Sunday, June 22, 2014

A much appreciated weekend

There is so much I want to say about this weekend, and I've tried to type it a number of times.  But it seems that there are certain subjects that I'd rather keep in my journal. But I can say that I am extremely thankful to know Ms. Mihoko, Ms. Minori, and Ms. Minori's family. They are some of the most thoughtful people I have ever known, and I only wish I could find better ways to show them how much I appreciate them.

Ok so here's what I feel I can write about. Ms. Minori and her family invited me to stay at their house for the weekend. Ms. Minori and I went jogging Friday night, and then we hurried and showered at her house before we went out for dinner and karaoke with Ms. Mihoko. Can I quickly say that my showering experience was a completely new one. It was so interesting!

It looked very much like this, except the bathtub had 2 lids on it, covering it up.  You don't get in the bathtub to clean yourself, you get in the bath to relax.  But you have to be clean before you get in the tub, so you sit on a stool and shower.  It's amazing how something as simple as a shower can remind you that things are done differently all over the world.


Anyways, Karaoke.  We sang so much stuff! Takarazuka, David Bowie, Billy Joel, It's a Small World (long story ha ha), Beyonce, Annie, and some Jay-Z.  I also worked on my speed with reading Hiragana during the Japanese and Korean songs we sang.

It's very much like this, though every place is different.


Afterwards, Ms Minori and I walked back to her house since it was close by. The streets were very safe, even at 2:30am.  In the morning, Minori's mom had this amazing breakfast waiting for us. Toast with tons of different things we could put on top.  I had lettuce, tomato, and egg, and ....dang.... something else for breakfast as well. I'm trying to write it all down quickly because I know I'm starting to forget already. It's cause SO MUCH happened! At breakfast, I got to meet her Father, who I'd never seen before.  He was so sweet and nice!  So many things about my experience reminded me of being at home with my family. Their house was beautiful!  It was bigger on the inside, I swear. There were western-ish rooms, and traditional Japanese-tatami-mat rooms as well. Minori's mother is an amazing artist and sculptor.  Her paintings had a similar style to Uncle Peder, and I liked them a lot.  She loved sculpting very small pieces, and they were all over the house.  I fell in love with her vegetable pieces.  They were so detailed, and so small! I wish I had taken photos of the kitchen and living room, it was very homey. I loved it. And one of my favorite things about the house was the plum tree in the back.
There is a plum tree growing right outside their living room, and they built a balcony around it.  They had all sorts of potted plants sitting everywhere, and it was very pretty to sit and look at. Ms Minori had planned on going swimming with her older sister Saturday morning, and I had asked if I could stay at her house and sketch the plum tree. Which I did. It was so nice to just sit still and concentrate on something like drawing. Her parents were inside playing with their little year old grandson Kiyoshiro, who is so CUTE!  He was pretty nervous around me, because my facial features were so alien to him. And I could hear Minori's Mom creep up behind me to see how I was doing.  I kept hearing her say "Kirei!" which means beautiful. So I'm glad someone other than myself liked the sketch :-)

When Minori and her sister got back, we ordered some sushi.  2 giant sushi platters!  I tried every flavor, and they were all delicious of course. Sushi isn't limited to just fish. They have egg and corn sushi too, and Minori was telling me about beef sushi in some places.  Interesting. The egg pieces were so big that I was pretty bad at handling them with my chopsticks. But everything else I was fine with. I've been getting plenty of practice, but man, the things they can do with chopsticks. I can't figure how they chop stuff up with one hand. Someday!!! Poor little Kiyoshiro, he found a little dab of wasabi on a plate and put it in his mouth.  His mom and grandma both dove to try to take it out of his mouth, but he had wiped it on his teeth. It was one of those moments where you are are saying, "awww poor guy" while also giggling at the silly thing he did. Just when you thought he'd learned his lesson, he tried reaching for some spicy Kim Chi the next day lol. This time his mom got to it before he did ha ha ha.

After lunch, Minori, her sister and I went to rent some DVD's and get some groceries. I told her about how America has switched to things like Netflix and RedBox, and how I wish we still had DVD stores.  They had such a huuuuuge selection!  It was awesome!  I rented Totoro.  Totoro to Japan is like Star Wars is to America.  Pretty much everyone has seen it. I'd never seen it, and a replica house from the movie is really close to where I live.  So I wanted to see the movie before I went to see the house. I'm actually watching it as I blog, and I am loving it for so many reasons.  Movies by Hayao Miyazaki have always been favorites of mine, the music is beautiful, and it captures LOTS of small things about Japan that aren't listed in any tourist book.  Like the bus stop they wait at.  There's a bus stop identical to that one just outside my apartment. And at night, you can hear the exact same toads croaking. The little red bibs around the necks of the shrine animals....even the fox statues at one of the shrines made me think of Inari Taishi in Kyoto.  I can even guess the month this movie takes place in, based on rice paddies and flowers growing.  I am LOVING the details!!! I'm having to watch it in Japanese, but I am pretty proud of myself because I understand a lot of it. 

Anyways, they had tons of dvd's and cd's you could rent.  No takarazuka lol I looked. Interestingly, you can rent tons of American TV shows, but each episode is rented separately. When we got back, we watched a movie and I talked with Minori's Dad about various stuff.  He reminded me a lot of my Dad, so I liked him a lot. We picked some plums too. He would climb up into the tree, clip off some branches, and lower them down to us.  We hung them on some hanging rails for a plum picking event the next day. I was very happy being outside, pruning a tree with Ms. Minori's Dad. It is something I would do with mine.

Dinnertime rolled around, and I got to meet Minori's brother.  He is working on his English, so we did lots of talking.  He was very interested in the world, and America, and how Americans viewed other countries and such.  We covered lots of subjects. We also talked about Japan. He told me that Kyoto and Tokyo and Kyoto are in Japan but kind of their own places, if that makes sense.  He said that they are fun places to go, but they represent specific sides of Japan, not the day-to-day Japan. Anyways for dinner we had what they said was a typical Japanese dinner.  Nikujaga, Ghost Fish, Konnyaku, seaweed, and rice. It was all delicious.  Nikujaga had beef, potato, carrot, and onion.  I found a photo that looks kind of like it, but Minori's mother is an AMAZING cook, and her's looked much better.


 I can't remember the name of the fish, but her Dad jokingly called it a ghost fish because it was so white. He's a big fan of fishing, and had caught some of them in the nearby part of the ocean. Konnyaku, aka Devil's Tongue Jelly, is made from potato starch, and I was told that it was verrrrry healthy for you. It's got a very bland flavor, so you serve it with this really tasty mustard.  I was a fan, although this is the hardest thing I've ever tried to pick up with chopsticks. Eventually I had to just stab it ha ha ha!

And then some seaweed and rice, but you know what those look like. It was the first time I'd had straight cooked seaweed, and I was surprised that it didn't taste at all like that seaweed smell I've seriously almost forgotten. The seaweed here tastes good.

After dinner, Minori, her brother and I sat up late and chatted about various stuff, and somehow we got on the subject of fireworks. That led to Minori's brother grabbing a bunch of fireworks and the whole family and I went out back and lit a bunch!  They have a big variety of sparklers!  There are the ones we have in America, as well as some that only shoot in one direction. You should shove them in water and they wouldn't go out, they'd keep going!  So cool. There were some attached to paper machine guns, and they rattled off like a machine gun would. There were special ones you lit at the end which were pretty cool.  They were very small and frail, and you lit the bottom, not the top.  They glowed faintly and had very faint sparks coming off the bottom.  Eventually the lit up part falls off.  You're supposed to light them with other people and then have a competition to see who's sparkler falls off last.  Whoever's sparkler holds dripping the longest gets to make a wish. After the fireworks, we watched a movie called Snow Piercer.  It's made in Korea, with a bunch of American, English, and Korean people.  I didn't get to finish because I got tired, but I am hoping to finish it at some point. Tilda Swinton does another fantastic transformation into a completely different person.  Her accent is completely hidden.  That woman is an amazing actress!!!

The whole time I was staying there, I was getting gifts.  Minori gave me all sorts of things, just to be nice, and her Mother gave me my favorite sculpted piece that she'd made. 


 I was overwhelmed with how sincere and giving everyone was.  Ms. Minori, her mother, her father, her sister, and her brother did all they could to make me feel welcome.  I felt very cared about, it felt like I was back at home. 
I got to sleep in this room, on a traditional futon.  Honestly, I found it to be very comfortable. I had a fan blowing at my feet, and I was in heaven. The next morning, we had lots of prep work to be done. Minori had invited all the teachers over for plum picking and lunch.  Another delicious breakfast, and then I got to help prepare.  I helped make some ebi rice balls, and some Korean pancakes.  When the teachers arrived, we all feasted!
There were three different types of Onigiri rice (shrimp, herb, and pickled plum***(my fav)), and a few other dishes that couldn't fit on the table. so they were kept in the kitchen.  there was so much food! And it was all delicious!

During lunch, one of the teachers was telling me about a plot to one of the previous christmas plays done at the school.  It was made up by a teacher who loved sci-fi, and it made me laugh out loud.  The teacher had done a spoof of Alien vs Predator, called Elf vs Reindeer.  Apparently there were robots, and even a Cthulhu ha ha ha ha!!!!
After Lunch, we all got out and picked plums.  There were so many! Then we packed up and got ready to leave. I left there with a giant bag of sweet plums, numerous gifts, and a very high regard of the Higashi family. I wish I could have done or said more to thank them for such a great weekend. I felt so welcomed the whole weekend, it meant so much to me, and it really lifted my spirits. Now I have to work on finding a way to thank them all!

Monday, June 16, 2014

Kyoto II

I will never get tired of Kyoto. EVER.

We stopped at a typical Japanese freeway food/rest stop.  Japan makes America's freeway rest stops look SUPER ghetto.  It was amazing.

I wasn't too hungry so I got a little rice ball and this strange shrimp veggie thing. Turns out, much to Ms Mihoko's entertainment, it was something you typically dip in a bowl of udon soup.  The broth from the soup softens the food, making it easier to separate into manageable bites.
....So since I was broth-less, it was a hoot to observers to see me trying to tear it into pieces with my unexperienced chopstick-holding hands.

When we got there, I stopped in a store and got 2 more postcards.  There were 2 people I regretted not sending postcards to. Then we went to Kinkakuji!  Each level of the pavilion uses architecture/designs from different historical periods. It was pretty crowded, I don't know how I got this photo.

On a different area of the grounds I found a door with flower paintings on it.  I'm still debating if I'd do this or not.

I love how they are sculpting the trees and the branch flows!

Ha, found a guy wearing a headband that ROCKED.  T-rex munching on someone's head. ha.

It wasn't just all the green that was amazing, it was the huge mix of textures.  Man just LOOK at the variety of plant life right there.

We took a small road off and started checking out the kyoto farmland.  It was GORGEOUS of course.

Ok so Kinkakuji was beautiful.  No doubt about it.  But too crowded for it to be one of my favorites.  Arashiyama however....

The minute we got to the entrance of that bamboo forest, I was a goner.  It's in my top 3 fav places in Kyoto.  I wish I could go back and spend a whole day there.  It was so peaceful.  And honestly no photo can do that place justice. One of the things that makes it so beautiful is the movement of the leaves.  I know it sounds cheesy but I started getting watery eyes, it was so beautiful. Wasn't expecting that ha ha!

Very surreal.

Sadly we had to leave the trail.  We went into some sort of candy speciality shop, to look around.  I spotted some mochi molds along the wall.  Aren't those COOL?

Japan honestly has wax versions of every restaurant food it sells.  I love it!
 
Tried some green tea warabimochi.  Liked it.

Here's the wax version of what I got. Yes, served in real bamboo cups.  I wanted to steal mine lol.  It had the red bean paste (which I love now), ice cream, mochi, chestnut, warabimochi, and a cherry on top.  It was SOOO GOOD! I'd suggest it to anyone.  

Ms. Minori got the green tea shaved ice. She thought it was a bit strong, but still good.

The main street in Arashiyama is very very low key compared to the eastern side of that valley.

 You almost don't notice the entrance to the bamboo trail!

 We walked into an Umi shop.  It sold all sorts of pickled plum stuff. They offered us so many samples!  Most were really good, surprisingly.

Black Skin is a skin care shop.  Ms Mihoko shops there.  They did demos for us.  The soap they have are made from charcoal.  They were as soft as a soft chocolate if that makes sense.  And they were amazing.

The arashiyama bamboo path goes back into those hills.

Saw these umbrellas.  When hit by water, patterns get activated.
 We all split up for a little bit, and I sprinted back to Tenryuuji Temple.  I barely had time to go through it, but I couldn't help myself.

 T'was gorgeous.

We drove past the imperial palace outer walls, so I got to see the wall....YAY!!!!

I got to come BACK!  I loved knowing exactly where I was.  I loved knowing something about where I was.  It'd only been a month, but things were greener, leafier, and there were different flowers out!  Hello again Higashiyama streeeeeet!

Hello again Kiyomizudera!!!!! It was 5:30, so it was only open for another half hour.  On the plus side, it was a lot less crowded than when I went in the morning last time.
 





Man....the scaffolding for this is....interesting.



This was the first sunset I'd seen since I'd been in Japan.  I've never had the time to figure out why there is no sunset over where I live.  So when I saw this I just sat and looked.  For a while.

 And when I turned my head to the right of that sunset, I got a view of Japan's largest lake. I've forgotten the name already dang it.

Ok you see those 3 different types of faces?  See the middle one with a big red circle nose?  That is pretty much the equivalent of Micky Mouse out here.  It's Umpanman".  I don't know what company he's the face of, but he is EVERYWHERE.  I've got students with his face plastered on their but like a butt flap. The placement is so weird.  Anyways, Yup. there you go.

Dinner, provided by the generous Ms Minori and Ms Mihoko.  I try  everytime to pitch in or even take the whole thing, but Ms Mihoko is the QUEEN of making sure she gets to. Its frustrating sometimes.  
I got to try dimsum.  They're the delicious yellow circles on the right. Then a beef thing at the top, great too. Two differently seasoned Takoyaki (yum), and 4 Octopus skewers.  Everything was GREAT!



Last but not least, a strange creepy story. At night there's a fluttering shadow outside of my window that flies in a pattern over the river and past my window.  Like a bat.  But in the morning, a big black crow has started to find a place to perch by the upper right corner of my window.  He flaps and squawks a ton.  It scares the crap out of me and makes me want to shut my window.  How strange is that?

Friday, June 13, 2014

Field Trip, ROAD TRIP, and Japanese Lessons

First off, a little note to Hillary.  Today I met a boy with the name of Cho Chang.  1st of all, CHO CHANG ha ha ha ha!!!!  I don't know anyone else who would get that reference.  And 2nd of all, that's not a Japanese name, so I was curious about that as well.

I've found that my house makes me feel bummed out, so I am doing everything I can to stay out of it til it's time to sleep.  I've asked for more hours, so Ms. Mihoko is letting me switch off with Ms. Julpha with the Saturday classes.  That'll be fun.

A few days ago we had a pajama day, and oh my goodness my students had the CUTEST PJ's.  Some of them were outfits you'd find in America, but there were just as many that were thoroughly Japanese.  SO CUTE on those little guys and girls!! I searched for a photo for an example but couldn't find one.

Today we had a field trip at the モリコロパーク Morikoro Park.  We met up with the students at the Park.  It was interesting to see the parents with their video cameras and such.  They were very nice and polite and...observant.   Morikoro Park is on the grounds of a HUGE area which held the world expo in 2005.  It's a HUGE area. We saw lots of bikers parking their cars so they could bike there.  Man, I'd love to do that.
There is a ton of forest on the south and east sides of this photo.

And I was told that if you felt like making the long walk, you would find the house from My Neighbor Totoro.  It's in the lower right corner.

I'll go back there if/when I see the movie.

Anyways, since it was a party of 25 preschoolers, we weren't going anywhere too far.  We went the building in the upper right hand corner.  Here's a close-up.

It was an amazingly fun, educational place for kids to play.  We made some clay towers, we ran around, and we went on a word treasure hunt.  The kids loved it.  The parents don't come in with us on the field trips.  But strangely enough, as we were walking back to the area where they'd meet to pick their kids up, I saw 4-5 of them faraway, filming us. Checking to see if we were being good teachers no doubt.  Still....kind of creepy.

When we got back to school, we worked til closing.  Then Ms. Jakka, Mr. John, and I had our first Japanese lesson.  Ms. Mihoko is helping us for free.  It's so nice of her!!! It's good to be in that position, because it helps me be more understanding when my own students hesitate while trying to create a sentence. It went well. It's nice to have some conversational practice with someone I can ask questions to. We 3 are at different learning levels, but we all have something to learn from what Ms. Mihoko is teaching. Ms. Jakka needs to work on her writing, I need to work on my speaking, and Mr. John has to work on both. 

Afterwards, I got an AMAZING surprise. Ms. Minori has friends from Korea visiting right now, and she's invited us to go to Kyoto with them on Sunday!!!!!  YAY YAY YAY!!!  When I asked where in Kyoto, they couldn't have said a better spot. Kinkakuji and Arashiyama.  On my loooong list of reasons to return to Kyoto, those were the top 2!!







BRRRRING IT