Friday 29 May 2015

鳥取で懐かしい

As the half year I had left quickly become the 8 weeks I have left I find myself getting busier and busier. Talent shows, dinners out, church events...it's already looking like a full summer.
Recently one event I had the opportunity to help out at was a local charity event, Cheer 4 Fukushima.
This event was designed to raise money for an orphanage that was damaged in the great Japan earthquake on March 11, 2011. Before coming to Japan I remember on March 12 sitting in a geography class at my university and watching a clip of the devestation. To this day hundreds of people remain missing. Swept away at sea with no sense of closure for their family

My sweet student, Nozomi, made this collage!
Represent Canada!
Another teacher in my building decided to volunteer at Iwaki Ikeuisha, an orphanage in Fukushima, and was touched. So much so that he decided to organize a giant fundraiser and community event. Designed to connect the international community with our local community here in Tottori. I volunteered to head up the Canadian cultural booth. I helped kids make handprint Canadian flags, which were super adorable. It was an amazing event, with local magicians, belly dancers and a flash mob choir as a few of the performers. Additionally at least 10 members of the local international community volunteered to cook and sell food, or run cultural booths. Thanks to those cooking I was able to stuff my face with Jamaican curry and an American brownie. Nomnomnom!
The next day at school a bunch of teachers commented that they saw me in the newspaper and lo and behold the sweet office lady presented me with a copy of my picture and the following article. It was a really cool event to participate in, and it definitely strengthened relationships between the international community and the local community.

Newspaper Fame!!
Last weekend I also had the chance to catch up with two old friends. One, Hikari, was a teacher with me last year who was transferred to a new school this year. She is in her early twenties and she joined my eikaiwa last year so we always have fun togethor. In the afternoon I had the chance to meet up with my friend Etsuko. When I first came to Japan I prayed that I would meet christian, English speaking, Japanese friends. I met Etsuko almost immediately and she told me that had been her prayer too! She is about 15 years older than me, but we hit it off and she always has good advice.
The last, and possibly most imporatant (just kidding) event of the weekend was the grand opening of STARBUCKS! The famed chain finally made it to our little slice of Japan and it is about a ten minute walk from my flat. On the opening morning there were over 1000 people lined up. That was a bit crazy, even for me, so I waited until the second day it was open to enjoy a cookie frappe on the gorgeous outdoor patio. Japan has few options for eating outdoors, so to have access to a giant wrap around patio is going to make this summer fly by! Only a few weeks left, hard to believe. In less than three months I will be starting a new job(!!!), pressing play again on my old life. It is a strange feeling. The longer I spend here the fonder I grow of Japan and my life here. On the other hand, I miss so many things about Canada and I know that coming home might be hard, but it is the right choice. The Japanese word 懐かしい (natsukashi) has been running through my head. It translates as a fond feeling for past times. I have been feeling it for Tottori already.

Sunday 17 May 2015

Sunshine weekends

This past weekend I decided to spend time experiencing life in Tottori. A lot of weekends I spend at cafes or with friends, or travelling to other prefectures. Since this adventure is nearing the end I thought it would be fun to see a little more of what there is to offer here.
Kimono girls at the festival
On Saturday morning a group of us caught the train to a town an hour away, Chizu. Deep in the mountains Chizu only has trains come through once an hour, and it feels a bit like a ghost town. It is a beautiful town to visit, even if it feels a little empty. We walked across the river and came across the local festival. It was super small, and super sweet too. Lots of obaachans, little ones running around and plants and flowers for sale all over the place. We ate our weight in Japanese fair food, from soft cream and beer to cake bites and taiyaki. Ryan even took home a koi fish for his apartment, since he is staying next year.
Ryan's new roommate
Custard filled taiyaki!
New friends
Grilled Fish
Misty beauty
Enjoying the walk
Last night a group of us headed for Korean BBQ at Ton Ton, a really fun place in downtown Tottori. We celebrated a fellow JETs birthday and enjoyed all you can eat meat, kimchi and veggies, plus all you can drink too! Was a great night, and when I woke up this morning with the sun streaming in I decided it was a good chance to see some more of Tottori. So Mercedes and I headed up Mt.Kyusho to see the city in all it's glory. I am so glad this has been my home for the past two years, it has been lovely.
View from the top

Sunday 10 May 2015

Heart and Seoul

Golden Week is a special time in Japan when we get 5 national holidays within the span of 7 days. It is a dream come true for a young travellor. Last year I stayed in Japan and visited Hiroshima, but this year I headed for Seoul, South Korea. Seoul is only an hour flight away from my area of Japan so it was an easy choice to get the maximum time for money.
I have been wanting to go to Seoul for a long time, and my interest was piqued last year when my students took a trip there and seemed to really love it. So I hopped on a plane and met D in Seoul! We stayed in a little hostel near Hongdik University. A nice, quiet area, and the cost was really affordable. We had a private room for only around 90$ each, total.
Seoul took my breathe away. It was fantastically diverse and not once did I feel like the odd one out. I was just a tourist enjoying the sights. The Korean folk were in bright colours and fashions, and with little to no bowing there was a general sense of chill. I really love how kind and polite Japanese can be, but being in Seoul reminded me a lot of how my heart is in diverse places.
We had three full days to explore together and we got to see all the major sights and stuff ourselves with Korean BBQ.
 We started our first day at Coffee Bee, a cute coffee house. After our lattes and a decision about itinerary we headed for the National Museum of Korea.
It was so beautiful there, and free to enter!! The architecture and nature surrounding the actual Museum was incredible. I personally loved learning more about Hangul, the Korean orthography.  It is definitely worth a stop on any Seoul trip.
For lunch we just ate sandwiches at a cafe and shopped a little bit. Seoul is famous for cheap shopping and bartering. I bought a beautiful pink bag for only 15$, cheap price, cheaply made, but I am happy!! This was also the place where the employee at a shoe store felt my foot, told me about his foot fetish and asked to kiss my feet. It was so random and weird and I am forever scared of shoe store employees and their personal motives!! Afterwards we went up from underground and checked out Gangham (YES that Gangham!! PSY is Korean!) and drank bubble tea!! D got salted cheese flavour, no for real. I played it safe with chocolate cookie!!

Following bubble tea we headed back to our hostel and changed for a date night D planned. We started off with a delicious all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ. You get a time limit of 90 minutes and then you go to town, filling up plates with meat and vegetables, dumplings, etc. It was a cheaper place so the meat was ま‐ま、but the dumplings were amazing and we had a fun time! The people next to us were grilling up all sorts of creepy octopus and tentacly fish, which was both gross and interesting!!

 
 Following dinner we decided to walk it off around the Hongdik University area which at night transforms into a crazy night market, with thousands of young people performing, lining up for clubs and weaving in and out among the hundreds of food and shopping stalls. D and I stopped for a pina colada at a drink truck!! It was so fun :) We finished our night at a coffee shop sharing some cake, and we ran into a friend from my apartment building here in Japan, which was a cool treat!                                       
The second day we started our morning off with coffee again, at the coolest bookstore/coffeeshop heaven. The prices were expensive but my latte was randomly half price, so all in all a great choice to start our day of Korean adventure.
Following coffee we headed off for Gyeonbokgung, the national palace in Seoul. We saw the changing of the guard, explored the grounds and had fun seeing a beautiful palace.  
 After the palace we went exploring the local area, and stumbled upon some great street food for D, and some beautiful hanging lanterns. Then we found exactly what I was looking for, shaved ice!! Shaved ice is a huge dessert across Asia, but much less so in Japan. Anyways in Korea it is everywhere and we couldn't resist so we got the chocolate flavour. Oh, my, goodness. For real it was the most chocolately thing to enter my life in the longest time and it was so bloody good.

 After all the food (yes, we eat a lot!! #noregrets) we headed for the river and went for a lovely walk together. So wonderful!!
D eating one of many street food treats! 

Chocolate dreams!
Along the river, nature amid bustle 
Before the show!!
That evening we headed out to watch a Korean non verbal performance. Nanta is world famous, with similar productions in London and New York. It is a group of performance artists who perform a comedy, dance and martial art show using little language, except that which is needed to get the story line across. It was hilarious and really entertaining, and we got 50% of tickets because of our hostel discount!! Woot :) After the show we went out for Korean food again, this time trying a Korean spicy hot pot. So good! Of course we had cake after, who do you think we are?!



Enjoying the walk 
We had one last day in Seoul and it was another fantastic one. First we headed for Namsam, a mountain that is in the middle of the city, where you can hike up and catch a breathtaking view of the city below, plus take a look at the North Seoul Tower. We headed up and the best part was at the top sharing a beer, overlooking the city. It was so relaxing and fun!
View from the top!
Celebratory Beer! カンパイ
Cute guy, eh?
As this was our last day we spent the rest of the day just hanging out, getting our fill of weird and wonderful Seoul food, and talking. At night we ran all over the Hongdae area spending the last of our Korean won, eating tons of desserts and drinking lots of coffees and beers, oh and a little Taco Bell too!!

Weird pink tube filled with softcream, ya we bought it!!
Seoul was an amazing trip. I would go again anytime, and I would recommend it to anyone. It is a diverse and exciting city, and totally affordable!!
Thanks for everything Korea!!