Trip to Nagoya

Right after we got back from Oregon, I jumped into textbook writing. I arrived just in time for the last gasp before the books went to the publisher, so I was not a key writer this year. There was a lot to be done, though, and we were down to the wire. We worked through the weekend and technically missed the deadline by a few days, but it all worked out in the end and so far it seems the books turned out quite well. Hopefully well enough that we can reuse almost all the material next year and don't need to start over from scratch AGAIN. That would be the ultimate goal, of course, and we all dream of the day...

Just after textbooks were due, there was a public holiday in Japan so we had a long weekend to play with. Russell and I decided to jump on it and we set off for Nagoya.

We had a great time in Nagoya over New Years last year and we have always wanted to go back and explore it when the city was open. This is something that our Japanese friends don't seem to understand. Nagoya is something like the 4th largest city in Japan, but it is not seen as a place worth visiting for fun. It has traditionally been the industrial heart of Japan - and as such it was bombed very heavily during World War II. In rebuilding the city, though, Nagoya really pushed to be cutting edge. They have really interesting architecture and art all over the city. The city also feels very organized and easy to navigate.

This time around, Russell and I weren't sure what we wanted to do, but we were pretty sure we would find something. We booked a hotel and headed over on the bullet train. We arrived late in the afternoon, stopped in at the tourist center to get maps and advice for local attractions, and then set off to explore the area around our hotel. The first night, we went to the orchid garden. It was a little disappointing - we weren't big orchid fans going in, and there wasn't much there to convert the unaware. I'm sure its awesome if you know and love orchids. After the garden we checked into our hotel and then headed out for dinner.

As I mentioned before, our Japanese friends tend to respond to our interest in Nagoya with, "why??" They also always seem to come to the conclusion that while the city may not be interesting, they have to admit that Nagoya does have some awesome food. They are known for a variety of grilled eel dishes, miso sauce on pork cutlets and spicy chicken wings. Our first dinner we were looking for a cutlet restaurant, but after failing to locate it, we stumbled on an izakaya that, judging from the caricature of the dude out front wearing chicken wings, could help us out with Nagoya special #3. As it turned out, this was a rather large chain of izakaya that are well known in Nagoya. The place was huge (unusual for restaurants in Kobe). The individual booths were in a fairly traditional-made-modern style that gave the sense of privacy. On the more modern end, though, they also had touch screens in each enclosure where you could browse their menu and place your orders. It also automatically split the bill for you at the end in however many parts you wanted. Very cool.

We, of course, ordered the wings. They were super good and we ate far too many of them. Most foods in Japan are not even remotely spicy, but these were nice. Russell lamented that they were not quite as good as buffalo wings, but good enough to really make him wish he had some buffalo wings. Poor Russell. We make due with what we have. In all honesty, we thoroughly enjoyed the restaurant and had a hard time not just going there for every meal.

The next day was the public holiday, so all the museums were open for visitors. After agonizing over which places to go to, we narrowed our list down to two must-sees. One was the Toyota factory museum and the other was the Tokugawa museum.

The Toyota museum was way more than we expected. Half of the museum had nothing to do with cars, but rather with textiles. The Toyota family made its name by inventing automatic looms and continuing to invent better and better technology for making fabric. The museum started out by showing how fabric had traditionally been made, early looms and then the increasingly complex automatic looms that Toyota invented. We tagged along with a tour and were really impressed. Some of the more modern technologies include a machine that passes the thread from one shuttle to another to allow for wider fabrics, a loom that mades synthetic fabric by shooting the light nylon fibers through the loom on a jet of water, and a multi-color loom that can weave photograph images into cloth. Two hours of looms later, we still hadn't seen anything about cars, and we didn't care at all. It was great.

After the looms, the cars did take over, though. After Toyota senior passed the loom business onto his son (also an accomplished engineer) the son started to explore the possibility of using the Toyota company's industrial abilities to introduce the first domestically made car in Japan. Several other companies had tried this, but there had been very little success and there was a lot of skepticism that it was possible. Toyota Jr. set out to make it work, though. Eventually, he managed to start making domestic cars and the Japanese automotive industry has, of course, surged forward from there. The museum included history about how this was possible and the different hurdles Toyota had to overcome (they had to do extensive studies into metallurgy to make sure the vehicles' parts would be sound, etc). Then the museum moved onto a history of Japanese cars and how they are made. We got to watch a guy stamping engine parts to show the process and we got to play with all the different parts of the car to see what they did and how they worked. It was really interesting and nicely interactive. We spent another couple of hours in the automotive part of the museum, though we did have to step out for lunch before we both fell over. A+ for the Toyota Museum. I highly recommend it.

Having chewed through most of the day, we were a little rushed at the second stop, the Tokugawa Museum. The Tokugawa Shogunate was the feudal regime that ruled Japan during the Edo period, from 1603 until 1868. Many of their personal belongings and a history of the Edo period are on display there. We saw some of the Tokugawa armor and swords, costumes for Noh plays, including some of the most outstanding Noh masks I have yet come across, and personal effects. Things like fancy lacquer picnic boxes, vases and art from China and the biggest treasure - an illustrated Tale of Genji book. The Tale of Genji is sometimes called the world's oldest novel. It was written by a nobel woman in Japan in the early eleventh century. Early copies of the book are extremely rare and illustrated copies are even more rare. The actual text is only on display one day out of the year to help preserve it, but images of it and analysis of the story and illustrations are a core part of the museum.

We were more than a little footsore after a very full day wandering through museums, but both museums were outstanding. There are still a lot of places we would like to go in Nagoya. It looks like we will need to make a third trip one of these days. Our friends are never going to understand...

Catching Up Part 3: Portland

Russell's sister also came down from Seattle on Friday, and his mother came up as well, so we all got to spend time together. With Gwen, Carolyn and Alice joining the group, we spent Friday morning at the Rhododendron Garden in Portland and then hanging out around the Hawthorne district. We stopped in at the Waffle Window and had amazing waffles - this visit we all just got the sugared kind, which let you really appreciate the delicious waffle base. After that, we poked around in several vintage clothing and furniture shops. Gwen found a pretty awesome vintage hair-dressing chair - complete with ash tray in the arm rest. It was a really fun day. When Justin and Michelle were done with work, we all met up and had dinner together. After dinner, we had to say goodbye to Carolyn and Alice and then we started plotting for our Saturday adventure.

After getting students settled and spending time with family in Corvallis, Russell and I decided to head up to Portland and spend a few days hanging out with friends in Portland before we headed home to Japan. As luck would have it, there was also a guest star appearance by one of our good friends from New York. Hooray!


Our hosts, Justin and Michelle, had spotted a wide variety of activities in the Portland area. We started out the day with a "Where's Waldo" search of downtown Portland. It was a fundraiser where teams paid an entry fee, were given a map of the area in downtown where Waldo could potentially be hiding, and a list of Waldo's belongings that would be scattered around downtown, drawn in chalk. To win the game, we only had to find Waldo and take a picture with him, but of course we wanted to find the long list of objects as well. Every 15-20 minutes, Waldo would send a text message with a clue to his whereabouts. He was moving, so he was hard to find. If you somehow missed the Where's Waldo (aka Where's Wally) books of the late 1980's and early '90s, they are worth checking out. It will also make this post easier to understand.

After tracking down all but two of his objects, we finally spotted Waldo outside of Pioneer Place Mall. We had been told that the Mall was off limits and not to look for Waldo there, but we saw him walk inside. What?? We were afraid that it wouldn't count if we caught up with him in the mall, but we didn't want to lose him again. Instead, we stalked him. It turned out it was time for a change of actors and the old Waldo met up with the new Waldo to pass on the hat, glasses and cane. The new Waldo headed back to the same entrance the old one had used (we could have waited outside - alas). The new Waldo did notice me following him in the mall. He asked if I was following him, and I said "no". (Sarcastically, I thought). He asked if we were playing the game and I said we were. He also asked if we had found Waldo yet, and I said we hadn't. He then sped off and gave us quite a chase. We almost lost him, but we did catch up with him shortly after he exited the mall.

His response?

"Wait, you ARE following me?"

Brilliant. We explained that we thought the mall was off limits. He let us take a picture with him and then we headed off to find the last two objects on the list. We were, unfortunately, not the first group to find Waldo. I think we weren't even the first group to find Waldo AND all the objects - though that part I can't remember. It was a really fun way to spend the morning thought. We won two-for-one ice creams at Haagen Daaz and we each got a gift from the grab-bag.

After the Waldo search, we headed across the street to the Italian festival that was going on. We listened to music and shared a bottle of wine in the wine garden. It was fun, but we had bigger plans to come. Around 3:00 we headed to the Oregon Zoo. What was at the zoo? A live performance of Prairie Home Companion! We got to watch Garrison Keillor live. Justin, Michelle and Gwen had seen him before, but this was the first time for Russell and I. We had a great time. If you don't know the Prairie Home Companion radio show, you should definitely check it out. You wouldn't think that watching a radio show would be all that exciting, but of course, this is no regular radio show. We packed more food that we could possibly eat, sad on the blankets in the grass and had a great night.

I was feeling a little sick after the show, so we didn't stay out late afterwards. It had still been a long and exciting day, though.

Sunday, and our last day with Gwen, we dropped in at an Apple computer festival to try our luck at their raffle. No luck - but we did get free hot dogs and burgers. After that, we met up with some of Justin and Michelles friends in Portland and spent the afternoon letterboxing. I'm sure I've described this before - the game with the online clues and the hidden boxes with stamps in them? We found quite a few stamps, though at least one that we searched for was missing.

Of course, we also stopped off at my personal favorite food cart in Portland - Wiffies Fried Pies. I have eaten far too few of Wiffies tasty pie pockets, but I dream about them all year long and make sure a quick pilgrimage is part of my yearly trip to Oregon. Yum.

I'm kind of racing through the last of my Oregon trip because I have bigger posts to come - we had a great time, though. Russell and finished off our time in Portland with some shopping (we found dance shoes in Russell's size!) and I met the last group of exchange students from KSGU that were coming to Oregon. They settled in nicely and I was back on an airplane to Japan a couple days later.

End of our Oregon trip!
Back to Japan!

Catching Up Part 2: Corvallis

So I met up with the OSU students in Portland and rode down to Corvallis with them. Once they were settled in, I headed off to my dad's place. The next few days were mostly student devoted, although I did break away to meet up with some awesome friends. I had lunch with a few at OSU and the old ELI gang - of which sadly many have moved on - was able to get together to have a big bash as well. It was great to see everyone - Even Lis Skyped in from Africa. Sweet! The food was awesome too. The ELI was always blessed with outstanding cooks.

After the students at OSU were all set up, I headed down to UofO to meet with my contacts there. I hadn't been to the campus in ages. It was gorgeous with all the summer flowers and greenery. I had a good visit and got some business done. I think all three Oregon groups will be well taken care of this year. I look forward to following their adventures.

With all the study abroad business finished for a while, I was able to take some real time off. Russell had come in a few days earlier, but he was planning to work for the whole week, so I headed to mom's house and spent a nice long weekend with her. We spent lots of time chatting and even got around to cleaning out her garage to make room for her new car.

But let me back up and talk about THAT. When I first arrived, mom was telling me about how she was looking for a new car and she had found one that she liked, but she couldn't find the model she wanted as a 5-speed in the color she wanted. She had given up on that particular car and was looking at other options. Between every mediocre assessment of other cars, though, she would light up and tell me how cool the Honda Fit was. I heard over and over how the back seat can fold up to fit a bike in the back and how comfortable the seats were. Finally, I suggested we just find a Fit. We were pretty sure we could get one in Seattle (based on info mom had received from a salesperson) so we started hunting up there and looking for a train ticket. Things were going to be tight, but we figured if we could home in on a dealership that definitely had the right car, it would be no problem.

Luckily, in the eleventh hour - just after we had contacted Russell's sister in Seattle to pick us up from the train station, we got a tip from a dealer mom had been working with that a dealer in McMinnville might have the car we were looking for. We called, got the confirmation, and were over there within an hour. Mom gave it a test drive and jumped right into the purchasing negotiations.

At this point we were back in the office and we met the dealer's "closer", a new kitten named Pilot. We were warned that Pilot could be feisty and to be careful. Duly warned, we didn't try to pick Pilot up. He was having none of that, though, and launched himself at Jose right away. Jose passed him to mom, who then snuggled him for about 30 minutes until it was simply not practical to have a cat in her arms. At that point Pilot was passed to me. He continued to snooze in my arms for another hour or so. He seemed totally sweet to us.

Apparently the "feisty" comment had been based on a stunt Pilot had pulled a few days earlier. He was hiding under one of the show cars in the dealership when a family walked by. They had a two year old toddling behind them, and when Pilot spotted her, he decided she was just his size. He jumped out from under the car and grabbed onto the little girl's back. Having had no idea there was anything under the car to begin with, the little girl was understandably terrified and it took everyone a minute to figure out what all the shrieking was about.

Pilot now comes with a warning.

In the end we weren't able to get the car that day - but we were able to drive it home the next. Mission accomplished! And the garage was ready. We were both quite pleased with ourselves, I think. I'm super happy to think of my mom commuting in a car with modern safety standards for once.

After the long weekend with mom, I headed back to Russell's parents' place. They have been slowly but surely turning the outdated, jerry-rigged country home they bought into a country palace. When we last saw them, they were just getting ready to tear the monolith fireplace out of the center of their house. Apparently the fireplace came out and the kitchen as well and they had been living out of a temporary kitchen set up on their back porch for most of the year. They went to great efforts, though, to have the house back together before Russell and I arrived. They pulled it off too. We heard stories of the remodel, but we got to enjoy all the fruits of their labor. The result was really impressive. There's something to be said for being out of the country for a year. I can't wait to see what they tackle after another year.

More to come as we head back to Portland.

Catching Up Part 1: Back in America

As I am trying to get across in my title, I am acutely aware that I am way behind in posts and I am equally aware that it will take me more than one go-'round to catch up.

The good news is that I definitely have good stories to tell.

Since I do seem to have a stubborn linear streak in me, I'm going to start more or less where I left off - just before I traveled to Oregon. That would be around August 15th. I had to work like crazy to get all of my loose ends tied up after the end of the term. I had to leave some colleagues in charge of proctoring my last, last chance tests but for the most part I had all my stuff taken care of.

After a few minor bumps at the airport (so THATS where those sewing scissors had gotten to... I THOUGHT I had brought them to Japan!) and a few bumps in immigration (oh, THAT form... I'm sure the students won't mind waiting) we were on the plane. I was really excited to be heading home to Oregon. I was definitely ready for a visit. Of course, the people I know in the US are way nicer than the flight attendants that were on my flight.

Culture shock #1:
Drinks round #1: Kind-looking Japanese grandfather next to me orders hot tea. After the flight attendant makes a big show of not understanding that "ocha" means "tea" he gets his hot tea.

Drinks round #2: Very concerned with ordering correctly in English this time, the grandfather asks his granddaughter how to say "ocha" in English. She tells him "hot tea." He practices.

Stewardess: "Can I get you a cold drink, sir?"
Grandpa' "Hot tea"
Stewardess: "Is that COLD?"
Grandpa: "Hot tea"
Stewardess: "Is that COLD sir?"
Helpful Japanese business man: "No, ma'am, I think he wants hot tea."
Stewardess: Just hands him water and huffs off.

Now, there was no hot drinks at the time because of turbulence, which was the reason she wasn't giving him hot tea - but let's get real. The poor guy obviously doesn't speak English. He is obviously trying to accommodate this woman by using as good an English as he can. He doesn't know we are heading into turbulence (announcements are only made in English) but he does know she gave him green tea last time. I DO understand why he can't have green tea. I don't understand the need for sarcasm or huffing.

I start to brace myself.

Culture shock #2

Lucky thing, because San Francisco immigration is 100 times worse. The actual immigration agent was just scary, but the helpers in charge of helping jet-lagged foreigners (and non-foreigners) get from immigration to customs were practically frothing at the mouth they were on such a power-trip. Some of my students were trying really hard not to cry by the time we got to immigration. At some point one of my students misplaced his customs card - the one the security lady had practically screamed at everyone to show her before she would let them through her gate - and I thought he was going to have a melt down. He was terrified that he would be deported. The customs folks were much more laid back. A couple students got searched, but not in too scary of a way.

We thankfully did all make it into the country.

We almost missed our second flight though... not because we were short on time, not because the students didn't make their way back to the terminal on time, but because we were all chatting away so happily it almost came and went without us noticing. I don't think the students noticed how close we cut it, but I just about gave myself a heart attack. We made it onto the airplane fine and it closed up right behind us.

The students I was with (heading to PSU) were greeted by friendly staff and unnervingly hot sunny weather. We headed into Portland, they headed off with their host families and I made my way to my friends' new house. It took me a while to figure out that the page about building your own backyard pizza oven was not an advertisement stuffed in their mailbox, but rather a note for me guiding me to the restaurant where they were having dinner, but I did find them eventually.

Spent the evening snuggling with their cat and the next day with the students. They seemed to be taking everything in stride and having a good time. Good thing, because the next day it was back to the airport to greet the OSU-bound students and head down to Corvallis. Of course, there was some letterboxing that was fit in in-between (note pictures of friends poking around potential hidey-holes in trees).

Japan Rocks Video Games

I can't believe its been over a month since I posted. I've been on vacation in the States and just got back a week ago. Now we are in a mad dash at work to get our textbooks finished (Friday was the soft deadline and we didn't come close) so a group of us are working through the weekend. Blog posts may need to wait a few more days... rest assured I have stories to tell.

In the meantime, I felt the following needed to be posted as it took place:

Russell is playing his new video game. Hi character? Chopin (as in the composer). What is Chopin doing? What else? Flighting a winged, two-horned unicorn (bicorn?) with flaming hooves with a sword.... in a top hat.

Hanabi

As I posted before, I had a late night on Friday. As one of my co-workers was leaving, she mentioned that there would be a number of fireworks events that coming weekend. Fireworks had been totally off my radar, and with everything else on my plate, knowing that they were about to get under way still didn't motivate me much.

Russell had band practice Sunday night, so I was doubly prepared to just chill at home and maybe get some cleaning done before I travel home. Russell was opposed to that idea, though. He felt it was unacceptable that I spend the evening alone when there were fun things happening in the city. He suggested I call some friends.

I have friends from work, but I was all jumped up over work that day and kind of wanted to get away as much as possible - even though I love my co-workers. Outside of them, the pickins are pretty slim in the friends category. As in, two. And neither of them ever do anything spur of the moment. One must book ahead. I thought it over, though and decided to email Keiko. I figured she was already probably planning to go to the fireworks and maybe I could tag along.

As luck would have it, that was just how it worked out. I felt bad horning in on her night out with friends, but her friends had both studied with her in Canada, so they were sympathetic to a lonely foreigner. I met them at the train station, had dinner, and we headed to the water front.

Last year, we thought we would be clever and picked a spot out by my school on Port Island. It wasn't in the middle of the action, but it seemed like it would have a good view and might be far enough away that others wouldn't venture there. No such luck. It was very crowded and getting home was difficult.

This time, we decided to throw caution to the wind and go where EVERYONE goes - to Harborland! Harborland is the waterfront park area with all the tourist attractions and landmarks that make up Kobe's skyline. I was expecting a serious scene, but we headed off to a less well marked corner where the crowd was still thin. Of course, we went a couple hours early to stake out a spot, but when we got there we had our pick of sidewalk to sit on and there was a beautiful view of the harbor. The crowd filled in around us, but it never got tight. No one was stepping on us or walking through our group. The crowd was pretty loose and there was room to spread your legs. It was nice.

We had a nice conversation (the whole evening was in Japanese with occasional words translated to English to help me understand or say something. I didn't understand a lot, but I did understand some. It was good practice and everyone was friendly.

I also learned something new! It turns out that the cue that the fireworks are about to begin in Kobe is when they turn off the multi-colored lights on the Ferris Wheel. Once the lights went out, anticipation started to build and pretty soon the show began. It lasted 20-30 minutes with a few pauses in the middle. At one point, after a less than climactic burst everything stopped. We waited, assuming it was another pause. The pause got longer and longer. After about 5 minutes, a number of people decided that we had, in fact, reached the end. They packed up and started to head out. Most of the crowd was die-hard, though. They were sure there would be more. Another minute or two passed. We looked around at each other, agreed that that must have really been the end, and started to shuffle into a standing position as well.

Of course, just then the show started back up again. We hastily sat back down and continued to enjoy the fireworks. The thing that always amazes me about fireworks in Japan is everyone seems to know the grand finale. When it came, everyone cheered and as one hit their feet and headed to the train. Within 30 second of the finale the lights on the Ferris Wheel came up again, so in case there was any doubt, we were all assured that we had, in fact, see the end.

We started heading toward the train with the crowd, but it was pretty clear that we would be waiting for hours to go anywhere. Instead, we made a quick decision to duck into a relatively empty Starbucks. We staked a claim to some comfy chairs (in Japan it is totally normal to just ditch your purse where you plan to sit and wander off to order - it will totally still be there when you get back). We got into line, ordered and were back in our over-stuffed arm chairs before the crowd started to realize that Starbucks was an option. A few minutes later, it was packed, but we were all set. We sat and chatted for another hour or two and then decided to try the trains. The crowd had thinned down to "busy, but not rush-hour busy" levels and we made our way home.

Its nice to have friends!

Buddha Cleaning

I just saw this video on the BBC. Russell and I often take visitors to see the giant Buddha in Todaiji Temple in Nara. Its one of my favorite places in the Kansai area.

I'm glad to know he gets dusted periodically.

End of the Semester (Mostly)

Thursday was the last day of regular tests at our school, so Spring semester (the first half of the school year in Japan) is now officially over. We still have a few make-up tests that need to be given and grading to do, but life is looking much rosier now.

To add a little gold touch to the rosiness, I also get a weekend this week! Last weekend I spent Saturday at school doing study abroad orientations with students and parents (I had to give two speeches in Japanese - yikes!) and Sunday we had Open Campus, so I spent the day talking to prospective students from local high schools.

Yesterday, (Friday) we didn't have tests, but we did have to compile a list of students that need to retake their finals (which meant some crazy fast grading for some of us). We also had a big party for the study abroad students who will be heading out over the next two weeks. They all gave speeches and then all the teachers gave speeches and we ate lots of snacks. It was fun. Knowing all the students this year made the experience really fun. I'm going to miss them!

The test retake list took longer to put together than expected. Russell had come in to work at the school, so he and I stayed late to help get the list to the front office. We got out about 7:30pm and headed straight to our neighborhood izakaya (bar/restaurant) for dinner and drinks. I was so tired that after dinner and a beer I was pretty much ready to fall asleep at the bar. Russell was pretty sure I needed a second drink though, so we had one more round and headed home. I don't remember much after that, but at some point Russell decided I should be sleeping in bed instead of on the floor.

This morning I woke up very happy. I am feeling more relaxed and well rested than I have in a long time. My plan for today is to do some cleaning, spend a few hours grading papers and drinking lots of coffee at a cafe and thinking about a certain flight on Thursday. Hooray!

A General Lack of Sleep

July was not good for restin' in this household. There were a variety of contributing factors to the general lack of sleep.

First, its hot out. This is not a huge problem, because we have an air conditioner and do generally keep it on at night. We don't put it on full blast, but we try to keep the place de-humidified at least. Covers, however, do not appeal. Somehow, sleeping in hot weather just isn't restful.

Next, it gets unpleasantly hot outside as soon as the sun is up. Since the sun starts comes up around 5am, the 5-6 slot is the most appealing for walking to work. Something I am still doing daily. Getting up that early is also not restful (but at least its my own damn fault).

The other night, we had our first summer guest. I woke up to the feel of a critter on my leg. When I jumped up, the black beast scuttled quickly to the wall and then circumvented the room looking for a hidey-hole. I woke Russell up but was still too asleep to explain what had happened. I started to think I had imagined the whole thing. Russell investigated, though, and verified the guest. We were no longer sleepy. Russell had a can of spray poison in hand faster than I would have thought possible. I was none too thrilled will spraying deadly chemicals all over our bed and pillows, so I tried to hold things out of the way while Russell sprayed as much of the toxins on the beast as he could. I still got the dubious honor of dealing the death blow and flushing our ex-friend.

So much for a roach free summer.

FInally, my own husband has begun working against my sleep schedule. He has always stayed awake later than me - I've come to accept that. Its not ideal for sleeping when the lights are on and someone is practicing guitar just on the other side of the bedroom door, but he tries to be quiet and I can tune most things out. Whats really getting me, though, is that Russell has become so accustomed to me being out of bed before the sun comes up, that if he wakes up and can actually see me still in bed, he's pretty sure I'm late for work. Even if its Saturday or Sunday. On Sunday this week, I did have to go to work for Open Campus, but I didn't have to be there until 10am. I had re-set my alarm so I could catch a few extra hours of sleep. I tried to explain this to a half-asleep Russell as he insisted I would be late, but he wasn't grasping the concept. After he had woken me up 3 times at 10 minute intervals, I finally just got out of bed to pacify him. So much for sleeping in.

Hopefully my fortunes are changing, though. Finals week is almost over and things should quiet down considerably once the students are gone. I should be able to relax and focus my attention on preparations for the Oregon trip. Ah, to have a light at the end of such a long, dark tunnel.

Finishing off July

If I type fast, this will still be a July post... 12 minutes to go until August!

I apologize for not writing on the blog more this last month. Things have been hectic to say the least. It is the end of the term here, and since I was teaching mostly first year students this time around I got sucked into the abyss of attendance modification. You see, students must have a minimum number of class hours to pass, but if they are short, the teacher can make extra assignments or teach extra lessons to drag the students to the finish line. This becomes especially important for first year students because if they fail first semester, they have to wait a full year before they can start the English track again. Since English is at least half of the first year curriculum, most students that fail the first term of English don't bother to continue - and that reflects poorly on our school. So there's at least a little pressure to help students that are close to the mark.

Our method of choice this year? 8;00 special classes to make up credits. Great in theory, but someone has to teach them. I already come in before 8:00 on most days, so I volunteered to cover the classes. A few kind souls did volunteer to take some of those from me so I didn't need to teach all 5 classes, but it was still a lot of extra work. That coupled with panicked students packing the office and all the test writing and paper grading has kept me pretty busy.

Other than school I have done very, very little of late. The one thing Russell and I have kept up is running, and Swing to a lesser extent (though we skipped this last week for band practice and paper grading). I am proud to say we just ran our first 5k tonight. Hooray! Now to do it faster and with less dehydration at the end!

I am so glad its almost August... August means a trip home and I am seriously ready for that.

Peanut Butter Love

One of my co-workers went home to Guam for a wedding last weekend and brought us all back our most yearned-for American/Western products. Most requested was deodorant (the stuff here is somewhat less that adequate for big sweaty westerners - especially in the deep humidity of summer). I also requested some peanut butter. The last few guests we've had have brought us peanut butter and we always polish it off quickly. We can get crappy peanut butter (like Skippy) here, but its super expensive, comes in small jars and is full of preservatives.

What I really miss is fresh-ground peanut butter. We saw an add in a magazine for a place on the other side of Osaka that appears to grind its own peanut butter, but we didn't write the address down and now we don't know where it is. In the meantime we have made due with the generosity of our friends.

Interestingly, all of our friends are of the opinion that chunky peanut butter couldn't possibly be what we want. We always get creamy. That's not bad - we'll take anything and enjoy it thoroughly - but there's nothing like crunching on real peanuts. Creamy just doesn't seem like it ever came from a nut.

Oh well. Its certainly still delicious.

I'm starting to make a list of the things I want to eat when I am back in the US. Whiffies fried pies is at the top of the list, followed shortly by a wide variety of stouts, American Dream pizza, Dutch Bros. coffee and Panda black licorice.

If only I could have a buffet of said treats in the middle of Powell's Books.

A Very Rainy End

Supposedly rainy season has now ended. We had one week of drizzling with a few decent showers - but nothing compared to the downpour we had a few weeks back. On predicted last day of rainy season I got sick of wearing my rain boots to school (walking 3 miles in rain boots is kind of a chore) and decided to leave them home. I hadn't really needed them on any other day.

Of course, you can imagine what I will say next.

About 3:30 it suddenly decided to rain. There was thunder and lightning. There were evil black walls of clouds. This was no regular rain storm. The rains got heavier and heavier. At one point the water was coming down so hard and there was so much wind that streams of water were being pushed UP the windows. It looked like someone had turned a garden hose on the 2nd story windows from the ground floor.

This carried on for about an hour/hour and a half. By the the time we were ready to head home the rain had mostly passed on and we were able to make it to the bus without getting too wet. The regular path to the bus was deeply under water, though - easily a quarter to half foot of standing water. We followed the office workers and went overland through the bushes to get to the bus. Squishy, but not too bad.

It was hard to believe that a storm like that would be the last of the rain. It may be too early to tell, but the last two days have been dry and sunny. Yesterday was perfect, with a nice breeze. Today is getting pretty hot. Russell and I are hiding in our air conditioning.

This may be the beginning of some serious weather complaining. Prepare yourselves.

Arashiyama Adventure

A few weeks ago, over a lovely French dinner, our two fellow diners decided that it would be fun to go to Arashiyama. I didn't really know what Arashiyama was, but I knew it was close-ish to Kyoto and I am always up for an adventure.

Russell was invited as well, but he had band practice on the appointed day, so he opted out of the trip. It was just me, my former Japanese teacher and her friend.

We took the train to Kyoto and stopped there for lunch. We went up to the restaurant floor in the station and poked around for a good Japanese restaurant. We finally chose one that had a tasty looking bento lunch option. It turned out to be all vegetarian with soy milk and edamame croquettes, rice with beans mixed in, miso soup, a kind of side salad made from the soy bi-product that develops when you make soy milk (its delicious), a bit of fancy tofu, and some yube (made by taking the skin that develops on the top of the hot water where tofu is being made and piling the skins up until you get a kind of layered tofu-skin cake. It is also delicious.

It was one of the best lunches I've ever had in Japan. We were all pretty happy with ourselves after that.

Then, as we were on our way to Arashiyama, my friend spotted a poster advertising a special scenic train ride. She and her friend decided that the scenic train was not to be missed. We actually had to go to Arashiyama to get ON the scenic train, and we decided that instead of taking a full loop on the train, we would go half way and then take a boat back. This was turning into more of an adventure than I had imagined.

The train was fun. From what I could tell, the path the train was taking (along a river) was a main trade route over 400 years ago during the Edo period. At that time, the main mode of transportation was by boat. The boat drivers (using a rudder, a paddle and a pole) would take people down the river to Arashiyama and then some other poor souls had to pull the boats back up river. During the Meiji restoration, when foreigners were allowed into the country, one of the projects that were started was a set of tracks and at least carts, if not a train to expedite trade along this route. The carts (train?) were called "torokko" which was a foreign word presumably taken from "truck." Now, the train is called "torokko". It may have been a steam powered train, though if it was, it was very small scale.

The train ride was fun. The scenery was beautiful and only hinted at how beautiful it must be in autumn when the leaves turn colors. I took tons of pictures, but they really don't do it justice.

Once we got to the other end of the tracks, we took a taxi to the boat landing and headed back! The train ride had only been about 20 minutes, but the boat ride ended up being much longer and more exciting. The river was high that day, so we got some decent rapids. The drivers were very good, though, and there were plastic covers to keep us from getting wet. We were still dry on the other side (though had we been among the rafting groups heading down the river, I doubt the outcome would have been the same. Those groups looked pretty wet, and pretty happy about it.

The rudder guy was in the back, so we quickly forgot about him. The oarsman and the pole guy were in front. The guy using the pole would push off of big rocks and occasionally ground the pole and run along the front half of the boat to push us along and take some strain off of the oarsman. There were several more shallow areas with pretty weak current, so this was clearly a good strategy. Otherwise, the guy on the giant wooden oar was our main form of propulsion. He was also easily 60 and probably older. He joked with us the whole way and generally made the trip awesome. He had a quip for everything and shared a lot of history of the river. I was sad I didn't understand more, but what I did understand was really cool.

For example, he pointed out a number of rocks along the way that were famous for looking like various animals. He also pointed out some defined holes in the rocks, which were apparently from 400 years of pole men ramming their poles in the exact same spot. Now, it appears to be a kind of sport for the pole men to try and hit the little holes as they go by. There were also some rocks we passed that had gouges in them from the ropes that used to be used for hauling boats back upstream.

And of course, it was also absolutely beautiful scenery.

Once we got back to Arashiyama (at least an hour and easily more than that later) it was about 4:30. We took pictures of Togetsukyo bridge (famous, though I never heard why). After that, we decided to stop at a cafe and have some traditional desserts. I had the zenzai with yam ice cream in it. zenzai is the sweat bean soup with little mochi dumplings in it. The ice cream was not a traditional addition, but it was tasty nonetheless. This was accompanied by some chilled matcha green tea.

After the break, we headed to our destination, Tenryuji Temple. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we kept going and took an evening stroll down a famous bamboo grove path. Apparently it is the most famous bamboo grove in Japan. It was really cool. I will have to go back earlier in the day to see the grove with sun poking through. Tenryuji Temple is also a World Heritage Site, so I want to make sure to get back and see it during open hours.

While we didn't get the full effect of Arashiyama, we had a great day out. I also have lots of new ideas for future adventures.

Anniversary!

July 9th has once again come and gone. 4 years prior, Russell and I got married and we have had no end of adventures since. Here's hoping the adventure keeps coming - in the best possible sense.

For a brief time, we thought we might be sharing our anniversary with another friend - Nicole (who came to visit us just about this time last year). She just tied the knot in Ecuador. It turned out she was actually married on July 8th, though, so no sharing after all. Both Russell and I are super happy for Nicole and wish she and Oscar all the best. Wish we could make it to New Hampshire to celebrate the second time around! We'll be there in spirit.

Our last anniversary left something to be desired. We remembered around 11pm and had to scramble to celebrate our anniversary because we had both forgotten about it on the actual day. I believe we ended up buying a rather large family box of chocolate covered ice cream bonbons and devouring them all in the park.

This year we were a bit more organized. While we were both working all day, we did meet up after work to go to a lovely Italian dinner at the fancy Italian place near our house. We hadn't been there since the first visit over a year ago, but it was just as good and at an amazing price for the amount and quality. Its too bad our waist-lines can't take more of that.

We both ordered the set menu - Russell ordered the meat and I ordered the fish version. The meal started with a tuna tartar pate as an appetizer. I wanted to take a picture, but the chef was humming around (probably concerned to make sure we were the kind of foreigners who wouldn't shy away from raw fish). They had carefully checked with us before the meal that we liked everything they were offering, but I think they were still worried until we started effusing with delight.

After the pate we got a spicy italian sausage appetizer, then a dish of seafood pasta followed by a dish of gnocchi and then the meat/fish. After the main dish we got a dessert plate loaded with a sampler of tasty desserts (including grapefruit sorbet, tiramisu and some kind of custard) and we rounded it all out with some delicious coffee.

If I haven't said so before, I really love this place.

So we are off on the right foot as we start towards year 5.

Speech!

When invited to a dinner party in Japan - especially a business related dinner party - it is all too common to be asked to give an introduction and say a few words.

This has got to be the most terrifying experience I have ever had to deal with in Japan. I had the honor of introducing myself - in Japanese - to a bunch of people I vaguely recognized but didn't know so well today. I did, however, know that they were way higher up in the food chain than me. They were all very kind, but pretty darn intimidating.

My boss helped me prep a few sentences and then assured me it would be okay to finish in English. I almost forgot to think of something nice to say in English I was so busy repeating the Japanese lines over and over again.

Here's what I said. The part that was in Japanese is in brackets.

[My name is Jacqueline]
[I started working at this school last year in April.]
[I worked in Oregon in America before that]
I think teaching is one of the most wonderful things we can do.
I feel honored to work for this group.
[Its very nice to meet you]

I'm sure I was beet red the whole time and I shudder to think of the errors I undoubtedly made. Even so, it went far smoother than my self introduction to the study abroad parents last year. That was a royal disaster. It still gives me nightmares.

Parents are easily as terrifying as powerful businessmen. Probably more so.

I was rewarded with a delicious buffet dinner, cake and coffee.

French cuisine

Today is an uninspiring, very wet day. While I don't have any new stories, I did think of some old ones! About two weeks ago, my previous Japanese teacher invited Russell and I to go to a French restaurant. We had been talking about it for some time, but had never gotten around to it. Keiko also invited another friend who she had met while they were studying abroad in the same program in Canada.

The four of us together headed to the restaurant. When we walked in, Russell and I instinctively feared for our pocketbooks. There were cherrywood cabinets lined with fancy china and heavy silver. The place was small and sophisticated. We had been assured it wasn't that expensive so we hesitantly continued. As it turned out, the restaurant was awesome. It was fussy, with the aforementioned place settings and tiny, tiny portions, but the set menu was only $40 which was much less than we were worried it would be, and actually included so many tiny, tiny dishes that it was very filling.

We had a small appetizer, two courses we had selected from a menu, a tiny ball of sorbet, a meat (or fish) course, two rounds of fresh baked bread, dessert and finally a cup of coffee. All of this was spread out over about three hours - so we took our time, got to know each other REAL well, and felt like we had had quite a feast on the way out.

Russell and I don't make a habit of going to fancy restaurants, but we will definitely go back to this one some day.

A Taste of Home

Just as I finished my last post and published it, I remembered something interesting that we did on Saturday.

On my walk to work in the morning, I go past at least 3 interesting looking cafes. They are often full of people and not too full of smoke - a good sign. They also have reasonably priced breakfast menus. I thought it would be fun on Saturday for Russell and I to go out to breakfast at one of these establishments.

Russell had been down this road early on in our Japanese adventure and the cafes had not jumped out as being especially tasty. After some prodding, though, he agreed to go take a look. I blew right past one place because I was doing too much talking and not enough observing of my surroundings. The second place was closed for the weekend, but the third place was open and doing a brisk business. A couple left just as we were walking up, so we grabbed the open table.

Inside, the cafe was a cheerful American/country style with wood chairs and chalkboard menus hanging on the walls. The menu was also surprisingly American. Keeping in mind that traditional Japanese breakfasts consist of rice, fish and vegetables and common "wester" breakfasts consist of coffee with two tiny slices of toast or (for those with an appetite) and egg salad sandwich, I was more than a little surprised to see "bacon and eggs," "pancakes" etc. Of course, there were more traditional Japanese choices and several hybrid options, but all the breakfasts seemed to be filling portions (though not gut-busters). I had the bacon and eggs and was quite pleased with the result. It tasted quite authentic but had the added perk of not being too huge and including a lovely side salad. Russell got the lunch special which was more leaning toward the Japanese side of things. There was some delicious chicken with onions, a small bowl of rice, miso soup and bacon.

We will definitely have to go back. The only drawback for Russell was that there wasn't internet available. Which means he can't camp out there and work during the day. It says a lot that he was disappointed by this realization. It did seem like a good place to park for a while.

Nothing Exciting

I feel like I've been horribly negligent of the blog lately... I just can't think of anything new to post. Life has been going along like normal. I did "get" to help out with Open Campus this weekend. I have probably explained Open Campus before, but to sum up, Open Campus is a weekend event - usually on Sunday - when high school students can come tour the school, meet current students, take a few short sample classes, chat with teachers and get one-on-one time with the school counselors. There's also free lunch and an all-you-can-eat cake buffet.

This year is a bit more refined than previous years. There is an organizational meeting at 9am now - something the English teachers have not managed to attend yet due to a mix of inability to follow directions and general lack of information. Hopefully we will get that fixed up the next time around. There's more selection of classes for the students to sample and an "English Party" in the afternoon after lunch. This weekend was my first English Party. It consisted of American-esque snacks and everyone sitting around chatting and grazing. It actually went quite well. It was a good way to give the students a sense of confidence (safety in numbers) but get them talking in English. The proud parents looked on over their endless selection of cake.

The sad news is that Open Campus has stretched from 10am to 3pm to 9am to 5pm. It is now a full extra day of work. No chance to sleep in, no chance to leave early and still do something fun with your Sunday before work on Monday. We have set up a schedule in advance this year, though, so everyone knows when they are on duty and can plan ahead. None of us have to come in too many times. That's a big improvement over last year.

Other than Open Campus, I can't think of anything novel that's going on. Just lots of teaching and not enough sleeping. I'll try to think of something more interesting for my next post.

Laundry

You may recall the unfortunate laundry wars of 2009.
In case you forgot, or weren't interested in that drama, here's a recap:

Russell and I moved into our apartment. We were thrilled to see a shabby little coin laundry less than a block from our house. One less appliance we would need! Hooray!

Within a month, it had been bulldozed.

We kept an expectant eye on it, hoping a new shiny coin laundry would replace the old one. In the meantime, we were hauling our dirty laundry 5 blocks down hill to another little coin laundry, paying about $5 to wash two loads and then hauling all the heavy wet laundry back up the hill to hang at our house. A couple months after this, Russell and I had been in enough laundry related fights that Russell finally went out and found a used laundry machine. He had it delivered and installed and life turned all rosy again. We kept an eye on the extensive construction project where the first laundromat had been, but no luck. After 6 months, they started building a large apartment complex and there was clearly no coin laundry in the floor plan.

No problems, though. We had (and still have) a perfectly good way to clean our clothes that doesn't involve too much planning or physical exertion.

Of course, there's a reason I'm telling this story again. A month or so ago, we were walking by the apartment complex (recently finished and almost fully populated) and realized that the construction crew was back and was building a small out-building. The cover came down last week, and sure enough, its a little coin laundry. It looks quite swank and has a stylish sign hanging outside. It hasn't been set up inside yet, and clearly we don't need it anyway, but both Russell and I got a twinge of "ooh! should have waited!"

Gotta love irrationality.

What the weather's up to

The weather has been pretty unpredictable lately. We didn't get much of a spring. It continued to be cold until about April, then it warmed up a bit, then cold, then some rain, then a little humid, then cold. It certainly wasn't predictable. All the rain kept us thinking we were hitting an early rainy season, but in spite of a few humid days, the weather always cleared up. Often we had our nicest weather right after a rain.

That has now ceased. The temperatures and humidity are now steadily building. Our air conditioner is on and its less than pleasant to stroll around outside. It isn't bad yet... if this were as bad as it got we would have nothing to complain about. But this is just the beginning. And its only June. August and maybe even September is usually the peak of the heat and humidity, so we've got a ways to go.

Of course, the weather hasn't been predictable yet, so maybe there will be some respite.

Beer Garden

Last Sunday's swing lesson was really good. The instructor (who we had heard glowing things about) was a bit hung over when he arrived, but even so, clearly knew what he was doing. We learned a lot - almost too much. Its hard to keep track of all the things we are suppose to be doing. For the moment it feels like we are doing even worse than before... but maybe that's the "ignorance is bliss" bubble popping.

After the lesson we were invited to go to a beer garden. No problems there! We ended up meeting up with a bunch of other people from the Wednesday Swing group and heading to the Hankyu Department Store roof. It turns out a "beer garden" in Japan is an all you can eat, all you can drink extravaganza with a field of plastic picnic tables and chairs covering the rooftop. The regular price was just under $40, but we got a nice discount because the group leader is awesome.

We spent the evening eating and drinking too much while chatting extensively with the people we have mostly only danced with before. Everyone is super friendly.

Once the beer garden closed, a group of revelers decided to continue the party in the form of a game night (DDR, etc) at one guy's apartment. I had to work the next morning (and it was already 10pm with a 1 hour ride home) so I pled out. Russell went with them, though and had a good time. He crashed on the guy's couch for the night and then came home Monday morning when the trains started running again. He was pretty zombie-fied the next evening when our paths crossed again.

Strangely Familiar...

So it turns out that tuna innards and mascarpone has a strangely familiar flavor... In fact, while not crunchy, it is identical to Cheetos.

Its nice to find substitutes.

Pop Quiz

Pretend you are coming home from work. Your spouse pulls the mail out of the mailbox and and says, "Nice. A Happiness Realization Party."

What is the appropriate response?

A. Huh?
B. Well, we should certainly go to that!
C. No thanks, I'd rather vote for Everyone's Party.

Correct answer?

C.

Japan has a certain knack when it comes to naming political parties. For those of you who guessed B, you are in good company. That was Russell's response.

Swing

I know I've already said quite a bit about Russell and my new swing adventure, but its just so much fun! We are still dancing every Wednesday and now we've signed up for a beginners + workshop on Sunday. Three hours of focused lesson should help a lot. We are looking forward to it.

To prepare, we finally dug into the Charlston YouTube videos Russell's friend Phil sent us. A couple of hours practicing and we are doing pretty good.

Unfortunately, we had to pass on the Lindy Exchange in Korea this August - we are hoping to be visiting Oregon around that time (not confirmed). We're missing out. I guess there's always next year... and other exchanges.

Outstanding Story #2

It was brought to my attention that I kind of left you all hanging with only one of my several Outstanding Stories from our adventures with Phil.

Let me fill you in on another (though I don't know that the ones to follow are quite as outstanding as the first).

Outstanding Story #2

When my dad was in town we noticed something interesting. We were walking down on of the shopping streets in Osaka, when we saw one store devoted entirely to straw hats - the kind of straw hats you might expect to see someone wearing while attending to a soda fountain or making a sundae. The store was totally empty. Dad and I didn't hold out much hope for them. It turns out, Dad and I did't understand the subtlety of fashion trends.

I started to see straw hats in all the stores.

When Phil came, he also noticed a straw hat and laughed about it a little. We explained that straw hats were the latest trend and then he started seeing them everywhere. They are often paired with white-washed denim dresses or skirts, big brown leather accessories and feminine floral prints on white fabrics. This is the look of Spring, come to find out - at least, it is this year.

Phil decided he needed pictures - or at least one good picture to show people at home. The problem was getting a picture. It seemed creepy for a guy to take a picture of some girl on the train. Unfortunately, Phil didn't speak enough Japanese to ask, charmingly, if he could take someone's picture. Russell wasn't helping. Phil decided to be covert. He started trying to catch photos of people secretly. They weren't turning out too well, but eventually we got a display in a store window that summed things up. The mass of pictures with straw hats in large crowds should be enough to confirm that yes, this fashion had been adopted by the masses.



Oh, and we also saw Carmen Sandiego.

I ♥ Kasuganomichi

Russell has devoted a great deal of time over the last year to try and find groups to join, friends to talk to, events to enjoy - anything to help him meet people and use more Japanese. He's been a trooper, but his socializing scheme has not panned out so well. You have followed some of the "Join a Band" saga (I have a happy update coming), but there have been so many more attempts that have gone the same direction.

Conversation partners: Russell was lucky enough to meet an awesome friend who he spent a lot of time with for the first 6 months... until that friend moved to LA.

Bands: Russell joined one band only to have almost everyone else become to busy or quit before they could rehearse together. He auditioned for another band, but their lead singer quit and they disbanded, and finally, he tried out for another band where he didn't get a call back.

Local bar: This one worked okay. He always has somewhere he can go to chat. He also gets the benefit of chatting with men, which is good because men's speech and women's speech is not the same in Japan. Its a problem when men learn to speak with women Japanese friends.

Mixi: Mixi is an online social network in Japan, not unlike Facebook. It took Russell a lot of work to get an account (he finally had to contact his old university to reactivate his student email address) but he managed to get in. He decided to search for groups to join and typed in Kasuganomichi (our neighborhood). Lo and behold, there was an "I ♥ Kasuganomichi" club. He joined. He was then invited to come to an I ♥ Kasuganomichi club party.

And that's where our latest adventure begins.

Last night Russell and I went to meet some of the other folks in our neighborhood. The party was a house party (our first in Japan). We met the party planner at the train station and headed to the next station over. The party was in one of the members' apartments. When we arrived there were three low tables set up with a big electric skillet in the middle of the table and tons of plates heaped with meat and bowls full of vegetables. We were handed beers and chu-hai (a sort of carbonated, fruit flavored alcohol) and sat down to talk with people and wait for the crowd to gather. It turns out there were about 7 other people at the party (apparently a low turn out).

Who else was there?

There was the party planner - a third year university student, the owner of the apartment (a nurse), a preschool teacher, a local mafia guy (this might have been a joke, but he did have a giant dragon tatoo on his arm), a tennis instructor, an international automotive businessman, a gas station attendant, and a guy who was certainly the life of the party but I have no idea what his job was.

It was a very mixed crowd of 20-30 year olds and it was a LOT of fun. They were all very welcoming, the food was AMAZING (and extremely plentiful). We gorged ourselves on grilled meat and vegetables, then the hostess started making grilled onigiri (rice balls) and since two birthdays had just gone by, next came two big (delicous) cakes. At some point after this, one of the guests realized that we hadn't made the yakisoba yet! It was voted down. We were all a little over stuffed.

We also spent the whole evening speaking Japanese. Russell is able to actually do full on Japanese, now, I was able to follow the conversations pretty darn well, but I'm still not quick or confident enough to participate. I need to work on that.

We were invited to go camping with them in August.

That's some rain...

So the rain was hard enough this morning that public schools were shut down and the train was an hour delayed.

I didn't have any problem getting to work (sometimes its nice to live close) but I did take a change of shoes, imagining I would need them. I wore my Dansko's to work because they keep me the farthest away from the puddles. I made it 90% of the way to work, but just as I was going down the last set of stairs outside our school, I managed to step in a two inch puddle that went up to my ankle. Thinking I had just hit the deep part of the puddle, I took a leap towards the school. Turned out the whole walk was under two inches of water. At this point both feed were completely under wanter and my pants were thoroughly splashed with rain water.

I was glad I had my spare shoes. Of course, the water had soaked through the bag they were in, so they didn't LOOK like my dry shoes... but at least they were dry on the inside.

We get a week of dry (hopefully not hot and humid) weather after this.

Highlights of Months Past

As I'm sure you've noticed, my blogging has been spotty at best these last couple of months. A lot of that has had to do with the new school year starting. The additional responsibility of acting as contact for four study abroad schools on top of a full teaching schedule has kept me quite busy. I feel like I barely find time to fit in sleep anymore - let alone blogging. Hopefully that will improve, though, now that everything is up and running.

In the meantime, I have failed to post some outstanding stories. Better get going on that, eh?

Outstanding Story #1: Nara and Fushimi Inari Shrine with Phil.

Phil headed home weeks ago... a month ago? Russell and I really enjoyed the company and we managed to get out to do quite a bit of sight seeing even though Phil worked most of the week days with Russell. One of the last trips we made was to Nara (to see the deer and giant Buddha) and then on to Fushimi Inari for a hike through the Torii-lined trails of the shrine. (Torii are the red gates found at Shinto shrines.) This shrine, as you may remember from Carolyn and Dad's visits has thousands of torii and is quite beautiful.

Unfortunately, Russell's leg was acting up and he didn't think he'd survive a hike. He had brought his computer, so he headed off to find internet somewhere while Phil and I took on the shrine. I'm afraid prior knowlege of how daunting the hike at this shrine can be has caused me to see this particular stop as a hiking challenge more than a sight-seeing destination. This meant I charged up the hill with little regard for whether Phil might want to, you know, enjoy the scenery or take a few odd pictures. . I'm not always the most thoughtful hostess.

It turned out to be a good thing that we had raced through the shrine, though. A couple hours later, just when we were on our way out, I got a message from Russell. I quote:

Russell: "Status?"
Jaci: "On our way out. I"ll text at exit."
Russell: "I"m at a bar nearby: Asonia." "Bartender is trying to feed me Absynthe"
5 minutes later
Jaci: "Just finished"
Russell: "What should I do?"
Jaci: "About the absynthe?"
Russell: " Ha. He gave me some. I think I have to drink it. Mottainai"

So Russell sent us a map with directions so we could find him. Phil and I set off. Just as we were arriving, though, we saw the previously mentioned bartender and Russell exiting the bar and going into some sort of business next door. It looked like a display room or storage room for antiques. We couldn't really see in very well, but there was another older guy there. Everyone took their shoes off before going in and we saw them all kneeling down at a low table where Russell was getting instructions on something (proper neighborhood shrine etiquette we later found out). Phil and I weren't so sure we wanted to join in, so we hung back a bit to see what would happen (and took pictures, of course).

After showing respects, the older fellow go up and started untying something we couldn't quite see. It turns out he was responsible for this little neighborhood shrine and had an extensive collection of samurai armor on display there. He wanted Russell to try on one of the helmets. Once the helmet came out, Phil and I knew we needed to get close enough for a decent picture - no more covert footage. The bartender saw us and we explained that we were with Russell. At this point, Russell was all geared up, so we took some pictures. We weren't disappointed. Along with the helmet, Russell was given a sword (sheathed and tied down after a long explanation of how dangerous the blades were). More pictures. Then the "God of the Shrine" (as the bartender had apparently referred to the older man) offered to suit Phil up as well. The helmet switched heads, and more photos were taken.

The "God of the Shrine" explained that the armor was going to be used in a parade that weekend for Golden Week. Apparently the parade was the start of a rather large festival which would include horseback acrobatics - of the kind designed to avoid getting shot by arrows. Apparently an ambulance is needed every year. We were invited to come watch (which we unfortunately had to pass on- hopefully we can go next year). After that, we headed back to the bar. The bartender was awesome. He spoke quite good English but was happy to use either language - which was good for Russell, who wanted to practice Japanese, and Phil and I, who couldn't keep up. Overall, he seemed a very friendly, laid back sort of guy, and we will definitely visit his establishment again when we are next in the Kyoto area. Phil also sampled the Absynthe (tastes like black licorice) and we all agreed it was a perfectly decent spirit - presuming you like black licorice.

Thank goodness Phil and I didn't dilly dally at the shrine!

Rainy Season Year 2

Guess what time of year it is?

Early this year instead of late, we have reached rainy season. It is currently dumping buckets outside. The nice part of this is that it is not hot. Its just good honest cold rain. I have no problem with that. I know all the water is going to mix with some hot weather next week and things are going to get ugly, though, so I am experiencing our weather today with a solid dose of pessimism.

Apparently, rainy season is usually in July. This might just be a surprise spring shower and not actually rainy season yet, but no one seems to believe that.

Last year Spring was lovely and the rains didn't start until almost August.

Needless to say, I don't really know WHAT to expect from Japanese weather. There seem to be 10 distinct seasons and they start whenever they darn well please. It does keep things interesting, though.

Now if only the oppressively hot summer will surprise us all with a short stay...

More to come soon. I have great things to post but we are coming up on Midterms and life has just been crazy. I'll do my best to get some more posts out soon.

I love surprises!

When I got home this evening, Russell told me he had gotten me a surprise and that I would probably find it at some point. I asked him if I should hunt for it and he said no, not especially.

Mysterious.

So I went about my usual unwind-from-work routine. It was only later, when I was putting away dishes that I discovered:



The best mug EVER. It says Piranya Cafe (the cafe down the street). "Piranya" is a cutesy way of saying piranha in Japanese.
I love it.

Its what's for dinner

I was talking to my mother and grandmother today and my grandmother asked me what I had for dinner. It reminded me of a question Phil had asked us, something along the lines of "Are you guys cooking Japanese food now?"

The honest answer is, "no." I don't think any Japanese person would claim the food we make as part of their culture. Even so, our cooking has changed significantly since coming to Japan.

Change #1: Some things you just can't get.
Cheese for example. One of Russell's favorite meals/snacks in the US was a burrito with whole wheat tortilla, whatever leftovers we had in the fridge and cheese on top. With no tortillas (much less whole wheat ones), no cheese (plastic-y camembert doesn't count as cheese), and no microwave, this tradition bit the dust. As a side effect, with the lack of regular cheese and milk, Russell's body remembered that it was lactose intolerant, so dairy is pretty much out in all forms. Even pizza. I don't get pizza any more, even though I found a pizza place I like. Bummer. We also can't get decent peanut butter. Yes, there is Skippy at most supermarkets, but it costs $8 for a tiny little jar and, well, its Skippy. There is a rumor that a store in Osaka has fresh ground peanut butter, but we've been too lazy to seek it out, so unless a kind traveler brings us some (thanks Dad and Phil!), we are pretty much peanut butter free.

Change #2: Different ingredients at different prices
Of course, there is a wide variety of seafood to be experimented with. Its kind of fun and terrifying to grab a couple filets of some kind of fish you have never seen before and hope its tasty. It usually is. The vegetables are also awesome. You can get some of the same things - spinach, carrots, potatoes, green onions, green peppers, etc. But there are a lot of other vegetables that are either less favored in America or downright unavailable. There are several varieties of mushrooms that I had never seen in the States (but LOVE) and a different style of eggplant that has become a staple at our house. Then there's goya (bitter melon, which I mentioned in a previous post) and different varieties of sweet potato. In spring, there is a lot of bamboo shoot, too. Oh, and burdock root (gobo), okra and lotus root are also easy to come by. All of these are delicious and we cook with them often. We never use tomatoes. Aside from the fact that I don't like them anyway, they are crazy expensive all year round. Fruit is also expensive. We just have to bite it on that one, though. Neither of us are willing to live fruit free. We try to eat whatever is cheapest, though. Usually bananas and oranges. Right now, there are a variety of fruits in season so we have been feasting. Strawberries are under $4 a container, I got a half pineapple for $2 and a big bunch of tasty grapes was under $3. When we first arrived in Japan, these prices seemed expensive, but now that I know what fruit will cost in winter, I'm happy to pay the price I can get.

Change #3: Different seasonings
This is the biggest difference in our cooking. In the US we used a lot of olive oil, cayenne, basil, oregano and pepper. Here we tend to use soy sauce, mirin, sake, dashi, miso and oyster sauce to flavor our cooking. Oh, and I found shichimi (seven flavor seasoning) to replace cayenne. I pretty much use it in everything I cook to add some kick. Its great.

So what did we have for dinner last night?

The ingredients were Japanese, but the preparation was definitely of our own making. We got some mystery fish from the store and some sliced lotus root, shredded carrot and burdock root. We cooked the fish with a little oil, soy sauce, mirin and sake, got it slightly brown on each side and then pushed it to the side and cooked the vegetables in the remaining sauce. All of this was dumped unceremoniously on brown rice. It was delicious and very Japanese inspired, but I think my Japanese friends would probably be a little bit horrified at our version of their cuisine. Oh well.

Interestingly, while rice is a major, major staple in Japan (like, in movies, people who have been abroad cry when they taste real, Japanese white rice again) brown rice is difficult to find and rarely eaten. Most grocery stores stock a small bag of brown rice, but not the big bags like they do for white rice. I have one student who grew up eating brown rice, but the rest are aghast when I tell them that's what I choose to eat.

So how would a Japanese person prepare a dinner like the one I mentioned above? Good question. Having not had the benefit of a culinary-oriented home stay, I can't really say how all of the little side dishes are made. I do know that you usually have a small bowl of white rice with other small bowls - one with the fish, one with vegetables, one with something else, etc. I don't know how all of them are seasoned or how to make them myself. It also seems terribly time consuming (though I guess I wouldn't know). Maybe someday I will become good friends with someone who will show me how to do this all right. :)

Arima Hot springs

Sorry I haven't had pictures in a while. I will try to make up for it in coming posts.

I have managed to have some fun adventures.

Tuesday Russell and I bade Phil adieu and then headed into Osaka to spend a day together playing. We went to the Osaka State museum and saw a traveling exhibition of Renoir paintings. So far, we have been pretty lazy about museum crawling, so it was nice to do something different.

Wednesday, Russell got back to work and I went hiking with some friends. The plan was to go hiking and then go swing dancing in the evening. We weren't sure that was a good combination of activities, so we chose an easier hike - we rode the cable car to the top of Mount Rokko and then hiked down to the Hot Spring resort of Arima.

Arima is one of the three most famous Hot Spring Resorts in Japan (from what I hear.) There are well over 10 hot springs and many offer different natural minerals that are naturally occurring. There are two public hot springs and the rest are privately owned. The public hot springs cost about $6 and the private ones are around $15 and up. Considering the hype of this place, the prices seem incredibly cheap to me - but then, public baths and hot springs are plentiful and often only cost a few dollars per visit.

The hike down to the town was gorgeous. We didn't see any sign of civilization until we were practically on top of the town. There were a number of people out hiking, but the trail wasn't crowded. It was really steep, though. Two of my coworkers decided to hike out the way we came in, and my hat is off to them.

Arima itself is a small, outdated town - not the sort of place you go to be wowed by tradition or modernity - but it has a lot of tasty treats and everyone comes for the baths anyway. We went to the Gold Bath - one of the two public baths. It was clean and well appointed and held the large number of visitors easily. There were three baths - they started at 42 degrees Celsius (107.6F) and got hotter from there. Two of the pools were copper colored with natural minerals and the third was filtered to be clear water. It was a bit too toasty for me. I'm something of a heat wimp, it seems. I did manage to sit all the way in the hot spring after much wincing and preparation, but I couldn't stay in too long. Even so, after a thorough scrub and a hot (if fast) dip, I felt really good.

Ready for swing, I road the train back to town and grabbed Russell. He was a very good sport, especially considering he hurt his leg (again) trying to catch the train to Osaka. The lesson was easy for him and he danced with a number of people. He was cranky that he didn't know more steps, though, and very cranky that his leg hurt. I'm hoping we can research moves together during the week and he will keep going.

The day after he danced, though, he couldn't really walk. He was worried, so he went to the hospital. They took all sorts of X-rays and couldn't find any problems. (which is good, right?) so he has been resting and icing his leg. Hopefully he will be willing to try again next week. Finger are crossed.

Flying home

Dear gentle reader,

I have had the privilege of being a guest at the Mull's residence for the past two weeks. Here is what I have learned:

Japan is not America. The people here have been living on these islands for about 32,000 years. Their language is quite different; their customs are somewhat different, and the place they have created is not the same as my American home, to say the least.

What does that mean? Japan is another example of what people can do with their lives -- it shows there is an alternative to your home town, to your customs, and that alternative is rich, aware, steadfast and complex.

It's another confirmation that we can shape our home town, that we can create the world we want to live in and be a part of -- granted, it may take a few hundred years of refinement, but such is life.

With that, here's to our dreams: Here's to being outside, eating good food, raising a good family, making art -- writing, dancing, music making -- traveling, experiencing other things, relaxing, building and relating -- to our lives.

Regards,
Phil