March - where do I start?

Kari Writes:

March was an exciting month for us!

The weather started to warm up and we enjoyed walking around our neighborhood!  Though lately we tend to get one week of nice weather followed by a week of cold and rainy.  It seems Spring is fickle no matter where you live.  Though we certainly aren't expecting anymore snow this year - we send our condolences to the mid-west!

In Japan the school year is a bit different than in America. They run on trimesters and the school year ends in March.  So March is a time a change for the youngsters!  Ian's 9th grade students graduated and are heading off to High School.  Their spring break is about 2 weeks and now a fresh crop of 7th graders are entering Akasaki Jr High!  There have also been a lot of staffing changes this year so Ian is also getting to know his new co-workers and settling into a new rhythm.

The gym all decked out for graduation!

The biggest event of the month was certainly the visit of our friends Josh and Drew!  We picked them up at the Osaka airport (a 3-4 hour drive that took us close to 7 hours! whoops).  We then explored one of the more famous areas of Osaka - Dotonbori:

I was so excited to hang out with the iconic Glico man!

It definitely had a "Times Square" kind of vibe to it!

 The next day we walked from our Hotel to Osaka Castle!  This Castle is a bit controversial because it is 100% reconstructed and the inside is very modern (elevators and gift shops etc!).  But it is still pretty to look at!  And there was a huge grove of plum trees blooming on the grounds which smelled amazing!

We also explored the huge shopping center near the train station and introduced our friends to the best part of Japan - the 100 yen shop!  It's always amazing the variety of things you can get for around 1 US dollar!

Next we took the guys to our neck of the woods.  We spent a rainy day exploring the Akasaki coastline and Kurayoshi.  And capped off the day with dinner at Joyfull and Karaoke!

Lego man on the beach!

The next day we did a bit more exploring at Port Akasaki and the Windmill Park.  And met up with Ian for lunch at one of the most esteemed Ramen establishments in the prefecture (and it even ranks pretty dang high nationally!) Kamitoku Ramen!

Learning the art of Ramen slurping!

Not ones to rest on our laurels we headed off to the Tottori Sand Dunes.  I had never been so I was just as excited as the guys!  And it was pretty great!  Sand as far as the eye can see and we got to see the camels - next time I vow to ride one!

The view from the highest dune!

All of us at the top!

After exploring the dunes we hit the road again off to Kobe!  By the time we got there we were pretty wiped out from all our adventures so we hung out in our swanky hotel and played some cards!  The next day they guys had to catch a train to Kyoto so we kept our exploring to a minimum. We ended up finding "America Town" a part of Kobe with a lot of Western style houses.  Some of them you can go into kind of like a museum.  It is apparently a pretty big draw for Japanese tourist - but kind of a funny place for American tourist to go!  "Ooohh look it's just like where I came from."

Then we dropped the guys off at the station!  We were sad to see them go but also excited to get back home and do nothing for a few days!

At the end of March we joined our friends Ellen and Matt in the age old tradition of Sakura Hanami or Cherry Blossom Viewing.  We went to Utsubuki Park in Kurayoshi where they set up lanterns and banners and have food stands!

We were stationed near the park so
we could watch all the cute kids!

There is also a giant concrete pit that is full of:

Monkeys!! Yup!

All in all a great time was had by all - even though we did get a little bit rained on!  It turned out to be one of the few good days for sakura hanami this season.

And that was our March!

Stay tuned for April!

February . . . Whew!

Kari writes:

I can't believe February is coming to a close already!  Yes, it is shorter than most months but even so I think it has gone by at super-speed!  Our weeks were jam-packed all month.  Starting with the Table Tennis Tournament!

Every year all the teachers in the area have a HUGE table tennis tournament.  Each school puts together 5 doubles teams and then duke it out elimination style against the other schools.  Unfortunately Aka-chu was knocked out in the first round.  But it was fun to cheer the teachers on!  Afterwards we ate yakiniku and drank beer - as all good school sponsored activities should end! 

The next weekend was our big teacher trip to Kyoto!  Kyoto used to be the capital city of Japan so it is chock full of interesting historical sites!  We saw so many castles and temples!

Byodoin Temple was under construction - but it is on the 10 yen coin!

Here we are at the entrance to Fushimi Inari Shrine

Which is known for it's pathways lined by thousands of red arches called torii

After some group sight-seeing we all went to a fancy dinner in downtown Kyoto. As we were walking I got excited every time I saw another white person!  It's so rare to see non-Japanese non-JET people in Tottori that I was so surprised to see so many tourists!

The next day we went to even more cool places:

Nijo Castle!  This castle has "Nightengale floors" which creak
on purpose so Ninjas can't sneak around!

The grounds at Nijo castle were gorgeous!
There were lots of neat trees and pretty flowers too!

Kinkakuji Temple is one of the most famous in Kyoto!
"Kin" means gold so it's pretty obvious how it got its name!

We were pretty impressed

The ultimate Kinkakuji experience - drinking matcha tea in the tea garden!

Up until this point we had been with various groups of Ian's co-workers.  We split off for the afternoon and visited Kiyomizu-Dera.  It was huge!  There were so many different gates, shrines, pagodas and such I didn't know what I was looking at half the time!  Something that was really interesting around Kyoto is that at various places you can pay to get dressed up in Kimonos!  So as we were at Kiyomizu-Dera we saw "geishas" using their smart phones.  It was an amusing juxtaposition!

A pink pagoda at the entrance

This is Kiyomizu-Dera!  Look at all the people!

Old-fashioned meets high-tech

After that we made our way to Sanjusangendo.  This temple is full to the brim with Buddha statues.  There are 1,001 statues!  You aren't allowed to take any pictures inside the temple so I found this one online:

It's a verrrryy long room I swear it took over 10 minutes to walk past all the statues!  Pretty impressive.  Then it was time to meet back up with the group and head back to Tottori!  

The next weekend was a triple whammy.  First that Friday night our good friend and fellow JET Ellen was involved in putting together and performing in a concert with some big name Japanese rock stars in our little town!  They sang a bunch of classic American oldies so we could actually sing along!  Afterwards I got to meet the local mascot "Cowy" which was a dream come true for me! heh.  But maybe even cooler was that we got to go to the after party to hang out with the band and listen to them do some karaoke!  Thankfully neither Ian nor I were requested to sing!  

Me and Cowy! *swoon

Then on Saturday morning Ian was a judge for the foreign language speech competition in our town.  There were speeches and plays in English, Korean, and Chinese.  Thankfully Ian only had to give his opinion on the English entries!  And adorable 5 year old girl told a condensed version of the Little Mermaid that she had memorized!  Pretty amazing.

On Sunday we joined the International Group to hang out at one of the nearby mountains.  There was a retreat facility up there.  We played some team building games and then got to try making Baumkuhen which is originally a German dessert but popular in Japan.  We mixed up the batter and then headed outside to roast it over an open fire!

This was actually super difficult - maybe part of that was
not getting any instructions in English!

The trick is the coat the bamboo with a thin layer of batter, then brown it and coat again. Once they cool off you pull the dessert off the bamboo rod and slice it up.  It has many rings inside like a tree stump because of the way it is cooked.  Pretty cool - but a TON of work!

Our finished product!  It did taste good. 

This last weekend we finally had some time to relax!  We took a little day trip to do some shopping and tidied up the house a bit.  We've also had a warm streak lately so our toes aren't so chilly at night!

I'll leave you with a picture of the Valentine's flowers Ian got for me!  In Japan Valentine's is a bit different in that women give chocolate to men!  But Ian is a smart husband and took the American approach to Valentine's:

I split the bouquet up to fit in my little glass bottles. 

He even shared the chocolates he got at work!  He's a keeper!

Tune in next time - we have some exciting travels planned for March and a visit from some American friends!

-Kari

Hello 2013 - Goodbye January!

Kari Writes:

Why hello there!

January has just flown by hasn't it?!?

Ian and I stayed in for New Years Eve.  Made a yummy dinner, watched some TV, and didn't look at a clock all night - until 1am!  We expected to see a big hullabaloo on TV at midnight but it didn't happen!

The next day we celebrated New Years day with the Ito family.  They were super welcoming and had TONS to eat and drink so we dug right in and had a great day!  They even had a black poodle just like my family's dog Wiggles!

Akemashite Omedetou!!!

Shiro the dog!

Ian got to enjoy one of the perks of being a teacher - long Christmas breaks!  We spent most of break relaxing at home and rearranging the house.  But we spent a few days just driving around and exploring the area.  One day we got lost in the mountains!  And we also found some dinosaurs!

Our trusty lil' car!

Mountains!

Ian watch out!!  There's a T-Rex behind you!!

Yes that's right - palm trees in the snow. Welcome to Hawai, Japan

 Another fun thing that happened in January was going to a tea ceremony demonstration!  It was my first time  and Ian's second.  Of course the whole thing was explained in Japanese so we mostly just nodded and pretended we understood what was going on!  But we sure did drink some tea!

Us with the lovely Kimono wearing tea ladies!

We've already experienced much more snow here than we thought we would!  But sometimes it's nice to look outside and be reminded of home :)  Though our kitchen is only slightly warmer than a refrigerator!

February is already looking to be a busy month for us!  We're already booked for a ping-pong tournament, a trip to Kyoto, a big concert, and more!

Till next time!
-Kari

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