Almost the end....

Well, here I am only a few days left in Japan. Everything’s pretty much packed but I have some amazing friends who are coming over this weekend to help do the final cleaning and somehow help make my overweight overflowing suitcases manageable for Air Canada hopefully! It’s been an emotional few weeks to say the least. Lots of excitement but tears way too often. I can’t believe how much I fell in love with this place… and my kids… and friends of course! With how emotional I am saying all these goodbyes you’d never know that I am actually leaving by choice…..

Anyways recap of the last few weeks/months since last I wrote.

In June I went to Tokyo with some friends who came over to Japan with me from Canada. It was so great to catch up and share experiences, although we realised that we are all going back and Alberta sure didn’t have an impressive recontracting number this year! Oops. Still we all had a fantastic year and had hours to tell lots of stories as we waited in line at Tokyo Disney : ) Disney was great, albeit crowded. Good laughs all around and some cute pics too. That night after a slight detour (hehe after we were bragging about how easily we’d all mastered Japanese subway lines) we arrived at a very very cool restaurant called Ninja. I highly recommend it albeit a tad expensive! The food is superb, atmosphere very cool and they even do magic! What else could you ask for? Code words and drawbridges- oh yes they have that too! The next day we went to Shinjuku and wandered a few places around the city before I went back to Nagoya to meet up with a Japanese friend for dinner and then headed back to Neo.

June was also filled with much paperwork and preparations for the big move. It was just slightly stressful trying to find a new place when overseas and getting ready to leave this place and filling out thousand and one papers required to do so. Guilt stepped back in, letting down the community and everyone surprised I was actually leaving didn’t help either. I have gotten so much closer with my kids and staff this spring/summer which makes it a lot harder, but I still know I should go.

Rika surprised me by picking me up to take me to see fireflies one night. It has an absolute blast riding around in the back of her truckish thing with her mom and dad… and then uncle, aunt and cousin too! I’m such a country girl! Even when I ate bugs it was super fun standing up and riding in the back.

At JHS we had lots of spring/summer events like properly learning to wear a yukata (which I got to join the grade 1^s- JHS for) and cleaning the school swimming pool How did those kids not start a full on waterfight I’m still not sure! Both of those events were major bonding moment for me with them, as they taught me Japanese comedy and we took many pictures and played together.

Another weekend, I went to Gifu city and saw the famous cormorant fishing with a boat full of Jets. It was pretty interesting and fun- thought probably more so because we were all there together and alcohol and fireworks were involved. This evening was followed by karaoke in Gifu city of course too!

Rainy season came and went and starting July 1^st it’s been above 30 degrees everyday and every night. It’s quite overwhelming and humid. Summer is usually my favorite time of the year, but some days are definitely painful here being permanently sweaty. Mushi atsui ne?

Along with my leaving, comes news of my successor. She’s a girl from Toronto who I am sure will fall just in love with Neo as I am. We’ve been in contact quite a bit and it’s been sort of cathartic telling her about her upcoming life and prepping her for what she’s about to get herself into. So many of the same questions I had… seems like not so long ago. Ah.

Student teachers came and left the elementary school, along with guestspeakers and baby rabbits!

News in Japan, companies are getting fined if they have overweight employees. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/world/asia/13fat.html?_r=1&no_interstitial&oref=slogin for a little more information. So different from home sometimes!

Random facts from my convo ladies… celebrating birthday is a western tradition. Before, they only celebrated a babies 1^st year of life by putting mochi on the baby’s back and celebrating that they didn’t die. Interesting… Also as always it’s interesting discussing their opinions/knowledge about other countries and the reasons/stereotypes behind wanting to go to them. Lately we have also talked about the health check bus that comes around to small towns, how to make tofu, and I taught them a whole hour of random beauty type words about fashion/makeup etc. It was tough to say goodbye to them as I adore all four of my lovely ladies. We went out for Yaki Nikku and surprisingly I held it together for our party, although not quite as much the last time I saw all of them back at my house the next week. I really cherish the time I got to spend from them and all the memories we made and things we learned from each other. Them and the Tarui family were my family and my life lines here. They made an incredible impact on my time here and I will miss them dearly.

Japanese words

Fushigi-　ふしぎ Mystery, I wonder

Hotaru- ほたるFireflies

Sanshyou-さんしょうFish spicey herb thing that turns your tongue numb

Kenketsu suru-けんけつするTo donate blood

Shupatsu-しゅぱつlet’s go! Depart. (in the back of Rika’s truck anyways!)

Mizumoshi-みずむしathlete’s foot- literally water bug,also blisters

Megu　めぐ take off clothes (as opposed to putting on which has many different verbs attached depending on the article)

Samishi- I’ll miss you/sad

Akita- tired of

Iroiro- man

Osusume-recommend

Hospital/beauty salon – bi-Youin or biyoin

Sanen- too bad, unlucky, pity

Kawai so- poor ___

Nani nani, dochi demo ii, nan(i) demo ii, nantara kantara

Sapari- healthy

Gejigeji- natural eyebrows are furry like a bug

Morao- take

Well another interrogation investigation day complete. I had my second major presentation class of the year this week. It entailed about 25 people from around the school district (both elementary and junior high school teachers, ALTs and administration, as well as 3 people from the board of education) watching my 16 first year (grade 7) English students. They were super shy of course but the class went pretty well. Afterwards we had a 2 hour meeting to analyze everything and critique. I could understand quite a bit but glad I wasn’t Murachi who had to fend off criticisms, comments and questions by every person in the room. My Japanese has definitely improved (thanks Narin!) but I will never ever come close to Kiri (when she speaks the whole room lights up because WOW I didn’t think it was possible for a foreigner to speak Japanese that well!) While there’s lots of things that I would suggest changing from a university trained ESL position, it’s difficult to give too much constructive criticism in those meetings. The most effective changes would be wholistic ones which are way too hard to set up/change on your own. So, while changing a little bit within my school day to day life in regard to second language acquisition is happening… I’ve joined the Japanese attitude of don’t rock the boat/speak out too much. Just slowly try to implement small changes realizing where they are at and taking it from there.

Haha oh yah and a big “ you are driving me nuts!” to all the English teachers who speak in such terrible broken English when they are talking to non-native language speakers! Leaving out particles and sounding ridiculous does not help someone understand!

Unfortunately, this month I also experienced a Japanese funeral. My vice principal’s father passed away and so the entire Elementary staff went to the funeral to show our support. If you want to read more, I suggest checking out this Wikipedia page. One interesting difference was giving gift money and in exchange getting a take home bag of gifts for each visitor filled with cookies and seaweed etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_funeral

Sayonara parties were in full bloom this month, the first of which was at Kashimo with Gifu Jets. Later there were more with the JHS, town hall, convo class, Rika’s family and friends. Busy busy! Definitely not going to lose any weight this month with all the drinking and enkais!

Although summer is unbearably hot in Japan, I will definitely miss the fireworks and festivals. I’m sad that I’ll miss Obon, and even the next sports festivals at school and Soujiro concert.

Random thought: to every season turn turn…fruits especially in Japan are very seasonal. For example, may is for strawberries, june for cherries and peaches, july for corn, august for pears and melons and autumn for kaki (oops persimmon). It’s pretty much impossible to find the fruit out of season, so it makes shopping interesting anyways.

In elementary news, something that had been bothering me since September has finally been resolved. In August, the first day I met the kids swimming in the pool, they had a Q/A session getting to know me, where one of the kids spoke fluent French. When I had regular classes in September, I was trying to remember which kid wasn’t Japanese/would be able to speak French so well and it was driving me crazy. Finally yesterday I figured it out when the Principal introduced our “summer student” from Belgium who lives in Neo for July and August every year. Strange in some ways, but I guess it’s a good way for him to meet the other kids during the last bit of school and play with them in summer.

So of course since I’m leaving in a matter of weeks, I only now find all the cool restaurants. Even some in Gifu!!! Funky places to sit and unique food : ) However, after dinner at one such restaurant that we nicknamed Hobbit, I was driving back to Neo when Gloria (my car) decided to rebel and overheat. It took 10 combini stops and two hours plus a train ride the next day, but I made it back to Neo alive. Gloria however, will no longer be in my successor’s future, but will have to be put down when I leave : ( Very sad about that one.

Last weekend we went to Kamakura, Yokohama and Tokyo. Another few places off my list and we finally went swimming in the ocean too! Whoo!! Ooh and to ER Alcatraz theme restaurant in Tokyo. Lol good times!

Oh, the announcement just came on the town speakers “It’s hot out, food goes bad quickly! Be Careful”…. Lol good to know, but so random that they announce that every few days. Lol oh Japan.

I suppose I should get to starbucks and see my friends for one of our final coffee/frap dates. This year has been an absolutely phenomenal experience and I could not be happier with how everything turned out. The last few weeks spending time with my kids playing volleyball, swimming, teaching, and goodbye speeches (by the way mine was a whole page all written by me in Japanese) has realised just how precious they all are. I’ll miss them so much.

Narin, Kiri, Jess, Jords, Sanj and more…. I will never ever forget you guys! You’re the best! Love you all!! Many amazing memories and quite a bit of crying lately all due to you!!

For those back home…. See you in a matter of days! I’ll try not to go on and on about Japan tooooo much!!!

May/June, Bday, Job, Nagoya, Osaka, Shirakawa and more!

I’ve found with traveling you make the unfamiliar the familiar and all of a sudden the familiar can also become unfamiliar. What you once believed was commonplace isn’t so commonplace over here, and you find yourself struggling to explain the smallest things about home and still constantly asking why about things in your new home even months after living here. Recently I:ve met some people who were new to Japan, talking to them was really interesting though. I:ve learned just how far I:ve come this year and how incredibly much I:ve learned and adapted to.

As always lots has happened since I last wrote. My birthday came and went, and I:d like to say thanks once again to all my great friends and family who helped me celebrate from around the globe! I went out with my usual crew here and we celebrated it in our usual dinner Karaoke style, with a trip to Monkey Park and Sweet Castle thrown in as well! I love still acting like a kid sometimes! It can be fun to let loose and enjoy simple activities like a day at the zoo watching monkeys and eating ridiculous amounts of sweets!

Lately I:ve been enjoying more spare time just chilling out at my apartment. I:ve been reading many books that range all topics from spiritual awakening types, to stories about kids with autism, Japanese documentary types, good ole fashioned cheesy romance, and of course war and suspense books. I:ve been trying to keep up with Japanese but once again I:ve let it slip away longer than I would have liked. I hope I:ll be ready for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) come December! Guess I should get on learning my kanji! Other distractions that have kept me from it, are getting addicted to all the sitcom and reality shows I hadn:t had time for the past 5 years… I:m getting caught up on Lost, the Office, Desperate Housewives, Dexter, Sex and the City, and of course Grey:s Anatomy when it was on. (I love that show!!! ) I:ve also been watching more movies and documentaries both in English and Japanese (with subtitles still). But, the main thing keeping me from studying was job applications for back in Canada come September. Fortunately….. the search is now over!!

I:ve accepted a position at Bonnyville High School teaching Social 9, 20-1,20-2, and 33 as well as coaching volleyball come September. (So other coaches/vball players out there, i:d love to hear tips/drill ideas from ya!) It:s a relief to have that security and not have to spend my time this summer worrying about jobs apps and interviews. In the week where many places in AB were hiring, I did 2 interviews and was offered both positions and then had a few more calls to set up interviews. It was really neat doing the interviews via Skype too. Bonnyville sounds like it has extensive new technology and the administration team and I seemed to really hit it off as well. I:m very excited (and a little nervous) for this upcoming school year as I think it:ll be very enjoyable and rewarding, albeit extremely stressful.

Back to my life here, I:ve discovered a joy of teaching that I am soon sure to lose… my elementary kids always holding my hand and being so excited to see me. The new grade ones have completely stolen my heart and they truly are the sweetest things in the world.
Their smiles can completely turn my day around. Grade 1/2/3 are awesome to see each once a week and play with! I will definitely miss this when I go to High School!
My Junior High students had a blast on their homestays in Devon. I`ve been helping them write posters, speeches, thank you letters and constantly hearing stories and seeing pics from their time in Canada. It:s so neat to learn about their impressions of my country and more so home town! Some of my favorite stories include their reactions to eating raw vegetables, thinking planes are a lot smaller and scarier than they look on TV, and having cold showers for a week since they could not figure out how to work the `bizarre` Canadian showers.

Other news from the schools, I`m really enjoying the new staff this year. It always impresses me the way people just seem to fit and you couldn:t imagine the school without them. The team effort really does show here in teaching staff, as demonstrated by things that are pretty unthinkable back home- like vice principals cleaning toilets and principals picking weeds alongside kids in a field. In the Junior High PE classes, students just finished the dance unit. I was sure to attend as many classes as I could and help out and enjoy watching them learn to explore different dance types. It was pretty different from home in how shy the kids were (or maybe it was just cuz I was a dancer as a child and it a school where we were maybe a little too comfortable with eachother and crazy).
Still, by the end of the unit we saw definite improvement and some of the grade eight girls totally reminded me of myself when I was young- making up dances with friends on the weekends. I had a great time in those PE classes, and got a deeper insight into the Senpai culture that permeates Japanese schools and makes them run so efficiently. As you know and I have probably mentioned many times before, Japan is a culture with a strong basis in respect. In schools, jobs etc the elder/mentor is “Senpai” in Japanese. The other day I realised that it even infiltrates the smallest aspects of my tiny school of 30 some kids. During dance class the grade 8s were hot and wanted to take off their sweaters/roll them up etc, and they had a whole discussion whether they were allowed to (in their own little internal student culture code) based on what the grade 9s were dressed as. Apparently the dress code is dictated (mind you they have school uniforms) even to who can roll their socks up etc based on the student unwritten code. It was interesting to see the honorifics transferred down from teaching the ocarina and leading the school cleaning, to how far open a classes door can be during summer and what they can wear.
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Other school news, I continue to learn a lot about my students and get many laughs from their daily diary entries to me and letters/reports about their trip to Canada. Their attitudes and motivation levels have improved so much since they got back. I’ve also gained many an insight into how they think and the way the language works from the way they translate phrases and their opinions about Canada and our food, houses, schools and culture. Speaking of food, this week’s school lunch has brought liver, beef tongue and jelly fish into my life and stomach. Trying to be a model at lunch time, I managed to swallow all of my lunch at the Elementary school, but later learning exactly what I had eaten, well sometimes I guess it’s just better not to know at the time. Mom, Duane, and everyone else who knows that I can be a little picky about food- you will be so impressed at what I eat now! I:ve even come to really enjoy fish and tofu.

Ok, I guess I:m a little involved in my life here as a teacher since I keep coming back to it but… more from the classroom… Kids here are adorable, especially the young junior high ones who are like `ooh pick me pick me! Look at my hand! It:s the highest, I have a beautiful long arm!! Let me answer! ` haha add that to the list of things I will also not be hearing next year back in Canadian high schools! It almost is enough to counteract my hatred for the fake voices on the tapes that we sometimes listen to in Junior High English classes. They drive me nuts! As many an ALT has said- it:s also somewhat insulting for the kids to be listening to fake la la voices on a tape while you have a live native speaker in the room. Hey, half the time my job is like a human tape recorder anyways, don:t take away some of my usefulness in the classroom. (Can you tell that I am excited to be a `real teacher` when I get back home?) Even with my meetings and team teaching, it:s hard to overpower a textbook and seasoned Japanese teacher on how best to teach reading and writing and the alphabet. Still don:t get me started on how they are using katakana and teaching without phonics or about blends etc. My kids have gone from months of `this is how you make a perfect letter c` to write `empitsu (Japanese for pencil), `cat` then `computer` then `house` then `thesaurus`. For people who don:t realize, there:s a slight difference in sounds and trying to learn to read/ sound out words… common! This was seriously all in one lesson after having 20 previous lessons of how to print neatly in Roman characters. Also the Rice/Lice—and all the other overused tricks and legends of traditional English teaching in Japan have unfortunately continued this year in my classroom. I don`t even know how he manages to bring it up—but there they are! Of course the infamous report about a homestay student who answered the door wrong or did something at Halloween and got shot etc. also has slipped in over the year, but I guess that is inevitable. The students revolutions in English class this week- `What do you mean not all languages have a ‘kanji’ picture word for each word! Oh gosh. Ok I:ll stop by ranting there, I just wish that I was getting through to them more and was allowed to teach the things that I learned as a kid like rules about vowels bopping eachother on the head and combos of ch, sh, th.

Ok I really do what to move on from talking about work, but one or two last things that I had notes about that I wanted to say. Like a few weeks ago when I was playing in the gym with kids at lunch- well the girls and boys were in each other:s bathrooms as if it was no big deal…. Kids with no clothes on throwing balls at each other (ooh and them all trying to pants the student teacher today) ~ oh how high school will be different…. Right?
We had an astronaut from NASA come to our school last week. It:s pretty darn cool for anyone to meet an astronaut and hear a motivational speech about making your dreams come true and realizing anything is possible after looking down on the planet Earth. But it was absolutely the talk of the town for a week in Neo! For the week leading up in all my gr 6-9 English classes we prepped the kids for how to talk to the astronaut and ask him questions (he was a Chinese American who spoke no Japanese by the way). Some of my faves were the grade 6`s asking , Is space food delicious? How does it feel to look down at Earth, what is it like to poop/sleep in space?

I’ve also (of course) been traveling lots lately. I’m learning more and more about the importance of food culture here. What you do in a place is eat/buy those specific foods for omiyage. It’s such a huge part of tourism here to all Japanese (not just my friends like I originally thought!)
A few weekends back now, I went up to Shirakawa with Jess, Narin and Kiri to check out Jordan’s new apartment. Wow such an improved to the old one! Moving was painful I’m sure but it’s definitely worth it. Such a sit-com type apartment now, and no more outside showers!! We toured the Gassho houses with Jords again and went to a tea-gassho-house of someone he knew then to yakiniku for dinner. We had a really great time and also got some ideas for a “on your way home” trip the next day. So Jords and Narin in one car, and Jess Kiri and I in mine, we set off Sunday morning for what was supposed to be a stop or two on our way home- which turned into a multiple prefecture adventure. We went to Kanazawa to visit Kenrokuen gardens and drink some famous tea with gold in it. It was a really beautiful garden and a neat ancient city. Jordan of course was our resident historical tour guide! Next we went to Eiheji temple which was way further than expected, but quite magestic and powerful. It was such a neat retreat in the rainforest, I wish we could go back (and it wasn’t so darn far!).

The next weekend Jords and I went to Osaka on a last minute random trip. We had a goal to leave our inaka life and head to the big city for some shopping and to visit a Lubu hoteru. (Love hotel). We wanted to find a realllly tacky one, but apparently the government has been trying to cut down on the really bad love hotels due to bad world press. Still we had fun “hotel shopping” and ended up in one with a purple bed, mirrors everywhere, and a see through shower! It was a really neat experience though. You go into an entrance and usually don’t speak to anyone, but choose your selection from a machine that lights up which rooms are available. It’s a really easy and kinda fun process—except a little bizarre with sometimes crazy middle aged ladies dressed in all white hip hopish outfits ushering you in…. By the time we decided to turn in for the night we were pretty tired and settled perhaps too early as we are still waiting to find one with all the lore of “alibi sounds” and really crazy theme rooms. I think you have to get to them pretty early and have certain ones in mind. We did find hotels with open hot tubs on roofs in the shape of a Cadillac, and multiple with massage chairs and karaoke machines in the rooms. Another highlight of Osaka was just wandering the city though. It’s a great place to be among crowds and get a taste of different foods. We went to a Thai restaurant that was quite fantastic! As well as some funky shops in America-mura, like a kung fu shop hidden above the staircase of a purse store. We head back pretty early the next morning since we were going with cheap slow trains and were meetings some of my teachers for a movie at Malera Sunday afternoon. Fun weekend with Grandpa Jords for sure!

The past two weeks have also had me eating natto at school—or rather, my kids eating natto and me trying not to gag from the smell. I dunno how people enjoy that one! Tofu and maybe even miso have grown on me but natto never will I’m pretty sure. Still I love my kids, and really enjoy lunch time when after eating they try to teach me Japanese in the library. Good times! After one of my real Japanese lessons with Narin the other day the battery in my car died yet again. When will I ever learn to shut off the lights in Gloria? Speaking of my car, I’m currently licenceless, waiting on my new International Licence to come from Canada so I don’t have to be dependent on my one car train that runs every hour and a half. Commmoonnnn licence!

I’ve learned that from an English teaching standpoint I’ve grown a lot this year. I’ve started to realize just how much I know about the kids and their levels when some of the new teachers are coming up with some unrealistic things they want the elem kids to do. Ahh, now I know what Murachi must have felt like when I came in August! Still, I’m working more with some of them and we’re actually instituting a bit of collaboration and team teaching at Elem and having lots of fun with it! The kids are usually pretty genki and adorable so we have a good time. This week has had me also facing my own fears and singing acapella Amazing Grace- teaching it for 2 hours to my grade 6s. Eeks! Wow thank you karaoke for helping boost my singing confidence!

Other times, I’m still frustrated by team teaching and bored out of my mind. I thought the “you’re somewhat a real teacher but not really” would pass, but it still prevails in much of my life. It’s really annoying feeling like I’m not a full member of the staff even after being here a year. (Although sometimes I realize that’s definitely advantageous, as I’m never here until 10pm like most of them!) One example yesterday that was annoying, was that it was an observation class day. We have about 4 or 5 of them a year, where the subject teachers from each school come to watch a model class with the board of education and then an hour critique meeting afterwards. I think these observation days are really beneficial or if nothing else interesting, as well as I generally like getting a chance to meet and talk with other ALTs and English teachers. In the past, I urged my schools to let me go even when I was the only ALT there. The chief decided that it was a good idea for me (and all alts) to be going, so he said in the new school year (which started in April) all alts should be encouraged to come to them. So, after being told 2 weeks in advance and getting a copy of the lesson outline that I would be observing, yesterday I got all dressed up and arrived at school to find out that now, I would not be going because it wasn’t really necessary, and that I should take the elementary kids to the bus instead. Usually I do take the kids to the bus, and I love it.. but even after telling them I had been planning on going to this and was expected to attend, they decided that I should stay back and wait around to take them to the bus stops anyways. Apparently the other people staying- counselor, student teacher, office boy, janitor/kitchen lady weren’t qualified to walk 20 gr 1-4 students 100 meters and wait with them 10 minutes while busses came to pick them up…..but somehow I was. I didn’t even mind walking those ones, since I would still be able to go to the class after, but they also wanted me to wait around for the grade 5-6 students (who were the subjects of an observation class) so I could walk them to the bus (12 of them) at 3:00. Anyways, so I ended up staying back (without laptop or internet access eeks!) and basically doing nothing most of the afternoon. I tell you, there’s only so many flashcards a girl can make. So the annoying part was that in the end, there were still other people who came on both bus stop runs! Grrr… Just frustrated not knowing what my role is here still. Not a real teacher, but more qualified to take care of the children than others –but not to give the end of the day “Sayonnara” speech call out. Speaking of how everything is in ranked order, as I was typing, I just had a teacher come up to me and give me a candy—but only once it was my turn-- officially went from Principal, to vice, to third in command, to 6-5-4-3-2-1 homeroom teachers, to me, to counselor, to gym teacher, to office boy to janitory/cooking lady. Even though we are all in completely different sections of the room. Haha oh Japan.

Going back home from living abroad, people say you are like an actor- have to figure out what you just do in front of other people, and who you actually are/want to be. It’s easy to make excuses here, but when does it get to the point where this is your real life and you are taking the easy way out? People often go abroad and try out new personalities. When I came, I didn:t necessarily try anything new, but did take it as a bit of a year off from my previously hectic life. I went from the super planner do everything to pretty laid back and can waste time easily.. Not sure if it was a good thing, but with all that has happened in the last year, I:ve learned many a lesson about just living in the present, enjoying life and not stressing out too much…. Perhaps these are good things to accept- although it may make going back to a stressful life more difficult. It’ll be interesting anyways to see how I’ve changed in relationship to those around me, and how the ‘reverse culture shock’ will go.
Ok enough serious talk/complaining (bad ego!)! Question of the day: Is it rude not to use the flushy sound? Female toilets (both squatters and western) here always have a “music” button (aka flushing sound) to mask the sound of peeing. I know a lot of people get like stage fright and can’t go with others around.. but is it also for the other people, to make them more comfortable because they can’t hear you pee? So the question is, if you don’t need it, should you still push it?
Ooh I forgot one of the other weekends I went on. This past weekend was my first Japanese baseball game in Nagoya! It was a great time with about 10 friends cheering on the Japanese 2007 champions- the Chunichi Dragons!! (Who have a koala named Doala as their mascot btw—still can’t get over that. Oh random Japan.) They were playing against the same team they beat in the final last year (the Nippon Hams from Sapporo—who had a bear mascot by the way). After we won, we went to a Nagoya Friends International party in Sakai. It was the second we’ve been to, and ‘twas neat seeing some of the people we met last time at Halloween, and meeting new faces too. Some of us got more friendly and drank more than others, and it ended up turning into a night with lots of stories and memories without a doubt. Also impressed at just how many people we could fit into a tiny Japanese hotel room. One “double bed” room had 7 crashing there. Haha good times.

Well my kids are off starching their socks in their summer uniforms and I’m looking out into sunny blue skies. Should be a good weekend indeed. Heading to Tokyo tomorrow morning to meet up with some friends that I haven’t seen since Jet Tokyo Orientation so it’ll be great to swap stories and see how everyone’s Japanese is coming along. Fun times ahead!! Hope everyone back home is having a lovely farmers day long weekend. Yeah Alberta and out of date random holidays. Tokyo Disney and theme restaurants here I come!!

Cheers! Kampai!! See you in less than two months! Ooh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUANE! And HAPPY FATHER”S DAY DAD!

Useful Japanese words of the week
いけめ-hot/handsome
矢かまし-noisy

Thailand!!

Hello all! Lots of news to tell you about yet again! This time it’s all about my amazing Golden Week trip to Thailand. It’s another long one so be warned!
Our trip start off with a curse--- me almost losing my passport the day before the flight, pouring rain on the walks to the train to the airport, the worst burned cinnamon buns imaginable, and a scraped and infected foot injury for my traveling companion Jess right before we left Japan.
In Bangkok a very very excited Julie met up with her boyfriend Duane for the first time since Christmas. Surprisingly we both made it to the hotel ok and our meeting went ok- we were worried with multiple international flights, not knowing the language, internet hotel bookings and no cell phones to connect to each other with. Everything went ok with the meet up minus the fact that Duane already had gotten ripped off by the taxi’s at the airport in Bangkok on the way. And so starts the difference between Thailand and Japan- in Thailand people are jolly but you can’t trust a thing they say it seems (overemphasizing obviously) where as in Japan they are serious and burden you with unnecessary formalities—but you can trust a random person with your life and best interest. It was a little scary walking around before Duane arrived. Jess and I explored the area a little on our own but were glad when we had our male escort with us for the rest of the trip (I know it sounds bad, but still sometimes late at night it’s nice to have a guy with you.) Everyone would be trying to get your attention/money in their cab/massage place- call outs, calling “tuk tuk” (taxi) (which everyone who has been to Thailand undoubtedly cannot forget and identifies with). Still we thought we were somewhat aware and considered ourselves ‘wise travelers.’
Day 1: The Vogley scam- first let me start off my prefacing that it was very hot and muggy and we really had done no research on Bangkok. We knew that the king’s sister had recently died but little of Thai culture. So anyways after visiting the Imperial Palace and practicing our bartering skills about a boat near a market, we decided to get out the map (*tourist alert!) and walk where we were going. We got to the corner and were double checking our map when this man walking by stopped and asked if we needed help. He seemed super friendly and told us that he was a monk/used to be a monk/was going into the monkhood- something like that, and was telling us the best places to go in Bangkok. We were suspicious at first, but he talked to us for like 10 minutes with a suggested route and as far as we could tell, was honestly doing it out of the goodness of his heart. He told us not to go to the reclining Buddha (which we were just around the corner and a few blocks from) until after 4pm because the monks were praying for the king’s sister until then. He also tried to tell us the difference between the tuk tuk colors and told us how to ask (in Thai) for one to wait with us while we went to multiple places that wouldn’t cost too much. We were ecstatic when the ‘good’ tuk tuk color came around the corner a minute later as he encouraged us to catch it and get to the first of our destinations. We said a multiple of Thanks and after explaining to the driver exactly where to go and in what order, we were off. We made it to the first destination and had a blast driving around in the Tuk Tuk. They really are fun to be in- air cools you off and still great to take pictures from since there aren’t windows. So anyways we went to our first destination, and the tuk tuk driver seemed really nice too- showing us basic places of entry, telling us about when it’s ok to take a picture and things like a cool place to feed the fish. When we got back from our second destination, he said he just had to run to the bathroom quickly. We thought it was a little weird that he didn’t just go while we were visiting the temple thing but could understand if he didn’t want us to come out and think that he left us. So anyways, we said sure go and started taking lots of Tuk Tuk pics. There was a man sitting in a truck next to us who engaged in friendly conversation about where we were from, where we were going etc when he heard us talking about what place to go to next. We were debating which was closer/best order, when he asked us to show him our map—since the monk guy from earlier had written a few things on it like “Vogley” a three day exhibition that was on tv and this was being highly publicized because this was the first year tourists had been allowed in. It was a place to buy designer label clothes before they put the labels on it. We originally were kinda meh with the idea, thought we may drive by it but that’s about it. Duane had actually wanted to buy a suit in Bangkok originally so we figured maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. The tuk tuk driver seemed to agree and said we would pass by it and see the balloons etc and we could go in if we wanted. So anyways, while the driver was in the bathroom, the guy chillin in his truck parked in the shade next to us asked how we heard about Vogley cuz he was surprised we knew about it, saying he went there yesterday and bought two and bought one for his mom in the USA. He showed us this ticket he got and fed us a few more lines about the membership card you get so you can get suits made later because they will have your measurements, free shipping and how today is the last day it’s open and so things are buy one get the second half off. A lot of info seemed to be in sync with what we had heard previously but he still wasn’t really pushing us to go or anything, just answering our questions. We started to wonder if things were a bit off when the Tuk Tuk driver conveniently came back from the washroom right as the truck guy was finishing his speech and telling us that it was closing at 3:30 so we better hurry if we want to go, and that the other place we were on our way to was closed with praying monks again for the King’s sister until a certain time. Anyways, we figured ok, let’s go check out this place at least to look (although already it sounded more expensive than we were expecting to pay for suits anyways.) So as soon as we are on the street with the suit place I see a sign on a building—a permanent sign, to a little shop that says Vogley. I turned to the others and was like—awww crap. Scam. We get out of the tuk tuk go inside and are looking at each other like awwwww boooo! We went upstairs, were laughing at ourselves for buying into all this and decided to quickly look at the books that they were showing us with the suits in them (we had gotten the impression it was a big exhibition with manicans in suits and them all hanging up etc), and then we would make a quick exit. We looked at them for maybe 2 minutes then stood up to leave. On the way downstairs they tried to give away—oops I mean sell of course, little items like perfume smelling soap. We gave them back and headed outside to get in our Tuk Tuk – if it was still there. He was there but surprised that we were out so quick. We didn’t mention the scam and said thank you, next place please. He asked us as we were driving if we’d bought anything and we said nope. We went to another place and when we got out from it he said “just one more stop”. We were like – no. Then he let us in on things—saying how he gets paid only if we stay for 8 minutes and he didn’t get paid for the last one cuz we left too soon, and how he’s almost out of gas and please let us do him a favor. We figured meh why not since we didn’t have much else to do and since he had been honest we figured we could have a little fun with this. So we went to the next place, everything was fine and dandy and after 8 minutes, left. He was happy, we were happy… until he said “please please one last stop!” I was angry and saying “no no more stops! We just did you a favor” he said this one was different and he would get blah blah and then he would give us the whole day for free. He said this was a jewelry factory where you could see Thai people making the jewelry and could buy pearls etc. for cheap. We negotiated saying we’d go to this place only if he took us to our last destination and then drove us back to the hotel or the far away shopping centre we wanted to go to. He was hesitant but agreed and we felt ok about going to the jewelry place. We told him we again didn’t buy anything and he explained more about the commission that he gets depending on how long we stay, what we buy etc. Then he took us to one of the places on the map that we had originally thought about going to, because it was right around the corner. He let us off at the back exit and as we went up the stairs he calls “I’m going to park just over there.” At this point I turned to Jess and Duane and said, “I bet you money that he is not going to be there when we get back.” They were like “I think he will, but even if he isn’t at least we got a taxi for the day for free then.” So fair enough, we enjoyed the last place—and when we got down from the mount—surprise surprise tuk tuk man was gone. We did a lap around the place and confirmed—he’d left us. At this point we looked for taxis but only saw tuk tuks around. We were a few blocks away from the main streets and were glad that it was still mid day when we were walking on the streets completely lost. We decided to catch a public taxi boat after another man on the street asked us if we were lost and asked if we needed help. He suggested a tuk tuk and when we said “oh no, no more tuk tuks!” he laughed and said haha ok ok take the boat over there, it’s going the same direction. Realising we could only speak about 5 words in Thai (that Jess and I learned from the internet the night before our flight) and transportation systems weren’t labeled quite as well as in Japan- we haphazardly asked a man at the boat dock if this was going the right way- he nodded and we jumped on completely clueless. The boat system actually worked quite well- you get on, a man on the boat comes to sell you a ticket (super cheap of course as there were all Thai people and only 1 foreigner other than us). Then you just get off at any dock you choose along the way. Jess was pretty nervous since it was a bit dodgy and the dirty river water began to splash up a bit (and she was doing all she could to prevent her foot from getting infected). To stop from getting wet, people on the sides would hold up a blue tarp—and that was it. There was very little signage at each place, but fortunately we heard someone say they were getting off at our stop and another person helped hint us that we should get off here. We got off, felt a bit lost, but then saw a big shopping centre that Narin had suggested going to- so all felt well. MBK was a huge mall with something like 8 floors. We enjoyed shopping in an air con’d environment and didn’t feel quite so nervous about eating the food- as it hadn’t been outside in the 35 degree heat with flies around it all day. Duane found a great jean store that sold real—or so we think—Diesels, True Religion, Sevens etc for cheap. He bought quite a few pairs for a total of something like $100. Jess and I tried—but found the curse of the gaijin (foreigner) still remained—we just aren’t built the same as petite Thai girls (nor Japanese). For dinner we went to this amazing food court in MBK. It was as deluxe of a foodcourt as I’d ever seen- paying with this preloaded credit card thing and someone all dressed up collecting dishes and trays etc. It had all the foods that Jess and I had been dreaming about for months and even a place for a live band to play. After a bit more shopping and a quite internet check in message to mom and dad we headed back to the hotel after a half an hour taxi cue since no one wanted to take another Tuk Tuk that night- especially in the rain.
The next day we played it pretty low key. We wanted to go to the floating markets but after finding out that they were over an hour away, decided it wasn’t worth it before our flight that day. We went to the backpacker part of town Khao San Road and did some major market shopping (though of course in retrospect we wish we bought a lot more there). We had some fantastic cheap thai food and decided we were definitely going to get used to this – for me I was in heaven just having fruit smoothies again : )
We arrived at the airport early- a bit out of paranoia regarding traffic and more so since the flight we were supposed to be taking was apparently cancelled in one of the copies of the flight itinerary we got in email the night before leaving Japan. We wanted to get there to make sure. So we arrived at something like 3 and didn’t get to take off until after 9pm since not only was our first flight cancelled but our next was delayed a few hours. Let me tell you, we sure know the Bangkok airport domestic terminal (really is nothing in rival to the international terminal there). We went to a medi clinic in the airport because Jess’s foot had gotten more infected already. It was hard to find though because although we saw signs posted for two—when we went to find the first one we had a man at the bottom of the escalator claiming he was “information” and took us to a man who was indeed not a doctor but someone trying to sell hotel rooms etc. We were pretty angry since we said we were looking for a doctor/hospital and were frustrated because what if it had actually been more serious and he was preventing us to getting medical help. Anyways we finally found one, and everything went ok there other than the man taking Jess’ blood pressure and almost squeezing her arm right off. After that, we still had more time to kill in the airport and decided to get our first Thai massages. Twas pretty fun but even the foot massage was not quite as relaxing as I had imagined. Finally after another meal and hour in the airport we learned we were allowed to check in our big backpacks. We were quite happy to get rid of them and I didn’t even realize until 10 minutes after check in that my ipod had been left in the bag.
Well when we finally arrived in Chiang Mai, the first thing I did was go to get my ipod out—and already I realised—with the pockets of my bag now not shut the same way I left them- that my ipod would be gone. Thus the bad luck continued. I was pretty angry- more at myself for knowing I shouldn’t leave anything valuable in checked luggage but also at whoever the heck stole my ipod because they obviously worked for Air Asia and saw it in the baggage monitor- grrr. I think I handled it ok and didn’t complain too much but the frustrating part for me was losing the skin around the ipod as it was a gift from Duane that went along with a joke/memory between us. Oh well, live and learn. I decided to think positively and realize that my birthday is coming up and I could buy myself the new ipod touch—haha and outdue Narin’s too as a bonus! (Yes I know ego is a terrible thing.)
The hotel in Chiang Mai seemed very dodgy at first with out late night check in and all. Fortunately things looked a little brighter the next morning when our tour guide came to pick us up for our Elephant Trek. A word of advice to all those going to Thailand—tours are definitely worth going on—but booking them before you go is quite stupid unless you are indeed getting in late one night and want to do the tour the next morning. Prices are sooo much more expensive when you book online- as well as a mighty big hassle too. Anyways our tour was lots of fun. We went to an orchid farm then fed elephants bananas, watched them get washed and perform a show (demonstrating how elephants are traditionally used for carrying lumber in Thailand, but how they can also paint and listen well to their trainers) then we went for an elephant ride. Our ride took us about an hour through the jungles of northern Thailand to a small tribal village that had no roads accessing it. The manhout (people who ride/train the elephants) live in this tribe and we saw where they live and the handicrafts and traditional outfits of their tribe. You could tell that they weren’t completely isolated and how the manhouts at least had access to the city obviously, but still it was pretty interesting. After arriving back at the elephant camp we had one of the best meals we had in Thailand. Lots of fantastic fruit, stir-fry, rice, soup, vegetables and more. Following lunch Duane and I took a bamboo raft ride down the river. It was very relaxing and surreal with a man paddling us through a river safari- elephants along the riverside and a lady wading in the middle of the river selling cold drinks half way through. Jess and many tribal children met us at the end of the ride and we were off in the van to another part of Chiang Mai. This time we visited an area designated for several tribes who had faced persecution in surrounding countries like Burma. We were particularly interested in the Palong and Karen-long neck tribe. There are many long neck tribes in the area. We tried to find out about reasons why the women put the rings on their necks in the first place, but apparently even the guide didn’t know where it originated from- an aesthetic trait in the tribe now. It is difficult for the women in the tribe because while the men can leave and potentially blend in with other people in local towns and cities- the women cannot take off their rings and are thus very restricted in what they do. Females start wearing the heavy rings at a very young age. It is a personal/tribal decision as to when to add more and when to start, but we saw many young children already with rings on their arms, legs and necks. Now there is disagreement within the tribes as some women want to shed their rings- and others in the tribe insist they keep them on, not only for cultural reasons, but also for tourism- as it is the major industry in Thailand and especially for these tribes. I definitely suggest if you are interested, looking into more info about the long neck tribes. Lots of info out there I:m going to keep researching too. We saw the construction of a new church/hall for all of the tribes to use together. The most impacting part for me was seeing the school that the children went to- when there was someone to teach. Sometimes Thai people arrange to come in and teach the village children a few things- but it is sporadic and the children also must help the tribe with weaving and chores. This is a picture of the school.
We returned to town, did some more market shopping and took a songthaew (meaning two benches in Thai) red truck taxi home. Basically you flag them, see if they are going your direction, then jump in. So many different types of transportation here that’s for sure! We also saw sooo many people shoved into a truck—apparently workers that commute from Burma- I think we saw at least 16 in the back of one pick up truck. Thailand always surprised me how many people could fit in a truck- or on a motorcycle.
The rest of the time in Chiang Mai we spent exploring the city (one of the largest in Thailand- though considerably smaller than Bangkok), getting massages/manicures/pedicures, shopping and eating everything we could : ) We went to a show on our last night there that contained many many traditional Thai as well as neighboring Tribal dances. There were dances with candles, swords and long finger nails. As always there were people selling things everywhere too! Tourism really is the main industry – like I said before. This picture I actually paid a few baht to take but she was just so darn cute, and the money means so much more for them than us. I felt a bit guilty afterwards—because they really do exploit the children a lot. I especially felt sad when we would be out late at night and children would be ‘working’ selling you flower necklaces etc wherever you’d go.
The next city was Phuket and we were quite ready to get out of our hotel in Chiang Mai once we went a day with a plugged toilet and were still really worried about Jess’s foot getting more infected in the northern jungle land. Phuket on the other hand, is in southern Thailand on the Andaman Sea. Phuket was sooo touristy—it was a shock to Jess and I to see so many foreigners! Took a while to adjust to after being in Japan for so long. In Phuket (pronounce Pooket) we took a fantastic boat tour to the beautiful--- and I mean absolutely stunning islands of Koh Phi Phi. Poor Jess couldn’t go in the water and was pretty much stuck on the boat because of her foot but I think we all still had a great time. I loved swimming and snorkeling in the gorgeous blue/green water with perfectly white sand. Ahhh heaven. I was awe struck especially at the location where they filmed the Leonardo DeCaprio movie the Beach. We also went to monkey beach where there were wild monkeys that we fed rambutan to. Twas very cool to see- but I realised I am a little more scared of monkeys than I thought. Hehe.
At the last island we visited on our speed boat tour, Duane and I decided spur of the moment to ditch the end of the tour and go paragliding with some boys from Sweeden. It was very random but turned out to be a sure highlight of my entire trip. I think Duane was a little nervous at first, but I was super stoked. It wasn’t the usual paragliding that you see from the beaches but one where you start from the beach, get pulled up by the boat, and when you can catch enough wind, you release the cord form the boat and free fly. I was up there for about 20 minutes. I must say hangliding and paragliding are sooo much better than Skydiving I still think. It’s so much fun to learn to control where you are flying and realize that you can stay up for hours. I still stick to the idea that if I live by cliffs and a place with a hang/paragliding school nearby it is something I’d really love to learn to do on my own and make it into a full on hobby. After Duane and I both flew we took a private speed boat back to Phuket with the flying Sweedish guys. We got to go back to the island where we met them for a bit while they packed up their supplies—and Duane and I basically had the whole little island to ourselves—right out of a dream it was! The guys actually decided to start driving off without us too! Lol! It was hilarious but I wouldn’t actually have minded that much staying overnight at that gorgeous place! There was a restaurant that was open in the day- we could’ve broken in and got pineapples and coconuts to eat or something I’m sure. Hehe.
Other things in Phuket were going to more beaches and lots more great food. We went to a few clubs/live music places too which were a blast. Oh yes and Simon Caberet--- lady boy show! Impressive eh? See below. The only real downside to Phuket was the sunburns. Did you know that brown people can sunburn too? Duane didn’t! hehe. Even with my 30+ sunblock I turned into quite the tomatoe and was feeling the pain for days. Still now, 10 days later I find myself still peeling. Eww.
Koh Samui was our last city- down south on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand. We left Phuket just in time before the rain started and also just missed the tragic cyclone in Burma. Our hotel in Koh Samui didn’t quite work out because for some reason our booking hadn’t gone through. We were really sad because we had picked a really nice place and wanted to splurge—but by the time we got there and found out it wasn’t booked, we just wanted to get to a hotel and to the beach. We ended up in almost a backpacker type place (which Koh Samui was only filled with until recently). It had a great location and access to the beach- which was all that really mattered anyways- oh yah and air conditioning as it was above 30 everyday we were in Thailand. In Koh Samui we did lots of relaxing on the beach, floating on airmatresses looking at the fish and coral, swimming and Jet Skiing. We also got full relaxing massages (ahh wonnnnnderful) and went on a “one day all Koh Samui Island highlights” tour. On the tour we saw the famous Big Buddha, a mummified monk, a monkey demonstration of how they retrieve coconuts (which we then got to eat and drink--- which are amazing when they are young and fresh), another few temples/statues, a viewpoint, and a waterfall. I was really excited to swim under the waterfall- although this one was more so swimming beside the waterfall because it was too rocky. Was gorgeous though- a scene out of Jurassic Park. By far the best part of Koh Samui though, was the nightlife. The restaurants there are incredible!! They are right on the beach, have super fresh seafood, are cheap, have great drinks and… are tables a foot out of the sand with cushions and towels where you can sit or lay down all day/night. It was soo relaxing and beautiful. We were hooked after night one. We topped it off my setting off a paper lantern into the sky which I have now decided I want to do at my wedding one day too. Lol I think I scared both Jess and Duane talking about all the things I learned from this trip about what I want at my island wedding one day. Hehe. Now all I have to do is find a husband willing to agree to it all….
It was tough saying goodbye to Duane at the end (and getting on that plane back to Japan where I would be all alone again in Neo and far away from English and fruit and beaches) but after two weeks, we were about broke and ready to get on with our lives. It was an absolutely phenomenal time- with of course many bumps along the way but all in all fantastic. I would definitely recommend Thailand to anyone traveling who wants to see/do lots on a limited budget. Next time I go back I think I will do a week of volunteering at an orphanage as per our original plan- then straight hit up the beaches. I wanted to go diving and snorkeling again near Koh Samui because it is supposed to be one of the best places in the world—but with sunburns and infections- I guess you can’t do everything.
Now I’m settling back into my life here in Japan. Less than three months to go—wow what a fast year- though am already looking forward to going back home. It was great to see my kids here again and I’m giving Thailand presentations all week. Still the frustrations with work continue- not much responsibility, too much useless paperwork, and too many restrictions- all the JHS are on field trips- but I have to sit at my desk in the ES instead because of ‘insurance’ reasons. Boo. My grade nine’s are in Devon right now- it has been super cool hearing updates both from the school end here and from mom and dad back home. Man how awesome would it have been if I could’ve gone with them!?! Maybe next year! Fingers crossed that the exchange will continue.
Well time to get back to studying Japanese!-Almost finished the JET textbooks and still keeping up my homework from my wonderful Japanese tutor Narin. Even though the teachers speak about me in Japanese as if I’m not even there/don’t understand a word- I am starting to pick up more and more. I hope to do the Japanese Language Proficiency Test back in Canada in December. We’ll see….
Take care everyone! Thanks for the birthday wishes already! : )

April in Japan

“It seams to be that time passes quickly” quoting some Japanese English items in my house, it really is so right now. I can’t believe how fast the last little bit has gone by. This is definitely the most exciting part of the year and the best time to be in Japan.

So much has happened since I last wrote, the biggest one being Mom and Dad coming to visit me in Japan for 2 weeks at Easter. Although there was a ton of things to plan before they came, it all paid off and we had such a blast together! I got to show them so many different parts of my life here and play tour guide : ) I picked them up in Nagoya at the airport we stayed in Nagoya (Super hotel!) for a night before starting our adventures in Kyoto the next day. Poor Mom and Dad didn’t even really get a chance to recover from Jet leg as I had them off and running from the start (with many pauses for photos of course!). Lol Mom was just like me when I first came—taking pictures of everything- especially toilets and signs! Hehe. Mom and Dad were lucky enough to have the JR (Japan Rail) passes and so we Shinkansen’d almost everywhere. In Kyoto, there are over 1000 temples. We made it to a few and some various pagodas and got our fill. We jammed in Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji (under reconstruction –boo), Sanjusangendo temple (33 bay temple, founded in 1164, famous for its 1001 beautiful wooden and gold-leaf covered statues of Kannon, goddess of mercy, with shrines for health, happiness, love, safe journey etc), and Kiyomizu-dera temple (beautiful with the cherry blossoms and view but it takes a long time to get up there through the busy steep street and the ‘waterfall’ is definitely overhyped.) We also followed a random parading ‘fox in a rickshaw’ festival near Gion by Yasaka shrine, past an old cherry tree and through the streets until we found ourselves at another free pagoda which was giving out Nomihodai sake! We were pretty exhausted in Kyoto but still managed to get up early enough for a Japanese style breakfast at Toyoko Inn before heading off to Nara. In Nara we did the obligatory pics with some deer who would bow to us in Deer Park, and of course to the beautiful Todaji temple (largest wooden structure in the world—houses the largest wooden Buddha (Daibatsu) and walked by other shrines and the big Pagoda in Nara.
Next, Mom and Dad had a few days to recover at my place back in Neo while I had to go back to work. They toured around my village (Usuzumi Sakura of course!) and I went to closing ceremonies and graduations. They also went to a doll class and sword museum tour I arranged with Chisako my Japanese doll teacher. We managed to do quite a bit in those few days—having dinner parties with my Elementary school teachers, Rika’s family and my English conversation class. While learning to eat with chopsticks they tried a variety of traditional Japanese foods including sushi and my favorite-yaki soba. Then fit in a tour of both my schools—sorry in advance for anyone who views the hours of videos they took! I really did try to ration it! There was just so much to see though.
On Friday we were off and running again- catching busses and trains to Hiroshima. The first day we spent at Miyajima seeing the beautiful gate and more deer. Miyajima is on of my favorite places in Japan. I think it’s absolutely beautiful and practically impossible to take a bad picture there. We got to go up the ropeway and to a few places I didn’t go to last time so that was cool for me too. The view from the top of the ropeway (and even more so after the hour long hike to the peak) was stunning. We didn’t see any of the wild monkeys that are supposedly up there, but met some cool people and barely made the last ropeline down. The cherry blossoms seemed to be just starting everywhere we went and we couldn’t help but say “ahh if only we were here a few days later!” a little too often. Still everything was quite beautiful and we stayed to see the Tori-gate at high tide, low tide and night. The next day, we went to Hiroshima and took in all of Peace Park. For lunch we went to Subway (my first time in Japan--- ahhhh how I missed you Subway!) and then for crepes when all of a sudden I heard someone calling my name—Sandi (my friend from Edmonton who came on JET at the same time as me) had her parents visiting too and although we both knew we’d be in Hiroshima at the same time, I was super shocked to be running into her a few blocks off the main tourist strip. It turned out her parents and her were having lunch at Subway too right after us- at the same table none the less. After a quick intro and catch up both groups of visiting Canadians were off to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. En route, we passed the craziest Daiso ever—something like 8 stories of dollar store—ahh Japan. : ) The memorial museum was just as influential as last time—and this time I was able to go to the Peace Memorial hall which was filled with personal stories in an exhibition about leaving those behind. Wow is all I can say. So powerful.
That night we headed off to Okonomiyaki mura and did it up true Hiroshima style—we took a random elevator into a building and found floors of restaurants all making Okonomiyaki in front of you. (Okonomiyaki Hiroshima style is egg, cabbage, soba, meat etc cooked like a pizza/pancake). We pretended we knew what we were doing and found a place to sit and somehow managed to get food and drink. Although I think they could potentially tell we weren’t from around there somehow. Hehe. Afterwards, I decided Mom and Dad couldn’t leave Japan without going to a Karaoke place—and fortunately Big Echo was one floor up on that magical elevator. Although I think Mom was a little hesitant at first, we all had a great time and in true karaoke fashion ended up extending our time because we couldn’t get enough. For our last day in Hiroshima we found ourselves visiting Hiroshima castle and some more beautiful gardens before heading back to Neo.
Mom and Dad left for Tokyo a few days later after some “sleep over” parties in my living room and a last visit to Usuzumi Sakura before it bloomed (only a few days after they left.) They went to Saitama (near Tokyo) to stay with our relatives and see all that Tokyo has to offer. I sadly couldn’t go because of more meetings and ceremonies at work.
The next weekend, I headed off for a big ole catch up weekend with my crew- Narin, Jess, and Jords. We went to Kobe with a half day side trip to Himeji castle. Himeji is arguably the most famous castle in Japan and we undoubtedly saw it at it’s most beautiful time—Cherry blossom season. The only down side, was that thousands upon thousands of other people had the same idea on that sunny day. We took crazy amounts of pictures--- posing with Ninja’s was a highlight- and ate lots of festival foods as it was the Himeji sweet festival nearby. We bought tickets to see the nearby garden and inside of the castle, but with the hoards of people, we only made it to the 2nd floor before giving up on the multiple hours waiting inline to reach the top of the castle. Lol seriously, this is what our group of tourists has come to. We were all ashamed, but couldn’t think of anything else but getting back to Kobe and heading out on the town then back to our capsules. Oh yah, I stayed in my first capsule hotel—and potentially spoiled myself because this one is Kobe is one of the best capsules in all of Japan. It was very cool and had separate floors for women. Jess and I quite enjoyed the free onsen that was open 24/7 and had daily feature flavor pools (we got a sakura one the last day we were there ). Kobe itself, is famous for the old European houses and Western influence. The houses were neat, but we decided they weren’t worth paying for tours of or anything. We went on a ropeway (with gorgeous views over Osaka bay) and walked for miles uphill to visit a waterfall as well in Kobe- but without a doubt that trip will be remembered for Himeji castle above all else.
So other than my constant voyages in the last month or two, I’ve been sticking around home and re-discovering local life once again. One weekend (although unfortunately it made me miss out on the infamous Penis (fertility) festival) my schools and Narin’s JHS (along with a few hundred other people), participated in the Usuzumi Roman Walk- a choice between 3km and 60km walk all ending at my village’s famous tree. I chose to go on the 18km walk from Tanigumi station to Neo along with one of the ladies from my convo class, Narin and many of my kids. The elementary students all walked 3km and some of my grade 8s even ran 38km! 18 was perfect for me—although I’d like to think if I could go again next year I’d do 28k. There were celebratory free soups etc at the end and it was a neat way to hang out with some of my town people outside of work.. That night we went out for a fundraiser for Simon’s trip to India during Golden Week. His Beer Games at America Land were a hit! There was a fantastic turnout and I even got to hang out with some of the Canadian Jets from other prefectures that I hadn’t seen since August. The next day I managed to make my way to the ever so addictive Chisako’s doll class. I keep saying “this is my last one” but everytime I see another one I want to make. This time it was cool because I got to personalize a love letter in advance. A week before, I wrote what I wanted on it in English- Chisako translated- then her husband wrote it out in tiny kanji. Bet you can’t guess who it was to? Hehe. Sandra, Evan and one of Sanj’s teachers were there that day too making flat dolls—now I really want to do one of those because they turn out so gorgeous.
So as I have probably mentioned before, March-April is the end/start of new school years in Japan. This means sad goodbyes with my grade 9s, the transition of some of my elementary kids to the big world of JHS and…. new little ones!! How I heart my little babies! : ) Grade 1 kids are absolutely adorable! Kidnap alert going out—Jords and I are scheming on how to smuggle some of them back to Canada! It really is cool though seeing some of the family connections between my kids though—I have some huge families in Neo and some of my kids have 7,8,9 brothers and sisters. Along with new kids, it also means new staff. Here teachers change without really having any choice every few years. They only find out a few days before they have to transfer too—I can only imagine how teachers would take that back home. Needless to stay, school has been full of excitement and emotions lately. Oh and days off for the kids which aren’t actually days off for the teachers—more necessary than the August month of ‘teacher only’days—but all the same—an official change of years and not a single day off—union where are you?
With the changing of school years—means enkais (staff drinking dinner parties) are in full swing. I have 3 in a span of 8 days this week, plus we had an end of the year apartment party too a while ago. They are really fun and such a great way to interact with your teachers outside of school—and the English (and my Japanese) flows so much more easily in those types of situations! I was very sad to see many of my favorite teachers leave, and in particular Kocho sensei of the ES did it up right one last time. I could seriously write an entire blog about him. He’s such a character!! Beyond hilarious and so jolly. Although—he dared to question the infamous Sojiro and ocarinas (http://www.sojiro.net/ )and I thought there might be a throw down right there from the JHS teachers defending it. Everyday I find a new thing that makes me laugh and question both Canadian and Japanese etiquette. At the last apartment party is was sounds of eating, talking while eating, elbows on table and chomping off pieces of meat without cutting—hey you can only do so much with chopsticks.

Now school is up and full on back to normal. I’m running with the kids in the morning and still circuit training and playing badminton with the school club as often as I can. Spring “vacation” and the first week of school were just weird—with so many transitions and lots of protective gossip. Desks were cleaned out for the first times in years—teachers I mean—and baseball season is back on—so it’s back to having tv in the staff room on teacher days. Although admittedly there was some work to do to get ready for the new year, the “look busy” mentality often won over again. I met a man on a train who was telling me that Japan has the most “conventional” society….. it’s definitely functional but I still think it’s not my cup of tea sometimes. The endless meetings …. Well I won’t go there.. on to more happy things…

The latest excitement has been the students getting ready for homestays in Devon. There is lots of buzz around the school and I can help but wish I was going with them. I truly hope that the board decides to continue the Devon-Neo homestay exchange, although it is really not looking good, as now that we are part of Motosu- an Australian partnership is in the talks. Maybe my dreams of coming back as a Devon rep to Neo aren’t quite going to come to fruition…
Oh wait, how on earth have I missed the most important thing in all of Neo this month--- it’s Usuzumi Sakura time!!! Narin, Kiri and my other friends here I am sure are bored to death of me talking about the tree—but since this is a blog—feel free to scroll down for all those who that applies to—the rest of you--- I LOVE MY TREE!! I’m such a Neo’ite now!
First a little bit of a tribute to the history of my tree
-Usuzumi Sakura (Indian ink colored Cherry blossom)
-the oldest cherry blossom tree in Japan (presumably the world) over 1500 years old!
-planted by the 26th Emperor Keitai who was seeking refuge in Neo for a number of years before he took the throne
-named a National Natural Monument in 1922
-survived earthquakes, typhoons, heavy snow and other catastrophes—making it a subject of many preservation projects—now perfectly healthy—although held up by some poles and has had many root grafs
-a very rare type of cherry blossom because of it’s light pink grayish color as it changes
-has it’s own museum (also very cool Kikkaseki -Chrysanthemum rocks there from the earthquake to see for anyone who visits) and is definitely the most famous tree in Japan
-also has many songs, poems and artwork written for it
-new and exciting as of this month--- some of its seeds will be gathered in August and sent to SPACE as part of an experiment to see how seeds do in 0 gravity.

Personally, I had been to the tree a number of times before the official blooming this year—including for the walk, and an early summer concert with Sojiro. This week I went for another good part of 4 days. First was for our JHS students and the Sakura Reception—playing the ocarina for a hundred dignified guests as well as some of the 200,000 people who visit Neo (remember population of 2,000 people) this month. They also did “tree ambassador work” (don’t laugh!) and played tour guide giving mini concerts and info about our famous tree. This continued Monday and Tuesday afternoons as well. Saturday I invited a bunch of my ALT friends and Rika and her friends from around Neo and we had a hanami party my the tree—think all day picnic with waaayyy to much food! Everyone came back to my little apartment afterwards for a taco night (we dare assume that it was the first ever Taco party following a hanami party). Twas a fantastic little weekend that also included the once a year Nogo-no-Noh mai performances (traditional Japanese theatre and music) on the Sunday. Lol and in case that wasn’t enough tree lovin for me… Tuesday I went with the elementary school on an all day field trip around town which included walking to the local waterfalls to release our fish, picking some herbs for kyushoku later in the year, and….a visit to Usuzumi Sakura museum and picnic and games in the park. It was by far one of my favorite days with my kids—probably equivalent to Sports Festivals in excitement level- but for me even more so because now I really new my kids and there wasn’t the month of lead up hype.
For more info on the tree… http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/829338/page/vc/vc/1 or ask me for my pages of info or google search. Seriously I heart it very much. It had the kind of views that poetry is made of—cherry blossoms falling like snow in a dream….—haha ok I’ll spare you- but it was gorgeous and I’m proud of it just like every other person in my village.

Well, it’s job application time for back in Canada now a days. It’s so much work to get everything ready- I forgot how much I dread applications and interviews. I’m still looking into Peace Boat too (my dream ship of sailing around the world and teaching English), although think I may have to delay it for a year or two as I’m not exactly qualified—a few months short but still may apply all the same.
My focus is also on the countdown to Thailand paradise!! I’m so excited for this trip! Seeing Duane for the first time since Christmas break—and hanging out with Jess—and beaches, elephants, monkeys and sun!! Whooooo!!! Beyond excited! Not that I really need a vacation or anything from my wonderful life here but… you can’t pass up things like this!!

In any case, thank you for reading all this and hope I didn’t ramble too much.
Happy spring everyone!! Enjoy the sunshine finally! Please check out all my pics on facebook since I can’t post them on here with my dial up internet and all.
: )
Cheers!
~Julie

Graduation, Small Town Life

So the end of the Japanese school year is upon us and a little excitement around the town and school is a welcome change. I’ve been sticking around more locally and discovering and rediscovering the local life. (and for a change I’m not even talking much about Malera! We’ve even branched out from there to quaint little restaurants, and Riverside Mall!)

So I always consider myself somewhat of a small town girl. The Devo born and raised, small schools close friends type. Lately though, I’m realizing even being a townie, this village life can be quite a whole different experience. So I’ve gotten used to the peculiarly limited bank and post office hours (although I think this is a pan Japanese thing), even the ‘the ATM needs a rest too’ type attitude. Living without a conbini and other amenities I have also managed to adapt to. The one thing that still sometimes shocks me though, is just how much the people in the town know about your life.. or think they know… lately, I have had comments if I come home late or leave my house early, what types of food they see me eating or buying, and just about every weekend someone manages to spot me at Malera; although rarely they come up and say hi, rather, they wait until later during the week to talk to me about it. I’ve also been picked up by strangers while I was walking in the rain, and although I still don’t know who they are, they knew exactly where I lived and wouldn’t take no for an answer. The sounds of village life can be quite appealing- especially after a busy weekend in a city. But, the smells at times..eeks. Out in the inaka anything goes it seems- and burning garbage smells (illegally but everyone does it) as well as animals, rotting trees and kamimoushis (stink bugs) are quite intense. (ooh and I had my first cockroach—in my house, two days after the first one in my school! Yes, I screamed btw!) However, I don’t forget the perks of small town life—it really is so beautiful here and you can’t beat gifts of food and flowers from people’s gardens.

School has been great the last few weeks! Lots of emotions and year end activity, including national holidays like Girl’s Day. In Japan school starts in April and ends in March, with different summer and winter holidays in between. The kids have been busy with tests, and getting everything ready for grad (which was today- March 11th for the grade 9s.) Test time was interesting because all my grade 9s are going to different schools so high school entrance exams were a huge thing. The grade 7 and 8s were also (somewhat less) stressed out and studying a lot. It was crazy cuz the kids would tell me they liked school days better than weekends because they had too much studying to do. YUCK! Craziness I say. Still, students would get test scores between about 15% and 80% (even distribution too.) Eeks. I still wonder about the merits of each school system… my friend always says it makes him question how good regular public school really is if 90% of the students need/ or make themselves go to Juku school (cram study school) at least once or twice a week. They stress structure and order here. Students appear to critique things and run the class, but sometimes I wonder how much they are actually ever using independent thought and how often it is just following orders and not disrupting the pattern. It’s strange sometimes, since the order makes it seem like their lives are so controlled sometimes, but in other aspects I wonder if my kids are brought up not to be rebellious, because we were talking in class about family rules and the kids said they didn’t have any--ever--- like no bed time, no need to make their beds or clean their rooms ever etc, yikes!!! I was quite shocked. They never clean at home, yet at school they have become expert janitors!

My Junior High kids are still helping me learn Japanese, which is always fun. I’m finally getting better I think! Lol maybe. I am getting some of their humor now, as well as still learning a lot about English in the mean time! (Nan desu ka? Indian nan chips) We made graduation cards and had fun learning each other’s similar proverbs and such. Also the elementary kids have been quite fun lately, trying to quote English they learn from commercials and songs that is way beyond their understanding. Too funny sometimes! English vowels still are driving some kids crazy and “I want to sleep/I went to sleep” comes up often. Also f/v/th/l/r is a daily headache—but they are still adorable!
At elem, they loved our random snow days and the vice principal built an elephant snow slide which even the counselor and I couldn’t resist! There too, we’ve been having game/grad days (which I still seem to be finding out about last minute—always drives me nuts but I’ve learned to adapt more easily than at first). We also have changed our lunch tables so for those who have heard me complain about some of my little ‘angels’ at lunch… finally I’ve got a temporary escape until April anyways!
At the JHS club activities are back up and running, also I’ve been running with the kids in the morning, in preparation for the big Usuzumi Walk from Motosu to Neo next weekend. I signed up for the 18km one after chickening out on the idea of running 28km like some of the students are doing. The longest option is 68km but not even our Phys Ed teacher is taking that one on.
So as I mentioned earlier, today was grad. Everything the past week or two has been leading up to this morning. Last week we had the official days of the grade 9 (senpei) mentors passing on knowledge to the grade 8s with lots of official ceremonies, meals, and even ocarina scrutinizing practices. One of my highlights was a mixed lunch day where we watched videos from the grade 9s trip to Canada that year. We watched them sing and dance at my parents’ Elementary school (where I happened to be that day) and the kids had a blast finding me (with dark hair- gasp shock!) and learning that my mom and dad were in the video too! (with Dad dancing too! Hehe) It’s so much cooler to watch now since I know all of the people from Devon AND Neo now! : )
Yesterday afternoon was spent going above and beyond cleaning the school and prepping for grad. We spent 2 hours Friday and 2 hours Monday with whole school grad rehearsals (sit- stand- sit-stand- bow- again!) eeks. Painful! Then we had our usual 30 minute Friday clean and additional 3 hour Monday clean and set up. It sure is a lot of work when you have such a small number of students but such a large school to clean! Everything had to be perfect, and desks were wrapped in sheets at least 5 different times to make sure they looked just so. Don’t even get me started about the green floor mats. It took us half an hour to lay them out perfectly straight, then we swept them, got on our hands and knees and scrubbed them with facecloths, swept again (since we scrubbed so hard they started to pell), followed by putting up chairs on top and them spot checking scrubbing the floors again! I wish I could tell you all that it was worth it in the end… but I’m not sure I could really tell a difference! Lol. Still, everything looked pretty nice today I have to say. In Japan everyone wears black suits on grad with white ties.(From Elem to High School). We also all have corsages (which I just found out today and had to borrow a fake one from a fellow teacher-oops!) Everything was very formal (although I’m told less so than some places because we are a small inaka school—and we all needed kairos to stay warm!) The principal was even in tails! It was all very formal and systematic, yet quite different from grad ceremonies back home. Students were in their usual school uniforms and each of the 12 graduating students brought one parent (all moms no dads). There were also many people representing the Board of Education and PTA who were in attendance. Like I said earlier, it was also very systematic and rehearsed. Surprisingly, I found out yesterday that I was to give a speech on behalf of the town of Devon (my home town and Neo’s sister city in Canada). Pressure was on to do all the correct bows and such properly! The highlights for me, were watching the kids sing and play the ocarinas. Some of the songs I had somehow never even heard them practicing. It was all very lovely and half of the students (boys included) and all of the parents started to cry. I think I even had a tear or two. They really are great kids! The concert portion and end when the grads walked down the row of 1st and 2nd grade ocarina players playing Auld Lang Syne was really beautiful. So, I guess all the excessive cleaning and practice paid off.
After the teachers and 1st and 2nd grade students cleaned up (ooh and the green mats--- just as much fun to put away if you were wondering: It took Meri and I 4 times to get our matt wrapped properly… 25 minutes later another teacher took it from us cuz he decided we were hopeless). We then took a Grad, parent and teacher picture (while the grade 7’s and 8’s entertained us with their rendition of the Exile train dance); walked the grads outside and said goodbye through a walking arch, and then sent the other students home. The teachers finished cleaning up and had a massive and awkwardly quiet bento lunch and now we’re all chilling in the staff room doing what everyone seems to do best here—pretending to look busy. We now have 2 weeks of school with no grade 9s so things should really be quiet around here with only 20 students in the school! Graduation has got me thinking about Jess’ anthropology lesson the other day, and the idea that every celebration in every culture is a transformation of people’s identity and stages in life. Including stripping of old identity and leaving being somewhat changed. It's pretty interesting see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality for more details. Graduation is undoubtedly one, and her full analysis fits quite well.
Well enough about school! Things I have learned from convo class lately--- there are so many superstitions here! Rika bought a new purse- because you should always buy them in spring and not fall because fall is empty, and spring is full. So now you know!
On the idea of superstitions and such, did you know that people don’t cross their fingers, or recognize this symbol in Japan (and most Muslim and Buddhist cultures (http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/fingers-crossed.html for more info). This week we also talked about Miso factories and Toyota in Aichi (which Rika and I then visited on Saturday). We also talked about nationalism versus regionalism since Canada is quite patriotic as a whole (flags, anthems and such) but in Japan they are more so at the local level (schools, towns, prefectural pride-food-songs). I also learned random things like that the Neo river decides which towns are part of Motosu and which are not in the new amalgamation of Motosu city and why I am part of a city which is 45 minutes away from me but the other few town in between us aren’t considered to be Motosu. Other randomness, we talked about different knocks in Japan- 4 is polite, 3 is friendly, you should always have secret knocks with friends and boyfriends, and then it’s entirely different for washroom knocks. I also learned how rare doorbells are here.
Sometimes things here seem so different and (in my culturally biased opinion) behind. They talk about how Japan had no problems before the bad gaijin came and brought trouble and crime (I am considered good-English- gaijin btw). It’s a scary mindset though. Also how women still have such different roles than men here. Today I served tea to my principal and his guests for the first time ever—it’s a rite of passage in the school for women I guess. We also talked about health care differences and expectations and roles of women versus men. Again, for now I’ll just say quite different mindset. But they involve occupations, cooking, cleaning, parenting, quitting jobs when finding a mate etc. The ladies also taught me some new onomatopoeias in Japanese and how to write seasonal greetings (as they received cards from Kaki this week and were quite excited—although didn’t recognize pictures of the Eiffel Tower, which made me giggle). Finally we talked about club outings which are very popular here, and eating “Viking style” which is buffet style- but how in Japan they don’t gorge themselves like others do because of again a different outlook on life.
I’m still loving my weekend life with my regular crew. We went to the game centre at Malera (where we obsessed about Oshiri kajiri moushi once again and did print club of course!), snowboarding, karaoke and Sega world two weeks ago. Last weekend we headed to Aichi-ken for all you can eat strawberries and an interesting buying food type trip. Rika, her friend, Jess, Narin and I went on a Japanese bus tour into Aichi where we visited many food shops and an island shrine. We also went to Orange Park where we enjoyed all you can eat strawberries (with me winning the competition by eating 101 strawberries in 40 minutes and not getting sick : ) It was quite a different tour than I’m used to, but we had fun and we practiced lots of Japanese too! The next day, Narin, Jess and I went to the Ume (plum blossom) festival in Gifu city and then met up with Jordan to go to Natural Café (the place with the live tortoise wandering and the official gaijin café of Gifu-shi I say!). The plum blossom festival was cool mainly because we saw people who were not overly pretty or even dressed up, but who were paid to stand near the trees where no one else is allowed to go. It’s quite random really! We enjoyed taking mock pictures of us with all the photographers in the background, until some of them came over and started to take pictures of us while we stood outside the ropes by the trees. Geez who needs professionals!? Hehe. Now I’m getting obsessed with Sakura and am planning on decorating my apartment, buying a sakura tofu pillow and maybe even a dress to wear during the hanami festivals! Look out, I’m really getting converted now! : )
More from the randomness which I call my life… I’m getting to be an omurice connoisseur since it seems to be our latest addiction. Hiccups in Japanese is “shakkurei”. I am a ‘Mars Minus’ in Japanese fortunes for this year—which means I am supposed to have a very bad luck year and be lonely at work- lol hopefully just the latter (which is already pretty true). I’m still addicted to Amazing Race (yah Duane and Narin already know, totally a sucker and sap when it comes to that show—although am still angry Canadians cannot apply).
This month has included me eating fugu at school lunch, drinking sakura tea, and going to hours of PTA meetings and the following enkai. I’ve also grown to really appreciate the Neo-Devon connection, have fallen in love with my kids ocarina playing and singing, and have finally managed to be in the staff room after the principal, vice principal and some teachers! Can it be Julie actually has work to do?
Life’s still pretty isolating and my frustrations from never knowing what is going on have not yet ceased. My complaint of the month, which I can’t actually say to anyone here, is to be able to express how frustrating it is to always have to ask about everything and never warned/told in advance. Believe it or not, this is not natural to foreigners! You have to tell us things! Especially when we are only at your school every second day at best. Sometimes I love being at two different schools- you get to know so many kids, and get to interact with such different levels. On the other hand, it sucks because sometimes you see kids working towards things, like school concerts and plays- but don’t get to see the end result. On grad, I insisted that I attended even though it was a day I was supposed to be at the Elementary school. Luckily they understood. Unfortunately I missed the big elementary school concert/play last week though since I was never told the exact date until some of the other Junior high teachers left school wearing suits to go to the Elem, and at that time I had a class. Other isolation times are when your week gets messed up by snow. I was only snowed in a few times this winter, and nothing as bad as I had been warned before. Still, the really bad days always seemed to occur on days where I had plans for Japanese lessons or to go out with friends. Unfortunately, if you have ever seen the roads leading out of Neo, they are very typical Japanese inaka roads- narrow and curvy. Not exactly the best to drive on at night, in winter, even with my awesome new winter tires!
Luckily I have combated the isolation with some young teacher bonding time!! Some of the Shogakko teachers went out for dinner last week for Chinese—it was awesome!! Although I strained to understand much of the conversation, I did catch some parts when I was concentrating. Even some where I am not sure they wanted me to understand : ) It was a great evening to gossip about school life and really feel like part of the inner circle, when I am so often on the fringe. I drove there with one of my favorite teachers, the one who is closest to me, and I just found out is turning 30 (everyone looks sooo young to me though!) and leaving my apartment block next month! Boo- back to being the only female in the place! Anyways, our drive was great and we sang our hearts out in the car the whole way! Fun times indeed. At dinner I also observed how so many little etiquette things are different here compared with at home—like both hands should always be above the table here, and you should drink from your bowl and lift it when you eat.
In addition to learning Japanese, I am also trying to learn other random things with some of my spare time here—I’m reading lots- lately even trying to get into Shakespeare again. Also thanks to Duane’s persistence, I’m learning about inspirational money stuff through Robert Kiyosaki’s ‘Choose to be Rich- Rich Dad/Poor Dad.’ It’s pretty interesting, although definitely a different take than I am used to.
So as you may be able to tell with this entry, I am all over the cultural curve right now. So many highs, but then quickly followed by lows. Overall I’m still really glad I came here, but also am content with my decision not to recontract still. Although, apparently the best time in Japan is coming soon… hanami season!!!! Bring on the Cherry blossoms!!! And hopefully an end to my eternal winter colds!

Well my kids are getting excited about their trip to Canada, and I am getting excited for Mom and Dad to come, as well as Thailand afterwards! The next few months are going to fly by!! Here’s to hoping that the monkeys on the road and finally melting snow mean that winter is gone and spring is here! Welcome to the start of the prettiest time in Japan! (or so I’m told!)


My favorite new words of the day:
もちろん（Mochiron）- of course
みなさん(Mina-san)- everyone
まいにち(mainichi)- everyday
おやすみなさい。(oyasuminasai)- good night
おめでとうございます (omedetou gozaimasu) -congratulations

Ooh and for more reading from Japan, here’s an essay another Jet wrote about English in Japan and Japanese in England. I can vouch from reading the English on clothing myself that it’s true! It makes me laugh when people have no idea what they are wearing—like old grandma’s and elementary students alike wearing play boy bunny clothing! http://www.pref.gifu.lg.jp/pref/s17781/jetset/Paulessay-english.html

That’s all from me for now!
Take Care! Keep in touch! And enjoy spring!
~Julz

P.S. Sorry about the slow reply on emails lately! I'm going to try my best this week to get back to all of you!! Thanks! I love hearing from you always!