're been given.

Life is fragile, but spontaneity won't break it. Physical activity won't hurt it either. Working hard, having a family, traveling the world, being powerful in business - each of those scenarios has the potential to create a fantastic life full of happiness and love. The only requirement is that you do not squander the life you've been given by making poor decisions (that means no drugs, no walking on train tracks, no driving while intoxicated - common sense, you'd think).

I hope to walk the tightrope of life in such a way that I embrace spontaneity, but have the wisdom to know when a particular adventure should come to an end. I think the key is to surround yourself with supportive people who encourage your creativity and thirst for learning and exploring new adventures.

Blue Christmas

2008-11-22T18:27:00.004-05:00

I generally have very strong opinions about Christmas decorations and music before Thanksgiving. Back home I would never condone such unsympathetic gestures toward Thanksgiving. But alas I have crossed over to the dark side of commercialized Christmas in a non-Christian nation and have been listening to Christmas music for a couple weeks now. I even went and enjoyed the public decorations and atmosphere in a department store; I went only for the decorations and music. As I am writing this post, I am shamelessly listening to Christmas music on accuradio.com and really loving every minute of it. (All but the Elvis really, his voice is so annoying!)

Missing the holidays at home is proving to be much more difficult that I anticipated. I guess I should have known, because the past few years when I have had to miss Easter at home it really got to me. I don't know what I was thinking assuming that Thanksgiving and Christmas away were going to be fine. The plan as it stands? Work. I want to completely work through each of the holidays I am missing and focus more on my friends and social life here, rather than the family life I am missing at home. Of course I cannot ignore the fact that Christmas is coming, but I don't have to fixate on it. I am doing some major Christmas shopping and sending boxes home soon. I am listening to the music because it makes me smile and feel extra warm in my chilly apartment.

When it comes right down to it, I miss my family an incredible amount. But I have been truly blessed with the caring and happy friends I have made here. In a case where a substitute for family is due, they are so much better than I could have ever prayed for. I am looking forward to walking around Tokyo, decorated with lights and excitement and just reminding myself how freaking cool it is that I am in one of the biggest cities in the whole world - and it's just a normal day!

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

2008-11-19T08:25:00.004-05:00

Thank you Serendipity for opening my eyes to this incredible book. It took me a while to finish, but I was sincerely hooked the whole time; it wasn't a struggle. It is a pure love story with a wonderful dose of reality built right in. Simply put, love is strained, love is unpredictable, and even when they are in love people seek affection and intimacy elsewhere.

It is the infuriating and invigorating story of a childhood love pulled apart and destroyed by preconceptions and the pursuit of social standing. The main characters merely exchange letters and admire one another from afar during their youth. As the girl is pushed to advance her social status by her father, she is forced to forgo her heart's true love. For over 50 years the main characters continue to live in the same city, and live completely separate lives. The woman goes on to marry into a higher social class and the man climbs the social ladder by way of hard work and business acumen.

The man is hopelessly in love with the main female character, but her rejection sends him into a tailspin of illicit sexual relationships in which he refuses to feel emotional love. He attempts throughout his whole life to seek solace through the warmth of a body next to him. Of course this cannot cure his love sick heart and his soul continues to belong to the female lead. Every accomplishment he has in his life is gained consciously in honor of his heart's true love. He plans his whole life for and around her in the hope and anticipation of the day she will become a widow.

This day finally happens, and they are true to their love from the days of ol'. They acknowledge the passage of time and the changes they have each endured and in spite of everything, their love and affection for one another is steadfast. I highly recommend this book to anyone. Yes, it is a love story, but not so sappy actually. There are some incredibly smart and perceptive commentaries on human nature and society. Wonderful book!

It's cool to be appreciated

2008-11-16T22:59:00.002-05:00

So eight of my kids from Sanwa High School went to Australia for a week at the beginning of this month. I haven't heard too many stories yet, but some of the kids got me souvenirs! I was in no way expecting that kind of thoughtfulness from those kids. They are really nice kids and really motivated, but I was not expecting presents!

One of the kids gave me a box of Australian chocolates, and I got a key chain that says Platypus crossing!!! One of the kids gave me a nice towel and a little koala clip that is magnetic. They were little useful things and just showed such thoughtfulness that I felt really special. Over the next two weeks I will be helping them to write a newsletter about their experience to be given to all the students at Sanwa. And then, once the newsletter has gone out, we will be resuming our after school English lessons again. These kids are just motivated and a lot of fun to talk to!

Historic Nikko

2008-11-16T21:41:00.002-05:00

Nikko is an old city in Tochigi Prefecture, about two hours driving from Koga. This past Thursday (November 13th) was a holiday, Ibaraki Day, so I had the day off. I was invited by one of my teachers at Sakai Nishi, Mrs. Ishiki, to spend the day in Nikko. She is a very intelligent and opinionated woman, and I really enjoy spending time with her and her family. Nikko is a very popular place to visit, especially in the beauty of autumn. Usually it is a very crowded place with tourists trying to catch a glimpse of the fall leaves before they abandon the trees for the cold winter. But, lucky for us, Ibaraki Day was in the middle of the week, so the surge of tourists was much less than normal.

On the drive to Nikko, we made our way up the mountain to finally arrive at this sleepy little town. The route is absolutely beautiful and lined with incredibly old, incredibly tall trees. It was as though we were driving through a natural tunnel. There were three long stretches of road with this kind of canopy, as we made our way up the mountain.

Because of its rich history, the temples in Nikko are considered a World Heritage Site. The temples are from the Edo period and were built for the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. They are incredibly ornate and beautifully adorned in wooden carvings and gold plating. At the entrance to the temples, there is a horse stable, and upon it are some carvings of monkeys. The most famous carving is of three monkeys vowing to Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, and See no Evil. The other carvings are of the human condition - contemplating life, contemplating goals and dreams, feeling disappointment and failure.

Beyond that is a kind of grave site for all the shogun that lived within the temple walls. This grave site is located at the top of 200 stone stairs. There were many school age children at Nikko for field trips, and as we were climbing the stairs, we could hear them counting all the steps as they made their way down from the top.

Throughout the day in Nikko, the colors of the leaves and the light through the trees was gorgeous. I'm not usually one for "the beauty of nature," but even I can recognize how incredible it is that such vibrant colors exist naturally in this world. And the light was such that Thomas Kinkade would have had a field day! I kind of wish I could have had him in my pocket and commissioned a painting of Nikko right then and there!

After the temples, we made our way to the next town over to go to an onsen. This onsen was wonderfully relaxing and had an outdoor hot spring as well as two indoor. It was great to sit outside with the crisp air creating a mist on the hot water. After the onsen, we grabbed some soba for lunch and then made our way home. It was a nice low key touring day.

On the way home Mrs. Ishiki and I talked about all kinds of things. She is a very intelligent woman and a very talented and curious linguist and culturalist. Our discussions usually center around word pronunciation and meaning and cultural connections to linguistics. We talk about poverty, and insurance, and different ideas on health and well being. She teaches me about Japanese history and is always helping me learn more Japanese and more vocabulary and kanji. For that I am very grateful. I hope be able to continue spending time with Mrs. Ishiki when I stop teaching at Sakai Nishi in January.

The Grass People

2008-11-09T18:24:00.004-05:00

I got to go to my first Japanese play. Hiromi, the woman in Heartful, is such a fun lady. Just a few weeks ago she was in a dance festival, and then two weekends ago, she was in a play. This play, when translated, was called "The Grass People." To be honest, I could understand general idea of what was happening, but most of the words escaped me. The cast sang a very powerful song at the beginning and then did a reprise at the end, but it was not a musical at all.

It was a story of servitude and the rifts of love between social classes. The Grass People were in service to the Shogun, and the Shogun fell in lust with his servant girl, who was already in love with another peasant like herself. So the Shogun went on a jealous rampage and the servant girl tried running away. But of course in the end, the Shogun lost and the family was reunited and it was very happy.

I will say that I was deeply impressed by the acting abilities of the actors on stage. This was just a community theatre production, but the emotion the characters were able to show and elicit from the audience were very powerful. During the most emotionally trying parts, the characters in distress would cry, real tears. Not only did one person cry, but 5 people were able to make real tears happen on stage - I was kind of amazed.

There was a Japanese gentleman who sat next to me during the performance. He is an optometrist in Koga and he began the conversation by asking if he could practice his English with me. It was really cool to meet such an eager and confident Japanese person. I really enjoyed speaking with him and found out that he loves to travel and do Karaoke in his free time, of which he has little. He loves to go to the theatre, but it is hard for him to make the time. He asked about my university and where I was from in the states and we had a nice conversation to pass the time before the play started and then again at intermission. I am happy that people are willing to talk to me and that I seem approachable, it helps me to make new friends!

After the performance, I stayed to say hello to Hiromi. She was so emotional still, the play moved her and she was also very proud of the cast and the performance they all gave. And she introduced me to a famous Japanese television actor that had come to see the play as well. After that, she introduced me to the director of their play and of the community theatre troupe. It was really cool because they decided that I should be involved with the next production they do!!! I was floored, just because I enjoy theatre Hiromi convinced the director that I should join them. I don't know at this point when that will be or what my role in the production will actually be, but the prospect is really exciting for me! How cool would it be to be in a Japanese play? The practice is going to be hard and I will have to work uber lots, but we will see how everything pans out!

The bright spots in teaching

2008-11-06T02:09:00.002-05:00

So this job is tough for me. I have too much free time and I often feel a little useless even in the classroom. But as with everything that is difficult there are always bright spots that give me all the motivation and energy I need to keep going and things to which I can look forward. There is a girl named Yuka at Koga Second. She has come to say hello to me every week since I began teaching in September. She doesn't usually say more than that, because she isn't terribly confident in her English.

I sit next to her favorite teacher, Mori-sensei. One day he started telling me that Yuka has to take a test to reach a certain level of English proficiency. He told me that she has taken this test three times before and her written scores are always almost perfect, but that she has failed the oral section every time. She has one more chance to take and pass the test, but if she doesn't she cannot study on a certain college prep track in school.

Last week, when Yuka came to talk to me after school, I asked her to sit down and practice speaking more with me. Mori-sensei saw and he came over and gave me some of the practice materials so I could study with her a bit more constructively. We had 9 practice tests to choose from and we ended up doing about 5 of them. When we began she was so nervous. When I would ask her a question, she would search, frenzied for Mori-sensei to translate everything I was saying. I was so thankful that he left the room because I could work with Yuka more productively without her relying upon everything being translated.

At one point, I just had to get her attention and repeat my question again word by word and have her translate what I was saying all by herself. In the end she got it and she was able to concentrate on what I was saying instead of splitting her thoughts between her nerves and then the English. She can speak very well, and her vocabulary is actually quite strong. I look forward to working with her in the future. That day, after we practiced some, I had to run to another English club meeting. When I returned to my desk around 5pm, I found a post-it note on my desk that said,

"Annelyse Teacher, Thank you very much. I'm very excited about my lesson. I try to do my best! Sincerely, Yuka"

I left so happy, and now I keep that post-it in my planner and read it when my classes are discouraging. I am here for students like Yuka. I am so happy to have met her.