Snow!!!

今日は雪がふる！！！！　It snowed today!!!! I know this just seems like a little snow. But it was hecka' exciting for me! It doesn't snow in Rancho Cucamonga! Only up in the mountains...and when I go see snow there, its already fallen. Today off and on, there were big ole' snowflakes, FALLING ON ME! And by that I mean that during a class, whenever there was a snowing spurt, I ditched the class and ran outside in front of all the students, who got a kick out of the crazy California girl who doesn't care about the cold...only the beauty of the snow.

Thanksgiving

This was November 27th. Monica was cool (like always!) and threw a Potluck, hang out party. It turned into, for most of us, our only Thanksgiving solace. There was so much delicious food! Monica made hummus, pie, and I'm sure lots of other good stuff that I can't remember because I'm such a late blogger. I know there were real chips there (Thanks to whoever made it to Costco!) There was a ton of good food. Mathieu one of us French Canadian JETs is a great cook, and he showed up! Yay! Anyways, it was really fun.

We cleaned up a bit, and then went to Round One....kind of like a Dave and Busters. Hofu definitely has nothing like Round One. All of this went down in Shimonoseki, Japan... About a one hour train ride from me? No, lets make this exact. Hyperdia.com tells me.... Oh, an even 90 minutes with no transfer. And 1450 Yen (like 16, 17 bucks?). Anyways, I digress.

A crazy alien guy guards the entrance-way to Round One. Sorry to anyone who knows who he is, and hates me for saying "crazy alien guy". I don't know. I'm not that cool.

We went bowling there. This is a picture from when I got a strike (my only!) on the one frame of the night where the whole bowling alley had a simultaneous "Who can get a strike?" frame. The lights went low. The music got crazy. And I got a strike!

And apparently my friend Michael was more enthused than me! Although I look pretty enthused too! :)

But alas... All good things must come to an end...

...To make way for DANCE DANCE! I haven't played dance dance in so long...but its like riding a bike. Skill-wise. Not out-of-shape- and-decade -older-wise.

And then we went back to Monica's house to play Monopoly. Until past 3 in the morning. I want to quote from a genious episode of "How I Met Your Mother".

"Nothing good ever happens after 2a.m."

Yeah, think about it. So true. I was up against these jolly gentlemen.

haha

***note to self--next time you play a serious game of monopoly--bring a notebook. Too many backdoor deals I couldn't keep track of. Who had immunity on what space, etc. OR just don't allow immunity or favors or ANYTHING like that. It may seem like a good idea at the time...but buying a property off of someone else in exchange for absurd amounts of money AND immunity on the space IS NOT WORTH IT.

Foot Onsen

Hello! So this was November 19th, 2009. Today would be my first introduction to.......the FOOT ONSEN!

This is my friend Brooke...and after Day 1 of Kencho we did some "hanging out" as the kids call it these days. hehe.

We stopped to smell the roses on the way back to the train station. Which means, that we took pictures by every Koi pond. :)

"Onsen" is the Japanese word for "Hot Springs". There are thousands of natural Hot Springs in Japan, but I'm not sure if the Onsen's that I hear about all the time are purely man-made or what. This little foot onsen is certainly the work of one genious human-being.

Don't let my dress misdirect you. Japan was already cold. And a scorching hot foot onsen is just what I needed. Foot Onsen's around "Yuda Onsen" (a district in Yamaguchi city) are all around...for public benefit. And by public, I mean me.

I've talked about foxes in another of my posts...Like the fox watching me warm up?

An old lady came at the end of my first foot onsen experience...who had a bagful of extra towels. :) She wouldn't take "no, its okay!" as an answer. She told Brooke, who's Japanese is much better than mine, that she visits the foot onsen everyday. I better have one of these where ever I retire!

This giant fox guards the Yuda-onsen train stop in Yamaguchi city. Bye bye for now Yamaguchi...tomorrow I will be in Kyoto...but thats another story! (and one I've already told...)

Writing Time 1.1

A student writes:

"Nowadays, a mechanical pencil is the most convenience in the stationeries. But I don't think it. A pencil is simple and cheap. It can't be difficult to break a lead. It must shave many times for it fault. In case of a mechanical pensil. It's expensive for it fauilt. But people were used it on fact."

Next. Background information...Kotatsu is a type of heated table that Japan has...very nifty. The student writes:

"Nowadays. Kotastu is getting more and more important. Kotastu --> a family pleasure of home life. I cannot readily appear. a heater --> The whole room warms. I become the fire."

Kyoto Trip Part 2

Here's Monica and I up near Kiyomizudera, I think. If you showed me a map of Kyoto, I could definitely point out all the places we went, but all the Japanese names...Its hard for me to list them in my mind!

All beautiful places though!

We saw a good handful of Geisha during our long Kyoto-fest. Unfortunately we don't know how many were real Geisha. Now-a-days, you can pay money to have someone Geisha-fy you. I think I heard that there are only about 100 real Geisha left in Kyoto. Dying art.

This is up around a famous Aqueduct on the Eastern mountainside of Kyoto. We tried to see the main part of the aqueduct, but just got distracted by beautiful hiking and waterfalls and PEACE. I mean, the higher we climbed, the less tourists were bumping into us.

Here, we are under a piece of the legendary aqueduct. It took a long time to take this picture because lots of people want to walk by. After another family saw us taking this picture, they did an even cooler one! One person per tunnel-thing. And I took it upon myself to stop traffic for them, so they could get their cool picture!

Every time I see this picture, all I can think of is ... "The Zombies are Coming!!!!!"

This was near Tenryu-Ji Zen Temple. Around this area on the West mountainsides of Kyoto...there was a plethora of cool things! Each one of these statues had a different facial expression, different action, different purpose. Monica, Chris and I each had our favorite stone budda-man. :)

Also around this Sogenchi Garden area, is the famous "Bamboo Forest" which we saw. Unfortunately by the time we got to teh bamboo forest, my cell phone and camera died, so I don't have any pictures from there. But I'll put some up if Monica or Chris send me one! :)

This is Kyoto Daigakku! Kyoto University area was really cool. We went to that area in search of a Falafel House. Which we found and it was SUCCESS! Food is always a big part of any trip I take outside of Yamaguchi-Ken. One can only eat so many bags of Ramen.

This was our last day in Kyoto. We hiked around in the morning before taking a 3:30p.m. Shinkansen back home..In order to be at work bright and early the next morning!

Goodbye Kyoto!!

Kyoto Trip Part 1

My trip to Kyoto, for me was very spontaneous. My friends Monica and Chris has asked me earlier in the week if I wanted to go "somewhere" for the long weekend. I sorta just ignored the question, cause I'm lazy. Didn't want want to think. :) Then they spent the night on Thursday night (Nov. 19th) because they live far away, and we had a 2 day JET Prefectural meeting in Yamaguchi city (right next to Hofu). So they saved on driving time, and we got to chill.

The next morning (Friday) I wake up. I get ready. We need to leave at 8:30 a.m. to get to Kencho. At 8:15 I say "Hey, can I still come with you guys?" and they say "Yeah, lets go to Kyoto". So thats how it all began. haha. So from 8:20-8:30 we make hostel reservations.

After Kencho is done, we jet to an ATM which is newly filled with money (payday), and get to the train station...where we bought Shinkansen tickets to Kyoto on the spot. It was my first ride on a Shinkansen!! It was like a Disneyland ride for me all the way! Shinkansen is Japanese bullet-train. Its really fast. Although it still took us like 3 hours to get to Kyoto. Well thats pretty fast. It would have taken us 8 hours and probably over 100 dollars in tolls to go by car.

Anyways, we get there, we find the hostel (that was no small endeavor either), and the hostel guy can't find our reservation. What?!? No reservation. After convincing him to look harder, he finds our reservation. For DECEMBER 20, 21, 22. Oh no!! We then realize that this is like the busiest weekend of the year for Kyoto, and there is no way we were going to find a place at 10p.m. at night. The hostel guy called around for us, but everywhere was booked. So...you see the picture that I opened this blog with? Thats me posing in the room he let us sleep in for free. The employee storage room!!! Who else can say that in a state of emergency, they slept in an employee storage room!! It was nice though. He pulled in clean mattresses for us, and I was happy.

We were really in a bind. That is the kind of thing that I would have loved to do for someone in need when I worked at the Days Inn... but in America you just can't do that. What if I had tripped over some cleaning solution and broke my arm, and had emotional suffering? You know? I'm glad there are places in the world where you just don't really have to worry about litigation.

Each day that we were in Kyoto, we picked up all day bus tickets for 500 Yen a day. Thats a pretty sweet deal, but then we had to ride the buses. :/ Do you like this line to get into the bus? Whenever there was a crazy line like this, the next bus coming would already be full. So each bus that stopped would allow 4 or 5 people to SQUEEZE on much to the chagrin of current passengers.

I love this picture. What are those hordes of people looking at!? Leaves. Yep. :)

Do you see what I mean by "Kyoto was packed?"

Our hostel guy told us that usually Kyoto has 2 million residents. But during this specific weekend, the city is crawling with over 7 million people! Now I didn't check any numbers or anything, but it seemed obvious to me that the 7 million was an understatement.

This was the perfect time to be in Kyoto for "the changing of the leaves". Its really special, to be able to be in such a beautiful place, when all the leaves are in a vibrant limbo. Japanese people really respect nature during Autumn and Cherry Blossom seasons.

The deep oranges and reds were really something. My camera actually died on the trip, as did my phone, because I tried to take too many pictures of trees. Its a lost cause. You just have to see it yourself. Everyone. Go to Kyoto in late November. There.

This is part of Inari shrine. We walked for hours around here and Nanzen-ji, and basically one corner of a corner of Kyoto. Going here for these 3 days just makes one realize that you need a year to see it all. And thats probably one stressful/check things off your list, year.

My blog only has so much space, but this picture just gives you a taste of how the whole mountainside is covered with shrines and holy-water holes. :)

Here...for 500 Yen, you can put your own wish up on the wishing wall. Foxes in Japan are an important part of Japanese culture and folklore. They are wise and magical beings, who have great power, and sometimes even more cunning and mischief, so we must make offerings. This is to prove that we are staying humble. So here we can make an offering, and get a wish. I wished for my family's health and happiness, and also for the health and happiness of mi prima amiga at home, who is about to have a beautiful baby girl! I love you Diana~!

This big Christmas tree was in Kyoto station. Like most big train stations, there was a lot of shopping inside, but unlike the amazing shopping of Korean stations...this place was expeeeensive. In fact, this Christmas tree was right outside of the Starbucks. Yes. The Starbucks which I miss every day when I am in Hofu. So I drank it each day. 3 days. 3 Venti cups of regular hot coffee. 460 Yen per. grrrrr. I miss my $190 Venti at home...

This video shows Monica walking through one of the many hallways covered by orange special overhangs. Each one of those banisters is paid for by a business-person hoping to find and keep prosperity by donating a piece of beauty to this special place in Japan.

Wikipedia says: Fushimi Inari Taisha (伏見稲荷大社) is the head shrine of Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines.

Because Inari is the god of business, each of the Torii is donated by a Japanese business.

Merchants and manufacturers worship Inari for wealth. Donated torii lining footpaths are part of the scenic view.

So each orange banister is called a torii. This whole area was so completely beautiful. If you watch the video one more time, you can see Monica, and the other international tourists fighting for the good picture. Must wage war to get an unhindered picture!...thats for sure!

Updatey update pt. 2

Hello! Updatey update pt. 1 featured some veggies from a local farm... So I thought it just to follow the same title.

Yesterday was very cool. I woke up, cleaned, and then went to play volleyball with 5 other JETs. I love volleyball!!! But I am very sore today... Props to all 5 other players that put up a good fight against the Steff'an'ator. ;)

Then to keep with the theme of being outdoorsy and cool like that, I went farming with my friend Tom. I want to publicly say that Tom's wife Izumi is the coolest Japanese chic around! This I am saying outloud because in the BBQ post...a couple posts ago, I made a mistake on her name. *I smack myself in the head. I will fix it in a sec, so don't bother trying to see my mistake!

So, we spent some time pulling up fresh radishes, purple Japanese lettuce, pepper of all varieties, different types of lettuces. Okay, I'm really bad at this. I don't know the names for everything we got. Most of the plants were different from the last time I went to the farm...and these ones all had Japanese names! Luckily Tom tells me as I cut and pick stuff how to prepare it. So I may not know the names of this stuff, but I sure as heck remember which parts of what are poisonous, no need to be cooked, or can be eaten raw!

We also drove by the Tom/Izumi orchard of greatness, where we had that BBQ before, and picked some citrus'y fruits that of course I don't know the names of either. I kept calling things "Daidos" as it seems like everything he told me started with "Dai". So I was always close.

So we picked a bunch of Daidos, and then went back to their apartment, where I played with their son, and Izumi made dinner for us all, using stuff we just picked! It was not only the most beautiful salad ever, but the best tasting. I love radish! And Daido leaves!

If Tom or Izumi are reading this: Free baby-sitting. Serious.

Anyways, that was all yesterday, and tonight, I had a wonderful dinner too. Radish salad. Boiled Daido leaves dipped in Wasabi Sauce. Stir fried Daido stems of various colors, with tofu and rice. Wow, sounds pretty vegan. Unless there is something I don't know about in sesame seed dressing.

Random Stuff

Some of the students write me letters on their free time, and I write them back. Its really cute, and makes me happy! They get to practice their English, and I get to feel like a teacher who is well-liked.

Here is the road that I walk to get to my special needs school. The Mountain at the very center of the picture, in the far distance is where my school is located. Its quite a walk. But as long as it looks like this along the way, I'm not complainin'.

This is a picture of my base school. Its a nice school. The kids at this school always show that they are very happy to be there. They don't sleep in the classes like the kids at another school that I will leave unnamed. :)

Halloween Activity

Halloween in Hofu. I like the sign "LOC the Halloween." I wonder who thought of that and if they knew it was like a pun. LOC is the name of this mall "LOC City" that is. And obviously it sounds like "Rock the Halloween", plus many Japanese people confuse their Rs and their L's. Just wondering if it was intentional or not. :)

My friends over at the church. I went to a Halloween activity, which turned out to be lots of fun!

We played lots of games. Such as "bobbing for apples" which was slightly modified here. hahaha. We bobbed for a piece of an apple on its own individual plate, with a dollop of caramel on top. Awesome! Apples here are like 3 bucks each. If I were planning this game, they would have been even smaller pieces of apple. :)

We ate a lot of yummy food. My contribution was 10 cans of ginger ale. :) mmmmmm. I wish I had some ginger ale right now....

We played lots of games, and I took home lots of extra chocolate chip pumpkin cookies. Yummy.

Is this a popular missionary game? The one missionary showing was giving a monologue, and the one hiding behind him was being his hands. Oh yeah, it was called "Day in the life of a Missionary" so it started with the hidden missionary fishing the table for a toothbrush, and sticking it in his eye. It was really funny. :)