way overdue...

I'm Back!



So I have been more than a slacker of late (considering it has been over a month since my last post) and more than a few people have mentioned that I must have given up. But today I am determined to get back on track. With that I must say that there is no way that I can really catch up with everything that has happened in the past month. So I am going to start with my sisters visit to Japan. She came in March 21st with her roommate Abigail. The two were here for 10 days, and it was great to have them here, and show them around my area of Japan and explore a few new areas as well.

It was nice and cozy in my apartment.

Tea in my apartment when they first arrived


Sleeping on their futons


Their first weekend here was pretty low key, because they were fairly jet lagged and I had to be to work on Monday for graduation. Saturday they got the grand tour of my region, showing them a few stores, a few shrines and parks.







Sunday we ventured to Narita to check out Narita-san another temple and a really lovely park like area. Surrounding the shrine area there are also a bunch of winding streets with traditional type stores.







Monday, I had to head to school because it was graduation. Graduation was nice, it was very formal but it was surprising to see how emotional both the students and teachers were because I was at the school that typically tends to feel a little colder to me (I can’t even imagine how emotional graduation would have been at my other school).



Tuesday we decided that we would do a road trip up to Kasama. A town in my prefecture that is famous for its pottery. It was a nice drive, and a welcome change since it was in the mountains a little bit (which is quite a change from the very flat area I live in). I found a gorgeous turquoise tea pot. (I hope to make another trip up there sometime and hopefully actually make some pottery myself they offer courses).







On our way back we stopped at an all tofu restaurant. I thought it was delicious! But I wasn’t sure how the girls would take it, but they decided that they wanted to try it. I was proud of the girls for trying everything, and they said they enjoyed most of it all (though I think after that they were tofu-ed out by the end!)



We also stopped in Mito so they could see a few of the last Ume (Plum) blossoms that were out. There is a park in Mito that is very famous for their plum blossoms.



Okinomiyaki in Mito! (you get everything in a bowl raw and then you make your own pancake like item) Delicious!


Thursday we headed into Tokyo. Spent the day exploring different areas of Tokyo. And the girls had found a place where we could partake in a traditional green tea ceremony, which was a bit awkward since it was only the 3 of us, but was a great experience (and something I hadn’t done yet).



night lights of tokyo


Thursday (and Friday) night, we spent in a capsule hotel. Which was quite an interesting experience, but something that you have to do while in Japan. The capsule experience: you come into the building purchase your ticket for the night through a machine, you are then given a key for your locker. You head up to your floor (we were staying at a place that had a woman only floor, because most capsule hotels don’t allow women, they are meant for business men). On our floor we found our lockers, which contained our pjs and towels, and we were also able to stash our things in it. Next we headed to our actual capsules (the small area where we would sleep). Basically you walk into a long corridor that has capsules all the way down, two high (one stacked on the other). The capsule was relatively comfortable and not as small as I had feared (I fit comfortably lengthwise into it). The shower room was then located on the top floor. It was a communal style shower, common here in Japan. Here are a few pictures to explain.

lockers:


capsules




in the capsule:


view from the roof:


Friday we were up early to catch a train to Nikko. Nikko is a town in the mountains north of Tokyo. It is has some of the oldest shrines in Japan in the town. Unfortunately the weather was less than desirable, but it was still really gorgeous.















these are the monkeys that the whole see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil are based off of


Saturday was another early morning, we wanted to head to the famous Tsukiji fish market. Tsukiji was defiantly an experience. It was a lot of chaos for early in the morning. But amazing to see all of the seafood and the organization that seemed to exist amongst tons of vehicles driving around all over the place and hundreds of tourists getting in the way, on more than one occasion I thought for sure I was going to be taken out by one of these men on scooters.










Later that morning we headed to Asakusa to see a market and another shrine. But it was SO crowded because its cherry blossom season, that we didn't stick around there too long.





We then headed to Ueno Park (which is the most famous place in Tokyo to view cherry blossoms). We met up with a bunch of other JETs from my area to partake in Hanami. Hanami is a traditional cherry blossom viewing party that occurs throughout the spring in Japan. People bring picnics and enjoy being outside amongst nature.

There were millions of people in the park. But we had a tarp and made ourselves at home in the part with all of the other Japanese people under the cherry blossoms. It was a great evening. The weather was amazing and the cherry blossoms were gorgeous.





















Sunday the girls headed home, but it was a great trip. I enjoyed having them here. And think that they enjoyed it as well (I know that Dev enjoyed the food! Sometimes it seemed like all she wanted to do was eat a different kind of Japanese food, guess she has been deprived living in Chicago!)

Ok I will try to be better about posting. More to come!

why not?

i'm headed to guam tomorrow!



i have been trying to narrow down the best time to head to guam for a quick little visit, and for some reason everything just came together in a matter of 5 minutes. while talking to my dad (who is in guam now), i said i should have made plans to meet you in guam this weekend. so then i hung up and thought well i have nothing going on this weekend. why not? so booked a ticket and will be there for the weekend! can't wait to bask in the sun, it will be a nice break from this cold weather.

Hokkaido part 2

The majority of Sunday was spent at Sato Land. It’s basically a huge playground made of snow with kids running around everywhere. There were huge slides, sledding areas, snowman making areas, a snow mobile ride, and a giant snow maze. Brita, Emma, Jay and myself wondered about a bit contemplating what lines to wait in (but most of them were going to be almost 2 hours), we finally decided on the snow maze because the line was only about 15 minutes.

lots of little snowmen


me in pain looking into the sun


typical Japanese concession stands


The thing was amazing we actually really didn't realize how big it was before we went in. Some place the walls were probably about 20 feet high



others were a lot lower, and I could totally cheat and see over them


view from the top of the maze (it had levels!)


Once inside we spent a ridiculous amount of time playing around and taking cheesy pics. It was a lot of fun!

Brita, Jay, myself, and Emma




And while taking this photos, a press photographer came up and wanted to take pictures of our pose (so we are probably some kind of celebrities in Hokkaido now! ha).


After our day in the snow playground, everyone was headed back to the hotel to get ready for the Enkai (all you can eat lamb party) that I had opted out of. So I headed to the art museum. It was nothing spectacular, but there was actually a Japanese architecture exhibit going on, and I happened to choose the time and day when all of the architects themselves were there doing different things. Which was pretty interesting. Too bad I didn't really know who they were, or really able to understand that much of it all (too much kanji!). Also meandered around the main snow sculpture area some more.







ramen for dinner! yum


Eventually I made my way back to meet up with the group after their dinner. Met them at a ferris wheel on top of a building in the middle of the city. It had been decided that this would be a nice way to see the city at night. We all enjoyed and appreciated the sight of city lights, compared to our normal inaka homes (country).

unfortunatly these didn't turn out all that great



After this a group of about 5 of us decided to stay out and see what night life there was to be found in the city (a bunch of the others had decided they were going to go snowboarding again on Monday, so they wanted to make it an early night). It was a great night, lots of random Japanese places were discovered.

Ramen breakfast


and then after checking out of our hotel, Joel, Nate, Emma, Katie and myself decided to check out the chocolate factory, on the outskirts of town at the base of mountains, that is famous for producing shirokoibito chocolate (white lovers chocolate, not sure why the name). This factory was kind of a strange European building with Japanese quirks. But you did kind of feel like you were headed into Wonka’s chocolate factory, because songs would play and all of the things in the garden area outside would sing and dance (including the trash can!) not to mention the overwhelming smell of chocolate as you approached the building.

















After going through the tour, indulging in a chocolaty snack, and stocking up on omiyagi (obligatory edible gifts for coworkers) we headed back to the center of the snow festival.

We ventured up the clock tower at the center of the main park to get a great view of all of the snow sculptures and city in general. Walked around a bit more.

These pics aren't too wonderful, it was snowing, freezing and really windy at the top of the tower! but you can see the main park where all the sculptures were.






We were all pretty tired by this time, so we were in search of a restaurant we could sit in until our train headed for the ferry left. We found a tiny little curry shop, that served the infamous Hokkaido Soup Curry. And all I can say is amazing! It could have been because we were freezing, hungry and tired but this meal was great, and really wish there was somewhere around here I could get some soup curry. It was a curry broth with veggies, tandoor chicken, and cheese. We were all skeptical but all in awe by the end.

Yum!


Finally we met the rest of the group at the train station, to begin our journey home.

It was pretty sad, I don't think that any of us wanted to go home!


But once again we enjoyed our ferry home, and arrived home after a pretty exhausting weekend, pretty well rested and refreshed from our onboard onsen!

All in all, a pretty great trip. Time to start planning my next excursion!