勉強したい

Recently I was inspired to study Japanese. I was staying at a small hostel in Kobe when I met another foreigner. We chatted and he explained that he was also a JET and a CIR. CIR is a position held by a small number of JETs. A CIR works in the local government and therefore has to be fluent in Japanese. I asked him when he started his Japanese studies anticipating he would say elementary school. I was absolutely flummoxed when he told me he learned Japanese in his four years at university. He put his mind to it and made an effort and voila. Well, I’m sure it wasn’t that simple or easy but either way he is a CIR! In the last few months I have made an effort to self-study by using a small dictionary. When I hear a new word I highlight it and put in a sticky tab, and most days I review all the words. Of course I also try to use the words and I also study with my Japanese tutor once a week, but that is only for one hour at a time. I have started to finally make strides and meeting this JET made me decide to push forward with my JLPT. The lowest level is level 5, and the test is in December! I decided that to meet this goal I would need to increase my kanji reading ability. So I just purchased a kanji textbook and have been studying like mad. Level 5 indicates the most basic level of proficiency. Understanding basic sentences, grammar and vocabulary. However it is the stepping stone to fluency. As an applied linguistics major I have always been frustrated at the fact that I only speak one language fluently. I have studied German, Spanish, Illocano and Japanese but have only really made progress with Spanish. I am hoping one day to pursue Spanish to a level of greater understanding but for now I will focus my efforts on日本語. My benchmark will be my parents visit next year. Last year when they visited I managed to get us around but could read zero kanji and was often left confused by conversations. This year I hope to get us around with ease and impress them a little with my Japanese ability ;) I use a myriad of textbooks, but currently I am working through Japanese for Busy People, Japanese made Easy, The Tuttle Concise Japanese Dictionary and Write Now: Beginner Kanji.

Crossing my fingers for the JLPT!　がんばって!

That summer feeling

The summer slipped by as quickly as the heat wave(s) hit. Tottori is not joking around with the heat though, that is for sure! I quickly learned the word (あせ)! One of the hardest adjustments for me is honestly the heat, it is truly unbearable in Tottori. I managed to survive with a lot of a/c, and large bills to attest to that fact. However I can’t complain too much because this summer also included four visits from Dan-san. My heart was definitely full this summer and it was so much fun to have a couple unplanned spontaneous romantic weekends in there! It also meant the chance to show Daniel my cool new hometown! Tottori city is definitely small, and with all small town comes a few quirks. The biggest downfall in my eyes is the lack of Starbucks. Tottori really likes to promote small town, home grown everything from rice to coffee shops. So while there are no Starbucks(I want a Tottori mug!) we make up for it by a long shot with our incredible amount of coffee shops, traditional 喫茶店, bars and restaurants. We have it all, including a cute little German bar, complete with a ton of great Deutsch bier und bratwurst! The owner is from Germany which adds that extra fun feeling. I really love that down each winding road there are little hidden gems. Small cafes tucked away in corners where Japanese grandmas serve you lattes and entertain you with their general air of かわい！I think having Dan with me opened my eyes a little bit more to just how beautiful tottori is! 
Recently a new meat and wine restaurant opened up and the minute I saw it I knew I would like it, so Dan and I checked it out for a date night this past weekend. It was a bit overpriced for the portions but it was a fantastic atmosphere. I really felt like I was back in Vancouver. I enjoy being in Japan for the most part, but I really miss the feeling of a true foreign restaurant. Everything here is always 'Japanesed'. Always. always. This place however, was actually for the most part a nice wine bar with no real 'I have been Japanesed' feeling :) Afterwords we were walking towards the German bar for a drink when we came across a huge group of my students! They freaked out and when I confirmed that Dan was my boyfriend they all clapped and took pictures! It was really cute. Sometimes being the foreigner feels like being a celebrity and it is kind of fun:) The other restaurant that we really love is the revolving sushi place. The sushi is good, it comes fast (literally on a conveyor belt) and for every five plates a little game plays on your tables screen and you can win cute prizes! Dan won a little coffee cup charm! Oh, and we also enjoyed going to a fun placed called yama chans. It is basically a huge open room style 'pub' that offers the ever famous 'all you can drink'. Yama's is always a fun atmosphere and for ladies it is all you can drink for 100 minutes for about 11$!! Ya, it is a fun place!

100Yen sushi, aka 1$ a plate!!!

The Vancouver feeling!! Even though we had beer, not wine :) 

When we were not stuffing our faces we went to see some unique Tottori spots! We had the chance to go up to Kawaharajo, which is the castle in Tottori. It is about 20 years old, so it is a newborn as far as castles go, but the view is spectacular. It is one of my all time favorite spots, and a must see for any Tottori visitors!

View from Kawahara Castle

We took some time to check out Kanon-in Gardens and tea house too. This little tea house and buddhist temple is hard to find, but it is well worth it. It has a very peaceful atmosphere and the 300 yen entrance fee includes some mochi and matcha tea, omnomnom.

Exploring the gardens 

AOf course bringing my boyfriend to Tottori meant a few of my teachers wanted to meet him too. This past year I have really forged some awesome friendships with some women at my school. In particular I began teaching an 英会話 at my school and ended up connecting with all the women in the group. It is a good way for me to keep up with my tutoring materials, and it is a great way to learn some Japanese and connect with co workers. For any JET who complains about being bored...a conversation class will change it all! Luckily my school uses me to the full, but having the class also gives me a chance to form fun work relationships. When I told them my boyfriend was heading down for a weekend they immediately suggested we should go for dinner and drinks. I invited a couple from my building and my best friend in the building, Sarah, and we headed out to a gorgeous restaurant called Enya. It is basically an izakaya. So a drinking and dinner place. It has delicious fresh sushi, tons of other food and of course all the kirin beer you want! It was so much fun to introduce Dan and share them with the ladies in my group. Another perk of my conversation classes are the bijiin kai's we have, which means a beautiful lady party. haha, I love Japanese!

Bijin Kai fun!

Samurai Girl

In March I had a really cool experience being able to do a special tour guided day around Kurayoshi. A friend of mine advertised a cool event, basically $20 for an all day traditional Japanese ‘experiences’ tour. To start the day we went to an old shrine and were dressed in traditional samurai wear. It was pretty epic, we also walked around town dressed in the armor so we got a lot of stares. It is not common to dress like that, and we were 95% foreign, so it was a sight! Next we went into the mountains and made fresh soba noodles from scratch. It was a lot of work, and was fairly delicious. I probably wouldn’t roll out noodles again tho, I’m too lazy. Next we headed to a tatami shop and made small tatami mats. It was a cool memento of the whole day, and it’s in my apartment now with a candle and picture frame on it, it’s pretty cute actually.

Lastly we headed to an outdoor mixed onsen. Oh my goodness this onsen was stunning! The outdoor pools looked out onto the sea, amazing!! Thankfully this onsen was mixed so bathing suits were necessary, and since NHK was filming us the entire day this was a good thing!! Apparently the special aired all over southern Japan for about 20 minutes, it was meant to promote tourism in Tottori. I had teachers talk to me about it after, so I was definitely on TV J #Famous
I am pretty thankful for experiences like this, it is hard to believe that I live in this country sometimes. As hard as it can be to live in a completely foreign culture it is so special to think about the way I am getting a real taste of this culture. This is a really cool chapter of life, as I am starting my ESL career and fulfilling my wanderlust desires in part. 

 <--I made that!!

Finding Joy

This past week has been kind of hard. The constant humidity is frustrating, and the fact that the a/c is set at 28 inside my school doesn't help either. I don't like feeling so effected by the weather, so after a nice skype chat with my mom and my bf I felt a bit better and decided that a mini break was needed. A friend was heading into a nearby prefecture to take the JLPT so I decided to go with her, for the break. It was so relaxing! We trained into Matsue and enjoyed chatting and relaxing for about 2 and a half hours. Then we wandered over to the nearby movie theater and watched Malificent. It was a cute movie and such a nice way to feel like I was back home! There is a cinema here but it has played two English movies in 11 months. Yes, I am serious! After the cinema we shopped, ate a delicious curry dinner and got Starbucks. My train ride back was even longer but it was so relaxing to spend half my day on a train listening to music. I completely relaxed! Today I decided to go to church too. Some weeks it is hard to be motivated to go, as no one in my building goes. However every time I get to church I am welcomed in and the sweetest woman translates for me. It is always a blessing! There are two foreigners- myself and a lady from Finland who is a missionary. It is nice to have found a home church here, even though it is sometimes lonely to go by myself it is also important. At home a big part of going to church was the social aspect and here if i go to church it is truly because I want that to be a part of my week. I want to fellowship with other believers and learn something. So as hard as it is to get out of bed I know that without this Christian connection I would probably feel even more down.
God always walks with us, even when we feel alone. Even when I feel upset about my life here God is there. He is there in skype dates with my family, conversations with friends here. He is in the setting sun as I run along the river and he is present as I share cute moments with students. He cares about me, even when I don't deserve it. 
I have a lot of good things to look forward to. In two weeks Dan comes to visit and in a month I will be in England celebrating my best friend getting married and visiting my old YWAM base! I can't wait to be drinking a beer again at the Jolly Tanner! 

Golden Week in Hiroshima!

One of the top places I have wanted to visit in Japan was Hiroshima. The name is infamous, but I wanted to go and experience the A-bomb museum and site myself. I have been to Auschwitz before, so I know how powerful it can be to see history that close.

We travelled down by shinkansen (bullet train) for Golden Week. We had a five day weekend, so lots of time to enjoy what Hiroshima has to offer. We stayed a Japanese hostel chain called K’s house. It was awesome! Fairly low price, convenient location and the cleanest hostel I have ever stayed in by a long shot. I woke up early one morning and the owner was fixing up the hang out room by organizing the games, pillows and DVDs. He really cared about the space, which was really cool to see.

We started our travels with a day trip to Miyajima. You take a little ferry over to the island and you can see the famous Tori shrine in the water. It was pretty cool, but even better when the tide is out. Deer are domesticated here so if you fancy getting up close and personal with some wildlife then you will enjoy that too. We took the cable cars up to see some shrines and the view was striking from the top.

 Hiroshima is famous for its okonomiyaki, however not the traditional kind, This okonomiyaki has noodles as a base, and it is so good. Honestly, best okonomiyaki I have had so far, and I managed to try both the original and the Hiroshima style

On our second full day we went to the A-bomb dome site and the museum. It was a somber experience, but interesting for me because it was so international. Tourists from all over were there to understand more about the tragic events that happened. It is cool to see people from all different countries and with all different world views connect about something as significant as peace.  

The last day was a bit rainy, but I enjoyed walking along the river, drinking coffee and sitting outside Hiroshima castle. Oh and of course since I was in a big city I caught a movie, the new Spiderman. Best 
memory was taking a cab to the movie theater, a cricket was in the cab too and in the darkness really scared us when it started jumping!! Of course I screamed and this made the driver, who was about 99 years old, freak out. It was hilarious. Would I go back? Probably not, it’s too far and it wasn’t my absolute favorite place, but it is a must see if you have the time.

Hokkaido

I recently went back to Hokkaido for the second time. I have experienced it during the full force of winter, at the beginning of February, and now I have seen it as it is just beginning to warm up and thaw out, at the beginning of May. Two completely different experiences.

In February I went to the さっぽろ雪まつり, the Sapporo snow festival! There were snow carvings from around the world, light shows projected on walls of carved ice and snow and tons of other snowy goodness. The weather was absolutely frigid, but it was a really fun experience. Over a million tourists from Japan and around the world travel to Sapporo for this festival, so it was a really fun festival to join. One of the best parts of Sapporo is definitely the famous soup curry. It is so delicious! It is a curry broth with meat and fresh, local, vegetables. One awesome thing about Japan is that each prefecture will have its own character, a special food, etc. etc. Every prefecture is ‘famous’ for something, and スプカレイ the specialty in Hokkaido. 

I also enjoyed some German sausage and beer at a cool pub in Otaru, a city near to Sapporo. The two best parts of the trip didn’t happen directly at the festival though, the first was seeing the famous penguin walk at the Asahiyama Zoo. The zoo itself is a frozen tundra at this time of year with less than ideal conditions for the animals (such is the case for most zoos in Japan), however the penguins seemed perfectly OK in the snow and every few hours they do a march around part of the zoo. It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen!! It is a ways out from festival, but well worth it! 

The other highlight of the trip was going on a drive to a smaller snow festival, and stopping at the lake to see this stunning volcano. It was a relaxing and breathtaking way to end the weekend. 

When I decided to come back in May to visit my boyfriend I wasn’t expecting too much. The last time I was in Hokkaido it was freezing cold and 99% snow covered so I couldn’t really imagine the lush green and blooming flowers that greeted me! The weather was even fairly warm (as warm as it’s gonna get up north) We didn’t plan to do too much, but we did go to a really cool park. We also wandered around Sapporo and enjoyed the local Yosakoi festival, which is basically large ish groups of dancers in elaborate costumes dancing all over the city. It was pretty cool! 

Japan is so good at festivals! Spring/Summer is definitely a good time to visit! Oh and  I also saw the new X-men there and fulfilled my desire to drink a caramel macchiato from Starbs. Tottori is so inaka that I sometimes forget that almost every other prefecture has Starbucks and movie theaters with English films! 

Tigers Game!

I have almost lived here for a full year, that in and of itself is crazy. I have experienced so many things, from my ever changing understanding of this foreign culture to walking on fire. (for real!)
However as time passes my exciting and crazy stories are quickly replaced by new ones, and I feel like I am forgetting some of the more special moments that have happened to me.
So I think it is time for me to make a vested effort in this blog, to serve as a memory of what I have experienced  It is so easy to forget the little moments that make this job, and really this whole cross cultural experience, so worthwhile. 

So to start I will talk about this past weekend. Traveled down to Osaka after work on Friday night and stayed at a cute little guest house kind of outside the main hub(OK, really, really outside the main hub). The main purpose of the trip was to take in a Hanshin Tigers game, but of course the other main purpose in Osaka is the shopping!! Spent too much money, ate incredible Mexican food, drank delicious plum wine and enjoyed catching up with my Aunt, who lives in a town near Osaka city. 
This was my third or fourth time to Osaka and I always enjoy it. It doesn't have the same beauty or tradition as Kyoto, but it ranks up there for being a modern and fun city to crush out a weekend.