Sunday 26 October 2014

Changing Seasons

The fall is officially here. It arrived in a rush with a dusting of orange and red and a whole lot of cold. My school has become an ice box already, and in Japan the heat is not put on until December 1st. No matter the shivering and shaking that occurs. Sigh.
In other news I am beginning to plan my future(warm)  travels! At the end of JET I am planning to travel South East Asia with a friend here. We are thinking about Thailand and...that is as far as we have gotten. I guess that means I need to focus on saving $$ but now it feels so far off. I can't believe that as November draws nearer so does the eventual end of this whole experience loom. There is a part of me that is ecstatic to be returning home, and also a small feeling deep down telling me that I am really, really go to miss this. The comfort and security of a great job with good pay and subsidized housing. The fantastic cultural experiences. The opportunity to be immersed in the Japanese language...I will not be staying another year here, for any reason, but I am trying to take advantage of everything that comes my way this next year. I want to look back on these two years and see a beautiful chapter that will help me transition between recent college grad to working woman. 

In other news our school has the fall excursion recently. We were supposed to be headed to Uradame beach for a boat ride but due to a typhoon (as usual) we had to re locate to the Sand Dunes. I am a fan of the Dunes, but they get boring. The students really enjoyed themselves though and the teachers were able to relax and chat. It was kind of odd for me. Since I can't speak enough Japanese to have a proper conversation it left me standing around sort of awkwardly  I love talking, a lot. I also consider myself to be a friendly person, so having to stand on the outside of a conversation feels lonely and unfortunate. I wish I could contribute to conversations because I think it only perpetuates the whole stigma here of the untouchable foreigner. I think some of the staff might be a little...afraid of foreigners. Not in an actual afraid of me way, but in the kind of way where they are not sure what to make of us. I want to break the ice but I just can't. I regret not pushing my Japanese studies more last year, but as I continue cramming for N5 I have begun to make small improvements and that is the best I can hope for. 
The School Excursion 
Enjoying the walk

Sunday 19 October 2014

Tokyo DisneyLand and DisneySea

So last weekend I headed to Tokyo for the long weekend. I added one extra day of nennkyu and met up with my bf on the Thursday night at Narita. We stayed at someones apartment through Air BnB. It was an awesome choice! The place got a great review and it was incredible. Located minutes walk from Kasai station - which is about a 15 minute bus ride directly to Disney Land and Disney Sea. The apartment was owned by a really chill guy who works at a hotel as his career - so our room came with a travelling guide, water, towels, toothbrushed etc. It was awesome! Super convenient and cheap too. A win win for what could have otherwise been expensive or inconvenient. We had planned to go to Disneyland for a long time, even though we heard horror stories about endless crowds and lineups. One of my worst days in Japan was at Universal Studios where I got on two rides in 10 hours and the highlight was eating at TGI Fridays outside of the park (although I did meet Elmo!)
Still we figured it would be a really fun memory and fun no matter what. On a scale of 1-10 I would rank USJ as a 3 and I would rank Disney as a 10!! We got to the park right when the doors opened and had printed off our tickets so we could breeze in. We managed to hit around 14 rides the first day, we ate a fancy dinner at the Blue Bayou restaurant and we watched some fireworks. It was fantastic. The longest lineup was just over an hour and the shortest was around 10 minutes - not unlike the California Disney I am used to. One really cute aspect of Tokyo Disney is that everyone carries around the Disney bear, Duffy. Duffy is so popular that there are spots marked around the park where visitors are encouraged to photograph themselves with their Duffy bear. Duffy was originally introduced in California Disney and was a total flop, so was sold off to Tokyo where, of course, the kawaii factor of a fluffy bear took over and became an instant sensation. Around 50% of the park had a Duffy something hanging off themselves, including lots of adults! It was pretty adorable. Another quirk of the Tokyo parks is the popcorn. There are tons of flavors and most people carry it around their necks in character containers. The lineups were atrocious but Dan and I gave in when we saw the milk tea flavor!


                                       
Our second day we headed to DisneySea which is a separate  park. It was a different vibe with more thrill rides, and beer!! We noticed the difference right away when the gates opened with people literally running to get fast passes for rides. The  lineups at DisneySea were slightly longer than DisneyLand, however we took advantage of fastpasses and we also chose to do single rider a few times. That meant whizzing through the line and then just, of course, riding alone. It was a small price to pay to ensure we had time to enjoy doing other things together. One of the highlights was watching a cirque de soleil type show with a jungle theme. It was in a giant theater and was a nice relaxing change to the crazyness that is Disney. We found Mexican food to eat too, and enjoyed beer which was great. It was a fabulous day. My favorite ride was Journey to the Center of the Earth because it has a fun twist at the end, but the Tower of Terror was equally exciting and we started and ended our day with it! 
 
 
After our two days at Disney we decided to spend our last full day just enjoying Tokyo. We headed to Shinjuku first and enjoyed walking around, getting purikura and playing taiko. We also stumbled across Menchies! I absolutely love Menchies and was pretty stoked to introduce Dan to the magical wonders of Menchies! I was shocked to see it but super stoked as it has been about 1 and a half years since my last Menchies experience. We shopped a bit and went down a busy street in Harajuku, and then we came to Ometesando Koffee, which is the most famed coffee shop in Tokyo. It is a bit out of the way and is literally just a tatami room, a coffee bar and one barista. Dan really enjoyed his machiatto though and thinks it was one of the best coffee's he has had. For lunch we found a legit German restaurant and enjoyed sauerkraut, sausage, beer and even Black Forest cake. It was great! We tried to go and see a film but Tokyo was packed due to the long weekend so we ended our night chatting and drinking at an izakaya. It was a fantastic weekend. A major typhoon was headed our way but we both managed to fly home safely the next morning which was a relief. Although it was a tad expensive it was a really fun experience and we both agreed that Disney might happen again before our contracts expire :)
          

Sunday 5 October 2014

Yukata!

Last spring I joined a choir with my friend Sarah and one of my JTE's, Yoko. Yoko and I are pretty good friends outside of work, even though she is nearing 60 and I am only 26. Age is totally just a number when it comes to friendship! She is a gem, who loves Korean dramas, drinking beer and performing. So Sarah and I had a blast practicing two songs in Japanese, with dance moves, and then performing at an all Japanese event. Afterwards we even got to wear Kimonos that another lady from the choir lent us and we ate  fresh sushi. It was one of the happiest memories I have had here. A truly Japanese experience that made me feel really at home.
Anyways this past weekend Yoko told me she would be performing a solo, so the school nurse and I decided to go check it out. She is the sweetest woman who is also in my conversation class. For months now she has made an effort to greet me every morning and chat. Even though my Japanese is weak and her English is a bit lower we always end up laughing. She decided to bring along her daughter too, who I had met before at a drinking party we held. 
Back in August I purchased a Yukata, which is a light summer Kimono, and was aching to wear it, her daughter and I both wore our Yukata! We had a ton of fun in our beautiful outfits and I enjoyed the whole Japanese feeling.

The performance was a few hours, with 30 singers performing unique numbers, from power ballads to the classic Japanese anthem "let it go". It was an afternoon of 久しぶり as about 6 members of my old choir unexpectedly performed as well! I was blown away by the talent, and while most of the acts were local there were a few professional singers from Tokyo. 
The performers! 
Now that I have been here over a year I can really say I feel so connected to many wonderful Japanese people. There are so many beautiful people here who really want to get to know foreigners, and it is so special to be able to make memories with them. I have been so blessed to share in their unique culture with them.