Care package :)

First off, a big 고망워요 to the parentals for sending me a care package in an extremely timely manner. They packed in a good mix of things I wanted, didn't want and didn't expect. Got a good mix of American, Hawaiian, Filipino, Korean and Japanese :p I will be enjoying some Coffee Prince soon :)

On a side note, the prefectural sports tournament is this weekend. Remember my high jump student? I was chatting with him and the rest of the track team after school. I got reminded that I was surrounded by junior high/high school males. I was exposed to boys 'cleaning their umbrellas' for a good two minutes before I excused myself. Boys will be boys :p

Relaxing Tuesday

Today one of my elementary teachers invited me to join her for some coffee after school. She showed me this cute little cafe next to the train station. I love this cafe made of cedar. The cafe is unique because all the cups and saucers are different and the barista roasts coffee in the cafe. It was nice to chat and unwind with sensei while dreaming about our next Korea trip :p

Tonight I feel like updating so I'll try. John visited this past weekend. I'm a terrible hostess because I didn't know where to take him. We were lost half the time but the other half of the time we saw awesome sights and ate yummy food. We eventually found a waterfall. Naso waterfall in kisakata. We enjoyed snacks at Senshu park in Akita city. Ate okonomiyaki. Drank Chokai sake and ate yummies at the izakaya.

Random other things
-finally got my new bed, blue sheets and blue/yellow duvet cover. Just need curtains now.
-won my first mini badminton game against coach tonight
-got my new racket, grip and shoes. But still got mean blisters on my toes.
-cream puffs from that one bakery are delish. Lawson's cream puffs suffice when I feel broke and the bakery is closed.
-Remember my last post about my JHS high jump student? Well one of the cutest 4th graders at elementary has the same name. So, if you're name is Shun, you're automatically awesome. That's a fact :p

Manga, drama or real life

I know I haven't been updating this baby but I've been a busy bee. I will update sometime because I have so many pictures of random curiosities.

On Monday one of my third years told me about what I thought was pole vaulting. I thought that was awesome. Yesterday he told me to watch him practice after school. I told him to come get me at the teachers room before he practices. I waited for about 15 minutes but had to leave. So today he waited to talk to me during cleaning time. I explained to him about yesterday with major dramatization :p Today he got me from the teachers room after school and I watched him practice. Turns out he does the high jump and not the pole vault. He started from 145 cm and cleared 160 cm. Dude and dudettes, that's my height! So I agreed to give him a present. What should I give him?

Anywho, while I was watching him practice, I thought about the manga/drama Hana Kimi. One of my favorite Japanese dramas and the first manga I've read. The story is about a girl who pretends she's a boy to attend an all boys school to be with her role model who is an awesome high jumper. Just thought it was a kwinkie dinkie because this student is the only high jumper in my whole junior high.

High school kids

Last week, one of the high school ALTs invited a bunch of other ALTs to speak with his English club students. Us Honjo gaijin took over the high school courtyard with corn hole and conversation. I didn't know what to expect from a Japanese high school student but they were sweet kids. I was surprised at how good their English was :). I also learned that some of them visited Hawaii for a school trip. They only stayed 4 days but hit up the tourist places. I hope to visit them again. I also found my substitute corn hole partner too. She's the tall girl standing next to me in the picture.

Awesome Badminton Commitment

I'm sitting here in pain. I don't want to stand up and hang my laundry or wash my dishes or even go to bed. So I'm finally blogging.
Why am I in pain? ABC. Awesome Badminton Commitment. Last week I made a agreement to become a mixed doubles partner with another teacher. He's been playing for 5 years so he has been training me because obviously I'm not nearly as good.
Tonight was my third training day. On Sunday I ran at my schools sports day. Monday we trained for about an hour. Yesterday we trained for about three hours. Today was about an hour half.
It feels like my whole body is sore. My back because I don't sleep on a proper mattress, my legs because I'm actually moving around and my toes because there is a lot of lunging.
My pictures for my day are of my right big toe. One was taken after last night's training and the other after tonight's. Yup, it's a blister. It's because I don't have proper badminton shoes.
Lastly, kpop reference for the day, Big Bang at Tsutaya :)

School is sweet

I've been working at my school for about a month now. Slowly I can see that the kids are warming up to me and vice versa. There are so many students at this school that I can't remember all their names. I want to still be able to interact with all of them.

I finally finished (almost) my English Board before June :). This month my theme is music. I share with everyone what kind of music I listen to and they share with me what kind of music they listen to. I made this board just do I can learn about jpop :p. After a week I choose a name and they get a cd of my favorite songs. Now I just gotta get the students to look at the board because it's so small.

Today I also got invited to be a part of the teachers Olympic team. Our school has our sports day on Sunday and the teachers will be competing against the students in a relay. I'm excited to be participating :)

On a side note, I haven't hit anything or anyone since I started driving here :)

Chanoyu

I've been interested in Japanese tea ceremonies since watching Karate Kid II (I think). I've wanted to take the tea ceremony class while in college but just couldn't fit it in my schedule. Now that I'm in Japan, I thought I'd check it out.
Today I went to a tea ceremony class with one of my friend's JTEs. Sensei bought a house just for chanoyu (chado). The house was beautiful with tatami covering the floors. I was lucky enough to observe the ceremony, learn how to drink the tea, try making some tea and eating the sweets that accompany the tea. I didn't know that this ceremony had so many intricate steps. When done by sensei, it was so fluid and looked so simple. But...looks can be deceiving. For example, if the bowl was placed an inch to the right or left, it was considered incorrect placement.
After the ceremony, I felt really Japanese :p There's something special when being part of and actively participating in a traditional cultural art form. Anywho, I'm really interested in learning more about chanoyu so I borrowed a book from the library :). I thought this picture was a nice segway from the last post (^ ^)

Books

I was so happy to have received a school library card a few weeks ago. It wasn't the fact that I could borrow library books that made me happy but the feeling I had when it was given to me. It felt like they were telling me, 'you are part of the school'. The week after, I ventured into the tiny library in search of some English books. The school has only about a couple handfuls of English books. The real find was my school's librarian. I told her that I wanted to try to read easy Japanese books to better my Japanese. Unfortunately the easiest junior high school books were too difficult but I borrowed some anyways. I tried to translate them but my Japanese skills are less than par. My librarian must have sensed my struggle and brought kindergarten/elementary books from home for me. She is so sweet. She explained each book to me too.

I also got my Yurihonjo public library card. The city library has a decent sized English book section. I borrowed a bento cookbook. This is a money saver because I was going to buy one of these and it would have been in Japanese. Yay for libraries ^•^

Kpop reference for the day....
태양 ♪(´ε｀ ) Is it just me or do his fingers look stubby in this pic?

I bought a car....almost :p

One of the top things that I was worried about when I got placed in the inaka was transportation. When I was in Korea I had the subway/train a few blocks away and the bus stopped right outside my apartment. In Japan, it's a different story. My pred told me that almost all the teachers in Honjo have cars. Since that moment I've been mentally preparing myself to drive in a foreign country. A little more than a month in, I'm dying to get a car. Today with the help of my supervisor and my senpais, I hanko-ed myself into owning a car. Now I just need to pay for it :p. If all goes by plan then I should have the keys on Monday.

Extra picture of the cute elementary kiddies at the nearby elementary school. I love their uniform backpacks and yellow hats :)

Lovely spring

It's finally starting to warm up (for me). Sometimes it's not raining. I got to witness a partial solar eclipse. I'm getting busier at school. We got a new gaijin teacher in Honjo. I'm slowly accumulating more membership cards. I'm cycling more but am so ready for a car. Tried badminton, karate and aikido. Will try tea ceremony. That's about what's been happening in a nutshell. But...this post is about spring flowers. It seems that as soon as it gets relatively warm out, Japanese people start planting flowers. It's a nice welcome for spring. It makes me happy that nature is becoming more colorful (*^o^*)

Kpop reference for the day: Big Bang on the front cover of the Lawson's magazine :)

Window shopping

It feels like I've been spending money every day. Nothing wrong with that except that I haven't gotten paid yet. I found myself at the big Daiso tonight. This Daiso had everything from gardening tools to underwear. It was awesome. I think we spent close to three hours browsing. It's difficult to walk into Daiso without buying something. I stayed under my twenty item limit that I imposed upon myself before entering.

It has become a posting trend for me to mention money. It's just hard to pass up on good food and drink. Here are some of the things I want to buy after I get paid :)

Oh yes and my kpop reference: kpop trading cards. I might buy it later in hopes of getting 창민 of 2AM ㅋㅋ

Golden Week

I apologize in advance about not posting everyday. Like I mentioned before, I'm training myself to be more responsible. It's a work in progress. I would also like to blame it on my lack of Internet at my apartment and the rain :p

Here's my Golden Week update:

Thursday the 3rd-
The Honjo newbies plus one traveled in 3 cars to Omagari. Picked up last newbie and traveled to Kakunodate in 2 cars. So this confusing math problem made things much more interesting since we tried to fit 5 people's bags and futon in Lee's car. But we made it work. Arrived to Kakunodate to find the Sakura were gone :( The heavy rain and strong gusts blew the fragile flowers away. But...despite the rain, the festival continued and the tour buses kept rolling in. I drank some Sakura beer and various sake, ate misotanpo and dango, visited the oldest house in Kakunodate. All in company of course.
We headed to Ota where we spent the night at Alex's beautiful house. We also drove all the way to Omagari to eat cheap eats for dinner. I got a ginormous chicken katsu set for only 500 yen.

Friday the 4th-
Late start to Gusto's for brunch. I had their version of kimchi jjigae. It was so so. Headed to lake Tazawa. Tazawako is the deepest lake in Japan. On our way be stopped by the honey store and ate some delicious honey topped berry ice cream. Tazawa was beautiful that day. It was a bit cloudy and there was fog skimming the lakes surface. It added a bit of a calm eeriness. The fish were few that day as well. The awe of such a large lake was breathtaking. There was a small shrine there which meant omamori time :) I bought a Sakura kenkou omamori so I won't get sick as often. Next stop was a beer brewery. This was also the spot the restaurant scene in Iris (Kdrama) was shot. I enjoyed a locally grown meal and locally made dark beer. Back to Alex's to watch a movie with some yummy beverages.

Saturday the 5th-
Happy Children's (boy's) day :) Left Ota to drop off Lei. Lou traveled back in his car. The three Honjo-ans headed to Lee's second home, the mall. We did the normal: eat, browse, basketball. Headed to the electronics store where we bought our big ticket items. Lyn-toaster oven, Lee-air purifier, me-water filter. Learned that iPhone users need a Japanese apple ID to use Japanese apps. Headed to Honjo to eat dinner at mcdonalds because we all felt broke after purchasing our big ticket items. But later bought me new indoor badminton shoes :p We found out that Lee left his lights on and therefore couldn't start his car. Luckily, Japan is awesome so the worker at Homac (Japanese Home Depot) jump started our car...for free. We felt somewhat indebted to Homac so Lee bought jumper cables from the store.

Summary of Golden Week: lots of people, food, drink, fun and money. Yes, I really need to budget my money so I can buy a car.

Who turned on the heater?

Today was my first day of school that I was not cold. Actually it was quite warm! I've noticed that these past two days have been unusually warm. It's like mother nature decided to turn on the heater and make me happy in the process. But...if its this warm and it's only spring...I'm really dreading the summer.

I'm going to enjoy my first day and night where I'm able to leave the window open without freezing. Have me some delicious oochazuke and mochi ^_^

Oh yes, there's Mt. Chokai! He was smiling at me today while I was walking home. I'm thankful that the warm weather will slowly melt the snow so I'll be able to climb to the top. Until then I can enjoy his snow capped beauty.

Mall time!

2nd visit to Omagari included another visit to the mall. It felt like I spent my whole weekend shopping. Well mostly window shopping. I did buy some awesome stuff from Daiso and other hundred yen stores :). I also made my first purchase from the second hand store. It's so cheap! I also had fun playing the basketball arcade game thing :). I met this cute character at the mall that I took a picture with.

But the most of my money has gone to food and drink. I want to try everything but it's leaving a hole in my wallet. Last night we ate sushi at Lei's favorite conveyor belt sushi restaurant. All the plates are 100 yen except for the large plates are 500 yen. It's not no commercialized Genki Sushi. It's like a mom and pops one. I had to try the large plate of fried fish heads and collars. It was delicious :). I love this picture of the tamago nigiri because the tamago is ten times the size of the rice! With all these yummy restaurants I want to eat at, saving up for a car will be quite difficult.

Bento

I don't have a car yet so my supervisor, Kimura san, has been giving me rides to and from school. I don't think he has to but he has. Since I've dipped my feet into the world of bento making with my mystery Onigiri, I wanted to delve a bit further with my first unofficial bento. I thought it would be perfect to give my first bento to Kimura san.

So I wake up early Friday morning to cook rice and prepare. Make my star musubi, tako hotdogs and wash my tomatoes. Tada! First bento. Secure it with rubber bands ready to go! A minute later I get a phone call that Kimura san won't be able to pick me up today :(. In the end I couldn't give him the bento and I had to walk to school.

On the flipside, I took some pretty sakura pictures, talked with some students on the way home and found a shortcut :)

Rainy, cold and sick

Today is a rainy day. I'm exhausted from a mixture of lack of sleep, actual teaching and leisure activities. That is a recipe for getting sick. Don't forget about the chilly weather and coughing co-workers. Yup it's inevitable that I'll get sick. Thank goodness for Golden Week!

This picture is of the bridge I have to cross to go into the 'city'. This picture was not taken today because now its cloudy and raining. Which is why I will not be crossing the bridge today. I will break my 7 day streak of going into town. It's all for the best so that I can cook, rest and clean in preparation of possibly another weeklong streak of crossing that bridge.

Oh yeah, update on last post about the Hallyu wave. Did my self intro with a third year class today and a boy literally yelped/screamed when I mentioned 2NE1. It was hilarious! The teacher next door walked to check if everything was okay. He also got really excited when I mentioned Coffee Prince. I know we'll be best friends (^_-)

Hallyu wave in Japan

This picture was taken in Omagari at the second hand store (forgot its name >_<). There was a section just for Kdramas. One of the famous being, Winter Sonata.

At class today I presented my self intro lesson. Of course I mentioned my love for Korea and one student asked if I liked Winter Sonata. I was rather surprised because its an older drama. A good amount of students knew and like Big Bang which made me happy. I guess even in the inaka (countryside) people old and young are riding the Hallyu wave.

Mystery Onigiri

Yes, I'm totally biting from the King of Kaukau's idea of their 30 something different flavor malasadas. This time instead of the filings being encased in sugary dough, it's wrapped up nori and rice :). Unfortunately, I only had 6 fillings (umeboshi, salted kelp, takuan, natto, miso saba and kimchi).

Like the malasadas, half the fun is watching people's expressions when they bite into the onigiri to discover the yummy goodness. Lee had one of the funnier (and a little scary) expressions when he discovered he had ume filling. He won't let it go that I made him eat a 'rock' which was really the ume pit :p

First night in Tokyo.  Didn't take many pictures and for some reason took a picture of this snack in 7-11.  Unfortunately this wasn't the picture I wanted to post but I can't figure out how to delete it because everything is in Japanese.  So this will be my first picture of Japan :p

I wonder what this snack tastes like....anyone tried it?