Christmas in Japan!

Kari Writes:

Hello all and Merry Christmas!

The biggest news since my last blog is that I have a job now!  I work for an English conversation school.  It's very part time but it gets me out of the house about once a week.  There are 9 classes in 3 different cities that I visit once every two months. The fun part is that all the classes are close enough to their respective train stations that I get to hop on a (heated) train, read my kindle, and then go hang out with some kids.  The students range from 5 - 13 years old.  Basically I ask them questions, let them ask me questions, and then we play some English games.

Around Thanksgiving Ian had a long weekend so we took a mini vacation to Kurayoshi (30 mins away).

We had our first KFC experience:

They had French Fries. Weird!

Ian met the Christmas Colonel 

The thing about KFC at Christmas time is that everyone (and I mean everyone) eats chicken for Christmas.  The kids are shocked when they learn that Americans don't. So KFC offers special Christmas meals that you can special order and they are super busy for the Holiday season.  How's that for a great marketing strategy?!?

The other Christmas "must have" in Japan is a Christmas Cake.  We got to make our own with the international group.  Pretty fun even though our cake was a mess!

So far so good - our middle fruit layer was superb

The finished product .  .  . a bit droopy

The next week we got invited to a 'rock concert'.  The front-man of the band is a teacher at a nearby school so we and a few other ALTs showed up to support him.  They played some great 1960's American songs and some popular Japanese tunes.  We got the whole crowd up and dancing not once but twice!  The band was super stoked about that!

Average age - probably around 50!

Ian and I took a trip to the big mall in Yonago to buy Christmas gifts and we finally ate at McDonald's! I had the teriyaki burger and Ian got a Big Mac.  We shared fries and chicken nuggets.  Ian's verdict was that it wasn't as good as Mos Burger.  But he is a die hard Mos fan!

Look at that spread!

 On our way back into town we remembered that there is a huge lights display behind our neighborhood grocery store.  Now in America this isn't too uncommon but here?  It was very special! Check it out:

a little slice of home - there was even snow on the ground!

Japan celebrates Christmas on the 24th so all the shops were closed.  We had a nice day relaxing and listening to Christmas music.  For actual Christmas we went out to our little mall and bought a tiny Christmas tree!  I also had been wanting to take a picture of the Christmas decorations they had up.  Good thing we went when we did because by the time we finished shopping they had taken them down!  That's right!  On Christmas day the decorations were taken down!  

the last known picture of the Christmas arches!

Our bitty Christmas tree. With an Eagle on top!

In addition to the above mentioned activities we've also been to no less than 3 "end of the year" parties!  So we've stayed plenty busy during this holiday season!

We took a trip to the sea on Christmas day!

We are looking forward to all that 2013 holds for us!!  And you can look forward to more blogs :)

-Kari

Halloween, Photobooths, and Birds - Oh My!

Kari writes:

Hello!  It's strange how from day to day it doesn't feel like much has happened since my last post.  But then I sit and think and realize we've actually been quite busy!  Depending on the week we are booked anywhere from 2 to 4 weeknights between all the various commitments we've made since we got here!  We've also had quite a few eventful weekends lately so that's what I'll be sharing!

First up was Halloween.  On Saturday night we road tripped to Yonago for the annual JET Haloween soiree.

Cowgirl and Cow!

We got there in time to see a truly impressive Michael Jackson impersonator!  He had the hair, clothes, and attitude all down to a T!  My favorite part of Halloween is seeing everyone's creative costumes! Silly, sweet, scary, you name it!  I almost enjoy it more when I have no idea what someone is but they clearly put a TON of effort into it.

That crazy thing in the background was our friend
the Angler Fish.  He had a light dangling from the mask

The party was almost an hour away from our house so needless to say it was a very late night!  However, sleeping in on Sunday was not in the cards for us.  We were up and at 'em to setup a Halloween party for some of the elementary kids in the area.  Japan knows that Halloween exists . . . but it's not really something that the general public participates in.  So it's our job as Americans to teach them some culture and pump them full of candy!  All in all the event was a success and the children exceeded all our "bobbing for apples" expectations.

On Halloween Ian, Ellen, and I took a trip to Aeon Mall just for fun.  Ellen and I got to look at cute puppies and we all partook in Purikura. Purikura are Japanese photobooths but you get to edit your photos afterward and they are just generally awesome!  See for yourself:

 

Japanese schools in general host annual Bunkasai (culture days) in November.  This consists of showcasing various art projects, tag board presentations, speeches, plays, and the big choir competition.  Everyone works super duper hard in preparation for this day (even the PTA split into groups and performed songs!).  When it's all said and done the teachers go out to celebrate.  We went to a great restaurant where almost every course we had was chicken!!  And at one point there was even pizza and french fries. I was quite pleased :)  And these after parties are a great way to a.) get to know Ian's co-workers better and b.) stretch our Japanese conversation skills.

This last weekend a friend took Ian, Ellen, and I out for an amazing day trip!  We started out by driving to Shimane prefecture (my first time out of Tottori since I've been here!).  Our area doesn't have much for fall foliage yet but as we drove we saw color to rival Autumn in Wisconsin!

Our first stop was Vogel Park.  This place was lovely and chock full of beautiful flowers and amazing birds!  They  had an owl show with an owl that they had fly right over the audience's heads!  But he was an ornery guy and flew up into the rafters when he got tired of performing.  When we left a couple hours later he was still up there!

We then explored the rest of the park.  We got to feed a flock of pink birds

And I had a Toucan on my arm!  Unfortunately, Ellen's bird got bored and decided to start a bird fight on me!




These guys have really big beaks!  I'd be lying if I didn't admit I was more than a bit worried for my personal safety!

After getting our fill of birds and flowers we made another stop at Matsue Castle.  This is one of the very few castles left in Japan that is all original (vs. reconstructed).  It is also a black castle which is another rarity.  We climbed up some pretty narrow steps to get to the top! But it sure was neato!

On our way to supper we took the scenic route and wound our way up and down Mount Daisen (Daisen literally translates to "Big Mountain").  It was crazy cool and also pretty cold - we were literally up in the clouds!

Supper was quite the treat.  We got to enjoy some of the very first crab of the season!  Tottori is known for their crab and this stuff was very fresh!  We cooked it ourselves nabe style.  Nabe is basically when you have a big pot of broth on a small gas grill at your table and you fill it with veggies and meat.  Then you eat it!  Yumm.

Congrats if you made it all the way to to bottom!  As I said we have been surprisingly busy lately!  

'Till next time,

-Kari

Jack-o-Lanterns and 1 Creepy Clown

Kari Writes:

As promised - Ian did indeed get dressed up for the safety festival!

Once we got to the community center they informed us that Ian was going to be the "piero" which means clown (borrowed from French).  They really went all out with it too:

Mr Piero himself!

Pretty excellent right?  Also a tad creepy!  The kids didn't really know what to think of him!

Clown, Skeleton, and a stylish Mummy

Our trusty float!

So the basic gist of this festival is that each neighborhood in Akasaki creates a huge float on a cart and walks around for hours and hours (4 - 5 hours total for us!).   This is all organized by the parents of elementary students.  The dads all get dressed up crazy - ours were all classic Halloween goons (aka: Frankenstein, werewolf, mummy, and my personal favorite: zombie nurse)

So the moms, dads, and kids all pull the cart along down the road.  Chanting as we go (in Japanese so i'm not sure what exactly we were saying I think it was something to the effect of "hey look at us!").  We made many many stops along to way.  Because the purpose of this festival is to grant safety to homes and businesses in our neighborhood (for a donation of course).  So we stop and one guy sings something - then all of us sing something else.  And then we're on our way to the next place.

I had it easy - they just handed me a wizard hat and cape!

Thankfully we got to stop and have some drink/snack breaks along the way!  Once we made our way back to the community center the guys got to change out of their costumes and wipe off their faces!  Then it was time for more food and drink and general merriment.  We met a lot of great people in our neighborhood (hopefully we'll still recognize them without their costumes on :p hehe).     

                                                                       

a little collage of the day

Other than the safety festival we haven't done anything else "picture worthy" this month.  We've gone to a couple more Japanese lessons, had dinner with our future eikaiwa ladies, and had our first pottery class.  Which is a pretty neat way to learn something new and make our own souvenirs at the same time!   So far we aren't so great at it and the instructor had to help us a TON.  But I'm hopeful we'll improve over the next couple months!

This weekend we have not one but TWO Halloween parties.  Somehow I don't think Ian will be reprising his role as creepy clown though!

That's all for now!

-Kari

Sports and Shopping

Kari Writes:

Last weekend Ian and I went to see our Junior High girls play in a volleyball tournament.  And HOLY COW!  I knew they were good in practice . . .  but they seriously mopped the floor with the competition!  They didn't lose a single game and their "trophy" was a super awesome spear!  We're so proud of them!!  The boys team also won their tournament the day before.  How lucky are we to be at a school with such an amazing volleyball program??

The tournament was held in Misasa which is close to Kurayoshi.  So we drove around and explored.  We made it to the mall ("Purple Town") and found this at the dollar store:

Surprise! I stabbed you!

We also had our first KFC sighting. Though I have a feeling like the Colonel's original recipe will have some tweaks in Japan!  We've also run across a couple McDonalds but we haven't been in the mood for it yet!

This week has already been busy for us!  We have had an unusual amount of social engagements.  Tuesday we joined Ellen's eikaiwa.  It's basically a group of ladies who get together every couple of weeks to eat snacks and practice English conversation.  We will start hosting our own eikaiwa for our side of town here in the next couple weeks.

Last night we were invited to the town's Japanese lessons.  I was definitely the least proficient speaker there - extra motivation for me to keep practicing!  This crowd was also mostly women.  But very international: Philippines, Mongolia, Brazil, and of course us Americans.  The format for yesterdays lesson was simply pairing up with a partner and chatting in Japanese.  Even though being tossed into the language deep-end can be scary it can also be a great way to see what you can really do!

We received a HUGE daikon radish from our neighbors the other day.  And didn't have the slightest clue as to what we should do with it.  Found this nifty little recipe and made fried daikon cakes. Kind of like a crab cake but more radishy :)

We were so proud we had to take a glamour shot!

Then this weekend Ian will be involved in some way with a local festival of sorts.  I'm hoping he has to wear a costume.  I've got my fingers crossed that I'll have some excellent pictures to share next time!

-Kari

Apt Tour and Cow Guts

Kari Writes:

Hola friends!  As promised here is a little tour of our apartment:

Cool things to notice about the kitchen:  By the sink you can see a square outline on the floor.  This is actually a sweet trap-door for storing rice!  It's super airtight.  Also there is a step down to the front door. The floor is concrete and this is where shoes live.  Yes, even we Americans follow the Japanese shoe rules in our house!  So we get home, slip off our shoes and then step up into our house.

Our kitchen which is approximately the same size as our American apartment :p
On the right is our front door.

Our living room doubles as our bedroom (or vise-versa).  In Japan most people don't have actual bed frames or mattresses.  We have a closet full of "futon" mats and pads that we can set-up or hide away as we need.  We currently have it stacked three high for extra comfort.

From the front door looking in: This is our living room/bedroom.
When the sliding doors are open it connects to the kitchen for a nice open layout

 I call this room "the desk room" so I guess it's our office.  It hasn't really found its purpose other than being a  place to put our clothes and stuff!

The office. aka: where we put a bunch of junk for the time being.

 In America the bathroom is home to (generally) both the toilet and the shower.  Not so here in Japan!  If you think about it going to the bathroom and taking a shower are pretty opposite things - so why would you do them in the same room?  So we have an itty bitty toilet closet.  And the top of the toilet has a spout.  When you flush the (clean) water comes out the spout and then is used to refill the toilet bowl. Eco friendly!

The toilet room. Notice the spout on top of the toilet. 

So if you're looking at the toilet and take a left this is what you'll see:

The shower room

The sink/laundry area

We have a cute lil "egg style" washing machine over in the corner.  It does the job pretty well.  Though we have to hang-dry everything which can be a pain!

Then next door to the toilet room is the shower room.  You can see there is a tub but that is strictly for baths.  The floor of this room has a drain so you just shower away while standing next to a bath tub.  

Soooo that is our little house!  We're not especially looking forward to winter as we hear things such as "insulation" and "furnaces" don't exist here!

Yesterday we went with some of Ian's co-workers out to an apparently "world famous" Yakiniku restaurant.  Yakiniku is "Japanese Barbecue "  Basically you sit around a table that has a gas grill in the middle and they bring out all sorts of raw meats and veggies.  So you pop 'em on the grill till they are charbroiled, dip them in some yummy sauce, and enjoy.  You don't even need a plate - just your dipping sauce and chopsticks.

Yamane-sensei flipping the meat

There were some very interesting meats that came to our table.  Such as cow tongue and various intestines.

mmmm raw cow tongue!

intestines roasting on an open fire

 Ian and I both tried the tongue. The flavor was fine - but the texture was a bit difficult especially since we knew it was tongue. I would have much rather been oblivious about that one!  We both tactfully avoided the intestines.  That's still a bit hard to stomach (hahah get it?? stomach?? Oh I am funny).


Well that's all for now!  Feel free to comment on here or facebook if you have any questions that you're DYING to ask about life in Japan :)

-Kari

Sushi, phones, and Japanese Pizza?!?

Kari Writes:

Why hello there! You're probably thinking "what have Kari and Ian been up to lately??"  Well you're in luck!  Here's what we've been doing:

Every so often the Kotoura International Committee holds events and invites us foreigners.  Last weekend was just such an event.  It was held at the local Okonomiyaki restaurant.  Okonomiyaki was initially described to me as Japanese Pizza . ..

This is apparently "Japanese Pizza" don't be fooled -
there aren't any pepperonis hiding in there!

It's actually shredded cabbage, ginger, various veggies, and maybe meat.  Then you mash that all up with an egg - stick it on the SUPER hot cook surface in the middle of your table and let it cook.  Once it's all cooked you put on a bunch of different sauces and cut it up (kinda like a pizza).  It's a fun and interactive food process!  And super Japanese.  And of course after we ate our fill there we went to Karaoke!


I've started practicing with the girls 7th/8th grade volleyball team after school.  And man oh man was I sore after I joined their first practice!  If you want to feel old . .. do sports with middleschoolers!  And for some unexplained reason the way I do their blocking drill is particularly hilarious to them.  Apparently I'm very "cute-o! cute-o!"  But aside from them laughing at how old and American I am it's super tanoshii (fun).  And of course they think it's way cool to hang out Ian-sensei's cute-o wife!

Ian has been busy busy busy every day after school working with the Speech team.  They have a big English speech competition coming up and he is helping get them into top shape!  But this means he hasn't been home before 7pm for the last week!   Ian-sensei is very dedicated to his work!


I got the craziest, pinkest, most Japanese-y phone ever this week!

Ya!  The front has a sweet LED display that you can make do all sorts of patterns.  It's pretty hilarious.  And actually PINKER in person.  I figure if I'm going to get a phone in Japan I better go all out and make it the coolest memento of all time!!!  Also the best/funniest thing about Japanese phones is how incredibly tall they are!  The phone in its closed state is actually a bit bigger than Ian's American smartphone.  Sooo take two smart phones and stack 'em up to get an idea of the tallness.  I can't imagine that Japanese people have longer faces than Americans . . . . why such tall phones??!?

Seriously!  So much bigger than my face.

Today we went to a Kaiten Zushi - aka conveyor belt sushi.  The seating is "diner style" and there is literally a conveyor belt that runs in front of you and it's full of different types of sushi. .  You just grab whatever looks good to you when it passes.  In the middle are the sushi chefs makin' everything fresh right there.  The color of the plate indicates the price of the sushi.  At the end they tally up your plates and that's your bill!

One of my sashimi choices.

It's a fun experience - but I think i prefer the Mos Burger next door :)


So there you have it!  Consider yourself updated!

-Kari (and Ian)

See? Happy and healthy!

What a week!

Kari Writes:

*phew* my first (almost) week of living in Japan has been omoshiroi (interesting)!

Thursday we met up with Ellen and Mark (two other ALT's in the area) and enjoyed a wonderful meal at "Joyful".  Joyful is a great restaurant for many reasons - the one I am most grateful for is their menu - every single item has a big ol' picture!  So even if you don't speak a lick of Japanese you can't go tooo wrong when ordering.  They also have amazing shaved ice for dessert:

On Friday we had our first welcome party.  This was hosted by the Board of Education and included notable guests such as the Mayor of Kotoura and the Cattle Baron!  The food started out a bit sketchy aka: mostly raw choices.  But oh my goodness the beef was delicious (and cooked)!  Ian and I both gave little speeches and received a HUGE bouquet of flowers and some handmade ceramic cups.

 The best part of the evening was that we were home by 8:30pm!  Even though it was Friday everyone actually had "school" on Saturday.  Ian's Junior High was celebrating "Diversity Day" even I got to join in on the festivities and watch the students put on a play!  The gist was: boy and girl are in love and want to get married, boy is from a lower class than girl, girl's father objects, her grandfather convinces the father to change his mind, boy and girl get married.

So Saturday night was our SECOND welcome party.  This one was hosted by Akasaki Jr High and the attendants were Ian's fellow teachers at the school.  We went to an Italian restaurant.  Italian?!? Yup, you heard right!  It was a super small place (our group of  2 dozen filled it to capacity) but the decor was decidedly Italian.  Japanese Italian food was quite interesting. The salad came out first . . . and it had little octopus tentacles and other various fish bits on it! The next dish was squids covered in some sort of tomato type sauce. Definitely a twist on traditional Italian there!  We also gave speeches and then did some Q&A which was quite amusing at times.  After dinner we went to KARAOKE!  In Japan you don't do Karaoke in front of a bunch of strangers - you and your friends rent a room and get your own private karaoke machine (you can even bring your own snacks!)

Typical woman - always fall in love

So all in all Saturday was a great time!

Sunday we took a road trip to Yonago (~1 hr away) to check out Aeon (the big mall).

All in all it wasn't terribly different from an American mall. The food court even had McDonalds and Baskin Robbins!  Sunday was mostly a "running errands and shopping" kind of day.

Tooodaay aka Monday was probably the most interesting day of all so far!

We started the day by taking a walking tour of the neighborhood. We walked down to the Sea of Japan (a mere 10 minutes from our home).

These are the Wave Breaks all along the shore

Next we hit up Ian's favorite restaurant in town: Mos Burger. 

Generic MOS Burger storefront

Our specific delicious MOS burgers (and fries!)

While we were inhaling our wonderful burgers (Lettuce, Tomato, Mayo, and Teriyaki sauce) it started to rain. But we didn't let that dampen our spirits.  We were on a mission to drive around the area and find one of Ian's more remote Elementary schools he will be visiting once a week.  So we took a rainy drive through the Tottori country side

Mt. Senjosan!

We came across a pretty sweet looking Shrine right off the side of the road and stopped to check it out:

ooohh cooool

Unfortunately this pit stop ended up causing this:

Apparently the keepers of the Shrine (aka super angry hornets) were not too happy to see us and took it out on poor Ian!  He got stung three times - once in the ear and twice on his shoulder blade.  It clearly wasn't an enjoyable experience!  By the time we got home his whole armpit area was red and swollen PLUS he had welts on his wrists and other various spots that had not been stung.  This was a bit worrying to us so we decided to walk to our local clinic and check out the Japanese health system first-hand.  $15 got Ian a shot to help the swelling plus some sweet bandage action!

He is currently sitting next to me playing Madden 13 and feeling genki (happy/healthy). So not to worry!

See, I told you this week was omoshiroi!