There and Back Again

本庄〜またね！

Well, I'm home now! That is to say I'm back in Seattle, Washington -- town of the needle that reaches SPACE and the 1962 transportation gift to mankind: the Monorail (you're welcome, world). I will no doubt face new adventures in this strange yet familiar land... such as unemployment, making friends, and reminding myself not to bow to Asian people I see on the street. This will take time.

The last few days in Honjo were spent huddling over my toilet and, in a way, letting my feelings out. Anxiety hit my stomach with a wave of vengeance such as the world had never seen. I spent my last Saturday night in Japan with a high fever, body aches, and nausea while Kate and Natanya , Champions of wellness and friendship, spoon-fed me ginger ale as we watched "Walk Hard" (which certainly didn't help my bout of illness).

I continued going to work, usually just for a few hours to talk to people, feel like the butterflies in my stomach were stabbing each other for drug-money with ice picks, and rushing home to finish packing and cleaning. On my last weekend, besides feeling ill, I shipped my two enormous suitcases to the airport via 空港サービス (airport service). Thank God for Japan -- my suitcases weighed 110 lbs together and there was no way I could have handled them by myself on the trains to the airport without the guardian angels of Kuroneko Yamato special delivery service. I also completed and handed out all of my gift bags, which were comprised of folded paper cranes and Hershey kisses thrown into adorably patterned plastic bags. I managed to gift these to 70 people -- おつかれさまでした!

On Sunday I felt well enough to drive down to Mineyama to have dinner with Megan, Kate, Eric and Yumi at Honeycomb and to ship my iMac desktop computer to the US via express delivery service. However, the delivery people, who usually deliver within Japan, wanted to charge me about $600 for their services, which I declined. I decided instead to use the FedEx/Kinko's in Kyoto city and save about $350 in doing so. Still, it meant I had another 25lb box to schlep down to Kyoto on my final day in Japan, which would not be fun.

Monday was a particularly sad day for me as I said goodbye to all four of my schools, my neighbours, and my entire Board of Education. I gave a speech, managed not to choke up, and left the building for the last time with Nishihara-san (my supervisor for two years who has done everything for me). We said some teary goodbyes and had a nice big hug and a final photo together. I sure will miss that lady.

I then sobbed, "DON'T FORGET ME INE~" while driving away from Ine and its beautiful boathouses and bay and continued my way South to Miyazu. I would spend the night at Yumi's family's house in hopes of finding comfort my last night with a familiar family. The Okkuda family showed me a great time! We watched Japanese game shows on TV while eating delicious steak and shrimp -- yum! Yumi's crazy mother then insisted that I take one of her "antique" vases as Japanese omiyage... though I feel that I was snookered into taking something she didn't really want anymore. Still, it's the thought. I then took a nice hot bath and curled up on a futon and watched cartoons with Yumi until we both fell asleep.

The following morning was another sad, teary, Japanese goodbye. The worst of all because it was a goodbye to YUMI. I can't imagine what my life would have been without her, but it would have been bleak and without dental appointments for certain. In any case it was completely awful and afterward she went to work and I drove to my car lease company to drop off dear Shadowfax the Car. The company owner was kind enough to drive me, my carry-on luggage, and my ridiculously large iMac computer to Mineyama station to meet Kate and her entourage of merry high school teachers for one last Tango goodbye.

A photo of Kate and Natanya at the Mineyama post office, sending their boxes home.

Kate and I hopped the train to Kyoto City, meeting up with Natanya along the way. It was nice to have a relaxing train ride before our final goodbye to Kate, who has gone back to Minnesota since. Natanya and I then wandered over to the FedEx/Kinko's and were successful in sending home my desktop computer. My arms were very thankful to relieve themselves of the bulky burden (ouch!). We then grabbed lunch at a really strange cafe -- the servers were all attractive young men and the patrons were nearly all middle-aged Japanese women. It was a bit eerie, but they served sparkling wine, so who were we to question their practices?

Natanya and I then returned to Kyoto station to seek out cheap and adorable souvenirs from Japan for our friends and family. I bought a lot of small handkerchief type presents as they were the only items I was able to squeeze into my ridiculous luggage. Who doesn't need a handkerchief, right? ...right?

The best part of the day was meeting Danielle and Lauren for ramen and beer at Kyoto station -- I hadn't seen Danielle in months and we talked more about her wedding next March in Colorado and about the house that she and her fiancé are having built. It's so exciting to hear about these things and it's nice to know that Danielle will continue living her life in Osaka and that I'll be able to stay in contact with her, and thus stay in contact with Japan.

Lauren, Natanya and I went to stay at Lauren's apartment for the night. We studied vocabulary in Lauren's GRE book (Avert your eyes, you captious braggart!) and hunkered down for the night watching some of Grey's Anatomy (THERE'S A BOMB IN THE PATIENT! CODE BLACK! CODE BLACK!) It was my last night in Japan, but I managed to catch a few hours of sleep anyway.

The next several hours were uneventful. I went to the airport, picked up my enormous suitcases, managed to get them on the flight without paying extra, ended up in Seoul, Korea for five boring hours, hopped another flight to Seattle where I sat next to an elderly Korean man with the CONSUMPTION, and ended up in Zaydeh's condo on Alaskan Way. Yes, I realise that's all one sentence, but it feels like I did the whole thing in one big breath.

So now it's over (the blog and the flight and all that). I'm pleased and punch to be back in a familiar yet exciting area and I'm looking forward to what's happening next. So far, I've been helping Zaydeh look through Bubbeh's old things. Not that the things are necessarily old, but I suppose one starts calling things 'old' when somebody passes away. I'm not sure I agree with it. Let's just say, we're going through Bubbeh's "effects". That woman kept 5 can-openers and 5 sets of silverware. Don't even get me started on the margarita mug shaped like a cactus or the entire cabinet of paper plates. This is going to be fun.

So until I decide on what to call the next blog, このブロッグを読んでくれてありがとうございました。Thanks for reading my blog. It was fun to write, fun to look back on -- and I hope it was fun to read.

Rachel

A Weekend with Goats

A Weekend with Goats

Two weekends ago, the first weekend after Golden Week where everybody was back from vacation and all in the same place again, Natanya invited everyone she knew to her house for a party. This was a veiled excuse to play “Celebrities”, our favourite game combining charades, gestures, and taboo. It also generally involves ridiculous people such as Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Gandhi, Miss Piggy, Tyra Banks, Ahmadinejad, various New York Times columnists (naturally I don’t remember their names, out of apathy) and of course, Zac Efron.

However, most of the invited were unable to acquiesce this kind invitation, and so the group became four people; Natanya, Kate, Ian, Rachel and the Other Rachel (hereby referred to as R2).

The weekend began at an empty train station in Amanohashidate (the station that seems to evade nicknamery) as Natanya and I shared stories of our sunburns and ate chocolate from Hokkaido. Ian and R2 arrived promptly 3 minutes late, and we drove to Sutenten, an izakaya [food-place] in Iwataki. This was the first of many meals where I proceeded to watch other people drink, as I was the driver. We then retired to Ine for an evening of beer and Pringles, all while sitting on the kitchen floor. Ian was reunited with Kirby the Ferret and all was calm.

Home-made mudslides... smell like vodka

The next day, after a leisurely French toast breakfast, we drove onto Otoko-yama, the nearby mountain that separates Ine and Yasaka. The drive was nice, though the sky threatened rain throughout the day. Near the top of the mountain (where the wind turbines live), there is a farm called Ikari Highlands Ranch (碇高原牧場) and we stopped there to watch sheep, goats, cows and rabbits frolic on the strangely rolling hills. I bumped into the Head of the Board of Education and met his lovely wife and adorable toddler grandchildren.

Two girls a'mooing and an Ian in a Pear Tree.

I recommended the adjoining steakhouse, where we went for a late lunch. The corn was spectacular.

Goats play upon a bench.

It was time to leave and drive to Mineyama to meet Kate, who had invited me to dinner. I was going to drop Natanya, Ian and R2 off at Natanya’s house in Kaya and then drive back to Mineyama to do dinner further north in Kumihama with two of Kate’s co-workers. However, my cunning sense of map-reading and direction failed us all and we ended up on the narrowest jungle roads in some town I’d never heard of.

Terribly, terribly lost.

Driving down the mountain, I expected to reach Yasaka, but instead we ended up too close to the Sea of Japan and had to backtrack and head North, and THEN go to Mineyama. In a nutshell, there was no way we were going to reach Kaya. I convinced the group that we should all go to dinner together, which is what we did.

I had never been to the Bay Cook restaurant that overlooks the Kumihama Bay (and all of the large fish within). We had to sit separately due to lack of reservations, but everybody had a good time eating the pizzas and pasta dishes and watching the sky grow darker.

Everyone spent the night at Natanya’s. It wasn’t the most energetic or interesting night of anyone’s life, I don’t think, but it was certainly nice to spend time together in a non-wintry environment. I went to bed early, when Ian started reading aloud passages by David Foster Wallace, another name I’ve come to know, and hate.

Just to Clear the Deck, I own no Monkeys.

A Boisterous Cloister of Oysters
by Rachel K. Sreebny

On Saturday morning I drove the 80 minutes from Ine across the Northern coast of the Sea of Japan to Kumihama. My area, Ine, is the eastern most part of the Tango Peninsula. And Kumihama is the western most part of the Kyoto Prefecture, so you can say I drove cross-prefecture! All to eat oyster for the first time ever.

It was an oyster enkai organized by the kindly ladies of Natanya's English Conversation Group. There were a variety of oysters along with oyster fried rice and oyster hot pot! It was a lot of fun and the minshoku (guest house) was really beautiful. It was on a small beach called 小天橋 or Shotenkyo which means "small heaven bridge" or something like that.

After eating oysters forever and getting a giant bag of oysters each (like... 30 of them) we all migrated to my favourite ice cream place. It's a small Jersey Cow farm called Sora, meaning sky, and they have fresh ice creams, cheeses and milk puddings there. We all got ice cream and then most of the ladies set off home and Natanya came along back to Ine with me.

everyone say "moo"

Natanya had a lot of venting to do about her frustrations with not re-contracting, then changing her mind and having no say in the decision. Her BOE won't let her and on top of it she has boy drama, so it was good that she came with.

We spent the night knitting, watching 30 Rock, drinking beer and eating even more ice cream. Then Natanya put on like... all of my clothes and we watched the Wrestler and talked about which My Little Pony Characters we'd be.

I'd be "Purl" and have a skein of yarn on my horse butt. Ian's blue and his name is cloudy. He has a beer on his butt and when you put him in warm water it turns into a broken heart. Natanya is Spanky and she's purple. Kate is light yellow and her name is sparkles. She has a cabin on her butt. Then Greg is black with red eyes and his name is "Darkness". Lastly is Yumi. She's white with rainbow hair and her name is Yummy. She has a pie on her hip. Hooray for imaginations!!!!

Today (Sunday) Kate drove up and we went on a hike around the coast of Ine. It was nice weather for it despite rainclouds and it was good to get some actual exercise after doing nothing but eating yesterday. We got a lot of great pictures so I'll let those say a few thousand words on my behalf.

Other than that, I drank a root beer, cleaned my house, and skyped with Tristyn so I have no complaints! Enjoy your Sunday evenings, everyone.

Laura visits Nippon 2K8

ロロ・日本

My sister came to Japan! I feel like it was the highlight of my entire time here so far. My sister and I as many of you know are very close... we may even be BFF. So, having her here made for an AWESOME two weeks and two days in Japan.

On Laura's first full day in Japan, she came to Ine Elementary School. She did a small self introduction at the beginning of the classes and answered some questions (they weren't very many). Other than that, she watched the kids play games indoors and out and we all had lunch together with the first and second graders! I think she had a good time -- and it was definitely more fun for me having another person in on the jokes I feel surround me 99% of the time.




We went around Ine and Honjo as per usual, hitting up the regular joints: Urashima Shrine and the udon restaurant, Ikari Farm, the Wind Turbines between Ine and Yasaka, and the boat houses. Naturally, I took Laura out to Amanohashidate as well so she could look through her legs and see something resembling an upside-down island. Or a dragon. You decide!









On our first weekend, we hung around the Tango Peninsula, which included getting lunch, playing video games, and sleeping in. However, on Sunday we braved a badly planned trek to Tottori. 10 hours of transit time, 35 minutes on the dunes. We are so HARD CORE EXTREEEEME. Here are proof pictures. That day finished off with a very late dinner at Tenten in Mineyama. Poor us. We also hit up Sora, an ice cream farm with baby cows and pretty flowers on the premises! Ice cream makes hard core treks more hard core, after all.

Laura -- after about 10 hours on trains and in the car -- ready for action!

I also took Laura to Tokyo! This was equally exciting for me because I'd never ventured out much when I first arrived in Japan last July... I was too jet lagged! So we stayed near Ueno Park and got to the zoo, the aquarium (near Disneyland -- Laura wouldn't let me go), and we hopped around to Harajuku for a bit of shopping. Tokyo is too big... and because of it I felt like there were too many places to go but not enough reasons to go to any of them! Still, the hotel was fun and we had some fast internet, which is always a vacation for me!

Rachel is a bear.

A seal at the Ueno Zoo!
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Laura finds someone to love.

Laura gearing up for Harajuku. And a boss good time.

We crashed at Megan's for the night after getting back from Tokyo. We also hit up Osaka for a few hours to grab some Okonomiyake!

Some Osaka for some Cabbage Pancakey goodness

I have the laziest ferret in the universe.

The next day we headed to Nara: home of the sacred deer and the BIG BUDDHA. Also, Laura informed me, the biggest wooden structure in the world. Take THAT, Trojan Horse! The deer were cute -- even though it was raining for most of the day. The Big Buddha was awesome and I picked up some chocolate mochi for my co-workers/self on the way back!

Laura and Big Buddha make friends

At last -- one with nature! Laura's lifetime goal of being Pocahontas is realised!

We came home to Honjo for only two days before heading off to Kyoto. The first day we sort of walked around aimlessly because most of the attractions/sight seeing areas were closed by the time we got done with Amanohashidate and drove into the city. We saw the pet store though, and hung out with Amy, Ian, Megan and Greg at some random izakaya near Nijo. Why did we do this? Because it was LAURA'S 20TH BIRTHDAY! WOAH! We had a good time.

Amanohashidate -- now the OTHER side!

Laura rings in her 20th year of life by drinking ALL the beer.

Birthday onigiri was in order!

The next day we went WEST to Hiroshima. Here we saw the very heavy yet educational museum of Hiroshima. The Peace Park was really beautiful and rather upbeat; the Children's Memorial definitely being my favourite. We also got HOUNDED by elementary schoolers. It seems like all of Honshu was on a field trip to Hiroshima because we got interviewed/acosted by about 7 different groups! We got asked our names and home countries and afterward we had to sign their school books and take pictures with them. Fantastic!!! It really lightened the mood of the day, which was nice because we were only there for a few hours and all of them were hot and humid.

We finished up the vacation by playing wii and watching cartoons in the hotel with Megan after a dinner of Indian food and parfait (too much parfait). We also did some pretty excellent purikura which I may or may not bother to put up in the future. Oh yeah, we also saw Ginkakuji (the silver pavillion), the Philosopher's Walk, Nijo Castle, the Imperial Gardens and all the cool spots in the city.

I like a parfait!

Man. Dropping Laura off this morning was really sad because I'll miss her, but ... we did a LOT. It's hard to feel bad about a vacation when it was productive and awesome simultaneously. Still, I feel rather lonely being back in the house by myself. What can ya do.