The First of The Lasts

Today was my last day at the place where I was able to practice my Japanese most--Japan Swim Club, aka my health club. I have to admit, it made me sad to realize that this is the beginning of all the goodbyes. I know you must be thinking, "What?? She's finished already?" Probably in part because I don't blog too often, and probably in part because I will have been here just under a year. The teacher who is replacing me is eager to get here earlier, and to be quite honest, I don't have any qualms with finishing the job earlier, though the realization that I am actually leaving JAPAN very soon is starting to creep up on me. And leaving Japan does make me sad, though I am also very, very excited to be home near my family and friends again.

I will finish work on July 12th, then spend a few weeks traveling in Japan. I'll visit Kyushu (the southernmost main island) for a few days, come back to Kanonji to watch some students and friends dance at a cute Zenigata (sand coin) festival, and say my final goodbyes, then it's off to Osaka to visit a former student, then I am meeting the wonderful Ms. Katrina Barlow and two of her Whitman friends (also lovely women) at the airport to fly up to Hokkaido (the northernmost main island) for about five days, before leaving Japan to go back to the states, via....INDIA! I get to visit my dear, dear friend Aakanksha while she is there this summer!!! Unbelievably, the ticket price is actually the same price (read: outrageously expensive) to go through India on my way home as it is for me to just go straight home. I was pretty bitter about the price of the ticket (you don't want to know), until I managed to squeeze this lovely trip in there, the week before I wanted to be home. Now, I really couldn't be happier with the way the next six weeks are scheduled! Also, I feel incredibly lucky, because as it works out, I am going to be attending festivals three weeks in a row; in Kyushu, in Kanonji, and in Osaka. The festivals in Kyushu and Osaka just happen to be quite famous festivals in Japan, so I feel lucky to have accidentally planned my trip that way. And of course, the Kanonji festival will be a lovely last event in my area.

So that's my whirlwind of a next month. I feel a bit guilty telling people, especially Japanese people, about my plans, because they work so hard and rarely take vacation days, hence why the government basically has to force the New Year's holidays and Golden Week holidays onto people. I always feel the need to make the crack that I am going to blow all the money I have managed to save in the last year of work on about four weeks of traveling in Japan. Unfortunately, that "crack" is almost completely true! Oh well, that's what I prioritize my spending on, it seems--travel. And food. And beer. Haha!

Luckily, however, I will be couchsurfing my way through Japan, as well as bussing and taking ferries as often as possible, so that will help with expenses.

Okay, enough of this rambling about my travels.

Recently, a few things that happened at the gym tugged at my heartstrings and made me realize how sad I was to be leaving this place where I had inadvertently made so many friends, most of whom's (that's not a word, but I want it to be) names are entirely unknown to me. A few days ago in the locker room, a woman near me looked around furtively and then slapped two wafer cookies into my hands before popping the last into her own mouth, all with her back to the rest of the room. Not two days later, another woman did nearly the exact same thing; she tapped my shoulder (I got embarrassed because I was naked and picking up something off the floor, but glanced up at her), she looked around to see if anyone was watching and then slipped two small packages of cookies into my locker. Then today, during my last pool session, I entered the walking lane, because all the other lanes were taken. I walked a few laps before I saw a woman in the farthest lane, beckoning me towards her. She, too, was checking to see if other people were watching. I knew I couldn't say, "Oh that's fine, I'll just keep walking," mostly because my Japanese is definitely not good enough to straddle that line between polite and casual, but also because I knew she was trying to do me a favor. I quickly swam over to her and she said, "Dozo" (here you go), and hopped out of the pool. This was especially lucky for me, because there were a few other people in the walking lane, also probably waiting to get into the swimming lanes. Oops. Ah, c'est la vie.

These moments made me realize how--though it can be annoying to never have anonymity--there are some wonderful perks to being that "the foreigner." Slipped cookies here and there, accidental priority in the swimming pool "just because," and of course, the incessant desire of others to have a conversation with you or, more often than not, about you. Of course, with the conversations about me, I can get the general gist through their tone and where they're looking and on a rare occasion, I can actually understand what they're saying: "Her hair is so light, her legs are so long, she is so young!" Can't complain about those things that I do understand. Perhaps it is better that I only seem to understand the somewhat positive or at least objective statements.

I have so many more things I want to remember and say about the club, but I'm drawing a blank suddenly. There was, however, one thing I thought was ironic today. Oh, actually two things. First, I was asked today by the pilates instructor if I was married. This, on my last day at the club, after having gone to the club and talked with him regularly for about nine months. Haha! I guess he never has to see me again. And secondly, after I finished my swim, I took a shower and decided to use the same shower that I used on my first day at the club. For those of you who haven't read, or don't remember, my first blog post, this is the shower that wouldn't turn off and I had to ask for help from the naked old Japanese women near me. :) I figured it was fitting, as a way to bring the whole experience full circle (I know, I know, I was probably over-thinking this whole "last day" business). Plus, it's like the first and last episode of LOST, for all you people with good taste in TV, haha. ;)

I also just like that shower sometimes because it gets stuck and you don't have to keep pushing the button to keep the water going. Today, however, it didn't get stuck ONE SINGLE TIME, no matter how hard I pushed it in. What!? It was as though it was trying to communicate to me that my time was up, that it was "pushing" me out of the club by popping back out instead of staying pushed in! And I couldn't help but go further with that idea, that the first day there, the shower button was pulling me in...for the long haul at the Japan Swim Club. Yep. That's my stoner thought for the day.

Anyways. It struck me that the first of the "lasts" have already happened, between my last shuji calligraphy lesson yesterday and my last day at the gym today, as well as my last volleyball tournaments a few weeks back. It's scary how quickly they all seem to be coming and going. And I know it'll only get quicker. Scary.

Can someone figure out a way to make the good days go by slowly and the bad days go by quickly? Please?

I have some other things I want to mention about meeting my lovely friends in Hawaii in the beginning of June, in addition to realizing how much I really do like Japan. I'll save that for the next post, which will probably be surprisingly soon!

Lots of love to you all.

Golden Week

And another month of erratic—though increasingly warm—weather has passed here in Kagawa-ken (county). The beginning of May brought the first sunburn of the year, much to the dismay of many Japanese people around me: “Hiyake! Chaiiro!” (Sunburned! Brown!) was the appalled whisper I heard from the ladies at the health club. (Yes, the same women with whom I had issues turning off the showers…) And today, it was once again cold enough that I had to don pants, a sweater, and a windbreaker. In the famous words of Kurt Vonnegut (I am reading Slaughterhouse Five), “So it goes…”

The beginning of May also brought an excellent adventure in South Korea with my dear friend Katrina. There is a cluster of Japanese national holidays during the end of April and beginning of May, so we spent about six days in Seoul.

(Katrina and I in front of a portion of the Deoksugung Palace)

Rather than try and cram a million sites into each day, we took our time exploring the city and its many amazing food joints. Katrina and I were a good eating team: she for her curiosity about how each dish was created (it reminded me of dining with my mother) and both of us for our love of eating just about anything. Needless to say, the food was one of the best things about Korea. Our favorite dish by far and away was kalbi , which is fantastically barbecued meat. Typically, the grilling is done right at your table, which the restaurant staff walking through and checking on everyone’s meat. With every meal, endless amounts of kimchi—spicy pickled vegetables—are served and reserved and reserved. Though I constantly felt the need to brush my teeth, I loved kimchi. Other favorites were sweet rice wine that looks (and tastes a bit) like fizzy milk (haha) and random street foods: think healthy rice krispies made with nuts and grains, warm sweet bread with a hot cinnamon sugar filling, and an indescribable and absolutely delicious dessert made with cornflour “threads” (for lack of a better description) and nuts and honey. I am going to stop the descriptions there, but as you can see, we had quite a lot to say about the gastronomical experience that is SOUTH KOREA.

(Katrina and Aaron about to enjoy some amazing kalbi and kimchi)

As for the actual sites, we especially enjoyed the more historical aspects. The War Memorial Museum taught us how little we knew about the Korean conflict and made us much more aware of what a fascinating situation it is over there. Especially pertinent in light of recent events. The National Museum was also incredibly informative, as neither of us had much prior knowledge of Korean culture or history. The Seodaemun prison was a bit of an oxymoron; if you had no idea what the history behind it was, it would seem akin to a beautiful college campus: brick buildings, wide grassy expanses, neat sidewalks. However, the more harrowing side of it brings to light the horrific goings-on of the Japanese occupation during World War II. This was especially interesting for Katrina and I, coming from Japan with nothing but wonderful experiences and kind people to speak of. The prison served as another disturbing reminder of the horrors that come with any sort of military conflict.

One thing that I have to admit really surprised me was HOW DIFFERENT Korea is from Japan. I am not quite sure what I expected going into this trip, but I was not expecting such a radically different culture and country. I assumed that because of their proximity (it was an hour and a half flight….meaning that it took longer for me to get to the airport than it did to exit one country and enter the other) and their history of invasions and occupations. I assumed that this “overlap” would make for more similar customs.

I was wrong. The traditional clothes are different, the food is incredibly different, the language is different, the city looks different, and the general manner of Korean people is different.

Neither Korea or Japan is better than the other; they are both fantastic in their own ways.

Speaking of cultural differences, the traditional “ribbon” dancing and drumming was one of my favorite experiences as well. The traditional outfits are so colorful, the drumming is fierce and the dancing is so, so joyful. I will try to upload a video if I can, but for now, this picture of a should help you visualize their “ribbon” dancing. It seemed to be to be a potential precursor for breakdancing! We saw this style of dancing on three separate occasions: a random group of older people dancing near a busy market street, in a model “folk village” (where the picture below is from), and at Korea House, a dinner theater type of place, where, I might add, EVERY guest was Japanese! Haha!

(As you can see, the ribbon is attached to his hat)

On a more somber note, one thing that Katrina noticed was that Seoul doesn’t have many oldtemples/culturally important buildings. Japan has a seemingly endless supply of old buildings. Unfortunately, between the Japanese occupation and the Korean War, Seoul wasn’t able to retain much of the old palaces and whatnot.

And speaking of the Korean War, the one thing that we were disappointed that we did not make it to was the DMZ—the Demilitarized Zone. This is a highly regulated zone where you can join the USO (United States Organizations) for a very serious tour. From what I have heard, it is a very eerie feeling to walk through this area, quiet and demure as can (and must) be. With certain tours, there is a tunnel that North Korea built extends quite a ways over into the South Korean side that you can go into. There is also a portion of a "truce village"—Panmunjeom (or Joint Security Area)—where North Korean and South Korean forces stand face to face. Unfortunately, Katrina and I did not make a reservation ahead of time, so there were no tours available with any tour companies. Darn! However, as Katrina always says when we cannot make it to a certain place, you have to leave something behind to come back to another time….though with the recent events on the Korean peninsula, I am not sure how feasible going to the DMZ is…

All in all, it was a fantastic trip! Good food, good people (Katrina had an acquaintance from high school with whom we met several times; we also met a friend of his who ended up being an excellent tour guide, especially as he is Korean-American and can speak both English and Korean fluently!), good museums and sites.

I highly recommend South Korea for anyone who plans on going through Asia. The food, in particular, cannot be beat!

I should also mention that we stayed the entire time (six nights, seven days) for FREE. If you are not familiar with CouchSurfing, it is an online community of people who love to travel and/or meet new people. Though it sounds dangerous, I think it is a wonderful idea in theory. Katrina and I stayed with a lovely 29-year old woman from New Zealand for our entire time in South Korea. She had great recommendations and was a pleasure to be around. She even gave up her bedroom and slept in a smaller bed! Then, just a day after I got back to Kanonji, I hosted two 18-year olds from Australia who are traveling through Japan after finishing up a work holiday up at a ski resort. I was coming off such a high from the kindness of strangers, that I was glad to have a chance to host some guests. It all seems to tie in with the “pay it forward” philosophy. Everyone potentially benefits from this website, so I’d like to believe that everyone takes the safety of others (in addition to themselves) seriously by being honest through the internet and gracious hosts/guests in reality.

I must admit, it is incredibly refreshing to take a leap into the unknown and have a little faith in humanity.

I hope all is well with everyone. きおつけて (ki o tsukete = take care)

Hisashiburi-ne?

ひさしぶりね？= Hisashiburi-ne? = Long time, no see, (eh?)

And three months just ripped by without warning... Though I'd like to say it's because the spring weather has been stunning, that would be a lie. According to many locals, it's the coldest spring in the last five years! Ugh. Time has flown, however, because I've had such fun "landmarks" to look forward to. (for which to look forward? I have become a bit of a grammar machine...)

Not a week had passed after Jill left when my mother informed me that she bought the tickets for herself, Dad, and Robby to come visit in March! I have to admit, even after they have come and gone, I am still surprised they bought their tickets. With how busy they all are, it's amazing that they took a TWO-WEEK chunk out of their time. Nothing like a rave review of Japan coming from Jill to put the pressure on to see their only (other) daughter...

January and February were pretty dismal months in regard to the weather. Japanese winters really wouldn't be that bad if there was central heating. Space heaters are the norm, though I imagine some newer houses are changing to become more "western." I have kerosene heaters that I could have used, but I was afraid after having just read a story about a little girl whose bed caught on fire from a kerosene heater. That was enough for me to not use them in my apartment! My lovely kotatsu--heated coffee table--was my saving grace, though it didn't encourage me to leave my position sitting on the floor, under blankets (and still bundled up with many layers, one of which was a pink and white polka-dot "house coat" that my boss's wife gave me for my birthday), in front of the computer. Katrina told me about the way one of her coworkers/friends viewed the lack of central heating: "Why would you heat the entire room when you just need the space around you to be warm?" Thus, you only "need" the kotatsu... hmmm, Katrina and I respectfully disagree!

Anyways. January and February were cold. And I rarely left my one spot unless I had to wash the pile of dishes in the sink or dash to the shower. But. I made a lot of money because we were teaching quite a bit of overtime for students who work at the factory and were going to be moving abroad. The fat(ter) paycheck made up for waking up on those cold mornings and miserably riding my bicycle to school to teach extra hours...

March was all about finishing up those overtime students, being deceived by glimpses of springtime weather, and looking forward to a reunion with Whitties, as well as a visit from my family.

Met up with Chad Frisk and Katrina Barlow (both of whom teach English in Japan) and Mike Rathwell (who was visiting) for a fun, mellow few days in the less-touristy Nara area. We went for a funny hike that ultimately didn't take us anywhere, but I don't think that was the point. (LOST IN THE WOODS? Sasha? Chase? Craiger too if you ever read this. haha!) As we walked up a dead-end trail into what is the most forested part of Japan I have actually been to thus far, we reminisced and gossiped and generally had a jolly good time. Sitting on a rock wall in the middle of nowhere at sunset, drinking alcohol that tastes-so-good-you-think-it's-juice, and eating pumpkin bread among friends just can't be beat.

Just a few days after the Whittie reunion, my parents and brother arrived. From the moment they arrived to the moment they left, we were on the go, whether that was eating new kinds of Japanese food, visiting temples and shrines, walking through crazy electronic districts, eating, walking through open-air markets, eating, taking a cooking lesson, taking a shuji lesson, eating, or just meeting some wonderful, wonderful friends of mine. Did I mention that we ate an enormous amount of food? Several reasons for that: 1. My brother came to Japan. He is 15. He is a boy. He CAN EAT. :) 2. You cannot come to Japan and NOT try everything new that you see. I have been here for seven months now, and while I don't necessarily eat "Japanese" food everyday, I have had more than a few gastronomic, flavor-explosion-in-your-mouth (not always good) dining experiences. Yet, despite all the eating I've done, I am continually surprised by the exquisite flavors of a new dish. Simply said: the food here is amazing. You can almost always expect quality from any restaurant you choose. We enjoyed all different kinds of food: okonomiyaki, taikaki, takoyaki, sukiyaki, yakiniku, shabu shabu, sashimi, onigiri, mochi, tempura...and the list just goes on and on.

As for the activities that didn't directly involve eating: We spent a few days being visually overloaded in Tokyo, attended the last day of a sumo tournament in Osaka, visited Nijo-jo castle and Kinkaku-ji temple in Kyoto, saw the big Buddha--Daibutsu-en--in Nara, came to Kanonji, had a cooking lesson, had a shuji calligraphy lesson, climbed up the 1300 steps to Konpira Shrine, walked through the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum...

In addition to all this, my parents and brother took a day trip by themselves to the gorgeous White Heron Castle--Himeji Castle. They made it there and back on the trains without any issues! Hurrah! I was worried when, shortly after dropping them off at the station with a detailed list of instructions about transferring and platforms, they called me, giggling and talking over each other before hanging up abruptly. Luckily, they called back and spewed out a few more incoherent sentences before hanging up and getting on the train. I didn't figure out why exactly they had called me--they just wanted to check to see if my dad's iPhone worked internationally--until late that night when I was anxiously waiting their return. :)

It was truly special to have the opportunity to spend two full weeks with my family, without too many other distractions. No work (for them), no school, no friends....just EACH OTHER. And I have to say, we got on splendidly. Don't tell my parents this, but sometimes it actually seemed as though they were college friends of mine--what?? Walking and chatting for twenty minutes to a bar along quiet roads was only too reminiscent of a certain bar in Walla Walla. And then, having the waitress ask if we needed a taxi called (hint hint) and my mother walk straight forward toward the front door, only to turn suddenly at the last minute and open a utility closet instead, was almost too much for me to handle. I was laughing hysterically in the restaurant (which only probably drew even more attention to us by that point in time), in the taxi on the way home, and even now, I still giggle about that night. And somehow, I wasn't able to accurately explain the situation in all its hilarity through broken Japanese to the taxi driver. He wasn't as amused as I'd hoped he would be. In retrospect, I suppose "Mother opened wrong door" wouldn't seem very funny to a taxi driver.

I could go on and on about all the funny moment we shared (like when Robby thought Shinto was a kind of bean--"No, that's Pinto," my mother informed him), but I'll try and wrap up here. Like I said, it was wonderful having my family here. Though I was sad to see them go at the end of our two weeks, I felt recharged, renewed, revitalized, re-everything-good.

Since they left in early April, it's been a flurry of activity still: thinking about the future, catching up with friends from home, going on an excellent day trip to a Sunday market and an animation museum, in addition to eating 100 strawberries (I kid you not), having a very internationally-represented (people from Sri Lanka, Vietnam, India, Japan, US) goodbye party last night for another overtime student who is moving to Australia....and next week, I am going to South Korea with Katrina! I have truly lucked out in terms of some fantastic opportunities and experiences while in Japan.

On a final (and very idealistic) note, the Indian man who I met last night shared his personal philosophy about humans and this is what I took from it: that countries and borders and nationalities and religions don't matter (or shouldn't matter), that we all have a common beating heart, replete with emotions and dreams that we all share on some fundamental level, that there is just one "human race" here on earth, and that is simply "human."

On a final-final and somehow related note, though I can't draw the perfect line between it: one of the things that has affected me most on all my travels is the enormous amount of generosity and hospitality that I have been so lucky to be on the receiving side of. Whether that was distant connections in Greece, random Americans in the Czech Republic, or new Japanese friends, people have been so, so kind to me. Dinners, drinks, drives, places to stay, making telephone calls for me, inviting me places...the list could go on forever. One such person in Greece said, "hospitality is our culture." I know Japanese people feel the same. And I hope that Americans treat international visitors in this way. The Americans who treated Jill and I to dinner or drinks said in response to our protests about paying, "We remember being young and traveling. Just pay it forward."

In the end, it all seems to balance out: what you give and what you receive. I always try to remind myself of that, especially in those moments when I am feeling stingy with money or time or whatever it is that I want to be selfish with.

And in light of the Indian man's wisdom and the kind actions of so many people both at home and abroad, that will be a life-long goal for me--TO PAY IT FORWARD.

I hope everyone is doing so, so well. I miss you all dearly.

Recent Lost in Translation Moments

While I am tooling around on here, I might as well mention my most recent (and hilarious) lost in translation moments.

During a recent overtime lesson that was quite early in the morning:

Student: (looking at a picture of a man feeding a cat) "You're eating your cat...no no...You're cooking your cat...no no...ah! You're...uh??" (He starts laughing nervously)

Me: (trying not to laugh hysterically but failing) "FEEDING."

The funny thing was that the next time I had him, the next few pages of the textbook ALSO had a picture of someone feeding their pet and he got really hung up on those pictures as well. Definitely has a mental block on the word "feeding," but I have to admit, it is a bit odd that he would learn "feeding" before "typing," per se. :)

Yesterday during a lesson with three 11-year old children who are learning about adjectives.

Adjective options: Smart, angry, brave, naughty, afraid.

Under the picture of the firefighter fighting fire, my student wrote "The man is naughty."

Hahahaha. I told him to try again, so he wrote under the picture of the boy who was afraid of a mouse, "The boy is naughty."

Finally, through the process of elimination, he figured out that the picture of the monkey unrolling toilet paper everywhere was the correct figure to attribute "naughty" to.

Again, I find it interesting that the textbook focuses on "naughty" as an adjective! Technically, the correct definition makes sense in those contexts, but unfortunately, "naughty" has such a different connotation these days, so I couldn't help but laugh!!

JILL IN JAPAN!!!!

Happy New Year! あけましておめでとうございます！

I hope the year has brought everyone wonderful moments thus far.

My New Year holiday was particularly exciting because JILL came to visit for about two weeks! We had a fantastic time traveling around Japan. It was something I had really looked forward to, mainly because I was going to see my lovely sister, and also because I was excited to see MORE of Japan.

We met in Tokyo and spent a few days there. This is somewhat stating the obvious, but Tokyo is a ridiculously enormous city. We spent all our time there just walking around. Our favorite highlights were the Tsukiji Fish Market, Ameyoko Arcade, the Sumida-gawa (river) Cruise and the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. My good friend Katrina described the fish market perfectly: "Pike Place on steroids." :) Ameyoko Arcade was similar to Tsukiji, only even more crowded--which was hard to believe--and also included other types of shops that weren't food-focused. The Sumida-gawa Cruise was a great way to view the riverbanks of Tokyo at sunset! The Mori Tower, while expensive to simply ride an elevator to the top floor, yielded some amazing nighttime views of the city. It was then that we both really had that "wow, Tokyo is actually really big..." moment. It's a great viewpoint because you get a 360 degree view of the city.

We traveled to Kyoto for New Year's Eve and spent a few days in Kyoto. Kyoto is the place to go for temple and shrine-hopping. We spent New Year's Eve going to a nice little "izakaya" (drinking restaurant, essentially), checking out Yasaka-jinja shrine, stopping at a bar for a drink and then attempting to return to the shrine, only to find that a line had formed for entry into the shrine. It was the largest line (and crowd) and I have ever been in in my life! We spent an hour and a half in line and made it back into the shrine around 1am. Needless to say, we did our "count-down" in line with a funny group of teenage boys. As for the rest of our time in Kyoto, we especially loved the famous gold-plated temple--Kinkaku-ji, as well as traveling to the nearby towns Nara and Uji. In Nara, it was really fascinating to see Todai-ji temple, which contains Daibutsu-den, the largest wooden building in the world which also houses an ENORMOUS Buddha. The deer in Nara were insane! Very confident, almost to the point of aggression. Though I did buy some "deer biscuits," I was a bit more timid than I had expected to be! Uji is famous in Japan for Mattcha--green tea. We bough some delicious green tea snacks!! Possibly the only thing that I'll ever taste that is both lime-green AND delicious... :)

Though our favorite sights in Kyoto and surrounding areas had throngs of tourists, we still appreciated them very much. As Jill and I always say, there is a REASON that these sights are crowded.

After that, we ventured to Hiroshima for a very short two-night trip. Visiting the Peace Park was incredibly moving. Though I learned bits and pieces about the history of the atomic bomb, it didn't REALLY hit me until I realized that "this is where it happened and this is WHAT happened." We spent about three hours going through a very well-done (and very expansive) museum. It was truly chilling. Jill and I both made the observation that Hiroshima was a very clean-looking and quite modern-looking city. It is interesting to think about the reason for this. On our last morning in Hiroshima, we got up very early and went to a cool island--Miyajima Island--which is just 10 minutes away by ferry. There was a special ceremony and dance happening at sunrise at the Miyajima shrine. Because of train times and ferry times, we couldn't get there very early, but we did get there to see the dancers (all men) adorned in exquisite costumes and masks, dancing to traditional Japanese musical instruments being played by another group of men in traditional white attire.

We couldn't stay long at the dance, because we had to get back to Kanonji so I could teach that afternoon! We got back at 12:30 and I had to work at 2:00. Though I had to work during the last few days of our time together, it was still fun. Jill got to meet some of my fun adult conversation students, as well as my quirky boss and his amazingly sweet and kind wife. Seiji, my boss took Jill for a two-hour drive in the surrounding area and out to a cool peninsula which I have been wanting to go to since I got here! I'm a bit jealous...that night, we hung out with Aya and Aki to celebrate Aki's birthday! The next day after my work, we went out to a lovely dinner with my boss and his wife. The last day that Jill was in Kanonji, she got to meet my good friend Sumi at a cute little "welcome party" that Sumi hosted at her house. It was really great to have Jill meet all the people I see regularly here in Kanonji.....

And then Jill had a loooong day of traveling, starting at 5am from my apartment. One 10-minute taxi ride, one 7-hour train ride, and one 11-hour plane flight later...she was back in the States. I figured she would be exhausted for at least a few days, however, when I called her later in the day to check on her, she was comfortably situated in a bar in Portland, so that dispelled all concerns. :)

I miss her!!! But life here is back on the fast track, especially since Aya and I are doing overtime lessons for three Unicharm factory men who will be going abroad for 2 years beginning in March. They each have to have 50 hours of English under their belts before leaving Japan. Can you say crash-course English or what?

I hope all is well with everyone. I would love to hear from all of you, whenever you have a chance.

Oh, and there is a link to the photos from our trip at the right of this post under "Pictures." Jill is a great photographer and snapped the majority (aka, ALL) of these shots!

Funny Thought

I had a funny thought after something that happened about 2 weeks ago.

I was standing outside a diaper factory on a rainy December day, after having taught English and a magic trick to factory workers. (By the way, I was very proud of the magic trick and felt enormous satisfaction that they were all impressed as well)

If, one year ago, you had asked me what I was going to be doing the following year, I would NEVER have guessed that I would be teaching a magic trick to diaper factory workers in Japan.

Good times. :)

Juuichigatsu (November)

As with many other aspects of Japanese culture, certain parts (definitely not all!) of the language make much more sense than English. For example, I think one could learn to count to 100 and memorize the "names" of the month in ten minutes. In English, the numbers eleven, twelve and thirteen somewhat disrupt what would otherwise be relatively simple. In Japanese, once you get past 10, you're basically saying ten-one, ten-two.....and onwards to two-ten-one (21), etc. In English, the months all have very special names of their own, whereas in Japanese, the months are basically "month one," "month two," and so on. Hence, the name of this post--Juuichigatsu--which literally breaks down to "ten-one-month."

Anyways. November was a great month! I cannot believe how the time is flying. In a mere four weeks, I will be traveling around Japan with my darling sister, Jillian! Very exciting and surreal.

Twelve highlights of November:

1. An international cooking event, with people (and food!) from Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Jamaica, and the USA (yep, Aya and myself). We were asked to make pumpkin pie and apple pie, which are apparently some of the first dishes people think of when they're asked about American food. It was funny because neither of us had really ever made either pie, but luckily, everything turned out just fine and both pies were gobbled down!

2. Visiting Ritsurin-kouen, a beautiful park in Takamatsu, on a very chilly day.

3. Attending a very interesting (omoishiroi!) art festival, replete with happy Japanese people in brightly colored t-shirts dancing happily to some very happy music, many piano and saxophone performances, and some very awesome-looking martial arts demonstrations.

4. Taking some day trips by myself to nearby towns and checking off some sites that my ever-so-handy Lonely Planet guidebook recommended: a wooden castle, a uchiwa (paper fans with a bamboo base) museum (in the town that produces 90 percent of Japan's uchiwa, a sake museum, and the oldest kabuki playhouse in Japan.

5. Partaking in some basketball practices with a 10-year old girls' team. Very fun (tanoshii!) and brings back the memories of the "good ol' days...."

6. Catching EVERY single ball that was thrown at me by 10-year old Japanese boys during three dodgeball games at an elementary school's sports day. Haha. They were complaining. It was fantastic. And, I must admit, my throwing arm was sore for a few days afterwards!

7. Joining a weekly pick-up game of "soft" volleyball. At first, I was skeptical, but now I love "soft" volleyball because the ball is bigger and softer AND net is shorter, which means that I (at 5'8" and with a small vertical these days) can SMASH the ball down.

8. Sappy romantic comedies movie-watching with Aya and Aki.

9. Thanksgiving Thursday Thacos with Aya and Aki.

10. Helping prepare (somewhat) and eat a very traditional Japanese dinner at a dinner party last night. Also, perhaps not a positive highlight, but certainly an interesting and memorable highlight was watching the fish be prepared for dinner; let's just say that "no water + sake = very sad and torturous death for fish." :( Interesting though. And a CULTURAL experience, I always remind myself in situations where I feel squirmy, like when I later ate those fish, head, fins, bones and all in the stew that we had for dinner. I consider myself to have a strong stomach, but I definitely had to look away while I was biting off the head. Hmm.....I think only Aya noticed (and shared in) my slight queasiness.

11. Dedicating myself to an average of 1-2 hours of Japanese study per day and feeling like it's actually been paying off! (Aya, if you're reading this, I meant to say "THANKS" for telling me I was doing a good job last night!!!)

12. And to celebrate the true advent of autumn--the leaves have finally started changing color!--Aya and I took a nice little walk up to a beautiful waterfall and took some lovely pictures. (Don't we look like we're taking an engagement photo? Hurrah for self-timers.)

On a random side note, SKYPE is amazing!!! This is one of those times when I am so grateful for technology. I talk to my family as much as I did during college and I even get to "see" them via video chat more often than I probably did during college, ha! It has been so wonderful keeping in touch with everyone, and thank you all for keeping in touch with me! It makes me forget that there are thousands and thousands of miles of oceans between us....

And to end this post, some funny "lost in translation" moments that I got to be on the "laughing" end of for once in a while:

(Also, I debated whether or not to post these, because I did not want to seem as though I was making fun of the people who said these things, so I hope you all read them in the same good humor that I am posting them in, because language mistakes happen to everyone who is learning a new language, and I have had my fair share of them already!!)

1. An invitation to a saxophone performance at the art festival that I attended:

I had asked my student (who I attended the festival with) if I needed to buy a ticket and he said, no...

"Because the concert is small, and is held in old building where was used as a place for social interaction of self-defense force, and it is a protected building."

Needless to say, I was a bit confused, but it turned out to make quite a bit of sense, if you can believe it. The festival was held at a dance hall/banquet room that was part of an old military base, hence the "social interaction of self-defense force," and it is a historical building, which explains why it was "protected." :)

2. A conversation during a lesson with one of my students. It went something like this:

Student: (brings out chocolate-puff snacks) This is from a TV show.

Me: Oh, neat. What is the show about?

Student: "Ku-lay-on" Shin-chan.

Me: "Ku-lay-on?"

Student: "Ku....lay.....on...?"

(It went back and forth like this for a while; turns out his name is "crayon" and he is a five-year old boy with parents and a baby sister. The show is about his misadventures; I imagine it to be similar to "Rugrats.")

Student: These snacks are from the TV show. They are new.

Me: Oh they have Crayon on the snacks?

Student: No, no.

Me: (looked at her quizzically)

Student: They are FROM the TV show...

Me: ?

Student: It's been two years.

Me: Two years?

Student: The snacks are new.

Me: Right, so they just made them with Crayon's picture?

Student: No. (draws a picture explaining everything: Crayon has always EATEN the snacks on the show [since it's been on for the last two years], but the snacks didn't exist in real life, but now they are being made and sold in stores.)

Me: OHHHHHH......I understand now. (we smile at each other and share a few laughs)

Student: There is a movie too.

Me: What is the movie about?

Student: "Ku-lay-on" has to find his parents. They get change. By a bad man.

Me: They get changed?

Student: Yes.

Me: Does the bad man change them?

Student: Yes.

Me: How does he change them?

Student: How?

Me: Yes, how does the bad man change the parents?

Student: He.....change them.

(much confusion and much of the same conversation ensued here)

Me: Oh, he is a magician?

Student: Yes!

Me: What did he change them into?

Student: Eto....eto... (Japanese equivalent of "um...um....") (talks about something else a little different for a while here) Big cat.

Me: Big cats?

Student: Yes...and black.

Me: (Thinking to myself that maybe they get changed into big cats, but that that can't be right) Oh! So the parent get changed into---no, never mind.

(she got out her electronic dictionary at this point and looked it up)

Student: They get changed into...(reads dictionary) "panthers."

Me: OH.......I see.

Student: And "Ku-lay-on" has to change them back. Because the bad man change them.

Me: So that's what the whole movie is about?

Student: Yes.

(more laughs about the ridiculousness of the conversation and then we tried some of the snacks.)

And needless to say, her half-hour lesson was over by this point in time, which was fine, because it was a very entertaining lesson! Haha!

3. Not really a lost-in-translation moment, but rather, a word that is pronounced exactly the same in Japanese and English:

BIMBO

In Japanese, it means "poor person." How funny. My friend Sumi called herself a "bimbo," and I was quite confused for a moment until she explained to me what it meant. In return, I explained to her what it meant in English and she got a kick out of that as well.

Whew, long post. I need to change positions from under my lovely kotatsu (living room table that has a heater attached to it) and end this post.

I hope all is well with everyone and that everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy December.