new blog!

新しいブログを始まりました！
i started another blog to help myself with my japanese studies. it's riddled with grammatical errors and probably sounds like a 3 year old wrote it, but it's there if anyone wants to read it (and maybe help me correct it :) )
i mostly started it because i just need practice forming sentences in japanese. i'm getting pretty good at reading and listening, but my speaking is HORRIBLE. i want to practice, but i'm so bad at it that i feel i need to work my way up to talking to actual japanese people. so far my interactions are limited mostly to sales people, and while i'm a fricken expert at ordering at starbucks, i kinda want to have a real conversation maybe. there are so many teachers i work with that would probably be really fun to talk to, and i just freeze up whenever i try. it's really frustrating.
i'm also learning lots of new grammar patterns and whatnot, and i want to practice them so i can apply them later. good times.

here's the link!

いよかんもち

Every once in a while, I'll find some omiyage (souvenir) left on my desk by a teacher who has recently gone on a trip. The most popular is usually something sweet- individual cake or cookie. Once I got a book mark. Some things are really nasty. Weird texture and odd flavor combinations. But some things are amazing.

Today, I had iyokan mochi.

::cue light shining through the clouds and voices of angels::

Mochi is something that has definitely grown on me, and has become one of my favorite things to eat in Japan. Mochi itself is rice that is somehow made squishy, almost like really, really soft taffy. It doesn't really have a lot of flavor by itself (it is rice) but the texture is really nice and it can be used for many things. In Korea, I had mochi in a red, spicy sauce, and in Japan, I have had mochi in nabe (stew/soup kinda thing), mochiyaki (grilled mochi) with cheese, and mochi with anko (sweet red bean paste), sometimes served hot with sesame seeds. I've had another kind of sweet mochi that has some kind of nuts in it- I think walnuts- and it was one of the sweets provided at the Japanese tea ceremony that I went to. But though all these different kinds of mochi were delicious in their own way, nothing compares to iyokan mochi.

I'm not sure what iyokan is in English, but I do know it is in the orange citrus family. Wikipedia says, "The iyokan (伊予柑), also known as anadomikan (穴門みかん), is a Japanese citrus fruit. It is the second most widely produced citrus fruit in Japan after the unshū mikan [seedless mandarin]. It was discovered in the Meiji era in Yamaguchi Prefecture [in southwestern Honshu]. It is now produced mostly in Ehime Prefecture [in northwestern Shikoku].
The peel is thicker than a mikan, but it can be peeled by hand. The flesh is slightly sour, but sweeter than a grapefruit."

My iyokan mochi was orange and covered on the outside with what looks like a very fine dust, but is probably some kind of flour? On the inside, there were two kinds of filling, one was a cream, and the other, not sure what. But it tasted like an orange creamsicle. INCREDIBLE.

It is now my mission to find the teacher that provided me with this little piece of heaven, and find out where it came from, so that I can get a ginormous box of them. Since iyokan are grown in Ehime, that is probably where I'm going to go... luckily, I'll be there during Golden Week :)

::win::

ready, set, 運動して！

On May 16, 2010, I will be running in a 15-k (about 9 miles) with some Kobe JETs up in Shiga Prefecture, near Lake Biwa.
I found a pretty nice 10 week training program online that I'm gonna use to help me prepare, since I've never run that far at one time, ever.

I got a membership to a gym near where I live so I can do cross and strength training, and also for a place to work out when the weather is crappy and I don't feel like running outside (ex. yesterday). It seems like a nice place. It reminds me of high school to be back in there with all the weights and machines and whatnot. Only James was making fun of me because I was doing the runners' workout (light weights/high reps) and he was doing his "I'm a guy so I need to look like a bad-ass when I'm at the gym" workout (even though that's the opposite of what is good for running, but it's whatevs), but it's okay because I'm gonna kick some butt come May.

Yay for the sprinter going the distance.

ひさしぶり！！！

I fail at blogging. ごめんね。

Major events of the the last 4 months or so include:

• Halloween
• Christmas
• New Years
• Valentine's Day
• High School Graduation
• Acquisition of a Canadian boyfriend
• Trip to Korea
• Trip to Hokkaido
• Lots of studying

Overview-

Halloween:

• Party on Friday night in Himeji with a bunch of JETs and English teachers from other programs. I was a spider and won a costume contest (cutest costume) and got a toilet lid cover as a prize. Some friends and I danced to Thriller. We had an after-party on the grounds of Himeji Castle, and went for some amazing late night ramen and deep-fried gyoza before going to sleep in the library of this dorm where a bunch of English teachers live. Someone brought us fruit in the morning and I ate the biggest apple ever for breakfast.
• Another party on Saturday at Polo Dog, but it was so crowded it was impossible to move, so we ended up hanging out outside. Finished the night up at a club in Kobe. Took a very expensive cab home because I was too tired to stay out.
• 週末はめっちゃ楽しかったよ！

Christmas:

• Japanese people like to take Western holidays and destroy them. Case in point: Christmas.
• The only songs that Japanese people think are Christmas songs are Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" and Wham's "Last Christmas." That's it. At any point in time, these two songs will be on loop. In the grocery store. On the radio. Karaoke. School. EVERYWHERE. Torture.
• Also, any love song is a Christmas song, because Christmas is just like Valentine's Day. Right? And it's Santa's birthday. And Cupid is a symbol of Christmas. And hearts. And you eat cake, not cookies. Because that's what they do in Western countries, you know.
• So it got to the point where I kind of wished that they didn't celebrate Christmas at all, because not being home on the holidays was made harder by the fact that I was surrounded by familiar things that were all just a little messed up. I was actually pretty homesick and moody for much of December... but it was made better by the fact that MM came to visit for Christmas!!
• We went to KFC for lunch, a Japanese Christmas tradition, and sat out in the courtyard thing of the train station across from my apt and ate our fried chicken and french fries and drank champagne. It was actually a really pretty day out.
• That week, MM and I went all over Kansai. We went to Kyoto, Himeji, Osaka, Nara, and of course Kobe ::heart::.
• MM's friend Allan came up from Kyushu and we met him in Nara. We spent the day putting around, feeding deer, going to temples and whatnot. Allan ended up staying a couple days, and went back with MM when she left.
• MM's friend Jun also came to Osaka to see his brother. We met him in Umeda Station in Osaka, where it took him 2 hours to find us. Not sure why it took him 2 hours. Granted, Umeda is a gigantic station, but I am the most directionally challenged person ever and I don't think it's ever taken me that long to find anybody. MM finally found him in a bookstore (??) and he gave me omiyage (it was white cake with anko in the middle- おいしいよ！）and then we went to the aquarium, and James lost his ticket but then found it later. Then we went to meet Jun's brother, Go, and we went to perikura and then to a sushi place. We had already eaten dinner, but the place we went to was supposed to have really good sashimi, so Go ordered some food. They brought out this plate with a bunch of sashimi, and when the guy set it down, I noticed that the plate appeared to be garnished with a fish head. Then I noticed there was a tail. Then I noticed that they were attached. It was the fish the sashimi had been taken out of. And while I was looking at it, already kind of freaked out, it moved. It's mouth started going and I screamed and jumped and pointed at it. Then it moved again and everybody else saw it and freaked out... even the Japanese guys, which made me feel less like an idiot. So my friends decide it's a good idea to start playing with the thing which I thought was cruel and completely gross and at one point, I told James that if he didn't stop, I was going to vomit, because I really thought I was, but I didn't. Then somebody covered the fish with a leaf so I couldn't see it, and it was better.

New Years:

• James decided to come back from his trip to Thailand before New Years. We went to Matt and Emma's for a New Year's Eve nabe party (best idea ever). We got there around noon-ish, and hung out all day. Then Matt, Emma, and Goran went to sleep, but Joe, James and I went out to Sannomiya to bring in the New Year. We went to this cute Spanish wine bar and had some awesome shrimp and bread things. Then we went out with the intention of going to another place, but we briefly ended up near the Shrine in Sannomiya, and decided to partake in the awesome festival food that makes Japan amazing. We had some yakitori- the biggest skewer of yakitori EVER- and some candied strawberries and mikan, and I had a kebab. Yum festival food. We thought about staying near the shrine for midnight, cuz that's the thing to do in Japan, but it was too cold, so we went to my favorite bar, called Chey's House. At midnight, they gave out champagne. There was no Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve, and no ball dropping, but it was really nice. We decided to go back to Matt and Emma's instead of staying out more (the trains run later on New Years) because we were waking up early.
• So we got back to the house, and slept for about 2 hours, then we all woke up around 4am to catch the first train out to Suma. We climbed the mountain to see the first sunrise of the new year, and it was VERY cold, but it was so beautiful, even though Joe complained because there were clouds. We hiked down the mountain and it was a really pretty walk. Emma, Matt, Goran, and Joe went on to do the Ashiya to Arima hike we had done before, but James wasn't feeling good, so he and I decided not to go.
• Overall, good new year. Very low key and warm and fuzzy.

Valentine's Day:

• Valentine's Day in Japan is where girls give to guys (guys give to girls on White Day- March 14)
• I was　ちょっとbroke after Christmas vacation, so I decided to make dinner for Jamesu. I made homemade gyoza and it turned out really well. I made 3 different kinds: regular, vegetable, and curry. It took me almost 3 hours to make them, but I was proud of myself. Guys are supposed to double what girls do for them on White Day, so Jamesu better take 6 hours to make me dinner :)

High School Graduation:

• Took place last Friday. A lot of schools had theirs on Saturdays, so I think I lucked out a little.
• I felt like I was at a Catholic mass. Sit down, stand up, bow, sit down, etc.
• The kids just wore their regular uniforms. No special cap and gown or anything. A couple of them gave speeches. One girl was talking about all of her high school memories and started to cry and it was really sweet. I'm not used to Japanese children showing emotion. Usually I'm just trying to keep them awake during class.
• I ordered the special bento the teachers were getting for lunch.. it was HUGE. Then I got to go home early :)

Acquisition of a Canadian Boyfriend:

• You might have guessed, his name is James (we say Jamesu sometimes, because that's how they say it in Japanese), and he's from Vancouver, and an art kid just like me. We met in October, "official" in November.
• ::heart::

Trip to Korea:

• MM had planned on going to Korea for a long weekend right after Christmas. Her friend Justin lived in Seoul, so she had a place to stay and someone to show her around. I decided I kinda wanted to go too, so she checked with Justin and it was 大丈夫 so I bought my plane tickets.
• It only takes an hour and a half or so to get there. Super short flight. I flew into Busan, and when I got to the airport, I had to figure out how to get to the place where me and MM were supposed to meet. Just talking to one person in the airport, I could already tell that Korean people were very different from Japanese people. I don't know if it is that they're extremely rude, or if I'm just used to the Japanese being overly polite. I got a bit of an attitude from the lady I was asking directions from, and I got yelled at (first of many times) by the bus driver when I accidentally tried to put the wrong bill in the bus machine because I was temporarily confused by the new currency.
• I took the bus all the way to the subway stop where we were meeting. It was really confusing, becuase trying to hear the name of a stop in a language you've never actually heard before was really difficult. Also, the guy across from me was talking to the bus driver in a REALLY loud and obnoxious voice, so it was hard to hear anything. So finally, I met MM and we went for lunch.... at... get ready... PAPA JOHNS. I don't think I can really express how exciting that was for me. The pizza was amazing. No mayonaise, seafood, or corn (yay Japanese pizza). It came with the classic Papa John's garlic dip ("garlic deep" on the menu) and we got chicken tenders with honey mustard. Amazing. Just amazing.
• After lunch, we had a really fun time trying to find this spa that Justin had told us about (he ended up having a meeting that day in Seoul, and so couldn't meet us the day we came in). It turns out that knowing just a little bit of a language is helpful. Otherwise it's all charades. Which luckily, MM is very good at. So we finally found the place, but the people that worked there were mean. We asked if they spoke English, and they just said no. We were trying to communicate, but they didn't want to. Until this other woman coming out of the onsen said "can I help you?" and she started to translate for us, and magically they produced an English list of all the prices. It turns out, we could use the onsen, and stay the night, for about $7. We weren't ready to go in, so we just left our bags there (our friend later wrote us a message on a piece of paper to show them so we could get the bags back) and originally we were going to the train station to go explore, but the woman we just met (I can't remember her name) invited us to come to the temple where she lived studying Zen Buddhism. We walked around the temple, and took a short hike up the mountain behind the temple and saw the whole city of Busan. It was really pretty. Then we went back down in time for dinner at the temple. It was Buddhist, so everything was vegetarian, but it was good. We had some kind of cabbage soup, kimchi, bean sprouts, rice (an older lady laughed at me cuz I put the rice on the wrong side of my plate) and this really delicious spicy mocchi (basically mashed up rice that has a gummy texture). After dinner, we washed our dishes, and then went back to the onsen.
• The onsen was really nice, different than Japan, though. We got two towels when we went in, and it was hard to find a place to shower, because in Korea they aren't as considerate and just leave their stuff next to a shower when they're not using it, so we had to "shower" by dumping water from a tub over our heads. There were a lot of baths to choose from. They ranged in temperatures, from ice cold, to pretty hot. There was one that had chairs to sit in, and massage jets, and another one that was basically like a swimming pool. It had a current that you could swim against (but there were always old ladies blocking the jets for that.. using it for massage) and a jet that came out of the ceiling that you could use to massage your shoulders. There were also three saunas that ranged in temperature, and this other room that I'm not sure what it was for. A bunch of random people came up to us to talk.
• It was interesting, because in Korea, they seem to love to scrub. They have these special glove things, and they literally spent hours scrubbing themselves and eachother. It got pretty intense. They had massages for about $5, and I really wanted one, but I was a little intimidated by the scrubbing, and I didn't feel like trying to talk to anybody.. the Korean attitude was starting to wear me down a bit.
• After the bath, we changed into the pajama things they give you, and wandered around. We wanted to use the bath in the morning, so we went to the little store they have, where you can buy stuff like soap and scrubby things and whatnot. We were both planning on buying stuff, but clearly not soon enough, because out of nowhere, the woman behind the counter just started yelling, asking us questions, which of course we have no idea what she's saying. We just shrugged and looked blankly at her, and she got all huffy and rearranged everything we had touched, then walked away and started doing inventory or something. I assume what she said was "are you gonna buy something or what? I'm trying to close" but I guess we'll never know. Needless to say, I no longer wanted to buy anything, but MM went back for a scrubby thing the next day.
• That night, we slept in a big room upstairs. There aren't any beds, you just find a spot on the floor, which is heated and so amazing during winter. The next morning, we went into the bath again, and got yelled at again. This time, by the lady that gives out the towels, because I guess we had used too many and then the lady that does the laundry joined in yelling, and me and MM just stood there staring at them, and some other lady started staring and I just looked at her and shrugged my shoulders and she laughed and walked away because she knew the yelling was futile. I finally got frustrated, because I just wanted a towel, and no amount of screaming at me in a language I don't understand was going to make me not need a towel, so I started yelling back. First, I said "わかりません！！" in Japanese, thinking that maybe if they don't know "I don't understand" in English, they might know it in Nihongo. Then I just started saying whatever mean things came to mind, as fast as I could, so maybe she would understand what it's like to be yelled at and not know what's going on, and she finally shut up and gave me and MM our towels. Then we dried off and started getting dressed and this other older lady came up to me and started saying all these things and I just turned to MM and said "oh my goooooood I'm really tired of being yelled at!!" but it turns out the lady was trying to be nice and she gave us some mikans and everything was fine.
• That day we went to the beach to look around, saw a man in a thong, and a section of the city that was on fire, then we went to the train station to head towards Seoul to meet Justin.
• The train ride to Seoul was okay. I got mixed up on the times for a minute and thought the train ride would be 45 minutes, when really it was like 3 hours (stupid military time, making my life confusing) but it was all good. Right before we got there, we had another encounter with another wonderful citizen of Korea. Rough transcript of conversation is as follows:

Korean man: Where are you from? Are you from Canada?

Me: No, we're from the US.

KM: You must think I'm *something unintelligible*

Me: We think you're what?

KM: You must think I'm *something that sounds like elephant*

MM: We think you're an elephant?

KM: You think I'm arrogant.

Me/MM: Whaaaa?? No we don't!!

KM: Why can't you read Korean????

Me: Sir, we just got here yesterday.

KM: Why are you here?

Me: We're visiting a friend. We live in Japan and teach English.

KM: Why are you in Japan? They don't need English! We need English for jobs! You need to come to Korea!

Me: Japanese people do need to know English. They need it to get into University so they can get jobs.

MM: My friend teaches English in Seoul. There are a lot of English teachers here.

KM: I hate America.

Me/MM: Why?

KM: George Bush.

Me: Um... he's not there anymore. That was over like a year ago.

MM: Yeah, and I didn't even vote for him anyway.

::Train stops. Korean man continues for a minute to tell us how much he hates our country. The man steps in the aisle to leave the train, and we both give him big smiles and waves and say, "Okay! Nice meeting you! Bye!!!" ::

We now briefly interupt this blog for a

***Message to the Residents of Busan***

If you want more people to come to your country and teach you English, or learn your language, or whatever- STOP YELLING AT FOREIGNERS. The overall attitude of this particular city makes me not very likely to go back, and it makes me more likely to tell everyone how much better Japan is than your country, and since you hate Japan almost as much as you hate America, you don't want everybody thinking they're better than you, do you? Hmm? So BE NICE!!

おねがいします。

Thank you.

So we got to Seoul, and it was SNOWING :) We met up with Justin, and the rest of the weekend, no random Koreans yelled at us, and we actually had quite an enjoyable time in the city. The first night, we went up on the roof of Justin's apartment and played with snow and looked at views of the city. We had Korean barbeque (Japanese 焼き肉 is soooo much better ;) ) and we went out to clubs and had amazing kebabs, and played in snow some more, did touristy things like shopping, and playing in a lights display they had. We waved at a camera that projected the image onto a giant building, ate at a vegetarian cult restaurant (the lady that the restaurant was built for has encyclopedia books about her dogs and their individual life stories) that was delicious, had some amazing jujube tea in a beautiful tea house, I was told by a group of Korean women that I had a small face and "eyes like doors"- apparently a compliment, and we watched a horrible, horrible, horrible movie called The Room.

Yay Korea.

• I went back to Japan, and the first woman I talked to in the airport, I just wanted to hug because she was so overly friendly and I knew that no matter what I said or did, she wouldn't even think about yelling at me. I ::heart:: Japan.
• On the bus back, I encountered some crazy gaijin. I was sitting on the bus, waiting to leave, and I heard some foreigners getting on. I heard the driver trying to explain in Japanese and a little English, that the woman hadn't bought her bus ticket yet. She thought that the luggage ticket was for the bus. He kept saying "two tickets, two tickets" like she needs to have her bus ticket AND luggage ticket, but she kept pointing at her and her husband and pointing at her two luggage tickets and saying (louder than she needed to) "YES.. TWOOOOOO TICKETS". I was about to go to the front of the bus and help her, when all of a sudden I hear "YOOOOOOOOOOOOKOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" The woman had yelled ACROSS the AIRPORT to the Japanese travel agent that had helped them to the bus. I decided I didn't want to be associated with that. The woman handed her their money and the lady, Yoko, ran off to buy tickets for them. Again, Japanese people are so nice. I kinda wanted to hug Yoko too. A Korean travel agent would probably have laughed, "Haha! you don't know the language!!" and walked away.

Trip to Hokkaido:

• So in early February, I went with a group of Kobe JETs to Hokkaido, just before the Hokkaido 雪まつり(Snow Festival). We spent 2 days in Niseko, which is a ski resort about 2 or 3 hours by bus outside of Sapporo, the main city in Hokkaido. Our hotel was right on the mountain, and it was really nice. It snowed everyday, all day, and we were able to get in 3 days of skiing, counting the first night, when most of us went night skiing(/snowboarding). The hotel we stayed in had it's own hot spring that we could use for free, and it had and outdoor bath that I used one night. It was so nice because the bath was really hot, but outside was so cold (my wet hair froze), but after being in the tub, you could walk around outside and be comfortable. There was a lot of steam, so it was sometimes hard to see, but you could see that it was snowing and it was so peaceful. I really needed the hot bath, though, because I was really sore after all the skiing. James was on the trip, too, and he and I had been together on the slope that day, and the trails get kind of confusing, so at some point, he accidentally took me down a black diamond, and I basically fell down the whole thing. I got really good at falling though, so I was able to control my falls so I didn't get hurt. I was sore though. The next day we accidentally went down the same slope again, but I made it, only falling once, and I was super proud of myself.
• There were some really cool restaurants in Niseko. For lunch one day, James and I went to this place called the Lumberjack, and they specialize in curry burgers. We both ordered it, and mistakenly ordered them with an extra potato patty, so we got the thing and it was HUGE, but sooo good. Another night for dinner, there was this pizza place that appeared to be run by austrailians. They had really good, western style pizza. It's kind of funny, because back home, I don't really eat pizza that much, but here I get all excited when I can find some normal pizza. I also had some chicken wings, because Hokkaido is apparently famous for chicken wings, and they weren't buffalo, they were some kind of sweet chili sauce that was extra delicious. The other cool place we went to was this really awesome ice bar. The walls, floor, furniture, everything was made of ice. It was really neat. Apparently they rebuild it every year, and it takes almost a whole season to be completely finished. They move it to a different location every year, but I think Niseko was the original. We had some really good hot chocolate.
• We also had 2 days to spend in Sapporo. We spent the first day wandering. We found a mall, a ferris wheel where we got a view of Sapporo, we saw the street where they were setting up for the snow festival- lots of guys with stacks of ice blocks, chisels, and chainsaws, and we ate some awesome Hokkaido ramen. I'm a little sad that we only saw the set-up for the festival, and not the actual festival, but next year I will definitely go back :)
• It was kind of interesting walking through the city. The sidewalks were covered in layers and layers of ice, probably 3-6 inches deep. I think it just snows and ices so much, they just gave up trying to control it. Also, they're Japanese and they like to do things the silly way sometimes. On one part of the sidewalk, there was a crew hacking through the ice, so I guess in some parts they try to keep it cleaned up.
• That night, we had dinner at the Sapporo beer garden. I had wanted to go to the museum beforehand, but the people I was with weren't super interested. It turned out that the museum was interesting though.. so again, something for next year, I guess. The food was really good. It was all you can drink and all you can eat and it was mutton or whatever it's called, which is pretty rare in Japan, so we were all excited about it. You just get a whole plate full of meat and cook it yourself on the grill in front of you. They also gave us a plate of vegetables to grill, but the meat went faster than the veggies :) That night, we wandered around again, checking out the city, and ended up going back to the hotel and going to sleep.
• The next day, we checked out of the hotel, and went to have a かに　(crab) lunch, which is famous in Hokkaido. Me and James split a hairy crab and it was delicious. I'm still partial to MD blue crabs and old bay, but Hokkaido does a good job too. Instead of butter, they gave us two kinds of vinegar to dip the meat in. I also got a small plate of grilled queen crab to try, and that was really nice as well.
• We got to the airport and it was kind of fun looking around the shops. I bought a stuffed snowman wearing a pig hat, and James loaded up on melon flavored everything. Aside from coldness, I ::heart:: Hokkaido.

たくさん勉強：

• I've been studying a lot. Not too much to say about that. I haven't had class in about a week or two, and the next class I teach will be in April apparently. I plan on taking the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) in December, so I've been making flash cards out of the JLPT vocab and studying that. I made sure I had all the vocab from 4級(the easiest level) and now I'm going to start studying 3級 stuff. I bought some books to learn/review grammar and practice JLPT tests to become familiar with the format of the test. It's apparently changing this year, but hopefully not too much. The only part of my studying that's not going so well is the speaking part. I'm absolutely miserable at speaking. But I sometimes try to talk to my JTEs in Japanese and they're patient and like to help me out. Also, there's a lady that works in the office that sometimes picks me up on the way to work, and she only speaks Japanese, so our 10 minute car rides to school are good practice, too. がんばっている。

little bit o' language barrier

So I had just finished eating the pudding we got for winning in volleyball. It came in a nice glass that I was going to wash out and use at home.
Yamashiro sensei comes up to me at my desk:
Yamashiro: 'Sooooo.... cup... if you don't want... I can take it'
Me: 'Actually, I was going to save it.'
Yamashiro: 'Yes... but if you don't want....'
Me: 'No, I do want it.. I won't throw it away. I was going to wash it and I will use it at home.'
Yamashiro: 'Okay... but if you don't want, I can use when I make pudding.'
Me: ::finally realizing 'if you don't want' is the nice, subtle Japanese way of saying 'I want'::
'Ah, yes. No I don't want it... you can have it.' :)

...exam week...

• Exam week ::sigh::. I got my JET Japanese books on Monday. I've been working on them all week because there is nothing else to do. I had ordered the intermediate books, because I didn't think I needed another book full of 'hello, my name is Sarah, I am American and 23 years old and I enjoy art.' The grammar's been kind of giving me a headache, though, because a lot of it I haven't learned yet, so everything needs to be looked up or I have to ask either Andrew or one of the JTEs. I have learned a lot, though, so maybe it will work in my favor. Anyway, Andrew said I'm doing better than Carla, the predecessor from hell, so as long as I'm better than her, I'm good. That wasn't a catty thing to say at all.
• Yesterday after exams, there was a meeting for the teachers about the AED... Asomething Esomething Defribullator. The thing they keep at schools to jump start hearts. First they taught basic CPR, which was interesting in Japanese, then the teachers had to practice on dummies. That was interesting, too. One of the teachers got really into it and, as one of the other teachers said, 'he is in a movie' (i.e. he was acting), and he was pretty hilarious. After the training thing, all the teachers played volleyball. We were divided into teams according to year. I'm pretty sure they couldn't have picked a worse sport for me to play. Okay, maybe tennis. I think tennis is the only sport I play worse than volleyball. The point is, I'm terrible. And it turns out Yamada sensei, who happened to be on my team (!!!!!), is the fricken volleyball champion of the world. Seriously, he was quite hard core. I actually missed the ball a few times because I was distracted by him throwing himself in front of me to get the ball. I think he spent the entire time diving and sliding and rolling and doing all manner of dramatic movements. I've never seen the man more animated. Now he's just chillin over there by his desk, grading math papers, just hangin out. But put him on a volleyball court... and look out. ANYway... I played horribly, as I thought I would. I seem to remember playing in high school, or middle school or something in gym class and I was actually fairly decent at serving... but not during this game. I didn't make a single one of my serves over the net. Fricken lame. One of the other teachers kept saying, 'switch, switch,' which I assume is because I was accidentally standing in a position that was relatively important and he realized that it probably wouldn't work out. Our team did win, though, thanks to Yamada sensei and other assorted athletic ichinenseisenseis. Afterwards, the principal gave the winning team pudding. Everybody else got sports drinks and canned coffee.
• This week was also my welcome party. 'Hey, you've been here for almost 3 months, but now we're gonna welcome you.' It was actually really nice. It was at this restaurant that was in a sort of conference building. They apparently had a bunch of meeting rooms and a tennis court. It was actually a pretty fancy lunch. They served bread that was really good...they had this really awesome tool for taking bread crumbs off the table as the meal progressed, and I couldn't help wanting to call up CCF and tell them that thing was probably a great idea. We first had this fantastic salad on a really awesome plate with bubbles that was made with some kind of spinachy arugula kinda lettuce (omg thank god it was something other than plain, spikey CABBAGE) with persimmon, lotus, apple, shrimp, scallops, and some kind of vinagrette. Then we had potato soup (I miss CCF loaded baked potato soup!), then some kind of fantastic mystery meat with ginger and vegetables, then soba that we had to eat with a fork, which confused everybody, myself included, and then some kind of dark chocolate mousse pastry and fig sorbet. Awesome. It took forever, though. Clearly they don't worry about shoppers in Japan.
• I have officially pwned my kitchen! I bought pots and pans a couple weeks ago, and plates (my pred had no plates..... really?), and this week I've made dinner for myself TWICE. Not just spagetti out of a jar, but like really made dinner. For the first time:) I was inspired on Tuesday night, when I was in the grocery store and saw a whole bunch of stuff on sale because it was the end of the day. I bought some kind of red meat.... not really sure what it was, but it was fantastic, and cooked it with vegetables and some kind of sesame soy sauce and it was incredible. The following night, I made pasta. I had told my friend Katie before how horrible Japanese spaghetti sauce is and she said she makes her own with tomatoes, red wine, and whatever else. So I gave it a go. I put tomatoes and wine, then onions, peppers, oregano, basil, olive oil, and garlic... then decided to just be ridiculous and I had bought some shrimp so those went in too. Holy cow I am awesome. It was such a good dinner I was so proud of myself.
• Went shopping for winter things. I found pants that fit over my butt (I had a moment in the dressing room where I seriously jumped up and down a little because I was so excited... usually I can't fit the pants over my knees), and discovered my new favorite store is this place called Honey's that's really cheap, but has awesome things, like the puffy vest I bought that has a fur lined hood, the sparkly tights, and a super cute dress. Also, I found the 'fat people' section (i.e. section for people who are greater than a US size 0) in Daiei, which means I will be able to find pants there, too. Now I need to find a big foot store and I'll be set.

Snapshots of Japan

• Had a dream last night. Right before I woke up, 'Across the Universe' started playing in the soundtrack of my dream. I didn't know my dreams had soundtracks.
• Last night on the train home, a Japanese girl puked. My friend gave her a shopping bag, she was too drunk to stand, and we're not sure what stop she should have gotten off on.
• I had my work party. Apparently my kyoto-sensei (Vice Principal) is VERY fun when drunk. He kept pouring beer into people's drinks, regardless of what they had, and trying to set me up with all the single teachers. Also, I almost ate a moth that was in my salad. Very traumatic.
• It's hilarious how red Sekimitsu sensei gets when he drinks.
• My high school has Dell computers in their computer labs. Dell.
• Found an art supplies store. Great sense of accomplishment involved, as I had to ask one of the non-English speaking teachers for directions on how to get there, and then had to spend 20 minutes speaking awkward katakana English to employees trying to figure out what kind of ink to buy.
• The other day in class, students were asking me questions about America. Questions include:

• Why do all Americans wear shoes inside their houses? (When I responded 'a lot of us don't' I was met by outbursts of shock and disbelief)

• Do you feel unsafe in a place where everyone has guns? (My response:*blank stare* Really?)

• What is some traditional American food? (was unable to answer this one and realized the US has no cultural identity)

• What are some traditional American clothes? (pilgrim attire? feathers and deerskin? blue jeans? crocs?...again with the realization that my country has no history or identity of our own)

• Realized Japanese people are really friggen stuck up about their country and culture. Probably moreso than Americans, which is saying something. When people ask me, 'oh Japanese is such a difficult language, isn't it?' I've started responding "nope. it's no more difficult than any other language" because it's true, and because they need to be told the truth. I actually had some teachers freak out because I was eating rice crackers. They actually called over more teachers to witness the gaijin eating rice crackers. "IT'S SO JAPANESE!" they said. "Well I'm sure it is," I thought in my head, "But I'm also pretty sure I don't run into McDonald's and shout, 'Awwwwwww, LOOK AT YOU GUYS! YOU'RE SO AMERICAN!"
• By the way, any stereotype you've ever heard about Japan? Not true.
• Highlights from Silver Week:

• Went to Kyushu to visit MM.

• Started out in Kagoshima city. Random Japanese guys tried to take over our vacation on the first night. They were really nice, but kind of pushy, and didn't get the hint that we wanted to go away. So we eventually had to say, "Go away." Remember the whole thing about Japan being high context? yeah they're not. Next day, went shopping and spent entirely too much money as usual:) Realized on Kyushu, Japanese people stare at gaijin a lot more than they do on the mainland. Almost punched a couple girls in the face. Not really. But when people are staring so blatantly that they are actually turning around to look at you, it gets to you. When it comes to staring, Japanese are like children. They just keep staring and never know when to look away.

• Next day in Shibushi at MM's apartment. We were in the bedroom, when I happened to look up at the wall in the living room. Upon seeing gigantic spider the size of my hand perched in the corner, I remember MM's penchant for placing fake lizards in her car for decoration. "Um... is that supposed to be there?" I ask hopefully. MM turns around and my only answer is her scream of terror. So no. It was not supposed to be there. Spent the next 30 minutes or so trying to figure out what to do with the thing, which more or less involved me cowering in a corner and MM standing in the other corner holding a broom. At one point she turned the lights in the living room on and from 15 feet away I saw the thing's EYES. This was an epic spider. MM closed the closet door to keep it from running in, but when she did, it ran down the wall and disappeared and the two of us were standing in the room screaming. I hadn't actually seen it run, but when MM screamed, I screamed, and I'm sure the neighbors had no clue what was going on. Eventually, she found it under the curtain and hit it like 10 times with a broom to kill it. All in all, scariest moment of my life. If I EVER find one of those things in my apartment and I'm alone, I WILL have a heart attack.

• Spontaneously took a ferry to Nagasaki. Caught the last one of the night by accident. We went to the Peace Park, and then realized we don't care about all the other touristy things, so after that we went to Starbucks and went shopping.

• Went to Fukuoka. Holy crap, best ramen EVER. We went to this huge mall called Canal City and stumbled upon Asian Week where they had a bunch of acrobat guys in the center of the mall doing a show. We met our friends there and at night went to this street along the river with a whole bunch of ramen vendors. Seriously, amazing. That night, wandered around drinking beer, shochu, and whiskey. Not all at the same time. Tried to go to a bar and meet some other friends, but repeatedly got lost, and everytime we stopped to ask for directions we ended up talking to the people we got directions from, and then forgot where they told us to go. Took epic jumping picture, perikura, found mall robo-cop, and fit 6 people in hotel room meant for 2.

• Next day, hangover. MM and I went to Wendy's and I had amazing chili-cheese fries. Whoever invented chili-cheese fries=genious. Dave had taken MM's bag by mistake, so instead of returning to Kagoshima, onward to Beppu. Spent the day at a breakdancing competition. Best accidental Silver Week day EVER. The competition was amazing, and I now want to learn to breakdance.

• Went to Oita. Went to onsen where they cover you in sand. Had awkward moment at the door with the woman who works at the onsen. She was trying to communicate that women aren't allowed to go in during that certain time of month. The sign was quite clear, so all she needed to do was point to the sign. But she didn't speak English very well, and I guess thought we didn't understand, and proceeded to yell at the top of her lungs, "Tampon! NO!" MM and I just looked at eachother, not sure what to do, and Dave replies, "Oh well I guess I'll go then!" and the lady realized we knew what she was saying and let us in. After being buried in sand and soaking in a hot tub, I had chocolate ice cream out of a vending machine and decided that Japan is awesome.

• Last night, Sifton and I met up in Sannomiya. As we were walking to dinner, a random guy came out of nowhere and tried to hug us and speak to us in English. I tried to push him away, but apparently he really wanted a hug. He may have been drunk.
• I was very upset to learn that Yamada sensei, the math teacher at school that is very cute and I have had a middle school crush on since I got to Japan, got married over Silver Week. Why, God. Why?
• Learned choreography to "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. Also working on body waves and the moon walk. My friends and I have big plans for the Himeji Halloween Party.
• Slowly but surely redecorating my apartment. Gradually becoming my own :) I printed out pictures to hang up, bought new pillows and some wall hanging things.
• No longer afraid of my kitchen. Well, a little afraid of the stove still, but overall, doing well. I've made spaghetti three times, ramen once, and some rice krispy treats. Also, made a big step when I bought chicken and vegetables to cook for dinner. Very proud of myself.
• Typhoon hit last week. I was awake all night because the wind sounded like it was going to knock down my apartment building. We ended up not having school the next day, but the teachers were supposed to go anyway. It was beautiful out and I didn't feel like going, so I took a vacation day.
• Found out my little sister got her driver's ed books 2 weeks after her 16th birthday. Was very angry about that for a long time. Still bitter, but getting over it.
• Kobe is awesome.
• Things that I miss about home:

• friends

• buffalo sauce

• ranch

• tacos

• bath and body works

• shoes that come in my size

• not being illiterate

• not having to dress up just to run to the store

• not being stuck in a stereotype everytime I do something remotely American

• knowing what everything is at the grocery store

• 24 hour grocery stores

• 24 hour ATMs

• non-cash based society

• blending in

• Things that are cool about Jay-pan:

• Random English

• Japanese onomatopoeia

• Kaitenzushi

• Onsens

• Fashion

• I live near 4 major cities that I can get to at any time, easily, by train

• Public transportation

• Standing out

• MM is here, too :)

• JET community

• Ubiquitous conbini (convenience stores)

• History

• Culture

• Izekaya

• Learning a new language that has no plurals, no articles, no future tense, and virtually no verb or noun conjugation

• 100 yen stores

• Karaoke