ONEGAISHIMASU!

SHAMELESS PLEA…. So, I am returning to the U.S. of A in September, just in time to be competing with all the recent graduates for the quickly depleting jobs. I would like to be involved with an international education/volunteer program; a place that promotes and enables diverse people to have an enriching experience abroad. My time abroad has been the most impacting in my life so this is something that I want to encourage others to experience. I would appreciate any suggestions, leads or other ideas that could get me in this field (job offers also welcome). THANKS.

hot stuff.. comin this way..

This month also witnessed the beginnings of summer- hot weather, BBQs and trips to the river. Almost every weekend consisted of some kind of BBQ, picnic or outdoor adventure and so.. yes.. this is a happy Laura writing. Also this month were school trips. Sadly, and I personally think unjustifiably, the 9th graders trip to Kyoto and Nara were canceled due to INFLUENZA!! This influenza swept through Southern Japan, infected 300 hundred. It lead to mass hysteria- top news on every program, masks selling out, and yes, anyone planning to visit the area canceling their visits. So the field trips for the thousands of school children were canceled. Luckily for me, I was going to Tokyo with the 8th graders so we went- masks in hand. Like last year, we arrived in Tokyo and the students were on their own until we met up later that day. And so were the teachers. My English teacher and I shopped around Ginza, waited 20 minutes for a famous cake, and ate Vietnamese food with her friend. Everyone reconvened safely at the appointed time and we were back on the bus for Katashina. For some reason I feel like if me and my friends were let loose on Tokyo in Junior High School it probably wouldn’t end up like this…

School Trip

On the bus...

Crazy kids...

Didn't really know what to do here.. apparently it was promoting a new TV show..

Notice the face mask..

Waited in line for 30 min for a special roll cake...

It was good.. but just confirmed the idea.. .The Japanese love lines.

Window Cleaning at School
They usually have a few less smuges than when they began.

Go Kart Racing
Team Awesome kicked ass

Found a Shrine
Cool Carvings

Ate some cucumbers..

お母さんが来ました！

So this month began with a WONDERFUL visit from my WONDERFUL mom. For two weeks we had a girl’s day out, enjoying Japan city to country, mountain to ocean, rain to snow to sun. We first met in rainy Tokyo, meeting up with my cousins and his adorable children. Next to Katashina, where we stayed at my friend’s pension in the mountains and ate amazing food including pizza from his homemade brick oven. Mom came to school for a day, met my kids, played some games, and was taught about Japanese culture. They kids loved her (“mother very cute!”), the teachers thought she was very stylish (they are used to my wrinkled pants and sweatshirt outfits) and she even got a handful of gifts (origami, sembei, onigiris!) on her way out! Also in Katashina we had dinner with my organic farmer friends. We made fresh udon and tried a little bit of every vegetable found in Katashina. The next leg of the trip took us to Shikoku, the 4th largest and most rural island of Japan. Yes, you are probably wondering why I decided to take a vacation from my rural-ness to more rural-ness but it’s been on my list of places to check out so, I went. And it was AMAZING. The people were wonderful and laid back, the valley was absolutely breathtaking with lush greens and a clear blue river in the gully, and the roads.. well the roads were horrifying. One day, for over 6 hours, we drove along these roads barely a car-width thick. A car approaching from the other side meant pulling over to the rocky wall/drop into the forest and inching your way by. At one point both me and the other driver had to pull in our rearview mirrors so that we could pass each other without encountering a scraped up rental car / tumbling off a cliff. But we survived unscathed and actually relaxed after a trip to a beautiful hot spring. We also learned a little bit of the traditional dance, Awa Odori, ate famous udon, and pretty much wore through our sneakers from the amounts of walking we were doing. We returned through Kobe (missed out on the beef) back to Tokyo to stay with our good friends for the rest of the week. This week was packed with meals with friends and relatives, trips to Yokohama, Kamakura, and Asakusa and buying enough souvenirs to fill a separate bag. The week finished up, exhausted, getting on each other’s nerves a bit, but happy from such a swell trip. THANKS MOM!

Mi Madre

Yours Truly

So if you throw these little discs off the cliff your wish comes true... Mom's got a wicked arm

The Little Rental Car That Could

Shikoku Mountains

The Vine Bridges

Mmm.. fish on a stick

We decided it wasnt our favorite

Awa Odori Dancing

My Japanese Teacher in Asakusa

Dinner with the Naruis!

There were 9 kinds of salt!!

What used to be our grandparents house.. a old style tea shop owned by my grandmother's old helper!

Break Time.

SPRING BREAK! CANCUN! BODY SHOTS AND FOAM PARTIES!.... uh.. oh wait.. nope, not quite. Break was last week. In Japan it marks the end of one school year- a graduation without a dry eye in the freezing cold gym, and the beginning of another-another ceremony, almost exactly the same as the week before but those big kids in worn out uniforms are replaced with tiny kids in sparkling new uniforms 4 sizes too big.




For our break three friends and I took to the road in a Japan-style road trip. First up was Hakuba; the snowboarders paradise in Japan. Well, that is up until the end of March. The mountain reached above the cloud level and was surrounded by the Japanese Alps. Even though the conditions weren’t great, it was beautiful and pretty cool to say we were boarding in April. (and we had Mexican food! Always a big event in Japan) Then we headed to Kanazawa, which, as you should know if you’re an avid reader of the blog, I visited last year with Dre. Well two of us hadn’t been there and I was a bit, um, under the weather, cough cough, last time. It just happened to be that the day we took to the sights was the only rainy day of the weekend. But it was just a mild drizzle and we managed to take in the splendour of one of the 3 most beautiful gardens in Japan. Next was the Contemporary ArtMuseum- the exhibit included little kids dressed as puppies crawling around an oversized cartoon house. It was.. moving?no, complex?no, odd?yes. After, we went to the fish market and had some BOMB chirashi sushi. In the evening, we headed back to a bar near the hotel and hung out with 1. A former MC 2.A self proclaimed “bad boy” 3. A enzyme chemical biologist assistant professor, who dabbled with the guitar. All around exceptional people. The next day we headed back with a stop off at the Zenkoji Temple in Nagano. It was swarming with people, had a large wooden pillar up, and a celebratory feel. It wasn’t until after we got back did we find out it was the unveiling of the oldest image of Buddha in Japan- an event that happens once every 7 years. Well, due to the immense lines and our impatience, we didn’t see it. I guess I’ll be back 2016.






other thangs.

not an interesting post. gomennasai!

It's official! I'm comin hooooomme! Well.. in August. And well.. don't quite know where yet. And well.. yea.
But yes, in February I did not resign my contract for another year. So I have begun the resume writing/job searching/stressing out cause there are NO jobs in America process. It is frightening and exciting, as it always is when you are starting a new chapter in your life. It will be really hard to say goodbye to some amazing friends here, but just as amazing to say see friends and family at home. But i still have almost half a year left here, so, don't worry, there are a lot more posts left!

Winter has come.. and gone? After mentally preparing myself for a snow covered, freezing and long winter, Mr. Global Warming decided to kick in and provide minimal snow and fairly warm temperatures. We had only a handful of snowy days and so far I've ONLY been boarding about 15 times. Hopefully we will get in a few more times before the cherry trees start blooming and the snow all melts. I've been busy at school as well as the year wraps up in March. Plenty of projects and a new curriculum for the Elementary Schools have challenged my ways-to-make-kids-not-hate-English abilities.

My 2nd graders doing a book project with my sister-in-law's 1st grade class

Celebrated "Setsubun-no-hi" with my Wednesday Night Japanese Family (they take me in every Wednesday for dinner). On this day we throw beans inside the house for good luck and outside the house to drive out the demons.. then you close the door really fast so the demons don't get back inside. Then you eat a futou maki (sushi roll) silently and face a between north-west and north.. i think. I couldnt really figure out the signifigance of some of the things but throwing beans around the house was fun!

Setsubun Beans

Otherwise, not much new on this front. Apart from a trip to Tokyo, a couple of concerts and whatnot, this winter has been quite, under my kotatsu (see last post) or bundled up on the mountain.

Tonkotsu Ramen and A Baby

Snow. Lots of it. Dreading my drive over a cliffy mountain with 3 feet of visibility to an unheated apartment where toothpaste freezes. Yep.. back in Katashina again after a month of travels. And yep.. its winter… Katashina-style.
Well, let’s start with something a little more cheery. Went home for the holidays. Yes it had “only” been 4 months since I was last back but I HAD to see my nephew as a new baby.. as a lump of rolly polly adorableness with cheeks still puggy and fingers not yet found. It was amazing to see everyone, family and friends, and to celebrate a Christmas that didn’t involve seaweed or curry. Of course it was all too short and, after a ridiculously amazing New Years in NYC, I was heading back to Japan.
But wait! All was not lost.. I was headed to the SOUT H of Japan. For the next week I travelled with my friend (Japanese- limited English) through Southern Japan. First stop was Fukuoka, where one can wear a light jacket still. Fukuoka was .. nice. Some really interesting architecture and museums and the most mind blowing tonkotsu ramen I’ve ever experienced and probably will ever experience. Highlight was definitely going to a Kyotei race course. Surrley old men bet on men racing in itty bitty boats around a man-made pond http://www.kyotei.or.jp/contents/basic_e/. My friend and I were gunning for the 15,000$ pot but missed out.

shrine linescity hall of fukuoka.. a really cool building with a garden growing on a sidekotei!

Our first overnight bus took us to Hiroshima (overnight bus was the way to go as it is waay cheaper than the shink and cuts out a night in a hotel.. not the most comfortable but, as you may know, I end up snoring away no matter the comfort). Our first day was spent in Miyajima, an island with that iconic red gate in the water. It was a beautiful day to hike all around the island and even avoided the teams of obachans that swarmed the trails. That night we had Hiroshima’s trademark food, okinomiyaki with noodles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinomiyaki.

miyajima and deers

rail car up the mountain

invasion of the grandmothers!! typical scene when ur trying to get away from it allokinomiyaki

The next day was overcast and cool, apropos weather for the sombre day it became. First stop was the Atomic Bomb Dome. This building was directly under the explosion, August 6th, 1945 at 8:15am. As a result it was partially saved from the blast. Next was the Peace Museum- a well designed museum committed to sharing the experience, educating in hopes of eradicating atomic bombs in the world. It was really powerful and informative. Parts of it were horrific and upsetting, but all truthful. With the burning rivers, black rain, melting skeletons and moans of pain, it was truly hell on earth. And to think it was planned, man made, a “strategic” move was all more horrifying. The theories of deterrence or Mutually Assured Destruction that I had studied in class, justified on paper, now seemed ludicrous, insane that causing this hell again was even chanced. I was overcome with emotions and found it hard to speak for a while afterwards.

Atomic Bomb Dome... right below ground zeroPeace Memorialtime since the last nuclear testcranes.. for wishes of peace

ANYWAYS… our second overnight bus brought us to Osaka. My friend and I split ways for the day, I ventured to an aquarium on my own (seemingly lonely but just add your ipod and a couple of Air tracks and its actually fantastic) then to a shrine that was readying for a festival the following day. I walked back slowly, taking in the chaos of lights and sounds and the outspoken, social personality of Osaka. Prime example, the ojisan I met on the way back- friendly, a little too friendly when he insisted on holding my hand as he escorted me back to the station. The following day I went to the festival they were preparing the day before. It was for the god Ebisu, the god of good luck and wealth. From what I followed, people bring last year’s lucky branches and drop them in a box at the shrine. Then they go to the shrine front where the priests are displaying branches for the following year. Once they pick the branch right for them they go through a street of stalls with girls selling particular charms to attach to their branch that bring in different types of luck. Then you eat eat eat all the delicious festival food the stalls sell. Oh, and Osaka’s cuisine of choice- takoyaki (octopus fried balls), incredible, probably tying Fukuoka’s ramen for number one.

big ferris wheeljellyfish!osakaEbisu Matsuritakoyaki!cool threads

Next up was Kyoto. Both of us had already been there so we took it easy, not running off to the popular shrines swarmed by tourists. Sanjusangenko, a temple with a long hall filled with 1001 Buddahs. It was impressive, as you might imagine, and please do imagine because I was unable to take pictures. The story is that within those Buddahs was one that looked like you. The next day was more sightseeing. First to Yasaka shrine where I got my fortune for next year (lookin good). Then, Nanzenji: a really expansive temple complex complete with an aqueduct built in the 1860s. My personal favorite was the Eikando Temple. It was set back into the mountains and had fairly few other tourists. We explored most of the temple separately, discovering the hidden waterfalls and peaceful Buddahs. Finally we headed to Nijo Jinya. This is an inn close to the castle that the owner altered in order to host the lords visiting Kyoto in the 1600s. It is complete with secret escapes, fake stairs, and hidden passages. A very cool house (cooler if the tour wasn’t entirely in Japanese). Our last dinner of the trip was yuzu nabe (citrusy hotpot thingy). 9 hours later on a bus and 3 hours on a train I was back in Gunma and the winter wonderland that it’s become.

my fortune for the nest year.. i think it was a good one

THE END