I have no idea what to title this blog, mostly because I meant to post this two weeks ago right after my last post, but I keep getting so caught up in this whole being in Japan thing that writing sort of takes a back seat.  So let me start by apologizing to those who I don't get to talk to very regularly and rely on this blog to keep you up to date on my time here in Japan.  I really am sorry!  As always, the best way to keep up is to stalk the ol' Facebook, but I will try to keep this going more regularly as well.

The one thing that the last couple of weeks have taught me is that I am very lucky that I don't work until 5:00 p.m. on Mondays.  Last weekend can serve as a perfect example.  I went to a friend's sayonara party in Nagoya on saturday night, which entailed getting about 3 hours of sleep, and then Sunday I went with some other friends to a river near Tsu where we went swimming and cliff jumping for 5 hours, then we went to another party for a different friend who was celebrating his 15th anniversary of being in Japan!  I am very very fortunate that my Mondays start so wonderfully late.  I know it is super lame to be complaining about going to so many parties, but as a wise woman once said, "the life of a socialite is hard!"  *Sarah Haugen, I hope you're reading this someday.

I am also at a loss for words to describe the rest of the stuff we have been doing here.  I don't think that I have ever typed that sentence before!  I have met more people than I ever thought possible, and most of them have been pretty great.  I have been to some truly beautiful places, and I have gotten to see a lot of Mie-ken thanks to the great friends that I have made here, and I'm really very lucky in all of this.

I'm going to keep this short, and simply say the weekend ended on a fantastic note.  My mom sent me a box full of American candy and cereal!  It also had some wonderful Dove soap.  My mom is the best.  Hands down.

Good night and good luck!

Andrew

One Hell of a Weekend, and Some Other Stuff

Two weeks have passed since my last post, and I haven't waited so long before writing because I had nothing to write about!  These last two weeks have literally been insane.  On the work related end of things, the old OBC teachers have left, and John and I have been teaching classes on our own for good while now.  Little shout-out to the Angela and Peter, for doing such a great job prepping for this, I only feel like going crazy planning all of these lessons once in a while now, instead of all the time.  So, thanks!!

Apart from getting used to teaching, it has been truly excellent to get to know my students a lot better in and out of class.  Especially outside of class.  My Wednesday night class took me out to dinner after class last week, and it was really cool to get to talk about things other than our textbook and news items.  We went to a kaiten-sushi place near my house, and my three students (all of whom are adults, married and whatnot) had a great time explaining all the little sushi dishes and what was what and good or bad.  They also thought it was hilarious to watch me eat all this stuff that I had never had before!  I think they got the strangest stuff just to watch me try and eat it.  I had a sushi roll filled with what they told me was crab brains.  I was skeptical at first, but as soon as it arrived, it definitely smelled exactly like I would imagine crab brains would smell like.  It also tasted exactly like what you would imagine crab brains would taste like.  Not so good.  Everything else was pretty good.  It was a evening all around.  Especially because I had been struggling to figure out what sort of topics that class liked and I finally found a couple of things they enjoyed discussing.  All around good evening.

On the not-exactly-work-related side of things, we have definitely been keeping busy!  This Monday, August 15th, is a special day in Buddhism.  It is the day of Obon in Japan, I don't know if they only have this day here, or if it is practiced in other Buddhist countries, but it is something of a big deal here.  It is a day not entirely unlike the Dia de los Muertos in Mexico, as far as I have been able to understand.  Similar in idea, but different in practice.  The Dia de los Muertos is a festival, a celebration when ancestors' spirits return to their homes.  Obon is the same idea, where families gather in cemeteries and at the their homes and temples to rejoin their ancestors' spirits.  However, from what I have gathered, it is much less festive than its Mexican counterpart.  It is an interesting practice.  Anyway, OBC is closed for the Obon holiday, and we got Thursday through Sunday off of work.  So, John, Sarah and I took a holiday!

Omiya town.  Real exciting place!

It was truly great to get a vacation, even though we have really only been teaching for less than a month.  We decided to make our trip small and cheap, since John and I still don't have any money, and we didn't want to travel too far.  We settled on the destination of おみやーちょ、or Omiya-town, which is south of Tsu City, but still in Mie.  It is a very small town that is well known as a cycling destination.  Actually, it was a lot like Lanesboro, MN if Lanesboro were in Japan.  Very small tourist town for bicyclers.  I was going to try and find a picture of the town, but it doesn't even show up on google maps!  This picture is the best one I have.   Omiya itself might not have been the most exciting city in the world, but us OBCers know how to make everything interesting, even what should have been a simple single switch train ride to the city!  We were supposed to take a JR line train from the town of Taki to Takihara station which is in Omiya.  Well, all we really had to go on was a small map and Sarah's iPhone.  We made it Taki, and switched trains, and we were all sorts of excited to get to Omiya.  Well, we were listening to the train conductor as he announced the stops, and we got off when we heard our destination called.  We walked according to out map in the direction of our hotel, but we couldn't find it anywhere in this town!  We stopped into a convenience store to get some water and ask for directions, and we were told after much hand gestures and confused looks that we were about 30 minutes from our hotel by car.  We got off at the wrong station!  Our conductor had said TaCHihara, not TaKihara.  So, we had to go back to the train station, and wait for the next train.  TaCHihara is tiny, and the trains don't run very often, so we ended up sitting at an empty train station in Tachihara for close to two hours!

Our view dow the line
as we waited for a train.

The torturous river.

We eventually got a train and made it to Omiya, and found our hotel, and were so worn out by the day that we didn't even want to leave our hotel room!  It was close to 100 degrees outside, and our room was the only air conditioned part of the hotel.  In an unexpected development, the hotel only had a traditional bath, which meant communal shower and bathtub.  It was interesting to say the least.  The bath was pretty nice though.  Hadn't taken a bath in a long time!  The next day, we rented bikes and decided to go for a ride, which might not have been the best idea, given that it was about a thousand degrees again, but we did it anyway.  We struck out downhill, which I thought might have been a bad idea as well, but it was what it was.  We cruised along for about 15 miles along this gorgeous river that was further down the mountain than we could get to from our road.  If I had to choose a situation to define what I think Hell would be like, I think that would be close to it.  We were so hot and sweaty and this beautiful blue river wound its way just out of our reach.  It was beautiful and horrible at the same time.  But it wasn't all bad.  As we started to turn back towards out hotel, we found a place were we could climb down into a smaller creek/stream, and cool off for a while.  It was so astoundingly wonderful, that words can't come close to doing it justice.

Sarah and I at what we thought was
the summit.  We were wrong...

The bike ride ended up being pretty cool, except for the last mile or so, which was essentially reclaiming all the elevation we had been losing during the first 15 miles.  So that was difficult, but we made it, and didn't even die or anything!

So we survived our vacation!

Check back in later for Obon vacation part 2!

All the best!