TraveLLs

..but actually I look like..

On Sunday I was invited to go strawberry picking.  I jumped at the chance espcially since I had heard some rumors that the way they grow strawberries in Japan is quite different than the way they grow them in the states.  I can now say that the number one difference is the season: it is still freezing out and they grow them in greenhouses to have them around during the Christmas and Valentines Day holidays. I met my friends at 9:00 am and we drove for about three hours to a place just past Toyhashi.  I wish I could be more specific but I still do not know where we went.  When we got there we had an hour to pick and eat as many strawberries as we wanted!  It was the healthiest and sweetest "all you can eat" that I have ever experienced.  Of course we had to mess up the healthy part with some condensed milk and whipped cream, but for the most part strawberries are good for you right?   Once we had our fill of strawberries we made our way to ...

"I get by with a little help from my friends..."

Since moving to Japan one of the biggest underlying fears I have had has lied with the fault line just east of the country.  Coming from Grand Junction, Colorado (which ironically enough just had its third earthquake in my lifetime on January 24) I have never considered an earthquake to be a predominant threatening natural disaster in my life.  However, coming to Japan I knew I would undoubtedly be in for some ground shaking experiences.  My foreshadowing was only confirmed with the Tōkai earthquake safety evacuation folder I was given upon my arrival. On March 11, 2011 Japan experienced one of the worst tsunamis ever as a result of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake.  The disaster was known around the world and effected not only Japan but other surrounding countries in Asia and even reached as far as Hawaii.  Needless to say, I have been a bit uneasy about the stability of the ground in Japan. In the five months I have lived in Japan I have known about and experie...

The changing of seasons in Japan is very significant.  This change is called Setsubun.  The most important changing of season is from Winter to Spring.  The term for the changing of this season is Risshun but is most commonly referred to as just Setsubun.  The festival to celebrate the changing of seasons from Winter to Spring takes place the day before the change happens on February 3.  This festival is referred to as Setsubun or the bean throwing festival. Since Setsubun has been associated with the Lunar New Year Japanese people think of it as a type of New Years Eve and believe it is a time to chase evil away.  This ritual is called mamemaki which translates to "bean throwing."  In this ritual someone will dress up as Oni, or the devil, and everyone will throw mame, roasted soybeans, at the Oni yelling "oni wa sota" meaning "devil be gone."  They will then throw soybeans back into their home and say "fuku wa uchi" meaning "fortune we...

One of the largest tour destinations in Japan happens to be in a prefecture very close to Aichi.  It is a place called Shirakawa-go in the prefecture of Gifu.  It attracts tourist (mostly from Japan) all year round due to its different but equally attractive seasonal beauty.  My friend Yukari invited us to go on a tour during the winter season.  Gifu is the place where everyone around here goes to ski on the weekends so it is extremely cold and very snowy.  I knew I was in for a cold day, but the beauty made it all worth it. We woke up early to catch the bus at Nagoya station at 8:00 a.m.  It took around 3 hours to get to our lunch destination.  We were ushered into a giant cafeteria with hundreds of place settings.  In the states it is not uncommon to have a big cafeteria however the difference is the number of plates to clean.  In Japan it is common to have many little dishes in one single meal.  This was the case in our lunch set....

Recently I have decided to tackle the task of learning Hiragana and Katakana, two of the three alphabets of Japanese.  My friends Anna Claire and Jake were kind enough to lend me a wonderful book Japanese Hiragana & Katakana for Beginners that has led me to learn Hiragana in less than three weeks.  I can now read all the characters of Hiragana with some difficulty.   The catch: I still don't know what it all means. 

In Japan it is common to visit a shrine first thing in the New Year.  This shrine visit is called H atsumōd e .  The Japanese usually visit the first , second, or third day of the New Year .  For my hatsumode I visited the Geku Shrine in Ise located in the province of Mie.  This is said to be one of the most famous shrines in Japan.   It took us about an hour on the JR (Japanese Rail road) to get from N agoya t o Ise.  In Ise there are several shrines .  One could wonder around Ise from sunrise t o sunset.  We decided to just hit one shrine, the Geku shr ine.   When you fir st walk into the shrine you are required to cleanse hands using the bamboo buckets at the purification fountain.  You collect some cleansi ng water i n a cup, first rinse your left hand, then your right hand, then pour water into your left hand and use it to rinse your mouth .  Then you are meant fill the cup up one last time and dump it backwar...

This new years I had two celebrations.  I had the countdown in Tokyo and I was lucky enough to be invited over to my boss, Mitani-san's, house for a traditional Japanese new year bento box.  The Japanese celebrate new years as we celebrate Christmas in the states.  It is a time for families to gather, dine and relax.   While the concept of New Years in Japan is similar to that of Christmas in the states the cuisine is very different.  Every family makes a osechi ryouri.  Osechi ryouri is supposed to be made before New Year’s Day dawn, and to last for days without refrigeration during the 7-day New Years holiday. The original reason for this period of rest or non-cooking was supposed to be to appease the fire god, Kohjin, who might get angry if one made fires so early in the year. Then in later years, this period of non-cooking was ostensibly to allow the wife (or cook of the house) a rest and time to spend with the family.  Mitani-san st...

P andora M icro-brews Y oga B allet F amily F riends E nglish These are the things I miss most.  In eight months I will have the opportunity to have these things for the rest of my life.  For now, I am in Japan with a whole different world at my fingertips--for just eight more months.  Time will fly.     

I am going to split my "New Years Post" into two different posts: the traditional Japanese version and the crazy Tokyo version.  I was lucky enough to get to experience both this year. A few months back a few friends of mine and I decided to spend the New Years Eve countdown in Tokyo.  With some help from my coteacher, Miho, we successfully booked round trip bus tickets to Tokyo from the December 29, 2012 to January 1, 2013.  Thankfully the Mayans were incorrect in predicting the end of the world and we were able to carry out our New Years plans. We left Nagoya on a night bus on the 29th.  We arrived in Tokyo at about 6:00 am, just in time for the subways to open!  We took the subway to Dom's friend Toshi's apartment.  Toshi was kind enough to let us stay with him as well as be our unofficial tour guide.  He was also a great addition to our Tokyo democracy we had established on our trip. Shabu Shabu   After taking a much needed rest ...

I knew this Christmas would be different than any I have experienced in my life and it has proven to be one I will never forget.  Despite my family being on the other side of the world, the adventures I had and the people I shared them with were upon the best I have had. Last year I was in Thailand for Christmas.  The only sign of Christmas was a giant neon Christmas tree outside of Central, the local mall.  There was no Christmas music, no Christmas lights, no Santa Claus, and no Christmas activities.   This year, in Japan, I had a large fix of Christmas!  Everywhere I went I heard Christmas songs and there were various Christmas trees scattered throughout the city.  The city streets were decorated with lights and there were even some locals who chose to decorate their own homes with Christmas lights.  We played Christmas songs in the classroom and had a holiday concert to celebrate the end of the term.  Santa even came to visit the chil...

Somewhere, Japan "When the Japanese go on holiday, they like it to be planned. Planned to an extent that would make a Sandhurst trained officer feel he was a happy-go-lucky, spontaneous type in comparison. `Assemble 0800 hours. Board bus 0810 hours for 43 minute journey to cathedral. Breakfast at 0855 hours in cathedral café`, that sort of thing. I once attended a presentation by a Japanese tour guide, about how guiding Westerners was different to guiding Japanese; it was particularly funny when he said that sometimes western tourists want to walk round a city away from their tour group. The audience, made almost entirely of `women of a certain age` gasped, utterly shocked at how anyone might do such a selfish, dangerous thing.  `But what if they got lost? ` shouted one? `But what if they got murdered or shot? ` bawled another.  The hysteria was quite palpable. Flexibility and change on a Japanese holiday are about as welcome as syphilis. So, as an a...

Last weekend I decided to take a solo adventure.  I had been hearing about the famous illuminations around Japan and decided to see if I could find one to check out.  The closest one to Nagoya is Nabana No Seto, located in Kuwana City in the neighboring prefecture of Mei.  To get there from Nagakute I had to take the subway to Nagoya Station, then the Japanese Railway to Nagashima then a bus from there to the illumination.  It was a simple task, but given the language barrier it was a little challenging.   I made it to Nagoya Station on my own, asked someone to help me figure out how much my ticket was as the stop I needed to get to was only written in Japanese, then made it to a platform.  As I was trying to make sense of the time table a kind Japanese man came up to me and asked where I was trying to get to.  I told him Nagashima and pointed to it on the map.  He helped me find the correct platform and told me what time the train would co...

This past week was a difficult one.  My Aunt Rose Marie passed away after a very brief battle with cancer. I want to send my love to all my family back in the states and I want to encourage them to stay strong through this hard time.  I wish I could be there with you to support you. “Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, you are you and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.  Call me by the old familiar name. Speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a s...

I have so much to be thankful for.  To start off, I have a wonderful family.  I wouldn't be where I am today without their undying support and love.  I also have met some amazing people in my lifetime.  I am thankful for everyone of them for without them I would not be who I am today.  Most of all I am thankful for life.  It has been a good one so far and I look forward to what it has to offer me in the future. This year I was lucky enough to have not one, but two Thanksgiving celebrations!  The first one was provided by the lovely Ellen.  Ellen is a coworker of mine at KIS.  She has lived here for almost two years and this is her second Thanksgiving in Japan.  She is also one of the best cooks I know.  She made a beautiful array of Thanksgiving dishes including green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, corn bread, and a tasty turkey.  Our friend Kumiko also brought a sushi dish to give our thanksgiving a Japanese twist.  A...

Fall in Japan is beautiful.  Back in Utah and Colorado fall lasts a whole two weeks.  Those two weeks are gorgeous but the come and go so quickly if sleep in too late you've already missed the beautiful colors.  In Japan the fall season has lasted almost a full month.  The leaves started changing colors a few weeks ago and they are still holding strong. There are several places in and around Nagoya to see the fall colors.  One of these places is the Nagoya Castle.  This is a castle located right in the heart of the city.  The city of Nagoya was bombed during WWII.  As a result, the whole city was destroyed, including the Nagoya Castle.  Fortunately for me and other tourists destined for Nagoya, they have built a replica of the castle and made it into somewhat of a museum.   I convinced my friend Phil to accompany me on a day trip to the castle.  It is silly to even call it this since it is located in the city in which we li...

"I sit quietly, listening to the falling leaves - A lonely hut, a life of renunciation. The past has faded, things are no longer remembered, My sleeve is wet with tears." Ryokan

Winter has arrived here in Nagakute.  Unfortunately, I believe the worst is yet to come.  It is unbearably cold with temperatures as low as 29F as night approaches.  This winter I have two main things pulling against me.  The first is the fact that I have been lucky enough to have avoided any temperature lower than 70F since May 2011.  Secondly, at KIS (and other traditional Japanese schools) they believe that children's bodies must learn to regulate themselves.  Therefore, we are not able to turn the heat on in our classrooms when the children are present.  I am not sure when and if these circumstances will change.  These fact alone would make for an unfortunate winter.  But pair that with the lack of insulation in any Japanese structure and I am doomed.   I have recently learned (by word of mouth through Kimmy) that because of the extreme weather conditions Japan faces throughout the year their houses must be built accordingly...