Who wants to come visit us?!?!!

Okay. I have decided that instead of going back to the USA (where I have lived for the past 24ish years) to visit family and friends, I instead have a fantastic offer for you all.

Here it is....come visit us in Japan!!!
How often do you have the opportunity to visit a different (1st world) country on the other side of the globe with so many cultural differences like Japan when you are living in the US? I mean this is JAPAN(!!!) sooooo cool!
Even better, when else do you have an opportunity to experience this different culture with your very own (English speaking!) tour guide who actually LIVES IN JAPAN?!?

Going even further....not only do you have an amazing opportunity to come to Japan and have your own tour guide....you also have FREE room and (most) board during your stay!!! A typical hotel room in Japan would cost around $300 a night...but if you come visit us you don't have to pay a thing for a comfortable (and BIG) room (with a closet!) for as long as you stay!! you can't beat that!!!!

So now you are asking “what do I have to do to take you guys up on the amazing offer?”
Well its simple!
First: tell us you want to come visit! We would like to know ahead of time when we need to clean up for company! =P And plan fun things to do when you get here!

Second: purchase your plane tickets… granted this is the most demanding part of getting to Japan. Keep in mind, you are going to the other side of the world so it will be more expensive than any domestic flights…but again FREE room and board once here!! And this really is a once in a life time opportunity. =)

Third: let us know when you are coming…..so we can provide you with a list of a few items we would like you to pack in your bags for us…small things like Peter Pam creamy peanut butter….yummy peanut butter! (Tegan begins to drool)….You know, since we aren’t going to the US, its nice to get a little taste or smell, or sight of home. =)

So that’s it! 1-2-3 and you are here!! Enjoying seeing two people you know to be amazing, plus a free place to stay, tour guide, etc, with just the cost of the flight over.

So plan your trips now!! Let us know!!
May I suggest Vayama, Priceline, Orbitz, etc for your ticket finding needs? I got a good deal on a domestic flight on Priceline, Matt got a good ticket to Japan from Vayama, and now Orbitz has a guarantee: if someone buys the same tickets you buy…but at a cheaper price, you will be refunded the difference...soo cool!

So please come visit us!!

Tokyo!

I am going to make this post as short as I can, sorry. I will try to post pictures on here at a later time.

Matt and I went to Tokyo in September (thanks for my 7 day work week I had a 3 day weekend). We stayed in a really cheap Hotel in Ikebukuro (http://www.sakura-hotel-ikebukuro.com/) that has English speaking staff and cateres to the Cheap/poor foriegn tourists in Tokyo. The place was not fantanstic, but it was a place to sleep and it was clean so it worked for us (and will probably be working for us again on our next trip to Tokyo).
We took a bus from Kofu to Shinjuku (one of the sections of Tokyo). The trip was not bad, about 2.5 hours and we got into Tokyo pretty early. I had two goals: 1.)Watch some Sumo and
2.)Go to the Ghilbli (miyazaki) Museum.
Matt had two goals also: 1.) Watch some Sumo and 2.) go to Akihabara (the electronics district in Tokyo)

We succeeded on all fronts....though we were both the happiest with the Sumo.

Sumo does not happen all the time in Japan. They have tournaments throughout the year, but (other than in September) the next time there would be Sumo in Tokyo is in January. Needless to say we took the opprotunity to go to sumo (which can be an all day event). We bought the cheapest (and poorest) seats in the house for approx. $21 each. Luckyily, not many people watch the entire day (a weekday) so we were able to watch some sumo from *cough* a better view than our tickets would normally provide *coug*
=P

There were a lot of foreigners at the sumo event. Most bought the same seats we had bought, and were also fortunate with the improved views the empy day matches provided.
At our hotel we had a TV. We watched some sumo on there as well and pointed saying "we are going there tomorrow!" It was fun and I have officially become addicted to Sumo (I even have a 3d moving sumo players cup!)

Next, we went to Akihabara....matt might have something interesting to say...all i can say is that my feet and back hurt. =P oh! and that there are a number of boys in Japan with strange interests....

Finally we went to the Ghilbli Museum and I had fun...but wish I had allowed for more time to look around. I think we both felt rushed to get to our bus stop (our ride home). We are going to go back there again and provide for more time.

Okay! enough for now! Life is good.

Ahh! sorry!

I know, I know....it has been a while since I posted. I honestly blame my lack of regular internet access. Many things have happened, so I think to updated you all on what Matt and I have been up to I will need to make this a 2 part entry....the second part (about Tokyo!) only when I have more time. So for now, I will try to entertain you all with pics and stories of my first time experiencing a Japanese JHS festival weekend.
Every morning since I began working at my JHS I have walked across the school parking lot to the sound of children singing...the same three songs. Every week I have worked at my JHS has been a "special shorten class schedule." Then after class I would see (when it wasn't raining) hundreds of kids practicing strange "sports" out side. If it was raining I would see hundreds of kids running around inside, usual with paint brushes or construction paper in hand. These weeks of preparation were all for a two day event called the school festival. The 283 kids at my school must have spent 12 days at school working toward this festival. I honestly wasn't very excited about going, since it meant I would be at school all day Saturday and Sunday, but once there I can not say it was a bad experience. Below will be the pics of what happened, along with my explanations.

Okay this doesn't acutally have much to do with the festival, but it does have lots to do with the JHS. For several days in a row, I have been able to see Mount Fuji from my school, and even on my drive to school. To be honest, it has been pretty exciting to see, and so clearly. In the mornings it is so clear, though unforutnately I didn't have my camera on me until the afternoon, which means this pics of Mount Fuji isn't as clear as I would like...but its still there! =)

So all the painting I saw the students doing over the past few weeks has been for decorations for the HUGE gym during the festival. Along with decorations, each class (there are 3 grades with 3 classes each -9 classes total) created their own flag with a class moto. The above pic is of class 3-3's flag (3rd years 3rd class). I thought it was funny that they chose to use the Japanese train exit sign as their focus. Many of the flags had English on them also.


The first days events were all held in the gym. The day consisted of team spirit exercises and sentimental pieces on the fun time they have had together so far this school year, along with class plays...which had lots and lots of dancing. My elective English 4 class did a shadow puppet show which I video taped and edited together to present at the festival. At first it was thought that I would actually have to perform, live, with them on pretty short notice. I am so glad my school has a new 30GB hard drive Sony handy cam. I had lots of fun filming and editing that play. =)
Anyway...there were lots of plays and dancing and loud music and team spirit etc. At the end each class sang a song for the audience (the teachers and parents). Finally, all 283 students got up front and sang "Hallelujah" for everyone. I was impressed by how much they had improved in their English singing skills. Though, "and he shall reign forever and ever" didn't exactly sound like I am used to it. =P

Wow...all that writing and I just finished talking about the first day of the festival.

Okay...I promise I will finish the festival....

DAY 2!!!!

day 2 was a bit more fun for me. Less watching plays in a language i don't understand, and more laughing at my students acting crazy during tug of war and other games.


Remember those flags i mentioned earlier that the classes made, you can see them above, held in front of each class. Those flags became a big deal for the day two events.

before the games begin, everyone did exercises on the sports grounds.

The morning consisted of girls of each class in the gym playing basketball against one another. Their scores actually mattered towards the days goal of best performing class and classes. There was the best performing class and then there was the best performing group of classes so class 2 would be all the 2 classes, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2, so you have all age groups competing as one as well as against each other.

The boys spent the morning playing soccer for the coveted points.



Here is another class flag. some students spent the majority of their morning switching out to wave this flag around to cheer on their classmates.

This is one of the art pieces the students worked on for the festival...though I was unable to take pics at the end, I am sad to say they actually burned this, along with anything else they made that was burnable and then we all danced around it (folk dance...guy leading girl) as a way of closing out the festival. I felt like it was a shame to burn something they worked so hard on, but they didn't seem to mind. =)

Of all the games they played that you wouldn't see in the states, this one would never make it to a US school field day, too many injuries, too many upset parents. The idea of the game is to get as many of the items from the center line over to your teams zone. There are two teams with these items (mostly tires since they can hold up to the attacks best) in between them. When the gun sounds everyone runs to grab a tire. Needless to say some people grab the same tire and then fight it out. By the end there are usually one 2 tires left to get and 30 kids to fight between them. People got hurt, and dirty, but man it looked like some fun, rough fun, but fun non the less. =)



The other games included:
jump rope with an entire class at once, which was pretty fun to watch
Tug of War that had different rules then what I was used to...the students had several ropes to fight over...but it only made things more interesting
Mukude (sp?) race, where each class (boys then girls) are tied together and then race the other teams
All in all I say I had much more fun on day 2. =)

I know, I know....blogging has been on the back burner

Hello all!
Sorry its been so long since my last post. Let us see if I can quickly wrap up what has been happening since my birthday. I had my first week of school, where I did the same introduction lesson oh, about 30,000,000,000 times. =P I still have one more school to go to, my second elementary school. So, after next week, I will be officially done introducing myself and my home. Part of my intro has been to explain that I am a vegetarian. I tell them what it means and that "many people in Asheville are Vegetarian" Ha! I thought it was pretty interesting to show these kids that there are people who not only speak a different language but have completely removed, what the kids consider to be, what makes a meal a meal, meat/fish. Ha!
Moving on...the little kids are very cute, 1st and 2nd graders especially. It makes me want to be a elementary school teacher...in Japan at least. BUT these kids have yet to realize that I do not speak Japanese. As I walk the halls I get swarms of children asking me all sorts of questions in their soft spoken, yet quite fast, Japanese. Sigh. I wish I could understand them! That is just more motivation for me to study the language.
Okay...the rest of the blog will be the usual. I will share a picture and a (hopefully) brief explanation....brief because I am using my neighbors internet still.

so on my way to pick up matt in Kofu, I saw Mt. Fuji! I am not sure how well you will be able to see it, but the mountain in the background is Mt. Fuji. I was excited to finally see it. I live on the completely other side of the prefecture, so it is very rare for it the sky to be clear enough to see it.


Matt went into a store to kill some time, when we saw these great "Engrish" slippers. That's right people...it says "where are you doing?"! hee hee!



These are the promised cake pics that I took on my birthday. I was craving a Ingles or Harris Teeter style cake. But, alas, there aren't any of those places near our home here. To get a real birthday cake here, you have to order pretty far in advance from what I understand. These three slices of cake were a nice substitute, but still not the same. =P

Here it is! one of the famous cigarette vending machines. This one requires a certain id to be swiped to get the cigs, but have no fear under aged hooligans, there are plenty of beer vending machines with out any id requirements, just pay your 200 yen and let the drinking commence! (ps. I do not condone underage drinking k? but I do think its pretty funny to see beer and cigarettes being sold like this. I have a friend who lives near a vending machine that sells eggs...eww.)

Key chains are big here. You put them on your cell phone, your Nintendo ds, your keys...etc. You find lots of these key chain machines in Japan. I thought this one was pretty funny. They are selling mos burger key chains. Mos burger is the Japanese Burger King. So if you wanted, you could have a hot dog, or a hamburger attached to your cell phone...sooooo coool! =P

Lastly, Matt and I went to Kofu to experience the "I love Kofu" Festival....really, that is what it was called...in English and everything. We ate festival food (yay pork free Yakisoba!!) and watched Taiko (Japanese drumming) on the main stage. We eventually ended up at a karaoke place. It was...interesting. =P (I can't sing)

I'm a year older!

I had my birthday yesterday. Though, in the states it is still august 20th. It was a nice birthday. I spent the day with my husband. We bought some pieces of cake, chocolate, strawberry, and melon flavored. I took pictures of them, because they were so small and cute, which I will post at a later time. I just wanted to say a quick hello to everyone. Getting internet here is a very big hassle. In America you would just call the company and the very next day they could come out and flip a switch or something and "ta da!" Internet! Here, it takes about a month...and you most prove, as a non-Japanese, that you are legally allowed in the country, by sending a copy of your Alien Registration card...which takes at least 2 weeks to get. Sigh. So I hope that help explains why it seems so long between posts. My internet access is quite limited. I hope everyone is doing well. I am sooo happy now that my husband is with me. I think he will be jet lagged for a while, but he is doing well, though possibly a bit overwhelmed by the fact that we are two fairly intelligent people who are now considered illiterate. =P

Spending more time in Japan

I went to the capital city of my prefecture this week, Kofu, for another orientation. There were some helpful workshops and it was fun getting to spend more time with other new assistant language teachers(ALTs). In total, for the prefecture, there are 36 new ALTs.
Here are some pictures and explanations of what has been going on here in Japan. =]

Here is a VEGETARIAN bento (boxed lunch) that a Japanese restaurant prepared for all 8 of us odd balls who don't eat meat. Apparently, when you say you are a vegetarian, restaurants will try to feed you fish...why do people think fish is a fruit, vegetable, or grain...I always thought it was an animal. =P so thankfully, those in charge of our orientation made extra sure that fish was not included in this cute little bento.

On the second day of the orientation we took a trip to a very large temple. Actually this temple had several, HUGE, temples on the property. this is just the entrance to the stairs...the evil, evil stairs. I couldn't even get the entire entryway in my picture, it was HUGE!

On to the evil stairs. There are two ways to get to the top of this hill/mountain where the temples were located. The first, drive up to the parking lot higher up on the mountain. The second, go up the steepest, most uneven, stair case EVER. Needless to say, for the "fun" of it, our group went up the stairs. I say they are evil, because each of the 287 steps is actually the height of 2 or 3 normal steps. You have to push yourself up to the next step, its not exactly easy. I was among the group of about 10 girls who finished last. =P I don't believe this picture can really capture how impressive those stairs were. I was extremely proud of myself for not giving up. I don't believe you can actually see the bottom of the stair case in the picture; it just kept on going!

This is how I felt once I reached the top. hee hee. I was completely worn out.

My time at the temple did improve though. I took some pretty pictures and I saw ridiculous amounts of gold leafing on EVERYTHING inside the temples...which we weren't allowed to photograph.

This was one of the gardens among the temples.

Once I got back to my town...I am actually calling it home now =)... I went to my JHS's festival and met my predecessor.

This is a view of some of the mountains that surround Takane JHS. I say some of the mountains, because the area is completely surrounded with beautiful and very large mountains. Because it is the season for the Obon festival in Japan, there were these paper lanterns all over the place.

On the sports field at the jr. high school there were vendors and a stage and lots of people. AND...that's right America...the Power Rangers are still going strong in Japan. I saw the red, green, black and blue rangers kicking evil butt in front of a group of 3-6 year olds....so adorable!

Before I left, I was able to watch the JHS students perform a few songs on Taiko drums. It was pretty good, and fun to watch.

That is all for now. I hope you all are doing well! =]

It's okay...I'm still alive

I know it's been a few days since I have blogged, but honestly, there hasn't been much to blog about. I have been cleaning my new home, and learning how to cook on a gas stove.
Because I am feeling pretty lazy, I am just going to throw up some pictures I have taken and talk briefly about them.


Last night I went to one of the revolving sushi places and had some fried tofu wrapped around rice, along with some cucumber rolls, which were delicious.


Here is a view from my bedroom window. There is a preschool behind my apartment, which is uber cute. What you are seeing here is the baseball field next to my place. It was pretty comforting to hear baseball teams practicing over the weekend. It was strange as well, because in addition to the familiar sounds of baseball I would hear the less familiar sounds of guys yelling in Japanese. =)

Last, but not least, I did laundry!! I took a pic of my first attempt at drying my laundry. I have a washing machine but there isn't a dryer. Most homes in Japan lack a dryer, everyone hangs their clothes up to dry....like me!